Working Cheap In Tampa

[Apple Roof Cleaning 202]

I very seldom venture off the roof cleaning forum, but I wanted to post this here.

Maybe save someone a LOT of grief if they were considering entering the pressure washing business in Tampa ?

Our main business is roof cleaning, but stupid low prices effect me too.

Here is what happened.

I just picked up the Sunday Tampa Tribune because I am looking at buying a new truck.

I looked in the Trade classifieds, and they are advertising House Washes from 59.95!

Of course, when you call, that is for a "small house"

But, even a small house is 1100 sq ft, so for an average 2200 sq ft house, that's around 100 bucks!

They LIE about being licensed and Insured, fake references, and lie about having good equipment, and experience.

The customer can not tell the difference between them and us.

I shopped one of these low ball artists, and I THOUGHT I was talking to myself !

IMHO, this is NOT, nor is it ever going to be, the business it once was.

We will survive because of our many repeat customers.

But I honestly do not know if even I could build a business today, in this market.

No one else has even picked up on the 2 year drought here in Florida.

Not only will that make less total mildew and algae to clean, but IF water restrictions hit, WATCH OUT.

Water Restrictions HURT business , we have been through them before.

Water Restrictions are almost a certainty, ONLY a couple tropical systems COULD have saved us, and it ain't happening.

__________________

[Apple Roof Cleaning 202]

squirtgun, i didnt interpret Apple Roof Cleaning statement that way at all. I think he meant mamas boy, as in momma told him to get a job, as long as he "has a job" then he is fine. If she divorced him he would likely be below poverty level, granted he is doing "work" not enough or at high enough rate he could support himself. Likes saying he is his own boss, owns his own business, but his old lady is keeping the ship afloat. Not that having ones wife work makes you less of a man. Thats standard fair these days. Dual income family to live in nice neighborhood, no shame in that.

He was busting the hacks ballz that they dont know they are making as much a year as a kid at wall mart and with out the old lady working a real job 40 hours with benefits he would be on some sort of assistance.

Im new here thats the way i took it.

You got it Mr._Squeegee, that is EXACTLY what I meant, nothing more, and nothing less.

Welcome to TGS BTW !

I usually stay over on the roof forum since I am not mainly a pressure washer.

I just took a gander over here because I got bored over on the roof forum, kinda wanted a change if ya know what I mean ?

[MMI Enterprises 289]

What Jeff said about America turning into Walmart is interesting to me.

Some view the influx of big low priced business actually being able to deliver product is a foriegn idea that goes against hometown America and the old ways of small store keepers...kinda like an Andy Griffith scenario.

Others in bigger congested areas may just never seen or experienced such influx due to the corner guy being closer..after all there is or was only so much space until other business gives up the locations.

My percpective out West is that we always had space and stores offering competitve pricing and there became somewhat of a change to that just prior to Walmart coming on scene. We had stores like Gold Circle, Gemco (target), Kmart ever since I was a kid that beat the doors off Sears or Monkey Wards, etc. Am talking the 70's through the 80's.

I see the whole Walmart thing as a rollback to what things used to be like and that the price increases in the bigger towns just before Walmart came in were becoming over inflated. Maybe not in your small town or more rural areas but hey those places are and always have been inflated hence keeping the store keepers the big bisiness in town. These days it is the small convience stores that overinflate and they make their business off lazy people not willing to drive further or to the drunken party scene.

Funny thing now is that there really is no need for frugal minded folk to shop for some things like clothes at these Walmarts or Targets in order to get good pricing. You can get way better clothes same or cheaper at Sears or Mervyns type places when ya add up all the price cut and store card incentives. Things like food and diapers are no different as we get way better price and product at Costco warehouse type stores. Main things I get at Walmart these days is some their cheap chems, toys, and some their cheap electronic accessory type stuff when it don't matter about quality. They still better in quality than say Kmart stuff.

To me it's almost like I am greatful that retail is still competative when professional, medical, and oil is not. Instead of yelling at Walmart we should be yelling at overinflated pricing of other industry. Only reason we got to charge so much is for to be able to afford what they sellin..When it comes down to it it becomes about pricing such things comparative and competative to the world market effects and competition for goods in a world more full of industrial players. Kinda sucks to have to pay more for gas cause Asia is on the rise..Boiling it down our problems in Amirica become more about trade issues, laziness, and somewhat is our own fault for teaching other countries to want what we got..sorry rambling now..:)

[MMI Enterprises 289]

ps.. Hi Chris.. you should venture out more into the other sections.. they get quite informative if not entertaining.. :)

[Apple Roof Cleaning 202]

I go OUT of my way NOT to buy from Wal Mart, if possible.

