Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Paul H on March 03, 2012, 06:23:14 pm
-
Hi all
Other than obviously carpets upholstery etc.. some members offer services in other areas like pressure washing..window cleaning etc..
Just wondering with eggs in many baskets and without staff how you find this and what is or where is the main % of your work..and if carpet or windows etc.. does you well why not focus solely on that?
Just a while ago i was toying with adding an extra service but decided against it and stayed focused on the carpet cleaning side.. and this has done me well last month and if every month was like the last then great ,... and made me think was i just having a knee jerk reaction in adding services...in a hope it will bring more work...
Just after some thoughts
Thanks
-
For me it's leather restoration & recolouring although I still have a couple of days per month for window cleaning (for selective customers only ;))
The highest £/hr is carpets then leather then windows.
The beuti of the '2 add ones' is that I can pick and choose when I want to do them and breaks up being stuck on just one service.
The leather is one thing I am slowly building up so that come retirement age I won't need to be dealing with carpet cleaning but can potter around with some slow leather work.
-
See your idea with the leather ... ive went the other way .. ive dropped the re colours etc.. still do the cleaning alongside the carpets upholstery as it makes sense too maintain that service...
Your windows are they commercial / domestic?... and why just do the odd one or two if you have the gear (not a criticism by the way).. just curious
I love the carpet etc.. side of things ad like you say the returns are good ... and i'd like to focus all my energy on that if i'm honest..but its still early days for me ( nearly 12 moths) ..
-
Hi Paul
When I took over this business 14 years ago apart from carpets and upholstery I found I was also cleaning curtains and pressure washing. I seem to recall I was also offering a third service but I can't for the life of me remember what it was.
Although the business had already been established 10 years, like you, I investigated adding additional services-specifically hard floors. I did the training and some research. Whether CIU was around in those days I know not but certainly the net wasn't any where near as developed as it is now.
I also did some flood training which was most useful.
Over the years I have gained considerable experience on the jobs I have undertaken; gone on training courses; read cleaning magazines/journals; talked to other cleaners and discovered forums.
To sum up my expereinces-my carpet and upholstery cleaning business has grown and developed. By becoming an expert in my core business I ended up dropping other services, partly because of the costs of supplying them; partly because I hated doing them, partly because they were less profitable compared to the core business but mainly because I focussed on the core business and as such attracted large amounts of profitable carpet and upholstery cleaning business where ther client acknowledged I was an expert in my field and was prepared to pay a premium for that service.
Having supplied some of these other services and undertaken training in them has at least meant that I have a good theoretical knowledge of what is involved. this has meant that in some caases I have chosen to "cherry-pick" some jobs which are straight-forward/highly profitable or at least allowed me to give solid and practical advice to the client as to how to proceed without wasting money.
Of course having the skills and knowledge of cleaning is one thing, being able to profitably interact with a client is another.....
Rog
-
A great post Roger you echo my business model my prefered day is carpet cleaning and interaction :o with customers allowing me to spread the good word ;D
Shaun
Ps thanks for the birthday message will be celebrating it on Tuesday with a Magnum of cola and some crusts left over from Xmas
-
I've power washed for the last 4yrs, best decision I ever made.
The average job value is much higher than carpet cleaning and the hourly rate rarely drops lower than £100/hr
the first year I did it I seriously considered working 7 months a year PW and holidaying the winter months, the money looked so good.
This year i'm offering a weed control service onto the power washing side based on a direct debit system were we return every 2 weeks throughout the summer and treat any weeds that regrow, i did it last year for free . And the amount of carpet cleaning I picked when I returned made it worth it.
-
Thats a good point Mike, As some of you are aware my families main business is contract cleaning, we also do alot of other cleaning services as well, the amount of work we get carpet and upholstery cleaning from these other services is huge compared to other forms of advertising, admittedly this is commercial work and not so much domestic, but when we clean at commercial sites and the staff see our work, the main question we get is, do you do house's as well? All this from other services, so for me it works offering other services, this is just from my experience, each to there own i think, if it works for you, then go for it!!!
Hope you understand my ramblings!!!
;D ;D
-
That sounds like a complete nightmare to me. I love what I do too much to arse around with other services because I think you lose your professional identity by being seen as a bit of a jack of all tades, but they, that's just me, wouldn't do if we all thought the same way.
