Lots of work in the Bahama's

As some of you may know Soap Warehouse sells products across the US but we also sell to customers in places like Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. So far we only have a few customers in these places and we sell only a few things like airplane cleaner, house and car washes. So when I had the opportunity to travel to Treasure Cay, Green Turtle Cay and Marsh Harbor in the Bahamas last Thursday and Friday to visit some golf cart rental companies I went for it.

I was amazed at the opportunities that are there that no one has tapped into. So if you ever are considering a place to slow down and retire but still do some work once in a while these little islands are ready and waiting.

In the larger cities like Nassau things are about what they are here in the US just slower, but once you get over to some of the little islands, things are drastically different. These islands are too small for many cars, so they use golf carts! These islands thrive on tourism and they know one way to make a tourist pick them over the competition is appearance. For example: If you had the choice of renting a four person golf cart between 2-3 different companies and they all are together in the same area at the dock when you landed, would you go to the one where you saw carts up on blocks obviously in need of repair with others with stains on the vinyl, or to the one with scuffs on the cart bodies with pealing decals OR would you head for the one that had gleaming clean carts all nicely parked in a row? Well you guessed right the clean ones rent first.

Even the Police use golf carts!

I spoke with some cart shop owners who admitted that some times a new customer will come in and ask to rent a certain cart by just its looks and only later ask the price or if it is electric or runs on gas? They already know what I was trying to sell them on. Appearance sells or in this case rents. The same also goes for the rental houses and cottages. Most are found only by being listed on the Internet and can only be seen first on line before they are rented out, but if real life does not measure up in person to the photo there can be trouble.

Same goes for your business. You may ask how can she compare my business where I am to something in the paradise of the Bahamas?

Well it is simple. If you pull up in a sparkling clean vehicle with a clean rig just like in your ads or on line this new customer will be happy you are here to do work for them. They have the perception that their property will come out as nice. Also if you have before and after photos on your web site they also have in their minds how clean their property should be once you are done and are obviously ready to pay you to get it.

Always look at your self and business as if in a mirror and see if you like what you see?

Have a great week and I am glad to be back home, but it sure was pretty to look at.

New Web Site

Well Good News,

We are finally getting the new Web site up today Friday May 1st, 2009. It is a few months behind schedule from when we wanted it and there are still many additions and changes to be made but for the most part the basic system will be up and running.

New features include a new tab layout which allows you to go to the type of work you will be doing to see the products we recommend using for these jobs. That does not mean you may not use a product that is not on that drop down but these are the ones most used or recommended for the task.

Then on each tabbed page that is opened you will see the products description, sizes and prices. Current customers will still be able to go to the private customer log in area to see or print out a complete current price list so jumping around page to page to find pricing will not be necessary.

Coming soon will be the option to place items in a shopping cart order form. Although it will not be able to figure freight costs, since there are too many variables, it will send your order request to us here at Soap Warehouse where we will calculate the freight according to the order form and we will contact you back with the exact amount and departure shipping information for you.

There will now be a front page area we will place major announcements for anyone to see, links to our Blog, resource materials, our e-mail sign up button, and every month a link to our current Newsletter. This way everyone can come to the site and see the Newsletter instead of us trying to send out multiple batches of e-mailed newsletters just to clients we have e-mails for. We will still for a while send out e-mail notices when the new newsletter is available on the site.

Coming soon too hopefully will be photos and videos from our bi-monthly product contests. If you do not know about these contests please call and ask for the link to the forms and instructions. You could win product credit on your account by just sending in photos, videos and testimonials about the products you buy and use from Soap Warehouse. The link will be on the site as well shortly.

We will also have a page showing photos and information on previous and up coming events Soap Warehouse has sponsored or exhibited at. Right now these are only available at our intuit website at http://soapwarehouse.intuitwebsites.com/index.html there on the More Info page.

We will still have the private current customer only log in area with special offers and information, just for current clients.

We are adding a MSDS page listing for all products, right now it is just one large down loadable file but soon each tab page will have a link with each product to its own MSDS and in the future a technical product data sheet.

I hope that the new changes will make visiting our site easier and more enjoyable and we would love to hear any ones comments or suggestions about the site. Please send them to linda@soapwarehouse.biz. We are sending this out as an e-mail and are also posting this in its entirety as an entry in our blog.

For those of you who have never looked at our blog please take this chance to do so, you find some valuable information there. We also want to use the blog to answer any customer questions so please send us some.

Have a Great Weekend and Thank you for being a Soap Warehouse Customer.

Be Just 1% Better!

I just read some very interesting but true advice I would like to pass on to you.

It is better to be just 1% better for 100 reasons than to be 100% better for only 1.

If you take that philosophy with your business you will see that even little changes make a big difference.

For example if your biggest competitor is always giving a 10% discount to new or referral customers and makes a big point of it in their advertising, then you offer 11%.

