John T

Excellent Post Ken!! I'm going to just speculate here since I can't back it with facts but I'm guessing to gross a 1,000,000 here in long Island NY maybe easier to attain since the prices of everything here has skyrocketed to the point where a starter house goes for about $400-$450,000. SO with that being said I would have to guestimate that to gross a Million plus you would have to have the owner of the business doing the estimates a basically running the business while he has about 6 employees out in the field doing the manual labor. Now with these 6 employee's they have to average about $170,000gross each to reach that lofty goal. When I re-read what I wrote here I think the only way to reach that magic number of $1,000,000 gross you most likely will need a ton of commercial work.....and there we go back to that Commercial vs. residential work thats in another thread.

Jeff, It sounds like Commercial is the way to go for you if you can get enough work..but..since your pretty good with the sales and your a personable guy why not keep doing both but just maybe hire another person or two so they along with your other guys can do all the work that you line up?? This way you can just about be certain that your guys will always be busy and you don't have to do any of the physical labor. You can keep selling and selling and because of this your company will be making more and more money and you will become wealthier...and your body will love you for it:) My partner at my "Other Job" owns this pool company www.jjspools.com which is one of the largest on Long Island NY. His business exploded when he decided at about the ripe old age of 27 or so to not do any of the physical work but to keep hiring and firing workers untill he had a bunch of great Crews. He is forever riding me because I continuously do the physical work in my business along with 1-2 workers. I know he is right because to really get to the bigs you have to relinquish the labor process to the workers. Any of the owners of the bigger businesses in most fields will tell you this. Still for me I'm not sure what direction I'm going to take because as Popeye use to say.."I am what I am" and I am a laborer who happens to have two jobs and one of them is my very own business...I could just hear my partner here telling me that I'm just afraid to get to the next level..and maybe he's right or maybe I'm doing Ok where I'm at in my life..Could I be content?? I hope not

Hey Jeff, I'm with you on your thinking here. My best paydays as far as money made per day I do much better doing Commercial work then Residential. A great day fo me doing Residential is when I make anywhere near $1000/day. On the Commercial side I've made as high as $2000/day and I have a Commercial job coming up n March that if we put in a long day I could make as much as $3000 in that day. The other thing with Commercial work is if you can get it where the job is done every so often then its even more $$$$ in the bank. On our PWNA BOD is a guy named Jim Grady who owns http://www.tristatehighriseservices.com/ he is strictly commercial and in season he has about 45 employees.. He lives in upstate NY where is there's tons of mountains. I'm not sure how far he has to drive to get into his office but his business targets cities. He has a couple of offices and he does quite well. I believe the tallest building he has dealt with was about 40+ stories. On the other hand Residential pays pretty fast and you can get alot of jobs near to your home..So IMO I would hold on to the residential end untill the time comes when you can fill your days with Commercial then if it was me I would at that time get away from Residential

I was impressed by the product and I let my local Distributer talk me into selling it...Next thing I know after I already paid the Yellow Pages to advertise this product my local Distributer gets nailed for advertising without a license....what a headache and what an expensive lesson learned.

I enjoy Flatwork and Building cleaning the best. I also don't mind Powerwashing Houses and Decks. Stripping decks & houses is OK as long as its not a solid stain(I gave stripping or staining solids a few yrs ago) Dislikes include Powerwashing/Stipping fences and staining anything but still do them because it pays well.

Goals for this year---- -- I plan on nailing down some more commercial accounts..just today I Powerwashed a new commercial account that I just picked up. Get my box truck lettered and hopefully hire another worker to go along with me and my worker that I have now. Get the extension on my house started before I go into overdrive Powerwashing. As always trying to spend some more quality time with my family. Maybe go to Church since I haven't gone in about 25 yrs..I have to many issues here and I'm still trying to work them out. This is the downfall of having an analytical mindset which causes me to analyze...most everything:)

It depends on a few factors whether I help a start-up in my area...I've done it before and I may do it again but..then again I may not...As for these bb I have no problem in helping someone out of state...but that depends to on a few things..such as do I have the time. I guess you have to feel these people out to see if there sincere or you can just ignore them and let them call someone else. Either way there is no obligation on your part to help or not..its your call.

