Hey Mikey,
Just had a chance to sit down and check out the boards. First I would like to say we are very honored and excited to be able to come and share with everyone who can attend Mikey
Fest! My wife Shari will also be coming along (and maybe her sister and husband who have worked with us in the past) I honestly was dreaming last night and thinking through things I can maybe share that will be of help to others. I have a list of things going so I can prepare and try to answer some of the questions people such as owner operators might have. It is our wish that others can take home a few thoughts and ideas that might help them and their business.
I spoke with Tom King last night and I really think we will have some similar ideas, but also different perspectives as I am doing business in a community of a little over 10,000 people and a few more thousand people in the surrounding lakes areas. Tom does come from a larger population and I have to say, each one of us have our individual challenges on doing business in each environment ( in other words, I would not want to have to be Tom King and compete in that market of about 1.2 million people!)
I hope to be able to share with everyone that you can be successful in any market you choose. Myself and my family have been in carpet cleaning for about 50 years and we have always been in a small rural market doing business. We have been single truck and multi truck operations. I hope to share with everyone experiences and ideas that have helped myself and family support our families in this industry for many years.
I was just reading the latest benchmark survey of the Cleanfax magazine report and something that hit home was that 72.6% of carpet cleaners/company owners are still actively involved in the physical labor of cleaning. For me, I really love being on a truck with the boys! Doesn't mean I really have to do it, but dang it, where can you get a better physical exercise plan that someone pays you to do it! That's just my opinion at this time, but in the future, we are going to be passing the torch....if they can kick me off the truck!
Here is the link to that survey and I found it very nicely put together:
http://www.cleanfax.com/ext/resources/surveys/CFAX-complete-survey.pdf
Having been a National competing marching band director, I learned a lot of ideas that really can help brand a business and design your vehicles and business image. In the marching band world, you have to have a new thought developing and taking place every 10 to 30 seconds of a 10 minute show. There is a lot of work that goes into that type of designing. We had a fun staff and I would usually run a staff show design session looking at signs and successful business branding. It also would usually take place in a bar making it even more interesting a lot of times! We would challenge each other to quick looks at signs and advertising to see what things popped out on a sign and why. We also would look at poorly designed signs and analyze why they did not work. That helped us to design better competitive field shows. With some of these ideas I hope to present, maybe you can design your vehicles and brand image to show off your message from a great distance.
I have learned a lot having been in that competitive world, as well as my past racing endeavors. All of these experience really helped me market and raise monies for my teaching charity causes, and I feel gave me better business opportunities.
I want to say, I am not "All Knowing" and having nothing to sell. I am just like 72.6 % of the cleaners out there that choose to (or have to) be part of the daily cleaning activities as well as run a business and it's many challenges, rewards and experiences. My wife says our company does not really have a CEO, we have a CF which stands for "Control Freak." It has always been in my nature to be a perfectionist and never one to turn down a challenge. But I am also comfortable just being a 2 truck company in a small town making a very nice living. So bring your questions and I look forward to meeting everyone! I love this industry and am one of the biggest carpet cleaning nerds around!
Mark
Saiger
www.saigers.com
