Meet Nathaniel Lemieux | Carpet Cleaning, Carpet Repair, Air Duct Cleaning, Flood damage, Tile and Grout cleaning, and more.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nathaniel Lemieux and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nathaniel, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I really never wanted to be a business owner. I know! Sounds crazy enough. I have been in the Carpet Cleaning business for over 23 years and a business owner starting around 2014. I really watched a lot of businesses thrive and also take many hardships. I saw a lot of business owners struggle in many ways and found it heartbreaking but also a bit concerning to ever think about running my own business. After so many years of being in the industry, I was blessed to factually go to school for multiple trades such as Carpet cleaning, Flood damage, Upholstery cleaning, Carpet repair and more. It was starting to come to a point that I knew more than most of the business owners and started to develop my own ways of selling and factually making sure the jobs were done at a higher level with bigger and better ideas. I had a lot of practice in the field not only with the clients, but the work itself and was coming up with my own methods of bettering not only myself, but the industry as a whole. I would always tell myself there was a better way to sell without selling at all and also better ways to use the equipment and especially the mixtures of chemicals. I really had a great sense of running a business but had zero ownership skills in the fact of crunching the numbers for a business as a whole. I was an amazing manager for multiple companies but was really the backbone of customer service and the work itself. I was terrified to start my own business, especially without a lot of money. I think that’s the toughest part to starting a business. Just having the confidence that I can do it.

What should our readers know about your business?
Opening my business was at the absolute worst time ever. I had just bought a home and was under extreme stress to keep a steady income going. It was to a point that I was having a hard time staying with a company. Most of my work at the time was subcontracting to other businesses and mainly helping them organize and train not only the employees, but the business owners also into new ideas. It seemed once the companies were steady, I was let go due to the fact I was the most expensive part of their teams. Most of these companies thought they had it down packed to find themselves calling me back to take my old job back training everyone. It was not as easy as I made it for them as they thought. This was getting old very fast and was not a steady income at some points. It was tough on my soul to be extremely good at something and really not have a complete future with other companies in this industry. I was very close to learning a whole new career but every time I thought about it, my passion was the carpet cleaning Industry.

I was a very rare person in the carpet cleaning industry (easiest way to describe) but I had other major talents. Early in my career I was also doing flood jobs for the apartment industry. It was easy to rip things apart and to dry them down. Only problem was, there were not good teachers on how to repair the carpets and put things back together. Doing carpet repairs alone is a very tough trade to learn. It can be hard work and very scary in the fact if you mess it up, you could be buying the carpet you are trying to fix. I had a manager that showed me a few things in a forceful way because nobody would or could do that type of work that was working for the company at the time. I struggled for many years while getting slowly better and better to repair very damaged carpets. It came to a point in some cases that anything would look better than nothing. This kinda helped in the fact I did not have to be so perfect in the apartment industry carpet repairs so to speak. It gave me a chance to make lots of mistakes but also enough room to make some of the repairs acceptable vs practicing carpet repairs on  someones very expensive carpet in the home. I was hurting myself often by not knowing all of the tools that the whole industry offered as a factual carpet installer. A real example of this was using a knee kicker only to stretch carpet. I would walk away with major pains to the knees and body not knowing there was a better way to get the jobs done better and even faster.

Over the years, I went out of my way to try carpet installing with a few people looking for helpers as a side job. I would watch these amazing, hard working guys and take bits and pieces from each one to develop my own Ideas and skill sets to the companies I worked for. I finally was shown a power stretcher. This changed the whole ball game to doing factual real restretching without so much pain. This tool is basically a carpet car jack ( how I explain it ) and took using a knee kicker out of the equation. A knee kicker for carpet is not really used to install or even stretch carpet. Its not an industry standard nor would a manufacture accept this for a warranty installation.  I wish someone would have shown me how to use this tool and told me this from the start. LOL. I absolutely hated carpet repairs. Again, I had no real steady teachers and I did not want to be a carpet installer because of the lack of skill set. It is amazing I even stayed with it for as long as I did. As they say, a carpet installer does not want to be a repair person and a carpet repair person does not want to be a carpet installer. This makes it very tough alone to find the right person for the right job.

I ended up working for a bigger and more high profile company later on and they asked if I did carpet repairs as most companies did. I was a bit hesitant to say yes until they told me they paid 40% to that person. That was basically $40.00 an hour  ($100.00 an hour to the company) and right there and then I said, ‘ Yes…. I’m a really good carpet repair guy’. I did not know I could really make a good living doing carpet repairs like that because I started in the apartment industry with very low pay. I was blown away that I was able to make that much money doing something I kinda hated. Over another period of time, I just kept getting better and better. The more I really learned the tools and trade, it became easier and easier. I really wish there was an easier way to learn this industry vs trial and error but, I started to make a better career out of just carpet repairs alone. I always had a job when there was no carpet cleanings or floods to do. This was a huge push for me opening my own business. I was a very rare person knowing how to repair carpets and I started to realize I could do this on my own.

