PressurePros

I'll change our method to include rinsing from here on out. Thanks Russell.

Last week I had my singly successful sales day in the short history of PressurePros, Inc. I closed 11 out of 11 jobs for a sizable amount of money. The other day was another 7 out of eight. Riding high from those I hit the ground running this afternoon. Estimate 1 was an older lady. Kinda lonely I think. Looks at me and says "there is no way I can afford that". I say I understand and asked her if she had a price in mind. The usual answer of no, she just didn't think it would cost that much. I didn't say anything. She takes a deep breath and then says "How much would it be if I paid cash?" Hmmm, maybe she forgot about a CD or fund that is just collecting dust. Then she asks me if I barter? LOL. At this point I am intrigued. I ask her what she has to offer. "How about a week at my shore house?" I asked her where it was. "Ocean City, NJ" "What street?" "Central" "On the beach?" "Right across the street." Now she is smiling like she has me. "Nope, I'm sorry. I don't have a cash discount and I already have access to a beach house. I can take cash, checks or credit cards, whichever is most convenient for you" She says "I like you, you are very organized. (this was after I lost my keys in her couch) When can you get it done?" Cha-ching.. one down. Next customer lives in a working class demographic. I see a young woman standing at the door and three kids running around. Husband is a young guy, beer in hand (2 pm). Husband comes out when I am measuring and tells me the hand rail will be sanded, he just ran out of sandpaper. Huh?Ohhkay. The rest of your deck is peeling dude. I don't even waste time I sit down at the kitchen table, the husband hovers over me, sees what I am writing and gets beligerent. I'm already annoyed at being "duped" by the wife. I told her I am not the cheapest guy and I only do full restorations with high quality materials. She assured me on the phone they "wanted it done right". Now her half lit husband is telling me I must be crazy. He knows what it costs.. the last guy blah blah blah.. Not wanting to go to prison for throwing someone through a sliding door, I make an exit. At estimate number three I meet the lady of the house at the door. She tells me her husband will be right in. We hit it off pretty well (he's an entrepreneurial type) I go into my sales schtick and he holds up his hand.. "Can you do it for under $2000?" "The number came in at 1650 actually" "You got it. Do you need a deposit?" The rest went more normally and I ended the day with five out of ten closes. People are a trip.

Wow, awesome info. Ruznell, How will the salt manifest itself? Visible particles or is this something happening "in" the wood? Is the reaction/forming of the salts immediate? These salts are water soluble?

Let's say someone handed you a job. They already sold your expertise, commanded a nice dollar for the the job and customer wants to book with you or whomever is qualified and wants the lead. How much would you pay for that? Please be serious about your answer. You have no marketing expense, no time spent estimating, no sales call.. nothing. Everything is done for you.

Jeff, which proportioner do you use in your X-Jet?

Dan, you don't have to worry about paint. Neither HD-80 nor F-18 at cleaning strength will touch it. Our policy is also to not rinse acid. The key is to apply it via downstreamer. Its very flushed with water and weak. My decks don't turn bright. The wood dries to a natural color not the color of dried bones. Try and test with litmus, your pH will be right on the money.

For those of you that have done the undersides of decks, what is an accurate formula for computing s/f? I use 2.5 as a multiple of top surface. For example on a 1000 s/f deck underside would be calculated at 2500 s/f for a total of 3500 s/f. Close?

I say wash it with a percarb based product and remove all the contaminants that could affect your finish.

Get a gun with a bigger orifice.

Neil..please with the false modesty. Here is good way to actually make some money doing decks. Measure floor square footage and multiply by $4. If there are more than 2 steps, planter boxes, a trellis or benches add those on as extras. Thats the simplest ways for guys that complain about measuring everything. For calculating stain, double your floor square footage to account for rails.

My advice is to take it to a shop tommorrow morning and be waiting for them to open the doors. You are going to spend more time messing with it and coming back and forth here then you will to just take it to guys who make their living fixing small engines. Even if it cost you $300 to fix a relatively simple problem, you come out ahead.

Good topic brought up on another board. In a nutshell, my contention is that a trade business is worthless if the owner participates in any part of the operation other than upper managment. When I say worthless I mean you cannot sell it for anything other than the value of its tangible assets. Thoughts?

You might have been better of downstreaming a stripper on it. One caveat about using WT WHG is that if the deck is not totally clean when you apply the sealer the pigmentation will pick right up on that. Another thing is, newly stained decks never look quite right. You have to let the product settle into the wood to get the true color. I would not apply a second coat of WT on anythng. Its not needed.

Greg how do you manage three or four crews and a high work load using stain that requires three dry days before every deck is done? One rainy day and I would think you would have 6-8 guys sitting around for half a week. I guess you could strip/clean more decks but then another rain now sets you back again. Have you found an effective way to work around that?

