Google Adwords

 

I have used Google AdWords to help draw more people to my site, and hopefully get more phone calls and sales.

My initial experience has been one of disappointment. It's challenging to create an ad that will get many people to "click-thru". As well as creating a good ad you must use correct adwords that match what people enter when wanting to find your company.

I'm committed to getting my click thru ratio high because it is all part of my plan to get my phone to ring off the hook. I want to massively increase my revenue and get many more stores, condo units and residential houses.

I understand that Google advertising is optimal since you are finding people that want to use you, rather than distracting and annoying people that have no interest in your service.

My click thru ratio is a dismal 0.1%, but I have managed to double it to 0.2%. According to Facebook discussions a good CTR is between 2 and 4%. I would love to get to that point, get more sales and greatly increase my Google spending.

I have bought Adwords for Dummies, and I'm trying to implement the suggestions of some information online.

 

If you have any suggestions for me, feel free to email me

mike@mmwindowcleaners.com 

647-409-8144

http://mmwindowcleaners.com 

 

 

What every window cleaner hates

Yesterday I pulled up to a gas station to clean their convenience store windows. When we parked we saw that there was a bucket and a pole and clean windows. My heart dropped. I went inside and stood in line to see that a tall man in his forties with brown long hair, a scruffy unkempt beard and eyes that looked like he was sleep deprived or a drinker or drug user was awaiting payment. I asked for the owner but he was on holidays so I spoke to the assistant manager. She is a nice women who always gives me a Tim Horton's coffee (they have Tim Horton's there sorta like Dunkin Donuts but better). She is very nice.

I spoke to her and asked what was going on. Well, a few weeks ago this man gave the invoice. He said he works for me. He gave her a small invoice, whereas mine is a nice Quick Books computer printout, 81/2 by 11. He just said they changed the invoices. I have no idea why she paid him in the past with a different price, a different invoice, and he is a scruffy scary looking guy, whereas I may be scary because I'm tall and have a deep voice. But I'm clean shaven and I try to dress neatly.

I charge her $20+tax whereas this guy charges $10 no tax. He didn't even want payment, he wanted a $10 worth of gas for his old beaten up unlettered Cargo van. He had a another guy with him that looked like it might be his brother who was just a scruffy looking.

I made clear to her that he doesn't work for me, that they are still under contract with us because they haven't cancelled. And furthermore we have been doing the windows for months.

I told her not to pay him. 

She said there was nothing that she could do, we had to wait for the owner to return. But strangely enough she still paid him, sounds like she still has some authority.

He cleans several other gas stations of the same company, but he may just be lying for all I know. And he said that the owner got him to do the windows.

So either I lost the job and they forgot to tell me, or this guy is an impostor, otherwise the owner would have told her about the change.

In any case it's a very small job so it won't hurt me to lose it, but it was maddening.

I did feel like emptying his bucket or doing something, or at the very least threatening him to never return. However I'm a professional and no good comes from revenge or getting even it would just reflect badly on me. Besides this guy could probably beat me up.

I will have to speak to the owner when he gets back and see what's going on.

This occasionally happens to me, but it's fairly rare, usually I'm told on the phone or in person that they are cancelling for someone cheaper I don't remember the last time that I had a situation like this.

Check out my website at http://mmwindowcleaners.com
647-409-8144

Useful Window Cleaning Sites

Useful Window Cleaning Sites

 

Are you looking for worthwhile sites to improve your marketing, your expertise and to improve your business?

If you are a window cleaner you are in luck. There are many valuable Facebook groups, websites and mailing lists that will help you take your business to the next level.

 

But remember, the real problem is whether or not you will actually use the information. Many people may spend a lot of time or money to learn marketing, or how to improve their business but then put off or don't actually apply what they learn. What a waste. Apply what you learn, take a chance, implement the strategies you learn from this website and from others.

Here are some websites and resources I have found valuable.

