Henry B.

Hey Reed, Here is the legal wording that is on my invoices. My accountant/part time lawyer came up with this and it helps a little bit on the really over due bills. This is for Maryland though and I'm sure each state has different laws. By sending in this form you authorize Henry’s Housework Inc. to provide the requested work during the season that you have requested . Past Dues, or any part thereof, including prior Service Charges, are subject to a 2% per month (24% per annum) Service Charge. Service Charges are computed on an average daily balance. Collection costs and/or reasonable attorney’s fees are the responsibility of the customer/client. All payments received are applied in the order of: collection costs, attorney’s fees, service charges, and past due amounts. Any remaining funds are then applied to current amounts due. I also have a collection company I can refer you if you need one. They operate much differently from the usual ones. It's normally 5-10% instead of 50%

My wife and I are on salary, We choose to pay ourselves only what we need to pay bills and have some money left over to play with. I'm a bit different than most though, I'm not trying to make a huge sum of money. Just enough to enjoy my life and family.

Nah, I wasn't assuming he broke the law or anything.. I just thought it was kinda funny that the last line I read stated that. I guess I just have a sick sense of humor.. At least I'm not as bad as my wife. She can't stop laughing when one of my kids trips over something.. I started out as a part timer about 15 years ago with a budget of around $50 to start my company. Now, I'm a full time home improvement contractor and we currently provide numerous services to over 10,600 commercial and residential clients in Montgomery County Maryland. Anyone else?

Hey Alan, Even though it's true, my comment was meant as a joke... Notice the LOL (laugh out loud) part

Copyright 2004 CareerBuilder.com. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without prior written authority. 01/01/00 12:00 Hmmm... I hope ya have a letter laying around somewhere Charlie..LOL It is a good article though.

I wish I could help you on this but honestly, I've never baught or sold a company before. I have had a few offers to buy mine and one to buy part of a local competitors company but I wasn't intersted. The 4,000 a week in extra income would be nice don't get me wrong. But for me, it wouldn't be worth the extra headaches and management of another company to get it. I didn't realize the reasons you were doing this and how you were going about it. Best of luck in getting it all figured out!

It only net's 15,000 a month? Don't get me wrong, that's not chicken feed or anything but it's not that much either. Are you getting out of power washing or just looking for extra income? If you want more income why don't you just expand your company by offering other services?

When were cleaning aluminum siding it's usually done to remove mildew and surface dirt. I always tell clients that it's strictly a light surface cleaning done with chemicals. We can remove the mildew, bird droppings, pollen and dust but I always tell clients that we don't outright "power wash" the siding due to problems that may arise from removing the oxidation. Then I explain what oxidation is by showing them the powder coat on the siding. I always tell them that we will not remove this powder coating of oxidation and why. It is possible to clean it, but you have to be careful. I agree with A-plus, there's too many houses with it on them to NOT do it... I'd just be very careful about how it's done to reduce possible problems. There is always a possibility to be sued by anyone, that's just the way society is today so even if you have a carefully worded contract doesn't mean your covered %100.

You all are removing the oxidation from aluminum siding? Yeesh, been there done that and seen quite a few guys sued because of it. I'd be very careful how you word your contracts.. Removing the oxidation can make the siding look like a completly different color in some cases.. Then they home owner says that you took off the paint all the way down to the primer.

look for a chemical distributer in your area. It may be difficult to find but you will save A LOT of money. I found a place in my area that sells pool chlorine (double strength bleach) for 1.35 a gallon.. I can just double my dilution and save quite a bit of money. They will also fill a 55 gallon container or whatever I take them. The bleach is also much fresher than whats found in stores. Bleach has a shelf life of about 6 months I think.

Hey Beth, If dale closed up shop and isn't going to send out the info that everyone is requesting, shouldn't this topic be closed?

I always ask my employees if they are allergic and have them put on their employee file jacket anything they are allergic too. One of my employees got stung two years ago.. She never told me she was allergic. Since then it's policy when we hire to have them list any allergies to bees, medicine or chemicals.

The client contacted the manufacturer... and this is what he was told... best d afternoon, In response to your request the Fir toned finish #25053 is still a current product. You have to clean the wood deck by pressure washing and then you need to clean with a deck wash. If you can't find a deck wash then use 1 quart of bleach to 3 quarts of water. You have to do that to kill any mold or mildew that might be in the surface. After you clean then rinse let the surface dry for 2 days of good warm weather. After drying I would recommend sanding the surface to remove any loose wood fibers. Then you want to check the fir color to be sure you like it. The wood will alter the stain. After that then you should stain 5 to 7 boards at a time then apply a 2nd coat. You should due a 2nd coat within 30 minutes of the first coat. You want to do that while the surface is still absorbing and it will give your deck surface the best protection. Once the toner seals your deck surface then the surface is sealed. If you try to apply another coat after a 1 hour, 4 hours, or over night then the first coat will repel the 2nd coat. It will not dry and it is hard to remove it. I hope this helps you. My name is Rick@1-800-323-5129x8559. If I can be of any other service to you please feel free to contact me and I will do what I can to help you. Thank you for your interest in Valspar and I hope you have a great day. Rick Runyon Technical Support The Valspar Corporation (800) 323-5129 x8559 rrunyon@valspar.com This is what I told the client 1. You never use bleach on a deck, it damages the woods lignin fibers. 2. Even if you did use bleach, you have to neutralize the surface before staining. 3. Power washing alone will not remove the existing stain. 4. By following his process, I would still be applying the new stain over the existing stain. As he mentioned, the product will not adhere to itself. I'm going to call tech support tomorrow and see if I can talk to someone else about it.

