New business gone dead

Well firstly, you bought a franchise and your first port of call MUST surely be to them to gain their support for this situation. Have you been getting their support from start up? It is largely one of the main reasons you are paying out for a franchise rather than starting up on your own - you get all the extra support and hopefully extra advertising support from them via other means?

The other thing. If you would have been happy with 10 cleans in December, and lets say 15 in January (that's 50% up on Dec) then if you had more than triple the work in Dec & Jan then why financially you must be as well off as if you had only hit your original targets as what you over-earned in Dec and Jan would have covered Feb & March?

You do find that people tend to stop advertising when they are busy (resting on their laurels) and then suddenly wonder why there is no work coming in! Tip - ALWAYS advertise when you are busy! You need to do the advertising work now for work coming in for May/June, so essentially you need to be at least 3 months ahead. So my guess is you were enjoying all the new trade nd were very busy those 2 months and then overlooked or decided you didn't need to advertise quite as much.

If you had tripled your sales forecast in December and January did you invest all that extra money into advertising or was it converted into a better Christmas??!!

If not already, get on facebook, post in those local selling groups, you can make a lot of money with local domestic services. I have used services of a  carpet cleaner, a car valet, a motor repairs and a dog groomer from Facebook. I see their ads regularly (but not in your face) and when i'm ready, I order. The clue is to add your posts about once or twice a week, so you are seen but not annoying folk. And if possible, add in some cleaning tips and before and after pics. This is free and only needs your time. Also stick free adverts on sites such as preloved, gumtree, vivastreet if you can.

indizine,

I havent stopped advertising thats what I cant understand. My monthly budget was £300.

because of my success I spent more and more on even bigger ads.

Thats wehere all the money i earned has gone on even more advertising because without it I wouldnt have any business.

As for support I couldnt want better.

Check out oven cleaning in Moray

Oven cleaning in Aberdeenshire

Im on the first page with google.So far Im with 13 different free business advertising sites

Hi Steve

Starting and running a business can be very frustrating as well as rewarding. Indizine makes some great points, and social media could be a possible way to generate leads.

Hopefully your initial customers will be blown away with your service and if not repeat customers, will pass your details on as word of mouth. This is the most effective form of marketing going, costs nothing, but takes a long time to build and maintain a professional reputation. Make sure you leave spare leaflets or cards with customers so they can give them to their friends.

Maybe refer a friend discounts etc.

One thing that surprised me is the number of peaks and troughs in a business calendar. As a new business you have little idea what to expect, so get as much info and data from the franchise owners.

eg for us, Xmas and school summer holidays are bad periods, for others they are busy periods. So we have learnt to diversify as well as prepare for lean months. Maybe you are simply experiencing a lean period in your calendar. 

Once you are aware of it, you can prepare for it. Husband precious revenue and plan everything to an inch of it's life. You will have a bad or couple of bad months, that's just business, but you need cash flow to keep you going. Again data from the franchise should help you plan until you have enough experience and your own data.

You maybe top of page 1 of Google for oven cleaning in Moray, but if your phone isn't melting in your hand, that tells me that that either that keyword isn't the best for your sector, or there isn't enough demand, or too much competition.

Assume you did your due diligence and established you have a big enough market for your services, rather than relying on franchise sales pitch (whose product is to sell the franchise).

In which case find out what people are typing into Google to find your services. Keep wearing out the shoe leather, leaflets are great, I may not need you now, but in 6 months I know there is a flyer round here somewhere, or another will pop through the letterbox and remind me about my dirty oven.

How are you with the local landlord community? Rental market is notorious for dirty ovens, students has to be even better, (assuming they know how to work it!). Forge partnerships with landlords or estate agents/letting agents. Become known locally as the go to guy for oven cleaning.

Nothing harder in this world than starting up a business. A franchise is supposed to give you a shortcut to success but is still a lot of hard work.

It won't happen over night. Reputations and building a name takes time. It's an awful lot easier and less stressful being PAYE and working for someone else!

I feel your pain.

Great advice from the other people on this forum.

Identify where your initial business came from - is it possible that initially, friends and family also helped spread the word for you to their friends and colleagues, and this is where the boost came from?

Marketing is a funny thing (Not as in haha when you need, but don't get results). One phrase that sticks with me throughout all of my businesses is: "If you do what you've done, you'll get what you've got".

I'm a firm believer that you should never give up - and that in mind - you have the ability to turn this around.

Check your marketing material, and stick it everywhere. I'd suggest estate and letting agents, especially around areas where Uni's are. You're likely to have a slight influx when students move out.

Try and partner your business with domestic cleaning businesses, home help etc.

Incentivise them to generate you business by paying commission (Say 10%). 

If you're doing nothing, go door to door in affluent places. Knock the door, and say:

"Hi, sorry to bother you, I was wondering if I could just give you this leaflet on XYZ"

You will get a better response from this than just popping the leaflet through the door.

Think about B2B if you can - perhaps you can also target restaurants. Don't forget the Environmental Health people can cause havoc if grills and ovens are dirty - you could be the solution to all their problems.

Geography may be playing a part - go further afield if required. Spread your wings a little.

Best of Luck! It's tough out there - but it's worthwhile!

Hi ,Can't really add much more than everyone else ,but just keep at it ,but yes facebook is a good place to start ,have you got your own page ,if not get 1 started asap ,also yes get onto those free site that let you advertise ,it is a great way to get your name out there but as others have said don't post 6 or 7 adverts in a row (these stupid electronic cigarettes are a great example)I would say estate agents would be a good place to partner with they always need to clean ovens 

All I can say is hope things pick up for you soon and you get some good leads for yourself   

Interesting....not one picture of an oven on your home page...I would expect to see at least a comparison of a dirty one and then the after pic after you had cleaned it. I am shocked actually, that a picture of the service is nowhere to be seen upon landing on the most important page of your website.

There is one pic on the about us page (strange place to put a before and after pic anyway) which to me looks like it has had the dirt photoshopped onto the left side of the image.

Get some real pics on there of the before and after of real customers ovens. Or do you have no control over the website with it being provided by the franchise? Which is another thing, its too franchisy looking. it loses the local feel to it.

Pages dedicated to the franchise and the big banner at the bottom - why should the franchise get any part of your website apart from perhaps a link in the footer?

Have you researched which keywords are actually the best to use? Do you get any say in optimising your website for different keywords?