[TommyB]

Neil
Just because I say something that you may not agree with does not make it RUBBISH. Clearly you are one of the many people in this buisiness with extremely small minds and even smaller businesses.
I used to think like you then I got as truck mount and went on to make some pretty serious money.
tom

[Simon Gerrard]

spindle2k,
First of all it would be really nice if you came out from behind  the spindle2k and do us all the respect of at least telling us your name, then would could all begin to respect you as a fellow professional instead of a faceless heckler.

Secondly, I started this business just exactly as I have stated above, that is why I now give it as advice to those who ask the same questions as I did thirty years ago.
You and others like you may not have the guts to 'go for it' from the very beginning and that is your choice but I know many people who don't clean 'cruise ships from here to Cairo' as you so eloquently put it who have built themselves fantastic businesses based on Truck Mount start ups. Just because you haven't done it, doesn't mean it cannot be done.

Simon (yes, that is my name, what's yours?)

[Neil Grainger]

Simon

But you must have the work to make that £20,000 pay for the equipment.  I earn good money from this now with a portable, but dont feel the need to have to own one to do the work. I'm a one man band who works 4hrs a day cleaning and take home a very good wage every week with a portable. I have no staff issues, no fuel costs, and I am happy

If you've never had one(Truckmount) you dont miss it, Yes I would  love it but dont want to spend £20,000 when we dont no what is going to happen with the economy.

Simon, you work in a luxury market of Crusie ships, which need a Truckmount, I work in a world of Domestic and the occasional large commercial job that dont. Most of us work in my World. I would love to have one, do I need one, No. Do my customers like the job I do with a Portable, Yes.  

If most of my work is commercial I would have a Truckmount, but domestic just does not need it.

[Neil Grainger]

Tom

I make high end 5 figures and am very happy but I dont have a small mind or small business, I earn as much if not more than alot of truckmounters.  You can earn very good money with portables and I do. Truckmount does not mean more business, it will make it easier if I had one, but its not that hard even with a portable is it.

I took some great advise from Dave Liahona in Jan and since then my business has gone mad, Get in with your Interior designers as they get you loads of work at high end prices

I have 3 holidays a year, pick my daughter up from School, have a great life that I love. Just because I dont have 5 Truckmounts 10 staff and am turning over a million a year does not make me small minded or small in business.

[Simon Gerrard]

Neil,

You're right I do work in the cruise ship market and I of all people know just how fortunate I am to have the job that I have for lots and lots of reasons that I won't go into.

But how do you think I got here? By mistake? Good luck? Good fortune? An act of god? Because that is how you make it sound. What none of you want to accept is that I had to work my way up, not from the top, but from the bottom, the very bottom.
None of what I now have came to me easily, or by luck, good fortune and definitely not as an act of god, but by damned hard work and total and utter dedication to getting my business to where I wanted it to be.
If your business is where you want it to be then you are every bit as a successful as I am. Who can ask for more from a business.

Simon

[Neil Grainger]

Simon, can I ask how many hours a week you work for what you earn?

You are right, I am very happy with life these days. I spent 15 years working for major IT companies, My work friends from that background think that I am mad as I could be earning 6 figures but I would have to be doing 80hr weeks, never seeing my Wife and kids and never really being able to do the things I want to do even with all that money.

How much money is enough?

[elliott cleaning]

Spindle
It is not unrealistic to enter into this business with a t/m.  I did it and know and am in regular contact with a dozen cc's who did the same. All of them running profitable businesses.
I think the flaw in your post is: " How can you expect a newbie to spend 20k on equipment and then sit back and wait for work to come in".
If you take your investment seriously, you don't wait for work to come in.  You darn well go out and get it.   If that is not on the agenda, yes then invest in a bucket & brush.

Neil
Yes, Simon cleans the Cunard liners.  Could he produce the same finish with portables, maybe, probably.  But he has a time constraint.  None of the luxury of it takes as long as it takes to clean the carpets.  Portables probably are not an option.
Transfer the time issue to yours or my clients, be it commercial or domestic.  Assume we both produce the same finish,  I can clean more carpets than you in a set day.  That means extra revenue, initially to pay for my larger investment & then  substantially larger profits. Not just because I can clean more square meters per day but also because I get to pick up the jobs where time is an issue

[Simon Gerrard]

Neil,
No!
Why?
1) Because it is none of your business.
2) Because I could be lying through my teeth, as could you.
3) Because I want to save you the embarrassment of trying to beat it!

