[Stoots]

I think this one has been discussed before but anyway..

The cleaners on facebook that do really cheap cleaning I.e £21 living room £15 bedroom etc.

Appear to have a cheap machine and a sell em cheap stack em high policy.

They have over 13k likes on fb! and hundreds of reviews and enquiries.

What I'm really wondering is would this be a potential market for a new cleaner to get into?

I mean I currently clean windows and do the odd carpet. I've had a but of training and have a decent grasp on the accepted ways to clean but it strikes me that these guys must do little more than turn up and clean with an in tank detergent. I doubt there'd much in the way of pre spray agitation and drying etc with those prices

So my question really Is this for someone like myself who is looking to get into carpets more seriously would this be a decent way to go? I mean I don't live in the most affluent area and selling on price would work, it goes against everything I've been led to believe until now but maybe there is money to be made cleabing in this manner

Thoughts? Just pondering really

[Mike Cottam]

Hi Adam

It doesnt matter if you live in a non-affluent area, there is money out there. Get some professional training and offer a professional service, dont look for the lower end of the market.

As for the Facebook cleaners, they exist everywhere. Theres a business in my area wowing Facebook users with videos of dirty carpets being magically cleaned with a single pass of a wand... in reality, he is soaking the carpet first so it appears dark, then starts recording and simply extracts the liquid giving the appearance of the  carpet being magically cleaned.

So my advice would be to concentrate on providing the best service you can.

[Marius Alexandru]

Adam i'm sick of people calling me and telling me how expensive I am, from now on i'm giving 2 prices out, you want cheap, be it, I will hoover, cheap chemicals and then extraction with water,I will not give a F if the stains come out or not, I will them them from the start, you want cheap here it is,  then I will have the more premium service, hoover, chemical, agitate, try to get all the stains out, rinse with water and turbo dryer.  You want quality pay for it.

[Stoots]

Marius.

You seem a little agitated there. 

I'm just making some observations that there seems to be a few cheap guys out there who are thriving.

I mean are most customers really bothered that we hoover, pre spray , agitate etc.

I mean stains aside to the eye I can do pretty much the same job with a cheap in tank high alkaline cleaner. Ok might have to hoover if bad but could turn up and pretty much start wanding and be done in half the time. So why faff about going through the process?  Ok so I'll leave residue in the carpets as opposed to a water rinse but who cares? Do the customers really care, will they question it? Or will they be happy they have a clean carpet cheaply?

I think there's a market place for both types of cleaner. I'm just pondering if it's possible to earn decent money being the cheap guy?

Maybe the cheap guys make it work by hiring employees and getting them to do the donkey work whilst you concentrate on marketting.

Let's make no mistake cheap is a viable selling point and could provide a good business model if done correctly. I mean it goes against everything  we are told bug after all this is business it's all about the money at the end of the day.

[Mike Halliday]

You would be restricted by time, with travel time the average job would take 90mins (at least) so you could only do 6 a day which would mean an income of less than£130-£150.  This would be for working your ar£E  off.  You might get multiple room jobs which would help but you would still clean a lot of single rooms.

And that's if they are getting 6 jobs a day every day, it's easier to find low price jobs...... but I bet you could find 1 £150 job easier than 6 cheap jobs.

I have a local cleaner on Facebook who offers. 2 rooms for £30 and will only do a minimum of 2 rooms but offers a discount for multiple room so goes even  cheaper than £15 a room.

Good luck to them if thats how they want to work

[from edge2edge]

Adam get good training then the hard bit starts in actually getting work.You could do cheap work and use it as extra training which you are being paid for and learn your trade on the job so to speak.I know people who charge low prices but do a very thorough job too.Thorough vacuum with industrial vacuum treat stains prespray agitation dwell rinse with proper machine and put a dryer on and collect the money from a happy customer.They do better jobs too when the opportunity arises .A very large percentage of callers are moving out of a rental and only call you because they have a piece of paper that says they have to have the carpets professionally cleaned otherwise no call so its how cheap they can get their deposit back.Always do a great job and you will move up the pecking order for good paying jobs and get recommendations.................Alan

[Ian Harper]

Adam

have you never seen those sites that give likes, comments, etc for a price? i used a site for programming work and they are jobs posted for that type of work. they are really sorted they can trick the any site with ips and other ways so it does not look like same person.

its amazing what some guy in a mud hut can do with Internet connection. A funny story I had a guy doing some work and he was not online for a few days, so I ask why, thinking that he was messing me around. his answers was they had a storm and it had knocked out the electric for the area, that area was the size of essex. just think if that happened here.

