EHoodCleaner has just launched a new page on our site called Our Hood Cleaners, where we will feature by state, our hood cleaners that have signed up with our EPromotion program.  This is just another way we are working to promote our hood cleaners online. 

EPromotion is our very own online marketing program for hood cleaners.  You contract with us to design your website, and we will promote it online using various marketing tactics.  There are no long-term contracts, so you can give us a try, risk free!

Check out our online marketing for hood cleaning businesses.

EHoodCleaner gets better all the time, and we do listen to what you want.  That's why we are debuting the EHoodCleaner hood cleaning expense tool on the EHoodCleaner software.  What is it?  It's just a simple place where you can record all of your business expenses.  With the click of a button on another screen, you can calculate a rough net profit (depending on how complete your expense record is). 

Accounting is very important for any small business, including hood cleaning.  We are also going to debut outsource accounting services for hood cleaning businesses very shortly.  We hope this hood cleaning expense tool will help our users make smart business decisions based on real numbers.

Stay tuned because EHoodCleaner is only getting better!

Taking before and after pictures is an essential, win-win proactive step in your hood cleaning service protocol.  It protects your business from unnecessary accusations and gives you a marketing edge above your competition. 

If you haven't already had to deal with disputes over previous damage to your customer's facility, it's coming.  Some customers have not been properly attending to their grease containment systems or to their hood cleaning.  Roof damage and other problems can occur.  How do you make sure your customer doesn't blame you for previous damage and sees the value of your service?  Take before and after pictures. 

The reality is people like to blame others for their problems, and its a lot easier to tell insurance companies that "my hood cleaner did a lousy job," than, "I haven't actually been keeping up with my exhaust system maintenance."  Some of your customers, like the big chains, may already be taking pictures after you leave.  It's critical to protect yourself these days with your own pictures and documentation of previous damage.

Before and after pictures are also a great marketing tool when trying to win new customers.  It demonstrates accountability and professionalism.  It also helps far-away corporate decision makers feel more comfortable with your local, small company because they can always check on the work you are doing.  How many of your competitors can advertise, "Before and After Pictures Available for Each Job"?

EHoodCleaner makes it easy for you to add before and after pictures to your service portfolio, giving your clients instant access to their pictures and their invoice through their own unique EHoodCleaner username login.  We can include a special EHoodCleaner customer support page to your website so your clients can visit your website to get instructions and log in to the EHoodCleaner system.  After viewing their invoice and before and after pictures, your customers can even pay their bill online through PayPal with EHoodCleaner. 

Learn more about EHoodCleaner's Picture Capabilities.

In this economy, it's hard to imagine businesses thriving, but smart businesses are growing.  Hood cleaning is one of those recession proof businesses because it is a repeat service that is required by law.  If you have cut all the "fat" out of your business and run an efficient one-man operation, you know as well as I that you can outbid your competition.  When you get to the point where you have maxed out your capacity at 200 contracts, you have to answer an important business question: "Do you hire other hood cleaners in order to grow your hood cleaning business or not?" 

You may be thinking, of course!  But, when you add other personalities to the mix of your business, you need reevaluate your business system model and the financial and emotional burdens new employees create.  Below is a list of considerations that demand your serious thought and the counsel of other seasoned hood cleaning business owners, a CPA and or the Small Business Administration.

• Can I afford to "lose" money temporarily as I accommodate the equipment, training, and legal expenses needed to add other hood cleaners to my business?
• What are going to be my "start-up" and "on-going" expenses for hiring a new hood cleaner?  Take into consideration, equipment, training, insurances (workman's compensation, business liability, etc.), adding payroll to your accounting needs (including paying social security, etc.), and more.
• Is my business office and accounting system organized enough to accommodate more input and processing of clients and job scheduling?
• Do I have a written policy manual of my business so that expectations for new hood cleaners can be uniformly presented?
• Do I have an orientation plan for how I will train new hood cleaners to fit into my business? 
  
• Do I have a clear plan for how I will evaluate, monitor, foster communication, and create accountability for new hood cleaners?
• Can I handle placing my reputation in the hands of someone else to represent me to others?

Though some may go ahead and hire people without adequate thought and preparation, eventually, the headaches of disorganization, poor communication, and unanticipated expenses will stifle growth and even cause you to lose precious contracts.  We have seen this happen, and the crisis can get out of control.  Take the time to really consider, plan, and consult with trusted advisors before taking the leap to hire other hood cleaners. 

If you decide to grow your business with added hood cleaners, EHoodCleaner can provide you with the logistical and virtual organizational structure you need to manage job scheduling and client billing for multiple hood cleaners.  It can also be used by the one-man operation to streamline and organize his office tasks so that if he decides to grow his business, he can do so in a more organized fashion.

Check out EHoodCleaner's great features that make it the perfect office platform for the multiple hood cleaner organization. 

Getting online is a lot more than just getting a website and trusting that "they will come".  The internet is a vast ocean in which you can easily drift into oblivion where no one will be able to find you. 

