Paul B.

Here is one of my favorites: This is a transcript of an ACTUAL radio communication between a U.S. NAVY ship and Canadian authorities off the cost of Newfoundland, October 1995. Radio log released by the Chief of Naval Operations 10/10/95: CANADIANS: Please divert your course 15 degrees South to avoid collision. AMERICANS: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees North to avoid a collision. CANADIANS: Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision. AMERICANS: This is the captain of a U.S. Navy ship. I say again, divert. CANADIANS: No, I say again, you divert YOUR course. AMERICANS: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS LINCOLN, THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES' ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH. I SAY AGAIN, THAT'S ONE FIVE DEGREES NORTH, OR COUNTER-MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP. CANADIANS: This is a lighthouse . . . Your call.

- At age 5, success is not peeing in your pants - At age 10, success is having friends - At age 16, success is having your driver's license - At age 20, success is having *** - At age 35, success is having money - At age 50, success is having money - At age 65, success is having *** - At age 70, success is having your driver's license - At age 75, success is having friends - At age 80, success is not peeing in your pants

Insured Lawyer This is the best lawyer story of the year, decade and probably the century. A Charlotte, NC, lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars, then insured them against fire among other things. Within a month having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars and without yet having made even his first premium payment on the policy, the lawyer filed claim against the insurance company. In his claim, the lawyer stated the cigars were lost "in a series of small fires." The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason: that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion. The lawyer sued....and won! In delivering the ruling the judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous. The Judge stated nevertheless, that the lawyer held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure them against fire, without defining what is considered to be unacceptable fire," and was obligated to pay the claim. Rather than endure lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid $15,000.00 to the lawyer for his loss of the rare cigars lost in the "fires." NOW FOR THE BEST PART... After the lawyer cashed the check, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of ARSON!!!! With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used against him, the lawyer was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and was sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000.00 fine. This is a true story and was the 1st place winner in the recent Criminal Lawyers Award Contest.

Aunt Karen The teacher gave her fifth grade class an assignment: Get their parents to tell them a story with a moral at the end of it. The next day the kids came back and one by one began to tell their stories. Ashley said, "My father's a farmer and we have a lot of egg laying hens. One time we were taking our eggs to market in a basket on the front seat of the car when we hit a big bump in the road and all the eggs went flying and broke and made a mess." "What's the moral of the story?" asked the teacher. "Don't put all your eggs in one basket!" "Very good," said the teacher. Next little Sarah raised her hand and said, "Our family are farmers too. But we raise chickens for the meat market. We had a dozen eggs one time, but when they hatched we only got ten live chicks, and the moral to this story is, "don't count your chickens before they're hatched." "That was a fine story Sarah. Michael, do you have a story to share?" Yes, my daddy told me this story about my Aunt Karen. Aunt Karen was a flight engineer in the Gulf War and her plane got hit. She had to bail out over enemy territory and all she had was a bottle of whiskey, a machine gun and a machete. She drank the whiskey on the way down so it wouldn't break and then she landed right in the middle of 100 enemy troops. She killed seventy of them with the machine gun until she ran out of bullets. Then she killed twenty more with the machete until the blade broke. And then she killed the last ten with her bare hands." Good heavens," said the horrified teacher, "what kind of moral did your daddy tell you from that horrible story?" "Stay the heck away from Aunt Karen when she's been drinking."

It starts out as a grand idea (helping the industry, helping the consumer, helping the contractor) but somewhere along the way the organizations governing members forget the original objective(s) or develop different perspectives which then develop into a whirlwind that pulls in many different directions. This whirlwind therefore ends up with a multitude of compromises. Hence the contractor is forgotten or ends up being the way to the means, a tool, or just a small part of the large picture. You see it too many times in organizations and companies that forget their greatest assets - PEOPLE. Somewhere along the line greed should be mentioned, as it too plays a large part in where an organization ends up. When I say greed, it isn't only greed for money but also for power and recognition.

