Congratulations. If your business is still thriving through this economy – you have a lot to be proud of. A slow growing economy, over nice percent unemployment, the value of the dollar dropping, and political gridlock in our government is enough to take the wind right out of your sails. Just turning on the nightly news can make you not want to get out of bed in the morning – but don’t let it get you down. Remember, you’ve done something right to get this far, now it’s time to focus on how you can actually grow.

So you’ve reduced your labor force as much as possible, cut every unnecessary cost conceivable, and have even taken on a larger work load yourself. You can’t save profits by making your business run any tighter, so it’s time to make it grow. You’ll have to crawl out of your comfort shell to make it happen though.

Here are a few ideas, some old some new, that might help your business grow.

Network marketing – It’s the no cost way to advertise. Yes you’ll have to join a business group, get up early, talk to people you don’t know, but real business can come from this effort if you really get involved. You’ll also feel god because you will be helping other business’ as well.

The 2 for 1 plan – run a special in targeted areas or through your customer list offering a two for 1 deal – if scheduled on the same day, on the same street, you’ll give each customer half off their bill if they schedule a cleaning with one of their neighbors. It will actually be cost effective and could drive new business your way.

Seek supplier agreements – Talk to your suppliers about additional discounts if you commit all of your purchasing dollars to their company. They may be more receptive than you think. They’re working hard to keep the lights on as well. Don’t think it will work because they are already getting your business? Remind them of your loyalty, talk to them about your situation. Remember, keeping good customers through a little extra discount costs a lot less for them than replacing one they’ve lost.

Team up with a non-competing service – If you can find another ethical company that can understand the benefit in cross promoting each others services, pursue it. You’ll both increase your potential customer base without mailing one postcard. Make sure their business model matches your own for the best results.

Create a customer loyalty program – Don’t forget that it is much more expensive to get a new customer than to keep existing ones. Send out a letter or an e-mail (hopefully you are keeping a customer list) and let them know that their past business is remembered and appreciated. Offer a discount when they schedule your service next time. It will keep you on their minds and may spur some to give you a call sooner than they might have before.

Look for additional services – Keep your eyes open for other needs your customers may have that are not being fulfilled, it just may be something you can begin offering within your company.

Keep in mind, there are business’ that are growing even in this economy. You will have to get creative, try something new, and seek inexpensive ways of reaching those customers that are still out there and need your service. Most of all, stay mentally positive. As hard as it may be sometimes, our customers still respond favorably to energetic and confident individuals.

All the best.

Nelson Keimer

Save big on discontinued colors: With a few of the major grout manufacturers updating their color charts this year Modern Stone has updated our charts as well. We are blowing out the discontinued colors at 50% off! Please note that the following manufacturers are the only colors we will stock: Custom Polyblend, Laticrete, C-Cure, TEC, Mapai, and Hydroment. For a full list of current & discontinued colors click here (colors will be removed from the list when they are gone). Special lasts while supplies last. To place your order for our discontinued blow out colors call 866-868-0810.

Many business owners spend a lot of time and money to create and on-line presence. Unfortunately, many build the wrong website, send the wrong message, and fail to attract customers. This report will uncover these fatal mistakes business make and how you can avoid them in your services business. Click Here to download full report in PDF

The true stone enthusiast will explain that the only way to properly restore a natural stone floor would be to grind out the lippage, fill the voids, and refinish the surface to the desirable luster. While there is a great argument for this train of thought, and in a perfect world this would certainly be the case, we do not live in a perfect world and more specifically, we do not live in a perfect economy. It’s true, the trend in today’s market has been to restore versus reinstall or sell, but as contractors we still need to be sensitive to not only our customer’s flooring needs, but also their financial needs.

We all know what the full restoration process entails; grinding the floor flat with metal delippage diamonds, filling the voids the either polymer resins or concrete and latex blends, progressively refinishing surfaces with multiple resin bond diamonds, and often times, finishing the project using high grit honing powders or polishing powders. While this process will provide your customers with an absolutely perfect floor, the costs incurred and time required for such a process may not settle so well with your client. On average, this process is going to cost your customer $1.25 per step, per square foot. And as the contractor, we will spend approximately one day for every 1000 square feet that we are restoring. To make more sense of this, let’s take a 500 square foot area and break down what this means to you and your customer. Assuming that we’re going to leave our floor at a satin finish, the full restoration process is going to require about eight steps. In other words, our 500 square foot area is actually 4000 square feet (8 steps x 500 sq. ft.) and our $1.25 per square foot is actually $10.00 per square foot (8 steps x $1.25) for a grand total of $5,000.00 and 4-5 days in your customer’s home. While there’s no doubt that the result provided with this level of service will be outstanding, finding the customer who is willing to pay this price tag may be a little more difficult to come by.

