Tour of My 2.5 Million Carpet Cleaning Company

[hogjowl]

More trucks would cut down on his posting time.

 

[SamIam]

All it takes is a couple losses and a few bad months and Your hurtin for certain. I agree if you have a business by the real estate a name's great but building assets of value is better. Hell if You ended up owning the building's then when You sell your business and keep the property and rent to the new owners.

 

[Ken Snow]

If he has the business structured well it is probably running on modest fixed expense with major expenses being variable Sam. I assume after owner salary his profit is 10-15% depending on level of OS. Diversifying into hard assets is esp good now as well.

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[Jeff Madsen]

Joe Polish built his carpet cleaning business up to $10,000 per month in gross sales before he started selling shovels, matches and Levi's to the miners. I've gotten a fair amount of value from Joe as well over the years, although I don't use any of his stuff verbatim. Mostly, I've learned a ton about copywriting and direct mail from him.

 

[Ken Snow]

There are many things to be gleaned from most of the sales/bus programs offered by industry vendors. Take what works for your mindset or comfort level.

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[FB7777]

More trucks would cut down on his posting time.

Says the doofus with over twice as many posts with half as much as to offer

 

[FB7777]

Fred what keeps you from running more trucks?

- too small a town? Plenty of business for my price point
-dont want to advertise to keep them all busy in the winter? Harder to operate all trucks in the winter for sure
-dont want to buy or rent a building to run the company out of?(And have to commute). Am considering commercial property now
-dont think Howard is really making all that much more than you take home? I'm certain he does much better than me, and much of it is deferred appreciation
-cant imagine dealing with all the employee hassles? Never had more than 6 so yes I'm quite scared of the proposition
-no time for MB, or your kids and wife?

. I do enjoy the freedom and structure of my company now

 

[Shane Deubell]

Really can see it both ways, 12 years ago i went to corporate sales training company for a week and it cost $6k range that i paid myself. Some of the time was in a classroom but a lot was spent one on one with trainer, that experience really prepared me to find a job at the time and excel at it.

My skepticism is how much one on one time do people receive for $10k or $20k, the $1k here or there is just part of owning a business. We all spend that kind of money on equipment, chemicals that we end up not liking.

Attended sfs and for $700 or whatever was definitely worth it, do not have anything bad to say on any professional marketers overall but as a contractor i would definitely ask questions .

 

[Connor]

I don't think HP is bragging as much as he his saying "I did this and let me help you do it, too" I think the exposure of what he's got gives him credibility. I really don't care for the mentioning he does about his brand of automobile though.

What I would like to see is some "guru" have his employees talk about how great it is to work there and their quality of life.

 

[Mikey P]

Joe felt that 10k brought him to guru status???

Wow, all those tips and trIcks must really be from his members..

 

[Jeff Madsen]

I realize he's persona non grata on the board, but I think he was smart enough to see where his passion lay and was able to marry it to some obvious opportunity.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

I realize he's persona non grata on the board, but I think he was smart enough to see where his passion lay and was able to marry it to some obvious opportunity.

He's certainly NOT "persona non grata" here, just a tad unhinged.

 

[Ken Snow]

He's pretty much persona non grata here Lee. When the owner of the board insults him all the time there isn't much chance that he would be around. Howard doesn't play that way.

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[Mikey P]

God bless you Ken.

 

[dealtimeman]

I don't understand why anyone would give howdy a 100 to here him give a lecture a on which of his programs you should buy.

yes I have sat through one no I didn't pay.

 

[Desk Jockey]

It was only $89.00 and you got a box lunch and a soda..........and yes by the end I realized I was stoopid to pay for the right to pay more.

Howard is a great marketer and if you are position like his company I'm sure his strategies will work for you. Our population is too small for it to work as well for us as it has for him. It's ok I prefer a pickup to a Lexus.

 

[ACE]

It was only $89.00 and you got a box lunch and a soda..........and yes by the end I realized I was stoopid to pay for the right to pay more.

Howard is a great marketer and if you are position like his company I'm sure his strategies will work for you. Our population is too small for it to work as well for us as it has for him. It's ok I prefer a pickup to a Lexus.

I’m surprised you went Richard. You must be doing comparable if not better numbers then his company. You have a different focus but, Your pulling down about the same per sqft as them and I would guess as much per truck.

 

[dealtimeman]

Richard don't answer that, your local competition is just trying to squeeze you for financial info on the Internet.

you don't have to thank me for the warning but you do owe me.

 

[Jeff Madsen]

I don't think HP is bragging as much as he his saying "I did this and let me help you do it, too" I think the exposure of what he's got gives him credibility. I really don't care for the mentioning he does about his brand of automobile though.

