Greetings Everyone


I’m new to this board, rather a lurker for a few months. I have had the pleasure chatting with Rick T and Rick G via email. Both have been stellar on questions and answers, I’m sure that’s nothing new to most regular’s here.

For me I just finished my first year of carpet cleaning, and have to admit a very long yr with all the learning curves. I started cleaning carpets with the dry extraction method (moist compound) With allot of slamming on the process on many forums I have read. I can say this process does very well on curtain carpet piles and not so good on others. With the cost of compound $2.50lb CDN my price hinders my ability to secure jobs simple due to the price I quote. I know hitting the higher end residential markets is easier but blanketing the entire market has been hard.

Cleaning only residential carpets was/is limiting my marketability on top if it all. So reading through many forums I bought a portable extractor along with a drimaster. I bought some good agents and started to offer both services, I started to see my bottom line improve. The cost and cleaning times dramatically improved. So moving forward I started to get caught up with some forums that would only bash people for any reason they could, I woke up and said to hell with them. I was lucky enough to hookup with this forum and the process began to swing upwards again.

Operating a successful restaurant for many years, I have good sound business skills, so transferring them over to this operation has been fun and that started with chatting with the right people. So over the last few months I started to investigate designing a working area for oriental carpet cleaning and commercial carpet cleaning. As time goes on I see less and less installed carpets in my area and across the board in general. So I have decided to enter the commercial carpet side over oriental carpet cleaning, and I’m proud to say I have purchased a cimex from Rick T. Also the software, this should help me with building this side of my operation.

Most or all newly installed carpet here is Berber (Olfein) and this is the type of carpet that I’ve had my biggest challenge. HWE has been the savoir for me really. Now with the cimex system coming this week I plan to introduce this line of cleaning and should be ready for anything once my learning curves are conquered.

I’m have been researching contact names so I can introduce my business, most know me from the restaurant or my wife’s home décor store in town. So having my left shoe on is a start, all I need to do is get my right shoe on and build.

Wow now you know my life story!!
Obstacles:
Cleaning residential stairs (encapsulation process)
Rejection ( NOT) we have six kids 8-)
- turning everyone to a toronto maple leaf fan!!!!

So I well have allot of questions, I’m hoping I have read all the posts so I don’t repeat!

You’re Friend
Steve

G'day mate & welcome to one of the friendliest forums around.

Sounds like you have an excellent background to go forward into a new biz with, and a good attitude as well.

Reading some forums reminds me of what my grandfather used to say about newspapers.

"Disbelieve half of what you read, and take no notice of the rest"

Thankfully, this forum is not the case, ( with some exceptions ).

Wishing you all the best in your new venture, & if you have ANY question, just ask, there are some smart people on here, and friendly.

Cheers,

Shorty.

Hi Steve,
its your friendly neighborhood Alex. Welcome to the wonderful world of carpet care and clean carpets. with your business backround, already-purchased cimex, realeaseit CMS, and the outstanding support from the board, you have hit the ground running already.

I don't have much to offer you, I'm new on the block as well. Listening to me would be like a blind man leading a man with contact lenses.
I will offer this though. Promote Clean Carpet! THINK CLEAN!, THEN GET IT CLEAN!, AND GET IT DRY! And PERSISTANCE!

TRIAL AND ERROR- I'm starting from the basement, no business backround, no finances, no knowledge of the industry, AT ALL. Its been trial and error for me the whole way. My biggest problem has been unable to get the equipment i need to confidently propose to a prospect. Thanks to Rick G i've conquered half that battle. The other big problem is lack of knowledge. The Guys on the board has been my heroes in that area.

So...if possible don't hesitate to get your TOP -QUALITY equipment to tackle the job. And learn much as possible as fast as possible...such as FIBER I.D., ect. Its been a pleasannt ride so far for me. I'm grateful for the whole experience.


Thanks
Your Servant Alex

Steve welcome and I second what Shorty and Alex said. One thing I have found in this industry is that there are several people that will always put you and your method down. They like to think of themselves a "BB Legends". Al lot of people will tell you that you can't encap you must extract, etc. Listen to your customers and look for answers here. These guys know every trick going.
As far as stairs get a Ridgid R7100 drill at HD and get the drill driver from
Rick G put some Releasit or Punch in a spray bottle, spray it on 3 or 4 stairs, go over it with a fiber plus pad and then go back over it with a Tuway bonnet (from rick) and they will look great and satay looking great.


BTW just posting here will probably get you a few emails from lurkers saying you are "SHAMPOOING"

Good Luck

Welcome aboard Steve. This is a great place to learn stuff. Feel free to ask anytime. There are very few things that are new to the board, but lots new to you. Even when you ask questions that have been asked before, you always seem to get a new perspective from a different angle as people from all over the world frequent this board. This is what helps everybody successful.

So don't be a stranger (besides nobody could be stranger than most of us on this board LOL.)

Thank you my friend

Rick Thode
Releasit/Cimex Canada
rick@releasit.ca

Hey Steve, great to have you on this board. I wish you much success. However, the loving hockey thing is going to be a stretch for me. Don't think I will be joining you on that one.

If you have any other question, I would be happy to help you anyway I can.

Kevin Pearson

Welcome but right now I have to say GO OTTAWA