[Shaun_Ashmore]

I know of a cleaner in North Yorks that charges £195 plus vat to clean a 3pc and uses a rug doctor pro

I don't think a TM will get you loads of work on its own that'll depend on you but it makes enough noise (and the right noise) to get people interested and show that you really mean business (even if you don't!)

Shaun

[Dave_Lee]

Simon,
Youve got it spot on there. In my case, in the business with porty's for 23 years, busy as hell, but just treading water, went on the Fast Track which gave me extra marketing tools and led to an increase in turnover, bujt could not fit any more jobs in. Took the plunge and got a entry level TM - Take Off! Could now easilly do twice the number of jobs I had previously been doing and my turnover doubled in the space of 12 months.
Dave.

[Mike Osbourne]

Sought of connected question. You often see 2nd hand TM on here, ebay etc and they may be 3-4k, why aren't they snapped up to make huge ££££ with?

[Simon Gerrard]

Mike,
The simple answer to your question is, fear. People are scared to death of parting with what they already have on the promise of something better.
Nobody is suggesting that if you buy a Truck Mount you will make huge £££'s just because you have a Truck Mount, but the ability to make lots of money is there if that is what you want.
Funny thing is, you never hear of someone saying, 'I never really made any money in this business until I sold my Truck Mount and bought a portable.' It's always the other way around, I wonder why?

Simon

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I think people are scared of buying a 'dodo' because they don't know what to look for on second hand machines, a bit like buying your 1st car albeit that because of the lemming mentality everyone will want to go out and buy a used car.

Shaun

[Mike Osbourne]

I think you are both spot on there. I think fear holds most of us back even if we don't realise it as such.

There are probably some cracking buys but if you are not experienced with these things you don't know if you are being sold a pup. 

[Spot On cleaning]

I spent nearly £22000 buying a new tm and newish van two and a half years ago and i think it was a good investment. At the time, a Chem dry franchise was around £24000, so what Simon says about this being a reasonable investment is right.

Every year, another person who is made redundant sets up as a carpet cleaner, charges rediculous prices which effect all the other carpet cleaners. They might not be in business for long, but the customer then questions your price which might be £20 - £30 more than the cheapie carpet cleaner, so you have to try and justify it.

Anybody who has made the outlay for a tm and vehicle, which is obviously no good for any other purpose, is perceived to be professional in the eyes of the customer and they are not then reluctant to part with their money. As my nearby tm,er uses in his advert, more power for your pound.

When i bought mine there was him and me. Now there are 4 working the area. I can see in a few short years, the tm being the norm. The only thing that surprises me is that the porty users have not accused us of harming the planet with our exhaust fumes.

I still consider myself to be new in this business even after 6 years, and find it inspiring to hear of tm users who are hitting big bucks. Can dave please explain a little more about this fast track, or Simon explain more about marketing yourself towards getting commercial work and contracts.

Dave

[Mike Osbourne]

Dave

Yes, you are a contributor to killing the planet, shame on you. 

I also would like more info on how to use a TM as a marketing tool, without giving too much away obviously.

[MICHAEL_GAYTON]

please can they make machines that self clean the waste tank t/m and portys and at a press of a button the hoses disappear back into the van or bag.do you think t/m as a advantage  in fabric cleaning.i have found it takes the same time with a cfr as it was with my t/m.the only diff was cost in running the machine for 3 hours

[Spot On cleaning]

Mike

I think that the majority ot tm users qoute the drying times compared to the portables. I used a portable for the first three years, and i thought it was the muts nuts compared to diy machines, but things started to go wrong which equals money.

I still use my extracta excel on some applications where the tm cant reach.

I did not have the money to buy a top end tm but bought a new entry level Blazer from Prochem. If i am honest, the first job i did with it was a nightmare and i thought that i have made a big mistake. I had no hose reel at the time so was using the boxes that the pipes came in. The power was so great, you could see the carpets lifting.

After a few months, i made a hose reel, figured it out more fully and two months later earned £305 pounds for eight hours work cleaning two small rental property carpets for an estate agent.

After achieving this, i work on probability that if you can do it once, you can do it twice. And think about this, if a tm is serviced it will last a fair few years, so divide it's cost by say Ten years and you have got a good investment, even better if the machine lasts longer.

In short it is my opinion that the customer will part with more money when they see what outlay you have spent, and watch the customers face when they see it in action. They can sell themselves.

[Len Gribble]

Mike

Mines for sale £12k very well looked after, no expense spared last week new rocker gasket £5 also throw in two contracts free! Don’t do e-bay. Also offset by planting a tree (ok a bonsai)



Dave you mean to tell me CD haven’t been on your case, used to love their letters, I always try to discourage porty boys upgrading in my neck of the wood Parking, HOSE REEL WHY

Len

[Mike Osbourne]

Len

Knowing you it's very well looked after. This weeks plan however is to get a Transporter for about £4k and a get a new Prowler, but plans change, with the wind.

