Experienced Business Help Required

............................ LOL

Hate to sound like an ass, but without getting into great detail, I do not see this working. I've also learned this, trying to start an innovative business that isnt' around in your area is much harder than starting one that is already popular and just having a better business plan compared to your competitor's.

I understand this may seem like a good idea, but I can't think of any that would actually pay for gum removal. In most gov. facilities it is the job of the janitor or community service.

How much do you think people will pay for you or your employees to remove gum? Will it be worth your time to go out there and do it?

 

I've got the gum removal market covered, so don't even think about it. LOL

 

" I understand this may seem like a good idea, but I can't think of any that would actually pay for gum removal. In most gov. facilities it is the job of the janitor or community service."


SPOT ON !!!!!!

BRUCE

 

Marco, you need to contact businesses in YOUR area and see if it's worth a shot, and if it will be recurring business. I could see someone paying you $1 a table - once every 5 years at most.

(and if it is, arm everyone you know/hit all the high-schools with truckloads of gum and tell them what to do with it...... create your own market)

 

Think of all those shoes, waiting to be serviced!

 

Okay let us assume that people are interested (which I still believe is unlikely but I do not know your area so I can't make claims).

How much do you think people are willing to pay for this service? How often would they need it? Could you honestly have somebody drive to this location ( gas money + cost of vehicle if company vehicle + maintenance on said vehicle + labor) to remove gum? Seriously tell me that you think this can be profitable?

Here's the thing, most small businesses will just have somebody clean it up, most government or industrial size businesses have janitors and it is their job to keep the area clean.

You're making the same mistake I did, you're only considering the positives becuase you've put to much confidence in your idea.

My business idea was something that was big in CA and I tried to bring it to OK and it did not work, no matter how good it sounded on paper you HAVE TO use your common sense.

 

Does your service include removing from hair?



Top 10 jokes your friends or potential customers will tell you.

10. I think it might become a sticky situation!

9. Better watch out. You might get gum disease.

8. I find all this hard to swallow.

7. I don't believe in gum control.

6. Where the hell do you plan to get rid of it?

5. Just suck it up.

4. How do you tell gum from boogers?

3. Try Wrigley field, they might need the service.

2. Gum here and look at this.

and the number one joke, your friends will tell you is

That's fine but can you do something about the dogcrap?

 

EDIT:

I had a long response written but I erased it.

We have a business section in the silver area - its $10 to subscribe. You have 7 posts - if you want GOOD advice, cough up $10 and people will be happy to help. The subscriber only business section doesn't mean its OK to post it here, it means if you want business advice, cough up $10!

 

I don't think it's that bad of an idea - especially if you can hire someone to do the work too. I'd talk to the city as well, but why not just try and call the managers of the stores/businesses you're thinking of?

You might have competition from cleaning businesses that clean grocery and big box stores at night - they might offer this service and the stores already say no. That's a tough gig though, if only because of the hours - the workers and managers work like 10pm-6am.

 

How do you propose removing the gum ? I ask cause we use a pressure washing company to do our commercial property, and they show up with a box truck with pressure washer, generator, water tank, chemicals, ladders, brushes, etc. Quite an expensive setup but they do a great job, especially when they break out the sulfuric acid for the concrete sidewalks !

 

I also see pressure wash services removing gum from sidewalks and entryways late nights/early mornings. The gum removal is only a portion of what they do.

 

One of the Shore towns I go to in the summer has a couple of full time maintenance people doing exactly this.

Don't know if it's commercially viable, but at least from where I'm sitting, it's not unheard of.

DM

 

Someone watches Dirty Jobs on Discovery, I've seen the episode as well.

I don't think they made that much $ and that was in NYC.

 

i was actually thinking about this recently, in a fashion. every few months i really notice just how many chewies are gooed into the sidewalk. there's a section in my city where a whole bunch of footpath has been redone and actually had coins embedded into it. these areas look really clean and nice! then you go 50 yards down the street and it's back into gumland and looks horrible afterwards.

i'm sure if you were able to somehow showcase the different feel an area has when you are walking on 'clean' ground then some high-visibility businesses might be interested in such a thing.

 

The idea is good but will NOT work as a stand-alone business. It need to be bundled with other specific services. I think a better cleaning type of business would be to specialize in the cleaning of dental office equipment, the large items like the chairs, swing arms for the lights, etc. (Not the sterile instruments).

Though my dentist always has sterile instruments, his larger equipment needed a cleaning. I pointed this out to him on a visit 6 months ago. I asked him to sit in the chair and tell me what he sees. The first thing out of his mouth was 'My God, this equipment is dirty"! I returned for a teeth cleaning a month ago and all of his large equipment was spotless!

PS: Another idea I posted that is a big business is Crime Scene Cleaning. If you can deal with wiping blood and brain parts of of walls, you'll make some coin!

 

I know in my old town (Georgetown, Washington, DC) the city did gum remval every two weeks.

Places that would want it are Hotels like W, Ritz, etc

 

The business you want to start is a commercial cleaning company. As a few others have mentioned, the gum removal is only a small facet of the overall business, you should plan on pressure washing everything from buildings and canopies, to parking lots and sidewalks. I have a good friend that owns a very large commercial cleaning business and he takes home $3-400k yearly, but the work is difficult and the hours are overnight because businesses like gas stations and strip plazas wont let you hold up their customers during the day. You also need some pricey equipment and chemicals to do the job right. Insurance is a must, and you will need to check into EPA laws in your area about water recovery systems to retain all the clean-up. Good Luck!

 

There already is a business for Gum Removal--Its called the PowerWashing business.

Most companies have to pay out of their pocket for the service, and they choose not to. Some downtown type stores might be able to split the bill with the township, as its the township's sidewalks.

Let me let you in on a secret if you decide to enter the powerwashing business. Make sure you tell the customer BEFORE you do the job that when you remove the Gum from the sidewalk, there will be outlines around where the gum used to be. These "Ghost Circles" as theyre refered to CAN NOT be removed.

 

Could be a great business if you could get into a municipality. Here's my question...are you sleeping with the governer's daughter? If not, I bet that there is someone out there who is willing to do it for a little less that you could do it for and they will quickly push you out of the market. If you are tapping the governer's daughter; that may be a different situation.

 

Sorry, but you guys don't know what you're talking about. Proper gum removal is pretty specialized - it takes high pressure and steam to do it correctly. I get mine done twice per year.

My little store is about 120,000 square feet with a front of about 600 feet wide. Gum looks like crap and must be removed regularly if you care about appearances.

 

High pressure and steam. And maybe even a flexible putty knife. That's pretty specialized. I wonder why nobody has thought of this yet. I'm in the wrong business.

 

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