[Martin S]

Cheers Dave.  Best of luck to you.

Regards.

Martin S

[lee_gundry]

dave

you said  you are adding another truckmount to you fleet,how many truckmounts are you running at the moment??

i must sat i am very impressed with your achevment in the cleaning industry.

many will not break the 50 grand a year mark.

i take my hat of to you

well done

Lee G

[martin19842]

lee,

it all depends how big your operation is regarding turnover, a one vehicle operation could survive on that,  its really about what you are looking to achieve. 

our turnover is just over £23k for  two and a half months, and turnover is doubling up each month, and that is from launch. 

i know what i want from the business and that really dictates what needs to be done to achieve that.

the way that things are shaping up for 2005, we will have enough work for two vehicles 2 or 3 crewed full time on site.

regards

martin

[Ian Rochester]

Phil,

I made up a template on excel when I first started, it's split into months with a year end figure.  It's broken down into capital spend, salaries, income, marketing, travel/vehicle, chemicals and running costs.  All you need to do is put in date, descriptin what it was for and how much, the rest is automatic.

I simply fill it in at the end of each week, which I have just done tonight (10 mins)

I still use an accountant at year end, he loves it and he still saves me much more than he costs me.

I'm not saying its the dogs b*****cks, but it works ok for me, if you want a copy for ideas of your own PM me and I'll email you a blank with some notes.

Ian

[adl]

 1 Mercedes Sprinter Ultra Long wheel base (what a beast) 494 TM
1 Vauxhall Combo T170s buffing machines for offices
1 X Mitsubishi Shogan LWD 7 Str for the boss to pose in

Looking at an 860 in a sprinter at the moment, just waiting for details of a custom made 860 from steve at chemspec in polished chrome to go in another sprinter.

Will also be buying another small van and putting it on a new hard floor contract that we are getting in the new year.

regards Dave ADL

[martin19842]

lionheart,

youve hit the nail on the head there, it does what you want it to, but also it means that you can tell at a glance whether things are going in the tight direction, and also which way to adjust if needed.
i moved all my excel spreadsheets, over to my accounting package, which makes things even easier, because the next financial year is projected initially from historical data, i just read it and adjust as required..

have a good weekend, just got to go out and do some first floor windows for about an hour in the morning,

nice little contract, grd flr windows, in and out, 1st flr in and out, and then the entrance way, total labour cost for job £60 invoice value £175 plus VAT.

regards

martin

[Glynn]

Hi Dave,
Seems you have done well considering how long you have been operating, well done.
When we had the premisses on croston rd about 12 years ago we was then turning over about 100K, with 8 staff + me and a partner (deceased), specialising in off site flood carpet/upholstery work etc and carpet/upholstery cleaning as well as heavy ind cleaning and we pioneered a special method of foundary and corn mill cleaning up & down the country.

How many carpet cleaning staff do you have ? and who trained them ?steve conway never mentioned anything, our company would not send anyone out without a minimum of 3 years experience on their own !.
Glynn.

[mark_roberts]

Is there a touch of jealousy here at Daves claimed turnover?

Dave and Martin, how do you get your work especially if your on the van all day long cleaning?

Is it just carpet cleaning (commercial or residential)?



thanks
Mark

[adl]

Glynn as to your question about carpet cleaning staff. I have 1 full time carpet cleaner and 2 part time that has been carpet cleaning for me part time for 12 months, i have 3 full time staff on the cleaning & maintainence side ( fire damaged properties etc) i have 3 teams of sub-contractors covering milton keynes southwards, as to who trained my CCs, most of their training has been on the job with myself or on the bigger jobs with my sub contractors, as to not sending any one out on their own until they have done 3 years, i think that either the staff are not very quick learners or the method of instruction is not up to scratch, the best form of training for this type of work is on the job, up to date we have about 1000 domestic customers on our database and upto now we have had 2 complaints (which were immediately recterfied) Our reputation after 18 months is unpresedented, after all we are now almost fully booked upto christmas, and a lot of these have used us before. After i had a conversation with Dave Lee the other night i have again put my prices up for the domestics I believe they are more than yours now by far, but then again i suppose its about time that we charged what we are worth.

I had places booked on the NCCA course for this weekend for 2 of my staff, however due to an overstreched work load we have today had to cancel till the new year (thanks again Derek for the information on the course, we have re booked for feb).

It makes me laugh how you see a lot of sly digs and deliberate niggling questions by certain people, the fact is that if people need to spend their day on this forum then they should be spending more of their time marketing their business instead of ridiculing the successfull!

I hope the job that i gave you the other week went ok, if your quiet again then give me a call and i shall see what spare work we have

regards Dave ADL

[adl]

Mark

Most days i now spend either in the office or out meeting new clients, i have full time ccs and cleaners to do it for me now, the only time i clean carpets at the mo is when i know the client is someone i can do a lot of business with, i have even not charged certain clients for cleaning caarpets instead i cleaned them for free took them out for dinner and landed a big contract out of it,

Martin look forward to seeing your guys on site in sidiothorpe on friday night,

regards Dave ADL

[martin19842]

hi mark,

i have an advantage because of the way that my business has been created, the main lineof business being build cleans, we have a realtionship with a national corporate property services company and enjoya very tight relationship, so much so that i have access to all of their office and marketing capabilities.  Obviously there is a financial contract involved here as well, however it is a tight mutual contract, in respect to the fact that we are now becoming a key a profit centre, to one of their monthly budgetry targets.

our special projects work has come about from talking to some good people on here, and whilst this special project stuff requires a level of organisation and professionalism, we find it is worth the extra effort to deliver profit , and to create very good business relationships with companies that have a lot of of work available.

i spend varying amounts of time on site, but with modern technology these days, i and others have the ability to have info at theor finger tips and be able to organise large jobs without needing to be in an office.

we are considering another transit size vehicle and two more full time, for january, as we are looking at the possibility of at least 6 new developer sites, more than enough work full time for two vehicles.

with regard, to new work, every hint of a job however big or small is fully progressed to acceptance or decline.  and not being modest but we generally get most jobs that we quote.   

anybody wanting to talk further please pm me.

regards

martin

[martin19842]

mark,

as an addition to that as an example i have 5 guys in bristol on saturday night, overnight, and two guys in sidiothorpe overnight fri and sat.  over 250 miles apart. 

the point being, management, and a reliable work force is key, i pay good money for a good nights work, the customer then get s the best service, at the time they wanted it,  but believe me these clients do pay for the service they get.

regards

martin