What I would like to see is some "guru" have his employees talk about how great it is to work there and their quality of life.

Howard always says "what one man can do another man can do", also, "it's not that they can't, it's that they won't". Whatever the excess of his self-promotion, Howard plainly believes people have it within themselves to improve their situation and to be the architect of their businesses.

 

[SamIam]

Joe felt that 10k brought him to guru status???

Wow, all those tips and trIcks must really be from his members..

Or maybe he bought Ron's program and resold it as his own? Talked to Tom he told me Ron own's a 100 rentals out here cha ching at least someones retiring!

 

[ACE]

Richard don't answer that, your local competition is just trying to squeeze you for financial info on the Internet.

you don't have to thank me for the warning but you do owe me.

Lol Chavez loses no sleep over “competitors” like me.

 

[Zee]

Why don't anyone mention the fact that Howard's business is a business that was becoming big partially because of at least 2 or 3 companies were combined at some point?

Once I took an uph. class and the Instructor was touting his 2.5mill company...in Houston.....

I figured there is no way you got the same numbers as Howard in the same town. So I asked him straight up in front of the classfull of rookies, that were listening with open mouths. He ended up admitting him and another company and Howard got together and combined the companies to make one big one. And he had no part of the business anymore.

Funny thing is he had the same old tired story about starting out of the trunk of his car etc etc...

 

[Hoody]

Its funny he never mentions his ex-biz partner Dennis and the very important roles he had within the company during its peak growth period.

 

[Zee]

Yeah I just didn't wana say his name right away.

 

[Jeff Madsen]

Howard's always been upfront about his two partners. So..three guys merge their companies together, one takes over admin, one takes over operations and one goes out to sell, sell, sell. They are not only successful in merging the businesses but are also successful in running their partnership. They build that company to around $2,000,000 at which point one partner buys out the other two.

How is that somehow less successful in the minds of the bdcc's out there?

 

[knoxclean]

You are correct Jeff he has mentioned the fact that he joined with to other small companies several times and if I recall even the total sales of all 3 combined at the time was under 500,000 . Howard's personal business was at around $300,000. The exact numbers don't matter. What impressive is how the business is set up and how turn key it is. There are many companies out there doing more sales than Howard but few run as smooth and as profitable

 

[Desk Jockey]

I agree it shouldn't matter whether there was a partnership or sole proprietor, that's still a very successful company. My issues are not with how Clean as a Whistle is run or operated (although for a marketing guru you would think his trucks would have more grap to them).

I don't like a lot of his marketing to "us" the cleaning professional, the "look at me, look at me" video's are annoying, reminds me of an Amway seminar. Here I am with my IPad on a beach, here I am driving an ATV with an Ipad, here I am with my Lexus and an Ipad....ok so not all of them had an IPad. It also bothers me when someone mixes religion and business, in my opinion they should always be kept separate. But to each his own, if you can justify why they should be mixed, then more power to you. and of course the boat horn sound blast, geezzz is that one bad.

I do think his programs have value in the right setting, more for the larger metro's than smaller cities and towns. However like anything they do you no good stilling on the shelf.

I think everyone should check out Howard's and Joe's programs and see if they fit your company. I personally found that SFS was much closer to who we are and what we are trying to do but it doesn't mean the other two don't have value.

 

[Zee]

Howard's always been upfront about his two partners. So..three guys merge their companies together, one takes over admin, one takes over operations and one goes out to sell, sell, sell. They are not only successful in merging the businesses but are also successful in running their partnership. They build that company to around $2,000,000 at which point one partner buys out the other two.

How is that somehow less successful in the minds of the bdcc's out there?

If this was directed at me- you are wrong. I have a respect towards Howard but find it interesting that his basic story telling never includes the mention of the 3 operations combined. Maybe he mentions it to those that buy into his program but not really to the "general public" if you can call the handful of carpet cleaners that actually listen- general public.

What got me interested about the subject is that Dennis sold himself to the class as an owner founder builder of a 2.8million dollar business. The same way Howard does: out of the trunk etc etc.

To the lil guy in the audience, it would sound very different if they actually would say it became big with the combination of multiple cos.

I'm ok with that. If I wanted to go big I would think about merging too. I think it is just a lil misleading when they sell their stories, especially the guy that doesn't have any part of that business anymore.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I see your point Zee but that's probably too much information that may not be all that relevant to everyone when speaking to the class. I was reading Cleanfax or maybe ICS but it was Howard's artice and he metioned his partner. I don't think he tries to hide it.

I would say the merger was still a way of building the business, probably a wiser way if you were trying to be a larger player.