smokey51

Hi Charlie, Yea, getting old (got another birthday Friday) and trying to slow down some. I want to sit in one of those chairs in my avatar with a cold one. Staying busy enough right now. Got bored during the winter so I actually went to work for Walgreens as a photo tech. Pay sucks, but boy do I have fun! Shoot me a private msg when you have the time to meet up. March is full but I don't have anything for April yet.

Can't wait to get started. Gave my first estimate last week. Bam! I barely got the price out of my mouth before they said do it. Damn, should have bid higher:). Now, if the weather will just break a little as I have to have it done by the end of the month. But March is usually pretty good here on the coast of NC.

I often read this after I have a bad day, especially when I have done some stupid mistakes: “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” Teddy Roosevelt “Citizenship in a Republic,” Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910 Terry

Lucky for me, with Nextel I cannot even stand on my front porch and get a signal. So I have had no choice but to go to a different carrier. I vote for chirp and wait for a response. If I don't answer, I am busy or just don't want to talk to you. Get a life and use your time better. Terry

Got pictures? What is the name of the cleaner? Cost?

Talking to one of my potential customers the other day and somehow the subject got around to "how tough marriage is". He then made the statement "Heck, I have been married 30 years and OJ would have only gotten 20". I told him I would not use that against him to get the job. While listening to XM radio there was some songwriter, singer singing a few songs that he had written. The best one though was it was his wife's birthday and he had no idea what to get her. He finally gave up and asked her what she wanted. After thinking it over for awhile, scratching her head she finally said "I want a divorce". Unfazed, his quick retort was "Honey, I wasn't planning on spending that much". Got to love it. Terry

Free food is good. Free referrals are better.

First I would make sure I had the right billfold. If it was, I would then invest it for my granddaugthers' education. Heck, by the time they get ready to go it will cost a million dollars, per year! Terry

Looks awesome! Gotta love the horzionals! I got a call the other day from a guy who wanted a dock estimate. No problem with $$$ in my eyes. Go there and it was an HOA community dock with 20 LARGE boat slips, not counting 120 x 6 feet of walkway, a 10 x 10 landing, and a 14 x 14 gazebo. I conservatively figured 70 gal of stain but padded the pricing just in case. Been about a week and I haven't heard from him yet. God I hate self-administered HOA's. Terry

The most important thing you must do is sit down and think about what it is you want to do. Define it in specific terms so you don't get side tracked down the road. Set realistic goals and bench marks. If you don't hit a bench mark, set back and reevaluate as to why. Maybe you set your goals too high or bench marks too soon, or you are going about things the wrong way. Always reevaluate and adjust or learn more if necessary. You must then educate yourself in business, marketing, powerwashing, people skills, etc. Just because you have a hammer doesn't mean you know how to use it. And just don't quit learning, you can learn something new everyday. If you find you have a question, come to this board and use the search function liberally. There are many professionals on this board who have probably experienced what ever question you may have. These are true professionals they don't mind sharing their expertise, especially if you have used the "search feature" and cannot find an answer. Invest in good equipment. It does not have to be the best, but make sure it is best you can afford. As your business grows, reinvest some of the monies in better equipment and more equipment. And don't cut corners on cleaning materials, stains, your time or whatever on any job. Do the job the best that you can because you want the customer to give you referrals and you can earn better money for the same investment. After you have been doing this for awhile, sit back and ask yourself if this is really what you want to do. Do you really enjoy all aspects of the work? Do you think you can make a living at it? Are you willing to keep learning and adapt to new ways of doing things? Do you enjoy working for yourself? If you answer yes to the questions, then keep on trucking because you will be successful. And don't worry about being discouraged at times. We have all gone thru that and still do. But we pick our heads up and get back at it. And if your truly want to do this and you want it badly enough, don't listen to the nay sayers including your family and friends. Go for it. Good Luck! Terry

