Carpet and upholstery cleaning business

mrs-d_3

I'm thinking of starting the above business and would appreciate any advice and ideas/pointers in the right direction. I don't have any professional experience in carpet or uplholstery cleaning so if any of you do can you tell me where do I start from?
I looked at some businesses online and they talk about different types of carpets and using different cleaning products, where do I learn about this?
Also which equipment would you recommend?
And of course is it a good way to earn a living?
Thank you.

PLounge

mrs-d wrote: »

I'm thinking of starting the above business and would appreciate any advice and ideas/pointers in the right direction. I don't have any professional experience in carpet or uplholstery cleaning so if any of you do can you tell me where do I start from?
I looked at some businesses online and they talk about different types of carpets and using different cleaning products, where do I learn about this?
Also which equipment would you recommend?
And of course is it a good way to earn a living?
Thank you.

I had my own company back in the late 80's, early 90's.

I'm not sure how the market is for carpet cleaning but I'm sure it's tougher out there because of the amount of households that now have laminate flooring. (You could find out about cleaning and polishing them )

The advice I would give is:

1. Check your area for carpet cleaning companies. Too many and it will be very hard to get established.

2. Choose which market you want to try, ie, comercial or domestic. Personally I would stick with domestic to start and maybe approach larger cleaning companies and offer to sub contract some of the work when you have a few houses under your belt.

3. Read as much as you can about carpet cleaning. Plenty of places on the net. Try to find a carpet machine supplier in your area that offers training.

4. Product and Public liability insurance is a must.

5. Try to find an angle that nobody has. I used to give a 15% discount on the price to OAP's

6. Select your method of advertising carefully as this can lead to no calls or lots of calls. One good place to advertise is the local church magazine with discounts.

I purchased my equiptment from Ashbys Carpet Cleaning a few years ago. (tried to put a link in but it would not let me )

They were selling a starter kit for £1500 which included training on using the machine and carpet identification (different types and what chemicals to use)

I would imagine the price would be far more these days but If you live in NW Kent/London boarders I would recomend that you speak to them as they are a family run business and very friendly.

They used to sell secondhand reconditioned machines at a reasonable price.

Good luck if you decide to do this. It can be very very hard work but rewarding when you get called back to clean a carpet and even better if you have been recommended.

timmmers

This the one ?
http://www.carpet-cleaning-equipment.co.uk/

t

pitkin2020

timmmers wrote: »

This the one ?
http://www.carpet-cleaning-equipment.co.uk/

t

Thats the ashbys site.

You can't go far wrong with an ashbys. Prochem would be the other mainstream supplier who also offer training. Remember though with the likes of prochem training they train to use their chemicals, nothing wrong with that but there are better products for different situations. Prochems training is a good starting point though.

Stay away from a franchise i.e Chemdry unless you want to invest a huge amount then work your nuts off for the next forty years!! Like most franchises they saturate an area.

As already mentioned look at your local area and see what competition there is already and get a few quotes to see what the going rate is. A lot of the training covers pricing but its pure tripe, most of their pricing techniques are for very affulent areas, which is fine if you live in Kensington.

Insurance is good to have but isn't a legal requirement, but could save you a fortune should you mess up.

Google carpet cleaning forum and register with a CC forum to get more upto date info.

PLounge

pitkin2020 wrote: »

Thats the ashbys site.

You can't go far wrong with an ashbys. Prochem would be the other mainstream supplier who also offer training. Remember though with the likes of prochem training they train to use their chemicals, nothing wrong with that but there are better products for different situations. Prochems training is a good starting point though.

Stay away from a franchise i.e Chemdry unless you want to invest a huge amount then work your nuts off for the next forty years!! Like most franchises they saturate an area.

As already mentioned look at your local area and see what competition there is already and get a few quotes to see what the going rate is. A lot of the training covers pricing but its pure tripe, most of their pricing techniques are for very affulent areas, which is fine if you live in Kensington.

Insurance is good to have but isn't a legal requirement, but could save you a fortune should you mess up.

Google carpet cleaning forum and register with a CC forum to get more upto date info.

Agreed that insurance isn't a legal requirement but it will give confidence to a prospective customer when choosing a company to clean their carpets.

thewad

I started up in April 2008 and have never been asked for insurance.
Get some training first then decide what equipment/budget you have.
Need to spend about £5,000 to get yourself a new set up.
You could go the second hand route but it could end up costing you as much in the end replacing and repairing things.
Having brand new means one less worry when you are starting out.
I run the top of the range Ninja from Ashbys.
Quality bit of kit, only problem is that it's a 540 mile round trip to get repairs done under warranty.

John

arlybarly

I run my own cleaning company and also own 3 carpet cleaning machines as well, if you want any tips then message me as i dont like giving trade secrets out on an open forum lol .