[james roffey]

I have a friend who is running a small business which is struggling at the moment, i received a text from him tonight saying that he is looking at a truckmount on ebay thats over £8500 and wanted to know what i think. He wanted to know my thoughts on starting a carpet cleaning business i did feel a bit awkward as he lives nearby.
If i have learnt anything it's that getting the equipment is the easier part of getting a business going the tough part is getting the phone to ring, i think it's even harder now than when i started three years ago, to be honest i don't want more competition in my area, and i told him so i also told him that i understand that he has a family to support, i advised him to post on here to get a broad spectrum of opinions rather than my own which he may feel is tainted. I don't know if he will so i thought i would ask on his behalf.    

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Jim

Is it another Con Club member?

As you have said buying a machine is probably 10% of establishing a viable CC business. Moving on to be genuinely profitable is another major step.

Cheers

Doug

[mark_roberts]

Whats his business and whys he struggling?

Take the £8.5k and add another £8k for van equipment advertising etc.

Would the £8.5k not relaunch his current business?

Why carpet cleaning.  Because he thinks your making too much easy money?

Has he ever cleaned a carpet?  If not why on earth are you thinking of starting a cleaning business?

If your an excellant face to face cold call salesman then go for it otherwise dont.  Not the right time.

Mark

[james roffey]

Yes Doug he is and you do know him, he runs a door stripping service and the business has struggled for a while now i also think it is physically demanding he is in his mid fifties. He has seen me build my business over the past three and a half years but i spent eighteen months research into marketing, equipment, training and formulating a business plan to help make it work.
But it has still been a close run thing helped by the fact that i did not have to find much of an income as the first thing my wife and i did when i left my previous job was to take in a lodger to supplement our income i also did six months of decorating at my sisters house while i got it up and running.
This year has been my best but this week for example i have had only £300 worth of work booked in so hardly coining it in, but i get by pay the bills and grow the business investing much of the money back in some weeks are very good, others !
Because he knows i enjoy the work (mainly because i hated my last job) and appear to be doing well a lot of that is down to months spent hidden away in my little office building my web presence which my wife can testify, my overheads exceeded my profit last year so i am still building what i hope to be a profitable business.
I would be worried if i had to start over in the present financial climate though as leaflets would be my only way to get started as was the case when i got going, but i still have leaflets go out each and every week but the last three weeks had had zero response from them.

[*Hector*]

Suggest to him that he become a window cleaner...

Once he has bough his kit, he can buy a round/franchise and then he has hardly any marketing to do again, just go round daily and clean windows...

If a customer drops out, then it is relatively easy to pick up another..

It also keeps him away from your business... 

[Dominic Carnell]

My advice would be to startup with the smallest possible outlay, if the business is a success then he can buy an £8,500 machine later on.

[Simon Gerrard]

Starting out with the least possible outlay is the worst thing you can do. You'll need money for a more than a decent machine and plenty of money for websites and other forms of advertising if your to have any hope of getting the phone to ring and begin to establish a viable business. If you don't have the money to do that, don't bother, is my advice.

Simon

[Kinver_Clean]

But 8 1/2 k would get you a decent porty, most of the kit PLUS a reasonable amount for marketing.
Many of us do not run TMs and earen a decent living from it.
If he thinks cc-ing is easy on the body, take him out for a couple of jobs and make him do all the lumping and wanding- that will show him.
Preferably in a second floor flat.

[derek west]

if he's struggling in a renovation market then he's not gonna make it carpet cleaning. i would suggest he get a job as he's not very good at running a business which should be booming in this climate. if he still insists on trying to steal your thunder, i would tell him to go run and jump, (nice version). maybe he could set up a new division like (asnbeen said) window cleaning or driveway cleaning, if he does okay then you could consider joining the 2 companies or better still, asking him, "whats the best way to set up a driveway business as i'm thinking of adding it to my carpet cleaning"  

[john rees]

A mate of mine did the very same about a year ago, he sold the equipment on ebay 6 months later!

