PressurePros

Plano Texas... must be Shane's

I agree with Jon. The ante has been upped as well. Gone are the days where you could disclaim "allow 4-6 weeks for delivery". People expect products shipped the day they place the order and within 7 days it better be there or the emails start. Its been an interesting season being an online retailer. Dolittle, don't sweat this one. Put her in perspective as a percentage. I'd say you are doing pretty well.

:bday:

Chuck, I didn't realize you guys had an online site. Excellent resource.

Excellent hand job. Neil. Thank you (for posting)

I think you should use both. A good compromise is to use Wood Rich which you would find more comparable to ready seal. (but not even close to be the same thing)

Curious as to what legal action one could take to stop a company from plagiarizing their logo. I have come across a company that has taken a logo from one of TGS's members and modified it with their company name. I am not going to air this in public and the owner of the logo has been informed via PM. If he wishes to come forward that is up to him. I am trademarking my RAD logo but if you don't have a trademark what is your recourse?

amen. Been trying to tell new guys those ABC's for awhile. Glad there are others that preach the same rules

Israel, that looks great my friend. Nice work. Down there in Texas is a guy named Shane that does outstanding fence work also. He uses Baker's Gray Away. The brand is similar in makeup (oil wise) to RS with even richer tones. You should look him up. I know he can save you about 25%-30% over the RS.

Hugh, thanks again. I received mine in the mail in about 5 days. Great tool to have.

I tell people I use a pressure wand but its not a magic wand. The chalking is damage. It can be contained to an extent and your goal is to not make it worse. You can't really remove it without removing the siding's colorant. Mold growth left to its own devide will cause this to happen. Age and sun exposure are also variables. It will happen to a car's paint if you never wash your car and the clear coat is worn away.

There was another thread on a different board about a contractor with a super-rig that was making a fortune going around knocking on doors and doing housewashes. I thought those that bought into his story were incredibly naieve (sp) This is exactly the type of gypsy contracting that makes door to door sales next to impossible. These clowns should be suspended crucifix style and the homeowners handed a 4000 psi, 0 nozzle loaded wand to extract a little justice.

Hello RMMW, welcome to the board. I love your enthusiasm. When one starts a business is it is vital to have aspirations. Many enter a business with the idea that the business will guide itself and grow when it wants to grow. That lack of planning usually results in poor growth. At the same time, realistic business models have to be designed and analyzed for a company to perform up to par. A possible flaw in your plan is the assumption of "if you build it, they will come". You may be willing to work in the winter. That doesn't mean people will hire you. You are fighting a mentality. People spend less money in the winter. They pull in their carpet, close the shutters and other than the retail Christmas trade rarely open their wallets. They especially don't open them for exterior cleaning. In building a forecast model and executing budget plans one has to also balance ROI (return of investment) on equipment purchases. Ron ********** purchasing those rigs would get a logical ROI. A new guy with no clients purchasing that caliber or equipment is borderline ridiculous. I say this not to offend you or to dampen your spirits but to have you look at reality. I don't know if anyone has told you this yet but you will be VERY lucky to gross $30k your first year. With a a super aggressive marketing campaign (read that as $$$$), excellent sales presentation and closing ability and prior experience in this field you may be able to make it to $50K. Its just the nature of the beast. You can have the biggest, fanciest rig and perform the nicest work but until you have a reputation, people won't hire you. If you are planning on having multiple employees you won't see any net profit until 2010. Your plans are not without merit. Take them apart and put into writing realistic time goals. Decide which facet of our industry you like the best and which you want to pursue. Budget about $50 K to put into this venture. That will cover modest equipment, marketing and advertising costs and subsidize the money you will make your first couple of years until by the third year you can start adding multiple crews and machines and begin actually seeing some profit. I wish you the best in your venture. Above all, use the library, FAQ sections and the search function and spend hours and hours doing your research.

dk, what is it?

