Line Cleaning Business Question
Hey Folks!
I hope many a good beer is passing through each of you. I have a question that I have been debating putting up here for a while. It is with regard to the business structure of line cleaners out there. I understand that this is sensitive information so anyone that wants to email me off line to maintain privacy should feel free to do so. I
am relativly new to the line cleaning business (6 months now) and was wondering if anyone would share some details of their experience with setting up a line cleaning business. Some of my main questions involve pricing (how much do you charge to clean lines? What kind of mark-up do you use?, etc. Another involves procedure and time, ie how long does it take you to clean an account with say 13 taps and a 40 foot walk to the cooler? I use a pressurized system with a 6 tap millington sytem to clean the lines.
A typical account w/o FOBs includes preparing the equipment, going to the cooler and attaching 6 couplers to the board and then flushing the lines with a line cleaner. I then move down the board and fluch and fill all lines with cleaner. I then move to the front where I remove and dissasemble all facuets and soak/scrub in a separate batch of cleaning solution. I do these one at a time because I have found that sometimes the pieces do not always line up if I don't put them back tgether wit the same parts. I assume this is due to subtle difference in facucet types and wear. Anyway, I reassemble the facuset and after scrubbing the piece the faucet fits into I reattach the faucets and proceded to flush each line with water and then refill with product. Am I missing anything? I watch the couplers in the cooler and hit them up every couple of weeks in detail but they seem to stay pretty clean from the flushing.
I want to make sure that I am doing the best job possible while being as efficient as I can (and profitable as I can). Eventuall I will build up my business enough to include a pump system for longer runs. Let me know if you guys have any input or suggestions as they would be very much apprectiated.
Ed
My email is ed@bluelinedraft for those that wish to comment via email.
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