hello all,

am new to the board. i've thought of getting into the business right after i sold my other business. however, as i told mark via email, i know nothing about c/c. it has come to my attention that i am more enthusiastic about the business now. perhaps, i can start doing it part-time.

i have some queries in mind and i'd appreciate it if you could sincerely answer them with some specifics. some of you have started out part-time, and how long did it take you to become full-time? being full-time, are you content with the money you're making? on the same note, for full-timers, how long did it take you to break the six figure income?

yes, some of you may say it takes this and that to make such money. however, the questions asked are applied to those who are diligently working/hustling, or should i say, "money hungry"?

thanks very much, gentlemen.

best,
phillip

C'mon, guyz & galz: give Phillip SOME feedback,
plus or minus, pro or con, encouraging or discouraging. Don't be shy.

I did reply to an email Phillip sent me, but I will offer my perspective here as well.

I mean no disrespect here, but I had to chuckle when I read the above thread. I find talk of six figure incomes amusing prior to gaining some experience or even a fundamental knowledge and understanding of the business in question.

That being said, It's good to be excited and motivated but to think that a six figure income will come quickly (or at all) in any venture is just not practical imho. It will take much time and effort to grow any business to that level. And there are still no guarantees. There is agressive competition out there no matter what type of business you are in.

Starting any new business is risky. The health and success of this or any new business will be determined by more than one factor alone. From my perspective, one of the most important factors is that of marketing. This business is not different from any other new venture. Your #1 concern: YOU NEED CUSTOMERS or you are out of business.

You need a good business plan. Ask yourself questions like: Why would your business succeed? If you have no experience, then you should expect a learning curve. If you are shy, you most likely will have trouble. You will need to meet and talk with alot of personality types so you should be comfortable with that. You will need to convey a sense of authority on carpet cleaning, so if you are shy, this may be an area you will have trouble with.
You need a very good marketing plan. Where (and more importantly how) will you get customers. Who are your cusotmers?
You need capital. How much? Whether full time or part time, you will need to cover your costs and living expenses. There are startup costs and admin expenses, postage if you do mailings, insurance, and many other items to consider. Do you have 2 years salary to live off? No? Then start it part time on the side. It will be less stressfull and your chances of success will be greater.

Does all this sound negative? Well, it really isn't meant to be. If you enjoy cleaning, enjoy being your own boss, enjoy all the benefits that come with running your own biz, then give it a try. Just don't be dissapointed with yourself when you find that it is work, rewarding but it takes real work to make it a success.

Last year I grossed under 10K doing this part time. I started in May. If I had networked and worked a bit harder on marketing, I could have probably doubled that. My business reported a loss for the year. Most of the cash was spent on marketing and paying for equipment while other portions were used up on other expenses.

I have made back my initial investment, and If I wanted to, I could walk away from this biz very easily without any loss as of today.

Look at it from this angle:
I have talked to some of the HWE guys and was told some of them that started a new business and work it full time have had to live of credit cards during the slow season. It takes an initial investment from $30K to $50K to get going on a truck mounted package. Glad I'm not one of those guys!

Just thought I'd put some of my own numbers in here.
I started my business on Sept. 9, 1990, by putting
out crudely prepared fliers in neighborhoods where I
thought there might be people willing to pay money to
have their carpets cleaned. In the first week, I
grossed $1008, against expenses of my fliers and maybe
a tank of gasoline. In my first 4 weeks, I grossed
$3718. Things quieted down as the weather got colder,
leaving me grossing $7124 for the final quarter of
1990. This was in 1990 dollars, and at 1990 rates.

For my first full calendar year - Jan. 1991 thru Dec.
1991 - I grossed $44,679. At this point I was not yet
savvy enough to be charging a minimum: I was doing a
few jobs that grossed in the single digits, such as
7.60, and did a bunch of under $40 each. My minimum
now starts at $80, and increases as the travel distance increases. My sq. ft. rate was 19 cents a
sq. ft. - exactly half the 38 cents that I currently
charge. And my rate for orientals and other area rugs
was a paultry 30 cents a sq. ft. I now charge 90.
So for the same amount of work that I did for $44,679
in 1991, I'd probably be taking in more than twice this dollar amount in the
present day. My only advertising was fliers handed
out by ME, and the word-of-mouth referrals that came
from these jobs. No yellow pages; no newspaper ads.
I wasn't getting rich, but in a year I had managed to
get my business nicely off the ground.

44,679 in your first year during 1991? That's impressive with just fliers Mark. At .19 a square, if you worked 7 days a week that would be on aqverage 646 s.f. per day (904 s.f. if 5 days per week). How many fliers did it take to get that kind of square footage per day?

