CLEAN UP IN CLEANING
Growing Fast - Earning Big! Examine business growth rates
over past years - and, without doubt there is one easy
opportunity that ranks with the most profitable. A business
that is unusually simple to start and succeed in. Yet, a
service that can grow into a considerable operation. All
from almost nothing!
That business comprises a huge and vital industry. Offering
a service that is more and more in demand. Quite simply -
it's cleaning. Cleaning is a truly unique opportunity - In
that almost anyone can start such a service. You already
have the know-how to clean! Yet, for such an accessible
opportunity there is scope to build a really big business.
You could start now and be very successful, very quick!
And - cleaning is no longer the lowly, poor paid venture it
once was. It's really quite a futuristic, high technology
business. Quite respected - and in many cases, very highly
paid. If you thought cleaning wasn't the right sort of
opportunity for you - think again! It may well be the right
sort of opportunity for your bank account!
A No Capital Start? In some circumstances it would be
possible to start in the cleaning industry with virtually
no capital! You need no special training, and often there's
no equipment to buy. Either way, you will do best by
setting up properly - cleaning is simple, but never
underestimate any business!
Cleaning is ideal for an owner-operator business, or a
partnership. You can succeed full or part time. Never
forget though that it is a business - and you must organise
in a business like way. Use proper records and consult
business exports as necessary. A trading name looks good.
It is not necessary to register this - just declare your
own name on business documents, etc.
One way of approaching cleaning is to do all the work
yourself. Ideal for a low cost start up - but does
restrict your earnings. Progressive cleaners just
concentrate on getting the work themselves. Then, employ
(usually part time) staff on a modest hourly rate. This
allows you to build an enormous business!
Decide from the start what types of cleaning you will offer
(see later). Then, organise your resources to provide the
service. The next important step is to advertise your
service. Use every established and original advertising
technique you can think of. Press advertising is a must.
Leaflets can be good in some situations. Mailshots to
potential customers can grab big contracts. And, a really
great way to get business is to telephone or visit
potential customers. This increases your 'sales' rate
considerably.
Throughout all advertising/negotiations project yourself as
a professional, competent and careful business. People
want to employ thorough cleaners. In line with this it is
usually better to charge high prices for a good job, rather
than low prices for a budget one. Earnings could be in the
region of 20- 30 per hour, depending on the service. It's
up to you.
When getting work it is best to aim for contract cleaning.
Where you provide your service on a regular daily, weekly
or monthly basis. Obviously more lucrative than one off
work. Despite the name it is usually not necessary to sign
a contract for most customers.
If you give considerable effort to selling at the start,
things will be much easier later on. You only need a
handful of regular jobs to produce a regular income. If
you employ staff to do the 'hard' work you'll have the
ideal 'absentee owner' business.
Contrary to what you might think, cleaning is quite a
sophisticated, although easy to start, operation. There's
only so much theory though! Following, you'll find
suggestions for services you can offer. Either offer these
individually - or together for a really big business:
Daily Office Cleaning: One of the most popular services.
Some competition but good demand for an efficient,
confidential and 'low profile' service. Cleaning is easy,
mostly comprising dusting, vacuuming and the like!
Customer provides equipment.
Approach all possible office customers in your area. Local
councils/authorities may also put such services out to
contract. Offer to do the work on a regular e.g. daily or
2/3 times weekly basis. Employ part time staff mornings or
evenings to do the work.
Home Cleaning: A little exploited area, offering
considerable scope for future growth. More and more people
need a few hours daily help with household duties. But, it
is very difficult for them to find good staff
independently.
One good idea is to employ full time household helps - then
divide their time between many household customers. This
solves the staff problem, and still leaves you a
considerableprofit margin!
Specialised Cleaning: In the cleaning industry there are
forms of specialised cleaning that most firms don't
undertake. So you can corner the market in these
specialised areas. Often no experience is needed.
One major area of 'spec.' cleaning is kitchen cleaning, in
restaurants, hotels, etc. Washroom cleaning/servicing is
another area. Cleaning services to specific industries,
e.g. food, processing, computers, electronics, chemicals,
cosmetics, are also possibilities, where you will find
little headquarters. In many cases the customers will
train you to the standard required.
Special/Initial Cleaning: Here you offer a year round
'spring' clean service to homes and business customers.
