Jeff

Newbies starting out have to know any biz is hard to get going at first, once you get some experience that of corse helps. But getting the work is the hardest. Wether your a good business man or just a guy like me who wanted to make a biz work and eventually be fulltime self employeed it takes time. You have to spend tons of time getting the work. You may have to send thousands & thousands of post cards fliers etc. My 2nd & 3rd year I sent at least 10,000 fliers & post cards, Got in 5 or 6 newsletters, posted fliers at supermarkets, left biz cards in doctors office on counters at banks and fast food places, asked evey customer to tell others and more etc etc. You can start with the mininuim or a nice new full rig. But you have to get the jobs, work hard, show up on time. It can take 2, 3 years or more just to get enough work to where you think you might be able to make it. You can make it but you always have to work at and dont slack. Sell Sell Sell thats how you make it in this biz Good luck to you guys, I want to hear your success stories in a few years JL

The Rat Story We used to do a lot of bridges & overpasses. I used to partner up with this guy Roland Rouge. Roland was a crazy kind of guy with 2 kids that also worked the bridges. Roland was about 50 years old 5 8" but he was solid muscle arms the size of my thighs, huge hands he was just a powerhouse. He and his sons were in & out of prison, not the smartest family in the world , but they would do anything to help a brother, they were nice guys just crazy. We worked together alot . Roland would be the muscle & I was the speed. He'd do all the heavy moving & rigging and I do 3/4's of the painting, I could really move. One day we were doing a little overpass on Rt 93 in Boston. We would work of of aluminum 24' planks/beds and we would have cables rigged from one side to the other and slide the planks as we would go and paint. Roland hopped off the plank to get in the shoes(the area at the embankment were the steel met the concrete supports) well I slid the rig to the next move so it was about 15 feet away from roland. I few minutes later I hear Roland screaming & swearing and I see him JUMP to the cable, he jumps and grabs the cable and drops about 10-15 ft down the embankment. Im yelling whats going on. He runs to his car and runs up ambankment and starts blasting away with his gun. I was like what the ----. All of a sudden you see rats everywhere. I'm going what the heck is going on, everybody comes down off their rigs and the State cop comes flying over. Well it all ended there and the cop was cool , he worked this detail with us for awhile. After we all just went back to work. I'll tell you looking back on it sometime later, I just laughed & laughed. I have alot of Roland stories, the time he was in a lift truck driving to the next move and the lift ingaged as they were driving and tipped the truck over on an off ramp or the time we had to tell an out of state contractor/boss that he had to back off us the union guys and Roland was drooling all over the boss as he was telling him he'd kill him. Or the barroom brawl when I watched Roland & his 2 sons take on about 20 guys and win. Theres many more Roland stories. He was good to have on your side I miss Roland he was a unique guy

Maybe someday I'll tell you the one about the rats

Ive been doing office work and watching A&E channel tonight, they have a show on now about the anatomy of 9/11 at the World Trade Center. What a show God Bless All Tomorrow night they have a movie of flight 93 at 9/11, just the previews are brining tears to my eyes. But I think everybody should watch it. We should NEVER FORGET the victims of this horrible attack They should show the towers coming down every month so we and our elected offials see what can happen and remember Osama is still out there and they hate in the arab countries against us is growing. Why is osama still alive I have some houghts and I think we dropped the ball in Afganastan & Iraq, but Im not going to start a politcal discussion Watch Flight 93 Monday at 9PM eastern Good Bless the many victim of 9/11 and their familys and good bless the 1st responders You will never be forgotten Jeff

God Bless 9/11

If money is the issue, get a small 6x10 trailer a beltdrive cold 4 gpm a good surface cleaner, odds & ends, some real good signage on trailer, practice on yours and families homes and driveways etc. And advertise like crazy, fliers, post cards neighborhood newsletters, newspaper etc I started with less and am doing pretty well Good luck

