As mentioned in an earlier post, use the current economy to your benefit.
Home sales are at record lows. The problem is simple: too many homes on the market and too few people can or want to finance a house right now. This will definitely change in the future but home sellers need to present their homes in the best possible light if they want to get any serious shoppers. You might offer special packages of your services. The key is to be creative and fill their current need.
Thats where you come in. Try promoting your services with the idea of helping your customers showcase their homes for sale. You might ever go so far as creating new brochures just for this purpose.
I know of a young man who created a brochure showcasing packages of his services. He provided house painting and floor or carpet cleaning services. He then wrote a printed a small article on the subject of the importance of presentng your home in the best possible condition to new house hunters. Then he drove through local deveopments and left the info in the front door of those homes with ‘for sale’ signs. (warning- do not leave in the mail box).
Guess what, in the first 20 or so flyers delivered he got 2 jobs. You tell me, was it worth the effort?
In my business guides I go into detail of how to advertise in various ways that will reach your specific customers. That information is more important today then ever.
Personally I’ve been receiving more solicitation for advertising then I have in years. As many readers know, I haven’t paid for advertising in years so this shows that the advertisers are getting desperate for new customers. Don’t fall for it. Remember they are not doing you any favors at all. If you do decide to use ANY type of paid advertising today, don’t be afraid to ask for reduced rates. Especially if you will be a new customer with them.
Think “outside the box” and don’t be afraid to use new ways of reaching your customers. The question is: do you really know who your customers are?
As small business owners we can sit back and cry about the competition and the economy or we can use current conditions to our advantage. I’m still recommending starting a small service business as one way to secure your future during ANY economic times.
Lets look at the number 1 subject received in feedback this summer. That is dealing with the high cost of fuel and the slow economy. I’ve gotten feedback from guys who have been in business for decades complaining about conditions. In many cases, one of their faults is that they are still doing things as they did for the past 10 years and expect the same results. That is mistake #1.
Look at your service business as if you were just starting out. See where you might benefit from the current economic situation and take action. Don’t sit and worry about tomorrow, take positive action now.
For example, due to the fact I’m personally downsizing my business (related to my retirement-not the economy), I’ve been shopping for a smaller vehicle. If you are in the market for a business truck, this is the time to act. You can get unbelievable deals on used full size pickup trucks and vans.
Of course owners are trading in larger vehicles like crazy since they never really needed them to begin with. Be realistic, you know how large a truck you need. I was speaking to someone I know in truck sales and was told the obvious. Dealers are swimming in full size trucks. I saw a great business van shown on sale at 17,000 and my friend told me candidly that they would accept any bid over 13000 just to move it off the lot. It made me consider it seriously myself.
The point is, if you need a full size truck or van, see what kind of deal you get.
I’ve received this question several times over the past month or so. Lets set some things straight.
First, there is nothing wrong with lowering your prices if you honestly feel that is why your business is slow. But lets be honest, the economy is in the worse shape its been in for the past 30 years at least. The fact of the matter is that most every one’s business is off. I personally do not know of anyone in ANY type of business that isn’t hurting to a degree.
Most readers provide services related to updating or maintaining homes. Most homeowners are having problems making ends meet due to fuel prices. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to appreciate the financial pressure that most homeowners are facing.
An alternative to lowering your prices might be to focus on another target customer with a specific service. More to follow on this subject.
Well the results of our feedback has become quite obvious. The most widely spread concern across this country facing small contractors is increased competition and lower profits. So in the coming weeks we’ll try to offer suggestions for becoming more profitable and competing during these trying economic times.
Let’s face it, small business owners who have to depend upon their vehicles for service are hurting right along with everyone else. In fact, many are being challenged by the need to remain competitive and remaining profitable. After all, as I stress in all my guides, profitability is the important thing to key on with your service business. Being busy isn’t necessarily the same thing.
For the last 3 months I’ve interviewed just about every customer I’ve serviced. Nothing scientific here but after I was all cleaned up and presented them with the bill, we’d talk a bit. I’ve done this for years and have preached regularly that ‘taking your time’ and being social with your customers will lead to more business over the years. It’s always paid off for me as now I get about 99% of my business from referrals.
After I have my check in my hand, I’d simply turn the conversation to the subject of gas prices. Everyone can relate to this and since they already paid, they are quite open on the subject.
After mentioning that small business owners are suffering due to fuel costs I asked them which they feel more comfortable with. Would they like to see an invoice with a surcharge added to their total bill for an additional $10 or $20 to cover fuel expense or would they just like to see the overall bill a bit higher then in the past?
Without fail, 100% of my customers said they wouldn’t mind an increase in overall fees at all and actually would expect it. But they wouldn’t appreciate a surcharge.
It works for me and I thought I’d share it. When carpet cleaning, painting or providing a service where I usually calculated the cost per room or area, I simply raised my over all rate. The customer is paying my fuel costs and never has complained at all. The same thing goes if doing an install where you might charge a fee per linear or squarefoot. Just raise that base figure and you’ll find you will have little problem covering the cost of fuel.
Some service providers I know have been trying the surcharge route and have gotten a bit of negative feedback from their customers. So you can make a choice for yourself but do not feel that you have to eat rising fuel costs to remain competitive.
Many starting out with a new business find they simply can’t accomplish anything. They fire up their PC in the morning and before you know it, it’s dinner time. What happend? What did I accomplish today?
Sound familiar? It will to many of us. We’re bombarded with email every day with more ways to make a buck and countless solutions to the many problems we’re facing.
When we are new to the web or just starting a new business we do research. That research leads us to countless sites where we have to provide our email address to get information. Well before long, we have joined dozens of mailing lists on subjects related to our interests.
Now there is nothing wrong with that. The problem comes from the online marketeers who constantly farm their email lists for daily sales. Personally speaking, I’m probably on a hundred or more mailing lists. Dozens of these are used by internet marketers. Now some of these are worthwhile and they do provide me wih usable information and products. But a good 90% are simply used by marketers who regularly update their informational programs and sell them as the ‘latest and greatest’ answer to my problems. Then they will write a couple weeks later and brag about how many thousands on their lists purchased their new product.
I’ve known some of these guys for years and don’t mean to insult anyone but when you are starting out, you want to focus on your main purpose each and every day. I suggest simply making a file in your email program and mark it “future info” or something of the kind. Then you simply move whatever looks interesting by the subject lines into that folder. Automatically delete any email which calls for urgent action like “only 1 day remaining” or “act now” and so on. These types of lines should make your “crap” signal go wild.
Then delete all the spam and just focus on your outline for starting your business.
In case you wonder, I’ve never built a mailing list and never will. Those who market solely on the web think I’m crazy but email marketing and list management isn’t necessary when you operate a balanced business system.
