Thread: I'm ready to dominate my carpet cleaning market (Pic of the day)

I have been revamping my carpet cleaning business since last year. I have reorganized and restructured everything. I feel what one man can do I can do. Stanley Steemer and Chem-Dry went worldwide, so why can't I take over my whole 7 city region? I want to be the largest carpet cleaning company in my area. What do ya'll think it would take to become or take over my whole 7 city region? I figure there are around 300 trucks on the road in the Tidewater area where we are. We have 4 trucks. So what would it take for me to become the largest? I have been working on a plan but would love to have everyones input.

Rob

GOING FOR NUMBER 1

Well Rob, it seems, that "Advertising" is a lot of what make a company get big, and stay big.
Now T.V. is too much $ , and has to be repeated alot.
Soooo, I say, pay for a "Billboard" Ad by one of your busy freeways, might be a good start?


Good Luck Rob!


Cheers, AL

Somebody told me, you need to create a almost perfect system
you must stop being a technician and become an executive.
Have a inspector/trainer. Any new or current employee will go with him/her to learn and help.
George Grijalva had a good idea about training videos.
Create a booklet, or training guide, and also they can call to the inspector/trainer at anytime (i think nextel cost 10 dollars for radio service only. Also the inspector will go before any job, to inspect of course, see potentials sell, give them a brochure with more services, so they will have the time to see it, and maybe they will ask for more services. The inspector will fill from every inspected job, with type of stains, clients concerns, tools and chemical they will need for the job and potential extra jobs, and an estimate time thec's might take.

Originally Posted by NICK NELLOS

Rob my advice is don't try to be big. Stay small improve your profits , you will be better off.

There were 2 beer giants after world war 2.

AB "Budweiser" and "Schiltz" both were playing for the number 1 spot.

Budwieser mad more profits than Schlitz did and by the mid 80's Schlits was

a dead brand. That was eventually bought by Strohs wich became known as

the Minnow that Swallowed the Whale.

Look at the modern day beer biz. AB has been bought by a big compnay

while micro breweries pop up and are doing vewry welll and turning in huge

profits. The bigger you are the harder it is to weather a very rough storm

when the economy takes a down turn. I would focus on cutting costs and

improving profits and being the best you can be.

nick

Great post Nick!

I especially like 2 points

1) If bigger "harder to weather a very rough storm when the economy takes a down turn".

2) Encouragement to "focus on cutting costs and improving profits and being the best you can be".

Super post that flies in the face of what gurus and supplier training class's teach us. They expel a lot of "go take over the world" philosophy. It's not that I think it can't be done, but at what price? Is it worth the sacrifice? Headaches, heartaches,loss family time, possible family and financial ruin. Maybe that is what the great teacher meant when he said "keep your life simple".

Rob


PS: I must admit I am pleasantly surprised by how well you formulated that long of a post without Greenies name in it...






J/K


.

Originally Posted by C Pennington

I agree with Nick........ too big can become a nightmare...the number one problem is good employees who you can trust. I run 5-6 trucks mon-fri and 1-2 on Sat but I have been blessed with great employees who do a great job for me.

Im comfortable at this number where Im at and I honestly dont wont to get any bigger.

Word of advice...dont take youreself completely off the truck. I do 2-4 jobs a day and this keeps me sane. When im cleaning I worry only about cc and not what my employees are doing....I save that for the afternoon when I get back. I cant stand being in the office all day and I enjoy what I do. Customers also enjoy having the owner clean and its a good way to go behind your employees and check their work.

Curtis if you count my bothers 2 trucks who I work in conjunction with, we are a 6 truck operation. And I think you are onto something. 5-6 trucks may very well BE the sweet spot. I am at a very comfortable, manageable and profitable place right now. I do go out maybe for 1 or 2 jobs a week to keep my pulse on the trench's of the battle line so to speak. And if I apply what Nick said I can streamline it into more profits. Thanks for that post Curtis.

Budwieser mad more profits than Schlitz did and by the mid 80's Schlits was a dead brand.

Well thats not all the story tho IMHO ... my Dad told me that a long time ago Schlits changed their brewery and "it went to hell"

If my Dad was right .... then i guess that might have had something to do with it too.

My father was born during the first world war and served in the second so he was around when this was all going on.




EDIT: click here for a 4 page pdf about the company. http://www.fohbc.com/PDF_Files/Schlitz-Munsey.pdf

This article says that some scientist found a way to make beer in half the time but forgot to ask the customers if they liked it. It seems going after profits is what lead to their down fall .... tried to make extra profits while other beers spent more on marketing .. their profit grab killed them when nobody liked their beer taste afterwords.


This from Wiki ... Faced with the problem of attempting to meet large volume demands while also cutting the cost of production, the brewing process on its flagship Schlitz beer was changed in the early 1970s. The primary formula change occurred by using a high-temperature fermentation instead of the traditional method.[citation needed] This product lost public appeal by creating a beer that lost much of the bite and taste of the old formula, but also spoiled sooner when not consumed soon enough after production.

Schlitz was still credited as the No. 2 brewery in America as late as 1976, but continuing problems with formula changes continued the downfall. The ultimate death blow to the company was a crippling strike in 1981 by workers at the Milwaukee plant;[citation needed] this led to serious financial difficulties and the brewery to be acquired by Stroh Brewery Company of Detroit, Michigan on June 10, 1982 after a lengthy legal battle.


link click here to wiki [ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Schlitz_Brewing_Company[/ame]

Rob, This requires a phone call, let me know and lets set up some time to sit down, Lots of good advise above!!

Bigger is not always better.

One good step in the right direction is to use the most productive, cost effective, non-competitive marketing.

(I wonder Where you could find that?)

Because, just paying more for different types of marketing without testing for ROI can be the quickest way to the poor house.

Need TV time and more TV time. Seems everytime you turn the TV on SS is on there. And a good catch something everyone would remember..

I'm with Frank..... TV is the only way to reach every home but it has to be consistent.

That is why everyone knows th CD and SS name.

Just saying you have to go TV is naive at best.

All marketing depends on many varying factors and involve testing.

There is no just one kind of best marketing.

Great marketing should involve many varied marketing methods.

These methods can also work differently depending on each geographic area and target market selected.

It's not that easy as 'Do this or that". Just because someone else does a type of marketing does in no way imply that it would be a good fit for your company.

In fact, because every one else in marketing one way my mean that your marketing will get a lot more bang by taking your marketing on an other path.

If you want to dominate your market, I think you need two businesses. Dry N Clean as the middle to high end customer, and have another company the coupon price and upsell market. The second company, hire young and highly motivated sales force and operate like Ken Snow. We bag on their cleaning, but they sleep very well and from what I hear, their techs make a lot of dough as well. I don't think there is anything ethically wrong, as long as you hire good people with background checks. My opinion to your question.

You want to stay in the high end market if you want to stay where the best money is. Some say that you can't do that and still be the biggest in your market. I disagree. Look to Howard Partridge on how to do it. I believe he runs a 14 truck fleet and is the biggiest in the Houston market. And at .68/sq he would certainly be the most profitable at his volume level.

Why not let him draw you up a list of the important things that it takes to get there? Even if it cost you thousands of dollars for him to do that, it would certainly be worth it. He would certainly add at least an extra Million dollars to your bottom line every year by following his formula.