What ddi you do before carpet cleaning?

by Mo Fri Nov 15, 2013 8:28 pm

The majority of my working life has been behind desk. I was in banking for a while, a loan officer, an account rep at FedEx.
When I moved up north I decided I was sick of working for someone else and I wanted a more active profession. When I first stared this biz I remember the freedom I felt driving the highways enjoying the sites and meeting different people every day. Although there are some days were I long to be sitting on my ass behind a desk:D I really enjoy this business.

I know Joe was a geologists and Ryan was a former golf course superintendent. What did you guys do before you launched your business empire?

by Ryan S Fri Nov 15, 2013 8:49 pm

I graduated college with an associates degree in Golf Course/turf grass Mgmt. Spent 12 years as the ground keeper. You know thike caddy sack. Great career, beautiful scenery, long hours, hard work, and what have you done for me lately mentality. Glad I don't do that any more.

by milspec6 Fri Nov 15, 2013 9:24 pm

I spent half my life with the Marines as a Water Purifier and then an NBC specialist, several years in law enforcement, and then ended up working corporate security (still do). I guess I have always been a hired gun for somebody and then one day I decided to start working for myself...at least mostly, I still need to get rid of the day job.

by TimM Fri Nov 15, 2013 9:32 pm

19 years working for these guys before going into carpet cleaning

What ddi you do before carpet cleaning? Me_at_10

by Eric Valentine Sat Nov 16, 2013 1:03 am

I managed a couple of apartment complexes in Las Vegas. The cleaner I used told me to go get a used portable at the swap meet or pawn shop and clean carpets on the side in my free time. I bought the porty, and only called him ONCE in a year and a half after that Laughing

After that year and a half, I quit the property management and went full time cleaning.

by Pat Sat Nov 16, 2013 6:57 pm

I had quite a few different jobs before I found that I like this work.

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by dp1 Fri Nov 29, 2013 11:05 pm

Graduated bachelor degree in accounting, never work as an accountant, lol, first job, subway manager, second job, carpet cleaning company manager, third job, own this business :-)

by Ryan S Sat Nov 30, 2013 10:52 am

dp1 wrote:Graduated bachelor degree in accounting, never work as an accountant, lol, first job, subway manager, second job, carpet cleaning company manager, third job, own this business :-)

So what does a CC manager actually do?

by dp1 Sun Dec 01, 2013 10:33 pm

Ryan S wrote:
dp1 wrote:Graduated bachelor degree in accounting, never work as an accountant, lol, first job, subway manager, second job, carpet cleaning company manager, third job, own this business :-)
So what does a CC manager actually do?

First, clean up after my boss ( he has a very bad temper and he's the scheduler), so you know how that goes, lol, if he pissed a customer off that we already did the work, I have to call them up and apologize and try to make it right due to he's scared that they're going to cancel the check payment, second clean up after the other technicians ( i.e. browning, etc ), third, work one van out with a day laborer that pretty much does all the work, I just drive and upsell like crazy :-)
Oh, I made 20% commission from the gross amount of what my van is making, which was about $ 5 - $ 6 grand, this was about 10 years ago, there are times I think that it was better working for someone like that, the reason is I didn't have to worry about picking up every single phone calls coming my way, or worry about slow months which doesn't happen very often now thank GOD, but the flexibility of scheduling my own schedule beats all that, I have to learn not to look back too much :-)

by carpetdaddy Mon Dec 02, 2013 4:00 pm

Went to college half a dozen times. Dropped out five times with mostly A's because I was board and wanted to work Question

Finally went back and got my Associates in Manangement at about age 25 (married and still working 70 hours/wk for AMC Theatres as a GM). I was a movie theater General Manager for about 10 years starting my junior year of high school, Project Manager for a janitorial company that cleaned shopping malls, and then became VP Marketing/Sales for that company. Their annual revenue was about $18 mil. when I started and just about $90 mil when I left eight years later. Flying/traveling 200+ days year, 911, and being regarded as "an order taker" drove me to start my first carpet cleaning business (a franchise who I believe I am still legally bound not to mention by name even though I road out my three year no-compete agreement). Growing way to fast (seven franchises in less than a year), hiring the wrong people, and having one to seven competing franchises (from the same franchisor Question

