[Spot On cleaning]

As i have said before, i have been in this business for 3 and a half years, and have heard different people say that you are not realy on easy street until 5 years in business, or some say longer.

All you carpet cleaners out there. How long were you in business before you noticed good times ahead, and the rewards coming in?  What figure would you put for the number of years you needed to be in business before you were established?

This is a good topic to inspire all the newbies and will give them something to aim for.

Dave

[Rousey]

When you start getting repeat customers is a good sign??

[Spot On cleaning]

I get plenty of them, but i was thinking about  was when all the luxuries start appearing.

Dave

[John Kelly]

Sorry to put a dampener on things but unfortunately in business there is no comfort sector.
Things do get a bit easier the longer your're at it, but you must continue to market your existing customers. You can also have up to 20% turnover of existing customers due to them moving house, dying etc.
There is also a constant stream of opposition coming onto the market. Again you have to work at it to make sure you obtain your fair share.
You need to be spending around 10% of turnover on marketing just to stand still and upto 25% to grow the business.

[Spot On cleaning]

John

Is 25% the norm in any business or just in our business? Is there a breakdown of costs to accompany this figure such as example?

Yellow pages £2000
Thompson     £1500
Leaflets         £1000
Website        £1000

If we were earning £50000 per annum, it seems we would be spending £12500 on advertising. It seems a lot of money to shell out.

Dave

[Rousey]

John I agree, what is also important is to monitor the marketing you do. Keep at the things that work and ditch the ones that don't. I have seen companies copy other companies because they are scared of missing out even though the marketing is not working for them!!!

Dave, as for the luxuries...I live for today! As you see by my picture it is of a Island in the Maldives that we go to every year for the last 4 years, and it is MY businesses that have paid for it. This year (we go a week on Sat) I wanted to travel in luxury as it is a long flight so I got the cost of upgrading to business class, £1700 extra, so I then set out to get that extra sum in 4 weeks, after excessive leafletting etc,etc I got the money, phoned the airline to book...no bloody seats left!!! So we are upgrading to a luxury villa instead. But it does show that if you give yourselves targets they are achievable!
I say when you have the money, paid the bills ,tax, re-invested, spend, spend, spend as tomorrow a HWE may run you over!!!

Rousey (or Judith Charmers as my friends so kindly call me!)

[Spot On cleaning]

Thank's Rousey, good advice. my Five children (4 daughters) tend to zap all my money, so no disposable income for me yet.

Still they say life begins at 40

Dave

[Rousey]

Dave, know what you mean, 3 kids (2 grown up). Life began for me at 35 (3 years ago) when I became self-employed and out of the rat race.

But 4 girls, ooohhh that's lot's of make-up, clothes, shoes, no wonder no disposable income. Hopefully they will start moving out soon??

Mark.

[therapist]

Some people become  'established' very quickly, but they are very much, the exception and only do so, by being totally focussed and single minded, probably coming from a disciplined background and finding it easy to absorb thorough training'

Chances are, they are also , well funded, which allows them to start up with quality machinery and chemicals.

There is evidence of people earning 50k + in year, one, so they probably feel established, very quickly.

r m

[Spot On cleaning]

Yes Mark, boy 16 in August, wants to stay on then go to university for Five years (No forthcoming house keeping money) and the Four girls 13 in June, 11 this coming Saturday (year party for all of year 4 juniors) on Friday, 9 in April and by baby was Six in January.

If anyone can spare any loose change, donations gladly accepted.

Dave

[Spot On cleaning]

Therapist

I am trying to improve my advertising and have invested over £20000 on a tm and van last August. I think you have to speculate to accumulate.

Dave

[Rousey]

Dave, I think you have a nieche marketing tact! Advertise on all your advertising that you have 5 kids to feed and cloth, the clients will always choose you!!!

Also you have 6 pairs of hands to get all the leaflets out, 500 a day each = 15,000 leaflets per week, by this time next year you will have the largest CC company in the UK!!!!!!!

Mark.

Ps I bet your the last one to get the bathroom this morning!!!!

