Making Money For Dummies (And In a Crowded Market)

[wolfie]

Okay i've got another question, So your marketing is mainly, referral and direct response and I know you've said that you like to stick to traditional, slowly building businesses the proper way with referrals.

But have you considered doing anything with social media? I was thinking putting your snapchat and/or instagram on your website and FB page, and then having your cleaners do before/after shots on snapchat or instagram that way people can see your work. I know thats the purpose behind the "Free room cleaning" offer on your mailers you send out. Idk just an idea.

I've been on a Gary V. kick lately haha.

 

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[TheNextTrump]

@IceCreamKid - Thanks for always posting such BOMB threads.

Although this is centered around the "carpet cleaning" biz, it's awesome how SIMPLE these tid bits apply to any type of business.

Prior to reading this thread, I had no interest / intention on dipping my feet in the "carpet cleaning" market.

Safe to say I'll have my first van up and running with in the next few months.

CHEERS

 

[IceCreamKid]

Dude, I can't even put into words the positive impact this thread has had on me. It's so refreshing to see someone preaching basic fundamental business ideas and practices. At times, I get overwhelmed trying to find the next big thing.

You're welcome brother. Remember it's all about developing the skill day by day, not trying to find the next big thing.

Pay no attention to what others are doing and how fast they are moving. The only thing that matters is you, how much time you are putting into your craft daily, and how precise you are with improving your skills. Once you have gotten your skill to a certain level, you can live in whatever way you want. At peace.

@IceCreamKid - Thanks for always posting such BOMB threads.

Although this is centered around the "carpet cleaning" biz, it's awesome how SIMPLE these tid bits apply to any type of business.

Prior to reading this thread, I had no interest / intention on dipping my feet in the "carpet cleaning" market.

Safe to say I'll have my first van up and running with in the next few months.

CHEERS

You're welcome my brother. Hoping the biz blesses you and your family for a long time.

 

[IceCreamKid]

But have you considered doing anything with social media? I was thinking putting your snapchat and/or instagram on your website and FB page, and then having your cleaners do before/after shots on snapchat or instagram that way people can see your work. I know thats the purpose behind the "Free room cleaning" offer on your mailers you send out. Idk just an idea.

I've been on a Gary V. kick lately haha.

Nope. That stuff doesn't pull my interest right now. One of my biggest flaws is that once I have a marketing campaign that scales, it takes a lot to make me pull the trigger on something else.

 

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[Chitown]

@

1. I have both my website and a number written on the postcards. The secret sauce of the postcard is that I offer a free room of carpet cleaning. No obligations. No purchase necessary. No hard upsells. It's just my way of saying hey we believe in the quality of our work so much that we're willing to give you a free test drive. All of the calls are hired out. I don't want to deal with that stuff.

2. I currently have 2 vans driving around 6 days a week. I don't plan to scale any further because then I'd have to rent a warehouse, deal with motivating a large fleet of employees, meh. That just doesn't excite me. I'm currently just stacking my cash and slowly moving myself 100% into the investor quadrant. If I were to scale to more than 2 vans, my biggest obstacle would probably be staying excited about the project long term. I know my personality well enough to understand that if I stay deeply involved in a biz for too long, things start to go downhill. My expertise is in putting all of the systems in place so that the biz has its own "legs" to run on its own without me. If I stay involved on a daily basis then I go crazy.

3. Yes it's a long waiting list. People usually have to schedule 1-2 weeks in advance unless they're what I consider an A+ customer. An A+ customer is someone whose bill comes to $1k or more. They live in huge homes with a zillion rooms and most of the carpets are already pretty clean.

One of the biggest lessons I learned is to never say no to a customer. If you say no to them then they get angry and never call you again because you were unwilling to accommodate their demands. Get them to say no to you. For example, if a customer needs a cleaning done within 24 hours we'll tell them, "We don't have an opening tomorrow until 7pm. Would that work for you?". Most will say no thanks, but perhaps will call you in the future since you were nice enough to at least attempt to help them.



