PSI Phil

For the love, Don't you guys have anything better to do than bust my *****? Perhaps most of this is my fault, I was deeply misunderstanding this industry, when I thought that everyone here and abroad thought the same way that I do, to accomplish the task in the most efficient way possible, period. It seems that the majority of the replies here are from the "one man show" group, this is not a put-down, so do not take it that way. I too was a one man show years ago, I never even cleaned my own house, much less than an apartment complex. My first house and roof job took me all day, Why?, because of inferior methods given to me by the equipment salesman, and a friend who had done it before, but, I ignored his advice and went with my own ideas, you live and learn. I went after the big stuff, even though I had no idea on how to do it, I still wanted it, I keep all records from day one. I put in over a million dollars in bids that year, I never got a single one. Why?, because you cannot apply a house cleaning ratio to an apartment building, the math just does not work out, for them anyway. So, finally, I won a bid to clean the breezeways for a 21 building complex, it took 2 weeks to complete, I was pissed!, so I immediately thought "there has to be a better way" so I looked and looked, and discovered it. We now do it every quarter, in 3 days. Each of you who reads this has to think about exactly what you want to do in this business. There is a huge difference in the regions of service here, so you northern part-timers are really not even in the same league as those of us down south. It is very competetive here, so you have to adapt. As far as the employee thing, I have 2 full time guys, thats all, I do not flood a project with 50 workers like the roofing industry here, we do believe in quality standards, and when or if you do get to the point of having employees around all the time, you will quickly learn that the game has severely changed for the worse, everyone has their hand out, especialy the government, and state of Florida, last but not least, workers comp insurance. So there is your incentive, avoid it if you can, embrace it when you cant, but accept it if all else fails. I tried all previous options and was not at all even remotely satisfied, so I overcame those obstacles. So how?, simple, you beat them at their own game. A few hints.. 1.Know your competiters. EVERYTHING 2.Decide how far you want to go in this industry. 3.If you do decide that you want more, put on your game face. 4.Before you swing wildly, trying to knock it out of the park, perhaps you might try a bunt? You might be amazed at how far you can get with that option. I do not try to be cryptic, and yes this is a forum....but,its not a charity. and Mr.Rick G., no we do not use x-jets or foamers, or even simply spray chlorine on everything, we just use our heads, nothing more. If you are so interested in our time frame's, simple, less than 30 seconds each. Peace Out

Oneness is right, $85, for the house, 150 for the roof, 65 for drive and sidewalks, now redo your math, and yes it can be done. Earlier post I made stated that nothing said was meant to demean or degrade anyone here, so scroll up and re-read it, then get over yourself. Let me try to make you understand, Today I took my wifes suv to the car wash, I used to wash it myself and clean it out, all that crap, would take about 3 to 4 hours to do this, I now get this done in 20 minutes. That is what the car wash is for, they provide the same service at a fraction of the time vs me doing it, and getting the same results. So, that makes me a happy customer, I now have more time for other things. This is what we do, we incorporate lots of different things and ideas from different companies to dramatically improve service and time on each job. And you can too, by simply examining your operation and streamlining it, figure out what eats your time up, and eliminate it. There is always a better way. My only real beef on this whole thing are comments on the "lowballer". How do you know that they did in fact lowball a bid? I lost a 10k bid last month over 3 dollars, sure I was pissed, but that doesnt make him a lowballer, he was just 3$ cheaper than me, nothing more. And I'm sure they do just as good work as us, if not, then we'll get the bid next year. Just because someone can do the job faster and cheaper, it just might not make them a "lowballer" that does "sub-par" work, maybe, just maybe, they think out of the preverbial "box" and know a little more than you. Regards, Jerkoff Keyboard Cowboy

Mr Oneness Your outlook on getting the bids you put in, that you so graciously chalk up to as "It means the customer was happy with the price, with you, with how they perceive you and your company, possibly how you presented yourself to them, how well you sold them on the job" you pretty much summed it up in your first sentence. Everything else you say is just chit-chat with the customer. And yes, down here in Orlando, the folks do have concerns with plants, cover them, problem solved. Now that you have found a product that you really like, so how much time have you spent trying to find it at a cheaper price? Thats right, that same product or equivelent thru another distributer for less money?. All auto stores sell armor all, but who has it for the cheapest? The one who buys the most and gets the best deal. I am really glad that you did find a soap to cut down your cleaning time from an absurd 3+ hours to 2 hours(which is still absurd). I guess this is why you have to charge a obsene amout of money to do a house, otherwise you would go bellyup, so this means you are the typical one man show with no insurance liabilities for employee's.btw, we do that same average home in 45 minutes, thats everything, roof, home, all flatwork, and they all call back every year. For the record, the $80 house will exceed your $150 career job every time, how? simple, efficiency, efficiency, efficiency, and it will never be "sub-par" according to you. So if you are making $30 an hour, then you wont mind my company coming in and demanding $125 per hour, and getting it. After all, if you were a homeowner on your only day off, do you mind waiting around for a slow ass cleaner to waste half of the day to clean a house? No, I didnt think so. I'm on the phone if the cable guy is 10 minutes late for my appointment. Why?, because we all pay for convenience these days, plain and simple. So if you think that you are doing such a incredible thorough job that will go unnoticed as soon as you pull out of the drive, you are severely naive or senile, so sit at the end of the drive and watch those people load up their jet ski's and rush to the lake for the few remaining hours left of sunlight since you wasted the whole day at their house, simply because you just have not discovered more efficient methods of cleaning with the exact same results. and yes, I am also glad you are not in my area, but I am in YOURS, maybe you would like to come watch a professional company in action when we come to Gainsville every year to do apartment complexes in a day and a half?(that would be 7 weeks on your time frame, kinda like dog years.) Our # is 407-760-Wash(9274) LOOK IT UP, We are members of the BBB, and have NEVER had any complaints, EVER, , take a look at our website, psipressure.com, when you can chemical clean tile roofs 70ft off the ground and NEVER damage a single plant, the you can step up to the plate and preach about your "quality of work", until then, go get your horse and buggy, then load up your pump and go to work and ignore the world that is rapidly passing you by. PS, these days there is a thing called high-speed connection to the internet, but there are people who do still use the old dial-up method, just a thought for you...