[Kinver_Clean]

It is important to ask every cust where they saw your ad. Then analyse the results. You need to know which ad is working so you can alter or dump the ad that isnt.
My jobs for years have been from Yell, Repeats and referrals about 30% each and 10% from church mags and other very local publications. Church mags are very good value for money, they dont bring in a terrific amount but for £25-£30 per year they are good. You will find that you can cut down the ads eventually as the repeats build up. I spend about £2000 total per year.
Trevor

[Gavin Reardon]

Hi John

Sorry but there is  comfort sector in this business look http://www.comfortsector.co.uk 

Regards Gavin

[Spot On cleaning]

Rousey,

Yes full marks to my kids. When i started in 2002 my three older kids were a great help leafleting. At first the older girls would post for the pricely reward of a fortnightly magazine, but quickly got wise to this.

They did all the long driveways for me and put up with people peering at them through their windows. They have said that they hated every minute of it so this year their money will have to go up.

Dave

[John Kelly]

Gavin

I knew someone would spot that.

Dave

As its been said, you need a marketing mix but you also need to  monitor it so that you don't throw money down the pan. Use what works in your area.

[the red carpet]

iv only been going 5 months now
but one thing i will say is each week it gets a bit easier
each week you have a few more satisfied customers that can lead to referalls
each week you have more leaflets out on the road wich lead to new customers
and each week the people you first cleaned for are that bit closer to needing you again

this week i have done 1 job from referal, 1 job from  recomendation and have had about 3 enquiries from leaflets i had put out ages ago, plus my usual jobs and calls from my leaflets iv done lately, also iv booked in 1 referal and 1 recomendation for march.

[Spot On cleaning]

Red Carpet,

I thought you had been going longer than 5 months. If you do a good job for people then your business will grow. I see from your pictures on your web site, you are usin Extracta products. They are very good and reliable, and in my opinion as good as prochem machines. A lot of people criticise grp bodies, but they last.

The difference between you and i is that you have started off from the start with a nice sign written van, whereas with i, i used my families vehicle which was a people carrier, and as it was new, i did not want to sign write it. However in 3 and a half years i have had around 900 customers. The hardest part is keeping them.

Keep up the good work red

Dave

[andrew chrysler]

Rousey: you have it just right. When the luxuries start appearing you know you have made it.

My main business (a Caravan Park) has been established since 1959 and my family has owned it since 1966. So we have been established almost 40 years.

The last 2-3 years have been easier than earlier, but it has always been a decent, stable income. Finally, we have a waiting list of customers for new caravans and we can pick and choose our customers.

For me, this equates to 3 Caribbean cruises a year, a new Mercedes (and a new 4x4 for the wife), a house in Spain and a fairly large boat on Lake Windermere.

Advertising spend (total) is less than £1000 a year.... just a website, an entry in UKparks.com, and a couple of A boards and some large banners hung by the gates.

Trouble is, when you are sitting back and reaping the rewards, life gets a bit boring! (Honest!) So, looking for new challenges, the cleaning business looms.

A burglar alarm installation business that I started in 1995 took 4 or 5 years to get established with enough repeat work, recommends and regular maintenance calls just from mailing the existing customer base to be able to stop advertising... and it is a lovely feeling to tell the Yellow Pages rep "no advert thanks, I've already got too much work to handle"

This spring I have put 3 car valeting vans on the road, a completely new venture, so time will tell how long it takes to establish this business. Main reason for doing this is that my new car is dark blue and needs washing almost every day!

Next plan is to expand into carpet cleaning (we have always cleaned carpets & upholstery in our caravans: well within the capability of a Puzzi 100) but there is much to learn, and that is what I am looking forward to most.

So off I go, back to school (and if anyone is on the IICRC course in Nottingham on 5th/6th April say hello to me) and once I know a bit more I can start looking for staff.

I have already got 2 vans and Prochem Steempro kits, so I am raring to go. However, reading this forum has led me to believe that there is much more to the job than just putting shampoo in the machine and switching on, so I will take time to do it right. I don't want the "cowboy" tag.

So how long will it take for this business to get established?

But then, that was the question at the beginning of this thread......