John T

Exactly

What a shame. Dan seemed like such a nice guy. To lose him and his wife just like that is so wrong. As usual the Drunk Driver lives and the innocents are killed. With modern technology there should be a way to keep Drunk drivers from operating a vehicle. Should be a mandatory device in every car. Dan as I'm sure his wife will be missed but not forgotten.

For a Service in NY you have to charge sales tax. Home Improvements you do not which seems a bit unfair because Powerwashing a house or deck is really a home improvement but the state disagree's so I have to charge an 8.65% sales tax.

Micheal has found his calling....Educational CD's..But maybe not on safety with his hand laying on the stripper:lolsign:

Happy 29 Beth........and holding:biggringi

Hey Ron P., I remember your very informative post back in the day. How the heck are you and what have you been up to?? I think you got married and left the Powerwashing business a few years ago but I can't remember what you ended up doing.

Hey Alan if you don't mind me asking how much did you pay for that Ford Beauty? The last time I bought a brand new truck for my business was a 97 Dodge Dually. It was a black beauty. The guy who worked for me at that time was using it for a job and I told him to back down this street instead of trying to turn the truck and trailer around. He decided that he could do a 20 point turn with the truck and trailer...needless to say when he came back from the job the hood of this truck was scratched from him turning into the bushes. I was bummed but after those first scratches the others this truck got in the future werent as tough for me to take. Still I kept this truck as cleaned as possible as I do with all my trucks.

Thats some good looking workhorse of a truck. I still have my Dodge 3500 Dually that I sometimes carry 4000lbs of water in the bed along with towing my 10,000lb trailer. This truck drives as if there is nothing being towed or carried. I also have a Ford F-550 and a Ford F-350 with one for personal use(350) and the other to carry 10,000lbs of water and also tow a trailer. All 3 are diesel and work great for what I use them for. If that Ford is a gas truck then I wouldn't buy it because of the less mpg that you'll get for a truck of that size.

Hey Jon, Did you take any Pictures that you can post? Was there any new machines demo'd at the School?

Good to see Diamond Jim Back in the game. Got to love those days that start out tough but end up....SWEET!!!!!

Cleaner Times magazine is a must have in this industry whether your a newbie or a twenty year vet in this field. This magazine is a wealth of knowledge that deals with mostly hardcore facts. There are so many interesting stories in there with some being multiple parts such as "The History of Powerwashing" where I think there up to part III. Also Beth Borrego the admin of this board has a nice article about Round tables and what people get out of them. This is part one of a two part article. Just reading that article gets me pumped up to see my friends and make some more connections while I learn a few things along the way. Cleaner Times in my opinion is an education based magazine with outstanding writers and a rock solid editor who's always putting out interesting editorials. There also open to suggestions from any and all of us- so with that being said drop them an email or give them a call. Maybe you have a nice article to submit or a story to tell. Along with there classified section in the magazine they have an industry news section that tells when there are new classes/round table and other events that are coming up in the future. So if you don't yet get this magazine I would recommend you subscribe to it as soon as you can. Stay ahead of the curve by staying connected. Oh yea in case you can't tell I love this magazine. Can't get enough of it:)

Hey Gary, That was a really nice picture of that house you did in the magazine. I showed my wife that picture and she said "Gary has a really nice house" :bouncy: Oh yea it was fun being on that cover back when. I was just showing my kids the NY Post from 1987 when Madonna was on page 6 with her problems with Sean Penn.... and who was on the cover of that paper??? Yup yours truly. Right place at the right time....or maybe cause I was a little bit crazy...like the Cleaner Times picture;)

Happy b-day Mr Cali reclaimer king..........

Securing Grants for your business and for education seems to direction that some of us should look into. For example this bulletin board is really about education. If Beth had the time she could turn this board into a complete education class seminars. To do this she would need to secure GRANT money. Orgnizations should also look into securing grant money. On top of that business whether large or small should try to secure some grant money themselves. So how do we get there..Do we have to go right into DC and lobby on the floor?? Has anyone tried to get some of that Gov't grant money that is supposedly out there and if so please explain whether it worked or not.

Great job and great price. A house like that here I get about $300 to Powerwash and if we clean out and flush the inside of the gutters that would be an additional $75.

Still building like crazy here even though house sales and house prices have dropped..Busier then ever but I chalked that up to more experience more then anything.

I know enough to see what works and what doesn't.Hey whatever works for ya. I think your missing my point but this is not what Jeff is asking so there is no point debating this. What I didn't know was that you had another job. I thought Powerwashing was your fulltime job. As for the Sprinter Vans there are some good deals on Ebay.

