How to take big companies area rug business??

[Rob Allen]

Here in the Tidewater Va area we have several large rug sales and cleaning outfits. They have long dominated the majority of oriental and area rug cleaning business here. So my question is, how do we take there loyal customers away? One of the companies has been around since 1950 or so.

Now some may same as we do with Stanley Steemer. But I say it is a totally different business than residential carpet cleaning. Don't get me wrong when I get into a house I can usually win the customer my way. This leads to a small amount of area rug business in comparison to the large local plants. We all know that there is larger profit in rug cleaning. So Lisa, how do we market to get a larger share from these guys??


Rob

[LisaWagner]

Okay – I’ve got some time to answer this question now. And I’m going to preface this with these are all MY opinions based on MY own experience in my own business as well as coaching others (large and small) in building a rug cleaning operation.

I want to talk first about the questions you asked, and then a point you brought up a-matter-of-factly.

#1 – “How do we take away large rug cleaning business’ loyal customers away? Hwo do we take away their market share?”

If these companies provide great work and great service, and the clients are truly “loyal” – then you will have to spend a lot of money to relentlessly market to them to try to get them to try you. And there is no guarantee they will, or that they will more than once for a cheap offer.

The only way to offset loyalty is to market more frequently than your competitors do. And smaller operations can’t always afford this, unless they have robotic, systemized sequences to continually bring jobs in to fund their future marketing.

I believe coming out of the gate to attack the big boys is a bad strategy. Running commercials and trying to appear big when you are not is expensive.

The better path is a stealth one – to take your existing clients and build from them first, and their referrals next. And then move to aligned businesses who can refer you customers also.


#2 – “We all know there is larger profit in rug cleaning.”

This is something that is tossed around a lot, and it really needs to be qualified.

Yes, there is good money in rug cleaning. But in order to get that $4 per square foot you are after, you need to back it up with a level of work and service that requires a lot of time and physical labor.

Some cleaners who I know that make REALLY good money in rug cleaning subcontract ALL of it. They add a dollar to a dollar fifty a square foot to the rug price charged by larger plants, and a transportation fee, and they handle the relationship and pre-inspection and pickup/delivery.

Usually they are already doing the wall-to-wall or stone floor cleaning, so this makes for a very lucrative day of cleaning for them.

If you decide you want to set up your own plant, and you want walk-in traffic, then you need to invest a significant amount of capital into the equipment, the space, the labor (and their training), and then the marketing to bring the work in.

When I consult with cleaners wanting to get into the business, I find out if they really have a passion for rugs first. If they don’t, then I lead them to subcontract.

If they do, then we go through every piece of equipment, tool, and chemical they currently use, and I help them make smart decisions in adding to their capabilities. It is easy to spend tens (and sometimes hundreds) of thousands in all of this “cool” stuff and a building – and then you have no in-coming business to pay it off.

It’s easy to see the square foot price and say “hey that’s a lot” but to succeed at that price you can’t be doing the same level of work that you were when you were only charging 50 cents for a spray and suck surface clean.

The big guys do not have all of the business. There are way too many rugs on the market today, they don’t even have a majority of the rugs. So I would focus on the clients you have now, and build from there and not pay too much attention to what those competitors are doing.

Hope that helps.

Lisa

www.TheRugChick.com

[ThomasRestoration]

WHat does it take to build a good rug cleaning operation, do you have to build a pit, buy a tower and rug badger or is that a just a start to the bug boys. In order to compete i need to make sure i can do quality work and i dont know if that can be accomplished with front and back HWE and plastic on the floor and a fan in the corner........

[admin]

BINGO! That is Always my advice....Concentrate on YOUR business....YOUR clients. Don't worry about what every other Tom, Dick and Harry are doing.

Secondly....Rob...Are you sure you weren't Neopolean in your last life? You sure do want to "Take Over" a lot.

LOL Thanks for the laugh this morning!

[Jason Whaley]

Burn down their building...... OK, that was a joke!

[Rick Imby]

Overhead

I owned and ran a Bicycle shop for nearly 30 years. The thing that doesn't hit home until a year or two later is you are married to a location---you have to be open-- and you have to man that location.

The rent on a truly retail location eats into that $4 a foot really fast. Especially when starting out and not having enough work to
keep your salesperson busy.

Rick


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[LisaWagner]

Thomas - the pit is the most important piece, but even that you do not need if you have an area you can hose down rugs and clean. I'll post some photos of different ways.

You do need a drying area, either contained with a zip wall with an LGR running, or a room for it. We dry our rugs flat, but the dry tower is a nice set-up. The Badger is something you can build toward if funds are tight - you can also effectively dust with upright vacuum cleaners.

There is a post I did on dusting I'll look for the trackback link to...

CLICK HERE for Rug dusting post on TMF

So - it does not take a lot, and you can start out budget and then move into better quality goods.

Lisa

www.TheRugChick.com

[Richard Baldwin]

For the first several years in business, unless you have a rich uncle who wants to buy everything for you, starting small is the only way. We started out cleaning area rugs on our kitchen floor and trying to keep the cat off them while they dried overnight! Over the next few years it was as Lisa put it "spray and suck the top" cleaning for the area rugs.

Then that branched into customer choice if they wanted the bottom cleaned too, some do, some dont, and there is a different price each way. We are still trying to get a rug badger but they are horribly expensive.

As time marched on and our techniques and knowledge grew, we added a home made soak pit for the urine rugs too. Oh and we have a slightly bigger shop and dont clean them on our kitchen floor anymore!

Our shop is 400ft2 and only about 250 of that is usable for rug cleaning. We cannot accept anything bigger than 10ft wide because of this!

Our next step is to expand into a bigger shop, its more about getting a contractor to take interest in the project than actually raising the financing.
Its been over a year and still no contractor in our area will give us a quote.
<contractors in our area only want full house building jobs>

The moral of this story is that your business, if youre running it right, is always growing. The more you grow and impress clients, the less your competition has. There is no magic way to "take it all" right away. Your business is earned over time. Customer loyalty is earned as well.

When we were cleaning rugs on our kitchen floor to today, I wont quote numbers, but lets just say business, and our price we get has doubled every year.

Sears was thinking about sub contracting us with all their rugs in our area, but backed out of the deal when they saw how impressed our customers were with the cleaning, they knew they would lose customers to us, even if we didnt label our work. Instead they ship the rugs a three hour drive to Toronto (and back!) rather than 20 minutes to us to avoid that possibility.

Regardless, the sales we do in the area had to come from someone before we arrived.