Our Industry....."STATE OF THE UNION".....

[Ken Snow]

Our commercial cleaning sales dropped slowly from it's peak in 2001, each year through 2008. 2009 was up 9.36% and then 2010 was up over 2009 by 19.63%. If 2011 is up 15.36 or better we will have recouped our 2001 numbers. This in a city that is all but lights out.

A large chunk of this new increase is that we are agreessively offering and doing hard surface. It adds 150-200 or more onto a commercial job when sell that along with their carpet cleaning. We also get the occassional home run tile job that is 1000 plus, but our bread and butter is adding it onto carpet and makeing a 350 ticket a 500-600 ticket. 25-30 of those a week adds up real quick.

 

[Greg Cole]

[quote="George III":gr8jakvf]wow!!!

Thanks for the interesting post Harper. There's a lot of thought provoking stuff here.

for instance, i find it interesting that two of the most notorious low price cleaners ain't complaining. (Ken & Cole). Also, Cintas is firing up XT machines at .10 s/f.

it's almost like a pattern is starting to develop. low prices, high volume, lots of advertising (i'm guessing). Except Cantis, they probably utilizes outside sales Reps.

Anyone ever utilize outside sales reps in their carpet cleaning business?

I have talked to a couple of members that read the thread as...biz is bad & we are
hurting...! That is not the case ...the numbers are actually better every year...!

Here is an Analogy using a different type of business..Restaurant's

HARPER'S.....Fine dining...great wine selection...Chef in the kitchen "PRIVATE DINING"

HAGOPAIN....Great food...good service...reasonable prices.."OUTBACK"

PRO CARPET...Good food...limited service...great pricing...high volume "GOLDEN CORAL"

Ps This analogy is NOT to infer that HARPER'S is a better company than either of the
companies mentioned... :!: In Fact both of these companies...generate far more revenue
than we do... !gotcha! WE ARE ALL OFFERING THE SAME GENERAL SERVICE & PRODUCT
"Just at different point's." Different business models create OPTION'S for the general public
to patronize.... :idea:

I try to "forward think" in this business and look at specific criteria ...such as market
share & customer retention. I was concerned... that our volume of "small job's" did
not show the growth we have seen in past years.!

Many assume that "working less & making more money is the HOLY GRAIL"...! This
is a goal to attain...However...if you are a growing business...you should always
look to increase your "ACTIVE" base..!

Any market will always dictate PRICE...! Our industry has always had 3 tiers of pricing..!
It is reflected on this board..! As you say...Our biz modle is different than Ken's or Greg's.

Our biz is ...able to charge higher prices because we target the client that is willing to
pay more for some personal frills..! Ken.. Offers basically the same thing...Newer equipment
uniformed clean-cut "EMPLOYEES"....great customer service...! Ken is able to get his product
to market at a MUCH lower cost than ME...because He does a high VOLUME biz...!!!

Greg operates his company in the MOST competitive market of all...He commits a HUGE
amount of revenue towards his marketing. He targets the customer that is looking for "affordable" cleaning.
At his base price point he HAS to use sub-contractors....!
Most of the FRILLS that we offer are not present in his final product.."Which is Fine"

Post of the year- no insults, no "my shlong is bigger than yours", just straight forward analysis and opinion without judgement or mud slinging. Thanks Joe for showcasing class and maturity.

Ken[/quote:gr8jakvf]

Agreed- Great post Harper!