Budding start-up ready for new growth
February 1st 2007 Unleashed from the constraints of corporate marketing, Jos Dewing has bold
ambitions for ecocarpetcare.co.uk, a network of green carpet cleaners that's growing
rapidly across the UK.He's now looking for serious commercial partners to take the
network through its next phase.Brendan Coyne reports
After working in marketing for an international travel company,
Jos Dewing decided to take a career u-turn and do something
totally different. He considered a number of practical
professions, but decided on carpet cleaning after his infant son
reacted badly to chemicals used by a professional carpet cleaner at
his home in Brighton. Following three months research into the
market, particularly the environmental aspects, he completed an
NCCA course, bought a machine, some green cleaning agents – and
got on with the job.
He called his company ecocarpetcare, set up the eponymous
website, and used his web marketing skills to attract business.The
only hitch was that the website was
generating more interest than he
could handle."I've spent a lot of my
life working on websites.Travel is
one of the world's most
competitive markets and that's
where I cut my teeth.The
ecocarpetcare was set up as a
marketing site – but it was so
successful I was spending most of
my time answering emails from all
over the country. It was obvious
there was huge demand for ecofriendlly
carpet cleaning. Because it
was generating so many enquiries
without any paid for advertising."
Dewing decided to focus on
building up a network of
ecocarpetcare affiliates on a licence basis, charging
£500 per annum."I stopped cleaning carpets and started giving
carpet cleaners there own websites. Because these individual sites are
part of the main ecocarpetcare site, they each benefit from search
engine optimisation, e-marketing tools and full content control. But
each site is also automatically updated when I update the main site –
so they never go out of date."
The ecocarpetcare network now has 10 busy members. But
Dewing says he's never tried to sell the site – affiliates have come to
him – due to the growing demand for 'green' carpet cleaning.
"Nurseries, schools, care homes, large blue chip firms are all
interested.The leisure industry, particularly hotels, are spending
thousands to achieve green accrediation from the tourist board," says
Dewing."What better way to do it than have an ecocarpetcare sticker
on your door? It's such a simple way to do things and it lets
customers know you're investing, thereby justifying a premium fee.
We selected a nursery for my son on that criteria."
With affiliates rapidly recouping their licence fee, a website
generating thousands of hits a day, and growing interest from City
chief executives in the service,Dewing now wants investors with
industry knowledge to help the network fulfill it's remarkable
potential.
"It's a limited company and extremely easy for someone to buy
into. But I need someone who's prepared to invest both financially
and in terms of industry expertise – because it's an incredible
platform for someone with that expertise to take it forward. I'm not a
carpet cleaner, I did it for six months. But the network itself is ready to
take off. I've spent the last year getting it right. All the license fee
money has been
reinvested: I'm adding
Google maps and right
now we have a
competition to win a
state-of-the-art electric
and environmentally
friendly bike on the site.
Which has increased visits
by over a thousand a day.
"I'm a big believer in getting it right before rolling out full-scale. But
now everything's in place – and it's ready to take off."
Interested? See for yourself at www.ecocarpetcare.co.uk, use the
free enquiry service or contact:
jos@ecocarpetcare.co.uk More articles from Eco Carpet Care: | 
