HOW TO START YOUR OWN CARPET CLEANING BUSINESS


There are two fairly new, and very important conditions
existing in the world today that have not only made the carpet
cleaning industry a "billion dollar business," but also
practically guarantee your success as an entrepreneur in this
field.

First, almost all homes and office buildings built since 1960
have wall-to-wall carpeting. Secondly, the replacement costs and
the cyclical faltering of the national economy have caused people
to want to make what they already own last longer, especially in
the case of carpeting, which is a sizeable investment.

Most businesses employ janitors or janitorial services to
vacuum their carpets after hours daily, and then "master" carpet
cleaners to deep-clean them every three months or so. Homemakers
also generally vacuum their carpets perhaps several times a week,
and then hope to deep-clean every spring or fall, depending on the
kind of household traffic, and on their budgets.

It's true that people everywhere try to save money by handling
these jobs themselves. However, empathy with the people, and an
understanding of this trend, should be neither cause for alarm nor
a deterrent to your success in this business.

Most people are just too busy to handle all their do-it-
yourself projects. They continually put off until later any chore
that requires special equipment . This is especially true with
carpet cleaning, because deep down, they're fearful of botching
the job. Thus, they're more than willing to pay an expert or a
specialist to do this kind of work for them

It doesn't take any special education, skill or experience to
operate a professional-type, deep-cleaning carpet cleaner. Yet,
from, your first job onward, you should project the image of a
thoroughly experienced expert in your field. And, we're going to
show you how you can get started in this business, and make $300
or more per working day, with virtually no investment!

The important part of this business - or any other business -
is the owner-operator's "sense of marketing" and salesmanship.
Make no mistake about it, all businesses succeed through marketing
strategies and salesmanship. You won't be selling a product with
this business; you'll be selling a service. And the selling of
services is often more difficult than product sales.

Your success in this business will be predicated upon the
sales effort put forth. Getting if off the ground will require a
great deal of selling expertise on your part. You'll have to sell
yourself AND your services.

Therefore, it will be to your benefit to learn all you can
about selling. Then, you should continue to add to your knowledge
through an ongoing program of learning. Keeping up to date and
being aware of successful selling ideas and methods will add to
the total success of any business person.

Even before the acquisition of equipment, you need customers.
Your prospects are all the businesses and homes with carpets in
your area. Your problem is going to be in reaching these
prospects, impressing upon them the benefits of your service, and
getting them set up with an appointment for you to do the work.

We have found that the least expensive and most productive
method of reaching these people is by way of neighborhood "hand-
out" flyers or announcements, delivered door-to-door by Brownies
or Cub Scouts, or members of other youth organizations. These
flyers are advertisements or announcements of a "Carpet Cleaning
Special," printed on 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 sheets of paper that invite
the recipients to call you for an appointment.

Study the carpet cleaning service ads in your local
newspapers, the yellow pages of your telephone directories, and
any similar flyers you may have received or seen. Make a pencil
sketch of your own flyer, emphasizing customer benefits and your
capabilities of doing the job take your ideas to the advertising
class at a local college. Explain your project and ask for
volunteer help. In most cases, you'll be favorably impressed with
the work, and will only have to pay with a copy of the finished
flyer for the students portfolio, and a recommendation or
testimonial about his work for you. Even if there should be a
charge for the work you have done at the college, it will be a
reasonable one.

Contracting with an advertising agency will probably take
longer and will cost a significant amount of money. However, you
might be able to contact a staff member who does free-lance work
on the side. But you should set a specific date for completion of
the project, and agree to pay no more than half the total
estimated cost until the job is finished, and meets with your
approval.

The next step is to take this original of your flyer to a
printer, and have printed whatever number of copies you want to
start. Most quick print shops will be able to print up to 20,000
copies, and deliver in a reasonable time, with nominal costs. If
you decide to start with more than 20,000 copies, you will do
better by going to a regular commercial printer. Larger
quantities that would take a quick print shop all day can be
handled by a commercial print shop in a few hours.

While your flyers are being printed, you should be lining up
your delivery people - local Brownie or Cub Scout Troops. No big
problem here. Either look up their local headquarters office in
your phone book or call a friend or two with children about the
right age and ask for the name and phone number of troop leaders.
Arrange to pay these scout troops $10 for each thousand circulars
they hand out door-to-door.