I also have a minimum of 75$, period, just to show up. Simply due to the costs of operating this year. If you do not have a charge other than an estimate, then you need to re-evaluate your costs of operating. If this thread was started from the heating system bill you got, then you are definately in the wrong business. Its a matter of apples and oranges. Most northern states are heated by gas. There are a incredible amount of unbelievable deaths due to gas poisoning by the heating systems there. So Im assuming that you beleive that your services are just as comparative as the "Sears guy" that spends 2 hours at your house to make sure that you and your family are safe from any problems that could occur from the heating system. So am I safe to say that your life, much less that the life of the bouncng baby boy on your lap is worth 350$, I would imagine its worth more than any one of us could pay, even combined, if something tragic were to happen. Your point of getting people to think is somewhat mute. People ARE the ones who make the prices, after all priorty takes preference above all, safety versus cosmetics will always win out, no matter how good the salesman. This post is not an attempt to demean your view on your business, or any of our business's here, but the fact of the matter is, Do you get a Christmas card from your customers?, are you invited to their daughters wedding?, but most of all...do you feel as an equal to your customer when in their presence, even though your house is just as nice and large as theirs? Even when you stand there covered in dirt and mud from the waist down from cleaning the baseline of the house? We have an absorbant amount of repeat customers, and new ones daily, but the bottom line is we have never received a simple christmas card from any of our customers, ever, no matter how much praise we get from the extremely fabulous job of cleaning their home, and I would imagine the landscaper didn't either. Just like the heating contractor you hired, he was there to serve you, nothing more. but we get many christmas cards from our vendors, because they know where the money is spent.

I'm pretty amazed at you guys rates up north, you would be out of business in 2 months here with those rates. A 2 story house here we would do for around 80 to 100 max, sitting at an intersection on any given day, you will see at least 2 pressure cleaners going thru or sitting next to you. Lets face it guys, 1 out of 10 customers give a rats ass about "high quality work" ,in this day and age its all about the money. How many of you have city or government contracts?, I dont, why?, why not, I have the experience, the insurance, but I dont have the MWBE status that my major competitor does since he put his business in his girlfriends name, so nonetheless each year we bid, we lose out due to lowballing? their MWBE status that gets preference? You tell me.(btw, my wife is Korean) This year I am not focusing on the quality aspect of each job, only on the customer really wants, the cheapest price, Does this make me the lowballer? DK34 in a previous post said it the best,"McDonald's doesn't sell the cheapest hamburger, but yet sells millions of them." Why? because its what people want! Plain and simple. It amazes me at the posts here about the lowballers, when every single cleaner here searches high and low for the cheapest price on cleaning chemicals and equipment, Am I Right? So the first company you asked for a price on a pump was to high?, well why did you not buy it from them? Is their "quality of service or product not high enough for you?, or did you just go for the cheapest price you can find?! If you expect to get every bid you put in, then you need to find a different line of business, someone will always underbid you, why? because of lack of experience, or too much experience, when they know what that customer wants and provide it. To all of you that read this and are getting ready for bed to go to work tomorrow, sleep well, because the work you do tomorrow makes you the lowballer..... So lets quit ranting about the lowballing B.S., after all, someone has to get the job.

It sounds like a clear acrylic product, which will do all the above, restore color, slow mildew buildup etc. Similer to Seal-Krete products.

I have a customer request thru my website in Boynton Beach,Fl. If you are near there send me a email. Phil

That has got to be the most retarded thing I have ever seen, hand washing a house? As far as the child labor laws being broken...I doubt it, the photos are date stamped in 1994, so they are probably well out of college by now,lol

Don, your email keeps bouncing back to me from your site says no mailbox for info@dkmobilewash.com

weird, we clean a huge number of sided houses and have never seen that look before, but the "streaks" are to in line to be something that you could even possibly create, it is definately something with attachment or studs, it really appears to be severe oxidation, most guys on here are not familiar with Florida sun damage, but I am in Orlando, that shade of blue does tend to fade out and oxidize here. Realistically, you cant fix a problem like that here, its UV damage, all you can do is to cover it up, kinda like armorall'ing a damaged surface. Phil Pro-Surface(PSI Pressure Washing) Orlando Fl

I have a customer request thru my website for a job in Lincoln, I do not service Nebraska since I live in FLORIDA!. Do people just do not read these days or what? If anyone here that does live there, please email me for the info... info@psipressure.com or info@pro-surface.com Thanx, Phil