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Starting and Building a Business

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duckcountry View Drop Down
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Joined: 29/October/2005
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote duckcountry Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26/March/2012 at 4:43pm
Watch this video first.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/Db_OuOym4Kc?rel=0

The questions you then ask after will tell us if the business is for you or over your head and you will just wind up a dead prospector.  Any general store would sell a prospector the tools of the trade since they do not stand to gain or lose based on your individual success.  Another wannabe is standing in line behind you bursting with over-confidence and yet lacking in the most important tool = common sense.
Are you in a high paying business or are you just a self employed low paid grunt who thinks this business provides dignity?
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akpowerclean View Drop Down
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Joined: 03/June/2012
Location: Anchorage Alask
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote akpowerclean Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04/June/2012 at 5:33pm
Hey Liggykoa,

I found your questions to be intelligent and I admire your patience with the rude reply.
Sounds to me like you are doing things right. Doing your research ahead of time.

My thoughts on the matter is that you need to decide what your business model is. Do you want to be a sole operator and do all of the work yourself, do you want to start slowly and work up to having employees or do you want to start out more in the managerial position and grow your business? If you are in a position to work for a carpet cleaning business for a while and learn the ropes that would be a good idea. That way you can know better what the pitfalls might be. Also you will be able to say that you have experience in cleaning carpets. The easiest way to get a job with a carpet cleaning company is to take an IICRC carpet cleaning technician class and get your certification. When you apply for a job and you can show you have this certification you will be hired in a snap. I have hired hundreds of employees in the past 34 years and anybody with certification went to the top of my list. In this forum there are a lot of words about customer service etc.. which are all absolutely true and extremely important. Also important is learning marketing. Start spending time now learning about internet marketing. With the right internet marketing you can quickly show up on the first pages where people are looking for your services. If you know you are going to start a carpet cleaning business go ahead and get a domain name now and build a website as soon as possible. This is huge for ranking. How you end up marketing your business depends on many things such as big city or small town, your goals, your budget, the niche you choose, the type of method you use etc... However the internet is going to the foundation for what ever you do. Some people may disagree with me. They may say they are doing fine with just word of mouth referrals etc... Many people have built a website and got nothing out f it because they simply had a site sitting back there in page seven of Google where nobody ever saw them. Learn your internet marketing skills and a website will be the best return on investment there is.
Back a few years ago other marketing worked well such as yellow pages , radio , television all which I used quite successfully. But now they don't work so well and can be a waste of your money depending on your market.
Your original question was about portables.

We use van mounts for 90% of our work.
Expensive to buy, high maintenance but they far outshine any other methods in my considerable experience.

If you are mechanically inclined you might look at purchasing a used van mount system.

For portables my criteria has been at least 150 psi, a water heater heating water to at least 150 degrees enough suction to use at least 20 feet of hose.

If you can afford it  you might get a Rotovac power wand to use on traffic areas or extra dirty areas.

These goes through the water much faster but doe a much better job.

You can get this stuff used as long as you are able to do maintenance yourself. Things do break down a lot.

I always purchased the Mytee brand of portable. I think because they met my criteria and they were the best price I could find at the time. I don't know if they are the best or not. 
Feel free to contact me with any questions you might have. I wish I was as smart as you when I first started my business. I just jumped in head first without knowing anything. Lucky for me it was in Alaska in 1978 when the economy was booming. I might not have made it in an economy like we are currently experiencing. 

That's why I am saying learn marketing.

Good luck.

P.S. Take a look at the rude replier's website "rant" page and you will see what he's about.

Akpowerclean
www.akpowerclean.comSmile
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John L View Drop Down
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Joined: 29/November/2004
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote John L Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05/June/2012 at 2:35am
Originally posted by akpowerclean akpowerclean wrote:

Hey Liggykoa
P.S. Take a look at the rude replier's website "rant" page and you will see what he's about. 
Akpowerclean
www.akpowerclean.comSmile

The rant page, And where might that be? 
I've been hearing that Ken H has the most powerful portable called the Titan at a fair price ck him out. Ed V also has the most powerful portable ck him out.
TMI has many nice powerful portys. Steambrite has them too. 
 


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Grout Guy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Grout Guy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27/June/2012 at 10:24pm
Show up on time, be professional with clients on the phone, email or whatever. 
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Temple View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Temple Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28/June/2012 at 8:46am
Make sure you put in a full days work even if you dont have any carpets to clean. Work on your truck, pass out flyers, Drop into the supplier stores look at products and ask questions. Work on your SEO. Look at new services to ad. Take classes.     -    Good Luck.
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Soil Lint Green View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Soil Lint Green Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19/July/2012 at 12:08am
I agree with DC.  It seems for every 100 people entering any business, the rule that applies is 95 will fail.  It is partially due to capital, largely due to business sense.  Heck, I made a living years ago in a computer related business with a $0 investment.  You could have $1million to start a company and still fail if you make a good employee and nothing more.
It's ORY GUN, not OR A GONE. Learn to talk.
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annfully View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote annfully Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20/February/2016 at 7:07pm
In a lot of other countries...a shop vac and foam is considered big business
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DaisyDigitool View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DaisyDigitool Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31/January/2018 at 9:52am
I started sharing marketing tips that have been working for my family's cleaning business - referral source marketing is the subject of my latest video as it's had such a dramatic effect. Have any of you given it a try? 
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