Furniture Stains on Carpet

[Chris Howell]

Ha! Ha! I'm in Minneapolis for a color training Monday - Wednesday this week.

 

[Askal]

Give the customer what they want. Not what you think they need.

 

[Chris Howell]

Agreed

 

[Chris Howell]

Ofer, another example of how sun fading can be restored on Persian Rugs. We use an airbrush that we developed to perform intricate color restorations, working around the patterns and designs.

 

[ruff]

Oder, here's another example of carpet that was badly sun faded that we restored.

Oder appreciates it, Kriss.
The other day Richard was bemoaning me the uselessness of his Otter box and now this

Shane, if you have an issue would you care to be specific?
So far Chris made an outrageous claim about how much money can be made. Crude admittedly and Richard nailed him for it.
Those dumb enough not to read through that, should pay it. It will be a relatively cheap lesson and will enhance the natural selection process.

Beside that, he has proven to have some of Cobb's teflon qualities, much admired throughout this board.

Otherwise I find his info and pictures to be helpful and informative. If more trusted members here will provide feedback about his classes, the durability of the color repairs or anything else we should know, that will be very helpful.

 

[Shane Deubell]

Oder appreciates it, Kriss.
The other day Richard was bemoaning me the uselessness of his Otter box and now this

Shane, if you have an issue would you care to be specific?
So far Chris made an outrageous claim about how much money can be made. Crude admittedly and Richard nailed him for it.
Those dumb enough not to read through that, should pay it. It will be a relatively cheap lesson and will enhance the natural selection process.

Beside that, he has proven to have some of Cobb's teflon qualities, much admired throughout this board.

Otherwise I find his info and pictures to be helpful and informative. If more trusted members here will provide feedback about his classes, the durability of the color repairs or anything else we should know, that will be very helpful.

It was a joke, I dont think he was offended but laughed.

Actually have yet to hear 1 negative comment from people who took his class.
Not for me to judge if its a viable service or not. Thats a local issue and like he says, this is a service cleaners have to actively sell.

 

[Chris Howell]

Thanks for your comments, guys. I always welcome people to come and visit us to see our operation. I certainly don't want to make any claims that sound exorbitant. Much better if people come and see for themselves. We've had quite a few people who took us up on our offer. When they saw it for themselves they were convinced.

If you'd like to come see our operation, please let me know. I'd be happy to demonstrate our process for you.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Come see what Chris? Don't you perform your services on location or do you also do some work in the shop?

 

[Chris Howell]

All of our carpet work is done on site. We also have a workshop where we do all of our Persian rug color restorations. We are happy to have anyone come to see our operations, both in our shop and on the job sites.

 

[Chris Howell]

Here's the link if you would like to see how we do our color restorations on Persian rugs in our shop. There are also some videos that demonstrate how we do foot dyeing to repair bleach spots.

www.facebook.com/colorfulcarpets

 

[Chris Howell]

Bleach spot repair (spot dyeing)

 

[Cleanworks]

Pretty soon we won't need to take your course. All your material is going to be laid out on MB. Some pretty impressive pics and some not so much. I think it can pretty subjective and you have to qualify your customers expectations but certainly a needed service. I don't think I want to do it myself but it would be nice to know some one who does in my area.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I agree I hope a competitor takes the course. I would be glad to refer them.

Is this class IICRC or ICRA certified?

 

[Desk Jockey]

I agree I hope a competitor takes the course. I would be glad to refer them.

Is this class IICRC or ICRA certified?

 

[Chris Howell]

Our trainees can receive continuing education credits from the IICRC.

 

[Chris Howell]

Our trainees can receive continuing education credits from the IICRC.

 

[Shorty]

Chris, I'm lost after reading Desk Jockey's comment, and then opening your IICRC pic.

What does this "2 credits" mean??

Like, I'm pretty sure that previously I read that the IICRC would allocate "2 credits" for those attending a particular trade show such as "The Experience" or maybe some other events??

I pulled out of the IICRC many years back, so any qualifications are really, of no interest to me anymore.

However, could I have sat a course and been given the status, "Carpet Dye Technician" when we did the course in Melbourne??

Providing of course that I did rejoin the IICRC & successfully passed any test.

Or is the IICRC, now called ICRA ??

Is there such a thing as "Carpet Dye Technician"??

So many questions, so little time left.

I'm getting more confused by the day.

Which isn't hard.

 

[Chris Howell]

Shorty, I'm not a fan of the IICRC. The biggest problem that I have with their color training courses is that many people graduate from the course but still have no idea how to perform a decent color repair, But they get a patch for their jacket. That's all that many of them want. Many people take the course just so that they can get their masters certification. The difference is, as you know, people who take our course actually know how to perform excellent bleach spot repairs and also know how to do full room dyeing.

Personally, I would much rather know how to actually perform the service rather than having a patch for my jacket and still not know how to do the work.

I know that in Australia having certifications can be significant, especially when doing insurance work. But to me it's more about being able to actually earn money by providing the service, not just having a patch .