Simon

[Neil Grainger]

My point exactly, each of us has different goals, and our successes will be different.

Yes their are lots of Business owners that go for it from the start with a Truckmount, but their are also lots of truckmounters out their selling up after 6 months. As their are with portable users. If their was a set pattern for this business we would all be doing it.

Sorry if I have upset you, but I just wanted to air my views that a Truckmount is not the only way you can make money in this business. Most Truckmounters seem to think this is the only way.

We could go one with this subject all night.

[spindle]

simon

my name is chris....other people on here also know my real name!! i have even met some of them!! as for faceless.....cant you see my pic........

i dont think its about " guts"....i think that it has to be economically viable for you and your family!!!
when you started simon all those years ago were you buying your house?  were you even married with kids??

what works for 1 doesnt work for all..........

why do you always have the same argument simon? other people are allowed to do things differently without  you hammering them into thinking they "need a t/m" to do a good job
if everybody did it like you....... how much work do think you will have with all those extra t/m running around.... dont  think that your "market"will decline with  so many great t/m around?? or do you believe that you are guaranteed the work for ever??if i called  to some of your bosses  and promised to undercut you while giving the same standard of work ..where does that leave you?

not having a go but you always bang on about the t/m everytime some asks about a machine you go on a sermon.......and wont let other people have an opinion



elliot
didnt mean literally sitting and waitng for the work .......yes you do have to go and get it.........but you are not going to get it for a few months/years untill you build it up...
i

racing drivers start driving karts as kids before they progress to an f1 car!!

[spindle]

oh btw

you havent told us yet in this post how you were the first person ever to import an rx20 20 yrs ago

[elliott cleaning]

Neil

No you haven't upset me.  If there weren't opposite views on any subject, the forum would be pretty mundane

Spindle

Noted. Guessed you didn't mean it literally

ps.  Don't know who first imported an RX but do know that Shaun Ashmore was the first to use an imported glide in this country

[Simon Gerrard]

Chris,
Thanks for the name, it makes all the difference.

The prime difference between you and me is that I have experienced both sides of the coin, where you clearly have not. You only assume your point of view has some validity because you have never actually owned a Truck Mount and therefore everything you say in relationship to one is nothing more than pure conjecture.
One thing that has always baffled me is why the portable lobby feel so well informed about a technology that they have no direct experience of and then try to argue the toss with people who have been where you are with a portable, saying all of the clichéd things that portable operators always say when confronted with a Truck Mounter, trying desperately to justify why they don't need one, even though they know that they do.
Do you honestly think that people would shell out tens of thousands of pounds on TM's if there were not some good sound, business, economic case for doing so, or is it the case that only those who have no direct experience of the same situation are miraculously better informed than those who have.
Do yourself a favour Chris and talk to us about things you actually know something about.

Oh, and BTW, did I mention that not only was I the first person to have the original RX20, 21 years ago, I was also the first to have the first of the heat exchange technology truck mounts, the Prochem 75HE and then the first to have a twin capable heat exchange Truck Mount, the Prochem 800A and the first to take delivery of its successor, the Prochem Performer Bear Catalytic, the first catalytic truck mount. And then more recently the first with the new High Efficiency RX20 and most recently the first company in Europe to operate the Hydramaster Titan. Now you, Chris will just think I'm bragging, whereas others will see the steady thread of commitment to being at the very forefront of technology and the really generous will quite happy concede that on the Truck Mount  front, this guy probably knows what he's talking about, but do feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, as I am sure you will.

Simon

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Yes Paul I was the 1st to have a glide on my wand and also the 1st to have a RDM but I didn't think anyone knew that

Neil I wish i only worked a 4 hour day! My missus insists I stay out for much longer.

I make a 7 figure amount   £4/8/4d

Shaun

[francis]

No Shaun.  That's 3 symbols, 1 letter and only 3 figures.  Business ain't that hot then!

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Francis I have to digits pointing at you now

Shaun

PS we are all poor in Yorkshire

[francis]

 

[John Kelly]

Shaun has the first of lots of things including his first shilling.

[*paul_moss]

And first in his class to get a disease 

[Neil Grainger]

Sorry was not meaning to brag at all, it just upsets me that some think that us portable CC businesses are not in it to make money or we are not any good.

Shaun, thats 4 hrs cleaning, Quotes and office work are extra's. 20hr a week cleaning is more than enough.

Dave liahone was a big help to me with his insight into generating business., even for us portbale users.