If ya had to do it over again

[DannyD]

Upon starting out, if ya had to do it over again would ya get a box truck rather than a van? Why or why not?

 

[Brian R]

Box truck,
No sucking fumes.
Bigger area.
Bigger ad.

 

[Larry B]

Yes on the box truck.

There is never enough room in the van

 

[Carpet Cleaning Fool]

yes on the box truck.

But, if i had it to do over again i probably would go into the janitorial business. Besides, once you're established in janitorial you could easily branch off into residential rug cleaning which would be icing on the cake.

Larry B could probably give us some insights since he's into both.

Larry, does the janitorial business suck or what? It just seems more stable than rug cleaning. Just think, you would only need 2 or 3 new customers per month instead of two or three per day.

If a person could generate 3 new customers per day in rug cleaning just think how their janitorial business would explode applying the same concept.

 

[Brian R]

Everything all the time

 

[Out of Character - 0]

Starting over I'd get an extended van 1st, then my 2nd truck would be a box.

We have several accounts that require us to drive through a parking garage and a box ain't gonna do it. On most retail commercial work a box is preferable to hold all the wet floor signs, extra hose, ect...

We routinely have to send 2 cargo vans to a job that could be handled by a single box truck.

 

[Bill Soukoreff]

Yes, if I lived in Cali. No where I live know where it get way below zero. I love my garage!

 

[Shawn Abbey]

Box truck. No question. I can stand up AND can stay better organized. How may times do I have to crawl over equipment to access a sprayer/chemical/waste tank/etc...? Not so with a box truck!

Would do it again in a heartbeat!

 

[Able 1]

Box truck for sure! I do live in Wisconsin so I'll have to insulate the hell out of it but there is no question in my mind.

 

[Ed]

Janitorial is a cut throat business. Most businesses do not place a high value on it, that's why they will fire your ass in a second if somebody comes in and undercuts you. It's also a thankless business. You can do a fantastic job over and over and over and nobody ever says "good job", but miss emptying one trash can one night and they will call you in and demand it be emptied that day. It is also an extremely low profit margin business, it's all about quantity.

I hate janitorial

 

[Able 1]

I was looking at 1 up the street about a 12' box with 45,000 miles on it and they were asking $14,000 but it has a 6.8L thats a V-10 :shock:

 

[steve frasier]

box truck

janitorial is cut throat but I have not run into the problem to much, we package the whole deal together. Carpets, tile, windows, etc

you can package all that together and usually come out for a better deal for the company and get a better price for the janitorial

specialize in smaller business/building who need to have faith/trust in a person to lock the doors & set the alarm when they are done

 

[Chris A]

yes the 6.8 is a V-10, its a pretty decent motor but a hog on fuel. I dunno if I would do a box truck as a one trucker, but hopefully I will as a second.

 

[Larry B]

yes on the box truck.

But, if i had it to do over again i probably would go into the janitorial business. Besides, once you're established in janitorial you could easily branch off into residential rug cleaning which would be icing on the cake.

Larry B could probably give us some insights since he's into both.

Larry, does the janitorial business suck or what? It just seems more stable than rug cleaning. Just think, you would only need 2 or 3 new customers per month instead of two or three per day.

If a person could generate 3 new customers per day in rug cleaning just think how their janitorial business would explode applying the same concept.

Unless your prices are very low picking up 2 to 3 new accounts a month would be hard. But as a rule if you treat them good they are good to you. We do get tons of side jobs because of the work we do in janitorial so it pays off very good.

Janitorial is a cut throat business. Most businesses do not place a high value on it, that's why they will fire your ass in a second if somebody comes in and undercuts you. It's also a thankless business. You can do a fantastic job over and over and over and nobody ever says "good job", but miss emptying one trash can one night and they will call you in and demand it be emptied that day. It is also an extremely low profit margin business, it's all about quantity.

I hate janitorial

It is cut throat but I have never had a customer dump us for lower prices unless you are subcontracting for a national company like ABM. We kiss the customers A$$ and even when there is a problem most of the time it gets worked out. When bidding janitorial the customer will always tell you they have more people coming over to bid but most of the time thats BS. Most companies dont want to waste all day talking to cleaning services so they only get 1 or 2 bids and when they call us they also get alot of luv from me..LOL


The smaller the building the more you can make as the big janitorial services keep prices ran into the ground on large buildings like State & National companies.

With my perfect A$$ Kissing ability and a deal we give small businesses we close just about anything we bid on. 8)

 

[bob vawter]

Hey Larry...KMA...

cuz it's PERFECT!

 

[Larry B]

At your age can you imagine the crusted poop that is caught in all the wrinkles around your A$$?

I would tell you to put a mirror on the floor and bend over to look but again at your age you would bust a hip joint bending over..

 

[Guest]

LOL! Yeah!



Oh, and yes, I would of liked to have a box truck when I started out.

More room!

 

[bob vawter]

"crusted poop"

Larry..youz on a roll today......!

 

[DRScrivner]

"crusted poop"

The word is actually "Crapusted"- isn't it?

 

[Mr.V]

I am starting over

the one thing I've learned is DO NOT GO INTO BIG DEBT....

so an ol 1tonne chevy and a kick ass porty is good enough for me to start with.

 

[esquireservicesinc]

2 and 2. Box trucks are good, but like someone mentioned before, some jobs you need the van for the parking decks.

 

[Able 1]

Hey Chris, What size engine is in the one second from left, and what size box?

 

[RLitwin]

I would go the other direction. I want to fit everything I need into something like the Ford Transit Connect which is due out in the US next summer. It is a really small cargo van like you see in Europe.

 

[Jimmy L]

Van here.......it will fit in my garage.

I had a van where it had to sit outside all winter, what a headache!

 

[esquireservicesinc]

Hey Chris, What size engine is in the one second from left, and what size box?

That's a 2004 5.7. I will have to let you know the size of the box. That truck is used every day. We already have 90K on it. BTW, they are all 1 Ton Chassis.

 

[Able 1]

Nice kind of what I'm looking at..

 

[floorguy]

well lets see, I went from

a 8x5 trailer pulled by a 82 nissan, then a full size 86 bronco,

to 14x7 trailer pulled by bronco, then 85 BLazer with a 6.2 turbo then a 84 1 ton it rocked but ohhh the gas.

then i got an 97 chev van mind you i do alot of vct floors so it was the strip n buff vehicle and pulled the 6x10 for carpets

to a 6x10 trailer 97 express pulling it

to a box truck + i still have the van for VCT work, where I know i dont need the gas hog..HOWEVER for the 1st time i had to turn work down because no box truck just my van...needed T&G done in the bathrooms, and i couldnt do it...

whats funny is i did it the time before stripping, because the worker told me they needed done, i was like are you sure??? (this owner is a tight ass) so i did it, charged extra....they paid it...Did it again and they were like "Oh you gotta do it again he loved how they turned out!!!" humm who woulda thunk it??

anyway...

BOXTRUCK by all means...you can carry an ass load of equip in there for almost any job...

and i need to still ge mine all figured out....need hanging shelves for "stuff" and something for chems...but it has to be hangingto much equip on the floor to take up space with legs.