Henry B.

The PWNA is in the process of making some huge steps this year that will do even more for the members and our clients. The local chapters will bring the PWNA to your area and help you raise the bar and promote the ethics and standards of the professional power washing industry in your home town!

There are many different types of advertising formats you can use.. HOW you use them is what matters the most! You can spend 500 bucks a month on newspapers but if your add doesn't get noticed it won't to you any good at all. You can build a website for 1,000 but if it's not listed right you won't get any hits. You can make a cheap one for 300 and get flooded with traffic if it's done right. Give me a call if you have any questions. 301-353-9234

CCPC, I'd suggest using the medium brown. Ready seal penetrates so well it would be hard to use too much! depending on how heavy you apply it you might just need one coat. We usually apply two coats to flat surfaces and one to verticals. Yes you can clean it lightly with a percarb once a year and lightly reseal it again. Ready Seal ROCKS!!!!!

I give my clients a two hour window, if requested. I've got a good reputation around here so I usually just tell them what day the job will be done and leave an invoice when finished. I've never had a complaint about how we do this in fact most of my clients love that they don't have to take off work to watch my crews work! If they are home we walk the job with them and inspect it... If not we call them the next day to make sure they are satisfied. If not, were back out within 24 hours to fix anything they have a question about.

I use all kinds of plumbing connectors from hardware stores. I don't use ball valves or any type of swivel though. Just connecting pieces of pipe, steel elbows and stuff like that. Never had a problem and I've been doing it for years.

Hey Kc, It looks pretty good but I would suggest removing the wand marks before you stain it they will show up a lot more after it's stained. I'd also suggest using ready seal, but that's just my opinion. Give me a call if you have any questions.

Hey Tony, The funny thing is when you lost track of me I was probably looking for you! If you get a chance give me a call at home or email me your number and I'll call you. After you drove all the way out to the convention I wanted to get an opportunity to chat with you a bit.

I checked the count, we had over 140 people attend and around 10 new people joined during the convention and a few days before.

I believe the last estimated count was a little over 100 attendees. I met Tony from A-plus last night for about 2 minutes but lost track of him in the bar. I called him to see if he was still around so we could chat a bit but I haven't heard from him yet. This convention has raised the bar a bit higher and has been the most succesful yet so things just keep getting better each year. The distributor booths and demos were awesome with lots of activity and great weather. There's been a lot going on and a lot of new people showing up and I know once we all get back and start putting out announcements about some changes and new concepts people will love it. Check the PWNA announcement area in a few days...

Beth or the PWNA has not silenced anyone that I know of. I can still post I've just haven't seen anything I wanted to post about. I'm still wondering why my access has been cut back and I'm no longer allowed to view attachements and a few other features. If your wondering why someone is'nt posting give them a call, maybe their just too busy at least thats one of my reasons.

Uh Rod, That post was over 4 months old, job has been done and completed months ago.

Hi Beth, I wasn't really looking for answers, I was listing some of the issues that would have to be overcome, or really should be overcome before it was put out on the web like this. The original post just kinda grew from a simple poll and people started say yeh lets do it and would you run it. I was just reminding that it wasn't as simple as most people think it is to start a new org.

Okay so this new org John Orr (I think) is talking about is not going to be based on a distributor. However, to discuss John T's thoughts... Would a distributor based org really be perceived that badly if the BOD members didn't own stock or work for the distributors company? Sure the perceptions people may have could be negative at first but once it had been around for a while people would judge it by it's actions and benefits, not by who started it up. We all know that Delco started up the PWNA in the very beginning but do you see delco running the show or delco only ads posted everywhere? As I said before, I think what the BOD members do for the org and the benefits of the org should be what's used to judge it. Not who started it in the beginning. Beth, John or anyone else thinking about starting a new org. Getting contributions to get the org created is just a small part of what's going to be needed. Sure it can be created for around a thousand bucks but then what? What would motivate people to join it and what purpose would it serve? What benefits would it have? Who's going to manage it? How will it get its name out? Will it have a bbs if so, who's going to pay for that and admin it? What about insurance? What about the simple things like even having a phone number? Who's going to answer the phone? Heck the org doesn't even have a logo for people to use! How much will the dues be and what do members get for their dues? Got dirt? Yeh that could be a benefit but since your going to sell that the org will have to work out a deal for you and that takes money also. So you see getting another org actually created legally is just one small step and as you said that could take four months to get set up. So people should do what donate money now to an org that will give them nothing in return for a minimum of four months? They won't even be able to call the org and see how the progress is on the legal filings cause there isn't even a phone number to call yet! No offense but I don't really trust people I've never met before enough to send them money under conditions like these. People complain about paying $195.00 to PWNA and they have been established and running with benefits for over 10 years! Starting a new org may sound like a great idea but there's a lot more to it and a lot more money than most people think. It's a nice band wagon for people to jump on, but lets face it, at this point it doesn't even have a horse to pull the wagon with. Show me something that's been planned, laid out and has everything pretty much in place that offers it's members, my company and the industry something (at a minimum, what the PWNA has now) and I'll send in my check tonight. I'd even pay more than I pay for my PWNA membership but it has to be worth it today, not in 5 years. (people say I'm impatient and I guess they are right but this is my money I'm talking about.)