 

Window Cleaning Resource. A discussion forum, A window cleaning store, how-to-videos, and even a marketing association, all under one roof. An amazing resource that will help you to find window cleaning equipment, learn how to window clean, and learn from experienced window cleaners how to overcome challenges 

 

Don the Window Cleaner Blog. Don Marsh is a great inspiration to me. I love watching his videos since he doesn't hold back any info from his viewers. He is not concerned about holding something back, thinking his competition is going to imitate him. His videos are very motivating. I don't agree with everything he says, and I probably price higher than he does,

Don's YouTube Channel. Here you can watch all of Don's videos. Not all of his videos are about window cleaning, he is heavily involved in local and national politics so there are some political videos there too. I stay neutral on politics by the way.

National Window Cleaning Directory is a great forum too. It has mostly died, but in its archives there are great discussions. Before the advent of Window Cleaning Resource it was much more active.

 

http://www.window-cleaning.net/aboutwcn.htm. This is the Window Cleaning Network, run by Gary Mauer. It has some good discussion through email. The strongest discussion in this group revolve around the International Window Cleaning Association, a sort of boring to myself. And Fabricating Debris which is a very important issue.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/windowcleaners/. A great group in Facebook with lively discussions about all things Window Cleaning. Ask to join. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129112985412/. Karl Robinson's Facebook group where all window cleaning news is aggregated and compiled. I'm not sure how he gets all the news, but I appreciate it as do thousands of others.

Here ishttp://robinson-solutions.blogspot.com/. This is Karl Robinson's Blog with all the fantastic news from around the world.

 

Kevin Dubrosky is a very successful window cleaner and marketer who has helped many window cleaning business including myself implement strategies to improve profitability and advertising. Kevin's Marketing site is essential, even if you are not in the cleaning business.

http://kevindubrosky.com/ 

 

The Good Life Window Cleaning. Paul McQuillan's website devoted to improving the marketing of your window cleaning. Paul has many good suggestions, and I actively read his website and his discussions on LinkedIn.

I apologize to any I may have left out. As time goes by I'll update this post with new resources that will help to bring your business to the next level.

Thanks For Reading My Blog. Feel free to give me a call for window cleaning or any advice.

Mike Polsky

647-409-8144

http://mmwindowcleaners.com

info@mmwindowcleaners.com

 

 

Classic Repost: Are you getting paid?

Are You Getting Paid

One of the most pressing problems in running a small business is getting paid promptly. In a business like Window Cleaning there are a number of customers that pay immediately. And when your focus is on cleaning houses, you might get paid right away nearly all the time.

How do you get your customers to pay in a reasonable amount of time? Many business suffer, while they are doing a lot of work, a lot of their money is tied up in accounts payable, and people taking weeks or months to pay. That really drains your business, and could stop you from running a profitable business.

Let me share a couple ways that I keep my accounts payable under control. Perhaps you can implement these suggestions for your business.

State Terms

It is important to state at the beginning what you expect in terms of payment. The time that you expect payment, for example, on receipt, or 30 days. Be clear, state upfront what you expect in regards to how and when you get paid.

For our company, I always say due on receipt. I expect payment promptly and I don't automatically give them 30 days to pay. I expect them to take my invoice, and on the day that they usually write cheques, within a few days they will write the cheque and mail it to my office.

In a few cases, I do allow them to take 30 days to pay, but I usually don't state that so that I still keep a fire under them to pay faster.


Keep Good Records

There are many programs that permit you to keep your business organized and to create invoices and monitor accounts payable.

I use Quickbooks Professional 2012 for my small business. It keeps everything organized for me, my banking, invoicing, payment, and accounts receivable. With the click of a mouse I can see how much overdue an invoice is, I can easily email reminders, copies of the invoice and so forth. If you aren't organized you can't easily catch those who are taking too long to pay.

I also use an accountant to keep my sanity! Some things are just too complicated and time consuming for me to handle.

Remind them

After 14 days I remind the customer by email that we haven't received payment. I don't at that point say it's overdue, but I say in a nice, kindly written email that we haven't received payment and we are reminding them. I write down the invoice number and date too, and email them another copy of the invoice.

After 30 days, I email them, saying the invoice is overdue, that our terms are payment due upon receipt, and ask them to mail the cheque immediately.

If we still don't receive payment, I call them personally, in the rare instance that that doesn't work, I pay a personal visit.


Does this work?

