[M.Acorn]

Just going through my books ready to submit to my accountant,have spent over £780 on cleaning chems,last tax year,what do you guy`s spend ?

Oh and over £700 on pumps and vac motors,and other bit`s for the machine !!! 

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Bloody hell Mark, I haven't spent anything like that !

You should be loaded if you've cleaned that many carpets 


Steve

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Considerably more than that. But Mark your question is rather meaningless without a context.

If we were to post what our percentage of t/o was spent on chemicals then that would be more meaningful without actually disclosing information we would like to keep confidential.

It would be interesting to see what the percentage spend is to see how efficient perople are but again it would need to be read in the context of what the main type of business we undertook.

Those who sell a lot of protector would I imagine have a far higher chemical bill but could in theory have a lower percentage of t/o in chemicals as I assume we all mark up protecot relatively highly. (But there again there will be great variations in that as well.)

Just for the record my chemical spend averages around 4-5% of t/o.

Roger

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Oh and percentage for our annual advertising bill as a percentage of t/o would also be very interesting without acutally disclosing any confidential information.

In my case my advertising bill is 8% of turnover.

Roger

[derek west]

off top of my head, chems about 1% of turnover. if that

[Helen]

Cleaning supplies (solutions etc) 1% of T/O
Maintenance to cleaning equip, this includes regular servicing, not only to CC machines, but to henries etc etc 3% of T/O
Advertising 4% of T/O.
Me.......loads of %

[clinton]

Am no were near that mark and i do a fair amount  of work maybe half that what you have sugested.

[robert meldrum]

1% is more like the kind of figure you should be aiming at. I believe many use excessive amounts of chemicals which then require excessive amounts of energy to rinse out the excessive amounts of chemical !

There's been a huge growth in FURIOUS aggitation recently rather than a more casual prespray DWELL extract format which has stood the test of time over many years and has proven to deliver the desired result..............Clean carpets !

Why beat yourself up when the simple way will give the desired result for less cost, less energy usage, in less time ?

K.I.S.S

[M.Acorn]

Measure my chems exactly,i only really use 4 chems ,fib and fab,od fresh,de foam,pre spray gold,others,for stain removal...
Did think it was quite high to be honest.not very good at maths,but it`s over 20g looks like i am way way over then  Need to up my prices,and start using a bit less,i always follow instructions,100ml per 10 ltr

[fenman]

When we were part of a franchise our chemical cost was about 10%.
You would not believe the price we had to pay for chems but we gained in other ways such as national account work
As a percentage of turnover the cost of chems is not worth worrying about.
You buy and use what you need to do a good job.

[jasonl]

When we were part of a franchise our chemical cost was about 10%.
You would not believe the price we had to pay for chems but we gained in other ways such as national account work
As a percentage of turnover the cost of chems is not worth worrying about.
You buy and use what you need to do a good job.

When I was CD was 10%  plus.   Ad cost was 10% plus . Franchise fees were £150/week. Mandatory training/sales pitch every month.  The insurance work was worth having though.

[mark shannon]

Mark F&F pricey try HM Clearwater rinse .

[Joe H]

Think I got enough fluids and powders in stock to last me the next financial year (starts May 1st).
Some of this and some of that, many half used.
I'll see what I can use up I think.

[M.Acorn]

Think i need to look into using something else,or putting half of what it says on the tub in my tank,cutting back on od fresh,de foam not such an issue now as i under measure my pre spray,so don`t get too much foam now,unless they have been cleaned by someone else who just glugs it in,will also be wanding at much faster speeds,so i am not using so much solution

[markpowell]

I spend around £700.00 per year i think, thats on £43k takings in 2009 for 45 weeks working.
Mark

[M.Acorn]

So yeah i need to double my price,looking at it,i am currently .30p per sq ft !
Been catch 22 though,had to price low just to get some work in,i suppose if you do a lot of l/m then it works out cheaper.
I only do extraction,but going to look into setting up with l/m,even if i have to hire a machine at £30 a day..
Also is it cheaper to buy chems in bulk ? I only ever get a couple of 5ltr containers of each when i go collecting chems,suppose even fuel wise not driving to pick stuff up would help.
Going to really knuckle down with the business this year,and be a lot more pro active,instead of just waiting for the work to come my way,looking through my accounts has really opened my eyes,usually just give my accountant a stack of bank statements and say sort that lot out for me !

[Joe H]

If you manage to double .3 sq ft you will be doing really well!

If you charge .3 for every sq ft you do through a house I think you doing very well.

[M.Acorn]

Yeah mostly .30p per sq ft,but if it`s a biggy i do stairs free,or knock a bit off,today i did 1500 sq ft big house,charged them £400,was out in 3 hours  And got paid cash,which i have to bank ,it comes out as a business expense obviously but would be good to reduce a little,seeing what other peeps are spending,and their turnover,also don`t want to cause any probs by over diluting stuff

[jasonl]

Mark, keep looking at ebay , you wil get a good buffer for under 100 ,, a few pads under 100 , and you are away, save all that wear and tear on your extractor.

[M.Acorn]

Think i will do that mate !!   Still waiting for the repair part for the pump,that i ordered on Tue !! Flipping royal mail,cost me £8 to get it posted !!Lucky for me the pump has been good as gold,smelt of leccy the day after i cleaned the brushes off,but has been fine since.,and i have done a few hours work with it,still the uneasy feeling of not knowing though,and having to carry spare vac and pump and a load of tools around with me just in case