BSCs Add Lucrative Upholstery Cleaning Services

While many building service contractors provide carpet cleaning services, just a fraction of contractors also clean upholstery. Both services utilize similar equipment; BSCs not offering to clean cubicle partitions and office furniture are leaving money on the table.

“Only 35 percent of professional carpet cleaners clean furniture, so it’s a very wide open field, providing an excellent opportunity for contractors to expand their businesses and be profitable,” says Craig Jasper, vice president of the IICRC, which provides education and certification in upholstery cleaning. “The market out there is tremendous.”

Offering both carpet and upholstery cleaning is a logical pairing that can stand to make contractors a lot of money, says Bill Yeadon, training director for Jon-Don, Roselle, Ill.

“We will fill up a classroom for a course on carpet cleaning, but if we were to do another class the next week on upholstery cleaning, we might get one-third the amount of people,” says Yeadon.

Upholstery cleaning can intimidate even the most ambitious BSCs because of the additional education and training required to do the job. But don’t let fear of the unknown get in the way of the positives that come from adding a service line, Yeadon says. BSCs who want to take their service offerings to the next level stand to benefit from learning about the best equipment and tools for the job and becoming certified in upholstery cleaning.