EDDM is a beast of a service because it allows you to tailor down all the way to household size, income, ethnicity, vehicles driven, it's wild.

@IceCreamKid

I'm not even off the first page and I'm already smelling gold in them thar hills! You're dropping nuggets - there are several concepts that I plan to use in the fastlane biz I'm working on. A lot of the stuff in this post reminds me of Abraham, Halbert, etc. I've learned over the last few months that you can scale up - quickly - in direct response with minimal outlay, depending on the media used.

What are the margins in that business? Great post!

 

[IceCreamKid]

What are the margins in that business? Great post!

Margins are discussed on the first page of this thread. Truthfully, margins will vary based on the tweaks that you make to the biz.

For example, when I took over the steering wheel I immediately changed the following:

1. Increased prices by 40%
2. Completely changed the branding to premium everything
3. Changed the guarantee to a very bold one to remove all of the risk from the customer. A good guarantee should make you want to throw up in your mouth a little bit.<-Very important.

It's best to target premium buyers in this niche for the following reasons:

1. Premium buyers tend to have bigger houses. Bigger houses=more sq. feet to clean=more money
2. Premium buyers don't haggle you on the price. They care about quality more than anything else.
3. Premium buyers don't complain nearly as much as broke people looking to save a couple bucks.
4. Premium buyers show up on time for the appointment.
5. Premium buyers usually have a network of friends that they will refer you to if your product/service is actually good. Broke people don't usually network.

If you're looking to learn more about direct response marketing I'd highly recommend Perry Marshall. I said it before and I'll say it again: if you can get a good grasp of direct response you'll have no problem making a very good 6-figure income. He was the first guy who really helped me get an understanding of how to create systems for everything. He focuses a lot on the 80/20 principle.

 

[Chitown]

Be extra alert whenever you’re dealing with someone who is representing your customer. I’ve had far too many realtors try to disappear as soon as they get their commission. When dealing with representatives I now require payment upfront, no exceptions. I don’t have the patience to deal with BS behavior like that even if it means losing a couple sales.

@IceCreamKid

I'm not an expert - there are guys here who've done way more R.E. deals than I have. (@SteveO or @JustAskBenWhy, I'd love to get your respective opinions) There's got to be a way of securing your interest by going onto the HUD-1.

Could a vendor require a broker/agent to list them on the HUD-1 in order to ensure payment at the close of escrow?

 

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[Chitown]

Margins are discussed on the first page of this thread. Truthfully, margins will vary based on the tweaks that you make to the biz.

@IceCreamKid

You're being kind by not putting me on blast - thank you, my man! This information is at the bottom of the post. It's been a loooonnng day!

Thank you, again.

 

[SteveO]

Could a vendor require a broker/agent to list them on the HUD-1 in order to ensure payment at the close of escrow?

How are you going to monitor this? Requiring them to put you on the statement is no different than requiring them to pay. The seller is the person that looks over the settlement statement. If this information was not passed along to escrow, then nobody is going to be looking out for you.

Of course you could ask for the escrow agent's information and send the bill to them. But they will not send the settlement statement to you for review.

 

[GSF]

Hi @IceCreamKid, great thread.

What are your thoughts regarding building a business from scratch vs buying an existing established business and then improving? There seems to be a lot of cleaning and service type businesses up for sale as owners look to move on/ retire (I know someone personally looking to sell/retire in this space) and wonder if there are creative ways of buying/ approaching the owners of such businesses. What kind of terms did you acquire your business on?

Thanks

 

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[Chitown]

How are you going to monitor this? Requiring them to put you on the statement is no different than requiring them to pay. The seller is the person that looks over the settlement statement. If this information was not passed along to escrow, then nobody is going to be looking out for you.

Of course you could ask for the escrow agent's information and send the bill to them. But they will not send the settlement statement to you for review.

@SteveO,

That answers my question! Good looking out, SteveO!

 

[IceCreamKid]

What are your thoughts regarding building a business from scratch vs buying an existing established business and then improving?

