Garner, N.C. – Triangle East magazine’s new editor, Nancy Pardue, has put together a holiday issue brimming with tips, tricks and recommendations for the holiday season.
“It’s one big celebration in the newest issue of Triangle East, as we rejoice in the delights of Christmas and the promise of a new year,” said Pardue. “I’m glad to have this new beginning with our readers and hope they’ll love our holiday issue.”
In the article “Winter Wonders,” readers will learn how to spruce up their homes by bringing the outdoors indoors with tips from Tony Avent, owner of Plant Delights Nursery. Gardening expert L.A. Jackson also offers tips on extending the life of poinsettias in his Garden Adventurer column.
“Christmas Treasures” offers tips on holiday collectibles such as Department 56 Christmas Villages, Mark Roberts Christmas Fairies, Buyer’s Choice Carolers and more.
To stave off the winter chill, “Get Fired Up” profiles three great fireside-friendly dining establishments and offers secrets on getting that fireside seat.
Two recent college graduates received makeup, hair and fashion makeovers to get them ready for a new year in “New Year, New You.”
“Giving Back in 2009” reports how students at Vandora Springs Elementary in Garner are participating in two charity projects, and provides a guide for plenty of volunteerism opportunities in the local community.
In this issue, readers can also learn about how two Miss Garners are vying for the Miss America crown, what Butterball CEO Keith Shoemaker thinks of the company’s new corporate headquarters, and what Christmas goodies and gifts will tempt shoppers this year.
The December/January issue of Triangle East magazine is available now at more than 100 locations throughout eastern Wake and Johnston counties. Subscriptions may be ordered directly by visiting www.triangleeastmagazine.com or by calling (919) 674-6020.
Read More:CarolinaNewsWire
CARY, N.C. — Dex has been honored with a 2008 Yellow Pages Publisher Recognition Award by the Association of Directory Marketing (ADM). ADM recently selected Dex for its “Communication Award,” which “recognizes efforts to improve communications between publishers and CMRs (Certified Marketing Representatives).” The award was announced at ADM’s Annual Conference in San Antonio, Tex.
Dex was selected based upon several criteria, including commitment to excellence in facilitating communications between the company and CMRs, who help develop, implement, manage and maintain Yellow Pages programs for national advertisers. Dex was also noted for its provision of high-quality, effective sales materials and marketing collateral and the continuous enabling of easy access to these materials. As a result, ADM recognized Dex’s ability to help CMRs improve efficiencies, solve challenges and implement successful advertising programs.
“Our goal is to provide CMRs with simple, focused communications that make it easier for them to access information and do business with Dex. This award is a reflection of that,” said Stephen Gibbons, vice president of national sales, Dex. “We’re happy to accept this award from ADM, and will continue to provide CMRs with exceptional communications tools that help them implement and manage their advertising programs.”
Dex is the market brand of R.H. Donnelley (NYSE: RHD), a leading print and online local search company. R.H. Donnelley’s products and services include the Dex(R) Yellow Pages; DexKnows.com(TM), a leading online local search site; 1-800-Call-Dex(TM), a free, voice-enabled local search solution; and Dex Search Marketing, which provides web site optimization and paid search advertising solutions.
Simple Ways College Grads Can Give Back to their Alma Maters
(ARA) – A college education does far more than give graduates a competitive edge when entering the working world. For many people, college marked a time when they forged friendships and romances that last a lifetime. Is it any wonder, then, that so many college graduates seek creative ways to nourish their bond with their alma mater years – often decades – after they’ve left the college’s hallowed halls?
From following their college’s sports teams to carrying the same school coffee mug from job to job, many alumni are passionate about their schools. In fact, 57 percent of college graduates say their college years were the best years of their lives, according to the MyExpression(TM) Alumni Survey sponsored by Bank of America. Nearly 50 percent still consider themselves college sports fanatics and 58 percent would like their children to follow in their collegiate footsteps, the survey found.
With prices rising on everything from gas to groceries, it can become challenging for some alumni to make cash donations to their colleges or universities. More than half (55 percent) of survey respondents don’t donate to their alma maters, and just 27 percent donate $100 or more per year. Of those who don’t donate, 38 percent say it’s because they just haven’t gotten around to it, or that it is difficult to juggle donations amid other financial and time obligations.
There are, however, creative ways to support your school without spending a dime. If you still live near your school, you can volunteer with programs and campus events, provide tutoring in your major field or donate your time and professional experience by speaking with current students. If you no longer live close to your alma mater, contact the student services department to find out if there are ways you can participate remotely – whether it’s offering tutoring services online or volunteering a few hours for the school’s student information hotline.
