I must say that the challener sounds like an awesome machine. However I have a few questions about the whole process before i spend 2K on the package.

1. How many pads does it take to clean an average house? Lets say an average house in my area has 1,000 sq. feet of carpet.

2. How many "average" homes can you clean with the cleaning solution provided in the start up package?

3. What kind of warranty is offered with the challenger?

4. How much do you guys charge per square foot?

5. What is a realistic number of "average" homes to clean in an 8 hour work day?

Thanks in advamce for all the help.

Hi Dustin
Let me take your questions one at a time:
1. Pads per average house. You probably won't get 1000 s.f. every time, even if this is the sq. footage of the house. Some of the house might be wood floors, tile, or carpet that won't be being cleaned during this particular visit. Let's say they want 500 sq. ft. done, and a flight of stairs, a job that I would bill at about $240. If this house's carpet is only lightly soiled, you may use just a few pads. Heavily soiled? Maybe a dozen. More possibly. It's always good to carry an extra 10 or 20 pads with you as backup.

2. A gallon of concentrate should clean around 10,000 s.f. of carpet. At my own sq. ft. rate of 40 cents, that would generate about $4000. Not bad for a gallon you pay between $18 and $25 for.

3. There is a 1-year warranty on the motor. There is also a 30-day "return it for any reason" tryout period .

4. I charge .40 per s.f. of wall-to-wall; $1/s.f. for most area rugs; and $3.60 per stair (about $40 for a flight of stairs). In some areas, you might want to charge a little less than I do here in the high-cost Boston market.

5. I frequently have 3 appointments during a standard working day. Yesterday I did one commercial job, with 2 helpers. The job grossed about $2200 for 4.5 hours of work. My help cost me $200. I used 2 of the larger format Orbitec CX-20 orbital machines, that you might want to acquire later, after first building your business a little with a Challenger.

Mark,

Thank you for all of the great information. I really do appreciate it. I know very little about starting a carpet cleaning business, but the more i learn the more excited i get about this new venture. Carpet cleaning sounds like it has the potential to be a very lucrative business to get into, especially since I will be using the Challenger. I don't know of any local companies that offer this method. I believe the Challenger will provide my company with a huge advantage over my competitors.

I do have another question for you and I hope I am not asking too much. I am in the process of drawing up my business plan (so that i can obtain an investor to fund my start-up costs) and wondering if you would recommend any books or software to aid in this process? I think that's it for now and Thank You again for your help.

Dustin

There is a website - www.startupnation.com - that might have helpful info. If you are near a Borders or Barnes & Noble bookstore, check out their bookshelves labelled "Small Business" or Entrepreneurial Books" or something like that.