Rug Secrets REPORT 2010

RUG SECRETS™ SPECIAL REPORT:

THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO SUCCESSFULLY ADDING RUGS

TO YOUR CLEANING & RESTORATION COMPANY

BY: LISA WAGNER©2010 Lisa Wagner CRS, All Rights Reserved.

T H E R U G C H I C K ™Real-World Rug Education For Profess ional Cleaners

L i s a Wa g n e r C R S • l i s a @ t h e r u g c h i c k . c o m • w w w. T h e R u g C h i c k . c o m

mailto:[email protected]


http://www.TheRugChick.com


The Rug Basics vs. The Rug B.S.Welcome to my Rug Secrets Report.

First of all, thank you for requesting this Report, and taking the time to read it.

You’ve tracked me down probably for one, or several, of these reasons:

✓ You are not super happy with the revenue you are currently bringing in with carpet cleaning, so you want to create a new lucrative specialty service (rugs) for your business.

✓ You are tired of going to certification classes where they have you memorize a bunch of facts that you never use again, and then they peddle all of their products to you for the class you PAID for.

✓ When something wrong happens during rug cleaning, following what you learned in your class, the “instructors” insist YOU did something wrong...not that their teaching was flawed.

✓ You don’t have huge dollars to set up a large rug cleaning facility, but you want to find out how to do a really good job with the resources you have right now.

✓ Your gut tells you that the people preaching EASY MONEY in the rug cleaning field are not tell-ing you the whole story, that they just want to get more of YOUR bucks into their pockets.

If you responded because of any of these reasons, then I understand where you are coming from, and I share some of your frustrations. Don’t worry, you won’t be disappointed with this report.

Who Am I, and Why Did I Write This?

My name is Lisa Wagner. I am a second generation rug care expert. My mother Kate is a weaver (she mar-ried into the craft by marrying a rug merchant). Our family has been involved in the rug field as brokers of antique textiles, and cleaning and repair of oriental rugs, for over 35 years. My mother and I have been partners in the San Diego Rug Cleaning Company for 20 of my “adult” years.

Rug cleaning courses and certifications did not exist when I was growing up. We learned through DOING instead of sitting in a classroom. And, as with all small family businesses, we have learned what to do, and what not to do, by making lots and LOTS of mistakes.

My brothers and I started out as kids scrubbing 100-year-old rugs by hand on our back driveway of our high-end rug gallery in La Jolla, using a bucket of Ivory soap suds and cold water. The science of cleaning is not complicated if you know what you are working on.

This Industry Has A Serious Rug Problem.

The problem is the number of rugs is skyrocketing, while the number of competent rug cleaners is not.

Real-World Rug Education For Profess ional Cleaners™

© Lisa Wagner CRS, all rights reserved.! www.TheRugChick.com

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The market is being flooded with cheap rugs intermingled with VERY valuable ones, and the rug clean-ing education is either too basic, or too black and white (when things are really grey), or simply too darn complicated and expensive.

Rug Cleaning is not Rocket Science.

It’s simple. Simple, but not necessarily easy. And with some out there preaching it’s “easy money” and others preaching you need YEARS of training before you can even get into the craft, it all creates a lot of confusion for the sake of their own personal financial gain.

If they keep you motivated...you’ll just keep buying hoping for that big fat payday. And, if they keep you confused...you’ll keep needing their help (which requires more dollars of course).

Fifteen years ago I began sharing rug care tips with my local Carpet & Fabricare Institute (CFI) chapter members in San Diego. I wanted to help keep local carpet cleaners from ruining rugs with chemicals and equipment meant for in-home installed carpeting applications, and not for natural fiber oriental rugs.

During my career I’ve served on the CFI Board of Directors for 10 years, twice as President. I’ve served twice on the IICRC Board of Directors, and assisted in the Rug Cleaning Task Force. I’ve served on the Textile Council of the National Institute of Rug Cleaners (NIRC). I am an ASCR Certified Rug Specialist (now referred to as RIA). I have been one of four hands-on trainers in the rug cleaning craft, and authored the first rug cleaning information product in our industry (the Rug Secrets™ Rug Cleaning Starter Kit).

I’ve also been the rug care columnist for Cleanfax Magazine for a decade, and was awarded their Industry Person of the Year in 2006 for my overall industry work...even though I have MUCH more to do here!

I’ve written this Report for two reasons: 1) to give valuable direction and Rug Basics insight to those seek-ing to get into the Rug Cleaning craft successfully; and 2) to expose the myths and Rug B.S. that some in this industry are feeding to the market as a ploy to line their pockets selling their products...or simply because they honestly don’t really understand how to clean rugs as they’ve never actually done it them-selves. (Note to Self: Book-learned instructors can’t teach you real-world rug success.)

What You Will Discover In This Report.

In this Report I’m going to cover these valuable areas:

✓ The 5 biggest myths about rug cleaning that keep most out of this lucrative field.

✓ The 3 secrets about rugs that instructors hide so you pay more to them instead of just teaching you the real stuff.

✓ The step-by-step basics of setting up a rug cleaning operation, and how to do this intelligently so you can go from a know-nothing, shoestring operation to the “go to” rug specialist in your town.



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How To Use This Information. (*ahem*... the DISCLAIMER) ☺

I obviously cannot give you decades of my experience, and all of the answers you need, into one simple report. That is impossible. So my disclaimer is this:

Please Do Not Be A Rug Idiot.

First of all, the fact that you requested this Report to learn a bit more already tells me that you are not an idiot. My disclaimer here is that these are my opinions based on my own personal and practical experience in this industry. If you see me say, “we gave this rug a bath” and you think the rug you have looks like the one in my example, don’t just immediately think they are all always one-size-fits-all.

Certification courses - in ALL cleaning specialties - tend to present the content in black and white. Why? Because, there is a TEST to take, and with tests there can only be ONE RIGHT ANSWER.

They teach you WHAT to think to pass a test, and not HOW to think. And that is very dangerous. It can lead you to do things against your gut instinct because they said so in the class.

