I was in IT for 17 years and the company I was working for just lost it's way and the GFC caught up with it. I was maybe a month away from losing my job as the company was tipped to crash. It was kind of a balls to the wall moment when I got out of the meeting with the boss.
I had done carpet cleaning of the student accommodation while I was living in it at Uni. My wife was already repairing vacuum cleaners from her little home business. She had a terrific relationship with Kirby and I learnt Kirby had a chemical division which made high end carpet cleaning chems we could buy competitively and which nobody else in my region (and likely my country for that matter) was using. So, we could have something exclusive.
Looked hard at it for a while but then thought nah...,.
Then the boss calls anther meeting concerning our declining financial situation. I resigned, took my severance package and started looking for equipment. Placed an order with Scotlabs.
know nobody likes this part....
I decided a walk behind extractor made the most sense. It didn't need hoses, or reels. It was light weight, it kept the operators back straight. And it fit in the car with change, all I needed to do was decide which one.
I looked at Windsors, Kartchers, MinuteMan, you know, the usual suspects. But when I thought about these machines, they still were a bit on the large side and they were really expensive considering their relatively underpowered internals.
Then I started to think, "nobody really seems to buy these high end walk behinds". What I meant by that is, sure they get bought, but they represent a tiny fraction of the market. So spares and service and size and performance were all a bit in question considering the steep price.
I decided to buy The Rug Doctor, it was smaller, lighter, way cheaper. It sells in great numbers because of its' rental heritage and it was no better but no worse than the bigger walk behinds, I resolved to buy it.
Then...... I was on YouTube trying to see if I could find any videos that might show me how best to harness the function from this thing. I saw in the sidebar a machine that looked more or less the same but was green. I watched the video and it was an add from Bissell for their Big Green Deep Cleaning Machine. The ad was called "This vs That" and it compared The Rug Doctor to the Big Green. The big green held more water, better tank setup which meant I could buy additional tanks as spare parts and not run back and forth from the water source as much. It had the ability to clean in - both - directions, which even the high end units typically didn't and it has a drum brush roller, not the reciprocating brush bar.
http://youtu.be/v0r8srTLAAc
I looked more and found a source of cheap parts from a vacuum cleaner parts page. I then saw Bissell had a commercial products division which sold work horse vacuums and the like to hotels, nursing homes and businesses who would tend to beat their equipment. The Big a Green was a "Bissell Commercial" machine. Awesome!
I bought one from the US using a buying service, it set me back $835 Australian delivered to my door.
Because Australia is a 240v country I paid $73 for an 8Kg step down transformer. I bought a bright orange heavy duty US 120v extension cable and the hose and tools.
It arrived....... I vacuumed our living room really good, used my spotter kit I'd put together to spot treat, remembering my "solvents, alkalis, acids, bleaches" rules (I'd been cramming and revising). I pre-sprayed the room and dwelled it, scrubbed it with the Kirby carpet groomer and rinsed it with my new machine. It came up like - NEW.
Straight onto the computer, made up some promotional gear. Bought some insurance and started beating the pavement stuffing mailboxes. Within a day or so I got my first job, really horrible couch. Quoted $450 to make it look new. Worked it for 6 hours, it looked new. Got a $100 tip and a repeat booking. Next day phone rang again, filthy nylon carpet HARD with sand and crusty dried beer. Promised to make it look new. Wife and I vacuum this shithole for 90 minutes and recover the most dry soil I have yet to see, bag weighed 4Kg.
Spent 4.5 hours on the job, got $450. "That's $100 per hour" my wife says. Big smiles all round.
I got in touch with the university again, they booked for two huge rooms and a corridor. $1,600.
So that's my story, more or less. Sorry didn't mean to carry on so much.
Grant
.....would actually discuss and debate things!!
than it was before..
