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Barry M

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Posts posted by Barry M

  8. Posted · Report reply

    I like you Daniel I really do. You bring a lot to the board and we've had great discussions before and you've been helpful to me so I mean no disrespect.

    You just have a different mentality than I, that's all. I'm in business to make money not to work my a$$ off just to make a living. If and when the pressure washing industry gets that bad I will get out, its that simple. There is already other endeavors on my plate now, so its not like I'm stuck doing this the rest of my life. But while I'm here I will continue to be passionate about the industry and to express my feelings.

    I'm glad you can make good money cleaning composite decks, I can't. Not what I consider good money anyway. Now if there were ways to improve efficiency and the time spent cleaning composites and I could clean a good sized one in 20 minutes, like I can strip a wood one, then it would drastically improve the profit margin and I would be more prone to offer that service. I would probably also quit griping about people tearing down neglected wood decks and putting up plastic ones. But in my experience there is no fast way to clean a composite deck and most of the time they are a huge PITA, so I fight that by charging more and people don't want to pay that just to clean a deck. But yet they are angry at the fact that the deck material was sold to them as "maintenance free." So I still believe the root of the problem are these composite deck companies misleading the public just to make a buck. It's wrong and it should be considered false advertising and they should be held responsible. In the meantime I will let guys like you make what you consider good money cleaning them, because my time is worth more than that.

  9. Posted · Report reply

    Theres more money per sq ft rates in stipping, cleaning and sealing real wood. Do you do wood decks? Whats your rates for composite? whats your rates for stripping, cleaning and staining wood or do you just spray bleach and blast it with pressure? Just wondering I dont do wood anymore

    If everyone had wood and there was no composite, if you priced it right you would make a lot more with wood

    I wasn't even going to waste my time explaining it to an hourly rate mentality painter, but you hit the nail on the head.

  12. Posted · Report reply

    Is it just me, or am I starting to see a trend of composite decking companies leaving a bad taste in the mouth of consumers. More and more I hear people complaining about warping issues, fading, and mildew problems. I've heard it from customers that have taken the leap, family, friends, and just different people I've talked to in my area. Over on the Bob Vila DIY board there is post after post of upset consumers bashing composite decking companies like trex, geo decking, correct deck, and on and on. There are quite a few banning together over there to petition a law suit against Correct Deck. I hope people are starting to realize composite isn't all that. It certainly isn't maintenance free as we all know, and I think that is what's ticking the public off because its sold to them as being "maintenance free." For the past few years its been the thing to get, a composite deck and those cheap vinyl fences (which really aren't that cheap). I hope the trend starts coming back to wooden decks and having them maintained by professionals like us.

  21. Posted · Report reply

    John, Walmart did not become huge by the way they operate today. Read Sam Walton's book, Walmart is totally different now than when they first started up. Today they sell on price alone, like a hack, and everything else suffers....quality, customer service, employee wages, and so on. A fact I read awhile back in one of the business magazines is that Walmart has a negative impact on communities.

    IMO when someone has to use the bait and switch method to get their phone ringing it's because they lack marketing and selling abilities and also don't have a real perception of what it takes to operate a successful business. What's left in the wake is a wax perception of what PWing services are worth.

    Ed- from reading some of your old posts that Michael posted it's sounds like you gave up and have taken the easier way out in an attempt to get the phone ringing because you couldn't figure it out any other way. The misconception is that the number of calls you get shouldn't be a measurement of your success. The real measurement of a business' success is profits. It's equivalent to someone bragging about how many hits their website is getting or a retail store owner bragging about foot traffic, it doesn't mean squat! You have to have a broad knowledge about the numbers of your business.

    Scott makes a good point and I don't know about anyone else but it's pretty clear to me which way is better. He went from 700 customers to 300 customers (IE less headaches, less call backs, less overhead, less acquisition costs, and so on). His customer service improved dramatically because there were less customers to take care of so he could cater to them better than before. I'm sure they were also better customers and of better quality because they bought based on value instead of price. A business owner should know that if you throw a quality customer into the pot with great customer service you're going to get a happy more than satisfied loyal customer that's going to give you word of mouth advertising, which is 50x more powerful than any other kind of advertising. A customer like this will refer more quality prospects to you whom will be easier to sell and easier to make loyal, and the cycle starts over again.

    Now besides all that Scott mentioned his profits increased by 3x more than the previous year. So he got LESS calls and made MORE money by increasing his prices by 50%. It seems apparent to me that this is a more successful business model than trying to attract herds of price shoppers through poor advertising choices.

