What class is "best" for you really depends on where you are at in terms of your familiarity with rugs, with cleaning, what your budget is, and above all else how "into" rugs you are. It's not for everyone. Some people will see nothing wrong with steam cleaning rugs in the home no matter how much they learn about how that is not the best for the rug, or for actually being "clean" - those are never going to be rug experts, but they will make money at rug cleaning.
I have enjoyed learning from Phil and from Ellen - truly because both know a helluva lot about rugs, and being in the group of cleaners today who grew up around them, for second and third generation cleaners, it's a cool "club" to be connected with.
For several years while I was on the National Institute for Rug Cleaners council - which sponsored the rug advanced class, I asked them to please develop a super basic class for carpet cleaners, because that content was way beyond what most could handle. You simply cannot learn rug ID in a few weeks, and learning rug ID does not help you understand how to wash rugs better. But understandably, the experts there were never excited about dumbing down the content.
When I got tired of complaining, I just created a course myself, which is where Rug Secrets started (before the
IICRC course was out), and now it's an online course, perhaps the cheapest one out there, which for anyone who wants the basics and is not envisioning becoming a big rug cleaner ever... it's a great way to keep yourself out of trouble. Then when you are ready, you can move on.
Even my advanced course, which is 6 months of content with Jim Pemberton, has a focus not on rug ID, but on the cleaning basics, and just like Bryan says - there are limits learning from one cleaning "system" that someone is selling - we teach with a wide variety of tools because I have always been of the belief that when you master understanding the PROCESS, you can use tools to create those results - and when you are ready to spend hundreds of thousands on a volume-based operation you can... but most are simply not at that place.
I loved the course by Ellen, I even liked the
IICRC class I took from Aaron. Neither has gotten me a referral of a job in a decade. You know what has - the wool specialist course, and even though I've never been great friends with Ruth, I've told all of my Textile Pros to take her wool course because a few jobs a year is more than worth the $200 for that really tedious process of knowing more than you would ever want to know about wool. LOL.
I'm a believer that there is no "best" in this area, and that the best is to take everything that seems right at the time, and eventually create your own philosophy on how you want to handle rug cleaning, rug clients, and develop your own reputation in your city. It never hurts to have more education, good or bad, because it always provides an opportunity to grow and to perhaps even recognize when you may know more in certain areas than the teacher does - especially in many of these classes that are 1 or 2 days taught by some guys who have never cleaned rugs before, and there are a lot of them today.
If you get a chance to learn from Phil, or from Ellen, I'd say take it if you can afford it. But anyone struggling to make more money with rug cleaning, and stay out of trouble, you should look at the cheaper options because you will be overwhelmed with content and that will NOT make you a better rug cleaner.
There are plenty of options out there now today... so at least we can't say there are no choices. Especially with online options, no one has to go out of state anymore to get some valuable training.
Lisa
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