Making Money For Dummies (And In a Crowded Market)

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Hey @IceCreamKid thanks for all your amazingness. Got a couple questions as I am starting a local service company (nothing at all related to carpet cleaning). What does your process look like for clients booking an appointment once they hear about you? Are they able to do it on your website? Or do they have to call?

I'm asking because I'm starting this business on the side, while I work full time. So, I'm trying to figure out the best way for potential customers to contact me to schedule appointments without hiring a customer service person to handle everything. And, like you with carpet cleaning, I need the route to be optimized instead of an appointment in one part of town and then the next one 30 miles away, etc.

 

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[Sandholdt]

@IceCreamKid
First off - thank you.
I really love all the value you're giving.
Based on different threads here on tfl forum including this, I've come up with a pretty simple idea for a business setup.
You being the man for all the unsexy businesses here, I hoped that you might want to give me your opinion on my idea.
In short it's a subscription based car wash company - just with next level service.
May I PM you?

 

[gunhol]

@IceCreamKid Could you critique my copy for a local window cleaning biz?
Its a flyer that will go to mailboxes here in my hometown in Norway. I used a case study as inspiration.

Tired of All That Pollen Grease on Your Windows?
Get your windows ready for the summer for only 797 NOK.

Our trained professional window cleaners will be in your neighbourhood on the 15th and 16th of June.
Therefore, we are offering all neighbourhood residents the chance to get their windows at a discounted price of 797 NOK.

Book Now 917 12 939
Call This Week and Book Your Cleaning! Limited Availability!
The Reason We Can Offer This Low Price Is Because We Are Offering This to The Entire Neighbourhood As a Collective Within a Given Time Frame.

100% Satisfied or Money Back Gaurantee!

*Picture of windows before and after clean*
*Maximum 15 windows per house.​

 

[CivilianCone41]

Employees go on a 2-day apprenticeship to learn on the job at a real customer's house. The best way to learn a new skill is through immersion, not through some book or classroom. The general cleaning solution will clean 95% of stains. Stains such as rust, pet urine, blood, coffee, tea, and wine require their own specialty cleaner.

Yes I have someone that sets up the routes. The goal here is to outsource as much as you can so that you can focus on high leverage activities.

I haven't tried FB advertising. The only guys that I personally know who have done 7-8 figures on FB have done it with sketchy offers requiring the use of cloakers to bypass FB's advertising guidelines. I have no interest in constantly playing a cat and mouse game with FB or Google because one week you can be making $10k/day profit then the next week your campaign has been blacklisted.

Slow and steady is the game I want to play. Patience pays dividends.

Great post. You just may have given me inspiration for another service business idea using your methods. thank you

 

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[Wax Comical]

1. I have both my website and a number written on the postcards. The secret sauce of the postcard is that I offer a free room of carpet cleaning. No obligations. No purchase necessary. No hard upsells. It's just my way of saying hey we believe in the quality of our work so much that we're willing to give you a free test drive. All of the calls are hired out. I don't want to deal with that stuff.

2. I currently have 2 vans driving around 6 days a week. I don't plan to scale any further because then I'd have to rent a warehouse, deal with motivating a large fleet of employees, meh. That just doesn't excite me. I'm currently just stacking my cash and slowly moving myself 100% into the investor quadrant. If I were to scale to more than 2 vans, my biggest obstacle would probably be staying excited about the project long term. I know my personality well enough to understand that if I stay deeply involved in a biz for too long, things start to go downhill. My expertise is in putting all of the systems in place so that the biz has its own "legs" to run on its own without me. If I stay involved on a daily basis then I go crazy.

3. Yes it's a long waiting list. People usually have to schedule 1-2 weeks in advance unless they're what I consider an A+ customer. An A+ customer is someone whose bill comes to $1k or more. They live in huge homes with a zillion rooms and most of the carpets are already pretty clean.

One of the biggest lessons I learned is to never say no to a customer. If you say no to them then they get angry and never call you again because you were unwilling to accommodate their demands. Get them to say no to you. For example, if a customer needs a cleaning done within 24 hours we'll tell them, "We don't have an opening tomorrow until 7pm. Would that work for you?". Most will say no thanks, but perhaps will call you in the future since you were nice enough to at least attempt to help them.



EDDM is a beast of a service because it allows you to tailor down all the way to household size, income, ethnicity, vehicles driven, it's wild.

The don't say no to a customer... get them to say no to you advice of always seeking to provide value (which also naturally leads to upselling) is such gold - thank you!

 

[Joejordan95]

Hands down, short copy worked way better.

Main objections to address:
1. Are you going to upsell me like crazy? Is your quote set in stone or are you going to BS me with shit like, "Oh Mrs. Jones you have specialty wine/pet/blood stains so that will be an extra $100".

2. The last cleaner left my carpets wet for 72 hours. Will you do the same?

3. Is your stuff safe for my pets and kids? Is it toxic?

4. Why should I trust you? I hate to admit this, but even though I'm in a diverse place like the Bay Area my clients would rather trust a white guy coming into their house than a black/Asian/Mexican employee. I plaster pics of happy white people all over my ads. I've spent a ton of money testing different ethnicities and happy white people has an insanely better conversion rate.

I laughed so hard at the happy "white people has an insanely better conversion rate." but if that what people want (Or converts them) then its our job as entrepreneurs to do that for them.

 

[Issi007]

Nope because I'm not passionate enough about the industry.

If you wish to become ultra successful at something, you must be able to put out amazing quality work. The best way to put out amazing quality work is to be passionate about the project in front of you. That's what separates the billionaires from the millionaires.

Another reason why I wouldn't want to franchise is because it's extremely time intensive. My primary reason for getting into biz in the first place was so that I can set myself up to be there more often for my future kids. My dad hardly spent any time with me because he was always working and I hated it. He never asked me, "How are you?" until I was 25. Any time spent with him wasn't quality time because he was tired. He was present, but not present. I'm 29 now and the ripple effects of my childhood experiences are still felt.

My aim is that when I do have kids, I'll be 100% in the Investor quadrant already with all of my monthly cashflow coming from real estate and stock options.

I absolutely like your thinking style and thank you for sharing these valuable tips.
I want to learn more about stock options, do you have any specific recommendations to start with that ?

 

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[Bones81]

This was a great read. My take away is that if you know how to market and have good customer service, you can make good money doing pretty much anything.

Thanks for sharing this.