One step rental emulsifier.

SOE might make the ultimate emulsifier once we get the solvents right.
Thanks to those who are helping me: Todd, Fuzzsucker, Milspec, Fred, to name a few.

If you want to go cheap you might want to use a different business name so you don't give your current business a reputation cheap average carpet cleaning.

Joe Bristor wrote:

Davey Cracker wrote:Sam, are you Bill's son, of Miller's carpet care?  Or no?  Just wondering, because I worked for him as a tech an a Ass. Manager at the Carson office. lo0l

Ah you figured it out. Not too tough huh. they practically owned CA CC for half a century.

They sure did, Miller's is where I got my start!   

Matter of fact, I remember when I was just starting out, "Sam Miller" came to our Carson shop to give us some training.

I think "Sam" was Bill's father, which would be "Sam" on this forum's, grandfather. So That would be 3 generations of cleaners, maybe more?

ej54 wrote:If you want to go cheap you might want to use a different business name so you don't give your current business a reputation cheap average carpet cleaning.

You touched on the bigger problem with going cheap....it hurts your reputation.  You may have reduced your quality to meet a price standard, but those around you don't know that...they think you are just a low quality cleaner.

I remember cleaning a commercial bathroom a few years ago for a fellow cleaner that was ill.  He told me not to put much effort into it as they don't pay well.  He said to just "Give it a quick once over, no more than 20 minutes".  Well, that was what I did and for weeks after that, the conversation around the building was that I was a terrible cleaner who had no idea what he was doing as there were some dirty grout lines and water spots on the walls.

The next time that I cleaned a commercial building, I went all out and did my best cleaning, regardless of the price.  This time, the conversation was about how good things looked and I booked 3 homes from the employees later that week.

I think it would be worth the effort to find out why they are not accepting your bid Ryan, but I wouldn't get wrapped around the axle much over it and I certainly wouldn't resort to a sub-par cleaning to meet their price either.

Take a page out of the legendary Steve Jones's playbook....set the pace and let the others chase.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ-_3Ug3wqU

I know my suggestion of just hot water may have seemed odd... But I have heard from plenty of other cleaners that emulsifiers will attract soil. No experience of my own.

Second thought is, if you have to cut corners just to save a dollar or two, then I really would rethink how worth it, it is, to persue this. S/O is not expensive and I find it hard to believe using anything ese will save you that much.

Heres a novel idea, go cheap , but provide quality. Find other ways to save time and money other then reducing quality.

Here is what I have done,

1) give a low base price, (that is what they want) then be dang sure to charge extra for red stains, urine, gum , etc,

set up your van for efficiency, I run all reels live on apartments, for residential I unhook the live vac reel and go 2.5 for better recovery, then when I get to an apartment I hook up the reel live again.

Charge extra for heavy soil, use your roto vac to justify the charge.

the base price is for "normal conditions" just carry a one gallon pump up with a nuclear pre spray mix, mist traffic lanes and spots, run emulsifier on the rest,,

Forget the booties and corner guards, and forget the fans.

Doing the above , you should be able to bang out a typical 2 bed room in under a half hour from drive up to drive away. if you charge 69 bucks for that typical two bedroom then you are still over 100 per hour.


you eat the cheap cleans (but they are easy) for a while , then you get a pet damage and make an extra 100 buck, then you get one with 4 red stains, that's an extra 40 bucks, then you get a heavy soil, that's an extra 10 to 15 bucks per room.


get the idea?

As for emulsifier , not all are equal, you can find ones that are safe to use, (no toxic chems) they might not work as well as a stand alone, but it only takes 1 minut to hit the traffic areas and spots with a pre treat to take the load off and even things out.



I am trying out a sample of PCX from kleerite, seems like the way to go, non toxic, leaves soft feel , no resoil residue ect.

I also plan to try master extractor, another non toxic , leave carpet soft product.

And will look forward to Joes new SOE to try out .

One other thing,, get a 50 gallon fresh tank , so you don't have to spend time hooking up to water.

why even go cheap.    who cares about customers that want to spend only 65bucks.      

those customers are the dirtiest most annoying people to deal with and they cant afford professional carpet cleaning, not to mention apartments are so much more work setting up and tearing down 

just let them rent a rug doctor,   it will cost them about 75bucks

my exact response when I get a cheap ass calling   "Oh no,  Im sorry... were not that type of company,   we restore carpets.   Look in groupon if you want just a quick once over cleaning,   thanks anyways"

If they dont understand then I compare it to having hardwoods refinished,   or just having a maid service come mop them.

I guess it comes down to your business plan, but I am with AC on this one.

There is just a reality that not all customers want the same thing.  Some want a Mercedes with all the bells and whistles while others look for a more basic model of vehicle.  Nothing wrong with either choice, they are just different.