Yes, we take them thru paypal on my website. Some people have to finance everything and some do it for the "rewards", be it air mile points, cash back, etc. We are in a service industry, so we need to service our customers. I am doing a small test right now. I have ran an ad in the local weekly paper without any credit card logos. For the next two weeks, I will add the cc logo and see what the response is. I don't know what it will really tell me, but I will see how the customers pay and maybe I can figure it out. Terry Terry

After she did the job herself, who would she call to straighten out her mess? Would her homeowner's insurance pay for all the damage she did? Does she have insurance to pay her when she got hurt and couldn't work? (sorry AFLAC) What she going to do with all the "tools of the trade" when she is finished? She can't rent everything. Can she pay if she breaks some kind of local environmental law? etc. Terry

What all the other have said plus, in talking with everyone, I may learn methods that may save me money, time, effort, produce a better product, save aggravation, solve a problem etc. Multiply that by the number of people attending, I would definitely be a better contractor. Terry

Could not resist: Republicans believe everyday is the 4th of July Democrats believe everyday is April 15th A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in an argument Soldiers are over there so they won't cut your head off here Animals...... its what for dinner! I would rather hunt with **** Cheney than ride with Ted Kennedy Liberalism - the haunting fear that someone, somewhere can help themselves Clinton '08 The Whitehouse needs its silverware back A taxpayer is one who works for the goverment but does not have to take a Civil Service exam Politically correctness means always having to say you're sorry Save the seals club a liberal Liberals of the world IGNITE Liberalism is a no-brainer Bigot: A conservative winning an argument with a liberal Live Better Work Fight global warming turn on the A/C I would rather be Right than Politically Correct If you aren't liberal at 18, you have no heart, If you aren't consertative by 35, you have no intelligence If Clinton is the answer, it must have been a stupid question Annoy a Liberal Work hard and smille Liberals: French for cowards If ignorance is bliss then Liberalism must be Nirvana You might be a socialist if you believe government should tell business what to pay people Being a liberal is easy Being responsible is hard Enouh already, Terry

Celeste, he lost his expert shot ribbon while he was in that China prison for 20 months! :) And can I get a cell phone like Jack has? Man that thing works everywhere! Terry

Save your money on limewire pro, it will not make any difference. Really all it does it gets rid of the nag screen. Terry

I have learned more from one of my mistakes than for all the things I have done right. Terry

For those of you who use wax to your mix, what kind do you use? If you use wax, is there any problems with windows? Terry

Goverment(s) are creeping into more of our lives each day. No smoking in resturants (private proverty), mandated seat belt laws (its my car), no trans-fats in cooking (let me pick where and what I eat), social security (let me invest my own money) etc. I also read somewhere that someone wants to mandate paid maternity leave. We are on a slippery slope to becoming a more socialist country than we already are. Ok Jeff, you have gotten me started about minimum wage. According to the Department of Labor, in 2004 73.9 million workers were paid at hourly rate and of this figure only 520,000 were making exactly $5.15 per hour. Most of these workers were young, between the ages of 16 and 25 years old with only 2% of the workers over 25. Only 5.3% of these workers live below the official proverty line and 40% of these minimum wage earners live in households with incomes over $60,000. Furthermore, 82% of these workers do not have dependents. Wages should be tied to productivity. Jeff, lets say you hire a new employee at the new(?) minimum wage. You train him well, but he just does not learn the work well, and he produces only $5 worth of production per hour to your operation after months of training and retraining. You can do several things. One, you can analyze your operation and find a better way to do the job. This maybe new machines, new procedures, or even getting your other workers to work harder to compensate for the minimum wage worker. You can stay the course and absorb the lower profit margin. Or you can raise your prices to your customers to maintain your profit margin. Or you could fire the new employee. Oh, and don't forget the extra monies you have to pay for social security, workers compensation, unemploymentt compensation, and other fringe benefits you pay. A better way to help these low skilled workers is better education and in some cases, better motivation. Terry

Even one dealth is too much, but it is a war. In 2004 there was 16,137 murders in the US and I don't think we are at war on our home grounds. Unfortunately, the soldiers "get it" more than the general public. I have talked to many who have been in Iraq two and three times but most said they are ready to go back. They actually not only the see the bad that goes on, but also the good. May God bless them and keep them safe! Terry PS: No matter how you vote, please vote tomorrow.

