19 replies
Opportunities seem to be everywhere. As many of you know, I own an insurance agency. On the surface, ins and house cleaning don't seem compatible. In our case, one of our clients owns a house cleaning company. She was in paying her auto premium and was moaning about not having enough high end clients.

She wants to upgrade but doesn't know how - do I smell opportunity???

My son happens to be pretty good at web design and all the attendant amenities so we buy a site called, you won't believe this, but here it is:

Reno House CleaningReno House Cleaning - Reno House Cleaning

The term has about 600 local searches a month. We are happy w/that since we don't want people in any other locale contacting us.

We should have drawn up a marketing plan but figured, what the hell, she just gave us a mini plan plus we know three other house cleaners.

Built a website featuring some of the stuff she told us. It needs improvement but, hey, we just started it. Besides we have a built in clientele who will buy our leads.

We have already run it by our client who said she will buy all of our leads. We still plan on contacting the other three since we know they want to upgrade too.

Probably willl start a Twitter and Facebook page. Time is one of those things at a premium so this will stay on the back burner for a week or so.

The goal is to generate around a thousand dollars a week from our leads. It is doable given the numbers, cleaning prices charged plus number of agencies willing to buy leads.

Here is how we plan to charge. A flat $50 per lead. Since we know we can generate at least 20 a week that equals 1000 a week. If this grows, we will of course make more.

I guess the long and short of it is: TAKE ACTION and modify as you go. I posted this info only to show it can be done on a whim.

Opportunity is everywhere, right?
#cleaning #house #reno
  • Profile picture of the author beb19
    Good work on setting this up and giving it a try. You're in a great position if you already know people who want the leads.

    I have to question your math, though. I'm a numbers guy, so I always think about these things. Yes, it is true that "house cleaning reno" (w/o quotes) gets about 600 searches per month - but reno, nevada isn't the only reno in the US. There is also a Reno in Ohio, Texas, Indiana, Minnesota, Idaho, and Illinois from what I saw in google. Reno, Nevada is obviously the biggest of all these, but I'm sure not all of those 600 searches are not all from Nevada. Also, your talking about broad match numbers.

    On the other hand "House cleaning reno nv" gets 210 broad searches a month and 58 exact searches a month. These might be better numbers to base it off of. I think 10-15 leads a month would be optimistic for this google term alone. At $50 a lead, that would still be a great stream of income.

    Don't get me wrong, I hope you get a ton of leads per month, I'm just playing devils advocate on the numbers. Keep us updated on how the site comes along, I'd like to know how it progresses. And you are right, there is opportunity everywhere if we are looking for it!
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    • Profile picture of the author sandalwood
      beb19,

      Yeah, I would agree my math could be faulty. The one thing I forgot to mention was we also have realtor friends who will be glad to give out our url. That doesn't mean much by itself and in fact may not ever get us one referral but I think it will help.

      As for there being more than one Reno, I have to agree and we think we have that covered but we know the market will tell us for sure. We will stop flying blind once we get our main project up and running. This was a sidebar site we believed would generate some green w/o much effort and do it fairly quickly.

      Thanks for the nice words and I will update our progress.

      Tom

      Originally Posted by beb19 View Post

      Good work on setting this up and giving it a try. You're in a great position if you already know people who want the leads.

      I have to question your math, though. I'm a numbers guy, so I always think about these things. Yes, it is true that "house cleaning reno" (w/o quotes) gets about 600 searches per month - but reno, nevada isn't the only reno in the US. There is also a Reno in Ohio, Texas, Indiana, Minnesota, Idaho, and Illinois from what I saw in google. Reno, Nevada is obviously the biggest of all these, but I'm sure not all of those 600 searches are not all from Nevada. Also, your talking about broad match numbers.

      On the other hand "House cleaning reno nv" gets 210 broad searches a month and 58 exact searches a month. These might be better numbers to base it off of. I think 10-15 leads a month would be optimistic for this google term alone. At $50 a lead, that would still be a great stream of income.

      Don't get me wrong, I hope you get a ton of leads per month, I'm just playing devils advocate on the numbers. Keep us updated on how the site comes along, I'd like to know how it progresses. And you are right, there is opportunity everywhere if we are looking for it!
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      • Profile picture of the author John Durham
        Originally Posted by sandalwood View Post

        beb19,
        That doesn't mean much by itself and in fact may not ever get us one referral but I think it will help.
        Not all pistons fire at once... but that one will fire every now and then, and on other days another one will if you have enough pistons one is always firing, but Im preaching to the choir here.
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        • Profile picture of the author umc
          House cleaning is a highly personal service. My wife and I do it daily. If your client wants higher end clients, it will revolve around her personal presentation, not her website. I hope that you are successful in generating leads for her, but I hope that she is equally adept at closing the deal and providing service that actually merits higher end clients, which is where most cleaners fall woefully short.
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          • Profile picture of the author sandalwood
            Originally Posted by umc View Post

            House cleaning is a highly personal service. My wife and I do it daily. If your client wants higher end clients, it will revolve around her personal presentation, not her website. I hope that you are successful in generating leads for her, but I hope that she is equally adept at closing the deal and providing service that actually merits higher end clients, which is where most cleaners fall woefully short.
            umc,

            Thank you for your comments. My son has known this lady since b4 she became our ins client. She is from the old school of your work is your reputation in the cleaning biz. I have no doubt about her ability to do the job.