I think it really depends on your temperament and having a CLEAR understanding of what you want. Some people absolutely LOVE building things starting from nothing. Some people LOVE negotiating and buying assets at a discount then fixing the inefficiencies with the aim of stabilizing/maximizing cashflow. There’s a guy in my area that owns 30 Subway sandwich shops. All that he does is acquire struggling locations at a discount, train the employees more effectively, and tweak the marketing. He started with just one shop and continually reinvested the profits.

I wish I could tell you that one option is better than the other, but it simply is a matter of temperament and I hate telling people how they should live their life. Everyone is unique. I personally like getting involved with existing frameworks then applying other successful frameworks to it in order to speed up progress. By doing this, I don’t have to re-invent the wheel and am just putting puzzle pieces together. Nothing that I do is new or revolutionary. I’ll leave that to Elon Musk and Facebook boy.

If you buy an existing biz then you’d better be confident in your ability to at least get your initial investment back. You can get creative with the terms to lower your risk, but still you need to be confident in your marketing skills for the biz. I’ve seen many people crash and burn by thinking that simply throwing more cash at a biz will make it grow. They’re overconfident and think they know everything. As males it’s very easy to let our ego get in the way of personal and financial success. Let’s be real, no one here knows everything regardless of income, rep bank, or title.

Also keep in mind that there WILL be things that you can only learn by being in the trenches. For example, I will never deal with a Persian who owns Persian rugs. Their expectations are beyond high. This one client was convinced that there were still stains on her Persian rug and I told her that it was just the poor lighting in the room causing shadows that looked like stains. She wasn’t convinced so I drove over and turned the rug 180 degrees. Suddenly the “stains” had moved to a new location.

If you’re looking to buy existing websites, you might want to look into snowbank’s posts. He was one of the early members of the forum. As far as I can tell, 95% of the members from many years ago have left but you can probably find ways to reach him if you try. I miss those good old days. Women were a lot more active on the forum back then and it was a really neat balance to have the female perspectives chiming in. That discussion is for another thread though.

 

[MakeItHappen]

No question at the moment.
Just wanted to say thank you for all the epic content you are sharing!

I also love the fact that you are making it happen in an old b&m industry.

Wish you all the best. Cheers

 

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[Andy Black]

Love the nuggets you have been sharing. Thank you. Thank you. Especially the mindset stuff.

Do you mind to dive deeper into some areas you shared?


DIRECT MARKETING

1. What elements of copy-writing did you "get right" before you saw results?

2. Share how you worked-out the appropriate metrics to know ROI on advertising?

3. Using a Freemium hook (1 free room) how do you control sunk-cost creep from destroying margins? What's the way to improve Lifetime Value of client?

4. How do you improve client stickiness?

5. What system checks that mailers are received? What are the core parts that make the system?


THE BUSINESS

1. This is type of business dependent on muscle power which comes with HR headaches. What were ways you solved this?

2. When everyone on the block is selling (prostituting) on price and yesterday's customers are only loyal to ?? How do you position on everything BUT price? And away from price? My industry has a large number of "blind" customers who get a kick out of squeezing every last cent they SEE but pay ridiculous hidden charges. Don't see any value in exposing the pricing models of my competitors. uncomfortable with going the hidden charge path.

3. Love how you observe and make job offer instead of do interviews. Do you have more thoughts on this for more skilled type of jobs where observing in a alternate workplace is not so straightforward?

4. I've had some struggle with adapting successful systems and have lost time and effort in adapting things which are unique to another person but I was too stupid to have figured it out before throwing time and money down the drain. When you consider how to adapt another person's succesful marketing system how do you know if what works for that guy can be easily transferred? and which parts of it are not useful?

These are all good questions @Cascade.



Just a tip for yourself and others:

You're always better served asking the single most important question that will result in the single most important action for your business.


As the excellent book "The One Thing" asks:

"What’s the ONE Thing you can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?"*
​

The act of finding that one thing you need to do is of tremendous benefit to yourself.

