[Paul Wade]

Hi everyone,
I've been reading these boards for a few weeks now and love all the honesty and advice involved!
I'm currently in the process of being made redundant from my most awesome job I've ever had because the whole smelter is shutting..... Bugger....... Being an engineer and all that I thought I'd do well in my life, have done so far even! been working as a machinist, toolmaker, project engineer, skip hire owner and most lately a crane driver with more wages than the previous lot!!!
Anyway, as fate would have it my Dad who has been a successful carpet cleaner for the last 38 years is deciding to retire in the not so distant future!
I always said I wouldn't follow in his footsteps as the work I'm trained to do is so different from what he has been doing all this time...... However as fate would have it again his retirement somehow ties up with karma and ends up literally about 30 days from when im scrapped from work, how ironic eh!
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I'll be taking the business on and trying to modernise it, taking the ncca courses to start with!
I'm no stranger to carpet cleaning since I've been giving him a hand since I was about 14 but I'm gonna try and take this up to another level and build a decent business!!
As usual, any advice appreciated, you all seem like a canny lot and in looking forward to a bit crack too!!!!
So anyway, all I'm saying is hello and introducing myself, if anyone has any good advice about anything, I'm all ears! I'm gonna make this happen and I hope to be friends with you all!

Thanks,
Paul.

[Paul Wade]

Oh and before I forget, I'd just like to say thanks to the old man for giving me an opportunity like this to start with!!

[Mike Halliday]

you need to send a mail shot out to all your dads customers telling them all about your dads retirement and introducing your self,

hopefully your dad  was charging decent prices and not working for peanuts, I know a couple of old timers who have been at it years and they work for a wage, they have no big overheads so don't need to be earning a lot so their prices reflect this.

[james roffey]

Paul, welcome to the forum, a good post.

[Colin Day]

Good luck to you, I'm sure your Dad knew what he was doing otherwise the business wouldn't have lasted all these years. I would presume you can use the "38 Years" as a great advertising tool as you are picking up from what your Dad is leaving, I can imagine you'll have plenty of regulars. Happy days!!!!

Look forward to hearing how well you do....

[Simon@arenaclean]

The first thing i'd do is add '& Sons' to the name and build on the 38 years your dads been going, what a great place to start. Est. 1974 

[John Kelly]

Paul....are you Don's son?  If you want a chat or advice etc please feel free to contact me.

[Craigp]

Hi Paul,

What do you mean by, move it to the next level?

Personally I don't believe the industry is suited to running a multi van operation.

Sure some have done it, but they are very few, and there profits don't go up to warrant the extra effort and in slow times they actually lose money!

That's why we don't have any national operations, and the national companies are franchised.

Concentrate on raising your prices enough to make a good living as a one man operation.

[Paul Wade]

Cheers,
So many replies so quickly!
What I mean when I say taking it up another level is just for the past few years I suppose he's been winding it down a bit so I'm just gonna market the business quite a lot and try to build it right back up again.
John, are you running a shop in cramlington? He was telling me about you and I'm sure we'll be meeting soon!
Paul.

[Allan Simmons]

Hi Paul

If your old man has been trading for 38 years he must have a great database of clients.  I'd start there, they will be the cheapest to contact and introduce yourself etc etc.  I'd send two letters, two weeks apart.   I'd make the first letter from your Dad, saying "I'm handing over when I retire etc etc."  then the second mailing from you.  You Tell them all the news and plans you have, are you planning on adding new services like hard floors, do they know you do XYZ as well. Then follow up with a personal phone call to introduce yourself a couple of weeks after that.  I'd also encourage them to contact you with their email addresses for your new newsletter with hints tips and offers, and also encourage them to 'like' you on Facebook if you're on there.

If your Dad has been trading that long you have a great platform to start from, all the best,

Allan

[Allan Simmons]

Hi Craig

Everyone wants different things and there are many ways to achieve what you want.  Yes multivan operations mean the cost of employing people means profits are lower per van than doing it yourself but multivan is scaleable and allows you to 'step back' and work on the business not just in it.

We have a multi-van operation and actually MAKE money in the slow seasons too.  It's about been prepared for those slow seasons with marketing effort and adjusting the work you do, ie push for more commercial work, end of year budget blow out work in the slow domestic season.

