Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: mark_draper on January 15, 2008, 07:56:12 pm
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If you were to start your business all over again, at this moment in time (2008), would you start off with a portable machine or go straight for a truck mount? (Assuming you had the money of course) ???
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staight for a truck!!!! would'nt do any cleaning myself, tat's my biggest mistake! 8)
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yep i would go stright too truckmount for sure
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Are we talking about a truckmounter who gets ill or goes broke and had to get rid, starting up again or are we talking going back in time to when they first started?
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More than happy with my porty.
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Hi
Assuming someone starting again would
1 Know how to clean to a very high standard
2. Have a good idea how to market themselves
3. Charge resonably high prices
Then Truckmount
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I'd go window cleaning ::)
Shaun
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on second thoughts i'm with you shaun ;D
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hi there
i would have a truckmount and a high power porty, there are still a lot of places in this country where you cant a van.
van totally wrapped for marketing, literature all done from day one, and all relevant training done prior to day one.
and a 6 month plan to have that vehicle staffed.
but there arent many opportunities to do that.
at that same time, there is awhole lot to be said for business experience, you cant buy it, they dont teach it anywhere, so im more than happy where we are right now.
regards
martin
regards
m
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It's all very fine talking about a truckmount from day one, but if I were to go back to day one I had no money to buy a truck mount and if I were to have borrowed the money I would not have had enough cash flow to make my repayments.
Now years later I could easily buy a truckmount if I want to , but I have no desire to do so as I am quite happy with my high powered portables for the mainly domestic work which I do.
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hi there,
incidentally welcome to the foru mark
as a matter of interest what set up have you got.
or are you indeed fishing to see , what the split is between truckmount and portable operators.
call me sceptical!!
if you look at the split in the uk and europe to america, i think you will find that truckmount are more common place in america.
regards
martin
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Hi Martin
Carpet cleaning is'nt my business but I must admit to having learned a lot about marketing in the time I have been reading this forum. I've been lurking since 2004. My main business is in the on site repair of bathroom suites. Fixing chips and other damaged either caused by the householder or builders, tilers etc. But I must admit that from time to time I have thought about starting as a CC. The toxic fumes from the stuff I use gets to my lungs & wearing a mask & full bodysuit in the summer is a killer.
What I was realy trying to find out is if thoes of you that have made the move from a portable to a truckmount wished that you had done it from day one & gone straight in.
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The 'toys' are the easy bit finding the right clientelle is the harder bit.
Shaun
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Personally, i suppose if you are going to join this career sort of mid life then it maybe harder to get "your" name 'bandied' around. My families name has always been synonimous with the flooring trade and therefore it has always been quite easy as the phone always rings. I have been very fortunate in being blessed with my parents skills! lol
However, to change career's sort of mid life may take more marketing?
Good luck if you plan to go for it fella.
Damian. 8)
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PROWLER would be my choice..
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Straight in with TM, to save my back if nothing else!
Cheers
Justin
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id go and look at someone whos using a porty from thier van ;)
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but that someone if he or she had any sense would have a truckmount. Best, Dave.
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lol whys that dave ::)
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Avoid Yellowpages and Thomson. If you've never had a truckmount you would not miss it, Portables only become horrible once you have owned a truckmount.
I like my portable but want a truckmount now. No point having a truckmount unless you have the work, £10-£20000 is a lot to spend out on one item when you are first starting, Walk before you can run.
Cheers
Neil
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mmm that all depends on how u use a portable,ive used a truckmount for while and hated it , but its horses for courses as they say
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hi there
mark,
so your a plastic surgeon, i thought you were on good money, whenever ive bumped into you guys, its about £500 a day.
or am i wrong.
and the way that the developers are throwing up properties, i thought there'd be more than enough to go round, we use plastic csurgeons on kitchen repairs.
regards
martin
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Portable for me ,do so many jobs that you would not get a truck mount near....Getting quite a good client base now doing more commercial work who all want calls back a year down the line...Although the commercial jobs i do always seem to take ages to pay up.Just got the payment for a job i did on the 21st of nov calling them at least twice a week since..
