It's not easy starting from scratch, even if you have almost two decades of business experience under your belt.

That's what Daniel Rodriguez, president of Albuquerque-based DanCare Carpet Cleaning Inc., found out last year after launching his own company, following a 16-year partnership with cousin Richard Wright.

The pair, who had launched D&R Carpet Cleaning Inc. when barely out of high school, agreed in 2001 that it was time to part ways. It couldn't have been a better breakup: The two split everything, from employees to office assets to customer lists, right down the middle. Using his share, Wright went on to start Dr. Carpet Cleaning, while Rodriguez began DanCare in early 2002.

Still, Rodriguez, like Wright, was working with only half of what he used to have: half the staff, half the equipment, half the customer base.

Meanwhile, he had signed a five-year lease on a 2,500-square-foot office/warehouse space off Jefferson where he intended to house his new business, thus increasing his overhead. And he was also starting his endeavor during winter -- the height of the industry's slow season.

The business needed to get up and running -- and quickly. It did.

By rapidly employing innovative advertising strategies, customer discounts and promotional programs -- not to mention investing time and energy toward keeping old customers while gaining new ones -- DanCare Carpet Cleaning, in 18 months' time, has increased its customer base to nearly 78 percent of its prior capacity under the old business.

That should increase to a full 100 percent by October, Rodriguez, 36, predicts. The company declined to release annual revenues.

"We were setting the foundation to have a bigger company," he says of his start-up plans. "We felt real confident we'd do fine."

That success has come at a price. Rodriguez' wife, Julie, who is the company's vice president and bookkeeper, estimates initial start-up costs ran about $25,000 -- which mostly came from credit cards and equity from their house.

The money paid for everything from new stationary to logo development, plus signage, computer systems and software, payroll, lettering for its three vans, plus other costs.

It was also used toward a down-payment on their building, which Rodriguez financed through the property owner (as part of their deal, Wright took D&R's tax I.D. number, which meant Rodriguez' company was considered brand-new -- and a high risk in the eyes of a bank).

About $2,000 of their start-up costs were dedicated to probably the most important part of their launch: contacting old customers.

"We just deluged them with material," says Linda Carlson, the company's office manager and Rodriguez' mother-in-law.

DanCare sent out notices to all of its customers -- the cousins had split all of their residential clients equally, and divvied up the commercial accounts by dollar amount -- informing them of the new name.

Each client also got a refrigerator magnet emblazoned with the moniker, and a business card.

DanCare also covered its bases with its phone system so neither Rodriguez nor Wright would lose business during the transition. For a year, DanCare kept the old D&R number active in case clients hadn't heard of the name change.

When they'd call, a DanCare receptionist would look up the client's name in a database; if it was someone who had been assigned to Wright's list, the call would be forwarded to him. If not, it was taken by DanCare, which also had a separate line dedicated to new DanCare customers.

"It made it very equitable that way," Carlson says.

Carlson, who worked for 20 years in direct mail and marketing for a non-profit, also helped the company step up its public profile. She created a simple newsletter with short, general-interest feature stories; recipes, promotions, contests and factoids, then mailed it out to the company's 650 residential customers.

The mailing now goes out quarterly to almost 1,100 people.

The business, additionally, launched a referral program that would offer service discounts for passing along the DanCare name.

"We decided to attack the [customer] base we had by having them help us," Rodriguez says.

Customers who refer others get mentioned in the newsletter -- at least 16 people are listed quarterly -- and can qualify for occasional prizes, like spa treatments. And the business also started sending thank you notes, reminder postcards and personalized letters to clients.

"We really stay in touch with our customers," Carlson says.

Rodriguez also did his part. The owner invited all of his former commercial clients, largely consisting of apartment managers and maintenance supervisors, to lunch so he could tell them about the new company. He also made the rounds, stopping in at businesses and properties he hadn't yet worked with, to land new accounts.

Tony McConaghy, owner of Albuquerque-based Shamrock Supply, a janitorial and carpet supply company, has known Rodriguez since the mid-1980s. He's not surprised by DanCare's success. "He's never been afraid to work. He's very professional," McConaghy says of Rodriguez. "There's nobody in this business I respect more. I feel very confident recommending [DanCare] to any of my friends."

DanCare's beginnings are far different from what Rodriguez and Wright were working with when they launched D&R Carpet Cleaning in 1986.

Back then, the men were students at Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute where they were studying land surveying, a trade career that never panned out for either. Instead, the pair decided to start their own carpet cleaning business after Wright picked up the experience working for a local company one summer.

Working from their homes, the cousins invested $2,500 in an industrial-strength carpet cleaning machine they hauled around in the trunk of Rodriguez' 1977 Cougar.

They were so afraid clients wouldn't take them seriously, they'd park around back of a business before approaching a manager at the front door.

Cultivating a growing list of contracts, the company incorporated in 1997. By the end of 2001, it had seven employees, operated out of a warehouse, and had 1,500 residential clients and about 40 commercial ones, although the latter brought in the bulk of the company's revenues.

Still, by that time, the men were ready for a change. They split the company evenly and amicably, and went their separate ways. That's not so unusual.

Only about 30 percent of all family-owned businesses survive into the second generation, and 12 percent will be viable into the third generation, according to the Family Business Forum, based at the University of North Carolina-Asheville.

Today, both are doing well. Wright's company, the smaller of the two, still handles both commercial and residential carpet cleaning accounts.

Rodriguez, meanwhile, plans to keep expanding. After reaching his client goal this fall, he'll start buying more vans to increase his service potential. "I don't want to rush it," he says. "I figure if I can get one van a year, and keep it busy, we're doing great."