                                                                                      John

[Dominic Carnell]

Starting out with the least possible outlay is the worst thing you can do. You'll need money for a more than a decent machine and plenty of money for websites and other forms of advertising if your to have any hope of getting the phone to ring and begin to establish a viable business. If you don't have the money to do that, don't bother, is my advice.

Bigger isn't better, and the 'smallest possible outlay' doesn't mean no outlay. When starting a business you should always keep your startup costs to the bear minimum, especially on websites, equipment, work van, office etc.

You can then reinvest money from your business into making it bigger and better as time goes on.

Most very successful businesses started from very humble beginnings. Apple started in Steve Job's garage - he never felt the need to rent out a plush office, kit out a factory etc from day one...

[Simon Gerrard]

Bear minimum as in no wastage, agreed, but in this economic climate starting from scratch and trying to generate sustainable levels of sales is a big ask and requires big bucks.
I wouldn't recommend anyone start up now unless they can cover their living expenses and the business's overheads for at least a year.

Simon

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Jim

It sounds like he is desperate and clutching at straws, tell him 3 cc's in the con club is too much

Is it Cliff?

Cheers

Doug

[james roffey]

No Doug it's not Cliff it's Terry.
When i started i only looked at equipment when i had done the ground work, if he spends all that money on a truckmount he could be stuck with the proverbial "white elephant" i have considered a truckmount but always concluded that until i am turning down work due to to lack of time then that's when i will make the investment.
The first i heard about him doing this was a text saying he's looking at this truckmount, i remember Robert Saunders telling me i should buy a truckmount when i went to an open day at Alltec i had never cleaned a carpet and had yet to do the NCCA course,£25000  he wanted for and it looked amazing if i got it i could make £8000 a month easy, i never trusted him after that.

[Ian Gourlay]

Hi James

Buy the Sounds of ithe is Practical and if he is into Door striping this would be nice fit

Tell him to start a Blinds and shutter business . He need about £200 for tools and  if he has got * grand he would be able to do a proper Launch.

I know your Area well as I lived there when we I got married lots of houses  easy to get along 127 to other Towns etc so he would have a high demand product with good margins

Hope this helps

[clinton]

Was thinking its really hard to start a capet cleaning business up from scratch in theses times..

Maybe he thinks its easy to get going and looks at you doing ok james..

Maybe he coulddo  private hire taxi service to get some money in.

[Neil Jones]

There is no need to start out with truck mount when there is portables on the market at half the price, that leaves him with more money for other equipment and marketing. Plus from what I have gathered don't people generally upgrade to a truck mount when they:
A. Have the work in place to cover the cost
B. Need to be able to work faster to cover more work
C. Have a suitable pricing structure and client base to cover the cost

Thats my two penneth

[david@zap-clean]

My personal experience:

I started working on becoming self employed in April this year.  I finally launched my business in July (after 4 months hard work). I've a long way to go before I have a viable business. I'm still working 10-12hr days (that does not mean I'm earning money 12hrs a day, far from it).

But I will make it, one day...

[james roffey]

Was thinking its really hard to start a capet cleaning business up from scratch in theses times..

Maybe he thinks its easy to get going and looks at you doing ok james..

Maybe he coulddo  private hire taxi service to get some money in.

Heused to have a cabbies liscense dont know why he sold it !

[Carpet Dawg]

Well £8,500 is more than enough to start a carpet cleaning business!! The people above who are saying different are showing off and talking out of thier arseholes! IMO  

But yes, I'd suggest you put him off as much as you can. Lets all be honest, no one needs compition in thier area. And quite frankly he has some cheek to even have that converstion with you! A service like carpet cleaning is so niche that an area can only be serviced by so many people.

Tell him to start a window cleaning round. Like Hector said, with that money and a few brain cells he can buy round already making money and go from there.

Tony