The Great Pittsburgh RugLovers Tour

O'Connell's Great Pittsburgh RugLovers Tour

August 3, 4 & 5, 2012

For detailed information on this tour be sure to visit:
http://procleanersnetwork.com/rugsupersuccess.html

Shehady’s Oriental Rugs

135 Freeport Road, Aspinwall, PA 15215

(412) 782-2020 ‎

Friday Aug 3

• 9 am to Noon & 1pm to 4pm
• Rug Repair Workshop at Shehady’s Oriental Rugs
  We will break into small groups and learn rug repair, conservation, and how to sell these services. The groups will be divided into skill level appropriate. We will cover everything from How to Thread A Needle on up to Advanced Rug Repair. We will have at least 6 Master restorers on hand to help.

Saturday Aug 4

• 9 am at Shehady’s Oriental Rugs
• Bleeders: Learn to be fearless with Crocking and Bleeding rugs with, The master of Disaster, The man, The Myth, The legendary Mr. Nathan Koets.
• Nathan is widely recognized as one of the Top 5 Rug Washers in the world (We would call him #1 but it embarrasses him). Nathan will be assisted by his faithful friend Paul Lucas inventor of the Chem Max Oriental Rug Cleaning Products and keeper of the LST Formula.

Topics will include, Dye Tests (Dye Tests? We don’t need no stinking Dye Tests), Washing them wet Washing them dry all the major cleaning methods. We will also cover dye striping so that you can fix the disasters of people who don’t come to this program.

Sunday Aug 52

• 10:00 am:  Marketing Secrets with Dusty Roberts and Barry O’Connell

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COST

• 1st attendee; $700
• 2nd attendee; $350
• 3rd or more attendee; $175

For reservations call Sue at Chem Max Phone: 231.798-7980   Fax: 231.798-8080  1.800.ULTRA DRY   1.800.858.7237

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When reserving a room please let them know the block of rooms is setup under the Rug Lovers Seminar.

Comfort Inn & Suites‎
180 Gamma Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15238

(412) 963-0600

We have reserved a small block of 15 rooms for this seminar

• Free deluxe hot breakfast buffet
• Free daily newspaper
• Free high-speed Internet
• Exercise room
• Heated indoor pool and sundry shop

Pittsburgh RugLovers tour is filling up

The Pittsburgh RugLovers tour is filling up nicely. One reason I keep hearing is the feeling of community, a feeling of Brotherhood. We don’t try to control every minute of your day. It would be so simple to sit everyone in a Hotel Ballroom and show Videos and PowerPoints. But that is not how I learn, it is a great way to control people but unless the speaker is spectacular it makes me sleepy.

We get people who would feel swamped if 10 rugs came in and others who if it gets under a hundred rugs a week they get nervous. Many of the folks were not washing rugs three years ago and a fair number are over 20 years in the business. 

So why do they come?

We structure the event so people form into groups. We don’t assign the groups they just form. Mark Keshishian and Sons hosted a reception for us at their gallery and without planning a Rug ID class broke out. Suddenly Mark Keshishian and Dusty Roberts had a whole group going through the stacks looking at rugs and comparing. Or at the Rug ID seminar Lisa Wagner had a crowd around her talking shop and picking her brain. Poor Lisa came for a social weekend, after all what are we going to teach her? But instead she coached and tutored a constant stream of people about a wide range of problems. Nathan Koets tells me he gets the most out of the off time talking in the bar after class. Nathan is sharp enough to know  that even after 20 some years in the rug washing pit he can still learn. In fact a lot of our experienced cleaners come to hear how others are doing it and what chemicals and equipment is working for other people.

What is the value of getting one on one time to discuss your issues with Nathan Koets, Mark Keshishian, Dusty Roberts, Lynn Tall, Paul Lucas and so on. But for some crazy reason it does not end on the last day of the event. We make the ties that continue after we go home. Have a problem? Now you have a new network of friends to call when you need them. My mother had a way of mixing metaphors and one of my favorites was what she called, “Out of the frying pan into the fan.” When we get to that point we are not alone any more.

On Friday in Pittsburgh we will have at least 6 restorers showing us how to do the repair and getting us started. Some of us will need the “How to Thread a needle” tutorial and that is OK. You will learn some basic skills but moere importantly you will learn to talk the Talk so that you can sell it and job the work out to someone else. The more your shop does the more your customers will trust you. If you cannot offer repair or appraisals and have to send your customer away you will find a number of them never come back,

On Saturday Nathan Koets will have a new strategy with Bleeders. At my urging Nathan will do as little work as possible. Why? Because we want you to do it for him. Bring your rubber boots because we need you on the wash floor under Nathan’s careful instruction. . It is one thing to watch an expert deal with a bleeder but it is much better when the non-experts jump on in and do it. This is the full gamut from Testing Colors to Cleaning, Remediation and even Dye Stripping.

Sunday we will launch a new idea. Well actually it is an old idea that no one talks about and most people have to learn it the long, hard, painful, expensive way. We will have a special panel presentation of Authority Marketing.

Then we will follow up with the wildly successful RugLover Marketing. Dusty Roberts will show you how to generate substantial business and positive growth for very little cost.

This is where the best get better by coming together. I hope to see you there.

To Dye Test, or not to Dye Test

 To Dye Test, or not to Dye Test: that is the question. When William Shakespeare wrote “To be, or not to be” (from Hamlet 3/1) he was writing of the question of doing something or doing nothing and then suffering the consequences;

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

When we turn to the question of Dye Testing Rugs we are not confined to a simple choice of testing or not testing and then suffering the consequences. There is in fact a third alternative which methinks may be the wiser course if you can manage it. So when the pundits demand that everyone must dye test every rug I think they are offering a false dichotomy.
The point of Dye Testing an Oriental Rug is to determine if it is likely to bleed or crock so that they can prepare to handle the dye migration. Some would have us believe that everyone MUST do a 10 minute hot water crocking test. The problem with the 10 minute Hot and Wet Crocking test is that it is a crocking test and may or may not catch all dye bleeding. To properly dye test one is then compelled to use the Overnight Press Test. There are variations but normally you put a little surfactant on a white cloth or paper towel and hold it to the rug overnight. This is often done with a clamp or brick and obviously it means that you cannot inspect and wash on the same work shift. This has a host of problems, it slows down production, it is space intensive and it is not suited to a volume shop.
So then if you are not satisfied with either the risky Hot and Wet test or the slow Overnight Press test what choice do you have? Well if the point of the dye test is to determine if it will bleed so that you can then prepare to deal with it why not bypass the test and treat every rug as if it is a bleeder. Obviously this is not for everyone. Some washers test and take the bad ones to a more experienced cleaner. Others do the best they can hoping not to buy the rug. But experienced rug washers have the option of assuming that every rug will bleed and act accordingly.  So let me put it this way, “Dye Tests? I don’t need no stinkin Dye Tests”.

A word to the wise, if you go this route you had better know what to do when the bleeding starts but that discussion is for another day.
N.B.  In a thread on facebook Thea Sand of Emmanuel's Rug & Upholstery Cleaners made some pertinent comments.
 “Eventually you recognize them by sight”
“You'd get nothing done sitting around waiting for test results.....swilling coffee and swapping lies.”
The important part is that Thea and her staff know how to handle every situation. In fact Thea is the GOTO person for other cleaners who make a mistake and need it fixed,