How to get clients for your Ironing service

Starting any business is easy, more so when you want to be self-employed and choose a line of business that does not require too many skills. It is even easier if it is a service most people will be happy to pay for. The difficult part is trying to find paying clients to keep your business running for it to pay for your time and effort. Starting an ironing service is a good idea, people want their clothes ironed, and not everyone has the time to do it themselves. The question is how to find clients who would use your services regularly.

Finding Prospective Clients

All marketing strategies point towards the benefits of studying your potential target clients. So sit down and write up the categories of people who would want someone else to do the ironing for them. I would think that the following three types of people would be most likely clients: Young mothers with babies: they do not have much time on hand to do laundry or ironing. They would be a good group to target. Busy executives: They want to look smart but their busy lifestyle makes it difficult to handle laundry and ironing. They are a client base you should look for as they also have disposable income to hire someone to do their chores for them. Older people: If there are any retirement homes then that would definitely be a place to target your business, as older people find it difficult to iron their clothes and would be gald to have someone who could do it for them. Besides these three obvious groups, you could target people with physical disabilities who find it difficult to move around let alone take care of ironing. People who are suffering with illness or taking care of someone who is sick, would also appreciate someone doing the ironing for you. If there are any B&B's or other similar businesses in your area, they would be a good place to offer your services too.

Marketing Your services

Now that you have a target list of clients, you need to concentrate on your marketing strategies. It may have to be different for different groups of people. You will need to find a good blend of conventional and modern marketing strategies. Since you cannot spend too much money on advertising as you are starting out and may not have the spare cash to market your service. So look for cheaper options. The best thing for you would be to go with the following: Flyers and visiting cards – They are cheap to print. Easy to distribute and you can put in a lot of information on the flyers. You can put your price list, your services, and any other USP that you feel your ironing service business has. Make sure that the flyers are attractive and informative. Do include your contact information – your phone number, mobile number, e-mail, business address, etc. prominently on the flyer. Include your Facebook page and website address if you have these. Pass them on in all public spaces, bars, restaurants, library, supermarkets, pubs, café's etc. Give them out freely they are cheap and bring all that your ironing service offers into focus. Magnets for your Services – Magnets with your business name and services you offer for your ironing service along with contact information is a good and cheap way to advertise your ironing services. These magnets can be stuck to cars and washing machines in a Laundromat. Pamphlets – It is better to get a few pamphlets printed for people who do not get around the neighbourhood much. These are costlier than the flyers but will serve their purpose of getting the attention of your target audience. Again, do make the pamphlet informative, list all your services and contacts on it. Include your website and Facebook page. Pass on these pamphlets to people who you think might want your ironing service, slip them under the doors of houses or businesses that you feel might be prospective clients. Door to door Marketing – This is time consuming but a good way to interact with your prospective clients. Since it is early days yet, we assume you can invest your time in this. Make sure to leave your flyer and visiting cards when you are canvassing for your ironing service door to door. Also make sure you are visiting the right type of client and not making random calls, which would be a waste of your time. Make a list of clients who you feel could give you business, and then visit them to make a positive impact. Older clients are a good place to start. Please do not hire someone to do this for you, it is your business and your clients would like to know you, so take this as an opportunity to introduce yourself to the people who will be investing in your ironing service. Social Media Marketing – This is perhaps the cheapest way to get to the netizens in your neighbourhood. Any Social media is good so do make sure your ironing business and you have a presence on the net and on the social media. You can talk as much about your business as you may want, generate interest and reap the rewards. But this works only with people who are looking for services similar to ones you provide. Be sure to include your location so people can find you on the net. Facebook is a good way to start off. Create and page for your business and post on it whenever you have time, invite your friends and family to like it and watch the word spread on its own. If you have a website, include your website address in your social media page and posts. Create a website – This is a bit more expensive than the other marketing strategies we have discussed, especially if you do not know how to create a website and need to hire someone else to do it for you. There are various tutorials available on the net that teach you how to create a website from scratch as well as hosting sites that will charge you a very nominal fee per annum to host your site. Do take a look on the net about creating your own website before you go all professional and spend a lot of money in creating a website. Eventually, it will pay for itself and you will reap its benefits for a long time, but you can avoid this initial cost by creating your own website. A website will give you a lot of advantage, it will put your business in front of a global audience and generate inquiries you could not have thought possible in pre internet days. Now your marketing and advertising strategies are taken care of and you can expect to see some business come your way. Once you have a few clients, then, if your service is good, the word of mouth publicity will do the rest for you. If you still think you need more clients, you could approach a laundry agency or service and start working for them. They would find the clients for you and you do not have to bother with it at all.