HOW TO START AND OPERATE A CARPET CLEANING BUSINESS
There are two fairly new, and very important conditions existing
in the world today that have not only made the carpet cleaning
industry a 'multi million dollar business', but also practically
guarantees your success as an entrepreneur in this field.
First, almost all homes and offices built since 1960 have wall
to wall carpeting.
Secondly, the replacement costs and the cyclical faltering of
the national economy have caused people to want to make what
they already own last longer, especially in the case of
carpeting, which is a sizeable investment.
Most businesses employ janitors or janitorial services to vacuum
their carpets after hours daily, and then "master" carpet
cleaners to deep clean them every three months or so.
Homemakers also generally vacuum their carpets perhaps several
times a week, and then hope to deep clean every spring and
autumn, depending on the kind of household traffic, and on their
budgets.
It's true that people everywhere try to save money by handling
these jobs themselves.
However, empathy with the people, and an understanding of this
trend, should be neither cause for alarm nor a deterrent to your
success in this business.
Most people are just too busy to handle all their do-it-yourself
projects.
They continually put off until later any chore that requires
special equipment.
This is especially true with carpet cleaning, because deep down,
they're fearful of botching the job.
Thus, they're more than willing to pay an expert or a specialist
to do this kind of work for them.
It doesn't take any special education, skill, or experience to
operate a professional-type, deep cleaning carpet cleaner.
Yet, from your first job onward, you should project the image of
a thoroughly experienced expert in your field.
Be clean, and conduct yourself in a business-like manner at all
times.
Dress neatly. In fact, one of the best ways to get off to a
fast start is to purchase a working uniform from Alexandre.
When you hire people to help you with the work, outfit them
similarly.
Go out of your way to be polite and friendly with your
customers, but refrain from being too friendly.
Avoid getting involved in extended conversations - if you are to
keep on schedule, you won't have time for a lot of talk.
Keep your equipment clean, properly maintained, and operating
smoothly.
Have your supplies organised and within easy reach.
Don't allow yourself to be caught in a position where you have
to make excuses because the equipment won't function properly,
you can't find what you need, or you suddenly find yourself out
of certain supplies.
When working just concentrate on doing the job and moving on to
your next customer.
If the customer questions you about the cost to do the other
rooms, give an estimate and set up a tentative appointment,
which you should later confirm with a call-back after checking
your schedule.
Don't try to sell your complete carpet cleaning services on this
first call, but do be sure to leave a business card with the
name of your company and your phone number.
Your service is the "deep down shampoo cleaning" of carpeting in
your customers' homes or places of business.
Always strive to use the best equipment that's available.
Later on - possibly on a month or six weeks - you'll want to buy
or lease your own equipment.
Your business will grow and flourish as a result of your doing a
good and complete job every time.
It may take you a few minutes longer - especially when you are
learning the equipment and establishing a procedure - but in the
end this wilL pay off with satisfied customers; and a group of
satisfied customers is the key to your becoming wealthy in this
business.
You want your customers to call you again and again to clean
their carpets.
Being pleased with your work, they'll spread the word about your
service, free of charge!
And this, of course, will generate an almost unlimited amount of
ongoing work for your new business.
And I'm going to show you how you can get started in this
business, and make $600 or more per working day, with virtually
no investment!
The important part of this business - or any business - is the
owner-operator's "sense of marketing" and salesmanship.
Make no mistake about it, all businesses success through
marketing strategies and salesmanship.
You won't be selling a product with this business; you'll be
selling a service.
And the selling of services is often more difficult than product
sales.
Your success in this business will be predicated upon the sales
efforts put in.
Getting if off the ground will require a great deal of selling
expertise on your part.
You'll have to sell yourself AND your services.
Therefore, it will be to your benefit to learn all you can about
selling.
Then, you should continue to add to your knowledge through an
ongoing program of learning.
Keeping up to date and being aware of successful selling ideas
and methods will add to the total success of any business person.
Even before the acquisition of equipment, you need customers.
Your prospects are all the businesses and homes with carpets in
your area.
Your problem is going to be in reaching these prospects,
impressing upon them the benefits of your service, and getting
them set up with an appointment for you to do the work.
I have fund that the least expensive and most productive method
of reaching these people is by way of neighbourhood "hand-out"
flyers or announcements delivered door to door.
These flyers are advertisements or announcements of a "Carpet
Cleaning Special", printed on A4 sheets of paper that invite the
recipients to call you for an appointment.
Study the carpet cleaning service ads in your local papers, the
yellow pages, and any similar flyers you may have received or
seen.
Make a pencil sketch of your own flyer, emphasising customer
benefits and your capabilities of doing the job and take your
ideas to your local copy and design shop.
