buy equipment for your self employed business without buying a franshise

[Gadgetki 14]

:lgwave:

buying equipment under $100 - $500 for your self employed business without buying a franshise... franshise is too expensive about 15k to 100k for all equipment with training. it is too much and very risk. you don't want to owe the bank for loan, investory, etc...

I decided to add window cleaning service recently.

first my drywall business. how much do equipments cost you what you need?

1. drywall square = $15

2. drywall screwdriver = $95

3. drywall hammer = $30

4. mud pan = $10

5. mud 12" boardknife = $ 15

6. putty 6" knife = $7

7. caulk gun = $5

8. sander without sandpaper = $5

9. pole sand = $17

10. mud spoge = $4

11. utility knife = $4

12. drywall saw = $6

13. texture spreader with air compassor = $300

totals about $515 dollars :eek:

if you want painting career included with drywall.

14. airless sprayer = $200 - $300

15. roller = $6

16. brush = $4

17. tray = $4

18. scaper = $4

19. clothe cover = $0.40 per sq ft :eek:

I want to tell you the truth. all complete drywall/painting equipments would be about less than a thousand dollars. material are sold separatedly...

if you are going to ask where I buy window cleaning equipment. go to home depot, LOWE or any janitorial shop, and final & smart too... but equipments are not available at wal mart, sam club, costco or any store... chemicals are available at any store which you want

window cleaning

1. 10" scrub washer = $8

2. bucket = $8

3. scaper = $6

4. 2 x 12" squeegee = $7 each

5. 18" squeegee = $9

6. ladder = depends how height you want

7. belt and holder/holster = $25

8. chemical (vingar = $4 per gallon, ammonia = $4 per quart, and dawn soap = $3 per 12 oz)

totals all (without ladder and chemicals) = 70 dollars under $100 :lgjump:

I bought all window cleaning tools. why I have to buy 2 x 12" squeegee because I have to loose it and cut 6" off, so I have 6" squeegee right now... the problem is that "6 squeegee is not available at anywhere, you have to loose the nut, then measure then cut, then tighten it... you are done...

Advertise??? depends how much you need to spread the flyers and business cards. you will need $20 to $100 for flyers and business cards. you can make the order at staple, FEDEX Kinkos, or SAM's Club

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Thank you for this great information.

Would any other business people who have anything to share not related to power washing along the lines of new business start up costs?

Rod~

[Henry B. 4]

$50 bucks is what I started with. I made up some flyers and made my own window cleaning chemicals. Once I started getting jobs I started buying more equipment and expanded into other types of work that I knew how to do.

[dk34 14]

I now fully understand why more that 50% of non-franchised business fail in the first few years.

There are many additional costs to starting a business. To make a blanket statement that "franshise is too expensive about 15k to 100k for all equipment with training. it is too much and very risk." is so short sighted. But I guess if you have $500 and want to give it a shot, go for it.

[PressurePros 249]

I am involved with a franchise operation. For most people without any sense of business and its true costs, franchises are a godsend. Everything is cookie cutter, your expenses are outlined and most times advertising is inclusive. I agree it is very short sighted if not overly ambitious to say its not worth it. Whats not worth it is jumping from business idea to business venture half cocked with a million ideas and no common sense. This isn't directed at you, per se, Gadgetki, just the general population. But I have to tell you, there is no business on this planet that can be started with $500. You need to look into something called insurance.

[bill3752 14]

Good comments. When I started looking for a biz, I looked at several franchises. I decided the negatives (royalty, less personal decision making) exceeded the positives (jump start on business, less risk of failure, programmed methods). I think the non-franchise route was better for me, but would be a good idea for many others. Doubt I could have got going on a shoestring in either case, unless I did not need to make much that 1st year.

