PressurePros

John, this may upset some people but, owner ran service businesses are basically worthless. Having contracts in place is somewhat of a help. If I were "scouting" this business here would be my methods for valuation. Using a Y-T-D numbers analysis of his books. 1) All non contractual cleanings would be tossed unless they were done for a year or more. 2) I would first look at each and every job for profitability. Factor in the cost of paying someone to perform these jobs or use your own operation cost model to see how profitable they are for you. Toss anything that doesn't meet your margins. 3) I would factor 30% shrinkage for walking in the door. Owner operators secure work and keep it. When a new face steps in, shrinkage will happen. This also factors for normal account loss that occurs in business. 4) Subtract your expenses to perform the work (direct and indirect) 5) Take 35% of the dollar amount remaining (the company net profit you stand to gain) . 6) Factor what your company would make during one year and multiply by 1.5. 6) Add equipment (at liquidation pricing), prepaid advertising you would use (phonebook). Example in American dollars and measurement Company cleans 8 accounts per week with an average of 5000 s/f per account. Average rate is $.07 per s/f. 1) Only four of those accounts are on contract, have been done for more than a year and/or are profitable enough. $1,400/week gross 2) Minus payroll to perform work: $400 (even if you are the employee doing the work, John you can't count this as profit, otherwise you are paying for the privilege of owning a job) 3) Minus Shrinkage: $420 4) Minus expenses/materials: $130 You are left with $450 per week 5) 35% (company net profit) of what remains is $157 or about $7500 per year if you work steady. Multiplied by 1.5 that is $11,250. 6) 6 gpm hot water rig on trailer with surface cleaner $1500-$2500. So the reality is this company shows $135,000 per year gross earnings and its worth less than $15,000. Reality check.. I'd say most one man shows are NOT grossing anywhere near $135K working part time. Plug in your numbers, John.

Call Russell Cissell before you put on that second coat. I think you may be begging for a film that will peel.

This is just going to be redundant but don't twice about going to the 5.6 if your budget allows. If your marketing is in place to do so I'll venture that you will be able to perform an extra job per week just going with that extra gpm. That will more than compensate the added the expense in no time. I'm going to dual gun 12 gpm machines this year. I rented a couple of 8 gpm machines for a flat work job we did this year and was blown away by the difference. GPM is king.

Larry, I would have to disagree. The wood fibers in colder temps contract and inhibit penetration thus parafinic oils cannot penetrate and sit more towards the surface. Since they never cure, the deck will appear "wet" for a longer period of time. The effect is exacerbated at night when this contraction actually squeezes the product from the wood. I would guess a rain during colder temps would take away half of the finish.

If you had a couple dollars to donate to a charity or cause.. what would it be?

The Three Stooges make me feel warm also. The editing is cool.

Ron, the way I read it, it states that you must switch all your existing I-9's on file to the new form.

Bryan, There is nothing you can do with that stain other than strip it off. Its so oxidized and failed that even bleach will remove most of it. I would downstream stripper onto it, wash it and brighten it for .60 per s/f (total wood or the $1.25 you mentioned originally for the floor should c.y.a.

If you are talking about $1.25 per s/f for the floor measurement, you'll lose your shirt. $1.25 per s/f of wood including 4.5 s/f of wood per linear foot of rail plus the steps, plus the lattice is a little low for me here but you should make some money at that rate. To give you an idea what you are looking at, you could have 2,500+ s/f of wood.. hard to tell from the pictures. If the deck is more than 6-8 ft off the ground add another 15-20%. House wash I would be around the $850 mark with gutter scrubbing, applying window "brightener" and wax/polymer. Basic soap on/ soap off of house would be $595. Your area may be about 2/3 my prices. Don't let the customer get the upper hand in the sale by saying "we're just selling it and want a quickie". They will get back every dollar you charge plus some and the house will move off the house far quicker. That, to an agent is money in their pocket. I would do the concrete for free to throw in a bone.

Jamie, I have slept better since I finally made the decision to stop worrying about the winter. Part time rotational crews that all know going into season that winter business does not exist. I charge high enough to keep the corporation going and continue to funnel profits into other ventures that sustain profit year round. There really isn't much choice unless you want to scramble every winter and do the odd jobs, become a handyman or get a job. To be honest, I have no desire to spray water when its cold and have trouble finding guys that do.

I get that often with internet leads. People are so used to price shopping on the web that they think they should just get a bunch of service quotes via email like they would shopping for car insurance.

I want to be fair to this book. Its not the worst thing I have ever read. There are words ommitted and syntax errors in it but the premise of the structure is okay. Its definitely a noob book (ie NO experience in business or washing) but thats what it was touted as. Secrets? Well thats pure marketing. Take the title for what its worth. I absolutely see where Michael is coming from. The information given is about as basic as it gets. Some of the information is just plain ill advised. On one hand, good advice is given to not buy a homeonwer targeted machine. He explains about pressure versus flow etc. Where it falls apart is where you read that water and a turbo nozzle are sometimes all that is needed on a deck. That's definite hack material. (louis, I do hope you can take some time to read through the wood forums) In my opinion, the book is worth a couple of bucks. It would be maybe a chapter or two in a written publication. It may whet the whistle of Joe Pro who doesn't want to work for anyone any longer. Here is my thread on why that is not so great of a motive to start a business. http://www.thegrimescene.com/forums/business-topics-tips/7883-do-you-have-what-takes-entrepreneur.html A smarter approach may be to sell this book for cheap or better yet.. give it away as a report and then try to sell an advanced book that will help business owners understand their numbers, develop definitive marketing plans, master and close a sale and overcome objections as well as offer long term strategies for growth and exit. The marketing part of this book, while containing some helpful tidbits and resources leaves much to be desired. I feel a little guilty about tearing a guy to shreds but then again, if one was truly a master of marketing and selling they would have come on here with a totally different approach. You live and learn, Louis. If Louis is a strong business man he will stick around and learn what we are about before coming out as an expert. In fact, he may actually learn a few things himself. I'd like for him to stick around. I think he is on the right track. Maybe we can help him make the revised edition of the book be a better value.