Ken, excellent words. But we also must not forget those other 80% either. Include them in any follow-up that you may do. Even if they were difficlut customers. we must still attempt to turn them into good customers. If you please the difficult customer. they have a tendency to offer more referrals than your good customers. I go by the theory of treating customers the way I want to be treated and better. Some times you just do the unexpected for them. I just finished a deck for a retired custromer. They were at home the whole time I was doing their deck but never bothered me except to make sure I had plenty to drink and to make sure I was not working too hard. They actually brought me a piece of homemade cake and we started talking about cakes. So next week when I stop by for a follow-up inspection, I will be taking them a cake from the local bakery. Do you think I will get some referrals from them. You bet. It does not take much to please most customers. And with proper follow-up , you can actually cut your advertising budget because you will be getting plenty of referrals and repeat business. Terry

3% hydrogen peroxide (you can get it at any drugstore) works for me. Tilt head and put two or three drops in one ear and let it sit for five or ten minutes. Tilt head other way and drain ear. Repeat with the other ear. You may have a bubbling sound in the ear but don't despair as this is normal. Do this for two or three days and your cold will be gone, well at least it works for me. Terry

Just drove over the Snow's Cut Bridge which leads into Carolina Beach. A few gust but nothing big. Oh, the bridge is not very long and for that matter not particularly high, but most of the time they will close it just to make a dramatic impression on the public ( they got to have something to do). The storm is not really bad because Charter cable is still up so I can watch the football game, and when Charter is still working, then you know it is not too bad. Terry

On minimum wage: Someone posted earlier that $7.00 an hour was not a living wage. With that being said, why don't we raise the wage to $8, $9 or $10 an hour. Why stop there, let's just raise it to $20 an hour. Who is going to pay for this increase? Consumers and employees! There are about 2.2% of the people in the US making the minimun wage. Most of these are teenagers just getting started in the work place or the elderly working to supplement their SS. The remainder are those that are uneducated, have no ambition to do better, or those who actually like their jobs and have no desire to advance. By the way, what happens to those people who have worked hard and gotten pay raises only to see their pay raise value decrease if the minimum wage increases. Another down side of raising the minimun wage is the lost of jobs. If an employer decides that an employee only produces $5 an hour in production, but the goverment has mandated that I must pay that person $7 an hour (plus company required social security contribution and other benefits), the emloyer may look at spending more money on capital that will give him more bang for the buck. To give an example on our level, let's say we have a deck to clean, neturalize and stain. We have estimated the job and the customer has agreed to our price. We decide that we will use manpower to do the job. So we get out our hand held pump ups and use two or three employees to start spraying a big deck to clean it. After using our pressure washer (capital) to rince the deck, we use the same employees to spray on the neturalizer and rinse. Once dry, we use the employees to hand stain the deck. The job is done, the customer is happy, we get paid and we pay the employees. We make a small profit but we wish it were more. Now we invest some of our profit in some capital, a surflow, Decker5 or Deckster. Now we take this capital and use 1 employee to clean, neturalize, and stain the deck. The job is done, the customer is happy, we get paid, we pay the employee and we are happier because our profits are higher because we do not have to pay 2 employees. To make the same profit as the latter using three employees, we could raise our prices but probably would price ourselves out of business as customers are only willing to pay so much. So we are in a balancing act of having employees and using capital to maximize our profits. I say let's get rid of the minimun wage altohether and educate and train the masses so those who have the ambition can better themselves and their families. Except for safety, lets get the goverment out of private business. Terry

My son is an officer in the Air National Guard and is privy to much information he cannot share with me. He just told me the other day if the US public knew just half of what good was going on, they would be solidly behind the war. He also said their was plenty of special ops going on and he hoped the New York Times does not find out about them because they would broadcast it to the world! And how soon the American public forgets. They did a poll the other day and less than half of the responders could remember what year the 9/11 attacks occurred! How sad. God bless all our troops, our leaders, and all the people of the US! Terry