If you are a new business just starting out into the world of contract
cleaning then your immediate aim is to gather as many new customers as
you can and constantly grow the business. The initial stages are hard
and it is difficult to gain those first few customers. How gain you
gain a foothold in this highly competitive market? Many of the
marketing strategies you might employ have been explained in previous
articles. One area that was not explored in these articles was
networking.
As a new business you will probably receive a number of invitations to
go along to various local networking organisations meetings. At these
they will no doubt try and impress upon you the huge benefits to be
gained by networking. You will also be told how much business was
generated for its members over a period of time. All will seem very
impressive and like myself you may very well be impressed enough to
join the weekly breakfast or luncheon meetings. This could cost you
anything up to £500 a year to be a member plus the cost of the meal or
maybe as little as the cost of the meal. Some of the internet
networking organisations charge a small monthly fee and then organise
monthly local meetings.
When I started out into the field of commercial cleaning I was willing
to try anything that might generate business so I joined a number of
these organisations. So how successful was this as a means of expanding
my business?
I did in fact persevere with some of these breakfast meetings for a
whole year, having paid the yearly subscription it was in fact
something of a necessity. However it does not take long to realise that
the people who attend these meetings are not in fact your likely
customers. Many of the individuals who attend networking meetings are
just starting out in their business and are operating as sole traders
working from home and not in any way, shape or form likely to be your
potential customers. Others are well established but still operate as
single entities such as business coaches and have no office as such.
Others may be proprietors of shops just starting out and these are
potential customers.
However you as a contract cleaning company are looking to clean offices
and office complexes and these are inhabited by well established
companies who do not by and large participate in local networking
groups. So you are not going to come in contact with the group who are
going to provide the more lucrative cleaning contracts.
I can look back on my time with these networking groups as a learning
experience and we probably just about recouped our membership fees.
Other than that very little long term benefit was derived from the
experience. Networking it would seem from my own experience is not a
path I would necessarily recommend to the start up cleaning business.
Use that time period to utilise other marketing techniques which are
more useful to the cleaning business entrepreneur. If you do fancy the
idea of networking then you must target a different audience. That is
the established businesses, and to do that you will need to join such
organisations as the Chamber of Commerce where your networking will not
be so overt and often done in a more sociable and relaxed atmosphere.