Hey Beth and everyone else. Has anyone run acrossed a deck sealing product under the label Valspar? I've got a client with this stuff on his deck and I've tried every stripper I know of and nothing touches it. It's made by the company that created goof off. Maybe I should try some of that? LOL

What was the item and how much was it for? Ebay can usually help out with this stuff a bit. You can also give them a rip off review too. If it was for pw stuff who was it? just so they don't burn anyone else.

I know I'll be there also. I had a great time in Texas.

Hey Charlie, Your right and that's a good rule of thumb to go by in most situations, expecially people who are just starting out. I also take into consideration what the market and customer will spend. For example, I will offer my clients choices so they can decide on what they want to spend. Some people can't afford top of the line sealers or just don't want to pay that much for their deck. This also helps my close rate. Some guys will only bid one price no matter what. If it's too much for the customer they won't get the job unless they can convince the customer to buy it. I do things a bit differently by educating them on the different products, then giving them a choice.

I hate when people list something like that on Ebay and don't put thier minimum bid price on it. Why start bidding at $1000 if you won't consider selling it for that? It's just a dumb waste of time. Hey Lou, If your seriously looking for a good rig contact one call power wash in southern maryland. He's closing down and he's got some nice equipment. He's actually selling his company if your interested.

Hey Beth, We usually use blowers except for those rare occasions where it won't work. Then we have to use water to clear a badly plugged up downspout. Or take it apart on occasion. The gutter troughs thing still throws me... I've heard gutters and downspouts called all kinds of things.. Even those thingamajiggies but not troughs..<G> Going up three stories only requires a longer ladder and maybe an extra minute to climb the extra height, no big deal. Were on ladders all the time so were used to it. 40' ladders are another deal though, they require 2 people to use them at all times. (they are also heavy as hell too..) I finally raised my prices last year on gutter cleaning $5-$10 and I've recently read a few articles in papers and online about gutter cleaning. They listed prices of $75-200 bucks!! I think I may be raising them again after reading that. When I raised prices the last time, I lost 3 customers... That's it! The extra money we made off each job definetly made up for it and my guys also appreciated the raises and extra perks we gave them with the extra profit.

Hi Beth, For example, any house in our development, regardless of style or design, stories, number of gutters or downspouts. As long as we can walk the roof of course. troughs? do you mean valleys or gutters?

I never expected anyone to believe my in person sales closure rate. That's okay, I don't mind. I pride myself on being a great salesman, getting to know the client and what they want. Offering a good price for the service that they want done and getting it done quickly the first time. There are jobs that I don't want that I either bid so high I don't get or that I could hire another company to do. I'm not counting those in the closure rate I listed. It's also true that my prices are probably a bit lower than others in the area, or that I can get out and estimate the job faster and get it done faster. Or, we give such an outstanding presentation and estimate that we do that well. Either way, the season is almost over here and I will be making adjustments to my pricing next year. You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you I can do a gutter cleaning job in less than 10 minutes either but it's true.

Hey Charlie, Yes, if the homeowner is there at the house I close 98% of my estimates. If they aren't home and I leave an estimate and wait for them to call I get 70% We always try to call people the following day though to answer any questions they may have about the job and to make sure they get the estimates.. We've got a few lowballers around here that pull our estimates and just bid our prices..lol When we do follow up calls we get about 80% of the jobs. I'm really good at selling jobs, my guys aren't quite as good at it but their close ratios are just a little under mine.

I always ask if someone will be home and try to work around their schedule if I can but I won't require them to be home. A lot of high pressure sales companies use this tactic so I try to avoid it. Also figure in that other companies are estimating the job too so any type of negative factor can hurt you getting the job. If the client is home, I usually get 98% of the jobs I bid so it's good to have them there but forcing the issue by only giving free estimates if they are home may cause problems.

I'm still doing free estimates but when I'm there, I estimate everything on the house or property that we "can" do so we only have to go out once. Something else that helps us is I've got at least two vans making loops around the entire county every day. Until we hit gutter season at least. Then we just do one or two cities a day for each van. We still estimate everything when were doing gutter cleaning though, just so we have a record of the client and what we can do for them. I think were lucky to be operating in Montgomery County Beth, it's getting so crowded here we could just work in one small city or 5 square miles and stay busy.

Wow Tony that's great! I've got to give you credit for having big dreams like that and being able to fullfill it. With gas prices on the rise I couldn't imagine wanting to travel that much. Expecially with as much as I have on my plate now. I do travel on occasion for large commercial or condo developments and stuff like that but it has to be worth the travel time to do so. I've had opportunities to bid on some really large jobs just down the road from me and declined on them just because I was allready to busy taking care of exhisting clients to take on a job that would run for a complete month. I admire some of you guys that take on huge buildings and such but not enough to want to do them myself..lol I'll do strip malls or small shopping centers and stores but I'm not interested in growing my company any bigger than it is now. Besides, I like doing residentials more, they seem to appreciate the work more than store owners.