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Web Exclusives
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 | 10 Steps to Fabulous Employees
In this labor market, if your employees are not the best, guess who you can blame? No, not the economy or the school system or the government; instead, why don’t you look in the mirror?
by Dave DeBlander
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 | 10 Ways to Get Unstuck
Many carpet cleaning/ restoration companies seem to grow to a certain size and
then proceed to get stuck there for years and years. Why is that and what can be
done about it?
by Dave DeBlander
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 | 7 Steps To Business Failure
Everything is changing in the business world today. The new reality of too much competition and too little profit has become an ongoing challenge. As you get tossed around on this sea of constant change the basic business fundamentals never change.
by George Hedley
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 | A Different View of Hiring
When I asked a group of carpet cleaning company owners how they felt about hiring, every single one said that it is not a pleasant experience. But if you want to have a turn-key business, you are going to have to have employees.
by Dave DeBlander
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 | Admit It, You’re a Gambler
Why is it, that we pay good money to watch James Bond movies and other thrillers but when it comes to our own lives, we tend to dread tough situations.
by Dave DeBlander
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 | Advertising Predictions for 2010
Let’s imagine for a moment what 2010 will bring. Hopefully you’ve set aside some time in the next couple weeks to create an advertising plan for the coming year. To create the plan, you surely need to consider trends in media.
by John Braun
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 | Advertising That Brings Your Clients Back
The people who have already used you are the most likely people in the world to call you again. So why spend your entire advertising budget attempting to pull in people who don’t know who you are? Spend some of your dollars on your current clients.
by John Braun
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 | Bite By Bite
“How do you eat an elephant?”
The elephant is, of course, a huge, overwhelming project. You know the answer: A bite at a time. The next question, then, is, “But where do I start?” The answer: it doesn’t matter.
by Ellen Rohr
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 | Blogging is Easy Internet Marketing
Your clients are online. Many of them search the Internet to find a cleaning company instead of picking up the old Yellow Pages. Blogging is an important way to make sure it’s your company they connect with.
by John Braun
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 | Catchy Slogans: A Waste of Space?
It’s only natural that when you first get in business, you think of ideas for a great slogan. You want something your prospects will remember. You need something that makes your competition tremble in fear.
by John Braun
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 | Choose Wisely
Good businesspeople make good decisions, while
poor businesspeople make poor decisions. That may seem like a rather simplistic
statement, but it is true and the reality behind it is monumental.
by Dave DeBlander
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 | Day of Rest? In a 24-Hour Business?
You should take a day off. Not even think about business. It will be so good for you! A mental health day: no work, all pleasure. A day for family and spiritual renewal. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?
by Ellen Rohr
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 | Direct Mail Tips For Killer Response
One of the biggest things to remember in advertising is "Do something different."
You don't want to be viewed as just another company sending out junk mail. Chances are, your prospect gets mail from companies just like yours every week. And furthermore, you're competing with dissimilar companies who bombard your prospect will junk mail. Every one of them is begging for your prospect's attention.
by John Braun
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 | Do You Have the Knack?
I recently finished reading “The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up” by Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham. It struck a note because, as I write this, the world economy is on the cusp of an agonizing global depression.
by Bill Yeadon
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 | Does Sex Really Sell?
Which works better in advertising: Paris Hilton in a bikini or a cute baby? Is there really such a thing as subliminal advertising and does it work? Are logos worth the cost?
by Bill Yeadon
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 | Don't Get Cheated by an SEO Company
SEO is short for search engine optimization. SEO companies exist to get your website ranked high in search engines like Google.
