Pricing is as much an emotional issue as a financial one. Putting a price on your services reflects your ego, self-image, past experiences and, yes, your deepest, darkest fears. And absolutely nothing will get carpet cleaners lathered up faster than arguing over who charges the most and who is lying about how much they charge.

The sound slowly woke me. Over and over again, something between a "thwack" and a muffled "thud" resonated in the room. As I came awake I realized a bird, a beautiful cardinal, was aggressively attacking its reflection mirrored in the window near my bedside.

As in both love and war, in business the science of logistics is crucial. Logistics is defined as "the handling of the details of an operation." And nowhere are the details more important than the high-profit field of regular contract commercial carpet cleaning.

We've all felt the exhilaration of hearing "yes" from that new client. After days of dilly-dallying, you finally flog yourself out of the office to make commercial sales calls, where you encounter one depressing business rejection after another. But then at last a business manager says, "Let's do it." Wow, all of a sudden this is fun!

My guess is you did not go into business out of an overwhelming desire to clean the homes of your customers forever. Instead, you want a routine flow of easy money and the more the better and with the lowest "hassle factor" possible.

Let's cut to the chase. Regular contract commercial carpet cleaning is some of the fastest, easiest money you will ever earn. Yet most carpet cleaners obsessively focus only on the brutal, cutthroat pricing found in the residential market instead of plucking the ripe plums out there in the commercial sector.

Carpet cleaners are a funny bunch. Most of them fight like starving dogs over the "picked-over bone" of residential carpet cleaning, and totally neglect other, more juicy and profitable cleaning sectors.

It can be so darned tempting. You are overworked, under appreciated, the phone keeps ringing and the pressure is enormous. You feel so very alone as a solo entrepreneur. If only you had someone to share the load with. Inevitably, the question arises, "Why not find a partner?"

Here's a riddle for you: What is universally wanted but with almost complete ignorance of how to achieve it and, even after having attained it, many don't know how to recognize it or benefit from it?

The phone rings. Innocent, off-guard and unaware of what is about to occur, you answer.