Who else is small potatoes?

[steve_64]

Don't know how to post a link from my phone but the trademark originated in mokena IL where I lived but it expired and was picked up by someone in Chicago.

 

[SamIam]

I'm certainly a small fry in Nevada.

Here is my advice to you and anyone else who is looking to grow their quality owner op business.

-Social Media will help with branding, BEING social will be your best advertising. Be THE carpet cleaner in your community.
-Go to every social event you can, chamber meetings, holiday parties, dances, charity events,home shows, wine walks etc.
-Find a biz networking group like BNI or LeTip or a local private version.
-Join the largest community blogs on Facebook and chat it up about everything but carpet cleaning. Use your logo as your avatar and make damn sure your personal page is void of anything not rated PG. Do not talk about politics, sex or religion.
-Join any group of small business owners you can find, city rebuilding, holiday lights or food drives, do all that stuff.
-Go to farmer markets, dances or roller skating night with your company t shirt on.
-Make your logo memorable and easily read.
-Beg, plead and bribe people for reviews, especially Yelp and Facebook.

You'll find in most every community that no other carpet cleaner is doing the in your face social stuff listed above. Why?

Because their either lazy, stupid, shy, ugly, a stutterer, afraid or incapable of public speaking or just a plain goober.

Or all of the above. This industry attracts them like soil to Preload5.





All of the above is way cheaper than EDDM, Groupon or any print marketing, all of which is worthless when it comes to finding loyal clients.

I'm not ugly!

 

[Nomad74]

Here to help.

http://www.qcsupply.com/340313-tek-...T4591f60sMFZkQfNY43xevyMLlVzasF2cgaAnF88P8HAQ

 

[rick imby]

I'm certainly a small fry in Nevada.

Here is my advice to you and anyone else who is looking to grow their quality owner op business.

-Social Media will help with branding, BEING social will be your best advertising. Be THE carpet cleaner in your community.
-Go to every social event you can, chamber meetings, holiday parties, dances, charity events,home shows, wine walks etc.
-Find a biz networking group like BNI or LeTip or a local private version.
-Join the largest community blogs on Facebook and chat it up about everything but carpet cleaning. Use your logo as your avatar and make damn sure your personal page is void of anything not rated PG. Do not talk about politics, sex or religion.
-Join any group of small business owners you can find, city rebuilding, holiday lights or food drives, do all that stuff.
-Go to farmer markets, dances or roller skating night with your company t shirt on.
-Make your logo memorable and easily read.
-Beg, plead and bribe people for reviews, especially Yelp and Facebook.

You'll find in most every community that no other carpet cleaner is doing the in your face social stuff listed above. Why?

Because their either lazy, stupid, shy, ugly, a stutterer, afraid or incapable of public speaking or just a plain goober.

Or all of the above. This industry attracts them like soil to Preload5.





All of the above is way cheaper than EDDM, Groupon or any print marketing, all of which is worthless when it comes to finding loyal clients.

I love this post Mikey.
I think you are more likely to get --great-- customers when you are not working on your business but working on your life.
Being active in your local little league, or coaching kids soccer, or being a visible supporter of your local universities womens basketball team. Anywhere you can come in contact with people. Any activity that brings you together with animal owners (unless you are a VLM guy) has got to be good.

But whatever you do---actually do it well. Don't volunteer to be a soccer coach and then never show up for practice. Big Brothers and Sister, Special Olympics have been excellent places for us to volunteer that while doing good things we also made a great return on our time.

Also when a group asks for donations, give something worthwhile. Don't give a gift that they know you use as an advertizement like 50% off your next cleaning. Go all the way. This coupon is good for $150 toward any regular priced cleaning. Don't make them spend money to get the gift. I cannot count the number of Free Bicycle Tuneups ($59 value) and/or Free xxx Helmet and fitting we have given away.

 

[Mikey P]

Yep, yep, yep..

 

[cobra]

How did you make the jump from a single van to a multi van operation? Was it worth it? What is the biggest learning curve to navigate when bringing on that second van? I'm sort of stuck at a point where I can stay where I am or push the boundaries of growth. I'm at a wall. I would love your input.