[PressurePros 249]

Carlos, the franchise I am involved in is Curves. My fiance and I purchased it as a cookie cutter operation for her to run. It has 750 active members with monthly expenses under $5000. You may have misconstrued (due to miscommunication on my part) what I was getting at. Franchises have their place in the business world. I was not suggesting that they are the be all end all. I can apprecaite your zeal for starting something, but I have to be honest with you, I think your business plan is both unrealistic and very scattered. Perhaps further reading of this message board and its archives would help you focus and realize the realities of the costs involved.

[CCPC 26]

Franchise opportunities: Buy a POP-A-LOCK franchise. I used to be a locksmith and the work was fun and very rewarding. You will never see someone as happy as they are when you pull up to save them from being locked out in a parking lot. Not to mention rescuing a baby from a car in the dead of summer. You become a frantic mothers hero!As a side note: I have never experienced a job where you deal with such an unbelievable diversity in cliental on a daily basis. one minute your installing a dead bolt on a million dollar estate; the next, your rekeying the locks on an eviction in the worst part of town.

[One Tough Pressure 580]

Ken,

Who are you calling "Carlos"? I did not see a Carlos in this thread.

Lance,

Why did you give up Locks to do this work?

[CCPC 26]

I loved everything about it, but there was two aspects that I couldn't seem to get used to: long, difficult hours and poor pay.

I started that trade with the idea that I would work as an apprentice for a few years and then open my own locksmith business. The company I worked for was a one man operation of which the owner had over 30 years experience. I worked for him for almost 3 years and still only new about 1/2 of what I would feel comfortable knowing to go out on my own. When I started I had know idea how much there was to learn: car openings (hundreads of styles models), house openings, residential & commercial rekeys, make keys, instalations, safe installations, safe combo changing, safe openings, linkage and lock repair for autos and homes, panic bar installations and repairs, etc. etc. Long story short, you can't make any money enless you start your own business, but it takes so long to learn everything you need to know to do it right that you and your family sufer in the meantime. Thats why the majority of locksmiths businesses are family trades that are passed down from generation to generation.

The most important reason why I gave it up was the crummy hours. I was working an average of 70 to 80 hours a week and alot of those hours were in the middle of the night running AAA lock outs. imagine you come home after a 14 hour day, take a shower, get ready to settle down for some dinner and the phone rings. So you go run a call on the other side of town, and then on your way home, the phone rings again, and so on, and so on. Granted alot of the reason my hours were so bad was becuase there was only two of us, and who do think was on call 4 or 5 nights a week. The worst was when you would get a AAA call for an out of area lock out at 2:00am in morning and have to drive 45 minutes to Starke and after its all said and done its time start all over with no sleep.

Sorry for rambling, but you know, I still miss it a little.

Just for the record, nothing against POP-A-LOCK, but we used to rag on the pop-a-lock guys pretty hard because real locksmiths kinda look at pop a lock as sort of slap in the face to the REAL locksmith trade. I couldn't tell you how many times we had to go out and open a car that the customer told us that pop-a-lock couldn't open. Not to mention, that they really don't know how to do anything else except TRY to open cars. Now I'm venting..

[One Tough Pressure 580]

Lance,

I did the Foley Belsaw Lock course for awhile then I got busy with other things and it went by the way side.

I think it is fun work, have a knack for figuring out locks in mysterios ways. Had a blast doing unlocks when I worked at the mall and laughed hard when AAA would call us to do it for them.

I guess I am still enrolled in the course if I were to check with them, and until now, had totally forgot about it.

When I started looking into the course, the Locksmith for the school district said he was going to retire soon and that I could take his spot if I got the course done. 8 years later and he is still there, so I am glad I did not bank on him.

[CCPC 26]

School District job I would imagine would be cake work. Alot of repairs and make keys for master key systems, but they should have all the master key specs so it would just be a matter of using the specs to make new keys. We did alot of master key systems for businesses and Jacksonville University. The University had a resident locksmith, but he did mainly the day to day stuff. I would imagine he didn't make alot of money,but at the time, I was a little enveous of his job; Good benifits, low stress, easy hours, etc.

