[Colin Day]

Simon,

Thank you for your reply, I always appreciate you sharing your many years experience. You could so easily sit back and watch these TM/Porty debates and giggle to yourself and not actually say anything. But your input counts for a lot.

If I had the money right here right now, I'd be ordering a TM, it's as simple as that. Owning a TM is a place I'm aiming for and the sooner the better. But I flatly refuse to get anything on credit and would feel a lot happier buying a new/second hand set up with the cash I'd saved.

At the moment things are going from strength to strength. I do take my time to achieve the best I can but I agree that if I could do the job quicker/better, I'd have more time for other aspects of my business like leafleting etc, thus growing my business faster.

One day

[Simon Gerrard]

Colin,
I don't think my interest is purely from a TM / porty point of view, it just worries me that a lot of people seem to make what they appear to think are business decisions from a purely cleaning point of view and in-so-doing hinder their business from developing which is perhaps why this industry has such a high turnover of people that are here one minute and gone the next.

Simon

[happy mondays]

Simon, you have done well in business as have a very few others on here, Colin, keep going you will be there "one day"

I have also done ok in my 8 years of running a cleaning business. But you dont need 20k's worth of tm to earn £500 plus a day, it can be easily done with a £70 henry, a tin of mr sheen and a couple of spray bottles, a good sales person and a bit of hard work and determination. 

[M.Acorn]

Yeah,I am in my 7th year,not been easy,but my quality of life is much improved,and my turnover has increased each year.
I am aiming for a prowler,but I won't bankrupt myself over it.
As I have what people call a brass neck on here

[Jason Hedges]

Simon, you have done well in business as have a very few others on here, Colin, keep going you will be there "one day"

I have also done ok in my 8 years of running a cleaning business. But you dont need 20k's worth of tm to earn £500 plus a day, it can be easily done with a £70 henry, a tin of mr sheen and a couple of spray bottles, a good sales person and a bit of hard work and determination.  

Dont think so. A tm enables you to earn more money in the same time than a porty user full stop. Believe me I had all portys before a tm 4 years ago and you can't compete with the prodactivity of a tm compared to a porty no matter how good it is. If you earn such good money using a porty, double it if you buy a tm....

Funny how some people say tm's are no good when they've never owned one or have only used a friends one for a couple of hours. Work with one every day to appreciate how much faster they are.

I didnt really believe it till I bought one!

All the best,
Jason.

[Steve Rothwell]

It can only earn you double IF you can get double the work to book in, in the first place.

If you dont have the work coming in..................... it is just a liability.

the secret is knowing when is the correct time to make the commitment, get it wrong and you have a very expesive machine parked on the drive.

[colin thomas]

i agree with hector?   a truck mount is quick and does a good job but it isn't a ticket to loads of work. if you're not busy with a porty, chances are you won't be busy with a truck mount. it is your sales ability that gets the work in the first place, customers don't care what you turn up with as long as you do a great job,

colin

[Simon Gerrard]

Some excellent and well thought out replies there, but still this ever-present notion that a TM is something that you aspire to or that you only get when your diary is full.  So I'll throw another controversial, but none-the-less true aspect of this onto the table in order to make a very important and often overlooked point.
Generally speaking (I'm picking my words very carefully) the horror stories that you hear almost everyday about people's last experience of a carpet cleaner are about people withe portable machines, tho I heard one lately about a TM.  There must be a lot of them because the stories are everywhere and have been there for all of my 36 years in the industry. The fact is, people don't trust carpet cleaners! This industry has a terrible reputation which may well explain the popularity of Rug Doctors, Vax carpet cleaners and Vanish foam carpet cleaner, people must be thinking, 'I might as well do it myself,.'
People don't want to do it themselves, they just want it done by a professional comapny that will give them great service and a carpet that is super clean and dry in hours - not days. The problem is their perception of what they will actually get is the complete opposite of that and that tars ALL carpet cleaners with the same brush........

[Simon Gerrard]

Now, take a look at this:
Now take a look at this: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Carpet-Cleaning-Machin
e-Truck-Mount-/220751533402?pt=UK_B_I_Business_for_Sale_CV&hash=item3365d1155a

Imagine a picture of that tm all set up etc on your YP advert, leaflets and website and consider the effect that may have on a sceptical public. Firstly they haven't seen a machine that big before. Second they immediately think that you are a serious player and thirdly that a machine that big will probably do a much better job and because they haven't had their carpet cleaned by that kind of machine they may be more willing to give carpet cleaning another try. That's marketing.

