Are there .50 customers in every market?

[Mikey P]

Let's be realistic here.

There will never be enough .50's to fund and fuel a 10 truck company, five for that matter. But does every area in this fine country of ours have enough well to do home owners to support a couple of Dave, Billy and Mikeys?

 

[Billy]

This is going to be interesting I don't even like popcorn but I'm thinking I may need some for this.

 

[Mikey P]

Don't you have a Tee time?



Maybe if you cleaned up your act you would feel you're worth more.

 

[Guest]

Listen were just sucking up dirt!!!
Try not to think to highly of our profession!

Let's be realistic here.

 

[Guest]

I think carpet cleaners are just above garbage truck drivers!
L.M.F.A.O.
Look the 1st. thing the lady says when we get there is fido went here!
fluffy cough up here! grand-dad went here! !!!
WAKE UP!
LMFAO AGAIN!

 

[Guest]

Maybe someone should start up a grass cutting board!!
Then they can all talk about how big there lawn mower is!
and so on and so on !!!!! get it! {THEY JUST CUT *UCKIN GRASS} LMFAO AGAIN!

 

[Guest]

O.K. I feel better now!
I missed my anger management class today!

CHEERS! :arrow:

 

[Ken Snow]

Hey Alan, I hear that garbage truck drivers say it's the opposite :-)

 

[Guest]

O.K. what can you do?

 

[XTREME1]

average guy around my 3 or 4 town area is .52

 

[-JB-]

Alan, you call me a rug sucker one more time and I'll fly over there in my personal jet and KICK YOUR ASS! :wink:

 

[Mikey P]

Low self of steam is like a cancer.

 

[Guest]

There will always be people willing to pay for quality. All areas don't have carpet cleaners with the balls to ask for it.

Dave

 

[Mikey P]

Right on Dave.

 

[minuteman]

If we start calling ourselves Professional Sanitizeation Companies there would be no end to what could be charged.


Greg

 

[Mikey P]

Right on Greg.

 

[harryhides]

One way to answer this question realistically is this:

Does your town/city have a dealership for

Rolls Royce?
Bentley?
Ferrari?
Jaguar?
Pick your own, you get the picture.

How many billionaires or millionaires in your town? - mind you some of them are pretty cheap bastards.

"Every market" would include small towns in Arkansas, Prattville, West Virginia, Mississippi, eastern Montana, Saskatchewen, North Dakota or Wyoming - unless you've been to some/most of these places, you have no clue.

 

[steve r]

One way to answer this question realistically is this:

Does your town/city have a dealership for

Rolls Royce?
Bentley?
Ferrari?
Jaguar?
Pick your own, you get the picture



not a one but does a hummer dealeship count?

 

[GRHeacock]

I think in every area there are well to do people that will pay a relatively high price for the area.

In rural areas, there are rich farmers, or rich miners, etc. Also well to do retired people.

In most cities, say 200,000 or more, there are a surprising number of well to do people.

They support the expensive car market, the expensive furniture, carpet and rug stores.

Getting them as customers of yours is the trick.

Gary

 

[Mikey P]

"Every market" would include small towns in Arkansas, Prattville, West Virginia, Mississippi, eastern Montana, Saskatchewen, North Dakota or Wyoming - unless you've been to some/most of these places, you have no clue.

Do people call a Carpet Cleaner to clean dirt floors?

 

[Fon Johnson]

There will be some people in just about every area that could afford a high end cleaner. There may or may not be enough to support one or more full time. Don't overlook the middle/upper middle class that want quality either. At any rate, there will be a limit in most places as to how many of those customers there are.

Maxx470, do you use a reducer or an oxidizer on grape juice? How about coffee, oxidizer or reducer? Or do you just look for a bottle that says "coffee remover"? You are cleaning a couch and suddenly red or blue marks appear from no where. What has happened, and what do you do. You just cleaned a teenagers bedroom, bath and hall and now you have a bunch of bleached out spots. What happened? Did you inform the homeowner before hand that it might occur? Do you know why those pink spots just popped up on that light beige carpet whey you presprayed, and do you know how to get rid of them? Do you know your P&L? Do you have a business plan?

I could go on and on, but there is more to it than spray, suck, collect money, spend money. Knowing this, and what to do about it seperates those who succeed from those who don't.

.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Rolls Royce?
Bentley?
Ferrari?
Jaguar?

None in Topeka, you'd have to go to KC an hour away.

At .50, you'd better have a second job or you'll starve here, we get complaints about .34 sq/ft! 8)

 

[Jimmy L]

Topeka is illegal immigrant heaven.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Heaven.....or Hell?

