+Stepen Dusty Roberts received an email about the Las Vegas RugLovers Tour with some very good questions. So I decided to share it with you. My answers are in bold italics:
There are probably a few
reasons I haven't signed up (yet). First of all, this seminar sounds great to
me. I love the idea that I could possibly just and only do area rugs one
day and not run out in my van and do wall to wall carpet every day and the
occasional area rug. It sounds a little too good to be true. I do know
that there are a couple of "big" guys in town that only clean rugs,
so the idea of tapping into this carpet seems like a possibility yet not that
easy.
This part is pretty simple.
You are in a major metropolitan area with a long
history of rug sales and cleaning. The biggest in town is a retail Rug store
with a MOR (automated) Plant. They seem to be good people with a great
reputation. That makes them ideal competition. Automated plants do a mediocre
to good job of cleaning but a serious hand washing rug spa should be able to do
a much better job. The key part is if there are “a couple of "big"
guys in town” that means that there is a good market and by great cleaning and
strong marketing you can carve out a nice niche.
I keep wondering how much money people
are making. There’s never any mention about how much people are actually
making. All I ever see is "thousands". How much are
people making per month, year? Or, how much should one make per month
depending on size of their operation, experience and so forth. I mention how
much I should be charging to actual clients and the process involved and they
actually cringe. I'm getting older, and the idea of having a shop and
only cleaning rugs is quite appealing as age creeps up on me.
One guy who was a carpet cleaner was
doing about 40K when he got involved with us. In less than 3 years he grew it
to $250,000. He was getting too busy so he raised his prices across the board on
everything by $1. So he went from $3 per square foot to $4 per square. Instead
of slowing down the price increase increased the number of rugs in the door
instead of decreased it. Now he is on track for $400K this year with just him
and his wife and their son as a part timer.
Other cleaners who get seriously
involved have had similar results and we are glad to introduce you to the guys
and you can ask them what it has done for them.
Any insight you have is great.
Some of my reasons.....
I have a 4 month old baby, I'm only
working part-time right now, the total cost of class, trip, flight from
Atlanta, room, food blah blah adds up, time off of work. So basically making
all my stars align is key right now. I also know that the price can go up
at any minute for the class.
So these are a few reasons that I
haven't jumped on it, although I find it very interesting and would love to
learn more.
Rugs are cool.
:-)
If you want a vacation to Las Vegas
there are cheaper ways to do it then this. Our Tour is for people who are
serious about attending EVERY session taking notes and PAYING ATTENTION.
Plus the time in-between and around the sessions are not free time they
are networking time. The social interaction is crucial. You need a network of
seasoned pros that have been through the same problems that you are facing.
Also we tend to hit the bar after dinner and talk shop. Nobody cares what you
drink, I usually drink Diet Coke. We have had Mormons on the tour and if you
want milk, juice, or water nobody cares. Our bar time is about networking not
drinking.
