Small Biz Ideas › Courtesy Opportunities › Blind Reconditioning

Your
Blind Cleaning Business
Marketing And Pricing It Correctly

A very lucrative blind cleaning business with income potential is realistic at a lower start up cost than you may have thought possible.

The keys to profit are being technically skilled and pricing and marketing your blind cleaning service correctly.

Entrepreneurs have started their blind cleaning company at home in their garage. Or, they have jumped into this vast business opportunity with mobile ultrasonic blind cleaning from a van or truck.

Essential blind cleaning machines and supporting equipment may be leased, bought new or bought used. Realistically, your initial costs may be around $12,000 to $15,000 or so depending if you buy or lease new or used equipment. Please consider leasing as there are a bunch of financial reasons to do so.

What’s the State of the Marketplace

Today, blinds of every description are being used for windows and even doors. They out number the use of traditional draperies by a 5 to 1 margin.

Office buildings, houses and condos, restaurants, hospitals, nursing homes, schools and colleges, country clubs, you name it, all use blinds of every description.

And guess what? They all need cleaning (not dusting).

Traditionally, cleaning blinds, that is, “really” cleaning blinds has been a thankless, boring and messy job.

Homeowners and commercial establishments do not want to clean their blinds…themselves. There are millions and millions of blinds in use today (and growing). The need for entrepreneurs to get in this business is critical.

Why the Ultrasonic Blind Cleaning Business?

The Answer. You make MORE money!

Why?

Using traditional blind cleaning methods requires a good amount of time to clean each blind. (And then it’s not totally clean.)

The ultrasonic method requires less cleaning time per blind. (Usually, you need to remove the blind and clean at your site.)

Using the ultrasonic method in your blind cleaning business lessens potential scratches (likely to occur in traditional cleaning).

This cleaning method cleans the entire blind from the slates, cords, ladders, tapes and head rail of blinds made from multiple kinds of material.

NOTE: Ultrasound cleaning uses water, with appropriate soap. Therefore, it is important to make sure the bind you want to clean can be immersed in water without fabric, if any, shrinking, puckering or the dyes running.

Pricing Your Services

As mentioned before, a key to building profit is to price your services correctly.

You may have different rates for residential and commercial clients.

Commercial jobs often require the cleaning of several dozen blinds with many size variances. You can charge less for volume and still make money.

Residential customers many times are drawn to your business with the use of discounts and “free” services.

Therefore, your regular pricing needs to take this into consideration.

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IMPORTANT NOTE: Prior to establishing your prices, please acquire the price information from all your competitors. Visiting competitors websites and phone calls are in order.

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I also encourage you to apply for a job with an existing blind cleaning service for a period of time. This will provide valuable experiences as you venture into your own company.

Here are some “rule of thumb” guidelines for pricing your services.

Blind cleaning for homeowners should be priced in a range you found as you researched your competitors. You may consider charging less in the beginning and grow with your experiences.

A flat one time “pick up and deliver” fee is appropriate.

For commercial clients even volume discounts should provide a good return. Volume discounts are not uncommon. For example, your pricing may reflect 25 to 40 blinds @ XX per blind; 41 to 60 blinds @ XX per blind and so forth. Or, you may consider charging on a sq. ft. basis.
For many of your customers you could also charge a “materials” fee to further reduce your cleaning fluid costs. This fee could be a nominal charge for commercial accounts.

Again, it is important to know the pricing points of all your competitors prior to setting your own fee schedule.

Key To Marketing Your Blind Cleaning Business

“Cold Calling” is an absolute must in the commercial arena. Nothing beats a one on one explanation of your blind cleaning businesses’ services (and a leave-behind 4-color brochure touting the "benefits" of your company) to a prospective commercial client. After all, you’re trying to establish a relationship to get repeated business. Or, at a minimum, you want another opportunity to ask for their business again. Many times you could find yourself in a "bid" circumstance.
For residential business potential, the delivering of “green cleaning” tips at seminars that you can give at your local library, church, Rotary Club, etc. may be a feeder for your blind cleaning business.
For residential accounts, the heavy use of coupons could be necessary. There a various local advertising formats to accomplish this.

The Role of Your Website

Potential customers rarely use the phone book. With the use of smart phones and tablets, everything is Web-based.

Commercial accounts, for sure, will always use the Internet to get their information. They want info now. The look, feel and content of your website will, in large part, depend on how high it is ranked in the search engines.

To get this ranking, and therefore be found, you’ll need a solid “business” website and not just a website.

Why?

Properly made "business" websites get FOUND on the Internet. Regular ones seldom do.

If you want me to share my experiences with you, please click on my picture above.

I hope you found this site helpful. Thank you for visiting Your Blind Cleaning Business.

Free Counseling Available:

My mission is Paying It Forward. I will bring my 40 years of experiences to assist you for free as you consider any online or off line business.

This is not a trick, a come-on or something to get you to buy stuff. Nope. This is a sincere offer to help your start any online or offline business. Period.

I will never try to sell you anything!

Please just click on the above photo to contact me.