No matter how dedicated you are to the success of your valet trash business, don’t fool yourself into believing that you simply can’t fail like those other guys did. Fortunately, there are 5 failures of apartment and multi-family community valet trash companies that we will shed some light on here so you can avoid them. After all, knowledge is power!
Failure 1: Pricing Valet Trash Services Incorrectly
Don’t lie to yourself and say it’s not about the money because it is. Yes, you chose the service industry which means you must like helping people, too. Ultimately, you started your own business to give yourself the freedom to live your life, to be your own boss, and to make money. You can’t enjoy the first two goals if you can’t make money.
Pricing your valet trash services is essential in achieving your community valet trash business’ success. For some that have failed, a proper pricing structure wasn’t put in place. Establishing the pricing of your services is one of the very first areas that need to be addressed when starting your valet trash business. Fortunately, we can help with this tough task in our National Trash Valet Online Training System.
With the right pricing strategy, and delivering unbeatable valet trash service, everything else will fall into place
Failure 2: Mediocre Marketing
You could be running a top-notch multi-family community valet trash company, but if you’re marketing is all wrong, who will ever know it exists?
You don’t have to be a marketing genius to get your brand out there. Some of our previous blog posts will hold your hand right through the process. Paying attention to your marketing will be just what your valet trash business needs to keep from failing like those other valet trash companies did.
Keep your message clear and to-the-point, communicate it both online and off and stay on-brand. You really can’t go wrong this way.
Failure 3: Being too Cheap
Being frugal isn’t what we mean.
Being cheap is completely different.
Cheapness is purchasing valet trash bins that are such poor quality they crack after a month of use or giving your valets trash collection bags that are known to tear because they were ten dollars cheaper to order in bulk.
Being cheap communicates a loud message to the property managers, valets, and doorstep clients. It shouts, “I don’t care about you, I just care about making money!” If you can’t understand that spending the extra $300 on the bulk order of quality, weatherproof, resident trash cans is a better purchase than the cans you know will never last a winter, you have chosen the service industry as the wrong business- and you shouldn’t be in business!
Once your clients and employees understand that it’s not their best interest you have in mind, they will leave the first chance they get and they will tell everyone they know why they did so.
To be wise with your money, budgeting and planning purchases go together. Doing so ensures you are aware of the location of every dime you spend. Budgets keep you from over-spending and making purchases that are unnecessary.
This is where being frugal is important. It is understanding that sometimes you need to spend the extra money for the quality supplies to show your employees and customers that you appreciate them and their loyalty to your company as their employer or multi-family community valet trash service company.
Failure 4: Not Performing a SWOT Analysis
It may seem strange that avoiding an honest look at where your valet trash company stands could cause it to fail, but don’t be fooled. Avoiding your competitive strengths and not addressing your weaknesses is an equation that equals failure.
A SWOT analysis is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Breaking your valet trash company down into these quadrants doesn’t take an entire day and just doing it once is not enough.
A quick online search will show you how to perform a SWOT analysis and you’ll be glad you did!
Brainstorming is key to a successful SWOT- gather your business partners and valet trash employees, cater some lunch and roll out the whiteboard. You may learn something about your multi-family community valet trash company that you didn’t know before. Bringing in different perspectives to contribute to the SWOT will give you a leg-up on the competition and the varying relationships and opinions will allow you to look at your valet trash business with an objective point-of-view.
Failure 5: Employee Non-Appreciation
If your multi-family community valet trash business has grown enough to hire valet employees, congrats! You are on the road to small-business success! Just remember to take care of your employees and they will take care of your customers.
If you fail to show your employees how much you value their hard work and dedication, it will show in their work which will ultimately reflect in your business success.
If you aren’t sure how to properly manage your staff, take the time to educate yourself. Understand that your employees are people, just like you. This means they have families, finances, and basic human needs that must be met to live comfortably.
Keep the lines of communication- and your office door- open. Reward hard work and boost morale; it isn’t hard to do. If word gets out that your employees are appreciated, you’ll likely never have to post for open positions.
The road to success is paved with hard work and total awareness of where your residential trash doorstep franchise is positioned in the valet trash industry, in the community, and with your staff. Keeping an open mind and constantly assessing your position in these areas will keep your valet trash company off the list of failed multi-family community valet trash companies.
