I currently work for a company that does fire, smoke, water damage, mold remediation and a host of other things, including HWE. I’ve only been working with them for about 2 months and haven’t done a ton of carpet cleanings yet but every time I do I’m amazed at the price vs. the work involved, in one of my brainstorms I thought to myself “hey I could do this myself.” So after a bit of time googling here I am. I’ve been reading though the forum and am learning as much as I can, the more and more I research the more and more this seems like a viable option for me. I’ve drempt of being my own boss for quite some time (I’m tire of braking my back for $10 an hr) and for the first time even my wife agrees that this could be a viable option for our future.

So I’ve got a few questions…

Who does this as their sole income? For those who do how long before you where self sufficient on income with CCing?

When cleaning with my current company we have 2 rates one for if we move all the furniture, and another for not moving furniture or only moving smaller things (dining room chairs, end tables and the likes), do most of you figure to move everything in the house or typically just do the traffic areas?

Of the small guy biz… do you have any employees to assist with things like helping move furniture or do you just move it yourself? For the larger guys how long before you hired someone else?

Do most of you guys offer any “special” treatments such as scotch guard? I know it’s a premium price for that addition (1/2 the standard cleaning cost) where I currently work.

What kind of area do you guys work for? How far will you typically drive for a job? I’m in the middle of a 150,000 population county but as it is with the company I work with we go into the next county on a regular basis with a population of about 300k.

Being that I’m still learning about the biz side of things in the 1st place (thankfully I will have some help as both my dad and father-in-law started successful small home type businesses but does anyone have any suggested reading for getting started?

I’ve been brainstorming and have a few ideas for getting started up and out into the community.

I’m not jumping into anything quickly and will be researching it thoroughly but the more and more I learn the more I like this idea

Thanks for any help
Mark Thomas

oh yes something else I forgot to ask about,

vehicles... what do you use? mostly just curious.

for insurance, do you have any? how bout on your vehicle? are you using the commercial insurance for your car?

thanks guys
mark

donalson I am new at this, only a couple of months maybee 2, I clean carpets part time and work as a food server part time and go to school full time, so I stay preety busy. My recomendation is do it if you have enough savings to quite your job and really push your buisness I belive you can. I live pay check to pay check so I have to have definite money coming in so I asked my boss if I could work 4 days instead of 5 that gives me 3 days to clean carpets and sometimes I do before or after work, my wife hates it. The first few weeks was really tuff to get a job but my first client was so impressed she got me three more jobs, one of those costomers was so impressed she is going to pay me extra to drive 6 hours to do her daughters carpets. At first it was slow but so far just about every customer I have had has got me a second or third job, word of mouth is the best advertisement so do every job the best you can. I am hoping by December I can quite my other job and work for my self. For your other questions, I use a 1988 Honda Acord very small but it works, I use my regular insurance (just do not put a sign on your car untill you get commercial insurance) I do plan on getting a bigger car for easy access to every thing and a more proffessional work with a sign and commercial insurance. Right now my buissness is not insured, I feel very safe with this equiptment, but in the future I will probably get insurance. I have no employees at the time and I move all the furniture my self, wright now I move furniture for free because I want to get my name out there but soon I will charge maybe 10 dollarsa a room, not sure yet, How much does your company you work for charge? I live in the boon docks so I travel to the nearby cities the furthest so far is about a hours drive, next week I am going to go six hours, but will be paid extra for that. I hope I helped some, if I can help any more let me know, Mark runs a really good buissnes and so far I have no complaints about the people at Challanger only good things to say about the both of them.

thanks jon

I've got 2 cars currently parked right now an older volvo wagon (I need to replace the turbo but don't have the $300 for that right now doh) and I just parked my 98 neon as riding my motorcycle to work will save me about 1000 a year on insurance... but i can't bring myself to sell it as I wouldn't get enough out of it... basicly i just wanted to make sure either would be up to par to start off with :)

where I am currently charges $0.18 sq/ft I belive it is... from reading it's on the low side even for the south

