[ad1664]

Good morning ladies and gents, as a complete Newbie to the industry I’d greatly appreciate your comments, criticism & feedback on my business set-up plan

I’ve been reading these boards for a few weeks now and have found them incredibly useful. I have worked out the things I think I need to have in place to make a success in the industry and would appreciate any thoughts you may have on my plan. I’m new to both the industry and self employment so it’s a big jump for me, but one that I think is totally worthwhile.

My initial plan is to start with domestic carpets & upholstery, and see where that leads me. I intend to focus on a high-quality service with excellent customer care & not splash & dash.

Near new van(Berlingo/Kangoo/Partner size, parking is an issue in a lot of the locality) with clear signwriting

Alltec Advantage portable, alternatively Prochem Powermax plus heater.  Sebo BS36, Sebo Duo, turbo dryer of some sort. I’ll probably go for a start-up package if I can get the right deal, any offers on discount rates greatly appreciated…

I’m aiming for the local market place, and will be targeting areas & delivering leaflets myself. I’m not sure about Yellow Pages etc as I’d rather build up slowly from recommendations etc.

Initially I think I’ll go for the NCCA 2 day training course, plus possibly a Prochem one as I understand the Prochem ones are more “hands-on” than NCCA.

Become a member of the NCCA

Full liability/risk insurance

A decent accountant/book-keeper

Ideally I’d like to spend some time watching a CC on the job(if you’ll pardon the expression) as it appears this is the best way to learn the incidental things not covered in training courses, but am not sure quite how to go about asking this? Will also be practising on friends & families homes.

Any thoughts?

Regards, Andy Dawson

[woodman]

where abouts are you Andy?

[ian richards]

Hi Andy
Well you seem to be much better prepared than i was a year ago.
I kind of fell into this by accident and have stumbled allong the way but enjoying it as i'm sure you will.
Anyway as far as i can see your prep is spot on so far. The one thing that i must stress to you is , that this game is far more technical than i ever realised, so learn as much as you can about different fibres and fabrics, carpet structures and as quick as you can!! It will be so beneficial to you, you will have to learn them in time anyway, so get a head start.
Networking is a very good way to promote your business, find out where your nearest Chamber of commerce is, its quite cheap to join and you get some free advertising.
The business over breakfast club is another good one.
And advertise in as many local parish magazines as you can, they are cheap.
If you want to contact me for help from a novice!! you can send me a private em.
Cheers
ian

[Big_Fish]

Well done with the planning. You sound like you will be fine. One thing I would say though is the van size you are planning will not be big enough in a few months time. We started off with a Renault (Kangoo size) but had to go to a Peugeot Expert after a few months. In hind sight, we should have bought too big at the beginning. Isn't hind sight a wonderful thing!

Let us all know where you are.

BF Nicky

[Mike Halliday]

These sort of post always make me smile everything written down and looking real good.

high quality work, NCCA, reccomendations, newish van ect...etc..etc

If I was you Andy before you do anything else I'd get 10,000 leaflets printed and go put them out. this will give you a glimpse of the real world, from  this you can judge how much work you can expect in the beggining and  how hard "doing leaflets myself" is!

with no Y/P and no existing customers the bulk of you work will come from leaflets, so you need to know how much work they will actually bring in.

too many people come into carpet cleaning with the same plan as you but don't last 5mins.

this might sound harsh but if running a sucessfull bussiness was easy everyone would be doing it

Mike

ps; when is someone going to have the bottle to say the are going to start as a Bait & switcher

[Doug Holloway]

Andy,

Bear in mind the Prochem courses are not recognised by the NCCA , so you would have to do NCCA courses as well if you wanted to join.

Cheers,

Doug

[Big_Fish]

Totally agree with Mike, however going in from this angle makes your chances of making it much higher than if you go in blind.

It is very hard work but quality work will bring recommendation and no reason why this shouldn't happen from the start with the right training.

