[john mannion]

hi my name is john,
I have a one man window blind company in stratford on avon and I'm thinking about getting into carpet/ upholstery cleaning to get me through next winter.
I realise that training is important and will take some courses,  I would like to know which is the best way to get started with machinery,which to buy first until things get going,
I dont want to get into commercial cleaning to begin, so I'm guessing that smaller machines are slower but would they do a decent job on household size rooms.
any advice hints tips gratefully recieved.
cheers john.07954 160632

[Joe H]

What is your budget??

[john mannion]

hi, thanks for your interest,
my budget would be as low as poss to begin , small machines,until I can decide whether to spend what it takes to fit myself out to do the job properly, I dont want to get bigger than a one man profitable operation,working 30-40 hours a week.
I really dont know how much I need to budget to kick things off.I dont want to spend over £1,000 to start
I'm happy to take advice on everything and I am happy to walk before I can run,I want to start by putting flyer's out,   theres loads of money here in stratford so I'm hoping for profitable quality work.   I have a renault scenic which I intend to use as transport.
     thanks johnm

[michael wadsworth]

John, by the time you have forked out for training(essential), a good vac. (Sebo?) and trade insurance(Treatment risk essential), then the cost of printing your flyers(best of luck with them,you'll need to saturate an area 2 to 3 times before you see results according to most posters here)you'll not have much of your grand left. Then you'll need a good twin vac machine, shop around online to see prices now, just Google "carpet cleaning supplies. Best of British. Mike

[markpowell]

I would estimate you need at least a £2000 budget on start up, £150 on chemicals, £1000 on good second hand twin vac machine with tools,
Then marketing and training on top.
Mark

[Joe H]

You really need as a minimum a machine with 2 vac motors and 135 psi.
Second hand this will take most of your £1000, but be careful buying 2nd hand of course.

Build up your client base on what you already got from the blinds.
As said, leaflets have to be regular in the same place for full benefit, so cost leaflets in.
Paricjh magazine type things seem to do well.
Website may cost couple hundred but search engine optimization may cost more. If you get a domain name with Stratford in the title this may help with Google ranking etc

[Jim_77]

John, I'm looking at getting into selling window blinds to see me through the summer.

I don't want to spend any more than £100 on starting up the business.  How do you rate my chances of success?

I'm not being arsey with you, just trying to illustrate a point

You need a lot more than even the 2k suggested to start up in this business.  If you try to do it on the cheap you'll get nowhere.  Let's get one thing straight - an under-powered machine will not clean ANY sized carpet very well.  The size of the room means nothing.

I'd suggest that you thoroughly find out about what the carpet cleaning business is all about.  Spending a good few days (yes days!) browsing some of our industry forums will open you up to a lot of intriguing and mind boggling information!

But the best way of getting a feel for it is to arrange a few days out with different carpet cleaners who are happy to let you come out with them and see how it all works.  If you put up a post, you'll no doubt get a few replies.  Normally the strength of response is matched to how committed and enthusiastic you are to becoming a part of this industry

Then you need to make a pivotal decision - do you want to do it or not?  If the answer is anything but a definite yes then don't waste your time or your £1000.

If I was to do it all again, I'd advise the following (this is just my opinion obviously, others will no doubt have a different view!)


Put a business plan together, scrape up all the cash you can and then go to your bank manager and ask for at least £5,000.  Without a business plan they will just laugh at you.

Book yourself in on several different training courses, because no single instructor will have all the answers to everything.  Getting similar tuition from different people helps you understand things better and reinforces the knowledge.  Training is just the tip of the iceberg to be honest, you learn more in one day on the job than a month in a classroom.

Decide on a logo or at least colour scheme.  Get your van nice and tidy and sign written.  If you don't have a van, borrow more money and buy one.  Don't work out of your car under any circumstances!  Split your remaining money 50/50 between buying kit and marketing.

Arrange a good sized overdraft of £5k for working capital and don't be afraid if you're £4k overdrawn for a while.  As a new-start, if you stop spending on marketing you'll end up sitting at home all day.  Don't expect to be out of debt for a while so you have to factor interest payments into your cash flow forecast.  You might like to pay yourself some money every now and again too

Sorry for the sermon, but I'm afraid too many people fancy "having a go" at carpet cleaning and they just fall flat on their face because they completely underestimate what it takes.  Good luck!

[feldon]

Great post Jim

I'm in the process of setting up myself, having procastinated on whether to start up or not for over 12 months, chickened out at first because of the recession but am now looking to start up soon. Going on a training course today with Derek Bolton in Nottingham, and your figures are pretty much spot on what I have been basing my plans on.

What would you use that initial £5K for though?

[ianharper]

John

Welcome,

I don't know if you have read rich dad, poor dad, its a great book the one thing i took away from this book was about self financing. The idea is that he set up businesses to pay for his boys toys. now you can use this for your strat up costs and marketing running costs.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rich-Dad-Poor-Robert-Kiyosaki/dp/0751532711/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274857790&sr=8-1

Here is an example. set aside two days a week for your new business. go out and get some kind of cleaning contract, say a office or pub clean that you can do in the morning or at night. next go out and get a days worth of window cleaning each week. this will give you about £250 a week

Use this money to buy a secondhand Ninja plus your training.

http://www.carpet-cleaning-equipment.co.uk/ninja_intro.htm

Then use this £250 for your marketing. adwords and leaflets for starters.

Don't ever live of this money. Its for marketing only.

With your leaflets talk to the guys on here. but you want to be a big fish in a little pond. not the other way around. you will need to put out about 20k to 40k a month

As you get going keep in touch with your old customers by sending them a letter each month selling other cleaning services. put the personal touch in it. whats going on in your business and how it benefits them.

