An e-mail from a reader and he's right:

In your "Unusual month" post on December 21, 2012 you write, "This unusual December has five Saturdays, five Sundays and five Mondays. I wasn't around the last time to verify this, but supposedly it only happens once every 824 years" You have fallen for a common internet hoax. There is nothing unusual about a month with 5 Saturdays, 5 Sundays and 5 Mondays; it is nothing more than a 31 day month that begins on a Saturday. There is one almost every year, see for example October 2011 (though no months in 2013 will have this property). If you mean December specifically, it previously happened in 1984, 1990, 2001 and 2007, and will happen again in 2018 and 2029.

Best regards,
Edward Curtis, Morgantown, WV

Thanks Ed; I stand corrected and should have checked the e mail I got with that info. Your comment is much appreciated and I sure hope I'm around for the next one in 2018. Notice in an effort to play CYA, at least I said "supposedly." Bill.

©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2012 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.

I'd like to hear your comments on this article.
Please e-mail me at wfbane@baneclene.com.

Thomas Jefferson said this in 1802

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

Look at the shenanigans going on in the banking industry, with their huge bonuses, fat balance sheets, lack of loans for small business and their interest in foreign affairs. Old Tom hit the nail right on its ugly head. They got in trouble over greedy real estate loans and were bailed out because they were too big to fail. In their gluttony for TARP money, they totally ignored small business, the backbone of American commerce.

And therein lies the problem. Turbo Tax® Tim came from the IMF and the Fed system to be Treasury Secretary. Any surprise the banks got treated so nice? Big banks have for more than a hundred years been primarily interested in international affairs and specifically how they could position themselves to control the world's money with one currency. It took more than 200 years, but with the recent antics of the Federal Reserve, it may come to fruition soon.

Geithner was a CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) puppet who favors one-world currency. No telling what the new guy will do, but this old naval term sums it up best; "Stand by for a ram!"

©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2012 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.

I'd like to hear your comments on this article.
Please e-mail me at wfbane@baneclene.com.

Second class citizens

I received this question in an e-mail from a customer about Surfaces:

"Why don't you participate at Surfaces any longer? I'm from California and Surfaces gave me a chance to see you without making that long trip to Indianapolis."

Our company started going to Surfaces in Las Vegas in the early days and took part in it for ten consecutive years. The first few years we enjoyed good locations on the main floor with all of the big mills and major events. Then a genius tagged us as a peripheral industry and decided that we should be relegated to the basement with its crowded conditions and low ceilings.

They argued that anyone who was interested in carpet cleaning would come down to the lower level to find us. My contention was that we got to see a lot of people on the upper level who weren't necessarily thinking about carpet cleaning when they stumbled onto us. Some of our very best contacts were made at those early shows on the upper level.

The cleaning industry has always been treated like the proverbial stepchild by the carpet mills. They tolerate us, but they feed us in the kitchen while the rest of the family is in the dining room. My son Don says the only thing that really gets someone's attention is to close the check book. Our complaints fell on deaf ears so we simply stopped going to surfaces.

©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2012 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.

I'd like to hear your comments on this article.
Please e-mail me at wfbane@baneclene.com.

More numbers

Initial jobless claims increased to 372,000 in the week ended December 29, 2012. This weekly report has consistently run between 350,000 and 425,000 newly unemployed people every week for the past few years. You'd never know this was bad news by watching the talking heads on TV who tout the stock market. They do everything but sing "Happy days are here again" because the economy added 215,000 private sector jobs in the month of December.

Let's see, four weeks of newly unemployed at about 350,000 per week is about 1,400,000. That's 215,000 new jobs for about 1,400,000 newly unemployed. There hasn't been such joyous news since the Roosevelt administration outlawed owning gold during the great depression. Maybe a sign of the times is the new TV commercial offering genuine, new $2 bills for only $10. Who says the deficit can't be fixed?

