[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

There care lots of established CC's who are finding things difficult, a new starter will need a big budget, hard graft and the skill to build a business.

The latter is the thing which is most overlooked, the successful CC's are good marketers/salesmen and some can even clean quite well

Cheers

Doug

[derek west]

Can't get away with charging anymore. Hence why im here  looking at carpets . There  is money in detailing paint correction etc  but there's not the market here at least in the near future.

so the question is, why will no one in your area pay good prices for a valet but you seem to think they will pay high prices for carpet cleaning. all service industries have stacks of cheapo's competing against each other. not sure i understand, are you going to be a cheap carpet cleaner as well, isnt that out of the frying pan, into another frying pan.
not having ago. ive struggled for years on pricing, first my prices are up then there down, then up again, the idea is to charge what your worth, not what you would pay yourself. if your setting up on the cheap with anything then you'll struggle to get a good price. why not spend the money upgrading your valeting equipment and maybe find a valeting course that will teach you how to get higher prices. there's always people who will pay your price, you don't see waitrose shying away from a tesco/asda cornered town do you! my town is in the process of having a new waitrose built and within 1 mile they have a lidl tesco sainsburys and aldi.
ive seen valeters with big tents over cars so bad weather isnt an excuse either. put the effort in and you will succeed, make excuses why you should diversify and tbh its you thats the problem, not the industry your in or the area. no business happens, you can't just pick an industry and it gives you a living, and if it doesn't just pick another industry til eventually it does. my advice from experience, knuckle down, ask questions, get training in your chosen field and training in  marketing that chosen field. and then work very hard for the rest of your life. never taking anything for granted and always trying to better yourself.

disclaimer, all my advice is food for thought, not set in stone, i could be wrong and therefore read it and make of it as you wish.

[Stoots]

Im not wanting to pack in valeting im wanting  to add other things to it. The more services i offer the bigger the customer potential. This isnt  really  about valeting ive not pushed it to businesses and im not going to lower prices. Ive had training i use good products

[Radek Jablonski]

if you get a better extractor and cfr tool then you will have the basic equipment to do carpet cleaning and better valeting, drier seats and washed better, it will give you good recomendations.
Do you have some polisher? You can add at least basic polishing and decontamination services to your offer.
One van you can easy use for basic carpet cleaning equipment, car valeting and for eq oven cleaning

[Stoots]

Thanks radek, thats the idea, adding cc and poss oven cleaning to valeting.

My full valet uses just a liquid wax on top of that i have a DAS pro DA polisher, i offer clay bar, waxing and polishing as additional extras, my most expensive service is £100 which i include the above.

I use mainly use autosmart products and have some poorboys waxes and sealants.

I will try to get a second hand portable extractor, so 100 p.s.i machine is the minimum right?
I will benefit from a better extractor for car valeting anyway, my george is perfectly fine but could be faster.

Hopefully one day i will be in a position to buy top end gear but for now i have little capital so i will have to do what i can, ill get there though, im very determined. Not planning on going full time till next spring so plenty of time to think until then. Cheers

[Radek Jablonski]

adam there is airflex mini for sale , http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=173952.0 think it did not sell on ebay
amtech cfr tool is perfect for valeting,
you need hard wax as well if you wax after the polishing, there are cheap and good hybrid waxes lasting up to 6 months. Liquid waxes only for cheap velets were the paint was not cleaned with the polisher

check this out: http://rjservices.ie/306/De-contamination__De-oxydation
this is nice process to do, this wednesday I will be doing this to the audi a3 with very bad oxydation, need to add extra polishing step with rotary, all day work and 250 in the pocket - E10 to cover compound, wax, diesel etc

also you can go waterless to avoid law problems with the waste water

look for 135psi machine at least

be different and offer something different
this is not something that can be learn on any courses, go on www.detailingworld.co.uk

90% valeters donot even know what thay are doing making more bad then good things to the paintwork
educate your costumers explaining why e.q cheap machine wax offered by valeters is not good to their cars
better to do one good job a day then 2-3 cheap ones as you will have more money in the pocket when not spending on diesel


ps. if you have only something like 2-3 thousands then invest it to the advertising as the new gear will give you nothing without customers

[Stoots]

Thanks again, im already on detailing world, however i dont offer detailing service such as paint correction etc yet i use autoglym express wax on my full valets obv this is not as good/long lasting as a hard wax, i always offer the customers extra, like i said i offer polishing and a proper hard wax as extras if the customer wishes.

I would class going in with the rotary, swirl removal etc as detailing which i dont pretrend to be, its certainly something i would like to offer at some point though

edit: just had a look at your site and theres certainly some things i can take to use on my site, i like the idea of having detailing seperate to valeting, this is maybe something i can look at doing myself with regards detailing services.

