Carpet Cleaning Business Opportunity
A Home Business Article Contributed by Jenni Mckinney
Carpet Cleaning Business Opportunity: is This the Business for You?
If the opportunity to start a carpet cleaning business that can be managed out of your home office sounds exciting, then you are probably ready to learn more about this industry. Fortunately for you, almost all homes and offices nowadays have wall-to-wall carpeting, and all carpets need to be cleaned on a regular basis. Although most homeowners perform their own vacuuming, they usually call in an outside company to perform steam cleaning periodically.
Carpet Cleaning Business Opportunity: Marketing and Advertising
The most difficult part of operated your own carpet cleaning business is securing customers. They are out there, all around you, but you have to get their attention. One of the best ways is to offer a coupon for your services along with your advertisement, and place your ad in either the local newspaper or in a weekly advertising flyer that goes out to an entire neighborhood.
You also have another advertising opportunity just waiting for you at every person's mailbox: simply print out some flyers and buy some thumbtacks, and spend a few days driving around subdivisions and neighborhoods and tacking your flyers onto mailboxes. It is important that you have a phone number for your business, and that you have a live person answering the phones, especially at the beginning when you do not have name recognition for your business.
In addition, enough cannot be said about the powerful effects of word-of-mouth marketing. Ask your friends and family to spread the word, and promise them a commission off any jobs that result from their advertising efforts.
Carpet Cleaning Business Opportunity: Start up Costs
Once you have decided on a marketing strategy, you can get started right away as long as you have a business name, business cards, and a web site. The equipment you will need for your carpet cleaning business will involve a little bit of initial investment, but will have virtually no monthly maintenance costs.
The alternative to owning your own steam cleaner is to rent it for the first few weeks from your local supermarket or hardware store, because they usually give you the opportunity to pay after you return it, and by then you will have been paid from your customer.
Using a rental this way will allow you to get started immediately and use the money you make to eventually purchase your own equipment, reducing the amount of out-of-pocket start up money typically associated with a carpet cleaning business opportunity. In addition, many steam cleaning equipment companies offer financing for new customers, and this will help you spread out that investment even longer.
Carpet Cleaning Business Opportunity: Do Good Work
The only trick to starting this business is securing customers, and the only trick to maintaining and growing the business is to keep the customers. Make sure you are friendly, courteous, and professional, offer a lot of referral discounts, strive to be punctual, and always perform excellent work. Settle any complaints or disputes as quickly as possible, and always in the customer's favor. These are sound business practices in any industry, and will serve to keep your current customers and grow you even more business in the years to come.
