Why carpet cleaners should ask “stupid questions” …

Carpet cleaning business owners can do well by taking a lesson from small children. Kids are by nature inquisitive and take in enormous amounts of information (also called “learning”) by asking questions. Sadly, as we grow older we lose this essential “growth trait”. Chuck Violand weighs in on why and how you should rekindle your curiosity and start asking some so-called “stupid questions” …

Should a professional carpet cleaner learn from MSN’s focus on women?

I think we all agree that men and women are different! So if you are marketing to residential carpet cleaning customers, shouldn’t you design your website to appeal to women? Well apparently MSN thinks so! Find out why and see how the new MSN site compares to the old.

A few thoughts on successfully skippering your carpet cleaning venture …

Chuck Violand sums up his recent posts comparing your carpet cleaning and/or restoration business to different types of sailing vessels with a few reminders for you, the captain of the boat. Chuck’s thoughts could mean the difference between a successful voyage or the disastrous “shipwreck” of your business …

Developing Contract Commercial Carpet Maintenance Programs

Learn how to sell and set up regular commercial contract cleaning accounts. Download Big Billy Yeadon’s ideas on how to develop these essential commercial maintenance programs.

Steve’s “Cry for Help”- Keeping tabs on your employees with GPS van tracking

Do you know where your employees are … right now?! Do you think you should know? Steve feels adding “Employee Accountability” to your company is essential. One way to gently “hold your employee’s feet to the fire” is to start tracking your vehicles with a GPS online service. Steve is asking for your “been there- done that” experiences …

Are your carpet cleaning competitors “dummies”? Now let’s talk about you!

We all love to point the finger at other people’s mistakes. Steve just re-discovered a doozy that put a real “dummy” in a wheel chair for life. Why? Because he refused to learn anything from a previous boneheaded blunder. And then we come back to you …

3 hints on how to safely “captain” a larger cleaning/restoration business …

It has been well said, “The fish rots from the head down”. And so it is both with the captain of a ship and YOU heading up your cleaning business. As the owner or manager you should look deep within you BEFORE you transition into a larger business model. If you don’t, just like a ship captain that is “over his head” you may be putting innocent lives at risk! Listen to Chuck …

Do we need to personally call back every single carpet cleaning job?

An experienced Omaha area carpet cleaner is in danger of letting his quest for “time efficiency” threaten the all important personal relationship with his cleaning customers he has worked so hard to develop. Steve searches for the productive middle ground …

Big Billy Yeadon asks: “How up-to-date are you in your carpet cleaning knowledge?”

If you are looking for a leg up on the competition (especially in the regular contract commercial carpet cleaning field) just use Shaw Carpet’s MAC learning site to expand your cleaning knowledge. Bill Yeadon shares the details here …

Strategies for Success Seminar- April, 2010 (Jon-Don Philadelphia, PA)

Cleaning professionals from all over the northeast part of the United States and Canada dedicated 5 entire days to improving their carpet cleaning and restoration businesses. Instead of focusing on just equipment and supplies they dug down deep into essential business practices and their application for the cleaning industry. Check out what they had to say …

How to develop and manage your carpet cleaning/restoration business “crew”.

As carpet cleaning or restoration operation owners we love to bellyache about how “you can’t find good people anymore”! But as Chuck Violand explains, could it be that the fickle finger of guilt points more at us as small business owners and our abdication of our responsibilities as the skipper to develop our crew? Read on …

“Toto, I don’t think we’re cleaning carpet in Kansas anymore!”

What do Rock & Roll, Toto, and Facebook have to do with your cleaning business? Value conscious customers!! Big Billy Yeadon advises carpet cleaners to keep an eye on their company image in this new economic climate. So how and what are you contributing to your community?

When should I move my owner-operator carpet cleaning operation out of my house?

It makes a lot of sense to start your cleaning or restoration business out of your house. However, sooner or later you will be faced with the question of “when should I stop storing all these cleaning chemicals and equipment in my garage?” Steve waxes nostalgic …

Should carpet cleaners accept credit cards?

One veteran professional carpet cleaner in California has been debating the pros and cons of offering the credit card payment option to his clients. Steve helps him realize he has already sub-consciously decided …