Clean It Up

UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: markpowell on February 03, 2010, 10:56:43 pm

Title: Thankyou
Post by: markpowell on February 03, 2010, 10:56:43 pm
I would like to thank all the guys on here for the support over the years, I have now sold the Carpet cleaning side of the business to move on to other things as a few of you already know. I hope i can still look into the posts and advise where possible when i can, cheers.
Mark
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Neil Williams on February 03, 2010, 11:02:21 pm
All the best Mark.
So what are you going to be doing?
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Colin Day on February 03, 2010, 11:07:15 pm
Wishing you the best of luck in your new venture..... Keep in touch on FB :)
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Steve. Taylor on February 03, 2010, 11:12:40 pm
Good luck to you mark wish you all the best

As they say in show business break a leg. ;D ;D

Keep the good advice coming i for one have taken a lot you said on board.
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Jason Ryan on February 03, 2010, 11:25:05 pm
All the best in your 'next step' ;), whatever it is?. Was it the accident that made you sell or was it planned any how.

Good luck

J
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Joe H on February 04, 2010, 06:57:42 am
Well that is a shock Mark.
However, hope your future is good - whatever you going to.
Certainly enjoyed your posts on here and look forward to any further contribuitions.
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus) on February 04, 2010, 08:22:42 am
Best of luck Mark, stay in touch.


Steve
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: clinton on February 04, 2010, 08:38:15 am
Mark

Good luck in whatever you do :)

Is it something that you can say what you are going into ???

Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: richy27 on February 04, 2010, 08:55:42 am
Good luck mark your advise has always been very usefull.

All the best

Rich
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Simon@arenaclean on February 04, 2010, 09:45:30 am
Can only echo the posts above, all the best! From your posts it's obvious you care and are willing to help others. You will be loss to the industry. Hope it goes well for you.

regards
Simon
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Ben Lugg on February 04, 2010, 09:55:38 am
Keep posting Mark, you always give such good advice  :)

Ben.
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Paul Simpson on February 04, 2010, 11:38:28 am
Would second all of the above.
Always good advice.
Good luck in whatever your doing next.
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: markpowell on February 04, 2010, 03:27:29 pm
Cheers Guys, going into wheelie bin cleaning, been giving it alot of thought for a long time. We have had Wheelie bins in Calderdale since April 2009, i always expected some one coming round offering the service, but no-one ever has.
I have been asked by loads of people if i know anyone who cleans them as they are in a terrible state after 9 months.
Done my homework and it appears to be far more lucrative, and no marketing costs either.
cheers Mark
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: clinton on February 04, 2010, 03:45:07 pm
Sounds good mark :)

I ran a business with my carpet cleaning up to ten years ago and it was vending machines,i bought the business froma carpet cleaner whos brother in law was selling it.

Got a good return on it and i sold them to cadburys as they wanted the great sites i had,in  time i wish i had not sold it and had built it up as in your post said i had little or  no marketing to do, There again i got a good price for it.

Always found you helpfull with others on here and your a likable guy and i will tell you it helps in all ways of life.I could prob count on one hand the people i dont like on these forums so guess thats good  ;D

Good luck mark :)

 





Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Joe H on February 04, 2010, 04:17:07 pm
We have had wheelie cleaners for a number of years round our place - Warrington
What the did during the snow when the council didnt come round but everyone left the bins on the front just in case the council did come round, was to put a tag on everyones bin handle advertising the service - £3 every month
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Doug Holloway on February 04, 2010, 04:47:16 pm
Hi Mark

Good luck, why don't you get yourself a website!

Have you sold the CC as a going concern?

Keep in touch your comments are always welcome.

Cheers

Doug
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: JandS on February 04, 2010, 05:53:05 pm
Good luck Mark.
Have watched them clean ours in all weathers and thought thanks but no thanks.
They charge me £1.50 a time.
Used to be £1.00.
You using TM for the cleaning??

John
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: chrisjohn on February 04, 2010, 05:54:53 pm
All the best in your new job!
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Carpet Dawg on February 04, 2010, 06:05:08 pm
Good luck in your new venture Mark! :) I'm quite newish here but you have always seemed like a helpful, friendly chap. Hope you keep intouch with us.

Joe, great tip there with the tag on the handle of the wheelin bin! simple but effective.

cheers
tony
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: wayne zabel on February 05, 2010, 06:06:29 pm
Mark has been an enormous help to me in the short time Ive been doing cleaning.He even came over to Bury on a cold snowy Saturday morning to help me with upholstery.

Ive been assured that I can contact him in the future for advice.

Top bloke.

PS I'll contact you about them extensions. ;D

Good Luck mate
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: kinder clean on February 05, 2010, 07:09:19 pm
Mark I wish you all the best mate, I am shocked !  ??? but I'm sure you wouldn't be doing this if you weren't sure.

Hope your legs on the mend.

Take care

Paul
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Tony Gill Carpet Smart on February 06, 2010, 08:32:24 am
Mark hope it goes well for you. Hows the leg going on ok I hope

Regards Tony
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Darren O on February 06, 2010, 10:46:51 am
Ive had a wheelie bin for about 5 years ive never been cleaned once and its not something i would ever pay for as for the smell never noticed it that much all the rubbish is put in black bags. There is a guy round the corner from me who does wheelie bin cleaning think its VIP bin cleaning it might be a franchise he put flyers out about 2 years ago to every house over 200 and to this day ive never seen him cleaning one bin and were i stay its all bought houses nice area but nobody was interested could you not still do carpet cleaning while your building up the wheelie bin cleaning good luck anyway.
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Paul Simpson on February 06, 2010, 04:00:01 pm
Don't use them myself either, like Darren I don't see the point, its a bin, its gonna get dirty & smelly, if its too smelly I might pressure it once or twice in the summer months but thats it.

