Carpet cleaning
Carpet cleaning is one of those services that we are all aware of us but most of us use rarely if ever. As a tenant in the UK I used this kind of service once or twice when moving out of a property but am sure there are more regular users.
www.stanleysteem.com has a nice quote system where you simply enter a zip cope (I used Microsoft’s Washington address) and the number of rooms to get a quote. To clean a bedroom, living room, dining room and kitchen would be anything from $165 to $345 depending on the extras.
Given the cost of buying a cleaner can be as low as a couple of hundred bucks you can soon make your money back: -
Hoover Agility Steam Vac Carpet Cleaner Clean Surge NEW - $228.28 - eBay
Sanitaire SC6080A Commercial Carpet Cleaner ... - $1,406.69 - WaresDirect.com
I would start by buying an entry level model and doing a few jobs for friends and family. This is very much a business that I would look to start part time and should be less competitive than say a lawn service. If you enjoy it then invest in better equipment (an entry level model won’t last long under heavy use) and dedicate more time to it, or hire someone to do the jobs you can’t fit in.
I would offer a no-satisfaction money back guarantee and when people invoke it don’t fight too hard. Get yourself a reputation for good service and you will get plenty of word of mouth business. Get yourself a reputation for poor service however and the whole neighbourhood will soon know.
Revenue wise the world is your oyster. If you spent $1400 on your equipment and made $200 per job you would pay yourself back in 7 jobs. Then 1 job a night 5 days a week would be paying you $50,000 a year just for your free time. Remember to follow up with your clients every 6, 12 and 18 months. Put their details in your diary and make sure that you make the calls. You can do this at lunch time on a normal working day and assuming you only do 1 or 2 jobs a day simply means 1 or 2 calls a day but you have to plan ahead if you are going to do this.
In terms of marketing your service I would look at the following.
Networking
Local Newspaper/ Yellow Pages
Real Estate Agents
Solicitors/Accountants
Starting with friends and family is a no-brainer with this business. Give them a discount but make sure that they tell people about it. You may want to give them half a dozen (not too many) discount vouchers for them to give to their friends, or pay them a referral fee for any business they bring you. In terms of a discount I would look to do something like, clean 2 rooms get a 3rd done free. I t won’t really cost you anything but an extra 10-15 minutes and of course the smallest of the 3 rooms is the free one.
Advertising is equally a must for this kind of business, not only in the offline world of local newspapers and the Yellow Pages but it is clearly worth paying Google and Yahoo for advertising on specific searches e.g. “carpet cleaning Luton” where Luton is your town. The above search would produce 80,000 results on Google but for a sensible annual fee you can be highlighted at the top of the page. Many people will simply search for a cleaner when they have had an accident or like me need to leave a house in better order to save a deposit, if you aren’t listed you can’t get their business.
Real estate agents are a bit more of a reach, but most of them are entrepreneurial by nature and many of them are used to passing referrals to local businesses in return for cash gratuities. You don’t need to pay a huge sum of money but paying say 10-15% of the final fee may bring you a lot of business. It isn’t much of a stretch for the agent to tell the tenant and/or the landlord that they should clean up at the end of a tenancy and to recommend you as someone who does a good job.
Equally many solicitors and accountants are used to giving referrals. They may be less obvious but they are used to dealing with investment buyers and sellers as well as managing landlords’ ongoing affairs. Similarly to real estate agents these guys are used to giving referrals when appropriate and to receiving gratuities or gifts in return. Talk to your own lawyer and accountant and see whether they already do this, and if not whether it would be of interest to them. After all 10 referrals a year at 10% should be worth $200-$300 to them.
As well as the machine you buy, you will need some cleaning chemicals and some training. One of the best ways to get the training is to go and work for another cleaning company, the other way is to simply ask your supplier to help you get this. You don’t really want to work for a cleaning company in the same town and then set up in competition as it will cause bad feelings.
You can buy machines from Ebay, or from any supplier if you search online. It is not worth importing for the cost savings you will make, unless of course you decide to spin off a carpet cleaning supplies business.
Another option is franchising, where you will get a lot of support in terms of pricing, legal work (staff and customer contracts), accounting pro-formas etc. You can do all this yourself with a little homework and a decent lawyer/accountant but it means more work. If you are uncomfortable with this stuff then go and get the franchise, you start up costs will be higher and you will pay a %age of your earnings every month to the franchisor but it is less risky. The more entrepreneurial amongst you will see the value of “having a go” first and then developing the tools you need as you go along. You can still sign up for a franchise agreement later on but having a pool of customers in place should help you to negotiate, and to understand exactly what you are getting for your money.
You will need some kind of transport; don’t imagine you are going to drag your equipment on and off the bus.