A rug you are handling could be worth $100, or $100,000. Don’t rely on someone else’s “suggested tip” from a certification course, or posted up on an on-line forum, as the 100% truth. It may have worked for that person, with that particular rug, in that particular situation. It may ruin you.

My disclaimer is that this Report is simply suggestions and advice from me, a rug cleaner in the trenches who has experienced enough mistakes (mine and others’) to have learned a lot of what not to do. It is also advice from an Industry Insider who has seen enough of the sickening politics and financially motivated situational ethics from behind the scenes to let you know that you need to question a great deal of what is being “officially” taught in this industry.

Any comments I make on financial, insurance, or legal matters are not meant as financial, insurance, or legal advice. You need to rely on your own paid experts in your own state on those matters.

I am not the end-all-and-be-all answer on rugs. Far from it. I’m just someone adding some more value to the conversation, and I hope you enjoy and learn from what I have to share. Unlike those who teach rugs that act like they walk on water (with boots), I’m not one who thinks I know it all. I am always looking to learn more through my own mistakes, and from others. So, don’t take me too seriously. I certainly don’t.

Let’s Get Started!

Make sure you have a pen handy to mark up questions as they come up throughout this Report. At the end you’ll have an opportunity to ask them.

Okay, let’s roll into the juicy stuff!



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Big, Fat, Hairy Rug Cleaning MYTHS.

There are 5 big industry myths that keep professional carpet cleaners from successfully entering the rug cleaning market, and building a growing operation.

Myth #1: There Is No Difference Between CARPET CLEANERS And RUG CLEANERS

Well, on one hand we are all in the cleaning business, and we are all cleaning fuzzy stuff. However, that is where the similarities end, because the way the public views what Rug Cleaners do, and the money they are paid for doing it, is VERY different from most Carpet Cleaners.

While you may be getting 20, 30, or 50 cents a square foot for cleaning residential carpeting, Rug Cleaners are getting $3, $4, or $6 a square foot for cleaning rugs. Why such the big difference? (And, why are there many more million dollar Rug Cleaning companies than million dollar Carpet Cleaning companies?)

Economics 101:

60,000+ Carpet Cleaning Companies vs. 600+ Rug Cleaning Plants

There are more than 60,000 full-time and part-time Carpet Cleaning companies in the US, but only hun-dreds of full-time Rug Cleaning facilities. Even in my own city (with a population of 1.3 million), there are 3 rug plants doing any sizable volume of rug cleaning, and a handful of spray and suck amateurs (who thankfully create enough rug disasters to bring us new customers constantly).

In the Carpet Cleaning industry there is an attrition rate of around 25%. This means every year that 25% of the companies are going out of business, and 25% of newcomers come in to replace them. Especially in this upside down economy, if you are not strong at marketing and building client relationships, you will die quickly.

Think about this a minute. With all of these newcomers who are inexperienced in the cleaning craft and running a business, do you think they are going to come in as a high-priced, professional operation?

Absolutely not.

They are looking for quick survival cash, and are the ones who do the massive super cheap coupons be-cause they do not know how else to get jobs. They use inferior equipment, have little or no training (be-cause it looks easy) and they not only bring down the industry pricing in that town, but help reinforce the reputation of Carpet Cleaning companies creating nightmares for homeowners.

Less than 10% of the Carpet Cleaning companies in existence today are IICRC Certified. This isn’t to say that you must be certified to be a great cleaner, but honestly, isn’t it a sign that the industry as a whole isn’t proactively seeking out knowledge to better themselves?



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Even I am IICRC Certified as a Carpet Cleaning Technician and Upholstery Cleaning Technician, even though I do not do carpet or upholstery cleaning. I just wanted to understand how others are cleaning, to expand my own information. I have the Rug Cleaning Certification (because I helped write the exam, I thought I better take the test), and I even went through the Applied Structural Drying (ASD) course in order to understand how structures are properly dried out after a flood.

I don’t do structural dry-out of buildings, but I wanted to know more about it since we do handle a large number of restoration contents cleaning jobs of rugs from floods and fires.

But that’s me. I like to continually learn and grow. It’s what has made my team and I great at rug cleaning and repairing, because we are always seeking out what changes are happening in the industry so we can anticipate potential problems, and solve other people’s mistakes.

This makes us perceived at times as “miracle workers” with rugs by our clients, and by Carpet Cleaners who we are able to save from the mistakes caused by their lack of knowledge on how to safely clean natu-ral fiber oriental rugs.

Carpet Cleaning is viewed as a SERVICE.Rug Cleaning is viewed as a CRAFT.

Most Rug Cleaning operations have been around 25, 50, or more than 100 years. They have been around two, three, or four generations. They still incorporate the old world techniques that their parents and grandparents used, which gives the entire facility a mystique that is very different from just about every other business around.

Hand weaving of an oriental rug on a loom.



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This historical aura, the high value that most clients place on their own hand-woven textiles, AND the fact that there is no other reputable rug plant in their area creates an opportunity to establish a high-end profitable business success if you are ready to back the opportunity up with quality workmanship and excellent service.

Because Rug Cleaners are seen as craftsmen instead of cleaners there is a completely different perception of them by clients and consumers. When I travel and anyone asks me what I do for a living, and I say I have a company that cleans and restores oriental rugs by hand, the conversation never ends there. Everyone has some level of interest or fascination with oriental rugs, and they ask me a ton of questions. And odds are I am the ONLY Oriental Rug Cleaner that they have ever met, so they talk to me as if I am a “special-ist,” which makes me feel really good about the business I have helped to build.

But back to those industry numbers - 60,000 versus 600. When you are one of very few in a particular market who has learned how to deliver a quality, needed service, you have the opportunity to set your own price and compete solely on quality and service.

There simply are not enough quality Rug Cleaners.

Myth #2: It’s Really Hard To Learn How To Clean Rugs.

You know, this depends on how you learn.

I’m not the most computer friendly person on the planet. If someone told me to be successful I needed to learn how to use a computer, and they gave me a PC with NO INSTRUCTIONS, it would be next to im-possible for me to become great at that skill, no matter how much I wanted it.

