If you could go back in time and tell yourself...

[Mikey P]

Something that would have prevented years of agony in your business, when and what would that be?

Did you buy the wrong piece of equipment, did you hire the wrong person, did you go multi truck with regrets, did you stay single truck too long, did you go after the wrong market share, did you use the wrong form of marketing, were you not patient enough with the natural progression that it takes for a owner operator business to develop, did you not embrace a certain service quickly enough, did you go after a service not fitting to your personality etc etc


Will be doing this live in person in Indianapolis if you'd like to share in person..

 

[Kenny Hayes]

Let my wife partner stay on the truck way too long! Even though she didn’t clean carpet with me much, she helped me strip a wax or refinish floors. 29 yrs. We did a lot. Even after we had crews, she’d still be out there rocking and rolling, and managed people. Some called her the “straw boss”. UM no, that’s the junior boss!

 

[KevinD]

No regrets but I often wonder where I would be if I didn't answer that "Carpet Cleaner Wanted" ad in the paper back in 1978.

 

[Doug Cox]

Not raising my prices early enough. Not letting my wife take over the bill paying. I never paid myself a paycheck up until maybe 5 years ago. I just paid everything from the business checking. Now, I seldom need to go into my office. The only thing I do is invoicing, and I can do that on my phone.

 

[hogjowl]

Not keeping up with my business metrics soon enough. When you compare your actual metrics with bulletin board information, you get a somewhat different view of what you should be doing.

 

[Cleanworks]

If I knew back then what I know now, I would have never gotten into residential carpet cleaning. For today's market, I feel commercial is the way to go, as long as you have enough commercial prospects in your area. I make far more per hour on commercial with far less expenses.

 

[Kenny Hayes]

Since I didn’t have experience with a Coits or similar, I didn’t think or wasn’t smart enough to write pre-letters. It seemed most just thought I was there to kick their shiate out of the way. Didn’t take long to decide that wasn’t my m o.

 

[sassyotto]

Sometimes to be told something is different than experiencing it. So to tell myself to do or not to do something probably would not have worked.

Actually I did a lot of things that I should not have done, BUT over time I realized that there was a better way to do things. I think thats the best way to learn and change.

But as stated above, I should have raised my prices more often.

And if there was a second, I should have joined the Mack Clarks organization sooner.