Sewerdog's log

[Antonio44]

I enjoy following these adventures, keep it up!

I attached the files incase anyone's interested, any feedback would be greatly appreciated - especially if you're a homeowner or have written copy before!

I'd suggest think how someone who has no previous knowledge of gutter cleaning might perceive it. Bonus points if they're female. Like, when I was thinking about this, I thought how I could sell this to my sister.

General feedback:

Neighbour is not spelt correct - worthwhile running all text through a spellchecker and grammar.

I'm not a great copywriter - but if I had to say - why do I want to have clean gutters? Like as a homeowner, what's the benefit? Specifically, (i'm not a gutterboy so IDK just brainstorming why you might do it) - it'll save potential damaged/collapsed gutters? Flooding/water damage of house?


Slightly more personal opinions so feel free to take with a pinch of salt:


I think it would help to see you on the leaflet, looking smart ish work clothes. You have a big advantage here in that you look respectable naturally - in my prev experience (maybe it's just the areas I hang out in), the majority of window cleaners etc were alcoholics/definitely on the junkie scale. The kinda people I would feel slightly uncomfortable about knowing they were using ladders on my house when I wasn't there.

If referencing a neighbour's house - I think specific references to locations would help. You're in nottingham so I'd ref that at least. Also, when going door to door and saying "we've just cleaned alice's gutters at number 6, and as we're already here we can give you a 15% discount." Social proof.

Pricing - I can see why you wouldn't want to state example prices, but some kind of reference to it would be helpful - or state the typical time to do the job. Like, customers don't know, is this going to take a full day or is it a 20 minute job? If you tell them a typical house is an hour then they can at least think "ok, it's gonna be in the ballpark of 50 quid".

[natedawg]

Personal notes from me:

- I'd consider removing the "We just cleaned your neighbor's house" simply because it's probably not true. I have a hunch that the idea came from the sales tactic "We recently cleaned xyz's gutter down the street, do you know them?". It's not bad at all, but I would want to see something more benefit-driven in place of it.

- ^ A good exercise for this listing out all the benefits of getting your gutters done. For most people, they may not have gutter issues for years, and as a result it's not a pressing pain. As they are not in a pain to fix them, it can be hard for them to find a reason to clean their gutters.... Unless you give them one of course.

With that said...

- If they don't clean their gutters? What can happen as a result? Rot in the roof? Mold? List them all out.
- If they DO have clean gutters, what benefits do they experience? Increasing roof replacement time by 5/10 years? Hell, what would happen if they got their gutters cleaned once per year so they called you back all the time?

Regarding the pictures, I would simplify them into two solid before/after images. Contrast is a powerful selling tool.

Expand on the bullets, don't make them too long but just long enough to sell your service a little more. Double points if they leave an impression (with something like humor). For example your last bullet: "Fully insured" to... "Fully insured - So you can sue me if I mess up!" (don't use that lol)

Regarding the colors: I'd opt for more disruptive color schemes like neon green/yellow etc.

[Sewerdog]

@Antonio44 @natedawg Thanks fellas this is some great feedback, I'm gonna put together the next iteration and get some more printed with my door to door money, appreciate it!

[Sewerdog]

My leaflets arrived today
Stayed in to wait for the delivery and then went out, found some very wealthy neighbourhoods to post them, did about 200 in 2 and a half hours - took a long time walking up and down all the drives.
Kept going after it got dark, there was one house where I posted the leaflet, looked round and saw the electronic gates start to close, thought: "oh fuck off" and had to sprint out before they shut

Things to consider:
5000 leaflets is a lot more than I thought and will last me a while.
Given this I'd like to move to online advertising although I'll see how the leaflets perform.
A thicker a6 style might be better to get through the letterbox as sometimes the a5 leaflets get crumpled when posted.

[Sewerdog]

Had an amazing day out with doctor girl. We did a hike around one of the national parks here, got to talk about a lot of deeper stuff and just have a really good time. Went back and had dinner and I stayed over.
She told me how she worked in a care home before studying medicine and specialising in geriatrics. She really enjoyed it- turns out this smart, good-looking, posh blonde girl just really enjoys looking after people.
At one point it was just us walking back through some fields as it was getting dark and I realised how much I would have given a couple years ago to have an experience like this and now it just feels normal. I think we've crossed a threshold from dating and fucking to making some actual memories.

