I plan to do resi op cc and maybe a comm job here and there. I have had a few jobs in the last month and made some extra $$. About 500 extra. Not bad for about 8 hrs of work.

My ? is this. I have a full time job, which pays full health ins and great vac and holidays off. CC will be part time maybe a job in the am hour before I go to work 2:30-10:30 and a job or two on a Sat just for a little extra cash to start.

I have so far placed a an in our local paper(total waste) two calls so far one from an old lady asking if I can clean her oven and one sales person trying to sell me something.

I have done some post cards about 70 or so (I know its not a lot). Today five came back for No Such Address.

This July I have a small box ad listing going in the yellow pages, nothing big just phone # and web site address under the carpet cleaning listing.

What more can I do to get some res work. Again I am looking for about three to four jobs per week, for now. I might take it full time when the kids are a little older and the wife is out of college but for now its just a little side biz and I sort of like it that way.

Thanks for the help.
Joe

Hey Joe I have been doing this for a couple of months now, and the best advertisment I have found is word of mouth. If you do a really good job and are nice and friendly, talk to your costomers, they will tell thier friends. I also do this as a part time job and at first I was lucky to get 1 job a week so I did some homes for free then I ran a really cheap speacial that only lasted a month or so, I think just about every job got me more work, my speacial just ended and now my prices have gone up so I see if I continue to get more jobs.

Joe. Go and dig out the Training Manual you received when you bought your Challenger package from me a while back. Read the section on "farming" in the marketing part of the Manual. Farming means intensively and repeatedly (REPEATEDLY!) getting your name in front of the people who reside and do business in a defined limited area: either right around where you live, or in a upscale area reachable by you. Farming is a term used by members of the residential real estate community. The most successful brokers are the ones who "farm" most effectively. Also, if you haven't done so already, read one or more of Jay Conrad Levinson's GUERILLA MARKETING books. They contain a wealth of very practical information for growing a small local business.

I am doing farming in one up scale adult area down the street and one upscale mobile home park, I sent every house in there a post card got one sofa job for 100 from it. Not bad for about 60 or so post cards.

How often should I send more post cards to this area again? I was thinking spring time.

What do you think?

i keep thinking i'll likely start on the small side w/ fliers on the windsheild at a few restraunts and some of the nicer stores, my thinking being that people that shop/eat at these locations tend to be a bit higher class and have larger homes and obviusly more money... they pay to for the nicer things at stores and restraunts, they'll likely be the ones that will be more concernted w/ a clean home and the bio friendliness of the system i'll be using.

add to the fact that i have direct acces to a copy machine (my in-laws own a small biz and i'll work a deal out on tonner with them so cost of copies is very low) and then no cost of postage.

idealy i'll snag a few customers and then use the referal program for further buisness...

i'm currently reading a marketing book that my dad has been raving about and he makes some good points in it "advertising secrets of the written word" by joseph sugarman... it's a little slow but i've learned some good stuff... i've heard enough about the gurilla marketing book that i'll have to snag that one next.

between the ideas from there, mark's farming info, and some looking at whats in the phone book (one guy has a 15 min "warning" message... something about the 20/20 and other TV journal shows showing horror stories of some carpet cleaners... he also goes on to toot his own horn and why HWE is superior to other methods... i'll be using one of the VOIP phone systems that i'll have the option of doing something along those lines eventualy when i'm a little more established and idealy IICRC certified.

Just be careful about the flyers on the windshields. A lot of people just take them and toss them on the ground,(yes even I do it at times) they dont even read them. Then your flyers are now floating around and are now trash blowing in peoples yard and gathering up in fences along roadways and some people dont look to highly on that sort of thing.

I personally wouldn't do flyers on windshields. Have heard of businesses getting calls to come pick up the flyers all over the parking lot. Also it's not a very targeted market. Do they own or rent? Are they local or from out of town. Do they live next door or 25 miles down the road.

I think flyers are best placed in the neighborhoods you wish to work in. Target your market.

I would hit the same area every 30 days for about 90 days then maybe every other month or so.

