How to Choose the Right Pet Health Insurance Plan
(ARA) - We all love our pets and for good reason. They provide a great deal of joy in our lives and offer unconditional love. That’s why whether it’s a routine annual exam, ongoing flea and heartworm control, or a medical treatment for cancer, a growing number of pet owners are making a serious commitment to give their pets the best health and preventive care available. But over time, this care can be expensive.
Recent studies show pet owners now spend $24.5 billion a year on veterinary services, over-the-counter drugs and other health supplies for pets. Tremendous advancements in veterinary technology have helped increase the life span of cats and dogs. For example, expensive medical treatments like cat scans, MRIs and chemotherapy — services once only available for people — are now being used to help save the lives of pets.
Pet owners’ beloved four-legged friends can sometimes face unexpected medical emergencies or illnesses, resulting in the difficult decision whether or not to spend thousands of dollars to save the life of their pet. Having pet health insurance helps allow pet owners to decide with their hearts, not their wallets, what’s best for their pets in their time of need.
But with so many plans out there, how do you know which one to choose? Here are some factors to consider:
1. Insure young.
The best time to purchase pet insurance is when the animal is young. Many pet health insurance plans do not cover pre-existing conditions so it is best to insure your pet when it is a puppy or kitten. Insuring early can also provide coverage for certain initial veterinary procedures such as vaccinations and spaying/neutering.
2. What kind of coverage does the plan offer?
There are many different types of pet health insurance policies available. Some policies cover only accidents, some cover accidents and illnesses, while others offer coverage for accidents, illnesses and preventive care. The preventive care coverage can include certain customary annual costs of routine vaccinations, flea and heartworm preventative medications, routine annual physical exams and lab tests, and other preventive care as outlined in the policy.
3. Do I have to pay a deductible?
Just like with human insurance, different plans have different deductibles. PurinaCare pet health insurance, the first pet health insurance under the Purina brand, allows pet owners to choose from four different deductible options: $100, $250, $500 or $1,000. There is a 20-percent co-pay once the annual deductible has been met, and the benefit limit is $20,000 annually.
4. Are certain conditions excluded?
Pet insurance exclusions can vary depending on the policy chosen. Common exclusions include pre-existing medical conditions, cosmetic and elective procedures, fertility and pregnancy.
5. Can I use my own veterinarian?
It depends on the plan. PurinaCare pet health insurance, for example, allows pet owners to take their pet to the veterinarian of their choice, including veterinary specialists such as oncologists, neurologists and allergists, as long as they are licensed in the United States.
“Pet health insurance can help pet owners provide the best care possible for their pets in a time of need. However, less than one percent of pets are currently insured due to a lack of awareness of pet insurance, and dissatisfaction with current plan options. We are excited to use Purina’s pet expertise, innovation, brand trust and experience to deliver simple, comprehensive and easy-to-use pet health insurance that meets the needs of today’s highly involved pet owners,” says David Goodnight, D.V.M., president and chief operating officer of PurinaCare Insurance Services., Inc.
For more information about PurinaCare or to obtain a free, no obligation quote, visit www.purinacare.com.
Courtesy of ARAcontent
RALEIGH - Opening night in the National Hockey League is all about new beginnings. A new season, with all its possibilities. New faces in the locker room. New hope.
So it will be tonight for the Carolina Hurricanes, who open the season against the Florida Panthers at the RBC Center.
The Hurricanes missed the playoffs the past two seasons, which causes veterans such as Rod Brind’Amour to burn with intensity. That the Panthers were the team that beat the Canes in the last regular-season game last season, denying Carolina a playoff spot, only adds to it.
“That rings a big bell for a lot of us,” defenseman Tim Gleason said Thursday. “It’s a new start, a different season and two points on the line, and there’s a little revenge there, obviously.
“But we need to forget about what happened last year. This game has been a long time coming. We’re rarin’ to go.”
To look about the Canes’ locker room Thursday was to quickly grasp how much has changed since opening night last year, of how many were not in the room.
Sergei Samsonov and Tuomo Ruutu were with the Chicago Blackhawks, Joe Corvo and Patrick Eaves with the Ottawa Senators. Joni Pitkanen was with the Edmonton Oilers.