12 years ago on the 6th Jan my father died of cancer, he fought his way out of a council estate to doing 6-figure contract work in finance but sacrificed his health and relationships. It would be really cool to talk to him now and tell him what I've been up to. Shortly after he passed I dropped out of college, became a depressed stoner and was generally directionless, I watched myself fall behind because I never thought I could have what I wanted in life. But now I feel that when I figure out how to make good money, after all this time, I'll have finally got my shit together.

I've decided to max myself out, get rich, start a family and have a community.

Been working on my next ad and using the feedback to really get to why this service is valuable. I've attached a draft but I think its coming together.

[Zug]

12 years ago on the 6th Jan my father died of cancer, he fought his way out of a council estate to doing 6-figure contract work in finance but sacrificed his health and relationships. It would be really cool to talk to him now and tell him what I've been up to. Shortly after he passed I dropped out of college, became a depressed stoner and was generally directionless, I watched myself fall behind because I never thought I could have what I wanted in life. But now I feel that when I figure out how to make good money, after all this time, I'll have finally got my shit together.

I've decided to max myself out, get rich, start a family and have a community.

Love reading stuff like this. Really feels good to go from a fuck up to having your shit together, doesn't it?

I don't know much about ads, but this one doesn't strike me as being very good. There's a lot of buzzword bingo, there's no real hook or narrative to it. I can't remember the name of the company, nothing grabs my attention. 25% off when you message within 7 days just sounds like obvious bullshit when there's no price listed. I'm not an ad guy, but nothing strikes me as effective here. The before and after photos are a very nice idea, but the before photo isn't even that bad. Also the slight difference in camera angle is a problem in a comparison photo for a topic that's uninteresting and that doesn't provide explanation. I don't like the photos being vertical when its a before and after, usually that's presented horizontally with before photo on the left. I would chose a more extreme before photo with more obvious problems/repairs, and make damn sure the camera angle for both before and after is EXACTLY the same.

[Sewerdog]

12 years ago on the 6th Jan my father died of cancer, he fought his way out of a council estate to doing 6-figure contract work in finance but sacrificed his health and relationships. It would be really cool to talk to him now and tell him what I've been up to. Shortly after he passed I dropped out of college, became a depressed stoner and was generally directionless, I watched myself fall behind because I never thought I could have what I wanted in life. But now I feel that when I figure out how to make good money, after all this time, I'll have finally got my shit together.

I've decided to max myself out, get rich, start a family and have a community.

Love reading stuff like this. Really feels good to go from a fuck up to having your shit together, doesn't it?

I don't know much about ads, but this one doesn't strike me as being very good. There's a lot of buzzword bingo, there's no real hook or narrative to it. I can't remember the name of the company, nothing grabs my attention. 25% off when you message within 7 days just sounds like obvious bullshit when there's no price listed. I'm not an ad guy, but nothing strikes me as effective here. The before and after photos are a very nice idea, but the before photo isn't even that bad. Also the slight difference in camera angle is a problem in a comparison photo for a topic that's uninteresting and that doesn't provide explanation. I don't like the photos being vertical when its a before and after, usually that's presented horizontally with before photo on the left. I would chose a more extreme before photo with more obvious problems/repairs, and make damn sure the camera angle for both before and after is EXACTLY the same.

Hell yes it feels good.

Thanks these are some really good points.
I might bring my dslr up a ladder and try to get some really striking before and after shots.
Definitely can work on a compelling narrative to work the points into and refine it.
The offer is an interesting challenge too, I've heard an offer with a discount within a time frame is the most effective call to action but the vague discount I've got does sound suss.

[Sewerdog]

From seeing 4 different girls I've found:

1. I like doctor girl, I've noticed I like spending time with her and she has shown me a lot of what I like in women. I'm gonna a keep building this relationship and take every good date as a bonus - which it is.
Very smart and lively girl, not solipistic at all and then starts cumming non stop for about 5 minutes straight when we have sex which is a massive rush especially as I just like making her feel good.

2. Phd girl, seems to have gone a bit luke-warm but I'm not sure if it's just in contrast to spending time with doctor girl or me feeling luke-warm on my end because of the lack of passion.

3. Student girl, quite sporadic late night meet ups - haven't seen her yet this year as I've been on a good sleep schedule and have a lot to do in the mornings. Otherwise we have nothing in common and are just using eachother for sex which is pretty good.

