[lukeg]

Hi been looking at a lot of previous posts about this subject and have got lots of usefull information, just wondering if there is anyone who is just starting up or been going a while who could answer a few of my questions
i can see there is a big whole in the market for this service in my area as there is only one company that i no of operating and most houses have two or three wheelie bins.
here we go a few questions:

what is the best route into the wheelie bin cleaning business?
where is the best place to buy bin cleaning equipment?
what is the best way to get business ie: flyers through door, door knocking or other?
have any of you tried bin cleaning and failed if so why?
do you get a customer base before buying equipment  or buy equipment then get customers?

really hope one of you good people can answer some of my questions and share your knowledge and experience, i feel excited about this new venture and just need a push in the right direction

luke

[whee-lee Clean Bins]

Hi Luke,

My business partner and I are just about to start up a wheelie bin cleaning business in Solihull & Worcestershire area.

We bought a van off someone on ebay. We traveled to Weymouth to pick it up, its a LWB transit with the kit already fitted to the back of the van. The van is an M reg with 189k miles on the clock, so it's done a few miles but we had a service inspection and viewed the van to be worth buying. It had already been sign written on the sides and back so reduced cost for us, we just changed the phone numbers as we deciede to keep the business name as it was and the seller transfered his domain name so we could attached it to our site. More saving.

We paid £4000 for the van and equipment on the back. The equipment is worth about £2000-£2500 so the van was quite cheap for its condition.

We had a look at a few websites of companies selling the equipment and for what we wanted we would have needed to spend at least £6-£10k.

The franchises that we looked at we £15-£24K so we thought this van was the best option, so at least if the business fails then we can still sell the van and equipment and hopefully not lose too much money.

We've only just touched the serface with a canvass trial and the response was quite possitive.

We are looking to start within the next few weeks to try and get a few customers a day, enough to give us about 2 hrs worth of work as we are both still employed but waiting for our redunancy dates which we expect to be in November.

We are the same as you for competion. We only really know of 1 other person who operates in our area so we thought the same as you that the market place is massive. In redditch alone there are about 50k houses and a van can only really cope with 3k cleans a month, theres just not enough hours in the day to do the whole area from one van.

I obviously think its a good idea, there are plenty of companies that have failed but as to why, well I don't know. I think you've just got to try and work hard and you will get the results that you want.

I hope this has been a bit of help to you, a bit long winded I suppose..

Regards

Simon

[Jet Cleanse Ltd]

Luke,

It really does depend on how you want to do it, I set up a company in February and started working in June and we are going well at the moment although leaflets are ok you have to get out there and knock on the doors which if you have not done it before you will soon learn that its hard work trying to sell something new!

For equipment we purchased from Spectrum who are on www.really-wheelie-clean.co.uk, George who runs the business was excellent and gives all the info you would need and the trip to Aberdeen was eventful as it was several feet of snow when i flew in!!.  There is also www.freshbins-uk.com who we also visited.

Have a quick look on the internet and make you own mind up based on what costs you think the business can sustained.  Bear in mind that there are regulations as to what you can and can not do with recycling water and disposing of it which the Environment Agency has on there website although it is hard to find.

[lukeg]

Hi thanks for your responses Whee lee cleen and Arran they have cleared a few things up in my mind was thinking about doing some canvasing with leaflets so then it has all the information on it at hand and leave one with people that are in and out , it is a good idea to test the water so to speak to see what response and feedback you get i will be doing this over the next few weeks. I also have looked at franchises since i posted on here and the cost of starting up is very high ranging from 24k with vehicle and 42k without one  also who wants to be postcode restricted and have the ongoing costs so this is not an option for me. Also looked on Georges site and have had information sent to me looks good probably look into this a bit more, also keeping an eye out for second hand set ups doesn't seem to be many about at the moment though! When l was surfing the net over the weekend i noticed  companies charging from £2.75 upto £3.75 (4 weekly) and even found one £5.00  for a one off. What are you planing to charge for your service and how have you found trying to get customers to pay upfront.
many thanks again Luke

[help_me_pls]

I was watching the van on ebay which you were talking about, First bit of advice is remove them stickers which says 'quid a wash', how cheap, proberly why he sold up to start with. 

[whee-lee Clean Bins]

That was the first thing we did.

He said he was trying take all of others business buy undercutting.

No need as far as I'm concerned.

I agree with the increase cost, reduce customers, but maintain the same cash flow idea myself.

Also I don't want to out price any competitors.

Our prices are very similar to our nearest competetor so it will reduce us taking his customers by mistake as we will offer the same service at the same price.

[*Chris Browne]

Hi luke, one of our members(scsf) cleans wheelie bins, take a look www.ditchthedirt.co.uk  nise website too!

Chris

[lukeg]

Hi Chris looked at the website it is very good thanks Luke