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Jarrod

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Posts posted by Jarrod

  2. Posted · Report reply

    I just received my brand new cold water pw (2500psi 5.6 gpm). I will be doing houses, sidewalks during my startup. I have NO experience pw'ing but I'm a firefighter and I know what to spray at what psi :) I would like to know what not to do while starting out. I'm sure all the pros here have a horror story, so please give me all imput.

    Thanks!

    Don, you are more than welcome to come up here & work with my crews for a day or 2. I promise that you'll learn a lot. I can;t be more than a few hours from you.

  4. Posted · Report reply

    Don't:

    Waste money on advertising that does not work

    Use home brews

    Do jobs without doing the proper research first

    Buy every new toy out there

    Do:

    Read, read, read these and other bbs's

    Use the search button at the top of the screen

    Buy your chems from one of the vendors here. They are tried and true, and affordable!

    Research all avenues of advertising b4 you spend a dime on it.

    Go to a round table.

    Find out what types of pwing that you want to do, and concentrate on being your best at that.

    Well, that's a start.

  5. Posted · Report reply

    I dread working on decks coated with the stuff. The wood never looks as clean and bright again and the stain goes dark again because of what is left in the wood. Strippers won't remove it if it was the first product installed on the wood. That part I think has to do with some other ingredient in their product of which I have no clue. I apply warm honey gold and get yuck honey brown.

    Trying to sand the wood is a bugger to say the least (hardened wood) and if I don't get below 6mils the darkening will show through.

    Rod!~

    Rod, I have noticed that same problem with Olympic Maximum. After I strip it off and brighten the wood, the deck still looks kinda "drab."

  9. Posted · Report reply

    Thank you for your support. I'm humbled. It's truely an honor to help in any way I can. This bbs has really done a TON for my business and for the industry as a whole. That is because of all of us here.

    Now, I would like to thank the following people who have made this possible:

    My publicist - you're great!

    Steven Spielberg - You believed in me when no one else would. Thank you!

    My agent

    My wife Namrata and my daughter Jaimi. Jaimi, I know you're watching, go to bed.

    (Music starting)

    And last, but not least, my fans. Thanks for reading all of my posts and framing them & hanging them on the wall in the "Jarrod Wing" of your homes.

    The negotiations were long and tough. I held out until Beth & Rod agreed to my terms.

    Company car

    Cell phone with 4,000 monthly minutes

    My own dressing room with a star on the door at every round table

    You know, stuff like that.

    I'm changing my name to - "The incredible J-Rod" Grime scene diva.

    BTW, I promise that all of this won't go to my head.

  17. Posted · Report reply

    Depending on the miles, sounds like a good enough deal.....especially if it looks really good. There is a deck resto. franchise near me, and all their vehicles are Astro Cargo vans. Re: the weight---my only concern would be that for a machine that size, you'll obviously have to pull from a tank. How big?? That's what could eat up your weight. Besides that, you should stay well below the weight capacity (35-40lbs for a bucket of stain (x5)=200#), hose reels, shurflos, etc.....I'd say you'll be way low of the 1700#.

    I'd be cutting it close on some days. We do a lot of brick paver jobs and that sand gets real heavy. Thanks for the info and thoughts John. I just saw your post tonight. I don't know how I missed it b4.

  18. Posted · Report reply

    Update! I bought a 2001 Dodge 2500 cargo van instead of the Astro. Man, that thing runs great! Pinks anyone? He He. I'm bolting equip in it as it comes in. Man, that 8 gpm gear drive unit from E-Spec North is awesome.

    Great space saver. I'll post pics soon. Thanks again for the advice all.

    The reason I went with this vehicle is space and load capicity. The Astro was nice and $1500.00 less, but, better safe than sorry I guess.

  20. Posted · Report reply

    Dawg

    Jarrods thinking is that it's a numbers game, the more people that he targets the more jobs he will get. It sounds like he's tried retargeting areas with multiple mailings and he just didn't like the results.

    I don't necessarily agree with his methods because for me it would be a lot of wasted circulation mailing to an entire zip code and then another. For me, most of the addresses in my zip or neighboring zips aren't my potential customers. I wouldn't be hitting just the bullseye of my target but also all around it. That would result in a poor return in comparison to the price of so many mailers.

