[Martin Peters]

Hi all, I'm brand new to this but it looks like there are lots of knowledgeable and helpful people out there.
Can anyone advise on a good resource for market research data? I'll probably be a self funded start up but a plan will always help.
Many thanks for any advice.
Sorry if this comes up twice by the way, the first seems to have disappeared.

[V_Purcell]

This is only my opinion, others may disagree, but it works for me.
Forget the business plan, you can get started for £1000 which can be put on your credit card. 
Buy a machine , practice with your own carpets, ask loads of question here, as to what chemicals to use, and all that.
Bang out your advertising, take the calls, do the jobs, and you should be in profit. 
A business plane if done correctly will take weeks to do. By this I mean every figure validated. A plane that is put together with guess work and assumptions, is like peeing in the wind.
I started carpet cleaning with a £1000 machine, 30,000 flyers and at my heights were booking over 500 jobs a week, we have done over 300,000 clients since. But like I said it worked for me. But maybe that's because I am an aim fire person. Some are ready steady aim aim fire people, and they still don't hit the target. Some don't even get off the ground. There is a great book, you can buy it eBay, it's buy a man named Fred Deluca, it's an easy read, after readying it you will be so fired up, I'm sure you will put your heart and soul into it.
But if you must write a plan. Use business plan pro. I did one to get my green card back in 2006, and it took me 13 weeks to write. But every figure was validated. So when I went for my immigration interview, everything stacked up.
Have fun in the world of carpet cleaning.

[Martin Peters]

Fair points, well made. I am a ready, steady, aim, fire type...the plan isn't about convincing someone to fund my start up, more about making sure I'm giving up a fairly well paid job to go into a business where there's enough work to provide a decent income. Your reply does make me feel rather over cautious.
My schedule will probably be 1.Training (NCCA), 2. Equipment, 3. Advertise, 4.Ongoing training to add skills
Thank you.

[Hilton]

I tend to think the same about business plans which in the main are pure fantasy, however it is sometimes worth doing one if only for yourself to revisit periodically to see if you are progressing as planned.

If you are going to bank for a few pennies then you will need one,

300000 clients  thats the equivalent to a whole City only using you, how many vans would that need to service that level of business...10 ?

[Paul Clapham]

300.000 customers and  at your height 500 per week  !

Martin, one bit of real practical advice, keep you business bank account completely separate from your personal banking.   

[dan paton]

Martin when I was putting one together I didn't have a clue but I got a few good pointers from this example I found online ..http://www.thanet.gov.uk/pdf/Example%20Business%20Plan.PDF
You could do a lot of research on this site by using the search facility about leaflets etc

[Ian Gourlay]

Vince is probably correct but being Fired Up is easy when it all goes right and everything falls into place but sometimes life is not simple and things do not work

The Secret is to keep trying

On the other hand I would think carefully before giving up a well paid job for Carpet Cleaning especially if you have a Mortgage, Family and Children

On the other hand if you are Fired Up you will not listen to me You will just be out there making it work using POT

[V_Purcell]

Vince is probably correct but being Fired Up is easy when it all goes right and everything falls into place but sometimes life is not simple and things do not work

The Secret is to keep trying

On the other hand I would think carefully before giving up a well paid job for Carpet Cleaning especially if you have a Mortgage, Family and Children

On the other hand if you are Fired Up you will not listen to me You will just be out there making it work using POT

Ian, I take it your beer glass is half empty.
You may wish to buy the book or I can loan you a copy given to me by the author and owner of Subways sandwich chain.

[Craigp]

Surely you would need to market research YOUR area.

Different areas will vary hugely.

Try putting an ad in your area, you may be shocked how little comes from it. That will give you idea what your up against.

[Simon Gerrard]

You don't need a business plan unless your going to bank for financing.
What you do need is to work out your break even point, the sum of money you need to turn over every week in order to cover your costs.
This figure is arrived at by calculating your fixed and variable costs, the number of days per week you are going to work etc. Once arrived at you can use that figure to define how much per square metre you should be charging. Without knowing that figure your kind of stumped.

Simon

[Martin Peters]

I've always believed that what gets measured gets done, as long as not too much measuring and plenty of doing. Decent equipment, sound training and persistence will be my starting point, with well targeted advertising.
Thanks for the helpful comments, fellas.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I read the bank of dave its a great read I couldn't put it down, dave said anyone who came to him with a business plan would get the push! Get some training by the ncca or other use a few holiday days also go out with a local carpet cleaner to get an idea of the job then look into machinery later.

Shaun

[jim mca]

It really depends on what you need to earn and how much you have to invest research your competition and find if there is a gap in your local market or you may find your area is already saturated its impossible to predict what you will make as you may have lots of contacts that can provide you with work or it could be really expensive to advertise with little return if you have no experience at all get a day out with somebody before you spend any money this business is a lot harder to start than most. 

