The economy is being killed across the usa dude, and it's not going to get any better for quite a while so save all your pennies. We haven't seen the bottom of the depression and believe me when I tell you it IS coming.
Carpets are the least of peoples concerns.
Everyones carpets are all dirty, but nobody can afford to pay to have them cleaned. The people who still own their homes are trying to just make ends meet to hold on to them, those that rent just don't give a crap.
Many houses sit empty owned by the banks now, but the banks aren't dumping them cheap and they're not putting any money in them either. Maybe if you switched to property maintenance instead of carpets and contracted for the banks...
I would think the money in carpet cleaning would be to relocate to disaster areas and subcontract for a local company. As tornados, flooding, and whatever other storms keep going all over the US hitting businesses and those with the money to pay for cleanup, that's where you should go. If I had the option I'd get a motorhome and travel like that for decent work. Not all their carpets are destroyed I'm sure there's plenty of cleaning needed where there's just secondary damage to carpet.