Bootbleker - a business idea on the streets of a big city

A business focused on cleaning shoes using special equipment can be a promising entrepreneurial solution. To start it, large investments and space for placing equipment are not required. How to start such a business, what are its features, and what equipment will be needed to implement the project?

Vending business

Business relevance

The niche of activity is not well covered in the market for providing similar services, therefore, with the right choice of location, competition can be avoided. Shoe shine machines are less popular than food vending machines, but they are easy to maintain and do not require a water supply. An electrical connection is sufficient for their operation.

The specific design of the devices allows you to increase earnings not only by changing the number of service points, but also by providing advertising services. By placing equipment near train stations, airports, parks, theaters, cinemas and other establishments where you need to look cultured, you can make good money and become a well-known advertising agency.

Selecting a room

The premises must meet labor protection and fire safety requirements. Dry cleaning of shoes with delivery is not designed for an open location for customers.

Therefore, the premises must be within transport accessibility for quick and convenient transportation of shoes from the client to the dry cleaner and back. Be sure to take this point into account when choosing a room. The speed of pickup and delivery affects the number of orders and their fulfillment.

Financial assessment of business

When planning to open a business in the field of putting shoes in order, it is enough to have 50,000 rubles for starting investments. Funds are needed to purchase equipment and rent the premises in which it will be located. You can purchase equipment that is more expensive. Its cost can reach 1,000,000 rubles, however, before making a purchase, you should evaluate its feasibility, since inexpensive models also have sufficient functionality to complete the task. The difference lies in power and the availability of additional options.

Renting a square meter of space will cost an entrepreneur 2,000 rubles. The average cost of one cleaning is 20 rubles. There must be at least 30 operations per day. If fewer clients are served, then it is necessary to look for another location of the device.

Shoe cleaning machine mechanism

The entrepreneur's daily income will be 600 rubles. In a month he can receive an income of 18,000 rubles. You can also count on an additional profit of 3,000 rubles per advertiser.

Detailed list of equipment

Equipment

Modern equipment is used to clean shoes from dirt. Its operation does not require constant monitoring, and maintenance can be carried out personally by the entrepreneur.

A shoe cleaning vending machine is an automatic equipment designed to remove dust and dirt from shoes.

It is multifunctional, ergonomic and has an aesthetic appearance. The equipment is easy to install and connect, and maintenance does not require any knowledge. Compactness and light weight allow it to be installed in any room. The equipment operates almost silently. It uses special brushes that carefully clean shoes without damaging their surface. The procedure for replacing component elements of equipment and changing dispensers for creams and other care products is seamless and intuitive.

A shoe cleaning machine can be designed to clean the soles or upper parts of shoes. The functionality of the equipment can be focused on processing leather, suede or leather substitutes.
It is possible to customize equipment to care for shoes of a certain color, different from the basic brown and black. In modern and expensive equipment, several options can be combined, but the technology for the sole is always installed separately.

How much can you earn from shining shoes?

As a rule, when organizing this type of business, no additional maintenance personnel are required, since you can monitor the device yourself. Periodically replenishing the containers with cream and replacing the mat with a new one is all that is required. Moreover, if there is a volunteer directly in the shopping center in the form of a local service employee who, for a small fee, will do this work for you, then transportation costs will also disappear by themselves from the overall project estimate. The only thing you will have to do regularly yourself is to extract revenue from the device, which will constantly accumulate there.

Shoe shine vending machine

Now it is necessary to find out the general situation for this type of business and understand how profitable this project is and what will be required to launch it at full capacity. The approximate economic calculations of expenses and estimated profits presented in the table are as follows.

The table does not include the amount of costs for related materials and equipment, since everything here depends on the owner of the machine. It is still preferable to use high-quality products from the manufacturer, since customers’ shoes can be very whimsical. Well, no one needs the troubles that may be associated with damage to shoes, so you should give preference to shoe products from a specific company, then any claims will be automatically forwarded to another addressee, and not to you.

Thus, from preliminary calculations we can see that this type of service business is very cost-effective and profitable . It is worth noting that all income depends on how well the machine is located, on the effectiveness of your advertising and what kind of customer reviews there are. We should not forget that the network of points where new machines will be installed must be constantly expanded and try to completely occupy this business niche.

The fact is that so far, shoe vending machines are not particularly common in Russia and the very idea of ​​business does not yet know competition. Therefore, you should not waste time, but it is important to get involved in time in the general flow of implementing interesting ideas for opening your own business, which will generate profit and also provide a stable income every day.

