Update on my 1st month in business!!!

You don't need to pay for a CPA if you are losing money. There aren't that many things to count. Hang on there and good luck. You may want to start looking at a smaller building. The rent seems very high for a detail bussiness where you are charging 200 a job
 
Your rent is very low IMO. Heck I was paying $1400 for my own stall back in '96!



Good luck!
 
Make sure you leverage the new customers you do get. Incentives for referrals from them, word of mouth deals, etc. You want them back and you want them to tell others. Best of luck. Keep us updated on your success! :)
 
Rent is cheap IMO as well, I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to look at alternatives.
 
RaskyR1 said:
Your rent is very low IMO. Heck I was paying $1400 for my own stall back in '96!



Good luck!
Click to expand...



There are people arguing about $100 for the CPA which is 5% of you cost but not considering the rent which is 60% of your overhead. I always pick the low hanging fruit first. We are in a new enviroment as far as space goes in the last few years.
 
In my area $1250 would get you a space half that size, and it would be hidden away in some obscure corner of an industrial park with zero exposure.
 
I was very fortunate to have this space. I was constantly on craigslist and other sites. The minute this shop opened up, i immediately called the realtor. I am located between a freeway exit and the largest hospital in the state of RHODE ISLAND. Not to mention, im next to dunkin donuts which opened 4 months ago (almost all my customers wait there by the way). They bring their laptop or ipad and they just hang out there. I have a waiting area but no AC.
 
I subscribed to this thread both to follow your updates, but also for all the great input from others in case I ever attempt to get my own thing going.



All the best for your business!!
 
***UPDATE ON MY LIVING SOCIAL DEAL***



It's been about 4 to 5 weeks since i the deal ended and i definitely have to say that it saved my business!



Remember now, i had no customer base when i opened the shop and i was new to providence. I didn't know anyone nor anyone knew me. However, i still sold 112 quick details (1 step, no engine, no shampoo). Living social gives you the money up front even though the customer hasn't redeemed their voucher yet (which is good). My main goal of doing living social was just to get the word of mouth going... Out of the 112, only 35 have shown up so far. Out of those 35, maybe only 5 have upgraded to a interior shampoo. There were cars that didn't need "detailing" and there were cars that burned you and needed more time. I would say that 10 to 15 were in really bad shape and the rest looked like they cared about their car.



Why living social worked for me?

First off, now i got 112 customers that could spread the word. Not to mention, i also do window tinting. I've already tinted 4 cars out of the 35 that had already came. Talk about UPSELLING...lol...Again, by doing a great job tinting those cars, their friends or families are exposed to my business and they see the type of work that i do. The package that they bought was a 2 hour package but i extended it to 3 hours. In that time span, i would try to get THINGS THAT THE CUSTOMER DID NOT PAY FOR IN THEIR PACKAGE and tell them about it. I've learned that going the extra mile will make your customers happy and generally they tip more. Honestly, the lowest tip that i got was 10 dollars! I've had a tip as high as 40 and as low 10 bucks.



Our of those 35, i already have 6 reviews on GOOGLE and FACEBOOK. This CATAPULTED my webpage into #1 in providence. I am letter A on google. Again, remember that i've only had this website for 2 months. I also have to mention my SEO which is robert keppel. He has helped my website LEAPFROG websites that existed years before mine were up. Now, those are what you call results...Thanks rob...



In conclusion, i highly recommend living social or groupon. It will help with your customer base because they give you ACTUAL CUSTOMERS. If you advertise in newspaper, yellowbook, yellowpages, and all the other types of media you will lose because they CANNOT GUARANTEE CUSTOMERS. They just give you an ad in which you dont know how many folks will buy it. Yes, it is true that your service is highly discounted on living social or groupon but they give you customers not empty promises...



Do living social or groupon and do a great job and the let the word of mouth go on and on...
 
Good to here your still keeping the doors open. It sounds like you found something that worked for you. Now the key is to keep the customers you got happy and your only going to greow. Keep us updated on how things are going. You help others out by posting first hand experience.
 
Interesting that you have had such a great experience with Living Social. I think the key here is to make sure you know what you're discounting and doing when you decide to try one of these offerings.
 
It's great to hear about someone else also having a good experience with Livingsocial. Just one example of the success I'm having with my livingsocial deal is a guy who bought a deal for his wife, of which they were very happy with the outcome. He then tells me, oh by the way I'm on the board of directors at a country club 5 miles down the street, is there any way you would want to come detail in the parking lot. I said I can't do that but I can offer free pickup and drop off and the car would be back before a round of golf is finished. So just today he called me to detail his Lexus, I went and picked it up, dropped it off 4 hours later and he was thrilled with the results and is now spreading the word throughout the club. Just an example of what can come out of one of these deals!
 
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