However, if someone gave me a Quick Start guide showing me the right and wrong buttons to push, and some shortcuts to get important things done, I’d be looking like a PRO in no time at all.

Like I said before, this is not rocket science. But it’s also not a walk in the park. There is knowledge to learn, and practicing that is needed to hone your rug cleaning skills.

The key is getting the right information along the way so you don’t crash your rug cleaning hard drive.

You need the right information from the right teacher, then you can avoid the most common problems and disasters that we Rug Cleaners know as second nature. When you have the basics down, then you just get more hands-on experience to fine-tune your techniques. This is not hard, it’s just hard finding the right information.

The Carpet Cleaning industry has a number of instructors preaching Rug Cleaning who have never run a successful rug cleaning company in their life. There is a lot of misinformation being taught that is just plain WRONG, and will get you into dangerous waters, especially when you are talking about rugs that may be worth tens of thousands of dollars.



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Some classes are simply a sales pitch for the equipment they are “teaching” with. They only show you one core method, and present it as the only way to clean rugs. With IICRC courses this is not only a dis-service to the students, but also is in my opinion unethical because instructors are not supposed to be pre-senting any information to promote or sell items that they personally financially benefit from as part of an IICRC course. (If it’s a private course sponsored by a supplier, that’s one thing, you know you are getting a free class in exchange for a commercial...but when you pay for a course, you should be showed ALL options to clean rugs, and not primarily the way that makes the instructors the most money.)

My point here is...

Question Your Sources!

I have sat in a few Rug Cleaning courses written by reps of Carpet Cleaning manufacturing companies where they have had product use suggestions and temperatures that would absolutely ruin some rugs currently on the market.

When you follow those instructions and ruin a rug, do you think the instructor will pay to replace the rug? No way! When their product makes the rug turn a strange color, or brown-out, or fade, will they pay to replace the rug? No way! If their dye stabilizing product does not work, even when you apply it prop-erly, do they back it up by replacing the rug? No, they don’t.

Some may claim that you did not follow instructions. Or that they did not teach “that” in the course, you misheard them. Not because they are necessarily unethical (no instructors want to teach students to ruin things...), but because they are NOT Rug Cleaners. They are teaching techniques that they have never done themselves, suggesting products they’ve never used on oriental and area rugs from around the world.

Some of them are teaching RUG THEORY - not RUG REALITY.

There are a few very knowledgeable Rug Cleaners who instruct. One unfortunately (Phil Auserehl) is re-tiring from training. Another one unfortunately (Shawn Basillion) is being kept from being allowed to take the exam in order to teach the IICRC rug course due to industry and competition politics, even though he’s been around rugs for his entire life (he is Phil’s nephew) and is more knowledgeable than all of the current IICRC instructors combined. Ellen Amirkhan teaches a great advanced rug course, the RIA Certified Rug Specialist course, that is very heavy on rug identification more so than the rug cleaning ba-sics. She also team teaches with Aaron Groseclose, though they tend to focus a lot on his own product line, so their materials do tend to be a magalogue for that product line rather than sharing a variety of options to choose from. That’s my only complaint with them - I think the course should be much cheaper and the cost offset by the chemical manufacturer getting all of the product sales. That’s what I’d do.

The other rug courses, and instructors, are really truly hit and miss.



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One instructor to this day teaches to use Haitian Cotton Shampoo on wool rugs to brighten them up. (FYI: If you do this on a Chinese rug you will OWN it. The instructor may have had success with this at one time with one random rug, but to teach this is dangerous.)

Another instructing team has had to pay to replace two rugs brought in by students that they ruined in class. They also had no answer to a student’s question on how to handle rayon rugs properly, which is one of the most dangerous rugs on the market today for cleaners. The instructors did not know how to handle the rugs they ruined, or what to say about rayon, because they aren’t Rug Cleaners, they just “play one on TV.”

Play it safe. Question your sources. And take anyone’s tips - even mine - with a grain of salt. This indus-try is not black and white, always right and always wrong. You need to learn how to think in this busi-ness, and to anticipate problems, and you will do well.

Myth #3: You Need To Know Whether A Rug Is HAND-WOVEN Or MACHINE-WOVEN,

and What COUNTRY It Is From, To Clean It Properly.

This is the biggest myth of the bunch. I don’t know how many times I’ve read this from “rug instructors” in articles, or in their classes.

One instructor, who has some college degree in textiles started up this farce in an article she published where she insisted that if you did not properly identify what country a list of rugs was from that you could not - and should not - clean them.

I gave her “rug identification quiz” to my cleaning team, who all passed with 100%...and then asked me,

“What does this have to do with Rug Cleaning?”

Exactly! What country a rug comes from, and whether it’s been woven by hand or by machine, is irrele-vant to HOW you clean it.

If a rug is an antique Sarouk hand-woven wool rug from Persia, or a new Karastan machine-woven wool rug from the US, it will be washed exactly the same.

Where a rug is from doesn’t matter, it’s irrelevant. This is a ploy by some to sell class seats and spend a lot of time memorizing facts for rug identification for a quiz, because when you need several hundred ques-tions for a test, you need lots of content. It makes for great filler.

What is relevant to cleaning? Four things:

1) FIBER TYPE (Is it natural fiber or synthetic?)



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2) DYE STRENGTH (Is it colorfast?)

3) CONSTRUCTION TYPE (Is it woven, tufted, or a custom rug?)

4) PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS (Is there pet damage, past cleaning damage, weaving flaws, etc.?)

You can master these four areas, and not be able to identify a rug from India from one from Dalton, Geor-gia, and still become an excellent Rug Cleaner.

Rug Identification Helps With MARKETING, Not Cleaning.

I’m not saying to never learn rug identification skills. I’m saying that those who tell you that you MUST learn this in order to clean rugs properly are full of themselves. (Or full of crap...you choose.)

If you are looking to add rug cleaning as an add-on service, and do not have a love for textiles, then try-ing to learn where rugs are from is going to drive you crazy. If you simply want the technical know-how to do a great job, you can skip identification by country completely. You don’t need to pay thousands, and spend weeks, on a course for that.