But cleaning companies should be cautious: Know what you're paying for before hiring an SEO company.
by John Braun
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 | Enough With the Whining
The conspiracy theorist in me believes that there is a conference once a month, attended by scary, powerful people who decide what fuel prices should be. These are the same folks who keep JFK and Elvis under lock and key and determine what’s fashionable this season in hemline length.
by Ellen Rohr
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 | Expect Great Things
Your altitude depends on your attitude. After twenty years in this business, sixteen years in my previous business and now five years coaching business owners, I can safely make the following statement without much fear of being wrong:
by Dave DeBlander
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 | Facebook: Not Just for Kids
Having long ago passed the age where I was eligible for membership in AARP, I looked at sites like Facebook as being great for college-age people. After all, that is who it was designed for back in 2004. Of course, Internet time is measured like dog years except faster, so it might as well have been 1984.
by Bill Yeadon
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 | Facing Down Concrete Moisture Problems
Whether it is visible or not, most everyone is aware that concrete is quite prevalent in both residential and commercial construction. However, a problem can develop—and far more frequently than is often realized—when moisture is released from the concrete.
by Robert Kravitz
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 | February is “National Care About IAQ Month”
The professional cleaning and carpet cleaning industries play a crucial role when it comes to indoor air: we can help make the air we breathe healthier or, if we are not careful, a whole lot unhealthier for ourselves, building occupants, and our customers.
by Mark Warner
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 | Fly Your Freak Flag
Sometimes, the universe of work can feel all-encompassing, as though an invisible noose is slowly squeezing all things non-work out of your mind and out of your life. It’s at these times when it’s important to take a step (or 10) back, take yourself out of the “work” mindset and, well…take a ride on the Unexpected Express.
by Ellen Rohr
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 | Getting Customers to Love You
The trick to being the highest-priced company in town and having plenty of business is getting customers to fall in love with your services. An ecstatic customer wants to give you money and does not let price stand in the way.
by Dave DeBlander
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| Getting the Most Out of Your Employees
As a business coach, one of the biggest issues I see is that owners are held hostage by employees who keep the owner in a constant state of fear and stress. As a business owner, I can attest to this problem stifling my own business for years.
by Dave DeBlander
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 | Go For It!
The American dream consists of making a decision to
build a career or business that makes your dreams come true and, if you work
hard and smart enough, you can have it all.
by Dave DeBlander
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 | Google Adwords: Tips Every Carpet Cleaner Should Know
Google Adwords can be one of the best returns for your advertising dollar. Or it could be a huge waste of money. It’s all in how you use it. The ad space is so tiny that every single letter counts.
by John Braun
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 | How Are You Going To Get There?
Obviously, the first thing that comes to mind when posed with that question, is, where is there? Most business owners are so immersed in the day to day operations of their business that they really don’t know where they are going. Could that be true of you?
by Dave DeBlander
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 | How Do I Pay My Employees?
I
have a business mentor and neighbor who always inspires me when we get together,
and he gives me great ideas and sound business principles. He is also very
rich.
by Dave DeBlander
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 | How Keywords Work For Carpet Cleaning Web Sites
When you set your web site up, post to your blog, and create incoming links, the keywords you choose are important. These keywords help search engines determine what keywords your site ranks for. Also, when you pay per click with Google Adwords or Yahoo, choosing the wrong keyword could cost you lots of money.
by John Braun
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 | How Lucky Are You?
Do
you consider yourself lucky, unlucky or somewhere in between? Let’s take a look
at this trait and see if it really is a factor in your success.
by Dave DeBlander
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 | How to Design a Killer Sales letter
Using a letter to sell your service is much more effective than a postcard or a brochure. With a sales letter, you have space to tell your entire sales story.
"But who's gonna read a four page letter?"
by John Braun
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 | How to Write a Profitable Google Adwords Ad
Google, the world’s largest search engine, accounts for slightly more than 50% of all searches made on the net. So when most people think of online searches, they think of Google.
But what is “Adwords?”
by John Braun
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 | Increase Your Advertising Response with Emotions
Without emotion, your sales copy is dead.
People buy with their emotions. Mrs. Jones doesn't get her carpet cleaned because she enjoys watching you drag hoses all over her house. But she may buy because she wants to feel happy with her home. In this case, she's buying happiness.
by John Braun
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 | Is it Time for a Refresher?
