Advice needed

[Claire Gardiner]

Hi All,

Just looking for some advice on marketing my new business. I have recently started up a cleaning business providing domestic ,and commercial cleaning services.
I have a few clients at the moment mainly domestic where I arrange for a cleaner to clean their home. However I really want to gain some clients looking for commercial cleans. I have listed my self on yell.com under my local area, however due to not having a big enough profit as of yet I am quite limited to funds with marketing cost therefore have to market in the cheapest way possible. Wonder if any one had any ideas, or advice they could give me. Would be really useful. Kind regards Claire

 

[Mike_Cartwright]

Hello, Claire!

Since you have a limited budget, the best marketing advice I can give is that you find referrals. How can you begin to do that?

Write a list of all the people you know. This will serve as your first list of warm leads. Get a pen and write the names of your family members, relatives, friends, friends from school, business friends, and other connections. Then, make a strategy/plan on how to contact them.

Remember that you are not only reaching out to them because you want them to be clients, you are contacting them to get referrals for your target market (commercial cleans). Ask each of them if they can connect you with commercial clients, or if they know someone that can do that. Ask them to be your referrers or to help you find referrers for your business.

In due time, you'll reach your target market and that will open new possibilities to expand your business.

Good luck!

 

[fisicx]

Use sites like this: https://nextdoor.co.uk/ (it's where we found our cleaner).

You may also have a parish magazine where you can advertise. Cards in the local supermarkets also work well. The problem with commercial cleans is most businesses already have someone. If they need a new cleaner they do what the rest of us do and search Google. So what you need is a simple website and to be listed on Google My Business

 

[WebshopMechanic]

Hi @Claire Gardiner

First off, I think you need to have a think about what makes your business different from your competitors. People need a reason to change their current cleaning services provider. (FYI - Price is not a good differentiator because it will only end up causing you issues.)

You need to think about how you want your brand to be perceived and focus your marketing around that. Some examples might be:

• Your business only employs cleaners with 5+ years of experience
• You have a 99% customer retention rate
• You have a local business award
• You have some large local brands on your books

Next up, you need to start building your reputation and online assets that will help to sell your services:

Online Reviews (Google Reviews) - If you haven't already you should register your company with Google Business (https://www.google.com/business/) and then ask everyone who you've worked for to leave you a business review. This will help you to build up your online reputation.

Website - If you haven't got one of these already you can create one using a site like WIX. Get lots of real photos on there showing you, your team and customer reviews. Also, create an amazing 'About' page that tells your story.

Add a Video - People buy into people so you should upload a video of yourself talking about how you started your business, what makes you unique and your high service levels. Maybe also mention your qualifications, experience and customer retention rate if it's impressive.

Local SEO - Once you have a little money to spare it's worth getting someone to help you with some local search engine boosting. Gaining a local ranking is fairly easy (unless you're targeting the whole of London).

Get Featured in the local press - Call the press and ask if they would like to feature you in their local business section. Make sure you have a fresh angle that they may be interested in. Tell your story and explain why you are different.

Finally, you want to start getting yourself out there.

Contact Estate Agents & Property Managers - Offer to work with local estate agents to help their clients that have multiple properties. Maybe work on a finders fee basis otherwise they may not be interested. Go for the smaller estate agents where every penny of income counts.

Go To Local Business Meet-ups - Register at MeetUps.com as a business owner and go there to build relationships and pick people's brains. As you get to know local business owners you will get a feel for whether they may want your services.

As @Mike_Cartwright says, it's all about the networkings. Contracts won't fall into your lap. If people don't know you exist then the phone won't ring.

Network Through Forums - There are plenty of forums like this one. Start helping people with their business questions and build trust. Don't try to sell. Just be helpful.

As @fisicx suggested, Nextdoor (Formerly Streetlife) is a great one for local business. There will also be local Facebook groups.

I hope that helps.