If you have to then finance it..I started 11 yrs ago and I did it on my credit card..Today you can do this to if you can find those credit cards with the 0% interest for the first year..and then try to pay it back before then..or go to a bank and take out a small loan..either way if you don't have the funds ready available and you think you do have what it takes to make it in this business..then just finance it and write it off at tax time. The season for Powerwashing here in the northeast is around late March to late October. I don't know what it would be in you area but the sooner you get your equipment and yourself situated the sooner you can start going out there to make the money...

I'm doing my taxes Tomorrow with my accountant..Since I pay so much taxes here its nice to try to get a few of those bucks back.....Me and the IRS have this relationship where I pay them a ton and then they pay me a few peanuts at tax time:)

That is why we had to remove th music to our Clean Across America video that we had on our PWNA Website...Sorry to say that this Country is Sue Happy and if you become a big player in the industry there are those Sharks out there that are just waiting for you to swim in there waters...

Mark, I just returned your call..I'll catch up with you within the next few days.

You can get a more in depth details about the upcoming PWNA Convention on our website or just click on this brochure link http://www.pwna.org/PWNA/PWNA_2006_Convention/PWNAconferencebook.pdf The Convention is from April 6-8 so you'll need a room the nite of the 5th -7th which is 3 days..The Rooms are blocked off for attendies of the Convention which allows you to get a cheaper rate of $129/nite so figure with Tax's it comes out to close to $150/nite so its $450 for the room. THe Convention will cost you another $395 so now where up to $845. Now you figure a couple of hundred for food and other items such as drinks or whatever your now around $1045..Then there is the flights which lets say Roundtrip cost about $400 so your now in the neighborhood of $1500..If you take a certification course with Test you add another $ 700 or so to it. SO with this being said $2000 is about right but now you must look at he positives here which is #1 The people you meet and the classes that you attend and the knowledge and the excitement you get from being around people with the same interest that you have. Then after everything is said and done you can write this whole tab off next year when you do your taxes...Oh yea don't forget this year is the first year that the spouses can go for Free and I believe there is also an employee discount for each additional member that a company brings. Personaly I love these Conventions and I Get so much out of them..I look forward to each time of year meeting all the people that I've known over the years and to share each others experiences and to just talk shop..is priceless!!

Ken the only question i would have here is what kind of draw rate do you get with this downstreamer?? The Beauty of the x-jet is I get a 2-1 draw rate. The other downstreamer setups I had where at best 7-1..I love he x-jet because of the draw.

Don't you just love this bb. Where else can you talk shop about something your so passionate about with people who have a common interest. These bb's are a Godsend and I feel this "The Grime Scene" bb is at the very top of the Powerwashing bulletin boards. Its kind of like when I was younger and my friends and I would talk hours and hours about sports..Today alot of those friends have moved on and our interest have changed. Its nice to know that you can come to a site like this and talk shop with the best of them.. Beth and Rod get a way big thumbs up from me for keeping this site the "Best in the Business" and if they had an award for that this site would win it...Easily!!! The Golden Globes goes to...no not that kissing cowboy movie with the two gays guys....Its a major upset but the winner goes to THE GRIME SCENE bulletin board!!:lgjump: :lgkick: :lgmoneyey

What I did was for one I bought a few thousand Dollars worth of Sealer at a trade show in the beginning of the year and right there I saved at least 30% because of the bulk buy. I also bought a ton more Chlorine and did away completly with any Citrus cleaner housewash and Jomax. I did have to buy a special house wash when I did this condo complex because Chlorine/bleach was not allowed to be used and they had to approve the cleaning chemical thru the MSDS sheets.(What a pain that was). I also didn't advertise at all this year in the local papers cause I had so much repeat work and of course I still had my display add in the yellow pagers so that was a few thousand saved right there. Of course now the down side...I spent about $5000 in advertising for the GutterFilter and thats showing to be a bust and I don't expect to recoup that much back. And now the killer..I had to go off and spend $40,000 on a whole new set-up and by the time I sold off a few items to offset that cost I still owed $20,000 and poof there goes the money saved..

