Hello to all. As this is my first posting to this board, I will comply as requested by its policies and refrain from posting the web addresses of my two related businesses. I'm Mark Dullea. I live in Peabody MA, just north of Boston, where I run a floor services business - carpet, rug & upholstery cleaning; tile & grout cleaning; wood floor refinishing; and stone floor restoration. All carpet, rug & upholstery cleaning is performed with various sizes of OP machines & tools. My main pieces of equipment are standard size Challengers, although I also own an Orbitec CX-20 and a 24" Cimex so as to also have the capability of doing the really big jobs that come along. Stairs, depending upon their size, are cleaned with either a 12" Cleanfix Floormac or a 6" automobile-type orbital polisher/buffer that I retrofit with velcro. This tool also comes in handy for upholstery cleaning.
For several years I have also been offering a kind of carpet cleaning business start-up Package of equipment (Challenger), supplies, training materials, and free back-up technical assistance through my Challenger Forum, phone calls, and e-mails.
I only discovered this board back in early March, although someone who does what I do probably should have been able to come upon it earlier. It is well done, and in reading over numerous posts, I find it to be overall very helpful. After first discovering it, I went back a few days later to find it again and was unable to do so. I had remembered seeing the name of someone named Grant, from Washington, on a post, and from a check of my business records realized that it must be Grant Deremer, who had bought my Package just about five years ago. I phoned Grant, left a message requesting his assistance in locating this board again, but he never replied. I shortly thereafter left for a three-week visit to Australia. When I returned, still finding no message from Grant, I started again looking for it, and did so find it.
It didn't take me too long to understand Grant's reluctance to speak with me, since he as well as fellow Washingtonian and purchaser of my Package Andy McFadden turned out to have recently been leading something of an assault on my Challenger Package, managing to find fault with just about every aspect of it attributable to me: my Training Manual; my stair tool; my choice of spot & stain products; and even my Forum.
I found this criticism of both me and my Package rather surprising, since both of these individuals bought their Challenger and related items just about five years ago. I can't recall hearing a word of criticism from either of them during all this time, and both, especially Grant, had been frequent participants at my Challenger Forum. As an example, Grant posted on 12/21/06: "Happy Holidays. Before I get too busy with all the holiday events, I just wanted to say Thank You to all of you who have taken the time to respond to questions on this board. I have learned a TON (capitalized) this year, so many, many thanks to Mark D, Jim E, Derek, and others who have been so kind as to help out from time to time." Grant even closed with a picture of his beautiful family, including infant daughter.
Andy, who now belittles just about everything I shipped to him back then in 2005, submitted a post to this board on 10/23/08. In his post he lists the items he started his business with: "Challenger, Outsolv.........
.......and a cheap-ass car buffer to do stairs and upholstery". At that point in time, he had been using that "cheap-ass car buffer" for over 2.5 years. Now Andy, if I provided you with such junk, how is it you were still using it to do both stairs and upholstery this much time later? Weren't you doing your customers a great disservice, or was this simple, lightweight, easily maneuverable tool actually getting the job done for you? Did you ever try cleaning upholstery with one of those 18-pound "Stepson"-type machines? Or how about stair risers? Probably not. And Andy, on 6/12/09, your post here included "I advertise healthy green cleaning." Oh, well, even if the rest of my Training Manual had nothing of value for you, a point you have made repeatedly on this board, at least you picked up and went with its main message. I shall take some small comfort in that. By the way, Andy, you also posted here that you felt YOU should come up with your own training manual. How's that coming along, Andy? Or maybe you're spending too much time online slamming somebody else's hard work to actually create something like this yourself.
Getting back to Grant. When he introduced himself to this board in Feb. '07, he wrote: "This has been a fun venture for me. I am pursuing my dream of being in charge of my own destiny, and slowly but surely I think it is working. Marketing and determining my pricing structure has been a particular challenge to me. Jim E, Mark D and several folks from CCS have all been of great help to me this past year. I have learned a lot."
He also added: "I use all-natural products on my residential work" Where did he ever think to do that?
If I am such a liability, such an embarrassment to this industry as those posting above would have people believe, isn't it surprising that Jim England would post the following here in Jan., 2007: "This is a great site, and I hope many will take advantage of it. We are fortunate (in this industry) to have people like Mike, Rick Gelinas, John Guerkink, Mark Dullea, Ed Valentine and others who graciously give their time and experience to help others, even if they are not their customers."