4. Stripper girl, haven't pursued her anymore either because she drinks and does coke a lot and I'm not about that life.

I'm finding all time spent with doctor girl is so good the others seem a bit meh, also I haven't been putting time I to OD because I'm getting what I want right now and taking the chance to live the early 20s that never happened.

I've really enjoyed seeing a few girls at once and then spending more time with with best one for me naturally.
I want to build something lasting but I'm going to keep pushing to see what I'm capable of after I'm in a good place money wise.
Reason being is money controls my looksmaxxing and logistics and also I'm gonna run out if I'm not careful lol.

Otherwise I have 9 days off work so will be back on the apps and out all day door to door next week!

[Sewerdog]

Had an excellent day door knocking, found another wealthy neighbourhood with lots of trees and landed a job in under 10 doors.

What I've changed:
I now have a uniform: smart navy blue outdoor jacket, smart jeans, clean safety boots and a navy blue cap.
I also go around with the leaflets for when no-one is in or for when someone is interested but they dont need their gutters doing right now.

I've also noticed i'm getting good responses when people talk to me a bit longer at the door even when they dont need the service - usually i'll get the "We've just had them done" objection which seems to mean everything is on point with my pitch but they just dont need the service. I think this is the case because with each job I've landed everyone needed the service quite badly.

The most interesting thing about today is one of the big boys in the area was actually supposed to do this job around christmas but had to cancel so I was able to pick it up - I think this is a massive benefit of going door to door, it's perfect for capitalising on these opportunities and I was able to get work even though a more established gutter cleaning company had been through this area already.

What I've added to my service:
Showed customer before and after photos.
Made the effort to chat with them and create some rapport, I then gave them some of my leaflets.

They gave me a tip when they saw how much I was actually clearing from their gutters. They also said they'll refer me to some of their friends and I got to tell them some more about how I'm growing this as a side hustle - this is what I'm most pleased about.
Finally they asked me if I was able to fix a leaky bit of guttering - this is actually an upsell I've been thinking of but need to get a much bigger ladder to be able to offer this service, amazing that the opportinuity was actually presented to me though.

Most importantly I quoted a solid price this time and managed to get the job done to a high standard in the two hours I gave myself.

Pretty gassed about today because if I landed a job like this every day I would be able to out-earn my current job when the whole process of leaving the house, door knocking and cleaning took about 3 and a half hours! Not mentioning i'd pay less tax due to business write-offs.

Just did the one job so I could crush an upper body workout and now going to Doctor girl's to cook her dinner and fuck her brains out.

Very grateful for today and even more grateful that it was all because I got out and made shit happen.

[Sewerdog]

Woke up at Doctor girls house, she had to leave early for work.
I lazed around a bit feeling some resistance to getting out there, was not in the zone at all, ate breakfast and headed out.

I got the first door I knocked on.
It was yesterday's neighbourghs who had also been let down by the big gutter cleaning company.
Charged a good price and completed the job fast, she was pleased with the service, asked if I had a card so I passed her a leaflet.

Another opportunity capitalised on by door knocking.

I did some research into this company. They have a fleet of vans with cranes on the back and multiple employees - I get the feeling they make most of their money on big-time commercial contracts judging by how their gear must be worth 100k or more.
Looks like a gap in the market has opened up for whatever reason and being a small operation run out of my car with no overheads means I've been able to capitalise here.

Given that these opportunities are out there, I will play the numbers game with door to door to find them. Especially now I'm giving my details out to customers and showing them what I've done with pictures - hopefully I can build a base in the area and get referrals coming through too.

Another thing worth mentioning, being the first door of the day I bungled my pitch, tripped up on words, mumbled etc but as soon as I mentioned 'gutters' her face lit up because I was offering a service that she actually wanted.

Edit:
She also lit up when I quoted the price so it may well be lower than she expected.

[Sewerdog]

Spent about an hour an a half door knocking, gave out some leaflets and landed this job in a tucked away house right on the edge of a wood.

An elderly women lived there and I quoted what I thought was a good price given how plants were literally growing out of the down pipes.
I was so wrong, I've done about half the job in two hours and will go back tm morning to finish it off as it got dark.
There's mud down all the down pipes that I'm gonna have to bring something to hack it out and I was hacking through and lifting frozen chunks of mud out of the gutter with the vacuum itself.

I'd say I undercharged by about 60-70%!

Nevertheless a very nice old women who needs a shit ton of work doing around the garden and property and can hopefully become a repeat customer every 6-months to stop it getting in that bad condition again.