Finding it is even better. (And as the book states, if you don't know what your ONE Thing is, then finding out IS your ONE Thing.)



Whenever I determine my ONE Thing (for the year, month, week, or day), I like to turn it into a question for myself.

e.g. "How can I get a new customer this week (when I can't spend any time on the phone)?"

This allows your subconcious to work on it while you're going about your business, and it's always surprising how it brings you a solution (typically in the shower or on a walk!).



Asking yourself (or others) just ONE question allows your brain (or their brain) to focus on answering just that question. This results in a more in-depth answer from you (or from them).

And having just one question answered is also more likely to result in you taking action.

Which should be the action most likely to move you forward, since it was your most important question.


Hope this helps.


(* www.the1thing.com)

 

[wazboy]

Awesome post, thanks for sharing!

Many gems here.

 

[IceCreamKid]

When everyone on the block is selling (prostituting) on price and yesterday's customers are only loyal to ?? How do you position on everything BUT price? And away from price? My industry has a large number of "blind" customers who get a kick out of squeezing every last cent they SEE but pay ridiculous hidden charges. Don't see any value in exposing the pricing models of my competitors. uncomfortable with going the hidden charge path.

This is an extremely important question. Thank you for asking this. You don't have to be sneaky and dishonest to charge premium prices. I hate businesses that are sneaky.

The answer is simple: you must find a way to innovate so that there is something unique about your product/service. You can find a way to make yourself unique in any niche. ANY.

Take gasoline for an example. A commodity. Chevron is far more expensive than any other gas station in my area. They innovate by constantly marketing that they have Techron added to their gasoline which helps clean the fuel lines in the car.

For my carpet cleaning biz, the primary innovation is the use of carbonate salt and a crazy money back guarantee. To be completely transparent, the carbonate salt isn't the important part of my formula. It's the other stuff added in that makes the carpet really pop when it's bone dry.

Monster Cable takes this concept of uniqueness to a whole new level. All of their competition sells HDMI cables for $6. Monster decides to throw in what I consider deceptive tweaks then charges $250 for something that delivers the same outcome. I'm not recommending deception here, I'm just trying to illustrate my point that you must do something to innovate if you want to be able to charge premium prices.

 

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[Five Star]

You want to know the truth? EVERYONE has some type of limiting belief inside of them. People somehow have this perception that I am some invincible dude that plows through obstacles with ease. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

I am human. I feel fears just like you. I feel uncertainty just like you. The moment I “overcome” some limiting belief, I discover another one. Hah!

The major shift for me occurred when I changed my beliefs on what it means to be a man.

MOST MEN ARE FULL OF CRAP

Most will never admit that they need help. They’re full of crap. I was one of them.

If you were to ask me not too long ago what it means to be a man you would’ve heard stuff like, “bold, fearless, strong, blazing your own path like a beastly warrior, 100% zero F*cks given”.

In reality, I had this fearless outer shell but I was deeply insecure about how others perceived me. The simple thought of asking somebody else for help was painful for me because it meant that I was unable to achieve my goals on my own accord, which I interpreted as a sign of NOT being a real man. This is all BS. Ego. Pride. Bravado.

Then one day I had a 2 hour long talk with a guy I highly admired. Many of you are familiar with his name. He was running a $120k/mo SaaS biz in the real estate niche. This guy flipped everything around for me. He had all of the qualities that I perceived a real man has: strong, powerful, confident, successful, blazing his own path. BUT he also possessed many traits that I formerly perceived as beta male/weak: patient, loving, humble, willing to openly admit REAL flaws and personal failures to the world.

There are guys whose humility is their form of pride then there are guys who are genuinely humble. Who is this guy? How is he so different?

He introduced me to his biz partner. The partner was also the same way. I had never seen successful guys on that level being so ridiculously honest about their weaknesses, failures, hopes, and dreams. It was the most empowering thing I’ve ever witnessed. Somewhere along that line I subconsciously finally gave myself permission to act in a similar light.