) in each of my territories along with all the other competition caused me to lose everything in about three years. Wife eventually took the house and the kids. I went to work for a buddy in Delaware who was in the same franchise system to ride out my no-compete. I was living in an RV that was hot and leaky in the summer, and cold and leaky in the winter - had to wear six layers to sleep at night... For more than three years, I was doing sixty percent of his revenue, maintaining his equipment, and cleaning up after his other three employees. Long story short he started screwing me. I told him where to go. That was a Saturday. The following week I bought a van, equipment and adv and never looked back. Seven months later he went out of business...

by milspec6 Mon Dec 02, 2013 5:15 pm

ManY, that is a great success story!! You are all the kind of guys I hold in high respect.

It has been said many times that probably 90% of the world are followers by nature and would never take the leaps that you all have to get where you are today. That puts you in a very small group of special people...good to know you all. bounce

by Mo Mon Dec 02, 2013 5:42 pm

Way to fight through those challenges Joe. You earned all of the success that you have now.

Tim, You looked wet behind the ears in that pic. There are only two things I miss about FedEx. The cheap flights airline flights and the annual parties "sales meetings" wink

DP, You couldn't go back to working for the man after enjoying the freedom and control of being self employed.

by REALCLEAN Wed Dec 04, 2013 3:27 pm

I've sold drinks behind a bar. I've sold auto parts. I've sold cars. But I've always had a presence in the cleaning business. I still have a janitorial business, but I'm slowly replacing it with carpet. I actually enjoy cleaning carpet.

by OneBlueSummer Wed Dec 04, 2013 8:59 pm

Cool stories !

I was just a restaurant dude, then carpet cleaner, then car sales man/stock guru, then started a vacation rental company, then I lost everything, lived down by the river for a while in a tent, then any random sales jobs I could find to help me save enough to get this company started! I love cleaning and this business! Just cant wait till things run a bit smoother and I can get a real TM and some full time employees! ( might have to move for this to come true )

I love how I can do marketing, blow peoples mind with results and work ethic, sweat, be creative, design stuff, and interact with happy people.

by carpetdaddy Thu Dec 05, 2013 5:33 am

OneBlueSummer wrote:Cool stories !

I was just a restaurant dude, then carpet cleaner, then car sales man/stock guru, then started a vacation rental company, then I lost everything, lived down by the river for a while in a tent, then any random sales jobs I could find to help me save enough to get this company started! I love cleaning and this business! Just cant wait till things run a bit smoother and I can get a real TM and some full time employees! ( might have to move for this to come true )

I love how I can do marketing, blow peoples mind with results and work ethic, sweat, be creative, design stuff, and interact with happy people.

Sounds like you have a great attitude, motivation and skills. Just try to remember these two old sayings as you grow - "All good things in time" and "Slow and steady wins the race". If you want better equipment and full-time employees, more customers, etc. come up with (and write it down) a plan and achievable goals, milestones, and realistic time frame to getting there. Take an hour every week and evaluate your progress towards your goals and evaluate your actions vs. results. Set aside another hour a week to strategize. The key is to stay focused and continually tweak your actions so you can achieve the results you want. cheers

by Ryan S Thu Dec 05, 2013 9:27 am

Good advice there Joe. cheers

by CleanTech Thu Dec 05, 2013 10:06 am

Was a paramedic for a while but back then they didnt have full time hours so I worked part time with a 13" floor master rotary and a ninja portable lol. Even with that I was making way way more cash without the "flashbacks"

by Mo Thu Dec 05, 2013 1:40 pm

So the Paramedic job was pretty stressful huh Dustin? I bet you saw some crazy stuff.

by Mo Thu Dec 05, 2013 1:43 pm

OneBlueSummer wrote:Cool stories !

I was just a restaurant dude, then carpet cleaner, then car sales man/stock guru, then started a vacation rental company, then I lost everything, lived down by the river for a while in a tent, then any random sales jobs I could find to help me save enough to get this company started! I love cleaning and this business! Just cant wait till things run a bit smoother and I can get a real TM and some full time employees! ( might have to move for this to come true )

I love how I can do marketing, blow peoples mind with results and work ethic, sweat, be creative, design stuff, and interact with happy people.

