New to the business and looking for advice

[hogjowl]

What @Nomad74 baconators or his tacobell habits or his tendencies to find yard art?

If he trains with Damon, his wand technique will plague him the rest of his career.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Which brings up the danger in getting the wrong kind of experience. There's a reason most of us avoid hiring "experienced" applicants.

I believe Vince Lombardi said something like "practice doesn't make perfect. PERFECT practice makes perfect".

 

[Anthony E]

sure, be like everyone else.

BTW, if your going to base your marketing off what YOUR eyes thinks, your in for a looooooooooooooooooooong startup

Why are you taking such offense to me choosing to wrap my vehicle the way I want? Im not knocking you for paying a hundred bucks to put your website on your van. To me that is NOT enough information as you stated it is, It doesn’t even say what you clean. As I stated, my area is very middle class and I know how I would be perceived if I go with a cheap “wrap.” So it’s not just what MY eyes think, it’s what I know. Again, I’m not hating. To each his own.

 

[Anthony E]

If he trains with Damon, his wand technique will plague him the rest of his career.

Who the hell is this Damon you guys keep mentioning? Haha

 

[Hack Attack]

Why are you taking such offense to me choosing to wrap my vehicle the way I want? Im not knocking you for paying a hundred bucks to put your website on your van. To me that is NOT enough information as you stated it is, It doesn’t even say what you clean. As I stated, my area is very middle class and I know how I would be perceived if I go with a cheap “wrap.” So it’s not just what MY eyes think, it’s what I know. Again, I’m not hating. To each his own.

Thats important right there

identifying your target market, helps decide equipment, branding, marketing etc

 

[Nomad74]

What @Nomad74 baconators or his tacobell habits or his tendencies to find yard art?

He'll be a better well-rounded person.

 

[FredC]

As I stated, my area is very middle class and I know how I would be perceived if I go with a cheap “wrap.” So it’s not just what MY eyes think, it’s what I know. Again, I’m not hating. To each his own.

What you are looking for sir is a Vortex. Customers will chase you down to get you to clean their carpet and stand outside admiring the truck the whole time.

 

[Mikey P]

Worked for me!

 

[Jimmy L]

It's good to be naive about "seeing" all the business in that new hosuing tract. But believe me the carpet cleaning field in your area is already being picked clean. Lot's of low priced coupon MEXICAN illegals are already there.

 

[hogjowl]

Who the hell is this Damon you guys keep mentioning? Haha

@Nomad74

 

[Mikey P]

It's good to be naive about "seeing" all the business in that new hosuing tract. But believe me the carpet cleaning field in your area is already being picked clean. Lot's of low priced coupon MEXICAN illegals are already there.

THE BEST 10 Carpet Cleaning in Santa Clarita, CA - Last Updated November 2023 - Yelp

Best Carpet Cleaning in Santa Clarita, CA - Pristine Carpet Cleaning, CBC Cleaning & Construction, Blessed To Clean, Professional Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning, Kings Carpet Cleaning, Carpet Cops, Exxtreme Carpet Cleaning, Truly Dry Carpet Cleaning, Silverman & Son Carpet & Upholstery, Tile &...

www.yelp.com

 

[Nomad74]

Am I going to need to read this thread from the beginning to understand what's going on? I just want to go work on my Truck, jeep, boat, riding lawn mower, fence, shed.......

 

[Fat Mike]

Am I going to need to read this thread from the beginning to understand what's going on? I just want to go work on my Truck, jeep, boat, riding lawn mower, fence, shed.......

WHAT?!!!

No banjo?

 

[hogjowl]

Thankfully

 

[Nomad74]

Anthony, I am living proof that you can begin with a decent portable, acquire incrementally better gear and with a great work ethic, coupled with a pathological lack of ambition remain a brokedick portyhack nine years later.
But I love wearing hair shirts and sloughing off the abuse rightfully heaped on me by my betters, so it is all good.

Get the training. Then get an upholstery training class. Find a good chemical pimp. Ask Damon if you could maybe ride along a time or two and yes, get that truckmount.
Be prepared to do a lot of tinkering.

Equipment to go with the truckmount:
Sapphire upholstery tool, none better.
Devastator 12” wand. Thank me later.
Rotovac 360i with brush head and metal suction shoes. Ignore the other attachments.
A decent spotting kit. Every brand sells them.

