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John T

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Posts posted by John T

  1. Posted · Report reply

    Labor day weekend is around the corner. We got lucky that where doing our biggest commercial job to date that pretty much covers miles of walkways in a historic village here. 2 more days and this Month long job at nights is over. Hate the hours but love to be busy.

    Just now our phone is ringing again a little more frequent for our Residential side of our business to Powerwash/softwash houses/roofs & woodwork again.

    Don't you hate it when you think that your residential end stops calling? Doesn't it feel relieving to Know that come Holiday time they call again? The downside and upside of having a nice size residential base.

    For you Residential guys/gals does your phone ring more often now for Labor day weekend work?

  2. Posted · Report reply

    I love where I live on Long Island NY. 2 miles from the beach and 15 miles from the Ocean. 1 Hour from the Hamptons and NY City as well. I hate what I pay to live here but on the Powerwashing end the Money is pretty good. My goal is to be able to snow bird with another home in Florida. Wishful thinking but my parents do that and I have other family members who do the same. I love Florida. Been to Disney world in 1970 when they first opened and I always loved the weather and the ocean.

    My grand parents moved for their last 30 yrs to Clearwater Florida and now my Grandmother is back at 98.

    My goal is to have some kind of residence there.

    How about you? Where do you live and where do you want to live?

  3. Posted · Report reply

    I love Florida. I have family their including my parents who own a winter home there. My goal is to do the same. One of the good things about Florida is the rainfall that can help big time in roof cleaning. But it can cause mayhem. Sinkholes are a scary thing. http://weather.aol.com/2013/08/13/why-is-florida-prone-to-sinkholes/?icid=maing-grid7%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl11%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D357426

  4. Posted · Report reply

    Both of the above have their benefits and different types of business models may need one or the other or both involved in your business. That's all common knowledge.

    All that aside what would you rather have working for you Subs or Employees?

    Personally I rather have Employees. I don't want other people's headaches and running my own business I rather deal with my own crew. Subs may do "Subpar" work where my guys do not.

    What's your thoughts on this?

  6. Posted · Report reply

    Multiple places have wanted this over the years. "Sign up with us and we will get work for you" is the basic idea. The BBB, Chambers, Orgs, Associations and so on.

    If it works for you, then go for it, if it doesn't then don't. If in doubt, ask around to see who has any information. Ask for a list of their clients to see who you might work for.

    Great advice Allan! This one caught me off guard because we have dealt with this prop. Management company for a few yrs now.

    A couple of months ago we had to pay for a specific thing on this parking garage RFP we dealt with that cost me $300 out of pocket. In the end us and only 1 other company ended up in the final stage of the RFP and we lost. It was worth the risk of course but what a bulljazz thing we had to do for that $300 bucks. What that was is we had to register our business within that state even though we do business there all the time. It did not matter. So in that case the state got the $300 and we got Zilch and I still Legally do work in that state that never needed me to register there.

  8. Posted · Report reply

    I hate to say get used to it but.. get used to it.

    Buisness models for the service industry all are trying to build in fees for access to work. I went to a GSA confrence where the speaker gave his speech on bidding jobs and afterwards spent considerable time telling about how he had to make his speech the exact OPPOSITE of what the entire service industry is doing. While the governemnt just throws out a RFP and contractors then bid the work. The private secor now sees the entire RFP process as a opportunity for making money by taking fees to prequalify vendors to requiring on site inspections that are the vendors resposibility.

    So we pay for Liability,WC insurance, some of us pay to be a license contractor(I have to in my area), for commercial work we have to at times raise the liability on our vehicle insurance etc etc etc... And now little shizz like this.

    Your right. Just have to get use to paying these small extortions to possibly get more work or just "paying the piper" for nothing.

  9. Posted · Report reply

    If they are going to charge you just to pimp you out they are dollar shopping anyway and will go with some lowballer anyway.

    Very true. The flipside to that is even ones we do work for many years are now charging us a fee or we'll be taken off their Vendor list.

