Scott Stone

Yeah, I think that I can get over there to take some pictures of it. There are no rails or spindles and it lies flat on the ground.

So far this year we are up 8.3% over last year. I don't know off the top of my head how far we are up over 5 years ago, but it is significant. Our net revenues are down though, and it all because of INSURANCE!!! Even fuel is down 15% over last year, I attribute this to a little more efficient operation and firing a driver. I did not realize how badly I was getting TOTALLY screwed by him. I am now thinking that he wa only filling the truck every other day, and then filling his personal vehicle on the off days. That is the only thing I can think of. Just checked and we are up about 50% over 5 years ago. Net revenues are up 110% though. :D

Just consider it a cheap lesson. If I was you, I would make the time to go check on how things went for them, and if there is a problem, insist on doing the work for free. It will go a long way with the customer, and maybe save a future relationship.

IN MY OPINION, once you start a job it is yours. I know your schedule was packed, but you should have done what needed to be done to get the work done. Stayed up late, work a long day, reschedule stuff that had not been started yet, I don't care. The responsibility was on you to get it taken care of.

Ron, you know I laugh in the face of danger, and spend most evenings in neighborhoods like that.

I cannot get any shops around here to do it, so I use reusable hose ends. I replace them if it is busted in the flex area of the hose near the end. If it pops in teh middle or any more than 6 inches from teh end, it is time to toss the hose, unless it is less than a couple of months old, then I MIGHT, and probably won't, repair it.

I used to just lift mine in the bed. It was heavy, but I figured out a way to do it.

There is a lot of wisdom in this. I know I prefer to have the accounts that no one else wants to do. There is a lot of money in doing stuff no one else wants to do.

If that Briggs takes two turns, it needs help...Of course, every Briggs needs help.

No spicy food? I knew that there was something else wrong with you. :P

SO far I have not had an effect. We are up about 5% over last year at this time. However, that does not mean that I am not concerned. It is hard when you do not know how other people are going to react. I have asked two of my bigger accounts about their budget, etc. and both of them have increased their budget for me in the coming fiscal year that start on July 1.

That is higher than the Democratic congress... Even with the Stock market at 12000, it is still 1500 points higher than when Bush went into office. You all seem to forget that when Clinton left office that we were at the start of a recession, and that Bush had been in office less than a year when teh stock market got totally shut down for a week or two. I am not sure, but I think that it had to do with some airplane accidents. That dropped the Dow to around 8000. And then, just what exactly has Obama done to gain experience, or to have a track record to show? He has been a senator for 3 years, and been running for president for two of them. Prior to that, he was a state senator that was never elected president of his state senate. Maybe that he represented organized crime figures... There are to many things about him, and the people that he associates with, for me to be even a little comfortable with him.

Scott Stone out of pocket. Fortunately, we have a great dentist that gives us about a 30% discount for cash, and because her sister is our accountant. I also do things to help her out, as well. We average abotu $1.5k a year in dental expenses, with the 6 of us.

Bad choice of words. I will pay to dvelop any designs. It is the buying it, who will buy something that I make?

Designing it is what I would do. WHo is paying for it?

This has already been done in a bunch of different ways. The harder part would be to put a solenoind on it with a remote that would control when the soap was injected and when it would stop. That is really not that hard of a thing to do, either. The biggest problem for many would be anticipating when the soap would run out, but, that would be similar to a low pressure downstreaming set up.

So this would be an Xjet with a Spray pattern?

Hmm, a motorized cart. It really would not be hard to do. What I think that you would want is something that followed you without a remote. So it would have to have a proximity sensor. The problem with this would be the cost. Just a battery would probably be close to 25% of the cost. {ON EDIT} There is not an easily available homing sensor. I am thinking that you might have to have a rmeote control for it. That would be a little easier to do, but less convenient.

Harbor freight ATV ramps are on sale now. ALuminum and 6 feet long. Might be a good answer.

I understand what you are all saying and can even identify with it. I think that Anthony has seen what I have so often seen. Guys that are completely unqualified giving advice that they have knowledge of because they have culled it from posts from the net on this and other boards. That is dangerous because that kind of specialist does not fully understand the ramifications of the advice that he is giving. That is part of the reason that many of the truly seasoned people that have been at this for more than ten years and have million dollar businesses do not give advice on the boards. Because they realize that there are a lot of people on here that do not have the ability to use the knowledge that is available to them, or worse, will misuse it and hurt themselves, someone else or the industry. I used to be far more open with the advice I gave until someone that had only been in business a couple of months misused the information and caused problems, and worse, they wanted me to bail them out. So now, the answers are fewer, and far more generic, until I am certain that I know what kind of person that I am dealing with.

I dont think that TGS is what Anthony is thinking of. There is no verification of the experience of anyone offering advice on these boards, or the relative success and or knowledge that they have. I can cite many instances of people that have been on these boards that are not what everyone thinks they are, and yet, they are thought of as industry guru's. For instance, would you rather get marketing advice from someone whose business is barely grossing 200k per year, or someone who is netting 200k per year? I know of plenty of people that are thought of as marketing genuises that do not have financials that I would be proud of, yet, they are the ones offering all the advice. It would be just a way of verifying their success and often, with success comes experience and knowledge.

Expanded metal has too much give in it. You need to have a wood floor in order for it to be able to hold the weight. If you do it on 16 inch centers, you should be able to easily run something up on the trailer. You can use a sheet of 3/4 plywood as the decking.

Okay Plain painter, there are a few things that are wrong with your assessments. 1. FDR presided over the great depression, where there was 30%+ unemployment. They had problems for the first two terms he was in office. He did employ people on the WCA and CCC, but those jobs were basic labor jobs, not high paying nirvana. In his thrid term, we were in a full on war economy. That means government funded manufacturing, etc. When I talk to my Dad, he remembers rationing, and food shortages, as well as scrap drives that you were almost required to participate in. 2. Corporate Taxes. Another sad misconception on your part. Here is a table that shows the various corporate tax rates. Tax rates around the world - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Remember that you need to add in the state taxes since no other country has those. So figuring that the base federal rate is 15% and only really small corporations have to pay, and it goes up to 12% state and 39% federal for a total of 51%, I think that we are not anywhere near one of the lowest taxed countries on earth on a corporate level, in fact, we are the most highly taxed at the top rate. So then I guess we can look at the individual income tax rate. The minimum federal tax on an individual is 15.3% because, as I am sure that you well understand, the half of FICA the employer pays is part of an individuals income. After that, it goes up to a total of 60.6% of income for the highest earners. I know that you are going to say, what about all teh deductions, well, EVERY country has similar deductions, so that is really not a decent argument. Now add in all the other taxes you pay, without knowing it. You pay the corporate tax as a consumer. I know I fifure it into my prices, and you probably do yours. Everyone pays hidden taxes on every day thigns that we purchase, such as 38 different taxes on a loaf of bread, 27 different taxes on milk, etc. It boils down to our nominal tax rate, including Sales tax, income taxes, FICA taxes, etc approaches up 75% in some areas. So the question is, how much do we need to pay in taxes? By the way, If you are not paying a MINIMUM of $4500 per person in your household in Taxes, you are not paying your fair share. http://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/cffr-04.pdf#page=7 except you are in Massachusetts, so you should be paying $8200 per person.

The deck doesn't look so bad, but those arrows would drive me nuts.

We use Central Reserve Life. It is very expensive. We ended up having to put our kids on Blue Cross, and my wife and I on the CRL plan to save money. It is still beaucoup expensive.