That was the hardest thing for me! I am very blessed to have a business partner who is also my wife of 21 years. She is in retail management, so she pays most of the bills at home. This made it easier to step out of my job and into this full time. Originally was just going to be me and my brother and 1 van. That was it! Well I'm a big dreamer, and we decided to go big. We mostly do rentals,/apartment turns so its different for us. Example, miss jones calls and wants her carpet cleaned, you can schedule her for next Friday. When my rentals call you have to meet their move in dead line or they will call someone else. So we had 1 van and 2 people(not me anymore) on it. I was working the business. money was REAL TIGHT! Then with water losses and turns the 1 van couldn't keep up. So we caught a special year end deal from our finance company(no payments for the first 4 months) So we jumped as we had just picked up a local 300 unit complex. We did well that summer, but my bro got a divorce and a new girlfriend and moved to Columbia SC. SO, we had another decision to make. We already had 2 clients in his areas, so we decided to open up our second location. New website, marketing trips, networking,etc. Took us a year to get traction. SO enter in van 3. we caught a deal on a repo and a great deal on 06 e350 low miles. got $16,000 in the whole thing! now hes starting to catch up with my area! My younger brother(20) now wants in and wants to open up a Myrtle Beach location!!! I don't think the scars from being broke to the point where I could barely pay my people will ever leave me.
I have made many mistakes, but we learn and move forward. I'm very stubborn and I don't like to lose!

Now as far as your decision, I can only say this. concentrate on recurring income. commercial, rentals, etc. This will guarantee the income you need each month. That way residential is icing on the cake. Now , was it worth it? TO me YES. This is my family and our chance at a decent life without the corporate world. I guess it just depends on your point of view?!

 

[Nomad74]

That was the hardest thing for me! I am very blessed to have a business partner who is also my wife of 21 years. She is in retail management, so she pays most of the bills at home. This made it easier to step out of my job and into this full time. Originally was just going to be me and my brother and 1 van. That was it! Well I'm a big dreamer, and we decided to go big. We mostly do rentals,/apartment turns so its different for us. Example, miss jones calls and wants her carpet cleaned, you can schedule her for next Friday. When my rentals call you have to meet their move in dead line or they will call someone else. So we had 1 van and 2 people(not me anymore) on it. I was working the business. money was REAL TIGHT! Then with water losses and turns the 1 van couldn't keep up. So we caught a special year end deal from our finance company(no payments for the first 4 months) So we jumped as we had just picked up a local 300 unit complex. We did well that summer, but my bro got a divorce and a new girlfriend and moved to Columbia SC. SO, we had another decision to make. We already had 2 clients in his areas, so we decided to open up our second location. New website, marketing trips, networking,etc. Took us a year to get traction. SO enter in van 3. we caught a deal on a repo and a great deal on 06 e350 low miles. got $16,000 in the whole thing! now hes starting to catch up with my area! My younger brother(20) now wants in and wants to open up a Myrtle Beach location!!! I don't think the scars from being broke to the point where I could barely pay my people will ever leave me.
I have made many mistakes, but we learn and move forward. I'm very stubborn and I don't like to lose!

Now as far as your decision, I can only say this. concentrate on recurring income. commercial, rentals, etc. This will guarantee the income you need each month. That way residential is icing on the cake. Now , was it worth it? TO me YES. This is my family and our chance at a decent life without the corporate world. I guess it just depends on your point of view?!

Awesome. Thanks! This is the specific area where I see guys skip, then they teach how to build a business. Like my friend Howard Partridge. He is really into systems and runs a multi million dollar operation. But I really wanted to tie him down and ask him about his first few years and how he dug out of it. I understand once you get your systems in place, everything becomes scalable and exponential after that.

I want to hear about the specific window of time where a business made the jump from one van, to realeasing a 2nd one into the wild.

 

[Cleanworks]

Being a small potatoe means not having to worry about being cut into french fries..

Small potatoes are best oven roasted with a little Rosemary on top.