Over the years of going to school and practicing my craft with other companies, I developed many secret trade Ideas in the carpet cleaning and carpet repair industry. I opened my company with new ways of marketing faster, using chemicals in a different and better way while learning to sell without selling at all. I was extremely excited to bring all of these real and successful ideas to my own business. The biggest thing that helped me right away was knowing how to market to the right people and companies right off the bat. I was already doing this for the companies I worked for in the past and this alone kept my business going from day one. I did use Homeadvisor and Angies list for one huge reason. I needed backing to my Ideas and to prove they were real. I won Best Carpet Repair and Cleaning company from both Angies and Homeadvisor my first year and was able to use this as leverage to other businesses and clients I was going after. It was very hard work and using a platform like them is tough in many ways. Not only Financially, but keeping every client happy also. I walked away with these awards for several years and it got easier and easier to get bigger clients with these powerful ideas and awards. It’s to a point now, I don’t even market.

I’m extremely proud of my business for so many reasons. Not only do I have incredible services, but each one is so unique in how we do it. I’m also extremely affordable for anyone to use and we do not use any up-sales or tricks to our clients. I have always promised to give a very high quality job for affordable prices and never once have had to use an up sale to stay in business. I cannot say how proud I am of that alone. There are over 600 carpet cleaning businesses ( Less or More ) in most phone books across the country, pending on what city you live in. It can be very tough to find a real, honest and good company with so many competitors. To still be in business with so much competition says a lot about the quality and affordability my company brings. What really changed my whole career and even life was how bad this industry is. There is no one saying you are doing it right or wrong. There is certification you can achieve showing you have an Idea of what is going on but that does not mean you are good at this type of work or even safe.

There are so many fly by night companies doing extremely dangerous and bad work in people’s homes. I’m not going to drag on this topic but, it will give an Idea of how important it is to find the right company to carpet clean and repair your home. My biggest hope and why I have stayed in the industry so long is to help bring some education back to the clients. My biggest example of this is, most companies do an apartment type of carpet cleaning. They put shampoos into their water lines to get in and out of people’s homes faster. The problem with this alone is it’s not residue free and is very harmful to not only the carpets, but the people living there also. Examples of this would be. I have seen peoples pets factually chew their paws off, literally, from the chemicals burning their skin. You have to think about how many children go to the doctors for skin disorders and never once think about how the carpets were cleaned. Over 80% of the carpet cleaning companies out there use this style of cleaning and again, I have factually seen this happen a few times. I have even had to clean these areas up with massive amounts of blood on the flooring while pets are at the vet trying to stay alive. This alone not only broke my heart but made me want to learn better ways of using these dangerous chemicals to a better level. A Neutral and safe level in peoples homes.

We expect companies that we pay to be the best, professional and honest and I can say, that is not what happens in this industry. It’s filled with fake up-sales and people that have zero clue how to use the equipment and chemicals right. I’m extremely proud of how we clean peoples carpets and how safe and effective my process is. I think it’s important again to educate the public on how to ask the right questions to other carpet cleaning companies and what to look for. Carpet cleaning is one of the most important parts to your home for so many reasons. Another big one would be to uphold your warranty on new carpets. To keep your family and pets safe. To keep this carpet in your home longer. I have always been excited to teach and to just see someone smile from a good job. I cannot get enough of that and this alone drives me to educate myself into better ideas, chemicals and equipment. I will always be on a mission to make this industry better.

Now going back to the start of this topic. There will never be a good time to open a business. There will never be enough money. There will never be enough time. There will always be doubts. There will always be someone saying you can’t do it that way. There will always be major competition. My advice will be to just start. Anywhere. Anytime. Learn to accept failure as a positive. Learn to take these failures to know what not to do the next time. Always be honest with yourself to be honest with your clients. Always be proud of your product and services. Most of all. Be a friend not only to your clients, but yourself. Its ok to say good job to yourself once in a while. Learn to take failure to learn what not to do the next time. You are the only one to take the chance to make something into nothing.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Places to go In Colorado Springs and more: 1. Garden of the Gods
2. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
3. United States Air Force Academy
4. Red Rock Canyon
5. Olympic Training Center
6. Pikes Peak
7. Cave of The Winds

Food:
1. Ambli Global Cuisine
2. Carlos’ Bistro
3. Cowboy Star
4. Marigold Cafe & Bakery
5. The Steakhouse at Flying Horse
6. The Warehouse
7. Guadalajara Family Mexican Restaurant

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are so many people, companies, class instructors, family and more to thank. I would be here forever saying thank you to each and everyone of them. Its been a very long journey to be where I’m at and running my own business. My biggest thanks would go to my parents David Lemieux and Jacque Lemieux. I lost my father this year and have always just wanted to make both of my parents proud. My Dad was a huge inspiration to always be honest and to never be afraid to work hard. My Mother is just as big of an influence to be the best person I can be, especially in business. They both helped me buy my first carpet cleaning van. My other biggest shoutout would be my Wife Jenna Lemieux. She has always stood behind me through the very tough times and the very good times. She has been one of my biggest supporters and also my biggest encouragement to keep going.

Website: http://absolutefloorsandmore.com/

Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/absolutefloor1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AbsoluteFloorsandMoreLLC/?ref=page_internal

Other: HomeAdvisor: https://www.homeadvisor.com/rated.AbsoluteFloorsMoreLLC.55914554.html

Image Credits
Jennifer Lemieux