Matt

 

[Chris Ashdown]

I would suggest a good understanding of TUPE law as its quite common for commercial cleaners getting offered a new contract only to find they have to take on other companies employees under TUPE

Something that can be very expensive

see http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1655

 

[The Byre]

The people who really need cleaning services are industrial kitchens, canteens, restaurants and industrial plants. Never mind playing around with a Dyson and a feather duster, there is a real need for proper industrial cleaning services. When times get tough and items get red-lined, Mrs Muggins with a Dyson and a feather duster is the first to go!

In a factory, one usually has a once a week clean and that means on a Friday, a CNC-lathe operator costing £40 an hour is wasting his time, cleaning - when he should be making products.

1. Leaflets, or better still, really good coloured brochures.
2. Follow up with personal visit and armed with a structured sales pitch.
3. Offer proper industrial cleaning for kitchens, factories and canteens.

The above means that you will need proper industrial cleaning equipment and a knowledge of the H&S laws, rules and regulations, both local and national, governing the various environments.

 

[Claire Gardiner]

Thank you so much for all this information everyone , it's very helpful ! Definitely will be doing a lot of this ideas. Thank you so much

 

[webgeek]

I had something witty and insightful, but The Byre said it all first.

Seriously though, the flyer/brochure plus visit/call approach is the way to go. Inbound is nice, but in a noisy channel, you want to get found before they start looking - and that's how to do it.

Partner up with others who can do the specialist cleaning, whether it's jet spraying the roof or roto-rooting the drains. There's probably a dozen specialists that, depending on the company, could possibly come into play. If you can offer an all-arounder, and use experts when needed, you'll be the first call they make - because it's easier to remember 1 than 100.

 

[The Byre]

Up until about six months ago, once a week, a giant black Range Rover with oversized tyres, personalised number-plate and blackened glass would pull up in our yard. This was the real thing, not one of those mini versions, but a proper gin-palace on wheels.

"Wow!" I thought, when I first saw this thing from my office window. "Who could this be? I know the Kuwaiti Royal family bought a property at the end of our lane, so perhaps one of their lesser princes has dropped in for a cup of tea and a McVitie's!"

Maybe, I thought, some rap artist, TV personality or international rocker has decided to avail themselves of our services - the only problem with that, is all the rappers, TV personalities and rockers I know, drive fairly modest cars. A Golf or an Audi A4, yes, but this thing looked as if it should be featured on 'Cribs' on MTV, alongside a Lamborghini and an open-top Bentley.

The burbling from the large V8 engine stopped and a servo-assisted driver's door opened majestically. A small woman got out and the servo assisted door closed behind her with the precision and momentum of an airlock in Kubrick's film 2001. She went to the back of this giant piece of automotive engineering and the motorised tailgate opened. First the top half raised up and then the bottom half lowered and I half-expected to hear the theme tune to Thunderbirds as it did so.

The small woman reached into the back and took out a Dyson vacuum-cleaner. The new cleaning woman had arrived!

Me being me, I was of course helpless with laughter. It really made my day! (Some of you may remember that I reported on the arrival of the new cleaning woman on this very forum!)

But several months later, we decided to have one of our regular exercises in cost-cutting. What are we spending money on, that could be done more cheaply?

To cut a long story short, she was a good cleaner as cleaners go, but as cleaners go, she went.

 

[Dave Tidwell]

Local Advertising can be very effective on Facebook; especially if you focus your audience on exactly the right type of targets. You can reach thousands on a small budget. Create a Facebook Page for your business to encourage LIKES from the local community that use your services as this helps to spread the word.

In other words; whilst Facebook is a global paradigm it can be very powerful when used correctly for local business. The Facebook advertising engine is intuitive and easy to use so have a go at creating campaigns as you'll see the REACH, potential number of impressions and the number of potential click-thru's to your business web page. The activities to do the research, audience segmentation and see your reach etc is free. You don't have to run the campaign, but you can learn a lot about the target market in your area using the tools provided by Facebook for this very purpose.

Best of luck

 

[kev598]

I think that the simplest way to find customers is to use rating or directory platform at the beginning. Also, you should promote yourself by using social networks but make your facebook page more professional oriented. You can make a video or write posts that will show your experience. Some reviews from the customers wouldn't be odd.

 

[Wanda123]

You can start posting on social media by your own self. Start local marketing. Spread awareness.
I guess these things will help you out