Anton Babchuk was playing in Russia. Michael Leighton was in the American Hockey League. Brandon Sutter was preparing for another year of junior hockey in Red Deer, Alberta.
As for Dan LaCouture, he was at home in Centerville, Mass., unsure what the year would bring. His hockey career, he feared, could be over at age 30.
For Samsonov, coming to the Hurricanes in early January — claimed off waivers — was a rebirth of sorts. In 38 games for Carolina, the winger had 14 goals and 18 assists and clearly enjoyed himself again on the ice.
“It had been a rough couple of years,” he said. “You start wondering which way things are going and wondering if you’ll ever get that opportunity again. Luckily, it did. Coming in, getting a fresh start, getting an opportunity, it made a whole difference for me.”
Trades brought Ruutu, Corvo and Eaves to the Canes last season. Babchuk, a former Carolina defenseman, re-signed with the team in the offseason, and defenseman Josef Melichar was signed to a one-year deal.
Eaves and Corvo came to the Canes in February. Corvo in particular was relieved; the defenseman played his best hockey of the season (21 points in 23 games).
“If you had said at the beginning of last year I’d be with Carolina, I’d probably put a pretty big smile on my face,” the defenseman said. “I wanted out of [Ottawa].”
Speaking of smiles, few players smile more than Pitkanen, the team’s most discussed newcomer. He came to Carolina in the big offseason trade that sent Erik Cole to Edmonton and has won over his teammates with an easygoing personality and some impressive hockey skills.
Read More:News & Observer
Garner, N.C. – Tom Jones Drug, Compounding, Home Medical and Nutrition Center, a community health care resource for the past 34 years, has selected S&A Cherokee as its public relations agency of record.
S&A Cherokee helped promote the relocation of Tom Jones Drug to its new location at the corner of Timber Drive and Vandora Springs Road in Garner and will continue promoting the company’s numerous services.
“I’m excited about working with a public relations agency and tapping into their media expertise,” said owner Tom Jones, R.Ph. “We’re a multidimensional company, and S&A Cherokee will help us spread the word about our customized drug compounding, orthotics, home medical equipment, matching prescription prices, free delivery, and much more.”
Tom Jones opened his first pharmacy in Garner in 1974 and now works with his daughter, Caroline Hodges, R.Ph., at the new 4,000-square-foot facility with a 21st-century look and expanded product line. Earlier this year, Tom Jones Drug was awarded accreditation status by the Accreditation Commission for Health Care, Inc. (ACHC) for the service of Home Medical Equipment.
“Tom Jones Drug has been a Garner institution for decades, and we look forward to helping them expand their customer base to eastern Wake County, Johnston County and beyond,” said Ron Smith, founder and president of S&A Cherokee.
For more information on S&A Cherokee, please call (919) 674-6020 or visit www.sacherokee.com. For information about Tom Jones Drug, visit www.tomjonesdrug.com.
Read More:CarolinaNewsWire
Contact: Maggie O’Neill; Ed Johnson
919. 772.4688
Wood from Old Home Site will be Salvaged for New Garner Nature Center
On Friday, July 18, wood from a farmhouse in Garner’s White Deer Park will be salvaged for reuse in the new Nature Center to be built there. Slated for demolition when the park is built, the dilapidated 1930’s farmhouse will contribute first as part of the new building, and also as part of the interpretive program for the park. Staff from Garner’s Parks and Recreation and Public Works Departments and volunteers from the park design team will carefully remove the boards with hand tools. The 3/4” tongue and groove heart pine boards will be used as flooring in the new Nature Center.
The Nature Center will be the Town of Garner’s first LEED Accredited building. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a measurement tool used internationally to evaluate performance in site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.
Removing the boards is just one of the many environmentally sustainable initiatives the project is undertaking to achieve a LEED rating from the US Green Building Council (USGBC).
“The Nature Center will have many environmentally friendly systems and features,” said Tom Maynard, Director of Garner Parks and Recreation Department. “It will include exhibits about protecting the environment. We believe the building itself will be a tool for use in teaching about how to care for and sustain the environment. The reclaimed wood is one example of how we can show people what they can do at home.”
