Tegrey

Ron, Thank you for the response. Your business is your business. It is not my business. Again, I have nothing personal to say. I just get tired of seeing your 1 line posts that lead folks from every site you visit to ***. I also get tired of seeing photos a year old telling how good a past RT was and how you made it work. This is where we don't see eye to eye. I have nothing personal to gain from my posts I present. I represent my self and look for no monatary gain from anyone. I don't sell products and use others for personal gain. Here is where we differ. If you made $250,000 last week in selling signs, you are doing better at selling then any PWer I have heard of posting on any boards I know of. That pretty much takes you out of our league? I know I don't make $250,000 in PWing and probably never will. That is awsome! Thank you.

I believe the Hyde post and the Stencils post are Spam. What do you think? Who exactly owns stencils and where are they made? There has to be at least 100 posts on stencils and they really serve no purpose for educating a contractor. After all, are we here to learn or make someone else a profit? I'll repeat my post. I'd like to know the answer. If you own stencils or are affiliated Ron and you post many posts about them, why wouldn't it be spam? Of course If I sold a product, I would sell my products and promote my business also. Only I do it as a professional. I would not use other sites and others money to make me rich. If you feel using the GS, *****, PT, etc. to promote all your personal gains and they have no qualms, so be it. I have no negativivism against you, only the way you use everyone to promote YOU. All we see is post about ***, photos about your business and hear about how much money you make and how much you help everyone. If that is the case, why don't you start an organization for promoting PWers and help them grow their businesses. By making various random post, about you and *** doesn't help anyone except RON. Maybe take some of the huge profit you are making and donate to the ***** or some other org to help PWers. Holding a RT doesn't make anyone knowledgable or professional. I'm not here to discredit you or your business. I'd just like to see some positive post from you about someone else. A slight comment is not a post. Self promotion is not always a positive thing. When is the last time you posted about someone elses projects or their businesses? I mean someone you are not affiliated with. When have you actually posted a comment to help a contractor get through a tough project or a business problem, without asking them to come over to *** for help. I could dig too many times this has happened. It is wonderful that you have been in business for 25years, expecting a growth this year of 25-35% and make 20% of it related to stencils. Isn't this spam? I believe it is and I believe most of what you post on everyone elses site is also. Face it Ron, you have developed a business mentallity of usilizing everyone for your purposes. Isn't that why you are not involved in some RT? We all hear the storys and know what you represent. I also like how you have added *** to your last post. Maybe another sales pitch for our readers? Ron, If you truly want to help the PWing Industry, how about being about others for awhile? Make a post from time to time about actually answering a question and solving a contractors problem. Not asking them to buy your products and ideas. Again, I have nothing personal in this venture we are taking, only equality for others. Spam is Spam. Be reaL and run ads like other companys do and start a real help PWer campaign. Donate a few bucks to other orgs or volunteer some actual time to helping others instead of re directing them to RON's place. Some day we should sit down and talk about our ideas together. Maybe we will both learn something. I wish you the best. Thank you.

Call BOB. I'm sure he'd help you.

Tracy, U Da Man!! LOL

Someone missed the Boat? Customer Service for us. Nothing can beat CS. You may be the very best at what you do, but if you don't communicate or handle the customer request correctly, you will fail? We bend over backwards for our customers. Right now 80% of all our business is from our past customers. We are bustin our butts! LOL Thank you. Delivering the right message always helps! LOL

Just wondering how many are relying on referrals for their business. Our goal would be to get 100% of our business from referrals. That is a challenge, but look at the benefits. Less advertising, less work to close a job, pretty good posibility of getting each job. We are about 80%+ for referrals now and hope to raise the %. When someone says they were refered, I try to Thank the person who refered us. This helps to keep it going. What % of your business is referral and what do you do to promote referrals? Thank you.

Did the Sun go down? I cannot believe the name calling! Man I only brought up a subject of referrals. You either believe it or not. No one is asking you to drink the cool aid. For those who believe referrals work say Amen. Those who don't go away and start an abusal post. Abuse anyone who doesen't follow your thoughts. Thank you.

Sounds like all the responses are based on the same criteria. Work ethics and what we do = Customer Satisfaction. They cannot wait to refer companys like ours! We need to be the company more then ever, based on our economy. Great response.

Tonyg, I believe the Flood is better hands down. Flood also owns the additives they use as emulsa bond. Great stuff. SW is pretty good but doesn't have the same adheashion and holds color better. We'll use SW in a bind. Cande, I don't even try to strip it any more. I always sell a solid stain with a solid stain. As long as we get anything loose off using Flood with EB will be OK.

Dan, Sorry you are so intelligent yet always looking for work? Must be a miss print or a wannabe? Have a great day sir.