Mike you just don't understand business when it comes to this. There are plenty of reasons for buying for a write off. If you made millions you want to spend on your business so you can save on taxes and your expanding in doing so. You can spend more then you make and pay little taxes. Its all economics. I know alot of this because on my other job I work around the richest people in the country and this is what they do. These are one of the many reasons the extreme rich probably pay less percentage of taxes then you do. Your points seem to be somewhat valid if your a one man operation. Jeff is not so he's in a different position then you are. He needs to create writeoffs when he's successful as he is being..not when your losing money which he is not...Simple Math...but to you it just may be "Stupid"

Best of luck to you. I'm still trying to get there but my "Other Job" keeps throwing me bones to stay. My retirement papers are in and I'm supposed to go September 29th but there giving me a ton of Overtime to...hang out on the Grime Scene:) I may stay thru the winter and until next June due to many perks in my contract that I can hit at those points. Basically in a nutshell I'm going to leave one of the best civil service jobs in the country where I never work with bosses and I can do my own thing and get paid real well in doing it.....But as most are here I know I can do much better being in this business fulltime...all the time...As for today I have two full timers and I may be hiring another one next week but I'm getting killed with the no sleep and...as my Doctor has told me last month "Do you think you'll make it another year"..which means...I am going to take the plunge..within a year and man is it frustrating to go another year like this...but this is it. I just got to stay healthy and sleep where and when I can..then its full time all the time like alot here.

Depends how you look at it. You see successful companies expand for part of the reason being that they need write offs to offset there taxes. A common practice. Jeff "The Condo King" looks like he is bulging out the sides to expand which means that he's going to have more income coming in and a great reason to buy more equipment because more Money made usually means more taxes to pay unless you can create write offs...such as expanding. Now of course over doing it can put you in the poor house so you have to do it wisely. I still stick to my answer to Jeff because it seems like the logical way to go for him and to get the write off in the process in essence is more money in your pocket. Its a typical business numbers game.

I would either push the other jobs off a week and tell them you fell a little behind schedule because your swamped. For 15K I'm sure you can get them to understand. Also if your that busy I would buy that extra machine for a few reasons. One being that its a write off and since your so busy its good to have extra machines so there is less down time. Its great to be busy like that. It gives you all kinds of options..Lastly the last thing I would do is sub this job out unless you just cant get to it...

Biggest one I've been to date as far as how many people showed up. Very Organized roundtable. The Roundtables that I've been going to over the years seem to be getting bigger and better all the time. Check that even the ones that have not been so big with attendance they also have been getting better with the amount of info being shared and connections being made.

Been doing that for 12 years now...my whole body is numb right now..but my wallet is getting real fat:)

I stayed at that hotel and I've been to Delco's place and I also bought items from them in the past. I also bought the Delco learning tapes around 10 yrs ago and studied them and then resold them. I have never taken there classes but I have sat in on Robert Hindeliters Environmental lectures at a couple of Roundtables. His knowledge on that topic is unbelievable. There classes should help you tremendously for your business and learning curve. Have fun and soak it up and don't forget to claim them at tax time as a business write off. Good Luck

I have $50,000 laying around to start another org. I also have some connections in the DC area that may help me get some grants put together for this org..The trick is to make this org a purely educational org. I have a few people in mind to become its first president and no its not me. This person comes from an ever growing business and his reputation is spotless. Another Person I have in mind owns 4 officers and he's reputation is about as high as I've seen in this industry. Another person I have in mind is two females with one being pretty popular and another one that most of you don't know but she is pretty darn successful. This will be a not for profit org. but the Board of Directors will be paid. This has to be done so this org. can run like a well oiled business. Members will be so motivated to make it to the top because of the benefits the top dogs shall receive. The members themselves will be getting a ton of benefits because of all the hard work that the BOD's will be doing considering that there getting paid and if one of these bod's slack off then there gone. There will be no week links. This will be a smooth oiled running machine with contacts in the DC area. This Org. also will be charity org. driven on some high profile cases. For something Like this I would be looking for a Ron ********** to take charge on this. I would also look to recruit some of the leaders in other orgs. to possibly joining this team. This type people have dreams and I want to be the guy who can make these dreams happened by having the right people and connections in place. Maybe $50.000 is not enough start up capital to do this. The more I look at a $100.000 would be a better jump start but for me to do that I would have to hit some of my credit cards pretty good considering I have about 60 of them with nothing on them but alot of high credit limits. To name names these are some of the guys I would look to meet somewhere and to hammer this out. Brian Penny PWNA VP, Everett Abrams PWNA Pres. Russel Cissel WRAPI founder, Carlos Wrapi Investor, Beth Borrego Monster bb owner, Micheal Hindeliter a leader with a resume second to none. Jim Grady past president of the IWCA, Ken Fenner with his imaginative mind,Allan from Preferred Pressure in Cali to lead on Reclamation issues, Tony Szabo for his leadership and dedication abilities, Bill Clemmons with his cutting edge technology,Jean Hendricks for her passion to get the job done, Joe Walters because of his rock solid support for this org. Cujo Cooley for stepping up to the plate when he has to. Robb Huffman for his upbeat personality who believes in getting things done with a positive attitude. Celeste Gorthorp for her ability to organized(If she lets me knock off the boulder on he shoulder). There are so many other people I can think of but this post may just get way to long.. Scott Karvonin to become a believer and to help bring in ones who weren't. Oh yea Robert Hindeliter should be asked also because of his legiondary status in this industry. Also keep in mind that I had a 18hr day today and a 24 hour day tomorrow to make money so I may be rambling a little. As for that $50,000 its geared to fixing my house and my wife would shoot me if I swiped that money out from under my bed shhhhhh. Just an Idea...........