Q. How and how long ago did you get into the cleaning business?
A. I began cleaning carpets part time when I was still in high school. I began my PROFESSIONAL career in 1993 as a tech for Stanley Steemer. In later years I was the manager of Coit's oldest (and one of their largest) franchises. In 2004, I started 1st Class Furniture & Carpet Care because I knew I had "outgrown" the franchises.
Q. How many jobs will you complete this year?
A. I don't set goals for number of jobs completed. I can say that I don't do many when compared to many in this industry. I usually do two jobs a day. I do not work on Saturday or Sunday. Many times I will be in the plant on Friday. On top of all that I take about 3 weeks off a year for vacation.
Q. Describe your best cheerleader and what it took to make him or her so.
A. My kind of question! My best cheerleader is someone who gives a referral at least every other month. A referral from my "best cheerleaders" will always be converted into a paid job.
To create a cheerleader is my full time job-not carpet cleaning. All my clients are graded. A, B or C. Everyone starts as a C. B means they become repeats without asking for discounts, or they refer consistently. If they refer and are repeats they become A's. My full time job is creating and keeping more A's. These are who I spend the bulk of my marketing dollars on (I do not advertise).
Q. What services do you offer?
A. My main service is UPHOLSTERY. Second is ORIENTAL RUGS. Third is DRAPERY CLEANING. Fourth is CARPET CLEANING.
I also offer tile and grout cleaning and natural stone, but I am strongly considering dropping those.
Two new services that are really taking off for me are WOOD FLOOR REFINISHING (complete sand & refinish) and FABRIC PROTECTOR (on new fabric).
Q. Please describe your client base.
A. My client base is at about 800. More than half of those are A's and B's (see question 3). I just spent about $1200 on about 550 holiday cards. These are the clients I value the most. They are all high end! My target demographic has a net income of about $500,000. It is not unusual for my clients to have movie theaters, elevators or Aston Martins. I have several celebrities and sports figures who are in the media often.
Q. How many employees if any, and did you create your business to allow for growth?
A. I have no "employees". Growth is certainly in my future.
Q. Describe your idea of the perfect (realistic) job.
A. My ideal job is not nearly as important as my ideal client. That said, I am happy to see rare fabrics and very lightly soiled carpets.
The past few months, I have really been enjoying a fairly new service that I have been building up for the past few years, protecting fabrics. I charge more to protect than I do to clean. Very easy work and great money.
Q. Will you be attending Myteefest5 and would you do a upholstery cleaning demo?
A. Probably not. My 7 year old plays baseball (travel) and there are tournaments almost every weekend around that time.