A big box of hankies for when the world discovers you are trying to better yourself and tries to cannibalize you.

The single best asset you need is time discipline. Work your plan and adapt. Welcome aboard!

Ok catching up here. I'm in Redding. Ca is a big state and Santa Clarita is far away. But I would be more than happy to let you face time with me as I exhibit the perfect wand stroke. I'm not doing any ride-alongs until this Covid stuff passes. Also, I'm too lazy to pick up all the granola bar wrappers off the passenger side of my van. So don't be creating more work for me. I need to get my shed fixed!

As for starting. I started my business with an EDIC porty. I still have it and use it when I need to clean the types of places I try not to clean. You know, the ones you see on the caller ID and don't answer because they are a logistical pain in the ass! Anyway, back to my point. I started with a porty and it sucked. I put out an EDDM $99 whole house special, up to 1,600 sqft, and it almost killed me. It would take me 5 hours to clean one house. I remember thinking that everyone claiming to make $100 per hour was full of crap. Porty work sucks! I have a love/hate relationship with my porty.

I understand why operations like Stinky Steemer are now advertising $99 specials. They are desperate for work in these Covid times. Their employees aren't the sharpest tools and the employees don't really give it their all. Do they carry CRB's, Do they work out red stains, do they lay in bed at night dreaming of urine jobs, do they even prespray, do they use an acid rinse? The answer to these questions is NO in my area. Oh, they do groom with a Grandy brush. This I know because I have a collection of them they have left at job-sites I've found when I've returned to fix their messes. Also I've witnessed the monkeys dropping them on customer cars.

As far as being new and growing your business, don't listen to people that tell you your a hack because you are only charging $50, or whatever. You're just starting and this is the time to beat the bushes, kiss babies, and give deals. Once you're more established, then up your pricing. Currently ,my commercial min is $125 and my residential is $200. I did not come to these minimums because of greed, I did it out of frustration. I don't like getting calls to clean one bedroom for $50. The minimums stop all that nonsense. My theory is let the low priced hacks fight over the one bedrooms while I stay free to book the whales. Surprisingly this has worked out. Oh, and also, I like to stay free for all that sweet urine work.

Start an EDDM campaign ASAP and get your website ranking on Google. Contact Ryan Keetering at Prolific Prints to get you started. Stay in contact with a post card system like SendJim or something overpriced and complicated like Service Monster. If you really want to go broke, use the CRM called SoftServe.

Don't lose sleep over the IICRC training. Try to find a teacher that won't try to sell you a bunch of brand specific soap.

Get a TM ASAP. You're going to kill yourself lugging that thing around.

 

[hogjowl]

You proof read as good as Mikey

 

[Nomad74]

You proof read as good as Mikey

I need to finish my Coco Puffs and get to work.

 

[scotty747]

Describe the last service vehicle that came to your house. Somebody once said "nobody cares what pull up in there driveway. They care what gets out of it.". I"v had many customers go to the back of my boxtruck and say Wow, you've got a nice set up here. NO comment on the ugly truck. Remember you are not your customer. You will be looking at it from a carpet cleaners point of view, not a customers. A van wrap is more branding than advertising. if I had your budget I would go ahead and do it, but not before the more important things like your website. You don't want to have your van wrapped and then think about all the things you would have done different on it 3 months down the road.

 

[hogjowl]

By and large, people are still too polite to tell you your van is ugly. They comment on your equipment to avoid the elephant in the room.

 

[bob vawter]

Still is......

 

[scotty747]

I know they know my van is ugly. Well my old one. I just keep wondering why they call me back. Maybe cause I got a haircut right before the shops all closed.

 

[FredC]

Describe the last service vehicle that came to your house. Somebody once said "nobody cares what pull up in there driveway. They care what gets out of it.". I"v had many customers go to the back of my boxtruck and say Wow, you've got a nice set up here. NO comment on the ugly truck. Remember you are not your customer. You will be looking at it from a carpet cleaners point of view, not a customers. A van wrap is more branding than advertising. if I had your budget I would go ahead and do it, but not before the more important things like your website. You don't want to have your van wrapped and then think about all the things you would have done different on it 3 months down the road.