K Mart BOUGHT Sears, quality is WAY up.

Target is very competitive too.

I do not buy anything from my local pressure washer supply houses.

I am a roof cleaner with very specialized equipment.

But IF I were a pressure washer, I WOULD buy local.

We are very fortunate in Tampa/Brandon Florida area to have TWO really good places to buy P/W stuff from.

These two places have an excellent reputation of taking care of their customers.

What GOOD is it to save a few hundred bucks, and be broken ?

LET these guys make a buck or two so they can be around to service us is what I say.

Support your LOCAL guy!

[MMI Enterprises 289]

yup I hear Ya Chris.. A disposable world of disposable product is going to last how long? After things break there will be no decent quantity of repairman trained to fix what only the big huge service oriented warehouses do...or rather don't do..Surely they take things back in on warranty and just replace many a things these days with it's disposable counterpart. Depends on industry and replacement costs. Electronics is sometmes that way but I can attest that somewhere in every region of the country they got service devisions that will tear down a vcr or audio receiver and actually do a repair to it. Where that applies to industrial equipment or chems, etc,. I can't say. I can say that repairmen are not on every retail corner like they used to be though and so we are becoming beholding to this disposable mentality. Regular folk used to be more able to afford the repairman but now not only is there too many regular folk but their wage earnings are hardly on the side of making them profit let alone retirement and it all goes out the door to pay for them higher priced professions, medical, or oil... too many people inthe cookie jar.

[Apple Roof Cleaning 202]

yup I hear Ya Chris.. A disposable world of disposable product is going to last how long? After things break there will be no decent quantity of repairman trained to fix what only the big huge service oriented warehouses do...or rather don't do..Surely they take things back in on warranty and just replace many a things these days with it's disposable counterpart. Depends on industry and replacement costs. Electronics is sometmes that way but I can attest that somewhere in every region of the country they got service devisions that will tear down a vcr or audio receiver and actually do a repair to it. Where that applies to industrial equipment or chems, etc,. I can't say. I can say that repairmen are not on every retail corner like they used to be though and so we are becoming beholding to this disposable mentality. Regular folk used to be more able to afford the repairman but now not only is there too many regular folk but their wage earnings are hardly on the side of making them profit let alone retirement and it all goes out the door to pay for them higher priced professions, medical, or oil... too many people inthe cookie jar.

NOW you are getting into my area of interest, LOL

As you know, I am a ham Radio Operator, and really into to Stereo Stuff and electronics.

Advancements are happeing so fast that things often become obsolete before they break.

Take this computer.

It is a 4 year old AMD Athlon 1 Meg processor, 40 gig drive, and 512 memory.

It DOES have an "old school" 21 inch Hitachi Monitor.

It WAS near state of the art 4 years ago.

It is a "boat anchor" by todays standards.

I am almost begging it to crash, for an excuse to get a new one, LOL

But I have all kinds of pretty womens pictures on it, if ya know what I mean.

Don't want to lose my honeys !

Hey, it is pretty cool over here, new people too !

[MMI Enterprises 289]

oh wow... you wanna them old Hammy guys ahe?.. when the world is dead stopped due to strife, fammon, catastrophy or war there will always be the Hammy's to help things out...ahh what can be had in the airwaves, bet you know Charlie or Dave too eh?.. :)

[Apple Roof Cleaning 202]

oh wow... you wanna them old Hammy guys ahe?.. when the world is dead stopped due to strife, fammon, catastrophy or war there will always be the Hammy's to help things out...ahh what can be had in the airwaves, bet you know Charlie or Dave too eh?.. :)

Back in my CB Radio days, I had charlie and dave walk right in on me, shooting skip.

They came to the door in Seattle, where I used to live before North Sacramento.

She THOUGHT they were Mormons, and thought I needed to be "saved" :lgangel:

They "saved" me all right Kevin.

They watched and recorded me working 11 Meter CB illegally, LOL :lgtear:

Made me a deal though, get my Ham Radio License, and charges would be dropped!

I have been a Ham radio Operator for 26 years.

GREAT for business too BTW.

My many Ham Radio Friends "look out" for one of their own, and send me LOTS of bizzness.

Many are seniors, and want things clean, **** and span, as they call it.

