Getting to know Ivan at Procyon..

Mikey P

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Ivan reached out to me recently and asked to get more information about MB. After seeing MF in Florida happen he was sold.


He knew he wanted to be part of the action here.

Yesterday his banner and raffle went up.

Today the traditional "Hot Seat"..


But don't expect answers until later next week due to the holiday..

  • Please tell us how you got into the carpet cleaning "solution" manufacturing business (were you ever a cleaner, were you dissatisfied with other chemicals, possible chemistry degree etc..
  • What was the order of all of your products creation? Is there one that can do it all by changing the dilution or by boosting with a solvent or peroxide? (Many owners want to have a Do It Solution to keep things simple for their techs)
  • How many employees does Procyon have and do you make anything other than the line of chemicals?
  • Do you ever regret not using a "greener" more earth friendly sounding name with words like Bio, Planet, Kitten, Soy, Patchouli, Eco or Tofu in the name/description?
  • Some cleaners say your regular Soap Free Procyon (Original) is not strong enough for their trashed apartment needs. Will your "Extreme" product satisfy them? Are there additional solvents or 02 boosters in it or just additional surfactants (STPP)? Encapsulation claims are made on your site, so polymers are in the recipe as well?
  • Who was the first manufacturer to bring a "Green" cleaning solution to this industry?
  • Your ad showing a baby mouthing a bottle of spotter is controversial to say the least, did that photo always have the disclaimer below it?
HowSafe3.jpg


  • Who do you consider to have the 2nd best line up of green cleaning agents?
  • How does your Tile and Grout CLeaner differ from your other products?
  • What are your feelings about fabric protectors? and grout sealers?
  • How green is your personal house hold? (woven wool carpet, soy paints, cast iron skillets, no cell phones, no microwaves...?)
  • Have you considered offering 8 ounce flip top spotters to leave with customers? Your15 ounce bottles, while very nice are a bit pricey to leave at every job.
  • Is there a product missing from your line up that you would like to have but can't figure out how to make it green enough?
  • and last but not least, please tell us everything the original SFP will clean besides carpeting..

Thanks Ivan!!!!
 

rwcarpet

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Robert Hodge
I used to talk to Ivan regularly, back in the days that you had to buy directly from him in Washington, I believe. Quite a chatter. Very passionate about Procyon. I had checked in with him about opening a bottling plant here in the East.
 
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rwcarpet

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I've never really tried the liquid version of Procyon. I always used the powdered form. Measure Procyon into your solution tank, add a little water to start mixing, and feel how hot it gets! I also used Procyon as a prespray on the average everyday cleaning situations. Always worked very well. Now Jimmy will post on here to say it's just a bag-o-salt!
 

Desk Jockey

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I think I remember you complaining about shipping. You were wanting a local distributor to carry it so you wouldn't have to pay shipping. Man, you complain a lot!

I have no life if I remember old shit you used to talk about.
 

rwcarpet

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I think I remember you complaining about shipping. You were wanting a local distributor to carry it so you wouldn't have to pay shipping. Man, you complain a lot!

I have no life if I remember old shit you used to talk about.

You talkin about Marty or me? I used to bitch a bit about shipping now a days. 20 years ago I'd get 50 lbs from across the country, for about $20 shipping. Now a days, it's pretty pricey to ship.
 

Desk Jockey

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I thought you wanted it to go to them. So you were bothered you couldn't get it direct pricing from them.

Who can keep up will all your bitching? I can't! :winky:
 

hogjowl

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Prattville, Alabama
I'd always had a great relationship with Ivan and bought from him for years. It ticked me off when I called and they told me I couldn't buy from them anymore. I felt I should have been grandfathered in, but I still contacted a couple of the distributors he recommended. Not one of them knew a thing about carpet cleaning and none stocked the product. So, I went shopping for new products. That's when I began to realize what I'd been missing all those years. I'd been missing a product that cleaned rat nasty carpet.

Procyon is wonderful 75 or 80% of the time, but it will disappoint you on rentals, restaurants and other really nasty jobs. If I started using it again, I'd keep a jar of PowerMax or Flex with Citrus on the van.

Bear in mind that I used the powdered product back in the day. When they came out with liquid, I heard it was better than the powder, so I bought some. The only difference I could detect was the liquid wouldn't leave quite as heavy of residue on furniture overspray as the powder. It's almost impossible not to overspray, and the powder would turn desks white.
 

Willy P

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Willy P
Procyon is Willy P approved, put through the rigors of a rental apartment based practice in every thing from sloppy pig sty (Sorry Marty) rentals to some amazing high rise sky palaces. I can't comment on food service as I don't go there.
 
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John Olson

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John Olson
Ivan is as good as they come. He called me wanting us to carry his product. I kept putting him off and nor returning his calls. Angela kept telling me I should at least listen to what he was offering. I finally called him and was blown away at what he was offering. Absolutely one of the better decisions I have made in the last 8 1/2 years of owning this place.

I can tell you the people that use Procyon will never replace it and the ones that try it at the very least always keep a Jar on their truck.

And yes Mikey was being honest when he said we sell between 1-2 tons a month.

