Questions about the Vegas RugLovers Tour

+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.

Oxidation for Cleaning Urine in Wool and Silk

Oxidation for Cleaning Urine in Wool and Silk

Oxidation works best on proteins. Urine can contain protein but the real cleaning problem is urine salt crystals. It is the off gassing from the urine crystals that stink. With enough work, flow, and time water will dissolve urine salt crystals. But acid does it faster and better. Wool in its natural state is slightly acidic and urine salt is alkaline. Dyes can be destabilized by alkalinity and acid helps to reverse that damage. So you can use a vegetal acid such as vinegar or in its stronger form glacial acetic acid or you can use a more stable and longer lasting mineral acid. Urine pretreatments use mineral acid as their main ingredient.

The other consideration is that oxidizers work best on proteins but wool and silk are protein based fibers. All oxidizers are long term bad for wool and silk. In moderation the damage is minimal. But the best advice that I know is that oxidizers should be used only on wool and silk when there is no other remedy and when they are used should be in low concentration. About the only oxidizer I normally use is 3% Peroxide for blood and protein stains. I would rather apply it a few times then over use an oxidizer once. If I had to clean a crime scene Oriental Rug soaked in blood I would likely go to one of the other oxidizers mentioned. But I never got one and doubt I will.

18 years of work is not enough!

18 years of work is not enough!

For 18 years I have been online on the Internet helping people to grasp Rug ID. Everything from message boards to videos to FaceBook to live seminars. Recently I heard someone knocking my 18 years of work as not enough. Forget the fact that the vast majority has been given to all mankind for free they felt it was not enough. That is OK, I still love them and am not offended. But it made me realize that maybe I need to pull together all the resources to make them easier to use.  I also realized that since I never tried to monetize my Rug ID help I never even signed much of it. I am not in this for glory or for thanks, I just want to help people so since my critics felt I did not do enough I would do a little more.

To help identify the Rug ID resources I created a NEW BLOG called RUGLOVER ID. It will take time to post everything but as I post I see it as a learning tool for all my friends.

Thanks,

Barry O’Connell

http://rugloverid.blogspot.com/

DC RugLovers Tour 2013 Rug ID is the Key to Marketing

Rug ID is the Key to Marketing

The more you know about Oriental Rugs the more your clients will trust you. That is why on the DC RugLoversTour we spend a day in Herat Oriental Rugs warehouse in Alexandria Virginia.

The DC RugLovers Tour 2013

Washing Rugs and Making More Money

Tufted, Hand Tufted, Gun Tufted, its all the same thing.

Earlier I was in a discussion about urine soaked tufted rugs.  It reminded me of a few points. Tufted rugs are a fact of life. But the more you know about rugs the better quality of rugs you will get to clean. The more Rug ID you know the more people will trust you with better rugs. But charge the same for tufted and machine made rugs as you do for hand woven Persian rugs. Among the other crap rugs you have a greater risk with rugs like rayon rugs. Why not charge more for them. In fact with the rugs Lisa Wagner calls “Rugs To Run From” you may as well charge for the risk and aggravation if you are going to clean them at all. People will pay more to clean a silk rug so why not the junk rugs. Quit discounting the crap rugs it only encourages more crap rugs.

A Rug Washers Best Friend

Then there is the delicate subject of urine soaked rugs. You should thank God for all those piss rugs. If it was not for urine this would be a much tougher business to make a buck in. Next time you smell that smell just tell yourself that is the smell of money. 80% of all rugs coming into most shops have pet contamination. That is a lot of rugs.

Now a little thought about money. You lose money on the first rug you wash every month and you lose money until you hit break even.  Don’t forget to calculate your pay in the break even calculation. You could lose money cleaning rugs at $50 a square foot if you only get one or two. Rent, water, chemicals, equipment, light, heat, etc… all have to be paid before you make your first dollar each month.  If you want to make more money then all you have to do is wash more rugs. How? We call that marketing.  If you need help on marketing call Dusty aboutRugLover Marketing or about the RugLover tours.  It is no silver bullet but if you do the work you make money far easier than you ever imagined. 

Easy Money or do you make things difficult?