Having said that the guy around our way seems to do good business from it, at least 6-7 out of 10 other houses in our cul-de-sac alone use him and hes always out and about.
And he seems to cover quite an area as I see him in many other towns when I'm out doing carpets.
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: daz1977 on February 06, 2010, 04:38:24 pm
my cousin use to work for a bloke clean bins,  the bloke made good money, lived in a nice house, but he was also bit of a wheeler dealer
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Matt Lindus on February 06, 2010, 05:51:30 pm
With respect Mark, the best advice is the advice you never take.

You really need to look into starting a career and not scrape by with bin cleaning. Go to college part time and learn something worthwhile. Then get a paid job with holiday and pension.

Good luck if you do want to clean bins for a living though.

Matt 
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: markpowell on February 06, 2010, 10:55:34 pm
Whats the difference in cleaning bins and cleaning carpets.
I have been a successful carpet cleaner, turned over £43k last year.
Ready for a change, it will work, no competition, no overheads and no advertising to pay.
Mark
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Carpet Dawg on February 07, 2010, 01:25:55 am
Mark, sent you a wee email.

Matt, i've got to say thats quite a cheeky comment there! Whats the differance in cleaning bins than sucking on carpets? or window cleaning? etc etc

If Mark can build a successful round he'll have no advertising spend, no chemicals to buy, no risk damaging custys property and probably allround, alot less hassle!

I seen a wheelin bin cleaning buisness sell on ebay a few months ago. The owner was making £70K a year.

Tony
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: chrisjohn on February 07, 2010, 08:26:42 am
Mark,as you've been cleaning carpets for a good few years now,i would imagine you've got a massive customer database.Im sure you will be able to tap into your 'former' carpet cleaning customers,and make a good go of it.Good Luck!!
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: clinton on February 07, 2010, 10:02:51 am
Am sure mark can build up his new business.

Got to agree what he said no competition no spending lots of money on advertising and competing with the cheap guys.

Think if i was starting c cleaning now i would find it very hard to get my set up off the ground.

Seems to be to many people setting up in  carpet cleaning and go for a year or so ten realise they will be better of getting a job ::)
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: DanielWelford on February 07, 2010, 10:06:51 am
Theres a wheelie bin firm by me with 5 vans going. So gotta be some demand!

Did consider it myself, but just haven't got the time to run both.

Good luck Mark.

Dan
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Colin Day on February 07, 2010, 11:30:24 am
We used to have our bin cleaned every month up in Cumbria (They haven'y got wheelie bins where we live in Cornwall ::))

For the money it was worthwhile, especially at summer. It cost us a £2.50 a month if I remember rightly and we paid via direct debit!

Good luck with it and as for the doubters on here, well you know as well as anyone, that there are a lot of people out there who put cleanliness of their carpets, oven, windows, cars and wheelie bins etc etc on a very low list of priorities..... Dirty sods as they are known in the business ;D
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Jim_77 on February 08, 2010, 12:01:37 pm

I seen a wheelin bin cleaning buisness sell on ebay a few months ago. The owner was making £70K a year.

Presuming a price of £1.50 per bin, that works out as:

48,000 bins a year
1,000 bins a week (48 working weeks a year)
200 bins a day (5 day week)
28.5 bins per hour (6 working hours a day)

Or in real world terms, you've got to clean one bin every 2 minutes from the minute you start working until the minute you stop, every day.

Not sure what to make of those figures ???
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Tony Gill Carpet Smart on February 08, 2010, 12:54:31 pm
Jimm you need to get out more mate  ;D ;D

Tony
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: markpowell on February 08, 2010, 12:57:33 pm
£1.50 per bin ;D
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: JandS on February 08, 2010, 01:02:10 pm
Jim

They do mine and 2 neighbours at the same time and it takes them no more than 2 minutes to do all 3.
Watched them with idle curiousity a couple of times.
Think they charge £1.60, will ask wife when she gets in.

John
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: JandS on February 08, 2010, 01:06:48 pm
Also they can't clean the bins till they have been emptied.
Our area gets emptied around 1.30 ish so they can't come round before then.
What happens to the bins that get emptied at 4pm in Winter.
Do they go round cleaning in dark?
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Dennis on February 08, 2010, 01:12:41 pm
£2.50 - £3.00 a time according to this business for sale:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Wheelie-Bin-Cleaning-Business-Established_W0QQitemZ170440920279QQcmdZ
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Jim_77 on February 08, 2010, 01:52:33 pm
£1.50 per bin ;D

Well fill us in then Mark, I'm curious!  Is that too high/low?

Thinking about it, recycling must have been the best thing to happen to the bin cleaning industry.... round here, your normal black bin gets done every 2 weeks, and on the other weeks there is a same sized grey wheelie bin for green waste, then a red box for paper etc and another blue box for cans/bottles.  So recycling day is a wheelie bin plus 2 smaller boxes, must spin a bit more revenue.
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: Jim_77 on February 08, 2010, 01:59:42 pm
OK double the price to £3 a bin:

24,000 bins per year
500 bins a week
100 bins a day
15 bins an hour

one every 4 minutes
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: richy27 on February 08, 2010, 02:55:31 pm
I would miss my tea and cake with every job too much.

Sure you will make it work for you mark   BUT I AM OUT 
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: derek west on February 08, 2010, 02:57:48 pm
don't forget.

"you couldn't just give these a quick blast while your here! won't take ya a minute"  ;D
Title: Re: Thankyou
Post by: markpowell on February 08, 2010, 04:19:16 pm
 ;D ;D