I look forward to hearing Ivan's answers and he will be a great asset to the board and if he was able to deal with Marty at any time he will be able to handle the other knuckleheads just fine :)
 

FredC

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Ivan emailed his answers over:

Please tell us how you got into the carpet cleaning "solution" manufacturing business (were you ever a cleaner, were you dissatisfied with other chemicals, possible chemistry degree etc.



Years ago, I was a door to door vacuum salesman, hired and trained vacuum sales people. There were many people I met with dirty carpets that couldn’t afford a quality vacuum. The company I worked for sold the distribution rights to the equipment. I was asked to train under a different type of carpet cleaning system. I was asked to train other sales reps on the system. I couldn’t do it. My belief was in the system that I had worked with for years. So I left their employment and purchased a carpet extractor, “Dart”. Most people do not know what a Dart cleaning system is by today’s standards. I contacted my large customer base who couldn’t afford to purchase the vacuums and offered my services to clean their carpets. The problem I faced on a daily basis was the detergent residues backing up into my cleaning system and rendering my services worthless. I knew there had to be a better way to clean. At the same time, I began to get terribly sick from all of the chemicals and their odors in the cleaning products that were sold to me. That is when I had the idea of developing the soap-free, detergent-free and odor-free concept.



What was the order of all of your products creation? Is there one that can do it all by changing the dilution or by boosting with a solvent or peroxide? (Many owners want to have a Do It Solution to keep things simple for their techs)




The order of development was the Soap-Free Procyon Powder, Soap-Free Procyon Carpet & Upholstery cleaning concentrate, Soap-Free Procyon Spot & Stain Remover RTU, Soap-Free Procyon Multi-Purpose cleaning concentrate, Soap-Free Procyon Extreme! cleaning concentrate and Soap-Free Procyon Tile & Grout cleaning concentrate. In reviewing other products on the market, you have to purchase a cleaning product, rinsing agent, de-foamer, products for wools, olefin, etc., etc. You can continue to build a fortress of many products and costs that are unnecessary making everyone rich and to top it off you need training program in place to know how to use all those cleaning products. Soap-Free Procyon Extreme! was chosen by us to be sent in for Wool Safe certification because of its unique characteristics: Concentrate being 11 and the pH of working dilution of 10, alkalinity at 6.5 we passed Wool Safe standards. Soap-Free Procyon Extreme! can be used as a booster along with Soap-Free Procyon Powder, but is also a popularly chosen product to clean all carpets used by itself because of its qualities.


How many employees does Procyon have and do you make anything other than the line of chemicals?


We employ 7-10 people throughout the year, which is quite impressive as we are a worldwide brand.


Along with our Procyon products, we offer bonnets designed to work with restorative techniques saving carpets in other parts of our industry. They are all natural, all loop, thick, super absorbent, heavy cotton with a mesh base that is a chosen favorite with our customers. We also offer custom spotters with customizable labels that let us brand your bottle with your own logos, colors, designs and company information.


Do you ever regret not using a "greener" more earth friendly sounding name with words like Bio, Planet, Kitten, Soy, Patchouli, Eco or Tofu in the name/description?


I’ve never given it a second thought, as we are one of the brightest stars in our constellation of stars. As the front-runners in our industry, we don’t need any gimmicks for brand recognition all we need is the truth and it needs to be told.


Some cleaners say your regular Soap Free Procyon (Original) is not strong enough for their trashed apartment needs. Will your "Extreme" product satisfy them? Are there additional solvents or 02 boosters in it or just additional surfactants? Encapsulation claims are made on your site, so polymers are in the recipe as well?


I’ve cleaned carpets for over 10 years using our Procyon Powder and if mixed correctly and according to the directions, there should be no issue cleaning trashed apartments. This product’s formulation was based on the performance of cleaning trashed apartments specifically.


If you need a booster, use the Soap-Free Procyon Extreme! in your pre-spray and it will improve the cleaning effect. If you do not like that, find something as a booster that you will like. I cannot produce poisons and toxic cleaning products. I could not feel good about myself knowing about the long term health effects that people could have. There is room in this industry for a healthier safer ways to clean and protect the service technician, there customer and their families.


It is a choice! As far as my Top-Secret Recipe, Mike, that was a good try!  30 years of performance speaks for itself as well as our Green Seal, CRI and Wool Safe approvals.


Yes we are working with several large contract services that all use encapsulation. I need to ask why you or anyone would want to use a polymer based encapsulation product that is not Green Seal Certified. Ask yourself why? We are about protecting human health and our Extreme! works and performs at the top of this class as an encapsulation product and has many more benefits.


Your ad showing a baby mouthing a bottle of spotter is controversial to say the least, did that photo always have the disclaimer below it?


It is indeed controversial, and therefore a great marketing tool. “The Baby” who is a chunk and my grandson, this was a wonderful accident. I was doing a product photo shoot and he was teething. We were photographing brand new, empty packaging and he wanted nothing to do with his teething toys, he just wanted the Procyon…smart baby! You must admit, it is adorable, eye-catching and definitely a recognizable image for our brand. The disclaimer came at the time we were becoming Green Seal certified for that product.