I can think of a handful of men in my network who are ultra successful, but deep down they’re unhappy and aren’t asking for help because we live in some bullshit society that tells men that we’re weak if we talk about our deepest insecurities and failures.

We ALL need help once in a while. We ALL need somebody to lean on.

I don’t know anything about you, but I know me…and I’m just a regular guy who has his ups and downs like everybody else. I’m learning and growing everyday. I’m not who I was. The beginning of wisdom starts by saying “I don’t know”.

If success means having all the answers and having everything sorted out then I’m not successful and very much at peace with that.

Great advice ICK, and a very humble response.

I'm very intrigued by your outlook and how you've managed to change for the positive. I'll keep an eye on your posts and threads so I can learn more!

 

[FreshStart87]

This is an extremely important question. Thank you for asking this. You don't have to be sneaky and dishonest to charge premium prices. I hate businesses that are sneaky.

The answer is simple: you must find a way to innovate so that there is something unique about your product/service. You can find a way to make yourself unique in any niche. ANY.

Take gasoline for an example. A commodity. Chevron is far more expensive than any other gas station in my area. They innovate by constantly marketing that they have Techron added to their gasoline which helps clean the fuel lines in the car.

For my carpet cleaning biz, the primary innovation is the use of carbonate salt and a crazy money back guarantee. To be completely transparent, the carbonate salt isn't the important part of my formula. It's the other stuff added in that makes the carpet really pop when it's bone dry.

Monster Cable takes this concept of uniqueness to a whole new level. All of their competition sells HDMI cables for $6. Monster decides to throw in what I consider deceptive tweaks then charges $250 for something that delivers the same outcome. I'm not recommending deception here, I'm just trying to illustrate my point that you must do something to innovate if you want to be able to charge premium prices.

It's Official I am your biggest fan!
@MJ DeMarco I think we have a new gold thread(suggestion)

 

[IceCreamKid]

The most important thing in biz:
Marketing. Particularly, hitting a deep emotion. Then delivering the answer to that deep emotion.

Why are you on this forum? Somewhere deep inside of you, there's an intense feeling of wanting freedom. You're searching for answers. MJ's book delivers that answer.

You can deliver an answer, but if you can't find a way to hit that deep emotion within the customer then you'll get very few sales.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Finally got around to reading this, marked GOLD and title changed a bit.

ICK does a great job in explaning WHY marketing and sales is the #1 skill to hone, even if you are not involved in business quite yet.

If you take two great products (or even average products) and put them side-by-side, the one with the better marketing and communication methods will win more of the target audience.

Rep for @IceCreamKid ++

 

[Andy Black]

I briefly tried adwords, but had no clue what I was doing and quickly burned through $3k in one week and got zero leads from it. I set it to target a specific area, but I was somehow getting clicks from all over the world like Egypt.

That'll be the little setting you have to change in the campaigns (see page 18 of the AdWords Jumpstart PDF here.)


If you didn't change that setting, then this is what happened:

You: I just want my ad to target people in Ireland who are looking for a plumber in Dublin. I could set the IP Targeting of my AdWords campaign to be Ireland, then bid on keyword "plumbers dublin".

Google: OK, set the location you want to target.

You: Nice! That was easy.

Searcher in Dublin, Ohio: I need to find a plumber in Dublin. Let's search "plumbers dublin".

Google: Oh, look at that. You're bidding on "plumbers dublin". I know you said you only want your ad to appear for people in Ireland, but this person in the US could be looking for your service. I think you made a mistake, so we'll show your ad in front of them so you can buy that visitor. Aren't we nice to care for you so much.

You: WTF? I keep getting clicks from outside the location I'm IP targeting? They're costing me money but not converting. What's going on?


"Do no evil." ... my arse.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Don't tell my son that!

EDIT: I just realised... There's a shedload of other settings that might not have been right with that campaign. The scenario I wrote is a sneaky gotcha. There's lots of common school-boy errors that lose a lot more money than that.

