Business in Sept? Need Advice...

[hadishon]

I'm planning on moving to Mid TN the first week of Sept and I could use some advice.

I am going to start my Exterior Cleaning business there. I'm going to be doing gutters, houses, decks, fences, etc...

My question is: Is the first week of Sept. too early to advertise and get gutter cleaning work or should I focus on decks/houses for month first?

Can I get gutter cleaning business just before (estimating) the leaves fall?

Because of my money situation I am going to need to get work right away so any help on this would be appreciated. I'm only going to have enough money to put in advertising for an add in the area's 2 papers (both small papers) and to put flyers out. I'm just going to keep flyering until I get work. I don't want to put a lot of time and money into advertising and then not be able to do the work until oct or later.

On the other side, I don't want to advertise decks and houses, but the people won't want them done until spring.

Which way should I go?

 

[Pete @ Sun Brite]

There's nothing wrong with advertising gutter cleaning now, but don't expect a lot of calls until the leaves have fallen. Impulse buyers respond instantly to a flyer placed at the right time, but long-term customers need to hear about you often and get an impression of price or quality (or whatever your business niche is) before they choose to call you. It does take a lot of those "impressions" to get the customer to think of you and go through the trouble to look up your phone number.

Until the leaves are done, we get a good sized rush of deck, driveway, and house-wash customers this time of year. "Family visiting, and Mom should see the house looking its best". Phone rings right up until Thanksgiving in Atlanta area.

Consider washing roofs. Good customer response is possible this time of year.

 

[hadishon]

Thanks for the input Pete! When does gutter cleaning pick up for you? When do the leaves fall in your area (since it isn't far from TN). Thanks!

 

[Mike Hughes]

You'll get both. While most people won't need gutter cleaning till fall, there are still those that havent cleaned them from LAST fall............or, maybe they got some debris in there in the Spring...........

Best of luck to you.