Now, if you do love rugs, and want to learn more about where rugs come from, then this becomes a great marketing tool for those wanting to specialize in the field. If a client comes in and you can tell them where their rug is from (95% of them have no clue...), then it immediately builds trust, which of course helps with the sale of the job.

My point is, learn the rug ID skills only if you really want to. One great way to learn is to visit galleries and become friends with the rug dealers. This gives you a large learning environment, and access to a knowledgeable source on hand to ask questions to. (Most rug retailers, especially of older rugs, love to talk about them.) There are also scores of books on different rug weaving countries.

Rug identification skills are for marketing, not for cleaning. It impresses clients, puts them at ease that they are dealing with an “expert.” It builds trust, and allows you to charge more for your services mostly because you feel more confident about your rug knowledge so you don’t second-guess your own prices. It’s also a lot of fun to start learning about different rugs, if you are into that.

But, for cleaning, it is not a necessary prerequisite to know countries of origin, or hand-woven versus machine-woven.

Myth #4: You Must Have A Lifelong Background InOriental Rugs To Be A GREAT Rug Cleaner.

Being a GREAT Rug Cleaner is based on following some key guidelines in proper and thorough rug care. It’s based on using tests and resources to strategize your cleaning steps and to avoid the rugs you cannot



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safely clean. It’s based on actual rug cleaning, and honing your techniques in the craft as well as honing your customer service techniques.

Empowered with the right knowledge, the right tools, and the right attitude, anyone who wants to be-come a great Rug Cleaner will become one. Everyone who is part of a rug cleaning family is not auto-matically a GREAT Rug Cleaner...just as anyone who is not part of a rug cleaning family is not automati-cally excluded from becoming a great Rug Cleaner.

You do not have to be born into a rug family to succeed in this business. Our current rug wash team came to us with absolutely no rug or cleaning knowledge. They were all trained in-house, and have all become extremely skilled in their craft. All were trained before an IICRC rug cleaning course even existed.

Anyone who is motivated to become a great Rug Cleaner, who gets the right guidance, will become a pro.

Myth #5: You Need To Do High Volume Cleaning To Do High Volume Money.

I can’t tell you how many people have told me that to build a million dollar a year Rug Cleaning com-pany, you need to invest HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS in automated equipment and a large location so you can clean 800-1,000 rugs a week to make the BIG money.

I’m friends with many rug plant owners who do have big operations with the automated machinery, and 40, 50, 100+ employees...and though they do have really impressive operations, that’s just not what we wanted to create. It may be what you want to build, but that is not the only path to success.

The AUTOMATED CAR WASH vs. The HAND CAR DETAILER Analogy

Don’t get me wrong. Automated wet wash rug cleaning is a VERY good cleaning method. In most cases, depending on the rug plant team, it is far superior and much more thorough than the very best surface cleaning with a portable, bonnet, or truck mount method.

However, the more hands-on you can get with the process, and the more time you can spend on one indi-vidual rug to give it extra care, the more thorough a job you can do. And, the more you can charge for that rug detailing time without having to invest in the huge machinery and space.

We have build a boutique rug workshop operation, with less than 10 employees and less than 10,000 square feet of space, that provides high-end care and service that generate high-volume dollars without having to do the high-volume conveyor belt system. It gives us more time per rug, and more time per client, and more time to enjoy every single order.

More VOLUME = More WORK

We made a strategic business decision years ago to focus on more quality than quantity. We wanted to structure our operation so we could keep short hours, and not have to work weekends. We wanted to



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attract the clients looking for specialists rather than cheapest price, and be able to give them world-class work and service.

You don’t have to be volume-based to make money cleaning rugs if you structure it right. If you learn the craft, and become great, you can add part-time rug cleaning hours that add tremendously to your com-pany’s revenue. At $4 per square foot, you only have to clean four room size rugs (100 sq. ft. each) to make $1,600 extra a week ($83,200 a year) in gross revenue. Would it be hard to add 4 rugs a week to your business operation? If the answer is yes, then maybe another service would be better for you.

The 3 Big Secrets Rug Industry Instructors Like To Hide From Their Students.

The first secret is that you can set up your shop MUCH cheaper than with what tools, equipment, and chemicals they teach you in the standard certification class. (What this IICRC course needs is an instructor who does not distribute the products they teach with, so that they do not conveniently forget to mention other cheaper ways to get the same results for those who do not have the capital to buy their systems. I address these shoe-string budget options in the next rug shop set-up section.)

The second secret is that more than 95% of serious rug cleaning plants are not IICRC certified, RIA certi-fied, Wools of New Zealand certified, and do not use any WoolSafe designated products. In fact, most likely have never heard of IICRC, RIA, WoNZ, or WoolSafe.

Rug weaving has been around for thousands of years. Rug Cleaning has also been around a very, VERY long time. All of these organizations are young kids trying to police operations than have been around for decades longer than they have. It’s comical at times to see an instructor say that Rug Cleaning plants must use only those chemicals deemed “Wool Safe” - when most career Rug Specialists have been deliv-ering phenomenal cleaning and repairing services for decades, without needing anyone’s stamp of ap-proval.

WoolSafe® Chemicals vs. WOOL-SMART Cleaners

Here is the biggest difference between bureaucrats (like some large certification bodies) and entrepre-neurs (like you and I).

Entrepreneurs, when they want to increase their revenue, think of ways to deliver MORE VALUE to their market so that they can EARN more revenue. If they do not deliver value, they do not get paid.

Bureaucrats, when they want to increase their revenue, think of ways to create more regulations to suck up more dollars away from everyone else - whether they deliver value or not. They take instead of create.

Programs like WoolSafe®, are helpful in showing chemicals that meet a certain criteria to deem them “okay” for use on wool. The reality is, there are often solutions used by experienced Rug Cleaners that



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would never pass those “safe” standards, either due to the pH, or other elements, or due to the manufac-turer not wanting to pay to have their product tested to get that stamp of approval.