I decided years ago to simplify my life and only offer one type of cleaning service....restoring the surface to as close to new as can be possible.  That means all the bells and whistles, I don't have add-on charges for stains, odors, tools, etc.

The customers that I want to work for are the ones that want the same thing (best clean possible) and trust me to select the tools and methods to get it done without making concessions based on price.  It says it right on the van "Most Thorough Cleaning Possible", so I have to live up to it once I hit the driveway.

I've worked for the other end of the spectrum as well.  The guy in Jacksonville, NC offered the 3-tier cleaning plans method, but I hated cleaning on the basic plan and leaving behind gum, stains, odors, etc. just because of price.  I actually got fired from that job for cleaning those things without getting paid for it...I deserved to be fired as it cost him money, but I just couldn't deal with it.

This has been a long walk around the barn, but the point that I am getting at is that there are different goals for different customers.  Focus on the customers that you want and cater to them.

Remember when Cadillac came out with a cheap version in the 80's or when BMW came out with the inexpensive hatchback?  Nearly crippled both companies and it took years to recover from the damage it did to their brand.

Build the brand that you want and accept that not every customer will value it.  Just keep focus on the ones that do.

http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1658545_1658533_1658526,00.html

ACpower1 wrote:why even go cheap.    who cares about customers that want to spend only 65bucks.      

those customers are the dirtiest most annoying people to deal with and they cant afford professional carpet cleaning,   not to mention apartments are so much more work setting up and tearing down 

just let them rent a rug doctor,   it will cost them about 75bucks

my exact response when I get a cheap ass calling   "Oh no,  Im sorry... were not that type of company,   we restore carpets.   Look in groupon if you want just a quick once over cleaning,   thanks anyways"

If they dont understand then I compare it to having hardwoods refinished,   or just having a maid service come mop them.

Kinda missed the core of this topic.

property management. Not residential.

Not apartment cleaning either. Empty stand alone homes on the rental market.

Andy Mc wrote:Heres a novel idea,    go  cheap ,  but provide quality.    Find other ways to save time and money other then reducing quality.

Here is what I have done,  

1)  give a low base price, (that is what they want)  then be dang sure to charge extra for red stains,  urine, gum , etc,      

set up your van for efficiency,    I run all reels live on apartments,    for residential I unhook the live vac reel and go 2.5   for better recovery,    then when I get to an apartment I hook up the reel live again.

Charge extra for heavy soil,   use your roto vac to justify the charge.

the base price is for "normal conditions"      just carry a one gallon pump up with a nuclear pre spray mix,  mist traffic lanes and spots,   run emulsifier on the rest,,

Forget the booties and corner guards,  and forget the fans.

Doing the above , you should be able to bang out a typical 2 bed room in under a half hour from drive up to drive away.     if you charge 69   bucks for that typical two bedroom then you are still  over 100 per hour.


you eat the cheap cleans (but they are easy)   for a while ,   then you get a pet damage and make an extra 100 buck,     then you get one with 4 red stains,    that's an extra 40 bucks,   then you get a heavy soil,   that's an extra   10  to 15  bucks per room.


get the idea?    

As for emulsifier  ,    not all are equal,  you can find ones that are safe to use, (no toxic chems)   they might not work as well as a stand alone,    but it only takes 1 minut to hit the traffic areas and spots with a pre treat to take the load off and even things out.



I am trying out a sample of PCX from kleerite,   seems like the way to go,   non toxic,   leaves soft feel , no resoil residue ect.

I also plan to try master extractor,   another non toxic , leave carpet soft product.

And will look forward to Joes new SOE   to try out .

Thanks Andy, pretty close to what I was searching for. I don't think I was aiming at lowering quality. I was trying to think outside the box on how to modify our existing system. I really think my meeting might expose some more helpful info.

BTW, all of my work today came from the company I'm referring to, and they all paid the normal rate. Just a few that use other companies, these PM use my house cleaning service, but don't let us clean the carpet due to price.


I don't understand the objection when they are supposed to be working off of the security deposit.

Oh yeah, Andy the master extractor is very nice. No hard carpet, and it has the sunshine deo already in the mix.

I guess I did spin out of orbit on this topic...somewhere near Pluto at times, but I don't separate commercial from residential. Cleaning is cleaning in my book, same standards apply...best clean possible. If that can be done in a less expensive way or definitely in a more efficient way, great. That is one of the reasons that I run a 210 gallon waste tank to save me time.

As for them working off of the security deposit, that is another issue. Most of the manager's around here are pocketing the difference between what they pay me and what the security deposit amount was, so they are motivated to get things as cheap as possible.

You're right, it isn't their money....yet, but they have their eyes on it to be sure.

