[Ian Gourlay]

As you know I do Carpet Cleaning but look in from time to time in this section and put in a little comment occasionally.


However Years ago when looking into Franchising I looked at Maids, Poppies, Merry Maids and Chars. or was it Chores

Looking at the postings on the board it appears to be mainly women running domestic cleaning companies.


Makes sense 



But I just wondered how many men were involved.

[martin19842]

hi there,

we are launching  a domestic service early this year, to compliment income form the commercial side of the business,  as we have all the reelevant insurances and supplier accounts in place, this will serve to dilute operating costs.

our plan is for 50 clients, in a small catchment area, and as the rest of our business is pretty much on track, then hopefully this will as well

.

regards

martin

[Ian Gourlay]

Martin,

I believe you are well on the way to your first million. 

Providing there is not a collapse in Housing Market and builder goes bust.

But with 1 million new Homes in South East  you should be Ok. But will you find the Water to clean them.

[martin19842]

hi there,

Ian

its quite weird really, new homes will still sell even if there is a slump in the market place. As a developer is selling houses today on figures budgetted about 18 months ago, that is the average lead time for developments at the moment.

the developers are operating on a commercial plain, and therefore reduce prices or put incentives in place to sell the houses.

another boom, would then be the part exchange market, as more new house sales will be as a result of part exchanging. then to move that stock they need to be cleaned.  and we do that aswell..

the only market that really suffers is the joe public trying to sell their house through the agent network.

a million would be nice, but obviously there is an amount of hassle that comes with that, we are at the moment negotiating 14 sites for one developer.  that in itself wourld be about £200,000 a year. on top of everything else.

have a great weekend

regards

martin

[Jan K]

Hi Martin!

How long have you been operating now? I would be interested to know how you got started in builder's cleans, and if that was your main source of business at the beginning? Did you have a reliable bank of cleaners to start or did you have the contracts first and the cleaners second. If that was the case how quickly did you get the staff. The main reason for asking, is that even tho' I have only been operating since September, and am purely in the domestic cleaing side of the market at present, I am regularly getting work without advertising, but can't find a way of getting reliable staff!!

You seem to have balanced everything well enough to make a good living and keep everyone happy also! I'll understand if you don't wish to answer my questions, but I am still on a steep learning curve, and pointers are greatfuly welcomed!

Cheers!

Jan

[martin19842]

hi there,

Jan

our official launch date was the 1st september, first year projections are for a £150k turnover,  we are on target to be there or thereabouts.

the business was started  to purely service builders cleans, so therefore yes the business was potentially there.  I am working in partnership with a national maintenance and estate agency services provider, who have very good relationships with developers.

we also do a specialist cleaning operations, factory refurbs etc.

the staffing is no problem at all, i have a numjber of full time, and then a number of casual,  these guys will then become further full tiime as we put more vehicles on the road.

i hope that helps

regards

martin

[DP]

Martin
Curious how you manage to hold down casuals these days with both the regs and maintaining their commitment. You will have to tell me you secret one day. 

DP

[sfpcleaningservice]

hiya

we do pretty well in the domestic cleaning market and the customers just keep on coming, hardest thing is getting good honest workers who you can trust. best thing is the work you can pick up from them not just carpets but offices and shops.