 

[Edward C]

Great post, man. I've been cleaning carpet for pretty much my whole life (dad started the business when I was little). I saw you posted his video, but I can definitely recommend some of Howard Partridge's stuff. He's a cool guy to work with, and his mind is always going. I went to Costa Rica with him for a week back in '09, and it was quite an experience. Anyhow, if you ever have any questions or anything from someone who has been doing this stuff WAY too long, give me a shout.

 

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[Chitown]

If you take two great products (or even average products) and put them side-by-side, the one with the better marketing and communication methods will win more of the target audience.

@MJ DeMarco,

You just described the VHS vs. BetaMax competition from over 30 years ago. When you speak with television professionals they'll tell you in a heartbeat that Beta was the superior product. But VHS was better with their positioning and execution and became the industry standard.

 

[Joshua Navarro]

@IceCreamKid What do you think about getting into carpet cleaning as a bootstrap method? buying the equipment and doing door to door (or mail ads) and just cleaning peoples carpets?

 

[MTF]

In a few months I'll start a progress thread outlining how I invest in stock options for monthly cash flow. Stock options are F*cking phenomenal bro. They give you so much control if you know how to adjust your portfolio correctly.

Do you think that every entrepreneur should learn about stock investing? Do you believe it's necessary if one's goal is to move to the Investor's quadrant? Are there other investment types that in your opinion are as phenomenal as stock options?

Each time I look for investing advice, almost everybody recommends stock investing, but I can't help but think that you have zero control over it and that it's super easy to lose money if you don't get it (and most people don't, including professional investors who think they do).

 

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[RHL]

I hope people are eating this thread up, because this is what it's all about. I have a friend who started an old-school B&M storefront in a field he and his partner had ABSOLUTELY ZERO experience in. His background: Internet marketing.

Month 2, they already generated enough revenue to talk about a second location, and they now own a fleet of trucks. It's 100% service and sales and bringing 21st century weaponry into an extremely Luddite arena.

 

[IceCreamKid]

What do you think about getting into carpet cleaning as a bootstrap method? buying the equipment and doing door to door (or mail ads) and just cleaning peoples carpets?

It depends on your appetite your risk. If you're bootstrapping this biz then chances are you're operating without biz insurance.

I've had 2 insurance claims so far this year. It's simply the nature of the beast when you start scaling. Expect claims to happen. One of them was because an employee accidentally sprayed some chemicals on a piece of antique furniture which left permanent white marks. That was a $3k error. The other claim was a more expensive one. A customer had 2 Ralph Lauren sofas whose fabric had some type of chemical reaction with my stuff that caused it to go from a cream color to orange. That was a $15k claim. It's really odd, the cheap furniture from ikea tends to be more damage resistant than the expensive stuff.

If I was starting from nothing and had to bootstrap, I'd probably become an Uber driver because you can work your own hours. It's like being able to print money on demand with minimal risk. Get out as soon as you can though because it's not scalable and you can't separate time from money with Uber.

 

[Andy Black]

I hope people are eating this thread up, because this is what it's all about. I have a friend who started an old-school B&M storefront in a field he and his partner had ABSOLUTELY ZERO experience in. His background: Internet marketing.

Month 2, they already generated enough revenue to talk about a second location, and they now own a fleet of trucks. It's 100% service and sales and bringing 21st century weaponry into an extremely Luddite arena.

21st century weaponry against Luddites and Mom 'n' Pop. It's why I love working in the local space. No contest.

 

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[IceCreamKid]

Do you think that every entrepreneur should learn about stock investing? Do you believe it's necessary if one's goal is to move to the Investor's quadrant? Are there other investment types that in your opinion are as phenomenal as stock options?

Each time I look for investing advice, almost everybody recommends stock investing, but I can't help but think that you have zero control over it and that it's super easy to lose money if you don't get it (and most people don't, including professional investors who think they do).

Do I think every entrepreneur should learn about stock investing? No, but I do think that every entrepreneur should learn about stock option investing. They are 2 completely different beasts.