^this

Most of your customers will only have a vague idea of what your van looks like from when they open the door or peak out the window when you arrive.....and you're already there

You will likely be buying a lot of your customers at first and they cost a lot more than you probably think so unless you have the funds to do it (wrap) without taking away from your primary concern (getting customers) I would wait.

If you need the look for your website/marketing materials photoshop is a wonderful thing. In a perfect world you would hit the ground running with a nice brand/image and a fat marketing budget but since you're trying to decide whether to start with a porty I think maybe some shifting of priorities is in order. How do customer's perceive that btw?

 

[Old Coastie]

By and large, people are still too polite to tell you your van is ugly. They comment on your equipment to avoid the elephant in the room.

Most hurtful are the whispered phone conversations when the neighbors call to complain. “No it isn’t gypsies, he’s cleaning my carpet...”

 

[Anthony E]

^this

Most of your customers will only have a vague idea of what your van looks like from when they open the door or peak out the window when you arrive.....and you're already there

You will likely be buying a lot of your customers at first and they cost a lot more than you probably think so unless you have the funds to do it (wrap) without taking away from your primary concern (getting customers) I would wait.

If you need the look for your website/marketing materials photoshop is a wonderful thing. In a perfect world you would hit the ground running with a nice brand/image and a fat marketing budget but since you're trying to decide whether to start with a porty I think maybe some shifting of priorities is in order. How do customer's perceive that btw?

I’m not gonna respond to everyone, this has gone so off track. I’m not saying your van should look nice with a wrap for them to come outside and stare at it. At that point you already have the customer so who cares? It’s for when you are driving between jobs, for neighbors to see while you’re at a job, even just having it parked somewhere, you are advertising. The only point I was trying to make is that simply having a website on the side of your van isn’t doing a whole lot. Seriously, how many of you if you saw that would look it up to see what it is? And the other point I was trying to make is that in MY area it is upitty better off people. Do I think they’re gonna call some ghetto looking van? No. Does a wrap mean they’re going to call me? No. But knowing my market they’re people that look at things like that and I’d feel better off. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills here. Anyway, I’m trying to get solid advice in here not argue with people over something that’s not that important. I agree, I shouldn’t be as concerned with it over all of the other things that actually matter and that I actually need help with.

 

[scotty747]

Remember the Alamo. And remember the thread pro1200.

 

[Fat Mike]

I’m not gonna respond to everyone, this has gone so off track. I’m not saying your van should look nice with a wrap for them to come outside and stare at it. At that point you already have the customer so who gives a shit? It’s for when you are driving between jobs, for neighbors to see while you’re at a job, even just having it parked somewhere, you are advertising. The only point I was trying to make is that simply having a website on the side of your van isn’t doing a whole lot. Seriously, how many of you if you saw that would look it up to see what it is? And the other point I was trying to make is that in MY area it is upitty better off people. Do I think they’re gonna call some ghetto looking van? No. Does a wrap mean they’re going to call me? No. But knowing my market they’re people that look at things like that and I’d feel better off. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills here. Anyway, I’m trying to get solid advice in here not argue with people over something that’s not that important. I agree, I shouldn’t be as concerned with it over all of the other things that actually matter and that I actually need help with.

Id recommend taking chill pills instead of the crazy ones, that’s bobs job. Listen to what these old guys are saying. You came here asking. You nothing about service based business and nothing about carpet cleaning.

Eat yer humble pie like all of us have and you’ll be much further along. Not only that in a pinch you may meet others who would lend you a hand when needed. Don’t burn a bridge before you’ve even crossed it.

Jmho

 

[Anthony E]

Id recommend taking chill pills instead of the crazy ones, that’s bobs job. Listen to what these old guys are saying. You came here asking. You nothing about service based business and nothing about carpet cleaning.

Eat yer humble pie like all of us have and you’ll be much further along. Not only that in a pinch you may meet others who would lend you a hand when needed. Don’t burn a bridge before you’ve even crossed it.

Jmho

Agreed Mike. I’m here to make friends/acquaintances and my stubborn ass got frustrated over something so stupid. I apologize to anyone I’ve annoyed with my pointless rambling! I truly have no idea what I’m doing in this industry and you guys are the pros, so can we start over?

