No work... maybe someone has some advice?

Hello everyone. I recently started a carpet cleaning company after about 10 years in the industry, 5 in the sales department and 5 in the field. We are doing an encaps cleaning with some added extras that I came up with myself. The customers that we've had have been absolutely ecstatic about our work! But the calls are not coming in. In fact I haven't gotten a call in about a week and I'm thinking about just going back to the company I use to work for.

The first month I started I put out 5,000 high gloss full color flyers, I got pay per click with yahoo/google etc. and did 1.5 million e-mails. I got about 45 calls and I was very busy the first month. We made about $10,000 which isn't bad really.

The second month was much slower. I put out another 5,000 and didn't get a single call. I used the same guy for the flyer distribution so he either didn't pass them out or it was a bad area. I also put out 11 ads in 11 different newspapers. I didn't get a SINGLE call from these ads.

So I got together with another company who sends me some work but it's not enough to survive and it's only 60%.

I have done everything to present a corporate image from setting up a vanity 800 number with a PBX to getting uniforms. Even my equipment matches the uniforms (blue machines, blue uniforms etc) along with hats and just about everything to communicate to the customer that we are professionals. And like I said, everyone has been happy besides 1 customer who has been a problem. FYI She called in 65 days after the cleaning demanding a re-cleaning and I explained we have a 30 day guarantee.

Anyway... Do you guys have any advice? I've been wanting to do this for 10 years now and now that I have it I feel it's slipping right through my fingers.


Here is a link to the ad we ran. The ad got good placement in all of the newspapers. It was 2x3 which at first you wouldn't think it's that big but looking at it in the newspapers it was just fine.

I'm in the same boat as you, chris. New to business ownership and just trying to get by while I build a customer base. Flyers did all right, email spamming to realtors netted some results, and my one newspaper venture was abysmal. My best results have been through networking groups. Get involved in your local chamber of commerce. I also joined an organization called LeTip, a networking group comprised mostly of business owners. They only allow one member from a given industry--no conflicts of interest are allowed. There's plenty of incentive for referrals, so at the very least you should enter into a group where you're every member's cleaner of choice. Done correctly, telemarketing can really work as well.

Keep in mind, this advice comes from someone currently in your situation. I haven't made it out of the woods yet. More established cleaners may have different advice.

BNI is working fairly well for me. Don't expect to get tons of job referrals immediately. People within the group will want to get to know you a bit and may choose to test your ability on small jobs of their own before they refer you to friends and biz associates outside the group. But if you do good work and show integrity it will lead to both new customers and valuable contacts.

So far I"ve pulled about 3000 in actual billings from the BNI chapter I joined in March. But a direct result was meeting the owner of a residential furniture store {my cards are now on his counter}, a director of 18 Real Local Residential Real Estate Agents {each has my coupons in their new customer pack}, a carpet and tile store owner [gives out my card and a coupon with his monthly invoices}, and another janitorial co who also sends my coupons with monthly invoices. I expect these 'contacts' will probably produce more in the long run, but it will be slower to come in.

Another benefit was an introduction to  the the VP at a commercial office with 11000 square feet. The intro was very warm because of the BNI, so the main concern was when can I start and how often do I recommend they clean, rather than price.

BNI does not work well for all business types but I think it has pretty good potential for our business so long as you give it sufficient time to work.

Run this special 2 rooms deodorizer, scotchgard, & Sanitizer $120

I don't know what it's like in other people's areas, but in California we aren't supposed to use "sanitizer" on carpet. Sanitizer is a specific type of agent, as is "disinfectant," and they aren't cleared for our type of use. Not that I've ever heard of this being enforced, but we use deodorizers, odor neutralizers, and odorizers, so that's the verbiage I stick with. Eventually, you may run into a chemist or a "clean chemical" freak, and you'll have to do some explaining. Almost ten years ago while I was with Chem-Dry, we sometimes referred to our deodorizer (we used Consume at the time) as an anti-microbial. Got a nice earful from customer/professional chemist one day about how any cleaning agent should act as an anti-microbial, how unremarkable it is to have a special additive that gets rid of microbes. Whoops. Well, none of us techs back then had any special training or knowledge. It was just monkey-see-monkey-do.

You just can't leave that on the carpet. Does it not have to be rinsed???

Ypu must have a twin I find it hard to believe that one person could be such a DI*K?