I can do about 3000sq ft with my porty in a day taking it easy could do bigger if i pushed myself and worked more than 8 hours..
Spending 1600.. on yellow pages a year plus yell.com plus thompson..and the other internet link type things finding the net is not really that good for me although my site has been up for 4 years and not had a revamp as yet , it`s on the cards...
there is a lot of competition round here also,but i am reasonably busy and earning more than i did working as a head chef !
my quality of life is much better and work a lot less hours for the money and have more spare time to pootle in my studio making music and trying to get my scirocco prepped for track day fun....So i would go for the same machine again i think it`s been pretty reliable and i am happy with the results and so are my customers...
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Good variety of posts on this subject. In an ideal world where all houses are on reasonably level ground with good access and no restrictions on water usage and there was a high volume of high end work, it might be best to have a truckmount, if you could not only afford to buy one, but continually generate the volume necessary to sustain the overhead.
We do not, however live in an ideal world and only 20% of operators will work in the higher priced end because that is how it is.
It doesn't exclude operators who opt for portables , rotaries, encap's, from being high earners, far from it, in fact, many will run much more profitable businesses, so, whichever set up you go for, it depends on YOU, rather than the tools you use.
Big isn't always better, ability and application will always deliver over flash and brash.
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For the lads that have gone from a porty to a truckmount.. What is the main benefit? Is it doing jobs quicker? Are there any downsides, like cost of running?
Ta,
Dave.
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for me i can clean as fast as a truckmount as i dont hav to empty or fill water,so i save lot money as oposed to a truckmount as my over heads are small compared to a truckmount, but i only do domestic,big comm jobs is were a truckmount comes into its own
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But you wont be able to walk or run with a broken back Neil.
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What do you use Paul?
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Wages/Drawings
Advertising
Diesel
Phone Charges
Cosumables
Truckmount
My truckmount is the sixth largest business expense for me. Its financed, so it's 100% tax deductable.
I could save a few pounds if I didnt have it, but my workload would increase so for me personally its a no-brainer. I did a complete empty 3bed house today in under 1.30 hours. Would have taken twice as long if not more with my porty.
Starting up it is difficult to get a truckmount and decent van without using a chunk of your own money, finance or no finance. But at the end of the day you need to view it as a tool and my father and grandfather always said to me buy the best tools you can afford. I couldn't afford a TM when I started but I bought one as soon as I could and now have two.
Anyone starting up, I would recomend a reasonable portable because if you find that it is not what you thought it would be you can sell it on ebay and get a good part of your money back.
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While on the T/M subject whats the smallest van i would get one in with all the other stuff included hoses,chems,hoover etc ?
currently have an astra van don`t suppose i could squeeze one in there could i ?
Has no side dorr so might be an arse to get at it i suppose
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While on the T/M subject whats the smallest van i would get one in with all the other stuff included hoses,chems,hoover etc ?
currently have an astra van don`t suppose i could squeeze one in there could i ?
Has no side dorr so might be an arse to get at it i suppose
the smallest ive seen is a fiat scudo
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the best van for carring a small truckmount or portable is a dihatsu extol perfect, great height twin side doors
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As Neil said a T/M is only worth it if you have the work for it. If you only do 1 or 2 jobs a day and you are happy with results, stick to porty!
Justin
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Don't know if you're serious Paul, but I have a little Suzuki, similar size and spec to the Diahatsu which I've alo used.....amazing space inside and with the sidedoors a lot more going for it than most would imagine.
There's room for two portables and a lot more, pretty sure it would take a Prowler, with all hoses etc.
I've carried a Ninja, 100 feet of hoses, wands, buckets, drier, smaller Karcher, plus hoses, two 40 litre plastic containers, containing chems, and other odds and ends.
The 1300 petrol engine does about 60 mpg and as surprisingly agile.