Simon
-
That sounds like a complete nightmare to me. I love what I do too much to arse around with other services because I think you lose your professional identity by being seen as a bit of a jack of all tades, but they, that's just me, wouldn't do if we all thought the same way.
Simon
Be a boring life wouldn't it, if we were all the same!!!
;D ;D
-
Thats a good point Mike, As some of you are aware my families main business is contract cleaning, we also do alot of other cleaning services as well, the amount of work we get carpet and upholstery cleaning from these other services is huge compared to other forms of advertising, admittedly this is commercial work and not so much domestic, but when we clean at commercial sites and the staff see our work, the main question we get is, do you do house's as well? All this from other services, so for me it works offering other services, this is just from my experience, each to there own i think, if it works for you, then go for it!!!
Hope you understand my ramblings!!!
We are the same as Billy, we pick up loads of customers from our cleaning contracts.
The amount of employees working at our cleaning contracts is about 1000, so you
are basically marketing to all for free.
Our contract customers have kept us busy this jan and feb.
Andrew ( jack of all trades, not jack of just one ;) )
;D ;D
-
Surface restoration technician. You are removing dirt from surfaces why restrict yourself to one medium.
-
I think in the minds of carpet cleaners there is an imaginary pecking order with 'specialist carpet cleaners' near the top. so to do anything else lower down the ladder is seen as devaluing the 'specialist' nature of the core business.
to be a colour repair specialist on leather is OK for a carpet cleaner as it is seen as 'specialist'........ but to offer window cleaner is making your self a 'Jack of all trades'...... but often a window cleaners will earn more an hour than doing a colour repair on a suite.
I keep it simple I want to earn the maximum amount of money possible, my core business of carpet & upholstery cleaning allows me to do this but if cleaning public toilets of dirty needles will earn me more money I will do it.
-
Your windows are they commercial / domestic?... and why just do the odd one or two if you have the gear (not a criticism by the way).. just curious
We used to do a lot of it, infact peaking at 4 staff out there doing it but the hassle factor was just too much so we got rid of them and kept the 'cream' jobs. This meant the carpets suffered as windows were regular guarenteed work/income.
Then just as the economy started to go downhill I found a couple of guys who wanted to buy all those customers ;D
I kept a few customers who valued us and as they are £100 jobs I kept them too ;D
So to answer your questions 95% were domestic customers as they are loyal and pay on the day or within days as opposed to commercial, who take an eternity to pay and will drop you at a blink if someone else comes along £5 cheaper. And that's why I've still got the kit with the purified water being used for carpet cleaning too, I believe it is better for the carpets but that's just my view.
-
I spent the first few years of my career offering a variety of services besides carpet & upholstery cleaning , floor cleaning, acoustic ceiling cleaning, carpet fitting, floor laying, fire & flood restoration etc but didn't really enjoy any of them as much a as C&U and so decided to specialise and I'm mighty glad I did otherwise I wouldn't have had the fantastic opportunities that have come my way since.
Simon
-
I spent the first few years of my career offering a variety of services besides carpet & upholstery cleaning , floor cleaning, acoustic ceiling cleaning, carpet fitting, floor laying, fire & flood restoration etc but didn't really enjoy any of them as much a as C&U and so decided to specialise and I'm mighty glad I did otherwise I wouldn't have had the fantastic opportunities that have come my way since.Simon
Simon how do you know? perhaps even greater opportunities have been missed by dropping those other services
-
I class the other services i offer as my pension fund.
I can either sell it and retire, had 2 offers in the past,
or let my son take over when he is 18, he is handy with a cloth now at 22 month :D
and take a wage letting him do the brunt of the work,
or sell part and semi retire keeping some cream jobs.
What i have been offered is much better than a pension fund after only 10 years of work.
Andrew
-
I don't think so, I get to look after the carpets and upholstery on some of the most luxurious ocean liners in the world, including the iconic Queen Mary 2 and I have to pinch myself most days just to remind myself that this isn't a dream as I absolutely adore what I do - but then it isn't for everyone - far from it!
Simon
-
a very wise man once said to me, and i quote
"as a carpet cleaner, you leave far more money behind than you take with you"
when i'm cleaning carpets, i don't see a leather settee, i see pound signs. i don't see a travertine floor, i see pound signs, and it all costs nothing extra apart from some training.
last year 9k of my turnover was not from carpets and fabric upholstery and cost me next to nothing in advertising.
works for me but then i love doing all the services i offer, hence why i got rid of power washing, hated it.