What is interesting is that the RUG MANUFACTURERS often give their rugs a heavy chemical washing, sometimes using chorine bleach (which dissolves wool), before the rugs go to market. This chemical wash-ing solution would NEVER in a million years pass a “wool safe” test. The organization will not try to regulate the retailers (who buy their wool), but regulating the cleaners and the cleaning chemical manufacturers...that seems easier.

The majority of Rug Cleaning plants will ignore any possible WoolSafe® recommendations, simply be-cause they are Wool-Smart Cleaners. Think about it. They’ve been around valuable wool rugs for their lifetimes, and know that doing anything harmful could cost them tens of thousands of dollars or more. No one understands wool better than they do.

The biggest difference with plant cleaners is the amount of water that they use, which adjusts pH down very quickly, and rinses away residue and any problems that it may have on wool rugs. When someone is in-home cleaning rugs, using surface cleaning methods, they are leaving behind residue that can create problems from fading to yellowing to future dye migration with it’s cleaned next.

WoolSafe® designations are more applicable to this type of surface cleaning, but here is the bigger issue. Rugs should not be cleaned in the home to begin with, so they are trying to regulate methods that should not be being applied to wool rugs at all. If their main concern was truly to help wool rugs “live longer” then they would simply say: Do not clean wool rugs in the home. Take them to a rug plant to be washed.

But then, there would not be many chemicals to have to test and designate as “safe” - so the money po-tential would dry up. Now you are getting the picture.

The ones pushing the WoolSafe® designations, and trying to encourage adding them to the IICRC stan-dards, are the ones who interestingly enough teach the Wool Care Classes. (I’m sure you are SHOCKED!) Whenever anyone explains regulations that they believe need to be adopted in this industry, whether it is about wool, or whether it is the CRI Seal of Approval® program for wall-to-wall carpet care...just follow the money trail and you will discover why they are supporting it.

It’s not very different from how DC works, unfortunately.

I am not fond of more regulations and organizations. I think we should improve what we already have, but it should be led by REAL cleaners, and not by those who make a living on policing or teaching these new regulations. I remember one year on a board when an Instructor sponsored adding another certifica-tion to the “master” status, which coincidentally was a course that only that person and one other instruc-



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tor taught. It was sponsoring new business that would put money directly in that person’s pocket because it would mean more cleaners would have to take that course or lose their “master” status.

It seemed like a clear conflict of interest to me, but I guess when you are on a board long enough you for-get that you are not supposed to vote on things that add money to you directly. Such is politics.

The final secret of the three is this - you are not going to get numerous consumer referrals of rug cleaning from any these organizations.

My longest certification was with ASCR (now RIA), which in over a decade had not referred a single job to my rug cleaning plant. IICRC certification, now for five years, also has referred not a single job. And Wools of New Zealand (an organization that dwarfs both other organizations) has in 7 years sent one re-ferral of a $150 job.

If you take these courses expecting a flood of new business being referred to you, you will be disap-pointed. That said, I have proactively marketed my designations to generate new business on my own. So if you are the type that likes to study and take tests, and have letters after your name (like I am), then go for it! Just don’t be under the illusion that this is going to make money for you...you are still going to have to go out and make it on your own. (That said, the reason I do seek out and join these groups is to net-work with peers and learn from them. You will meet some GREAT people in trade associations.)

! !

Rug Cleaning Basics - Your “Shop” Set-up.

With Rug Cleaning, there are five main phases to focus on, and you should set up your shop accordingly. I’ll walk through each, and offer some “shoestring budget” options for you.



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1) PRE-INSPECTION: This is the most important skill to develop as a Rug Cleaner. You need a well-lit area to inspect fiber type, dye stability, construction type, and all pre-existing conditions on the front and back of each rug. Ideally this process is done with the client, either in their home before you remove the rug, or at your rug facility.

If you do not have an office and are operating out of your home, then you must photograph and send any areas of concern to the client BEFORE you begin cleaning. (When you point out issues before the wash, it is education. When you point it out after the wash, it is an excuse.)

2) DUST: As you know with wall-to-wall carpet, 70+% of the soil you encounter will be dry particu-late that can be removed with a good vacuuming. This is the same with rugs. In fact, with wool especially, and its capacity to hide grit in many spaces along its cuticles, there is often pounds and pounds of soil in even rugs that do not look especially dirty. Wool hides soil very well.

The danger with this is that if you make the foolish decision of surface cleaning a rug in the home with a portable or truck mount, you are not going to be able to thoroughly dust the rug before-hand, so you are going to create a soapy mud in the base of the rug you are trying to clean. This over time will cause greying, and potential problems from color loss to dry rot if the foundation threads (usually cotton) get too damp and packed with soil. Rugs must be dusted.

Your dusting options range from very low cost to very high cost.

• Cheap! You can use a standard upright Sanitaire Commercial Vacuum. This is what we use, they are workhorses that last for ages and will set you back a few hundred bucks. (TIP: When using an upright vacuum, go side to side along the BACK of the rug to vibrate the soil from the base of the fibers out to the floor. Placing the rug over rubber tiles will help give some space for the soil to fall so that it is easier to flip the rug over and sweep up the pounds of released dirt.)

• Some Bucks. Another option is the Rug Badger, which runs you about $3,500. For a one-man operation, the Badger can help you cover more dusting area in much less time. (WARNING: It’s a bit loud, and you need to be careful with delicate rugs. You also will still need a vacuum, or broom, to remove the dust you beat out of the rug.) I’ve used this equipment in some Rug Cleaning Clinics, and have nothing bad to say about its performance. It works...it’s just a bit too loud for my taste.

• Serious Bucks. There is also Compressed Air (the Auserehlian system) which is a special tool/technique designed as part of a larger cleaning system which I believe runs around $30,000 for the complete system with compressor. (WARNING: You need a method to capture the billow-ing dust from the dusting area so that it does not create environmental concerns from neigh-bors, and so you do not breathe all of those contaminants in.) I’ve seen this demonstrated by several in my past Rug Cleaning Coaching program who created very impressive results at soil



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removal. The drawback is the big clouds of contaminants, and the price for the system along with the property to contain it. But if you have the space and the funds, it will work for you.