[Ian Gourlay]

Vince is probably correct but being Fired Up is easy when it all goes right and everything falls into place but sometimes life is not simple and things do not work

The Secret is to keep trying

On the other hand I would think carefully before giving up a well paid job for Carpet Cleaning especially if you have a Mortgage, Family and Children

On the other hand if you are Fired Up you will not listen to me You will just be out there making it work using POT




quote]
Ian, I take it your beer glass is half empty.
You may wish to buy the book or I can loan you a copy given to me by the author and owner of Subways sandwich chain.

Vince
Been out of action for two years  seriously ill so i am at pick yourself up dust yourself down and start all over again 

Vince been out of action two years seriously ill so I am at pick yourself up dust yourself down and start all over again stage   read POT when I was a young Manager at 21
Ordered Mr Subways book this Afternoon used to like them when I was in Canada but think they are rubbish in UK

So yeah to be honest my glass is quarter full

[Simon Moat]

Hi Martin,

Best advice is to spend some time with a carpet cleaner to find out if it is the life for you.

If it is, write up a business plan, unlikely I'd say, but then spend some time doing so if you need to.

Carpet cleaning is 'easy money', but you need very deep pockets to get you through the first couple of years, also the job can be really disgusting at times.

Good luck should you go down this path.

[peter maybury]

Let us know when the well targeted advertising works. A lot of us in the business for a long time would like to know where it is. I 20 years ago gave up on the notion of advertising and watching the work roll in.
Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.comhttp://

[ian harper]

Martin

Well done for asking this question. having a clear vision of what you are and how you are different for everyone else is how you get your USP

having it written down keeps you on track when you start to doubt your vision. If you where to buy a franchise the business model you are buying is a business plan. This is why everyone is say dont bother, because its hard to know without some kind of experience under your belt.

Get some basic stuff down you can find lots of the web about this. but have it evolve over time as you get experience. this will keep you focused in on your USP and that's important if you want to stand out.

Now I have to say how impressed I am that you used the term market research this shows you know about demand. and demand is key to your income.

Google will tell you what the market size and then you will be able to work out your pricing from this information along side what you expect to spend on overheads. How do you do this is? Adwords

Adwords will give you how many impressions google does for your keywords and there is a link between this and clicks and then to sales. again info on how to do this is on the web, i cant say here because of my local competition. just to say that google wants your money so its going to show your advert as much as possible to get those clicks, this gives you market size. you have to allow for other cleaners doing self searches but its the best way of getting the number. I have a large sum of money sitting in my account which google would love to use but it cant because it hitting it limit on impression with me. that tells me the number

Have a look into doing a sales and marketing plan as you can change the numbers as you get real data from what your doing and this will guide you.

One funny bit of advise, don't ever ask other carpet cleaners how they are doing, you get the standard answer "Great" even if they are not, which in itself is positive, just not helpful, or what they earn they will always quote they best prices they have got not the average.

I sure you know the difference between advertising and marketing? advertising is when you go out and get people to use your service when its not really top of their to do list. this is leaflets, sale letters, or marketing is when you are marketing your services to people looking for your services. this is the internet. you want both.

Good luck I sure you going to do great as your asking the right questions.

[Martin Peters]

Ian,
Many thanks for taking the time to post such a comprehensive reply. As I said in my first post there seem to be lots of helpful and knowledgeable people here. I'll be spending some time on your suggestions.
I do wonder how many carpet cleaners would take me out to learn the ropes with them. My better half actually suggested this but I thought surely the reaction would be, 'Here comes someone trying to take some of my business, why should I give them a helping hand?'
Whatever form the business plan takes I also have a mission statement, something to adhere to whatever the business weather. I have some experience of QA from my current job and I know how important it is to guarantee repeatable levels of service time and time again.
If all goes well with my plans I'll be on the November NCCA course for the real start of my journey.
Thanks again all.

[JandS]

500 jobs a week...you'd need more than 10 vans to service that lot.
More like 20.

[Graeme Smith]

I would have a good long think about going into carpet cleaning unless you have a very good plan and I'm thinking along the lines of fast track type selling. I was with a franchise and used to look at the league tables the best performers had two things in common - 1. Length of time in business or an area bought off someone else who had been in that area for a long time and I am talking decades not single figures and/or 2. an affluent area.
Not saying its not possible to do what you are trying but it ain't easy. Business plans are ok but a semi detailed spreadsheet is as good but do your research into who else is out there and what they are doing.
Might be worth doing something a bit different like specialising in high quality rug cleaning advertised via the net but there is always the one person who can sell better and make cleaning super profitable.