Room

Installation of several devices in places where the service is in demand

The success of entrepreneurial activity in the field of shoe cleaning directly depends on the choice of location of equipment. It is more effective to install it in places where a person’s neat appearance is relevant. They should also have high cross-country ability. According to statistics, equipment will be in demand when placed near:

• shopping centers;
• government agencies;
• administrative institutions;
• entertainment and cultural complexes;
• hotels.

Business registration

Before purchasing equipment or looking for a place to place it, it is necessary to officially register the business. To do this, you must register as a business entity. To begin with, it will be enough to open an individual entrepreneurship. As the business expands, trade turnover parameters and the number of service personnel increase, it will be possible to think about obtaining the status of a legal entity.

After registering for tax purposes, you need to choose the most favorable taxation system. There are no restrictions in legal acts on the possibility of using any of its types, therefore a business representative has the right to choose any form. The most acceptable option is UTII, since the type of activity focused on the provision of services through vending machines falls into the category of retail trade and personal services. To carry out financial settlements with authorized bodies for mandatory payments and with counterparties, it is necessary to open a bank account.

The next organizational stage will be searching for premises and drawing up a lease agreement. When purchasing equipment, it is important to ensure that it has a certificate of conformity.

To maintain the device, it is necessary to hire workers who, if necessary, will change brushes and fill containers with care products, such as shoe polish and polish. The withdrawal of money can be carried out personally by the entrepreneur or the collector. For each episode of such an event, it is necessary to draw up a corresponding report.

Operating principle of the equipment

A shoe cleaning machine with a bill acceptor operates according to a simple algorithm. It consists of carrying out a financial transaction by the client by placing a banknote in the bill acceptor, selecting the required option from the menu of offers and receiving the desired service.

Advertising on the device screen

The equipment is equipped with several types of brushes, which are located on the front and sides. After payment, the machine is activated when you press your foot on the platform, as a result of which the brushes begin to rotate automatically. Initially, they do not move and move in place, which allows you to remove heavy dirt. After a few seconds, the brushes begin to move, rotating back and forth while simultaneously applying cream from the dispenser. Subsequent movements of the brushes are aimed at polishing.

To ensure better contact with shoes, the brushes are made in the form of disks. They have bristles of different lengths. This specific design helps clean the side of the sole. Once the brushes are worn out, they can be easily replaced with new ones. Standard equipment in the budget category is suitable for processing closed shoes.

To provide services for cleaning nubuck or suede shoes, you will need to purchase specific equipment or more expensive equipment, the functionality of which allows you to switch to a special mode in which such an operation can be carried out.

Design features and principle of operation of the machines

Any shoe cleaning equipment works according to a single algorithm: the client must select the desired function from the menu, put money into the bill acceptor and then receive the desired service.

There are several types of devices:

• sole cleaning machine;
• automatic machine for cleaning suede shoes;
• automatic machine for cleaning leather shoes (one or several colors).

Modern devices combine several functions: they can clean both leather and suede shoes. Equipment that cleans soles is installed separately.

A shoe shine machine is essentially a box equipped with several brushes, as well as a bill acceptor. The front panel, behind which the device for collecting banknotes is located, is made of durable steel. The front part of the bill acceptor is a chrome plate, embedded into the machine from above and fixed using spot welding. The equipment is also equipped with special rubber mats, an automatic shutdown mode and durable, burglary-resistant locks. What’s interesting: a shoe shine machine with a bill acceptor can easily be configured for another currency.

The coin acceptor that most machines are equipped with accepts only five-ruble coins. But thanks to the fact that today the production of payment systems of any level of complexity has been established, a shoe shine machine with a coin acceptor can be easily converted so that it can accept coins of any denomination.

To connect most devices, a 220 V power supply and 1 m2 of area are required.

Servicing the machines is also not particularly difficult:

• regular replacement of cream (one refill is enough for about 600 pairs of shoes);
• collection of proceeds (1-2 times a day);
• cleaning the rubber mat.

The front or side surface of the equipment is usually used for advertising or rental of commercials.

Service

A few people are enough to operate a network of machines. Their responsibilities will include replacing the cream and cleaning the mat from dirt and dust, as well as collecting the proceeds. The regularity of refilling the equipment with care products during its constant use is twice a month, since the containers allow you to store cream and polish for 600 cleanings. Collection will have to be done daily, and if the equipment is in demand, the need to withdraw funds may arise twice a day. The responsible employee will also have to monitor the cleanliness of the surface of the equipment, its performance and the functioning of the video equipment in the specified mode.

