Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
With all of the concserns over po box and other mailing offices what do you do. We have used a postal service from the beggining 12 years ago. It looks like a suite number and reg office on paper. I have not nor will I ever use my home address. Every once in a while it pops up and is a pain to get taken off. With how easy it is to use google maps and having a family I do not share this info. We also have multiple territories in two different counties. With out using a listing we will not show up at all. I Have always had ggood placement in my main location using our buisness address.
Thank you. We have recieved 2 online estimates this week. It has been months since we have had any traffic from corp. web site.
I just recieved my square. I will report back how it is going in a month or two. Easy to get and set up. Also Free and no contract. We will still run cc from office that my techs recieve.
I have never used a pile lifter, but if I found one for the right price I would take it for sure. From what I remember about them they are really good for comercial carpet. It will get 10x more dirt out of the carpet then a regular conquest. Just like the Buffer more weight is a good thing. The brushes are much bigger and all bristles. I am venturing into more traditional comercial accounts and it is on my santa list.
We give away a gift box to all of our customers. The Box is from uline and looksto me like a red monopoly hotel. In it we have a small spotter, white towel, spotter chart, biz card, and 2 pairs of booties. On the out side we have a ribbon with a HB thank you post card. The tech signs it before giving to the customer. The customers love them and the guys seem to get more tips than they used to. I think the total cost is around $2.75 each. As a side note my wife would not let me put a HB sticker on the outside. She said some stupid thing about re-gifting boxes. I being the marketing genius thought she did not understand branding. Just my luck the first box I presented to my customer without sticker was thrilled and she was so happy due to a party she was going to and she was going to use the box for her gift. Always listen to your target audience.
I had a rug start to shrink on me and dry uneven once. I have a large area in my shop that I nailed tackstrips to concret and stretched the carpet wet until completly dry. It worked and I was relieved that I pulled it out.
The radio spot did well for us. It took over two months for the phone to start ringing. We stopped a few months back due to cost and so many jobs for other franchises that I am not able to afford to cover the cost. We are still getting calls from the radio station two months later. Our cost ran around $1050 a month. Kind of hard to pay that much when I have to refer out 30-40 percent of them.
I am always the last to know. Cody called me today and mentioned it and I had not even heard it. I think that takes it up to 6 or 7 magazines so far. The only thing I like better then hearing it from Cody and Dave is when my arch nemesis Bob from Excell sees it. It is kind of hard to bad mouth us and say we are a small time no nothing company that makes our chemicals in a garage when these keep popping up.
This weekend I rebuilt one of my vacuums. It sounded like the motor was going out. It had been laying to the side in the shop for over a year. I replaced the fan, top, decals, rubber, and brush. It now works and sounds like it did the first day I got it. I am now going to refurbish all of the vacuums I have.
Thank you Cody for helping me out with the proper way to handle this. I think that I am more surprised then anyone how this is turning out. I will believe it when it is finally over but this is the email I received today.
Greg,
Wow! Apparently I didn’t realize what the contract stated. I haven’t read it in nearly 6 years. At this point we are not interested in running or maintaining it, so if we could call it even when you or another operator picks up the equipment that would be great. We could move on and you would have the area, phone numbers and client base. You can transfer the lines when you are ready. They are currently two different cell phones with Verizon. I think that you have to have your telephone company call ours and initiate the transfer.
Ron
I have drafted a letter to the operator and sent it out today. I will post his offer to me and then my response. I hope that this can bring an end to the problem I am having, but I am not holding my breath on this. Decided to do it by the book and take a firm stance. I had already offered to help him find buyers for equipment and just turn back over the customer lists and phones. If he did that I would forgive all past debts and he could walk away clean with about $1200 in his pocket. He decided to not go for that and wants more.
Date: Wednesday, September 1, 2010, 11:28 AM
Greg,
I talked to Renee and we would be willing to turn over the business/phone numbers for one of the following:
The back fees we owe you waived and $250 per month for 24 months plus $250 for Verizon account termination or
the back fees we owe you waived and 25% of the sales price of a new non-discounted franchise plus $250 for Verizon account termination or
the back fees we owe you waived and $4,000 upfrontThere is a contract on each phone number and to cancel, is $125 each with Verizon. To eliminate our minute usage, I have turned the forwarding off of the phones.
Ron Hollingsworth
This is my responce to his counter offer
September 3,2010
Ron,The offers that you are suggesting are not going to work. I understand that you are moving in a new direction with your career choices, and we wish you and Renee the best in your new endeavors, but if you still want to close down completely and not renew contracts there are some contractual items that you may not be aware of. I have listed the sections of the contract that pertains to closing or expiring a franchise. These can be found in your original contracts. Section 4 in the Sub-Franchise agreement states that upon termination or expiration of the contract all documents and customer lists shall be turned over to Sub-licensor and Operator shall have no rights to use or benefit from the same. Section 16 in the contract states that the Operator agrees to return all materials supplied listed in schedule “A” which have not been dispersed. Schedule “A” is all cleaning supplies, manuals, and equipment that was received from M-CO inc. In Section 19 it states that the operator shall notify all telephone companies of the termination or expiration of Licensee’s rights to Heaven’s Best business. Operator shall transfer all phone numbers to Sub-licensor used by operator in the operation of Heaven’s Best operations. Section 21 states the non compete agreement for a term of two years from the end of the contract.
