[Shaun_Ashmore]

I do quite a lot of leather cleaning at least one a week I have 3 on this week but the repair side has virtually gone, a few years ago loads of us cleaners all jumped on the band waggon regarding the repairs just wondered if anyone was still doing them?

I think Ian Rochester is and poss Steve Gunn.

Shaun

[Mike Halliday]

Shaun,

Steve who i share the unit with is busy most of the time with leather repair, i think if you actively advertise it you can get the work, he does at least 3 or 4 jobs a week for second hand car dealers doing repairs. he has got 2 full recolours sat in the unit waiting to be done.

but he does as much advertising for repair work as I do for carpet cleaning, so thats the key 

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I never advertised it apart from word of mouth and signage on the van but no takers nowadays.

Shaun

[Carpet Dawg]

My leather cleaning is down the last 6 months. Not too fussed tho.

[jasonl]

Yo ucan do this one in south London if you like Shaun , black fernox on the stitching, small scratch on a seat.

[Neil Williams]

Must admit it's been very quiet on the leather side of things for a few months, but then when DFS etc are knocking out new suites at under £500 it becomes a bit difficult to sell cleaning, repairs etc at 20% of replacement cost. It's an even higher percentage rate if you look at the real value of an 8 year old suite. I guess it all depends on how long the January sale continues!
What jobs I were getting fell into the group of personal value (not monetary) like hand me down handbags, leather jackets etc.
I do have a dedicated leather website but I've taken my eye off the game a bit lately with that, whilst chasing the carpet cleans.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Got some great education by going on courses allows me to understand what I am selling, it does make you wonder though being a Lemming and following market trends how far will people (me included) go?

I mean there's hard floor cleaning and flood school, trauma cleaning,pressure washing, the infection scare and clean up how many toys will end up in the garage? you can gain great education and understanding but by not specialising will we just follow trends and always be looking for the next new thing?

Shaun

[Steve Chapman]

I agree Shaun, we can become obsessed with learning new skills etc and forget that we're in business to make money in the most effective manner possible.

Lots of money can be wasted on all latest equipment etc and then not really get used properly,

I've looked at my last twelve months stats and was amazed that out of all the services we offer carpet cleaning is still the biggest earner far and above anything else.

And out of everything I rather be cleaning carpets any how 

Maybe if we just focused on one thing we'd be far more productive and effective ?

Regards
Steve

P.S.  I hadn't had any leather jobs for ages then got one this week 

[Steve Gunn]

If my leaflet goes out with leather cleaning on one side I get calls,at the moment it is the window cleaning on the other side. If you don't advertise it you won't get the work

[Ian Gourlay]

I think you need to treat each specialization as a business in its own right, so you need to decide if you have the time and resources to cope.

[Mike_Roper]

Problem with leather repair etc its not as straight forward as carpet cleaning , dificult to estimate time and result , might need 2 trips and you need to be doing it regularly or you become unfamiliar with tecniques .  Hourly rate imo will never equal carpets.
Most like the idea of doing it but when it comes to the nitty gritty after the course in real life they dont have the time and patience to do it.
Glad I did the training as I do jobs as they happen to come along.
Mike

[Jon Tabbener]

I'd say i clean more leather than fabric to be honest - i don't get involved in any repairs though - i have a furniture clinic near me who i pass on work to - i must have passed his number on about 10 times in the last year

[wynne jones]

I stopped doing major repairs, especially seats. There was a spell where I lost confidence in a well known suppliers products robustness and never really recovered.

The main problem is suites that have lost their top coat and people thinking they just need cleaning. When you start talking about £100s of pounds to sort it, it's very hard to communicate the amount of work involved and in their mind they are thinking they could get a DFS cheapo for the same price even though theirs is £2-3ks worth.

I just cherry pick now and pass on everything else to those geared up for it.