One other thing before you start handing out your flyers - be
sure that you have someone available to answer the phone and set
up appointments for you. It's usually best to have a woman do
this; it makes the caller think of your service as an established
business. You can pay an answering service to handle these calls
for you, but if your wife or a friend is available, that would be
even better. It is, however, imperative that a "live voice"
answer your phone. People have some strange ideas about answering
machines, and most businesses find they do much better not using
them.

Your "secretary" should have a set pattern of answering your
calls, and an appointment book. Usually, your flyer will
advertise a special such as "Your living room carpet deep-cleaned
for just $20. Get all the ground-in dirt and unpleasant odors
out. A professional job by experienced master carpet cleaners,
and we can do it all for you tomorrow. Give us a call; set up a
carpet cleaning appointment with us now; and we'll have your home
sparkling clean, ready for company in no time at all!" This
special offer should take you no more than an hour in the
customer's home, meaning that your secretary can book appointments
for you at the rate of one every ninety minutes or less, depending
on the travel distance between appointments.

By setting your first appointment for 8:30 in the morning, and
working thorough the whole day, allowing 30 minutes between
appointments, you'll be able to handle seven appointments per day.
At $20 per call, you will gross $140 per day. Your secretary
should book you solid from 8:30 through 5:30 each day. Naturally,
some people may want you to stop by at a certain time that's
already booked. In that case, you set them up for their re
quested time on an open day. You'll also find that as you gain
experience, you can cut down considerably the time it takes you to
handle each job, as well as your travel time between jobs,
enabling you to book more appointments.

Just as soon as you have job appointments lined up, hurry over
to your local carpet cleaner distributor, your local rent-all
store, or even some super markets and rent a steam-clean carpet
cleaner. Most of the time, you won't have to pay until you return
it, but even if you do have to pay at the time you take it, the
cost is usually $25 or less for twenty-four hours. Read the
directions and make sure you know how to operate it. Then load it
into your car, van or pickup, and set out for your first appointment.


You should bear in mind that carpet cleaning is a type of
service business that takes you into the homes of your customers.
Therefore, how you look, dress, and handle yourself - particularly
in the presence of your customers - will have a direct bearing on
the success of your business.

Be clean, and conduct yourself in a business like manner
at all times. Dress neatly. In fact, one of the best ways to get
off to a fast start is to purchase a working uniform from Sears,
Ward's or Penney's. Drop by a "pennant shop" and have them make
up a special oval name tag which can be sewn over the left breast
pocket. At the same time, have them make up a large oval with the
name of your business and your phone number to sew on the back of
the uniform. When you hire people to help you with the work,
outfit them similarly.

Go out of your way to be polite and friendly with your
customers, but refrain from being fresh. Avoid getting involved
in extended conversations - if you are to keep on schedule, you
won't have time for a lot of talk.

Keep your equipment clean, properly maintained, and operating
smoothly. Have your supplies organized and within easy reach.
Don't allow yourself to be caught in a position where you have to
make excuses because the equipment won't function properly, you
can't find what you need, or you suddenly find yourself out of
certain supplies.

When working these advertising specials, just concentrate on
doing the job and moving on to your next customer. If the
customer questions you about the cost to do the other rooms, give
an estimate and set up a tentative appointment, which you should
later confirm with a call-back after checking your schedule.
Don't try to sell your complete carpet cleaning services on this
first call, but do be sure to leave a business card with the name
of your company and your phone number.

Your service is the "deep-down shampoo cleaning" of carpeting
in your customers' homes or places of business. Always strive to
use the best equipment that's available. Later on - possibly in a
month or six weeks - you'll want to buy or lease your own
equipment. Your business will grow and flourish as a result of
your doing a good and complete job every time. It may take you a
few minutes longer - especially when you are learning the
equipment and establishing a procedure - but in the end this will
pay off with satisfied customers; and a group of satisfied
customers is the key to your becoming wealthy in this business.

You want your customers to call you again and again to clean
their carpets. Being pleased with your work, they'll spread the
word about your service for you, free of charge! And this, of
course, will generate an almost unlimited amount of ongoing work
for your new business.

The average price to the customer to have a 12 by 18 foot
wall-to-wall carpet "shampoo cleaned" is about $50. Your
materials to do that size job will cost about $5.

The typical job involves more than just one room, and the
average period of time spent on the typical job is about two
hours, with an average billing to the customer of $75 - materials
for each $75 job cost you about $10 all of which means that with
just five appointments per day, five days per week, your gross
income before expenses will be approaching $2,000 per week.

Most people who set up carpet cleaning businesses manage to
gross $50,000 or more the first year. We've described to you how
to get started with virtually no real investment. However, we do
advise you to either purchase or lease your own carpet cleaning
equipment just as soon as you can possibly afford it.