  22. Posted · Report reply

    Barry,

    I wouldn't go so far as to call a member here a disgrace to the industry when I don't even know him or his work. Only work I seen of his is pics and some work he did on a website. What's so wrong with liking some things of his site and wishing him well. Can't really say anything of any deeper content or 'education' he presents cause I just breeezed over it. Whatever he's got on there it would be opinion. The very fact he has the links on there is stand up in that it says to his customers 'hey you don't believe me check it out for yourself on these sites'..That's good education effort right there..can't comment right now on if his interpritation of what he may have learned here or may have recreated on his site in the way of tricks of trade. Got better things to do really. As far as linking goes...yes it would be good for the big sites to link to him for the whole ranking thing but I don't see it as mattering so much on these type small business websites when it meant to attract local business or a place to hang hat. I mean it would be nice to be on top but not everyone can be on top.

    I wrote Ed on this as I felt he deserves to know. Heck he probably could call it somewhat a success if his local competitor was able to find him.. His customers can also. I gave him pointer to stick his service areas up on main page and to put his name on his about page.

    Sorry if I sound abit irritated on this Barry but I find it much easier to say encouraging things about peoples venturing out and offer them help rather than focus on what we may have them do in the way of perfectly educating customers. I just find that having then bear the whole weight of the educated forum world on their shoulders and claiming they need to be some great or worthy teacher to their customer base is abit much...but hey it all good, we all have our opinion I suppose.

    btw... guess the words behind my business name,,hahaa..

    Yup I came up with it about 30 years back along with blue ice ice cube invention.. :)

    MMI = me, myself, and I. Doesn't surprise me. But at least it's just initials and nobody knows what it means unlike 1234me. IF this is the same guy I'm thinking of, I've seen his ads in the JB dollar books and he advertises $99 dollar house washes, that's a disgrace I don't care who you are or what you say. It's bait and switch just to get the phone to ring, then chems and certain step cost more. It's dishonest, misconceiving, shady, and a disgrace to the industry but he doesn't care because it's all about him.

  23. Posted · Report reply

    Quicky, you need to fill out your signature, it's required on this site.

    I'm wandering why, if your as established as you say you are, are you so worried about this one fly by night guy? I've been in that area of Mich and I've had a chance to work up there and these guys are a dime a dozen. Why would this one guy even bother you? If you've been in business since 1980 I would think you have a huge customer base of loyal customers. Newsflash....if you're loosing customers to this guy or because of something they read then they aren't loyal and that's your fault not anybody else's.

    I don't know if you are him or he is you and you're just trying to promote a pathetic looking website or what and I really don't care. But I'm pretty sure that 1234me guy is one of Jarrod's buddies ;)

    This guy is nobodies competitor and in fact he is his worst competitor. He has the word "ME" in his name for god's sake....me, me, me it's all about me. OMG give ME and break! He advertises prices and they are very low, he his a classic fly by night. Kevin how can you even commend this guy, he is a disgrace to the industry but I certainly wouldn't be threatened by him. If he only knew how much having those links on his site was actually hurting his sites rankings I guarantee he'd take them off....derrrr! I'm crossing the line, gotta go.

  24. Posted · Report reply

    IMO it's a bad idea. It's not about you Rod, in the end the only perceptive that matters is the customers.

    Look at it this way. How would you feel if after visiting a department store you got a report card in the mail and learned you weren't the perfect customer? It would upset me and I wouldn't go back. There is no way I would say, oh well maybe I can be a better customer next time or gee maybe I could be a little more friendly to the sales staff. No no no way no how! I would never return there. There is no nice way to tell me I need to improve on this or that as a customer, screw you! I'm the customer and I'm giving you my hard earned money and that's all that should matter.

    If you think you would feel any different in this situation Rod, then maybe that's where our opinions vary on this whole topic. I know how I would feel and my rule is: if I don't like it when it happens to me, then don't do it to my customers.

    My second thought is, what usefull information would this give you about your customers? A survey is great and I highly recommend using one and to listen to your customers answers to help sculp your future business model. But what usefull information would a customer report card give you? First of all they aren't sending anything back to you, they are just recieving a grade on how they did as a customer. Basically a note whether or not you'll do business with them again (very arrogant IMO). If they do send anything back it probably won't be nice, maybe a phone call to tell you off. My point is what usefull information do you get back out of your customer to use to better your company?

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