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A year of change......

Liberty SoftWash · Jun 11, 2012

Sounds great Ted!

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Roof Cleaning By A&E wrote:
Sounds great Ted!

C'mon Eric - fess up What's working well for A&E this year? (And please tell the Mrs. that I said hello!!)

Liberty SoftWash · Jun 11, 2012

Roof Cleaning Northern Virginia (571) 250 9650 wrote:
Roof Cleaning By A&E wrote:
Sounds great Ted!

C'mon Eric - fess up What's working well for A&E this year? (And please tell the Mrs. that I said hello!!)

Ha Ha! I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill ya! Just kidding LOL!

We have been doing great this year too. Made some upgrade to our "fleet" buy purchasing the box truck. Driving around a rolling billboard gets us a whole lot of attention in our neck of the woods.

Spreading our advertising to numerous places has helped a great deal too.

Working on SEO and continuing to building web presence is also a big thing. I am all over the searches in my area and that has been VERY helpful. biggrin

Lisa says hello too!

Roof Cleaning New Jersey · Jun 11, 2012

Glad to hear you doing well Ted. There are many exterior cleaning companies, but yet the trade hasnt yet produced a household name like Stanley Steamer, Roto-Rooter, Aamco, etc. Roof Scampoo has managed to take one aspect of exterior cleaning and franchise, but other than that it seems as though blowing up a name nationally seems improbable. Training employees has been our biggest challenge. There are no classes at the local vocational school for exterior cleaning. The greatest thing we've done this year is make ourselves available to correct any issue a customer may have had on any job. By making honest efforts to maintain customer satisfaction we've managed to uphold our good name. Were hoping to maintain our employees for next season whom we've spent countless hours training. We've put systems in place to keep workers comfortable through the winter months.

Roof Cleaning Cleveland (216) 323-0552 · Jun 11, 2012

Welcome back Ted. We got back to our roots this year. This is our second bigger job of the summer.

Guest

@ Eric - Great to hear that! Glad that things are going so well.

@ Ed - You've always seemed to me to have a good business head on your shoulders. Much like your business, if (when) we make a mistake, we own up to it immediately and jump through hoops to make things right. IMHO, it's how we handle those situations that really set us apart. Speaking of employees, my top guy ("Crew Chief") on a good day can make over $300. Not a bad days haul for skilled labor. And this Friday, he'll likely make over 1K! I'm confident he'll be around for a while Congrats on coming up with a winter program for the team - that sounds great! I'm working on something similar but need a another truck or two first.

@ Tom - way to go bud! Wow! Those are some impressive pics for the commercial portflio!

Who else wants to chime in? What's new and working well for your business in 2012?

Real Clean · Guest

Glad to see you growing. Gives us something to look forward to. I would bet every company uses lower prices to break into a market. Half priced Harry.

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Apex Roof Cleaning · Guest

Hey Ted, glad to see you around. Hopefully you experienced guys can help us smaller guys who are just starting out. I don't really have much to offer as far as what has been improving my business since we cleaned our first roof in March, but I have done 77 estimates so far this year. (still working on the close) My advice I can... don't use radio advertisement. I haven't seen much ROI.

My goal for my first year of business is to clean 100 roofs.

Guest

@Brian - thanks. You're making a rookie mistake though IMHO. I charged more for my first "half a roof" on a house than you did an entire roof for an apartment building! That specific PM will NEVER agree to prevailing rates again after getting those roofs done for $300 a pop. You'll end up accellerating us in to FL pricing far too soon around here. Something to consider. We're prepared to change our business to accomodate that - the plan has been written and will be implemented when needed - high volume, low profit commodities based business. I dread the day that we have to do it, but that day will come.

@Dan - I'd be glad to help bud, but it would have to be over the phone or via PM. I'm relatively new at sales, yet our closing ratio is quite good!

@ Mike - That's great news! I too need to move to sales full time but just can't (won't?) let go of the reigns just yet. And I'm likely purchasing an enclosed trailer in the near future as well. I like those Wells Cargo tandems that were built to haul bikes. They look sharp!

What's new for anyone else? What's workin' well, or what's not?

-- Edited by Roof Cleaning Northern Virginia (571) 250 9650 on Tuesday 12th of June 2012 10:21:10 AM

Guest

Dan sorry to hear about your radio ad results. I think I did earn you of the return but now you know and you won't make that mistake again.

I too have had amazing months of sales. I purchased my second truck in march and recently purchased an enclosed trailer. I am working on getting the second rig going. We are getting a ton of referrals and a steady influx of new customers. We are doing alot of advertisement and I am a full time sales person for my company.

Roof Cleaning New Jersey · Jun 12, 2012

We have in house salesmen this year (or a salesmAn at least since we canned one). Getting a guy from scratch to learn the lingo and making sure he doesnt underbid is moderately challenging. Being available when the phone rings is a good thing in this trade. Strictly commission gets the sales team motivated. My one sales guy made $1700.00 two weeks in a row. It hurt to pay it but it really freed me up so I can watch Wendy Williams.
Ted- im sure you have cut throats now. But you'll never know if you stay top tier and go for customers who shop by quality and reputation. We need bottom feeders the way elephants need those little birds to eat the bugs off 'em.

Guest

"We need bottom feeders the way elephants need those little birds to eat the bugs off 'em. "

Someone should write that down! Hilarious Ed!! I may have to use that from time to time Seriously, very well said.

I've tried to get my oldest daughter to give commissioned sales a whirl, and to even hire commisioned sales folks reporting to her where she gets a piece of their action. Then some lil company called Microsoft hired her and she's lost interest in the family business for some reason? confuse

Apex Roof Cleaning · Guest

Ted I was thinking the same thing, that line from Ed is hilarious. Ed if you really made that up your in the wrong business. I think you need to go into poetry or philosophy. I'm working on having my girlfriend become a sales rep.

zjim · Guest

Still slow here in upstate New York thank god for my landscaping biz

-- Edited by zjim on Thursday 14th of June 2012 05:58:56 PM

paroofguy · Premium Member Roof Cleaning Institute of America

Ted I am just getting my feet wet but with the help provided by the pros here we are enjoying our exclusive market as long as we can.

We have been averaging 4 days a week so far with larger jobs taking more than one day, so we have been able to make a go of this racket fairly quickly.

One thing our customers love is our business card. Two reasons-- Pappy is holding a very precious little granddaughter and we use the tag line "we will treat your home like a baby" Women love the card. Second reason is we put a before and after picture on the back with the list of services we offer.

We also have been listening to our clients tell us what services they need. We will be sealing our first exterior exposed aggregate porches & limestone steps and ballusters that we cleaned along with the whole roof system and exterior gutters, facia, etc. for a doctor's wife 3 weeks ago. We will be using Microguard AD703 sealing systems starting next week.

In our other life, we use Microguard to seal ceramic tile, concrete etc, so it was natural to offer the opportunity to preserve our customer's surfaces with exclusive product offerings.

We have just decided to charge enough money we don't have to do huge volume to provide for our living, and that allows us to relax and do the little extra things that really make our jobs shine.

At this point, I choose to meet face to face with our perspective clients and that way we can offer a full service quote.

Ted, you have been extremely helpful, so I look forward to visiting again soon.

The Roof Cleaning Institute Of America Training & Certification Forum "Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"

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"Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"