No work! How is it for you? What should I do?
Printed From: Carpet Cleaning Forum
Category: Carpet Cleaners Discussion
Forum Name: Carpet Cleaners Hangout
Forum Description: General discussion on anything related to carpet cleaning
URL: https://www.kleenkuip.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5580
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Topic: No work! How is it for you? What should I do?
Posted By: Atlantis
Subject: No work! How is it for you? What should I do?
Date Posted: 14/January/2009 at 12:29pm
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Greetings my friends. It's been DEAD! Noticed a big decline starting last September and it's gotten worse and worse. I think we did about 5 jobs all month so far. Last 2 Januarys have been slow too but I got in at least 20 jobs. I've been in business about 4 years on my own and this is the first time I've run into this. Luckily I saved for a rainy day  Just wondering though. Should I wait it out? Or throw some money down on advertising? If it's dead because of the economy (which I'm sure is a big factor) will I just be wasting my money? I was pulling 30-40 jobs a month from internet. Full page ad in one of the regions here. Half page ad in another region. Books haven't pulled anything to brag about. Small carpet jobs. Nowhere close to justify the cost and not pulling anything now. No floods. Internet isn't pulling anything right now either. Craziness. My rep is great! No complaints. No bad reviews so I know that's not a factor. Your thoughts? |
Replies:
Posted By: John L
Date Posted: 14/January/2009 at 12:36pm
Add Snow Removal to your existing Business..
                
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Posted By: Atlantis
Date Posted: 14/January/2009 at 1:48pm
I live in Texas 
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Posted By: John L
Date Posted: 14/January/2009 at 2:13pm
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Lawn Care.. Painting.. HandyMan Services..
Heck be a Jigalo..
I don't know how to help ya dude.. |
Posted By: cleanex
Date Posted: 14/January/2009 at 2:36pm
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This January is slower than usual, economy, rotten weather in our area. People are holding back at the moment but that will change. If you only clean residential, time to go knocking on commercial accounts they clean all year round. ------------- DON ELDRED YOU CAN "STAND" ON OUR REPUTATION |
Posted By: doug
Date Posted: 14/January/2009 at 3:07pm
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It seems this January is longer than usual??? colder than usual more snow than usual and less work than usual??? The only real busy place is the salt mine it can't keepup with demand. ------------- Just My opinion |
Posted By: cleanex
Date Posted: 14/January/2009 at 4:05pm
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You are right Doug we are going crazy in some of our commercial accounts that damn salt is tracked everywhere. ------------- DON ELDRED YOU CAN "STAND" ON OUR REPUTATION |
Posted By: cmaster
Date Posted: 14/January/2009 at 7:56pm
A salty winter will hopefully bring a busy spring for all of us ------------- 
The STD Meter |
Posted By: cleanex
Date Posted: 14/January/2009 at 8:39pm
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Salt is a pain in the butt. Yes it will create work once the warm humid weather arrives. ------------- DON ELDRED YOU CAN "STAND" ON OUR REPUTATION |
Posted By: John L
Date Posted: 14/January/2009 at 9:33pm
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Salt? Nuttin to it... http://img120.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cc2408enterprisereid300om1.jpg">
 http://img102.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cc2408enterprisereid304yl8.jpg">
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Posted By: danmarck82
Date Posted: 14/January/2009 at 11:18pm
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How do you approach the salt issue???
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Posted By: cleanex
Date Posted: 15/January/2009 at 8:11am
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Salt is alkiline, pre vacuum pretreat with a acid side detergent allow dwell time extract with the hottest water you can generate ------------- DON ELDRED YOU CAN "STAND" ON OUR REPUTATION |
Posted By: Atlantis
Date Posted: 15/January/2009 at 10:51am
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hmm... well, thanks for the replies (I think) haha. I was hoping some of you long term guys have been through this before and shared what worked for you. I did pick up a little advice in this thread (find other work). I guess I have to start thinking about what else I can do ;) |
Posted By: nightrider
Date Posted: 15/January/2009 at 11:12am
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Atlantis..............many carpet cleaners on the Kleenkuip site and many other sites pretend that they make tons of money and just relax in the winter playing with their toys.
Fact is...........many go out and get a job @ 10.00 /hour to pull them through the winter months, but are too proud to say so.
I am still in this business but only on a small scale now.........I have some comercial accounts ( restaurants) where I clean once /twice per week . I do the kitchen floor, behind the fryers and woks, toilets etc etc.
