Hood Cleaning School

Hoods

I have several local guys that do hood cleaning and many located all across the United States. In Indiana no certification is required. You just have to do the proper cleaning. Most guys are running a minimum of a two man crew. I would not want one of our guys on the roof alone at night. I will agree that I have heard from all of these guys that they are constantly getting low balled. They also get the work postponed because of financial problems with the restaurant. It is funny that a school is supposed to teach you in a few days what it takes years to master. I do have a funny story. I have a hood cleaner that had the contract to clean the exhaust system at Purdue University Gary. He got low balled and lost the contract. Only for one cleaning. The "competitor" did not realyze that the exhaust system ran over the roof in the Library. 58,000 worth of runied books and 32,000 to do the repairs. Miraculously my customer got his work back. Moral There is more to hoods than scraping and blasting...
By the way is it just me or is anyone else thinking the school is priced so high to bury equipment costs???? At 8,000.00 for training and the whole thing for 14,500.00. Those numbers don't jive Oh well. Why is this industry so plagued with Gimmicks.
 
Tomdurbin said:
I have several local guys that do hood cleaning and many located all across the United States. In Indiana no certification is required. You just have to do the proper cleaning. Most guys are running a minimum of a two man crew. I would not want one of our guys on the roof alone at night. I will agree that I have heard from all of these guys that they are constantly getting low balled. They also get the work postponed because of financial problems with the restaurant. It is funny that a school is supposed to teach you in a few days what it takes years to master. I do have a funny story. I have a hood cleaner that had the contract to clean the exhaust system at Purdue University Gary. He got low balled and lost the contract. Only for one cleaning. The "competitor" did not realyze that the exhaust system ran over the roof in the Library. 58,000 worth of runied books and 32,000 to do the repairs. Miraculously my customer got his work back. Moral There is more to hoods than scraping and blasting...
By the way is it just me or is anyone else thinking the school is priced so high to bury equipment costs???? At 8,000.00 for training and the whole thing for 14,500.00. Those numbers don't jive Oh well. Why is this industry so plagued with Gimmicks.
Click to expand...


Tom, I'm trying to figure out what to charge for training guys to do what we do. There are lots of guys who clean coils and lots of guys who service and/or clean air filters, but I think we're the only ones who do both.

There are a lot of mistakes that can be made that can put you right out of business quickly.

I've spent thousands upon thousands experimenting, making mistakes, etc. At one time I had so many fans blowing in the warehouse space that it sounded like jets taking off to walk through it. All this was to research various filters and coil cleaning techniques and to collect other air flow information.

Improper measurement of one box retail store could cost you almost an entire year's profit on the account.

Improper coil cleaning methods could make your insurance skyrocket and put you out of business. (not to mention the damage to your reputation that could be irreparable.

I've only done two coil and filter classes. I wasn't happy with the results. There's no way on this planet there can be enough one on one time to teach 14 guys properly at once.

Having sold franchises in the 90's I have taught countless classes and written a few manuals. What I am teaching is twice as intensive as the business I was involved in during the 90's and we had to teach those guys one by one for three days straight.

I think it would be possible to fully teach what we are doing in three days but it would take ALL of my time for those three days. The only thing I would get out of it in the future would be a small percentage of filter sales. (Which are not ongoing, this is a one time thing for each account)

So, if we pull in $2400 on an average 8 hr day with two people working how much should three days of classes be worth? (BTW I can't teach a class alone, Chris has to help me because there are too many things that have to be made ready in advance on some buildings.)

Any thoughts?
 
Maybe your daily rate and a maximimum of 2 or 3 students in the class for however many days you plan on the class being that way you can clean every type of coil out there and change every size and kind of filter along with doing the electrostatic filters.

Part of the training could be taking them on some sales calls so they see how you sell the jobs, that would be very, very valuable just by itself.
 
That is the magic question. The simple answer it is worth what the market will bare. What are you currently charging? Is this similar to the service Acme used to offer? Let me know and I will confer with my guys and get back to you.
 
Tomdurbin said:
That is the magic question. The simple answer it is worth what the market will bare. What are you currently charging? Is this similar to the service Acme used to offer? Let me know and I will confer with my guys and get back to you.
Click to expand...

I am not familiar with Acme. Can you give me some more information about them?

I have only done two classes and I charged my cost on those and even then I didn't quite break even.

I just wanted to get a few guys started. Even then the guys who have used the information and made money off of it, for the most part, won't share the information with anybody else because they see it as their own personal little gold mine in their area.
 
cleanhoods said:
The best way to learn if you are serious is to find an exhaust sytstem cleaner outside of the are
Marko
Click to expand...

