Last August was slowwww dead slow. I started scheduling people a week to week and and a half out in July once they committed to the estimate. I knew the daily leads I was getting in July I could fill an open week and that way I could start filling August’s calendar in advance. Ninja scheduling.
Also, I put up on our Facebook page and sent an email blast in July, back to school pricing in effect August 1st. 20% lower on all our residential flat rates for August only. That’s helped. I haven’t had any down time and don’t again until the 29th., but the 2nd week in September starts 2 weeks of strip malls for the development company we do work for once a week at this point.
September I’m going down to 4 days per week until November then I’ll do work exclusively for this development company and our chick fil A’s. 3 days a week. Hunting season. 3 days is more than I wanna work. Lol
You need to go simple. Get the junk out of your iPhone and onto index cards or sheets of paper. One customer per. Record your follow ups and actions and sort the cards into piles. You don’t need a program. If you can’t handle an iPhone you would make a mess of an application. Go simple. Since you have no business, you have lots of time on your hands. Use that time to market yourself. Network with others. Call your friends and tell them you need 5 names and phone numbers that you can call and offer your services to. Put up flyers. Etc Etc
John_Lange…just for encouragement…I knocked on 3 doors today. Out of those 3 cold calls…I had one guy express interest immediately in having his home property washed and asked if I would travel 10 miles to wash a house that he had bought for his daughter. Also, another one of those 3 called me about 30 minutes after I visited and asked if I would give her an estimate.
Just goes to show, knocking on doors does get responses. I have every reason to believe that 2 of those 3 cold calls will result in work.
Something that has helped me get work in slow times, is volunteer some cleaning for places like churches, school, VFW type places. Something charitable. As long as you have signs on your truck and are doing good work, people with houses come to these places or drive past them all the time and will see you out working. Then when your done park the truck and hand out flyers in the area. This has worked for me. I cleaned the local VFW for free because I know some people there, and someone driving by saw me and stopped for a card, ended up having work done at his house down the street. On top of that it’s good practice and gets some good before and after photos. Not to mention the Good Samaritan thing
What’s good about door to door is you get the exposure and clients you otherwise would not have gotten, if they don’t answer still leave a flyer or card, you want as many people as possible to be familiar with your company name. Also if you talk to them they get that 'he’s a nice guy 'impression an ad wont get you.
Don’t get your hopes up, out of all day knocking you might get one client
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well, i ended up having to get a job to hold me over for winter. All winter I created a plan and once march hit I put in my two week notice and hit the ground running. I invested into yard signs and post cards (we use post cards as door hangers) and hit the ground running. I am not scared to spend money to make money and that is how I pulled myself out of this. The customer factor saved my business, I have been able to offer my clients very clear communication and the best part is everything is automated. Things are great and they are only getting better. I am always working on the business and thinking of ways to make things better. Very excited for winter, I am going to create multiple systems and video tutorials for new employees (already been working on it) JUST REAL EXCITED. I have a lot of things to work on business is by no means perfect but I’m super excited to figure all of these things out and then reap the reward when I can run a fully automated business and not have to touch it. Gotta climb the stairs to get there tho, there is no elevator unfortunately!
I just came across this thread, more than a year after I came across your YouTube channel (I’m a subscriber). It’s an inspiration to see you were once in the same boat so many find themselves in.