Now, let’s take this same floor and use a more economical approach to provide similar results with much less labor and time spent in the home. Often times, the floors in question will have minor foot wear and chemical etching from heavy traffic or neglect. Unless these floors have been flattened in the past, there is sure to be tiles that were not installed evenly creating a “lip” from one tile to the next. These lips make restoring the floor evenly impossible with diamond discs, but with the right tools and products, you can still refinish the stone surfaces without charging an arm and a leg. One method to take is using Modern Stone’s honing powders to restore the finish instead of using the diamond discs. With honing powders the need to flatten the floor prior to restoration is eliminated and can often be evened out and restored with minimal steps. Even in a worse case scenario, the amount of labor using honing powders rarely exceeds three steps taking the price of the job from $10.00 per square foot to $3.75 per square foot. In situations where the wear is very minor, the contractor will often need only one step to even it out bringing the costs down even further. Top polishing can also be done in one step as well providing a beautiful lustrous finish and taking out minor chemical etching. Keep in mind that you as the contractor are still making the same amount of money per hour, but the length of the job is being significantly reduced. This means equal profitability for you, less costs for your customers. Being that honing powders cannot be used to remove scratches, these limitations must be addressed prior to starting the job and all expectations must be set in stone. (Pun intended)

Another option that will save your customers money while providing high end results is restoring the stone floors using Modern Stone’s Evolution Pad. Instead of a powder, these pads are embedded with diamonds giving you the results of using a diamond disc while being unaffected by an uneven floor. (Learn more about the Evolution Pads in this month’s, ‘Product Spotlight’.) Having the ability to get diamond results without having to flatten the floors first will mean you can offer higher levels of restoration while eliminating costly steps at the same time. Even when working on a floor that has been heavily neglected, you can restore and refinish the area in no more than four steps.

Becoming the most proficient stone restorer means not only being able to offer the highest level of restoration, but also having the ability to offer multiple options at different pricing structures to meet all of your customer’s needs. At Modern Stone Technologies, we have provided all the tools, products and educational needs for you to offer your customers every level of restoration.

Stone restoration has evolved. From the leader in the natural stone restoration industry, Modern Stone brings another innovative solution to stone restoration with the Evolution pad. Unlike other pads that were made to lightly buff or clean, the Evolution pads offer today’s professional full restoration capabilities from scratches to polish in one simple system.

The longest lasting pad in the industry. The Evolution pad contains the highest levels of true diamond abrasives, therefore providing up to three times the wear of other competitive products while delivering a higher quality result.

One pad that can be used WET or DRY. The Evolution pad is the only pad on the market which can be used with little or no water when restoring a natural stone, terrazzo or concrete surfaces.

Available in five different grits. Whether it’s a one step polish, or a full restoration project, the Evolution pads offer a full range of options for the flooring professional.

A flexible design. The Evolution pad can follow a floor’s contours better in order to reach high and low spots on uneven floors. Simple rinse when done and it’s ready for the next job.

See all Modern Stone abrasive products

Acid vs. Alkaline: What, Why and When? By Jasen Santiago

As we all know, cleaning the floor is an essential step in the tile and grout restoration process. In most cases, however, this important first step acts only as a prepping stage in bringing the floor to our customer’s desired result. Whether we are looking to revive an old, dingy floor back to its original lustrous finish, provide a customer with a sealant to protect their investment, or completely change the appearance of an existing tiled floor, the cleaning process is going to be the determining factor as to how well our jobs turn out. So what is the best way to prep our floors? Using an alkaline cleaner? Using an acid cleaner? Or maybe the most effective solution is to use both. These are common questions often debated by many tile and grout professionals. While there are too many factors involved to determine the right answer, with proper education it is possible to determine the right answer for you.

To answer the “acid vs. alkaline” debate we must first discuss the purpose of both of these cleaners. Alkaline cleaners or cleaners with a pH level higher than 7, are often used as the sole cleaning agent in the tile and grout restoration process. Alkaline cleaners are formulated to loosen the bond between simple waxes, vegetable oils and animal fats from the surface we are cleaning. The primary advantage of high-pH cleaners is that they are effective cleaners, even on the most tenacious soils. Alkaline cleaners are also recommended when there is a large amount of soil to be cleaned. Additionally, alkaline cleaners can be used in almost any operation, but will not do anything to remove mineral deposits, rust or hard water stains. Also, when you’re prepping old surfaces for topical or penetrating sealers, alkaline cleaners will do little more than remove the soil from the substrate. This is where acid cleaners come into play.

