A carpet cleaning service is one of easiest ways to start working for yourself. Start-up costs can be minimal with lots of upside potential. The simplest way to start is to take out an ad in a local newspaper or Craigslist.com. Your ad should specify what type of cleaning you provide and a contact number. You can use your local rental shop to get all the equipment you need. As long as you’re getting paid more than what your equipment rental cost + your advertising cost + your time costs then you’re in business. This is a very bare-bones example but points out what can be done with minimal capital and a willingness to work.
A better approach is to build a business plan that outlines the various areas you need to manage to build a successful business. Business plan software is readily available to help with this process. Some even have templates for this specific type of business. It’s worthwhile to use these tools to insure that you’ve thought of everything before committing your time and money. I’m not going to detail how to build your business plan here as there are many good, inexpensive software packages that can do that. Instead, I want to talk about the ‘special sauce’ that’s needed for any business that sometimes gets lost in a formal business plan.
Marketing and salesmanship are the most important part of any service business. Cleaning carpets is the easy part and you can hire people for that. It’s the going out and finding customers over and over again that determines real success. Selling a service is much harder than selling a product because you also have to sell yourself. Newspaper ads, Craigslist.com, flyers, web sites…all of these tools and more are available to help sell your services but it’s up to you to determine when, how and how much to use each method. You should spend most of your time studying sales and marketing techniques rather than carpet cleaning.
You need customers before you need equipment. That’s what makes the bare-bones approach described above a viable approach. You limit your capital outlay until after you’ve found some customers. You’d be surprised how many people get this wrong. It’s easy to buy stuff , but hard to sell your service.
Customer interface is another important part of your new business that’s easy to overlook As mentioned above, you’re selling yourself as well as your service. You must present a competent, professional appearance to your prospective customers in order to gain their trust and eventually, their business. Don’t underestimate how you dress and how you look. For a new business, a customer has little more than that from which to make a judgment. Make every meeting count!
Your first customers are very important as you’ll want to use them as references to help establish your business. Don’t be afraid to offer discounts if they’ll agree to be a reference. They will also get the word-of-mouth started about your new business. It only takes one dissatisfied customer to ruin months of good marketing so pay attention and always try to deliver more than you promise at every opportunity.
Don’t be afraid of the competition. You’ll always be going up against other companies, some big, some small. It’s worthwhile to know who they are and what they offer but don’t get to focused on them. Your business plan details how you will win and retain customers so stick to the plan.
Carpet cleaning services consistently rank among the best home based businesses. The low start-up costs, the opportunity available and ability to grow all play a part in this ranking. The only thing left is to make the commitment and get started.
“Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the ’someday I’ll’ philosophy.” – Denis Waitley-