That would be ME :lgmoneyey

[plainpainter 217]

I have thought about going after hacks. And I have come up with something - figure out how they 'market' to homeowners, like how a homeowner gets in touch with them - and then flood their 'advertizing' market. Like I am making plans for the next year to flood the painters classified columns - like if there is 15 painters in their or what not - pick a newspaper and insert yourself in there like 5 or 6 times - make the classifieds like one big banner for yourself - and drowning out the rest. Let's think about more creative ways of forcing the 'weak' hands out of this market. Let's face it - if they're lowballing us, then there isn't much room for them to survive. I say let's combat these guys - let's use gorilla marketing strategies - that makes these guys become like 'white' noise, just random background noise - surely there are ways to make people pass over them - heck if there is a column for pressure washing - and you are in there 5 times vs. a total of 8 ads - aren't people going to be attracted to you in droves?

[Apple Roof Cleaning 202]

I have thought about going after hacks. And I have come up with something - figure out how they 'market' to homeowners, like how a homeowner gets in touch with them - and then flood their 'advertizing' market. Like I am making plans for the next year to flood the painters classified columns - like if there is 15 painters in their or what not - pick a newspaper and insert yourself in there like 5 or 6 times - make the classifieds like one big banner for yourself - and drowning out the rest. Let's think about more creative ways of forcing the 'weak' hands out of this market. Let's face it - if they're lowballing us, then there isn't much room for them to survive. I say let's combat these guys - let's use gorilla marketing strategies - that makes these guys become like 'white' noise, just random background noise - surely there are ways to make people pass over them - heck if there is a column for pressure washing - and you are in there 5 times vs. a total of 8 ads - aren't people going to be attracted to you in droves?

Dan, you can't stop them.

Many of them market right to the homeowner by knocking on the door, leaving a Flyer or Doorhangar.

I was just talking to a friend of mine on the phone yesterday about this.

I SAW a bid from a Tampa Pressure Washing Company offering to do a 6000.00 sq ft tile roof.

A 2 story, with WIDE tiles, a real ***** to clean.

They quoted her 750 for the house, roof, and driveway/pool deck/cage.

And a 2 story pool cage too !

THAT is the current level of desperation here in Tampa.

We are doing the whole job for 2100.00 tomorrow.

Wealthy people are SCARED of low bidders, and a SURE way to scare off a potential big job is to bid cheap.

Wealthy people are not stupid, and realize they GET only what they pay for.

Fortunately for us, we did her best friend a year ago, although her friend did not refer us.

The Lady we are doing has a friend in my Singles Group, that is how she found us.

Honestly, our ads are not working lately.

It has been all word of mouth, and referrals this past month.

I KNOW many here in Tampa are desperate right now Dan.

The place we buy one chemical from says we are the only ones coming in, and so does another chemical supplier.

[plainpainter 217]

Well Chris - until people make the connection that 10 billion is being wasted every month in Iraq - and that's 10 billion dollars each month that is coming out of taxpayers pockets - until they realize that, I am afraid the situation will just worsen. I know so many people behind this war, on so-called moral principles - that I think if you could truly convince them how it affects them financially - they would be against it. Some simple ways I have seen, less money going into schools, so towns are responsible for more and more of the teachers salaries - and of course they all want their raises. I voted against their raises last time - I use to be for teachers - but this economy has hurt me so much - I just felt that they could share in the pain, that we can all share, until we realize that 10 billion is leaving our economy each and every month! Responsible government is what I am looking for. I laugh at people who are republicans - I like their arguements about how much people are sucking off the system for welfare - heck I think welfare is less than 10 billion a year. I'd rather pay all these people welfare full boat ride, even the mexicans and brazilians as long as they didn't get jobs in my field.

[Apple Roof Cleaning 202]

Well Chris - until people make the connection that 10 billion is being wasted every month in Iraq - and that's 10 billion dollars each month that is coming out of taxpayers pockets - until they realize that, I am afraid the situation will just worsen. I know so many people behind this war, on so-called moral principles - that I think if you could truly convince them how it affects them financially - they would be against it. Some simple ways I have seen, less money going into schools, so towns are responsible for more and more of the teachers salaries - and of course they all want their raises. I voted against their raises last time - I use to be for teachers - but this economy has hurt me so much - I just felt that they could share in the pain, that we can all share, until we realize that 10 billion is leaving our economy each and every month! Responsible government is what I am looking for. I laugh at people who are republicans - I like their arguements about how much people are sucking off the system for welfare - heck I think welfare is less than 10 billion a year. I'd rather pay all these people welfare full boat ride, even the mexicans and brazilians as long as they didn't get jobs in my field.