If your children are old enough you could make an outing out of it. Spend some time walking the neighborhood. Let them help hang the flyers and make a game of it. When we hang 100 (or what ever goal you have) take them for pizza or ice cream or bowling. You would be spending some one on one time, instilling a work ethic and then rewarding them for a job well down. Or maybe the wife would like to take one child and do one block and you on another with another then swap off.

Just thinking out loud.

Best thing I ever did was the free demo. However I would only do half or less of any area. Almost always was asked to clean the entire room. The few times I wasn't the carpet was not worth cleaning. In those cases it was worth the learning experience. It didn't take many of these to learn what would and wouldn't respond to cleaning.

Best of Luck.

Thanks for the help. I am going to keep farming these areas. I hope the yp ad will bring in some work when it comes out in July.

I've done door to door flyers with limited success. Limited meaning only that the response rate is low, if I could get more handed out that way it would be great. I seem to get a slightly lower response rate handing postcards out door to door than via mail (1 per 100). If you are in good shape, want to get in good shape, or have kids that can help you though, doing 2-300 a week might get you 2 jobs a week with no postage which will do the trick.

I've found that my good postcards seem to get about 1 per 100 this time of year, and about 3 per 100 in the early spring. It's somewhat pricey, but you can make up for it in volume. If you sent out 200 per week for a month, that's $48/week in postage but also 2 jobs per week for $125 each (maybe more, possibly less). This is an "investment" as over time each of your satisfied custies will eventually call you back again and maybe send you a friend or two.

Re. the yellow pages: I did last year what it sounds like you are doing next year. I advertised a very minimal ad in 2 different yp books. The first 2 months the book came out I got 4 jobs/month. Now I'm down to about 1/month. Next year I'm going to pay more for a bigger ad in the bigger YP book, and drop the other two.

Also, remember Craig's List is free. It's no godsend, but it's free. I've gotten 3 jobs in 8 months from Craig's list at a cost of $0. Whenever you go into your local grocery stores or teriyaki joints, see if they have those pin up boards for local flyers. If they do pin up a postcard, flyer, or if nothing else a biz card. You never know, and it's free. If the carpet is dirty and you like the restaurant, offer to clean it for some gift certificates/store credit instead of cash.

A lot of people put out fliers, or do something comparable, one or two times. Then, when they're not swamped with responses, they say, "Oh, that method doesn't work. I'd better do something else." What they fail to recognize is repetition is the key. The concensus opinion among marketing professionals is that people have to see/hear your message 6 or 7 times before they begin to realize that you actually exist. That's why you see the same TV commercial over & over until you're sick of seeing it. While you may be sick of seeing it, it has registered on your brain, and you are now much more likely to purchase this product or service than if you had only seen the commercial once. This repetition seems to confer some kind of legitimacy on the advertiser, rightly or wrongly.

Thanks again guys, and thanks Mark always a wealth of info.

I am going to do the following: go with the small box yp ad in my local area yp book.

Do a web site with the address in the yp box ad.

Send out some post cards on a bi monthly basis to some of the better areas and keep pesting them till they call.

Like I said I am not trying to rule the world as the carpet cleaning king just a few jobs here and there to make some extra $. I dont want to nor can I give up my full time job with the great bennis at this
time.

Just a little extra spending money would be great.

And with the hrs of the full time job 2:30 to 10:30 M-F I have some free hrs in the morn and on weekends to do this.

I dont plan to go full time till I am about 46 or 47 yrs old. After I get vested in my pension.

And Joe, on this board, we don't mistake you for a newbie.

Oh man,, I almost fell of my chair with that guy on Rick's board. Ya know, Mark, this board is so friendly and Ricks forum is ok, but you sometimes just get these jerks that think everything is a joke or they are out to for blood. I have been on a few forums in the past weeks that I just dont go to anymore..No names but one goes by the name of a famous mouse. And I guess I am a little thined skined(all 300 lbs of me) when it comes to that stuff. On this forum I never have to worry about an insult if I ask a question.
You and Derek and the others on this forum are the cats meow.

Thanks
Joe M