-
I probably offer more services than most and a lot of the time it has just been a progression and not a concious descision. I spent a long time in the flooring market, when I started carpet cleaning I still had a lot of contacts calling me asking for flooring and it just seemed stupid to turn the business away. I once found carpet beetle in a carpet and was unable to give the customer an explanation so looking into that I ended up going to colledge to do a course. I like the vartiation of my work load as every day is different the down side is that I could not afford to train somebody in all the fields that I operate in. If you do it properly and avoid the risk of being a jack of all trades then there is ano problem. I love learning new things and enjoying education, I also enjoy the variation of the work I do and very often arrive to do one job somewhere and get a lot more work doing other things.
Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com (http://www.carpetcleanercardiff.com)
-
good to see the great responses
Rog - Good post
Mike - I take it you have staff working for you?? i could see the merits in the pressure washing etc... like you say good money etc.. like you say you could do it for 7 months of the year then take the rest off .. just wondering if you are constantly busy with pressure washing or with carpets etc.. how you manage the other services..and to fit them in..
are some saying there isnt enough work to be busy in just carpet cleaning etc???.. hence doing the other services..
I hope i,m making sense..
-
Paul I'm busy all the time with carpet cleaning, the pressure washing is a summer business from April to September last year I was doing 3 full days of it mostly I was dropping off a guy that worked for me and then going carpet cleaning or if it was big job we worked together, but we work a 7 day week
this year I'm going to heavily market the P/W and hopefully have my guy working full time with it,
-
I've power washed for the last 4yrs, best decision I ever made.
The average job value is much higher than carpet cleaning and the hourly rate rarely drops lower than £100/hr
the first year I did it I seriously considered working 7 months a year PW and holidaying the winter months, the money looked so good.
This year i'm offering a weed control service onto the power washing side based on a direct debit system were we return every 2 weeks throughout the summer and treat any weeds that regrow, i did it last year for free . And the amount of carpet cleaning I picked when I returned made it worth it.
Hi mike can you tell me where we can get some training for the power washing patios ?
Reply would be appreciate it.
-
i never had any training and used common sense it really is a semi skilled ( I would call it unskilled but some might think that insulting)job
within 3=4 jobs you will learn 95% of what you need to know, i know a few carpet cleaners and hated it (derek & shaun to name 2) so it is a personal thing some don't like the dirtiness of it. but i love it and get an enormous amount of job satisfaction from it
-
i never had any training and used common sense it really is a semi skilled ( I would call it unskilled but some might think that insulting)job
within 3=4 jobs you will learn 95% of what you need to know, i know a few carpet cleaners and hated it (derek & shaun to name 2) so it is a personal thing some don't like the dirtiness of it. but i love it and get an enormous amount of job satisfaction from it
only 1 thing that stopped me enjoying it and that was powerwashing in to corners where it all blasts up in your face and having to put skins on which don't half make you sweat, sorry 2 things yes 2 things, the corner thing, the sweaty thing and when its windy, arrr yes 3, yes 3 things, the corners, the skins, windyness and the weight from the towbar. four, four things yes four things i hate about power washing. i'll stop my monty python routine now. ;D
-
Apart from:
the corners, the skins, windyness and the weight from the towbar,
Is it fair to say that you enjoy pressure washing then??
;D ;D ;D
-
i never had any training and used common sense it really is a semi skilled ( I would call it unskilled but some might think that insulting)job
within 3=4 jobs you will learn 95% of what you need to know, i know a few carpet cleaners and hated it (derek & shaun to name 2) so it is a personal thing some don't like the dirtiness of it. but i love it and get an enormous amount of job satisfaction from it
Thanks for feed back Mike, much appreciate it. you see I have seen some videos as it shows that the runway sanded and sealed after wash and just wondering if there is method to do this and where to buy these special seals.
Regard
Bosh
-
Mike - good luck with the full time P/W to give the lad full time employment
Now like carpet cleaning there is a vast amount of machines etc.. to choose from.. depending on budget.. now if just targetting domestic customers / driveways etc.. what would the recommended spec be say entry level that will do a good job.. would have to be some kind of portable and what size tank / water supply etc... attachments..
