Today we’d like to introduce you to Alec Houle.
Alec, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
As the age of 13, I started working for my neighbor who owned a cleaning company. I worked for him till I was in college as well as working other jobs as well. While in college, I started doing some jobs on my own, mainly commercial contracts, since I could do them nights and on weekends. In 1970, I officially formed my company and for the next 25 years did predominately commercial work involving carpet cleaning with some upholstery cleaning. Commercial contracts I handled ranged from the Boston Gardens, the Four Seasons Hotel as well as retail chains including Almys, Sears and Bradlees store from Maine to New York. Unfortunately, due to the hours of my operation, my typical week was 120 hours or so. In the late 90’s, in order to cut back on the hours I was putting in, I decided, to eliminate the majority of my commercial contracts and specialize in the residential market, with myself handling high end clients that were referred to us through management companies at high end residences like The Four Seasons Condo’s, The Heritage, Rowes Warf and other upscale residences throughout Boston as well as many of Boston’s top interior designers.
I currently do not do any more of the physical work today, being in my late 60’s but do over see the business and continue doing research on all the latest products and techniques as well as an ongoing training program with all our employees in order for them to be confident in providing the highest level of customer service possible. All of our sales growth has come from referrals and repeat clients.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I believe in most cases, building a business never smooth. You experience growing pains and learning from your mistakes while trying to hone in on what type of market you really want to go after. Learning all about employees, their needs and how to best select them since they are the ones representing your business is a major issue. So from, financial to employment issues as well as making decisions and investments in your business that will help you achieve your goals while still trying to educate yourself and your staff in all facets of your trade. This is never done within a 40 hour week either. Anyone who has built a business will tell you the same. You live and breathe it day and night.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Alec’s Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning LLC story. Tell us more about the business.
Today we provide mainly services related to carpets and upholstery. From cleaning wall to wall carpets in clients’ homes as well as upholstery to the cleaning of Oriental and custom made rugs in our plant. We also clean things like outdoor upholstery to fabric walls in homes. Another service we provide is the application of stain protective treatments to both carpets and upholstery. This has become a very important consideration today when you are dealing with many of the high end fabrics today that are extremely sensitive and do much better by eliminating stains from ever penetrating these fabrics.
We are most likely best known for the high quality and reliability of our service as well as being extremely reasonable in our pricing. Over the years we have been the sole company that many management companies at high end residences would recommend. We have also had our company feature in House & Gardens Magazine, The Boston Globe and Boston Magazine for our expertise and knowledge as well as our quality of service.
Being involved in the actual cleaning for over 50 years, there are few people that could ever come close the amount of hands on hours and experience and to this day, there isn’t a week that goes by that I haven’t done research on problems or issues that face not only my company but others in our industry as well as others that contact me from not only around the United States but even last week, I helped a lady resolve an issue she was having with her upholstery from Saskatchewan Canada. With all my experience, I love it when I can be helpful and pass on my knowledge.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I really don’t think luck has played any part of my business. I believe especially a business providing customer service must be driven by a passion to succeed and to be the best you can be in order to prosper. Lots of thinking and lots of hard work.
Contact Info:
- Address: 659 Richard Fitts Drive
Abington, Ma 02351 - Website: http://www.Alecscarpetcleaning.com
- Phone: 781-871-1415
- Email: Alec@Alecscarpetcleaning.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100014801460708
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