[tonner0]

Heh Adam, I have been valeting for about 18 years and it is worse now than it has been for ages. Weather has been wetter and wetter most years and custom gone down. I lost a lot of regular customers several years ago at the start of the recession. As a valeter I have been asked to clean carpets on occasions and several years ago decided to advertise it and got  Prochem training. I normally use the Dry Fusion method, it gets results and dries in 30 mins or so. There is one on ebay currently. It's the best thing I ever did. Adding another string to my bow. I have to spend more on advertising with Carpet cleaning but it brings in more money and it is in the dry. I eventually want to drop the valeting and just do CC. I think you have to do what your customers want.

[Stoots]

Hi thanks, after experiencing valeting i think you may have a point, carpet cleaning appears more profitable and like you say is not as weather dependant. I think im going to go for a portable extraction vac, mainly because i can use it for valeting as well which will give me more speed and a better result. Valeting is such a low start up i dont see any point getiing rid of it, it may be better in the long run to go into detailing rather than valeting as there is a lot of competion at the lower end of the market it would seem.

[Carpet Dawg]

here you go Adam

http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=174481.0 That's a good machine.

I would seriously consider dumping valeting and putting all your efforts in to finding carpet cleaning clients.

Why would you want to do something that generates less money per hour?

I sound like a hypocrite because I mentioned oven cleaning lol but oven cleaning blends well with carpets. But even at that, I'd dump ovens when you got busier with carpets and upholstery.

[wynne jones]

Adam

Today I did a job in a posh street and next door a van rolled up and it was their gardener. On the side it said something like Lawn Maintenance Specialists which made me chuckle. I got chatting too him and he basically said he used to do everything - like an odd job man in the garden. He was doing krap and even got a karcher to clean patios but didnt help his financial woes.

Anyway the point is what he did was rather than spread himself thin he now 'markets' himself as this lawn expert. He did some extra training and now all these well to do folk are falling over themselves to have him in regular. The real irony is he still does all the other things if required.

Maybe go deeper rather than wider - specialist detailing might be your best bet.

[Stoots]

All good points.  The reason i wouldnt drop valeting is because its such low startup i already have gear and its only worth a few hundred to sell. Secondly i have a website paid for that does generate a bit of work. Cc may be more profitable but Im more than willing to do any jobs whilst getting established. Whilst deeper may be better long term i think initially wider will generate more work . I may be wrong but it would be easier to drop valeting if cc works out than other way round.

[ian harper]

Adam

with respect moving sideways will not help you. My advice would be decide where you are in the market then work on your marketing to get more work or better priced work. Carpet cleaning is a different business with long period between contact with your customers, unlike what you do. if your having issues with filling your diary its not going to improve going sideways. just think about all those other people doing what you area doing in your area the work is there. then ask why are you not getting it.

[C o z y]

I would consider window licking cleaning if I where you though. A lot easier to set up, cheaper to run and operate, and you can easily train  a monkey to do the cleaning for you while you drum up the business once you get to that stage.

Take a look at the window cleaning section. They are all inbred simpletons there, how hard can it be!  

Yeah, all of us  Some guys can put a business together in months window licking cleaning. But a lot of them struggle to get enough to go full time. So it's from one crisis to another. I don't think it's tribal or "This is my patch, knuckle dragging mongs" except around Manchester way perhaps.

Some good advice on here so far. Read what goes on this section on a regular basis and you'll save loads of aggro and mistakes.  The grass is always greener etc etc. YOU have to put a business together that will feed you. There's no business that is just waiting for you to rock up and get started, if you know what I mean.

Business is as good as you make it. There are guys on here who knock out 4 and 5 times what others knock out. Same business, different attitudes. Your attitude determines your altitude. ( I read that in some clever geezer's book once).

HTH

[AndrewR]

Have a look at the Texatherm Carper Cleaning System. The company are based in Weston Super Mare and Mark, the owner, is very hands on with his customers offering advice, training etc. He is extremely knowlegable as well (not just a sales man).

I was a manager at a natoinal company who cleaned all the carpets for the Whitbread estate (so all the Premier Inns, Whitbread Pubs, Costa Coffee shops etc) nationwide and they use the Texatherm system. They have different options for starting up and might be worth giving a call.

I had a quote for the most expensive starter set up including everything I needed including chemicals and it was less than 4000 but thats the most expensive.

Training wise the best I found was the NCCA (National Carpet Cleaning Association) you get an accreditation, loads of advice and loads of support about starting and running a business as well as the actual process of cleaning carpets and upholstery properly.

I feel your pain in relation to getting credit, hence why despite having the experience and training I couldnt afford the kit so left the dream behind..........for now..

Andrew.