August is Alamo month

I am pushing all my chips into the pot in August.  Business has been pitiful for the last 2 months and I can't take much more of it.  I just had a house cancel and a $1,800 commercial decide to "hold off for awhile" that were scheduled for next week.

So, if I am going to survive winter this year, I am going to have to go on a very solid run for the next 4 months and I mean very solid.  If I can't turn it around by Sept., I am shutting it down and going back to some miserable 9-5.

I will be targeting the commercial side mostly because the residential side has proven to be a waste of time in this area.  So, it will be door-to-door at every theater, restaurant, church, medical office, store fronts, schools, government buildings, banks, and even the casinos about an hour away in Iowa.  I plan to create a full informational brochure and nail it to their forehead if I have to, but I will get my point across.

I was once given the advice by my Father, who ran his own business for 40 years, to never take a slow period personal, but he never really had a slow period in the automotive repair world.  I am taking this very personal right now it is leaving a very bitter taste in my mouth and worry on my mind.

The phone isn't ringing and even my anchor commercial is failing to schedule the way that they had been for the past 4 years.  Until this year, I was able to count on at least $3,000 per month from them alone and often up to $8,000 during the summer months.  This year, I am lucky to get a single building a month and I have to work twice as hard due to the extreme soiled condition left by reduced cleanings.

I am just tired of watching things circle the drain and being helpless to stop it.  This is freaking war.

I feel for you Rob.

I would remind those current accounts that the price they were given, was based upon frequency and not just a flat price. If they are going to allow the facilities to have twice the soil load and cause you more work, the price will be raised accordingly.

I am doing that with my clients. As you know, I'm having the same issues with people this year. I don't care if I lose some people over it. I'm tired of dealing with people that allow their glass to get in horrid shape and think THAT is the only time they should spend the money to clean it. Some may not agree with that attitude, but I am not in business to be someone else's monkey.

I hope that your future sales go better, and hopefully you think of something to keep new clients on track, where old accounts are lacking. It's tough this year, and I suspect it will continue under this administration.

Well, I don't think it is the administrations fault as much as it is the media's fault. Every time I hear the news it is like a dagger to my business and it is also pissing me off.

Maybe the heat is just turning me bitter, but things have just gone wrong and I don't see much reason to believe that a change is likely in the near future.

Frustrating times.

Well, I guess we see it differently. This congress has done the least in the last 150 years so far. I guess you could say that is good, but I don't see it that way.

Many things have been promised to the people, and it's just not getting done. We have a leader that's acting like a dumb, punk child. Taking to twitter to act like a dummy. Having tantrums and getting nothing accomplished that he promised he would. Even among his "close circle" things are going to hell in a hand basket.

It's my belief, this is exactly why people have no confidence and are holding their money. You'd think with republicans packing the houses and the executive branch, that businesses would be booming. Not really so. Not much different than if democrats was running it all.

Instead of "bringing both sides together", they are all fighting and acting like fools. Voters, like me, have NO confidence in this administration. And I voted for the fool....

We see it pretty much in the same way except in the nearly 50 years that I have been on this planet, I have never seen many people care about politics once the election was over. They just revert back to living their lives as usual.

With the media blasting a 24/7 drumming of sewage about how the sky is falling and that there will be complete collapse in months, people have been kept in a cloud of despair. That despair causes them to hold onto their money more than anything else.

Basically, I am failing in part due to the media's agenda and so are a lot of businesses. Nothing else has changed as far as the economy goes that I can see....it is the perception that is killing business.

It doesn't matter and I am sorry to bring up politics as that never ends up being a good topic on forums. I am just so frustrated right now.

It was nice talking to you Bob and you'll get through this man.

PS Did you put that TNT set up up for sale yet?

Not yet, I want to get some money out of it first. I spent the day canvassing commercial buildings and may have a shot with a car dealership for the tile showroom....about 4,000 sqft. Not going to get excited about it just yet, but they seemed receptive to the idea.

I did have a long chat with the other cleaner in my town, he was dead the last 2 weeks and says he is probably 25% behind for this time of year compared to the last few. I am not alone and he has been here for 15 years.

I am just going to keep canvassing all week and listing anything not nailed down for sale to raise some capital. It should buy me some more time with hope that things turn around.

The box/tnt will likely hit the market in September.

I still like the idea of car detailing. I'd be all very that, somehow. With the volume potential.....!

I did too Matt, but like a lot of companies, they suck at what they do, but they are successful because they have it locked up. I don't have the ability to take it away from them.

I spoke to a large corporation in this area that also owns 22 apartment complexes within a 50 mile radius of me. It was a nice chat and the guy admits that he doesn't like the cleaners that they are using, but their policy requires that any company must maintain 3 TM trucks and carry a staff of at least 5 full-time staff to be allowed to bid for the contract.

Bad results, bad service, but again it favors the Franchises.

Things are starting to pick up some for me.

Picked up another nice client and now she wants me to power wash her small deck for her. It has some moss growing on it and she doesn't like it. Easy money! Picked her up from a postcard.

I expect to see some action this week as well since the temps are finally going to cool off down to the upper 80's.