[One Tough Pressure 580]

The district has one locksmith for 27 schools of which all but 2 are over 30 years old. He is a busy guy doing repairs and classroom lockouts as the pins are so worn out.

He is also the one to fix the door closers and panic bars. Salary is around $50,000 a year with very good benefits.

[PressurePros 249]

Ken,

Who are you calling "Carlos"? I did not see a Carlos in this thread.

Lance,

Why did you give up Locks to do this work?

I must have had too much eggnog. I thought Carlos was Gadgetki's name. My apologies Gadget, I must have saw the name Carlos on another thread and thought it was you. But the post was directed at the moniker Gadgetki obviously.

[CCPC 26]

Lance,

are you licensed key/locksmith?

No. and I'm not even sure there is a required contractor licensing for locksmiths im this area. Just like pressure cleaning, locksmithing is another very unregulated trade. For that reason, just like pressure cleaning, there's a lot of folks trying to get into the business who either don't know what the're doing, or are trying to rip off their customers every chance they get.

[One Tough Pressure 580]

No. and I'm not even sure there is a required contractor licensing for locksmiths im this area. Just like pressure cleaning, locksmithing is another very unregulated trade. For that reason, just like pressure cleaning, there's a lot of folks trying to get into the business who either don't know what the're doing, or are trying to rip off their customers every chance they get.

Due to Security issues, this is a regulated trade here in CA. Not only by the State Licensing board, but also the Dept of Justice as well. Would not want some Convict running around with easy access to everything.

[Gadgetki 14]

I found the information, it is what I talked about making your own business without purchasing the franshise. let me copy and paste them and put website from below the information.

Cleaning Franchises -- bad idea! By James Nokes

Everybody would love to start their own company but almost nobody does. It's hard to make that big change in life, to learn new skills and take on new responsibilities. Becoming your own boss is like leaving home for the first time. It's not just hard, it's painful!

That's where cleaning franchises come in. From long experience they know all your doubts and for each one they have a well-rehearsed answer. They do their best to turn your dream of starting a business into a raging fever. The problem is that you pay way too much for what little a cleaning franchise can offer you.

How Much do They Want? Too Much!

Terms vary, but generally you make a large payment up front (from under a thousand dollars to over ten thousand dollars) to buy a cleaning franchise. Then you make ongoing payments based on a percentage of your gross sales. It's like buying a house. You make a big down payment, then smaller monthly payments until you've paid the bank off. The difference is that eventually you can stop making house payments.

You never stop paying for a franchise. It's common to pay 5% to 8% of gross sales, that means that if you have a 15% profit margin, you will have to give them one-third to over one-half of your profits, forever.

That's way too much of your hard-earned money going into the franchise owner's pocket!

You Can Be Cheated if You Buy a Franchise

According to a recent article in a major California newspaper "A Los Angeles Superior Court judge levied a $232,500 fine against Speedee Oil Change and Tune-Up of the West for misleading prospective franchisees about the cost of getting an oil-change business up and running. The fine against Speedee...was part of $700,000 in penalties levied against it....The Department of Corporations said the franchises were not accurately informed about such important considerations as start-up costs, sales projections and break-even costs."

An oil-changing franchise is a lot more expensive than all but the most costly cleaning franchise. So, you know that the people who bought into these franchises did everything right.

They probably hired a lawyer experienced in franchise law to look over the contract. Then paid a CPA to help them come up with a formal business plan. And since most of them had to borrow the money to buy the franchise; they took out a loan application which their bank OK'd.

Despite all the time, money, and just plain hassle they went through -- they still got burned.

What Do You Get When You buy a Franchise?

When you buy a franchise you get three things. You get a territory. You get to use the franchise name (including their trade name, trademark, and logo). And you get to use their Method of Doing Business.