Now sometimes you can not out do someone or something by even 1%, take "available by phone 24 hours as day" for an example. But you can offer a faster response time either for a call back or actual booked appointment. But you must be able to follow through on your claims so chose carefully. You could offer a superior brand of stain for deck work instead of the run of the mill that everyone else carries, this does not mean that you do not charge for it, just that you carry and market it as the best in the industry. You can offer discounted window cleaning with a house wash or complementary gutter cleaning with a roof cleaning. Anything that the customer perceives as you giving that extra 1% over and over during your job for them will make you stand out, get you referrals and more jobs.

Always leave the owners property better then you found it, and I do not just mean on the job you are being paid to do. I mean make sure you pick up all of your trash or even their trash that your cleaning uncovers, within reason. If your service included furniture removal and replacement for a deck or patio cleaning be sure it is put back correctly or better than you found it. It may cost you only a few extra pennies to rinse off those plastic planters, deck chairs or cushions to make them look better. Of course you can always offer side services for a complete through cleaning job on these items first. And you must be willing to do these sort of small jobs that take up extra time before you offer them to the customer. It does you no good to advertise that you offer these services and have to later, while on the job, refuse to do them because you have booked your time so tight that you can not accommodate them. No matter how much pre-planning you do or questions you ask something else will always come up.

But if you do that extra 1 % for the customer over and over it will pay off 100 times over.

Bio Barrier

The next product I would like to discuss is Bio Barrier. I wrote about this product last year but I will mention it again after speaking on Citrus X-terior earlier this week. Bio Barrier is a great follow up product to any cleaning where molds and mildews have been a problem. Like with roof shingles - once the black Gloeocapsa Magma algae has been killed and removed, or with vinyl siding or wood decking- once the green, yellow, or black mold and any mildew has been killed and removed.

Bio Barrier needs to be applied right after a through cleaning of the surface has been done and the area to be treated is thoroughly dried. Bio Barrier is not a mold or mildew killer but rather a growth inhibitor. Bio Barrier protects a surface it is applied to from the harmful micro-organisms that cause odor and mold growth from coming back. A properly treated surface will have effective protection for 6-12 months depending on the environment and frequency of exposure to direct water or indirect moisture.

Bio Barrier does not have to be used on the whole house, roof or deck. You can locate, mark or document, like with photographs or a drawing of the problem areas before cleaning is done to easily locate them later for treatment. Bio Barrier is used straight, not diluted. It can be sprayed, sponged or wiped onto the surface for treatment just so a light but complete wetting of the product is applied to the surface material. Bio Barrier does not have to be used to soak, saturate or be allowed to run down or pool on a surface to be effective.

Bio Barrier can be used as an add on to your normal cleaning as an added value, additionally priced service. For just pennies you could be able to give a no growth guarantee with your cleaning that would be a perceived added value to your customer.

Say for instance you clean a house and a few days later come back to apply Bio Barrier just to the problem areas. If you have left a sign in the yard stating your company name and number, plus left cards with your current customer with a referral offer, you may very well be coming back to that area to do a new job besides doing the Bio Barrier treatment and moving your sign to a different house's yard in the same neighborhood.

Bio Barrier will make you look good to your customers and if you did a quality first cleaning job it should bring you added word of mouth business as well when the mold does not grow back in just a few months. It also gives you a leg up as to why you should come back on a yearly basis to clean the house and retreat for the mold.

Bio Barrier is available in 1 gallon bottles and 5 gallon pails. You can call to order Bio Barrier at 800-762-7911 or go to our web site http://www.soapwarehouse.biz/ where you will find a Data Sheet and other valuable information about Bio Barrier.

Citrus X-terior House Wash Cleaner

I will be writing some entries this year about certain products that we carry, depending on when they are the most popular or when I may have been asked about them by a customer. So I will start with this newer Soap Warehouse House Wash "Citrus X-terior" for the Spring cleaning season.

The Citrus X-terior product has some great features: nice citrus scent, it can be used with bleach, it is very economical in price, but is still a good cleaner even when using at the top of its dilution rate of 1:50, non hazardous or DOT regulated, and it is biodegradable.

The advantages of using Citrus X-terior instead of using just straight bleach with water for house washing are the following:

One, you can use less bleach than you would normally use if you where just house washing with bleach and water alone. This reduces the effects bleach alone can have on plants and grass, without reducing the reason you are using bleach, which is to kill molds and mildews while removing the colored stains that come with them from the surfaces of the house.

For an explanation of how bleach works please take a look at the article I wrote on bleach for the "Cleaner Times" magazine. http://www.cleanertimes.com/pdfdocs/2009CTMag/Clearing%20the%20Air%20on%20Bleach%202009-02.pdf

Two, you have the advantage that you are truly using a soap cleaner to wash and remove dirt, oils and other harmful residues from the surface of the house, not just changing their chemical makeup to become invisible. This will extend the life of the paint, vinyl, hardy plank or brick surface of the house while improving its appearance.

