[robert meldrum]

Following Matt's post which was somewhat negative about the current c/c market but was stating some unwelcome truths it might be worthwhile considering additional services you could be offering.
At least one of the best known ( on here ) suppliers of leather cleaning /maintenance products has a similar range of products for " wooden furniture care "and may be worth approaching with a view to training or for an opinion.
A few on here - notably Colin Day - have been active in oven cleaning which helps to keep the cash flowing.
Refinishing wood seems a logical add on to carpet and upholstery cleaning and I'm sure is a satisfying and rewarding alternative to wanding
Worth thinking about ?

[wynne jones]

Think you are right there Robert.

[Matt Seymour]

This is another thing that is worrying me.

If I had a pound for everytime I've seen a carpet cleaner mention diversifying (particularly into oven cleaning) over the past few months my wallet would be weighing me down a bit by now.

Everyone has the same idea and will ultimately have the same problem.

The guy who came to buy my machine today was a window cleaner looking to diversify into carpet cleaning. This at the same time that carpet cleaners are looking to diversify into other types of cleaning including window cleaning.

There ain't enough to go around and I can see a few people coming out of this very badly.

[robert meldrum]

There WILL be casualties Matt, but some of us have been through tough trading times before and survived by various means.
The suggestion I'm making has been available for some years and possibly some on here already offer such a service.
Trading conditions are never static and flexibility is essential for those who don't trade in the less affected niche markets.
I know a c/c who drives HGV'S at the weekend which more than pays his mortgage and business overheads and allows him to have days off during the week.

[Matt Seymour]

Yeah, I agree with that, but what worries me is the amount of people who are already cleaners in one form or another diversifying into another type of cleaning - particularly oven cleaning given the cost of the kit.

There isn't enough carpet cleaning work to keep all the carpet cleaners going.

There isn't enough window cleaning work to keep all the window cleaners going.

There isn't enough oven cleaning work to keep all the oven cleaners going.

Yet so many people offering these services are looking to branch out into each others services - services that don't have enough work to sustain those that are already providing them.

It's a recipe for disaster.

If you are going to diversify, don't diversify into another kind of cleaning. For every job you pinch from an oven cleaner, the oven cleaner will be pinching one of your carpet cleaning jobs and with work so thin on the ground already it's only going to make matters worse and this is without the constant stream of newbies like me entering the marketplace.

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Yeah, I agree with that, but what worries me is the amount of people who are already cleaners in one form or another diversifying into another type of cleaning - particularly oven cleaning given the cost of the kit.

There isn't enough carpet cleaning work to keep all the carpet cleaners going.

There isn't enough window cleaning work to keep all the window cleaners going.

There isn't enough oven cleaning work to keep all the oven cleaners going.

Yet so many people offering these services are looking to branch out into each others services - services that don't have enough work to sustain those that are already providing them.

It's a recipe for disaster.

If you are going to diversify, don't diversify into another kind of cleaning. For every job you pinch from an oven cleaner, the oven cleaner will be pinching one of your carpet cleaning jobs and with work so thin on the ground already it's only going to make matters worse and this is without the constant stream of newbies like me entering the marketplace.

That makes a lot of sense.

Personally I think a lot of people "diversify" because they are, generally speaking, desperate to generate income, and not because they have researched a market and have a genuine plan to exploit it.

Rog

[Matt Seymour]

Given the current economic climate I would stick to what you know and if you are going to diversify, think long and hard about providing a service that a recession and a lack of cash actually forces people into using.

[wynne jones]

I would have thought that add on services give you more opportunity to work your existing customers.

However I agree there is an element of the grass is always greener.

What is happening in some peoples heads is they are panicking nothings working so buying into something new takes a bit of the stress away, until of course, the new thing doesn't work and the cycle begins again.

So what's the common denominator? Well it's the same old space between your ears. How about looking inwardly rather than externally? Most people fail not because of a lack of knowledge, money or opportunity, they fail because of the way they think.

  

[Matt Seymour]

Good point about trying to sell a new service to existing customers, but it is still a gamble. I wouldn't want to be taking that kind of gamble and invest in costly equipment at a time like this.

