man, joining the COC is kind of expensive for indianapolis. about $400. the country club idea is a great idea tho, will definitely be looking into that this coming week
The best and cheapest advertisement is your pre-existing customers and every "walk-ins." Treat your customers fairly and encourage referrals (endless referrals would be a good book to read). I would highly recommend investing in a copy of quickbooks and outlook. You will be able to easily track all of your business expenditures and track you customers/jobs. It is not the cheapest software easily but it is worth its weight once you understand what you are doing.
COC has Monthly Breakfast/Brunches. This is where you can get your foot in the door. They let non-members attend these events for cost of food ($25) Get in there and "NETWORK" my man. :kilt:
What I recently started doing if there was a weekend coming up that I wasn't booked for anything: Cold calls going to people in my area who have their car listed on Vehix.com....sites like that. All their contact info is right on the site and there's always a few pics of the car so you can give a pretty accurate off-the-cuff estimate. I tell them that a fully detailed car can net several hundred or even a thousand dollars more than their current asking price and I also offer them 10% off a full detail of their new car. The first day I tried that I got 3 hits off of 12 calls!
Good idea. There is some great info in this thread. Flash gordon, I love your ideas. I wish I could implement them, but I'm still in college. Now let me ask you this, are you mobile? Or do you use the hose at the country club and their electricity?
Quite the interesting thread! I too am going through the process of figuring out what the best route is and most importantly, if this is really what I want to do full time. Deciding on mobile or stationary is tricky, the benefits to both can be rewarding or devastating. For me the cleaning part is only the number 2 of concerns, but time, is my number 1 concern. Nothing worst then spending long hours for enough pay to cover a 'Happy Meal". While you want to maximize your dollars, you will also want to provide quality service to the best of your ability assuring repeat customers. So much to learn and so little time to do it in.
Ty, I actually found a shop I may rent in Burien. 2 large bays, small office and reception area. It is an old gas station/repair place. They want $530/month. I may just rent it and do a few details a month to pay the rent and such. Too bad you didn't live closer. There is a lot of potential down here.