Funny, you just ripped on a guy for doing this in another thread. I went through that school in 2003, and learned the basics of the KEC business. It was well worth the money I spent, especially since I didn't know a single person in KEC at the time. Rusty's program allows people an entry way to KEC, it doesn't make you the worlds best greaser, but it does give you the tools for success. It is solely up to the individual when it comes to service performance.
 
dodsonish said:
Funny, you just ripped on a guy for doing this in another thread. I went through that school in 2003, and learned the basics of the KEC business. It was well worth the money I spent, especially since I didn't know a single person in KEC at the time. Rusty's program allows people an entry way to KEC, it doesn't make you the worlds best greaser, but it does give you the tools for success. It is solely up to the individual when it comes to service performance.
Click to expand...

I like that faceBook in Signature
 
I called and talked to Rusty or someone over there also.... He would not train me because I am only 40 miles from him.... I am glad I didn't. Of course you can use a one man crew... You have people paying you to let them clean the hoods. I was not able to swing another school but I really liked Jamie at Fireman LLC and his training. By far way more professional than HCS. With my experiences in talking to Hood Cleaning School I wouldn't let them change my socks.

Just my opinion and my experience with them.
 
It's amazing that after all these years we are still going strong.

Re: The Cleaning Doc

It's our policy that we don't train anyone in the Middle Tenn. Area. Clarksville is about 20-30 miles from Nashville, and that's just our policy. Sorry that we couldn't help you.

*************************************************

We're training students #207 and #208 this week. So for a system that doesn't work, it sure is working very well.

In an earlier post, someone mentioned that our equipment won't clean a Brinker Intl. contract.

When you are just starting out, and you have no accounts, I wouldn't recommend going after a Brinker's type account, until you build up your business.

You must first focus on the basics, getting accounts, doing high quality work for a competitive price and learning to be an expert at what you do. Start generating revenue so that you can survive and grow your business.

Every person must start at DAY ONE and build from that point.

Most criticism comes from those that are very established and look back from the point of view of a large company with many employees and many contracts/accounts.

Our system is designed to take someone from DAY ONE and build their success to any size that they decide to run their company at. We specialize in taking any person, and helping them start step one, day one, and build until they are the size that they want to be.

So let's see:
1. We guarantee you in writing at least $21,000 worth of business in your first 6 months of business (if you use our optional marketing program). Our Business Owner's Course, Deluxe Equipment and Optional Guaranteed Clients program cost just $21,450. So, in 6 months, if you don't like what you're doing. Take your money and do something else. You have absolutely nothing to lose.
2. We start you out in a complete equipment package with all of the supplies and chemicals to clean your first 100 accounts (at $200 profit per job, should easily generate at least $21,000 without having to purchase more supplies/equipment).
3. We offer LIFETIME free retraining. Didn't get it in 5 days, keep coming back and take as many additional training classes as you want.
4. We offer 24/7 Online Support with questions and technical advice. This alone is worth the price that we charge.
5. We offer Certification that is AHJ recognized. Look in your copy of the NFPA 96 in the list of people that put it together, read the names that are on the list. That's who you want teaching you.
6. We offer LIFETIME membership for those that want/need this. How much money will this alone save you in your career as a professional kitchen grease exhaust cleaner.
7. We run 90% success ratio after 12 months of training. That means that if you attend our school, your success is guaranteed. You know you know what you are doing if you offer in writing that you will succeed.
8. We offer exclusive online software that you can use to run your entire grease exhaust clenaing company. From 1 person operation, to multi crew, multi employee operation of any size. Upload before/after pics, and allow customers to log in and view your before/after pics.
9. We are the ONLY school that starts you out as a 1 person crew. Build up your business to any size that you want, but until you have revenue generated, you won't be able to hire/pay for employees.
10. We offer a completely customized Master Documents Manual so that from DAY ONE you have the professional paperwork, contracts, invoices, marketing materials that you will need to be successful.
11. Call me at 888-848-6636 and know that what you need can be customized into your class. That's a personal touch that no one else can compete with.
12. WE are small family owned and operated business, that understands the unique needs of the small hood cleaning operation and we will download everything that we know about this industry and business directly into your brain so that you too will be successful.

Is going to Hood Cleaning School worth it? It depends on you. Some want all the information and want to be shown exactly what to do live, in person, one on one, by a professional kitchen grease exhaust cleaner.

Vanderbilt University, is now only $50,000 per semester, and a 4 year degree will only run you about $200,000.

Our school is $21,450 (for the full court press) and we guarantee you in writing that we'll generate at least that amount of business in your first 6 months. With Vanderbilt, you get no guarantee that you will be successful.

So let those that are sure that you can get into this business if you will just follow them, or you can take a for sure, absolutely guaranteed way, of getting into this business, that has been tried and proven to work over and over again by hundreds of successful kitchen grease exhaust cleaners across this great nation of ours.

