If you are a contractor that does restaurant hood cleaning, (sometimes referred to as kitchen exhaust hood cleaning), or just pressure washing commercially, you have come to the right place. Here at Hood Cleaning Helper, my goal is to equip other professionals with the right tools to help them achieve success. We make a living in an industry that looks upon us as the bottom of the barrel and I plan on changing that, one contractor at a time.
Hood cleaning prices are all over the board across the country and this isn’t good for the customers we serve, nor our company’s long term success. While bidding on contracts, a restaurant owner may have one price as low as $70 then another in the thousands. How can two different companies be so far from each other on price when they are suppose to be doing the same scope of work? The truth is, it usually comes down to what is actually being cleaned. Company A may only clean the hood and Company B is cleaning the entire kitchen exhaust system from hood to fan.
Over the years of restaurant hood cleaning, I have seen very good work and I have seen work that made me embarrassed to call myself a hood cleaner. Sometimes bad hood cleanings happen because the contractor wasn’t properly trained or didn’t have the proper tools to clean the kitchen exhaust system from top to bottom to bare metal as suggested by the NFPA #96. Sometimes, they are just lazy. I can’t help with the former, but I intend to help those of you who are looking for help because you want to do the job correctly.
I plan on passing down the years of personal experience, learned knowledge, specialty tools, business forms and many other things that will build up this industry and help those of you who are in the restaurant hood cleaning business to stay.
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I just received a HUGE booklet in the mail of the motion that Flying J filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
In a way, I’m glad I lost them about a year ago; they owed me no money. This booklet has to be at least 100 pages of vendors they owed money. It’s crazy.
It brings up an interesting point that we face as commercial service providers. I’ve always enjoyed the personal relationships that mom and pops offer and never really focused on chain accounts and big corporate accounts. Dealing with small businesses has it’s own set of headaches, but at least if one of them files for bankruptcy or goes under, you don’t lose your business too.
What is a good percentage of corporate vs. mom&pop accounts to have when running a hood cleaning or pressure washing business? I’ve always heard that no more than 30% of your business should come from any one source.
Lesson learned from this:
Get rid of debt, before it gets rid of you! Flying J made gajillions of dollars, yet debt ate them alive unto the point they have now filed for bankruptcy. So, when you are thinking about that new fancy pressure washer or that new handy dandy trailer, make sure you have the cash to pay for it.
If you are anything like me, you want to have a restaurant hood
cleaning business that is growing; not dying. How we do that is by
marketing our business constantly and consistently. I would like to
share some of the things that have helped me market my hood cleaning
business over the years.
The first thing you need to do is familiarize yourself with AIDA. AIDA
stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. In all your
marketing you need to have a headline that attracts attention. I
personally study ads that I have seen for years in the backs of
magazines because I know that they are working.
Next to you need to pique the restaurant owner’s interest by stating a
problem that they are probably having. Is their current hood cleaning
company leaving a mess in their kitchen? etc…
Then, you want to offer the solution to their problem which will create
a desire in them. “We don’t leave messes when we’re done, how would
you like to come in the next morning and see your kitchen cleaner than
you left it the night before?” Something like that.
Finally, EVERY piece of advertising you put out must have a clear,
immediate call to action. “Call now for free inspection”, or “fill out
this form on our web page to have a representative call you right
away”. It must be clear.
Well, I hope these simple tips help you market your hood cleaning
business a little better in the future. I will have many more to come
so please fill out your name and email address in the update list to make sure you don’t miss
any. Also, please leave comments if you have some more advice on
marketing a restaurant hood cleaning business or pressure washing
business.
