[malicgo]

Im thinking of starting a carpet cleaning business. Ive heard about the Host Dry Clean system is it any good. Any ideas.
Cheers Al

[Matt Lindus]

Hi Al. I know others will shoot me down but the best piece of advice I can give you is don’t come into carpet and upholstery cleaning.
There is no demand for it that’s why you see no other vans around, the public have a low general opinion of it and are not willing to pay professional rates. The customer has too many choices that filter a potential call from getting to you (Hire, Replace, Buy own machine)

Its ok if you are retired and looking to earn a few bob on a weekend, as for a career, forget it.

Look at keeping a full time job and doing night school at a local collage or similar. Electrical, Plumbing, Refrigeration Engineering, Accountancy etc etc the list is endless.
Make a future in something technical thats in demand.
Sorry but I would feel very guilty telling you otherwise.

Matt

[John Milnes]

 

any last words matt?

[spencer davies]

I am sorry.......but what a terrible attitude 


S

[prodry]

Matt

You put on a post a few days ago that 0.3% of your earnings were from carpet cleaning the rest you earned from fitting TV and Sky aerials. You said you were grossing £12k a week from fitting aerials.

If your not making any money carpet cleaning and doing alright with your other business then why are you still bothering with the cleaning and posting on here. Don't they have aerial forums? 

Agree with you its very hard to start up but there are plenty that have been doing for a while and do ok. Its not the instant cash flow business people expect it to be. However the people that expect it to be instant cash flow generally are the ones not running it like a business ie. the part timers like yourself


 

[John Gregory]

Matt is right , 18 months ago I started reading these forum's , all these people getting 50p a sq f  for cleaning carpets it's nonsence , I did all the training courses NCCA and all that , spent daft money on truckmount and van and all the bits that go with it , the money on advertising , this week I have managed to scrape £500 , don't lisen to these muppets that say there earning thousands , Get yourself a proper job


John

[lands]

Guys,

Whats the most important part of runnig a CC business?

Is it your technical knowledge, the equipment you have, how organised you are or how hard working you are............................none of these

Its sales and marketing.

If you have a good number of enquiries coming in and you are good at coverting them you will succeed.

Growing the business will depend on some of the above but again, is nowhere near as important as sales and mktg.

Pete

[Matt Lindus]

Pro dry, yes it does only earn me pittance at 0.3%, I thought within 7 years I could get the business up to the aerial and sat business level, how wrong was I! And yes I do go on the Communication forums
We earn more in adjusting peoples existing aerials (climb a ladder and twist the aerial until you get clear TV reception) than two guys running around doing scraps of carpet cleaning jobs.

I was talking to a guy today who wanted a load of aerial points putting into some new builds. Total installation cost well into the thousands. In the back ground I had Louise shouting "I've got mrs smith on the other line wondering how much you charge for a fireside rug""!!  :

She haggled over a £40 min call out. 

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Because the average spend per customer is not thousands unlike a supply and fit ie double glazing, builders etc then finding regular work can take time, I know it took me 5 years to get work all year round at modest to low prices which means you run around like a blue rs fly you just think you are earning a decent wage and the machine brakes or the clutch goes or the insurance doubles.

The work onthe whole is easy but that is why the 'dodgy' carpet cleaners come out for a bit of extra money to scupper your plans.

malicgo what prices do you think you'll be charging? you will be very surprised when we tell you the variety.

Shaun

[Paul Kettless]

Pete is exactly right, and it always make me laugh when I read that people have paid stupid amounts of money equipment, training etc and expect work to be available at will.

It takes considerable time to establish any type of business, my uncle is a retired business manager and tells me he has seen more businesses fail than suceed.  He also tells me that it is normally the third year that every thing goes belly up.

I am now in my second year of carpet cleaning and the money earnt has only just started to make a difference to my company, sometimes the amount of advertising that I do only just pays for itself.  Other weeks I can clear 1k

Therefore it is a god send that I am not relying on it to pay the bills.

I think the sensible approach is to not go out and spend a fortune on truckmounts et al, when you do not have the work to justify such a purchase.  I started with a second hand steameasy which earned me enough money to upgrade to a speedster last year.

I would love to upgrade once more to a prowler and could probably afford to buy it, but common sense tells me not to until I have the need for it.

I am not sure who it was on this forum that once said there is a huge difference between what you want and what you actually need.  This made me think, and I now keep my hard earnt earnings in the bank, and only purchase when I really need something.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

CC is a tough business to get established in because there are few big contracts and these are usually taken by office cleaners or franchises.

There is also little subbing like in the building industry.

