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Jim Gamble

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Posts posted by Jim Gamble

  1. Posted · Edited by Jim Gamble · Report reply

    I started with my workers comp money of $17,500 dollars. I took that money and bought my first railer with tanks and a Delco 5500 SS. That year,1989, I made $17,500. I broke even. The next year I made a little more, just under 50K. Then the following year a bit more.

    I have never " LOST " money in my business.

    My first garage I did for just over 2 cents a sq. ( 207,000 sq ft. for $5,000 )

    I thought I was rich. That was the high end for garage cleaning in 1989 with no reclamation needed at that time. It was called Tide and Bleach.

    Today, we clean for .24 a sq ft. Though we have approx. 7-12 garage Cleaning Companies in N. California. We are the highest priced. We have never advertised, no Ad's, no flyer's, to marketing calls in 21 years of doing business. Customers finds us.

    Add-on, Some have asked if we only do xx to xx garages. NO these are the companies we work for that have multiple garages. we do over 25 garages a year. Since the average square foot that one can clean is 68,000 square feet. That includes HAND SCRUBBING, Pressurized steam, rinsing with a fire hose at 80 GPM's with 90 psi, filtering. This method takes 6 to 15 guys to do correctly and NO ONE is sitting down in the 12 to 15 hour day. To steam clean 68,000 sq ft ONLY takes 3 hours or less.

  2. Posted · Report reply

    Way to go Chris. I luv to hear how someone is making money.

    I agree with you when you say be specialize in one or two fields. In January 1989, we tried to do everything, from School Kitchens / cafeteria's to home driveways to Parking Structures. We did anything we could get. Sometimes you need to do anything you can, especially in the beginning.

    You need to find yourself and your business...meaning what niche you can fill in your area....and if there is more than one niche, of those niche's what niche that you can do well.

    Some find this " Niche " right from the get go. They are the lucky one's. Some take a year or two. But when you find it.... HOLD ON !!! Keep learning, asking questions of yourself on how we can do it better, NOT necessary faster, though it is one thing to think about. I believe quality is what the America wants providing that quality is justified.

    Again....Way to go !!!!

  3. Posted · Report reply

    We have a 14 ft trailer custom. We had to have our designed especially for Garage Cleaning. We had two engineers , one from Stanford the other from England, to help design our hydraulic system. We have a 3.3 liter turbo diesel as the main power plant. Trailer was designed to handle 6,000 lbs every 3 ft. suspended off the ground. Our suspension is a rubber ride axles custom ordered to our specs. two 9 k axles with no springs.

  4. Posted · Report reply

    Good intentions that will lead to unintended consequences. So you really want the government regulations determining who the winners are? You like it because you are one of the winners. Well good for you! I am a firm believer that I might not care what the rules are as long as I know what they are. You made the rules work for you, been there! You will sing a different tune when they change the rules and raise the liscense restrictions to the point that no one can comply, been there also. The problem with your experience is you and the rest of us have never experienced the type of political climate that is in Washington today........beware what you wish for! ANYONE asking our current government to regulate their business is acting idiotically and naively.

    Do not think that your local government will be any different than the feds. With all the money from the Feds going to bail out the states...the feds will call the shots or pull their money from the states meaning...the feds will call the shots.

    It is a brave new world! A liberal, progressive world and we are all in deep sh#t!!

    Russ,

    I respect what you say and do not want full government control. I did not want to live in Russia which is what you seem to be saying.

    All I have said is that I fought tooth and nail for years. I did not have the Millions of dollars to change anything. I could not go up against " Green Peace" or other orgs that are very well funded in the Mil's.

    You will sing a different tune when they change the rules and raise the liscense restrictions to the point that no one can comply, been there also.

    I am not really worried about that. There are a few states such as Arizona, California, Oregon, Maryland etc that are far more restrictive then the Federal CWA guidelines. Any State / County can increase it's restrictions above any Federal standard. They just cannot go below it. The federal Guidelines are the foundation, the state can build from that.

    As far as the Government going crazy, It would not be in their best interest. Even today, my area is requiring filtration for any oil removal. But they do not require you to get a $50,000+ filtration unit or any certain manufacture. They just want you to get a medium size filtration unit that can handle the flow and particles to be filtered. I do not see any restrictions that cannot be met.

    The only thing that is a pain is the paper work that they make you fill out for the permit process.

    So if your state lets you dump caustic down the storm drain, lets you dump hundreds, if not, thousands of gallons of class II hazardous waste in the landscape ( Gas Stations, Parking lots, Parking Garages, for example ) then I could see why you do not want them to come in your area. This would mean that you would have to raise your prices to cover the expense. However, that would be for everyone in your field.... not just you.

    May I suggest that you ask your local authorities when it will be enforced and start researching as to what equipment to buy to meet those requirements. Then show them that you are complying with the new laws and ask to be put on their approved vender's list. Thats how I did it back in 1992. I was the only one on the list for 5 to 6 years. They did not recommend me, it was just that I was the only one for Garage Cleaning that met or exceeded the requirements for garage cleaning.