Just don't come to town, I gave them your picture! :shock:

 

[Shane]

Tennessee Median income is $36,360.00.
Average Home price in Tennessee by city;

• Population ---- Average House
  
  Memphis, TN 645,978---- $ 72,800
  Nashville-Davidson, TN 544,765---- $ 113,300
  Knoxville, TN 173,278 ---- $ 78,000
  Chattanooga, TN 154,887---- $ 83,500
  Clarksville, TN 107,953---- $ 84,200
  Murfreesboro, TN 78,074----- $ 121,200
  Jackson, TN 61,110---- $ 81,800
  Johnson City, TN 57,394---- $ 99,600
  Kingsport, TN 44,231---- $ 87,500
  Franklin, TN 46,528---- $ 184,500

I know this isn't every city in Tenn, but the avg income is for all of Tenn.

Please explain how you get .60 a sqft.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Topeka
122,377 people, 52,190 households

Median income $50,163.00
Average home $95,000.00

 

[Fon Johnson]

Shane, are you talking to me or Billy? I have not seen anyone claiming .60 in TN. Billy is in an area that is (overall) much more affluent than Knoxville. In this area there are some real nice pockets of money. There are many rural areas here where people cannot afford a rug doctor, muchless professional cleaning. We are still part of Appalachia, which is a (somewhat) economically depressed region. There are lots of people here who have nice six figure incomes, but lots who live on minimum wage. There are parts of TN that WILL support a high end (.50 or .60) cleaner. As for how many clients like that.. well that depends on where you are.

 

[Shane]

Vacant house.

House keepers had vacuumed the upper floor before I got there and were vacuuming the rest ahead of me, and did a very good job of it.

Lightly soiled nylon plush.

Here the job.

2 flights of stairs, each flight had 15 steps.
Dining room
Living room
3 hallways
Entry
Master, with sitting area, and nursery
Bedroom
Bedroom

Total sq ft cleaned 2425 sq ft, and 30 steps.

125 ft to the farthest room.

Only spotter needed other than prespray was some grease remover for 4 or 5 small spots.

2425 sq ' x .60 = 1455.00
30 steps x $5.00 = 150

Total for cleaning $1755.00 This would only be a guesstimate we never price without seeing job first

I'm just curious how he gets that price.

I would rather see guys at .60 then .10!!!

 

[Ron Werner]

Those aren't rooms in that house, they are small apartments!!

5rooms, 3 halls and an entrance => 2400sf!?!
each room must be close to 400sf.
A house that size and the owner would be expecting to pay a heftier price.

I know of 2 other guys in Victoria area that charge at least 0.55psf. I'm at 0.50 ($150 min) and I am getting less resistance to that price as the year goes on. I think there is the "shock" affect and then more and more people are willing to pay it as time goes on, not to mention the price of everything else going up.

 

[Billy]

I'm just curious how he gets that price.

I would rather see guys at .60 then .10!!!

Shane we get what we get because we believe we are worth it & aren't afraid to ask for it even though the national averages are lower. We don't believe we are Average so why get paid the average.

We also do many things to show them we are worth more such as doing things the last cleaner wouldn't do or couldn't do. We also believe in education it does make you stand out even if some don't think it does. I will not say all the things we do on a public board with local competitors lurking.

There are times all we do is pull up & get out go to the door & the client says you are hired I don't care what you cost. We do some of the simplest things to impress upon them that we are worth what we charge.

We don't have many but we even have a few clients left from the days when we thought like most here. You can only charge the same or less than everyone else. Our pricing was $40.00 min with coupon prices starting at 39.95 for two rooms & a hall along with an average logo & image we used to use.

I also wouldn't recommend to a new cleaner they start at our prices but I also wouldn't recommend starting at the lowest prices.

We just cleaned for one of those clients this month & she paid us Gladly with no reservations.

$.60 psf for cleaning
$.28 psf for protector
$6.00 a step
$3.00 a step for protector
We also cleaned some upholstery
Total bill was 1626.82

We did give her a gift of 126.82 to keep it at her budget of $1500.00 this time. She has us clean two or three time a year.

She also writes a note in appreciation after every job we do.

Here is part of the one she wrote this time some of it is more personal information not to be shared.

Audra, Billy, and Christopher,

Once again I am amazed! I can't believe how great everything looks. And it's nearly all dry! Thank you so much. I really appreciate your extra chair gift. They look so fresh, and now I know that they will be protected when all our family gets here. You guys are great!

My son (was actually his name) thought your truck was interesting...enjoyed talking w/ you.

If I don't touch base w/ you again until this fall, have a great rest of the summer!