If you are going to offer oven cleaning in particular you'd be doing well if you managed to cover the cost of the equipment/training. Having your oven professionally cleaned is similar to having your carpet professionally cleaned. For most people it's a bit of a luxury at the best of times, but unlike carpet cleaning, the average person is more than capable of cleaning their oven to a perfectly reasonable standard using products bought for a few quid in their local supermarket.

In my opinion it's an even bigger risk than taking on carpet cleaning as a secondary service.

[peter maybury]

A lot of selling to your existing customers is going to depend on where you stand in the market place. The bottom end of the market place is always going to be hit hardest as it is the easiest place for competitors to enter the market and the customers are going to have less money to spendon extra services. People higher up the ladder are a lot more likely to spend £60 on oven cleaning rather than get their own hands dirty.
If your customers are letting agents it would be a good idea to add oven cleaning to your list of services before their oven cleaner offers carpet cleaning. From my experience letting agents would rather deal with one person rather than several and when we stopped doing house cleans we lost a lot of the end of tenancy carpet cleans with it. It did not matter to the agents that the house cleaners had crap carpet cleaning equipment and were not doing such a good job.
We do not do carpet cleaning but if one of our regular customers want windows cleaned in a house we are in then we do it rather than them find somebody else that can offer all the services they require, this applys to hard floors and other things as well.
I am lucky that I have some big long established customers that keep me extremely busy. The key is getting qualified as the more specialist you are the less competition there is and the harder it is for people to become compettiors.
Above all you need to have a positive attitude or you will not be able to convert the business that is there anyway.

Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com

[Ian Rochester]

Diversifying is something I have actively done over the past 8 years in business.

I started carpet cleaning in Jan 2003 after being made redundant, in the June I was asked by a client if I knew any window cleaners, so I started window cleaning for 6 customers in between carpet cleaning, in the August I took on my first employee, I now have 6 window cleaners and 1500 clients.

The next year we were asked about office cleaning, so I took on a girl to do office cleaning, then we started domestic cleaning, we now have 8 "ladies who clean".  Other services we provide are pressure washing, hard floor cleaning and restoration, leather cleaning and restoration, flood work, fire work, EOT cleans, new build cleans, etc, etc and our latest is we've just had a dip tank built for oven cleaning and already have work for it with our current clients.

We now have a 3200 sqft workshop/office for storage and working in, employ 19 staff, full and part time and run 8 vans.  They are all pretty much kept busy all the time with domestic and commercial work.  It's not the route a lot of people want to go down, but for us in quite a rural area where there is not the density of population it was the right way to go.

Unfortunately now I very rarely get out on the vans, the majority of my time is spent office/workshop based.  My main task at the moment is promoting our oven cleaning services to current and new clients.  If this takes off then van No 9 and employee No 20 will be on their way.

There is always an "on cost" with diversifying and providing additional services, ie: extra machinery and materials, storage, transport and even employees, it's not for everyone.

Do a bit of market research, a simple business plan and see if it comes out as a viable idea?

I've got another investment idea rattling around in my brain at the moment that came from a chance conversation over the Christmas break and involves very little additional investment on our part but has the potential to generate £1000+/week....I now need to investigate a bit more!!

[wynne jones]

A couple of excellent posts, just shows what can be done, that's fantastic. 

[clinton]

Agree there wynne some good posts to keep and spec what ian has posted.

Think the bad weather before xmas didnt help really and like most business did struggle..

[Colin Day]

If you believe that diversifying will boost your income, do it!!!

If you don't.... don't. It's as simple as that!

Remember people.... PMA!!!!

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

There isn't enough carpet cleaning work to keep all the carpet cleaners going.

Well that's a new one - seeing as it's generally accepted that less than 15% of the homes in this country have their carpets cleaned. Therefore, there is plenty of potential customers out there just waiting to be educated as to why they should have their carpets cleaned.

I clean carpets, upholstery, leather, hard floors.
I supply and fit carpets, laminate, wood and vinyl.

To both domestic and commercial properties.

