The dilemma - is this the path of the fastlaner?

[Goobii]

Hi Guys,

Apologese for the lengthy post in advance.. have to vomit it out because its been on my mind for a few months now. Want to know what the fastlaners, in particular the ones that have made it, believe should be done in order for me to join their circle...

You can see my intro for the background info on what I do..

Background
As a service provider (commercial cleaning) I want to increase my Net Profit. I am in the process of getting my website developed & ordering marketing materials to approach prospective clients with. I am currently reading selling books & slowly learning to develop a script to sell to my clients and close them.

In the past 4 years I have built my business up through acquiring other businesses - I found this to be the quickest way to increase revenue in the business. However, there can also be a downfall - clients move on to other providers because they offer a cheaper alternative. So I figured work backwards, work on bringing on board new clients by myself rather than the costly road of acquiring them.

The Dilemma
A few months ago I came across a carpet cleaning franchise that offers its clients a choice of steam or dry carpet cleaning. They also offer their clients with water damage restoration, tile & grout cleaning, mattress cleaning, anti-allergen treatments and a few others.

I visited their office and spoke with the owner about the figures which is what interested me the most. It would cost me around $60k(AUD) to get started which includes the franchise fee, equipment, van lease, training etc.
The revenue for the particular territory that I was looking at for the last 12 months was $200k+ & netting about $125k+. If I eventually put someone else in to work & pay them $50k to work that would bring the net down to $75k. They take 25% (of gross revenue) in royalty fees as all the jobs are booked in through them. Plus marketing costs for advertising online with google, yahoo and other local search engines. There is possibility to increase the revenue by up-selling products and also doing emergency work which none of his present franchisees want to do for some reason!

This would make a significant increase on my net profit for the company. It would mean that my wife would not have to work unless she really wanted to. It would also mean that I would have to work in the business myself in order to get the $125k. It would be working 6 days a week. Currently I work about 10 hours a week in the business operations. Visiting clients, invoicing, site inspections etc are covered in a few hours a month.

Im not afraid or scared of hard work. I did 16 hour days, 7 days for about 1.5 years before I started stepping back.

Would working in the carpet cleaning business affect my other business??
Is it worth paying $60k to get $125k net return??

Should I just purchase the equipment and get trained up myself? But the remainder funds into marketing and lead generation? Would it not take me longer to reach my goal(to build a solid business with a good net profit to make it sellable)?

Or should I just focus my efforts on developing my current commercial cleaning business?

Thanking you guys for your time in reading this & thanks in advance for any help.

Regards

G

 

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[oldscool]

This is just my opinion, but, why not just leverage your current skills. You could write a manual on how to start a commercial cleaning business, and, become an expert in your field. Also, why not be a broker cleaning contracter. Sell the contracts, and, just keep the larger contracts. There is a free pdf online that is similiar for janitorial brokers. I know it may not be the same industry, but, it may give you ideas.

Have you heard of Joe Polish? He trains carpet cleaners, and, probably could be someone you could model your business after. Actually, you could model your business after any marketing consultant because essentially you would be a business consultant. Another idea, how about creating a cleaning service directory, as well. Just throwing ideas of leverage out there. One thing we never get back is our hours in a day. If you have a product selling while you're sleep then you have some leverage. MJ DeMarco book, and, products have leverage. Many marketing consultants i.e. Joe P. have products to buy.

Ok well I said enough, I am just some random guy in a free forum giving an opinion. At the end of the day noone knows your business better than you do.

All the best

 

[Goobii]

Hi OF,

Thanks for your response. I haven't heard of Joe Polish but will certainly look into his work.

I understand the leverage part in the book. My idea is to leverage my time first, so that it can enable me to leverage my $$$. If I go into carpet cleaning then I can put on staff to do the job for me eventually hence leveraging my time. From there I can purchase more territories and repeat the process over and over... to create a $1M business!! That's my vision...

but is it a fastlaner business model?

 

[Likwid24]

I don't see how this can be fastlane at all. More Business = more work for you. No matter how you look at it, if your not on top of a business like this, it will not run smoothly. It similar to the painting business I currently own but will be getting rid of soon. The more jobs I get, the more work I do and if I start slacking off by not keeping on top of the jobs, things don't go exactly how I want them to and I start losing money.

The main purpose of the fastlane is not only to make money, but to have freedom of time. To put in the hard work now so that you have a passive income in the future and you can sit back, relax and enjoy watching the money come in after all those long hours you put into it. With this, I see no freedom of time in your future and no passive income.

Plus there is very limited scalability. How can you Impact Millions with a carpet cleaning biz???

 

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[domular]

Hi OF,

Thanks for your response. I haven't heard of Joe Polish but will certainly look into his work.

I understand the leverage part in the book. My idea is to leverage my time first, so that it can enable me to leverage my $$$. If I go into carpet cleaning then I can put on staff to do the job for me eventually hence leveraging my time. From there I can purchase more territories and repeat the process over and over... to create a $1M business!! That's my vision...

but is it a fastlaner business model?

You need to get all over Joe Polish's work. I've met him in person and he's the real deal not only in carpet cleaning but marketing in general. Here he is interviewing Richard Branson Joe Polish Interviews Sir Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Empire

 

[oldscool]

I wasn't saying get into the carpet cleaning business, but, I was saying leverage your expertise. Joe Polish is not running a carpet cleaning business. He is impacting businesses by using his marketing expertise. When he speaks to a pack house he has products to sell along with it.

He can stop working, and, you could still buy his products from off of amazon, or, other places. His real business is selling products that will sell whether he is working or not. He don't have to worry about a product sueing him or not going to work. A product won't talk back, a product won't stop working and selling. He can leave his kids the right to that product and they will never have to work or oversee anything. See the difference?

Joe Polish can get into anyones business with no risk because his only asset is his knowledge. Use your knowledge and position yourself to train others. Create manuals, products, for your industry. You'll have more freedom.

MJ DeMarco is an example right here. We are in his forum. We buy his books. MJ comes in from time to time makes a comment which he can do on a cell phone from brazil, paris, sunny california, or, tahiti watching the beautiful people on the beach.

You can't do that running a brick, and, mortar business. However, if you start to reposition yourself you can.

Sorry for the rambling. I pretty much said what I did the first time.