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If You Had to Start Over
#1
Hey everyone, Matthew here. I love the overall positive atmosphere of the board, and research showed me the products, machines, and chemicals at ES are all top notch. I guess you can only read so many posts before you have to personally ask for direction specific to your situation, so I figure I'd throw it out there. I'll try not to be too long and boring, but essentially I'm in a career right now and I'm moving toward retirement. There's no way I'm just going to sit back and relax all day after hustling so long, and given both my wife and myself used to assist our parents in a janitorial company they had put together years back, I was drawn to cleaning, most specifically encap commercial cleaning.

So, essentially time is on my side, so to speak, when it comes to setting things up for a business, and I just want to make sure I do it right. While I'm working now, I plan on getting the tools and marketing materials together to start slowly building up a few commercial accounts, networking, and gaining low moisture experience. Then, even after retirement, my company has a "part time" program where you can retire and go part time with the company (from 8-20 hours a week, your choice), so I can use that as a little bit of a cushion while I continue to build things up slow and steady.

I wanted to pick the brains of the encap pros though, if you had to set things up all over again, what choices for equipment, chemicals, marketing procedures would you make? What if you had $5000 to work with? $10000?

There's a few somewhat no brainers that I've read. The Cimex seems to be the King of the low moisture commercial world. A strong, reliable vacuum with attachments seems like a necessity (luckily I've got all kinds of things laying around from my janitorial assistance days). It looks like there's a whole plethora of chemicals ES makes, as well as pads and bonnets. Any suggestions on what worked well for you on those?

Then, if you wanted to cross into residential it seems the Cimex isn't appropriate. Would an OP be the versatile choice to work toward, or the CRB? What about commercial non-carpeted surfaces?

Anyhow, just some things on my mind. I've got time to get things together the right way, so I just want to make some good choices. Thanks for any information folks.
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#2
Hi Matthew,

Excellent questions. The Cimex is top dog for serious commercial work. With a good encap detergent such as Encap-Clean DS2 - the commercial sector is your oyster. And if you market consistently to that commercial sector you will invariably find many pearls!

An orbital machine such as the VARIO is a nice crossover machine. It plays well in the commercial world, but it can also do quite well in the bonnet cleaning mode in the residential setting if you choose to go down that path too. The BrushEncap CRB machine hits a sweet spot of commercial and residential. We have a very successful carpet cleaner with many years of experience here in our area who uses only CRB machines and Releasit in his residential business. I can't argue with their success! It's working for them as well as others. Selling to the niche of "low moisture" has some advantages.

You seem to be in a nice position. Being able to transition gradually as you retire from your 40 hour job to carpet cleaning will give you flexibility. And as you start yielding $100 plus per hour I think you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner :-)

Welcome to the next adventure of your life. We look forward to coaching you through it. There are a lot of terrific people who frequent this board with loads of experience, so don't hesitate to ask lots of questions. I'm sure I speak for everyone - we wish you success!
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#3
I agree with all that Rick has had to say.

I also thank you for your great questions.

First up, I would buy Ricks' CMS Commercial Marketing System 

Follow that & it's hard to go wrong.


If I was to start over, I'm pretty sure I would give residential a big miss.

Far too many low-ballers going in at ridiculous pricing to compete against, this MAY be different where you live.

Far too many problems with kids & animal urine, plus a multitude of others stains that "no-one has put anything on that stain", excuses.

Major stains in commercial that I have found are coffee, which I think Releasit Encap Hydrox would take care of easily.

With commercial, you can set them up for regular maintenance cleaning, residential it may (if you're lucky), be yearly.

Sure, commercial is generally after hours, but there's no-one there to annoy you, the return on your investment (ROI), is much greater, ie; you can charge more than residential & get finished quicker.

Commercial is usually bigger than residential, so you don't waste time & fuel going from one job to another.

Many other points, but I'm pretty sure you've probably already read them before.

Equipment?? 

1:  Cimex

2:  Vario

3:  CRB, but make sure you get a good quality one that the CRB guys recommend.

4: Solutions??   You can't go past Releasit for consistent quality.

Just my views.

Here's a small job that I did the other night, one hour, just under AU$200.00

Before:

[Image: 20150513_190047_zpscyjggy6m.jpg]

After:

[Image: 20150513_192826_zpsntror1zs.jpg]

Cool
I don't regret my past, I just regret the times I've wasted with the wrong people.
Take me as I am, or watch me as I go.
I'll retire when I can no longer do what I love, or I no longer love what I can do.
Stop moving, start dying........
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#4
Excellent advice! And nice looking picture Shorty. You've ben servicing that account for a long time haven't you? I remember seeing pictures of the red carpet a few years ago too.
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#5
Sounds like a plan. I'll be checking out that CMS for sure. Commercial definitely seems like the way to go, it's kind of funny, but you've mentioned a lot of the same benefits that I think of when I work evenings and nights. Less traffic, less heat (it's 89 degrees where I'm at in Southern Florida right now, and it looks like the Encapman is a Floridian himself, so he can probably agree, in this years season 89 is below average), less 'small talk' with random individuals, and less bargaining. I'd assume when you're dealing with pennies on the square foot, most mid-to-high end businesses will just shrug and consider it a tax write off anyway.

