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After a day of thinking I figure we should have a topic called chemicals. Then in that section a list of all of the chemicals HB offers. The operaters that have a lot of experience can share like in Vegas. ANd if you are new you can teach us old timers a thing or to. We did not have half the products in training seven years ago when I went to training..
Dave yes I am covered, no I would not turn in a claim unless we burnt a house down. A small claim 5 thousand or less is not worth it. The rates will go up. I was teaching the repair class in the other room so I have not seen our new method. But with anything there is a learning curve at first, and always take percautions. I once left an iorn on a red stain to long and it pulled some of the dye out. I was able to fix it. That does not mean that I would stop taking red stains out, I am just more informed now. By adding on small things to a buisness like repairs, or dye you can add big $$$ to your year end. I figure I probably have made over $30,000 a year doing this. THat comes out to $210,000 since I have been in buisness. The cost of the carpet that I bought was at an apartment and my cost was $800.00 five years ago. Since then I have done over $12000.00 a year just at this one apartment comunity. I hope this makes sence. Repairs, dye, woodfloors, leather, ect.. all of these are choices for you to think about But not mandatory. What works for me might not work for someone else.
I have been dying carpet for about three years. My price always depends on the situation. My min is 20.00. If I am doing multiple spots the price drops quickly per spot. I look at it as the same way we have trip charges. If I am called to clean a 5×5 room only I am going to charge $75.00 If there neighbor calls to have two reg size rooms cleaned it is $80.00. We give discounts for multi rooms and services all the time. The truth of the matter is that set up is what takes the longest. Neutralizing the bleach on two or ten spots does not take that much more. Same goes for mixing the right dye bath. once you have it right you can do multi spots all the same. For me if they have one small spot (dime)it is $25.00. If they dribbled ten small spots it might be $75.00. The more you do the faster you are.
Dying carpet is the fastest way to realy screw up someones carpet. Take percautions to not spill the dye and always mix in a very safe area. I have only had to buy one carpet in 7 years and it was due to an accident where I dropped and broke a quart of carpet mill red dye bottle.
I have had houses that had fifty to a hundred very small drips from the house cleaners. All the bleach was on the tips of the fiber. I used my handy carpet scissors(available next month), and cut just the very tips off. I charged $80.00 and had a customer for life. Took me only five minutes.Good Luck
Mike I am sorry for the above comments. I know you try to come off possitive, and there is nothing wrong with being politicaly correct. I was having my own little moment.
I guess I was trying to say that the manual as good as it is is not the Bible. There are different circumstances that come up that might not be the norm. Sometimes the greatest lessons learned stem from our own experiences good and bad. I wish you all the best and good luck with the hotel cleaning your input in Las Vegas will be missed.There are many different types of leather grades on the market that have a wide range of quality. The Dyes themselves that are used can be the difference. The best thing is to always test a small area.
As for the flood gates Mike I think that if you are expecting some feedback than you already know that you tend to let it be known that you really really like to read up on the procedure manual, and you have corperate on speed dial. You seem to be very PC when it comes to comments. I think that it is great that you have not had any complaints. You must be better than Brian Sutton he had his first one and it only took 1700 customers. I personaly think that you just have not been around long enough to have a humbling experience that Brian sounds like he is going through. I know that I have.Thanks dave but it is not poly. I know that it can be done, and they have had it done in the past. What I am looking for is feedback on how wood floor is going for the rest of you. It would be nice to here from some guys that have more experience day in and day out. Then we should come up with a more in depth training.
THe Ozone machine is very complicated to explain , but here it goes. It electricaly charges the oxygen that is in the air and splits the oxygen molecule. Once a molecule is split it becomes unstable. In turn it will attatch itself to something else. if you have a bad odor you can change the moleculare structue by adding an extra oxygen to it. I have never heard of any that spray a liquid . A true ozone is plugged in and left. These are simple, easy, makes lots of money, and by the way can be deadly if used impropper. Once the oxygen is split the becomes and attatches else where it leaves no oxygen for us to breath. That is why no one can enter in to the room, while ozone is in process. Once you are done open up some windows and doors and give it five minutes.
This is such a small over view on ozone but I hope it helps.
Going back to the original post you need to get rid of the urine in the carpet and pad before you do anything. A wise man told me once ” you have to remove the skunk before you can remove the smell”.Jeff good luck with the new employee, I know how hard it is to find them. I think you realy need to sit down and go over all of your finances before you do something that ends up killing your buisness. What is your proffit margin per month in %. This has to include everything from chemicals to insurance and dont forget advertising and fuel. Find out what your work comp is going to run you and payroll. You might find that you really wont be making very much in the end. I have never done the commision thing with any of my guys. I dont want to give them any reason to oversell or over charge. I will give bonuses based on performance. We also treat them very well. Always give them a trial period with review before they become a full time employee. Last think big. Where are you wanting to be in one/two/five years down the road. The bigger you are the smaller the profit margin becomes. You might have to hire more people in the future. Once you set a pay rate you cant go back and change it.
I am just trying to think of all the things that coud go wrong. Good luck with the new guy and I hope that your buisness really goes through the roof because of it.I just took the old logos off of one of my vans. I am very lucky that an uninsured motorist with out a licences side swiped the entire drivers side of the van. The entire side had to be replaced, and one of the back doors. Why do I call myself lucky ? I only had to remove only half the logos, and my uninsured motorist is paying for the new logos to be installed this week. It still took me three hours to four hours. I bought a heat gun from the paint department at home depot. Get 3-5 plastic scrapers, large goofoff, towels, and some beer you are in for the long haul. I suggest starting with the clouds and the smaller lettering. The large lettering (where I started) is false advertising. It comes off pretty easy. All in all it was not that bad. Or that might just be the goofoff talking. I am sure glad that lady hit the van with the old logos, and not the new ones.