I'll bet you'll chose the number one Hood Cleaning School that exists as the sole way to get into this business as well.
 
cleanhoods said:
I already know what i am doing is right,so thats how you find out right ways to do this since 2001.
Waste of time and money people.The best way to learn if you are serious is to find an exhaust sytstem cleaner outside of the are that does top notch work and labor for them to learn,just jump into the game is the best way not through speeches and books.
Marko
Click to expand...

iamthebestcleanerintheworldnadallothersareinferioertomemynameis MARKO:dance3:
 
RustyACE said:
It's our policy that we don't train anyone in the Middle Tenn. Area. Clarksville is about 20-30 miles from Nashville, and that's just our policy. Sorry that we couldn't help you.
Click to expand...

But you have no problem training people that are in your student's backyards.

Also, in the fine print of the contracts that you are made to sign to go through the school it says that you cannot share information learned at the school with anyone. So if you have any plans on growing your company beyond a one man band, you must send them to the school to have them trained or technically, The Hood Cleaning School could sue you for breach of contract.
 
Also, in the fine print of the contracts that you are made to sign to go through the school it says that you cannot share information learned at the school with anyone. So if you have any plans on growing your company beyond a one man band, you must send them to the school to have them trained or technically, The Hood Cleaning School could sue you for breach of contract.
Click to expand...

There are provisions for owners to train their employees and have them sign the confidentiality/non compete waivers as well. It's standard business practice to have employees sign Non Compete/ Confidentiality Waivers.

You have paid a lot of money for a single business for our information that we have licensed to you to use to make as much money cleaning hoods as you like, but you can't take our information and re-package it and re-sell it, or open your own hood cleaning school, or share our information with 3rd party persons.

This contract is on our website, and is part of the due diligence that is done by individuals who are considering our business opportunity to read thoroughly before ever attending our school.

So, because of this feature, you can grow your company to any size that you like, with as many employees as you choose, without having them attend our school (they of course won't be certified, but you have options... CHDCA, IKECA, PWNA or PAC if that becomes something that you choose).

As far as protected territories, Franchise Laws are very strict when it comes to any type of fees, dues, royalties or any type of protected territory. So therefore, although we discourage new students from going into business in previous student's areas, we can not, legally, protect "your" territory, since you didn't purchase a "Franchise", and you don't pay any fees, dues or royalties, we CAN'T protect your territory (because it doesn't exist).

There are those in the industry that are selling Franchises, and they range in price around $60,000 up front, plus 7-10% of your gross as royalty fees. We don't do this, we sell business opportunities.

But, obviously, first in, first opportunity to grow your business. Then we strongly encourage others to work together in a "gentleman's agreement" to not step on each other's toes.

Because we encourage, a 1 person operation, each 1 person operation can only grow to be so large (around 200-220 accounts).

There are those in our association that many multi person crews and have spread to large territories.

Since we have no control on who moves where, where a person lives and decides to start a business, and who decides to sell their busines, we have no control of ultimately who is competing with you.

But through genrous use of our bulletin board, you are in direct communication with those who are potentially going to be in your area.

So the question becomes, Anthony, are you successful as a hood cleaner?

How much have you earned since you came through our school and set up your own business without having to pay any additional fees, dues, or royalties? Has it been worth what you paid for the information?

Has this level of income allowed you to grow your business, obtain new equipment, new customers?

Are you satisfied, that we started you out at the basic level, so that you could become the expert that you are now?

Everyone of us has to start at DAY ONE in this business, and you are proof that it works.

There are no hard feelings between our company and you. You seem to feel like you are on the outside, but you aren't. You are a member of our association, and we are very proud of you.

I know that you feel that we stepped on your toes, but we were simply protecting what you paid a lot of money for, and agreed not to share.
 
RustyACE said:
You have paid a lot of money for a single business for our information that we have licensed to you to use to make as much money cleaning hoods as you like, but you can't take our information and re-package it and re-sell it, or open your own hood cleaning school, or share our information with 3rd party persons.

This contract is on our website, and is part of the due diligence that is done by individuals who are considering our business opportunity to read thoroughly before ever attending our school.

So, because of this feature, you can grow your company to any size that you like, with as many employees as you choose, without having them attend our school (they of course won't be certified, but you have options... CHDCA, IKECA, PWNA or PAC if that becomes something that you choose).




There are no hard feelings between our company and you. You seem to feel like you are on the outside, but you aren't. You are a member of our association, and we are very proud of you.

I know that you feel that we stepped on your toes, but we were simply protecting what you paid a lot of money for, and agreed not to share.
Click to expand...

Is this the bucket thing?
 
Whatever...this is a weak ploy to attempt to contain a man in the pursuit of business. Trying to contain a man with absurd contractual rules is an exercise in futility.

Good luck Rusty. Your gonna need it! :lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top