Sorry to hear that you guys are all slow, but then again it's kind of a relief to me since I've barely gotten any work for the past two months. I've landed a couple jobs that have paid the bills so far but things are getting thin as we approach the beginning of the new month.
I've started cold calling again.
thinking about starting with door hangers as soon as the rain stops (I'm a part time student so I can print them out at my school and pay the local print shop a couple bucks to cut them down)
still have my yellow pages ad and have an ad in the small local paper starting in march.
also sending out post cards for the first time. Sent about 500 so far and hope to send out 200 a week for the next few months.
sending out a letter to all the restuarants in town and will start cold calling them after they get the letter. (I don't do hoods but would like to do their sidewalks, storefront, dumpster, etc.)
Going to talk to a locally owned gas station in one of the more affluent neighborhoods to see if I can give them a big discount on cleaning in exchange for some type of advertising at their store. They are at the top of one of the mountains so a lot of the people that live up there stop in at least once a week. Any thoughts on what would be a good way to advertise through them? flyer with the receipt? do half the job and put a couple signs saying "pressure cleaning demo in progress", maybe raffle a free house wash for submitting name and # for a bid, any other ideas? Want to get the most out of this as possible.
It's a sick feeling to realize how much time I have and how little work to fill it. I'd be ecstatic to just get a steady 2 days a week right now.
Hope things start turning around for all of us. This is my second year in business so I'm curious about your past experiences. Does the phone just start ringing with the change in the season?
John