Starting and Building a Business

first year in the business as "owner"but,with 21years behind me.i have worked  portables & truck mount, and in this day and age my residential customers are lookin fer that big fancy rig to pull up and un roll fer some serious carpet cleaning.professional professional professional!!!

all these post are great!their absolutely right! this is what i got started with......spent 15,000 on new truckmount..bought a used 1 ton van 2001 fer9,000 ,750.00 fer advertisement..1,000 fer lettering on van and uniforms......in total i spent a lil over 25,000 and it did take alot of p.r work but my first month i brought in 8,000 second month......12,000  third....14000.......and this is my 5th month and all i hope is it just keeps gettin better!!!i live in a small town pop.5000 and word of mouth can "make ya or break ya"treat you customers like gold and deliver what you say you can do.

14000 for a one man operation, on your first year in March?
I think I did 18 or 20 the FIRST YEAR. ( back in 1982).

I think I'll take my Geritol and rub in My ointment and go to bed,
I'm suddenly feeling old.

tman your story for your first year sounds good for a first year. There are so many varibles that can contribute to your success.  But keep one thing in mind this is a bored.  When you mention anything that can be disputed it will.  Many on this bored are like fisherman.  The one they caught will always be bigger than the one you caught. I think there is some kind of award for the biggest line of BS.  Welcome to the bored.

i dont believe in hustling customers....i am very good at what i do and its all about satisfying the customer..and the 14000 was in nov.04 started own business in nov.04..good luck guys..ladies...the big one that got away?????? tman>>>>>> big fisherman!!

I would just like to say thank you to you all for this thread. I read the entire thing. My husband and I were thinking about starting a carpet cleaning business, but now i see how costly it can be. There is a how to guide on the net that says to build clients then just rent a machine from your local hardware store untill you can make enough money to buy a machine of your own.

I just wanted to thank you all for this thread, because i was ready to jump in over my head. Where did you get your capital? Did you already have it or will someone give you a loan for something like this? Just curious.

I currently run a cleaning company and would love to have a forum like this for housecleaning. This is wonderful.

 

Thanks again

 

SO, guys i need about 4 appointmants a day, how can i make it happen?

Gentleman, I will help ease all your learning curves on how to sucessfully build your company.  There are many things that you can do but these are the things you must do.

1. Become IICRC Certified (www.iicrc.org)

2. Attend Strategies for Success offered by Jon-Don (www.jondon.com)

3. Attend 2-day business planning writing seminar offered by Chuck Violand.  Know your numbers. (www.violand.com)

4. Howard Partridge has some awesome managment modules for running business and Joe Polish of Piranha Marketing has the best answers to direct mail marketing.  (www.joepolish.com and www.howardpartridge.com)

5. Get Dan Kennedy's book "The Ultimate Marketin Plan" and then order his monthly newsletter. (www.dankennedy.com)

I promise you, if you get involved with these 5 simple strategies you will be well on your way to building a million dollar company.