The Cimex seems like a definite buy. If I'm understanding the theory behind the chemicals correctly, DS 2 is your all arounder, Hydrox is for organic stains (coffee/soda), and something like Punch is for when you're dealing with heavy, grease-like soiling?

Also I watched your "how-to" video on the Cimex Rick. Awesome stuff, and I assume not much has changed? I think it was from 2011, but the idea seemed to be:

Light to no apparent soiling: Feather Cimex trigger for one pass.
Moderate soiling: One full trigger Cimex wet pass, followed by one dry pass.
Heavy soiling: Pre-spray, full trigger wet pass, followed by two or three dry passes.

Awesome picture by the way Lounge Lizards, that is one brilliant red carpet.
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#6
(05-16-2015, 01:18 PM)Matthew Wrote: If I'm understanding the theory behind the chemicals correctly, DS 2 is your all arounder, Hydrox is for organic stains (coffee/soda), and something like Punch is for when you're dealing with heavy, grease-like soiling?

Also I watched your "how-to" video on the Cimex Rick.  Awesome stuff, and I assume not much has changed?  I think it was from 2011, but the idea seemed to be:

Light to no apparent soiling: Feather Cimex trigger for one pass.
Moderate soiling: One full trigger Cimex wet pass, followed by one dry pass.
Heavy soiling: Pre-spray, full trigger wet pass, followed by two or three dry passes.


You nailed it Matthew! You sound like a pro already. 
In fact that is the cherry on top with this system - it really is THAT SIMPLE. 

[Image: 3060770360_bc09ec8bfd_z.jpg]
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#7
Correct Rick, I do half a dozen of these Flight Centre stores.

Picked up my first one about 14 years ago & the others soon followed.

I have my own keys for each store & simply pencil them into my iPad in advance & do them when due.

They are all done on a particular night, most I do two in the one night, most travel is 15 minutes between the two farthest stores.

Simple.

Matthew, I can relate well to the heat as I also live in the tropics. Big Grin 

AND LOVE IT !!!

Cool
I don't regret my past, I just regret the times I've wasted with the wrong people.
Take me as I am, or watch me as I go.
I'll retire when I can no longer do what I love, or I no longer love what I can do.
Stop moving, start dying........
  Reply
#8
Rick and Shorty covered all the fine points and I agree with all of them but thought i'd bring up a couple of things.
1. I started in my mid 50's after retiring from another job also, doing both commercial and residentiaL in
Atl, Ga. I found residential during the summer takes a lot out of you , I mean ALOT. I quickly decided commercial
was the way to go. It doesn't give you a lot of walking around money but once you. Build up your customer list the checks come in regularly.
2. For me it was a much easier sell, as i'm very comfortable meeting with high levels in accounts and selling to them in residential everybody is spending tons of money trying different programs to get business along with 300 other cleaners. I found it's best to target accounts schedule a meeting and try and get their business.
no doubt this is the best thing i've done and it's worked out extremely well. Now I have a couple of trustworthy, good people doing the work and I handle the customer end and invoicing and it's like having a real nice pension. Been doing that for two years while travel around in our rv seeing the country.
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#9
(05-15-2015, 02:09 PM)Matthew Wrote: I wanted to pick the brains of the encap pros though, if you had to set things up all over again, what choices for equipment, chemicals, marketing procedures would you make?  What if you had $5000 to work with?  $10000? 

if i had to start all over again:

$5000: i'd buy a used Cimex for a couple grand and a CHEAP used van for a couple grand. the last grand would be for auto insurance, a used Dyson DC07 off of Craigslist
(or other upright vac with a wand from Walmart,) 1 case of DS and a few lettered polo shirts and biz cards.

$10000: i'd buy a new Cimex and a used van in a bit better shape for $6000...the last grand would buy the same as above.


Then, if you wanted to cross into residential it seems the Cimex isn't appropriate.  Would an OP be the versatile choice to work toward, or the CRB?  What about commercial non-carpeted surfaces?

for resi i'd do OP only, i'd look at the Vario and a separate sprayer. Big Grin
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#10
If I could start over I would have bought my Cimex from excellent supply. Not just because the package they offer is unbeatable. It is because they genuinely care about your success in the industry. I feel when ever you make a purchase with excellent supply. They are happy that you are running a successful operation using their products. I'd rather give my money to someone who cares about my business. I am a customer not an account number. I am treated like a valued customer every time with excellent supply.
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#11
Thanks a bunch for the new answers. Looks like I'll be in a decent position to get things going. I've got the vacuum portion covered since I still have a bunch of janitorial stuff laying around, and I don't have a van, rather a truck with a topper, but I figure it will still get the job done.
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#12
You're easily on your way. A truck with topper is fine. A decent commercial vacuum is a necessity. Now all you need is a Cimex (on sale currently), and a small portable like the Gecko for upholstery and spotting. You can get more toys as you go forward, but this will at least kick the door open and get you started.

P.S. A copy of the CMS marketing program comes as a free gift with our Cimex package, so that will help you get started with the marketing too. Smile
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