Davey Cracker wrote:

Joe Bristor wrote:

Davey Cracker wrote:Sam, are you Bill's son, of Miller's carpet care?  Or no?  Just wondering, because I worked for him as a tech an a Ass. Manager at the Carson office. lo0l

Ah you figured it out. Not too tough huh. they practically owned CA CC for half a century.

They sure did, Miller's is where I got my start!   

Matter of fact, I remember when I was just starting out, "Sam Miller" came to our Carson shop to give us some training.

I think "Sam" was Bill's father, which would be "Sam" on this forum's, grandfather.  So That would be 3 generations of cleaners, maybe more?

Actually Bills My Dad, He's retired in Vegas, I'm 50 slinging a wand with a 2 truck operation in Lancaster ca. I quit in 2000, 2001, started my own business.

I was the guy who came and did some training I also worked in Carson for awhile to.

at one point we had 12 shops doing 12 million a year, but it was a bad business model for sustainability.

If My Dad would've invested in real estate instead of the business he would be retired rich, but he sunk every nickle he made trying to keep it afloat. There are 2 shops that the Managers own or are buying San Diego, and San Bernardino so you may still see a Millers carpet care adverisment but nothing like back in the day $60 to 70k ad budgets per week.

My son Jeremy is 19 he's a third generation cleaner.

Freemind1 wrote:I know my suggestion of just hot water may have seemed odd... But I have heard from plenty of other cleaners that emulsifiers will attract soil. No experience of my own.

Second thought is, if you have to cut corners just to save a dollar or two, then I really would rethink how worth it, it is, to persue this. S/O is not expensive and I find it hard to believe using anything ese will save you that much.

Clean Your own carpet much??? go home clean half with pre spray and fresh water rinse or acid rinse like cti last step. then use an emulsifier dry slurry or formula 90 on the other half.

I promise you they will resoil the same the powdered emulsifiers need a good vacuuming after cleaning leave a minimal residue. they also provide more punch when cleaning dirty carpet.

I'm not a fan of cti's emulsifier. If I add hot water and it breaks down nicely no large clumps in the bottom I'm happy. Dry Slurry is great at mixing, Cti's pro powder 2000 makes cement at the bottom of a chemical jug.

I also only use 8 scoops in a 5 gal pre mix which is like a pound and meter at 4 gph.

Slimey businesses such as car dealerships and prop management companies have what's called a "Zorro" a count that is used for bonuses party's etc for the company. The hidden masked crusader account is just like it sounds like.
The goal is to keep the whole deposit and then some. As it is easy for them to say and make up a story of how they had to repaint the walls and fix broken closet doors and assemblies and get have the fix it ground guys fix a bunch of stuff when it's all just a lie as they never ended up having to replace anything they just Jerry rigged the broken stuff for the next renter. Anyways they keep all the extra money left over and put it in a hidden Zorro account.
So they managers goal is to keep the deposit and then sometimes more as they usually get paid a bonus out of whatever was added to the Zorro account at the end of the month.
That's why most could care less how good of a job you do. As they usually bill out the carpet cleaning for as low as possible so they can make up whatever else they want on there internal end and pocket the rest of deposit.
Kinda confusing ...

Andy hit it... just think of it as a basic bronze cleaning and not your platinum cleaning. You and your guys will probably still do a better job than most anyways. As Dr. McFadden stated u can fly through these once u get them down...
I still in line sprayed and then wand walked ( or zip piper walked ) most of the carpet.
Obviously once they trust you, you can and will start charging more for the super bad ones.. and gum, red, drug resin, floods, and pet issues are on a per job basis and depend on severity.
Just gotta swallow your pride and dive in as it will pay off.
When I was doing general cleaning too it was easy to make sure I was getting at least 250 per unit and I solo could do 2 -3 a day.
Again when you add in your up charges for the stuff mentioned above I was still averaging 125 + per unit. Don't forget u can charge to leave fans and ozone machines on the dog jobs too.

Ray LaFennte in San Berdo, Right?   

sam miller wrote:My son Jeremy is 19 he's a third generation cleaner.

Sam your grandfather was a cleaner wasn't he?.........or just the whip snapper?   

If so, your son would be 4th gen?

"Are We makin' any money, Are We makin' any money"?!?    

No my Grandpa George had a machine at his house my dad gave him, but he owned gas station and was a combiner, probably a lot of other things to.

My Uncle Clint started the business with my dad and three other brothers in 1974.

I was mistaken, I think it was "Clint" I was thinking of.........thanks, Sam for the history lesson, I'm interested in it because Miller's is where I got my start in this biz!   

For some reason, I was thinking Clint was your grandfather I guess.

I hope your dad Bill is doing well in Vegas!.........I remember speaking with him a lot on the phone, doing the "Noon Reports", long time ago.