Robert Webb
Member
So Mikey P asked me to post an intro, so here goes...
I am Robert Webb of Robert's Carpet Cleaning in Roanoke Virginia. I started my company in 1990 at age 25 after working in a factory for 5 years and deciding that was not how I wanted to spend my life. I purchased a 2 year old Butler from a guy in New Jersey ($475 per month) and with no training or experience I put the largest ad in our phonebook ($875 per month) and waited for the phone to ring.
In order to pay the bills I also had 4 part time jobs that I worked for about 3 years before I worked my way down to 1 part time job, and after 5 years I was finally able to go full time in cleaning. I focused on commercial work, mostly rentals from real estate companies and restaurants. My very first restaurant was a private pizza place that I still service today. Our growth has been slow due to the fact that I am not a salesman and have been out selling less then 10 times in the 27 years of business. But I give our customers very good service and treat them like family so they tend to stick around. So I guess our sales plan is to slowly pick up customers and keep them forever.
I kept that first Butler for about 10 years and now we replace our truck every 5 years. I am a tried and true Butler fan and will never used anything else. In 27 years, I haven't finished a job 3 times due to a break down, with a track record like that why use anything else? My plan was to cruise through the years until I couldn't clean anymore, until my youngest son decided that he wanted to take over the business, now I suddenly have the pressure to build this company up to support him and his future family. So I started to get involved in these forums looking for ways to build and make the business stronger for the long haul of multiple generations. I quickly started paying attention to Mark Saigers stuff since he is similar to me in the things he uses and having his son-in-law involved. What great resources we have available to us.
The last two years have been our biggest years yet, and September 2016 is the biggest month we have ever had, which included a week off to go to Vegas. I have been looking to get a second truck going but have decided to look into VLM as a low cost alternative. I have a good friend here in Roanoke who does it, and with his help and the help of Damon Williams, I now have an OP machine that I used for the first time last night. With a steam crew working along with me running the OP we did a 30k sqft job in 5.5 hours that took 10 hours a year ago. So thanks to all these forums, and all the great people on here, our future is looking bright and exciting.
Finally, I have to say, success is all based on what you want to do with your life and how your going to get there. We started slow and spent many years to get where we are today, and I wouldn't do it any other way. My customers are lifers and we have built many great relationships through this business. We have also been able to give back to our church, school and community many times. I have been blessed with an amazing (patient) wife and great family. My Lord and Savior has given my family more then we deserve and we thank Him for everything we have been able to accomplish through the years. We would not be here without Him.
I am Robert Webb of Robert's Carpet Cleaning in Roanoke Virginia. I started my company in 1990 at age 25 after working in a factory for 5 years and deciding that was not how I wanted to spend my life. I purchased a 2 year old Butler from a guy in New Jersey ($475 per month) and with no training or experience I put the largest ad in our phonebook ($875 per month) and waited for the phone to ring.
In order to pay the bills I also had 4 part time jobs that I worked for about 3 years before I worked my way down to 1 part time job, and after 5 years I was finally able to go full time in cleaning. I focused on commercial work, mostly rentals from real estate companies and restaurants. My very first restaurant was a private pizza place that I still service today. Our growth has been slow due to the fact that I am not a salesman and have been out selling less then 10 times in the 27 years of business. But I give our customers very good service and treat them like family so they tend to stick around. So I guess our sales plan is to slowly pick up customers and keep them forever.
I kept that first Butler for about 10 years and now we replace our truck every 5 years. I am a tried and true Butler fan and will never used anything else. In 27 years, I haven't finished a job 3 times due to a break down, with a track record like that why use anything else? My plan was to cruise through the years until I couldn't clean anymore, until my youngest son decided that he wanted to take over the business, now I suddenly have the pressure to build this company up to support him and his future family. So I started to get involved in these forums looking for ways to build and make the business stronger for the long haul of multiple generations. I quickly started paying attention to Mark Saigers stuff since he is similar to me in the things he uses and having his son-in-law involved. What great resources we have available to us.
The last two years have been our biggest years yet, and September 2016 is the biggest month we have ever had, which included a week off to go to Vegas. I have been looking to get a second truck going but have decided to look into VLM as a low cost alternative. I have a good friend here in Roanoke who does it, and with his help and the help of Damon Williams, I now have an OP machine that I used for the first time last night. With a steam crew working along with me running the OP we did a 30k sqft job in 5.5 hours that took 10 hours a year ago. So thanks to all these forums, and all the great people on here, our future is looking bright and exciting.
Finally, I have to say, success is all based on what you want to do with your life and how your going to get there. We started slow and spent many years to get where we are today, and I wouldn't do it any other way. My customers are lifers and we have built many great relationships through this business. We have also been able to give back to our church, school and community many times. I have been blessed with an amazing (patient) wife and great family. My Lord and Savior has given my family more then we deserve and we thank Him for everything we have been able to accomplish through the years. We would not be here without Him.
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