I am not one to jump on conspiracy theories. It is hard to believe that one man can push a button and lower the price of a commodity unless you could offer petroleum companies hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidy for lost profits). Prices are driven by supply and demand. I also have a real hard time believing in this world of super high tech detection that surplus oil reserves were suddenly found. Even if futures traders could dictate a market (and it would not be this dramatic off a change in my opinion) what indicators would drive the price down by 30% in 4 weeks? It honestly has me baffled. I have heard the theories and explainations but they just don't sit right with me.

Larry, I understand how you could have misunderstood my meaning. Allow me to elaborate. The numbers tell the story. A little about me: I've been in business a lonnnng time (22 years worth of various ventures and corporate life). I have a degree in economics from what is often the top business school in the country. I've done professional sales and have trained hundreds of guys as a corporate sales trainer. I study stats and my life is analyzing numbers. I also have hundreds of hours logged in seminars and consultation with some of the best salespeople and statisticians of our time. I didn't pull that number from my rear end. If your close ratio is over 60% you need to raise your prices. That is based on analytical data and giving you the benefit that you are performing perfect prequalification with targeted marketing. The average CR for a good salesperson is 33%. Ninety is just not realistic, I don't care how good you are. It has nothing to do with profit margins or what I need to stay afloat. You are undervaluing your product. If a car salesman could offer $5000 brand new Lexus he'd close 90%. Would it be because he is a great salesman or target maketed his clientele? I am not saying that you are not a very talented sales and marketer but I AM telling you that statistically, your numbers are skewed. Here is my arguement that you are working harder, not smarter. Let's say we each get 10 calls from our marketing campaign. You close nine jobs. I close six. My prices are 50% higher than yours. Lets put your average job at $450 mine at $675 We both make exactly the same gross money.. ($4050 from those jobs) only over the course of a season I can do 35% more jobs than you can (given equal labor force and time per deck) Using an average month of 20 work days You might do $8991 where as I would do $13,486 in gross sales. It would cost me about $500 in marketing expenses to achieve that gross sale number. If yours cost you $100 I am still ahead by $4095. I have abolutely no idea where you got this notion If you have ever read any post I have made on marketing (there are many spread about in the business section and in the library) you would know I advocate targeted marketing to key demographics. I get probably ten calls a week from guys asking advice on marketing. I don't say this to blow my horn but to let you know you are preaching to the choir. Another assumption in your arguement.. your have lower overhead. I'm not even sure how this is relevant to the discussion of sales and marketing but if you are buying your chemicals from RPC and PressureTek I know I am paying less. ( I am a chemical distributor) My sealer cost averages to $.09 per s/f. I don't believe in big fancy rigs. I use a 13 horse 4 gpm cold for deck work. I have a 5.5 gpm hot water machine used for housewashing and flatwork. It comes down to this, Larry. Do you own a business or do you own a job? At some point don't you want to sit back and let employees perform the work you are doing? Don't you want to expand your company size and earn more profit? Those things take a higher profit margin. If you are happy staying a one man operation working your tail off and disillusion yourself into believeing success is based upon a 90% closing sales ratio then you and I have different definitions of success.

Here are my extra two kids. Max and Jerich are both about 4 months old in their baby pics. Now Jericho looks like a drunken pitbull. He is actually a Dogo Argentina

EFC-38 clean

HD-80/Citralic/Wood Tux

Cedar deck

Mahogany deck stripped off ATO Mahogany Flame (3 coats and very difficult to remove)

HD-80 Acrylic strip and Citrallic pH balance

Beth.. its an excellent sprayer for doing lattice work and spindles. No overspray. No hoses to clean out. Sprays everything from Ready Seal to Cabot's solid. Under a hundred bucks with shipping. http://www.restore-a-deck.com/catalog/item/3109188/3238666.htm

Excellent! I was wondering how you made out with that sprayer. I have sold a bunch of them and everyone loves them. I am still using the same two I bought at the beginning of the season.

What are your thoughts as to why gas prices are dropping so dramatically? Election time or other conspiracies or is there a sudden supply surplus that nobody knew about?