Every year around this time, I’m reminded of an article I wrote some 8 years ago about the senseless and tragic murder of a young woman at the hands of a so-called carpet cleaner, and how a simple business practice might have helped stop it from happening.

I love pets. As a "kid" I grew up with dogs, cats, horses, cows, ducks, chickens and quail. At one time I was "supporting" 13 outdoor cats - I'm a sucker - for strays - two indoor cats, three dogs and two horses.

I’m often approached by consumers, cleaning contractors and, especially, chemical formulators who claim to have found some “super juice” that absolutely eliminates all urine odors under all conditions with only one application.

Several years ago, when I was still active in my cleaning business, I learned a valuable lesson about customers: some of them, no matter how nice they seem, will try their darnedest to take advantage of you. In one particular situation, a repeat customer brought a heavily urine-contaminated rug in to be cleaned.

In early 2006, Mohawk Industries, Shell Chemical and DuPont jointly petitioned the FTC to establish a new generic fiber subclass name under the existing classification of “polyester” for polytrimethylene terephthalate or PTT.

Rugs, carpet; if they’re made of wool, what’s the difference? They both require the very best cleaner that money can buy – well, that money can hire.

I ran a fabric cleaning business for about 15 years. I maintained a lot of repeat customers over the years, and I was very successful.  I attribute my business accomplishments to a few simple things: consistent hard work, persistence and trying very hard to avoid some costly mistakes I saw other cleaning companies do all the time.

Shading is one of the most common complaints the professional cleaner or inspector encounters. It appears in both commercial and residential environments, and is not a phenomenon that is easily explained to the customer; for some reason, they just don’t get it.

Life is like a book and each phase of one’s life a chapter. I have just completed another chapter in my personal novel – it’s titled "The IICRC Presidency." 

On a recent business trip, I stopped in an airport restaurant to have dinner while waiting for my flight to depart. I was sitting at a table overlooking a bank of twenty or more pay phones. Actually, it was more like where the pay phones used to be.