How does your Tile and Grout Cleaner differ from your other products?


Other Tile & Grout cleaning agents have detergent, surfactants and many other chemicals. With the residue left behind your floors become slippery when wet. Soap-Free Procyon Tile & Grout cleaner is detergent-free, soap-free, designed to penetrate the pores of the tile & grout without leaving a soapy, sticky residue which will greatly reduce slip and fall accidents when wet.



Who do you consider to have the 2nd best line up of green cleaning agents?



In our industry there is only one company who truly tests the chemical manufacturing companies and each product they manufacture. They do a site review they check out all your formulations against the products you have in stock. Then they check out the change of custody, from contacting all the raw chemical manufactures that we use, transient companies to our own storage facility to our formulation plant and then to our bottling plant. From the manufacturing and bottling and then the finished product that needs to meet high specifications of quality. It was a challenge to meet all their requirements in the beginning but now it is easy. There are green companies that will certify most any cleaning product. All you need to do is send in your product formulation, it can be almost any product formulation and if they like your formulation, Poof! Your cleaning products get certified by them. Just send them a check! There is no monitoring standard, so you get what you get.

So your question is; who do you consider to have the 2nd best line up of green cleaning agents? Any cleaning product that has been tested and certified by Green Seal for protecting human health and customers have this in writing.


What are your feelings about fabric protectors? & grout sealers?


I think if the carpet is truly cleaned and truly free of that soapy, sticky residue, like the in-larged photos that have produced and published. The two fibers show one with detergent residue and a second fiber cleaned with Procyon. The fabric protectant needs to actually bond to the fabric. If there is a soapy sticky residue, it renders the carpet protectant useless.


Grout sealer, when there is a detergent residue that has filled the pours in the grout; the grout sealer also becomes useless. I cannot understand why anyone would want to use anything else. Soap free Procyon Tile & grout cleaner concentrate is the answer to your tile and grout.


How green is your personal house hold? (Woven wool carpet, soy paints, cast iron skillets, no cell phones, no microwaves...?)


In terms of flooring, I have hardwood floors, new tile, and in my lower level, carpet. The carpet is 20 years old and still looks like the day it was installed because it has always been cleaned with Soap-Free Procyon. Soap-Free & Odor-free Procyon is truly a safer healthier way to clean. I try to live a regular life free of chemical odors.


Have you considered offering 8 ounce flip top spotters to leave with customers? Your15 ounce bottles, while very nice are a bit pricey to leave at every job.


This is my feeling, I would love everyone to use our custom spotters. I have considered using flip tops, but too many times the customer over-wets the fiber causing wicking issues, so I choose to spend 30 cents more on a trigger sprayer to be used as an applicator and do their job the right way. This way the user can mist without saturation, when you give a gift to a customer, the cost may be $3.00 but you are giving away a 16 oz bottle not an 8 oz bottle. Just thinking about what the cost is for two 8 oz bottles of spotter, that’s a lot of money. I would not want to use or ask my customers to use anything except quality in a product I was associated with. I would not want to have my name associated with un tested the unknown products that were in my custom bottles. An honest product that anyone can use and use right should be what the customer receives. So, I looked at this as marketing, landing, keeping your customer. Doing the right thing is a great trade-off. If you take that beautiful, custom spray bottle and give it to your customer, it has your name and number on it so they can contact you when they need additional product & service. $3.00 for a lifetime customer, several hundreds of dollars in returns is very reasonable.


Is there a product missing from your line up that you would like to have but can't figure out how to make it green enough?


I really don’t want all of the business in the world, I am quite satisfied with the piece of the pie that we have and I only want people as part of our program that care about protecting their health as well as the customers and their families’ health.


And last but not least, please tell us everything the original SFP will clean besides carpeting..


Well, that sure is a loaded question! There are almost endless possibilities for things that Soap-Free Procyon can clean…due to liabilities, though I will just stand by using it on all of the items the instructions list it safe for use on for now. A great topic for another future article, Thanks Mike!


You can call or email me any time Ivan 509 -484-5105 or Procyon_rx@msn.com

If customers wants Soap Free Procyon and feel they can not get it any where who can they call?

John and Lori Olson at Superior 801-427-8008 they will take great care of you.
 

Donwand

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Brian
I use Procyon but I don't see any difference between their tile and grout cleaner and the powder.
 
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Ivan Day
Hi Everyone,

Donwand,

The powder has a pH of 9.5 and or tile and grout cleaner is delivered to you with a pH of 11. I want to thank you all for believing in what I have been teaching for years., a healthier, safer way to a cleaner environment
 
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Ivan Day
Hi Sam,

Thank you for the photo and your comments they are great. Would you mind if we post this photo on our web site with your comment?

Please if you have or can take a photo cleaning a carpet with a jar of PROCYON in the photo. We love to post your photos.

Thank you again for the great photo and words. I will Waite for your response

Thank you for all you do it's about protecting your health and leaving your family's environment soap free/detergent free as well as no harsh orders.

Ivan
 
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