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pete lopez

Oct 19, 2002, 1:47 AM

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janitorial business in mexico

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I am looking to move to mexico and starting my own Janitorial business and like to know if anybody could tell me what city would be a good place to start and if this is a good business in mexico.I am going in january of 2003 and my first stop will be in monterey.

Dexter

Oct 19, 2002, 4:57 AM

Post #2 of 7 (2244 views)

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janitorial business in mexico

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The good part is you can get reasonable help. Most Mexican business would probably prefer to use an employee because the can also do other things. This may work in an area with lots of Gringos that prefer to have a more US approach to a house cleaner and a manager that speaks English. I would opt for a Gringo area and concentrate on residential clients..: I am looking to move to mexico and starting my own Janitorial business and like to know if anybody could tell me what city would be a good place to start and if this is a good business in mexico.I am going in january of 2003 and my first stop will be in monterey.

Liz

Oct 19, 2002, 6:22 AM

Post #3 of 7 (2245 views)

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You might do very well

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The Mexican businesses that use American technique do very well down here. There is lots of cheap labor but most people are blindingly inefficient. Almost no one owns decent equipment because labor is so cheap. As a result it takes much longer to get the same job done. I believe in the long run better equipment would pay off. For example the gardener cut our grass by hand with hedge trimmers and spent half a day at that, then moved on to our bushes and such. The whole thing cost $15 American. He spent about 8 hours total on our postage stamp yard. With good equipment he'd have been done in an hour or less.

sparks

Oct 19, 2002, 1:23 PM

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Cement pumper

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I think the ideal business would be a cement pumper so those guys could stop RUNNING up ladders with 5 gallon buckets on their heads ... but you have to consider what they will do when you replace them. Just a concept you have to live with in Mexico.

FYI

Oct 19, 2002, 3:58 PM

Post #5 of 7 (2244 views)

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janitorial business in mexico

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In the commercial/industrial sector, there are already many companies that do that, at least in the larger cities. In the residential sector, Mexicans prefer to have their own employees. About the idea suggested by the other poster, and offering the services to gringos living in México, I don't think that would be profitable because most of the gringos living in México are retired people with SS limited, fixed income, others are "gringos mochileros" (backpack gringos) who only have enough money to sleep in cheap hotels and eat at street stands. Less than two percent of the gringos in México (survey by CANACO) are affluent people.Just read the posts in these forums and all you can read is gringos asking for a cheap way to: stay/eat/live/sleep/travel/whatever. So, the gringo market segment in México is not an interesting market to do business with. Ask the merchants and service suppliers in Ajijic, Vallarta, Cancun, Los cabos, et cetera, and you will confirm what the CANACO survey found.

max

Oct 19, 2002, 7:17 PM

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you'll really clean up!!

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Lin R

Oct 20, 2002, 4:48 PM

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coals to newcastle

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I hate to be a killjoy, but I can't think of a less needed and potentially succesful business than janitorial service in Mexico. Mexico essentially EXPORTS cleaning personnel to the US and the demand here is low, the supply high.