On a serious note, this may be a preview of things to come. Every time the Fed prints money, our currency is worth less. And by the way, does anyone believe that phony 7.8% unemployment number they've been talking about since just before the election? Counting those who have quit looking for work or may be drawing unemployment compensation, working for cash and paying no taxes, I'd bet the real number of unemployed is more than 25%.

©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2012 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.

I'd like to hear your comments on this article.
Please e-mail me at wfbane@baneclene.com.

Gulistan® hangs it up

In a letter to its employees, Gulistan® Carpets announced it was filing bankruptcy and closing its Aberdeen and Wagram, North Carolina plants. According to the letter, the company made "substantial efforts" over the past few years to restructure its debts and to continue to operate and postpone the shutdown. Those efforts, the letter states, "have been unsuccessful to date." The plant closings will result in the layoff of 395 employees.

Meanwhile, the Dixie Group announced it is taking over some of the Stainmaster® products produced by Gulistan and will market them through its Dixie Home division. According to Floor Focus, Dixie is not purchasing any Gulistan assets, only the rights to the Stainmaster products, which will be produced by Dixie after a transition period. Dixie Group's CEO, Dan Frierson, said the products will give them a more complete Stainmaster product line.

Hooray for Dixie! Stainmaster is about the greatest thing that happened to the carpet industry since tufting in the view of this old carpet cleaner. But now there are rumors that some mills are going to market polyester products under the Stainmaster brand instead of the traditional 6,6 nylon. If this is true, my opinion may change.

©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2012 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.

I'd like to hear your comments on this article.
Please e-mail me at wfbane@baneclene.com.

Pricing our services

Many people in our business have no idea how to establish profitable prices. Most new people in the industry survey the market area and simply try to beat the competitions’ prices. This is the wrong approach! More than fifty years in the cleaning business has given us proven methods for pricing our services. But when our price structure is discussed at Bane-Clene Institute, someone invariably says that their market just wouldn’t support such high prices. If we listened to the naysayers we'd believe that a dime a square foot or $10 a room was tops.

The first requisite for setting profitable prices is to justify that price to ourselves. If we look at our truck, will we be proud of it? Has it been washed lately? Are there remnants of last week’s lunch and empty pop cans on the floor? Is our truck well stocked with supplies and "plus sale" items? Is our cleaning equipment clean for presentation in a customer’s home? Is our uniform clean? Would the person we see in the mirror in our locker room instill confidence?

Have we kept up with technical changes? Can we explain the different fibers to our customers? If asked, can we define why our price is higher than $5.95 a room? Can we design a maintenance program for a large commercial account? When giving an estimate, do we write it on a scrap of paper or use a proposal form and professionally designed brochures and business cards to help explain the benefits of our services to our prospects?

A large part of our market selects a service provider because of what they offer and how they offer it, not on how much they charge. That part of the market is most desirable and profitable. It can be ours if we answer all of the above questions in a positive way. Then we can justify our price, not just to ourselves, but to our customers and our prospects, too.

©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2012 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.

I'd like to hear your comments on this article.
Please e-mail me at wfbane@baneclene.com.

Another comment

This poem was written by a teen age boy in Ohio about school shootings. It was sent to me in an e-mail by a reader:

Now as I sit me down in school,
where praying is against the rule.
For this nation once under God,
now finds His mention to be odd.

If it's Scripture the class recites,
that violates the Bill of Rights.
And anytime my head I bow,
becomes a Federal matter now.

Hair can be purple, orange or green,
that's okay cause it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific and the law is precise,

prayers spoken out loud are a serious vice.

Saying a prayer aloud in a public hall,
may offend someone with no faith at all.
Therefore in silence we must meditate.
Mentioning God is forbidden by the state.

They outlaw prayer, the manger and the Bible,
so quoting the Good Book will make me liable.
It's 'inappropriate' to teach right from wrong.
We're told such 'judgments' just don't belong.

We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
and pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.
We elect a pregnant girl Senior Queen,
and the 'unwed dad,' the year's top teen.