I've got some ideas in the works already for getting my name out there (thankfuly I've got some nice connections at church)

one idea I had today is giving cheap or free carpet cleanings to folks in the church who are expecing a baby... seems a good way to get my face out there and do something nice at the same time... who wouldn't want their carpet cleaned right before the rug-rat is born who spends WAY to much time on the floor (I should know I've got 2 :)

my biggest fear is going headlong into this and not making enough money to survive so i'll likely end up working a part time job... but as always it's a hurry up and wait game.

what kind of overhead to you see as far as chemicals per job?...
one $90 job every weekday for a month (not including overhead) would make more then i'm making now... depressing to think about :-/

thanks for the reply :)

donalson if you have enough jobs lined up alredy to get a job every day at that price your over head for chemicals is not that high. If you buy the package from mark you will get enough chemicals to do quit a few jobs. Me I try to follow marks foot steps the best I can except for pricing I do not think I can charge as high as he does, right now I charge .15 a sq foot that is changing in 31 of oct to .25 sq foot. If you use what mark gives you it is called orbit natural and I think it cost a little over $20 dollars a gallon you mix 1 cup with a gallon of water this usually does about a 1000 sq ft for me some times double that I am not sure how many cups are in a gallon, but it goes a long way. I also use encap products for some stains, these are not that expensive either, I like Z bomb from www.vac-away.com, cost about 20 dollars a gallon and you can mix it according to how bad stains are I usualy do about 2 to 4 oz for my 16 oz spray bottle and I also use POG for really bad stains just a couple of drops at full streanght and blot ar agggitate in this is expensive but it works and it has lasted me a lot of jobs. You might also want to buy extra pads, the package only comes with 20 I went and bought 20 more but I bought the double thick ones I like them better some do not they say they cause vibration and are harder to control but I disagree, they cost 14 dollars a pad, THey have not wore out on me yet, the single thick ones have I have tore 2 of them. My highest cost has been tring to find a effective advertisement, so far I have waisted my money on advertizing the only thing that has worked for me so far is word of mouth. I am new to my area so I do not know a lot of people, you sound like you know people in your area so it will probably be easier for you, Hope I helped good luck, Let me know if I can answer any more questions.

thanks for the info man...

side note... i was wrong about my current company's prices... those where the prices posted on the 2002 paper... prices are now 0.18 sq/ft w/ out moving furniture... 23 if you do...

Right now I'm working just a teeny bit at a vacuum store, not earning much there at all, and not earning enough to eat doing this either... which means the savings is going bye-bye fast. My previous posts have discussed pricing so no need for me to re-invent that wheel here. I'm probably going to raise my rates around February and am considering switching to square foot pricing.

As far as products, I like the orbit-natural as a natural product, encap-Punch for "padcapping", and I use tea-tree oil as an all natural deodorizer or vacaway Whamm for pet urine situations. My favorite spot removers is encap Punch mixed at about a 1-3 ratio and Vacaway Cyclone. Their rust assasin works well on rust too.

I was using my PT Cruiser as my vehicle for 6 months. After 4 months I finally got magnets that I put on the car. I found a place locally that did the magnets for $110. Not nearly as good as a full vehicle wrap, but it makes you look more professional when you pull up in their driveway. I didn't like getting all the weird looks and comments about my vehicle. I recently bought a used GMC Safari for about 4k and I love having that extra room, but the mileage sucks.

I don't have any employees. My wife is trying to help me market to commercial, but she has very little time since we have an infant at home. I've taught myself photoshop and publisher to make flyers and postcards, and have done all of my marketing and website design myself.

Hope this helps, I probably didn't answer all your questions, but those were the ones I remembered... Best wishes to you.
-Grant

Donalson, you've raised so many questions here that my tired fingers groan at the prospect of answering them all satisfactorily here on this forum. If you would like my input, give me a call at 617-242-9657.

thanks mark... any specific time thats good to call?... it'll prob be a few days before I'll call as I've got a very busy day today... but i'd love to talk to you :)

any specific time better then another?

thanks
mark

Call either of my service numbers anytime: 617-242-9657 or 978-531-9340. Leave your phone number, and I will call you back on an evening when I finish early enough that there's slack time left after dinner. Or send it via e-mail.