Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: the red carpet on July 29, 2006, 10:36:56 pm
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Iv been busy the last couple days
Brought a bigger van, couple of year old citreon relay (all ready for a tm)
Joined fast track
Decided to buy a woodbridge t/m (hopefully within a few weeks)
And arranged to have 7500 leaflets put out a week
Thinking of taking on a helper as well
Have i done the right thing :o only time will tell ???
Fingers crossed ;D
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Brave you, it wasn't so long ago you told us you were struggling and just keeping your head above water - I wonder whats changed? ;D
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best of luck ;)
the way i see it is you come in to this world with nothing & go out same way so if you end up with nothing halfway through it doesn't matter
i'd say you'll do alright myself
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I think most CCs are just treading water at the moment, as nearly all business are experiencing a downturn this year. I will wait until next year and see how it goes before I decide on whether to upgrade my van and tm. Good luck to you.
Dave.
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I'm always busy I know I know I'm bragging but it's true !
7 years ago I bought the Piranha pack and a TM and sent out 20000 pink flyers all with the new higher prices I was charging. I raked it in, so it does work, the thing is you have to keep ontop of it or the work will just die again DON'T GET LAZY !
Shaun
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Good on ya Dan. I wish you all the best. ;) ;)
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Cheers guys all positive replys so far
I thought most of you would call me mad
Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained an all that
Racking my brains for ideas for my new signwritting at the minute ::)
Anyone got any pictures of one done out in a fasttrack style?
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so what gives you the most feedback shaun? as im from sheffield aswell and i see you in yp every year. is it leaflets or other forms of advertising (yp etc)? or do you think you been situated where you are helps-local number etc?
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YP is now sh#t, I do database marketing to my old customers on a regular basis and also I keep my price high you'll be suprised how many people still book and you don't need half as many customers to get a good week.
Shaun
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Dan. Your mad.
Good luck and raise your prices. ;)
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know what ya mean shaun. i have never contacted customers jus let them ring me again. however i reckon i must have lost some along the way!? trouble is we are living in such a large city that there are thousands o blokes with vax's wanting beer money and will work for a tenner an hour! personally i supply and fit carpets as well so cleaning can cost me money if i turn down supply jobs thro being too busy! ::)
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Hi Daniel
Go for it mate, as you know I started about the same time as you but I went straight in and bought a new van and TM to start with so have struggled a bit but am still keeping my head above water, the bu**er is that although people say the first year is the hardest i say the end of the first year is as I now have to renew all my inssurences and association funds etc so there goes all the money I saved but on the upside as from the 1st of august I can start to try and book in repeat work so heres to being rich I hope :-\ good luck
James
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If I were you I would sell the customer who you put a new carpet down for a FREE 1st year spot clean, then you could go back and then say for £x amount it will cost you this to clean it to like new and £x for protector and would you like a FREE spot removal for the year after (obviously when you have done the clean) if they don't go for the clean just free spot removal then leave them a card and forget them and move on.
You will get alot of clean and protects and also keeping with the same customers plenty of referal work BUT it won't come over night but will save you £ on advertising because your customers will refer you because you are offering FREE work.
Shaun
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Hi James, yeah im looking forward to starting to market for the re-cleans
iv got till the 14th of August to wait, so not long now
Wonder how well we will do ???
one things for sure the second year has gotta be easier than the first
Wonder how many that started at the same time as us have crashed and burned allready? bet theres a few
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round this side of sheff it doesnt work like that shaun. they just buy new carpets which is great cause its all money but am now wantin more vans and labour on the road? been at it years and just let cleaning side run itself. but now wanting to push boundaries? tried thompson and yp years ago and didnt find it worth it!
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Pass your cleaning work on to me and you can take a cut and that'll leave you free for supply and fit.
Shaun
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Dan
I hope it's an upward slope from here on but I totaly agree with Shaun the second I get lazzy it falls apart real quick, the thing im hopeing now is the very small pecentage of re-clean work im expecting will now no longer just have lounge done but maybee whole house and suite etc and so on and so on then I can buy a few more vans and TM's and get somebody else to do the work for me then I can buy a big horse and a yacht ROLL ON NEXT WEEK ;D ;D ;D
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ha nice one shaun! said am busy not stupid or lazy! lol. wouldnt give me customers away and after so many years i dont think they would move to another cleaner? ever tried the star? is your work local as when im up that end o town i see ya regularly?
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Damian I wasn't after your customers in that way, I think the Star can be hit and miss and is quite expensive, if I were starting again I would do leaflets but getting them out is hard if you do it yourself. You need an old person to honestly and regularly deliver them and get the good response at say £30 a 1000 and you should get may be 5-10 jobs depending on the time of year.
