Jeff Robison

I have thought about this area of business(have not pursued it yet) I cannot see why it would take close to an hour (except you probably gave it extra special attention considering it was family. Did the housewash mix clean it good? I have heard of specialty cleaners, but never used them. Jeff Robison Titan Exterior 678-360-2518

I agree alot with Pressure Pros. Make the customer realize the cost difference. Many times I will go to the local ACE Hardware versus the Home Depot simply because I can get service and knowledge of how to do something. If it simply involves buying something I am 100% familiar with I may go to Home Depot to save money on materials. Sell your self, company and show that you have pride in your work and are worthy of the higher rates. I see the same ads you do in Atlanta $99, $85, 169 any size house. Do you think these guys are really making any money or just working their selfs to death and not much to show for it. Also pursue every job as an opportunity to earn more business through referrals. I always leave a yard sign when I have done a job. Yes they cost me $12.00 a piece, but what if I get a neighbor or two and make 700-900. I always give 5 business card magnets to the homeowner($2.00). Often if it is a new neighborhood that I have not worked in I write down the addresses of 30-50 ($15-25) neighbors and send a letter that states I did work for ..... and would like to introduce our company with a neighborhood special (similar to Mike since most houses are close to the same size) Often I spend as much in pursuing other jobs as I do on chemicals and gas for a job. If I were a homeowner I would just get mad if someone advertised for $99 then tried to upsell me driveway, walkway, patio, gutters etc. Sounds more like a bait and switch. I used a carpet cleaning company recently that advertised for $59 entire house. When he got there he tried everything from spot cleaning, deodorizing, truck mounted versus the small piece of crap he pulled out, on and on. When I told him just the $59 job he acted mad and had a crappy attitude. I just told him to leave and forget it. He only wanted the upsells and it made me upset and him. Just give a good fair price upfront, do quality work, get referrals, and soon you will be laughing about the slow times of summer 2005. Jeff Robison Titan Exterior 678-360-2518

Another thing to consider is referrals at $100.00. People ask what others paid for a service. If I did one house for 100.00 the neighbor will ask and also expect the 100.00 wash. Down the road you start cutting quality to make a few dollars more on the 100.00 wash. When your quality suffers then you get no referrals. It really is a downhill spiral. I will work a little on price when a homeowner objects to the quote, but maybe 25 bucks and tell them I won't scrub the gutters etc. We both end up happy. Also you have to make enough for other things such as advertising, insurance, new tools, equipment etc. When you clean for 100.00 you are just making enough to live, not to grow your business and prosper. I will tell you Degraffeed and I both have GOOD full time jobs and that makes it a little easier to have higher prices and walk away from the low paying jobs. I am just a part time guy with less than $30,000 in sales so far this year, not acting like some big shot, just telling you that higher prices will bring you more business and more profits in the long run. My dad once told me this and it has always stuck in my head. "The highest price guy rarely, rarely goes out of business" They have the best equipment, best advertising, work less and make more than just about anyone else. They focus on quality first and that normally gets them more business than they can handle, then they raise their price even more to weed out the customers they do not want. Just think about Cadillac, Rolex, and many other brands that follow this philosophy. They all do very well. The lowest price guys are working harder for less money and get burned out, can't afford new equipment, and just walk away from the business. This and my other post were not meant to be a slam in any way shape or form. Just food for thought. Most of my thoughts also pertain to residential work. I do very little commercial because of time restraints. I would like to book more commercial work, but I think it would be just to meet expenses and really profit off the higher residential end. I had a guy kind of balk at a quote of 550.00 on a 500,000 house the other day. I said you are not willing to spend 1/10 of one percent of your biggest investment to keep it cleaned and maintained, he thought for a second and then said I was absolutely right and I got the job. Jeff Robison Titan Exterior 678-360-2518