Another easy way to support your alma mater is through affinity banking products. Bank of America offers branded credit cards, check cards and checks that support a variety of alumni organizations, professional organizations and charitable causes through its MyExpression product line. For passionate alumni, every time a new MyExpression alumni checking account is opened and for every subsequent purchase made with a MyExpression check card, a contribution is made to the alumni organization featured on the card. Given that two-thirds of alumni own college-branded gear, and nearly 50 percent proudly don a college-branded sweatshirt, a college-branded check card that gives back may be just the hassle-free combination of pride and passion alums are looking for.
“People are always looking for easy ways to support what’s important to them. However, prioritizing one’s college or university among so many other responsibilities – financially and otherwise – can be a tall order,” says Stephen Gillin, Affinity Banking executive. “That’s exactly where the Bank of America MyExpression alumni accounts fit in. Alumni can easily convert their school passion into support for their school, simply by making their everyday purchases with their MyExpression alumni account.”
Alumni and university fans can learn more about MyExpression Banking products at more than 6,100 Bank of America banking centers, or online at www.bankofamerica.com/myexpression.
Courtesy of ARAcontent
CARY, N.C. — Guitar Hero enthusiasts will get the chance to compete over two days at the visitRaleigh.com Benefit Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the John Entwistle Foundation for the chance to win a pair of tickets to the 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveland, Ohio. The overall winner will have the opportunity to test their skills against 16-year-old Raleigh Guitar Hero whiz, Blake Peebles. The concert is slated for September 19 & 20 at Koka Booth Amphitheater in Cary, N.C.
Competitors will perform an already selected challenge song and each score will be recorded. One winner will be declared on Friday and one on Saturday with each victor claiming a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame membership package. The two champions will battle on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. for the ultimate prize of two tickets to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The final contest winner will face Peebles on Saturday at 8:45 p.m. in an attempt to beat Guitar Hero’s fastest fingers.
A registration table will be set up for the contest just inside the amphitheatre entrance. Registration will begin on Friday, September 19 at 6:00 p.m. and Saturday, September 20 at 12:00 p.m. Once the competitor has registered, they may perform the challenge song and try to earn their best score.
Winning the contest isn’t the only way to get a ticket to rock and roll’s biggest night. A random drawing consisting of all registered Guitar Hero participants will take place for another chance to win a pair of tickets to the 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
So, sharpen those skills on expert and bring it to the visitRaleigh.com Rock Hall Benefit Concert at the Koka Booth Amphitheatre for an opportunity to win rockin’ prizes.
Last March, Madonna, John Mellencamp, The Ventures, the Dave Clark Five, Leonard Cohen, and Gamble & Huff were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the Class of 2008. The 2009 finalists will be announced late this fall.
Tickets to the September 19-20 festival are on sale at the Koka Booth Amphitheatre box office and via Ticketmaster. The visitRaleigh.com Rock Hall Benefit concert is presented by the Town of Cary and sponsored by SunTrust Bank, American Airlines, Harris Wholesale, Raleigh News & Observer, 96 Rock, 850 The Buzz, Paragon Commercial Bank, Prime Mortgage Lending, French/West/Vaughan and Black Diamond Capital Group. Proceeds from the concert will benefit both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum’s educational outreach and the John Entwistle Foundation’s program of providing musical instruments and music lessons to disadvantaged youths through the public library systems in communities across the country. For more information, visit www.rockhallbenefit.com.
Read More:CarolinaNewsWire
If you are worried about how long your home could be on the market, Fast Action Home Sales could have you handing over your keys in just weeks.
(NewsUSA) - For the many Americans whose front yards have had a “for sale” sign displayed for months on end, a new sell-it-yourself guide helps homeowners get bids and sell their homes in just weeks. Finally, some good news if you’re having a hard time selling property in today’s turtle-paced housing market.
It’s all laid out for you in a “sell-it-yourself” system, just published by California real estate pros who’ve been selling a different way for nearly 14 years with great success in any market.
It’s called the “Fast Action Home Sales System” -; a step-by-step guide that helps homeowners sell their homes quickly on their own, with or without a real estate agent.
The system uses unique “for sale” signs (and lots of them); compelling print ads; a custom-built web site; even your own 800 phone number to field dozens of calls sellers can expect from the blizzard of advertising they create leading up to one frenzied weekend.
“Even in today’s market, we typically get 75 to 150 prospective buyers to a home on Saturday and Sunday,” says Conrad Kuiken of Compass Realty in Carlsbad, Calif. “Then crowd psychology takes over. Buyers start bidding on the property, and we almost always get at least one bid at fair market value.”
