Hi- wanting to start, could use advice

Adwa,   Thanks again.  I will start cleaning carpets on the commercial side first.  I have my own cleaning accounts I can do and also have friends who do not do carpets who would be happy to refer me to their customers because they know I won't use the carpet cleaning as a way to get my foot in the door for other services.  I also am still going with the idea of working for one of the national companies.  COIT is hiring in my area, I am going to talk to them tomarrow.  Any idea what they pay? 

  Your flower looks cool, it contrasts enough with the other avatars in this setting to make it original. 

  I do tend to go on and on and on.  and on

  I might seem like I have picked a method, but I really haven't.  I am sure the best method is being good at every method; just being a good carpet cleaner all around.  But considering start-up costs, the OP (if it does what it seems to do) seems like the way to go to start.  I still have to actually use the different types of equipment to actually know.  I'm big on theory, but I am bottom-line practical when it comes down to it. 

  A couple of my interests are philosophy and psychology and to be honest with you, any time you sell anything all you are really selling is an idea.  Craft a pretty enough idea and it well definitely sell.

  I am a salesman.  I sell my service.  Right now it is janitorial and hardfloors, and I soon hope to include carpets.  If I am actually a good salesman I should be able to pick up alot of residential work.  My experience so far has been all commercial, and so my streamlined angle on the customer is all about cutting their overhead while increasing quality (it is true).  I'll have to develop something that works for residential customers.  For some reason I have a problem selling for other people though.

oh well...I tried to keep it short this time

hehe, to me its the same job.  Selling the service you do.  Just to test the waters heres a question-  Do you really think that the larger the institution, the more valid its assertions?  Berkshire Hathaway which owns Shaw Industries owns so many different companies and is involved in so many different companies that it is no suprise they happen to support the most common and most expensive system for professionaly cleaning carpets.  Companies get big because they are masters at turning a profit, not because they are masters of the service(s) or products they are marketing.  Shareholders care far more about quarterly profits than they do about how much a company knows about the service or product it is actually selling.  I'll take the word of some salty old small-time master tradesman over what any large company says, any day of the week.  The business of the former is his given trade, the business of the latter is turning a profit.   Craftsmen do not run large companies nor do they issue the official statements or recomendations of those companies.  Rather it is marketing and financial experts that run those companies, and design and authorize those statements to the standard of maximum corporate profit. 

  I know nothing about carpet cleaning, but reason dictates that when it comes to what padman says vs what Shaw Industries says, I go with padman.

  Like I said, just testing the waters, not trying to get flamed. 

Edited by TomR

doug...lol, I am just researching and looking through my options.  I was saying what I would say if I had only an OP in a market where everyone pushes truckmounts.  Its marketing.  Not telling a lie but rather emphasizing the postives of ones own system while downplaying the negatives, and emphasizing the negatives of the system used by competitors while downplaying the positives.   I wasn't giving my opinion, just what I would say if I was cornered by a customer who seemed to demand a truckmount.  I am sure a skilled carpet cleaner can make a customer just as happy with either a TM or an OP. 

Thanks rotti,  If I got the OP system, I would use it as an advertisizing tool- put it right into the ads so they know whats coming from the get-go.  If the OP is as good as a TM than the only thing a TM really brings in is glitz "look at my big bad truck-mounted machine".  There are less expensive ways to ad glitz.  I am pretty good at talking so I don't see much of a problem with it.   Just from past experience in other areas, I know it helps to talk about the customers property (that you are servicing) in organic terms, making it seem like a living thing.  This would dove-tail with the OP system, "...effectively massaging the dirt out from the depths of the carpet with the help of deep-cleansing earth-friendly nutrients and conditioners.  This in contrast to abusing the carpet with hardcore heavy machinery that blasts extremely hot, high-pressure jets of chemical abrasives into the sensitive fibers- then applying an industrial vacuum to pull hard on the carpet fibres in hopes of removing as much of the chemical and soil as possible.  Like a living thing, your carpet has a life-expectancy and its lifespan will only equal the quality and care that is applied to it."  The idea being that OP removes what is bad in a carpet in a way that is good for the carpet.  While TM attempts to remove what is bad for the carpet in a way that is bad for carpet.  Of course I don't know what I am talking about, but people eat that stuff up.  I love selling services.  *My method = good energy into your floor (and of course your home and everyone that walks or crawls or is being raised on those floors)*  *Their method = bad energy into your floor (and your home, and your babies crawling on that carpet and everything that walks across it)*

blah

  Thanks again,

  Mr Steamer-  good idea about the slide-in.  I am almost positive that carpet cleaning is for me.  If on the off chance I do end up really hating it, I have enough discipline to learn something pretty well and do a good job even if I hate it.  I HATE janitorial work, but it was what I am doing now until business is built up enough to hire people.  I will start looking for that used slide-in.  I think I will take the IICRC course, seems like good credentials to have. 

Lilniteriderhood- Thanks!  If I go with a big company I might not say what I am planning, but if its a little company I definitely will.  I'm not out to stab anyone in the back.  Its good to hear the money is better than what I am projecting.  I was going by the most conservative estimates based on what I've read and the estimates I've gotten from calling places myself.  If this is anything at all like hardflloors, the big companies are set up to make smaller profit per service from a mass amount of services while the smaller companies make larger profit on less services- but generaly do a better job. 

Thanks for the encouragement, I'll be posting more questions and progress very soon. 

edit: I;ve been pouring over this forum and  am just about sold on padmans system.  If it does what it seems to do and any customer complains because I am not dragging out miles of duct and cables from some monster caged inside my van, I'll be happy to suggest to them that they should wait until the job is finished before judging its quality. 

Edited by TomR

Wll I think you have answered a lot of your own questions....It sounds to me your going truck mount.....10k US sounds like a used machine...thats the way I would go....I would recommend getting a slide-in unit...just because if you find that Carpet cleaning is not for you...you could always just slide it out and have the Van for other uses.

Hopefully you can get a unit with low hours...I think you should start looking...and you should take the IICRC course to get a basic understanding of carpet cleaning...