The beauty of a multivan operation is that when it comes time to retire or sell you have something to sell, not just a 'job' type business to sell, which gives you a whole different range of people who would be interested.  I spend around a day and a half a week organising the marketing for our multivan operation, the rest of the time is my own.  I only ever clean on large commercial jobs these days and have time to pursue other interests, and that's because we have a multivan operation.

It's horses for courses and each of us has a different idea of what the 'finished' business will look like.  I for one do not want ot be reliant on cleaning carpets by myself in my late 50's thinking i've got to get through to retirement here then try to sell this thing for my retirement fund or just wind it up.  If you're taken ill as a one man operator it kills your business dead.  Yes it's great as there is not the same stress and commitments, but it can be a very lonely hard slog if things go wrong.

Al.

[Paul Wade]

Good advice Allan,
Believe it or not I'm gonna have to get all his old diarys and take all the contacts out manually, he has never done any form of marketing as long as I can remember apart from a tiny ad in the local paper!...... And he's done alright!!!

[Paul Wade]

So...... I'll be taking the NCCA training before I'm made redundant! I'm actually gonna try and go to all 5 they offer.
How good are they and what can I expect?

Thanks
Paul.

[Allan Simmons]

Hi Allan, actually I think we met at an Alltec conference..?

I see what your saying, do you think it's easier being multi van as your chemdry, and get insurance work?

I can have time off too though, I can earn enough doing 4 day week, I don't most of the time I do a five day week, I don't work weekends anymore, unless commercial.  

Except we don't do insurance work Craig, we are strictly Domestic and commercial now, we've not done Insurance work in our franchise since December 2010.  We did need to downsize, move from our 6700sq unit to a 1250sq ft unit and make insurance staff redundant when we decided to get out of doing Insurance work.

Did insurance help us grow the Domestic and commercial?  Definitely NOT, if anything it held back developing domestic and commercial as the Insurance work was a distraction, we would have had a bigger D&C business if we'd been JUST D&C.  The Insurance work was good to us but definitely would be a better D&C business now if we'd not done insurance.

Everyone wants different things and has different goals.  Whatever works for your to achieve those is all that matters.

Al

[Allan Simmons]

Good advice Allan,
Believe it or not I'm gonna have to get all his old diarys and take all the contacts out manually, he has never done any form of marketing as long as I can remember apart from a tiny ad in the local paper!...... And he's done alright!!!

Must have been doing a great job and had a great reputation, great news for you.  If you 'market' effectively to them they you really will get off to a flying start.

Good luck.  Al.

[Paul Wade]

Cheers Al,

He does have a lot of pride in what he does, but he wasn't the most expensive on price throughout the years, in fact I don't think he put his prices up for a lot of years!
That's actually one of my worries, I don't want to work for nothing I want to make a decent living and I'm afraid I'll scare off the regulars when I up the prices!

Although to justify myself I will be doing a lot of training, getting right up to date with procedures, insuring my work and putting customers at ease with a top insurance policy and possibly some new investment in extra equipment.

Just hope it all pays off and I can build up a good customer base even though it's still a bit worrying!

Paul

[Paul Wade]

Right then,
Update number 1....
Just bought a nice new van and got a PROWLER on the way!!!...... (cheers John, your a pleasure to deal with)
Been experimenting with various different chemicals and even had a nice Sod Met session today with excellent results.
Got an appointment at the weekend for logo design, business card, leaflet and website design.
Been reading this forum nearly everyday for the last god knows how long and im at the point now where im re-reading stuff without realising until i get half way down the thread lol.... so much great advice, and some cracking arguments lol.
Anyways, just thought id put it all down in writing to make it all a bit more real if you know what i mean, got another couple of months to go before im made redundant, been out on a few jobs with the old man and im buzzing about the whole thing!
Got a good 10/15 jobs to be getting on with as soon as i get sorted with the prowler set up including a pub and a few full houses!!!
Bring it on thats what i say!!!!

Cheers everyone and like Ken says...... Safe & happy cleaning!
Paul.


ps... dont worry Ken ill only say that once lol (i think it was Ken that says that!)

[Paul Wade]

Oh, can anybody find the post on re-directing the landline to the mobile?
or any good advice on it?

[AshWhite]

Oh, can anybody find the post on re-directing the landline to the mobile?
or any good advice on it?

Who's your landline with Paul?

[Paul Wade]

Talk talk Ash