No wonder you are broke!! (referring to another post) Don't lower your price to that level. You can never make it up on volume. $100.00 is absurd for Atlanta. I rarely quote below $250.00 for residential, often much higher. I have landed 21 of the 23 residentail quotes that I have quoted. Raise your prices, raise your quality, raise your quality of life, raise the money for the hot water skid. People in Atlanta have the money to spend 250.00 on a house cleaning. $100.00 just sounds cheap and actually might be driving away customers. What kind of quality would you expect from a place that advertised $4.99 oil change for a car? Not much and I wouldn't take my car there in the first place. Jeff Robison 678-360-2518

Mike give me a call. We are doing a house,driveway, and patio in Duluth about 4:30 and you are welcome to tag along and see how we do some things. Just offering to help you out. Jeff Robison Titan Exterior 678-360-2518

I am part time in my second year. I started it out to make a little extra while the wife was home with the kids. She is going back to work as a teacher this year. I love the business, I love service type businesses in general. The satisfaction from a job well done brings me joy. The part time money cannot be beat as well. I typically after paying my helper still average $90-100 an hour. It is nice to go out after work and make $200-300 a couple nights a week. I will make about $1200 this week from what I have booked. My salary and benefits would be hard to replace right off the bat. Plus I really enjoy what I do full time. This time of year it would be tempting to go full time, however I remember this winter when I did not fire up the machine for 5 weeks in a row!! I use professional equipment, good chemicals (Thanks SunBrite), and charge probably higher than normal rates. Having the steady income makes it easy to just walk away from the people that try to get you way down on price, or just the real pain in the butt jobs. I really don't need the money to do what I want to do and live a comfortable life without the pressure washing money. But, the extra pays for anniversary trips, my daughters high level soccer league with travel, and pays to have the yard maintained by a lawn service (I despise yard work) I plan on staying part time, but on a bigger basis. I am training a younger guy who seems to enjoy the work and I am almost confident enough to unleash him on a job on his own. This has always been my goal, for me to market and run the business and use someone else's labor. That's my story Jeff Robison Titan Exterior 678-360-2518

You might want to try GA Chemical Company in Norcross, I believe Hydrotek is the main line they distribute. They might have it in stock. GA Chemical 770-921-0397

I was also at the meeting in Atl. where this topic was brought up. I think it was clearly stated that in a bid process or sales pitch, it would be nice or advantageous to say that you reclaim while others may not. I do not think anyone was saying it would be good to snitch on another company who is not complying with the laws. Just another part of the pitch to winning more work. Just like using hot water, the best chemicals, insured etc. I am a huge believer in Karma and it just would not be right to turn someone in who is just trying to make a living. However, in a competitive bid situation, you bet I will mention that I would like to recover and be compliant. It would also bring up the $$$ for whoever wins the job and future jobs for all involved. The more money we can all make the better. No one wins in a cut throat environment. If you cut someone's throat to win, you don't make that much, the other guy makes nothing, your referrals price will drop because "you did his for this $$, why not me, etc" And next time your competition will cut yours. This just lowers price to the point of no reason. Then the next step is to lower quality to make money at the cut throat price, When you do this, your quality sucks and you don't get as many referrals. The list goes on until you decide you can't make any money doing P/W and quit. Then you ask, What happened? I am relatively new to PW but I am seeing this same scenario in my full time business. Manufacturers are selling the exact same product 15% cheaper than we did 10 years ago. Dealers are trying to kill each other and no one makes $ that way. Keep your prices up and we will all do well. I have thought a lot about this recently. I have never seen the highest price, highest quality guy go out of business in any industry. They are the ones who have the money to upgrade equipment, spend on advertising, make it through the slow times and generally prosper. We are all going into our busy season, keep your prices higher and I guarantee you will do better than you ever have. Jeff Robison Titan Pressure Washing 678-360-2518

Degrafeed, Try Sun Brite in Lawrenceville, they are great. you should come to the meeting this weekend. Jeff robison Titan Pressure Washing

I ran into a company at a The International Fabrics Expo in Pittsburgh and they specialize in awning cleanings, as well as sails and other fabrics. They sell chemicals specifically for awnings. I have not used their products, but they were very very knowledgable, when I spoke with them for a while. www.cleancanvas.com 800-542-3009 Jeff Robison Titan Pressure Washing 678-360-2518