    To me and its just the way I think, it looks like just another way to extort money out of hard working contractors who in most cases aren't getting the money they deserve for doing the work in the first place. Keep in mind, This is my Union mind way of thinking but in this case it looks to be a small extortion out of the business owners. The "Bleeps" of these people...........

  10. Posted · Report reply

    I'm the opposite. I've had the last 3 days off & now I'm chomping at the bit to get back into it. I don't do ''not working'' very well at all. If I'm not working, I'm checking the equipment over, doing quotes getting chemicals etc. Different strokes for different folks I guess. I thrive on being under the pump as it were. Be honest now. If you we're on vacation, are you saying you wouldn't be thinking about what was going on back home? I don't think you ever really switch off when you're self employed. You cant afford to. Just my opinion.

    Yup I get like that to. It's tough to turn of your mind abbot business even when on vacation. There were many times I would come back from vacation(Jersey shore house) and then go back after I did some more jobs.

    That really sucked but I hate to pass up work and as I get older I have gotten smarter with that. Having a couple of employees helps.

  12. Posted · Report reply

    Charge the money back,

    They want to be added as a loss payee on insurance, there is now a fee for that with us.

    Government clearance required build it into the price.

    That is a 2 way street.

    That's exactly what I'm going to do. I'll pad it a little more so they think it's just a small increase in price only. Goes around, comes around.

    The real problem is to get on some list where you may never get any jobs.

  14. Posted · Report reply

    Do you ever get to the point and you just say you need a break?

    Right now where going some days and mostly nights doing Powerwashing work. That's a good thing. But I'm feeling a bit burnt out right now because everyday it's like something is going wrong. Swivels are breaking, we broke two Surface machines this week alone where I had to Frankenstein them back together. We lost a couple of residential jobs because no one wants to hear we can't be there for at least 3 weeks etc.

    I also added to my shop this past week so it's go,go,go. I am going out to dinner with a bunch of my friends this Thurs nite(no girls allowed) and that will be a much needed "small break" but with most likely no vacation in site this summer the burnout is coming on a little to soon for me.

    So what do you do when burnout syndrome sets in a little sooner then expected?

  15. Posted · Report reply

    ok, you got me John, I have been talking about my xjet all these years, but it was really code about Cindy's rump.

    Busted!!!!!!!!

    You Dawg Adrian..lol u caught my post just when I was editing it out. I was told not to put on anything negative no matter right, wrong or indifferent kind of thing... That remark wasn't targeted towards anyone but you just never know who reads what kind of thing and what they take out of it.

    Also now that you bring it up.. Weren't you the one who Met Cindy Crawford :) http://www.google.com/search?q=cindy+crawford&client=safari&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=w0MBUpqYH4aQ9gS-xoDQBg&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAA&biw=1024&bih=690&sei=yEMBUonHCYaS9QSS1YGgCg

    She is hot hot hot and all around special. Closest Customer that we do work for that's In Cindy's all around class is Carol Alt who looks even better in person and friendly as heck as if you knew her for years. http://www.google.com/search?q=carol+alt&client=safari&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=mEQBUt_BEYz29gSw_4CYBg&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAA&biw=1024&bih=690

  16. Posted · Report reply

    John, the $95 one you're talking about is not a rip off (per say) I don't much like the hassle with it but it will weed out the ones without proper insurance, plus they pay you after the job is complete, not 30-60-90 days couple of weeks in most cases, if its the company I'm thinking about.

    It could be the company your thinking it is because there a national company. That condo Gutter job we just did was thru them. We also clean either 2-3 condo complexes thru them every few yrs. I won't mention their name and I understand it's the cost to do business but it urks me when we have to submit to them every year our updated WC Ins., our Liability ins with what they want listed in there etc. and now we have to pay to do this as well.

    2 can play this game even though it's a bit sneaky. I'm going to jack up my price just a hair next time to offset that cost.

  18. Posted · Report reply

    A few months back we had a Property Management Co. Demanding we pay $300 to be on their Vendor approved list. This company handles the Target Stores. Since the only thing we dealt with target was turning down there dumpster area cleanup we did not pay. A few emails of them requesting us to pay but A certain date came and went. So where off their list.

