If you were re-starting your business after 2 years off what would you do???

[curt johnson]

Lets say you had a moderatly successful CC business for the past 10 years. You did mostly residential work, always an owner/operator. Over the past 2 years or so you pretty much quit running it. Eventually you went back to work in corporate America and just did some cleaning jobs on the side when they came up.

Now several years later, you are thinking of firing back up again. You didn't do a good job in the past of tracking customers or keeping much of a database. You didn't do a lot of marketing. You did very good work but didn't run your biz very well. the main difference now is you have somone in the house who can help you actually run the business. Someone who can do some sales, answer phones, track invoices, all that good stuff.

What would be some of the first steps you'd take in getting started again? What are some things you'd do to generate business now and try to re-build your business the right way????

 

[Mikey P]

Service.

Monster.





Fred Cordell.

 

[Giorgio]

Don't fall for the old get rich cleaning carpet routine again.

The money is in reStOratIoN.

 

[FB7777]

Anybody we know Curt ?

Or are you asking for a " friend " ?

 

[Kipp]

I'd buy the best damn skampoo machine on the market and offer disappearing dirt magic tricks

 

[curt johnson]

Fred, yes it may be! Come to Mfest in Vegas and you may find out!!!

 

[Bruce Humphrey]

Fist thing I would do is sit down with the person who will be answering phones , making sales and tracking the business and get a plan going. 1. How are you going to track your new customers , like Mike said, Service Monster or there are other methods. Tracking invoices would work well for service monster.

I would try to scrape up as many old customer addresses that you can and start mailing to them, let them know you are back.

 

[Mikey P]

Curt, I love ya but dude, your website blows.


you have more personality than most, let it show through on your site.




just to put it into perspective, not a month goes by where I don't get at least 10 grand+ in new customers off my site and Yelp.



Dirk should know this stuff and help you out.

 

[curt johnson]

Mike, I'll be honest...I had a different site for years that was professionally done but it was formatted completely wrong. I finally scrapped it a few years ago. The website I have now is just one that Dirk whipped up for me. He didn't spend much time on it, mainly because I didn't ask him to and we both knew at that point I may be quitting my biz all together.

Right now I'm just toying with the idea of starting my biz over. The area I live in is not saturated with cleaners. I still have name recognition. I did a crappy job though of previously running my biz...... no follow up, no customer contact...etc.

 

[Mikey P]

The website I have now is just one that Dirk whipped up for me

and to think he use to be my Latex Salesman...

 

[bob vawter]

and to think he use to be my Latex Salesman...

 

[BradFenstermaker]

So you think Healthy Clean will still be the Name?? Definetely use your Picture on all new stuff going in front of prospects. Also your name. This will help those remember you if they where custy's before.

Service Monster is a must for data. Since your not saturated with compitetion you should gain old and new doing the quality work from the past.

Hit hard it will all fall in place.

 

[bob vawter]

FIRST...i'd seriously get my hED examined.............

 

[ACE]

I have been asking myself that same question all night.
Something is going to change starting tomorrow.
Here is what I’m going to do:
Wake up early,
Leave the direct drive running in front on the mechanics shop in hopes someone steals it or he fixes it after he cleans up the huge oil leak from the new engine he just replaced
Call and tell some bum off the craigslist he starts tomorrow.
Walk across town to clear my head.
Stop by the bank to see about financing a new truck mount.
Make it my goal to never touch the wand again.
Actually spend my time running a business.
When and if that fails I’ll be a true owner op (no help) and strictly work banker’s hours
Some or all of the above actions may prove to be disastrous. Is all I know is, I’m going to feel a hell of allot better when I take same decisive action and take control of my company and my time.

 

[supersoaker]

Service.

Monster.





Fred Cordell.

Is Fred the SEO genius I've seen mentioned on here?

Do you know if he is accepting new customers?

Thanks

 

[Mikey P]

good question...

 

[Mikey P]

Fred, Mr Super Genius are you taking on more SEO clients?

what is your criteria for working with carpet cleaners?

what CAN"T you do?

Brevik told me today on the phone that there is speculation that you are actually Tre Allen, is that true?

 

[supersoaker]

Fred, Mr Super Genius are you taking on more SEO clients?

what is your criteria for working with carpet cleaners?

what CAN"T you do?

Brevik told me today on the phone that there is speculation that you are actually Tre Allen, is that true?

Tre was doing my SEO for quite awhile and I was happy until he switched it all over to a company called hubshit. I had the number 1 map listing for my area for well over a year until this company Tre subbed out the SEO manged to allow my map listing to drop to the 5th spot which is useless.

I'm down about 5,000 per month in new business that I would normally would of had from having a spot at least in the top 2. I sent Fred a PM, hopefully I will hear back.

 

[FredC]

I got your PM (oops and some others I missed)...give me a day or two....I'm running behind and need to get caught up first

Hubshout is bullshit...............unless you are the one white labeling and selling or getting the affiliate commission.....

 

[Mikey P]

Not so premium after all...

 

[supersoaker]

I got your PM (oops and some others I missed)...give me a day or two....I'm running behind and need to get caught up first

Hubshout is bullshit...............unless you are the one white labeling and selling or getting the affiliate commission.....

Great.

Thank you.

Tell me about it. They managed to f shit up in about 5 months.

 

[FredC]

Fred, Mr Super Genius are you taking on more SEO clients?

This actually requires a really long answer....but the short one is not at the moment. Shouldn't be long though.

what is your criteria for working with carpet cleaners?

I

ya know...that is something I may want to look into

what CAN"T you do?

Dunk

Brevik told me today on the phone that there is speculation that you are actually Tre Allen, is that true?

You couldn't tell by my painstaking efforts to ruin you and your forum?

 

[Shane Deubell]

Tre was doing my SEO for quite awhile and I was happy until he switched it all over to a company called hubshit. I had the number 1 map listing for my area for well over a year until this company Tre subbed out the SEO manged to allow my map listing to drop to the 5th spot which is useless.

I'm down about 5,000 per month in new business that I would normally would of had from having a spot at least in the top 2. I sent Fred a PM, hopefully I will hear back.

That whole thing turned into a fiasco.

But overall i have to say all the changes google has made over last 6 months have really messed us up also, used to be on top of 50 different keywords/towns and now... not so much.
Have to learn all over again.

 

[Jim Nelson]

Open an office so people can see you.

 

[Cleanworks]

I'd do something else