[Jamie Lindsay]

how many vans do you have ?

[jasonl]

Jamie

I would like to add that in having more vans does not mean you earn more money! It all sounds easy, its not. Please let me know how you done it once you have your carpet cleaning empire, after all "Its only carpet cleaning"

I know this to be true , more vans just means a different kind of headache , and you not actually having your hand in the bucket.   There are few home services that use direct employed labour to carry out work .  WHY?

Because the capital needed is huge , and the scope for messing up and wrongly carrying out work is huge , as is the management costs.   Even British gas are switching to subbies, all the big bathroom and window companies have done it too.

Multi van carpet cleaning can be done (I have done it) But the extra profits are negligible.

[Jamie Lindsay]

fair play to people who have had more than 1 van on the road and have either not made it work or couldn't be bothered with the hassle ... but how people can tell me I cant do it without them failing at it is wrong... plus people who complain about having more than 1 van need the reminding that they are not being forced to run businesses they do it because of the benefits financially.. and after all is that not why we get out our beds in the morning ? 

[MAX Carpets]

Not complaing, just saying its not as easy as "Its just carpet cleaning" Ok, I will say what you want to hear. Carpet cleaning is the easiest way of earning a quick buck, you can run more than one van, earn a fortune without any problems at all. It really is as simple as that. I just chose to take 22 years to get more than one van, I also choose not to sleep some nights when we have slack periods or breakdowns etc. Its really easy and great fun too! There you go............good luck. 

[wynne jones]

Creating a franchise would be the way to go if you have a well sorted system.

[robert meldrum]

I had some experience a few years ago as part of a very successful multi van operation. The guy who ran the show placed and paid for weekly adverts in at least 6 local newspapers over a an area of approx' 100 miles long by 60 miles wide.
Operators were supplied with machines and chemicals and contacted every night at around 9-30pm with an update on the following days work. Adverts included prices and were at the lower end ( not the bottom ) and operators averaged around £800 per week with only their vehicle costs to pay for.
With the organiser getting around £500 from each operator and creaming off the best jobs he was grossing around £3500 each week................this was about 15 years ago.

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

As far as I'm concerned a self-employed tradesman is someone who gets up in the morning and goes to work on site and does a job of work supplied by someone else.

I run a business, with all the associated costs and hassles that go with it - marketing, networking, purchase of equipment and materials, dealing with clients and suppliers, running a sales/purchase ledger and employing an accountant/solicitor.

If that isn't running a business then I don't know what is - and some of you lot on here clearly don't know.

[MAX Carpets]

Totally agree Steve. I hope you havnt miss read my post.

[wynne jones]

Although some would say a true business makes money even if you were not actively involved in it.

Could you sell it tomorrow as a running concern without you running it?

Most carpet cleaners don't even have any tangible assets apart from their van, which is probably on tick anyway.

If you are seriously wanting to call yourself a business you are working hard to take yourself out of the frame. Most people just can't make that work, it's either too stressful, they haven't got the knowledge or they aren't that good with people.

For most of us, making a far better than average living and being our own bosses is the right choice, but it's probably not a business that has any value once you're gone.

[Matt Seymour]

Have to say that I agree with those who say that a big business running several vans and with a large number of staff doesn't necessarily equate to a successful business and neither does it maximise profit.

If you are a really good businessman (or woman as I am obliged to say) you can turn a very healthy annual profit as a one man band. If anything I would say that a business making a large profit from one or two vans is comparitively more succesful.

A big business merely turns over more money and that doesn't necessarily mean it makes more profit.

[wynne jones]

Matt I know there are for a fact a few multi van operators out there and not only are the hemorrhaging their hard earned savings they are working themselves to an early coronary.

[Jamie Lindsay]

nice story robert thats what I like to here thats what I call business..  pulling in £3500 without even seeing a carpet 

[jasonl]

Thats what it is ,,, a story , 6 newspaper ads , cost?  And those 6 ads brought in 1300 a week turnover for 7 blokes (who were all one man operators) . Yeah right .

[Jamie Lindsay]

dont know if its true or not but that's way you should build your business so your making your hard work of building a contact base to the use to your advantage so you dont have to break your back all your day cleaning carpets

[jasonl]

I agree , though employing people is full of problems , sub contractors is an avenue , but then you need several in order to make a living , and providing enough work for several people costs a lot , or takes a long time . I have actually been there and done it, I bought my first Chem-Dry franchise for 5grand , sold it for 65 grand , as a 3 van operation with slick systems and a nice database.  It was a lot of work to build it up and took 10 years.  It is not a get rich quick scheme.

[Jamie Lindsay]

not a bad track record

[Matt Seymour]

In an ideal world, I would spend several years building up my business and then franchise it, but I certainly wouldn't want to run a business with dozens of staff and vans etc operating out of the same office.