Nightrider
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Posted By: Ed Valentine
Date Posted: 15/January/2009 at 1:36pm
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Every Industry (Ours does not stand alone on this subject) in its natural state has its highs & lows in terms of business. And, then ofcourse, we can throw in the occasional economic cycles, like we are currently going through World-Wide.
If we want our service businesses to continue or to grow during these times, we must get off our chairs and go knocking on doors and shaking some hands. Yes, it may take alittle effort however, the pay offs can be very very good. I know this because this is the exact way I did my contracting business especially in the early days. I believe when you are in the "service" business, we have to go to them (sales on-location) ; and not wait for them to come to us (wait for the phone to ring).
Anyways, just my personal opinion.
Ed Valentine
cross-american corp.
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Posted By: tfb
Date Posted: 15/January/2009 at 1:57pm
| I am in the process of getting my own business together. I am going to work this weekend for someone who eventually will be a competitor. Right now, his back hurts and he is tired. He figures he pays the loan on his gear 24/7, it might as well work 24/7. A nearby hotel he does quarterly. He's going to do some rooms and halls today and more tomorrow. They also have a 75x225' room that can be partitioned as 75x75' or 75x150'. It has to be dry by noon Saturday. They want it done overnight. I'll probably work on it from 12-6am, hours he doesn't want to work, but can make money. He'll make some, I'll make some. Maybe you can hire a helper to do work you normally wouldn't even consider... |
Posted By: nightrider
Date Posted: 15/January/2009 at 9:11pm
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Ed.....you are very old school and know what business is all about...........I'm 55 years old myself and can remember knocking on thousands of doors begging for business.............phone calls did not work......computers did not exist........contracts were based on a hand shake.........and gas was 37 cents gallon for premium.
What happened to the good ole days...............funny thing is , we're living in the good ole days of 20 years from now..........what should we be doing different Ed.
Nightrider
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Posted By: danmarck82
Date Posted: 15/January/2009 at 11:23pm
| ONe thing I hope to implement this year is getting everyones email address. I have hundreds of customers from the past 27 years, but hardly any emails. Why, cause I didn't make it a priority. And it should have been ! because now when it is slow and if the Spring is also slow I would then have a cheap way to remain in contact and reach my customers without the heavy expense. Just thinking out loud, Sorry. |
Posted By: nightrider
Date Posted: 16/January/2009 at 11:30am
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Funny you should mention that Danmarck82.............Last week I ran into one of my suppliers while shopping and he asked me how come I never answer his e-mails or respond to his bi-monthly specials of products I used to buy. I didn't even know what he was talking about........I never received a single thing from him.
The fact was that all his stuff was being filtered into " SPAM " folder.
Nightrider
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Posted By: cleanex
Date Posted: 16/January/2009 at 4:57pm
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delete, delete, delete We all do it. At least a postcard or newsletter they need to handle, nothing like face to face sales calls. ------------- DON ELDRED YOU CAN "STAND" ON OUR REPUTATION |
Posted By: cleanex
Date Posted: 16/January/2009 at 4:59pm
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I might add that this time of year we go after commercial chairs and fabric panels usually pick up 2 or 3 good size jobs to keep the wolf away from the door ------------- DON ELDRED YOU CAN "STAND" ON OUR REPUTATION |
Posted By: tfb
Date Posted: 16/January/2009 at 9:08pm
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I met with the person I'll be working for tonight. I have to take a little nap soon. He wants helpers who can do as good of a job as he would so that he can go out and sell. Turns out he has 3 machines presently. A Powr-Flite 500 psi "BlackMax" model, an EDIC Polaris 1201 19" self contained and I forget the other portable he has. He'd rather have two portables, in case one goes down, because he has as much invested in his 3 machines as one truckmount would run (excluding the truck) and if went down, he couldn't work at all. He has hopes to spend less time cleaning carpets and more time selling carpet cleaning. The only way he can do that is to hire a helper (me). He makes sense to me... |
Posted By: nightrider
Date Posted: 16/January/2009 at 11:26pm
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He makes alot of sence........except it's all for him ( doesn't make sence for you )
Hope he doesn't get any big jobs, because you'll be burnt out in a hurry. Not knowing all the info, perhaps it's a good deal, but doesn't sound like it.
Nightrider
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Posted By: John L
Date Posted: 17/January/2009 at 12:44am
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Yea whats your take.. 50% or more??
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Posted By: FoamerPhil
Date Posted: 30/January/2009 at 7:34pm
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Get out there! Lots of face-to-face. Knock on business doors and let them know how you can help. Join networking groups and make some friends who will eventually send business your way. When times are tough, those that promote themselves and there business will thrive. Those who wait for calls to come there way better start looking for a job. |