Guys, not sure if this should be in Newbie or Marketing category but I think either will do. (Might even help some less than new) !
I am new myself (9 months including lock down) and needed work to gain vital hands on experience, my market is a tough nut to crack as Pressure / Soft Washing is a new concept for the locals.
So I racked my brain to come up with ways to get noticed, one idea has been pretty successful.
Every residential job I do now I include FREE pavement / sidewalk cleaning in front of the home, in most cases its an easy clean, even the most difficult are not so difficult, bit of SH and a surface cleaner.
I have found that everyone wants something for free even if they dont need !
Benefits: I have my Road Signs there for longer, other potential customers / neighbors actually get to see the work being done, I get valuable practical experience with wand and surface cleaner with almost no risk (its only concrete) in almost every case the sidewalk has never been cleaned before so potential customers actually see a real difference, now seem to be booking an additional 2 or 3 jobs from every residential we do.
Don’t be fooled. You can damage concrete very easily if you don’t know what you are doing. Then guess who’s forking over the money to have it resurface? Yup. When you start your business, make sure you take care of the things you clean. Treat everything like it is fragile. Don’t assume it’s “just bla bla”. You damage it, you pay for it.
Just make sure to ask the customer If they want the sidewalk done for free. They could get upset that the public sidewalk is clean in front of their home and their drive isn’t making their driveway look dirtier than before in comparison. Then they feel like they have to pay you to do the driveway to make it all match. Just make sure you and the customer are on the same page
That’s all well and good but you have to assume some people will be willing to pay to get the sidewalk cleaned, by doing it for free to secure a home that needs cleaning anyway your basically saying no thank you to money, for conversation sake $100 a sidewalk that’s 30k, 600 homes 60k 900 homes 90k. Ask yourself what a pattern of say 10, 20 years of freebies is worth when it’s time to put the feet up and retire lol
uff deep ! Honestly its been difficult enough to get them to accept they need thier patios / driveways / decks cleaned. This pic is of a very affluent ladies home in what can only be described as the Beverly Hills of Cyprus. the home is worth possibly 10mill plus, she has 975m2 (10,500ft2) of surfaces needing cleaning , I quoted her 1,402 and agreed I would not charge VAT in my quote. She almost fell over ! my new quote of 1,000 and a free sidewalk clean has just been accepted
I will personally take about 3 hours (2 hours too long) for her sidewalk during peak traffic period !!
I know ! who would believe it ! this is my firs job in that particular area, I swear there is enough potential work there to make both of us rich or richer ! even with free sidewalks
Ide be locked up if I lived in Dubai can’t even hold your wife’s hand lol. I visited there for 12 days a friend that moved there was getting married, found a filthy rich one. I couldn’t get my head around how teenagers were driving aventadores like they were corollas. Bentleys and Ferrari’s I just about got sick of seeing. The level of wealth just couldn’t be believed.
I lived there for 5 years running a Logistics company for a Kuwaiti Prince, it was defo a good standard of living but sleepy Cyprus is more my style these days
Such as Steve i started in Chania Creta Greece
Market here never had someone washing their patios, and they dont know they need it… yet!
i ll make sure they learn by cleaning for free some friends patios and driveways so they can see the diference. I started posting videos and pics on a facebook page i made ( https://www.facebook.com/Paitakis-service-105092315577074/ ) and will see from there.
bit of a nomad Scotsman ! here is so much slower, its almost at a standstill did you visit or live in Dubai