“Reclaiming the wood is also a nice way to remember the people who once lived in the area and the history of Garner as a farming community,” said architect Louis Cherry of Cherry Huffman Architects.
The Town will store the boards until they are refinished and installed in the new Nature Center. The wood that cannot be salvaged will be recycled. The building begins construction in Fall of 2008 with expected completion in June 2009.
About the Project
White Deer Park is a 96 acre nature park located on Buffaloe and Aversboro Roads in Garner that is slated for construction this Fall. In addition to the nature center, the Park will feature 2.5 miles of paved walking trails, five picnic shelters, two new playgrounds, wildflower meadows and an arboretum. The Nature Center will also permanently house the white deer that the park is named for. The 2500 square foot Nature Center will achieve a LEED Silver Rating from the US Green Building Council for its many environmentally sustainable features.
The design team for the park includes Garner Parks and Recreation Department, obs Landscape Architects, Cherry Huffman Architects, Design Dimension, Stewart Engineering and ConsiderDesign.
###
TOWN OF GARNER
(919) 772?4688
www.garnernc.gov
moneill@garnernc.gov
MEDIA ADVISORY
July 17, 2008
Town of Garner to Salvage The Homestead
The best photo opportunities related to this project will be Friday, July 18 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. or 12:45 to 2:00 p.m.
The address of the facility is 2400 Aversboro Road. It is located approximately .5 miles from the Aversboro Road and Timber Drive intersection. Please contact CB McDonald at 919?772?4688 if you plan to visit the site so we can arrange an escort to get you from the parking lot to the site.
Town Of Garner NC website
Garner NC City Guide
City5NC.blog
(NewsUSA) - Farmers’ markets are not new, but they are gaining popularity in the United States.
In general, farmers’ markets comprise area farmers convening in one location, indoors or outdoors, to offer the freshest food available, including many canned or bottled goods and handcrafted items such as soap and clothing. Specialty items like jam and honey are also prominent at year-round markets.
The number of farmers’ markets has recently seen a dramatic increase. According to the USDA, the number of farmers’ markets in the U.S. increased almost 20 percent between 1994 and 2006. And in 2000, 19,000 farmers reported selling their produce only at farmers’ markets.
Honey, a year-round mainstay at most markets, is an all-natural food that leaves a small eco-footprint. Purchasing local honey may be beneficial to the environment because it promotes sustainability. Many farmers have hives on their land, in part because bees are responsible for one out of every three bites we consume. If there were a decline in honey bees, we could suffer from a limited supply of oranges, apples, blueberries, cucumbers, strawberries and other farmers’ market staples.
There are more than 300 different types of honey in the United States, each with a unique flavor and color profile influenced by the types of blossoms bees visit when searching for nectar. Floral source, location and climate affect local honey production. Regionally, one can find avocado honey in the west, blueberry honey in the northeast, cotton honey in the south, and one of the country’s favorites, clover, around the globe.
The following recipe, courtesy of the National Honey Board, highlights some of the freshest ingredients available at local farmers’ markets.
Yellow Tomato Gazpacho
Serves 6
Ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds ripe yellow tomatoes, seeded and chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium yellow bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup chopped red onion
3 cups tomato juice
1 can (14 1/2 oz.) chicken broth
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
In large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients; whisk together until well blended. Season with salt and pepper if desired. Cover and refrigerate one hour or overnight.
(NewsUSA) - Americans love having backyards for planting gardens, holding outdoor parties and giving children a safe place to play outdoors. But some homeowners find themselves with less-than-ideal backyards. Maybe the backyard slopes too much for a picnic table. Maybe the home’s in an arid area, where green grass requires expensive irrigation.
For many homeowners looking to improve their backyards, concrete masonry might provide an unexpected, inexpensive solution.
Concrete can mimic any surface, like stucco, European cobblestone or aged slate, allowing concrete landscaping to blend into any area alongside any style of home.
Concrete masonry proves both stylish and durable. Unlike wooden decks, concrete structures require no upkeep and don’t succumb to termites, mold, rot, weathering or other problems.
One couple replaced their wooden deck with a concrete patio, then found themselves with an insect-free backyard. “With the wood deck, it seemed like mosquitoes would breed and then come up and attack,” said Melissa Werpy, who used concrete masonry to renovate her backyard. “We can now be outside until midnight, and mosquitoes aren’t a problem.”