We all want Easy Money don’t we? Then why do we make it difficult for people to give us money. I went into a Chinese Restaurant in Seattle and since I was on a low carb diet I ordered the beef and asparagus special. Then I said no rice please just add some extra asparagus. The owner told me NO She Couldn’t Do That. What she really meant was that she could not or would not do that at the same price but I never mentioned price. I looked at her and said, “You have food, I have money, so all you have to do is tell me what it costs and then make it.”  The confused look passed from her face and said "Two dollar more". Then she made me a great dinner. Think about it, I walk in as a paying customer and she refuses my order. I understand why but does it really make sense. We all do things that make it more difficult for our customers to give us money.

Don’t Assume I Known What You Do

My friend Stephen Dusty Roberts cleans rugs. His business is called Luv-A-Rug and when you go in it has rugs all over the place. Dusty also cleans Boat Sails but it is a small part of his business. One day one of his long time established Sail customers told Dusty, “I didn't know you did rugs too”. This man made checks out to Luv-A-Rug not Luv-A-Sail but it completely escaped him for years. We may think it was obvious and he should have known but here is a bigger question; how much money did Dusty lose by not telling him “hey, we do rugs too”.

Make It Easy To Call You

One of the things that drives me crazy it hiding your phone number on your website. I am not going to embarrass my friends by naming names but many of you don’t have easy websites. Your phone numbers should be at the top of the main page. It should also be at the bottom of every page with your address. If I have to search for a contact page you probably lost my business. But worst of all is if I get to the Contact page and all I get is a form for on-line response screw it I am going to your competition. Seriously I am not twenty something; I am old enough that I watched prime time in Black and White I have no interest in filling out your online form and no it is not damn likely I want to Chat either. On-Line forms are OK for some customers but offer a phone number and address for the rest of us.

Make Your Website a Good Experience

Tell me your name. I assume that if you do not say who you are you are either stupid or hiding something. Maybe I am a cranky old man but can you really afford to write off all the business from cranky old people.

Make sure it loads fast

Not everyone has a hot cable modem like your web guy has. I do not care about your pictures and graphics if the page is slow. Many of us go to our second choice when  the pages are slow. Keep in mind bargain basement hosting companies can be very slow. Don’t assume, test it yourself and also ask your customers what they think about your website.

Don’t Be a Wiseguy

I regularly run into businesses where the first person (and often the last) is more interested in being a wiseguy then in finding out my problem and making it easy for me to give him money.

Don't Scold Me

I walk into some businesses and instead of welcoming me they scold me. I don’t care if I came in the wrong door or put my rug in the wrong place or that it is closing time or anything else you want to scold me about. You are not my mother.  I am there to give you money. You are there to take my money. That is your job and it should be your goal. When I used to help out at Mark Keshishian & Sons a busy Chevy Chase MD Rug Store and Rug Cleaning company we used to watch the parking lot and as soon as somebody made a move to get something from their trunk or backseat we assumed they had a rug to come in and we went to help them.

If I Call I am Not Taking a Survey

If I call assume it is because I have a problem. If I start by asking the price it is only because I do not know what to say. Your job is to find out why I really called and offer a solution. We deal with this in detail in RugLover Marketing.

I will probably think of more of the stupid business tricks people do and I will let you know about them. Some people completely miss how difficult they make it for people to give them money. I know one west coast rug cleaner who trash talks his customers to anyone who would listen. To hear him talk his customers are stupid eBay pickers who bothered him about rugs. He is argumentative, arrogant and rude. I will grant he has a reputation for great technical skills but I know the rug biz was so rough that he went out and bought a Truck Mount so he could do in home carpet cleaning. Doing great work is not the way to make money in the Rug Washing business; it is just the first step. 

How easy do you make it for people to give you money?

The Value of the Rug Hub

When you need advice on Rug Cleaning the Rug Hub group on FaceBook is a great resource. Just this morning I saw a question and answer:

Victor M. Franco asked: 
How do you clean hemp rugs?

Paul Lucas replied: 
 Hi Victor.  I will give you a quick "how to" list; 
#1 inspect for browning, shrinkage, weak structural integrity, water marks.
 #2 Have release form signed. #3 dust or vacuum. 
#4 apply diluted Rug Soure solution front and back. 
#5 apply Sublime solvent (if heavy soil) from and back. 
#6 Shampoo with Cotton Rug Shampoo, front and back.
 #7 Rinse with Cotton Rug Rinse and cold water. 
#8 Extract or centrifuge to remover all possible water. 
#9 Flat dry face down with air movers blowing across back. 
#10 Optional - After rug is dry, Tea Dye to even out the final look. Hope this helps.

The feeling of brotherhood is very apparent in the Rug Hub. Men and women coming together to help each other, I am glad to be a part of it.

•