Special cleans are undertaken on a one off basis to give a
cleaning 'facelift' to the customers premises. Initial
cleans are needed prior to occupation ofnewly built
buildings.
Both these services can provide very big jobs for very big
incomes - Cleaning everything in sight. Ideal for making
use of part time or temporary staff. As with types of
cleaning already mentioned get customer to provide
equipment and materials needed if you don't want to buy.
Floor Cleaning: Commercial premises have vast areas of
solid (e.g. tiled or lino) floors. It all needs regular
cleaning and there's a huge sub-industry set up to do this.
All that is needed is a special cleaning/polishing machine
- can be hired if purchase prices are too high.
Window Cleaning: This is not the lowly paid activity you
might think if properly organised. Most areas are short of
good, reliable cleaners. Your only requirements? - a
bucket, cloth and ladder!
Domestic windows offer good potential - offer to clean
inside and out for extra profit. Commercial windows offer
lower prices, but huge jobs and regular work. Look out for
council contracts etc.
Acoustic Ceilings: One of the very latest cleaning
opportunities - cleaning millions of square yards of
acoustic 'suspended' ceilings in commercial premises. They
can only be cleaned with a special machine spraying a
suitable chemical which causes the dirt todrop from
ceilings.
Although equipment is required this is quite a new,
exclusive service that the newcomer can dominate in their
areas. Consult specialist suppliers for equipment.
Pressure Washing: A high pressure washer delivers a
powerful jet of water to clean many things - from vehicles
to builders plant - and farms to buildings. Equipment is
expensive (but could lease/hire) so there is much demand
for a mobile service.
Industrial Cleaning: Cleaning of factories, industrial
machinery is a possible 'big business' service. A pressure
washer would be a valuable tool here.
Car Valeting: Cleaning of new and used cars is potentially
big business with millions on the road. Equipment not
always necessary and could offer a mobile service. Offer
to the public - or get motor trade contracts. Can employ
unskilled staff at modest rates - but charges can be
40- 60 a car!
Carpet/Upholstery Cleaning: A proven money maker cleaning
these items for homes and businesses. Ideal owner operator
concern with very high charges. Special equipment is
required. Some competition, so operate at the 'quality'
end of the market to do best.
Exterior Cleaning: Contract cleaning of outside areas e.g.
shopping centers, car parks, office/factory grounds is a
reasonably new opportunity offering potential for all to
start. Comprises mainly litter collection and sweeping -
but the new type tractor mounted 'jumbo' vacuum cleaners
are set to revolutionise the service! Definitely one of
those services that could be tomorrows big business
success!
To Conclude: You may well discover many more cleaning
opportunities, because new services are being invented all
the time! Most of them quickly become 'essential' -
something people want. Good selling/organisation can get
you started. Cleaning is a humble enough opportunity for
you to start and succeed in. But, the takings can be those
of a much more impressive concern.
HOW TO START A SUCCESSFUL CO-OP MAILING SERVICE
Aside from advertising, the biggest expense involved in a
mail order business is postage.This means that virtually
everyone involved in mail order is on the look out for ways
to save money getting their sales offers out to prospects.
The answer is on co-op mailings.Here's how a typical co-op
mailing service works: A person with something to sell via
mail order sees an advertisement inviting him or her to
send their circulars or brochures to a co-op mailing
service.
The co-op mailing service receives these circulars or
brochures and hires people to fold and stuff them into
envelopes and then mails them. For this service, they
charge anywhere from 10 to 100 per thousand - and it's a
good deal for the mailer.
The mailer doesn't have the bother of folding and stuffing
envelopes, nor the expense of renting a mailing list to
send his offers to, and he doesn't have to worry about the
costs of postage. All of this is included in the fee he
pays the co-op mailing service.
Now, quite naturally, the co-op mailer cannot do this and
make any money unless he's got a number of circulars or
brochures from several customers in each envelope he sends
out.
And that's precisely how he makes his money - by including
10 to 16 such circulars in each envelope.Look at it from a
mathematical point of view:Say he's charging 12 people 50
per thousand to fold and stuff their envelopes in with his
own outgoing mail.
Twelve times 50 comes out to 600 - he's using his own
mailing lists, so there's no big expense involved here -
but he does have to pay people to fold and stuff envelopes
unless he's got it organised where he and his family do it.
The going rate of pay to fold and stuff circulars is about
20 per thousand ... and to post 1,000 envelopes is going
to be 180 second class. Then the cost of the envelopes,
which could be around 30.