Concrete masonry can build attractive desert landscapes, too. Some homeowners use water irrigation to grow green grass in arid regions. But irrigating a lawn costs money and wastes water, a precious natural resource.
Homeowners can use segmented, concrete walls to build attractive driveways and terraced landscapes without growing grass. The landscape might not look green, but avoiding irrigation helps desert homeowners save the planet.
In steep yards without flat surfaces for planting herb or flower gardens, setting up tennis nets or supporting tables and chairs, concrete walls can make backyards more enjoyable.
Landscapers can build terraced, concrete brick walls that create level areas for patios, garden planters and extra seats during large parties. Concrete masonry can help control erosion and water drainage, too.
For homeowners with problem backyards, concrete masonry can provide an inexpensive, durable and attractive way to make landscapes both people- and eco-friendly.
For more information about concrete masonry, visit www.ncma.org.
With the high prices of placing ads today, why not save money? There’s no special secret to writing and placing advertisements in magazines, tabloids and newspapers. And why not claim the discount given to advertising agencies?
If you handle your own advertising correspondence, work with layout artists and write your own ads, it’s well worth your while to set up your own in-house ad agency and save a ton of money.
Even if you don’t create your own ads, you can profit from setting up your own agency and placing the ads that bring sales directly to you.
If you have somethings to sell - especially by mail order - advertising is they way to make that product reach people. Although advertising agencies produce excellent ads of all types and sizes with every demographic appeal, they also charge for it. That’s why they’re ready to claim the fifteen percent discount usually granted for placing ads.
You can learn how to create and design your own ads - with no background in copywriting or art. And, you can set up your own ad agency to place these ads where THEY’LL MAKE MONEY FOR YOU.
Do you have a product that you’re ready to sell? Now’s the time to find out the best angles to use and the tricks of the trade to putting money in your pocket.
STARTING YOUR BUSINESS
Do you have a mail order business? Maybe you sell clothing, camping supplies, or information through ads to the mail order trade. Perhaps you’ve run classified ads for years and are ready to branck out into larger display ads.
Not only small home businesses, but larger mail order companies and hundreds of major advertisers everywhere set up their own in-house agencies to produce and place ads. Even magazines create in-house departments under another name to get the agency discount.
What might set advertising agencies apart from homemade operations is the appearance of the letterhead and the ad form. They must look sharp and professional.
Start with a name for the ad agency you want to establish. It can be anything, but must be different from the name of the company that will be using the space. Then register the name with the county clerk. Check first to be sure you’re not using a company name already in business.
Desiging letterhead is easier than you think. You don’t have to create an elaborate or clever logo - the initials of the company will do. You can choose the mark - the special type style - at a printers, or use one of dozens of press-on letter styles available at art supply stores.
Using photo offset, digital camera, an instant printer can run off a thousand sheets at a very low price. If you go to a printer, check and compare the total printing costs. Typesetting can be expensive and there’s a minimum charge. You may want to wait to get all your typesetting and printing done at the same time - letterhead, ad form, ad copy and any sales literature you may be preparing. Investigate ways to get by with the lease expense.
Establishing your own ad agency is so easy that the most important part is the form you send in when you place ads. Although there are no federal restrictions for in-house ad agencies, some publications may quibble. If your form looks as good as the rest, you’ll have no problems.
The following page is a representation of a sample ad order form. Just copy this form and have your company design or logo printed on top. You can choose a color paper to have the forms run off on - they’ll be more noticeable. Then all you do is send in a copy of the ocmpleted form with your check and final artwork for your ad - and claim a big discount for being your own agency.
NAME OF ADVERTISING AGENCY
Address
To the publisher of: __________________________________________________
Organization______________________________________________________
Your name_______________________________________________________
Address__________________________________________________________
City__________________________________State________Zip____________
Phone (____)_________________
Please mark your desired ad size in a box below:
q 1/3 page $30 (5.5” x 2.75”)
q 1/2 page $45 (5.5” x 4.25”)
q full page $60 (5.5” x 8.5”)________________________________________________________________
More Articles: City5nc.com
Phase Two Water Restrictions
At the February 5,
2008 Raleigh City
Council Meeting, the
Council decided to enact
Phase Two water
restrictions on February
15. Previously, the Council voted to go into
Phase Two once Falls Lake fell below 90 days
supply. The Town of Garner is a member of the
Raleigh Water System and must adhere to all
water restrictions from the Raleigh Council.