Sometimes, when prepping old surfaces for sealing, etching the substrate may be beneficial. While alkaline cleaners do a great job of removing surface debris, acid cleaners, or cleaners with a lower pH level than 7, will directly work with the bonding agent in calcium carbonate based surfaces. Etching the surface is going to expose new pores providing some extra “tooth” making the product-to-surface bond as strong as possible. This will make any sealer more effective and in most cases, will make color sealing more efficient. Acid cleaners may also be used to remove tarnish, alkaline discoloration and corrosion, remove hard water deposits from many surfaces, and will neutralize alkalis. Being that acid cleaners are used to remove calcium build-up, they should not be used on calcium based stones such as marble, travertine, and limestone as they will also damage those surfaces.

So what is the bottom line? When do we use alkaline, when do we use acids, or when is it appropriate to use both? The answer to this question is going to be job specific and will depend on a variety of things. What type of surface are you restoring? Which kind of stains are you trying to remove? Or what final result are you looking to provide your customer? On many jobs, using an acid cleaner won’t be necessary. Cementitious surfaces, such as grout or concrete, harden (or become less porous) overtime with the addition of moisture. It’s in these situations where etching the surface is going to make a significant difference. However, on newer surfaces, cleaning with an acid may be overkill and unnecessary. On that same note, using an alkaline cleaner may also be an unnecessary step. Many times grout will become discolored due to years of mopping improperly, but will not have a considerable amount of dirt and debris on the surface. In these situations, a test patch should be conducted to determine whether or not the grout is exposed enough to react with the acid, possibly saving yourself a cleaning step. If the cleaner immediately “fizzles” when applied to the surface, continue the cleaning process using only an acid to start the restoration process. However, if you get little or no reaction with the acid, this is an indicator that you must first remove the soil with an alkaline cleaner to expose the grout, making it a two step cleaning process.

While the great dispute of “Acid vs. Alkaline” will continue on, I hope this article will at least shed some light on the subject. If nothing else, just to provide you with some ammo for the next time you find yourself in the middle of this classic debate.

The Modern Stone Team would like to give a big thanks to all of our new, and existing CRP members. 2011 is blowing by quickly and as our membership number grows we would like to continue to add value our role supporting the contractor. We have tons of ideas and are ever implementing new things to support our contractors, however, we thought it would be a good idea to hear directly from you! If you would like to give feedback leave a comment below.

As a reminder for our new members make sure you check in with Jasen Santiago at the beginning of the 2012 year, in order to cash in on your product rebate that you earned for the 2011 year. If you are purchasing from one of our Distributor partners, just ask them for a print out of your annual purchases. Hopefully this extra savings will make the month of January even more profitable.

You probably get calls all the time about it..or worse yet, spammy emails making outrageous promises about putting your business on the first page of the search engines. Well, when it comes to choosing an SEO company to work with, there are some important questions you’ll want to be sure to ask to ensure the person you are considering is both competent and qualified. These 14 questions can reveal a lot about the company you are considering.

1. Have you optimized other cleaning services? If so can you give us an example of feedback/response they have received? Go Pro Local has completed many cleaning service and home improvement sites, as that is where we have the most experience. We also work with many different businesses and consumers. These have included hot tub wholesalers, photographers, solar electric companies, architects, dentist and many more.

The specialized tools we utilize work for any business and are best suited for local search engine marketing for local business like yours.

There are some great testimonials from our clients on our testimonials page. We took one client from no website to over 1200 page 1 rankings for highly searched geo-modified terms. The results have been a dramatic increase in business and customer interaction.

2. Based upon your professional opinion when should we expect results? SEO is an on-going process of promoting your business online. With a consistent effort over time, we see the best results. In the most challenging cases, we see measurable results in 6 months. If we are aggressive, it’s normally much less, sometimes in as little as 2 months.

3. Will you/company be doing the work yourselves or will you be outsourcing the job? We do not outsource core tasks. All work is done by our employees and we do have some employees offshore. All core tasks are performed in house.