Thats cause *** has and always will SELL!! Just don't buy it or your going to get BUSTED:)

It the end of the world as we know it..and I feel fine (REM song). I'm actually digging this mild winter so far..bring on some more global warming to the Northeast...

I've been around a few years now where I started with other boards. Delco was the first board I found in 98-99. Today I still visit other boards because they all have some value.. I would say right now that this board rivals *** when *** was at its best a few years ago.. PWN was also an excellent board in its infacy but since Dan Flynn got out of the business his board has not been nearly the same.PWNA's bb was closed off so they aren't the same as what these boards are today. THe PWNA bb is more of an info only bb which is what they wanted to do. I also visited Dave's powerwashing board back in the day and I still Visit TCN every now and then. The Deckcare bb I haven't visited it much since Greg Renstler sold it. All in all the two best bb's was *** in its heyday and TGS today..

Possibly if there intentions are honest and its not just a ploy for there own benefit soley. So with that being said our door is always open to listen and to explore together. I do believe in a 2 way street..

I can't speak for the other org's but I can speak about the PWNA. This year our Board of Directors are all Contractors which I think is an excellent thing since we are basically an Org. that represents Contractors first. There is no agenda for anyone of us to make money directly off the Org. which I'm not saying was any Vendor in the past intentions either..but..some may have felt that way and now if they did its not a concern anymore. Another nice thing about the PWNA is that where known in alot of area's which gives us Name Recognition..Should we be known to alot more???ABSOLUTELY!!! and that is another avenue where working on. There's alot of ways to better each and every org. but one of the constants in doing this is that all powerfull mighty dollar. It takes money to make some amazing changes and the PWNA which is only around 400 members strong will have to find a way to increase its membership base to give more of what the membership would want. Since we have to deal with what we have we are trying to get some more volunteers to help us help our PWNA Members..We are also trying to get together more often as BOD's because we get alot more done this way which is one of the main reasons we are getting together in Memphis next month..This will cost each and every PWNA BOD more money out of our own pockets but if it can help the org. then to me at least its worth doing it even though this trip will cost me personally another $1000. Its Expensive to be a BOD but if your like myself who likes to give back to the community that I believe in then its worth it.. Personally I have a ton of idea's I could put forth here and I could go on and on but thats for another day...and hopefully with more money to back them.....

I have one main goal this year and its once again to make more $$$$ and thats it:lgmoneyey

Now thats funny:lgsideway and gross to. So where exactly did Herpes come from??????????

Yup and do you remember Dan Flynn who owns PWN getting the boot off of Declo's bb then he started his own bb PWN with the help of the one and only Ron Marshall who soon became known as Ron **********. Another Brief history about Dan Flynn. SInce he was booted off of Delco's bb he has never been a supporter of the PWNA because of this. Anything to do with Robert Hindeliter Dan Disliked. Go over to PWN and try to put a post up with the word DELCO in it..it will show up as xxxxx. Same goes there if you put the word ENVIROSPEC in a post. That one I could never figure out why Dan would make it turn to xxxxxxxxx..Does anyone know why?? Could it be because of his sponsors??

Good point about priming the line to the pump. I guess that could be done. The guys that build these set-ups would have the answers to this along with some others that may have a similar set-up to what your asking for. Where's Russ Johnson..I bet he can give some better insight on this.

Jeff, I can't say for sure but I would think it could be done since I've ran my portable powerwashers before by having them on a pool deck and the intake hose about 1.5 ft down sucking up the water in the pool. The only possible problem that I could see is if you set your Powerwasher up like that, is with everyday use the first time you start the Powerwasher it will take a second or two for the water to go into the pump. Doing this day in and day out may cause damage to the pump...