Truckmounts and Chemical Costs

[Scott W]

This is for truckmount guys only, not portable or VLM guys.

If you want to explain why your costs are whatever, they are, feel free.

Chemicals are for any service for which you use your truckmount. Can be carpet, upholstery, tile floors or whatever. But just for truckmount cleaning.

Thanks.

 

[awratchford]

Let's start with the price of the truckmounts my machine was $18,000 brand new the monthly payment is $529 then there's the general liability insurance which is $80 a month then there's the workers comp insurance which is $90 a month then there's gas at roughly $2.60 a gallon there's propane at roughly $16 a tank there's all your miscellaneous tools which are greatly overpriced tile spinner was $800 so at$100 tile job you had to do 8 of those to recoup your cost you know your wand is like four or five hundred dollars don't forget your chemicals a gallon of dissolve all is $65 for one gallon my pre spray runs about $130 for 5 gallons a bottle of upholstery cleaner is $30 a gallon use it straight no dilution oh your upholstery tool was $400 a decent bottle of Scotch Guard type fabric protector is about $50 a gallon then don't forget there's the maintenance on your machine every 40 to 50 hours you have to put an oil change on it that cost roughly$15 in parts and then you have to put money aside for breakable such as a solution line which is $400 for 250 ft so yeah when it's all said and done it takes about $65 an hour just to break even so I roughly charge right at $100 an hour probably could charge less if all of our equipment and chemicals were a whole lot cheaper
Oh yeah that truckmounts at cost me $530 a month is for 5 years after 5 years I spent $38,000 on that machine

 

[Cameron RDS]

Let's start with the price of the truckmounts my machine was $18,000 brand new the monthly payment is $529 then there's the general liability insurance which is $80 a month then there's the workers comp insurance which is $90 a month then there's gas at roughly $2.60 a gallon there's propane at roughly $16 a tank there's all your miscellaneous tools which are greatly overpriced tile spinner was $800 so at$100 tile job you had to do 8 of those to recoup your cost you know your wand is like four or five hundred dollars don't forget your chemicals a gallon of dissolve all is $65 for one gallon my pre spray runs about $130 for 5 gallons a bottle of upholstery cleaner is $30 a gallon use it straight no dilution oh your upholstery tool was $400 a decent bottle of Scotch Guard type fabric protector is about $50 a gallon then don't forget there's the maintenance on your machine every 40 to 50 hours you have to put an oil change on it that cost roughly$15 in parts and then you have to put money aside for breakable such as a solution line which is $400 for 250 ft so yeah when it's all said and done it takes about $65 an hour just to break even so I roughly charge right at $100 an hour probably could charge less if all of our equipment and chemicals were a whole lot cheaper
Oh yeah that truckmounts at cost me $530 a month is for 5 years after 5 years I spent $38,000 on that machine

Well spoken

 

[mrotto]

Oh yeah that truckmounts at cost me $530 a month is for 5 years after 5 years I spent $38,000 on that machine

evidently you never figured what your house cost is after 30 years LOL

 

[awratchford]

evidently you never figured what your house cost is after 30 years LOL

He didn't ask that. He asked why I charge what I do. Short answer is cause my equipment is way over priced. $35 worth of tarp and shower rods....becomes $300 super seal a door

 

[longkenn]

Darn! You don't have what I spent as a possible choice! $2,501. Just kidding! LOL Your price breaks left that number out. Just giving you a hard time!

 

[PistolPete]

I take widget A at $500, bolt it to widget B for $700, weld $100 of metal to it and presto, a $5000 tool...

 

[Todd the Cleaner]

Tough crowd here.

 

[awratchford]

I'm debating very hard on doing a video this weekend on how to make your own seal a door with parts from home depot including a zipper....guarantee my parts list will be under $60.....

 

[Scott W]

Just to clarify - The question is about what your costs are for chemicals. How much do you spend on chemicals each year. This is not about what you charge for your services.

 

[awratchford]

Just to clarify - The question is about what your costs are for chemicals. How much do you spend on chemicals each year. This is not about what you charge for your services.

