When I started my crime scene cleanup business several years ago, I knew it would take some time to see the “fruits of my labor”.  I’ve owned several services businesses over the years.  Although the cleanup company hasn’t grown as quickly as I had expected, it’s still a viable market.  Every year my company posts a profit and every year the profit is larger than the previous year.  So, even though growth might be slow, it’s still growth.

As I visit other blogs, forums and message boards, I’m amazed to see how many business owners are concerned about the growing competition in the industry.  For those who have never owned a service business, competition is good.  For those of you who have been in business before, you should know what I’m talking about.  Competition keeps us on the top of our game.  It forces us to do a good job and to charge a rate for services rendered that is fair and competitive.  Without competition, how could we be considered the best or better than the other company?

Crime scene cleanup companies will come and go.  Some will have insisted on charging too much money and others will have provided poor services.  Yet most will have succumbed to a combination of these and several other factors.  So why are we so concerned with these companies? Certainly the jobs they receive result in less work for others.  And yes, some give the industry a black eye.    But how much better do they make your company look?  Granted, the effect of their unprofessionalism and unethical business practices won’t be immediately realized, but it all works out in the long run.

Too many times in business, I have lost work to a far inferior company.  Although I knew the company wasn’t the right company for the job, it always took the client a lot longer to reach the same conclusion.  And when they did, my company would get the job and keep it for years.  Since the client already had experienced the worst, my company was like a gift from God.

Ok, so you say, “not a lot of repeat business in the death cleanup industry.  We didn’t get the job the first time and there probably won’t be a second husband who commits suicide”.  Although a very valid point, it’s incredibly untrue.  The competition that we’ve already discussed has the power to make your company look like a gold mine.  Now this only rings true if your company is part of the solution and not part of the problem.  For the sake of argument, we’ll say that your company is one of the good guys.  So the bad guys screw stuff up, they charge too much and the family is unhappy.  What do you think they will tell all of their friends and family members?  Or, it’s an insurance job.  What do you think the insurance adjuster is going to do next time he needs a cleanup company?  The bad guys certainly won’t get any repeat business.

Word of mouth advertising is one of the best forms of advertising and it costs nothing.  If your company is indeed better than your competition, your business will continue to grow.  If you’re not growing, you’re not doing something right.  Don’t dwell on the competition and don’t become overly concerned about the companies who aren’t doing the job right.  As the months and years pass,  as long as your company is doing a better job than all the others, your business will prove to be a success.

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