Why do you want to clean carpet?

[Papa]

Please give the big picture. Include your past and present situation, your age, and how you got this great idea.

 

[-JB-]

Cause I can't kick this stoopid eating habit I've developed.

 

[CleanEvo]

I can't think of anything more enjoyable than being at the end of a steaming scrub wand sweating my ass off all day long. It's like a little bit of heaven, right here on earth.

 

[Papa]

Word.

 

[klndry]

While there isnt at ton of money in it, it is a living. I could be unemployed.

 

[Steve Toburen]

"I am not strong enough to dig, I am ashamed to beg." Luke 16:3

Seriously, that just about summed it up for me way back in the early 70's. I had no job skills, no formal training, no degree so I sort of accidentally fell into carpet cleaning. Almost forty years later I still haven't discovered a career where you can make more money with less invested AND have more fun and freedom along the way than carpet cleaning.

Steve "Island Boy" Toburen
http://www.StrategiesForSuccess.com

PS Like many of you I made (and spent!) a lot of money during my business career. (I still "like" money!) However, Jon-Don's Nick Paolella has a favorite saying: "Find a job you love and you will never work another day in your life." Those of you who know Nick are aware that this is a guy who is living his dream at 72 years of age and having a ton of fun along the way. It really should be about more than just the money ...

 

[Papa]

Word. I love you guys!

 

[dealtimeman]

i luv the sucking part! :shock:

 

[ACE]

I kind of fell into the cleaning industry too. I struggled too find a direction after high school. I tried going to college but did not see where that would go since I didn’t what to work for corporate America. I was working part time for a guy here with a cleaning company. I could see there was money to be made, so I decided to go into business doing janitorial contracting. I have been involved in the cleaning industry ever since. I’m still trying to find a way to make it really profitable because I wasted allot of time on franchises, partners ect. I enjoy carpet cleaning. It’s allot more profitable then janitorial and I usually have a since of accomplishment after each job. I really would like a smaller nitch market to specialize in possibly repairs. Like janitorial, carpet cleaning is a very competitive business and you have to find a way to distinguish yourself from the competition.

 

[Carpet Cleaning Fool]

Hey Papa...

Interesting question

I've been pondering it for several days now, at times even anguishing over it, and I’m still not sure i have the answer.

I’ve been all over the map on this. From, me being a product of the 60’s and my misguided youth to the fact that my dad was a carpet retailer when I was learning to talk and one of the first words out of my mouth was “carpet”.

Past situation, I cleaned my first carpet in 1982. It was my first day as a part time janitor my freshmen year in high school. I can still remember like it was yesterday. Your basic blue/grey CGD and we used a spin bonnet technique. I was a chubby little kid who never had his noodle wet.

Fast forward four years to graduation day. I had a diploma in one hand and a working mans PHD in the other. Away to college I went. The working mans PHD put food in my mouth and the college stuff seamed like a pipe dream.

1987 opened my first carpet cleaning business and ran it until spring of 1997. I developed a nice clientele but had to get out of the business because of a motorcycle injury. Got a regular job in the computer industry during the boom and worked for the man until 2005. Lost my job in 2005 but made a nice recovery from the injury.

Present situation. December 2005 decided to go back to my roots and opened another carpet cleaning business. I’m trying to be smarter about it this time around but still faced with the normal challenges of starting a new business.

I was looking for the Freudian answer to your question but now I believe it’s much simpler than that. During my stint in the computer industry a Lieutenant in the Air Force said this, “Whatever you first job is in the Air force is will eventually be your last job”.

Does the full circle phenomenon exist? In my case the answer is “Yes”.

I’m forty three years old now and I’ve spent eighteen of them with a piece of iron in my hands.

Take her easy Pops!

 

[BlinkClean]

I can't think of anything more enjoyable than being at the end of a steaming scrub wand sweating my ass off all day long. It's like a little bit of heaven, right here on earth.

And THAT'S why I don't use steam unless it's absolutely necessary. Get a rotovac, it will make your life MUCH easier....and faster. I use to steam clean all my jobs, now the results are twice as good, I get to charge 60%+ more and it takes half the time and half the work (more like a 1/4 or an 1/8, the thing is practically self propelled, and it even works great on berber, no tangled fibers like I thought). Much more of a heaven than a wand steaming so hot you could seal the room and use it as a sauna.

 

[sweendogg]

I can't think of anything more enjoyable than being at the end of a steaming scrub wand sweating my ass off all day long. It's like a little bit of heaven, right here on earth.

And THAT'S why I don't use steam unless it's absolutely necessary. Get a rotovac, it will make your life MUCH easier....and faster. I use to steam clean all my jobs, now the results are twice as good, I get to charge 60%+ more and it takes half the time and half the work (more like a 1/4 or an 1/8, the thing is practically self propelled, and it even works great on berber, no tangled fibers like I thought). Much more of a heaven than a wand steaming so hot you could seal the room and use it as a sauna.

Get a greenhorn or get with someone who has used one and do a prespray, prescrub and extract with a greenglided high flow titanium or greenhorn and then report back what is better/faster!

 

[BlinkClean]

I can't think of anything more enjoyable than being at the end of a steaming scrub wand sweating my ass off all day long. It's like a little bit of heaven, right here on earth.

And THAT'S why I don't use steam unless it's absolutely necessary. Get a rotovac, it will make your life MUCH easier....and faster. I use to steam clean all my jobs, now the results are twice as good, I get to charge 60%+ more and it takes half the time and half the work (more like a 1/4 or an 1/8, the thing is practically self propelled, and it even works great on berber, no tangled fibers like I thought). Much more of a heaven than a wand steaming so hot you could seal the room and use it as a sauna.

Get a greenhorn or get with someone who has used one and do a prespray, prescrub and extract with a greenglided high flow titanium or greenhorn and then report back what is better/faster!

I never claimed that the roty is faster than a greenhorn. I was comparing it to steam cleaning itself. I usually get killer dry times with a rotovac about two hours. When I use steam it's usually about 4 or 5... I'll have to try a greenhorn then but honestly the rotovac is much more impressive looking than your average wand IMO. And I believe THAT sells more jobs.