Caught Red-Handed

Before I update you on Carfagno Cleaning and how I got caught red-handed, I need to share a lesson I learned in New York. It's called "Get Your Chad". Chad is the owner of Elite Vacuum in Clifton Park, NY. I purchased 2 backpack vacuums from Chad over a 6 year period and bought vacuum bags too. I used Chad's services for vacuum tune-ups. I partnered with this store to keep my machines running effectively. I wanted to avoid the curse of MDT (Machine Down Time). It's horrible and you lose so much money when your machine stops functioning. I invested into Chad and he invested into me. Because of my loyalty, I could call Chad anytime I had a vacuum question and he would help me think through it. If my machine needed quick service, I could stop by and Chad would drop what he was doing, throw it on the bench, and fix it for me. I was so thankful to have this working relationship with Chad that I taught it to solo cleaners in my early days of coaching.

You probably guessed where this is going! I moved away from New York and away from Chad. I never got a new Chad. It's dumb, but easily explained. I didn't want to grow another cleaning business in PA. Plus, I bought a brand new Mosquito Carbon Lite backpack in April 2018 that would last forever. If you haven't guessed, do you know now? Due to the nature of my work, house cleaning requires me to run the vacuum for an hour 3 times per day on house cleaning days. This does not tax the machine. When I clean offices with my kids, we clean 5 offices back-to-back and I'm vacuuming most of the day. That machine runs for at least 8 hours! After cleaning the last vet on Saturday, I noticed that the power switch stuck a bit. I also noticed it was very warm. This triggered memories. First of all, my wire has been very hot after long use and especially the metal prongs. Secondly, I remember past backpack power switches sticking a few times before it failed. A power switch failure means MDT and hello Chad. I was nervous and then forgot about it since I wasn't cleaning again for 5 days. At my first home, the vacuum power switch stuck and was warm. I remembered the vet from Saturday. At the second house, the switch stuck bad and I almost lost power completely. It was hot. Then I frantically looked for my new Chad between house #2 and #3. I found one. His name is Clint from CJ Miller Vacuum. Clint and I had a great conversation and I felt encouraged to visit their store with my vacuum. Ultimately, I decided not to risk overheating my vacuum or worse, seizing up my motor. I rescheduled the third house and went to meet Clint.

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website