How
long has it been since you took your last water restoration class? Two
years? Five years? Longer? We’ve talked to dozens of people over the
years who assume that, “I went to water class a couple of years ago, so I remember everything I need to know.” With all the changes in technologies and standards in water restoration, that’s a very dangerous assumption.
by Mike Bonwell
Kevin Fisher
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 | It’s 8:15 am…And Not a Call on the Board
It’s 8:15 am. Your experienced, professional, sales oriented, customer service focused, technically masterful cleaning pros are still at the shop. Ready to go…with nowhere to go.
Now what?
by Ellen Rohr
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 | Just Refuse to Participate
Are you as tired as I am of reading, hearing, and being bludgeoned to death with news of our deteriorating economy? No doubt, we are mired in the most trying economic times that many of us have ever experienced, and I’m not encouraging you to become human ostriches and stick your heads in the sand.
by Bill Yeadon
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 | Keep Your Clients Coming Back Again and Again
“Who was that carpet cleaner we hired last year? What was his company's name?”
This may come as a shock to you, but most of your clients don't remember who you are. It doesn't matter how thrilled they were with the job you did, they just can't remember you.
by John Braun
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 | Life is Not Fair
Hopefully by now you have come to realize that life can have its surprises and sometimes seem downright unfair. Being in the carpet cleaning / restoration industry, you might have already come to the conclusion that our industry has a number of elements to it that are ridiculously unfair.
by Dave DeBlander
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 | Maintaining a Stress-Free Business
I have had two businesses in my life, and I can honestly say that I have run them basically stress-free, even though in 35 years I have had my share of ups and downs.
by Dave DeBlander
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 | Make Every Day a Masterpiece
Legendary
college basketball coach John Wooden had many tremendous sayings, but probably
his most famous was, “Make every day a masterpiece.” That's great advice.
by Dave DeBlander
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 | Making 2011 the Best Year Ever
“If you are going to think, think big,” said Donald Trump. Why wouldn’t this year be your very best? We are very fortunate to be in an industry that has not been affected as much by the economy as others have been.
by Dave DeBlander
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 | Making the Phone Ring
There is no better sound in the office than hearing that beautiful phone ring. However, there is no more horrific silence than the lack of that noise for a long period of time. So let’s look at ways to make sure that your phone makes that wonderful sound.
by Dave DeBlander
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 | Matting 101
It's winter, which means it’s time for a quick review of “Matting 101”— how high-performance
matting works and why it's crucial for keeping facilities clean, healthy, and
safe year-round.
by Christopher Tricozzi
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 | Measuring Your Key Performance Indicators
I have a friend that owns thirty businesses, all over the world. I asked him how he was able to monitor all those businesses and how he spent his workdays. His answer was that he regularly looked at their key performance indicators.
by Dave DeBlander
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 | Mold Awareness
Those in the carpet cleaning and restoration industry a decade or more ago
likely remember when mold concerns and litigation were sweeping the country.
by Mark Baxter
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 | Move Over Baby Boomers
Having been born in the late 1940s, my peers and I have had the luxury of being the focus of society our whole life. Boomers were the largest generation ever born, dwarfing the 45 million Gen X kids that were a result of the baby bust. At each life stage, from babies to teens to 25-34 and up, society focused on that demographic.
by Bill Yeadon
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 | Mystery Shoppers: Evaluating Your Talent Pool
Mystery shopping is a powerful, positive tool. It can help business owners address customer service challenges, improve training programs and ensure the team is paying attention.
As a small shop owner, do you have any idea how your technician is behaving, home alone with Mrs. Fernwicky?
by Ellen Rohr
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 | No Maintenance? Who Are You Kidding?
Recently the director of operations for a large casino for which I was consulting asked me why their 6-month-old “no-maintenance” floors were looking so bad. Here is where you pause, take measure and wonder whether to sell him your oceanfront property in Arizona or sit him down and explain that there is no such thing.
by Tom McNall
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 | Partition Cleaning
Prior to the 1960s, just about everyone had their own private office space. This was replaced by the “open plan,” which was intended to make the work space more efficient, allow for a more flexible office setting, and reduce costs.
by Doug Berjer
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 | Plan Pruning
Each week I meet with myself and plan out the week ahead. At least most weeks I do. Sometimes I miss this “meeting with me” and notice the chaos as the next few days get away from me. When I lay out the week before it hits, I get more done with less effort. Nice.
by Ellen Rohr
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QR Codes: Just How Quickly Can Your Customers Find You?
