Starting Over...or Relocating

[Lee Stockwell]

I've talked to a few veterans over the years who said the best "move of their life" was starting over.

That has to be a terrifying thought.

I'd love to hear your "starting over" experiences.

 

[Shorty]

I'll have to give this some thought & post when I'm in front of my pc.

 

[Art Kelley]

It is a terrifying thought, at least for me. After 10 or 15 years, your business can just run on autopilot, with the bulk of your work being existing customers and their referrals. The thought of moving to a new area and losing all that built up good will and easy business keeps me from trying new pastures. But a friend of mine who was my employee during my first year and then started his own company, moved to Clearwater five years ago to raise his daughters with his ex-wife who had moved there (long story), and he is now happy as a clam in the new environment. It was a struggle for the first few years, he sold his customer list up here to an established company and received a cut of the jobs from that list for the first year by routing the calls to his cell and then giving them to guy who bought his company. He subbed for a Cole style bait and switch 6.95/room firm getting 28% for each job, collecting customer names and learning how to upsell and turn $39 jobs into $300. He has the sociopathic disposition to do this, he just needed the proper motivation. With the electronic marketing available now and these established customers he stole from his employer he was able to go back out on his own after a couple years and is now doing well.

 

[jwfoulk12]

This thought has crossed my mind a time or 2. My girlfriend lives about an hour and a half from me and is very close with her family and doesn't like the idea of permanently moving away from them. She wants me to expand my business to include her area but 100 mile radius seems really far to me. I won't be doing anything until my son who is 10 is out on his own, but at that point do i want to start all over again? Definitely food for thought and I'm curious to see what some of your thoughts are on the subject.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I think it would quite a challenge but exciting to start over with a clean slate. How you would go about getting a jump start on business would greatly depend on your resources and your location. Having reserves to market with and to live on would make the transition much easier.

Drawing on your past experience would save you the learning curve that a newby would have to go through. Even with that said, I would guess you'd have a few years of building your base ahead of you.

I'd layout my plan a year at a time and then make adjustments as you go.

What are your goals?
Are you going to operate out of the home or rent a location?
Hire help and manage or run owner op?
New truck & machine?
New name, logo, website?
What is your marketing plan of attack?
What is your budget?

 

[Lee Stockwell]

I've found over the years that 5 or 6 key people have opened the doors to much of my work.

If I were to go back, I'd do my best to meet and impress those key people earlier.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I've found over the years that 5 or 6 key people have opened the doors to much of my work.

and find and cultivate more of those type individuals!

 

[steve_64]

id love to relocate to a warmer climate!

i have a realtor friend who spends winters in florida and says Genny and i would do great there.

definately something ive thought about.

 

[hogjowl]

We have a vacation condo in Gulf Shores. My wife is always talking about spending summers there full-time. With my son working with me now, it wouldn't take much for me to decide to open a second location there.

But the thought of living in a 500 s.f. condo with my wife full-time keeps me from taking the step.

One of us would kill the other within a month.

 

[Chris A]

My uncle is a senior vp for transamerica, has lots of money to invest, and is relocating to Tampa st Pete this year. The topic of opening a franchise there has been discussed a time or two

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Theresa and I talked about Flagler county FL in 1989 and what a great place it would be. Dave Gill thereafter relocated there and proved our hunch was right.

I'd love for him to add more on that move.

 

[Chris A]

Theresa and I talked about Flagler county FL in 1989 and what a great place it would be. Dave Gill thereafter relocated there and proved our hunch was right.

I'd love for him to add more on that move.

Flagler beach fl is just about the coolest old Florida beach ever

 

[cobra]

When dad got out of the navy, we stayed in Florida. I grew up in bradenton, so I am a beach bum at heart. My wife and I moved around early in our careers(chasing the money/promotions). We have spoken several times about moving to the beach or even back to florida.
The first thing we did was a Survey/Study on the area. The problem we hit was this area has a LOT of current cleaners and they are CHEAP!!!!!
We have thought about my brother(he is my lead carpet tech) moving and opening a second location at the beach, but hasnt happened yet!

 

[Chris A]

Yeah I saw about 15 different carpet cleaners during our recent weeklong fl trip. I don't see that many in a month here

 

[Russ T.]

Starting over is tough until you make those key connections.

I carried a full time job with benefits in Des Moines, and commuted 67 miles each way from the small town we lived in.

Then we moved out of that small town into another. Now I easily service the larger markets around me.

I left my full time job almost 3 years ago in an effort to focus more on our dream.

That was the beginning of our best year ever. The next year was almost double the sales, then improving steadily the next 2.

I wouldn't want to do it again but I definitely believe we could. You HAVE to believe you could make it anywhere (not middle of nowhere).

The character and skills you develop in those tough beginning times is so valuable. This is a tough business and you have to be tough at times. Tough and smart.

What an adventure. Today our push is to build something that will operate successfully, without us. I'm only 38 so I've got some good years ahead of me BUT I won't always have my youth.

I love an adventure and have considered (every Winter) moving south. I can't leave now, but maybe someday. We could do it.

 

[hogjowl]

Gulf Shores, Ala. is porty land (everything is condo) at .15 cents per s.f.

And theres a thousand of them.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Every condo and high rise we do here is via truck mount.

ps 12th floor MSU. Back up to stairwell, carry hoses up elevator to far point. Drop down stairwell center, tie off with engineering wire. The vertical drop absorbs 110 feet of hose, plus the distance horizontally, typically 250' total.

20 minutes setup, just do it! Or fire the people who can't.

Do try to have enough work in the project to cover it. If it's apts I've occasionally dropped out a window but that has its own issues.

 

[hogjowl]

Since the last hurricane, the beach front is covered with multistory high rises that are totally enclosed and, of course, the whole first floor is parking.

The old structures could be cleaned with a TM. I think I only see porty cleaners because they're all working too cheap and almost everything is hard surface now.

 

[Bee Busy]

I was going through my marital seperation in 2008 and my wife wanted to move back to her hometown in NV, so we took a break from each other and I ran things here in CA, but we were getting along great long distance because we weren't living together, so I came up with the bright idea of selling off my commercial accts and phone number for the residential customers to a local carpet cleaner and starting all over in Reno NV in 2009.

I was lucky because one of my friends was expanding his apt complex carpet cleaning business out to Reno NV (2 1/2 hours away), he had 7 apt accounts (around 1500 plus units), he subbed the work to me at 80% for cleaning and 50% for water damages. Plus I could start marketing my own business as well.

Everything was great at first, lots of apt complex carpet cleaning and awesome water damage work, hired 1 guy, lived in a nice 3000 sq ft home on 1 acre with a view of the mountains.

But then soon, my wife and I weren't getting along since we started living with each other again LOL, the recession hit Reno hard from a residential service standpoint, I hated the weather in NV and developed a bad gambling problem living around casinos.

We finally ended up getting divorced and I moved back to CA, I instantly got my commercial accts back because the guy I sold them to lost them all except for 1, started advertising on the internet and have been back in business here in CA since mid 2010.

It was a pretty "safe" move considering I was guaranteed work from the very begining. It would be scary to go somewhere starting over without some type of guaranteed income.

 

[Desk Jockey]

my wife and I weren't getting along since we started living with each other again LOL

I'm sure it wasn't fun to live through but its a funny story.