Name

Name recognition is very important for some types of franchises. By the time he's five any kid in this country has seen more of Ronald McDonald than he has of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the President of the United States combined. So, it may well be worth the money to buy a McDonald's franchise.

It's different for the cleaning industry. There are dozens of cleaning franchises and more coming along all the time. Can you name three? More importantly, can your future customers name three? Probably not. That tells you a lot right there. Cleaning franchises spend their advertising dollars where they make their money; off of people like you who want to start their own business.

Territory

Purchasing a territory makes sense if the franchise has a unique service or a well-known brand name, but with janitorial or cleaning companies this is not the case. There are no real brand names among the cleaning franchises. And while there are different systems for cleaning carpets or acoustic tiles none is so unique that it's worth buying a franchise to get it.

On the other hand, territories are a great deal for the people who want to sell you a franchise. You pay up front, so they always make money, even if your business fails. On the other hand, if you succeed, they cannibalize you. They do this by selling a whole slew of new franchises on the outskirts of your territory. These new franchise owners then make most of their sales on the strength of your hard-earned reputation, often times becoming your toughest competition.

Method of Doing Business

Their Method of Doing Business is supposedly the secret that makes each cleaning franchise different from all the rest. The trouble is, there is no one-big secret to this business, just a lot of good basic business techniques and tricks of the trade that you need to know.

Instead of giving you specific, step-by-step instructions on how to succeed in the cleaning business, franchises give you "Mission Statements" and high sounding business philosophy. They pay good money to copywriters and graphic artists to dazzle you with their presentation so you won't notice how little practical information you really get.

In Over Your Head?

Franchises start you out as the owner, manager, and the entire sales force for a small company. Suddenly you find yourself running a business, in a competitive field, without the experience or confidence you would have if you had started from scratch. Their idea seems to be that if your monthly payments to them don't kill you, you might make a go of it. And if you don't, well they got your down payment so they're still ahead of the game.

Don't work to make money for someone else. Start your own cleaning business and create prosperity for yourself and your family!

http://build-a-business.com/cleaning_franchise_no.htm

[PressurePros 249]

You have to do your homework. I am not a fan of service industry franchises but some franchises are a safer bet. You get instant name recognition, consistency in product quality, unified paper work and often expensive media advertising (all benefits the article outlined as well). As to whether or not you can make money from a franchise after their associated fees... Our Curves franchise has 740 members (700 do automatic withdrawl) with a set monthly operating cost of about $5,500 per month.

[John T 744]

You must be kicking butt with that Curves franchise with that many members(700) locked in under contract. Thats about $28,000/month on those contracts alone.

I almost bought a Curves last Month for my wife to operate but they weren't honest with me in the total number of contracted members and the owner said she only does at most 10hrs a week when she actually does 25+. I don't want my wife working over 10 hrs a week if she doesn't have to because we have 2 young girls at home.

Long story short for 325 contracted members she wanted $175,000 for the franchise. If she had the advertise amount of contracted members that she advertised (425) then I would have possibly bought that franchise.

For the amount of members yours has your franchise here would be worth well over $300,000.

I'll have to wait for other opportunities to come across my way

[PressurePros 249]

Hey John, good morning. The values you mentioned are about right for this area as well. I think the number to look for when buying a Curves is $500 per contracted member. My fiance runs the operation but, if you are willing to run with a little higher payroll, I can't see why your wife couldn't get away with minimal hours away from home and the girls.

You were very smart to run away from that deal though. Two lies right out of the bag? Buh bye. We lucked out. The lady that sold us this one was extrememly dedicated and honest. She opened the club in 2000 and really worked the territory. Her client retention rate was phenomenal. We did a very slow and careful transition and she is going to be with us for the next three months as a consultant to keep things smooth. With the current TV advertising and the New Years resolutions we are on target for a thousand member club. If you have any questions about the procedures, corporate policies, etc etc Call me, John. I researched everything to death before venturing into this.