My name is Gavin, & I'm..

.... a cleaner.

New to the Forum. Been cleaning 11 years, have a small operation with one TM Van and a LM / porty rig. I've been off the truck for 2 years running everything with employees, but am back on the truck and have 1 full time and 1 part time employee.

more about me at http://carpetcleaningbellingham.com

What's up Gavin? Glad you found the forum. Why did you decide to get back on the truck?

Another success story! I like that and welcome to the lounge.

I got off the truck because I got offered a really nice job fixing pinball machines and arcade games and was still given the ability to take all the business phone calls I needed to. So I ran everything from the phone....

things were running okay, but maintenance on equipment was slipping, and so was proper marketing.... and then when I lost all my employees at the same time I had to regroup and get new employees, and make sure they got trained properly, just not enough time to do that and keep my other job.... maybe I could have done it, but I have a family i want to spend time with too.

It' been 6 months now and I'm mostly off the truck, but now I have the time where i can be on the truck if I want to be, ride along, and I'm the helper.

I also like to take the truck when there isn't a full day, I hate to make an employee come into work and send them out for 1 job, so if it's too light of a day I'll just do it myself.  

I just moved to a new house on a very busy street with a large yard, the house was a bit of a fixer upper so i have lots of projects I've been working on. Today I was replacing boards on the deck. a few months ago I made a sign for out by the road....

Wow, that sign is cool, I could never get away with putting up a sign like that in the city I'm in..........Welcome, you lucky dog!!   

Welcome, pull up a chair.

Welcome Gavin.
You got a lot of reading to catch up on here.
And check out Mo's store ... some stuff you might need. Plus you get a free Joe valve when you buy stuff.

Welcome Gavin.

Wow that sign is awesome, cool dude!

What sign? I don't see a sign.

Welcome Gavin! How did you lose all your employees at once?

I can answer that. One of two. Mutiny or they all sucked and he fired them all at once.

Sounds like a man with healthy priorities, too bad about the employees running off, but it does happen.

Fixing pinball machines....sounds like a neat job actually.

eldiabloz wrote:Welcome Gavin! How did you lose all your employees at once?

One got another job during slow season that turned into full time work he enjoyed better, that's all fine, the other took out motto "we clean green" too seriously, and got caught in a not so friendly state with green on him, then after I still kept him on, he quit in the middle of a busy day because the work got too hard.

milspec6 wrote:Sounds like a man with healthy priorities, too bad about the employees running off, but it does happen.

Fixing pinball machines....sounds like a neat job actually.

it was an awesome job, good pay, and a nice boss. the one thing it did do was take a very fun hobby and turn it into work, all work becomes work when you HAVE to do it.

I'm getting to the point where I am starting to enjoy the hobby again, and now I have the knowledge to fix just about anything.

gustavas007 wrote:I got off the truck because I got offered a really nice job fixing pinball machines and arcade games and was still given the ability to take all the business phone calls I needed to. So I ran everything from the phone....

things were running okay, but maintenance on equipment was slipping, and so was proper marketing.... and then when I lost all my employees at the same time I had to regroup and get new employees, and make sure they got trained properly, just not enough time to do that and keep my other job.... maybe I could have done it, but I have a family i want to spend time with too.

It' been 6 months now and I'm mostly off the truck, but now I have the time where i can be on the truck if I want to be, ride along, and I'm the helper.

I also like to take the truck when there isn't a full day, I hate to make an employee come into work and send them out for 1 job, so if it's too light of a day I'll just do it myself.  

I just moved to a new house on a very busy street with a large yard, the house was a bit of a fixer upper so i have lots of projects I've been working on. Today I was replacing boards on the deck. a few months ago I made a sign for out by the road....

What sign.

I can't see it.

Click on the Picture, Bill!!   

I saw that he was selling off his van recently online. He either went back to pinball machines or upgrading...either way, I hope it is a good thing.

I see it now

It's huge!

Welcome & good luck Gavin!

Welcome aboard.