No, not a full time carpet cleaner, although I have been cleaning carpets for over 6 years ( 8 I think ) my main business is unfortunately commercial contract cleaning, which I hate, hence my 3rd venture into carpet cleaning on my own.
The image I portray to my customers is professional, even with a small Ninja, to them it is a big professional machine, it is to me too! The biggest mistake that a lot of carpet cleaners make with their marketing is they market to other carpet cleaners, not their customers. Sorry to tell you but a high majority of your customers have no idea what a truck mount machine is, let alone the difference between Hyramaster 3.2 and a Ninja 135psi. Every customer I have comments on my 'big' machine, don't forget 9 times out of 10 it is being compared to a Vax.
I have only had my Ninja for a couple of months and bought a van as well at the same time. In that short time they have both paid for themselves which is pretty good going but I cannot justify the expense of a truck mount at the momment, the girlfriend would never agree for starters as much as I would love one.
I accept they are more powerful and on the whole are capable of doing a better job with the extra psi and vac's they have, don't agree though that they portray a more professional image to the ordinary folk on the street. I would like to have a truck mount and if I stick at this and I get the volumn of work I will buy one, just for the ease of it more than anything else, I lose half an hour on every job dragging and carrying the Ninja around, but time is a luxuary I do have at the moment, I'm happy with one or two customers a day, it is all profit for me as apart from the paperwork and dealing with staff I do little else during the day, and I can assure you cleaning carpets is far more appealing than the hassle and stress of running a cleaning company.
I've heard of John Gotts, he used to write on here many years ago, what happened to him?