Many who read and post here will know of Challenger's Chris Watson, easily the classiest lady in the world of OP/LM that I have had contact with. She posted on the Challenger Forum in April of 2008: "What I have appreciated about Mark Dullea's comments and responses on the Challenger Forum over the years is that he is unfailingly knowledgeable, honest, and gentlemanly This board is his design. His wit and professionalism shine forth in every thread.............We have been very proud of the manner in which Mark Dullea has represented our company over the years. Mutual respect, cooperation, professionalism: these are the qualities we look for in those we choose to do business with."
BY the way, Chris has just recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, and is currently going through post-surgery chemo and radiation. Those of you who have gotten to know her might want to send her a
"get well quick" e-mail. I believe she still uses
challengerop@gmail.com.
Grant, Andy and the 200 or so others from around the country who have bought my Challenger Package all bought what I'm pretty sure is the least expensive kit out there which will supply someone with just about everything he or she will need to begin doing real work in this business. It is still priced at only $1995, and I think it represents the best value you can buy. In its field, it is definitely the no-frills, "Economy" option.
Now, some carpet cleaners offer three levels of service, such as Economy, Standard, and Premium. I'm sure that most of us can agree that nothing is more annoying than the customer who opts for the Economy level of service, then, when you have completed the job, whines that the results are not at the Premium service level. Or how about the customer who finds fault with your efforts at her home, but said nothing. Did she call back the following day and give you the opportunity to come back and try to fix what she was unhappy with? No. Then, a month, a year, or - in my case - five years later - you find that she has posted on some online reviews website (AngiesList, Yelp, etc.)that your service really sucks and that others should avoid doing business with you. My guess is that you would become pretty angry at being the victim of such an unfair attack.
With the Package I sell, I try to get people up & running with what has pretty consistently worked for me. The marketing methods I mention in my Training Manual are a combination of what has worked for me over my 20 years in business along with other sources that I believe are worth looking into and studying. In any business, there is no such thing as "Do this, this, and this, and you will rapidly become a great success".
I started my c.c. business in September 1990, with zero experience in this field, with a very limited marketing budget, and with equipment and supplies decidedly inferior to what I have now. Yet in my very first month, using a simple, ultra-low-cost marketing technique described in my Training Manual, I took in $3100. I grossed about $38,000 in my first 12 months, at rates that were less than half of what someone might begin with now. Also, it hadn't occurred to me to charge a minimum per house visit, so I did some ridiculously small jobs. So, adjusting for both the passage of time and now having a minimum, that same figure today might well be in the $80 - 90,000 range. Not bad for a $2000 investment.
My combination of equipment, supplies, and marketing strategies have served me well for two decades now. Mine is one of only two businesses in its field to have received a "Best of Boston" award from BOSTON Magazine. Three different Boston Sunday Globe Magazine writers have directed their readers to my company, for its excellent work and for its commitment to green cleaning products. Drysdale's All-Natural (my company's name) maintains a straight "A" rating on AngiesList, where it is a "Super Service" award winner. It has been included in a book by Scott Cooney: BUILD A GREEN SMALL BUSINESS: PROFITABLE WAYS TO BECOME AN ECOPRENEUR, published last year by McGraw-Hill, a REAL publisher.
The Package that has been treated so shabbily here has been adopted by a national maid service franchise when it decided that its franchisees could increase their income by adding this service. Before selecting my Package, they evaluated dozens of other ways to do this.
It's not easy to build a business from just an idea to one as accomplished and respected as mine. On the other hand, it's real easy to sit down at your computer and take swipes at what someone else has done, but in today's internet world, where anything can be flamed, I guess that's the price of doing business.
I wish Andy and Grant would have "manned up" and approached me with what they felt were the shortcomings in my program. I certainly would have listened and considered making modifications as might be needed to improve my product. To seethe with resentment for years, apparently upset at being sold a pig-in-poke, then to suddenly come out, guns blazing, on a respected industry board, is hardly civil conduct.
I feel it is very unfair. Maybe even cowardly. You two guys should really learn to stand up and say something in a timely manner when you feel you've gotten something less that full value in a transaction.
I appreciate the opportunity to submit this response.
