Top o’ the morning everybody. Just wanted to make this post to hopefully get some advice, talk to other people in the industry and who own businesses, and get some weight off my chest.
I’m feeling like I’m hitting a limit with the way I do things and experiencing minimal growth for the past 2 years.
Business revenue has been hoving around 40-45k for the past 3 years, and this is my 5th year in business. I blame myself for this. It seems to me like I am too timid in my marketing. FB posts, Craigslist, newspaper, and that’s pretty much it. I just recently started experimenting with EDDM and I actually got pretty good returns.
I confess that I have not diligently contacted past customers, and by “not diligently” I mean “I’ve contacted a handful.” Just recently I sent out a text-blast to some of my customers from 2020 and had a few get on the schedule.
I am currently beating myself up because I forgot to book a job recently that would have payed out a decent amount. Stupid, lazy mistake on my part. The customer was not upset, but whrn I realized I had forgotten and reached out to him, he had already gotten the work taken care of.
I have not delved into google ads very much. Overall my biggest complaint about myself here is I perceive a lack of proper prioritization, lack of discipline, and laziness in many ways. Perhaps, maybe, laziness isn’t the right word. It seems like many times, I will have some extra hours left in my work day (6:30 am to 3:30 pm) and I won’t necessarily know how to spend those few hours, so I will call it quits for the day instead or do other things that don’t contribute very much, if at all, to business growth.
I am currently going to hit EDDM hard, and I am also going to start a desicated gutter-cleaning business to cast a wider net. If that business does half as good as my pressure washing business has, I’ll be pretty happy.
It seems like a good next step for me would be to get an employee so that I can focus more on the second business (and marketing for both businesses in general.) Yet, my concern is that I will get the employee, have them do the field work, and then I won’t make good use of my now available time, due to the aforementioned character flaws (which, to be clear, I am trying to work on.) I guess what I am looking for here is general advice or thoughts on business growth, a harsh talking-to, and a firm kick in the butt. Anything you guys have to offer would be greatly appreciated. Follow-up questions welcome.
An employee may be warranted (only you can say for sure), but my biggest question is why you would be spending on EDDM before you fix the issue of not cultivating your existing clients for work (and referrals). These are “free” marketing, and you should be hitting at 100% follow-up with those before you go spending on new avenues of people that you don’t have a system in place to keep in the future. The Client Aquisition Cost is too high for most/all of your clients to be one-off jobs, without tapping into the potential of the recurring services. Most of that can be automated (often for free depending on your what systems you’re using)
Not to judge what you do or say because I don’t know you or your business but consider this. I’ve been in business about the same time and I can’t believe the opportunity I see out there. ALL of my business is either referral or from my website. I’m far from perfect but my goal on every job is to exceed my customers expectations, when I do that they automatically call me back or give me referrals. A few things, I send every customer an e mail service agreement, after they sign it I put in my completed file in my computer, everybody I quote goes into my computer quote file. By sending it e mail I know ever customer has my e mail address but I also send every customer an e card with my name, picture, e mail address and phone number. I have power wash in my business name so if someone forgets me or my company name they type into the search area “power wash” and I come up. Every day I look at and update a word doc on my computer called “Call these people”. if I have a repeat customer I write either when I last did them or when I need to contact them for another wash. I tied my I-Mac with my I phone through the cloud and in my Files App can see everything on both computer and phone with little chance of losing any data. Sharpen the corners, stay updated with new services and equipment, get a good mental outlook, work hard and opportunity will find you.
Yeah, I don’t use either one much anymore. I’m definitely going to check out Nextdoor. You’re the second person to mention it to me in the past week or so.
as long as you do something to make sure they know how/where to find you…you could do a great job, but if you don’t leave them an open point of contact (like your email, or a magnet , or an annual postcard/email, something) then they won’t be able to remember your name a year from now most likely.
Don’t worry, just reading/typing it tied in to my marketing team meeting this morning too…we’re talking about all of these initiatives to keep up leads in the summer slump, why not also take another run at the folks we haven’t been able to rebook this year. It’s a pretty big list, so every time through is bound to yield some results…
You don’t need to hire a helper if that’s all you’re doing in revenue. You should have plenty of time to do that and marketing. Get focused. What customer software are you using?
If your name isn’t IBS, this is your 1st problem…and a spreadsheet isn’t the answer either. You need something that you can at least use Zapier to tie into automations If you seriously want to grow a lot, step 1 is systems and processes.
That’s probably part of your problem. They’re pretty cheap, easy to use and help you stay organized. I use ‘Customer Factor’ and I know some on here use ‘Markate’. And there are others. You can spend a a half a day and get pretty proficient with either.
I’ll have to think through our systems…our texting follow-ups are tied into our quoting system (ResponsiBid), so we don’t really have a dedicated texting system. Emails would be far easier to automate I think, but I’m sure texts are doable as well.
I use the customer factor as well. This was my first year using it (2nd year in business) My first year i did pen and paper.
My first goal for the year was to contact everyone who id gotten a text/job/phone call from last year and let them know i was starting up this spring and to let me know if they needed anything done so i could get them on the schedule.
I go through them first because like Jay had touched on…these people already know you, and they have at least been receptive to having you do work for them in the past. These are people that have the capability of paying you if that makes sense. Thats all for free. I read somewhere on this forum that we are in the business of ACQUIRING customers and I 100% believe that.
I am very interested to see how many people are repeat business for year 3. I am assuming its a cycle of every other year or so so looking forward to seeing some previous faces next year. The great thing about the customer factor is it logs all the peoples information, and when you send them an official estimate, you can look professional ad grab their email address which is key. Its so much easier to log customers and be able to reference them within TCF. im going to be honest, i was being a cheapy last year but they have my business now. I think its 450$ a year but worth it.
I have been busting my butt this year, in a small 30k population town, and spending about 300 a month in facebook ads, and i dabbled in EDDM which yielded me a pretty nice return. I will be doing it earlier in the year and maybe a July mailing as well. I do door hangers (5 around) and have tried yard signs, and flyers but SOMEBODY keeps ripping them down…either way, ive been concentrating on what i can do that other people cant influence so its been website, reviews, and marketing.
Ive been making good money but the leads are not pouring in. I might be getting a bit too ahead of myself so hope that paying this cash and establishing this relationships multiplies down the road. I have tripled what i made last year and still have a lot of free time, so i am shooting for double what i did this year next. Keep at it!
No. We are landlocked so unless im boating multiple hours im stuck here. Ive been thinking about expanding to another city though eventually. A whole second setup and whatnot.
All great advice here. Improve your systems, invest in a good rig with 8gpm, surface cleaner, softwash pump Maybe? Improve and nail down all your processes. Make yourself as efficient as possible and probably want to be closer to 100k b4 you think about hiring. Employees will be your biggest expense so you want them to be as efficient as possible with the correct tools and processes. Raise your prices, it uncomfortable to do at first but if you offer a top notch service then sell yourself that way and get top dollar for your jobs. Don’t start a new company for gutter cleaning, it’s a decent add-on to your existing company tho.