Third, the clean citrus scent masks the strong bleach odor and leaves the customer with a more pleasant lasting reminder, than that of the just bleach.

Now Citrus X-terior is not for every job you may have, especially with the extremely dirty or neglected homes, but for a general once a year house cleaning product, Citrus X-terior is a very good one to have available and will make you money.

Citrus X-terior is available in a 1 gallon bottle, 5 gallon pail or a 55 gallon kit. Call the office to order 800-762-7911 or for current pricing, or go to our website: http://www.soapwarehouse.biz/.

Storm Damage

Here is just a few of the reasons Soap Warehouse was out of power, phones and Internet from Monday April 13th around 10:15 AM until Wednesday at 6:30 AM.





I am sure all of you know how frustrating it can be when things beyond your control come crashing into your life. Atlanta is a beautiful city and is not called the city of trees for nothing, but it can have it's downside.
Our Warehouse and office are located in an small office park that backs up to a huge golf course and Old home neighborhood in Dekalb Co. We had crews working on a main side road for over 24 hours practically moving only 20-30 feet at a time restoring the downed lines to get our small area back up. With the major drought followed by this month of heavy rain and the new leaves just coming out catching the strong winds, all these reasons together made Monday's thunderstorm look like we had a tornado come through here.
We appreciate every ones understanding and patience in allowing us time to get back to being able to receive and fill orders. And for the few customers that were worried when we did not answer our phone, fax or e-mails until I got home Tuesday night and was able to retrieve them off site and answer them, thank you for your concern.
Photos courtesy of the Dekalb County Champion Newspaper.
With this delay our new website should be up by early next week and I will be sure to let everyone know when that event takes place.
Thanks again and everyone take care.

Taxes

One of the most dreaded words of the small business owner.

I wanted to share a few tips we have found to pass on along with some other links that may help some of you.

First tip: Get some professional help. I do not mean to have to pay a fortune for this help but too many small business owners think they can do it themselves and find out only years later after an audit, that they either owe money they don't have or wasted money they could have gotten back, but is now too late to recover it.

Even if you just read up on the subject, go on line for a self help like at Entrepreneur.com or pay for a tax filing program you will be ahead of the game.

Here is a link to a great lady I know Diana Crawford. She did these tax audit videos for a client and it has helped many people. Besides just being an accountant with a CPA degree she is an Intuit QuickBooks expert. So if you use QuickBooks (I suggest you use some type of computer program) and have a problem give her a shout. She will help anyone or at least steer them to a local person that can. She teaches QuickBooks small business classes for free and does Beta testing for Intuit on new versions of QuickBooks and is an Intuit Trainer. If you already have QuickBooks there is a wealth of free information just through Intuit on line.

http://www.expertvillage.com/expert/2239.htm (cut and paste the link)
dcrawford@cmccpas.com This is her e-mail. Please indicate on the subject line or in your e-mail you are a Soap Warehouse customer. She is also available to do any ones businesses taxes, her firm handles clients across the country.

Right now we are planing to start recording her free "How to set up your small business with QuickBooks" sessions so she will have more time to devote to hosting other advanced classes. We are also discussing with her to possibly make a video just for pressure washing businesses to address their specific needs to put on our site. I will let everyone know as soon as new sessions are available.

Next make sure you are tracking every expense. Do you give out coupons or give discounts for services to customers? You need to track that money as cost of advertising, this expense is to be taken against the money you made. If you list your total income minus cost of labor and supplies but forget this amount it could be costing you hundreds of dollars a year in tax savings.

Mileage vs actual cost: Always keep a log book in your company vehicle listing the beginning millage on Jan 1. on the first page and then keep a millage log to and from every customer or stop. List every dollar spent on gas, oil changes, tires, tune ups, repairs etc. I also suggest putting this information into a spreadsheet at least once a week or so. This way at the end of the year you can evaluate if you should take the flat mileage rate of the miles you drove for work or the actual costs of using your vehicle for business. Don't forgot the mileage on your personal vehicle either especially if it is used to do other errands like deposit money in the bank or pick up office supplies. Keep an estimate book in your family , so if you meet someone, hand them a card and give them an estimate, you can write off some of that mileage as well.

Even something as simple as doing your laundry can save you money. If you spend the few extra dollars to put a company name patch on your clothes you are then able to write off not only the cost of the items, but the cost of the patch and cleaning them for the entire year. Because they are then considered a uniform not just personal apparel, but I suggest wearing them sometimes even when you are not working to promote your business name. I will sometimes wear our Soap Warehouse business tag out just to try and start conversations and get new leads. Even putting a sign with your business's name and number on your personal car will allow you to write off the costs it takes to do it plus gives you the added advertising. I have even lent a set of magnetic signs to friends to put on their vehicle when I know are going on a long cross country trip to generate calls. I never know where my next customer may be coming from.

Good Luck dealing with Uncle Sam this year.