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When you first got started, from 1 to 10 (10 being the most) how agressive were you and what did you do that started the building of your business success?
I had property managers I knew well. I had flyers made just for them. I left spot removers with each real estate agent. I spoke at there realitors meeting. Showed them the protector demo (cleanex). Made flyers for all I knew. Cleaned a room free for some. It was life or death and I was a 10. I wanted it bad. Half the money I made the first month was junky apartments. I paid my bills. It took two hard months, and alot of continual effort but it built a great foundation.
What’s your story?
There are new members of club heaven’s best that want and need to read your story of how and what you did to become a success. Most all of you are successful if not very successful. How about it? What’s your story?
I feel my aggressiveness rated around 7-8. I wasn’t confident enough with myself to go out and sell my service. I did some sales calls, but relied heavily on newspaper ads and word of mouth. For the first yaer and a half, I worked for the newspaper office! If you charm every customer with plenty of smiles, thank-you’s and excellent work, the rest will follow.
I was probably around an 8 myself. The first thing I did was hand carry information to all my neighbors (about 70), used every bit of down time stopping by Doctor’s offices, Dental offices, general offices, etc. promoting my business.
I joined the Chamber right away and attended every event possible (business before and after hour events, any networking type of event), also joined BNI. I really feel that the whole networking thing in general (BNI, Chamber, etc.) has been the biggest key to where I am at today…
Dan 8)
I can not agree with Gordon and Dan more, When I bought, 15 years ago you received enough supplies to do appx. $10,000.00 worth of business. I did not wait for the phone to ring, I did every Real Estate office in the area for FREE!!!!!!!! Than I took every chair in that office(after hours) cleaned it and put my business card on each chair, The agents that are still in the business, still use HB to this day. I also joined Chamber of Commerce but you must be active in it, just joining will not be enough. I was a native of a northern state, moved to Fl with no “southern accent” and I almost broke $60,000.00 my 1st year. 😮 (remember 15 years ago).
Ron Smith
State Owner FloridaI am very encouraged to hear everyone’s story. This is my second month and I have been doing this part time, but I feel I’ve been working a solid 8.5 🙂 I am looking forward to moving to full time in the next couple of months. LITTLE INTIMIDATED TO DO THIS TOO SOON… ANY WORDS OF WISDOM ON THIS, THAT IS TIMING FOR FULL TIME. I AM VERY CURIOUS ABOUT WHAT YOU ALL HAVE TO SAY?
I have joined two chambers and sent letters to all of the members of each. I will be joining the local BNI soon, and I am about to begin working with the realtors.
I’ve done very well in the business sector, but I am still working hard to break into the residential. We have lots of solicitation laws that prohibit me from going door to door… it sucks, but I understand.
Any suggestions to help the new guy break into the business more successfully?
Nev
We worked hard as well to get things started . . . probably an 8 on 1-10 scale. Here are some of the things we did that helped.
1. Family and friends letter. Introduce yourselve, HB and your new venture. Include a grand opening special just for these people.
2. See if any of the surrounding newpapers will run a story on you and your new business. This was huge for us. At the same time as the story, we ran some ads with our Introductory Special in those papers.
3. Make calls on any businesses you see that have carpet. Contact realtors, property management, etc. Promise the best work possible and unmatched service. They all like the dry in 1 hour if you can prove that it works well.
4. Expose your van in every neighborhood possible. I used the motto ‘never waste a mile’. In between jobs and off times, I drove my van just so people could see it and write down my number.Timing to go full time is always a good question. Going into winter is a bit scarey, but your weather will be of benefit there. Winters are not as bad as Iowa’s. If you are working full time elsewhere, that’s 8 hours per day that you don’t have to develop your HB business. When we got in, we just went for it and thank God it worked out. I think fear was a great motivator for me.
😆 Nev,
Welcome to the HB family. The question on part time, full time is a very good question, I myself like Bryan just jumped in (had put aside a lot of money for advertising) and was very succesfull my 1st year. I have a number of operators who started part time and they all say “I wish I had just started out full time.” What most of them did was reverse the role, made HB full time and their full time job part time. This was mostly done in the 3-6 month time frame, after 1-2 years max. they were all full time HB and no part time job. Hope this helps!!!!!!Ron Smith
St. Owner FloridaJust put all your heart into it. Ask God, if it’s part of his plan, if he can help you with the strength and courage to go out there everyday. We are in our 3 year and still building. Showed a profit in second year of business. That is great, not for taxes, but means we are growing semi-rapidly. Every free hour or minute should be PR. Be sure to cut it off atleast by 8 pm but give it your all. Some days I get down, the Lord picks me back up. A lot of prayer helps. Belive in what you do and know you are the best carpet cleaner in the country.
Mike Nowlin
When I started, a wise person told me, “Even though you are self employed you must show up for work every day and give the business a solid 8 hrs of work. Now that may be physical, such as cleaning: mental thinking and planning how to improve the business or just burning some shoe leather talking to anyone that will listen to you. I have to admit I don’t burn the leather as I once used to and need to get back in the habit.
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