You then do a fantastic job and you have a customer for life that will recommend you to everyone.
All that and the ability to clean hard floor all for £11K, that's peanuts.

Simon

[Steve Rothwell]

Very good reasoning Simon, now let me throw another spanner into the system.

Look at the LM way of cleaning carpets, you advertise dry in 1 hour, you turn up with a machine that the customer last saw being used to clean the corridor at the airport or hospital, you do a fantastic job with eco friendly chemicals so that their beloved baby can roll around the floor in less than an hour and not get poisoned by nuclear chems...... You also have a customer for life who will recommend you to all and sundry.


the outlay? £80 for the rotary off ebay.

that to me is marketing and business.

[Simon Gerrard]

Hector,

That is also good reasoning.
The trouble is with the best will in the world you simply cannot clean filthy carpet with an LM system (at least not in a reasonable period of time) and so limit your market to and limiting your market in this day and age is in my view madness. Surely the whole idea is to put yourself in a position where you can clean any carpet in any condition in any location and so maximise your earing potential. That said, there are people who do nothing but LM cleaning in office locations but generally speaking most carpet cleaners are look to the broader market for the majority of their work.

Simon

[Steve Rothwell]

I agree Simon, I was being devils advocate there.

Although 90% of the cleaning that I do is LM (and no I am not Mr Rogers back here in another format) I do have a CRB for deep agitation and a twin vac porty.

[happy mondays]

Simon, you have done well in business as have a very few others on here, Colin, keep going you will be there "one day"

I have also done ok in my 8 years of running a cleaning business. But you dont need 20k's worth of tm to earn £500 plus a day, it can be easily done with a £70 henry, a tin of mr sheen and a couple of spray bottles, a good sales person and a bit of hard work and determination.  

Dont think so. A tm enables you to earn more money in the same time than a porty user full stop. Believe me I had all portys before a tm 4 years ago and you can't compete with the prodactivity of a tm compared to a porty no matter how good it is. If you earn such good money using a porty, double it if you buy a tm....

Funny how some people say tm's are no good when they've never owned one or have only used a friends one for a couple of hours. Work with one every day to appreciate how much faster they are.

I didnt really believe it till I bought one!

All the best,
Jason.

I'm not saying I do earn £500 a day just cleaning carpets with a portable, my point was it can be done for very little investment, if a customer doesnt like you they will not use your service no matter what you use to clean carpets, hard floors, windows, general domestic and office cleaning. 

Just because someone has a tm it doesnt mean they will do well in business, if a cc wants one and is busy enough to justify buying a tm then fair play to them, but without the other more important aspects of running a business a truck mount will not make you rich.

[Simon@arenaclean]

I think if you did invest (and it is an investment) in a TM it would focus your mind to getting the work. I upgraded to a triple vac portable and it really renewed my enthusiasm for the job. Not that I was jaded but I was even more keen to explore it's performance. I could of brought a TM but I have several high end hotels worth £1000's every year and a TM was just not viable, being unable to get close enough or when working overnight the noise disturbing guests. I am planning to move to TM cleaning at the end of the summer if my forecasts go to plan which means I have the gear to cover every opportunity, TM, portable, LM or now with the envirodri VLM. I was perfectly content with my twin vac but after testing the triple vac I was impressed. I have no doubt when I start shopping for good used TM I will be equally impressed and will consider the investment well made. I still believe to a large extent it is the operator and technique that clean carpets, but the equipment a cleaner uses can make the job much easier.

[Neil Williams]

Now, take a look at this:
Now take a look at this: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Carpet-Cleaning-Machin
e-Truck-Mount-/220751533402?pt=UK_B_I_Business_for_Sale_CV&hash=item3365d1155a

If I had £11k available I'd drive the 15 miles down to Andover tonight and take it off him.
I don't have £11k and therefore will carry on with the 'truckmounted scorpian' until I can justify spending out that sort of money.

Edit:
Just to clarify. It's not showing a lack of ambition it's just showing a level of caution with the current economy. All I have works and fully paid for and whilst this leaves my credit availability at 10's of thousands I don't want that burden on my back at present.
Now I appreciate I could recover that outlay in just a handful of flood jobs, but on the other hand this part of the country isn't renown for it's rivers bursting it's banks, so that work is somewhat limited.
I know that Simon will say that I'm looking at all the negatives, but over the years I have taken some risks and just about all have paid dividends. The current economic climate pushes that risk factor  too far onto the wrong side of the line for me.