In this labor market, if your employees are not the best, guess who you can blame? No, not the economy or the school system or the government; instead, why don’t you look in the mirror?
When I asked a group of carpet cleaning company owners how they felt about hiring, every single one said that it is not a pleasant experience. But if you want to have a turn-key business, you are going to have to have employees.
Let’s imagine for a moment what 2010 will bring. Hopefully you’ve set aside some time in the next couple weeks to create an advertising plan for the coming year. To create the plan, you surely need to consider trends in media.
The people who have already used you are the most likely people in the world to call you again. So why spend your entire advertising budget attempting to pull in people who don’t know who you are? Spend some of your dollars on your current clients.
The elephant is, of course, a huge, overwhelming project. You know the answer: A bite at a time. The next question, then, is, “But where do I start?” The answer: it doesn’t matter.
Your clients are online. Many of them search the Internet to find a cleaning company instead of picking up the old Yellow Pages. Blogging is an important way to make sure it’s your company they connect with.
It’s only natural that when you first get in business, you think of ideas for a great slogan. You want something your prospects will remember. You need something that makes your competition tremble in fear.
You should take a day off. Not even think about business. It will be so good for you! A mental health day: no work, all pleasure. A day for family and spiritual renewal. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?
One of the biggest things to remember in advertising is "Do something different."
You don't want to be viewed as just another company sending out junk mail. Chances are, your prospect gets mail from companies just like yours every week. And furthermore, you're competing with dissimilar companies who bombard your prospect will junk mail. Every one of them is begging for your prospect's attention.
I recently finished reading “The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up” by Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham. It struck a note because, as I write this, the world economy is on the cusp of an agonizing global depression.
Which works better in advertising: Paris Hilton in a bikini or a cute baby? Is there really such a thing as subliminal advertising and does it work? Are logos worth the cost?
The conspiracy theorist in me believes that there is a conference once a month, attended by scary, powerful people who decide what fuel prices should be. These are the same folks who keep JFK and Elvis under lock and key and determine what’s fashionable this season in hemline length.
Having long ago passed the age where I was eligible for membership in AARP, I looked at sites like Facebook as being great for college-age people. After all, that is who it was designed for back in 2004. Of course, Internet time is measured like dog years except faster, so it might as well have been 1984.
Whether it is visible or not, most everyone is aware that concrete is quite prevalent in both residential and commercial construction. However, a problem can develop—and far more frequently than is often realized—when moisture is released from the concrete.
Sometimes, the universe of work can feel all-encompassing, as though an invisible noose is slowly squeezing all things non-work out of your mind and out of your life. It’s at these times when it’s important to take a step (or 10) back, take yourself out of the “work” mindset and, well…take a ride on the Unexpected Express.
The trick to being the highest-priced company in town and having plenty of business is getting customers to fall in love with your services. An ecstatic customer wants to give you money and does not let price stand in the way.
As a business coach, one of the biggest issues I see is that owners are held hostage by employees who keep the owner in a constant state of fear and stress. As a business owner, I can attest to this problem stifling my own business for years.
Google Adwords can be one of the best returns for your advertising dollar. Or it could be a huge waste of money. It’s all in how you use it. The ad space is so tiny that every single letter counts.
Obviously, the first thing that comes to mind when posed with that question, is, where is there? Most business owners are so immersed in the day to day operations of their business that they really don’t know where they are going. Could that be true of you?
When you set your web site up, post to your blog, and create incoming links, the keywords you choose are important. These keywords help search engines determine what keywords your site ranks for. Also, when you pay per click with Google Adwords or Yahoo, choosing the wrong keyword could cost you lots of money.
Using a letter to sell your service is much more effective than a postcard or a brochure. With a sales letter, you have space to tell your entire sales story.
E-mail is a very cost-effective way to advertise to your clients. Heck, it’s practically free. But the dilemma sometimes lies in getting your client to give you their e-mail address.
Google, the world’s largest search engine, accounts for slightly more than 50% of all searches made on the net. So when most people think of online searches, they think of Google.
People buy with their emotions. Mrs. Jones doesn't get her carpet cleaned because she enjoys watching you drag hoses all over her house. But she may buy because she wants to feel happy with her home. In this case, she's buying happiness.