Several equipment manufacturers have financing plans
available. It would be well to check out several of these plans
before purchasing your equipment. Even better than the financing
plans offered, some of the manufacturers have business start-up
programs to help you along the way. They will provide you with a
complete carpet cleaning business plan, numerous advertising
materials, a regular newsletter featuring business ideas from all
the buyers of their equipment, and low cost supplies.

Before actually starting work in your carpet cleaning
business, you should register your business or company name with
your county clerk. The cost for this is nominal, and you will
receive a registration certificate or card, which you will need to
open a bank account in your company name. You should also talk to
a few business insurance agents to get complete business
insurance against damage to any of your customers' carpets or
accidents in their homes. Being able to state "All work fully
insured," will greatly add to your business image.

Think seriously about buying or leasing a van for your service
calls. A uniform with the name of your company emblazoned on the
back, plus a late model van with your company name neatly painted
on the side will do just about as much to build your image and
your business as a full page advertisement in the Sunday paper.

On the subject of advertising, so long as you don't erect a
sign on your front lawn or your roof, proclaiming for all the
world to see the fact that your operating a carpet cleaning
business, you won't have any problems operating your business from
your home. Sooner or later though, you'll have to buy a City or
county business license. So, the sooner you do this and are
approved by the licensing agency in your area, the better you're
going to feel and the more confidence you'll exude in all your
business dealings.

Definitely plan to run a quarter page ad in your local
business and telephone directories. You'll really be surprised at
the number of calls you get from these ads. At least in the
beginning, you should run a regular ad in your newspaper. This
should be a display ad, at least 2 columns wide by 4 inches deep,
and should appear in your Wednesday and Thursday papers. As you
become established, it won't be necessary to run more than an ad
every other week in your Wednesday papers and before the holidays
such as Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas, when people always
want to spruce up their residences.

Radio or television advertising really doesn't pull that well
for this kind of business when you compare the costs to the number
of jobs you get from it. I would suggest, however, that you
contact these media and try for a trade or barter agreement. You
clean their carpets on a regular basis, and they allow you to
store up advertising credit to use in the spring and fall when
people are really serious about spring cleaning, and Thanksgiving
and Christmas preparations.

It's also recommended that you register as a "probationary
member" of your Chamber of Commerce. This will add prestige to
your business, and enable you to associate on equal terms with the
various other business leaders in your community. Joining and
attending civic club meetings, participating in their causes and
events, will also result in long-range business income for you.

Something else to keep in mind: Get the word about your being
in business out to the people in your area. Get the Chamber of
Commerce to mention you in their newsletter; send "blurbs" about
your business and service to all your area newspapers, TV and
radio stations; arrange to put on an all-day demonstration of your
work on the carpeting in the covered mall areas in your city's
shopping centers, and hand out brochures to all the people
watching; rent a booth and hand out brochures at all the home
building, remodeling, and home improvement shows. Do the same
thing at your county fair, and hold seminars on the care of fine
carpets. The ideas for free publicity and promotion are
limitless, so use your imagination and Push" to get your name in
the paper and on radio and TV as often as possible.

There's always going to be competition. Some of it will be
good for you, and some of it will be bad for you. Accept it as a
part of life. Just keep in mind that you're in business because
you feel you can do a better job; you can do it more efficiently;
and you can do it with greater satisfaction to your customers than
anyone else. Be aware of the competition, but don't worry about
it. Just stick to your own business plan, and you'll be okay.

Depending on the population of your area, you should be
planning for additional carpet cleaning machines and the hiring of
people to do the work for you within three to six months - that
is, unless your original motive for a business of your own was to
see how fast you could work yourself to death. Assuming that all
goes well with you, within a couple of years you should have
"hired help" running the business while you enjoy the fruits of
all the hard work you put in at the outset.

I personally don't see the need for you to even consider
buying a franchised operation. There's just too much real help
available for the "independent" to go to the considerable expense
and obligation of a franchise. Starting from scratch, and as an
independent, this is most assuredly a low-investment, low-overhead
type business - the kind we recommend for anyone and everyone
who's determined to make it on his own.

A carpet cleaning business of your own is one of the easiest
of all small businesses to start. You'll find the initial start-
up costs well within your reach, and the margin of profit most
astounding! It's an easy business to operate, and yet one that
can be called necessary to today's standard of living. It carries
a very high rating on all business evaluation stability charts,
and it's a business that will grow rapidly to bring you the
monetary rewards you desire.


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