Bill’s Pop Quiz Answers
Before you get the answers let me explain the purpose of the quiz. It ultimately comes down to the term “anchoring”. What is “anchoring” and how does it affect the structure of your cleaning prices? Read on …
SFS Instructor’s Blog
The SFS / VAST team of Jeff Cutshall, Chuck Violand, Bill Yeadon and Steve Toburen share their insights into the best business practices and how you can make it alone in the Cleaning and Restoration Industry.
Do college graduates make good carpet cleaning employees?
College can be a wonderful gift and a great opportunity. OR it can be a four, five or six year party that wastes time and money. After reading a New York Times article Steve reflects on today’s cleaning workforce …
Social Media for over 35 (and counting) carpet cleaners!
Does even the word “Social Media” intimidate you? Is everything just too confusing? Do you still manage to play your 8-track tapes in your cleaning service truck? Is that what’s bothering you Binky? Well, help is on the way from our “friends” at Microsoft …
Restoration and carpet cleaning business owners are headed to Atlanta, GA this week
Owners of cleaning and restoration companies of all sizes from the Atlanta area and across the country are scheduled to spend 5 days learning the ends and outs of pushing their business operation on to greater profits and efficiency.
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” …
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 …
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?
So what type of crew members do you want to employ on your carpet cleaning “sail boat”?
What type of employees do you want? Easy, you say, “The very best!” Not so fast here. Chuck Violand shares how the size of your company will determine the profile of the employee you want to go “sailing” with you on some very choppy cleaning business seas!
Words to live by and not just for carpet cleaners either!!!
How do you sum up life in one paragraph? Does it even remotely involve your truck mount, pre-spray, cleaning solution or other cleaning equipment? We sure hope not! Brian Dyson of Coca Cola has done a very nice job of helping everyone (carpet cleaning and restoration professionals included) keep focused on the really important things in life …
How I promoted my carpet cleaning business at my BNI group by ripping Steve Toburen’s stuff off!
They say “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. If so, SFS member Dave Pastor very “sincerely” likes our SFS Director of Training. Read how Dave blew away his local BNI group by sharing a few key SFS ideas. Then learn how you can use these same concepts in your company. (Even without attending SFS!)