Kristopher Pettitt
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Posts posted by Kristopher Pettitt
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Guy, I agree with the others. We do need answers. However if you can't answer them then you can't. It's as simple as that. I don't want to see a private conversation. I want to see the tough questioned answered and I even want to ask them. So why has no committee member came in and answered? Are they banned? Do they choose not to answer? or is there another reason behind it?
As far as I can tell TGS is not apart of The *****, so it's a little difficult to ask the "tough questions" in a place that does not link to The *****. The only place that I know of that is linked to The ***** is The ***, and I have seen many discussions aboard that site that I would love to get to the bottom of, but I can't be involved. This is why I'm so against bans, because when a serious discussion is being discussed some (like myself) have no voice. Our voice has to be stretched out over to this site in hopes that it is read.
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Hater: Someone who does not agree with what another is doing.
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Just need to clarify something about the “need and want” post I made. I’m speaking as a customer’s perspective. Take for example my coffee stain on my rug, it could stay there as long as I want it to. Removing that stain or not removing that stain in no way affects my life. If I do call a carpet cleaner it’s because I “want” that stain removed and I “want” my carpet cleaned. Now that same stain might become a “need” if I want my deposit back. So it does vary. Can you imagine the saturation of our industry if our consumers “needed” our services?
(Yeah saw your from North Carolina is why I asked. I’ve been a panthers fan since they came to The NFL. In fact my colors for my company stem from The Panthers.)
@John, if you do email the committee and they answer could you post the answer in a thread? I would be interested to see what their answers are. I also think those same questions should be directed to The PWNA as well and their answers posted as well. Like to see the difference between the two Orgs.
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Oh one more thought before I call it a night.....In offering a pressure washing school, what happens when the market is saturated with pressure washers??? What happens to prices & profits?That to me is difficult to answer because I don't have the experience like you and others have. There are many professions that are saturated. Mechanics,truck drivers, nurses, ect, ect. Hard to say weather a saturation of pressure washers would help the industry as a whole or hurt. In my own thought I think a little of both. I think it would hurt the small business owners like myself and at the same time would help the corporate power washing companies with 10-20 trucks grow exponentially. Guess it depends on what side of the court you're on.
Just a really hard question to answer, ask me that question in 2-3 years and I might have a better answer for you.
(PS, your not a panthers fan btw?)
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Unfortunally I no longer truck drive. About 3 months into my truck driving career I had my first seizure and lost my class A. Was never allowed to gain it back, otherwise I would still be doing that. You could say they trained me enough to do both. So yes if I was still truck driving I would like to think that after 12 years now I would have my money’s worth.
In schooling there is never any guarantee that you’ll be successful.
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Which would be a great idea Kris if it weren't for the costs of doing this and the Liability. As John stated in an earlier post, there is a line that if you cross could put you in a bad place. The time it would take to put together a manual would be unreal for the group of unpaid people doing it. I'm not shooting your idea down, it has merit. But let me ask you this....]What do you think it would cost for something like this? The cost depends on the devotion of what’s being made. If I was (and I’m not, just an example) going to create a school of how to power wash. I would first have to get rid of my current business. I couldn’t operate KPOW and a school at the same time, and my would have to be devoted to one or the other. The second this is no matter how much I think I know the fact is that I don’t know it all. With that said I would have to hire some experts that are willing to teach and be devoted teachers in the school. It’s one thing to have experience, but another when you know how it all works. This all would cost a lot of money to fund, then again starting KPOW wasn’t cheap either.
How much would you charge for a training and certification course like the one you described? When I went to truck driving school for 3 weeks I was charged 10,000 dollars, with the promise of making 35,000 my first year. Seeing that I think training in power washing could be 1-3 months the price could be anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 dollars. Now I know that sounds like a lot of money, and it is. But ask yourself this; if you could go all the way back and you could choose from learning the way you and making the mistakes you made along the journey to paying 30,000 dollars to learn every single aspect of this industry and may even be MORE successful then you already are do not think the 30 grand would be worth it? To me I would invest that 30 grand in a moment if it meant that my business would have more of a success rate then if I didn’t.
