reading the posts just to get a feel for the way things work. I have
noticed how helpful you all seem to be and I appreciate the useful
info.
About a month and a half ago, my husband and I along with a friend
started a home maintenance business. We live in a resort area (OBX,
NC) and there are roughly 30,000 homes. More than half of those
homes don't have permanent residents because they are rented on a
weekly basis for vacations. The homeowners live all around the world
and these homes are investments only. With that many homes there are
only 5 maintenance companies and only 2 of them are truly
professional. It is our goal to pick up some of that market by
providing quality work and exceptional customer service. We are
directing our efforts to create relationships with homeowners to
become their preferred services provider.
So far we have had several jobs mainly through word of mouth. We
have used the county tax records to create mailing lists and mailed
promotional letters to those homeowners that live abroad and own
several homes here. We have partnered with several other vendors
(carpet cleaners, plumbers, etc.) that we have had the opportunity to
establish relationships with through our full-time jobs to get
referrals. For instance if an owner schedules a carpet clean and
mentions a maintenance need, the carpet vendor refers us. If we are
doing maintenance and an owner needs their carpets cleaned we refer
them.
Our funds are very limited at this point and I was wondering if
anyone has any ideas on generating business. How do you generate
referrals? Also, I have just started the business plan. I know that
should have been first, but we had to do things out of sequence
because we had people interested in working with us once they heard
we were thinking about it. Now that I have started it I am stuck
mainly because i dread working on it. How critical have you found a
business plan to be? I know it is important, but is it something I
should treat as urgent or can I take my time? Also, how often should
it be updated?
I am actually operations manager, so everything regarding the nuts
and bolts of the business is my job. My husband and our friend
actually do the hands on maintenance. I look forward to any input
you all have to offer.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Erica Walker
Operations Manager
Fire Walker Home Services
------------------------------------
Need help? Contact Vickie at vics4us@yahoo.com .
http://www.educatingforsuccess.com .
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