[Shaun_Ashmore]

have you come across Bartons much?

Shaun

[craigp]

hi red, i was looking at the woodbridge TM too, had demo, its good spec! bit ugly though, well campared to hydramaster and the like, i decided to go second hand and save bit of money, might be worth looking at red, just make sure its been well looked after!, oh before that like you i was thinking of a ninja TMed but that was looking like 3-4k anyway so thought may as well get second hand TM and that way you got no worries about it being powerful enough.

not sure you need, FT you know what they do, marketing etc. why not just use they pink flyer? and the ideas FT you like?

good luck.

[the red carpet]

Thats the same reason i decided against the ninja, time you get all the add ons its £4000+ and the woodbridge starts at £6250

I dont think i need f/t either to be honest, but it can only help

I wanted to do the training anyway and have done for the last year and never got round to it, so its allready pushed me to do something as i will def be doing all the courses in the next couple months now.

I also want to start offering maintanance plans, and have done for ages so thats another thing im def gonna get out of it.

Im sure i could do it all myself but would i? theres nothing like a kick up the ar$e here and there.

And im also a very competitive person by nature, so i know if i see any of the guys that start at the same time as me doing better than me it will push me to improve myself.

And i will now have to earn a couple of hundred a month more now wether i like it or not just to pay them, so if i finish after a year with them i will have found out how to take that extra money every month and it will then be mine.

[Eureka Ventures]

Red

Bravo! All the very best, mate.

Freddie

[carpetclean]

red i think you are attending the event on the 19th. then is your chance to see the t/m from woodbridge and prochem. dont forget that the t/m's are on offer that day also for free upgrades so pay for the 18 and get the 20. wish i was offered this when i bought mine.

[the red carpet]

This is when i am looking to purchase if i do get one, is the free upgrade available all through the range?

If i pay for the top single wand one i think its the 20 or 25, will i get a free upgrade to the dual wand?

I cant decide if i would be better off going for the dual wand or not, anyone use one?

[Martin S]

Peter (carpetclean)

I e-mailed you the app' form to attend the August event but didn't get a confirmation from you!  I take it that is ok?

[jewell]

hi red i use the pro 25 dual wand done a job back along in a block of flats.women came out of next block of flats could i fit her in.fully booked for day.so all idid was connect other hose and wand .my employe finnished first job while i cleaned second job at the same time. also in the night clubs i clean he pre sprays .i have had the machine since jan and it is bang on.like the service i got from woodbridge.ihope this helps you out a bit.and good luck with whatever machine you get

[Dave_Lee]

Shaun,
You calling me a lazy git? Yeah, you are probably right. Seriously though, had my best year by far last year so I decided not to bother with YPs this year as an experiment, so I was expecting it to be a bit quieter. However its been so far much quieter than expected, but a lot of business owners are telling me the same. You are right, marketing of at least some form is an on going thing. Its hard though when you do everything yourself and when that free time comes along and you really should put on your marketing head, the mountains beckon, oh its such a hard life!
Dave

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Dave if I were you I'd do that Pink leaflet I think it would keep you fit posting it in and around the hills of Chorley !

Shaun

[angela carlton]

I've noticed a number of 'posters' saying it's been pretty quiet and assume these are fairly new to the business, as we, are actually busier than usual and with my 'old man' out of the business, we have advertised for the first time in years, in a local paper.

The advert' cost £74 for a, smaller than bus card size ad' and it has brought in over £700 of business, which is, in my opinion, brilliant. far easier and far more profitable than leaflets.

The only reason for the advert, was to generate volume and get our son started in c/c 'ing.

angie

[carpetclean]

martin must have missed that one but you are all booked in now no problem.
red
 as far as i am aware the free upgrades start from the 18 so yes if you pay for the 20 you will get the 25. if only this was on offer when i got mine as i am sure the time saved on a big job with two wands going would be well worth it.

[Damian]

yes shaun i know bartons. there shop is near my folks. think their son is into cc'ing in a big way? they place quite a few ads in yp. do you know them then?

[Mike Halliday]

Red,

What part of fastrack do you think will help your business? or to put it another way what do you think you need to take your company forward?

£3500 is a lot of money, many people have had great success with fastrack but could you achieve the same results with a bit of marketing research.

If you are committing to putting out 7.5k leaflets a week within a month you should have all the appointments you need, what you need to learn is how to turn them into High paying customers, will Fastrack teach you this.

If I had £3500 to spend I would attend the woolsafe course become  a authorised Chemspec Stainshield applicator, join the NCCA and take on Allerg-Stop

then when you are in the house you have a multitude of way of increasing the amount of money the customer spends which is the key to riches in carpet cleaning.

the nice thing about the organisations I've mentioned is they all have an amount of marketing wisdom but together you have a formidable team behind you.

Julie from Chemspec will help you sell Stainshield ( a great way to increase the customer spending)

Woolsafe & NCCA will increase your credibility and have a small amount of marketing material.

The Allerg-stop Network seem to be a knowledgeable bunch of carpet cleaners who I'm sure will pass on marketing material that works, and you will get  the same comradeship you'd receive from fastrack

just my opinion

Mike

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Damian I don't know Bartons only their reputation

Shaun

[Damian]

hi shaun. whats the reputation bout bartons then mate? know their dad dave in passing but only through carpet fitting and seeing him occasionally in warehouses etc (very rare). think his lad who cleans is called john? thats it really. they good or bad?

[the red carpet]

UPDATE

Got the van Citreon Relay, nice van, got a problem with the wheel bearing allready : but hopefully be sorted this week apart from that nice drive, good size, basically im happy with it, could do with a bit more poke though it dosent like hills not with the t/m and water tank on the back.

7500 leaflets a week was a no go, got knocked again by another leaflet distribution company but have found a very good very reliable, cheap £15 a thousand leaflet guy. So happy with that, am gonna give him 2500 a week and do a couple myself.

Joined fast track, done all the training wich was good im definatly a more confident more competant cc because of it, not done much on the marketing side of it yet, but must say i like the look of the laptop audit and the maintenance programmes.

Got the t/m nothing but problems so far went down again today for the 10th-15th time so going back again in the morning, i really cant understand the problem iv just read through a good few posts on here and everyone with the same model seems really happy with them, so im not gonna blame the machine i guess iv just been unlucky. Either that or iv brought a dudd one.

Have took on a helper, and it does take the strain of my back i do come home feeling a lot fresher these days, but if i said he was without his problems i would be lying.

So all in my outgoings have gone up around £1590 a month, am i any better off? So far financially not really, phisically definatly, but twice as stressed. Was it worth it? only time will tell.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Did you buy a new TM, who's was it?

Shaun

[Ian Gourlay]

Daniel i thought you got a replacement van a few months back and put your truckmount in it.

Hope it all works out for you

[Chris R]

Did you buy a new TM, who's was it?

Shaun

He got a brand new woodbridge pro mount 25 Shaun.

I think some of the  problems could be put down to lack of experience with a T/m ( ie - dumping loads of water = had the temp stat turned down).

But would like to know what other problems you have had Red?

My pro mount 20 needed a replacement water dumping valve thingy and a waste tank sensor in the first month, nothing else since - 6 months.

regards

Chris