Littlefield

First, lets look at how we used to use social media, and how it has changed. Social media marketing, old school: Hit as many people as possible between the eyes with your product or service, and see what happens. The more people you hit, the more will convert to customers. When Twitter and Facebook came along, businesses thought, “Great! A free way to bombard as many people as possible with advertising promoting my stuff.” This is why many people think social media doesn’t work for businesses, and why so many prospects agree. Is there a better way, though? Marketing model, now: Don’t hit your prospects! Connect with them, and then start listening to social media to see where else they are going to get great content. The idea here is to learn more about them so you can target your marketing more and more, and be more relevant than anyone else. One of the ways you can do this is to use HootSuite or Rebel Mouse to create a stream of your customers tweets, Facebook updates, and Linkedin updates. Use the filters in Rebelmouse to keep only the posts with shared URL’s in them, and then collect them all in a spreadsheet and see if some keep popping up with more regularity. These are the sites that your customers and prospects are going that have good enough content to share. This is where you want to be. In short, listening to social media is your secret weapon to understanding your customer, prospects, and targeting your marketing.

Both of the things you asked about protect you even more than the homeowner. In my mind, it wouldn't be worth the risk to myself if I was just making a few thousand bucks. Consider, you're washing a house, and someone trips on one of your hoses while you are around the back of the house, pitches forward, and burns their face on your equipment. (extreme, I know, but I'm trying to make a point here). First, after the screaming stops, you need to know how you are going to pay for their plastic surgery. What, you don't have that in savings? Even if you do, you should be protecting it with insurance. Second, the corporation is supposed to protect you from being sued personally for something you did while in the operation of business. Even if you have insurance, and they are taken care of medically, they are going to come after you for everything you own for the pain and suffering, negligence, etc. If you have a valid corporation, they can sue the corporation, not you. Of course, the first thing their lawyer will try to do in court is "pierce the corporate veil", and try to show the judge that its not really a corporation, its just you with some paperwork, and you never had a corporate meeting, never kept minutes of those meetings, etc. Do your homework and find out what you need to keep up to date on!! Hope this helps!

Russ, no good deed goes unpunished. Been there and done that. It stinks, but depending on the situation and the customer, you will either strip it the right way without complaining, or horse trade with them and use the 10 step Crystal Ball conflict resolution argument with them and spend as long talking to them as it would take to strip it. BTW, how much of an area are we talking about? I always carry a pail of *-*** with me just in case, I can shoot it on a deck surface and strip to bare wood in 10 minutes or less, and never even bother the homeowner, until after when I show them the freebie.

I also use a 15 gallon bleach container for the pick up tube to go into, faced away from the cart so that when I tilt it back to move it, nothing sloshes out. I use mine only for stripper and acid. I swap out the containers if I'm going back and forth.

I use 3/8 PVC air hose, 100', cost $21 at Lowes on my Delevan 60 psi, 2.0 gpm setup. Not counting the pump, I have about $40 in mine. With the pump, just over $120 counting the cart.

See my insertions above in green.

Max, I have used AC some on some timber and log samples, used RS extensively, and gone through pallets of WR Timber Oil. I simply like the way that a non filming stain/sealer works. What I have found is that even in the realm of non resin stains, the mix of oils that are available in the stain, as well as the type and amount of pigment, (the only real solid in a stain like this, if you don't count the oil) is the really important thing. I think all the stains mentioned are quality products, but I appreciate the fact that the Timber Oil has a high load of transoxide pigments, and alkyd oils that help keep the pigment in suspension. Converse to common sense, the more solids (pigments) in a stain, the further it spreads as well. You'd think a thicker stain would not go as far, but not so. Anyway, any other questions, feel free to ask away.

I agree +1

Daniel, what you are seeing as fuzzies is actually sanding swirls. However, when the RS sets in, those will virtually disappear. Good points you made on the Osborne brush though, getting the soft wood out without having to remove the hard grain.

Hold on now, 2000 RPM? Thats too fast in my opinion. The 9227c is only rated for a high end of 3k rpm, even thought the wheel is graduated into 1-6 increments. So, between 2-3 on the wheel is what I use. this is around 1,000-1,500 rpms max. Also, a slight angle gets the job done quicker. Don't press down, let the grinder do the work.

I agree with almost everything Adrian said, with one exception. If you use a penetrating stain like Readyseal or Woodrich Timber Oil, you can clean and stain now, get a light coat in, and help the wood acclimate slower, helping to reduce the cracking from a quick dry down. Then, in the spring, say around early May, soap the deck and lightly rinse, and get the second coat into it, building up the protection. Max, in my experience, if you have the time, you are in a position to have a showpiece deck by doing what most homeowners are not willing to do, and that is to apply multiple coats of a parafinnic oil stain a few months apart, and build up the oil in the wood. Trying to "lock it in" results in stripping down the road 90% of the time in my opinion.

Right on the State line, north of Lavonia. Log home restoration, looking for someone experienced to hand it to, you will be quizzed by me before I give the info.

I agree with Mr. Thomson. A miswritten spec is nothing less than a golden opportunity! I live for these, because it lets me show how I'm different, and eliminate competition from the bid process, thereby cementing my price as the only "qualified" contractor. Basic sales strategy 101 is not to always sell apples to apples, but to differentiate!! Follow Scotts advice to the letter. Be well prepared. In order to secure the meeting, you may have to ask questions of the gatekeeper that you know they will not know the answer to. IE Due to the furring of the wood because of the high pressure, what grit and type of sandpaper are you speccing for the sanding phase? I've noticed there is not a spec requiring sanding, does this mean you are requiring all other contractors to seal over the wood fuzz? What does the mfg of the stain say as to the application over furred wood and their warranty, are you aware that many other stains would consider this grounds for dismissal of a warranty failure claim? Let's get together and talk about an industry recognized standard to remove the old stain gently, avoid sanding, and make sure we get you a warrantable job. BTW, YOU are going to warranty the job, not the stain co. If it fails, they will always find a way to blame the applicator, not the stain. So, you may well want to work out a warranty/maintenance package like I have that mandates annual cleaning and touchup as part of the 5 year warranty. Figure up your real cost to lightly wash and restain the horizontals every year, it should be quite a bit less than the initial strip/stain. If some of the houses are on the north side, or are otherwise protected, you probably can stain them every other time, make sure thats in the proposal. Submit all this together with your initial proposal, and get them to commit to the whole thing up front, if possible.