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Golf Courses

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Post by milspec6 Tue Sep 12, 2017 5:37 pm

I met a person today that heads a golf course in my service area. He told me that they were getting ready to print out the new supply of score cards and how they lost an advertiser....a carpet cleaner. He made me the offer of being the replacement.

Here are the details:

1. Only one carpet cleaner would be allowed to be represented.
2. It will include a full color ad.
3. Term will be for the full 12 months so if they need to print more, they will be the same
4. Cost is about $400

What do you think about its value? It isn't the largest course in the area, but it is popular. I don't know if people bother to hold onto a score card after playing or not...nor how much they would really notice the ads on it. Being in color probably helps though.

I don't golf, so I really don't know if it has value. If there was a large number of female golfers, then it might be a better deal, but I don't think most guys would remember the ad as much. I just don't know if it would be a waste of $400 or not? Not an overly expensive ad method, but with winter approaching and things the way they are, it isn't exactly loose change in the couch money either.

Clearly, it would have no value during the winter at all, so this would be targeting 2018 mostly.
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Post by Freemind1 Tue Sep 12, 2017 8:56 pm

From what I have heard from others that were offered it (3 or 4 other people) not one said it was worth it. It was a big waste of money (think advertising on the back of register receipts).

All the people I know that golf, go there to drink beer, beat on the golf carts, and play a round.

I don't think it would be a good ROI.

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Post by milspec6 Tue Sep 12, 2017 9:06 pm

I was thinking the same thing, thanks for confirming it.
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Post by Freemind1 Wed Sep 13, 2017 7:05 am

In all honesty, if you are looking to advertise to residential, just get some EDDM ready post cards and pick a route or two, and hit it every 30 days. Have it delivered on Thursday or Friday, when folks get their paychecks.

I got my 5000 cards printed (with my own design), 4x6, for like 150 bucks.

I flier all of my cards, bypassing the post office and saving the expense. It allows me to laser focus my advertising, and frankly it just works great. My pricing is too high for the average Joe.

EDDM works. If one is willing to invest and repeat it, it will bring in clients.

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Post by milspec6 Wed Sep 13, 2017 10:57 am

I have been doing a similar approach with glossy flyers with a magnet biz card attached....not much generated. This Summer I have blasted 3 area cities with over 4,000 flyers 3x since Jan. resulting in less than 12 jobs.

Either I have been wrong about the markets in my service area or there needs to be a different approach. This area supported 8 cleaners for decades and 4 of them retired and are out of the game and yet I can't get any residential going. It has been the biggest disappointment I have faced in 10 years.

As I sit here today with zero on the schedule this week, I am back to saying screw it and just going after commercial to stay alive. I am pretty much done with trying to figure out the market.
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Post by dp1 Wed Sep 13, 2017 12:34 pm

$ 400 / year or month ? If it's for the year, I would definitely do it ! Of course it also depends on what amount is their initial print out ? I'm almost sure you can get at least 2 customers out of the year asvertisement, and those 2 can easily pay for the ads, you're very good with people and those 2 may lead to word of mouth referral.
If it's monthly, that's probably a little too much unless if they print and distribute minimum 4000 of those score card / month, in which case you might make some profit ( I always see the return from advertisement around 0.1 % which is going to be 4 customers out of the 4000 ).
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Post by milspec6 Wed Sep 13, 2017 5:50 pm

That is where I lose it with residential. The reality that 4/4000 is considered a good return means it will never work out in this area. My main targets consist of 4 small cities with a total of around 60k people. It just isn't going to generate anything sufficient to make this work.

It will have to come down to commercial to save the day or else I will be bagging groceries for the winter.
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Post by Freemind1 Wed Sep 13, 2017 9:06 pm

You have a facebook page, how many followers do you have? Have you thought about ads with facebook, contests, or some special of some sorts with a "like" and a review?

I can't believe if your area lost half the cleaners, that someone isn't doing those residential people. Either someone is busy as hell, or no one is cleaning their carpets. Maybe you can research the competition and see how they are marketing.

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Post by milspec6 Wed Sep 13, 2017 11:07 pm

I have doing some Facebook stuff as well, but it has only generate modest activity and virtually no work.

I only talk to 2 of the other remaining cleaners and they are all having a lousy year, so I don't think there is anyone working much. It still seems odd that the drop-off is so abrupt without any obvious explanations....just can't figure it out. We even had that massive hail storm a few years back where pretty much the entire city got new carpet, so you would think that there would be warranty work at least.

I would probably be better off just becoming a driver for Uber or be the first person to use a carpet cleaning rig to deliver pizza.
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Post by Freemind1 Thu Sep 14, 2017 6:38 am

Your problems are troublesome. We know the risks of having your eggs in one basket (commercial). All it takes is for some key income streams to put off cleaning, and then you are screwed.

It's puzzling why residential all the sudden has shut off. Maybe people in your area are now not concerned with "clean" and keeping their carpet and tile clean anymore. I know that is a problem in my area. People aren't clean nor concerned with keeping carpet clean. We went to our local movie theatre, that was just remodeled a year ago, and their carpet was gross.

I'd say diversify your services to something that can make you good money, but I wouldn't know what to suggest.

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Post by milspec6 Thu Sep 14, 2017 1:33 pm

Thanks Freemind, it is just so frustrating right now watching the business die and not being able to stop it...or even understand why it changed?

A lot of the small commercial that I have cleaned routinely has decided to take this year off, because it "didn't look too bad". You already know how my main customer has done a 180 degree turn and that just baffles the hell out of me after a consistent 5 year track record.

I am just sitting here hoping the phone rings, but all I get are the same 5 marketing calls from google. I can hold out for a little longer, but with winter approaching (although it is 93 degrees today) I am not seeing much hope of turning this around.

It is like looking for water in a desert.
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Post by dp1 Thu Sep 14, 2017 3:14 pm

I remembered it was like that for me in 2006 - 2007 in central California, where the crashed economy hit the hardest, you hardly can drive past a block without seeing foreclosed homes, no one has the $$ to clean, the bank is not cleaning them, buyers are pretty much investors that are ripping carpets out and replacing them with hard surfaces to safe $$ in the long run from "not so clean" tenants.
Are we heading that way ? I sure hope not, here in LA it's getting more and more competitive by the day, if I missed a call and didn't call them back in 10 minutes or less, 90% chance when I call them back, they already schedule the job with someone else.
Repeat residential customers are keeping me afloat now, I know I can pass 2 - 3 more winters with things are going the way it is now, as long as it doesn't get any worse.
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Post by milspec6 Thu Sep 14, 2017 8:46 pm

I think it has become that way in my part of the pond. Maybe that is why the others chose to retire when they did?

The biggest problem now is trying to figure what to do next? Just like a bull-rider knows he has to jump off at some point, but the trick is how to do it without getting trampled or gored.

I guess I will have to figure that one out in another month or two unless I can't land a large contract before the winter.
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