Able Hands

I think I just had a case of diarrhea of the mouth/keyboard. I did not mean to impugn anyone’s character, or patriotism. I have re-read my post twice, and I know that’s how it came across, I’m an A$$. I try not to make a habit of forcing my views on others, but occasionally I slip. My Sincere Apologies, Matt

Sorry, guess I took us off on a tangent. The short answer on deductions… Almost anything that is used for the business can be used for a deduction. One of your best deductions will be for your accountant. Find an accountant that you are comfortable with and pump their brain. After all as Ken said they are the one that have to sign off on your return. I think John and I have just proven taxes and the like are a touchy subject for some folks. Matt

Post deleted by Matt in retrospect!

What I am gathering from some of you is that you don't care to carry your weight of the nation’s tax bill. Do I think the government wastes an enormous amount of our money??? YES I DO!! Do I think it is my decision as to what I'll claim (cash payments)? Absolutely not. Anyone foolish enough to post on an open web site that they deliberately hide money in any amount from the IRS is looking for an audit. I mean no offense, but if you try to hide income from the government then I think you get what you deserve. I have only been running my handyman business since July of '05. Every cent of income must be reported. Not reporting it is tantamount to tax fraud. I think it stinks out loud how high our tax burden is. But on the other hand, do you think it would be maybe a little better if everyone paid their fair share. Maybe this is a little naive on my part, but I’d like to believe that we are only paying what we NEED to in order to support our country. You may disagree with the policies of the current administration, but that doesn’t give you the right to decide that you are only going to pay a portion of what you actually owe by hiding money. If you think things are being handled poorly in Washington, or your state capital, then you have the ability to effect a change. VOTE!!! If you don’t vote, and then want to BI^@H about the problems we have then I have no patience for you. Sorry, but I get a little revved up over anyone that wants to gripe about something and they don’t even exercise their most basic American right. As a small business owner you have the ability to write off/deduct things that the average person doesn’t. The best advice given so far is to get/go see an accountant. If your accountant is worth a darn it shouldn’t matter that it is tax season. We pay our accountants handsomely, make them earn it. Again, I apologize if I offended anyone with my above comments. But some of the thought processes from other posts above get me fired up. Matt Schnurbusch ABLE HANDS (919) 696-5073

I am interested in cleaning my own driveway, and if it goes well, I'll clean my brothers, and brother-in-laws as well. I don't own a surface cleaner, so I will need to rent one. Have any of you ever had to rent? Sunbelt rentals has two different units that they rent. AltoHS-100-00-HP HYDRO SCRUB SURFACE CLEANER Mi-T-MAW-7020-8000 18" HYDRO SCRUB ROTARY SURFACE CLEANER Do you know what these are? Is one better than the other to use with cold water 4GPM 3700psi? Is it even worth my time/money with a cold water machine? Do I need to use chems to get the blackness (assume mildew, assume bleach) off from the driveway? If I do use chems on the drive do I need to reclaim the waste water? That will put the kabosh on this plan immediately. Obviously I have no idea what I am doing, so please don't jump down my throat. I am simply trying to learn a little before I make huge $ investments in equipment. I have done a couple house washes for family, friends, and the property management company I do work for. With your help I have already cut my time in half, and increased my success in getting things clean without damaging them. Any constructive help you can offer will be greatly appreciated. Matt Schnurbusch ABLE HANDS Garner, NC (919) 696-5073

I appreciate your input. I have been in and talked with Mike already a couple of times. Matt Schnurbusch ABLE HANDS Garner, NC (919) 696-5073

I believe the appropriate saying here is --"If it seems to good to be true, it probably is." OR If you want good soup, use good ingrediants If you want crummy soup... Matt Schnurbusch ABLE HANDS Garner, NC (919) 696-5073

I have two Black Lab Mutts. My girl is named Bella. She was and still is beautiful. My male is named Bones. When we first got him he was very lethargic (lazy bones). As an adult he is extremely skinny (has a lot of hound and dalmation in the mix). The name has fit him from day one. We got Bones first, and he seemed really sad having been removed from all of his brothers and sisters. So we got Bella. I tried to convince my wife to let me name her Skin (then we would have Skin and Bones) but she wouldn't go for it. My computer crashed a while back and I haven't put the pics onto the rebuild or I'd post them. We also have a cat named Katt. Origianlly wanted to name Bones Dog but Dina (wife) wouldn't go for it. Celeste, For what it's worth make sure you do your homework on becoming a breeder... My sister bred Golden labs for a while. It is an awful lot of work. Be prepared for a 2:00 am wake up call to deliver puppies (every litter they had came in the middle of the night). Plus, have you thought about what you'll do with any unsold puppies? I'm sure you have thought of this stuff, but thought I'd point it out just in case. Matt Schnurbusch ABLE HANDS Garner, NC (919) 696-5073

What sunblock do you use? As a survivor of Malignant Melanoma, I have more of a tendency than most to keep track of the amount of sun exposure I get. And I try to take precautions to limit/eliminate tanning/sunburn. I used to use a product called PreSun. It is alcohol based, and dries into your skin almost instantly. Never runs with sweat, and never seemed to wear out. It was extremely expensive when I could find, but it's no longer around. Now I use a sunblock from Rocky Mountain Sunscreen. I spent weeks trying to find sunblock in bulk packages. I buy this stuff by the quart. It works pretty well, a little sting in the eyes if I don't allow it to soak in fully before I start the day. But it lasts all day long with one application. I have tried bullfrog and a couple of the other alcohol based products without the same success I had with presun. I'm curious what others use as I continue to search for a high quality, cost effective means to keep from dieing. Matt Schnurbusch ABLE HANDS Garner, NC (919) 696-5073

