i just want to say. hi! to all the other carpet cleaners out there...

i have been a carpet cleaner for about 4 years now.

i have owned my truck for about 2 years.

but i don't take it seriously. i can't seem to phone solicite or generate customers, to the point that this business would make me money.

my heat exchanger always seems to freeze and break.

oh i use a cleanco classic, but i know the heat exchanger is not a factory part, and when the coils break, i have to grind the ends off, fix the coils, and then pay for the ends to be welded again. this has been done so many times that it cannot be repaired.i must build a new one..i know cleanco has heat exchangers. but 2500 is way out of my budget.

I know exactly what your saying.  My first two years were just like that.  I was lucky to have an uncle who could fix my equipment problems and keep me going. 

How badly do you want to succeed?  How much effort are you willing to put into generating customers?  I'm not perfect at this, but I've gotten rid of what doesn't work.   I'm convinced that all hard work leads to a profit, but mere talk and hoping leads to poverty.  You need goals that you know will help you be successful.  How much money do you need to make?  How many jobs a month will that take?  How much personal sales per day will it take to get those jobs?  Then spend that amount of time being about selling yourself.  A trap could be that you trust your advertising/lead generating to provide for you. It takes the perfect ad, with good timing, to produce enough work to live off, advertising is just plain expensive, it is a good way to get you name out but not  generating high profits.  Your reputation is what really feeds you, but how can you have a reputation without someone giving you a chance?  How can you have a chance without asking for one?

My success has come from asking(in person) for an opportunity to serve them.  I go after customers who will need me to clean often.  It's really hard when you don't have confidence in your equipment.  I've had machines that needed fixing after every job, thats if I was able to get through it.  I didn't want to invest more money, because I didn't have the work.   Its a sick cycle to get out of.  But if you have a plan, you can budget for the equipment that you can depend on. 

Anyway, I'm not a know it all, nor am I as successful as I want to be yet, but I've learned the secret of "plowing up the soil"-  Farmers don't neccessarily like the plowing, weeding, planting, spraying part of the cycle, just as we don't like the day after day, sales call after sales call without immediate success.  But just as it take time for the seed to grow into a crop, the "seeds"  we plant by asking everyone to give us a try, will eventually grow into an opportunty to have a customer who will send us jobs consistantly. 

Again, this is just what I've learned after 6 years, its not perfect advise, but it sure is what I've experienced.  It's good to have you on the board, I hope things work out with your heat exchangers, where are you located?  Freezing weather drives me nuts.

Maybe I can come to your rescue.........Don't fix it.......buy Artic Power....that gets the job done with cold water......I'm a Tide Man myself.

                     NIGHTRIDER

When that heat exchanger finally gives up there is a friend of mine in Florida who makes after market heat exchangers that appear better than original and less expensive.

http://www.ecogent2.com/Photo_Gallery.html - John's Custom Machine Inc.  (727)-596-3734

Tell him the Carpetologist sent you and maybe next time I am in Florida he will buy me a beer.

you can get away with cleaning with cold water in florida can't you.....lol

MR. STEAMER wrote: you can get away with cleaning with cold water in florida can't you.....lol

Listen to this idiot

Stanley wrote: [QUOTE=MR. STEAMER] you can get away with cleaning with cold water in florida can't you.....lol

Listen to this idiot

[/QUOTE

Stanley:  Knowledge is a good thing.  Unfortunately some people just have enough to be dangerous.

You tell him Doug......we all know there's no cold water in Florida.......It's too hot there.

                        NIGHTRIDER

Thanks Ted

John Hurtubise

www.hotheatexchangers.com

Just want say hi and thanks to the Great Hardini for provideing the carpet cleaning  course last year ( IICRC). Since then my sales have gone up 25 to 30 %.

Thanks again.... Oh by the way my leather jacket still has the  knive hole.

Ollie

We will have to have that leather jacket invisibly mended, I can actually reverse my magic and fix it.

Nice to see your sales have increased.  I always ask students from IICRC courses what they were most impressed with and why are they glad they attended the course?  Most say it raised their level of confidence allowing them to raise their prices.  They also wish they had taken the course years ago. 

Welcome to the forum Ollie