Upright commercial vacuum. Rug Badger beater.Compressed air dusting tool from the Auserehlian system.

• Serious Bucks. There are also automatic dusters, and tumblers, that can be found second hand from old rug cleaning plants with Moore heavy equipment, or old dry cleaning facilities with tumblers. With older plants, often the “kids” don’t want to take over such a labor-intensive craft, so there can sometimes be opportunities to buy some excellent, old machinery. They tend to be simple designs, and well-crafted and strong.

3) WASH: Ideally you are washing rugs in your facility either in a wash pit, or if you are more ad-vanced in the rug cleaning phase of your career, you will have a large cement slab wash floor.

Pits can set you back several thousand if you get something fancy. If you are on a budget though, you can do a great job with very little investment. And when you are ready to do some serious cleaning, you can get a facility that gives you the space to pour a slightly inclined wash floor to wash your rugs on.

• Dirt cheap! - a sloped driveway, patio, or other inclined surface can serve as a cleaning plat-form. Just make sure you can capture the run-off, and dispose of it properly, and use a tarp if the surface is not clean. When we first cleaned rugs in our rug gallery, we washed them on tarps in the back driveway, and used a pump to funnel the run-off into the toilet. I know, not too fancy, but it got the job done and was about $50 of materials at the time.

• Cheap! - a temporary wash pit can be constructed using PVC pipes and a tarp. If you invest a little more, you can use wood planks and a heavy pond liner. These can be bought at local home improvement stores. Make sure the pond liner is thick enough to resist punctures so that you can use it for a nice long time. Several hundred dollars should set you up very well.

• Some Bucks. - the wash pits sold by instructors can set you back several thousand, including the tiles for the pit floor. You can find both the prefabricated wash pits (look at mobile car de-



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tailer suppliers) and the tile suppliers (rubber, interlocking tiles) on-line for a fraction of the retail course price if you are a D-I-Y kind of person and want a wash pit that looks a little more professional than a tarp and PVC model. You have lots of options.

Wood frame for wash pit. Heavy pond liner. Rug to soak (pet urine removal).

• Serious Bucks. - when you are doing more than a handful of rugs a week, you are going to find washing rugs in a pit time-consuming and difficult with especially those rugs that are heavily contaminated. There needs to be an exchange of fresh water, and removal of dirty water. If the pit is not designed with any type of incline, then the dirty water comes back on the rug during cleaning. Having a cement slab floor, at an incline, allows quicker cleaning and more thorough flushing/rinsing of the rugs. Our floor has a raised perimeter so that we can close the drain and soak rugs for an extended period if needed (i.e. urine decontamination). The biggest cost for the floor is simply having the space to have one. If you pour your own floor, be sure to create a rough texture so it is not slippery to walk on and will grip the rugs (or use rubber tiles).

Washing and scrubbing.*Hoses under the rug, and using squeegee to flush the rug clean.* Rinsing with a pressure sprayer.*

(* IMPORTANT: Doing a full-immersion wet wash in a wash pit or on a large rug wash floor re-quires you to become skilled at pre-inspection. You need to know your FIBERS, be able to test DYES and stabilize them during the wash, and know what structural and pre-existing conditions to be aware of. Do NOT wash a rug without some knowledge first...unless you already own the rug!)



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4) EXTRACT & DRY: You are going to be amazed as how much soil you are going to be able to re-move from rugs washing them...and then at how much work it can be to REMOVE that water and get these textiles dry. This is the one area, where if you invest in some good tools you can dra-matically boost your productivity, and lessen your aches and pains.

• FREE! ☺- simply use the equipment you already own! Here is a list of Carpet Cleaning and

Restoration tools that can be used for removing excess water:

✓ Water Claw - the medium size works best for this. Extract from the back of woven rugs to remove the most moisture from the cotton foundation.

✓ Dri-Eaz Rover - if you use this in the restoration field, it will save you A LOT of time to use it for rug extraction versus the Water Claw.

✓ Portables & Truck mounts - if you have heavy wands, these work well at removing water from rugs. Extract the back side, and then the front (go with the grain, not against it.) I also like the Teflon covers to the wands to lessen any extraction marks.

• Rug Heavy Equipment - Serious Bucks. - Wringers and spinners. These will set you back ei-ther $10K-$20K second hand, or $30K-$45K brand new. We have a rubber roller compression wringer built in 1951, similar to a Moore wringer. You feed the rug into it, and it rolls out the other side with most of the water compressed out of the rug. When we got this equipment working, it immediately doubled our production. The spinners (Rug Badger Revolution is one type) you feed a rolled up wet rug into, and it spins and the water wicks outward away from the rug.

• Drying Equipment - All Levels - Some items, like air movers, you already have. We dry ALL of our rugs out flat, as opposed to hanging them. (Just a note here, we dry rugs flat for several reasons, some of which are it keeps the rugs shape and it keeps us from having to do additional work on the fringes which hanging can contribute to. It’s just a personal preference, but most people do not have the space to dry all rugs out flat like we do.) Drying racks can be built as manual pulleys with PVC pipes (low rent) or a metal constructed mobile manual rack system (Rug Badger has an excellent and convenient model) or a mechanized hanging system similar to the older Moore systems (Rug Badger produces these as well).

Equipment you already own can be used to speed up the rug drying process.

✓ Dri-Eaz Studebaker Airpath - this is my absolute favorite air mover for rugs. Even heavy tufted rugs with latex backings will dry in half the time with these units.



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✓ Dri-Eaz LGR Dehumidifiers - we have 2400’s. If you create a drying area by con-taining it with a Zip Wall or tarp, the LGR removes moisture from the air and also releases warm air which dramatically speeds up the drying process. If you have a dedicated drying room, you can control the temperature with your HVAC unit.

Manual dry rack system.Airpath.

Drying rugs flat.

