[Peter Blackburn]

Do any of you long established guys get a bit bored of this trade?
Today I had an old lady explaining the in's and out's of where and when she bought her carpet after I commented on it being good quality. When she was explaining this to me, I felt sooooo bored I had the overwhelming urge to lay on the bl**y thing and go to sleep!
The next job was two large communal blocks. After setting up all the gear at the first block I sat on the first step with my head in my hands. Again, that feeling of I can’t find the energy or enthusiasm for this lot.

Maybe it's time to move on when you feel like this. I might do a college course in September to give my life a bit of diversity.

Regards
Pete

[Colin Day]

Sometimes I feel like crying when I'm doing a right minger of an oven

You should do a job you look forward to, you only get one life! I really enjoy carpet cleaning and 99% of the time I love the oven cleaning too for some strange reason..

Maybe it's just a phase you're going through Peter.....

[Mark_Jubb]

Pete,
I guess it's no different to just about any other persons job, in that it ain't an exciting, stimulating, bundle of laughs every day of the week.
I'm sure we all have days when we think there must be something different, better, more enjoyable to do to earn a living and keep the bankers in stupid bonuses and civil servants in gold plated pension schemes. And then we realise that there could also be a lot worse things we could be doing, like working for an ungrateful boss, having to clock on & off, put your hand up to go to the loo, work silly shifts, take holidays when your told to, not when you want to, go into the same old place every day, see the same old faces, listen to the same old moans & groans.
Think I'll stick to running my own Carpet & Upholstery cleaning business for a bit longer yet.

[Colin Day]

You know Mark makes sense Peter...

[wynne jones]

I have those days but they pass. Imagine working for some wankr for £6 an hour where you have no say in anything and no future.

Get over it!

[John Higgins]

Sounds like you need an holiday - think you need to take a fresh look at the work you do
dont think of the drudgery - take pride in the fact the you do a good job and you can have
only achieved this by the years of experiance you have. look at the finished job you have done
and take pride in your craftsmanship

[M.Acorn]

It`s the money that keeps me going !! I used to earn a decent wage as a head chef,but i can earn what i did in a week in a day,won`t ever go back to working for someone else if i can help it.
A lot of my work is eot stuff,so don`t have to put up with people ,but i don`t mind chatting to the custy,find i am more likely to get repeat work that way,and more likely to get my number passed on if i am nice

[MAX Carpets]

We all have those days. I have loads! But through this job over the years I have had the pleasure of meething people I would never been able to meet,

The Queen!
John Madjeski
Neil Hunt
Prince Naseem Hamed
Fernando Alonsa


A bit of name dropping, but why not. I am very proud of it!

[John Kelly]

Running a business, especially as a one man band can become very lonely at times. Your mind can wander and you can become disilussioned. However there are not many businesses that can give you the return that carpet cleaning can.
Most tradesmen have had their earnings drastically reduced over the last few years. I have a couple of mates who are property developers and they are paying 80-100 quid a day for tradesmen to work on their projects.
I tell you what I do find is that customers who come into our shop who are at the bottom end of the market are generally the ones who are a bit depressed whereas those who are making really good money are always bright and bubbly and looking for the next project or thinking of buying a new van or kit.
I think back to the early days of my carpet cleaning business where I was dirt cheap, didn't know any different (no internet in those days) and just copied what people were charging in the local paper. I got a bit fed up scratching around and thought of packing in. However once I met a few people and seen the error of my ways and drastically increased my prices I never looked back. The first suite I did for £100 I skipped out of the house. I had been charging 35 previously.

[benny d]

We all have those days. I have loads! But through this job over the years I have had the pleasure of meething people I would never been able to meet,

The Queen!
John Madjeski
Neil Hunt
Prince Naseem Hamed
Fernando Alonsa


A bit of name dropping, but why not. I am very proud of it!

Those names are nuthin'... I've met Paul Pearce. SO THERE!  :p

[David Rogers]

Sometimes I feel like crying when I'm doing a right minger of an oven

You should do a job you look forward to, you only get one life! I really enjoy carpet cleaning and 99% of the time I love the oven cleaning too for some strange reason..

Maybe it's just a phase you're going through Peter.....

Colin - Your not weird. I do ovens (I trained in Oven Cleaning first) and when I was training I though "jeez, this is going to be hard work!".... but when cleaning for customers I get a huge sense of satisfaction because unlike carpet cleaning, the results are very predictable.   Especially on the dip tank side.  45 minutes in there and ANY racks are going to come out looking like they've had a chrome dip!    It's very hard work sometimes but I do tend to find it more rewarding than carpet cleaning.    Although getting results that really knock the customer for six and delight them, with VLM is also very enjoyable.... (Oh, it can be pretty inpressive this 'hoovering' lark you know  )

[Colin Day]

Couldn't agree more David. I love it when the custy will say "Wow, it looks brand new again!"

I have to scrape my head through the door sometimes , it swells up that much

[gary hall]

Don,t worry mate - as the great John Lennon said
life is something that happens to us whilst  we make plans
Tommorow is another day - keep going, those carpet sneed you lol

[richy27]

Sienna Miller was by far the best day i have ever had

[David Rogers]

Sienna was ok but I found Cameron Diaz tipped a bit more... 

[fitz2kleen]

I always get a huge buzz at the end results.... look on it as improving peoples standard of living.
the wow factor is great for moral boost.

[clinton]

Think sometime we forget how lucky we are as i mean some have to go to work for a company that will want 8 solid hours of hard graft with a boss looking over his shoulder at you lol.

Yep i like meeting plenty of new people too and as the above post said its nice to see an end result..

[wayne zabel]

Having worked in a factory producing print,stood in front of machines for hours on end and now trying to make a go as a Carpet Cleaner - go full time next week -I know which job I would rather be doing.

Every day different,meet new people all the time,great buzz on doing a good job,buzz when customers are happy,no one telling you what to do and giving you crap (except maybe when you have rare cock up)

[wynne jones]

Think sometime we forget how lucky we are as i mean some have to go to work for a company that will want 8 solid hours of hard graft with a boss looking over his shoulder at you lol.

Yep i like meeting plenty of new people too and as the above post said its nice to see an end result..

Everyone has bad days, but on the whole you got it made when you are established. How many other jobs do you get paid on the day, meet (mostly) interesting people and finish by two if you want or work your arse of and buy a new Skyline for CASHHHH.

[Ian Gourlay]

My biggest weakness is I do three distikley diffrent things.

It started that way to ensure I have an income

But it does stop me being bored.