Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Bob Robertson on April 01, 2010, 11:49:36 pm
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Just noticed that under the search term carpet cleaning on google, the cleaning company that Duncan Bannantyne bought into has appeared on the front page form nowhere. I check that search term every other day. They must be throwing big bucks at their web marketing.
http://www.ukcommercialcleaning.co.uk/carpet-cleaning.asp
Bob
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yes they are doing very well them,i have recently noticed them in our area. never saw them on dragons den,but looking on their company profile they have done quiet well.
Just noticed that under the search term carpet cleaning on google, the cleaning company that Duncan Bannantyne bought into has appeared on the front page form nowhere. I check that search term every other day. They must be throwing big bucks at their web marketing.
http://www.ukcommercialcleaning.co.uk/carpet-cleaning.asp
Bob
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thats wot happens when you got money to throw at something or a dragon backing you ;D
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i saw one of their men cleaning windows in grimsby it was a heavy pedestrian area he was using wfp with hoses led everywhere and not a safety cone to be seen he even leant his brush against the wall the wrong way wetting everyone that walked past. Also on the web page under pressure washing a picture of them carrying out work with no water proofs no goggles and again no safety cones but a full paragraph on the training they had, with what i have seen of them i wouldnt let them near a carpet of mine.
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Having worked for DB. he will be pushing these guys hard to get results.
Its great when you get a call from his PA......he must have forgot how to use the phone himself..
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They are not really going after carpet cleaning yet. If I was A commercial window cleaner in the Northwest, I'd be concerned.
I just did a backlinks check. They have about 700 (which means there are actually a lot more). Their web people a/ know what they are doing and b/ are a bit naughty.
I can't up;oad the report but I can show a couple of screenshots...
Doh.... How do I upload images?
Garry
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Here they are..
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Or if you do end of tenancy cleans in Newcastle, Sunderland, Leeds or London, they are targeting those terms
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i dont understand why the origional urls are completelly different to their website domain?
could you explain plese because we do end if tenancy cleans in leeds area,
regards
dash t
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oh i get it so they just created alot of inbond links and naming them under the services they are targeting?
dash t
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Sorry, I did not explain it very well.
This is what we mean when we talk about off page factors
Column one is the website where the link comes from. A lot of these have high Page Rank.
Column 2 is the actual title of the page where the link is placed.
Column 3 is the Anchor text of the link (normally the blue underlined text link). Search engines use this to determine what the page is about.
If that page has alot of incoming links referring to EOT Leeds, then that page is going to rank really highly.
The thing is that all analysis tools do not show exact figures (normally a lot less) so there could be a lot more.
Hope that helps,
Garry
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All Duncan would need o do is tak to Peter.
But these guys do throw big bucks at marketing companies they are involved in
Watched one the other day where a Lady wanted Money for an Experience Company
Peter and Louis bought Away Days off the orgional Lady Dragon who went bust
My point is they said they had a massive promotional Budget but still found it hard to get return.
With Big players like this moving into our Market we need to watch out.
.The objectve stated on Dragons Den was to be biggest player in UK market
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.The objectve stated on Dragons Den was to be biggest player in UK market
Not in Bannantynes lifetime they won't be.
I think they've forgotten about the size of OCS for starters, and for the amount of money they would have to throw at the industry upfront, he'll never recoup that sort of money in 20 years never mind 100.
You can back this up with the prices they are charging, which when the programme went out, they were charging at about 50% below what others were charging.
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These guys from UK Commercial Cleaning have their Head Office a stones throw from where I live !
Their office is actually a unit on an industrial estate. To be fair, they are a couple of young, go getter types with an ambitious streak.
I remember when they set up in Washington and I took partcular attention because they also did carpet cleaning !
I watched the show and was quite impressed with their determination and drive. They certainly impressed Mr Bannatyne...he's ploughed thosands of his own money into promoting them nationally !
To sum up, I dont think us local carpet cleaners need fear too much.
Like I say, these guys operate 1 mile from where I live and my takings are up year on year....the downside is I'll probably never be stinking rich like these guys...unless of course Mr Bannatyne fancies lending me a few bob too ;D
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.The objectve stated on Dragons Den was to be biggest player in UK market
Not in Bannantynes lifetime they won't be.
I think they've forgotten about the size of OCS for starters, and for the amount of money they would have to throw at the industry upfront, he'll never recoup that sort of money in 20 years never mind 100.
You can back this up with the prices they are charging, which when the programme went out, they were charging at about 50% below what others were charging.
Yu will find them buying/merging to grow, that is how they will achieve thier aims ,, a lot of the big firms are carrying massive debt right now , eg rentokil initial , they will raise cash by selling off divisions.
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I had a few letters of interest to purchase my contract cleaning division last year,
seems to happen in a recession, maybe get contracts as you say from those struggling,
on the cheap.