This week I tested a new house wash formula on a 2-story with a walkout basement, elevated deck, trees in front & side, landscaping that filled every nook and cranny and a garage roof that was 90 degrees from the house gables. One end of the house had the walkout basement so the gable peak was about 40 feet. The terrain in the back was tilting toward the side with the walkout basement, making the gutter 20ft off the ground at one end and 30 feet at the other. The front and side of the house had a couple of large 50 ft plus pines with branches touching the siding. Mold and mildew along the walkout basement side and all along the front. Black soot on both ends of the house all around the louvered vents. Gutters soiled with black streaks. I tackled the walkout basement side first and took 3 applications at different concentrations before the soot came off (mold and mildew came off after 1st application. The lady of the house came out, I showed her the now clean side. She told me the story of the last attempt of cleaning the black soot the contractor attempted cleaning from below, then from the rooftop without being able to remove the stains. She was overjoyed with my results and we talked for a little while. I started cleaning the rear of the house and spent about an hour and a half climbing the large ladder, climbing the deck, climbing the small ladder. This old man was beat by the time I finished cleaning half of this house. I headed for the cooler a snack of energy bar and a 5 minute recoup time. About the time I finish my energy bar, the man of the house approaches me and we talked shop for a bit and then he starts quizzing me about wheather a 1600psi pressure washer (he had in the garage) could clean the concrete pad in the back, of the house under and around the jacuzzi, the pad at the exit of the basement, the walkway in front, the front porch and the driveway. I explained that with the appropriate chemicals he could get some results but nothing like I could do with my surface cleaner and concrete cleaning chemicals plus it would take him a whole day. He walked away back into the house. About this time the wife came around the house and commented that she couldn't believe how clean the house was in the back and one side and never realized how dirty her gutters had been. I asked if her husband had seen it yet and she said she was just going to get him and show him. About the time I was ready to fire up the P/W the man walked up and asked how much I would charge to do the concrete cleaning and could I do it today. I told him to give me a couple minutes to pull the price together. 5 minutes later we had a change order signed for cleaning all the concrete. He told me he was leaving but would return in a couple of hours and wanted to know if he should give me the check now or would I still be here when he returned. I told him that with half the house complete and the concrete work to do I was sure I would be here. If not, he could always send me a check as I always want the customer to approve the work before a check is made out. I finished the front of the house having to hand brush half of the siding and all of the second story gutter as the tree branches made the X-Jet approach ineffective for all the work. I made sure I cleaned the concrete next, as I wanted to be complete by the time the man returned. After cleaning the concrete, this old man needed another break and about a half a gallon of cold water. The man of the house was returning just as I was moving the ladder to finish cleaning the last part of the house. He was happy as a kid in a toy store as he admired his newly poured concrete surfaces. He walked around the house several times and could not get the smile off his face. He went into the house and got his wife and both walked around the house. She was ranting and raving about the house, while he couldn't stop talking about the fresh new concrete. The lady approached me and asked if I had a couple of business cards as she had a couple of friends up the street that needed their houses cleaned and they would like to come down and talk to me and give them estimates. I told her to have the ladies come over in about 45 minutes when I would be wrapping up. That way, they could look at the house before I gave them an estimate. I was almost finished with the work when the man came out of the house and said he had to leave again so he wouldn't see me again today but wanted to give me the check and wanted to make sure that I called next year as the two of them had discussed having the house cleaned every year and they wanted me to do it. (We'll have to talk about this old man washing this house next year - he'll be supervizing like he should have been this year.) The man gave me a check and handed me a bag of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies his wife baked for me. (Chocolate chip is my better half's favorite cookie, mine is peanut butter - sounds like she'll be having a treat.) As I'm starting my clean-up, 2 ladies walk up and knock on the front door, talk to the lady of the house and start walking around the home. About 10 minutes later, I'm introduced to 2 potential customers. I let them know that as soon as I'm packed, I will come to their homes and will give them an estimate. As I leave the street, heading for home, I wish that I was 20 years younger as my body aches all over. But then I look at the bag of chocolate chip cookies, the check for a house and concrete cleaning along with 2 new contracts. I can't help but feel I made the right decision doing this work myself rather than sending a young crew to this job. Oh my back, ...oh my ankle, ...oh my knee ...who's got the tylenol. Oh, the new formulation sucked. I gave up on it after about an hour of tweaking. Back to our standard mix for the time being.

It's an acid based home brew that needs some tweaking.

Did you read about the young female just recent college graduate and animal rights activist who legally changed her name to "GoVeg.com"? She doesn't like being called "Veg", or "Go" or ".com" (imagine that). She would like to convince the world to become vegetarian. Would someone care to explain to her the consequences of 3 billion vegetarians on this planet. She should also be send a Bible to read - sacrificing sheep, goats and other animals would not make her happy. It says in the Bible that it's OK to eat animal flesh. You either believe or you don't. She needs to spend some time around starving children and adults.

