Now I know I am going to get some flak on this but here goes.
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 ad 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

Joe,

In my opinion yellow page...any phone book ads DO NOT WORK. They only attrack price shoppers. When my phone rings and I hear how much do you charge for?? I know that got my # from an old phone listing.

When I first started I printed up fliers and put them on mail boxes until I found out that was against the law.

There are a few things that I do now. Every job I do I offer incentives to customers after I'm done cleaning. I offer them free cleanings or gift certificates for referrals. I ask for three people that they think would benfit from carpet cleaning. If I get the job they get the freebies. I also have all of the dry cleaners in my town giving out my name. I leave fliers in there stores and get a lot of business from this. People are picking up their dry cleaning and see my flier. I now have accounts with the dry cleaners. I get calls from them to clean rugs. They have a sign in there window that reads RUGS CLEANED HERE. Then they call me. Getting new jobs is not easy. You have to get out there and work for it. There is money to be made. ... go get em Joe




Ralph

Your situation sounds perfect for door flyers. print them up offering so many rooms for $ or a free room demo. Staple a rubber band to the corner. You will get 1 job for every 100-300 flyers delivered.

Brad

Do you have any experiance in cleaning carpt?
any training in the field?
Do you have liablity insurance? along with other proper insurance incase you ruin someones carpet or UPH?


If the answer to any other these are no then get them first then go out and start.

I understand you want a part time job, I would suggest the easyest way would be to apply for one. Find a cleaner in your area who is looking for a helper learn all you can for as long as you can from them. When you are ready to make a full time commitment go ahead and start a buisiness.

You will then be viewed by your competitors legit and not some part time hack. Many time they will even throw you work.

Doing anything part time means one job or the other sometimes both will suffer and your boss may make the choice for you.


I am sure my post may be unpopular.

With all due respect Sir, Hack I am not.

I have been cleaning carpets for over 20 years.

Started in 1982.

Owned a janitorial service for about 18 years and did very well at it.

Getting comm work is easy.

Getting resi work is a little harder.

Most business look for two things cost and a bond.

All you got to do to get office cleaning work is hand out the card.

I asked about resi work and how to get it (market).

I have my shirts and a jacket that has my biz name on them and I even have business cards(wow).

I even have a 2 mil ins policy.

And a business checking acct with the name on the checks.

From what I can see did you even bother to read my post or you just woke up on the wrong side of the bed and said I think I will slam this guy.

I have a good full time job that is from 2:30pm to 10:30pm with great bennies.

The carpet cleaning is to make a few $$ extra doing resi work. Something I never did before this year. I always did comm office services.

I was asking how to market to resi work.

I didnt find his reply unpopular. In fact I found it to be very honest and direct.  Like David I also thought you were a newbie do to the way you presented yourself. You gave no indication of who you were or what your background was. If you had worded things so we know you were not a start up company them maybe David's reply would have been a lot different. Seems you reacted to someone who was trying to help and someone who in my personal opinion gave some very sound advice. Both he and I thought you had no background in this business.

hiyas Joe

i dunno why you thought you would get flak.?. because you are going to OP resi you mean??? if so, there's nothing to worry about, alotta great CC'ers do it.

remember, there is no definite answer to marketing. to say that YP ads WON'T WORK is wrong. maybe they don't work for some, but they DO work for others. same goes for any marketing method, whether its door hangers, cold-calling, post cards, etc...they all work for some ppl, and don't for others.

only way to know for YOUR situation is to try each out...or at least the ones you are comfortable with.

for me, i can't afford a large YP ad, and don't want the large monthly payment of it. so i put a small 5 line ad in the new (new in our area anyways) Yellow Book. since they are new in town, prices are LOW (compared to Yellow Pages anyway). the 5 line ad cost me $40 per month last year. it didn't do great, but it paid for itself and a little extra $. for ME, that's a success....nothing like investing in marketing and taking a loss.

the other thing that has worked the best for me is hitting all the small towns in my area and dropping off cards to the flooring stores. they refer me, they get a reward of sorts each time.

will this work for you? who knows...at least the latter idea is low-cost (free) :P

after a year and a half with the Challenger, i'm getting bored with resi and am pushing comm work these days.

thanx --- Derek.

Joe's been posting on the various low-moisture forums for a year or 2 now...he's not new to the VLM crowd :P

thanx --- Derek.

I did not say you were a hack I stated that many view a part timer who has no Experiance a hack.

Since you gave no indication of your experiance and the way the post was worded along with the statement your wife was in collage I gave the best advice I could for what would seem to be a newbie.

Now lets get to one of your questions how to get more residental clients.
I find getting them easier then commerical. It can be more time consuming but still easy.

With res work you need Ads that make them want to buy and buy now from you Emotional Responce Ads.

I dont care what anyone says IF an Ad is good it will pull if you put it infront of your target audiance. I have run newspaper ads coupon ads in mags
flyers phonebook ads, postcards. They all work if the Ad is good and put in the correct people for your service.

1 find out who you want to market to.
Home Owners Condo Owners APT dwells trailer park people.
only you know this.

2. once you have desided who you are going to market to you need to figure out your delivery system or systems.

mass mailing direct mail( either postcard or a coupon mag sent to proper target) newspaper (daily weekly ) handing our flyers (or service doing it)


3. Come up with a unique mailing piece or AD with an offer that would make anyone a fool to not respond to.

you either had a good marketing sense you you hire it out.

PDQ Big Bang Marketing, Squid Marketing
Howard Joe or a few others.

4 always market constantly with various forms.
some are passive systems automatic YP Ad some contact AD.

some are active systems you need to Initiate but you can stop those
at any time

there is much more, but since I just like to slam people I'll stop there (LOL)

PS
I can only get out of Bed on one side.

David

Derek, you are a plus to this forum. I always enjoy reading your posts.

Thanks again.