4. What is the payment schedule? We bill by credit card on the 1st of the month.

5. Who owns the rights to the SEO work? You do. Some companies retain the rights to all the work they do meaning if you quit using their services, you lose a lot of what you had paid for.

6. What is the monthly maintenance after the site is live? What does it include, and why is it due at the same time as the initial investment. Monthly maintenance involves many different SEO tasks that are independent of a website build. Claiming local listings and directory submissions are just a few of the tasks that begin to happen right away. Other maintenance and promotions tasks include link building, article marketing, video marketing, blog marketing, forum marketing and more. We have several levels of maintenance programs available. The maintenance packages are customized based on your business, online marketing blueprint and how aggressive you want to be.

7. Will you be providing any additional value added services with the setup? Example: blog, ezine, newsletters, PR, etc. Often times, we’ll use all of the above methods. We also create content and perform SEO copywriting services for clients that are used for off-site content on blogs and other outlets. As an added service we can help with newsletters and email marketing as well.

8. Is there a limited number of keywords that will be used? We usually select a group of 20 search terms to focus on. These keywords are determined by performing in-depth keyword research and competitive analysis. This way we are able to target buying keywords where there are the best opportunities to rank highly. While these initial keywords are our focus, we track hundreds of keywords and report to you regularly where you rank and where we’re seeing upward movement.

9. What is Google PageRank™ and how does it affect my site? How would you address improving our PageRank™ with Google, and other search engines that calculate the number of quality inbound links to our website? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank

PageRank is basically Google’s measure of how much authority a site has. All of the search engines do some level of weighted link analysis which helps to sort the sites competing for a given set of searches. If there are two sites that have the same content on them, the one with more back links should rank higher in the search engine rankings.

But, more links aren’t always better. The page rank of the links plays a large role in how well a site will rank. Basically, the more links a site has from other important links, the better. If a site with 10 links has links from Harvard, Emory, NASA, The Pentagon, and other high page ranking sites, and another has 100 links that are nothing more than free directory links, the 10 back links beat the 100. To improve PageRank, it’s important to focus on trusted inbound links that are looked at by the search engines as authority sites.

10. What changes do you make to our site to increase our rankings? Will we see these changes? Will you change the coding on our site? We normally optimize a number on-page factors; including the title and description which are not easily seen on your site but are important in rankings and how your site appears in the search engine results. We also normally optimize the content of your pages and other page elements like the heading tags, which signals of important text for the search engines. We don’t normally completely rewrite the content or change the structure of your website unless it is blocking the search engines from indexing your site.

12. What kind of reports will we get and how often. Will you explain the reports so we have a clear understanding of the output? We report both rankings and traffic. We’ll send monthly reports by email interpreting the data we’ve collected and are readily available to go through the data to explain anything that is not clear.

13. How many pages will you be optimizing in our website? We will optimize all of the pages. The search engines rank pages of sites, not just the main page so every page is important and needs to contain everything the search engines need to rank them highly.

14. Can you assure us that the optimization strategies and methods that you use are safe and won’t get our site penalized or banned? We use strictly white hat techniques that meet the criteria of Best Practices for the SEO/SEM Industry? We don’t do anything risky. Our techniques create natural looking links that boost rankings over time. We post content in the form of articles, press releases and blog posts.

These questions should give you a good feel and clear picture of whether or not the SEO company you are considering is the company you want handling such an important task. You might be surprised at the answers you’ll get from some of the fly-by-night SEO firms out there that use unscrupulous methods to inflate rankings that don’t stick or could get your site de-index (removed) from the search engines altogether. Beware of guarantees or unsubstantiated claim and most importantly, go with someone you know and trust.

Conventional sales wisdom suggests that you should use every effort to get past the so-called “gate keeper”, otherwise known as the receptionist/office manager, when calling on new accounts in order to reach the decision maker faster. Instead of following this short sighted advice, consider making a friend of this individual from the start of the process, and you just may find a long term who will save you time and increase your profits in the long run.

I do my best to read sales-based articles on a regular basis in order to keep myself sharp, and from time to time, I read something that gives me new insight into my profession. Recently, I read article on a “Six Easy Techniques” for getting past the gate keeper and to the decision maker faster. The article went on to suggest that the gate keeper is an individual of no value, an obstacle to be overcome as quickly as possible. Sounds good on the surface – get to the decision make sooner, so you can move on to your next potential account. So why could this actually be short sighted advice? Let’s take a closer look at who this frustrating and negative person is anyway.

