should i stay or should I go

Carpet Cleaning in my town is very competitive. There are about 80 or 90 companies and every spring I see 10 to 15 new carpet cleaning vans running around and by winter most are gone.

I used to work for Servpro, Coit & Color Master carpet cleaning. Servpro makes most of their money in water & fire damage. Coit is also a national company. I was friends with the owner and he said he was barely making $5 an hour, he worked 12 to 15 hours a day. He has since sold it and moved to California. Color master is a local company who’s been around for 30 years. He said when he started they did very well. But as more and more people got into the business, his business went down and down. His son now runs it and they just barley get by. A one man operation is just another job for the owner.

I’m not saying you can’t make good money in carpet cleaning but you need to have 3 to 5 vans running full time if you want to make a 6 figure income. It’s just another saturated market that people think they can get into easily, but to sustain it is a lot of work.

Thank You,
Jason Hatchett

Thanks for the help guys.
Kind of what I figured ... lots of competition. I also know that many newcomers to the business basically work themselves right out of business by under-pricing just to get jobs. This is a dangerous environment to try to compete with ... especially if you are just starting out and do not have a solid reputation in the field.
I really do appreciate the input, Jason and Gordon.
Robert

Originally Posted by Robert J.

Thanks for the help guys.
Kind of what I figured ... lots of competition. I also know that many newcomers to the business basically work themselves right out of business by under-pricing just to get jobs. This is a dangerous environment to try to compete with ... especially if you are just starting out and do not have a solid reputation in the field.
I really do appreciate the input, Jason and Gordon.
Robert

Lots of comp only means lots of money to be made (one way or another)!

First let me state that if you are waiting for someone to push you into it, put your dough somewhere else as it appears you have led yourself to water and want someone to make you drink.....
We all know that this is not how the story goes.......


If you dive in, how do you plan on carving your slice of the pie?
Do you have a plan on that will help you cut your piece of the pie?


If I have misread you and you really want in to the biz, I suggest that you get the clients first before investing in the equipment.

I noticed that you feel people fail because they lowball for work.

If they lowball, the only Service they are providing is doom for themselves as well as the folks they are to be SERVING. I say so what, the people that want the lowballers are not the folks you want to deal with anyway. They will be more headaches than they are worth and are not likely to be return clients.

Cleaning carpets can be profitable without putting several vehicles on the road, you just need to define the PROFITABLE segment of the market you want to serve and provide the best SERVICE they have ever had.

In a SERVICE business, your job is to provide a SERVICE to your clients, if you deliver a valuable SERVICE, they will tell a few people.

On the Flip, if you provide a POOR SERVICE they will tell everyone.

Best wishes,
Jason