I'm in for a manic few weeks!!

robfosters · 17 Jul 2011 at 22:01

gord said:
That's huge. If you don't mind me asking, what's your profit margin on this deal? Are you making anything or using it like a loss leader?

It's pretty much a break even deal.

As you say, we are advertising our services to over 600 people. Once they are happy with our work we can upsell more products. We are in the process of introducing a direct debit maintenance scheme for regular customers. I believe we will be one of the first in this area to do so.

I know the vast majority will be one hit wonders, but a few have already asked us about additional services and multi car deals. If we can get quite a lot signed up with us it make the whole thing worthwhile.

Also, hopefully appearing on Groupon will give the company some solid credibility as our sector can be a bit of a minefield.

gord · 17 Jul 2011 at 22:19

Well your deal obviously filtered into some generative streams. Does Groupon give you any stats about the people buying your product? If I were expecting 30-40 purchases and end up with 600, I'd want to know how, why and where that sort of exposure came from.

Glaucus · 17 Jul 2011 at 22:21

Exposures more than likely purely from groupon. It's huge and has apps on mobile phones etc. Signup and any deals in your chossen area are emailed to you daily.

Spit · 17 Jul 2011 at 22:21

How long does it take you to do each car? How many people do you have working for you?

LOAM · 17 Jul 2011 at 22:26

600 cars! That's going to take what ? Weeks ? Months ?

robfosters · 17 Jul 2011 at 22:31

We can do each one in about 45 minutes. It would be shorter but the odour removal takes 20 minutes. It's machine based and has to run a cycle.

We have 4 staff who can do around 15 cars a day. That's about 60 a day. On that basis, and combined with our normal work it should take us no more than a month to do all cars. We can only hope that our customers will be understanding of the situation.

We will evaluate the situation tomorrow. We know other valeters and can always get people in, but being such a low price each car, we have to think whether or not it's viable. 15 £10 valets is obviously £150. That level of work would normally bring in around £750 per van.

gord · 17 Jul 2011 at 22:32

AcidHell2 said:
Exposures more than likely purely from groupon. It's huge and has apps on mobile phones etc. Signup and any deals in your chossen area are emailed to you daily.

Interesting. Still they take way too big a chunk of the money for it to be profitable for us.

bitslice · 17 Jul 2011 at 22:37

What area are you in? I'd imagine that given the number of people in here with flash cars, then they would be interested in a service where they already knew the owner.
It's no different than knowing the photographer guy in here. (whatisname)

robfosters · 17 Jul 2011 at 22:39

gord said:
Interesting. Still they take way too big a chunk of the money for it to be profitable for us.

Profitability wasn't our major issue. Our industry is very competitive with any Tom, Dick or Harry getting a van and a bit of gear and starting off.

It's the exposure we craved. The numbers are daunting, but that's over 600 people we get a chance to impress. If just one signs up to a maintenance package that's another £600 per year. If 50 sign up, well then you can do the sums yourself.

robfosters · 17 Jul 2011 at 22:41

bitslice said:
What area are you in? I'd imagine that given the number of people in here with flash cars, then they would be interested in a service where they already knew the owner.
It's no different than knowing the photographer guy in here. (whatisname)

London based. Within the M25.

Danthus · 17 Jul 2011 at 22:49

robfosters said:
We can do each one in about 45 minutes. It would be shorter but the odour removal takes 20 minutes. It's machine based and has to run a cycle.

We have 4 staff who can do around 15 cars a day. That's about 60 a day. On that basis, and combined with our normal work it should take us no more than a month to do all cars. We can only hope that our customers will be understanding of the situation.

We will evaluate the situation tomorrow. We know other valeters and can always get people in, but being such a low price each car, we have to think whether or not it's viable. 15 £10 valets is obviously £150. That level of work would normally bring in around £750 per van.

How many hours a day are your staff working, I can see a flaw already!

jellybeard999 · 17 Jul 2011 at 23:01

OldCoals said:
How many hours a day are your staff working, I can see a flaw already!

I think he must have been recruiting in eastern europe; assuming you're bang on 45 minutes per car, there's over 11 hours work in your estimates, not to mention time spent on other things, organising for the next car etc or the fact they might want a break.

Glaucus · 17 Jul 2011 at 23:04

Or that the pay is probably based on how many cars they do and have chosen this job and are probably set up like taxi firm structure, So are self motivated.

Danthus · 17 Jul 2011 at 23:10

http://www.meejahor.com/2011/05/08/beware-of-the-groupon-piranhas-eating-you-alive/

robfosters · 17 Jul 2011 at 23:18

All your points are valid and I agree it will be mega hard. Our staff are very keen, young fellas and jump at the mere mention of overtime, so they should be quids in.

All we can do is our best. All hands on deck, tin helmets on and what have you.

It will be a major struggle, but if done right, the results could be the making of us.

We're now up to 672.

Danthus · 17 Jul 2011 at 23:24

robfosters said:
All your points are valid and I agree it will be mega hard. Our staff are very keen, young fellas and jump at the mere mention of overtime, so they should be quids in.

All we can do is our best. All hands on deck, tin helmets on and what have you.

It will be a major struggle, but if done right, the results could be the making of us.

We're now up to 672.

If?

Glaucus · 17 Jul 2011 at 23:25

Oops, I bet you wish you had put a limit on.

rG-tom · 17 Jul 2011 at 23:25

Rob, i'm a photographer. Is that 47% scaling? ie if the value is higher do they take less? i could cope with them taking say £25 of £70 as I'd hopefully be able to then sell more prints to at least 25% of the punters, but not too much more!

robfosters · 17 Jul 2011 at 23:26

Forget I said that. No if's about it. It will be done properly.

I think the limit would have been wise in hindsight.

robfosters · 17 Jul 2011 at 23:27

rG-tom said:
Rob, i'm a photographer. Is that 47% scaling? ie if the value is higher do they take less? i could cope with them taking say £25 of £70 as I'd hopefully be able to then sell more prints to at least 25% of the punters, but not too much more!

Really not sure. That was the quote they gave us. You could always call them There's no obligation.