Yeah, skin cancer is nothing to mess around with. I had a mole on my back about the size of a quarter. Had the thing for as long as I could remember. Finally went in to have it looked, and it turned out to be melanoma. The general rule is that if you have skin, it should be looked at by a dermatologist once per year. I don't know many folks without skin, but then again I don't know many that go to a dermatologist. I know it's a nuisance, but those of us that work out in the sun (even on the shady side of the house) should have a full body checkup at least once a year. Matt Schnurbusch ABLE HANDS Garner, NC (919) 696-5073

I have also had "referals" from Service Magic along this pattern. I had one in particular where the lead was very specific. When I called it was "yeah send us your information... we are always looking for sub-contractors". I called SM at let them know in no uncertain terms just what I thought of the idea of alllowing contractors to use the service as their want ads. If they need subs, let them put an ad in the paper. I don't need to pay for someone elses advertising/personell budget. They very quickly removed the charge from my invoice. That's the last time I've had any trouble. Matt Schnurbusch ABLE HANDS Garner, NC (919) 6096-5073 One of these days, I'm going to have to put together my signature!

Where did you find this line? Can I use it? I'd like to give proper credit. Matt

If a person is afraid to take on a job, they must analyze WHY they are afraid to take it on. There are many reasons for this type of concern: To large for my company Don't have the right tools for the job Don't have the knowledge/ability Just a plain old “bad feeling” I follow my gut explicitly, never ever take this work In my opinion, being professional, is many things. The absolute most important thing is to be honest with your potential customer, and more importantly with yourself. I have turned down lots of work because the scope of it is too large for my "one man band". I have turned down others because of lack of the proper tools/capital to purchase the right tool. But the one that impresses customers the most is when I turn down work for lack of knowledge. It takes some amount of intestinal fortitude to admit to a customer that you don't know how to do something. But I have never had a customer look at me with anything but appreciation for telling them up front that I don't know how. I follow up this unfortunate statement with something like "I want to be in business for a long time, and if I make a habit of taking work that I can't perform my business won't survive it." Most of the time I get a follow up call with other work in the future. Also, as I walk through a job with a customer, I try to point out things that they may have missed seeing to help them avoid problems down the road. I always try to help them save money. As a handyman, people seem to like to try and tell me how to do my job. Many homeowners have an idea of how they want a job done. Some want the work done as cheaply as possible. Some explain a way that will take much too long and will cost them dearly. A few are right on the mark, but this is rare. Most just don’t have a clue. How you respond to these scenarios is part of what defines you as a professional. CHEAP: Always evaluate your surroundings. If I am called to a low income neighborhood, this is my expectation. Listen to what the customer has to say, and explain that if the work is done is this regard it will work but may fail in the future and need to be redone. I never offer a guarantee for work of this type. If a customer agrees with my way of doing something, I may/may not lower my rate in order to help them… Depends on the customer. TOO EXPENSIVE: These are the customers I like the most. I always explain that what the customer wants will work very well, but will be extremely expensive. I proceed to lay out an alternative plan which most accept. If the customer is persistent in doing it there way, then I do it and charge accordingly. Most of the time they greatly appreciate my willingness to “lose money” by doing it my way. ON THE MARK: No explanation… Do the work. DON”T HAVE A CLUE: Depending on the customer, explain what will be done, and give price. Some customers have no interest in knowing how things will be done. Have to be bale to read the customer, and proceed accordingly. At the end of the day, what makes me a pro are my abilities. Both my work skills, and my people skills. You have to be able to give a customer that warm fuzzy feeling. Having a clean cut appearance goes a long way in this regard. But I think it is more important to talk WITH a customer rather than TO, or AT, a customer. Honesty is the best policy. Sorry for another long post but this form of honest professionalism is the reason for my success. A person could be the most skilled craftsman in the world, but if they can’t win the customer they won’t get the work. Similarly, you can be the greatest BS artist known to man and get lots of work but your company won’t last long as the word spreads (plus I have to be able to sleep at night). Matt Schnurbusch ABLE HANDS Garner, NC (919) 696-5073

I use a magellan MAP310 handheld GPS it was about $250 new. It's about the size of a cell phone, but the screen takes up most of the space on it. With these handheld systems (magellan, garmin, etc) you can actually purchase a suction cup mount to stick it to the dash board of whatever you are driving that day. BJ's wholesale is selling a system that looks almost identical to the systems HERTZ has been using for years. I think they are going for about 1000. These sytems should be able to plot routes and recalculate due to driving errors or unknown construction zones as well. With the system I have, I have to manually go into the 'puter and plot my own route. Once I leave the house, I screwed if there are any hiccups along the way. I can replot the route manually in the truck but doing it on the handheld is extremely cumbersome. I have been thinking about getting the system from BJ's for sometime, just don't have the grand to sink into it.

Hey all My parents home outside of Binghamton, NY is +/-30 years old. To my knowledge it has only been pressure washed, incorrectly for sure, once or twice in the years they have been there. The coating on the siding is all but gone. My dad made some noise when I was up this past summer about painting it, hinting that I could do it on one of my visits. I have done a bunch of painting over the years, but never aluminum siding. Does anyone here have any experience prepping for this type of work. I'll do some leg work in the painting forums as well about the actual finish application, but are there any techniques/chemicals to get the majority of the chalking off? Don't have any pics but this once beautiful house is really a mess. Any help is appreciated Matt

Celeste, That would be great. If you want you could just forward his contact info to me. I don't want to take up your time asking questions I can ask myself. Thanks for you help. If there are any other ideas or experts out there, I'd love to hear from you. Matt PS - Would someone kindly define "avatar"? It appears to be the picture your using along side your name at the top of posts.

What about: Grandparents Day Flag Day Arbor Day I only allow myself to fish on days that end in 'Y' <<^>>><<(( Matt