            The thing I didn't mention in the post is we have a script for her to use in the house. It includes a checklist and several offers. I learned this little trick from a friend in the biz years ago. It always amazes me how marketing techniques we use today aren't as new as we think.

            Anyway, we think we can perfect this little jewel into more than just a cleaning service offer. Unfortunately we have three other irons in the fire so we will be satisfied w/even as little as $500 a month.

            That is more than you wanted to hear. Since I tend to get wordy I'll say thanks again for the post.

            Tom
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            • Profile picture of the author Jerry McGough
              Off topic....but a story about house cleaning in your neck of the country.

              I saw a thing on TV a couple of years ago....might have been Las Vegas area.

              A guy had a business that cleaned out homes that were about to be foreclosed.
              Mostly real nice newer singles...three quarter of a millionish.

              A few years before, he had six employees. At the time of the broadcast, he was at eighty plus employees.

              Most places were left completely furnished and EVERYTHING went into dumpsters....Nothing was allowed to be salvaged.

              Pretty sad....
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              • Profile picture of the author umc
                Originally Posted by Jerry McGough View Post

                Off topic....but a story about house cleaning in your neck of the country.

                I saw a thing on TV a couple of years ago....might have been Las Vegas area.

                A guy had a business that cleaned out homes that were about to be foreclosed.
                Mostly real nice newer singles...three quarter of a millionish.

                A few years before, he had six employees. At the time of the broadcast, he was at eighty plus employees.

                Most places were left completely furnished and EVERYTHING went into dumpsters....Nothing was allowed to be salvaged.

                Pretty sad....
                Property preservation exploded with the foreclosures that hit the market so hard. From those that I knew that did it, they actually were allowed to take some of what was left behind, though the homes they worked in didn't have much of anything valuable left behind. Trashing it out, making it "broom clean", putting antifreeze int he pipes, boarding windows, and changing locks, along with minor repairs at times, was the business. There is money to be made there, but so many people got involved as middlemen that is hard to find and deal with the actual property owners anymore, and profits were hit hard on those types of jobs.
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            • Profile picture of the author umc
              Originally Posted by sandalwood View Post

              umc,

              Thank you for your comments. My son has known this lady since b4 she became our ins client. She is from the old school of your work is your reputation in the cleaning biz. I have no doubt about her ability to do the job.

              The thing I didn't mention in the post is we have a script for her to use in the house. It includes a checklist and several offers. I learned this little trick from a friend in the biz years ago. It always amazes me how marketing techniques we use today aren't as new as we think.

              Anyway, we think we can perfect this little jewel into more than just a cleaning service offer. Unfortunately we have three other irons in the fire so we will be satisfied w/even as little as $500 a month.

              That is more than you wanted to hear. Since I tend to get wordy I'll say thanks again for the post.

              Tom
              Yes, a checklist and scripted process for performing a professional walk-through of the home when meeting the homeowners for the first time is a necessity for projecting a professional appearance. Some cleaners have contracts (I'm personally against that) and go so far as to outline all types of policies and procedures as well (I'm against that too). You can make the process as simple or as complicated as you desire. People just want to know that you are reliable (hard to find in the industry), honest (may be even harder to find with all of the thieves out there), that you know what you're doing and can work with a variety of surfaces without damaging them, and what sets you apart from everyone else. In her case, if cleaning solo, she has some built-in advantages such as not overwhelming homes with large cleaning teams that change personnel all of the time, ala Merry Maids and such.

              Anyway, I hope it all works out for you. I've thought about building some lead generating sites myself for cleaning, as I know a lot about it and even have my own videos and photos that I can use. I just don't have time right now.
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              • Profile picture of the author sandalwood
                @Jerry McGough

                Yes it was Vegas, saw the same report. They even found Philly cheesesteaks in some of the houses lol...

                @umc

                "I've thought about building some lead generating sites myself for cleaning, as I know a lot about it and even have my own videos and photos that I can use. I just don't have time right now."

