Hull Cleaning Information

[sterlingMarineService]

I have never done those.... Those are normally for docks and I have only done houseboats....

 

[fstbttms]

she either will have us repair whats their or just put in normal barrels that are sealed. the only problem is if i add barrels they may get dislodged at low tide?

before when i added barrels, it was for a non profit and they were in charge and said we dont want u to secure them?

do you secure them? would barrels work at low tide?

This the kind of job I usually take a pass on. There's very little upside and a whole lot of downside. The houseboat is likely a POS, poorly maintained and the owner can't afford to do things right. What they want is a diver to come in cheap and slap another Band Aide on the problem. If you install the barrels unsecured and they dislodge, you could be liable. In any event, the job will probably be a real PITA. Think long and hard about it before committing. Hopefully you can charge enough to make it worth your time and (undoubtably) considerable effort.

 

[sterlingMarineService]

I think it's worth atleast diving to look at... And if it looks easy I can do it

 

[fstbttms]

Good luck. Take some pix and post 'em here.

 

[sterlingMarineService]

For sure! Pics are good!!! My website had pics of us dou g barrels. Home Page

 

[Neptune1]

Sorry.... That was my texting speak coming out

What percentage of people called u that u gave a flyer

Well I'm not sure about percentages.but what I like to do is walk the docks and personally speak with the boat owners and extend my services I find that this works really well.I've got a lot of calls by doing this and also by word of mouth...

 

[sterlingMarineService]

Well I'm not sure about percentages.but what I like to do is walk the docks and personally speak with the boat owners and extend my services I find that this works really well.I've got a lot of calls by doing this and also by word of mouth...

only problem is i have dumb school so it gets kinda hard to walk to all the marinas and stuff.

one thing I did just for fun was a craigslist ad! to my astonishment I got a call for flotation services? I was very bewildered but I guess their is always someone somewhere searching for services.

this summer I hope to walk docks and hand out flyers.

another technique I have is im good friends with the leader of this sailboat race that happens every week in seattle! I asked and she agreed to putting some type of ad on their website for bottom cleaning!!!

 

[fstbttms]

I don't use flyers generally, but I do post my business cards in every likely location. In fifteen years I have put up many thousands of cards. My guesstimate is that maybe 1% of them actually turn into customers. That's just the reality of the business. Doing the face-to-face thing may produce better results, but that's a lot of weekends walking the docks. And while it may, or may not, be a concern, but you won't make a lot of friends out of other hull cleaners if they find you've been talking to their customers, trying to woo them away. Just sayin'.

 

[sterlingMarineService]

but you won't make a lot of friends out of other hull cleaners if they find you've been talking to their customers, trying to woo them away. Just sayin'.

true... but do you really need to be friends with your competition?

 

[fstbttms]

true... but do you really need to be friends with your competition?

It depends how how you want to do business. If you don't mind other divers pulling down your flyers and cards or bad-mouthing you around the marinas, then no, you don't need to be friends with the competition. If you want more established divers to refer you to customers they can't, or don't want to, service, then yes, it is important. Don't get me wrong, there are always going to be the back-stabbers who feel they have to try to hurt your business in order to succeed, but my philosophy is that we are all colleagues as well as competitors. In the long run, everybody does better if we maintain friendly, helpful relationships between dive services.