 

[Anthony E]

Ok catching up here. I'm in Redding. Ca is a big state and Santa Clarita is far away. But I would be more than happy to let you face time with me as I exhibit the perfect wand stroke. I'm not doing any ride-alongs until this Covid stuff passes. Also, I'm too lazy to pick up all the granola bar wrappers off the passenger side of my van. So don't be creating more work for me. I need to get my shed fixed!

As for starting. I started my business with an EDIC porty. I still have it and use it when I need to clean the types of places I try not to clean. You know, the ones you see on the caller ID and don't answer because they are a logistical pain in the ass! Anyway, back to my point. I started with a porty and it sucked. I put out an EDDM $99 whole house special, up to 1,600 sqft, and it almost killed me. It would take me 5 hours to clean one house. I remember thinking that everyone claiming to make $100 per hour was full of crap. Porty work sucks! I have a love/hate relationship with my porty.

I understand why operations like Stinky Steemer are now advertising $99 specials. They are desperate for work in these Covid times. Their employees aren't the sharpest tools and the employees don't really give it their all. Do they carry CRB's, Do they work out red stains, do they lay in bed at night dreaming of urine jobs, do they even prespray, do they use an acid rinse? The answer to these questions is NO in my area. Oh, they do groom with a Grandy brush. This I know because I have a collection of them they have left at job-sites I've found when I've returned to fix their messes. Also I've witnessed the monkeys dropping them on customer cars.

As far as being new and growing your business, don't listen to people that tell you your a hack because you are only charging $50, or whatever. You're just starting and this is the time to beat the bushes, kiss babies, and give deals. Once you're more established, then up your pricing. Currently ,my commercial min is $125 and my residential is $200. I did not come to these minimums because of greed, I did it out of frustration. I don't like getting calls to clean one bedroom for $50. The minimums stop all that nonsense. My theory is let the low priced hacks fight over the one bedrooms while I stay free to book the whales. Surprisingly this has worked out. Oh, and also, I like to stay free for all that sweet urine work.

Start an EDDM campaign ASAP and get your website ranking on Google. Contact Ryan Keetering at Prolific Prints to get you started. Stay in contact with a post card system like SendJim or something overpriced and complicated like Service Monster. If you really want to go broke, use the CRM called SoftServe.

Don't lose sleep over the IICRC training. Try to find a teacher that won't try to sell you a bunch of brand specific soap.

Get a TM ASAP. You're going to kill yourself lugging that thing around.

You are a very, very long way from me. I have a friend that lives in Weaverville and I’ve been up there the last 5 years in a row. The 9 hour drive to get there is hell, so don’t worry you won’t be needing to clean up any wrappers haha. Anyway, thanks for the solid advice. After a very long conversation with the wife last night we’ve decided against the TM for now. Just because we can afford one doesn’t mean we should get one (especially since I don’t know jack about them). And we’ve switched gears as for our target. It’s smarter to start with commercial since I don’t think too many people want strangers in their homes right now, and there are still plenty of businesses running. So any advice on a good portable? I’m looking at the Rotovac Ranger right now. I want something with a decent psi so I can run an SX for tile&grout. We’ll still get that TM asap but I’d like to dip my toes in the water first.

 

[Anthony E]

It's good to be naive about "seeing" all the business in that new hosuing tract. But believe me the carpet cleaning field in your area is already being picked clean. Lot's of low priced coupon MEXICAN illegals are already there.

Can we please not turn this into a Mexicans are stealing our jobs post?

 

[Cleanworks]

I’m not gonna respond to everyone, this has gone so off track. I’m not saying your van should look nice with a wrap for them to come outside and stare at it. At that point you already have the customer so who cares? It’s for when you are driving between jobs, for neighbors to see while you’re at a job, even just having it parked somewhere, you are advertising. The only point I was trying to make is that simply having a website on the side of your van isn’t doing a whole lot. Seriously, how many of you if you saw that would look it up to see what it is? And the other point I was trying to make is that in MY area it is upitty better off people. Do I think they’re gonna call some ghetto looking van? No. Does a wrap mean they’re going to call me? No. But knowing my market they’re people that look at things like that and I’d feel better off. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills here. Anyway, I’m trying to get solid advice in here not argue with people over something that’s not that important. I agree, I shouldn’t be as concerned with it over all of the other things that actually matter and that I actually need help with.

A clean, well signed van is always an asset.