So you want to start a hood cleaning business? I get 3-4 calls or emails every week from someone that wants to get into the hood cleaning business. They are tired of working for somebody else and there are a ton of restaurant in their area. I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count how many times I’ve heard that.
So what does it take to start a hood cleaning business?
The first and I believe the most important ingredient to a successful hood cleaning business, or any business for that matter, is market research. You can have the best idea in the world, but if there are no customers, your business will not survive.
Not only do we need a certain quantity of customers, but are those customers “worthy” customers? I don’t mean to sound condescending or anything like that, but opening a Nordstroms in the Appalachian mountains wouldn’t go over too well even though the quality of Nordstroms products are very high.
One way to find out if there is a fitting market for your hood cleaning business is competition. If there is NO competition, that is a bad sign. There may not be a market for your business. If there is a lot of competition, that presents a whole new set of challenges, but at least you will know that there is a market.
The best way I know of about doing market research in your area is using a survey form to check some things out. You want to know if the fire marshal is competent and actually inspects system. There are some tricks and easy ways around this without asking a business owner this question.
Another thing to check is if the customers’ systems are in good condition, generally. When I first started my business, in one certain area, there was NO competition and I thought this was going to be easy pickins’. Well, it was easy pickins and I found out why, after I started cleaning them. Most of the systems were 50 years old and every broken code known to man had been grandfathered in. I am a decent salesman, but try talking a mom and pop restaurant -that is looking for the lowest price for a cleaning- into spending $30K to upgrade their system just so you can clean it properly. No wonder there was no competition! Nothing like seeing plywood for access panels and things like that.
So, as you can see, it’s not just about if there are “a bunch” of restaurants in your area. It’s not just about whether or not you can do a really good job at cleaning. It’s not whether or not you should use foam, or a pump up sprayer to apply chemical. It’s not whether or not you should mix your own chemicals or buy them pre-mixed from a manufacturer. There are a lot of factors that go into having or starting a successful hood cleaning business and the first place to start is market research. It’s not fun, it’s boring and you may not like the results, but if you do it correctly and can save you tons of headaches and a whole lot of money.
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