If you’ve paid any attention to
trends in the last decade, you’ve probably noticed a dramatic increase in the
speed of information exchange among humans.
News and information literally travel at the speed of light now, and
have for a generation.
by Jud Savelle
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 | Quick Action Saves Water-Damaged X-Rays
“It was like I was standing in a horrendous rain storm!”
That’s how Patsy Dellis, imaging services director at Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital, recalls her first impression when a water line burst one floor above the file storage area she works in.
by Ben Arens
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 | Reflection Amidst Celebration
I use Coffee-mate "creamer" in my coffee. I love it and use it by the dump-truck load. This morning - darn it - I was all out, and resorted to the healthier, but less appealing, coffee whitening alternative: milk. I carried my cup into my office, sat down at my desk, spun around in my chair...and knocked over my coffee.
by Ellen Rohr
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 | Should We Give In to Price Shoppers?
A nice older gentleman stopped by my
office the other day. He was well
dressed and well spoken. He seemed
to fit our typical client profile.
He said, "I've been meticulously reading your ads in the newspaper
and I wanted to stop by for a quote." I smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. This guy should be an easy sell, like most of the prospects from our newspaper ads.
by John Braun
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 | Should You Advertise in the Yellow Pages?
Can the Yellow Pages work? Of course. It's worked okay for me. I know other cleaners for whom it's worked pretty well. But is it the best bang for your advertising buck? Here's the problem…
Many cleaning company owners go about planning their advertising backwards. They choose a medium and plan their message around it.
by John Braun
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 | Skip the Pep Talk
Attitudes seem to slump with the sales figures. As business owners, we love to discuss ways to improve our employees’ attitudes. Throw a party! Tell inspiring stories at the company meeting! Put Successories posters on the wall! Give ‘em a pep talk.
by Ellen Rohr
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 | Tales From the Truck…
I do a lot of thinking. I sit at my
desk, and think, and click around on my computer. I am driven by my mission:
achieving freedom. I believe people are better off with basic business
understanding, so they are free to create successful, profitable businesses.
Everything I do is intended to help people start, fix and grow extraordinary
businesses.
by Ellen Rohr
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 | Ten Things You Need to be Successful
Grab a piece of paper and
take a little test. See how you measure up in my list of 10 things that you
need to be successful in the carpet cleaning/restoration industry; it should
be a good measuring stick to see how your business is doing.
by Dave DeBlander
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 | Ten Ways to Build Momentum in 2010
Whether last year was a boom, bust or merely
average, now is a great time to dedicate yourself to a fantastic new year. Believe
it or not, our industry has not been affected by the downturn as much as many
other businesses. Have you talked to any builders, carpet retailers, car salesmen or Realtors lately?
by Dave DeBlander
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 | The Advertising Rule You Should Never Break
There's one rule you should never break, or it might well kill your advertising budget. It's no wonder so much advertising ends up as wasted dollars. Like Michael Gerber says, small business owners are so busy being busy, they don't take time to plan.
by John Braun
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 | The B Word
2008 is already more than half over.
Wow.
Check your progress. How’s business? Are you happy with it? Are you better off than you were in January? Are your relationships more rewarding? Is your bank account bigger?
by Ellen Rohr
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 | The Effort-to-Effect Ratio
When I was a new mother, I remember calling my mom in tears. “I’ve fed him, changed him, rocked him, sung to him…and he just won’t go to sleep,” I said. “What do I do now? I can’t take his crying anymore.” I couldn’t take my crying anymore either.
by Ellen Rohr
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 | The Floor Finish Line
Any floor care professional can tell tales of shortcuts used to expedite the floor finish process. From thin coating to missing corners and edges, the process can be laborious and painstaking, causing users to skip steps and make mistakes.
by Tom Boscher
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| The Floor Finish Line
Any floor care professional can tell tales of shortcuts used to expedite the floor finish process. From thin coating to missing corners and edges, the process can be laborious and painstaking, causing users to skip steps and make mistakes.
