Well... It's that time of year again...

[Jeremy]

Summer is in full swing... Everyone is busy. Not to pee in your Wheaties but winter will be here again before you know it. NOW is the time to start rounding up the commercial work if you havent started already. Make some time to get that steady $ ladies and gentleman... You just may need it come February.

 

[Amazing]

Really?

I've ran a few locations. Once my main focus was comm and res was cream.

Now I'm lucky or unlucky if I clean 5 or 6 comm jobs per year. And the comm I do is dr offices that are closed on Mondays or Fridays. I have one I do every 6 months. I bust it out starting at 5 pm fri and work till done. Sometimes 2 am.

I honestly feel a company has a main focus. Might be res. Might be apartment might be comm. Because rounding up a bunch of comm work now for the winter does nit disappear in the spring or summer when the 9 to 5 m thur f res work picks up.

The best plan for any carpet cleaning company if to always be prepared for a few slower months.

If ya want to plan for winter slow doen. Book a vacation or 3. Make sure you have a suitible heater to protect equipment. Clean the shop or garage out so that you fo have that indoor parking for that 1st mAjor cold snAp.


If ya want a bunch of comm work go get it. But it won't go away eith the Snow.

 

[Dolly Llama]

You just may need it come February.

it's funny you mentioned that, Germ

This winter (Dec and Jan anyway) were actually one of our better ones in a long time.
we cruised right thru with very few slow days
Then the bottom dropped out in Feb ...like turning off a light switch til mid March when it picked back up.
I mentioned how DEAD it was and needing to go beat the bushes .
Mike reminded me I said the EXACT same thing the previous Feb.....


..L.T.A.

 

[Steve Toburen]

I honestly feel a company has a main focus. Might be res. Might be apartment might be comm.

Agreed.

However, Don, given the low initial cost of a Cimex and how easy encapsulation is to master some of our members are developing "encapsulation routes" where they use part time people (well paid and working on commission) one or two nights a week carrying the Cimex in their own vehicles.

This way the owner-operator gets to be at home with the family while his part time employees are out there running a weekly route pulling down nice money for themselves and the business.

As always, whatever floats your boat.

Steve
SFS.JonDon.com

PS Heck, we are so excited about the "encap route" concept for high income potential WITHOUT adding overhead or late hours for a small carpet cleaner Jeff Cutshall and I have been interviewing our members and are writing a step-by-step guide called "Setting Up “Encapsulation” Commercial Carpet Routes". Here is an excerpt:

"So instead of you dragging yourself away from the family to actually do commercial work (which we always HATED!) let’s examine the “Encapsulation Route” option. In this scenario you focus on building up monthly, bimonthly and quarterly accounts that can be slotted into just one day (or more likely night) per week. So now you tell your new contract that on the second Tuesday of every month you will service their account. And you fill in a two hour slot while keeping all your second Tuesday accounts in the same geographical area. Keep doing this till you have no more than six hours scheduled for each Tuesday.

Meanwhile advertise for a high quality employee with a mini van or SUV that is looking for extra income. If you pay your people our recommended 25% of gross they should easily be able to average 25 bucks per hour or 150.00 for a six hour shift. In most parts of the country that is some seriously good extra part time income!

So typically your part time “encap route” person might work 7:00 PM to 1:00 in the morning, possibly starting with a medical office, then cleaning a retail store that closes at 9:00 and then finishing up the night with a restaurant or bar. Your goal is to have your employee home by 2 o’clock or so in the morning so they can get some sleep and still perform on their regular job.

Here is the secret- don’t ever give any one of your part time encap employees more than two shifts per week! They’ll beg for more work and the temptation is to load your first employee up so you don’t have to hire and train more people. Don’t take the easy way out! After all, you never want to be “held hostage” by a full time employee again. Instead, when you get a second weekly night shift filled up hire a second employee looking for extra income. And the process continues …

Just think what just two 6 hour shifts per week or eight nights of encap work per month could mean to your bottom line. If we stay with the very conservative 100.00 per employee hour gross (the Cyclone should do much more) and allow 50% for employee pay, mileage reimbursement, chemical cost and general overhead that will still return you 2,400.00 per month or a cool 28,000 plus bucks per year. And all this smoothly happens while you are at home enjoying your family!"

Just a Sunday afternoon "thinking outside of the box" option on how to get the benefits of regular commercial work without the very real disadvantages brought out above.