    I know that Jarrod offers a promotion in the spring that is a pretty good deal to the customer so his target market may be a little bigger than mine, I don't offer deals only a premium price. So he puts a promotion out there that a wide range of people can afford and he hits area after area never repeating a mailing and he gets a butt load of calls and he closes a butt load of jobs. He told me how many houses and decks he did last year not to mention his fleets. When a guy does nothing but estimates and closings from dark to dark for two months straight while his guys are working I would say what he does must work for him, even though I don't use his methods I give him props.

    Didn't this start as a YP ad thread?......:dunno:

    Barry, this year I found very affordable software that will target only the demagraphics that I want in the specifis areas that I want.

    Last year & the year b4, I did mail to areas by postal route. This year I will be hitting bullzeyes most of the time. My closing ratio will be better for sure this year. I just found out that last year, my closing ratio was 60%. I hope to up that this year while increasing my margin. With the help of this new software, I think I will do it. I'm really pushing house washing this year even harder than I did last year. I want to wash 100 homes this year. My goals for this year are:

    100 house washes

    200 decks

    50 brick pavers jobs

  21. Posted · Report reply

    Jarrod,

    From your personal results, it is obvious that mailing to a fresh list is your best bet.

    One question I have is what do you mean by 'did really well'? How many homes were mailed to and what was the overall response? I'll have find out what the count was for each sub. Great question and point. Thank you.

    You don't have to provide the numbers.

    The reason for asking is that if the sub-division has 300 homes and your mailing produces say 2% (forget profits for now, we are assuming you made good $$$).

    The 2% response would be considered great by most direct mail standards. Still, that is just 6 homes out of 300. I hear you. So knowing this, why didn't more people respond?

    1.They didn't see/notice my ad.

    2.They didn't like my ad.

    3.They couldn't afford to do it (at that time, or at all that year)

    4.Already had their "go to guy."

    5.Right brainers looking at a left brainer ad.

    6.All the above.

    I saw tons of nasty decks in these subs that were not done in the time frame that we were there. (2 to 3 weeks and later visits a month after.)

    Are you saying that only 6 homes out of 300 would be interested in your services? Maybe? I think that a lot of them are interested in getting their deck done. Maybe one of the 5 reasons listed above, they didn't have it done by me or anyone else.

    If your mailer is producing much better, say 10% or so, then you have definately penetrated that sub. 10% would be great! Is it possible? Last year, I sent out 40,000 post cards. If I got 4,000 jobs off of that, I would be floored! Have you ever heard of anyone getting a 10% response off of direct mail? If so, I wanna know their secret! (I'm not challenging you here Todd, I really, really wanna know!)

    Barry was right in that what works for one doesn't work for another.

    My goal is to dispense of 'predisposed' ideas and open the 'box' for people to be able to find what is best for them. This is my goal too. Believe me, I'm very open minded about this.

    Your point is valid! Maybe for people just getting started that is the best approach.

    What about those people that want to farm an area and be known as the 'go-to' company for PW? Those people that are trying to 'brand' themselves within a certain radius from their home? Interesting choice of word (farm.)

    Let me elaborate on that analogy. A farmer plants a crop in a certain area. After it grows, he harvests the crop. After the harvest, the soil needs time to become "fertile, or enriched" before the new seeds can be planted. This usually takes several months. Next "season" the time is right to plant the seeds. A farmer knows that planting seeds in recently used soil is a waste of time & money. So, he will now either look else ware for fresh soil, or just wait until the soil is ready.

    How about using a totally different mailer on the second mailing? Everyone responds to different 'hot buttons'. Maybe your mailers 'hot buttons' are limited to a certain segment of people. Now THAT is a great idea! I never thought of that b4. OR, shuffle your 2 different post cards and sent each area the "mix." Imagine, each prospect in a whole area getting 1 of your two different ads! It's the best of both worlds. (Hear that? Those are my gears turning!LOL)

    It could be that a post card is not the most effective way to reach some of the residents in these areas. Every job we did had a yard sign too. You might be right. If these people wrer the coupon or magazine types, I'd rather they didn't call me anyhow.

