Hope this ok with you Kevin..
- How long have you been in business
- Did you work for another cleaner first
- How long, if ever, were you solo on the truck
- What chain of events got you off, if so
- Tell us about your employees, who are they, how long will they be around and how well are they compensated
- How much and what sort of marketing are you doing to keep 3 trucks busy
- How seasonal is your work load
- What services do you offer
- If the Internet were to crash and burn tomorrow, what would be your first five moves?
- Thanks!!!
How long have you been in business
I started my company June 1, 2001.
Did you work for another cleaner first
I have worked for several cleaning companies through the years starting at 19, I am now 42. Some good and some bad. Spent a good tenure with a CD franchise and helped develop their new system of HCE truckmounts. The last company I was the GM for, we cleaned about a million a year in carpets and another 4-5 million in water and fire damage. Learned a ton for this owner and he sent me all over the country to get trained on the latest and greatest.
How long, if ever, were you solo on the truck
When we first started, our goal was to build up a solo owner/operator business by word of mouth. Just be the best, and spend our time like that. In 2007 we decided to go multi truck because I was running ragged with too much work, so we bought a whole new setup and in late 2008 the economy tanked. We ended up laying off our techs, sold a van for nearly nothing and spent the better part of two years beating the pavement for work almost like starting over. 2009 was the worse year in our companies history. 2010 things started to turn around and 2011 we started growing again and from that moment things started to change. Google was real, everyone was hopping on facebook. So, new plan. Grow, keep it slow and steady but not out of control. We had to change alot of things in our company and there has been a ton of growing pains but life is good.
What chain of events got you off, if so
I still work on the truck daily. There are days I don't, it just depends on what we are doing. We currently work out our routes much like Mark Saiger has taught. Big jobs we schedule in the morning. Arrive with both trucks and knock out the work quickly. People love it because they feel important and their job is done faster and things are dryer quicker.
Tell us about your employees, who are they, how long will they be around and how well are they compensated
We have one full time technician, he is certified in carpets and upholstery and will be trained soon for carpet repairs. We hired him 4 years ago and have lost him twice to other jobs. He has been back for the course of this year and we have tried to paint a vision for him and wanted to reward him better. Over time we realized that good help is very valuable. He is a great salesman and an even better technician. We do a blend of hourly plus commission on upsells. In our peak months, he typically is over 30.00 an hour with his upsells. His upsells pay his wage easily. We plan to hire another technician and train him through the spring months and have him rolling by late May. We will also hire helpers as needed for the techs.
How much and what sort of marketing are you doing to keep 3 trucks busy
We rely on referrals and internet marketing. We dominate our areas in reviews on every venue. Google, Yelp and Facebook. We exploit it to the maximum and last summer we had more work than we could do with two trucks. Hence why we just bought a 3rd. We plan to expand into the Spokane WA market place as it is 5times larger than our North Idaho Market.
How seasonal is your work load
Our work load is very seasonal. We have a good mix of commercial blended in. We keep a route busy in the winter but it is roughly half the volume of our summer work. April - October we kill it. We do water damage, only for clients. We are currently not working any preferred vendor programs or marketing this at all.
What services do you offer
Carpet Cleaning, Upholstery Cleaning, Water Damage, Tile and Grout including stone and polishing services. Full service carpet repairs.
If the Internet were to crash and burn tomorrow, what would be your first five moves?
Have 100,000 flyers printed for direct mail. Have 100,000 door hangers printed for door to door marketing. Start a phone book company. Hit the pavement looking for work. Add more Property Managers and commercial accounts through demos!
Growing is painful at times. We shall see