Subtract those figures from the 600 he took in, and you
have a profit of 370. Not bad for one mailing! The best
thing of all about starting and operating a co-op mailing
service is that you can include your own circulars or
brochures with each envelope you send out.
You stuff circulars or brochures from 12 different paying
customers, and at the same time, include at least two of
your own.So how do you get started in such an easy and
highly profitable business?
The simplest way is to have some advertising copy made up,
and include one with everything you mail out. Another
sure-fire method of pulling in orders is to run a simple
classified ad in as many of the national coverage mail
order publications as you can afford.
Such an ad might look like this:
Co-Op Mailing! Best customers in the country. Just 50
per thousand - you supply the circulars - we mail!
A couple of things you should do in order to handle the
orders you'll be getting. Be sure to have a number of
people lined up/available to do the folding and stuffing of
envelopes for you - and also, be sure to get yourself a
friendly post office!
With those details out of the way, all you really have to
do when the orders come in is drop off the circulars to be
folded and stuffed into envelopes, with the envelopes, your
return address can be rubber-stamped on the envelopes as
they are applying the mailing address labels, and you're on
your way.
By including a co-op mailing advertising coupon with each
piece of mail that you send out, plus regular advertising
in most of the mail order publications, you'll be
pleasantly surprised at how fast your profits will grow.
Once you get organised and have all the bugs worked out of
your system, you might also expand your business to include
your local area.
To do this, you either call on your local area businesses
and professional people, or else hire commission sales
people to do the selling for you.
Most small businesses are interested in sending out regular
sale flyers or catalogues, so you or your sales people
simply callthese people and offer to do the job for them.
Contact with a good printer in your area will also be to
your benefit.
You can offer to have the circulars printed - you collect a
commission from the printer - and make a bundle of profit
with your mailing!If you sign just 5 different shopping
centers, you could really be rolling in money within a very
short period of time.
At 50 per thousand - times 5 stores - you would have 250.
And when you multiply that times 5 different shopping
centers, you're talking about 1,250 ...Then, if you get
all of these people to go with your services on a regular
basis - say once a month, you've got yourself a very
respectable monthly income that will certainly keep you
from the Poor House.
Whenever you send out mail, you should always include your
co-op mail advertising coupon, plus at least two
advertising circulars of your own.
By doing this, you'll continue to pull in even more
business for your mailing services, and at the same time
make money from whatever you're selling on your advertising
circulars.
I MAKE GOOD MONEY CUTTING UP MAGAZINES
Benjamin Farrow is a fellow who no doubt should have taken
up commercial art or advertising as a career, he has such a
marked aptitude for both. However, coming from a family of
very restricted means, this proved impossible.
He tells us his story. After several jobs in the first 10
years or so after leaving school, I eventually entered the
field of merchandising. Here I came to appreciate the value
of good advertising, and to realise what a prodigious
amount of time and money is spent on this medium.
I also became aware of the tremendous market that is always
open for new advertising ideas. In the course of my job, in
a well-known Liverpool department store, I came across a
copy of the "Standard Directory of Advertising Agencies"
which is basically a very long list of advertising
agencies, operating in the USA - which is also available at
all libraries.
These, I realised, were potential customers for any
interesting advertising material that I or anyone else
could gather together. With this in mind, and whilst still
working in the store, I started plans for an advertising
business to operate from home. I began collecting newspaper
advertising from every newspaper I could get my hands on.
I collected the best ads in about ten different categories
such as furniture, carpets, electrical appliances, men's
and women's clothing, car accessories, etc, and pasted them
up on A4 paper. I had one hundred copies made of each sheet
photocopied which cost about ten dollars.
I then assembled the sheets into folios according to
categories - hence each folio contained about ten sheets of
advertising ideas. Next I made up a cheap but attractive
brochure introducing the advertising material folios, which
I offered to sell at five dollars each, and sent a copy of
this brochure to about a hundred of the advertising
agencies listed in the "Standard Directory".
I was totally amazed by the response from this introductory
mailing and I knew that I was on the road to success. I now
charge customers a subscription rate per year for this
advertising ideas service and supply them with new folios
each month.
MAKE MONEY FROM DRAWING - WITH NO ARTISTIC ABILITY
It is really quite regrettable that twice divorced Geoff
Atkins is no artist and claims he never can be, because
this funny chap is a constant source of material for many
of the funniest cartoons you have ever seen.