                You can always do what we did, slap the baby up and wing it until you have time to get it your way. I should probably put in a commercial for my son here and say talk w/him but I won't cuz he's up to his elbows with our other projects :-) and I want those up and running ASAP.

                Have a great day.

                Tom
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  • Profile picture of the author PhilaPM
    Don't forget that even the #1 spot only gets about 50% of the search traffic. So your numbers are probably even less.
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    • Profile picture of the author sandalwood
      Originally Posted by PhilaPM View Post

      Don't forget that even the #1 spot only gets about 50% of the search traffic. So your numbers are probably even less.
      Ouch! It is getting worse. I appreciate the heads up. Looks like I'll have to work harder at my new goal of 500 per month. But, nobody ever said it would be easy, In fact if it was easy everyone would be doing it, right?

      Have a great day,

      Tom
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  • Profile picture of the author IMguy123
    Originally Posted by sandalwood View Post

    Opportunities seem to be everywhere. As many of you know, I own an insurance agency. On the surface, ins and house cleaning don't seem compatible. In our case, one of our clients owns a house cleaning company. She was in paying her auto premium and was moaning about not having enough high end clients.

    She wants to upgrade but doesn't know how - do I smell opportunity???

    My son happens to be pretty good at web design and all the attendant amenities so we buy a site called, you won't believe this, but here it is:

    Reno House CleaningReno House Cleaning - Reno House Cleaning

    The term has about 600 local searches a month. We are happy w/that since we don't want people in any other locale contacting us.

    We should have drawn up a marketing plan but figured, what the hell, she just gave us a mini plan plus we know three other house cleaners.

    Built a website featuring some of the stuff she told us. It needs improvement but, hey, we just started it. Besides we have a built in clientele who will buy our leads.

    We have already run it by our client who said she will buy all of our leads. We still plan on contacting the other three since we know they want to upgrade too.

    Probably willl start a Twitter and Facebook page. Time is one of those things at a premium so this will stay on the back burner for a week or so.

    The goal is to generate around a thousand dollars a week from our leads. It is doable given the numbers, cleaning prices charged plus number of agencies willing to buy leads.

    Here is how we plan to charge. A flat $50 per lead. Since we know we can generate at least 20 a week that equals 1000 a week. If this grows, we will of course make more.

    I guess the long and short of it is: TAKE ACTION and modify as you go. I posted this info only to show it can be done on a whim.

    Opportunity is everywhere, right?
    It's funny, this warrior thread is already ranked at the top of the Google second page for "reno house cleaning".
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    • Profile picture of the author sandalwood
      Originally Posted by IMguy123 View Post

      It's funny, this warrior thread is already ranked at the top of the Google second page for "reno house cleaning".
      Flapping bat wings batman, I am astounded. Thank you WF for at least shining a small ray of light on my little corner of the globe :-)

      And thank you to IMguy for telling me.
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  • Profile picture of the author bhuff85
    I checked out your site and noticed you had some Adsense ads at the top and bottom. If you're looking to generate up to $50 per lead and you already have lower traffic numbers, I'd highly recommend taking Adsense off there.

    If that was me, I wouldn't want to lose a potential lead in exchange for a low-cost click.
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    • Profile picture of the author sandalwood
      Originally Posted by bhuff85 View Post

      I checked out your site and noticed you had some Adsense ads at the top and bottom. If you're looking to generate up to $50 per lead and you already have lower traffic numbers, I'd highly recommend taking Adsense off there.

      If that was me, I wouldn't want to lose a potential lead in exchange for a low-cost click.
      I appreciate the advice. Since we are in the experimentation phase, I can flatly state we don't have any adsense clicks nor leads. We will look at our traffic numbers and see what we see.

      The fun is learning what will work and what won't. We will test everything and again, thank you for taking the time to help.

      Tom
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  • Profile picture of the author Craig McPherson
    Hey Sandal,

    Found a typo in the first sentence FYI

    "residential celaning services"
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    • Profile picture of the author sandalwood
      Originally Posted by Craig McPherson View Post

      Hey Sandal,

      Found a typo in the first sentence FYI

      "residential celaning services"
      Craig,

      Here in the US we don't clean we celan. This is probably the best kept secret in the world. OK, I'm just joking. Thank you for telling me. My son has the password so I can't get in the back office to correct the spelling. Hopefully he'll do it this afternoon.

      Have a great day.

      Tom
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  • Profile picture of the author Casper1990
    I think you need to upgrade you site because its not a website its just a page which is uploaded on this domain.. and these prices are also very reasonable.. well what you charge of carpet cleaning per sqft?

    PHJ Services
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  • Profile picture of the author Jon Martin
    Since Casper bumped this..

    Sandalwood! It's been a year and a bit - how did this project turn out for you? Was it a success? Thinking about selling leads myself eventually.
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