As of right now you are $1040 behind in past franchise fees. I am willing to accept the return of all items in schedule “A” and compliance with all contractual obligations as a release of all financial obligations that are past due. All logos and graphic related Items will need to be taken off the van that you own. I also will need you to sign a final termination letter to release any further obligations. I can make arrangements for pick up of all equipment in a timely manner.
You still have the option of renewing your contracts thus rendering your financial obligations current. This would give you the opportunity to either work and build your business or still try to sell your territory and equipment to another prospective buyer. Any sale of the franchise would have to include training and a complete set of working equipment and supplies. As of now you have not renewed contracts and therefore are not able to sell the franchise or equipment. Now that your phones are not being answered or forwarded it makes it harder to find a prospective buyer for you. On August 1st the franchise royalty fees went from $320 a month up to $400 per month and was reflected in the contracts that were sent out in July. This was due to the population of city of Maricopa 35,000 and the city of Casa Grande 43,878 exceeding the 75k population mark. An additional royalty fee went into effect according to section 2 of the original contract. Any new prospective buyer would have to be made aware of these royalty fees and agree to the same terms. Either way you wish to proceed I will need to know so as to make the proper arrangements. I have included the Termination letter attached to this email that Corporate sent me. I will also mail you a copy by the end of this week. In the termination letter it refers to the outstanding royalty fees. I can have them rewrite this to take that out and have everything current if you choose to adhere to the terms listed above.
Greg Miller
Heavens Best of Arizona State OwnerGood luck with getting this account. It is very common for apartments to want a one stop shop for the carpet needs. The good news is that we have the ability to be that company. I know that there are some tutorials that are now on the site for some minor repairs and carpet dye. If you have the tools and the dye it is a good time to get some practice. We have been servicing apartments for 10+ years now. I take it for granted all of the repairs that we do. Most of my employees are proficient at most repairs within the first 1-2 months. If you need more hands on training the take a class on repairs. The carpet dye is not worth taking a class. Johns tutorial is just as good as any class I have ever sat in on. You walk away confused and they tell you to get some scrap carpet and practice on your own. This is where you actually learn to dye. For the most part just remember Violet is the color to turn bleach back to tan. This is the color we use 95% of the time in apartments. The Apartments are going to want you to handle flood work as well. This is usually small leaks and over filled sinks. They have classes on this as well. What area and state are you in? As far as Pricing goes give me your fax, or email and I will send you mine. This can give a good guide to what we do. Apartments are a numbers game. You don’t make much on each one, but they add up fast. The carpet cleaning has the smallest margins. The repairs, wax, red stains, and small floods is where you really make the profit.
We are still negotiating a reasonable solution to this problem. Thank you for you input Ron and Gordon. I am also very thankful to Cody for his guidance in this. I have been learning a lot in the last two weeks and is nice to get all points of view. We are nowhere close to resolving the issue completely. What I have done is cut him off from Heavensbest.com. This is so that he can’t post on bulletin board, and so that he can’t place any orders online to stock up before he ships out. I had his landing page changed over to his neighbors information. This way anyone who is trying to find him online gets redirected. We have a website heavensbestaz.com that we are currently changing the information as I type. The good news is that his only advertising is web based, and gets directed to these two sites. I am trying to be diplomatic with him, but his counter offers are not acceptable. He has now turned his message off and cut off phone #s. He is out of contract and the more I look at it the more I feel that this was a blessing to send him on his way. I will update any new changes as they unfold. I would still like to here from other state owners who have been through this or are thinking they might be soon.
We use the dirt napper on all most every job. It is very important that we have them cleaned everyday. We will hose them down with regular garden hose and then use the comb to clean them. After cleaning with comb rinse with hose and done. Sometimes we might repeat a few times if really bad. I think some might be confused on how to use the comb, or I just have been doing it wrong this whole time and got lucky to find that it works. Tip the buffer over on it’s side and put the dirt napper on just like you were going to clean. Turn on buffer and use the comb to clean while it is turning. Warning stand to the side or you will be sorry as stuff comes flying. I found over the years that rinsing it before middle and end cleans much better. This is a more important treason to stand out of the way as you turn it on. I don’t unwind the entire cord when doing this and I have it going over the handle so that when I turn on buffer the cord locks the buffer on. If we are on a job and are in need of a serious cleaning it is off to the car wash. I used to use a power washer, but we don’t have great access to water at my shop, and so this works almost as good.
While posting this I decided that next week I will video the process and post it. TI have not heard of him or his company he works for. WhoKnowsAGuy.com . It sounds intriguing enough to look into it, but the price is on the high side. I will give him a call and see what they are all about. The things that he is including is very important and is just what we all can use. I think that at some point I might hire an employee to take over the internet marketing for me. All most everything that they are going to do for you is free if you want to do it yourself. The problem is knowing how and having the time to do it. Very few carpet cleaning companies are really going full force with the internet and that leaves a big opportunity for us to get in now. It is not enough to have a web site any more. I will get back to you when I find out more about them.