I have had system operator in the far east work for pounds for me doing work that would cost much, much more. these guys are very smart.

they do a great job because they want you to give a high rating at the end. BTW I would never use them for the facebook thing as you have to understand the risk. but for programming yes.

here is one like I used in past thats different from above, its more Gray hat than black hat  http://www.socisynd.com/ the one I used was if I post stuff for others they post for me. it was a credit based system. no subs or money exchanged hands. the great thing is your posting to social sites that link back to your main site so your one step away from an issues. this is backlink exchange on steroids. would not recommend this stuff now far to much water under bridge. google will be much wiser now.

[macky]

Adam i'm sick of people calling me and telling me how expensive I am, from now on i'm giving 2 prices out, you want cheap, be it, I will hoover, cheap chemicals and then extraction with water,I will not give a F if the stains come out or not, I will them them from the start, you want cheap here it is,  then I will have the more premium service, hoover, chemical, agitate, try to get all the stains out, rinse with water and turbo dryer.  You want quality pay for it.

I Can see exactly where you are coming from had it yesterday Some one asked for a quote gave them mine Only to be told someone  had quoted them £40 for three room I just said good luck with  that

[benny d]

It will still be VERY hard work even if you were at the cheap end of the market. You will be knackered at the end of the day, with only £150 in your pocket. That aint the way to do it!!

[*Hector*]

I started out servicing the cheap end of the market, and did so for 15 years.... lots and lots of experience, and always said that the poor deserve to have clean carpets too.... BUT..... in the end, I was getting more Doctors, Solicitors, supermarket owners etc, wanting a cheap job, than genuine poor customers (and even a lot of them had more disposable income than I did).

the only way to guarantee getting the quantity of work is to be the cheapest..... BUT.... unless you have a secondary income (dole, fireman etc) you will never be the cheapest, as there is always someone who will do it for less... They may not do a good job, they may not even use detergent or cleaning chems (I know of at least 12 people of such ilk)... But the custard will have had the job done, and a piece of paper saying so....

When I quit the business 3 years ago, I was actually one of the most expensive in my area, and still had to turn work away as I was too busy. I was a lot happier doing 1 or 2 jobs a day, for quadruple the money previously.... It just took the leap of faith, that my services were good enough to warrant the charge... Self belief......

So by all means start low, as you will get loads of experience, and 95% of the carpets will be mingers..... Once you have a year or so behind you, and if you are still in business... try a secondary line of marketing with a different company name, and prices a lot higher.... I bet that the higher price business gets more work....

[Dennis]

Jeez 100% top advice from Hector! I'm shocked.         

[*Hector*]

Hey... it can happen every now and again Dennis... 

think I need a lie down now though... 

[Stoots]

Good advice guys thanks

It was more an interest in whether it could be a viable business going for the low end.

In reality i dont need to work for peanuts, im steady away with window cleaning and other bits just a thought looking at these guys who do it and are obviously busy.

[Elfyn]

In the 20 odd years that I've been carpet cleaning I can say that I've seen them come and I've seen them go.
I look back at when I started and I shudder to think about the things that I did.
The one thing that has made me survive and the others fall by the wayside is standards. Keep your standards up (and your costs down) and you'll have a good career in this trade. Yes, I do think of it as a trade.

[Elfyn]

And - I almost forgot. Don't take too much notice of Facebook. It's my experience that any leads or work that come from there are very low quality - they will only mess you about.

[dan paton]

I've emigrated up to your neck of the woods Hector.  Nice place. The local yocals seem pretty nice too

[*Hector*]

Long time no hear Dan... whereabouts?

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I think the cleaner is Craig from Doncaster he usually frequents on fb, his selling point is being cheap and uses fb to advertise through networking and using people to recommend him imo Facebook is made for him and he's successful for it.

[*Hector*]

I've emigrated up to your neck of the woods Hector.  Nice place. The local yocals seem pretty nice too

Aha..... that is 2 ex carpet cleaners (also hypnotists) who build websites in Andover... 

You and the ever elusive Gary J... (last heard from 3 years ago)

 

[*Hector*]

I think the cleaner is Craig from Doncaster he usually frequents on fb, his selling point is being cheap and uses fb to advertise through networking and using people to recommend him imo Facebook is made for him and he's successful for it.

Shaun... this Craig, is he the one who pioneerd the 50% off leaflets, and had carpet cleaners in different towns working for him?