Got into a pretty serious car accident Monday afternoon. Ended up with a major concussion and two broken ribs. I just got out of the hospital an hour ago. So for those that have been wondering about unanswered phone calls or why i haven't been running my virtual mouth, this is why. Now I have 2 pain pills and 5 pages of new posts to keep me busy ;-) -- Ken

I thought quality would fall as well but.. my chems are dialed in. My procedures are easy to follow and they are enforced by an operations manager. I act as final QC by random checking work. Its all in the systems. No customer complaints thus far. My guys don't know how to cut corners because they were taught right.. apply this chemical, use this tip, start from the outside and work your way in, apply soap from bottom to top etc...

You know what's funny, Dan? I thought I was the key to PressurePros' field work with the same mentality that you stated above. How about this for a piece of Humble Pie.. My company production rate has almost doubled over this time last year. Same amount of crews. Like the song says.. you got to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. I'm precise, meticulous and SLOW. I rented an extra rig and dragged it around this week. I did three jobs. The other two crews did 14. I was never meant to be out doing this stuff. God has showed me this again and again (like the article I posted about on perfectionism). I'm starting to get the picture.

I'm not saying you couldn't find someone to buy your business. Just like I build a turnkey rig for 10g's and sell it on ebay for $15K. There are the guys out there that would be willing to buy a small trade business. They will buy a job because they don't mind working for a living because it beats working for the man. They will cash in the old 401K and borrow some money from the mother-in-law. A business like Just Plain Painting that requires hands on working and management better be priced in the realm that a guy like described above can afford. What are we talking..maybe $40K tops? Beyond that price you are looking at a different level of savvy investor. Dan, no one is ever going to do work like you (employee wise) If they could, they would own their own business. The key is to establish acceptable performance criteria as well as turnkey systems that allow meeting that criteria. There are ways it can be done. It involves written and replicable procedures and QC management. Hopefully this helps you understand the difference and why I say a small, owner run trade business is relatively worthless beyond its tangibles.

I want some of what you're smoking. I offer one times a company's annual gross and that's if it is an established bricks and mortar retail operation. I have always used that formula. Some businesses might be worth more, but I wouldn't buy them. You might be thinking of 3 times net earnings? For a service business I would probably offer .25 times its gross earnings if the company ran tight with good margins. Yes, but not much value. A business has value when: • It has been narrowed down to a group of hands-off systems. • When every problem has been solved before it arises. • When management and internal structure are honed and efficient. (ie every job title is defined) Not totally true.. More important to me (ie more valuable to me) is how well an investment generates income with minimal interaction on my part. Pressure wahsing businesses have two major downfalls working against giving it sellable value. 1) Cheap startup means the market can get flooded and drive down net earnings 2) 98% of them have very high level of owner interaction for daily operation. That's a job, not an investment.

I'm still in beta testing.

Matt, understand that no one is trying to give you a hard time but the majority of the people here make their living from washing. They have professional equipment, spend money on marketing, have the neccessary licenses and insurance and have aspirations to grow their business. I also take what I do very seriously. Also understand that when someone comes to a board of professionals and the first words out of his mouth are basically "How do I cut corners and buy cheap equipment" we are going to have the hairs on the back of our neck bristled. Do you know why that is, Matt? Because someone willing to cut corners and "get 'er done" also does not take the time to learn how to price, how to market, and how to sell. This person is in a hurry to capture a piece of the pie many of us work hard to cultivate. This peson does not understand how much time and money it takes to operate a successful business and is often the one that canvasses the neighborhood with $99 housewash fliers. You say you don't want to go from rookie to pro? You don't? The moment you enter the market and start asking to be paid for your service you are playing pro. My advice to you is to slow down, take a week and read as much as you can about pricing, business and marketing. Ask precise questions about what you read versus throwing out blanket questions and expect someone that has earned their stripes to hand everything to you so you can go get 'er done. The world does not work like that. Welcome to the board, Matt.

You know what? We are too f#$$%&n nice. By a show of hands, guys.. How many of you would have called your boss after two weeks on a new job and asked to come in late so you could sleep in????? Huh? Shitcan this guy, pronto. As it begins, so it will be.

Sounds like some very groovy London'ers. We have done interior paint jobs where I followed up every customer choice with "Are you sure? That tone may not be what you think it will be when applied to the whole room" We try to advise but to an extent its based upon our tastes. Whats most important is giving the customer what he wants. As far as quality, just having seen your work on here, I know that is never in question.

Watch it, Malone. Thirty nine isn't that far removed.. at least thats what I like to tell myself. Lest we forget the classic movie .. "Momento" I think everyone has seen that. Also the uncut version of "The Hills Have Eyes" was pleasantly disturbing.

Roger, flawless application as usual. But man, that looks... sterile. To each his own.