Franchise business

Not all entrepreneurs want to deal with business organization issues on their own. In such a situation, you can start a franchise business. Having chosen such a business scheme, his representative has the opportunity to purchase modern equipment at a discount and provide assistance in choosing premises for its location.

Shoe polishing machine

Having drawn up a franchise agreement and paid a relatively small amount of 90,000 rubles, the entrepreneur is provided with the company’s brand name, consulting services and legal support if necessary. This amount may include the cost of equipment, rental payments, equipment setup and repairs, as well as royalties and lump-sum fees. An entrepreneur can count on discounts when simultaneously registering for several points of service provision.

How to advertise a business

Let's consider suitable promotion channels for this business:

• Create a convenient website describing services and prices. Write down in detail the procedure for providing services, tell us about quality guarantees, post before and after photos of shoes
• Create advertising accounts on social media. networks (Instagram, Vkontakte, Facebook), order advertising from popular bloggers in your region
• Enter a corporate discount from 10 orders at a time

To promote your site and help organize an advertising campaign, contact a marketing agency.

Additional earning opportunities

Some equipment models are equipped with functional screens that allow you to view video recordings. The option can be used to scroll through advertising videos on which the owner of the equipment can make money. While cleaning shoes, advertising content will be broadcast to the client.

The effectiveness of such advertising is several times higher than traditional methods of promotion through media, which makes it possible to increase prices for scrolling. This is explained by the fact that while cleaning shoes, a person focuses on the device, so he is forced to watch the advertising provided to him.

Since such machines are new, they attract the attention of people passing by, arouse their curiosity and provoke a desire to use the service. To increase earnings, an entrepreneur needs to look for advertisers whose activities are carried out in the same premises in which the device is located. Their search can be expanded in nearby buildings.

Where is the best place to buy a shoe shine machine?

Some manufacturers of shoe polishing machines have representative offices in major Russian cities. Their addresses can be found on the company’s official website.

However, a more profitable and convenient purchase would be to order the device on the manufacturer’s official website or in an online store specializing in the sale of such equipment. Such sites often offer additional discounts on products and offer delivery services.

Results

The provision of automated services for putting shoes in order as a business is a free business niche, so it will not be difficult to occupy it due to the lack of competition. The success of the activity will depend on the choice of location of the point and on the type of equipment purchased, in particular, on the correspondence of its functionality to the real needs of customers. Proper organization of business activities will ensure the return on investment made in the project during the first year of operation of the equipment.

Read about how to open a shoe dry cleaning business and evaluate your chances of opening a useful business.

A shoe dry cleaning studio is a less expensive project than regular dry cleaning.
At the same time, the market capacity for shoe dry cleaning services is enormous. The market is an unplowed field and with the right investment, the money spent on opening a shoe dry cleaner. will return quickly and very efficiently. A shoe shine studio is a profitable business. Using the example of the “Two Brothers” studio, which specializes in dry cleaning shoes, you can see that the business model of a shoe cleaning studio works great not only in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities with a population of over a million, but also in the provinces.

The headquarters of the shoe dry cleaning company “Two Brothers” is based in Yaroslavl and successfully sells its franchise in different cities of Russia. Yaroslavl, Ivanovo, Kostroma. Not the richest cities.

There is an opinion that the shoe cleaning service will be in demand “over there in Moscow, where shoes are expensive, but here no one will rent them out.”

Look at the number of shoe shine studios and change your perspective.

An excellent example is Kazbek Friev from Krasnodar. In 2020, he started providing ironing services and really wanted to open his own dry cleaning shop. And I advised him to look towards shoe dry cleaning. Kazbek figured out the cleaning technology and began to work and gain experience and get better at it. Today Kazbek receives shoes in boxes from different cities of Russia. He cleans and restores various items and shares his work on social networks.

Why are dry cleaning studios popular?

The reason for the popularity of shoe shine studios is fashion. The main volume of products received for cleaning are sneakers and sneakers in various variations. Here are the legendary Nike, Adidas Original, Converse sneakers, and designer Prada, Louis Vuitton, Lacoste and other variety of stylish, practical and informal shoes.

Often there are combinations of incompatible things - natural and synthetic fibers, polymer fabrics and leather. All this is enhanced by the sole and hidden part of the shoe. Not every pair of shoes can be cleaned at home.

With shoes it is a little more difficult than with clothes, and manufacturers of washing powders that clean all types of dirt have not yet reached shoes.

