Janitorial Marketing
The day that you have been dreaming about for years has finally arrived you have
opened the doors for your cleaning business, and now your anxiously awaiting
for that first call so you can prove you are a great service.
There's only
one hitch it can actually take up to six months to receive this call.
The first account is so crucial to a start up business, because it will
financially support the business during its start up phase and allow for
company growth. To land this first account you must have a marketing plan,
identify a target market, and figure out you marketing budget.
When you decided to start a business, the phrase, "Make sure you have a
business plan" was a familiar phrase. Well if you plan to market your
business successfully, "Make sure you have a marketing plan". Unlike a
business plan a marketing plan doesn't have to be professionally laid out
because it's for your personal use, just write down some ideas to use as
a point of reference. A key component that your marketing plan should
contain is a target market. A target market is just simply, which customers
you are going after. For instance, if you are on the residential side you
can target move out/ins, post-construction, or just condominiums. On the
commercial side, you can specifically target customers according to accounts
that you service, for instance, you might not be able service a building that
is 100,000 sqft in size, but you can handle anything under 50,000sqft.
Once you identified your target market, figure out your advertising budget.
An advertising budget just identifies your financial limits; some start-ups
are operating on a strict budget, therefore you'll have to get creative with
your advertising ideas. Do not be discouraged there are many ways that you can
successfully advertise your business without a huge marketing budget such as,
cold calling, word of mouth, and sales letters.
These topics will all be discussed
in part two of this article.
Phil Oliveira, President of Janico Cleaning Company, a commercial and
residential cleaning company based in Boston, Ma and former Moderator for the
marketing forum for
www.globalcleaningassoc.com. I have been associated within the industry since 1997 and started my own company in 2003. Having
just opened a cleaning business in a competitive area I have learned many
things on marketing, and I am willing to help others in the same
predicament.