Phase Two is the first action that directly effects
businesses in the area. Power washing, irrigation,
and car washes are banned without a special
permit from the City of Raleigh. A list of approved
car washes can be found at
www.raleighnc.gov.
The Council did make one exception. Builders
will be able to flush water lines. Flushing the
lines is a requirement for all new construction
before occupancy. Flushed water must be recaptured
in order to comply with this requirement
The Town of Garner is developing plans for reducing
water year round. The Planning Department
is recommending changes to the landscape
ordinance that will require developers to use a
particular plant bed preparation method. Also,
the Planning Department is recommending an
“Official” Plant List with plants that are drought
tolerant and native to the area.
Water-Wise
Garden Tips
Water-wise gardening is a collective way we
can all conserve natural resources for the community
at large. Due to our lack of rain, now is
a good time to plan ahead and to get on board
the water-wise gardening train. Follow these
few tips to start conserving water today:
• Mulch to conserve water in flower beds,
around trees, even in container gardens.
Mulch adds organic matter to the soil,
slows down moisture loss and assists in
weed control.
• Do not fertilize stressed plants until water
restrictions are lifted or the drought
breaks.
• Forgo fertilizing fescue lawns and allow
the grass to go dormant early by withholding
irrigation.
• Skip heavy pruning on shrubs and trees.
Pruning prompts new growth that stressed
root systems are unable to support. But do
prune damaged, diseased, dying or dead
branches and twigs, which can help combat
pests and diseases.
• Devote 25% of your property to native
tree and shrub gardens to save both money
and maintenance time.
Always know you can visit the Wake County
Master Gardener Waterwise Demonstration
Garden at Lake Crabtree County Park for plant
suggestions!
Garner NC Website
Garner NC Business Directory
Garner North Carolina is growing, “as they say” like a weed, well in the mist of all this growth a number of area businesses has found a little hidden treasure that most businesses have over looked, Local online advertising and marketing, meaning locally owned and operated.
Garner NC City Guide has been competing, not only with the online and off-line local newspapers, but other local online business directories and the Internet giants, “Most of the major search engines” for Garner NC business customers for the past few years and Garner NC and the surrounding area’s answered by a 600% increase in free and paid listings since 11/15/2007.
Garner City Guide is nothing fancy with pop-up all over the pages, other ads all around your listings, promotional music and graphics screeming on your screen, but what Garner City Guide is, is bring traffic to your business and website at an affordable yearly fee.
If the search engines can’t find Garner NC business directory and local City Guide then its of no use to our Garner NC Businesses.
Garner North Carolina Business Directory!
Our goal is to provide community businesses and residents with a low cost way to advertise and be seen by many people in and around our growing area. Now with our City Guide Site businesses can finally get the exposure they deserve.
Our City Guide, business directory, event calendar and free classifieds allows local residents, as well as anyone around the world, to find information about businesses ranging from a wide variety of categories in Garner, North Carolina. garnernc-online.Best of all, gold member businesses are evenly rotated and featured on our home page below, as well as on the top of their respective category page. Therefore, receiving the highest level of exposure for their business, plus even more exposure with a new personal webpage on our server. You can also use our MARKETPLACE for buying and selling your products and services in the CLASSIFIEDS ADS Section.Local Basic Classifieds are FREE, however we offer a more advanced level for more exposure for your advertising. Garnernc-online is more than just a place to advertise your business or promote your products and services, we offer information, useful information about Garner NC and surrounding area’s that you and your business are looking for.
We invite you to use Garner’s Event Calendar, it’s also free, “list your events” -Crafts, Government, Charity, Sports, Holiday, Business, Church, Theater, Party, Networking. Lots of things happening in Garner NC- List Your Business Today!