How
long has it been since you took your last water restoration class? Two
years? Five years? Longer? We’ve talked to dozens of people over the
years who assume that, “I went to water class a couple of years ago, so I remember everything I need to know.” With all the changes in technologies and standards in water restoration, that’s a very dangerous assumption.
It’s 8:15 am. Your experienced, professional, sales oriented, customer service focused, technically masterful cleaning pros are still at the shop. Ready to go…with nowhere to go.
Are you as tired as I am of reading, hearing, and being bludgeoned to death with news of our deteriorating economy? No doubt, we are mired in the most trying economic times that many of us have ever experienced, and I’m not encouraging you to become human ostriches and stick your heads in the sand.
“Who was that carpet cleaner we hired last year? What was his company's name?”
This may come as a shock to you, but most of your clients don't remember who you are. It doesn't matter how thrilled they were with the job you did, they just can't remember you.
I have had two businesses in my life, and I can honestly say that I have run them basically stress-free, even though in 35 years I have had my share of ups and downs.
There is no better sound in the office than hearing that beautiful phone ring. However, there is no more horrific silence than the lack of that noise for a long period of time. So let’s look at ways to make sure that your phone makes that wonderful sound.
Having been born in the late 1940s, my peers and I have had the luxury of being the focus of society our whole life. Boomers were the largest generation ever born, dwarfing the 45 million Gen X kids that were a result of the baby bust. At each life stage, from babies to teens to 25-34 and up, society focused on that demographic.
Mystery shopping is a powerful, positive tool. It can help business owners address customer service challenges, improve training programs and ensure the team is paying attention.
As a small shop owner, do you have any idea how your technician is behaving, home alone with Mrs. Fernwicky?
Recently the director of operations for a large casino for which I was consulting asked me why their 6-month-old “no-maintenance” floors were looking so bad. Here is where you pause, take measure and wonder whether to sell him your oceanfront property in Arizona or sit him down and explain that there is no such thing.
Each week I meet with myself and plan out the week ahead. At least most weeks I do. Sometimes I miss this “meeting with me” and notice the chaos as the next few days get away from me. When I lay out the week before it hits, I get more done with less effort. Nice.
With the path to economic recovery still uncertain, all types of
facilities are feeling the budget squeeze for maintenance staffing and
cleaning-equipment purchases.
“It was like I was standing in a horrendous rain storm!”
That’s how Patsy Dellis, imaging services director at Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital, recalls her first impression when a water line burst one floor above the file storage area she works in.
I use Coffee-mate "creamer" in my coffee. I love it and use it by the dump-truck load. This morning - darn it - I was all out, and resorted to the healthier, but less appealing, coffee whitening alternative: milk. I carried my cup into my office, sat down at my desk, spun around in my chair...and knocked over my coffee.
Over the last several years your team has won more games than it has lost but it still hasn’t won a league championship. Always close, but never the champion that every team aspires to become.
A nice older gentleman stopped by my
office the other day. He was well
dressed and well spoken. He seemed
to fit our typical client profile.
He said, "I've been meticulously reading your ads in the newspaper
and I wanted to stop by for a quote." I smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. This guy should be an easy sell, like most of the prospects from our newspaper ads.
Can the Yellow Pages work? Of course. It's worked okay for me. I know other cleaners for whom it's worked pretty well. But is it the best bang for your advertising buck? Here's the problem…
Many cleaning company owners go about planning their advertising backwards. They choose a medium and plan their message around it.
Attitudes seem to slump with the sales figures. As business owners, we love to discuss ways to improve our employees’ attitudes. Throw a party! Tell inspiring stories at the company meeting! Put Successories posters on the wall! Give ‘em a pep talk.
I do a lot of thinking. I sit at my
desk, and think, and click around on my computer. I am driven by my mission:
achieving freedom. I believe people are better off with basic business
understanding, so they are free to create successful, profitable businesses.
Everything I do is intended to help people start, fix and grow extraordinary
businesses.