Wow Charlie you've come a long way man. Some of this stories are so inspirational.

by OneBlueSummer Thu Dec 05, 2013 4:25 pm

carpetdaddy wrote:
Sounds like you have a great attitude, motivation and skills. Just try to remember these two old sayings as you grow - "All good things in time" and "Slow and steady wins the race". If you want better equipment and full-time employees, more customers, etc. come up with (and write it down) a plan and achievable goals, milestones, and realistic time frame to getting there. Take an hour every week and evaluate your progress towards your goals and evaluate your actions vs. results. Set aside another hour a week to strategize. The key is to stay focused and continually tweak your actions so you can achieve the results you want.

Good ideas and words. It just kills me when I hear how people like you, and others were able to do what you did in such a short amount of time makes me think I am seriously missing something or am just in the wrong area. I am hear to learn from people like you. You had stated that you were able to be booked within 4 months of starting your business. What exactly did you do to achieve this. I know you have stated you do adwords and paper advertising. What kind of paper advertising EDDM? Do you place your ads in peoples doors?

There comes a time when you just start to look at your surroundings for excusses of once current status. I know people say dont worry about your competition blah blah. Though the interesting thing is most that say that are the ones that do focus on strategic defience of once given competition. Just look at franchises and how they just bash and degrade thier competition ( owner operators ) to get ahead. I hate excuses I really do, but Donald Trumps not gonna go try and sell ice to escamos, or open up and fishing guide business in the desert either.

My local Val Pak has an average of 7 carpet cleaners per month, sometimes up to 9.
Another coupon book is 52 pages and last month 27 of the pages were carpet cleaners... Im not kidding!

CleanTech wrote:
Was a paramedic for a while but back then they didnt have full time hours so I worked part time with a 13" floor master rotary and a ninja portable lol. Even with that I was making way way more cash without the "flashbacks"

HA! We started with the same set up! except my floor machine is bigger lol! bounce

Now you have the coolest set up on the planet! Awesome man!

Thanks Mo! :geek:

by Andy Mc Fri Dec 06, 2013 7:31 pm

Was a welder, a laborer , a builder of rail roads, (pounding spikes) various construction work mostly as a grunt. Had few factory jobs, one was a winery the other a door maker.

Owned a window cleaning business for about 5 years,

Then worked as a pest control applicator for about 5 years, one day I yelled at my boss tell he started crying then I quit and spent my last 2000 bucks on some goof ball start your own carpet cleaning package.

by milspec6 Mon Dec 09, 2013 5:39 pm

Ya know, the more I read these stories and from others that I meet in the idustry, I am amazed at how things have changed over the last 20 years. Cleaners used to be guys who dropped out of school or held GED's and didn't have much in the way of goals. Now, a cleaner is often a man of great skill and knowledge with a very creative mind and distinct goals......it is no wonder the competition is so great!!

by Ryan S Mon Dec 09, 2013 5:45 pm

Sweet Mo. Those are rewarding Jobs in so many ways.

by Matt; My carpet cleaner Mon Dec 09, 2013 8:51 pm

Worked for Ace hardware at the retail support center. Pulling orders for the stores. In any given day I would have lifted 25k-40k lbs. Case of this -n-that, water heaters, residing lawn mowers, paint, and bags of cow,chicken manure(fertilizer)... It was decent money 20+ years ago and had great health plan(all 4 kids paid for by plan). Got tired of goin to work at 5:30am. My brother had be running his own biz for 3 years...I thought "it's not rocket science, I can do this".
...and that's how it all started.

Matt

by Mo Mon Dec 09, 2013 9:01 pm

Andy Mc wrote:Was a welder, a laborer , a builder of rail roads, (pounding spikes) various construction work mostly as a grunt. Had few factory jobs, one was a winery the other a door maker.

Owned a window cleaning business for about 5 years,

Then worked as a pest control applicator for about 5 years, one day I yelled at my boss tell he started crying then I quit and spent my last 2000 bucks on some goof ball start your own carpet cleaning package.

Andy, Window cleaning and pest control are good add on services. Do you still do those? Carpet cleaning is a lot easier than pounding spikes

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