Starting a New Carpet Cleaning Business

And of course, I am going to be taking the IICRC carpet cleaning technician course before I even spend my first dime starting my business.

 

I live in the Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; I'm going to be starting with a Ninja 200psi with heat and will have a Dodge minivan to use for my business. Now, I have a couple of questions:

 

1) To get my business off the ground I would market heavily to apartment owners/managers. I would offer them a free demo of my skills and equipment capability; I will also use kijiji and Craiglist exentsively to get customers. My goal here is to work my past clients very intensively and seek referrals from all of my customers; I want a business that is built upon past clients and referrals. I don't like the idea of spending money on advertising and fliers and that sort of thing. Besides your equipment, I just don't believe that you can 'buy' your way into success in this business. Does this particular marketing plan appear to be a practical method of gaining a repeatable and sustainable business?

 

2) I really don't know how to price my carpet cleaning services. I have read on this forum different people saying that they charge anywhere from .10/sq. ft to .50/sq. ft. . What are you Technicians charging in the Vancouver, British Columbia area? I don't like the idea of servicing your clients customers for next to nothing just to get the job, but I also don't want to price myself out of the business by charging too high. I do believe that people will would rather pay a good price for a good quality job, rather than paying a low baller to do a lousy job. I would like to eliminate the low quality customers who only care about saving a penny. I want only those customers who are willing to pay for a consciensous, talented, and knowledgeable carpet cleaning technician. So what kind of pricing would accomplish this objective?

 

Again, I'm still in the planning stages.

 

Thanks everyone

 

Formula