It's amazing that their web site is so full of misinformation. i.e.: heart attack causing seafood & poultry. I hope these people don't have cars with leather interiors, don't have leather wallets or purses and shoes. I have an aquintance that owns 5000 acres in Ky and raises cattle and these boys and girls have better living conditions than a lot of humans. I don't mind people making a stand, I just don't care for misinformation that is produced in the process. Ballroom dancing contest is coming to town in mid-August and I'm taking my honey to it. She's a dancin' fool at heart and knows how to shake & bake. I have to say that in my younger days my favorite redhead was Juliet Prowse.

So what are you saying Beth ...thinking about changing your name to "GoDancing.com"?

She'll hyphenate GoVeg.com-GoGreenPeace.com Their first child will be named "EatGreenVeg.com"

I believe you have to approach things on a multi-lane super highway (parallel path). Organzation memberships have to be affordable and tierd to the needs of the members. (What do theaters make their money on: price of tickets or popcorn, soda and candy?) Certification always has to be affordable to the contractor, be it small, large, new or old. You let the contractor run the ball and sell it to the costumer on one path. On another path, you work the suppliers, distributors, retailers while they are also selling the points to the customers. On a third path, you (the organization) work to inform the customers. (There are also other paths.) One of the keys to this is that everyone sells the certification benefits to the customers. Now for the certification pyramid: To make the closed book testing work (vs. open book) and keep it affordable, you let your local existing certified pressure washers administer the test. They receive a fee for administering and forward the test to the main organization. Every state and most cities have pressure washers. You don't need a lot of space: a garage, a basement, a porch, a local restaurant can be a place to take the test. The administering P/W is also given an opportunity to participate and make a little extra money. Sell the books, administer the test, re-certify ...you get my point.

Good point Tony, I agree completely.

Tony, Key West is the remodeling capitol of the world. You do not hear the sounds of a pressure washer, but after a while the sound of the circular saw gets about as annoying. Everett, I've been known to crack a few. Remember, it can be hazardous sitting under the coconut tree.

Good Marketing information Atlantic!

We've come up against established businesses that are charging $0.58-0.60 per square foot for stripping (oil based semi-trans), and refinishing - cheap labor is doing the work. Under the right circumstances (where only cleaning is needed prior to staining) we've charged as low as $0.75 per sq ft and made good money, but will shut down the refinishing portion before I go to $0.60 per square foot. I can't provide decent quality service for that price.

Diversity is definitely a plus in this field.

You save all the money you make working Saturdays and Sundays in the summer (like a squirrel saves nuts), then you head for the Keys, where there are plenty of campgrounds if noone will take you in. The weather never gets too cold so you only need swim trunks, a dozen t-shirts and a couple of flip-flops and a bicycle with a lock. If you run low on money, food is no problem as long as you have a fishing pole. If you catch a bunch, you can sell it to one of the restaurants. Bartending is an option, but befriending one is even better as it is easier getting free drinks that way. If you know how to play an instrument and can sing (singing is optional) you can get a job at any one of the 200 bars, or work the streets (as long as you stay away from Duval and Front because that's my corner). At sunset you can perform at the pier (as long as you stay away from the ship walk path because that's my spot). There are about a dozen other ways to make money down there but I don't want to give away all my secrets. If you decide to stay up north thru the winter, fleet washing is year round, as is flatwork, and new construction (masonry cleaning). Indoor work can be had if you have hood cleaning knowledge. Furniture refinishing can help you survive the winter (similar principle as deckwork, sort of). If painting is up your alley, it can get you thru the winter, although competition is fearce. Part time jobs are always an option to help augment the slow periods.

I hear the Graco 190ES is being phased out. They are on sale at our local Home Depot for $499. It's interesting that only the low frame is on sale, the cart mounted 190ES is still priced at $849. The Magnum RX7 is $497 and the RX9 is $597. I like the cart mounted personally, as can tipping is less likely and it gives you hose storage. Also, the handle folds down for compact storage. One down-side is that it weighs about 30# more.