Shaun
PS I'd have thought supply and fit would have reaped you far more money than cleaning, Andy Dexter did/does it from his van he passes his cleaning on to John at Fresh 'n' Clean.
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yeah know he does shaun.(andy)that is. supply is top money and fittin is better than cleanin too but i enjoy cleaning and always have. jus love the whole works as all my family have! ( ask around and ya will hear of me and family) been at it years! groan! but am seriously wanting to push it now on all fronts!! ex and kids need feeding etc! haha
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have you come across Bartons much?
Shaun
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hi red, i was looking at the woodbridge TM too, had demo, its good spec! bit ugly though, well campared to hydramaster and the like, i decided to go second hand and save bit of money, might be worth looking at red, just make sure its been well looked after!, oh before that like you i was thinking of a ninja TMed but that was looking like 3-4k anyway so thought may as well get second hand TM and that way you got no worries about it being powerful enough.
not sure you need, FT you know what they do, marketing etc. why not just use they pink flyer? and the ideas FT you like?
good luck.
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Thats the same reason i decided against the ninja, time you get all the add ons its £4000+ and the woodbridge starts at £6250
I dont think i need f/t either to be honest, but it can only help
I wanted to do the training anyway and have done for the last year and never got round to it, so its allready pushed me to do something as i will def be doing all the courses in the next couple months now.
I also want to start offering maintanance plans, and have done for ages so thats another thing im def gonna get out of it.
Im sure i could do it all myself but would i? theres nothing like a kick up the ar$e here and there.
And im also a very competitive person by nature, so i know if i see any of the guys that start at the same time as me doing better than me it will push me to improve myself.
And i will now have to earn a couple of hundred a month more now wether i like it or not just to pay them, so if i finish after a year with them i will have found out how to take that extra money every month and it will then be mine.
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Red
Bravo! All the very best, mate.
Freddie
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red i think you are attending the event on the 19th. then is your chance to see the t/m from woodbridge and prochem. dont forget that the t/m's are on offer that day also for free upgrades so pay for the 18 and get the 20. wish i was offered this when i bought mine.
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This is when i am looking to purchase if i do get one, is the free upgrade available all through the range?
If i pay for the top single wand one i think its the 20 or 25, will i get a free upgrade to the dual wand?
I cant decide if i would be better off going for the dual wand or not, anyone use one?
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Peter (carpetclean)
I e-mailed you the app' form to attend the August event but didn't get a confirmation from you! I take it that is ok?
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hi red i use the pro 25 dual wand done a job back along in a block of flats.women came out of next block of flats could i fit her in.fully booked for day.so all idid was connect other hose and wand .my employe finnished first job while i cleaned second job at the same time. also in the night clubs i clean he pre sprays .i have had the machine since jan and it is bang on.like the service i got from woodbridge.ihope this helps you out a bit.and good luck with whatever machine you get
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Shaun,
You calling me a lazy git? Yeah, you are probably right. Seriously though, had my best year by far last year so I decided not to bother with YPs this year as an experiment, so I was expecting it to be a bit quieter. However its been so far much quieter than expected, but a lot of business owners are telling me the same. You are right, marketing of at least some form is an on going thing. Its hard though when you do everything yourself and when that free time comes along and you really should put on your marketing head, the mountains beckon, oh its such a hard life! ;)
Dave
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Dave if I were you I'd do that Pink leaflet I think it would keep you fit posting it in and around the hills of Chorley !
Shaun
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I've noticed a number of 'posters' saying it's been pretty quiet and assume these are fairly new to the business, as we, are actually busier than usual and with my 'old man' out of the business, we have advertised for the first time in years, in a local paper.
The advert' cost £74 for a, smaller than bus card size ad' and it has brought in over £700 of business, which is, in my opinion, brilliant. far easier and far more profitable than leaflets.
The only reason for the advert, was to generate volume and get our son started in c/c 'ing.
angie
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martin must have missed that one but you are all booked in now no problem.
red
as far as i am aware the free upgrades start from the 18 so yes if you pay for the 20 you will get the 25. if only this was on offer when i got mine as i am sure the time saved on a big job with two wands going would be well worth it.
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yes shaun i know bartons. there shop is near my folks. think their son is into cc'ing in a big way? they place quite a few ads in yp. do you know them then?
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Red,
What part of fastrack do you think will help your business? or to put it another way what do you think you need to take your company forward?
£3500 is a lot of money, many people have had great success with fastrack but could you achieve the same results with a bit of marketing research.