5) FINISH: When the rugs are completely dry (use a moisture sensor to 100% guarantee the rug is in-deed dry), vacuum again to make sure no dust has settled on the rug, groom the pile with a soft floor broom brush, and use a Grandy Groomer to brush out the fringe. If your vehicle is not clean, then wrap the rug for delivery. Options are brown Kraft Paper (inexpensive, but tears), Tyvek paper (tear resistant, reusable), or some burlap material from a yardage store (reusable).

IMPORTANT!

I have not mentioned EVERY piece of equipment or tool in the industry. I’m sure there is something you use that I’ve missed. I’ve just mentioned items that I have had direct experience with, and several brand that I especially like. Some other items I use, and like, are the Cimex rotary scrubbers, squeegees (for wash floors) and linoleum rollers (for wash pits), and for tricky rugs in need of controlled sectional clean-ing I really like US Products DriMaster upholstery tool.

Any pricing I’ve mentioned may be off target. Because I do not sell these products, I am not aware of cur-rent pricing for any of the items mentioned, so prices are mentioned as a general ballpark just to give you an idea of where they rank compared to other options.

Rug Badger products can be researched at www.RugBadger.com. Phil Auserehlian products can be re-searched at www.orientalrugcleaning.com.

All other tools, and US Products and Dri-Eaz equipment can be bought through Interlink Supply at www.interlinksupply.com. Other distributors certainly sell these items as well, but because I am part of the Piranha Member Buyers Group, we get 10-50% off of all industry products through Interlink, so I just buy everything from them. If you are not a Piranha Member, just buy from any supplier you want to.



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http://www.RugBadger.com

http://www.RugBadger.com

http://www.orientalrugcleaning.com

http://www.orientalrugcleaning.com

http://www.interlinksupply.com

http://www.interlinksupply.com



Rug Shop Success - The Overview.

Knowing now the different “phases” of the wash process, you should be able to look at your work space and design what works for you based on what tools you have and how you plan to clean your rugs.

The biggest danger I have seen in this industry has been cleaners jumping in too soon, and too deep in pocket, to where the pressure of having to make A LOT of money quickly destroys them. The work isn’t fun when it is life or death at the bank.

If your Carpet Cleaning business is struggling, and you are looking for a quick way to make sizable cash to fix the problem of a poorly run unprofitable Carpet Cleaning company, you are setting yourself up to fail. The worst thing you can do is fix a problem by adding more work to your plate. You will simply bring the same unprofitable business habits into the “new” business.

Rug Cleaning, if you want to be great at it, requires attention to detail and a clear head that allows you to see the potential rug problems before they happen. So cash-strapped, anxiety-ridden Carpet Cleaning or Restoration business owners are not a right fit for Rug Shop Success.

Get your house in order first, and then add a new service.

That said, the fact that you have read this entire report shows me that you are likely not part of that look-ing for a magic pill, anxiety-ridden group.

So, you are wanting to add Rug Cleaning, and you want to be smart about it. You don’t want to go too deep too fast. Where do you start? Well, that depends on what you want to do.

You want to simply have rug cleaning as an ADD-ON SERVICE to your existing jobs.

The easiest path here would be to simply subcontract the work to an existing rug plant.

Usually plants offer an industry rate, and you can add $1 or so a square foot to that price and create a profit center by handling the orders. For efficiency and profitability, have a set route to the plant so you are not driving back and forth with every small rug that comes your way.

I am not a fan of cleaning rugs in the home, especially oriental wool rugs. It causes damage over time, but more importantly, you are not providing as great a cleaning as you could. Even if you take the rugs to your office and still clean them with surface-cleaning methods (your portable or truck mount), you are able to do things you cannot do in the home - DUST thoroughly, RINSE thoroughly, and clean the FRINGES.

It also is more calming to not be cleaning a rug with the owner looming over your shoulder watching your every move.



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If surface cleaning is simply where you are at in your rug cleaning evolution, that is fine. Just do the best that you can with what you have now, which means do the work AWAY FROM THE HOME.

In the process you will learn more about rugs so that you can avoid the common pitfalls, and so that you can decide if you are ready to move up to becoming a real full-time Rug Cleaner.

You want to have rug cleaning as a PRIMARY DIVISION of your company.

You will know if you have a “love” for rugs, and if you want to learn more, and be more, in the Rug Cleaning world. You will just know it.

It is a world of creativity, and color, and texture, and incredible workmanship with many fascinating sto-ries attached to them. I’ve been around rugs my entire life, and I don’t get tired of them. There is always something new and exciting coming through the door.

When you find yourself wanting to learn more about how these textiles are created, and wanting to learn about their stories, then this is a sign that you have what it takes to become a powerhouse in this field. Having enthusiasm about a craft, and enjoying listening to rug stories from clients, and sharing your own, are all ingredients to building up a successful Rug Shop.

Clients stop by our shop just to take a look around. It’s a piece of the old world still existing in this new world.

Once you have your technical training in place, and become more and more confident about the rugs you are cleaning, then you can move into the next phase of how to attract affluent clients and create a culture and community around your Rug Cleaning business that is ELF - easy, lucrative, and fun. (This term comes from my work with Piranha Marketing, where we help our members develop ELF businesses.)

So, if it’s a PRIMARY SERVICE that you want to develop, then it does need to become a separate division of your current company, or a dba of your current business. Also, you need to designate someone as the “Rug Expert” in charge of it.

You will move from surface cleaning, to wash pits, and then to a full wash floor as your volume grows.

Making decisions on buying bigger equipment is not based on quality of the work. I can out-clean a fully automated big Moore machinery operation with my hand brushes, squeegee, ivory soap, vinegar, and a simple wet vac. (By the way, this was how we used to wash rugs on our driveway in the very beginning.)

I can clean better than the conveyor belt method. But it would take me most of the day.

The bigger equipment does not necessarily clean better, but it helps you get different phases of the proc-ess done quicker. It boosts your productivity.



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The biggest hard cost in the actual cleaning is the labor cost. In the beginning your net profit will be okay. Not great, just okay. But as your volume increases, and you invest in tools to make the work happen quicker, after that investment is paid off your net profit grows.