Thanks Ken Keep it coming

Let me tell you a story about me and a hawk When I used to be a steel painter we had to wire brush these 2 metal grates on the side of a smoke stack. It was 350 feet high. Well we rigged a bosons(sp) chair on the outside of the stack, The grates were about 40 ft down from the top. Now I had walked steel 200 ft high, been on swing staging 40 stories up, but had never been in a chair this high before, I was scared, couldnt tell anybody I was but I was. So I figure no big deal just go over the side get in the chair and do the job, thats what I did. Well I wasnt in the chair 2 minutes and my guy above was telling me to look up, This damn huge hawk was circleing about 25 feet away and swooping even closer. He didnt want me there you could tell I saw it in his eyes, Really!!!!well I hurried up the wire brushing and started up. This damn bird kept swooping over my head and I really couldnt go up with out fear of it coming at me. It may never of attacked me but I wasnt sure. So here I am 300+ ft up on a rope chair. We yelled at it my partner threw things towards it etc etc. My partner finally called on the radio to our boss. Well this was a trash to energy plant. They brought some rockets over that they use to chase away seagulls and shot them up my way, So now here I am a hawk that hates me and now their shooting rockets at me. OH FUN, well it worked I got up quick and then we took the ladder down the inside of the stack 350 I get o the ground my boss and a few other were laughing their ****** off. I just gave them the finger and went on a break I love bird of prey, except when Im the prey Got to love the construction trades anything can happen Jeff

Elite, What are your goals for this biz. Do you want to start out slow , residential or commercial or both??? Tell us what your goals are in your head and if you have a plan and we might be able to suggest a way for you to go Ifyou just want to do some residential for extra cash to help raise your family, do you want to work towards fulltime Alot depends on your goals & then you can figure what you need for equipment and what kind of bank roll you'll need Jeff

I'll give newbies or pros in my area helpful hints but I wont show them how to take my biz. If there were other companies on this board TGS from the Myrtle Beach area, I wouldnt be talking & discussing everything I do on this board. I talk to much on here but none of my compitition is here that I know of, i like to share and help when I can on TGS Nothing wrong with helping if you want, but if you dont theres nothing wrong with that, just tell them you dont gve out your biz info. Some of these guys could be a help to you in the future or stab you in the back JL

Good luck finding something, its hard to fight mother nature. Nothing I ever heard of to fight spiders except have his pest control people more often. People (homeowners)are looking for the easy way quite often, sometimes theres no easy inexpensive quick fix. If he has spiders tell him you would be glad to wash 2 times a year Alot of the condo complexes around here have a maint. guy and on the breezeway areas quite often they'll have the maint. guy brushing off webs, & droppings once a week JL

Gutter cleaning - removing the debris from gutters & downspouts The way we clean gutters on condos & other complexes is 80% of the time we do them with back pack blowers and blow everything out and then pick up everything on the ground that you blew out. I also use an electricians fish and run it down the downspouts to make sure there not clogged. Usually if they are clogged its at the ground level, then we either flush with water or usually dismantle them at the elbow. If they are 2 story buildings we use a 32 foot ladder and get up on roof with blowers and walk roof. If roofs arent walkable which is rarely on condos we take ladder around and hand clean. I very rarely have to hand clean much and if I do. If theres a ton of buildings say 15 & up ad you cant walk them Ill rent a lift and I also always rent a lift if they are 3 story buildings, 3 stories is un safe to use a 40 ft ladder just to steep. We usually do the large complexes with 2 or 3 guys. Now pricing these you have to know how to get the work. I do some houses for more than I do complexes. I do 1, 2 & 3 story buildings from $65 - $125 a building. It doesnt seem like good money when your standing on the ground looking at hundreds of feet of gutter on a buuilding , but you have to figure if they are going to be a PITA or maybe some might be completely empty. . HOA's arent going to pay 2-3 hundred a building to clean 20 buildings Let me give you an example of one of my best gutter jobs. We do 47 buildings 4 different propeties within a few hundred yards of each other. With a discount that I gave them its $5395 I bill them. Some are almost always almost empty and some can get pretty full I charge anywhere from $85 - $110 each building, we rent a lift for one week same as a 3 day rental. $1000. 2 guys can do all of they with blowers walking the roofs in 2 1/2 to 3 days and we do them 4 times a year. Subtract lift cost thats $4395 I get each time minus labor. You dont have to charge a ton to make a ton Next week we have 24 1 & 2 story buildings to clean the gutters Im charging $65 for the 1 story ones and $75 for the 2 storiy ones these are very easy to walk and I know 75% of them dont have much debris and we will be doing them twice a year We will do all these in one day over $1600 and all it cost me is a little labor cost and gas for the blowers Like I said gutter cleaning on complexes can be very profitable But I cant stress enouugh to all and my guys , your on a roof you have to becareful and aware of where you walking at all time. One slip and that profit means nothing , Be carful Oh ya if it rains the night or 2 before cleaning sometimes i wait a day or 2 till they dry or we bring a PWer to clean any mess on the buildings but thatdosent add much time. JL