    Now I get another one from a different Prop. Management Co. we do a lot of work for. We do a couple of condo jobs for them. Now they to want a fee to be on their Vendor list. The Fee is $95 and we paid it. Not worth losing our connection with them over $95.

    What annoys me is these companies should be lucky to have us on their list to pick to see who can lowball far enough to get some jobs and also to keep the dependable ones(like my company) at their disposal.

    I wont "Bite my nose off to spite my face" but it's like another scam to squeeze $$$ out of us contractors and there is no one there to make our case that this is wrong.

    Just venting.

  19. Posted · Report reply

    Where in the middle of doing a night work month long town job that is all flatwork. Because of that it leaves us only Fr. & Sa. To catch up on our other work.

    Last Friday we did a Condo complex gutter clean out job. I have the same 5 guys that I'm using for this town job to do this job as well. There were tons of gutters and the pay Was $3500. We've done this Condo in the past but it's usually done once a yr. This time we haven't done it in over 2 yrs.

    So now the problem. Between 2 hurricanes that came thru our area since it was last cleaned (Irene & Sandy) and all the rain we were having here you would think that maybe they would be cleared out some... But noooooooooo.

    Some of these gutters were growing small trees out of them and the gunk build up in all of them were at the top.

    Total disaster. Since I just raised there price 10% from the last time we did it and I never went there to check on there condition this is where you can get a beating like I did for not looking at the job first.

    End result--- 2 days of 12 hrs each(including traveling) for 5 guys to clean these gutters. When tax time rolls around I'll be lucky if I break even on this job.

    Can't win them all. This one I sure didn't.

  22. Posted · Report reply

    As of now we have 162 contractor attendees coming to the 2013 Pressure Washing Convention.

    This does NOT include the vendors.

    Are YOU going to miss the biggest, most exciting pressure washing event of the year!?

    http://pressurewashingconvention.com/

    Wow that's Huge!! Largest event in #'s alone that I seen in years.

    This is going to be special. People should jump on this one.

  25. Posted · Report reply

    Updated PWNA Concention info:

    $75 early bird special ends today

    PWNA Annual Convention - Oct. 17-19 in Orlando, FL

    Today is the deadline to receive the $75 early bird special on your 2013 PWNA Annual Convention & Trade Show registration. This year's event is truly one you do not want to miss. Not only do we have a new line up of courses such as Fall Protection, Window Cleaning with Pure Water, Water Remediation, 9 Tips to help Manage the growth of your Business, and Softwash, but we also have traditional favorites such as Power Washing 101 and our Certifications courses: Wood Restoration, House Washing, Roof Cleaning, Fleet Washing, Environmental, and the Seal'N Lock Authorized Technician/PWNA Flatwork certification. Another favorite back on this year's schedule is the Taking your Business into the Millions panel discussion. Courses are not the only thing new that our attendees will be able to participate in.

    *

    We will be offering a mentoring program which offers a new prize that any attendee (new or a veteran) would dream of winning: a two day, all-expense paid trip to train and be mentored by industry leader, Paul Horsley. We will also have a team building exercise that will help attendees build long lasting networking connections as well as teach team building skills that you'll be able to implement into your businesses immediately. The winning team (team will be announced after the show) will win free admission to next year's convention.

    *

    Lastly on the topic of new, we have quite a few new vendors that will be displaying this year on top of many vendors from previous shows. You will have the chance to meet vendors face-to-face and learn about the latest products and equipment. You will also have the opportunity to see some of the equipment at the outdoor demonstrations. *

    *

    To date, this year's sponsors include:

    *

    Armstrong Clark

    Hydro Tek - Cleaning Equipment Mfg.

    Alkota Cleaning Systems

    J. Racenstein Company

    Steel Eagle

    Powerwash.com

    EDI Distributors

    Knight Enterprises

    Joseph D. Walters Agency, Inc.

    Timber Ox Products

    Pressure Wash Outlet

    *

    Give us just three days of your time and we will teach you many systems you can use to build a successful Power Washing business. Don't wait any longer!* Contact PWNA Headquarters today or go to http://www.pwna.org/annualconvention2013.php to find a full list of classes as well as registration forms

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