Although they are already being selected. You can find “specialized and professional cleaning products” for shoe care in sports stores and stores selling branded shoes. So shoe dry cleaners have already experienced the delights of cleaning products that have been cleaned using folk methods and household products.

What types of shoe cleaning studios are there?

Depending on what products prevail and what the shoe dry cleaning studio is focused on, the main options can be distinguished:

Dry cleaning of sneakers (sneaker cleaning, sneaker cleaning)

Not to be confused with the name of the chocolate bar. Sneaker is a general name for sports-style shoes. This includes sports sneakers, running shoes, gym shoes, and sneakers.

an example of the most common shoe model, called the word “sneaker”

Such shoes are often made from combined materials and some models of sneakers can be easily washed in a washing machine. Leather products and combination products are cleaned by hand.

When it comes to washing, the main thing is not to overdo it with the temperature, otherwise the sole may come off during washing.

Dry cleaning of sneakers is aimed at the younger generation and most often the main task is to revive your favorite sneakers and return them to their salable condition.

Sneaker dry cleaning not only provides cleaning services, but also restores colors and whitens soles.

Most often, the sneaker dry cleaning business model involves the sale of specialized sneaker care products.

If you type something like “sneaker cleaner” into the Google search engine, the search results will consist of the companies Angelus, (https://angelusdirect.com), Jason Markk (https://jasonmarkk.com), RESHOEVN8R (https:/ /uk.reshoevn8r.com), Sneakerser (https://www.sneakerser.com) and other manufacturers of preparations for home cleaning of sneakers.

This is what they do in Russia - they buy any drug from the listed or unlisted manufacturers, and get their hands on it. At best, they order their own stickers for bottles and tubes and sell them in their studios.

I will write the pros and cons of this model in the next article.

Formal Shoe Cleaning

Formal shoes - the entire range of classic men's and women's shoes. Shoes of all names and variations made of leather, nubuck and suede. Shoe restoration operations are more common here - applying liquid leather, smoothing out creases on leather shoes, painting, repainting, restoring varnish.

Such studios fit well with the English word polisher - shoe polishing.

This includes cleaning shoes from reagents and specific contaminants, eliminating the effects of water on shoes, restoring the surface and minor repairs.

All operations are carried out using professional shoe care products, which can also be offered in the form of shoe care kits.

Dry cleaning UGG and Timberland

Cozy felt boots from Australia called UGG are rapidly gaining popularity in Russia. And every owner of these boots knows the problem of cleaning UGG.

There are several ways to clean the UGG, the simplest of which is water cleaning. Dry cleaners have been doing water cleaning for UGG for a long time and the results are very, very good. After water cleaning, the ugg boots are dried in a special way and then the pile is lifted using brushes.

UGG is also cleaned by hand - salt stains and dirt are removed, dried and fluffed. It all depends on the conditions and capabilities of the shoe cleaning studio. There is a water cleaning machine and drying equipment - great. And if not, then the way out of the situation may be the simplest and most effective. For example, like this.

Yellow Timberland boots are also frequent visitors to dry cleaners. The nubuck surface of the boots quickly ceases to withstand deicing agents. There are also traces of ingrained dirt and specific stains. Cleaning Timberland boots at home is not an easy task.

Most often, a shoe shine studio combines specialization. Although in some cases, narrowly focused specialization depends on the market, and if there is demand and demand, you can do what you are most passionate about and what you often bring to the cleaners.

Where can I find shoe cleaning technology?

Each type of shoe needs its own technology. The characteristics of the combined materials and contaminants influence which shoe cleaning technology to use in a given case.

There is no escape from the basic principles of cleaning technology. Alkaline stain remover, acid neutralization and softening. How and in what way you will do this is a question for the technologist. To begin with, you should refer to the textbook. In the textbook “Dry Cleaning Technology” you can find food for thought about your future technology. And our technologist can provide you with training and consultation on various shoe cleaning technologies.

What are the different technologies for cleaning and caring for shoes?

Using household products and folk methods

Specialized shoe cleaning products sold in shoe stores

Professional shoe cleaning products and preparations

Technology for color restoration of suede products

Technology of restoration of leather goods

Material on shoe cleaning technology will be posted in this post constantly and as preparation progresses. You can subscribe to new blog posts to be notified when this information appears here. For the impatient, there is a feedback form with which you can ask your questions about shoe shine technology and opening a shoe shine studio.

