volume vs high prices

[Acp]

something Im always learning and thinking about. Our prices are pretty high and we are making more than ever and working less... so whats the prob right?

well I want to grow the company at a faster rate and the high prices seem to hinder that a bit, sure we get big tickets and often cleaning carpet that isnt so dirty.

sometimes its weird but I miss the hustle of the higher volume, normal customers, and cutting through some dirty carpet getting the big before/after contrast. Also the schedule was slammed.

I kind of like the business model of medium pricing and busy schedules, growing at a faster rate.. what do you guys prefer?

 

[SamIam]

something Im always learning and thinking about. Our prices are pretty high and we are making more than ever and working less... so whats the prob right?

well I want to grow the company at a faster rate and the high prices seem to hinder that a bit, sure we get big tickets and often cleaning carpet that isnt so dirty.

sometimes its weird but I miss the hustle of the higher volume, normal customers, and cutting through some dirty carpet getting the big before/after contrast. Also the schedule was slammed.

I kind of like the business model of medium pricing and busy schedules, growing at a faster rate.. what do you guys prefer?

Every time I raise my rates I get Little slower but sales increase a little!

I like taking some days off this job hurts going 5-6 days in a row!

 

[Mikey P]

What does your lower back tell you?

 

[Nomad74]

I have this conversation all the time with Tom. I think one day he's just going to flip out and start cleaning everything for $0.16 per sqft.

 

[Hack Attack]

If your staffing/population base supports it why not do both?

 

[steve_64]

Diversify.

 

[Dolly Llama]

I don't know that the grass is any greener over any other septic tank or not.
I not sure there's any more or less comp pressure to grow regardless of price point/service level


Larger pool of prospects at the low and mid point....but also way more chasing those prospects
Less comp in the top, but less pool of prospects

I chose the mid/slightly above mid price range cause I found it to be the easiest to operate in


..L.T.A.

 

[Ed Valentine]

In your line of work, The service industry, whenever you lower prices, your expenses will go in the opposite direction. In addition, the lower the profit per job the less time you can afford to be there solving their problems.

And, the list goes on and on........................

 

[FB7777]

I wouldn't mess with a good thing, some guys chase their tail their entire cleaning career and don't reach what you've achieved... to many your position is the holy grail

The commercial end of things is one place to explore if you want to be more competitively priced

Often times it's not even what you are charging per sq foot but your hourly production rates

I frequently charge less than 20 cents per sq on commercial and still manage to produce close to $200 per hour

Clearly your company is great at what you do... market more

 

[BIG WOOD]

I’ve experienced the volume jobs to be a lot less stressful with a decent income and easier to put a tech on

Less high expectations on permanent stains and carpet wear

 

[PrimaDonna]

Get a hobby that requires you to hustle and gives you the satisfaction of accomplishment if you crave the action.

Why work harder and have more cost of doing business (driving to multiple sites vs one or two big jobs in the same time period, using more product, more labor or dwell time to clean trashed carpet) and be less profitable?

 

[Acp]

What does your lower back tell you?

idk my computer chair is pretty comfortable, but I am lifting more weights to make up for the sitting instead of doing most of the cleaning

 

[Acp]

If your staffing/population base supports it why not do both?

hard to do both and maintain a really good reputation, also the multi million dollar cheap asses start wanting the cheaper rates lol

 

[Acp]

Diversify.

we do a lot of carpet but also tons of stone, specifically lots of slate, also a lot of showers.

Also our window washing side of things has really picked up, which is a separate truck

 

[Hack Attack]

Yep I'd agree it would be hard to do volume and quality under same banner..
But a different branded truck pushing through volume.

 

[Acp]

I wouldn't mess with a good thing, some guys chase their tail their entire cleaning career and don't reach what you've achieved... to many your position is the holy grail

The commercial end of things is one place to explore if you want to be more competitively priced

Often times it's not even what you are charging per sq foot but your hourly production rates

I frequently charge less than 20 cents per sq on commercial and still manage to produce close to $200 per hour

Clearly your company is great at what you do... market more

any suggestions on marketing? we do quite a bit now but what else is there beyond shaking hands going door to door? The one thing we dont do is EDDM.

website is pretty strong, we do a little yelp(although they suck, but just not enough to turn it off), Angies list (same as yelp, just barely sorta worth it), adwords, facebook, instagram. Also lots of word of mouth with a referral program.