 

[Chris Howell]

A couple of years ago I was contacted by one of the IICRC Color instructors. He told me that they wanted to certify me as an IICRC color instructor. I thanked him, but politely declined. I told him that quality of our trainings is much higher than the ones that they offer. He completely agreed.

I don't want to be obligated to follow their systems and simply give out patches for attending the class.

I had another one of their instructors tell me that most of their trainees really aren't interested in learning how to do color repair, but just want a patch for their jacket and their certification so that they can get their masters.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I do think its foolish they force you to take a Color Repair class to get that designation.

No disrespect to you but unless you are a specialist such as yourself its just a complete waste of time and money. Color Repair is its own thing, not a part of cleaning or restoration.

 

[Chris Howell]

It's not a waste of time if you have plenty of work (currently we're booked 3 months out) and can make more money than cleaning. Not knocking cleaning. If you've got plenty of work (and aren't competing for work or pricing) then that's great!

We exclusively offer carpet and rug dyeing services. We're not a cleaning or restoration company. I like it that way because we have absolutely zero competition.

 

[Bob Pruitt]

I like it that way because we have absolutely zero competition.

You are in the Washington DC area and you have no competition... A Service that you say you can teach in a few days and a 2k investment...it's so good that you have 3 to 6 months work in the pipe line with 3-5 Employees working as fast as they can raking in all that money for you; and you have no need to do anything else like Cleaning... So why don't you have any Competitors? An old Employee going out on their own, someone you Trained opening up in DC area. The videos show me that you aren't doing anything unique or new, though the dyes seem to be better than in the old days. Doesn't compute.

 

[Mikey P]

He doesn't train anyone within 200 miles possibly?


I wouldn't

 

[Bob Pruitt]

He doesn't train anyone within 200 miles possibly?
I wouldn't

I wouldn't either but I know that a simple business like this is going to be tempting to Employees...no matter what you have them sign. Also if I'm 200 miles away and become a believer of all the amazing money he must be making in his area...not being able to get to the work for 3 months plus... I pack my wife, throw our stuff in a duffle bag, load the baby and dog in the back of the van and find a new apartment in DC. The California Gold Rush is happening in DC and all you need is a class, an eye dropper and a bucket of dye! One of the best markets in the Country...and there's NO COMPETITION!!!

 

[Chris Howell]

Actually, I have trained two individuals that live in Maryland. They are not competition for me. Any marketing that they do just increases awareness of the industry. One of them, Sturdy Wengen, is an accomplished airbrush artist. I have him come to my shop to restore Persian rugs for me using the airbrush . He does fantastic work! I'll post a pic hear of one of the rugs that he did for us.

And yes, I can train someone how to do this in three days. I have hundreds of people in The Dye Lot who can attest to this.

The reason my employees don't leave and go out on their own is because I treat them well and pay them extremely well. I pay them 30% of the job total. So if they do a $1000 job, they earn $300 for the job. If it takes them four hours, they earn $300. If it takes them eight hours, they earn $300 . My employees typically earn $400 – $600 per day. They have an incentive to get the job done in less time so that they earn more money and can complete a second job in the same day. They also have an incentive to make sure that the job is done properly because if the customer rejects it or they have to go back and redo something, they do it on their own time.


Gold rush? I don't think so. Opportunity without competition? You decide. Check the markets in your area. Find out how many people are offering the service where you live.

 

[Chris Howell]

Sorry. I posted the wrong pic. The rug that I posted is one that our trainees restored at our Virginia Beach, Virginia training this past April.

Here's the rug that Sturdy Wengen restored for me in my shop. He lives about 40 minutes away from me in Maryland.

 

[Bob Pruitt]

Thank you Chris for answering all my questions Professionally. Continued success.

 

[Chris Howell]

Thanks, Bob. And you're most welcome!

 

[Desk Jockey]

The great thing about being an independent business men is we can each have our own idea of what success is and we can both be right.

We try to never say no to anyone willing to pay. We try to work them in somehow.

I would never allow ourselves to be booked that far out. Its against our our services philosophy. We want to be responsive to clients needs, its paramount to who and what we are.

For Emergency work we respond within an hour. For regular cleaning clients we try not to book out more than a week. When we do we will make moves, shift times to work them in sooner as we can.

For us, its all about responding to our client needs. We realize nobody likes to wait once they make a purchasing decision.

Obviously 3-months out is working for you, so I won't tell you how you should run your business. However I will tell you I will never aspire to do that to my clients.

 

[Chris Howell]

Fair enough, Desk Jockey. I might add that we certainly will prioritize situations that are deemed urgent. The customers that we have on a waiting list are people that have ongoing issues, mostly from dogs. We service a property management company called Equity Residential (www.eqr.com) that has hundreds of high-end high-rise condominium and apartment buildings in our area. They are a pet friendly community that has ongoing problems of pet urine bleaching out the carpet color near the elevators in their buildings. It's an ongoing problem that provides us with repeat business for months in advance.

If we have a customer that has an urgent need, we will certainly make it a priority to take care of them as soon as possible and will adjust our schedule accordingly to squeeze them in.

Being responsive is very important indeed.