Okay, I don't see what Beth is talking about when she refers to staying on topic. Closing the thread down would be wrong, you asked for discussion and ideas so let the thread have a life of it's own. I don't see anything on here that calls for editing or shutting it down. Now, onto a new org. As I said before, if John or someone else wants to create a new org go for it! It will require a lot more thinking and planning than I've seen on here so far though. Should a distributor be involved in starting a new org? Why not? who else has the money to start one up and the continued cash flow to pull it off? The only thing I see that would be a major factor in that is who's on the BOD of it? Contractors or just the people from the distributors company? If it can be supported by a distributor but run by a board of directors that are mostly contractors I don't see that being a problem at all. Will the org be used to sell products? probably but think about it this way, if you were going to sink thousands or tens of thousands of dollars into an org wouldn't you expect something back from it? Even if it's just their products listed on the BBS? What matters most to me is how the BOD is set up and if it helps the industry, if done correctly I think it will. Will it make the distributor money, yep it probably would but so what! As long as it doesn't hold control of the decisions made by the BOD and it offers some types of benefits to it's members what's wrong with that? It's a business decision after all. My question is, who's got the money to kick something like this off and make it work in the long run. Considering minimum start up costs to do it right would be at least $20,000 or so. Depending on how it's set up it could cost far more than that, it will also be an annual commitment not just the startup costs. So lets be conservative here and say, who's willing to give at least 20 thousand dollars a year for this new org? Now should a distributor or who ever starts this org be allowed to advertise their products, if they are putting that kinda money in it they will probably want to. Now, who's willing to fork over this much money and what would the requirements be for doing it? Please lets not turn this into one of those "what's best for the industry" things. There's more to forming this org were talking about than that. It's either money, marketing, a specific based org (for example auto mechanics), or power. Either way doesn't really matter. I don't have a problem with it personally but make the purpose clear and state why the industry needs another power washing org. We already have one of those and it's doing just great!

Boy Don, your sure quick to jump on a guy for sharing his opinion... As a forum leader aren't you supposed to ask people not to do that? Beth has been one of the biggest promoters of THE PWNA FOR YEARS and always stood up for it up until what, a week ago? Then she made a negative comment. I haven't seen anyone bash her for her comments or opinions and if she's entitled to her opinion so is John and anyone else that wants to post.

Another Org? that could be interesting but as many times as I've heard Beth and Rod say how great the PWNA is and how much it's done for them and the industry there would have to be a special niche and lots of support for it to work, not to mention lots of money and hard work. It would also take quite a while for it to gain support and be able to offer anything close to what the PWNA has for it's members. I don't think it would matter much if someone's a distributor, manufacturer or a contractor. After all if you didn't work in anything related to the industry why would you care enough to create another org? I'm open minded though and if another org came by that had something to offer it's members and the industry, I'd join it. There's nothing wrong with being in as many orgs as you want it's the way of running a business.

Joshua, You posted a link on the PWNA site a couple weeks ago to sell your power washing guide.

Hey Brian, Give me a call if you like. I'd be happy to discuss it with you on the phone and give you some suggestions.

Well I guess that's it then. I was wrong I thought it was about something else. I don't understand why you would drop a product line that you have promoted and defended so heavily all this time, it doesn't make sense.

Impatient, annoyed and disgusted? Yep! I think this is a rediculous waste of time for everyone that's posted in this thread since it was started. Sorry but this is not a professional way to go about announcing a business venture. I just think it's a silly waste of time and having said that. I'll leave you all to this game. I'm done with it, I have a business to run and several worthwhile projects to work on.

I've allready had the flu this year...

You may want to either doo it or get off the pot Beth, the natives are getting restless..LOL Besides, this isn't exactly adding the kinda content you want on your BBS is it? I know you could delete it but then someone would probably say your censoring them or something.

So your saying you know what I know? How would you know what I know unless I told you? There are so many rumors flying around on this board from this post and others, I'm guessing most people already know what the announcement is.

Aww man, I thought this was a new special concept the way you were talking, it is an interesting idea, best of luck to ya.

You wanted to make a point about how much time I wasted awaiting an announcement? Point taken!