If you are committing to putting out 7.5k leaflets a week within a month you should have all the appointments you need, what you need to learn is how to turn them into High paying customers, will Fastrack teach you this.
If I had £3500 to spend I would attend the woolsafe course become a authorised Chemspec Stainshield applicator, join the NCCA and take on Allerg-Stop
then when you are in the house you have a multitude of way of increasing the amount of money the customer spends which is the key to riches in carpet cleaning.
the nice thing about the organisations I've mentioned is they all have an amount of marketing wisdom but together you have a formidable team behind you.
Julie from Chemspec will help you sell Stainshield ( a great way to increase the customer spending)
Woolsafe & NCCA will increase your credibility and have a small amount of marketing material.
The Allerg-stop Network seem to be a knowledgeable bunch of carpet cleaners who I'm sure will pass on marketing material that works, and you will get the same comradeship you'd receive from fastrack
just my opinion ;)
Mike
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Damian I don't know Bartons only their reputation :o
Shaun
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hi shaun. whats the reputation bout bartons then mate? know their dad dave in passing but only through carpet fitting and seeing him occasionally in warehouses etc (very rare). think his lad who cleans is called john? thats it really. they good or bad?
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UPDATE
Got the van Citreon Relay, nice van, got a problem with the wheel bearing allready ::) but hopefully be sorted this week apart from that nice drive, good size, basically im happy with it, could do with a bit more poke though it dosent like hills not with the t/m and water tank on the back.
7500 leaflets a week was a no go, got knocked again by another leaflet distribution company >:( but have found a very good very reliable, cheap £15 a thousand leaflet guy. So happy with that, am gonna give him 2500 a week and do a couple myself.
Joined fast track, done all the training wich was good im definatly a more confident more competant cc because of it, not done much on the marketing side of it yet, but must say i like the look of the laptop audit and the maintenance programmes.
Got the t/m nothing but problems so far went down again today for the 10th-15th time so going back again in the morning, i really cant understand the problem ??? iv just read through a good few posts on here and everyone with the same model seems really happy with them, so im not gonna blame the machine i guess iv just been unlucky. Either that or iv brought a dudd one.
Have took on a helper, and it does take the strain of my back i do come home feeling a lot fresher these days, but if i said he was without his problems i would be lying.
So all in my outgoings have gone up around £1590 a month, am i any better off? So far financially not really, phisically definatly, but twice as stressed. Was it worth it? only time will tell.
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Did you buy a new TM, who's was it?
Shaun
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Daniel i thought you got a replacement van a few months back and put your truckmount in it.
Hope it all works out for you
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Did you buy a new TM, who's was it?
Shaun
He got a brand new woodbridge pro mount 25 Shaun.
I think some of the problems could be put down to lack of experience with a T/m ( ie - dumping loads of water = had the temp stat turned down).
But would like to know what other problems you have had Red?
My pro mount 20 needed a replacement water dumping valve thingy and a waste tank sensor in the first month, nothing else since - 6 months.
regards
Chris
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Holy cow. Youve taken your TM back 15 times!!!!!!!!! If this is the case you should demand a new TM. Or better still get your money back and go elsewhere. 15 busy days is a potential £6000 down the drain!!!!!!!!!!
If you have a helper and your expenses are only £1500 a month then keep the helper. £1500 is not much for what your doing.
Time will tell as from my experience your business will naturally take off in year 4.
Mark
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Time will tell as from my experience your business will naturally take off in year 4.
Mark
I like a good optimist Mark. I would say 8-9 years.
Matt
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I had a hole in my heatexchanger, it was replaced immediately.
Bits and bobs of ware and tare, but I am quite pleased with mine.
But i can always complain!
Shaun
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Yep it was the Woodbridge machine, and i guess all the down time has been a mixture of lack of experience, a few minor problems with the machine, failure to identify the cause of the problems, and shear bad luck.
To be fair to them they have put everything right for me straight away, but it has really put me behind the last 2 months, but i have had a good day out of her today so hopefully it will stay that way.
it seems the main cause of all my problems were 2 things
1, the chemical i was using, Alltecs, liquid - ultimate master. Seemed to block all the machine up.
2, i filled the tank up at a customers house, at the same time as the water board were working outside, and they must have let a load of $hit get into the mains >:( As i ended up with a tank full of sand - dirt - grit and clay, wich again blocked up the machine and didnt do me any favours.
All this led to the pressure jumping about, the machine overheating, no water coming through the solution hose and a load of other problems.
Wich led to a new thermostat, a new pump, new solution hoses and loads of cleaning out and descalling ect.