Grab a piece of paper and
take a little test. See how you measure up in my list of 10 things that you
need to be successful in the carpet cleaning/restoration industry; it should
be a good measuring stick to see how your business is doing.
Whether last year was a boom, bust or merely
average, now is a great time to dedicate yourself to a fantastic new year. Believe
it or not, our industry has not been affected by the downturn as much as many
other businesses. Have you talked to any builders, carpet retailers, car salesmen or Realtors lately?
There's one rule you should never break, or it might well kill your advertising budget. It's no wonder so much advertising ends up as wasted dollars. Like Michael Gerber says, small business owners are so busy being busy, they don't take time to plan.
Check your progress. How’s business? Are you happy with it? Are you better off than you were in January? Are your relationships more rewarding? Is your bank account bigger?
When I was a new mother, I remember calling my mom in tears. “I’ve fed him, changed him, rocked him, sung to him…and he just won’t go to sleep,” I said. “What do I do now? I can’t take his crying anymore.” I couldn’t take my crying anymore either.
Any floor care professional can tell tales of shortcuts used to expedite the floor finish process. From thin coating to missing corners and edges, the process can be laborious and painstaking, causing users to skip steps and make mistakes.
Any floor care professional can tell tales of shortcuts used to expedite the floor finish process. From thin coating to missing corners and edges, the process can be laborious and painstaking, causing users to skip steps and make mistakes.
What does your marketing plan look like for 2009? Are
you doing the same marketing you did in 2008? If you had your best year ever,
by all means do it all over again. But otherwise, you're in for a big surprise.
You know you have to train your employees, right? Training is
a funny word. It gets used a lot, especially by frustrated business
owners. But few people know what it means. Does it mean
“motivating”? Does it mean “confidence building”? Does it mean
hitting employees with a newspaper or dangling a carrot?
One of the biggest things to remember in advertising is "Do Something Different."
You don't want to be viewed as just another company sending out junk mail. Homeowners get lots of junk mail every week. Getting a postcard from you doesn't excite them—even if the offer is 10 rooms of carpet cleaning for $29.99.
Quite simply, turnkey means that if someone bought your business, they would be able to open the door on Day One and the business would run without the new owner’s input. In other words, the dream business. You own the company, make the profits and don’t have to work if you choose not to.
We all report in to somebody. Employees report to their managers. Managers report in to the owner, or shareholders. All owners, even the solo operator, are accountable to their customers.
Someday, you may become the person to whom others report. On that day, you cross a line. You cross a boundary into a foreign land, a place that isolates you from the people who – just the day before – had been your comrades, your friends, your brothers and sisters. On that day you move from being one of “Us” to one of “Them.”
In 1915 the Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Ind., was given a project to design and manufacture a product that was so unique that a person could identify it in pitch-black darkness by touch. That product was the Coca-Cola bottle.
Satchel Paige gave some great advice many years ago when he said, “Don’t look behind you, somebody may be catching up.” The legendary baseball player was referring to age, but his meaning can be applied to many situations.
When you first entered the
business world as an owner, the idea of being your own boss and working the
hours you wanted to work seemed so appealing, along with not having to answer to
anyone.
What about letting some of your sales-phobia boil to the surface? Let it bubble up. Take a look at it and ask if it serves you any longer. You can let it go. You can release your limiting beliefs and change your thoughts.
Looking through the lens of early 2009, every year seems to fall under the category of “the good old days.” Yet as I revisited an article I wrote for ICS in the summer of 2006, it seems we had problems that appeared to be insurmountable at that time.
E-mail marketing is wonderful. It's cheap, it's super effective and you can use it to keep in touch with your most valuable asset: your prospects and clients.
Here’s how you can plan the most profitable advertising for your cleaning business.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. Well, it’s not really a secret. Chances are, you’ve already heard about this but didn’t quite understand what it really meant because it wasn’t broken down into the proper terms.
The following is what I found based on my personal experience in my local city, Pensacola, Fla. Just so you know, I never dismiss any option without first reviewing my goals crunching the numbers and deciding what's best for my company.
Why should a carpet-cleaning company have a web site? First, it's super cheap. Many companies find it's one of the best returns on their advertising dollar. But that’s not all. Not by a long shot.