    The Government wants you to succeed so that you make money so that they can tax you instead of being on government assistance. ( NOT SAYING THAT YOU ARE ON ANY ASSISTANCE, sometimes people read between the lines on these BBS. Just want to make that clear. )

    So have I made good money because of this, yes. Am I looking at the next generation of filtration technologies, yes. Is it required as of today... NO. But I am getting ready for the day it is. That day could be 10 years from now, but I am continuing to research and learn for the day it dose come.

  5. Posted · Edited by Jim Gamble · Report reply

    I can only speak for my field. Parking Garage Cleaning.

    Back in 1989, there was unlimited amount of pressure washers. Those washers did everything. Prices for Garage Cleaning was just over 2 cents a foot. I know, that's what we did them for in 1989.

    In 1991, EPA got involved. Slowly they started to require this and that. I fought like many on these BBS do today. I went to meetings almost monthly and sometimes twice a week to no avail. I use to say, " What happens when it rains, where is all that oil runoff from the roadways going?" Still landed on death ears.

    In 1992, since it was evident that I was not making any headway, I had to purchase a filtration system at a cost of $72,000 with no guarantees that this would meet the new requirements of the day.

    Those next few years was the toughest for us. We almost went bankrupt.

    Now we are at 24 cent a ft. Competition is down from 100's to only 20 or so. Those that you see having a Home Depot pressure washing special are gone. Prices and profits have gone up because of the involvement of the Environmental Agencies that got involved in enforcing these new requirements for a " Greener" environment.

    They also make you get discharge permits as well, as to monitor your discharge. This, along with the hefty fines and possible jail time that they can impose makes those low ballers leave the area.

    So based on 21 years of history and being on both sides of the fence, I believe it would be in everyones best interest to have some sort of permit process for the type of work they are doing. This would raise the profit margin and your bottom line....... IF IT IS ENFORCED...... by the local authorities.

    Another area that now needs special permits as of July 1st 2009....

    Lead paint wash and removal. You must be certified.

    Asbestos removal and discharge is another... was required to be certified Before 2009. Date ... not sure.

    These fields are making BANK. Did everyone complain......... YA they did....... Was there this and that going on ... SURE....... Did some get out of the business because they did not like what was being asked of them... most definitely..... The ones who got certs. and got lic...... Then went and bought the right equipment are now netting 10's of thousands of dollars per location, where before it was in the 100's of dollars, are they complaining as they go to the bank...... NA. But they would be the first ones to complain to other contractors how hard it is. I wonder why?

  9. Posted · Report reply

    It's no wonder why everybody in my family has a Porsche.... that is... except me.

    Maybe one day when my kids have grown a little more and car seats are not an issue.

    Oh, the sacrifices one makes for their kids...Daddy has to buy the SUV instead of that G3 Porsche in the window for Christmas.... LOl LOL lOL

    ... ( I would crawl to the job-site for my children )

  10. Posted · Report reply

    Bergmister had one encreditable race. VERY intense.

    Bergmister Married into our family on my sister in laws side. Great guy !!!

    Check out this video on YouTube:

    [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3y0tbdpcFc&feature=youtube_gdata]YouTube- Incredible ALMS GT2 Final Laps Battle at Laguna Seca 2009[/ame]

  12. Posted · Edited by Jim Gamble · Report reply

    I started with my workers comp money of $17,500 dollars. I took that money and bought my first railer with tanks and a Delco 5500 SS. That year,1989, I made $17,500. I broke even. The next year I made a little more, just under 50K. Then the following year a bit more.

    I have never " LOST " money in my business.

    My first garage I did for just over 2 cents a sq. ( 207,000 sq ft. for $5,000 )

    I thought I was rich. That was the high end for garage cleaning in 1989 with no reclamation needed at that time. It was called Tide and Bleach.

    Today, we clean for .XX a sq ft. Though we have approx. x x x x x garage Cleaning Companies in N. California. We are the highest priced. We have never advertised, no Ad's, no flyer's, to marketing calls in 21 years of doing business. Customers finds us.

  15. Posted · Report reply

    We will be off the boards for the next 10 days.

    We will be on a job-site that is the biggest paying job to date. We are very excited at this new challenge. We will be working with transformers of 480 VOLTS or higher. We was asked to be apart of this cleaning effort do to the issues that surrounds it.

    In this cleaning, it will be necessary to have 16 personal at the job site. We have 10 days to complete the work. A insurance policy of 10 mil umbrella is required with special certs attached.

    We are honored that a request for this project was made to us.

  16. Posted · Report reply

    1 million gen liability (per occurrence - per project), 2 million aggregate, 10 million umbrella, 1 million personal injury, Mil on company trucks, 1 million per employee workers compensation, the average policy amount for California.

    However, with the 10 mil umbrella, all my policies if maxed out will fall under the 10 million umbrella.

    If you do any real high volume of work in the commercial field, meaning income, have bought several properties or your business has allot of assets, may I suggest that you talk to your insurance person and get a policy for at least a 3 mil umbrella.

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