So how do you navigate the internet sea to find the continent of your potential clients so you can establish yourself there?  I will summarize a few basic principles to help you see the big picture. 

Many consumers use search engines and online directories to find information.  The main search engines, in order of popularity, are Google (70%), Yahoo (20%), and Bing (4%).  Popular online business directories include White Pages, Google Maps, and Yellow Pages.   

Therefore, create an online presence that is easily found by the search engines using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques and paid listings.  SEO is applying special techniques in the design and promotion of your web page that makes your page more accessible to search engine crawlers and more easily found by your target searchers.  SEO requires considerable time conducting keyword research and back linking.  By practicing SEO, you will minimize your paid listings expense in the long run because you will optimize your website and directory listings' visibility in the organic search engine listings.

No online marketing campaign for a hood cleaning business is complete without monitoring your website traffic activity with proper analytics software like Google Analytics or StatCounter.  You must also carefully track your conversion rate to monitor the effectiveness of your sales copy in your website.  Conversion rate refers to the percentage of visitors to your website that actually made an effort to contact you in some form or fashion.  I have found placing a call tracking number on the website to be an invaluable tool in collecting statistical data regarding conversion rate.  A normal website conversion rate can be anywhere between 1 and 10%.  Data is only helpful if you monitor it regularly.

Finally, after collecting and monitoring data on your online marketing efforts for your hood cleaning business, you need to evaluate that data to determine whether your campaign is effective or not and make adjustments. 

Business owners who delve into this area eventually realize that it is a job in itself keeping up with online marketing and may rightfully consider outsourcing that department.  Be careful of signing year-long agreements with marketing companies, who claim to guarantee you a certain number of visitors a month to your website, or who try to sell you glorified expensive listings in their online directories.  If your website does not know how to "sell" your services, the money you are paying for clicks to your website is wasted.  If there are only a handful of hood cleaning companies in your area, then you don't need a glorified expensive listing to be seen.  They may even place you in the wrong business category. 

Look for online marketing companies that do not lock you into long contracts so you can jump ship if they are not delivering.  Make sure you have a meaningful way to monitor the success of their campaign.  Make sure they have to send you monthly reports of how things are going.  There are scams out there, like someone calling with "Internet Yellow Pages", that pretend to have you already contracted with them, make unheard of claims regarding their results for you and do not have the reports to back up their claims of what they have actually done for you. 

It's a big bad world out there, and you have to be careful of what you sign up for.  Though they are a legitimate company, especially think twice about year-long contracts with AT&T Yellow Pages online advertising for your hood cleaning company.  I had a hood cleaning client who is not internet savvy and contracted with AT&T Yellow Pages for an internet marketing service for his territory.  For a while they had him listed under "air duct services", and he could not tell whether the $180 a month he was paying for online advertising was converting into sales calls or not.  He also discovered that some other company was attaching a charge for over a year through his AT&T bill for a (badly designed) website he didn't even know existed!  Thankfully, for this hood cleaner, EHoodCleaner took over his online marketing campaign and all the discussions with AT&T to sort out these problems and unneeded expenses. 

The main lesson here is that you must be an active player in your online marketing campaign especially in dealing with companies who may not be familiar with your industry.  Also, if you don't understand what exactly they are doing for you, enlist the expertise of someone who can interpret their services to you or just don't sign up.

At EHoodCleaner, we follow these principles in marketing for hood cleaning businesses.  And we love hood cleaners.  We are your online advocate on the internet and are committed to your success.  As a business owner, if you know you are too busy to do a thorough online marketing campaign for your hood cleaning business, or maybe you don't know how to implement the recommendations above, you can hire EHoodCleaner to work closely with you to run your campaign for you.  And there are no long term contracts with us.

Learn more about EHoodCleaner's Epromotion program here.

In case you haven't heard of the book, I recommend you get yourself a copy of The Four Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferriss.  In it, he presents principles of productivity, time management, and business planning to help you minimize your work time and maximize your financial return on your work time.  One principle I'd like to discuss is outsourcing. 

My favorite accountant friend's tag line for his customers is "You do what you do best, and let me take care of the numbers."  Think about it.  How much time do you waste trying to figure out something that someone else could do for you in a moment?  I know, I know.  You are trying to save money.  But are you really saving money?  How much is your time worth to you?  $30 an hour?  $50 an hour?  $10 an hour?  When you really think about it, you could have paid someone a fraction of the cost you would have paid yourself considering the amount of time it took to complete that task.  And in the end, the product is only half good because you are not an expert in it.

Two main areas that come to mind when I think of outsourcing that we are not experts in but spin our wheels trying to do it ourselves are accounting and online marketing.  If you are struggling to do an adequate job in those areas, consider hiring others to do them for you.  EHoodCleaner can manage your online marketing campaign at our expense, and you only pay us commission if we send you a legitimate lead.  Our friend, The Accounting Department, can work with you to manage your accounting functions to whatever degree you'd like help at a reasonable price.

Save yourself some time, money, and hassle.  Outsource.