Doug
Why are the Prochem courses not recognised by the NCCA?
Seems the NCCA don't recognise much else but themselves?

BF Nicky

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Nicky,

I do not know why as I am not a member.

It does seem a shame that there are lots of training courses but with very little standardisation.

As I understandf it Altec/IICR and NCCA are in and Prochem, Extracta, Ashbys etc are out.

I d'ont know why but there are an awful lot of vested interests  , perhaps too many to accomodate everyone.

Cheers,

Doug

[paul@ctcs]

Could one of the CC's who has attended both NCCA and prochem courses state whether there is any real difference?
 I wished when starting out i had taken NCCA recognised training as opposed to prochem, it now seems i will have to shell out more money to get NCCA approval

Paul

[Ken Wainwright]

Hi Andy

and welcome to Clean it up.

Looks like a sound and logical approach you've taken after much research.  You quite often find that "Start up Packages" often include products you're unlikely to use, so may not be as good value as initially appears. Don't forget to budget for a good quality upholstery tool plus quite a few other bits and pieces. Probably another £500 plus in there

Where are you from? Before buying, I'd suggest you pursue your line of accompanying an experienced CC first. When do you intend to start? Jan/Feb can be very slow. There's the Cleaning Show at the NEC in March '05 so this may work to your Advantage (pun?)

Safe and happy cleaning:)
Ken

[Big_Fish]

Likewise Paul.
However, there seems to be some benefit in taking the IICRC course instead of NCCA. Once passing the IICRC you can join NCCA but not the other way around.

BF Nicky

[ad1664]

Thanks for the comments so far folks,

Apologies for the lack of location, thought I'd set up my profile well but missed out on the location part - now updated.

I'm based in Croydon, Surrey.

I plan on starting very early in the new year, which I know isn't the best time, but I'll give it my best shot!

If nothing else I'm persistent and will be focused on making a career of it eventually, even starting up in new year delivering my own leaflets in the wind & rain

[Len Gribble]

Andy

If I were starting out and before any decisions made, I would read up on the subject some thing like Chemspec book on Carpet Cleaning Manual that would give you some fundamentals before going on any course, you will also understand a lot more what the tutors are talking about.

Though I done the Prochem course many years ago (Mr Tilley) I can’t comment on their syllabus now.  I’m a total advocate of the NCCA though not a member as yet, I would probably go down the route of IICR and become a member (shall we say via the back door) of the NCCA. Very sad!

I would also recommend that you take Ken’s advice up in finding a mentor.

Regarding leaflets some do some don’t, also target certain areas like Purely, Warlingham and a like, (parts of East Croydon not bad) remember you will have fierce competition, in this neck of woods from ½ price and ME then I don’t do leaflets the those areas.

I wish you all the best in your new venture, hold off buying a machine though the ones you mentioned are good believe a new one on the block is coming soon, spec looks very good.

Len

[paul@ctcs]

Which machine are you refering to Len???

Paul

[Len Gribble]

Paul

http://www.cleancraft.com/eclipse.html

Len

[paul@ctcs]

I should be one of the first in country to own one of these machines i thought it may of been the eclipse you were refering to.

Paul

[Derek]

Hi Gays...apologies..should have been Guys...and of course Gals too

You are correct..at the present time the only courses recognised by the NCCA are the IICRC training courses.

There is no vested interest other than the IICRC Carpet / Upholstery Cleaning Standard procedures... the NCCA were part of the team responsible for putting the standard procedures together.

There is no reason for the NCCA not to accept other company's training providing we are all singing from the same hymn sheet...the same hymn...and also in tune.

We are working on it

Derek

[paul@ctcs]

Gays?

[paul@ctcs]

Derek,  So having been trained by prochem will i be able to apply to join the NCCA in the near future?

Paul

P.S, I'm not gay

[Derek]

Sorry Paul  

I have put in an ammendment leaving the faux pas in so that folk will know what you are talking about

Thanks for pointing it out

Derek