Also gains access to "impossible " places and parks with ease
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Interesting reading Guy's but unlike me none of you are starting again from scratch. I can hear you all thinking what's he going to choose, truth is I ain't sure. I know one thing though I'm not going to put a T/M with a 45 blower in a Fiat Scudo again sod that for a laugh. To give you a clue I have bought my old van back I sold 3 yrs back my old faithfull Hyundai H100. Me and that old girl went any were and did most things as my old mate Sheffield Shaun will vouch for.
Not sure wether I'm going to use a burner again but who know where the mood may take me.
Stay tuned for my further developements or strain your eye's looking south for the blinding flashess while I experiment. ;D
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That machine has never looked so good, if I had it I'd make smaller tanks to reduce some weight, the burner was very effective but I'm sure a man of your capabilities could make heat from somewhere else (fit a toilet to the drivers seat and become Eco)
oooooo that Dave Ingram he's a lovely man, a very lovely man, a very very lovely man, a very very very lovely man, a very very very vary lovely man ;D
Nice to hear your dulcet tones again.
Shaun
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Have you got a new website Mr ashmore ??
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And video conferencing on the forum ?
rob
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You would'nt be getting around to asking me for something Shaun ::)
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Dave I'd like 6 numbers in order so I can retreat to that sunny place called Doncaster the centre of the Earth :o
Shaun
PS what do you guys think of my new site?
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Here are a few tight sqeezes
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And another
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Compact and bijous I think covers it, you really know how to get the best out of a van.
Shaun
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The wife said its a pitty I can't get the best out of your *^%$
On a lighter note just noticed on your new site Shaun you only have 5 fingers unlike Mike Haliday who has 6 ?????
That extra finger has done wonders for him !!!!!!!!!
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I have a joke about that but I'll tell you another day!
Good to see you back but for now it's good night from me and good night from him!
Good night
Shaun
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Looks really good a few spellings seem to be wrong on the special offers page tho
offer 1 should there not be a u in scotchguard ??
Offer 2 Have 2 carpets deepest cleaned and get a 3rd carpet cleaned for free.
(Deepest = deep)
Hope you dont thing im being a smart arse for pointing it out ??
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Paul
Little Joe advocated keeping spelling mistakes in your marketing, 'fraid I never agreed with that, or the amateurish layouts of letters, but he swore it worked better than tidy and precise.
Not so sure
rob
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No wonder you have such a big hand, look at the size of your wand! Are you related to Gary Lineaker?
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Wow impressed with what you can squeeze in such a small space ! said the bishop to the vicar :D...
Shaun your site looks great very well laid out..My van is a tip compared to those pics....
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That is pretty astonishing, but I knew it could be done,
rob
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Dave the website for new engines if you do decide to make your own!
http://www.uni-power.co.uk/
Shaun
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Not sure if I would come into Carpet Cleaning
You get the impression it ias low start up cost low overheads but its not.
And you need to supply your own money.
Better to be in something where you use other peoples money
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I started with two credit cards with £5k limit on each and interest free for 12 months so I suppose it was with other peoples money.
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Inew someone would say that.
When Richard Branson started he sold records
All his shops were rent Free for 4 months, All his stock was on Credit.
His trick was to open a new shop a week. This then gave him the money needed to pay for the stock in previous shops that he had opened.
If a shop did not pay after three months he would close it and move stock to next one
He also smuggled lots of records in from abroad and avoided purchase tax which was instead of VAT
THat is using other peoples money
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This would have been a good topic but its been hyjacked by a TM debate.
For whats is worth id start with a portable, lets face it your not going to have high volume of work from the start, nor would you want, you have alot of learning to do. also its a good idea to see if you even like the job.
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I too used an interest free crdit card to finance start up, Thank you Mr Murdoch for the skycard!
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Bennie what do you mean see if you might like the job, Lets face it if you did'nt like it the first time around I'm pritty sure no ones going to start a second time.
I would of thought the second time around would get off the ground far quicker than the first time. ;)
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yeah your right Dave im getting it wrong, what i was saying like giving advice to a newbie,
Yes second time would be far quicker alot less wasted money too!
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I would go straight to a truckmount ,but you still need a porty
because there is always some where you can never get a truckmount.