Clean It Up

UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: tim handley on September 21, 2012, 08:11:54 am

Title: New machine new venture
Post by: tim handley on September 21, 2012, 08:11:54 am
 collecting my new machine (air flex) on tuesday then the fun starts. training course on oct 4th, home carpets to practice on and a list of folks waiting to have theirs done!!!! expect lots of questions from me!!!!
particularly need to know how to pice properly/realistically.....  expect they will cover this in marketing
part of course??
Title: Re: new machine new venture
Post by: John Kelly on September 21, 2012, 08:21:09 am
You need to be aiming for at least £50 an hour. Don't forget you are only earning when you are actually on site working. When you are driving, marketing, doing paperwork you aren't earning anything and all that needs to be paid for.
Title: Re: new machine new venture
Post by: Ian Gourlay on September 21, 2012, 08:30:24 am
Price is discussed regularly on here.

The idea is to go for the top end of the market and get high prices  say 40p to 60p a square foot plus protection for not breaking their windows while you are in the district for next three months ;D ;D

You may find it advisable to start at slighly lower prices to gain experience

Looks like you have invested in a quality equipment rather than going down secondhand route so you should reflect this in your pricing


Use The Search facility at the top

What do you know about marketing, You have started right by contacting your friiends and family. When I worked in the Insurance industry the theory was your lifetime contacts should give you enough work through their referral contacts and this should be an ongoing chain that never breaks . So in THEORY you will have no need to advertise well done.

If only THEORY worked for all. Not knocking it  but I know of only one carpet cleaner who claims he started with his first customers and never has had to advertise, or promote his business
Title: Re: new machine new venture
Post by: *Hector* on September 21, 2012, 08:42:44 am
Who did you work for in the insurance industry Ian??

I worked for Liberty financial Services... and Credit and Commerce life when they went under....  :o

the lifetime referals would be great IF it worked...  :P
Title: Re: new machine new venture
Post by: Ian Gourlay on September 21, 2012, 09:13:20 am
I worked for the PRU  but I think it was Sun Life who were the kennest on the system and they only wanted you if you had a big contact book
Title: Re: New machine new venture
Post by: Mike Halliday on September 21, 2012, 02:27:16 pm
Where abouts in lincs are you?
Title: Re: New machine new venture
Post by: feldon on September 21, 2012, 02:42:13 pm
Ian and Hector

Not strictly an insurance salesman but i was a mortgage and protection adviser for several networks. 

Title: Re: New machine new venture
Post by: Ian Gourlay on September 21, 2012, 03:26:19 pm
HAD lift with a Taxi Driver last week who was making !00K a year selling Mechanical Breakdown Policies

The policies were designed with so many clauses they could decide if they were going to pay out according to how the claims were running

What i do not understand is if he was earning all this money what is he doing driving a taxi until late a night.

Title: Re: New machine new venture
Post by: tim handley on September 21, 2012, 05:01:50 pm
im in grantham!  i have a slight head start in that i have a built in client base for my car valeting business, all of whom know me and trust my standards of work. ive marketed my add on service to them with rather good results. so im going to aim at them and hope wom/recommendations kick in early......  just want to get my hand on my machine and get going now!!!  practice on ours first of course, get the course done, sort out insurance and then see how far i get with it...
Title: Re: New machine new venture
Post by: Ian Gourlay on September 21, 2012, 08:00:47 pm
Hi Tim sorry forgot about your valet business  so you should be well away
Title: Re: New machine new venture
Post by: Jamie Pearson on September 22, 2012, 07:44:51 pm
I have a nice exel template for calculating overhead recovery if anyone is interested?
Title: Re: New machine new venture
Post by: Billy Russell on September 22, 2012, 10:36:24 pm
fire it through to my email jamie!  ;D
Title: Re: New machine new venture
Post by: Andy Hogarth on September 22, 2012, 10:50:31 pm
Started something now Jamie..... I'll have a copy andy@accyork.co.uk

Cheers dude
Title: Re: New machine new venture
Post by: Steve Fortt on September 24, 2012, 08:31:06 pm
Hi Jamie

Any chance of pinging it my way too?

forttcleaningservices@gmail.com

Cheers
Steve
Title: Re: New machine new venture
Post by: tim handley on September 26, 2012, 05:28:07 pm
up and running done our own carpets with much success, very impressed with results, using orange x pre spray with wool x micro splitter,  organic rinse x acidic rinse and a few spotters..... very chuffed with my baby air flex, want to try with an extra 25 foot of hose for upstairs work or to allow me to leave the machine out side, also realising a rotary will be nice, sooner rather than later, but im happy its all systems go....... , many thanks to matt/dee at clean smart, very good customer service indeed......  now, which rotary????