Most of my customers pay very quickly. You are the one to state payment terms, don't shy away, dont cower. It's perfectly normal and reasonable to have strict payment terms and very few are going to question it.

Remember, it's your money (more or less). It's not rude to ask for your money to be paid to your business in a timely manner. By all means be reasonable and kind when reminding customers, but as the saying goes the squeaky wheel gets the grease, if you are not asking for your money, you may be the last business to get paid.


Thanks for reading my blog.

If you are in the Toronto area and want your windows cleaned, call me, The Toronto Window Cleaner at 647-409-8144

Check out my website

http://mmwindowcleaners.com

What do customers say about you?

What are your customers saying about you?


Have you ever asked your customers why they use you? It's a simple question, and the answer only takes a couple minutes. It can be asked casually in conversation, or you can put it in writing too.

I have been guilty myself of not asking that simple question. It reveals a lot about how you can sell your services to new clients, what customers care about, what angle of your business you can market, and what other window cleaners are not paying attention to in their marketing, hopefully.

What did my customer say? Well, he said that they were very impressed with my window cleaning, he said that we were efficient, we were flexible, able to come on short notice for specific time periods, to clean the windows for important head office visits. He said he had an issue with us regarding our workmanship once, but we quickly resolved it and it hasn't happened again.

Those comments really made my day. They made me feel happy and positive about our work and the company we are.

So do yourself a favour ask your customers what they like about you.

Hopefully, they will have something positive to say. Of course they will, and you will learn.

Do you want to check out our website. Go to http://mmwindowcleaners.com or if you are advanterous you can click mmwindowcleaners.ca

Or call me 647-409-8144

Money, Money, Money? Are you getting yours? How to get paid quickly.

Are you sitting on a mountain of unpaid invoices?

I wrote before on the importance of getting paid. I make sure that after just 2 weeks the majority of my customers that haven't paid an invoice that is aged 14 days get a friendly reminder letter.

I have found that this has sped up payment for me and enabled me to have more cash flow and less uncollected invoices.

Another important thing to do in your small business is to make sure that you have created all the invoices for all the work that has been done, and not delay in emailing or mailing the invoices.

Today, I was surprised at the hundreds of dollars of work that I have not billed going back to Dec 2011. I was wondering why my business bank account was leaner than usual of late.

So, very simple things to do to keep your cash flow healthy is to remind customers after two weeks to pay your invoice and to make sure all invoices have been created and are sent to customers quickly. Remember you have a right to your money. You don't need to apologize for that.

Using Homestars

Using HomeStars

A few months ago we bought our first house. We are very excited, but as with any new house purchase there are many unexpected and unwanted surprises.

We want to get our ducts cleaned. It turned out that even though this house is 10 years old, and even was renovated the ducts were never cleaned. Imagine the disgusting air that we have been breathing in.

We have never hired a duct cleaning company before, and our friends and family couldn't recommend a good one. So to find a reliable service provider I took to the net and checked out HomeStars. I looked for a duct cleaning company that was reviewed and consistently met or exceeded customer's expectations.

I found a company Canaduct that had hundreds of 10 star reviews. I was impressed. How can a company even have so many good reviews. After looking at their website I gave them a call and booked an appointment. They did a good job, though it was nothing spectacular. I was pretty impressed with all the upselling they tried to do. A good trait for a service provider. And it wasn't done in a pressured or guilty manner. The crews were on time and did good work.

Now why am I bringing this up? Because it's something I want to implement in my business. With using a new company people myself included look for online reviews. Every major purchase I have made I do a lot of research and I spend a lot of time looking for reviews.

For example when I vacation, and we are choosing a resort. I spend some time looking at the reviews of the resorts from people that have gone, and I make my choice on that, more than even the price of the trip. Same has gone for pretty well any major purchase I have made.

So take advantage of human nature. List yourself on HomeStars and put in place a system that encourages satisfied customers to post reviews. Get above just one review like mine currently stands at.


Next time I am going to show you the follow up letter that Canaduct sent me to encourage me to post a review on HomeStars, should I use something similar? You tell me,.

Thanks for reading

Check out my website http://www.mmwindowcleaners.com/ Or call me 647-409-8144

Links Mentioned: homestars.com