House and apartment cleaning services are gaining in popularity. These are business services that are growing in demand as a result of more and more women seeking jobs outside the home. Their need to supplement the family income creates the opportunity for you to set up a lucrative business.
Ten years ago, businesses of this kind were serving only the affluent - homes of the wealthy people where women didn’t want to be bothered with the drudgery of house hold cleaning, and had the money to pay someone to do it for them. But times have changed,
and today the market includes many middle income families in every residential area across the entire country. The potential market among apartment dwellers is great also. All in all this is a business that has grown fast, and has as much real wealth building potential as any we can think of.
This is a cleaning service generally associated with women; however, men are finding that they can organize, start, and operate very profitable home and apartment cleaning businesses just as well as women. It’s an ideal business for any truly ambitious person wanting a business of his or her own, especially for those who must begin with limited funds. Actually, you can start this business right in your own neighborhood, using your own equipment, and begin making a profit from the first day.
Many enterprising homemakers are already doing this kind of work on a small scale as an extra income producing endeavor. There’s a growing need for this service. Organizing your efforts into a business producing $50,000 to $100,00 a year is quite pos
sible, and you can get started for $100 or so, always using your profits to expand and in crease your business.
Absolutely no experience is required. Everyone knows how to dust the furniture, vacuum carpets, make the beds and carry out the trash. But you must ask yourself if making a house clean and bright is important and uplifting work. If you look on it as
degrading or as drudgery, don’t involve yourself in this business.
Starting from scratch, you’ll need a telephone and an appointment book. You also need an advertising flyer, such as the following:
HOME OR APARTMENT CLEANING
We do the work - You relax and take it easy.
You get the best job in town, at rates you can
afford. Your satisfaction is always guaranteed!
For more details,
Call Sue: 123-4567 - ABC Cleaning Services!
You can either type this notice out or write it in long-hand with a pen. Either way, it’s going to be your first advertising endeavor, and bring in that first customer for you.
It would be a good idea to visit your stationery store to pick up a pad of “fade out” graph paper, a couple of sets of transfer (rub-on) letters, a gluestick, and if they have one, a Klip Art book.
Take these materials home and clear off your kitchen table. Take a sheet of graph paper, and temporarily tape the corners down on the table. Then take a pencil and a ruler, and mark a rectangle five inches wide by six inches long along the lines of the graph paper. This will be the overall size of your flyer when it’s finished.
Look for a Klip Art piece depicting a harried housewife engrossed with either cleaning tools or in the act of running a vacuum cleaner, or some other household chore. Cut this piece out, and with your gluestick paste it in the upper left-hand corner of your rectangle. Then take your transfer letters and make the headline: HOME OR CLEANING. Next, type out the body of the message on ordinary white typing paper. Be sure to use a relatively new ribbon, preferably a black carbon ribbon, and upper case letters. Cut this strip out, and paste it onto the graph paper, centered just below your headline. Then use some transfer letters that are about twice as large as your typewriter type, and paste up the action part of your message: For details, call Sue: 123-4567. Cut out a couple of border flourishes from your Klip Art book, paste them under your action line, and you’re ready to take it to the printer.
In essence, you have a professional advertising “billboard.” You can check around in your area, especially with the advertising classes at your local colleges, but generally they’ll do no better than you can do on your own, using the instructions we’ve just given you, and they’ll charge you $50 to $100.
Once you have this advertising flyer completed, take it to a nearby quick print shop and have about 200 copies printed. You should be able to get two copies on a standard 8 1/2 x 11 sheet, and running 100 sheets of paper through the press is going to cost well under $10. For just a few cents more, have the printer cut them in half with his machine cutter, so you will have 200 copies of the advertising flyer.
Now take these flyers, along with a box of thumbtacks, and put them up on all the free bulletin boards you can find - grocery stores, laundromats, beauty salons, office building lounges, cafeterias, post offices, and wherever else such announcements are allowed.
When a prospective customer calls, have your appointment book and a pencil handy. Be friendly and enthusiastic. Explain what you do - everything from changing the beds to vacuuming, dusting and polishing the furniture and cleaning the bathroom to the
dishes and the laundry. Or, everything except the dishes and the laundry - whatever you have decided on as your policy. When they ask how much you charge, simply tell them six to ten dollars an hour, but for a firm cost quote, you’ll need to see the home and
make a detailed estimate for them. Then without much of a pause, ask if 4:30 this afternoon would be convenient for them, or if 5:30 would be better. You must pointedly ask if you can come to make your cost proposal at a certain time, or the decision may be
put off, and you may come up with a “no sale.”