I've been in the carpet industry for 30 years next year and I've been in business for myself for 20 years next year. I've traded through 3 recessions.

Get off your backsides and make something happen. There is no magic bullet. Do leaflets, do neighbour nudgers, get a website, get a facebook listing, walk the streets cold calling businesses, even do a yellow pages ad - but do something.

Phone Ian Rochester or Simon Gerrard or scores of others and find out how to run a successful business.

With the greatest respect to Matt Seymour, he has been in business for 5 months and it hasn't worked for him for various reasons and now you are agreeing with him that the carpet cleaning industry is going down the pan.

[Andrew Briscoe]

Diversifying is something I have actively done over the past 8 years in business.

I started carpet cleaning in Jan 2003 after being made redundant, in the June I was asked by a client if I knew any window cleaners, so I started window cleaning for 6 customers in between carpet cleaning, in the August I took on my first employee, I now have 6 window cleaners and 1500 clients.

The next year we were asked about office cleaning, so I took on a girl to do office cleaning, then we started domestic cleaning, we now have 8 "ladies who clean".  Other services we provide are pressure washing, hard floor cleaning and restoration, leather cleaning and restoration, flood work, fire work, EOT cleans, new build cleans, etc, etc and our latest is we've just had a dip tank built for oven cleaning and already have work for it with our current clients.

We now have a 3200 sqft workshop/office for storage and working in, employ 19 staff, full and part time and run 8 vans.  They are all pretty much kept busy all the time with domestic and commercial work.  It's not the route a lot of people want to go down, but for us in quite a rural area where there is not the density of population it was the right way to go.

Unfortunately now I very rarely get out on the vans, the majority of my time is spent office/workshop based.  My main task at the moment is promoting our oven cleaning services to current and new clients.  If this takes off then van No 9 and employee No 20 will be on their way.

There is always an "on cost" with diversifying and providing additional services, ie: extra machinery and materials, storage, transport and even employees, it's not for everyone.

Do a bit of market research, a simple business plan and see if it comes out as a viable idea?

I've got another investment idea rattling around in my brain at the moment that came from a chance conversation over the Christmas break and involves very little additional investment on our part but has the potential to generate £1000+/week....I now need to investigate a bit more!!

Same as above, but not so much on window cleaning, also office consumables, t/rolls
hand towels etc.

Andrew

[Paolo]

There is plenty of work out there for everyone.

What you put in, is what you get out. Don't diversify, just push what you know harder. Knock doors, call people, drop leaflets. The harder you work, the luckier you will be.

Very rare for a customer to go elsewhere if you service is top notch and you build relationships.

My wife sat on the phone for two hours before Christmas and generated over £2000 of commercial carpet cleaning.

If people spent their time pushing their business rather than moaning on forums, they'd have a brighter future. ( that is not aimed at anyone in particular )

As someone else has already mentioned, a Positive Mental attitude is very important.

[Colin Day]

I've said this before, but if I'd started oven cleaning before carpet cleaning, I'm not too sure I'd have gone into carpet cleaning. The reason being that oven cleaning is so cheap to start up and run. Although there isn't mega bucks in it, you do build up regulars like window cleaners do. The other oven cleaner down our way has to turn work down as his diary is pretty much full all year round. Well, at least that's what some prospects tell me when they phone up for my services...

So my advice to someone considering carpet cleaning, would be to look into oven cleaning first, but it isn't suited to most people, only those who are willing to work for their crust!!!

[Paolo]

I feel I need to add this.

You diversy because you are not busy, you need to spend more money on new equipment.

You then need to advertise and go and get customers, oh wait, that;s why you diversified.....

[Colin Day]

The reason I diversified was because an opportunity came along and I took it.
Speaking from "EXPERIENCE", this has done no harm to my business whatsoever and I have
plans surrounding the oven cleaning which "will" lead on to bigger and better things...

Diversification is not for everyone, granted, just those who can make things happen. Ian and Andrew's posts prove what can be achieved if you have the minerals not to keep all your eggs in one basket. I applaud the "Can Do" attitude they have....