When someone asks me whether they should invest in a new piece of equipment, I make them write out: 1) the cost of the equipment (total cost, including financing); 2) realistically, how many more rugs this will help him/her clean; 3) with that boosted productivity, how long will it take to pay it off?

If someone is washing 5 rugs a week and wants to buy a new Revolution centrifuge spinner because it’s so damn cool, then I know they are not going to be in business very long. Buying a Rover would be a smarter purchase to boost productivity at that volume.

If you have the capital to buy all you want right now, then simply make sure you have the marketing to support the level of volume you need to cover your bills and put some money in your pocket. Just be-cause you build a cool new rug plant does not mean the rugs will come. You need to drum up the busi-ness, just like you do in your Carpet Cleaning company.

What Now?

Hopefully I’ve given you a lot to think about, and some ideas to act on. And hopefully I didn’t offend you with any of my industry political points of view. When you are backstage in the trenches for a long time, it’s hard to not get a tiny bit jaded. Again, as I mentioned in my disclaimer, it’s all just my opinion so take it all with a grain of salt.

If you are looking to build your confidence in the area of rug cleaning, there are an assortment of different courses to take. Organizations like IICRC, RIA, WoNZ, as well as classes held by your local suppliers. Go to a class with the mindset that you will come away with a few valuable nuggets, and you will do exactly that.

The best training you can get though is by getting your hands wet and actually cleaning rugs. I always suggest to newbies that they go to Thrift Stores, swap meets, and garage sales and begin buying up very cheap, and very dirty rugs. Then you have no worries about ruining a client’s rug, you get to try all of your tools and chemicals, and you get some outstanding before and after pictures that you can use in your marketing materials.

It’ll be the best investment in your own education you’ve ever made!

Additional Resources to Look Into:

Over the years I have developed a large amount of educational content for cleaning and restoration busi-nesses. Here are two sites with some of these resources:



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www.Cleanfax.com - I’ve written for Cleanfax Magazine for a long time. You can search the archive under my name and pull up articles on all aspects of rug care, as well as a number of articles I’ve written regard-ing business and marketing success. Some of my favorite articles are “Married With Business” (a profile of successful couples in this industry who work and play together) and “Higher Prices, Better Clients” (a marketing article on how to develop a high-end business, which I’m extremely knowledgeable about).

www.JoePolish.com - My “other job” is serving as CEO of Piranha Marketing. I have been a strategic marketing consultant and coach to over a thousand cleaning and restoration businesses in my ten years working with Joe Polish and his company. We develop “plug and play” marketing tools, templates, and systems for service businesses, and are the #1 trainers of business success in this industry. The free article on the main homepage “7 Steps To Writing A Successful Ad” will help ANY campaign you are currently running whether it is an ad, a direct mail piece, or an on-line promotion. I recommend you download that because it’s valuable to any business.

Additional Resources from The Rug Chick™

First of all, the FREE stuff is on my blog www.RugChick.com - This is where I like to post regular tips and warnings about certain rugs to cleaners to keep them out of trouble. If you ask me questions in the com-ments sections, I always get back to you.

Rug Secrets™ Rug Cleaning Starter Kit, Rug Secrets™ Hands-on WorkshopsRug Secrets™ Rug Coaching ProgramRug Warrior™ On-line TrainingRugs To Run From™: A Consumer’s Guide To Buying New Rugs

Over the past 15 years, I rolled out all of the above programs. In fact, I’ve amassed over 4 GB’s of intellec-tual property related to all aspects of rug cleaning, from the technical side, to the operational systems, to what you need to do to get constant clients coming through the door.

I’ve put 50 companies through my 3-year Rug Secrets™ Coaching program, took some from zero knowl-edge to now earning $4-5/ sq. ft. as the “go to rug experts” in their town. I’ve trained several hundred companies through my hands-on workshops. 4 years ago I put as many through on-line webinar training, and sold hundreds of copies of my Rug Cleaning Starter Kit.

I was the first to actually put “rug cleaning” in a box, in a way that was easy to learn so that those who truly were beginners would know what to do without getting into trouble. I was the first to do on-line rug training so that cleaners did not have to fly and spend thousands of dollars to learn more about rugs.

Now I’m thinking through what is next for the Rug Chick. Do I create an updated kit for the industry? Do I create a high-price franchise to share ALL of my systems and tools in an area-exclusive model? Do I



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http://www.Cleanfax.com

http://www.Cleanfax.com

http://www.RichCleanerBlog.com

http://www.RichCleanerBlog.com





teach more workshops? Do I train others to teach the workshops so more cleaners can be helped faster (and at less cost)?

Something is telling me it is time to roll-out with more rug help.

I’m not happy with the “easy money” claims, or the overly-complicated educational offerings, or the big-ger and more expensive equipment pitches, that are blanketing the rug industry. When you’ve scrubbed a rug on a driveway, you know it’s not really complicated at all...and that is does take physical hard work.

Is the industry ready for some new, better, and different real-world rug education? Are you?

I sat down and wrote this report to help give some guidance to those seeking it out. You took the time to read it. If I’m going to come out with a new program, then I’ll be doing it for Professional Cleaners just like you. The ones who will take the time to learn, and want to do it right.

If you think you want to learn more - and you want that more to come from me - then do me a favor and let me know. In the box below is my email, and a list of areas I’m considering releasing. What I choose will be based on the feedback of you and others. So thank you for taking the time to send the email - and thank you very much for taking the time to read my Rug Secrets Report. I hope you enjoyed it, and best of luck in the wonderful world of rug cleaning!

The End. ☺

Are You Interested In Some Real-World Rug Education?

If YES - please send an email to [email protected] and let me

know what type of resources you are MOST INTERESTED IN:

1) On-line Technical Training (video and how-to reports)

2) In-Person Technical Training (hands-on workshops)

3) Rug Shop Success Coaching (operational & marketing systems)

4) Just the FREE STUFF (articles & blog posts)



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Rug Secrets REPORT 2010

Documents

Transcript of Rug Secrets REPORT 2010