[HolmansUKLTD]

...there is nothing to be gained from striking brick walls with your head.

rob m

Rob,

Please, do not try it  : at home.   

Regards,


Arthur

And your even worse!!

[andrew chrysler]

Would it be to much to ask Andrew if you have ever cleaned a carpet in you life.

Hardly ever

It might be a good idea to invest in Marketing

Now you are talking, if there is one thing I do know, it's marketing.

Hopefully that will be enough, if I can hire the skills to do the actual cleaning.

[andrew chrysler]

166 posts in less than 2 months tells you something my balloon fondling friend

Aha...... so the secret of success is to try to fly across the Atlantic in a giant hot air balloon shaped like a Ninja    Sorry, but I'm scared of heights

[Timmy Boy]

Andrew
Just thought that I would give you my slant on this business. My costs are as follows
1 x van (2.5k per yr on finance)
2 x operatives (full time)(30k)
2 x half page y/p ads (7.5k)
1 x telesales bod (15k + commision)
Phone bill (2k)
Specailist & van insurance (2k)
Equipment purchase & maintenance (2k)
Fuel (3k)
Chemicals (1k)
Other advertising (2k)
Total 67k per year  Christ, no wonder I never have any money!
As you can see I have a very proactive set up but even now I still need to do other jobs to make up the money such as kitchen cleaning, one off cleans, builders cleans, stripping & re sealing floors etc.
I hope this helps!
Regards
Tim

[HolmansUKLTD]

NIce one Andrew

[andrew chrysler]

Thanks, Tim, that's very useful. I also intend to be very proactive, because I am convinced that it is the quickest way to build up from scratch.

I have kept my set up costs as low as possible. I am looking at:

3 vans : transferred from other business : £0
1 car : second hand : £3000
equipment  second hand : £3000

These are paid for, and should last a couple of years.

3x operatives, full time, £45K (with bonuses)
1x sales rep, full time, £20K
Insurance, £3K
Chemicals... I'll use your figure, £1K
Fuel... compact area so I'll go with £2K
add 20% for unseen costs.

So about £80K, which means each operative needs to clean about £600 per week to break even..... I'd like to see £1000, but it all takes time. No Yellow Pages or press ad's, just a rep visiting every restaurant, hotel, nursing home etc, and the intention is to stagger the start dates of the 3 cleaning operatives (I like the word "technicians" though) to take account of workflow.

If I can get £1000 per week per technician, allowing for holidays, that's £140K so plenty of margin to buy new vans and kit once things are established.

I've also got my eye on a boat in Miami....... i just need $379,000 if carpet cleaning works, I'll call it VAC-CATION

[D woods]

Hi Andrew
Good luck with your new carpet cleaning venture, The only thing I would
say, is I dont think your wages are high enough to attract top quality
staff .

[craigp]

i think you have had so many sceptics andrew because 98% of c/c on here are owners/operaters, and we find it a hard slog,

and being owners is an incentive to work extra hard, your employees wont have that motivation.

i think your buisness model is not suited to this industry, i mean how many are set up in that way?, NONE in my area. 

any on here?

if there is they got to know this biz like the back of there hand, and probaly estabished many years ago when it was not so competitive.

but good luck, you'll need it, craig.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

You'll be lucky if you get away with £1k chemical and £2k fuel if you are running 3 vans!

I use £50 a week just on my van.

Not getting into the debate of which is best, but why not get your 1st tech going well and buy a TM as this will double or tripple your production rate.

3 x techs at £45000 could then be 1 x £15000 and a TM running cost of say £5000 you could save yourself £25 K a year.

Shaun

[Neil Grainger]

Hi Andrew

Coming from a sales background in IT I dont think that you will get a good sales rep for 20K

You may get some snooty s..t but not anyone any good.  50k-60K sounds more like it because you will need someone that knows how to sell and is happy with the money they are earning.

If he/she is bring in £3000 a week than they are the front line of your business and know what is coming in, I dont think they will be happy with 20K and a £3000 pound Car.

Sales people are Estate agents without the cheap suite's. Out to line their pockets and dont really care about the company, as they tend to move jobs every 1-2 years anyway.

Just a thought

[mark_roberts]

In agreement with Shaun, some of your figures are off.  What equipment have you got for £3000 second hand?  Three wands would be around £750??

While anything is possible its your plan that will dictate your success or failure.  I think you need a more detailed and researched plan of action and I feel you can only do this with relevant industry experience.