Just as soon as you have an agreement on the time to make you cost proposal and marked it in your appointment book, ask for name, address and telephone number.
Jot this information down on a 3 by 5 card, along with the date and the notation: Prospective Customer. Then you file this card in a permanent card file. Save these cards, because there are literally hundreds of ways to turn this prospect file into real cash, once you’ve accumulated a sizeable number of names, addresses and phone numbers.
When you go to see your prospect in person, always be on time. A couple of minutes early won’t hurt you, but a few minutes late will definitely be detrimental to your closing the sale. Always be well groomed. Dress as a successful business owner. Be confident and sure of yourself; be knowledgeable about what you can do as well as understanding of the prospect’s needs and wants. Do not smoke, even if invited by the prospect, and never accept a drink - even coffee - until after you have a signed contract in your briefcase.
Actually, once you’ve made the sale, the best thing is to shake hands with your new customer, thank him, and leave. A little small talk after the sale is appropriate, but becoming too friendly is not. You create an impression, and preserve it, by maintaining a business-like relation ship.
When you go to make your cost estimate, take along a ruled tablet such as those used by elementary school students, carbon paper, a calculator and your appointment book. Some people find it easier to work with a clipboard and ordinary blank paper with
carbon. Later on, you may want to have general checklists printed up for each room in the house, with blank lines or space for special instructions.
Whatever you use, it’s important to appear methodical, thorough and professional, while leading the prospect through the specifics he or she wants you to take care of: “Now, you want the carpet vacuumed and all the furniture dusted and those two end
tables, the coffee table and the piano polished as well, I assume?”
Simply identify the specific room at the top of the sheet of paper, then lead your prospect through the cleaning steps of each room, covering everything in it. Your implications of putting everything in “ready for company” shape will cause the customer to
forget about the cost, and hire you to do a complete job. Always have a carbon paper under each piece of paper you’re writing on, and always look around each room one more time before leaving it; then ask the prospect if he or she can think of any special instructions you should note for that room.
Finally, when you’ve gone through each room in the house with the prospect, come back to the kitchen and sit down at the table. Take out your calculator and add up the time you estimate each job in each room will take to complete. Total the time for each room.
Be liberal, thinking that if you can do the carpet job in 15 minutes, it will usually take the ordinary person 30 minutes. Convert the total minutes for each room into hours and tenths of hours per room. Add the totals for each room to arrive at your total hours to clean the entire house.
Talk with your customer briefly, wondering how she can ever find the time to get everything done at home, especially when holding down a full-time job. A little bit of small talk, a quick mental evaluation of the customer’s ability to pay, plus your knowledge that you can get everything done in four hours, instead of the six hours it would take most people, and you summarize by saying:
“Well, Mrs. Johnson, you’ve certainly got enough routine cleaning work to keep you busy all day every day of the week! I certainly don’t know how you do it, but any way, we’ll take this whole problem off your shoulders, save you time, and actually give
you time to relax. We can do it on a regular basis, every other week for $120 per month, or the one single time for $75.
“I can well imagine how tired you are when you get home from work. If you’re at all like me there are times when, faced with all this housework, you want to run away someplace and hide. Now, we’ll take care of everything for you - keep the house spic and
span, ready for company, allow you to forget about housecleaning chores, and for a lot less than it’s costing you now in time, work, and worry. And we guarantee that our work will more than satisfy you. So, would you like to try our cleaning service one time for $75 or do you want to save $15 a call and let us take over all these chores for you on a regular basis?” (These prices are just here to give an Idea)
Here you begin finding a place in your appointment book, and tell her: “Actually, I have an opening at 8:30 on Tuesday morning. We could come in every other Tuesday at 8:30, clean the whole house and have it done before you get home from work.”
The customer agrees that 8:30 on Tuesdays will be fine. Then you ask her if she prefers to be billed with the completion of each house cleaning session or on a regular monthly basis. Point out to her that by engaging you on a monthly basis , she picks up
a free house cleaning every three months.