Don't get talked into buying any equipment on lease as this just increases your overheads and sucks money from marketing. I have meet guys in this business that earn from £40k up just with a portable and basic equipment. keeping your overheads down will mean that each week you don't have to pay someone else (bank) before yourself.

you should be able to double your money each week. and by sticking at it you will just keep adding to it. you can expect to get about £400 worth of work in a day. that does not mean that you can expect to get five day each and every week. as i said one day to start as you have other things on the go. then as time passes you just add days.

Its hard work but in the long run it will pay for itself and you will be building a business that does not have and fixed overheads. and in this business that's important. as the cost for each client at the start is high.

Hope this helps

Respect

Ian Harper


PS. Forget the sofa cleaning for the moment just focus on carpets. its a much higher risk and you dont need that when starting up/

[Ian Gourlay]

John,

The main problem you will face is that you will have double the marketing bill.

If you are Joys ex you have probably heard about me .

Yes I do both

But I have been at it 12 years , I also have other income

If I am honest in the present climate I am finding it tuff.

There isa lot more competion in Blinds . Normal Marketing ie press etc is not working . people are shopping around more.


Is it any easier in Carpet Cleaning

What do you know about it . How are you going to market.

Are you prepared to go door to door as you do not want to invest much this is the way to go.

Secondhand machine . Be prepared to buy Two Motors in short spave of time cost  £260 a new pump £150 thats if you can fit them yourself.

If not this price could rise dramatically.

What are you going to do about Insurance your Blind Insurance will not cover you.
You need Treatment risk these policies cost about £250.

I note Ian Harper has been reading motivational books again.

You dont need some Yank telling you what to do . Duncan Ballintyne gives similliar advise.
In The New Collition Britain there is going to be a surge of people similiar.

[ianharper]

Ian



With respect.

that one book helped me along with JP stuff to build two maid services in two towns turning over £125K a year in total with me driving around in a lotus and not having to do a thing each day.

And i was making out of that about £40K

I don't read motivational books as they have what is called the snap back effect. by the time you put the book down the motivation has gone  Most books have one very practical idea they just string it out.

why did it not last? lets just say that the devil makes work for idle hands.

Long live. sex, drugs and rock and roll.

Ian Harper

[Ian Gourlay]

Hi Ian

If I have offeded you I apoligise

Must admit have noy got round to Rich Dad Books yet

All i was saying Duncan Ballyintine gives similiar advise

What I admire about you is your spirit

[james roffey]

John i started May 2009 with an investment of £15000 but spent the best part of a year doing training both practical and theory  research on marketing, equipment on the forums etc have a look through the search facilities on the various forums for tips.
I just thought that if i started on the cheap i would later have a problem raising my prices with those very hard earnt customers, and believe me they are hard and expensive to find and if you run your business on the cheap out of a hatchback with rubbish equipment you may as well get those £15 per room leaflets printed now because thats all people will expect to pay you, last week i had a call from a lady who said she had been given my name by a friend of hers who is one of my customers she said i am moving house and want you to clean the carpets before i move in, she dropped the keys off to me the night before and the next day i did her beautiful home a three hundred year old house in the country total cost£490 including a £25 tip and she never once asked me how much will it cost, all from doing a good job for her friend she also wants me to do the house she's moving out of next week.
Your good name and reputation is the best marketing tool of all so start off on the right foot.

ps i just remembered the friend of this lady also found me via a recommendation, but dont for a moment think it will be easy i am lucky in that i have other means to supliment my income and without that i would be really stuggling as Jan to March was a killer and i hardly earnt a penny even though i was throwing money into the marketing, others on here have said that it will takes 2/3 years to make a decent profit and i think that is probably true from what i have seen so far

[ianharper]

Ian

I know why you must think this way. you just have to really, really think about what is being said and the scale it to your life.

Just look at JP his business was a one man band but he has built other peoples business far in excess of his own. and how by the help of Dan kennedy's ideas in direct response not his own experance.

Sometimes you have to read between the lines. it sometime what they are not saying that's the point.

Many years ago i got peed off by the lack of detail in books its the little things that make the big stuff work.

We have heard many carpet cleaners come out and brag about how many hundreds of thousands pounds they earn. and only once have i seen proof. and by the way you where there at the time.

When Nick had one of his meetings. the key is having the guts to spend many thousands of pounds in marketing.

But how do you get the money in the first place by self financing. The very best way of doing this is by having others work for you. This experience is a real eye opener.

For example every job one of my maids did for me i made money without lifting a finger. this is what Duncan Ballyintine is trying to say.
if he just came out and said " i am having the time of my life doing next to nothing" people would not respect him. he just makes good decisions. that's his job.

Another example is that saying "other people's money" that's how all the city guys make their money.

The big problem we all have is that we are taught to work hard. And what i call The working class ethic. this is what keeps us where we are. I must say that the curtain is being pulled back a bit with some of the the stiff that going on at the moment. bankers, MP's etc

The unique thing in cleaning is no one values it. so we need to find our way around this attitude to be a success

Respect

Ian

[ianharper]

Btw Contact bicsc ask about nvq or city & guilds in cleaning science they do distance learning

[Magic Dry Perth]

It doesn't matter  how good your kit is if you don't have good Marketing and this does cost good money.  Using your data base from what you already do is one way but if you have a small poor machine and don't do a good job it might affect your standing with them and they might not use you for blinds and so on.

I have trained 4 new Magic dry users, who didn't have any experiance, but having good products helped these people who are now doing very well getting great results.  But starting on the cheap wont help.  Maybe look at leasing equipment but do go on training courses  it will  help heaps.  And it does cost money to get work.