Explain your project, and ask for them to design you an
attractive flyer. When you have one which you are impressed
with, have printed however many copies of it you want to start
off with. While you are having them printed, make arrangements
for the delivery of these flyers to households in your local
area. Your local papers will usually offer a distribution
service, usually costing between $14 - $20 per thousand
delivered. One thing before you start handing out your fliers -
be sure that you have someone available to answer your phone and
set up appointments for you.
You can pay to have an answering service handle these calls for
you, but if you have a member of your family at home, this would
be best.
You should have a set pattern about the answering of calls, and
an appointment book.
Usually, your flyer will advertise a special, such as:
'Your living room carpet deep-cleaned for just $40. Get all the
ground-in dirt and unpleasant odours out. A professional job by
experienced master carpet cleaners, and we can do it all for you
tomorrow. Give us a call, set up a carpet cleaning appointment
with us now; and we'll have your home sparkling clean, ready for
company, in no time at all!'
This special offer should take you no more than half an hour in
the customer's home, meaning that you can book appointments at
the rate of one every ninety minutes or less, depending on the
travelling distance between appointments.
By setting your first appointment for 8.30am, and working
through the whole day, allowing 30 minutes between appointments,
you'll be able to handle seven appointments per day.
At $40 per call, you will gross $280 per day.
You'll also find that as you gain experience, you can cut down
considerably the time it takes you to do each job, as well as
your travel time between jobs, enabling you to book more
appointments.
Just as soon as you have job appointments lined up, hurry over
to your local carpet cleaner distributor, your local dry
cleaners, or even some supermarkets, and rent a steam clean
carpet cleaner.
Most of the time, you won't have to pay until you return it, but
even if you do have to pay at tha time you take it, the cost is
usually $24 or less for twenty four (ours.
Read the directions and make sure you know how to operate it.
Then load it into your car, van or pick-up, and set out for your
first appointment.
You should bear in mind that carpet cleaning is a type of
service business that takes you into the homes of your customers.
Therefore, how you look, dress, and handle yourself -
particularly in the presence of your customers - will have a
direct bearing on the success of your business.
The average price tg the customer to have a 12 by 18 foot wall
to wall carpet shampoo cleaned is about $100.
Your materials to do that size job will cost about $6.00.
The typical job involves more than just one room, and the
average period of time spent on the typical job is about two
hours, with an average billing to the customer of $150.
Materials for each $150 job cost you about $10.00, all of which
means that with just five appointments per day, five days per
week, your gross income before expenses will be approaching
$4,000 per week.
Most people who set up carpet cleaning businesses manage to
gross $100,000 or more the first year.
I've described to you how to get started with virtually no real
investment.
However, I do advise you to either purchase or lease your own
carpet cleaning equipment just as soon as you can possibly
afford it.
Several equipment manufacturers have financing plans available.
It would be well to check out several of these plans before
purchasing your equipment.
Even better than the financing programs offered, some of the
manufacturers have business start up programs to help you
along the way.
They will provide you with a complete carpet cleaning business
plan, numerous advertising materials, a regular newsletter
featuring business ideas from all the buyers of their equipment
and low cost supplies.
Before actually starting work in your carpet cleaning business,
you should talk to a few business insurance agents to get
complete business insurance against damage to any of your
customers' carpets or accidents in their homes.
Being able to state 'all work fully insured' will greatly add to
your business image.
Definitely plan to run an ad in your local telephone directory.
You'll be really surprised at the number of calls you get from
these ads.
At least in the beginning, you should run a regular ad in your
newspaper.
The ideas of free publicity and promotion are limitless, so use
your imagination and push to get your name in the paper and on
radio and TV as often as possible.
There's always going to be competition.
Some of it will be good for you, and some of it will be bad for
you.
Accept is as part of life. Just keep in mind that you're in
business because you feel you can do a better job; you can do it
more efficiently; and you can do it with greater satisfaction to
your customers than anyone else.
Be aware of the competition, but don't worry about it. Just
stick to your own business plan, and you'll be ok.
Depending on the population of your area, you should be planning
for additional carpet cleaning machines and the hiring of people
to do the work for you within three to six months - that is,
unless your original motive for a business of your own was to
see how fast you could work yourself to death.
Assuming that all goes well with you, within a couple of years
you should have hired help running the business, while you enjoy
the fruits of all the hard work you put in at the outset.
Incidentally, I personally don't see the need for you to even
consider buying a franchised operation.
There's just too much real help available for the independent to
go to the considerable expense and obligation of a franchise.
Starting from scratch, and as an "independent", this is most
assuredly a low investment, low overhead type business - the
kind we recommend for anyone and everyone who's determined to
make it on his own.
A carpet cleaning business of your own is one of the easiest of
all small businesses to start.
You'll find the initial start up costs well within your reach,
and the margin of profit most astounding!
It's an easy business to operate, and yet one that can be called
necessary to today's standard of living.
It carries a very high rating on all business evaluation
stability charts, and it's a business that will grow rapidly to
bring you the monetary rewards you desire.