How many people would then come in and bad mouth it, critique it, bash it and put it down? You will always have haters, no one can change that. Someone will have a problem with it or may not agree with it. All you can say is “I’m sorry you feel that way and have a nice day” and move on. It’s the people that believe that it will work that you should be focused on.
Kris the requirement you have X amount of years experience may seem "Dumb" to you because you haven't been around long enough to know that "Certs." were at one time (And Still Are) handed out like candy to anyone that paid X dollars. That's not what these Certs are about, or the people that take them. Maybe I’m just not getting this part, but explain to me how giving a professional 10 year veteran Roof cleaner a test and a certificate helps him and his business? Just a thought I’m having, but may be instead of a roof cleaning certificate for these veteran could they be changed to “advance roof cleaner certificate” Something that would separate a veteran from a newbie. Again just a thought I had right now.
There are many "Training Seminars" going on all over. Is there one that will fit everything you're looking for???......I have no idea, but you can check with Envirospec, Sun Brite, powerwash.com, Doug **********, Paul Kassander @ pressurewash.com, A.C. Lockyer and a few more I'm missing. Training seminars are great and I attend to go to them soon enough, but they are only training courses, not schools.
I do think creating a manual of sorts would be a much cheaper alternative then what I'm stating above.
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Tell me something, these "certificates" everyone is speaking of (this goes out to both PWNA and *****): Do they have a manual of sorts? Usually before you take a test your given a book or manual that tells all of the answers that might be asked on the test. It is designed to teach and educate those who may or may not know (in this case) about roof cleaning. In basic terms; where is the teaching material? Giving someone a certificate that's been doing it for X amount of years is just plain dumb. They already know how to roof clean cause they experienced in it. It's the newbies (like myself) that need this knowledge I would love to attend classes that teach me exactly how to roof wash any kind of roof.I ain't talking about some crash course, I'm talking about in-depth cleaning. This way I can literally say "Yes I do roofs", and have the knowledge to do it correctly with-out the guess work.
Here is my advice to both orgs. If your going to give out certificates and make people take tests then have the manuals made to back it up. Both orgs are filled with professional power washers and I know with that much knowledge a manual could be made. Then and only then will I fully believe that a "certificate" has a merit.
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Less then a week ago I get a call from a customer saying that he has some oil stains he wants removed from his driveway. My general question were as the following along with his answer.
1) How big is your driveway? He sent a picture
2) How long has the stain been there? Four months
Based on the picture and the info he gave I gave him an estimated price, but said that I would still need to see it before the price could be locked. He agreed and so we scheduled a day I could see it. I'm glad that I did because the situation was lot worse then what we talked about on the phone. I had to raise the price on him because I knew it would take a lot more work then anticipated before. He also had rust, and other stains on the concrete that needed to be removed. With everything agreed on I came back the next morning and started work. Now I worked on this one stain for the longest time, washing it a total of three times with degreaser. The strain was coming up, but not to the extent I was hoping it would. The client was out, but his wife was there so I asked her how long that stain was there and she answered "About 8 years." If I had gotten that fact from the beginning I could have told him that I wouldn't be able to remove that stain because of how long it's been sitting there. Now I knew by the amount of times I was cleaning it that it wasn't no 4 months. When I talked to her husband (over the phone) I asked him again and same answer "4 months." Now it's not ethical for me to sit there and argue with the customer. So I simply said "I apologize that the stain could not be fully removed, but I know you'll be happy with the result I did achieve. His next comment was "Well since you didn't remove it will I be charged the same amount?' Now I couldn't say "yes because you lied to me about how long the stain was there", but I couldn't say "No" because anything less then what I was already charging would be a loss for me. I had to convince him that I did everything with-in my power to remove that stain, but with no luck. In the end he accepted and paid the full amount.
The moral of this story is A) make sure your clients tell the truth about the stains they are wanting to be removed, and B) Customers need to understand that nothing is ever guaranteed, so don't ever guarantee a complete removal of a stain, even if you think the stain would be removed because you don't know the history of that stain. Hope this helps someone else.
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I totally agree with you, but how can we get the answers we are seeking if The ***** is not here to answer them? Or better question is why these questions aren't being asked in The ***** forum. My personal answer is because I don't want to get banned from that as well.