He is in constant touch with commissioning editors now, and
indeed approached us with a possible cover cartoon for
another publication. We asked him for more details about
himself. The fact is that someone whose mind can conjure up
such humorous and satirical situations, does not
necessarily also have the ability to express these ideas.
However, Geoff started by making reasonable money by
selling his ideas for cartoons to artists who specialise in
this type of work. Ideas just pop out of the blue, for the
most part, he says, and they are probably sparked by just
such human situations as we encounter every day.
It takes someone with his keen sense of humour and
imagination to visualise the expression of such amusing
circumstances in a humorous sketch with a tricky caption
below it.He has accumulated from the national Thompson
Local Directories (surprisingly, perhaps, rather than the
Yellow Pages), a list of cartoonists (usually listed under
Graphic Artists), who always pay him a flat fee and often
royalties as well on the ideas he posts to them.
He also found many names in magazines which use their
cartoons.Additionally, he had a cheap circular photocopied
at a local shop, which many magazines were willing to send
to cartoonists who had sent their cartoons in on the 'off
chance'. He is particularly pleased with the fax machine
which has increased his income an amazing 8 to 10 fold, as it
enables him to send topical cartoon ideas to local newspapers
(all of whom can use them as so called syndicated material)
along with national magazines, where it's the first to make an
offer who's allowed to print! To save costs, this clever
machine has what is known as a 'polling' feature, enabling
Geoff to send the same cartoon to up to 99 different publications
during the night - hence at much cheaper rates - totally
automatically.
It also has the unexpected side effect of getting his
cartoons always looked at by the commissioning editors
first thing in the morning - it's always good to stand out
from the crowd! Getting addresses and 'phone/fax numbers is
easy if you wish to operate a similar business yourself.
I MAKE GOOD MONEY FROM LOCAL FISHING
My name is Richard Robson, formerly unemployed, and living
a few miles from the M6, outside of Barrow in Furness,
Cumbria. I found a comparatively effortless way of earning
money for myself, which produced around 12,500 last year.
I expect to increase this considerably as the years go by,
but it has taken careful planning to get this far, and
there is more to be done before I can retire and sell this
interesting sideline. About five years ago, I decided to
convert a number of acres of unproductive land near my
council house into a public fishing area.
I found that I could call on the Department of the
Environment for free technical advice, and even for some
financial assistance with the idea, the latter enabling me
to go onto the Enterprise Allowance Scheme later.
From chatting with these, the plan that resulted was for
the construction of a small holding pond of about an acre
in which to raise stock, and for the improvement of two
quite small 'lakes' already on the property.
The warmer of these was to be used initially just for bass
fishing with others to be added next year, and the colder
lake, which was spring fed, was to be kept stocked with
trout.
A good access road had to be built from the entrance of the
farm to parking spaces within easy reach of the lakes, but
this was easily achieved with local gravel and cinders
being laid on the relatively flat surrounding land from the
local 'A' road.
Drinking water and toilet facilities were provided at these
locations, and I found Portakabin of York particularly
helpful here. So, the first few months, I continued signing
on as usual, but was soon taking my first money by simply
leasing the lake to the local Angling Clubs, one of which I
am a member, who went in together on the arrangement and
paid me a nice fee for the use of the lakes by their
members that season.
The next year, I established a fee of $24 per day for
individual fishing on the property.They were attracted by
a large sign alongside the local main road where it
approached the entrance to the land.I also advertised - to
a small extent - in the local Cumbrian newspaper until the
facilities became well-known.
I make additional income through the sale of bait and
fish-hooks (easily available on 90 days credit) as well as
through the rental of boats, poles and fishing gear.
At busier weekends, I can charge local refreshment vans
(teas and coffees, along with burgers and the like) 30 per
day to park onthe land.
I find that the visitors enjoy the comparative privacy
which a fishing area affords and also the assurance that
they are very likely to return home with some fish!
Well satisfied fishermen come back again and again as long
as the season lasts and are the first to return when it
comes again. This year, I expect to earn further revenue by
providing a picnic area for the convenience of families who
would like a relaxing place to wait for their fishermen to
return to shore.
Doubtlessly there are innumerable ponds and lakes on farms
across the entire country which could be put to profitable
use in meeting the tremendous demand for privately owned
fishing and recreation areas. If I've done it, so can YOU!
