[Rory Canavan]

Hi Guys
I have been cruising at a similar comfortable level for a couple of years now mostly offering carpet cleaning and a little end of tenancy as a sole trader.
I want to go to the next level and I have a few thoughts as to what I would like to do and wondered what you guys think is best

- get into fire/flood restoration and insurance work

- just increase marketing and employ someone

- rent a commercial unit that focuses on drop in rug cleaning

Would appreciate any feedback

Cheers

[edward coller]

Hi Rory if I was in your position and a little younger than I am , I think I would be looking at wood floor sanding, re sanding and finishing, there seems to be an increasing market for the service and at what seems like a good return. Cheers Simon

[Mike Halliday]

I have a unit which I had great plans for, but none came to fruition,  its now a storeroom for my massive amount of crap

I would make sure you can get the rug cleaning before splashing out on a unit

[Shaun_Ashmore]

A very wise piece of advice, Mike has Beverley’s version of scrap heap challenge a plethora of bits to never throw away but the rug cleaning and leather restoration just gets in the way of making money there just isn’t enough hours in the day, I use my garage and out house (soon to be demolished for a swanky new one) for rug cleaning but I don’t push the rugs too much I find that I can earn more onsite carpet cleaning when you look at the bigger picture.

Mike are you coming to the end of the PW season? I bet you’ve hardly seen a carpet.

[Mike Halliday]

It has slowed down slightly on the pressure washing but the conservatory roof & facia/soffits/gutters is still going strong.  But I exspected it to slow down, I almost used the summer as a test with the idea that I could earn enough from march to sept to take the 4 months of winter off.  Which has worked out well, I have my hips joints replaced on the 30th of Nov and will take 3 months off.

Not done a carpet for  about 6 months..... best decision I ever made to pull out of carpets & upholstery cleaning

[Shaun_Ashmore]

When you have your hip done let me know I’ll come over it’ll be good to catch up.

[Rory Canavan]

Hi Rory if I was in your position and a little younger than I am , I think I would be looking at wood floor sanding, re sanding and finishing, there seems to be an increasing market for the service and at what seems like a good return. Cheers Simon

Yea I am 27 and I remember doing that once for chemdry (when I worked for them for a year before I went out on my own). The wood floor sanding was tough but was enjoyable.  I wonder if there is a big outlay for it like equipment, marketing and training.  That I will have to research.  Thanks for the reply Simon

[Rory Canavan]

A very wise piece of advice, Mike has Beverley’s version of scrap heap challenge a plethora of bits to never throw away but the rug cleaning and leather restoration just gets in the way of making money there just isn’t enough hours in the day, I use my garage and out house (soon to be demolished for a swanky new one) for rug cleaning but I don’t push the rugs too much I find that I can earn more onsite carpet cleaning when you look at the bigger picture.

Where I am I can rent a good unit for roughly 400 quid so was thinking that after roughly 8-10 rugs it would be profit after that and it would increase my profile in town hopefully leading to more carpets and upholstery.  It could also store stuff that I can no longer store in my house so it may well end up being a storehouse  . Cheers for the reply shaun and mike

[Mike Halliday]

That would have to be  8-10rugs that could not be cleaned in-situ for you to need a unit.  It's not just the cleaning but also most people will want you to pick up and drop them off after cleaning.

10 rugs costing £40 to make your £400 for the unit,  to justify a 'rug cleaning plant' would require need to be cleaning rugs for much bigger prices, if I was picking a rug up, cleaning it And drying ( the drying is the hard bit) then drop it off I would want at least £150.

How many high end rugs do you clean now or do you think you will clean in the future ?

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I will Clean a small rug for £89 that’s up to 4 ft length which most customers baulk at but to be honest there’s not a big profit in it as Mike suggests, you need lots of volume at £40 per rug.

If you’re flat out with work raise your prices ok you’ll lose a few customers but I promise you that financially you’ll be no worse off we’ve all been there.

[gwrightson]

When you have your hip done let me know I’ll come over it’ll be good to catch up.

Let me know I will try make it.

Geoff

[DB]

Hi

I took on a unit a good few years ago now and it too was quite cheap to rent...There is the fitting out of a drying room/area to consider.
The cost of fetching and carrying...funny how you are never in that particular area  when you want to drop off a rug
Oh ..I nearly forgot to mention the Council Tax, Heating, lighting costs... a real eye opener for me was the TWO water rates....I only had a tap, a sink and a drain...there was a communal toilet on the site

I tried hard to make it work and was succeeding but in the end the costs plus the time of trying to do on-site work  in conjunction with in-plant work too much for one person.

[Mike Halliday]

I have a long running battle with the letting agent over the water bill, there is one meter for all the 8 units, (one of the units has 12 employees working within , all using the toilet and making tea and coffee) but the agent thinks it easiest to just divide the bill equally between the 8 units, last quarter I paid £160 to use my toilet twice!

Over the next 6 months I will give it up but will need to sell loads of crap .... I mean valuable equipment

Shaun when you come across I will let you do a trolley dash...... everything you can get in your van within 60 seconds you can keep

[Rory Canavan]

This is all good info. Charging 40-50 for a normal 6x4 is the going rate here. Any more and I wouldn't have any customers I believe. I didn't consider the dropping of the rugs off. 
Thats bad mike about you toilet charge! Over here in NI we don't have water charges yet. The government over here promised if we voted them in they would keep it free. So for now (it will no doubt change) that is a charge I wouldn't have to worry about.
Maybe just learning a new skill like sanding wood floors or water and fire restoration is the option for me. 

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Shaun gets a trolley dash of 60 seconds with your 10000 post!

Does he get 2 minutes when you reach 15000?

Mind you Shaun will be so doddery by then he’ll need the extra time. 

Rog

[Mike Halliday]

Gosh 10,000 posts!!

I joined in  .August 29, 2003,  so it's took me  14yrs, I remember joining all those years ago 

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Thank you Roger now go away!

Do you think I’ll be fine with a FREE trolley dash ?

[Buckland]

This is all good info. Charging 40-50 for a normal 6x4 is the going rate here. Any more and I wouldn't have any customers I believe. I didn't consider the dropping of the rugs off. 
Thats bad mike about you toilet charge! Over here in NI we don't have water charges yet. The government over here promised if we voted them in they would keep it free. So for now (it will no doubt change) that is a charge I wouldn't have to worry about.
Maybe just learning a new skill like sanding wood floors or water and fire restoration is the option for me. 

Rory - the rug idea is one that's mildly interested me as I have been interested to see derek wests experiences with setting up his plant - my patch/area would pay the premium prices of say somewhere near £100 for a 6 x 4 and seeing what is involved in full immersion then its cheap at that price imo! So don't go there mate for 40-60 - they are heavy bloody things when saturated and unless you can factor in a centrifuge its going to be a non-starter so you will be a busy fool - washing them is one thing but in our climate you've then got to end up (if you can attract the trade) with a 'bottle neck' for drying them in a special separate room - the end product looks fantastic (makes one realise that surface cleaning them on site is a poope business tbh) and you have a pretty open market currently but don't do it unless its really lucrative - there's nothing so dis-heartening as working bloody hard for little return.

Just my twopennysworth as its something that if I was starting out again I would definitely have a go at.

[Rory Canavan]

Cheers for that reply man. Yea I have been researching in my area and I don't think I could charge them prices as I would be nearly double the price of nearest competitor. However no one offers to properly clean them at a unit. So it would be a little bit of a risk. I haven't made my mind up yet.