With stocks, you absolutely must be right on predicting the direction in order to make a profit. With stock options you can pick a range that you feel the stock will move in during a specific period of time and still make money. In other words, you don't have to predict the direction correctly in order to profit. And if you're wrong about the range, you can actually adjust the trade so that you can usually end up with a break-even trade or a small loss. The key here is to adjust the portfolio so that your positions become delta neutral.

Most don't bother to educate themselves on adjustments and that's what causes them to blow up their account. They take more of a "set it and forget it" approach.

From what I've seen, the professionals who actually pull money consistently from the stock market do it with options while all of the amateurs just trade stocks and usually lose money. The winning team typically has the goal of cashflow(which options provide) while the losing team typically has the goal of capital gains(which stocks provide).

You're going to think I'm a complete liar for making this statement, but you can actually get a percentage for how likely it is that your stock option investment will be profitable. You just have to look at the option chain.

I'm obsessed with managing risk. I'm convinced that risk management is the key to long term survival in the stock market. Most people don't spend any time educating themselves before jumping into this arena so they end up getting hurt.

The other investment type that's as phenomenal as stock options IMO is real estate. Specifically, buying distressed commercial real estate then tweaking things to force up the value of the asset as opposed to waiting for the value of the property to rise due to market conditions. The downside with this asset is that it's not nearly as liquid as stock options, but still you should at least look at it because it's a very valid vehicle for building wealth quickly. This is basically what SteveO did. I don't have enough experience in distressed properties so it's best that you talk to him about it rather than me.

If you want to shift to the investor quadrant, find a mentor who has experience in either stock options or distressed real estate. Just beware of the fakes. Vet them out, ask for track records, referrals, clients, anything you can get your hands on. There are A LOT of frauds in these 2 arenas selling hopes and dreams for $5k. I paid this lady Alexis McGee $5k a few years ago for some real estate mentorship and it ended up being nothing more than an upsell to $10k coaching. All of the stuff that was taught for the $5k could've been found in a book.

 

[RHL]

Every single day I encounter some local business where it's like "This biz+ online magic (ppc, social/groupon, etc.) + savvy PR and the ability to process orders=Market disrupting local breakout." People wanting to get started, all you need is to understand basic ad buying and copy (if only someone on here could help with that), determination, and eyes.

What do you think about getting into carpet cleaning as a bootstrap method?

This isn't directed at you individually. I'm trying to turn over a new leaf and be less cynical/sarcastic and more helpful thanks to @Andy Black 's beneficent example, but it's pretty demoralizing that whenever anyone posts specific details of a minor success they've had (@biophase with the soap, this, @SinisterLex with the freelancing) what immediately happens is not innovation, but a chorus of "me too!"s as person after person rushes to do the exact. same. thing. I had at least 10 PMs after I posted some of my older threads where people were asking me about car flipping. And not just the legality/mechanics, oh no, they wanted me to sort through a pile of links and literally tell them which cars to buy and what to resell them for.

This thread could have inspired people to try their hand at any number home care possibilities: Driveway paving/sealing, window replacement, tiling, wood refinishing, interior painting, appliance maintenence, etc. No, instead, it looks like several people are all going to go and start carpet care businesses, because I'll be darned if we're going to do even one thing creative or different or more laborious than just wholesale ripping off of something else someone has completely laid out. Then it gets even worse when real money is involved a la @biophase 's mentee/copycat or @JasonR 's copycats. It's getting to the point where basically anyone without a patent or oversees manufacture with laborious design work that would take five figures and eight-twelve months to replicate (basically, enough of a barrier that a Wantrepreneur dreams about it but gets tired two weeks later and moves on) immediately incites a swarm of clones or near-as-makes-no-difference clones.

There's a big world out there. Yes, it includes carpet cleaning. But it's bigger than carpet cleaning. If your heart is set on carpets, don't let anyone stop you, but don't just rush to do whatever someone successful did because that's the thread du jour and it's turning some kind of profit. Come on people, we're all better than that.