Starting and Building a Business

dodge ram got rammed...lol

After years of commercial work, I decided to quit commercial and concentrate on high dollar residental...best move I ever made...I get all of my business from referal...it took about 6 yrs to build up my client list, but it was worth it...I do the best job I can do am honest and I always show up on time...I always call before I come out just to let the client know I am on my way...as far as advertizing, I spend less than $300 per year...I compose and send out a newsletter 4 times per year...I have a high client repeat and people accually pass the newsletter on to friends and neighbors...so I get new business all the time...I have simplified my business...I work alone and do 2-3 jobs per day Monday-Friday...I once had 5 trucks, crews and all that went with it and could not make any money...now, I make more than I ever did and there is so much less stress in my life...I learned that it's much less expensive to keep clients than it is to try to find new ones...I even have 5 or 6 clients that I have NEVER seen...they tell me where the key to the house is, leave a blank signed check and tell me what they want cleaned...maby the way I do business is not for everyone, but I like doing it that way...

It's been 12 months on for me, and this post (I've re-read it from beginning to end) is very reassuring.

Cheers,

Allen

I started out doing advo mail outs...the first one cost me about $1200...I borrowed the money to fund it...got about a 2% responce...which on a quarter million gave me a good amount of jobs...but it seemed like I was working for advo...at the time my commercial work was keeping me afloat...and other carpet cleaners were doing advo ads too...so it got into a price war...it was an endless cycle of running ads and doing work just to pay for the ads...then I went to Joe Polish's siminar on carpet cleaning advertising...that opened my eyes...it showed me how to compose my own ads and target the customers I wanted and most of all how to KEEP those customers and turn them into clients...right now I have a list of about 750 clients...a 90% repeat...you will always lose some due to moving away...things like that...they use me 2-3 times per year...so I can stay busy and earn a pretty good living...I like to think that I'm a well kept secret...I let the other cleaners fight it out for the mail out market...heck, when my clients get those coupons in the mail, it reminds them that they need some cleaning and they call me...and all of them start by saying "Rick", I need you to come clean my carpet...I'm on a first name basis with almost all of them...I'd really hate to even think about going back to where I was 15-20 yrs ago

I have ADS. Whay was the question again???

I'm about ready to start a internet sales biz.

You said it yourself....word of mouth. Repeats and referrals cost you nothing.

Take care,

Lisa