The “gate keeper” is usually a receptionist or office manager, who handles a variety of functions within the company you are calling on. In some companies, they are only answering phone calls and “receiving” guests at the door, but often, they have other responsibilities as well. These people handle a lot of the “stuff” that a busy owner no longer has the time to handle on top of their increasing work load. For those of you who have someone like this working for you in your business, you know they are usually a life saver!

Instead of spending your energies trying to bypass this individual, consider making them the entire focus of your first few sales calls. By acknowledging them and communicating silently that they are important enough to be part of your sales process, you will find that eventually you will create an ally in your efforts to reach the owner. If you take the advice that the article was offering, in the hopes of a fast connection and sale, you will only offend this individual and never enlist their help.

The sales professional communicates to the “gate keeper” that he or she understands their worth within the organization they are calling on, and respects them as a person. In turn, the gate keeper usually will help out the salesperson, which ultimately results in getting to see the decision maker faster. For example, when you’ve made a friend behind the desk, he or she will often offer information that can make your job simpler, “Good to see you again Nelson, how was your trip?” then she whispers, ”Next time come in around 7 AM, you’ll have a better chance catching him.”, The gate keeper will save you time by directing you towards the products or services that the owner needs, “Make sure you mention your stone repair services, I know that’s something he’s been looking for in a company.”

If handled correctly, this method can not only get your products or services the in front of the decision maker faster, but you are more likely to be presenting them only those goods or services they are interested in, thanks to the advice of the gate keeper. You’ll earn the decision maker’s respect by not wasting their time and by showing them you’ve done your homework.

“Frustration” – a word frequently used to describe companies new to social media and those who have been involved in social media but have yet to enjoy a return.

The problem is two-fold. First, establishing a social media presence takes time and continued effort. You have to be consistent in your involvement with the social media medium and remember that returns will not be overnight. Second, you have to make sure that you are using social media in a way that makes sense for your business.

If you are not sure, ask yourself these simple questions:

- Are you using the right platform? First, remember that there are a variety of social media platforms for you to consider – most notably Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Further, within these platforms, there exist variations on the theme. For example, in Facebook, you can have a “Page,” a “Group,” or a “Community.” Each variation has its own set of tools, purposes, and capabilities. In addition, you may decide to participate in several social media platforms at the same time. For example, if you have a restoration company, you may want to use your YouTube channel to publish videos on how to perform certain maintenance tasks while using Facebook to build a sense of community through candid photos, listings of hours, available services, success stories about your business and upcoming events.

- Have you scrapped past attempts? However, you also need to remember that whatever you take on has to be maintained and updated regularly. This can take up valuable time and people resources. While it can certainly be worth it in the long run, remember that consistency is key. If you do not think you will be able to maintain various platforms (or you have already started and stopped using a platform) be sure to erase or delete those accounts. Otherwise, you stand the risk of eroding your brand value when a customer (current or potential) stumbles across your forgotten account. Instead, make sure that what you have is the best it can be and do away with anything that you are not actively using.

- Are you providing the type of information and interaction that your audience wants? Ask yourself what it is that your audience would want to read, not what you want to tell them. Providing discounts or having giveaways can be useful, but you have to have more substance than that. Consider posting facts about your company, the brand, or its products. Think of the tidbits of information you encounter everyday that make you stop and say, “Really?” Examples include fun facts about how long you have been in business, what happens “behind the scenes”, why your business operates as it does (e.g. why Yoga class was cancelled on Tuesdays, why you do not serve poppyseed bagels, why you buy local, why legal documents are presented in blue card stock), etc.

- Are you listening to your audience? Likewise, are you listening to your audience? When they make a post, do you respond? Do you stay on top of when your company is mentioned on other sites, blogs, social media, etc., and make relevant comments to that affect (on that site and yours)? Remember that social media has developed because of the continued interaction it affords. Its purpose is not to simply broadcast, but rather give people a voice in things they would otherwise not be privy to.

- Do you allow them a voice? Similarly, make sure that you give your audience a voice. Ask open-ended questions, run surveys and polls, include them in new offering decisions, etc. – the more things like this you do, the more valued your audience will feel. Remember that interaction is a large part of a successful social media campaign. If miss out on this, you may already be out of the game.

Local Internet Marketing is a key part of growing your business and brand, to attract local consumers. It isn’t just about having a website, it includes being findable in multiple places when local consumers are looking for your product or service. Go Pro Local can help you determine the best route for your online marketing plan. Call today for a free consultation.