Good luckI have never been one that was afraid to question. I want to take a look into things in depth before I just jump in. There is nothing wrong with questioning things that will effect my buisness. Sometimes things that sound like complaining and whinning are legidiment concerns. I agree that there are times that it goes to far. I read this forum at least six times a week just to see what things are brought up, and how does it effect me. I understand what Jeff is saying in that While I care about me and my investment, a state owner is more concerned about the entire state. For good reason the state is your investment. I ordered my logos this week for one of my vans, and I am concerned with the problems that others have encountered. $1200 might not be that much for some but to others it is. I myself am looking at around $4000 due to the fact that we have three vans, and need to change over 6 employees work shirts. This is in fact a lot of money
Cody could you give us an update to all the changes. I am about to order a sign package and I dont have the time to dink around with sign o rama if they are not producing superior service in a timely mannor. I alos am curious about the shirts and uniform update. I read great feedback posted, but it seems to be coming from the state owners, and not as many from the city guys. Just looking for some update on whats working and what might need tweeking in the new image era
Robert I feel for you in this long wait time. This should be the most exciting time for you in starting your adventure in Heavens Best. Unfortionatly it sounds like it has been nothing but heart ache. Cut your lossses in down time and drive down to the nearst dealership. There are always deals to be made and you should look for someone who wants, and appreciates your buissness. Two weeks ago ford was running a 0% financing upto 72 months on there fleet of cargo vans. I don’t know what they have going on today, but the HB GMC deal never sounded that great to me from the beggining.
Today is the fourth day that I have worn the new shirt. I have been meeting alot of clients and marketing this last week. I went to 8 new apartment complexes and at least 20 current accountsin the past week. I thought I would try out the new look and see how well it was recieved. I bought a blue short sleeve shirt to test out. I said nothing to my new clients, but told my existing ones that I was running a test of a new uniform for the company and asked what they thought. This is what I experienced.
Every single person noticed the new shirt right away. Everyone loved the new logo on the front. I had comments like nice shirt, I love the new logo and so on.
I the asked If I should go with the new shirt or if it needed any changes. That Is when people started picking me apart. The logo on this shirt pulls from around the edge so that it looks a little wrinklled. If they did notice the sleave they seemed not to care for it. I had two managers refer to it as a nascar pit crew look. I was asked by at least 6 managers “why only one sleave. It does not make sense.”
On some of the visits I had some cleaning to do. This is when I found out the hard way that they absolutly do not breath!!! When I went back to the office this was brought to my attention By the half dark half light blue uniform. I started taking it off in vacant apartments to save the humiliation. Yes I wore a white shirt under the uniform. I tryed every combination of undershirt , all natural,tanktop, and Body armor shirt. nothing helped. the good news it drys very fast. I did like the pocket with the extra thin pocket for a pen. I am realy bad about never knowing where a pen is at invoice time.
What I got out of this is that people really like the new logo. People alos like to see change. THis Is why companys change there style often. I also realized that my employees shirts need a new look, and some just need thrown away. I have never worn the same shirts as my crew, and when I show up on a job my customers nknow who is in charge. I would like to see the line of shirts expanded and get rid of the “nascar pit crew sleave logo”or at least make it an option. I am getting excited for the new change with our logo it really gets peoples attention. I think that The old logo just looks outdated.Please post your experiences. We already know that people notice them I want to hear more. By the way I did nail 7 out of 8 of the new accounts. Maybe the shirts are good luck?
We also use a rake that has a brush instead of a rake on the end. We keep both in each van. It looks just like the ones that HB has but the bristles are black, softer, and there are alot more of them. This also works great on area rugs and high end thick carpet. You know the ones that look like a cat scratched the carpet instead of being groomed.
I have seen the double sided ones that laura was refering to, but opted for the seperate rake instead. My guys are ruff on the rakes. I get mine from a local janitorial company and I only buy the head. It is the same handle as the other rake. If you can’t find it locally try online under carpet cleaning supplys. They are not hard to find and well worth the 10-20 bucks.Mike I want to thank you for taking the time to explain in detail your view. I agree with you that this does not sound like a place that I want to see us go in the near future. I think that it sounds great and I am sure everyone would be excited to see a spot on tv or news print, but BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.
Mike was right that most HB owners are a family buisness. They like the flexability and dont want the stress and overhead of a mega operation. I run four emplyees full time plus myself, a secratary three days a week along with my wife. We have 1200 ft of shop space and a small office that Is not located at the house. With this I have a good sive of overhead to pay out. I Have built this with out the use of a lot of advertising. I am nervus that our first full page ad hits in the small yellow page book this week and we will have a hard time to keep up. I like to keep my advertising cost at under 3% for the year.
If we started having national advertising we would have to have good ads in all seven or eight local phone books just like coit and sears does. Otherwise it would be advertising that is wasted. Have you ever seen a add on TV, but then not be able to find them in the book. This would mean that we would all have to be ready to expand our buisness. During the peak of the year I would have to double our size and in the off season for residental lay off employees.
We all have the potental to be as large or small as we want. This is what I love about Heavens Best and why I bought in to it six years ago. If I wanted to grow in to ten trucks I can, If you like to be a one or two truck opperation than you are just as succesfull.
I am very excited that the company is growing. With every franchise sold we gain market awareness. If you do not have a franchise in every city around you then start reffering people to fill those voids and tell the state owner to step it up a notch. Pull up California on the find an operator. We do have a state wide presence that is strong. This to me is the best form of national advertising, and it is FREE.