IMO you dont need a FT sales rep.  Effective marketing plan needs to have a range of mediums.  Why only commercial?  Youll be doing well to find employees to clean carpets 5 nights a week because thats when most commercial work is done.

Someone once told me on average take 50% off your turnover for costs.  The other 50% is yours.  Up till now that has worked for me.

Mark

[andrew chrysler]

I dont think that you will get a good sales rep for 20K
........  50k-60K sounds more like it   .......  I dont think they will be happy with 20K and a £3000 pound Car

20K basic, commission to get £40K OTE   .......   Berlingo multispace to start with, Mercedes C class when they hit target.

Target is £6000 per week: £3000 is minimum to keep the job.

Shareholding and directorship could be on offer for the right person, to keep them on board for long term.

The rep is only selling a few hundred pounds' worth of cleaning, not many thousands of IT.

Why only commercial?

Because I am VAT registered already..... so commercial work is more logical, as all prices can be plus vat

What equipment have you got for £3000 second hand?

Enough to start with, once we hit target I can buy new and lease new vans. 3 HWE and 3 uprights, in decent nick, all will be serviced before starting.

£1k chemical and £2k fuel if you are running 3 vans!

Sorry, I meant that per van.

Thanks for all your questions, they are keeping my mind focused and helping with refining the plan before we start.

[Neil Grainger]

Hi Andrew

Its not about what you are selling. The Sales rep at 20K is not going to be any good, Sales People earn the money they do because of what they do. They are not going to earn you between £12000 and £24000 a month and be happy with a take home of around £2000 and a Berlingo. Any Sales person with the drive to do the job is not going put up with that, they want a nice car and a lot more money than that

The margins in IT are a lot less than the margins in carpet cleaning, but sales is sales. IT companies need to move many thounsands of products before they make a profit but the sales person is still selling a product.

How quick would you want him to be bring money in for you because I think from experience a sales person on £20000 is going to be new and has to learn the ropes so he is not going to be productive for a very long time,maybe even 6 to 12 months. Who's going to train him/her in sales.

If you find that person that you are talking about for that money good luck to you, but after many years working in a Sales enviroment it just does not happen.

Pay Peanuts and you do get monkeys.

Good Luck

Neil

[HolmansUKLTD]

well said monkey boy

[craigp]

i recently heard of a british gas sales rep earning 110k with his commision,

so id have to agree with neil, if there good they want big money!

[John Rimmer Marshall & Rimmer Ltd]

Unfortunatly seems Andrew has all the anwsers as usual and if someone has them, whell not much more anyone can say is there becouse they know best dont they ? I just wish it was as easy as he thinks it is, as i only live about 10
miles from him, have been doing this for a long time. And have sean people
come and go. Even the big ones like New Life at Preston thats right Andrew
just ten miles from where you live. at there hight they had 3 vans 5 workers
2 partners lots of nice insurance work. And OVERHEADS that went into thousands per month. Guess where they are now Andrew, thats right finashed
capput, out of it. With nothing to show but a lot of heartake, think about it Andrew.

                                   Take Care John

[AJCleaningServices]

...there is nothing to be gained from striking brick walls with your head.

rob m

Rob,

Please, do not try it  : at home.   

Regards,


Arthur

And your even worse!!

Nick,  :  I just wished him well 

[mark_roberts]

You talking about nulife as in the Philbins?

If so they are very much still in business and youd do well to learn from them.  Met the son recently at Alltec.  Decent bloke with a lot of drive.

Mark

[supernova77]

John Rimmer Marshall & Rimmer Ltd,

Whats your problem?

Andrew hasn't once said that its going to be easy for him. He has thanked everyone on the forum for their input and has taken on board both positive and negative comments (even the ones from you).

Me thinks you're getting worried about possible competition if Andrew only lives 10 miles from you! 

[John Rimmer Marshall & Rimmer Ltd]

Lets deal with you one at at a time shall we, Mark Roberts first I do not know what you are talking about. I can asure you New Life went out of business
over 4 yrs ago. So i sugest you get your facts right OK. As for Southern Cleaning
whatever your name is, if you think after 12 yrs in business, and serviving for that lengh of time that i fear competition from Andrew, that begars belief on your part. I am simply trying to point out the folly of what Andrew is saying, and if you had the amount of exp that i have in the business logic would dictate that you also would have to reach the same conlution.

                                                 Take Care John