I also have a lead booked in from todays flyers for Thursday morning which I'm very happy with.

Here is a picture of a shrub growing out the gutters and my inadequate ladder, I think I'm going to develop some sort of complex at this rate

[Sewerdog]

Forgot to mention I got given £5 for checking some gutters with my camera, they were fine but the owners appreciated me doing it for free and letting them know.

[Sewerdog]

It's finally done, all told I spent about 6 hours working on that house!!
She tipped me 40% which I'm very grateful for as well as a fuck tonne of tea and biscuits lol.
I also spoke to her neighbourgh as I needed to access her garage roof via his garden, I offered to check his gutters while I was around there, found a bunch of moss and am now booked in for Saturday morning.
This means Thursday is booked as well as Saturday and will make me much more efficient in the time = money equation.

My arms are actually pretty tired from holding the vacuum the last few days and I promised myself a cheat meal if I got another sale so it's burgers for dinner!

The upsell:
Her roof was covered in moss so I said I could scrape everything off and treat it with biocide to stop it from coming back.
This would be a full days work at least and require me to buy:
- A big ladder
- A roof rack so I can transport it
- An extendable pole with roof scraper and hose attachments
- A small pressure gun for biocide
- Biocide
- PPE for the biocide

With this in mind I quoted £700
She said to put me on her list and she'll save up.
Thursday's customer has also enquired about roof cleaning which is interesting.
Even more interesting someone actually asked me about it when I was going door to door at the end of December - imagine if I could sell a job in the region of £600 from doorknocking!
This is a big ticket job and requires a lot of equipment - ideally a van and scaffold tower.

Doing this job I've also learnt that the vacuum, while good can't shift incredibly heavy debris such as frozen mud and matted roots as well as just getting up on a big ladder.

Now that I fully realise how the right equipment can save so much time I'm going to sell the small pressure washer I bought in Nov and spend an extra couple hundred on a bigger unit with a higher flow rate - if I decide to buy another one. (I'm undecided whether to go the roof cleaning route or do driveways and patios)

[SpongeBob]

Been working on my next ad and using the feedback to really get to why this service is valuable. I've attached a draft but I think its coming together.

Allow me to give some more feedback on that one.

- The before and after picture is indeed a great idea. But like Zug said, it'd be better if the before and after are more extreme.

- You have a good structure : Title -> Benefits -> Proof (picture) -> details of your service.

- A good ad should indeed convey emotions (fear, joy, pride etc...), and directly speak to the psychological needs of your clients (social status, security etc...). Here, you seem to focus the need for financial security (guarding against costly issues), which is a good one. But when you talk about those costly issues, but it is still abstract. You can convey a bigger sense of urgency by being more precised. Something along the lines of "A poorly maintained gutter can cost you X", or "You can save up to X with a clean gutter". Then talk about why that is (the list of issues that you're talking about). You can even go the extra mile by looking how much each can cost and put the comparison with your prices to show that you're helping them saving money (I suppose that to fix an entire roof should be a couple of 1000s, compared to what you charge, the difference is big)

- You can also offer an audit for free (like you did with the 1st ad) or for a ridiculously low price (£5 or £10 in case you have to go on site, just to pay the gas)

[Sewerdog]

Been working on my next ad and using the feedback to really get to why this service is valuable. I've attached a draft but I think its coming together.

Allow me to give some more feedback on that one.

- The before and after picture is indeed a great idea. But like Zug said, it'd be better if the before and after are more extreme.

- You have a good structure : Title -> Benefits -> Proof (picture) -> details of your service.

- A good ad should indeed convey emotions (fear, joy, pride etc...), and directly speak to the psychological needs of your clients (social status, security etc...). Here, you seem to focus the need for financial security (guarding against costly issues), which is a good one. But when you talk about those costly issues, but it is still abstract. You can convey a bigger sense of urgency by being more precised. Something along the lines of "A poorly maintained gutter can cost you X", or "You can save up to X with a clean gutter". Then talk about why that is (the list of issues that you're talking about). You can even go the extra mile by looking how much each can cost and put the comparison with your prices to show that you're helping them saving money (I suppose that to fix an entire roof should be a couple of 1000s, compared to what you charge, the difference is big)

- You can also offer an audit for free (like you did with the 1st ad) or for a ridiculously low price (£5 or £10 in case you have to go on site, just to pay the gas)

Hell yeah! Thanks, these are some really good insights, I'm going to refine these leaflets next week using your advice