Andrew
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To grow fast they must be enthusiastic and cheap to under cut the original contractor, Duncan Banatynne will be using them to clean his health clubs for free so he'll get his money (he's a Scotsman they're a thrifty lot)
Shaun
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I worked for OCS as a manager and the way they get business is they buy the company that has the contracts they want
great way to build your business as you have much less risk and bankable roi
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It's a good business model if you are buying a business with contracted customers, as carpet cleaners we don't have this unless you have maintenance plans.
We bought an existing business (dry cleaners) and the custoers were already there which aids loads with cash flow and allowing us to grow faster.
Shaun
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Shaun, we have 3 launderettes ( 1 about to close ) and 1 dry cleaning company, Sunlight.
Sunlight used to employ a lot of staff, now they just have a distribution centre. They ship it elsewhere to be cleaned, i picked up a lot of curtain cleaning from the hotels, as it got expensive, they where quoting over 100 for a small pair of curtains :o, i went in at 60 quid and got 30 rooms to do :D
What do you use in the machines which makes it Dry Clean ?
Andrew
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Shaun
I can say that it does work in carpet cleaning. I bought woodmans database and website plus got my hands on prodry site both are major parts of by business.
Many carpet cleaners when shutting up shop dont even think about selling their database. as a side note its good to sell some much interest in databases these days. (my choice http://www.amazon.co.uk/ACT-Sage-2010-1-user-PC/dp/B002M78LA0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1270462142&sr=8-1)
I did try and buy a site about a year ago but the owner that had no idea what it was worth so asked someone else that had no idea as well that gave a silly value. shame was that the site could have done some good business with some SEO. but he lost out because he took the wrong advise.
On this subject of what our business are worth many think is the value of the tools used. you can have the best money can buy but with no repeat customers you just have lots of expensive equipment.
When you look at how many posts on forums are about method and equipment it not surprising that our profile with the public is not that high. add up all that money over the years and think how things would be different if it was the other way around.
Respect
Ian Harper
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i posted a thread about these guys in the wc section months ago about how they will undercut everyone to get the big contracts,and how i think they will end up getting all the high streets and the new commercial parks that seem to pop up every where ie with curry, b and q etc on them, if they are moving over to carpet cleaning as well, i think they will go after all the hotel chains, travel lodges etc
its who u know, not what u know
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Shaun they wont be in the health clubs I used to be a sales and marketing manager for him in the one In Dunfermline, And I no they have in house cleaners if anything they might get the window cleaning contract but wont get in the health clubs.
They use a rotowash to do the carpets on a weekly basis. they do them on a Sunday night when its quiet.
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Andrew
www.laundryroomukltd.co.uk/shopexd.asp?id=15&bc=no
James I have cleaned carpets for Bannatynes (lucky 6) ltd at Barnsley, took 6 months to get paid though.
Ian, I once bought a database from another carpet cleaner but the customers didn't transfer very well as I wasn't the same person as they were used to, I did the trick of 'under new ownership' which is the wrong angle I should have gone for ' a new addition to the company' to keep continuity.
Shaun
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It'll also depend upon whether there is a "fit" between your client base and the one you purchase.
If you are marketing to a higher-end customer then you probably won't want to deal with a new set of clients who are used to paying a cheaper price-even if the new service more than makes up for the increase in price.
Roger
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I wouldn't worry about them whatsoever. First as Shaun stated all DB has done is buy himself an inhouse cleaning service, secondly, if my memory serves me right he invested £100k. Put simply that is the working capital you need to finance about £700k's worth of daily cleaning turnover in the commercial world and that's just your working capital i.e. you still have to buy your capital equipment etc. Finally as I have noted previously on CIU the lad who owns the business was hawking it around the North East for sale within 6 weeks of appearing on the TV. He believed that due to the publicity it was worth millions and was trying to cash in. I wondered at the time what DB would have thought of his 'partner' if he had found out.
p.s Also anyone who offers to undercut the lowest price a client has got without even looking at the job is in my opinion a fool and we have personal experience with this individual doing that.
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I guess you make the company so big you can either float it with a share issue or sell it with customer contracts and get a tidy sum.
They don't affect me so I wish them well.
Shaun
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Some people from the north east seem to be a tad worried :-\ cant blame them. The shareholders of this company have now both set up a new Ltd company (Duncan B and Mark that is) last month called: uk commercial cleaning franchise Ltd, watch out servicemaster! DB is a very wealthy and well informed business man. I think Mark has done very very well in business to get someone of DB's standing to buy into his company, and it seems to be thriving, Mark still owns 65% of that company and is the majority shareholder. Good luck to him, dont think he will ever be as rich as DB but you never know.
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Shaun
the best way to handle it is say that the new company has joined a network. if you get the OK from the last owner you can even get a cover letter from them introducing the network.
If you take the personal view in your monthly communication the new people will be welcome into the network, and the old ones see that your growing.
taking the personal angel is a great way to sell as you can write a paragraph on whats going on, like we have just added this machine or this service then you can go on to sell it with an offer.
Ian