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Neil,
I have encountered a similar result when I cleaned a carpet and then put a finishing towel to it and it came up dirty. I thought I had done a poor job of cleaning. Now I am curious if you are on to something.
I am curious as to why we do not see more commentary from Cody and John on some of these questions?
Things are just fine. Business is picking up and thus far have exceeded projections. We have not ever used the franchise express flyers. I have not found the value there versus other avenues. You?
Dave, cudos and thanks for the tip. After reading this thread, I have twice used FAE on grout lines where the grout had been seriously discolored and both times the FAE did the trick. A most useful suggestion.
The update is that I did the job today and you were all correct. I tried everything in my kit and nothing moved it to the point I would say it would have succeded completely. I did try pet enzyme and it did appear to greatly lighten the yellowing on the one spot. However, the time, effort and amount of solution it would have taken to get what may have been just “okay” results was prohibitive. My brother told me to let it remain her problem and I took his advice.
Mike,
A good question, as I too have wondered what some of the other operators offer in addition to our regular services. The previous owner of this franchise sold and serviced air cleaners. I must say I am suprised by the number of HB operators who do not offer tile and grout as well as hardwood floor services. I find it very lucrative, even if it is back breaking work. We have added a lot of revenue this year from the tile and grout especially. It seems that more and more we run into clients who have more tile or are planning on installing tile floors. I hate to turn that over to anyone else to do.
Mike, we have val-pak here in San Antonio and I just got one yesterday. In it were three carpet cleaners and two tile & grout guys. All offer deals, deals and more deals. It is lower end, in my opinion, and very competitive. It is not where I am positioning us here. Good luck.
Frank,
Welcome aboard. I am a fairly new operator and have gone through many of the trials and tribulations of finding advertising avenues that work for us. It is key to understand that things work differently in different areas. My experience in South Texas is that newspapers do not work and are expensive. Yellow pages (small books work best for us) account for 10% of business and is geared toward older clients. Younger and influential clients go to the internet. I joined and advertise on Angie’s List ($119 a month), a great web based, referral oriented organization, that allows clients to rate your work and Citysearch, which drives clients to our web site. I pay them based on number of hits (about $200 a month). I also signed on with an organization called BConnected, which has a “Howdy Neighbor” program that hires local women to visit new home owners and introduce services and businesses in the area. I pay monthly on number of visits and am very happy with results after two months. I have also attended BNI (Business Networking International) meetings, but have yet to join. I have done radio with good success. Good luck.
Randy,
We charge .75 psf to clean, wax and buff. While we do not do a lot of jobs, we have yet to have anyone be turned off by price. Good luck.
Randy,
We charge .75 psf to clean, wax and buff. While we do not do a lot of jobs, we have yet to have anyone be turned off by price. Good luck.
