Your central vacuum has functionability beyond your wildest dreams. If fact this was the number one rated feature that a recent survey of ours found. It is simply so easy to use and thus people clean more often and therefore have cleaner homes. Here are a few ideas we’ve heard over the years:

Bloodless fly swatter: Think about it, a fly or moth gets in the house: you hate to smoosh it on the wall or counter; so get out the central vacuum and eliminate that intruder!

Vacuum sealing device: Do you want to store pillows or blankets or winter jackets? Put them in an air tight plastic bag along with the vacuum nozzle and turn the vacuum on to evacuate the air. Pull the nozzle out at the end and seal the bag and they are far more compact and protected.

Raft/matress inflator: If your central vacuum unit has a good filtration system (not a cyclonic unit) then you can take a funnel to the exhaust and use it to fit into your inflatable mattress and then turn the vacuum on. Sure, you may have to awkwardly hold the neck up to the exhaust but it will only take 20-30 seconds to inflate a queen size mattress!

Ant invasion eliminator: Ant invasions are a major breach of homeland security! How dare those pests invade your castle in the middle of the night and proliferate your countertops! You don’t want to spray a chemical all over your kitchen and it would take a few days to get the exterminator out to your home. If you try to smoosh them with a rag they smell the blood of their fallen comrades and they scatter. So simply vacuum them up with your central vacuum hose and they won’t know that their buddies have been eliminated. The first bend in the system kills them instantly and they can’t crawl back through the pipes. Eventually you will find the source of where they are breaching into your home and put some chemicals in that small location or use “Grant Ant Stakes” at that point.

For more tips and tricks visit our www.builtinvacuum.com website.

It amazes me how many people absolutely love their central vacuum. I think this is the reward I find for being in the industry for almost 30 years. I’m not just talking about our brand but almost all central vacuums. They truly make your life easier. Face it, cleaning your home is one of your least favorite activities. It is a necessity of life; so why not enjoy it!
When I put my first vacuum system in my parent’s home in 1977 I was so amazed with the product. Sure my own product facinated me and I would often do the vacuuming. I was only 18 and maybe a little weird, but I actually enjoyed vacuuming. Maybe it’s that provider, protector instinct, but I loved going near something and watching it get sucked away. It became a challenge. I can almost chock it up to a “power tool syndrome” that makes me want to use a power tool to accomplish a project.
So our marketing dilema at MD Mfg is how to get more people excited about vacuuming.What are the hot buttins that make them just want to whip out their vacuum and start sucking? Maybe we could turn it into an olympic sport or provide some reward to those who have the top 1% cleanest homes in the world. What is it that makes people desire to properly clean their home?
We would love your thoughts….

The management of a company can either make or break it. Seeing MD has been around for almost 45 years, we have obviously done a few things correctly. In the early days Charlie Emdy managed the family business quite easily because it never reached beyond immediate family members. His son Wayne took over in 1971 and employed a different strategy with a very tight management style striving to squeeze every second out of every process. I learned under Wayne and loved challenging myself to beat pre-established time goals. This concept was passed on to a number of our staff members as well. Chris Mercado in our tool and die division learned under Charlie and Wayne and set the pace for the rest of our manufacturing staff.

But Wayne’s limitations could only go as far as the number of people he could directly manage. This methodology had to be passed on to the next generation and the next level of employees for MD to be able to grow. Each division had to take ownership of their own performance to make them effective as possible. This is where trust comes in. One of our main hiring characteristics we screen for is trust. If we cannot trust an employee or a manager, we cannot empower them to reach for goals that are beyond the simple.

Each and every employee must have a view of the big picture as well as their own divisional goals; from the receptionist to the CEO. Without a direction, our company would not have one tenth the success we have been able to obtain. But the underlying foundation to management will remain “trust.” Managers are trusted to provide accurate and timely information. Project teams are trusted to have researched issues fully before presenting them before our board meetings, and the IT department is trusted to implement software in the best conceivable fashion after consulting with departments involved. Sure we try to review over information before implementing anything new but we do it with a level of trust believing that the employee or team did the best they could within the bounds of the assignment. This simply challenges each employee to do a better job each and every time.

Remember when your father or mother first trusted you to walk or ride your bike to the store alone. You returned to show them that you did exactly what you said you would do and they then wanted to trust you even more? This same trust principle applies to management. Misplaced trust and trustless superiors can destroy companies as well.

For all our dealers, take this to heart. Work on integrity with your employees and take special notes on trust. Encourage, reward, and recognize it. It will revolutionize your company.