should i stay or should I go

Robert,

Gregg hit upon something that could be good to throw into your back of tricks...

Carpet cleaning for those who have a higher frequency than once or twice a year.

Let me first run some numbers and then elaborate on the high frequency thing, then provide a Source you can look into some more...

If a Job is worth $100 to you then to gross $30,000 you need to do 300 jobs. If those are ALL repeat customers who get done every six months, then you need to find 150 customers. (Realistically, maybe only half would repeat for two goes in the year, maybe even less. Some would be once a year and some every two to three years.)

So those 150 customers will gross you $15k. How quick do you need to be making some money with this thing? (Only you know the answer to that.)

If you want to do $3,000 a month then you need 30 NEW customers a month. After a while, when the repeat customers come into it, you don't need to generate so many NEW customers. But in the beginning you do.

Those are the numbers of it. Shown here so you can see that, depending on the repeat rate and whatnot, you will need to generate ALL new customers for at least 6 months, and maybe even a year or two, just to get enough repeat customers to keep you going. Also factor in that many customers will move house, rip up their carpet and install new flooring of some kind, or use different carpet cleaners because they lost your number.

High Frequency: There are some clients who would be considered High Frequency customers. Such as cinemas and hotels (specially upmarket hotels). I've seen hotels that get their ground floor carpets cleaned Daily! A few clients like that and you'd be finished your day pretty early and could have the rest of the day off.

Also worth considering is, After Hours Carpet Cleaning. And target businesses for this. This way the carpet is ready for them when they come back in in the morning. Better chance of landing a business as a client if their carpet can be cleaned without needing to disturb their day to day operations. (This is just a niche, you still might find it tough to land them though. So don't expect too much here.)

Team up with office cleaning businesses. When I ran my cleaning businesses I would Sub Contract the carpet cleaning to someone else. I didn't need to mess about with the additional equipment and it worked a treat.

Team up with existing carpet cleaning businesses and offer to do their Overflow Work during busy times.

Source: Have you had a look at Von Schrader http://www.vonschrader.com and what they can offer. While they certainly make money by selling Tools To The Miners, a look around their site and request for further information could yield some more ideas for you, should you decide to go down this route.

Hope this helps,

Michael Ross