Did you know that generally most companies started in Australia are closed within one year of opening their doors? The chance of failing when starting a new endeavor is currently higher in more competitive sectors like the carpet cleaning industry, which is one of the most affordable business sectors, implying that brand-new participants to this market are very likely to fail without appropriate advice. Small businesses in Australia also face one of the world’s highest company tax rates of 28%, and bringing on employees must be carefully considered due to Australia having among the world’s greatest labour costs with a minimum wage for casual employees reaching just over $20 AUD! As if this wasn’t enough bad news for a potential small business owner, as a carpet cleaner you’ll also need to import chemicals and equipment from overseas, paying import fees and taxes and generally paying a higher price for overseas goods than the rest of the world due to a practice known as Price Discrimination.
Hence with so many opportunities for failure it’s important to have a viable and ideally proven business plan in place for your new venture, that has been tested in Australian conditions and found to work in multiple states and territories. Due to significant differences in salaries and disposable incomes between states such as Western Australia and South Australia, businesses that are extremely competitive and price-sensitive such as carpet cleaning need to be finely tuned and potentially adjusted for the economic realities of different regions in Australia.
One thing you can do when starting out is to make sure you chat to everybody – every carpet cleaning franchise, educational organization and tools distributor you can locate throughout Australia, and for chemical supplies and specialized equipment you may even wish to search for international vendors. Take a lot of notes as you’ll listen to much clashing information and a big range of quoted prices for every little thing you need to get off the ground and running. Review various carpet cleaning technologies on Wikipedia as well as other internet sites so you have a bit of background info. Even if someone’s sales pitch seems great, do not commit to anything at this stage.
Next formulate a business plan taking into account how much starting capital you have, your weekly living expenses and the amount of savings left after the initial expenses. This will give you your “burn rate”, that is how many months (or even years) you are able to support yourself before growing your business to the point where it can sustain you, and from there generate income which can be used to further grow it.
Following make a list of inquiries and factors of explanation you really want addressed. These could be around various items, chemicals or devices, franchise business regulations, business strategies and company versions. Keep in mind, this is going to be a substantial financial investment in both initial start-up costs as well as years of time to grow a successful company, so being as thorough as feasible at the earliest phase will certainly bring returns down the track. Doing as much research as possible online and through your network of business contacts will pay dividends later on, as once you’ve started there’s no turning back, unless you want to close down your business which should always be a last resort!