How “Duct Tape Marketing” can help a small carpet cleaner …

Most readers of this web site are great carpet cleaners and even better people! (After all, every single site contributor on here comes from the cleaning industry!) But as a group, carpet cleaners’ marketing skills stink! Big Billy Yeadon offers some “Duct Tape” to patch up your marketing techniques …

The deadly trap of “assuming” when hiring carpet cleaning/restoration managers …

Many times your job applicants aren’t liars. However, they may be “overly optimistic”. Other times they may be simply clueless! This is bad enough when hiring a new technician. But it can be disastrous for your carpet cleaning business when you take a managerial applicant’s previous work experience at face value …

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 …

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” …

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 …

“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?

How professional carpet cleaners can get local small business consulting … FREE!

Even the Bible says that “in the multitude of counselors there is salvation”. And yet, being the stubborn, mule-headed entrepreneurs that we are, we continue to insist on going it alone. One SFS member shares a great idea on outside advice. Even better, this help is FREE!

What pitfalls are there in buying a carpet cleaning business?

One wanna-be entrepreneur asks Steve what to watch out for in buying a carpet cleaning business. Steve’s answers may surprise and shock you. If so, they may be just the wake up call you need to successfully sell your company in the future …

10 Questions Every Cleaning and Restoration Business Should Ask!

Check out these 10 questions that just may keep you from joining the 80% of start-up businesses that fail within their first decade. Then share with your fellow board members other vital questions that have kept you safe, sane and profitable …

Stay Focused!!!

“I solve problems. That is what I do.” How often have you thought that this mantra essentially sums up your business life as a carpet cleaner? And yet Chuck Violand shows that this constant “desperation problem solving” may actually hinder instead of help your cleaning business …