System developers Kuiken and George Cappony have assisted in marketing thousands of houses in all parts of the country and in all price ranges using this system.
“Sellers have sold everything from $100,000 condos to $3 million mansions,” said Cappony. “Good market, bad market, it doesn’t matter; there are buyers out there, and our system will find them.”
The entire process normally takes between two and three weeks from start to finish.
“Pick a date, get everything ready, follow the system, and it’s very likely you’ll sell your property,” Kuiken said.
For more details, you can access a “quick-start guide” to the FAST Action Home Sale System at http://www.RealEstateKit.com , or call 1-800-669-1038.
HP is leading the way through microenterprise development.
(NewsUSA) - As many entrepreneurs in America know, starting up a small business and finding long-term success can be an incredibly difficult task. According to the “Monthly Labor Review,” only 44 percent of small businesses survive more than four years -; leaving 56 percent that may have the drive to excel but just can’t make ends meet.
Small businesses are very important to America’s working economy, however. The “Monthly Labor Review” also reported that small businesses employ half of all private-sector employees and generate 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually. Because one of the big reasons that small businesses become successful is an ample supply of capital, more big businesses are realizing that investing in microenterprises -; businesses that have five or fewer employees and seed capital of $35,000 or less -; not only improves the chance of hard-working businesses reaching their own goals, but it also improves the country’s overall economic growth.
Larger corporations like HP, itself a garage start-up nearly 70 years ago, recognize the important role these businesses play in the economy and the community. And HP recently awarded more than $5 million in cash, equipment and training resources to non-profit organizations serving small businesses in underserved communities across the globe.
The Microenterprise Development Grants provide start-up assistance, business training, access to capital and advice to entrepreneurs and very small businesses in underserved communities. The awards are focused on providing technology access for entrepreneurs and training for microentrepreneurs in the use of technology to build and grow their businesses.
In the United States, the HP Microenterprise Development Grants are worth $56,000 and include office items such as HP wireless notebook computers, printers, digital cameras, digital projectors and $20,000 in cash to be used toward the purchase of relevant software, equipment configuration and other expenses. Recipient organizations also receive the HP-sponsored small business technology training curriculum, “Smart Technology for a Smarter Business,” and are included in a learning community of HP Microenterprise Development Program grant recipients, facilitated by the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO).
“HP is improving economic viability and quality of life for individuals and communities around the world through investments of HP resources and technology,” said Yvonne Hunt, vice president of Global Philanthropy for HP. “These grants represent one channel for us to support economic development to accelerate entrepreneurial growth and success.”
With the efficiency and effectiveness of microenterprises improving daily with help from big business, entrepreneurs can start making their small business dreams a reality. For more information, visit http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/grants/us/programs/microenterprise/recipients.html.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Fairway Outdoor Advertising has donated an advertising package worth $13,250 to the Triangle Land Conservancy. The announcement was made today by Paul Hickman, general manager of Fairway.
The two rotary bulletins posted in January and will run for two months in the Triangle region.
The Triangle Land Conservancy began as a volunteer effort in 1983 and has since grown to a professionally staffed organization that has protected more than 9,000 acres of open space— stream corridors, forests, wildlife habitat, farmland and natural areas—in Chatham, Durham, Johnston, Lee, Orange and Wake counties.
“We’re pleased to get involved with this cause,” said Hickman. “As this region continues to explode in growth it’s important that we also protect and conserve the beauty that this area has to offer.”
Read More:CarolinaNewsWire
Raleigh, NC – State Employees’ Credit Union (SECU) and the State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC) are once again offering discount theme park tickets to members for the 2008 spring and summer seasons. Sales began March 20th and will continue through September 30th in all 217 SECU branch locations. Tickets for the following parks are available: Carowinds, Kings Dominion, Wet’n Wild Emerald Pointe, Myrtles Waves, Nascar Speedpark, The Pavilion Nostalgia Park and Ghost Town in the Sky.
Leigh Brady, Senior Vice-President of SECU’s Education Services department comments, “Together, SECU and SEANC have joined forces in offering theme park tickets for more than five years. Last year’s sales reached nearly $2 million, representing our member-owners’ strong interest in this service. We look forward to once again providing this popular program.”
Dana Cope, SEANC Executive Director states, “SEANC is once again pleased to offer discount theme park tickets to SECU and SEANC members through the Credit Union’s extensive branch network. This partnership has been extremely successful, and we are very glad to offer an opportunity for state employees to ‘play’ at a discount, since they work so hard all year long!”
Read More:CarolinaNewsWire
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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