[Robert Young]

Hi,

Brand new to this forum.  Looking to starting a carpet / oven cleaning business in the near future. I have looked at a couple of supplier's of equipment and training. There is a lot. Any advice offered out there from guys who already run a business. From what I should be looking at to start, what machines I should be looking at to start. Also can I make a half decent living doing this.

There is so much out there it is very hard to know where to start so any advice is greatly apreciated.

[neil 47]

hi Robert

use the search facility there is lots of advice .

there seems to be a lot on here starting up this week so people may not reply , there is a living to be made but its not easy .

try to get out for a day with a cc and oc be willing to travel so they arnt near u and spend as little as possible till u know its for u


neil

[Robert Young]

hi Robert

use the search facility there is lots of advice .

there seems to be a lot on here starting up this week so people may not reply , there is a living to be made but its not easy .

try to get out for a day with a cc and oc be willing to travel so they arnt near u and spend as little as possible till u know its for u


neil

Yeah that is a good idea. I live in Colchester at the moment and currently in the Army. I am leaving in early 2013 and do not plan to set up in the area so that wouldn't be a problem for someone near me.

I will look for some other posts on starting up. What machine would people get?

[tim handley]

ive spent about six months researching, internet/forums etc etc theres a lot to learn!!!   as said above dont rush into spending.....   my machine is coming next week and it seems ages that ive waited to make a start....  ask questions folks will help, read as many posts as you can! folks are generally very helpfull, esp on here!! and good luck. training course is a must by the way....

[david@zap-clean]

You may be the best trained, qualified and equipped carpet cleaning in the UK, but you won't have a business until you get a customer - and that's a completely different ballgame!

[Ian Gourlay]

The Favourites from members apear to be machines from Cleansmat  an advertiser or Solutions. I would also look at Prochem Ashbys and Alltec

Also  consider where you live and if  one of the above is near that could be useful to avoid crriage charges etc if you need service work etc

Buy new if you cangood secondhand van no dents etc leave £3000 to spend on marketing and money to live on

Bare in mind if I told you if you spent £1000 a month on leaflet distribution you should be well OK it does not always work . Also you need advise on what to say etc .
Are ou confidnt  If so go and knock on doors to get ustomers while you wait for turn key marketing to work
Get Army to pay for all the Courses you can. Alltec had a great Training Acadamey but I do not think it is running at present due to change of ownership. Cleansart un very good courses and if you in the North yiu should contact John kelly and Restomate  and in Scotland there is a new kid on the block called Cleaning systes
In addiion if you not doing anything on Saturday bring the family to Vanfest  at Wickstead Park You will meet Carpet Cleaners and Spplier who can answer your questions an pick their brins. Some will tell you far more at an event like that  than they will on an opn foruom

I will not be there as I am cofined in hospital for a month   at present but its ood to chat even if it is cyber space

[Craigp]

Ian did you mean Alltecs success coach is not running?

Anyway if it is running do it!

Learning to clean carpets will happen if your doing it, getting better as time goes on is inevitable.

Marketing and pricing however is different some people get it wrong for twenty years.

The main thing to get your head around will be not to compete on price, you can be reasonably priced so as to not people off to much but never ever go down the road the desperate do of charging £20 per room ect.

IMO your going to need to work up to earning an average job ticket of at LEAST £120 and a min order of £50. any less and your think your ok for a while until the bills start coming in and you need to pay for a new set of tyres on the van £280 or pay £1100 advert or order some chems that comes to £150 and some leaflets £350 etc.. And that's over a period of two weeks!

Craig

[Ian Gourlay]

Hi Craig

No Idea about Success Coach ,   as I presume Robert will run somthing but was reffering to Alltec run by  Chris Thomas

[Robert Young]

Ian thanks for the advice and hope you get well soon. I am very confident at dealing with people on a face to face basis that I have never met and will always come across as very confident and knowledgable, I have been a military policeman for 8 years and that has given me a very good start at dealing with customers on a daily basis. Only difference will really be what I am convining people to trust me in. The door to door touting for work will be what I do for the majority of time when I first start as I will still be getting paid by the Army as I have saved all my holidays till the end.

Tim whewhat kind of places did you look?

Has anyone out there done any of the courses and joined the NCCA, the Army will give me enough to cover two of these courses and I would just have to find the membership and any further courses myself but was wondering if these are worthwile or if you are just paying for a name?

I have looked at cleansmart and there packages looking at the Airflex models but are there any better machines out there?

I have a meeting at the end of the month with a business advisor who will help me to construct a business plan and arrange courses to help me to run a business and next week I have a two day business start up workshop all through the army or associations of the military so I there is plenty out there from them.

Craigp are you saying there is a course out there that offers merketing techniques etc?

[Craigp]

Hi Robert, Yes, message this man

http://www.facebook.com/RobertSaundersMarketingMentor?ref=ts

[steven Banks]

Hi,

Brand new to this forum.  Looking to starting a carpet / oven cleaning business in the near future.

Good Luck my friend!

[Paul Clapham]

Don't pay for any marketing guru to tell you how to market your business !

Use your money for carpet cleaning training first , then get designed a really go flyer , and have 20,000 printed then deliver them yourself, don't knock on doors, a waste of time as 99.99% of people will not be interested.

From the 20,000 flyers you may get 10 - 20 jobs, reinvest that money into more flyers , then when you start to get really busy have somebody else deliver them for you , keep records on an XL spread sheet about each job you do and extra details about the customer , for example , do they have a leather sofa , stone floor in the kitchen , blocked paved drive, etc etc all very useful info for future marketing.

If you buy a machine from Cleansmart you will get a really good marketing folder.

Running the business part is simple , keep all your receipts, have a separate personal / business bank account's and stay motivated ! 

[Robert Young]

Has anyone done the national carpet cleaners asociation courses?

Does anyone do oven and carpet cleaning?

[Ian Gourlay]

Usually when you buy machine you somtimes get a course included Cleansmart Ashbys Alltec definely offer this

NCCA good  but might be too much theory to start.

Re Door Knocking I still believe its a good way to start You can either do it or you cannot.
Leaflets Internet Letters Stands in Shoping Centre Fetes etc also good way ut can e slow burn
Knock doors solidly for two hours a day for a month if you do not suceed then you know

[Robert Young]

I was going to complete the course that came with the machine I bought. Though I still have no idea what machine to buy or from where far too much out there. Does any one have a good place to look for real beginner explenations of different equipment and what it does. Not sure if im making sense ha ha.

[Ian Gourlay]

Just talk to 3 suppliers

While in Colchester you can easily get to Alltec and Ashbys

But not sure where you will end up living

[david@zap-clean]

I was going to complete the course that came with the machine I bought. Though I still have no idea what machine to buy or from where far too much out there. Does any one have a good place to look for real beginner explenations of different equipment and what it does. Not sure if im making sense ha ha.

If you go on one of the starter training packages already mentioned above you will have plenty of opportunity to get many of your initial questions answered, and a lot more. 

There were people selling good second hand kit at the CCC/Vanfest at the weekend - but you need to know what you want to buy first.  I'm fairly new and have just been through the startup process - marketing seems to be the tough bit...

[clinton]

Some good replies above and another important part is patience as it takes a good few years to build a business up and get repeat clients..

[david@zap-clean]

<snip> and another important part is patience <snip>

Not my strong point...