 

[Jim Martin]

Volume...I charge higher prices than most and still keep my quality and volume up... it's not that hard to do...you just really have to have a good grip on your scheduling.....
Right now I am running 2 trucks...pretty much full time.....I am not cleaning in the geto....or doing apartments......85% of our work are custom homes...and the rest is simple cookie cut neighborhoods...
Today marks 15 years...15 years ago today is when we officially started this company......and I am happy to say that we are running a very strong company we are pretty much always booked about 2 weeks out......with hardly any problem at all...and volume has been the key to help me grow...turn the company...and get me where I want to be......this morning I was looking back on everything...and I would not change a thing......

 

[The Great Oz]

something Im always learning and thinking about. Our prices are pretty high and we are making more than ever and working less... so whats the prob right?
well I want to grow the company at a faster rate and the high prices seem to hinder that a bit, sure we get big tickets and often cleaning carpet that isnt so dirty.

You're busy at this price point, so you can handle the customer type. The answer to faster growth might not be price, but rather how you market that price. There have been times that we worked at marketing and had a growth rate that was hard to sustain, even though the price was higher than almost anyone in town.

 

[Desk Jockey]

any suggestions on marketing? we do quite a bit now but what else is there beyond shaking hands going door to door? The one thing we dont do is EDDM.

website is pretty strong, we do a little yelp(although they suck, but just not enough to turn it off), Angies list (same as yelp, just barely sorta worth it), adwords, facebook, instagram. Also lots of word of mouth with a referral program.

That's a good mix. The only question would be budget. In a market your size I'd think its gonna cost plenty to be in the game.

EDDM can work well if you know the routes in the zip you want to work. Hit them with 2-3 drops and you can vary the size of the piece. gotprint can get you down pretty cheap on printing price and the mail rate isn't awful but the more you drop the cost can get up there. The nice part is you have all the control. Mail as few or as you can afford that week/month.

10,000 6.5x9 EDDM cards are .07 to print.
10,000 4.25 x 11 EDDM cards are .04 to print

 

[Acp]

That's a good mix. The only question would be budget. In a market your size I'd think its gonna cost plenty to be in the game.

EDDM can work well if you know the routes in the zip you want to work. Hit them with 2-3 drops and you can vary the size of the piece. gotprint can get you down pretty cheap on printing price and the mail rate isn't awful but the more you drop the cost can get up there. The nice part is you have all the control. Mail as few or as you can afford that week/month.

10,000 6.5x9 EDDM cards are .07 to print.
10,000 4.25 x 11 EDDM cards are .04 to print

thanks, what do you typically spend total on 10,000 cards sent out?

 

[Jimmy L]

Add DOGGIE WASTE REMOVAL to your ticket. Get 99 cents a pile ALL DAY LONG!

 

[Desk Jockey]

EDDM .18 per piece to mail. Plus your cards.

 

[Acp]

EDDM .18 per piece to mail. Plus your cards.

thats not bad, as long as its tracked well what routes are working. Do you guys do anything on Yelp? I think I read in the past your a 2nd generation company so Im sure things are different, but do you keep strong budgets on the "pay to play" type online advertising? (yelp, AL, home advisor, etc)

 

[Desk Jockey]

None of those. Yelp not big here. Angie's got a start but never strong before Home Advisor bought them. Home Advisor is not really our target market.

We do a lot of different stuff but the big spenders month in and month out are AdWords, Facebook. Even of that it's mainly restoration marketing, some air ducts, some carpet cleaning.

 

[Acp]

Ya basically all of them, yelp, home advisor, angieslist, etc are all the new groupon. Most all of the companies advertising on there are pushing the 3 rooms/$89 game and getting hit for a good percentage out of that. Definitely not our target market, we still get some good customers through them but they are becoming too few and far between in the last few years.

we used to do really really good on AL about 4-5 years ago.

 

[BIG WOOD]

$89 yes, but their average job is $150-$175 with urine and red treatment. And then with upholstery, the average goes up to $300/job

Bulk can be good when you look at it at that angle if you play the game right and prep the customers good beforehand

 

[Acp]

thats true but they also end up running all over town for many $200 tickets where they had to pressure the upsells, and the customer who was planning on spending 89 bucks isnt always thrilled.

We more aim for the carpet + stone + grout/shower repair + window washing tickets all same location.. $1800+ usually. Traffic is really bad here so you cant really bounce all over the place doing short stops for smaller tickets

 

[Desk Jockey]

That is one good thing about EDDM, pick the routes in the zips that fit your target client. While you can't control their preference for a spending budget, you are at least targeting those that have the discretionary income, should they choose to spend it on cleaning.

Design a card, upload the files to gotprint, then give it a shot. The EDDM site walks you through the paperwork. Its not hard at all.

 

[Acp]

gotprint does the printing, we have used vista print a lot.. but does got print send directly or do you need to get them sent to you then have the post office distribute?

 

[Acp]

nvm I see they offer the service directly