Now that you have your first customer, you want to fill in every day of the week, each week of every month with regular jobs. Once you have one week of each month filled with regular jobs, it will be time for you to expand.
Expansion means growth, involving people working for you, more jobs to sell, and greater profits. Don’t let it frighten you, for you have gained experience by starting gradually. After all - your aim in starting a business of your own was to make money,
wasn’t it? And expanding means more helpers so you don’t have to work your self to death!
You can operate this business quite successfully from the comfort of your home, permanently, if you choose to. All you’ll ever need is a telephone, a desk, and a file cabinet.
So, just as soon as you possibly can, recruit and hire other people to do the work for you. The first people you hire should be people to handle the cleaning work. The best plan is to hire people to work in teams of two or three - two for jobs not including dishwashing and laundry - three for those that do.
You can start these people at minimum wage or a bit above, and train them to complete every job assignment in two hours or less. Just as soon as you’ve hired and trained a couple of people as a cleaning team, you should outfit them in a kind of uniform with your company name on the back of their blouses or shirts. A good idea also would be to have magnetic signs made for your company and services. Place these signs on the sides of the cars your people use for transportation to each job, and later on, the sides
of your company van or pick-up trucks.
Each team should have an appointed team leader responsible for the quality and over all completeness of each job assigned to that team. The team might operate thus: One person cleans the bathroom, makes the beds, and carries out the laundry , while the
other person dusts and polishes the furniture and does the vacuuming. On jobs where you do the laundry and the dishes, the third person can pick up the laundry and get that started, and then do the dishes and clean the kitchen. By operating in this manner, your work will be more efficient and the complete job will take a lot less time. However, it is important that each person you hire understand that the success of the business depends on the “crew” doing as many complete jobs as they can handle each day - not on how much they get paid per hour working for you.
Your team leaders will check with you each afternoon for the next day’s work assignments and gather the team together, complete with cleaning equipment and material, on the next day. Your team leader should be supplied with a stack of “hand-out” advertising flyers to pass around the neighborhood or within the apartment building before leaving each job site. A good supply of business cards wouldn’t be a bad idea for them either, in order to advertise your services to others they come in contact with. Run a small ad in your home Town newspaper and with the internet gaining on local advertising you could advertise in your online business directory, city guide and local online classifieds and get more bang for your dollars
The only other form of advertising you should go with would be a display ad in the yellow pages of your telephone directory.
Design on paper a system of clean-up operation that can generally be applied to any situation, then drill your teams on speeding up their activities to make the system work even better. Just as firemen practice and practice, you should drill your people as a team in their cleaning activities.
Probably the biggest time-waster in this business will be in the travel from job to job. For this reason, it’s important to spread advertising circulars to the neighboring homes when you’re doing a job, or to the apartments on the same floor when you’re in
an apartment building. As the organizer, and person assigning teams to jobs, it will behoove you to locate, line up, and assign jobs as close together as possible. Keep up efforts to cut the time it takes for your crews to travel from one job to the next. Work at lining up jobs all in one block, or in one apartment building.
Your equipment needs will really be minimal: Cleaning and polishing rags, mops, a couple of plastic buckets, and furniture polishes. Most people will have the necessary cleaning materials, including vacuum cleaner, soaps and cleansers. But it wouldn’t hurt to have these items available just in case you get a job in a home or an apartment without these tools. As your business grows, you’ll be able to purchase all your needs at huge discounts, and these are the sources of supply to cultivate as you grow.
One of the most important aspects of this business is asking for, and allowing your customers to refer other prospects to you. All of this happens, of course, as a result of your giving fast, dependable service. You might even set up a promotional notice on the back of your business card (to be left as each job is completed) offering five dollars off their next cleaning bill when they refer you to a new prospect.
This is definitely a high profit business, requiring only an investment of time and organization on your part to get started. With a low investment, little or no over head requirement, and no experience needed, this is an ideal business opportunity with a growth curve that accelerates at an unprecedented rate. Think about it. If it appeals to you, set up your own plan of operations and go for it! The profit potential for an owner of this type of business is outstanding!.
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