Having said that once you are established then rewards can be quite high and money becomes available to invest elsewhere.

As has been said being a good CC is not enough , you have to be able to sell/market and also to manage costs, my heart drops when I see the vast amount of chemicals and equipment which failed CC's are selling.

Back to the original question a Host system is only really a niche carpet cleaner and you are unlikely to build a business on this alone.

Cheers

Doug

[spindle]

great post paul a sensible voice.........

its like everything else........start at the bottom and work your way up.....

unless ur rich and afford to spend 10/20/30k on equipment.....

if you dont need to use it dont buy it......

[John Gregory]

Im getting slated a bit here for going buying a truckmount , getting as much training as possible , trying to earn to living by doing the best job possible . maybe I should of got me self a karcher puzi . and spent my hard earned money on getting top spot on google

John

[John Kelly]

John, theres nothing wrong in buying the best kit available doesn't matter what business you are in. It will always give you an advantage and using good kit is always better than using poor.
In my experience and of others I know in the industry it does take around 5 years to build up a decent customer base. This customer base is only useful if you market to it correctly as customers soon forget who you are if you don't keep in touch.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi John,

You have been very honest so I will be too,  a top spot on Google will certainly improve your takings and although downgrading to a Puzzi might be a bit drastic a twin vac machine will suffice.

Cheers

Doug

[davep]

Where do i hand my notice in...   :

I think how busy you are also depends on the part of the country you live in, also anyone can start carpet cleaning and some fail, some succeed. 

What determins this?  If you spread your marketing well and charge a not over the top price then the odds are surely in your favour 

People aint daft and will use you and refer you if you give them a good service and price.

Dave

[prodry]

Pro dry, yes it does only earn me pittance at 0.3%, I thought within 7 years I could get the business up to the aerial and sat business level, how wrong was I! And yes I do go on the Communication forums
We earn more in adjusting peoples existing aerials (climb a ladder and twist the aerial until you get clear TV reception) than two guys running around doing scraps of carpet cleaning jobs.

I was in a similar postion last year. Was doing ok with carpet cleaning and really well with my handyman/property maintenance side. Carpet cleaning was paying c. £50.00 + an hour other work was alot less after I had subbed it out or even done it myself. Other work was regular where as the carpet cleaning was busy one week and dead the next. I was all over the show.

Nearly gave up both. But decided to cut out the rot and manage my time better and lost the cr@p i didnt need. Only do the jobs I want to do on the handyman side now and have pushed up my prices and have done the same with the carpet cleaning more then trippling my average ticket price. Now only do 2-3 really full days a week carpet cleaning and 3-4 days a week on the other side. Working harder then ever and earning more then I ever have done.

Sometimes these decisions need to be made. I probably would have done just as well concentrating on one or the other rather then both. Sounds like you need to make one of these big decisions, No point being in business to pay someone elses mortgage. If your aerials are doing well use your energy on them.

Michael     

[lands]

Hi John

My point was not to put down your training and the kit you've got. I probably would have gone for a TM myself when I started out if I'd had the money. Point I was trying to make is you can be a very good cleaner but have no money, at the same time you could be a bad clarpet cleaner and become very wealthy from it.

Did a job a couple of Months back (big big house) for a guy who had a firm of 10 working for him just before he sold it (some years ago this was in the midlandsd) and he could'nt believe my knowledge and I only know a fraction of what many on here know but you could tell he had plenty of savvy and thats where he directed his efforts, on his sales. This is how he cleaned all carpets, double clean in waste tank, no vaccing, no prespray, so yes he was a proper splash and dash but he sold the company for over £200k. He had'nt even done and CC training.

Pete

[John Gregory]

Pete ,  Im good at cleaning carpets , good at cleaning upholstery , not bad with leather , but Im s crap business man. I hope over the next couple of months you will all help. I know I am doing it half right because of the repeat work I'm getting and the referral's. just been reading another post where someone is putting out 17000 leaflets , why?

all the best John

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Some guys bulk their week with every and any jobs some guy's cherry pick well paid multiple carpet jobs at one home it's horses for courses but to fast track your business so it doesn't take 5 years to grow you have to double up on your advertising.

The only thing is that there isn't one advertising medium that works solely for our business YP used to be but now isn't, leaflets done regularly and in mass are effective but not cheap, as of now the web where I live isn't although in deepest darkest Essex and East Sussex it is.

What you need are 4 or 5 different ways of getting work in and getting that telephone to ring, yes they will all cost but after may be a few more years you can ease off and just have webpages and the odd leaflet drop.

Shaun