[Dave_Lee]

No us TMer's re not all poisoning the planet, like myself more and more are switching to enviro friendly LPG, and electric hose reels.
For Fast Track onfo contact Alltec, its changed a bit since I did it 6 years ago.
Dave.

[Simon Gerrard]

I am more than happy to explain how a Truck Mount is also a marketing tool.

1. Your Yellow Pages Ads include either a picture of your TM or you explain that a TM is up to ten times more powerful than conventional electric machines and that because of that yours carpets will be dry and ready to use in hours, not days!
Does that get you extra business? You bet it does.

In other words you sell your prospective customer the benefits of Truck Mounted Cleaning, you cannot do the same with a portable because the public are to some extent or other wary of portable operators because at some time in the past either they, or a friend of their had their carets cleaned by a guy that arrived on a BUS carry a portable machine that left their carpets wet for days and when it finally dried it looked no better than before and they don't want that, they want it done properly this time. These aren't my words, they are countless customers words. Now before anyone jumps on my back accusing me of suggesting that all portable operators are crap, I don't think that, for I know perfectly well that there are some guy's like Ken Wainwright and many others that have made very successful business using portable machines but we're talking here about customers perceptions of carpet cleaners and sadly portable operators seem to be all tarred with the same brush and a Truck Mount gets you away from all of that.
2. You turn up at a job or to do a quote and open the side door of your van and you get the 'WOW' and suddenly you are taken seriously.

That's marketing, because marketing is about turning your prospective customers in your direction.

3. You can use a TM as a demonstration vehicle. Show - Don't tell is a fantastic way of getting business. And the best way of all is to invite a pub, or better still a brewery chain to turn up at a job where the carpet was cleaned YESTERDAY by their existing portable operators. Then quarter fill your recovery tank with water and empty it in front of them so they know there are no tricks being played. Then clean a small section of carpet and empty the tank again.
End result? New customer. That's marketing. You cannot do the reverse with a portable.

4. You've just finished a job and you get this comment, 'My god, it's never looked that clean before.' Not only is your customer chuffed to death with the end result, she wants to tell the entire world about what you just did.
People are impressed when they see a Truck Mount in action and they instantly change their perception of you as a professional and seem only too willing to spread the news to anyone who will listen and what better way of marketing your business than have other people do it for you.

Again. let me stress, I am NOT casting aspersions on the portable community, I'm merely reporting what I hear on a daily basis.

Simon

[Joe H]

Been following this very interesting thread over the days, not looked at todays post but will do soon.

Reason why I have not seen todays post is because I have been busy having a truckmount fitted to my van.

Yep you read right, I GOT A TRUCK MOUNT

I bought a CFR500 2 years ago and the quality of my service to the client improved over what I di dbefore.
Last Aug I bought a 2nd hand Scorpion and again the quality of my service improved.
and in both instances I felt less tired at the end of the jobs.

I respect the truck mounted carpet cleaners that contribute to this and other forums and I have listened to what they say.

Always looking at improving my service and with less fatigueso earlier this week started looking keenly at a 2nd hand unit - remember in a early post Paul Moss referred to a discussion he had with a cc who has a top end porty? Well that was me.
I spoke to Paul and a few TMs as well as entering discussion with a seller.
Today been down to south Midlands to pick it up.

How much did it cost me

£2050 and that included about 40' of suction and solution hose.
I have put a photo on for you to see it in my van.
Not permanantly fitted yet.
I want to have a frame made to lift the unit up and have clean water tank underneath.
All bolted together and to the floor for safety.

Looking forward to my first job with it.

and look what sort of "spare" machine I have - a top end porty - a Scorpion!

[*paul_moss]

Well done Joe, guarentee you wont look back 

[mark shannon]

-Good luck Joe  I will be interested to know how it compares with the Scorpion when your up and running.

Mark

[spencer davies]

Well done Joe, join the club, I think our Hydramaster is excellent.


Regards




S

[Simon Gerrard]

Joe,
Well done. Keep us up to date with how you get on with it.

Simon

[Joe H]

Sorry photo didnt come up.
Tells me the image is too big - VGA 640x480 thought ot would be ok.
Cant find my bit of software to reduce it - somewhere on my computer cause I had to reduce my photo when we all started doing that a few weeks ago.

Any way - if you want to see it, it was for sale on this forum!!!!

Go to the buy/sell section and go down to May 5th - truck mount for sale.
Some of you will know the seller - Dave Atkins.... nice guy, and his wife who fed me, and his brother in law who had the fork lift truck. Thanks you guys.

The Chemspec Avenger 450.

Been stored for about 6 weeks now but started first turn of the key (glad about that as I didnt want to do a push start )
Works fine.

Now on my shopping list
a glide
water tank (John Kellys phone will be ringing next week)
a 12v pump (ideas please)