| When I was given this task to write about how you | | | | learned why truck mounts were better. Mostly |
| go about choosing the right machine for your | | | | better because of the speed they provided the user. |
| operations, I thought to myself "this is going to be | | | | About two to three years into my cleaning career, I |
| boring." As I started thinking about it more and more | | | | started to do two to three jobs a day. I found I was |
| I thought it should really be told in a story form. It | | | | working twelve hour days very often. One night I |
| would keep it interesting and more people could | | | | was cleaning the carpets of a sugar factory. It |
| relate with it. So, I set out to write a short story | | | | wasn't inside the factory, but the adjacent offices |
| about my 19 years and how I went about choosing | | | | where the employees desks and offices were. From |
| and at times stumbling into finding machines. | | | | the sugar combined with dirt this wasn't a dream job |
| After graduation from college with a Bachelors in | | | | as you can imagine. It took all weekend to clean |
| Marketing, I was faced with a widespread recession. | | | | what should have taken me a few hours. The results |
| I managed to get a job and start saving for that | | | | were also not to my liking. So the following Monday I |
| business I thought I would run one day. Seven | | | | called a salesperson from a local carpet cleaning |
| months into the job, living with my wife and a | | | | supply store that was trying to sell truck-mounts to |
| roommate in a one bedroom apartment, I managed | | | | me for a while. |
| to save $5,000.00 to start a business. | | | | I totally trusted the company and their salesperson. |
| Back then, there was no Internet. I practically lived in | | | | That week, the salesperson came out to my house |
| the library researching what kind of business I could | | | | and did a demonstration. I was impressed with the |
| start with the little money that I had saved up. | | | | quality and the speed. For some reason, people had |
| There aren't that many businesses that you can start | | | | "brainwashed" me to believe that truck-mounts that |
| with the amount of money that I had. Somehow, I | | | | use hot water extraction, or "steam cleaning" in |
| narrowed it down to carpet cleaning. | | | | layman's terms, over-wet the carpet and that the |
| It was really hard back then to get good advice. | | | | carpet could get damaged. None of this was true. I |
| Today, I would just type in "carpet cleaning supply" | | | | could now see myself working less while making the |
| on the Internet and 1000's of results would come up. | | | | same amount of money. So, I signed on the dotted |
| I knew that I couldn't really buy a machine that cost | | | | line and agreed to lease the machine for 60 months |
| more than I had saved up, so I started looking locally | | | | for $370.00 a month. |
| for suggestions. | | | | My sales literally exploded after a few months of |
| With a little research and a prod from my wife, "if | | | | ownership. I was doing more jobs, I was able to hire |
| you're going to do it, then you might as well do it | | | | help and pay the help well. Within a few months I |
| now," I picked a portable machine for around | | | | agreed to lease another unit and in another few |
| $3,200.00 and was on my way. Luckily, the machine | | | | years I had five truck-mounted carpet cleaning |
| came with supplies and I had some money still left | | | | machines and fourteen employees. |
| over for marketing. | | | | Besides the machines there were other things going |
| I want to keep the focus of this article towards | | | | right for me as well. My first child was on the way |
| carpet cleaning machines, so I won't go into too | | | | and this gave me a lot more determination to |
| many tangents that are otherwise important but not | | | | succeed and my Bachelors in Marketing was also a |
| the focus of this article. I used the machine for a | | | | great asset. |
| few years and learned a lot more about machines. I | | | | |