Just call me John Henry

Despite the freezing temperatures for the next 4 nights the phone calls did roll in. The only problem is that they all needed them cleaned next week and they are all commercial jobs.

So, as of now, I have 43,000 sqft of carpet and 400 office chairs to clean over a 5 day period. Without doing the math, it clearly is going to be very stressful on both me and the machines. My sub-contractor covers some of that work (about 8k of it) since that building is 5 minutes from his shop, but he had a bad winter and went back to work tending bar. He promised me that he would still be available when needed, but he just told me that he doesn't know if he can cover it this time.

I am facing 8 hours of solid wanding per night all week long. I will have my arm in a sling by the end of it.

If I might inject a little sarcastic humor?
A month or two ago you were b&#%"#5 and m-#'&&" about no work. Now you want the sympathy card?
I am totally yanking your chain.
Its nice that with the nicer weather, the phone starts ringing. Mine is too.
Did abunch of carpet and upholstery for a long time customer, last week. Carpets 2x a year, and upholstery once. Its been while since he had me clean for him. Like, 18 months.

I am a Marine Matt, and you know the old saying "Marines are not happy unless they are complaining". I am not really upset to see work rolling in, but why do I always have to make my month in the same week?

I just would love to see more residential than all this commercial. At least residential doesn't require relying on a sub to hold up his end of the contract.

I might have to take a short vacation after that week and find the lake for a couple of days.

Lol, when it rains it ALWAYS pours !
I absolutely despise this exact part of the business, that's why I vacation often, to release stress from this very thing, why can't people plan in advance ??
Go to lake havasu, it's already at 90 degrees there now and people are extremely nice there.

The funny thing is that a lot of these buildings are happening because the customer installed new lights in their buildings. They got rid of the old "yellowish tint" can lights and replaced them with high contrast daylight bulbs.....now they can really see the spots and stains in the carpet.

One of the buildings is being cleaned twice next week alone due to some special meetings. I don't know how this is going to affect business this Summer, but I am suspecting a ton more work until they replace the bulbs again.

If I were you, I would stock up on those high contrast daylight bulbs and offer them 50% off cleaning if they decided to change the bulbs to the old yellowish tint, and when you do the cleaning for 50% off, replace the bulbs again

dp1 wrote:If I were you, I would stock up on those high contrast daylight bulbs and offer them 50% off cleaning if they decided to change the bulbs to the old yellowish tint, and when you do the cleaning for 50% off, replace the bulbs again

Same thing here Rob. The first and last week of the month I was busy. The middle of the month not so much

Isn't that crazy Mo? Last month I started out working like a dog and then virtually nothing for 2 weeks. Now, I might be starting that cycle again.

You're dealing with a lot of square footage Rob and lot more money too

I'll agree with Mo. Rob, you deal with massive amounts of CGD, more than most people I've ever heard talk about, on a consistent basis.
If I were you, I would have a helper. I'll admit with that much work, I'd be a wimp about it and need help. Even if I had to go to a temp service, I'd have someone helping me. At least there they would be drug tested and you could just cut the temp service a check rather than fooling around with the tax headaches.

That's a dam good idea. Have you ever looked into that Bob?

That isn't a bad idea actually. I got a text back from the guy who is thinking about coming on-board and says that he might be able to help at least for one of the jobs. I have a couple of days yet to find some help.