    Even with your great results, could your mailer be improved to increase your response rate by just another 1/2%? There's always room for improvment. In fact, I was think about tweaking my ad this year anyway.

    That's 1 1/2 more jobs for the same initial aquisition cost.

    Jarrod, from your posts you are obviously a very knowledgeable businessperson. In fact, you are probably one of the few that take a methodical approach to tracking your results. You are WAY ahead of the game than most. Thank you, I owe a lot of that to my anal retentive engineer/drill sergeant genes I inherited from my dad. I also owe it to this BBS.

    Take the above information for what it is, another view point, a different perspective that could help improve what you've already got going.

    Todd, I love being challenged. I never get offended by it, in fact, I welcome it! I think that it's good for us all to challenge each other. Even if an idea sounds perfect, challenge it. You can't find out how many pounds fishing line can hold without tying some weights to it. When we go fishing, we better make sure that the line is tested, and will hold what we are trying to catch.

    I respect your logic Todd. I'm so glad that you are a part of this family.

  22. Posted · Report reply

    That's good to hear, I was hoping it wasn't just those little voices in my head again.

    I'm not posting to anybody in particular here, I'm just thinking out loud again. There is so much to learn and experiment with when it comes to marketing and advertising. One can use a headline that grabs prospects attetion and then hot buttons to keep them interested and then good copy to educate them and then a call to action telling them what to do.

    One also needs to understand right brained and left brained people (fact oriented or emotional) and play to them both in one ad. Most ads only attract one group or the other so right off the bat they are losing 50% of their potential prospects. When creating a successful ad it's necessary to see the world through your prospects eyes and then to talk to them in the ad pointing out the benefits that they can gain by hiring you.

    Too many ads are me me me advertising. I've said it many times before, nobody cares about you or your business. They only care about themselves and their problems. I could go on all night but the one thing it all points back to is if your ad looks like your competitors ad then your company looks like their company, and it's at this point that the prospect has nothing more to base their buying decision on but price so they go down the list looking for the cheapest one. What else are they suppose to do?

    Barry, great post man! Good info.

  23. Posted · Report reply

    Good post Barry.

    Todd, I had a perticular few sub divisions that we did really well in last year. Three or 4 weeks after my post cards were sent there, I sent more to the same sub. Not 1 call from that sub. I hand picked all of my subs last year. (Way too much driving! But worth it.) I then grouped them into different mail campaigns. I also tracked which subs gave the best response. On my next mail campaign, I would include those subs. Each time, the response was the same (with the already mailed to subs) - little to no response.

    As Barry said, what works for 1 person, doesn't work for another.

    You have a much better chance for higher response by mailing to a "fresh" area than an already mailed to area.

    I know that SOME of the people in a previousely mailed to area did not see my ad.

    I also know that ALL of the people have NOT seen my ad in fresh area.

    Knowing this, where should I spend my money?

    In which area am I certian to get more calls?

  24. Posted · Report reply

    I have to disagree with some of your logic. Go Big or Go Home is good, but doing it once a season is wrong in my option. Take a look at Class A advertisers, do they just run a commercial on TV 1 time a day, or once an hour? No, they keep running them to keep their name and product in the front of peoples brain. I you send out a postcard in April and a customer thinks about it, but decides to wait for a while due to other more important things to take care of first, and then a competitior sends a coupon in June, you stand a good chance of loosing the sale. Studies show that people make a decision in 1-3 weeks tops, so if you don't send out regular mailings, and by regular I mean every 6-8 weeks, you are most likely loosing a great deal of business. By mailings, I mean to your database, not thru Val Pak, or Money Mailer, those things are a complete waste of money in my experience.

    Just my thoughts.

    Scott

    I have sent post cards to the same areas b4 with little to no results. My ad is so good that people retain it. Many times, I have had calls from 1 month to a full year after my ad was mailed.

    Like I stated b4, either they want you or they don't. You have a better chance of getting jobs from an untapped area than from an area that you have already mailed to.

    By the way tv ads are repeated because they are "intangibles."

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