We can get our condoms and birth controls,
study witchcraft, vampires, even totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments aren't allowed.
The word of God mustn't reach this crowd.

It's scary here at school I must confess,
when chaos reigns the place is a mess.
So, Good Lord, this silent plea I make,
should I be shot, my soul please take!

Amen

©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2012 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.

I'd like to hear your comments on this article.
Please e-mail me at wfbane@baneclene.com.

We remember them when

Back in the '80s, "Unified Neighbors" started a consumer network in Indianapolis to grade service companies. They had a monthly newsletter and many of their members were very kind with recommendations for our service company. Angie’s List® purchased Unified Neighbors in the late '90s and has grown this unique idea to nearly a million members in hundreds of cities. Thousands of reports are submitted every month that describe projects and grade companies on response time, courtesy, price and especially on the quality of workmanship.

Bane-Clene’s service company in Indianapolis has received Angie’s List "Super Service Award" for 2012. We're very proud of this recognition and also were awarded this honor in ten previous years. The award is presented to companies that consistently maintain a superior service rating by Angie's List subscribers. Fewer than 5% of the companies mentioned on Angie’s List are eligible for this award and even fewer than that actually receive it. That makes it special.

The management and employees of Bane-Clene's service subsidiary are extremely proud and grateful for this prestigious award and extend our sincere appreciation along with our pledge to continue to earn the trust of Angie’s List and its many loyal patrons.

Thank you Angie’s List and congratulations. My, how you've grown!

©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2012 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.

I'd like to hear your comments on this article.
Please e-mail me at wfbane@baneclene.com.

Seal of Approval continues to grow

Has there ever been more bewilderment in the carpet industry? A recent press release by the CRI (Carpet and Rug Institute) boasts: "With the addition of four vacuums, six cleaning solutions, and one extractor, the Seal of Approval program has grown to a total of 928 products." That's nice! But in the same week this announcement was made, the number of approved professional CSPs (Certified Service Providers) plunged from 1,031 to 838. Ten years into the program, this number hardly shows industry support.

There are more than 40,000 professional carpet cleaning firms and about 60,000 janitorial type businesses that may be involved in cleaning carpets and rugs. A large number of commercial properties have their own in-house carpet cleaning operations. With fewer than 1,000 CSPs approved by the CRI, that means there's very little chance a consumer will have an approved service and some mills are tethering their warranties to the Seal of Approval program.

According to CRI’s press release and their list of CSPs, there are nearly one hundred more "approved" products than there are "approved" service providers. Pretty soon those "approved" products won't have enough "approved" service providers to apply all of them. Ah well! There's always the DIY market. They'll believe anything.

©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2012 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.

I'd like to hear your comments on this article.
Please e-mail me at wfbane@baneclene.com.

E-mail from a "reader" about a Ponsi scheme

Dear Sucker,

Everyone who pays into social security should resent politicians calling it an entitlement. The money I paid into my social security insurance, if conservatively invested, could have allowed me a comfortable living for the rest of my life. The crooks in Washington have pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than I ever could have dreamed up. They "borrowed" the money from my social security trust fund, put it in the general fund, spent it and never intended to repay it.

A few of the benefits the politicians voted for themselves are free healthcare, outrageous retirement packages, sixty-seven paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days and unlimited expense accounts. That's a classic example of political welfare, and they have the nerve to call the social security retirement fund I paid for an entitlement.

The government is "broke" and can't help seniors, veterans, orphans or the homeless. But, we send aid to Haiti, Chile and Pakistan where they found bin Laden and to many other countries that hate us for being successful. Retired seniors living on a fixed income receive no aid nor do they get any breaks while our government pours hundreds of billions of dollars and tons of food into foreign countries under the guise of charity!

Bernie Madoff

P.S. And these crooks had the audacity to lock me up. Let me out and I'll run for President in 2014. I am a professional and know how crooks operate. You have my solemn promise to clean up the mess in Washington.

Somehow I doubt this e-mail is really from Bernie, but the points are well taken.

©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2012 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.