Ready-made shoe cleaning solutions

When talking about shoe cleaning, one cannot ignore ready-made solutions from Europe and Asia. Ready-made solutions for shoe dry cleaning come from car dry cleaning. Washing vacuum cleaners, steam guns and foam generators - all this is familiar to those who work with car dry cleaning or upholstered furniture dry cleaning.

Revitapoint shoe cleaning and restoration technology

The pros and cons of Revitapoint technology and something else will be published here soon...

Shoe cleaning technology ScarpaVapor Bieffe Farinelli

The pros and cons of Bieffe technology will be published here soon

Get ready for a long read and stay in the wake of the publication on how to open a shoe dry cleaning studio and you will find out the answers to the questions:

How much does it cost to open a shoe dry cleaning shop?

The amount of investment required to open a shoe dry cleaning service depends on the concept of the studio and the chosen technology used for cleaning shoes.

The concept of “taking all the best at once”

You can immediately buy equipment, such as Revitapoint, purchase auxiliary equipment and a huge amount of consumables, which no one will use later, necessary for the most complex and special cases.

This also includes finishing and renovation of the premises, client counters made of artificial stone and LCD screens wherever possible.

Such a studio will cost from 800 thousand to 1.2 million rubles.

“As needed” concept

To do this, a plan for the development of the enterprise is outlined, based on what is already in demand among customers and what it can do best.

For example, my friend decided to open a sneaker dry cleaner. He collected everything he could from his friends and acquaintances and spent two weeks cleaning his sneakers and filling his hands. For cleaning, he used various means and methods and made do with a minimal set of any equipment. Over the course of two weeks, he got his hands on sneakers and came to the conclusion of what equipment he needed to make the process easier. He taught this technology to his first master - he showed, explained and passed on his knowledge to him.

This was enough to start working and earn money for everything else. The next stage of his development was cleaning ugg.

If you approach the issue of selection wisely and do not buy unnecessary equipment, opening a shoe dry cleaning studio will cost 150-200 thousand rubles. With this money you will buy shelving, furniture, equipment and consumables and you will be able to start working and earning money in order to buy additional equipment.

You can immediately invest 2 million rubles into opening a shoe dry cleaning studio and bear the burden of paying for the project on yourself.

What do you need for dry cleaning shoes?

Shoe dry cleaning needs customers. Until the studio opens, you need traffic of clients who will wait for your opening and provide work from the opening.

Start accepting shoes for cleaning while repairs are underway, equipment is being supplied and technology is being fine-tuned. All you need to get started is the desire to work.

One of my friends spent three months accepting sneakers from the supermarket isle and taking them to the garage, where he washed them in an activator washing machine. He dried his wet sneakers with a heat gun. There was a whole action.

Step by step he developed his own shoe cleaning technology. Then he bought himself a foam generator, an airbrush, a steam generator and some other equipment, but from working capital.

How to train staff to work with shoes?

To teach cleaning professionals, you need to understand the basic principles of removing contaminants, the mechanics of contaminant transfer, the chemistry of washing and cleaning, and understand materials science. There is no specialized literature, as well as training centers on shoe dry cleaning technology. You can download the book “Dry Cleaning Technology” on my website. The textbook is also useful for dry cleaning shoes. Owners of car dry cleaners and cleaning companies quickly fell in love with it.

Training in shoe dry cleaning technology

There is Elena, a shoe dry cleaner who has devoted 5 years of her life out of more than 20 years of experience in dry cleaning to setting up dry cleaning technology for shoes, bags and accessories in a large chain dry cleaner in Moscow and she is ready to work with you.

There is a course “Training in dry cleaning and dyeing of shoes”

How much will a shoe shine studio pay for itself?

The answer to this question lies in the investments made in the project. When about 1.5 million rubles are invested in a studio, such a studio pays for itself in about 11-14 months. If more, then something is wrong here and it’s time to see a doctor urgently to determine the cause.

A good result for a shoe cleaning studio is 8 months. It all comes down to how much was spent. An investment of 750,000 rubles was returned after 8 months of hard work and a lot of work.

The model of a shoe shine studio with an island in a shopping center and production in a garage paid for itself in a month and consistently brings in a profit - about 70,000 rubles for the owner.

How many shoes do you need to clean for your studio to be profitable?

Do you open an economics textbook, read about profitability and don’t understand how many shoes need to be cleaned per day for the studio to be profitable? Then collect all expenses for the month in one column (and don’t forget your salary as a manager) and divide by 30 days.

Capital costs also need to be taken into account and taken into account. In the calculation, use the figure from the payback period that you set for yourself.

Oh, well, this is very complicated. WITH