Now that kinda a generic question. For example one cleaner may spend $20k in chemicals and make $1m another may spend $1k in chemicals and make $200k. Roughly same percentages though.

Chemicals are over priced, though not as hard hitting as those overpriced tools, however....1 gallon of de solve all $65. 8 ounces to a hydroforce, makes 17 hydroforces. Thats $4 worth of that to 1 hydroforce plus your pre spray. Which for me is another $3.25. So totals up about $7.25 per hydroforce per day. At just 1 a day per day that $35 a week. Not counting miscellaneous such as pet enzymes or your acid rinse or scotchguard or upholstery or whatever. On any given day probably $45 altogether in chemical costs.Roughly $180 a month.

Maybe a lot of folks don't realize the constant "leak" of money every week from little things like that. But $180a month
in chemicals is $2k a year. Not much I get it, when compared to what you could make off those chemicals....its still a cost, like every other cost you have. Lets look at our cost in number of free jobs it takes to break even. If your break even point is $4500 a month at a average of $150 a job then it takes 30 jobs a month to break even before you even think about making $1 profit.

 

[Making Triangles]

I'm an O/O. Spend around $500 bucks a month on chems. All Bridgepoint FYI.

 

[sbsscn]

Good Products cost money, But they are worth it!

 

[Todd the Cleaner]

I’m spending around $2500-3000 per year in chemical. Honestly chemical cost is one of the smallest costs I have to run my business.

 

[crash1big]

I spend in excess of 4000 a year per truck; but the trucks work most days. Profit is not a crime but those chems cost pennys to make and we get gouged pretty good. Must be why Rob is in the game too.

 

[Todd the Cleaner]

I don’t know the exact cost to make our chemicals, I’m sure the manufacturers are making a good profit but isn’t that what being in business is about? On top of the raw materials you also need to consider the production cost. I had the opportunity to tour the Bridgepoint factory and the place is huge, I’d guess the building to be around 50,000 square feet (half a wal-Mart). They have dozens of people working there to bring us the products we need. Tom is there every day doing research and development constantly improving our chemicals and making our job easier. Sure, that jug of chemical we are paying $45 for may only cost $10 to produce (I don’t know what the actual number is, I’m just guessing) but look at how much easier our life is because of what we have. I’m using $3-$5 worth of chemical per house to make a couple hundred.

I’m sure our customers think the same thing of us. How dare we charge $250 to Clean their house??? After all it’s only costing us $5 to do the job, right??? (Can you hear my sarcasm here). The customer doesn’t take into consideration all the other costs we have as business owners. I think as cleaners we are guilty of doing the same thing to our suppliers.

 

[Anderson]

use all powders...mainly commercial...
600-700$ per year
50k per year business

 

[Dafloorman]

It takes money to make money! Chemicals are not the problem in my business, I spend to much on advertising! Referrals is where I’m trying to do more of these days!

 

[1ST CHOICE CLEANING]

Without looking at my expense report on QuickBooks I'm guessing I'm around $2500 per year. My guess is based off what I remember my last 3 years being.

 

[sbsscn]

I don’t know the exact cost to make our chemicals, I’m sure the manufacturers are making a good profit but isn’t that what being in business is about? On top of the raw materials you also need to consider the production cost. I had the opportunity to tour the Bridgepoint factory and the place is huge, I’d guess the building to be around 50,000 square feet (half a wal-Mart). They have dozens of people working there to bring us the products we need. Tom is there every day doing research and development constantly improving our chemicals and making our job easier. Sure, that jug of chemical we are paying $45 for may only cost $10 to produce (I don’t know what the actual number is, I’m just guessing) but look at how much easier our life is because of what we have. I’m using $3-$5 worth of chemical per house to make a couple hundred.

I’m sure our customers think the same thing of us. How dare we charge $250 to Clean their house??? After all it’s only costing us $5 to do the job, right??? (Can you hear my sarcasm here). The customer doesn’t take into consideration all the other costs we have as business owners. I think as cleaners we are guilty of doing the same thing to our suppliers.

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AWESOME!!

Well Said!