Business
Five Tips to Reduce Your
Operating Expenses for
Your Carpet Cleaning Business
In the carpet and upholstery cleaning
industry, there is much controversy over how
much income, or even if there is enough
income to make this a viable and profitable
venture for any upcoming entrepreneurs.
Some owners claim to make six figures
a year “net” after taxes, while others are
reporting more modest incomes. If everyone
was making “big money” the banks would
not consider carpet cleaning to be a “high
risk” business venture. Regardless of where
you stand now, the bottom line is what
matters, and that is ultimately affected by
your operating expenses. I do not claim to
be the wealthiest carpet cleaning owner/
operator out there, I’m sure there is
always room to grow, but after a decade of
working hard and analyzing every venture,
expenditure, trial and error, with the help
of my extremely intelligent wife and even
some paid professionals, I have come up with
some basic tips to keep your expenses under
control and your head above water while you
by Richard Baldwin
build your business, and ultimately your net
income. These tips are primarily focused as
tips on reducing expenses and are not meant
as advice on how to budget your money. As
a disclaimer, I am aware there will be a vast
difference in opinion from these tips to what
you may or may not agree with. I’m sure if I
read this ten years ago I would disagree with
many of them. Take these tips as “take it or
leave it” advice. They are built from my own
personal experience as an owner/operator and
may not necessarily reflect the opinions of
others. We are all living in different markets,
different local economies, with different levels
of experience and budgets. With that said,
enjoy these tips and hopefully they can shed
some light on getting you heading in the right
direction.
Tip #1 Buy instead of lease, and avoid
using credit cards.
This may not always be possible, especially
when you are first starting out. Banks want
nothing to do with a brand new enterprise.
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