 

[Onfire_02_01]

Awesome. Thanks! This is the specific area where I see guys skip, then they teach how to build a business. Like my friend Howard Partridge. He is really into systems and runs a multi million dollar operation. But I really wanted to tie him down and ask him about his first few years and how he dug out of it. I understand once you get your systems in place, everything becomes scalable and exponential after that.

I want to hear about the specific window of time where a business made the jump from one van, to realeasing a 2nd one into the wild.

The systems are the easy part to implement in my opinion, they just make the operation easy. But the growth is never a system, it depends on 1,000 moving parts a year called customers each with a different set of concerns and ideas
Like you said the digging is the part with the most problems and questions. I am still figuring it out.

 

[Mark Saiger]

Good thread everyone.

Looking forward to meeting all of you that can make Mikey's Fest in St. Petersburg Florida.

My brother Kirk Saiger and I are coming to the Fest and we are somewhat small potatoes too...

We are owner operators too.

I have employees (some family some not)

My brother Kirk currently is a lone wolf, but has had employees.

We operate similar and different but have been successful in our markets.

Hope to see you at the Fest so we have and opportunity to learn more from you all too

 

[BIG WOOD]

Not talking to you established, multi-truck giants. I'm wondering who else lurking here runs a small outfit, is trying to learn and deliver great quality and having to buy used, but has dreams?
My company is bootstrapping itself on guts, callous and self-education. We're feeding four households and think this is a craft, not a job. I'd LOVE to hear from some of you other guys in the same boat! What are you doing? What issues are you overcoming? What do you like best about being a cleaner? What motivates you to gear up and do it again? Share a story!

Most of you small potatoes think your business is small, but consider it being bigger than mine. I'm probably the smallest here, just a one man show with barely a part timer jumping in the truck with me about twice a week for every other week. I've been doing it now for 14 years, and I learned most everything the hard way like an ignorant goofy Sumbich.

Just the past 4-5years, I started seeing a good growth with a promising future that I might account to something worth selling in about 20 years

I know it sounds kinda geeky, but I really look forward to landing a job with a type of carpet that'll turn brown carpet into the normal beige color after just two passes, and showing the customer. It really gives me pride in my work, and it gives me something to look forward to every day I crank up my truck.

The main issues I've been wanting to overcome is getting my business large enough to allow my wife to stay at home with the kids full time. Right now, she just was able to go from full time to part time at work back in July of this year, and she's loving it, and that's what motivates me every day. The day she is able to clock out for good, is the day I'll feel like I've succeeded. I might still be working my ass off, but I'll be successful. Hell, my generation won't be able to retire. So maybe by the time I'm 65, I'll be able to manage a good crew under me to do all the wanding

 

[Able 1]

Small potatoes here for sure!! I have 2 vans and one employee..

Going from one van to two, I think is the easiest.. Start with your guy as a helper for as long as it takes for you to feel comfortable with his work, then let him go do some rentals by himself, then start to send him on residential jobs, and see what kind of feed back you are getting...

I have another truck mount for van #3 just waiting to find another guy, and Ill get a van.

 

[Cleanworks]

Matt, I am just the same but with an equipment fetish. I work by myself most of the time and only hire casual employees. I have one main van with a tm, a back up van with a tm and a third truck just waiting for me to install a recently refurbished unit. I have several portables of different sizes and power, a couple of 175's, a zipper, a brush. pro, some power brushes and a ton of misc stuff. Still not done yet. I have my eye on a couple more pieces I think I need. Like you, I enjoy making a difference. Your wife maybe needs to plunge into it. Not just answering the phones, but learning how to market online, keep the day to day books etc. This will allow you more time to get out and make more sales. I am downsizing a bit. I am selling off my old dehu's and fans. Sold 4 power brushes, 1 portable, some older vacuums and am making more space in the shop for more rug cleaning. My project this year is to hire at least one permanent part time employee. We'll see what happens. I have never been motivated by money but as I get older I have more realistic ideas of how much I need. I really don't want to die on a job with a wand in my hand but if it happens that way, well that's the way I lived.

 

[Old Coastie]

Good stuff.