Dan, Sorry about how you feel about a solid stain. I guess it is all in the knowledge of prep and quality of product you may be using. Our solid stains last quite a long time. Properly preped and applied, we have solid stains 12 years old, which show no problems at all. Read and follow the label?

Decker, Our choice is Flood products. We use the most in our county. Flood CWF-UV5, Solid stains and toners. We also have been a tester for Flood for a few years. They are dependable if preped correctly.

The solid stains are used for longer protection. They are more durable and will last a lot longer. They protect the wood longer also. If you like the solid look we use it. It is good for 3-5 years without any peeling. The semi transparent stains are less effective. They allow UV to penetrate more rapidly. They are usually good for 1-3 years. The toners are less yet. They allow most of the UV in and are only good for 1-2 years. This is a good choice if you can set up a maintance program. Last would be the Natural stain. No UV protection. Strickly for repelling water. Usually done every year. The choice is pretty much what the HO wants to pay for. The cost goes up from the toner, semi, solid. All in all we don't loose any money. The better the package the more it cost. Thank you.

My letter was written to SW for a response to their ad running on HGTV. Have you seen it? This kind of promotion will affect every contractor in every aspect of all industrys. Right now, it is my 2 cents, but could blossom into a serious problem for us all? Thank you. My friends, You have recently run television ads on HGTV. They are using terminology for home owners to come to your stores to learn how to paint. It's easy and you can show them the right way to paint and you will teach them to be painters. My comments are not to be taken lightly. You are promoting to remove the professional painter out of our customers homes. We all know anyone can paint, however we are not all painters. With the economy down, we are all scrambling for work and business. By gouging the professional painter, you are in the process of loosing the professional painter as your customer. Look at your figures. Could you afford to loose the pro as your customer. If so, feel free to continue to sell the home owner on doing their own painting. Eliminate needing a painter to beautify their homes the correct way. After all, their is always BM, PPG, ICI etc. for the professional painter to shop at. Simply stated you don't need us, we don't need you. I certainly hope this message reaches the top of your business. For all our ability to survive, we must work together and not as individuals. Thank you.

Paul, Your asking for a copy of someone elses insurance to cover your work. This is impossible as your liability and mine are not the same. I would spend a few dollars and have an attorney draw something up. Simple and to the point. My 2 cents. Thank you.

Aqua, I agree with everything you said. I would really try to talk the customer into a solid stain. Going from solid to semi = $$$. The price should double to tripple. We have done too many solid to semis and they are no fun. Also you are damaging the integrity of your wood. Common sense says stay with a solid and live with it. Replacing the spindles will save you tons of work and the HO the same amount of $. If they insist, give them the fair price for your profit. It would be better to not do the job and loose $ vs. doing it and loosing $. My 2 cents. Thank you.

Funny as it is, when we are younger, we feel nothing will stop us. Sorry as it is, something always will! Please get a check up regularly.

Rod, Great question. There are a couple of views here. One is the guy who charges the lowest price and does everything half asxx. No insurance, doesn't pay taxes pays their help under the table, etc. The other, does all the right things. Both feel people take us serious and believe we are a business. The clients we both sell to believe we again are legitmate. Our clients prospective of our business is drawn from their conclusion that this company is doing what I want at the price I want. What a mess Huh? In my customers mind, I am believed to be the most legitmate business in our area. Why? Because I sold them on that idea. I told them everything they want to hear and actually proved it to them if hired. The other guy did the same, in a different way. They gave them price. Both customers are probably happy for a period of time. To complete my idea, I'd say the contractor who is really legitmate and does all the right things will come out on top. They will prevail in the jobs and years to come. They will be the truly legitmate business. Sorry about the soap box! I try to seperate ourselves from the illigitmate! LOL Thank you.

Good start Dane. Keep up the great work.

Dan, Believe it or not, we were all new at one time. Most of us didn't have a lot of experience and we usually charged too low for the work we did. Hopefully within a few years we learn how to run a business and grow our business. Most are having trouble today, because they did not plan on a slow down. Our businesses are the example of what we do. Having any competition is better then no competition in my view. Thank You.

Scott, I'm sorry to hear about you stepping down. This is an important element in the PW industry and I want to Thank you for helping the TT as much as you did. I have never met you at any events but maybe will do so in the future. Bets of luck with your business.

Thank you Beth, I enjoy sharing info and ideas with folks. I don't believe this is ment to be a post for commercials? I know you and many others are willing to share as needed to grow our company's.

Is this an AD? I don't believe it is in the right place? Thank you. By the way, All good PWers have the right legal system in place don't they?

Nothing!

When we were 1 man, I worked. I have missed two actual days in 12 years because of illness. Just the way I do stuff. Probably not good?