So...what are your plans....?

[Jim Martin]

We all know ( or have to admit ) that things are going to get tight.....

Come January after the holidays things are going to slow down for most of us.....

what approach or different angles are you going to try to keep your company above water ??????

 

[Able 1]

Flyers is all..

 

[Jay D]

Do my winter postcard in jan and feb offering 20% off. Yes starving carpet cleaner. Work all the time, no going home for that afternoon nap. Yes hit the streets and work it baby. Whats the alternative? Quit and close up shop? Find a job in a tightening job market? Come on when the going gets tough the tough get going.... whos with me.... :roll:

 

[Doug Cox]

I always save my money in the fall so I can coast through the winter. I don't advertise, so there isn't much I will do except sit on my ass waiting for the phone to ring.

 

[Guest]

Im going to Arizona, where it is warm

 

[Mike Pailliotet]

sell more banners.

 

[vincent]

sell a kidney

 

[Mike Pailliotet]

half my head.

 

[Larry B]

Run for governor of Illinois

 

[Able 1]

Run for governor of Illinois

Do you really want to go to jail?

 

[Jim Williams]

This year I did no advertising, but I might send out a round of postcards or two just in case it gets slow. And work my customer base like mad with recession buster specials.

This year has been great mainly because before the economy turned bad I was to the point of needing another truck on the road, but now I at least have enough work to keep me busy, wouldn't want to support another truck right now.

 

[Bill Soukoreff]

I plan to offer my carpet retailer's staff (other than management who don't pay), my designers and custom builders/contractors a sweet deal to get their carpets cleaned. Gives them a break and me some fluidity during the cold months.

 

[LeeCory]

I normally send out about 17,000 flyers a month, and used to stop in Jan and Feb.

I recently added water damage restoration and 3 months ago switched my flyer focus to water damage with only a small block on the bottom for cleaning. So far all of my water jobs have come from cleaning customers that saw my new ad.

This year I will continue my ads focused on water damage during the slow months. So far it is working and since I only have 1 full time employee if I got 1 water damage a week I wouldn't even need carpet cleaning to coast through the slow times. My last water damage was $4900 before deductible, a few of these go a long way.

I started planning this out long ago and have invested alot of money and am still purchasing equipment. I even sold my Corvette pictured to the left to help fund...

Any combination of water damage and carpet cleaning should make the slow times a bit easier this year.

 

[Brian R]

Plan on doing some big commercial jobs to tide me over.
Gotta keep in the face of customers for spring cleaning.
I dont like working in cold weather anyway. It only gets down to the 30s here with no real snow but the cold sweats suck donkey dookie.

People are jumping out of ads right now so I may just jump in and see what happens.

 

[Chris A]

Keep pushing Steven, it can't hurt

 

[Chris A]

like I said, can't hurt

 

[FB7777]

Ill be doing a monthly mailing in Jan Feb and March which I never do... just in case

 

[rotovacguy]

Not much here...I suppose just wait for the phone to ring and the emails to come in.



My bro in law owns a snowplowing/landscaping business...probably hit him up for some snowplow work.

 

[BradFenstermaker]

Commercial work but you have to plan it right so you get paid during the slow months. Some of mine sit on the invoice for 2-3 weeks.

May jump into the Postcard thing also. Will be sending everyone that cleaned last year in winter a reminder.

My yrs seem to juggle, slow one winter to busy the next, I haven't figured it out yet.
We haven't done anything different.

 

[Art Kelley]

We all know ( or have to admit ) that things are going to get tight.....

Come January after the holidays things are going to slow down for most of us.....

what approach or different angles are you going to try to keep your company above water ??????

Things get tight every winter. If I run out of cash I have a HELOC and credit cards to tide me over to March. Just enjoy the lull and repair equipment and workout your body. This is a good time to increase your fitness level. Plan for a busy new year. Kick ass. Have fun. Take a vacation.

 

[CapeCleaner]

We all know ( or have to admit ) that things are going to get tight.....

Come January after the holidays things are going to slow down for most of us.....

what approach or different angles are you going to try to keep your company above water ??????

First, and foremost, any off days will be focused on building commercial business. I'm sending out a couple of hundred letters with a flyer and return postcard to potential commercial clients so there will be ample opportunity for follow-up calls, drop-ins, etc.

Will also be working with the graphic designer I use to develop 3-4 different postcards for residential work.

Also some training, updating web site (finally!), take a day to bring the TM in for maintenance.

Anything at all that I think can help build my business as long as it doens't involve sitting on my ass complaining about how slow things might be.

I'll be extremely happy if I can say in April that I didn't have time for any of it! Not too likely though.

 

[XTREME1]

Follow Allbright Cleaning and Stoughton Carpet Cleaning Vans around and offering their customers a lower price and better service. Somedays just grab their daily work up sheet and let the air out their tires.

Going to Disney for 10 days on New Years Day

Going to Myrtle Beach for a week in February

Going Skiing for a week in March and heading back down south mid march

 

[steve frasier]

I have always done more commercial cleaning so I don't plan anything any different

I have talked to Wanye Miller about a possible post card 3 X per year or possible Angie's list to get a little more residential but I am undecided

I have 2 more commercial accounts I can have if I want to do them but not sure if I will

 

[alazo1]

Maybe we'll raise our prices and have a Coit 30% off special

Albert

 

[Mike Pailliotet]

Lee Co



17000 mail outs for only you and the chimp?

Even at a .5 return that would be over 60 jobs. Don't you get returns and referrals too?



You must need a proof reader buddy.

 

[LeeCory]

Mikey... whatever you say, but I have not been slow like others are saying. I have been very busy right up until things are starting to slide a little next week.

My cost to print the flyers is only the paper and toner, I have a copier that prints at 60 per minute.

It has worked well for me, and like I said the past 3 have been focused on water, and for only being new I have already made almost as much in water as I do in carpet.

So while you may question what I am doing, it is working well for me or I wouldn't do it.

 

[captaincarpet]

Luckily, Andrechelle.com is boosting my web presence quite substantially, so that should bring in some extra jobs every week over the winter and really boost us up for the spring.

The internet is our highest ROI, followed by our mailings to repeat customers(every 30-45 days), so we are going to focus all our efforts in those 2 areas.

 

[Mike Draper]

Went to the dumpster today and got a real nice piece of cardboard, it says "will clean carpet for food". So I'm not to worried, things will be pickin up real soon.

 

[Steve in Omaha]

Busted my butt all year so I can park the truck and go skiing!

New set of Blizzacks being installed on the Outback today. That's snow tires for you winter deprived guys that think 50 degrees is a "cold snap".

 

[Brian L]

I started my winter advertising already: