: In his premiere column, Steve Toburen reminds everyone success in business does not automatically equal success in life.

Throughout this premiere issue, we have remained persistent in our principle goal of providing informative and stimulating articles. Included within the pages of this issue are extensive feature articles...

Your maintenance staff has been doing an excellent job of maintaining the ceramic floor lobby, but it still does not look good. The grout is discolored, dirty and in terrible shape. Your staff has tried everything to get it clean but to no avail. What can you do to get the grout looking new again and more importantly, keep it looking new?

One of the most challenging areas for a facility manager or a hard floor maintenance technician is the rest room. Some facilities may see minimal usage while others receive excessive traffic. As many facility types there are, there are just as many types of floor coverings used in rest rooms.

As more end-users of carpet are discovering that carpet care is not a job for amateurs, the ensuing demand for competent carpet care service presents a window of opportunity for the skilled service company and facility manager.

Lack of time or funding is slowly beginning to become a thing of the past for carpet cleaning firms or technicians looking for training venues.

The carpet or fabric protector you apply is only as good as the application method, dilution ratios, and the aftercare that follows.

If any of you were following the series of articles I wrote in this column for over a year, you may have noticed that things have changed a little...no, a whole lot!

With the newly implanted changes the IICRC has made to its Certified Firm Program, the organization hopes to reduce the abuse present in the program.