Some lady asked me

I have tried the real estate referal service too.  It didn't work at all.  I say stay away from that one.  I do like the realtors though but I agree that you have to be able to say no or you can get taken advantaqe of.

As for yellow pages, I do very well with it in Calgary.  I have 3 ads in 1 in Maid Service 1 in house cleaning and 1 in Carpet Cleaning.  My bill right now is $3000 / month.  60% of carpet calls come from YP and 80% of maid service calls come from YP.  I do feel that you have to be fairly large before it pays off.

As for other advertising door hangers are great but you need to hit the same areas a few times before they really start to pay.  There are local flyer distribution companies that will hang them for around
$0.08 per house.  I spend about $1000 every quarter on this and it works well.  But, what is really important is that you hang these yourself on the neighbours of the houses you clean.  A good rule of thumb is one house on either side and the three across the street.  This seems to bring in business because they have seen your truck in the neighborhood.

 

jcooper...there are a lot of ways to advertise that don't cost that much and will pay off some...you mentioned flyers...try door hangers...your printer will know what they are...a good time to put them out is when you finish a job in a neighborhood...take a few minutes and put door hangers on all the houses on the street where you just cleaned...you will aready have a reference on that street...you can also get some of those plastic signs made up to put on telephone poles (hint...have them made with hunter green letters on yellow background...that's is the most easily seen to the human eye)...if you do that, keep it simple...the more you put on the sign, the smaller the lettering is...just put your company name and phone number and something like "honest carpet cleaning"...I am not a fan of yellow pages...never worked out for me...I have always did well with direct mail or "marrage mail"...I'm sure you have mail packets where you live and they can be very effective...you can also target what area you want to clean in...they will usually have the city divided up into 4-8 areas and you can choose which ones you would like to go into...next time you get one in the mail, check the fine print...it will usually have the info to contact the people who are doing the mail out...and they are always looking for new customers...they will do all the lay out and print for you and it only cost about 4-6 cents per piece...and in case you don't already have it, get a cell phone and call fowarding on your company phone (my home phone is my business phone too)...when you leave out every day, foward your phone to your cell phone and you won't miss any calls...it's much better than an answering machine

 The yellow pages has been real good for me I get about 6 to 10 jobs a month off the add, it is a 2 inch add  cost 125.00 a month, a full page add would cost 4000.00 a month.  I think the yp are a good way to start, but a small add will do and put something in the add that is diff from the others.

nice.thanks magic rick

so screw them.how do you advertise?

 

MR. STEAMER wrote: I don't think you've found the right ones.... I work with a few and they are great

I have a few good ones too, but most are looking for a deal. A way cheap deal.

I don't think you've found the right ones.... I work with a few and they are great

I never had much luck with realtors. Too cheap