Start And Operate A Carpet Cleaning Business

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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 pound 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 businesslike 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 these advertising specials, 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 œ300 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 programme 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 found 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 œ7 - œ10 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 œ20.
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 in the morning, and
working through the whole day, allowing 30 minutes between
appointments, you'll be able to handle seven appointments per day.

At œ20 per call, you will gross œ140 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 the time you take it, the cost is
usually œ12 or less for twenty four hours.

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 to the customer to have a 12 by 18 foot wall to
wall carpet shampoo cleaned is about œ50.

Your materials to do that size job will cost about œ3.00.

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 œ75.

Materials for each œ75 job cost you about œ2.00, all of which
means that with just five appointments per day, five days per
week, your gross income before expenses will be approaching œ2,000
per week.

Most people who set up carpet cleaning businesses manage to gross
œ50,000 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 programmes offered, some of the
manufacturers have business start up programmes 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 cals 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.

As ever, good luck!