I started in MB in 2000 parttime, first year I didnt even know if I wanted to do this fulltime. By late 2001 I started going for more work and was thinking I could make a living at this. 2002 I told my wife I would be trying to build the biz to eventually go full time by 2006. I worked full time nights and Pw'd days. 2003 started getting alot of residential and some commercial . I went nut targetting PM in 2003 and by 2004 landed some big condo jobs for 2004. I couldnt do these jobs with out quiting my night job so in March of 2004 I went fulltime, it was scary, I wasnt sure if I would get the work to support myself, but I worked very hard of targetting residential & commercial and I still do sales & targetting endlessly and all has worked out great. But if you want to go fulltime, you have to put alot of effort into it to just get the work. My goal was to go fulltime in 2006 and I was lucky to reach my goal much earlier and Im not looking back and going full steam ahead and its fun JL

I'm glad it was inspiring, but I read it again and thought to myself that this is a pressure washing board. I felt strange having it here. All I have to say is the good lord & my family has helped me at many intersections in my life and my only real WISH is to be a good & productive man for the rest of my life. Life is GOOD:lgsideway Thanks Jeff

I know Im looking at and seeing all kinds of things, with a few add ons or changes maybe wider model & bigger wheels and a cable system I could be the high risee washing King and not have to get in swing staging as much etc etc . This has peaked my intrest thats for sure

Hey Steve what do you want it for?

I'm hope we all get what we wish for. Anybody else

Workin in Indy you are lucky. Hey that looks GREAT Barry. People are amazed when Im useing OX, Im sure these people were too Good job JL

Russ YES YES YES Please flip it over How much$$$$ and that looks perfect. I'll be calling SUPERRRRRRR COOOOOLLLLLLL

I have all my figures for 2005 tallied up and I go do my Corp taxes with accountant tomorrow. 2005 has been a great year I did over double of what I did last year and percentage wise I saved money this year on expenditures( Last year I spent alot of money on chems & parts and I said last year I wanted to save or figure ways I can save on my biz cost. I was wondering how you all watch what you spend and how you save Some of the things I did this year were Try to control chemical use and spending 1)I use to waste some chems and I tried to control that alot better this year and did. Told my employees to be careful for spillage, bought containers with spigots less spills. Used to have some buckets with who know what in it, so we labeled alot of buckets and drums. I stayed on them about waste 2) Changed some chems - I used to use a high dollar surfactant Barlox for roof cleaning. I found just a little dawn in roof mix does the same job. 3) Found a local distributor for some of my chems to save on shipping. Oxalic I now spend $42 for 55lb bags compared to $80 a bag plus big shipping cost. My citrus cleaner I use on many house & building washes I found the the same chem for many $$$ less and no shipping 4) Buying in bulk almost always save a ton 5) parts - buying in quantity and shopped the net, getting alot of stuff from WaterCannon usually the best prices. 6) Buying better quality stuff, Guns I went to sutner, they definitly last longer than the cheaper ones I was buying 7) Trying to maintain equipment better. Common sense stuff like changing oil more often, I used to just top off oil for months. Greasing things more often. Iused to let thing go quite often until they broke or just werent 100% 8) Estimating - been tring to group them into 1, 2 or 3 days, less traveling, less gas 9) Advertising- I used to do quite abit of residential advertising, now I do much more targeting of commercia work PM's HOA's Etc and I just about dropped most of my residential advertising, except Yellow Pages which is geared to both Res & Comm.. I still am in 2 residential newsletters, but they are very cheap and still bring in many jobs 10) Have had problem in past months with lost or broken equipment . More equipment was lost in the past 6 months then in almost the past 5 years. I got on my employees about it. I hammer it in their heads now. Plus I got them to sign a paper stating if you lose you pay. Its worked, nothing missing in over a month I'm really trying to save $$$ by watching what I do and my employees do. I have a long way to go and alot to learn, but we are getting better. How do you all control cost JL