When I wasn't working on actual jobs, I was putting
out fliers. As I tell in the Training Manual which I
send everyone who buys the Business Package (as opposed to just buying the Challenger alone) I focussed on the better- off urban neighborhoods within
a half hour of home, as well as the more suburban
townhouse condo complexes. In Boston, that meant
Beacon Hill, the Back Bay, the South End, the North
End & Waterfront, South Boston, Bay Village, and
Charlestown. Also: the better parts of Cambridge,
Somerville, Arlington, Brookline, Newton, and similar
communities. I went to the city halls & town halls
in places like Waltham, Lexington, Lynnfield,
Peabody, Saugus, Wakefield, Reading, North Reading.
At the office of either the Building Inspector or the
Planning Director I could usually manage to obtain
either a map or a list of condominium complexes. In the
burbs most of these turn out to be some variation of
townhouses: i.e., fairly nice, owner-occupied, close
together residences with a lot of carpeting. Once on
the complex grounds, you can put out a lot of fliers
in a hurry, get a little exercise, and sometimes get to chat with folks who will become your customers.
As I looked thru my 1990 & 1991 invoices last night before posting those numbers, I realized that mixed
in with my residential customers were several small
hotels on the southern Maine coast, NH, and the Cape.
I'd forgotten that I had begun to establish a commercial customer base in the hospitality industry that early in my business' history. These jobs were
in the range of $3,4,5,600. A residential customer
in Arlington was an Assistant VP for Finance at MIT.
She like the results at her house so much that she asked me if I'd be willing to come to MIT and clean the carpeting of the Vannevar Bush Room, next to her
office, 4 times per year. That room is what MIT uses
for its huge phone bank, where volunteers and students call MIT alums to solicit $$$ for the school. All callers have the use of the endless snack and drink tables, that cause that room's carpet to become a mess quickly. That - even in '91 -
became my first $100 per hour job, since I charged
residential rates to do it because of the degree of
soiling. 4 hours, approx. $425 billed for the job.
I kept it until 2001 when she retired from MIT. At that time I was billing it at something like $575,
and because of much better equipment (the Challenger!) I was now getting thru it in about 3
hours. The business is out there, and even the most
introverted individual can distribute fliers. It's
not at all like some commercial c.c.ers, who describe
how they get new commercial customers: something like:
"Oh, I just get out of my truck and walk into a business and ask to talk with the Manager". Not everyone can do that, but anyone can put out fliers.
Again, in reference to my Training Manual, I advise
people to start by buying a few books on marketing, especially small business marketing. The "Guerilla
Marketing" series by Jay Conrad Levinson is excellent. Spend a day or 2 reading thru the 100's of small business marketing techniques you will find.
Then select just those few that best fit both your own personality and your budget. Then go out and do them. (Sorry to go on so long here.)

No apology needed. I'm sure everyone appreciates that you went on that long Mark. It's tough to talk about this topic in just a few sentences. Marketing is key. You may have had a different outcome if you had not used the flier – door - to – door method, that is for certain in my mind.

It's a big help to know how you got your business off to such a good start and to be honest, I have not tried that approach (other than 50 fliers offering $35 per room as an experiment really - from that I got 2 jobs). This year I plan to do a better job of it with other fliers, offers, and networking as apposed to just sending out mailings and waiting for a response (how I got almost all of my business last year). Also, the ad I have in local newspapers does not seem to pull all that well and only barley pays for itself.

So far this year, almost all of my jobs have come from last year’s customers, from their referrals and others I got when I dropped of my card to adjoining businesses. I like the dropping off cards method when they know the customer that you've just cleaned. It automatically puts trust in the offer and they can walk over and see the completed work. One thing for sure, customers do like the method very much and are surprised when they see the results and that makes it an easy sell at that point.

Just a short PS to my above post:
How I got my first hotel customers:
Went to a good bookstore - to the New England states
Travel section. Bought a couple of books which list &
describe Inns, B&Bs, and smaller hotels. Then I just
mailed out fliers and a business card to the ones that
appeared to be large enough and close enough for me to
be able to service. Even a small B&B is like a large
house. I cleaned the carpets in one small hotel in
Jackson NH (maybe 2 1/2 hours driving time each way).
It was a pre-season two-day job. Then the owners had
me come back a short time later to do work in 3
separate homes owned by the various generations of the
family that owned the Inn. By the way, on the 2-day
Inn job referred to above, the Inn put me up and fed
me as well. Most of these types of places where I
got business had actually called me after receiving
my flier. I admit that I have never managed to
coordinate the mailing-plus-follow-up-phone-call
very well. I've used the same approach to obtain
business in several commercial categories:
country clubs; funeral homes; function facilities;
and assisted living centers among these. The better
you or someone working with or for you can follow up
the mailing with a telephone call, the higher will
be your rate of response.

thanks very much, mark and brian. i wish more people would reply.

best,
phillip

i'd reply Phil, but i'm neither FT or 6 figure yet.

thanx --- Derek.

BTW, great thread! Mark, you really had a great 1st year i'd say.

I could write the book on how not to start a c/c business. A few years back, I finally had enough of a boss who would wake up in a bad mood and take it out on me, his wife, whoever was handy. I got mad and quit and started my bus. 4 days later. Its been tough. I'd definately recommend working at it part time at least for a while. I think its a numbers game for getting out flyers and just walking in and asking for the business. I can present myself pretty well, but I am introverted and its tough. I have to force myself. I'm in 2 phone books but it may be a waste of money. Just going out and getting the business seems to be what works. I appreciate Brian, and Mark's insights on their experience.