How competetive does your market get?

[juniorc82]

Lately I have took notice to some new faces around town on the cleaning scene. I have been in business about 6 and a half years and am only 30 so I am considered to be one of the new kids on the block myself. I have a pretty good size chunk of my mrket share in my area ..... about 120k peoplebetween my city and rural areas outside, I think there are about 20-25 cleaners between janitorial , wdr, and carpet cleaners. I have hada couple of my regular commercial accounts tell me some new faces came by and droppes cards off. I even had a local pizza hut tell me one dipshit hack wrote them and estimate to clean all the carpet for $30! I also took a peak in the new phone book that just came out and my competitors are lookin pretty desperate. One of the chem lie guys had a coupon for a free sofa cleaning with the purchase of 4 rooms of carpet. Seems a bit genorous in my opinion. I am always carefull doing pricepoint advertising because if done wrong you atract the bottom feeders and devalue your work in tandum. Seems a bit more competitve this summer , looks like there are a few more clowns than usual bellying up to the dinner table.

 

[Art Kelley]

All I can say is just hang in there. The attrition rate is very high in this business. The first ten years are tough, you must constantly market your services but if you remain an O/O like me, eventually the work comes in automatically if you do every job as well as possible. Those in the industry for decades have a mountain of past customers. Your customers will call around and and some will have other companies out, but if you always provide great service at a great value to them "they'll be back."

 

[Dmreed4311]

They drop like flies in my area but others pop up just as fast. I just do my thing and try not to worry about the other guys.

 

[Mardie]

Just lost a commercial T/G job to a 30+ year multi truck operation.He went in at .40cents sq.ft.LOL that is what i call desperate. $700.00 less than me.

 

[Ken Snow]

Why do you feel that is desperate Mardie? Maybe they have a cost structure or production capability to allow them to do this profitably at that price. Depending on size and scope that would not be unusual here.

 

[Blue Monarch]

I'm with Ken. Some commercial accounts would be perfect at $.40 for me. Depends on condition and layout, but a guy can easily make $100+ an hour at that rate on the right jobs.

 

[Jim Martin]

Lately I have took notice to some new faces around town on the cleaning scene. I have been in business about 6 and a half years and am only 30 so I am considered to be one of the new kids on the block myself. I have a pretty good size chunk of my mrket share in my area ..... about 120k peoplebetween my city and rural areas outside, I think there are about 20-25 cleaners between janitorial , wdr, and carpet cleaners. I have hada couple of my regular commercial accounts tell me some new faces came by and droppes cards off. I even had a local pizza hut tell me one dipshit hack wrote them and estimate to clean all the carpet for $30! I also took a peak in the new phone book that just came out and my competitors are lookin pretty desperate. One of the chem lie guys had a coupon for a free sofa cleaning with the purchase of 4 rooms of carpet. Seems a bit genorous in my opinion. I am always carefull doing pricepoint advertising because if done wrong you atract the bottom feeders and devalue your work in tandum. Seems a bit more competitve this summer , looks like there are a few more clowns than usual bellying up to the dinner table.

I don't pay to much mind to what everyone else does.....but I have noticed a few new companies popping up...I also have notice that I am not seeing as many cleaners out on the street as I use to....

 

[Chris A]

Why do you feel that is desperate Mardie? Maybe they have a cost structure or production capability to allow them to do this profitably at that price. Depending on size and scope that would not be unusual here.

No shit, I only charge fiddy cents normally for residential if its not super filthy... comm. weve gone as low as. 35 and that job wasnt even that big

 

[Ken Snow]

I agree Chris- on one big job we had over 1k in profit at 35 cents in a single day. Would have made a few $ even at 20 cents.

 

[juniorc82]

I guess there are really no more than usualy , it just seems like the ones that are out there are willing to put their mom on a corner in heels to get a job. I really am enjoying the spot I have carved out for myself because in my town its pretty small and the good ole boy network is in full effect. At first its hard to get your foot in the door , but after you do your customers seem to be very loyal here

 

[Chris A]

I guess there are really no more than usualy , it just seems like the ones that are out there are willing to put their mom on a corner in heels to get a job. I really am enjoying the spot I have carved out for myself because in my town its pretty small and the good ole boy network is in full effect. At first its hard to get your foot in the door , but after you do your customers seem to be very loyal here

This business, like most, is all about relationships. A lot of guys dont realize that.

 

[Jim Martin]

X5

 

[ACE]

I am defiantly seeing allot of really competitive price point advertising form the players big and small in my market. Judging by their size and the amount of advertising they do, most of these companies have relatively low customer retention rates. If they could not retain customers when they charged top dollar, how are they going to provide a good customer experience at cut throat prices?

Time will tell if this is a new era of a highly competitive market or just the death moans of a few companies on the fringe of the industry. This would sure be a tough time for a start up.

 

[Chris A]

Our local Stanley used to be around $40 per room and has started advertising 5/$125 over the last few months. Not sure what to make of that.

 

[Mardie]

Why do you feel that is desperate Mardie? Maybe they have a cost structure or production capability to allow them to do this profitably at that price. Depending on size and scope that would not be unusual here.

The reason i feel that that is desperate is because i know the size and layout of the job.Their cost structure is higher than mine and their production capability with the equipment and method used is the same as what i use. Knowing you Ken you will keep asking the same answer'd question over and over again so just to let you know,this will be the only reply you get on this topic.

 

[Hoody]

I've been doing a lot of market research in my home town, only a few companies come up in google for carpet cleaning, very few for tile. Eventually when we move into flood work, I'll be able to dominate the net in my home town with that as well. Most don't show up on a places page. I have to catch up on some other web work, but our website will be up within the month.

Since this is just starting out, and all I have is some apartment complexes, we don't really service the toledo metro areas much, but we will in good time.