AllBrite is a great product (speaking from first hand experience). The ingredients in AllBrite and Gutter Shock are very similar. Gutter Shock contains an extra ingredient (Sodium Hydroxide) that AllBrite does not, giving it a bit of a cleaning edge in performance (as far as I'm concerned). I've tested (touchless and brushing) AllBrite, Gutter Zap, Gutter Shock, Ripper I and Krud Kutter (to name a few) for gutter cleaning from straight to 1:4 dilution and have found all of these products to work in various degrees effectiveness on removing black streaks from gutters. What works for each person could be different due to regional phenomenon. My results were different from Robert's as I could get great results at 1:2 or 1:3 dilutions with some, but not all products. My picks for gutter cleaning in Southwest Ohio are (in order) Gutter Shock, Gutter Zap, Ripper I, Krud Kutter, AllBrite. Ammonia is a degreaser and ammonia based products such as Windex with Ammonia will clean the black streaks from gutters but will not be as visually effective or financially as cost effective as any of the other products mentioned above.

Any areas where it is feasible I offer a good, better and best choice ("Good" is the lowest quality / cost and "Best" is the highest quality / cost) - 9 out of 10 times the customer chooses cost over quality. I'm strictly talking quality of materials, not workmanship, as I always make sure service is high quality. Economy plays a large part in the majority's spending habits so pricing adjustments always need to be considered. As to organizations: Look at principles of how local newspapers operate (ignore the content for the moment, as important that is): Newspapers have to generate membership (readership). In order to do that, they have several price levels: they sell their product at news stand and thru the mail. The monthly/yearly subscription is minimal compared to the news stand price, even though it is delivered to your door. A large number of newspapers are also given away (FREE). The total circulation is what is sold to the real customer (the advertisers) that actually make the profit for the newspaper, as they have the big bucks and can benefit the greatest from the large circulation. You grow the circulation first, then the advertisers will grow based on circulation. Now apply this same principle to any organization. Some organizations have their strategies and road map upside down (kind of like an upside down pyramid), making the climb of success a lot more difficult. Successful salespeople never sell a product, they sell the benefits.

I think the list should be regardless of discounts if it is to benefit the contractor since you want the largest list available to chose from and not be limited to ones that offer discounts as even with a discount it could be more expensive than the ones without a discount. If you provide a benefit to the customers, the benefit and money will come to the organization. It's hard to convince business folks to sign up to something that has a limited membership of a few hundred and offer discounts. It's all about the approach: Sell one apple for $500 dollars or sell $500 apples for $1 each. What approach will get you there faster?

Tim, I agree with your last comments other than: "Later, when the certification holds weight in the publics eye, then charge more." In my opinion, it should always be kept at a modest price level (if it's a non-profit organization, it should be at cost plus a nominal fee for improvements and advancements). Let me propose another question: (I have the answer but let me ask out loud anyway.) Should the PWNA provide a list of insurance providers by state for the P/W industry? Should the PWNA solicit insurance companies for advertising or listing? One line listing for free and larger listing for a fee. Who would that benefit? Who would it not?

To me, open book certifications are useless as a gage for competency. It certainly does make money for the certifyer and gives a false sense of security to the consumer. Do you certify the owner or all employees? How do you track a certified business - do you make them provide a list of all their customers and then call all the customers to verify compliance and competency? You can't make anyone become smarter and better if they don't desire it and you certainly will find many that will find a way around it if it is expensive. (You can buy college diplomas on the internet, can't you?) Take for example references: When someone asks for references, what do you provide? Do you provide a list of your 10 last customers, or the ones that you think will provide the best reference? Could someone provide a list of 3 close friends as a reference if they wanted to and give a false impression? If you want certification to be effective, it needs to be (relatively) inexpensive and it needs to contain valuable information that can make a business honestly more successful. It needs to be more than a union type set-up. Vendors, distributors and suppliers should pay for majority of the costs as they derive the most benefits (thru products). In my opinion the strategy should change to focus more on manufacturer / supplyer based funding. The pressure should be placed on them and a better strategy needs to be developed to convince them on how this provides benefits to them. (I'll throw in an example of how Sherwin Williams has benefitted by building their contractor customer basis). Let me ask some other questions: - How many times a year do get asked for proof of insurance by your residential customers? and How many times by commercial accounts? - How many times per year you get asked for references (residential and commercial)? - How many times per year does your company receive a customer inquiry thru the BBB? How useful is the BBB to a business if there is no method of positive feedback? - How many times per year have you been asked if your labor is legal and has workers comp.? - How many times are you asked how long you have been in business and how would you survive if you didn't get any business during your first year because of lack of hands on experience? Just a few thoughts to ponder. In closing, (in my opinion) certification is valuable if it is inexpensive, easily available and verifyable.

Nice toy Reed! Now you just have to work at getting ride time.