Well the numbers are in and some of my cost cutting has paid off My profit through my paycheck and what I can draw off corp profit Im just under 40% of overall total. Wow Im surprised. My accountant was pleased for me also . I told him all the trouble I have with paper & computor work and after tax season Im going in with him & his wife and we are going to get most all finacial straight from personal to biz. I told him I needed help and he offered Maybe next year will be even better 2006 BRING IT ON, I'm ready JL

I have a few of them that if there is any repairs needed I do it and charge its also good money but cheaper for PM's to have me do it then have another company come out and repair them.. Thing about around here money falls out of the trees more than just the Fall time , we have these tall ugly pine trees that shed tons of long pine needles year round so the gutters can fill up in no tome at some of these complexes. Then other complexes I do annually and theres hardly any trees and hardly nothing in the gutters and I still get paid If anyone has ever thought of cleaning gutters on complexes and just didnt want to bother I suggest doing it . It is very profitable

Wind can be a big problem here at the beach and even inland a little. I have people ask why I always use a lift on 3 story condos, why dont I just use extensions. I would miss out on to many days of work if I didnt use lifts. You get over 15 -25 ft and a 10 mph wind starts to 15 - 25mph+. With a lift I can get closer with less chance of stuff (chem) blowing around. When your on a tight schedule or have to finish a job to get to the next job the lift helps a great deal. Plus I do alot of 3 story condos and useing an extension every day for weeks gets real old I spent over 14K on rental lifts this past year, but this year I'll be spending a lot less. The guy who gets me alot of work and alot of connections bought a used 40 ft lift. This guy is great he owns a property servicescompany and know just about everybody in town. Well he basically bought the lift for me because as he said I always use them so he had to buy it for tax purposes and this way if he neds it he doesnt have to rent one and it will be paid off by me in less than a couple years A 40 ft lift rented cost me about $1000 a week w/ rental, taxes, insur & delivery. He's charging me $550 a week and monthly I'll save over $1000 This guy has been great for my biz. He is also having the lift vinyl lettered with my logo on one side & his on the other. I told him Id pay for the lettering. Cant wait t have it lettered Heres a pick of the lift. My wind fighting machine. New paint and runs pretty darn good. This will save me thousands

LABOR thats a BIG ONE. I now have one guy come in 15 - 30 minutes before the others, he fuels up, loads stuff as needed etc. And when I can I'll have the guys meet me at the job sight if its easier or in between my house & theirs, That can save me some money. What I also do is buy them lunch so they dont have to leave the job sight, becuase sometimes it 15-20 minutes just to get to a fast food place. The most I spend on one guy is $2-$5 but I know this way it will be only 30 minute lunch. Plus unlike food, restuarants for biz meetings that you only can write of 50% of the cost, when your buying meals for workers to keep them on the job sight its 100% tax deductible. I didnt know that until I asked my accountant months ago I still find myself taking a worker to do stuff like a quick estimate or stopping buy Lowes or something theirs been times Ive paid worker extra 1 or 2 just becuase it was easier than dropping them off at the end of the day Labor is a tough one for sure

If you live in GA. you should be useing bleach type product. It KILLS mold & mildew Purchase an Xjet and it goes through no parts of your machine or gun & wand. Make sure you tell them what size machine you have so they put the right orifice in it. Its a great tool. Watercannon in Orlando has them at the best prices about $119 to $129 its money well spent You have a rather small machine but the rotary nozzle will speed things up for you quite abit