We have everyone from $55 a room cleaners, to low ball jan san. The market gets tougher up north, but down where I'm at its not too bad to where I think I'll have an advantage hitting up the smaller 'country' based towns who are practically filled with old fashioned rich farming families. It also helps that my family is huge in those areas, and my last name is well known. These people like working and buying services from families they know of, its a nice inner community support system.

 

[Ken Snow]

Not a chance anyone knows another businesses cost structure Mardie but I won't ask anymore questions as you seem very determined to blame others for you not getting a job. I hope that thinking serves you well. In reality you really have no idea what the company is charging and in fact they could be charging more than you. Saying someone else is charging less is an often used tactic to make someone go away whether true or untrue.

 

[Chris A]

Damn Kenadians are so touchy!

 

[Mardie]

Not a chance anyone knows another businesses cost structure Mardie but I won't ask anymore questions as you seem very determined to blame others for you not getting a job. I hope that thinking serves you well. In reality you really have no idea what the company is charging and in fact they could be charging more than you. Saying someone else is charging less is an often used tactic to make someone go away whether true or untrue.

I have a close personal contact and can assure you that the info i got comes from a reliable source or i would not have said this for the very reasons you yourself pointed out. You should keep your assumptions to yourself and not waste your energy without the proper info.Your constant attempt to discredit me is annoying and non productive.

 

[Ken Snow]

Sorry if you have ever felt I had a need to discredit you, couldn't be further from that- truly. I do the same thing with many others in my life amd that is to ask questions when someone makes comments that seem incomplete or filled with "stuff". You can call it whatever you want but I have no desire or need to discredit anyone.

 

[daniel@procarpet]

Not a chance anyone knows another businesses cost structure Mardie but I won't ask anymore questions as you seem very determined to blame others for you not getting a job. I hope that thinking serves you well. In reality you really have no idea what the company is charging and in fact they could be charging more than you. Saying someone else is charging less is an often used tactic to make someone go away whether true or untrue.

I have a close personal contact and can assure you that the info i got comes from a reliable source or i would not have said this for the very reasons you yourself pointed out. You should keep your assumptions to yourself and not waste your energy without the proper info.Your constant attempt to discredit me is annoying and non productive.

I will clean commercial T and G all day every day at 40 cents cuz I can average around 1000 sq ft per hour with one helper.

Are you using the Von Schrader to clean T and G or a high production tm?

 

[Ken Snow]

Exactly Dan! 1000 sq ft + is very doable in many t & g cases.

 

[floorguy]

pfft if its open .20-25 a ft....

had this cafeteria i did a few times....8000 ft....@.20 was 1600....right around 8 hrs...2 of us...with moving tables around...$200 an hr....ALLLLL day....

to a point sqft price is retarded...you use it to get your self a base.....would they have paid 3200???...HELLLLL no...

in fact after a 3 or 4 years, they decided they didnt like 1600....but i may get it back its been about 3 years now....so we will see....

 

[rwcarpet]

All the advertised cleaners around here run a 5 room - $155-165 price. They promise you the world, but are in and out in a jiffy.
We've got about 5 or 6 that advertise in the local mailing, and they're within a few bucks of each other.

 

[Jack Zipper Zerkie]

Local carpet cleaner mails tons of ads and the Sunday paper also. They clean for
$6.95 per room and min. of 5 rooms. They been around for a while.The other is Stanley cleaning 4 rooms for $119.00. jz.

 

[ruff]

Not a chance anyone knows another businesses cost structure Mardie but I won't ask anymore questions as you seem very determined to blame others for you not getting a job. I hope that thinking serves you well. I

You should keep your assumptions to yourself and not waste your energy without the proper info.Your constant attempt to discredit me is annoying and non productive.

Sorry if you have ever felt I had a need to discredit you, couldn't be further from that- truly. I do the same thing with many others in my life amd that is to ask questions when someone makes comments that seem incomplete or filled with "stuff". You can call it whatever you want but I have no desire or need to discredit anyone.

I actually think that this is a Mikey's Board record, Mardie.
Your diversity is astounding. First, you've managed to get into a spat annoying Willy P. (well Willy has a very low tolerance for silliness.)
And now Ken, who's practically the unofficial "mother Theresa" of this board.

How do you do it?

P.S. Read Ken's posts again. There was nothing there discrediting you.
Putting your foot in your mouth seems to be an everyday habit with you.
With that level of flexibility, by now, you must be a yoga master eat yor heart out Werner

 

[Mardie]

Woos

 

[idreadnought]

I will add myself to the list of companies that would love to clean tile for 40 cents a foot. about twice a year I clean and seal tile in a pizza restaurant for much less than that and make really good money on it. My take is that if you can send a guy out and he will make you a hundred bucks an hour then I will do it all day long. I have to make a little more than that on tile to cover seal but still its not much higher.

 

[Heathrow]

We have an influx of residential cleaning/janitorial type companies here that contract low priced carpet cleaners to work alongside them. Jack of all trades but masters of none... Good customers look for good carpet cleaners and if they trust you they won't use anyone else, unless they think you're way overpriced.

Hey Mardie - some people pay lots of money to have people ask them the hard questions, sheesh!

 

[Chris A]

All the advertised cleaners around here run a 5 room - $155-165 price. They promise you the world, but are in and out in a jiffy.
We've got about 5 or 6 that advertise in the local mailing, and they're within a few bucks of each other.

We do 5/170 and our customers get

-prevac
-prespray
-very little if any furniture moving (explained over the phone)
-extract
-normal type spotting
-speed drying and grooming.

My super awesome tech and I can bang these out all day within an hour as the avg. Job is lr dr fr hall steps, add sg ( which we do a lot more of now) and its 245.