My name is Zacchaeus, or Zacch for short. I’m new to being self employed, but have been in and out of the janitorial and window cleaning business since 2005. I started my company February 1 of 2015 and have already gained huge clients in such a short time. My only concern is, well, I didn’t mean to push the “RED SHIRT” company out of a contract, but after that business has gone down hill. I’m not sure if it has anything to do with that, or I’m just taking it that way and business has been slow for everyone.
I was very happy to find a forum where everyone can get along and talk about different ideas and help each other out
When did the slow down start? It’s not uncommon for business to go strong through the holidays and into January. Especially if you do gutters. My experience over the last 10 years has been that no matter what, it starts to slow down somewhere in jan-feb until april-may. I’m thinking maybe you were in the right place at the right time and scored some good accounts before the slowdown happened. I wouldn’t worry unless you get a week or two into May and it still hasn’t picked up yet.
As for the “red shirts,” I used to work for one of their franchises. They like to undercut everyone else in town and make money by the sheer volume of small jobs that they do. I’d focus on residential and mid-large size commercial jobs (they pay more anyways) and let them have the storefronts.
And the slow down was a few days after my name got out to people in our local mall.
I currently have two accounts in the mall and maybe a third tomorrow.
And I will make some door hangers and hand them out.