-
bosh if you want to go down the sealing route or need training it might be worth looking at this company
http://www.smartseal.co.uk/
-
I do quite a few driveways in the Spring/Summer and I also get a lot of job satisfaction from it. Apparently, there is a secret to cleaning the corners without half blinding yourself and eating loads of dirt but I haven't figured it out yet.
-
bosh if you want to go down the sealing route or need training it might be worth looking at this company
http://www.smartseal.co.uk/
That’s Great Mike, many thanks for the link :)
-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owr-m2L_Sj0
here is good video :)
-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV5mHlhZdYw&feature=endscreen&NR=1
This one is even better :)
-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUv_L48LZbg&feature=related
This one is amazing :D
-
Mick,
What happens when you blast away all the grouting in between patio slabs?
Do you redo that yourself afterwards?
-
bosh if you want to go down the sealing route or need training it might be worth looking at this company
http://www.smartseal.co.uk/
That’s Great Mike, many thanks for the link :)
i did the smart seal course. if your gonna do sealing then its worth doing. enjoyed it and i think it was about 70 quid!!!
-
I've power washed for the last 4yrs, best decision I ever made.
The average job value is much higher than carpet cleaning and the hourly rate rarely drops lower than £100/hr
the first year I did it I seriously considered working 7 months a year PW and holidaying the winter months, the money looked so good.
This year i'm offering a weed control service onto the power washing side based on a direct debit system were we return every 2 weeks throughout the summer and treat any weeds that regrow, i did it last year for free . And the amount of carpet cleaning I picked when I returned made it worth it.
Mike hope you dont mind me asking.... but am I reading this correctly you weed kill same area every 2 weeks ??
-
Mick,
What happens when you blast away all the grouting in between patio slabs?
Do you redo that yourself afterwards?
if the pointing is in good condition then it tend to survive the cleaning process, with block paving you can remove some of the sand so need to return on a second day to replace it, which is charged at a additional cost
-
Mark this is worded slightly wrong, what I did was go out on a Sunday morning every 2 weeks and put down weedkiller on jobs that needed it but not every job got the treatment.
but I did find that if i missed one week then the next visit there were some weeds coming through
-
Mark this is worded slightly wrong, what I did was go out on a Sunday morning every 2 weeks and put down weedkiller on jobs that needed it but not every job got the treatment.
but I did find that if i missed one week then the next visit there were some weeds coming through
Its a great add on to the pressure washing side of the business but you need the training / licence. For us it provides one of the highest returns, especially when including residual treatments.
-
Mick,
I jet washed my patio last year and lost about 15% of the pointing. It was pretty crap and cracked in the first place. What would you do then?
-
Don't do it again !
Shaun
-
Clive i tell em it might need re pointing when I've finished,
the p/w won't do any harm so any problem will have already existed...... its just more noticeable I just make sure they know it was already damaged and I have not done it so are not responsible for repointing
but its never been a problem
-
did a job today for a multi-millionaire who started out at 15 collecting bones & fat from butchers to make pig food. he now has a company employing 100s who collect wastes, extract oils and dries the remains and sells it as fuel pellets.
we had a talk about his success he said it all boiled down to 2 things. all through his working life he look at the equipment he owned and asked him self...... what else can I use this equipment for? and secondly he always thought if I'm driving all the way to a factory to collect something I might as well try and get some thing else while I'm there... he tried to get the maximum amount of revenue from every customer.
he told me some other stuff as well, i felt like not charging, him he was a really straight talking bloke
-
A real Yorkshireman especially if he got away without you charging him :o I love my heritage ;D
Shaun
-
We have a rendering plant on the outskirts of our town, can pong a bit sometimes,
a friend drives a tanker with 20000lts of rendered oil in it, they call it black gold, the load is worth about25k and goes into cosmetics, and places like Nestle where it is sprayed onto pet food.
The owner has 4 other plants throughout the country, so maybe the same guy, he is nice bloke too, lent my mate his Bentley for a day, also has a jet and a helicopter.
Good business really, take in waste for free and sell it for a fortune
-
mike
a friend of my dads was a multi millionaire and he couldnt even read or write!
he had 2 mottos
only try to sell what people want to buy
only try to sell to people who can afford to buy what you are selling!
andrew