I did have a call from a frantic guy around 7 am asking for help. He just had new carpet installed and his dog puked on it. He told me that he just needed about 2 sqft cleaned right away. I told him that there was a $125 truck minimum, but I could clean the living room, a bedroom, hallway, etc. to make up to the $125. He got pissed off and called me a thief since he "knows" that carpet cleaners in this area charge 40 cents per sqft so this should be an 80 cent job.

I wonder how many people he called asking for the 80 cent cleaning before he finally understood the problem?

I do have some breathing room now, sold a couple of guitars and pocketed $2300. That takes the sting out the van repair and entering the new month.

Just need that phone to ring before I forget how to clean.

milspec6 wrote:I expect to see some action this week as well since the temps are finally going to cool off down to the upper 80's.

I did have a call from a frantic guy around 7 am asking for help.  He just had new carpet installed and his dog puked on it.  He told me that he just needed about 2 sqft cleaned right away.  I told him that there was a $125 truck minimum, but I could clean the living room, a bedroom, hallway, etc. to make up to the $125.  He got pissed off and called me a thief since he "knows" that carpet cleaners in this area charge 40 cents per sqft so this should be an 80 cent job.

I wonder how many people he called asking for the 80 cent cleaning before he finally understood the problem?

Sorry, I laughed my ass off at this. I hope that idiot called every cleaner he could find and they all blocked his number. I've had similar a couple of times....


"I got these three real high windows. How much?" Tell them my minimum and they blow a gasket.

I don't know what idiots like that, call us. They can't have ANY grasp of reality, if they think someone is going to run all over hell and back, for a few bucks. Stupid people shouldn't breed.

I hope the same thing....even better, I hope a franchise accepted the 80 cent job hoping to up-sell the heck out of the job. It was located in a very wealthy gated community.

They would deserve each other. One being wanting something for nothing and the other wanting everything for nothing.

I hate rich people that try and shake down service people.

Good work selling those guitars and dang you have an expensive hobby. Maybe you can up knitting

They weren't even the expensive ones Mo, it is a very expensive hobby.

Good thing I did sell them though, since I just found out that the late payment on a commercial job just became later since the manager failed to even send the invoice to accounting for work done on June 30th. I got the "sorry" email today which means another 3 weeks wait.

I spoon feed these people and they still screw it up. Sometimes you just want to start screaming.

June 30th WTF that's BS. I don't get why commercial accounts think its OK to put off paying you.

I've been waiting week to get payment from a commercial account and they're getting a phone call from me today

In the case of the large ones, they try to save money by having an outside accounting firm handle things twice per month.  If you miss the one deadline, you have to wait until the next go around.

With this place, it is 15th and 30th.

Freemind1 wrote:Well, I guess we see it differently. This congress has done the least in the last 150 years so far. I guess you could say that is good, but I don't see it that way.

Many things have been promised to the people, and it's just not getting done. We have a leader that's acting like a dumb, punk child. Taking to twitter to act like a dummy. Having tantrums and getting nothing accomplished that he promised he would. Even among his "close circle" things are going to hell in a hand basket.

It's my belief, this is exactly why people have no confidence and are holding their money. You'd think with republicans packing the houses and the executive branch, that businesses would be booming. Not really so. Not much different than if democrats was running it all.

Instead of "bringing both sides together", they are all fighting and acting like fools. Voters, like me, have NO confidence in this administration. And I voted for the fool....

Wow ! I tip my hats off to you ! If this guy is a democrat, I would rip him off just like you did, it amazes me how some people keep defending him just because of a party.

Bob, hang in there, they couldn't possibly not clean their place forever and just like James said, you absolutely NEED to charge them more when they call you after skipping 2 regular cleanings. It just happened to me earlier this month, an apartment building manager called and asked me to clean all the hallways and stairs after 2 years not cleaning ( skipping 3 cleanings ! ), I went there and sure enough, the place was filthy, I told her it's $ 0.35 / sq ft and she said "go for it" ! $ 880 in 3 hours with 3 guys on the job.

I'm actually in denial, I want to believe that this holiday season all of us will be very busy due to all of the skipped cleanings, but then again, due to this country is so divided, their in laws might not come to visit their sons / daughters especially since they live in California and California was entertaining the idea to secede from the US
One thing for sure, I'm not going to hold my breath on it but I sure like the fact that I'm still in denial, lolol.

Well I like your optimism Dp, but I lost about all of mine this Summer. June and July just sent me into the despair pit. This will end up being a pretty good month with almost $7000 scheduled in the first 2 weeks alone, but it will take a lot more to make me optimistic this late in the Summer.

Actually Bob, you should be optimistic ! I thought you mentioned they predicted that it will stay warm until October / November this year ? That means you still have 3 - 4 months of saving those acorns for winter

That is the prediction, so yes, I do see another 3-4 months of potential, but my numbers are down by almost 40% to this point compared to the last 4 years.

I would need to roll pretty well over the next few months to be able to salvage the year. It could certainly happen, there is still a chance, but it has become a puncher's chance in my view.