John, I haven't written it yet ;-)

You'll have many tribulations. Guys in business 10 years have tribulations. Each one of them makes you a better businessman. (or person since I have no way of knowing your gender without a signature line ;-)

Good. You are one step up then. Add in integrity, underpromising and overdelivering, an ability to understand marketing and what works, organization, prayer and humility and you may be around next year. I look forward to reading your trials and tribulations. In my signature is a link to my DIY Forum. I have a contractors only section there where we discuss marketing and business concept. I'd love to have you contribute sales tidbits. If you'd like to come over and join, you are welcome to. Shoot me a pm after you sign up (DIYadminKen) so I can approve you for that section.

PS: Great word of mouth advertising! LOL

Thank you. This book always has the same ending. Its amazing what some guys will tell themselves (or spew to other gullibles) about how selling on price and gimmick is a way towards gaining long term business. Marketing and selling isn't too hard if you can't deliver what you promise.

From the page: Let's say the 1st and 2nd years you clean & seal 120 decks a year (only 5 decks a week for six months) With an average charge of $350 Your earnings per year would be $42,000 ______________________________________________ The information above is a little misleading. • To get 120 deck means your phone has to ring with estimate requests at least 250 times. That will cost a new guy about $8000 in advertising. • No way a one man operation is going to complete 5 decks per week. You have to let a deck dry before you put stain on. Even using a product like Wood Tux the wood has to be dry before you can sand or defur (did they mention that in the book?) Now factor in rain days and you may complete 2-3 decks per week. But we'll use the five decks per week mentioned in the example to keep it simple. • What about the cost of materials, gas, insurance,maintenance and depreciation? Factoring 3 gallons of stain per deck plus the other costs: subtract another $13,000 So the realistic "earnings" are as follows: $42,000 minus $8000 (advertising) minus $13,000 (in expenses)= $21,000. Now if you want to grow your business and let the business support itself and pay for future advertising, you should leave 20% of your gross earnings in the bank. So if you work six days per week, run around like a madman doing estimates into the night, every night, you can expect to earn about $14,500 after taxes your first year. Its not as grim as that as long as you learn how to measure and price your decks and maximize your efficiency. Doing $350 jobs will keep you broke and working hard. The site is right about one thing.. if you can deal with the lousy earnings the first few years, things start to really take off after the third year. Focus on learning the marketing, selling, and business aspect of deck restoration and you will fare far better than trying to figure out the best technique.

I'll just be doing some yard work on Saturday. Feel free to give me a ring. I'll have the RAD call center forward calls to the tech support extension to my cell.

If you have worked with the guy for four years then you obviously have a relationship. I think you can get this worked out. By the time he finds, interviews and hires someone else, there is no certainty that this project will be completed on time. Are your issues fixable?

Sparky, You learned some valuable lessons. The biggest one.. on a $4000 job, meet the homeowner face to face and make sure you are both on the same page as far as outcome and timeline. The next biggie is going to be the one that costs you. EVERYTHING in writing in DETAIL. Break down your pricing for each phase of the project so if something like this happens, you can go down your list and say we completed this, this and this and you owe us $X amount of dollars. This was perhaps a case of overpromising and under delivering. A homeowner cannot fire you from a contract unless he can prove gross negligence. As I mentioned, you had no rapport from jump street and encountered some problems. This shook the homeowners confidence and he is trying to cut his losses. Stay at the negotiating table and try to restore his faith in you. If you have a contract outlining the project scope and completion time, you can lien the property and sue him, but that is a pain. You may be able to construct the emails in a way to be proof in lieu of a formal contract.

Dane, yes.. full strength is mixed at 8-10 oz per gallon. Over 8 oz and you should use warm water so all the percarb will dissolve.

Dane, Restore-A-Deck is a mild stripper and cleaning agent. Its primary use is for killing mold and removing failed finish in enviroments where using a landscape friendly product is prudent. Restore-A-Deck contains sodium percarbonate (and other more potent cleaners and surfactants). Sodium percarbonate and bleach are the only products for wood that are classified as mold killers. The quick product background is so I can give you the one caveat.. You have to apply it directly or via X-Jet for it to perform. Run through any type of up or downstream injection, the product will be too watered down. If you are going to go that route, a better product selection may be something along the lines of a more caustic deck stripper.

Jon, one thing to do with red (or black) tint... mix it with mineral spirits until it gets thin.

Jon, it came out very sweet. You really can't go wrong adding red. The stain is very forgiving, so its hard to add too much. Mixing that tone that you made 1/2 & 1/2 with WRC probably would have given you a tone more to your liking.. more like ipe looks like when it is wet.