But it seems sorted, so fingers crossed.
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red 15 times that a joke id tell them to poke thier machine were the sun dont shine and get me money back, and your having to do 1590 worth of cleaning a month to pay for this and a helper !!! u must be mad , if i was u id join the long list of tm who hav gone back to portys before u go bust mate , and u said in another post today that u get better results cleaning with a porty and power brush ::)
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Cleaning Co,
Re - Read Reds post mate.
The faults are down to bad luck, not problems with the machine.
Some types of chems dont suit a truckmount.
Getting loads of dirt and crap into the water tank on the machine is not woodbridges fault.
That would knacker up any machine.
Chris
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Doesn't it have last step chem injection ?
I though all new TMs had that, if it has how can it block the whole system up ?.
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chris i did mate ;)
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i been using alltecs 'liquid ultimate master', for about 4 months, not had any probs myself.
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Guys an easy one to solve.
Just buy a decent porty ;D
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I also noticed Liquid ultimate master leaving a lot of white scale on the filters. And yes it was diluted right.
Red
How do you get a helper and pay all your expenses for £1500 a month. Does he only work one day a week or is it a slave you have?
Paul
That would be a really bad step backwards.
Mark
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Glynn, your right i didnt think of that one
But apparantly it did ::) it did crud up on the inside of the pipes i saw that for myself, and even blocked one section of hose so bad no water would pass through.
Mark, and someone else who mentioned my expenses.
The £1500 is not total expenses, its the added expenses iv incured thats without advertising, chems, diesle, phone line ect. And yeah my helper only works 3 days.
Went wrong again today for some reason ??? so has had another new pump, and a new jet fitted.
And to top my day off i had a blow out on the tyre of my van, only to find i had no spare wheel, jack, or wheel brace.
And iv gotta take Friday off to get the wheel bearing and lights fixed :(
I might actually make some money one day ;D
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MMM 20 litre jerry can of unleaded-(premium mind!) Just leave it decanted at a silly lean angle and casually light a pretty poor cigar and sing-oh what an atmosphere!! That would be my thoughts on your scenario mate! It sounds more hassle than good and i wouldnt/couldnt take the time off messing with it day in and out!! 8)
Damian.
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Ask for some training on it, your ego may suffer but your pocket won't.
Shaun
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Red Carpet,
Sorry to hear about your misfortune, it is really upsetting when you invest in your future and things don't go right. But they will and this period of time is something you will look back on and smile about (honest).
Hang in there
Nigel
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I see the Woodbridge bashers are out again tonight!
Tell you what, why dont we ignore the fact that loads of crud, sand, grit & clay got into the fresh water tank during filling up at a customers house while the water board were there.
Had my machine since March and no problems!
But most of you wont want to hear that, will you.
Phil
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its not about slaging them off , more of pre warning our fellow cleaners of pitfulls u can come upagainst buying a certain brand or prouduct which is good aint it ? and imo in reds case to take an 7000 pound prouduct back over 15 times in the first couple months is a joke and id say his tm wasnt fit for the purpose it was sold do they pay for his downtime ? do they pay his travel expence? no i dont think so , i hav a freind who went through the same as red and it went on for couple years from same company it was a nightmare for him every time i saw him he look like crying and i really felt for him, his list was endless machine on fire pumps not working heater not working batterys catching fire etc etc he spent three months plugging a socket into custys house to get hot water as this stupid little black box thing that controled the heater kept going down , i had a bad exp from a firm from cormwall once with a machine i brought and in this case they didnt even want to fix it and told me to phone up the makers in usa to get info on fixing it !!, when someting is cheap in life theres allways a reason and red imo has that reason
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Gary,
Keep ignoring all the crap that seems to have got in the water tank then obviously into all the other compartments.
Your like many on here are good at picking out the bits that suite you in certain posts.
Like I say, had mine since March "NO PROBLEMS" just had my best year by a long way and the TM has contributed greatly to this.
But you carry on with your head firmly buried in the Sand.
Phil
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do they not hav any filters then ? and red had yet another pump put in yesterday, and my mates probs had nothing to do with crap in water , y u so grumpy lol if u had brought a machine and it had lot probs and after u brought it 3 people on here said ive had this and that probs wrong with same bit kit u think poop wish they had spoke about the probs before i brought one yes ? think so !! i would recomend my machines on here because they hav bin good but someone else might had loads probs with the same machines but hey i woudnt steam into the person whos saying they are bad in thier opinon , its up to folks to make thier own mind up as to if they buy the machine and want to take in the advice good or bad