by Tom Boscher
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 | The No. 1 Marketing Success Secret
What does your marketing plan look like for 2009? Are
you doing the same marketing you did in 2008? If you had your best year ever,
by all means do it all over again. But otherwise, you're in for a big surprise.
by John Braun
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 | The Power of Written Goals
Do you have your 2011 yearly goals written down? Do you have your 90-day goals written down? Your weekly goals? How about your daily goals?
by Dave DeBlander
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 | The Sandwich Generation
It is the natural order of things. We are the sandwich generation…sandwiched between growing kids and growing-older parents.
by Ellen Rohr
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 | Training Basics
You know you have to train your employees, right? Training is
a funny word. It gets used a lot, especially by frustrated business
owners. But few people know what it means. Does it mean
“motivating”? Does it mean “confidence building”? Does it mean
hitting employees with a newspaper or dangling a carrot?
by Ellen Rohr
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| Try This With Your Next Mail-Out
One of the biggest things to remember in advertising is "Do Something Different."
You don't want to be viewed as just another company sending out junk mail. Homeowners get lots of junk mail every week. Getting a postcard from you doesn't excite them—even if the offer is 10 rooms of carpet cleaning for $29.99.
by John Braun
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 | Turn Your Operation Into a Turnkey Business
Quite simply, turnkey means that if someone bought your business, they would be able to open the door on Day One and the business would run without the new owner’s input. In other words, the dream business. You own the company, make the profits and don’t have to work if you choose not to.
by Dave DeBlander
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 | Us vs. Them
We all report in to somebody. Employees report to their managers. Managers report in to the owner, or shareholders. All owners, even the solo operator, are accountable to their customers.
Someday, you may become the person to whom others report. On that day, you cross a line. You cross a boundary into a foreign land, a place that isolates you from the people who – just the day before – had been your comrades, your friends, your brothers and sisters. On that day you move from being one of “Us” to one of “Them.”
by Ellen Rohr
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 | Using Senses for Differentiation
In 1915 the Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Ind., was given a project to design and manufacture a product that was so unique that a person could identify it in pitch-black darkness by touch. That product was the Coca-Cola bottle.
by Bill Yeadon
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 | Using Technology in Your Business
Satchel Paige gave some great advice many years ago when he said, “Don’t look behind you, somebody may be catching up.” The legendary baseball player was referring to age, but his meaning can be applied to many situations.
by Dave DeBlander
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 | Vacation Your Way to Success
When you first entered the
business world as an owner, the idea of being your own boss and working the
hours you wanted to work seemed so appealing, along with not having to answer to
anyone.
by Dave DeBlander
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 | Who’s Got Your Back?
Every once in a while we get that call from a local customer who we know has very deep pockets. And we know a call from them means a really great week for us.
by Jud Savelle
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 | Why Are You Afraid of Billy Mays?
What about letting some of your sales-phobia boil to the surface? Let it bubble up. Take a look at it and ask if it serves you any longer. You can let it go. You can release your limiting beliefs and change your thoughts.
by Ellen Rohr
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 | Why Do We Call Them the Good Old Days?
Looking through the lens of early 2009, every year seems to fall under the category of “the good old days.” Yet as I revisited an article I wrote for ICS in the summer of 2006, it seems we had problems that appeared to be insurmountable at that time.
by Bill Yeadon
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| Why E-mail Marketing Is So Wonderful
E-mail marketing is wonderful. It's cheap, it's super effective and you can use it to keep in touch with your most valuable asset: your prospects and clients.
by John Braun
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 | Your 15-Minute Advertising Strategy Guide
Here’s how you can plan the most profitable advertising for your cleaning business.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. Well, it’s not really a secret. Chances are, you’ve already heard about this but didn’t quite understand what it really meant because it wasn’t broken down into the proper terms.
by John Braun
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 | Your Online Options: Dollars to Dollars, Click to Click
The following is what I found based on my personal experience in my local city, Pensacola, Fla. Just so you know, I never dismiss any option without first reviewing my goals crunching the numbers and deciding what's best for my company.
by John Braun
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