I'd like to hear your comments on this article.
Please e-mail me at wfbane@baneclene.com.

Annual "ice melt" warning

Severe snows throughout the northern states means ice melt compounds will be used on streets, sidewalks and parking lots and will be tracked inside. These compounds are usually salt (sodium chloride) but in weather below zero calcium chloride is often used. Calcium chloride is exothermic (releases heat when it dissolves) and is effective even at minus 40 degrees F. It's great for melting ice but it creates problems for building maintenance people.

When it's tracked in, calcium chloride absorbs and holds moisture which makes walk off mats and hard floors wet and slippery. Calcium chloride reacts with the alkalinity of normal detergents used in extraction cleaning or mopping which converts the calcium chloride into calcium hydroxide (lime). Lime is almost completely insoluble in water and causes walk off mats, carpet and hard floors to take on a dull white appearance.

To remove calcium chloride from carpet or mats, add eight ounces of Brown Out^® to each gallon of clear water in the solution tank of your Bane-Clene^® base unit and extract the carpet or mats. The difficult-to-remove white discoloration will be easily removed. With equipment that is not stainless steel and may be harmed by the acid in Brown Out, spray an eight ounce per gallon solution on the fibers with a stainless or plastic sprayer, groom in and extract with clear water.

Be sure to thoroughly rinse your equipment and sprayers after using Brown Out.

©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2012 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.

I'd like to hear your comments on this article.
Please e-mail me at wfbane@baneclene.com.

Facebook pros and cons

Some people in our business are using Facebook as their advertising program. Several Bane-Clene operators have e-mailed me about less-than-satisfactory results. A recent BBB bulletin warns, "Before you spend money on this type of advertising you should understand the terms, definitions and conditions before giving them your credit card."

Your ads may appear with several different ads at the same time. Understand ad displays, what they're called, how they work and how they're presented. Policies on how many ads are shown at a time are subject to change. Every time an ad is displayed, Facebook calls it an "impression" or a chance for someone to see it. But that doesn't mean people are actually going to read it.

Facebook describes "reach" as those who meet the criteria selected for people whom you want to see the ad. If a reader clicks on the ad, Facebook reports the number of times as the CTR (the click through rate). This shows how many impressions it takes before a looker actually clicks on the ad. CTR is the number of clicks divided by the impressions.

Facebook also has "bid for clicks." This means you're charged only if a user clicks on the ad. It's too complicated to go into here and you need to study it before taking part. Apparently you're bidding against unknown advertisers and the higher you bid, the more likely it is your ad will be displayed. Be sure to get all of the details and understand them.

Here's something a friend in the publishing business sent me the other day. Click on the link below and think long and hard about the subject:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sThcwmx3rs

©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2012 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.

I'd like to hear your comments on this article.
Please e-mail me at wfbane@baneclene.com.

Donkey in the well

A farmer's donkey fell into a deep well and cried piteously as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. He decided since the animal was very old and the well was dry and needed to be covered anyway, he would just fill it in and bury the old donkey. The farmer began to shovel dirt down into the well. At first, the donkey cried horribly. But then he quieted down. The farmer looked down into the well and was astonished at what he saw.

When each shovel full of dirt hit the donkey's back, he would shake it off and take a step up. The farmer feverishly continued to shovel dirt onto the animal and the donkey continued to shake it off and take a step up each time. When the dirt pile reached the top of the old well the donkey stepped out and trotted off toward the pasture!

MORAL: Life is going to dump on us at times. The trick is to shake it off and take a step up. Look on each of our troubles as a steppingstone. Five suggestions for a happier life:

1. Free our hearts from hatred by forgiving those who trespass against us.
2. Free our minds from worries because most things we worry about never happen.
3. Live simply and appreciate what we have, especially those that are free.
4. Give more of ourselves and of what we have to those less fortunate.
5. Expect less from everyone else, but expect more from ourselves.

©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2012 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.

I'd like to hear your comments on this article.
Please e-mail me at wfbane@baneclene.com.