Danny, it was a MISTAKE to go into Iraq, I agree.

BUT, we are there now.

IF we run, it will be a rallying call for ALL who hate America that we are weak, and CAN be defeated.

I USED to believe that if we just quit supporting Israel, the Arab world would embrace us.

This is wrong!

We are fighting an enemy that HATES us, and all we stand for.

This is a GREAT example of WHY the Soviet Union tried to BAN religion.

These radical Muslims have a book THEY interpret as giving them the right to kill us.

We are "The Evil Satan" in their eyes.

Hw does it feel to be EVIL ?

[Doug Dahlke 114]

Residential here is extremely slow too. I don't see the connection to the money being spent in Iraq. No one from the government is knocking on doors around here taking extra money from people to fund the effort.

[Apple Roof Cleaning 202]

IMHO Doug, we ARE in a recession.

It is bad,, and fixin to get worse too.

[plainpainter 217]

Doug - the connection, is that dollars being spent in Iraq are being taken away from other services. What happens when schools get less money? Well building fall into disrepair, roofs leak, and the smartest people look elsewhere for jobs. How about the roads? We get lots of government assistance for highways - well now, more tolls go up. We have to pay more and more for services out of pocket - and yet still pay the same amount of taxes. I don't see how you can't see the connection?

[Doug Dahlke 114]

I agree we are in a recession. My opinion is that it is related to all the easy credit that has been available for years. I know many people who pulled equity out of thier homes to fund things like cars, boats and vacations that they could not afford. Adjustable rate home loans that were taken out several years back are now kicking in with higher mortgage payments too. People used up all the ways they could to borrow and now its payback time. Too much borrowing, not enough saving, living beyond your means, recipe for disaster. I also believe our trade policies stink and that has contributed as well.

[Apple Roof Cleaning 202]

I agree we are in a recession. My opinion is that it is related to all the easy credit that has been available for years. I know many people who pulled equity out of thier homes to fund things like cars, boats and vacations that they could not afford. Adjustable rate home loans that were taken out several years back are now kicking in with higher mortgage payments too. People used up all the ways they could to borrow and now its payback time. Too much borrowing, not enough saving, living beyond your means, recipe for disaster. I also believe our trade policies stink and that has contributed as well.

It is a LOT of things Doug, but it IS here.

The "easy money" days are gone for all the fast buck artists.

Soon, only the true Pro's will remain.

Just as a forest fire cleans out the forest, a recession weeds out the weak.

Take Real Estate for instance.

Many were making a killing here in Florida off of it.

New Realtors with little or NO experience were having 6 figure years!

Now, only the veteran Realtors remain.

The ones with a Customer Base to rely upon.

Same with our business.

We are OK, slow for us, but still OK.

But many of the newer guys are having a tuff time.

I talked to a couple, and they were considering going back to part time, or getting a real job until things get better.

Unfortunately, it may be a LONG time before things get better.

[Jeff 232]

I agree we are in a recession. My opinion is that it is related to all the easy credit that has been available for years. I know many people who pulled equity out of their homes to fund things like cars, boats and vacations that they could not afford. Adjustable rate home loans that were taken out several years back are now kicking in with higher mortgage payments too. People used up all the ways they could to borrow and now its payback time. Too much borrowing, not enough saving, living beyond your means, recipe for disaster. I also believe our trade policies stink and that has contributed as well.

I agree

Its to bad that banks & mortgage companies made it so easy and then gave people these Adjustable & Interest only loans, the banks knew this would happen

When I was shopping banks to build my new house I had banks & mortgage companies almost begging me to take one of these funky loans and this was after I had said from the beginning that I wanted a fixed loan. They would try all different combinations of deals on me, I'd keep saying FIXED FIXED and it was like they didn't even hear me sometimes

I got a Fixed at good rates and I pay extra Principal every month basically in one year I knocked 2 years off my loan and at the level I pay additional principal I'll have the loan paid of in 17-19 years on a 30 year loan

See I'm doing it this way, not because I'm smart, its because I'm dumb when it comes to knowing financial stuff. But I knew I always wanted to know what I had to pay every month

The banks & mortgage companies shouldn't be bailed out they should be fined for bad biz practices

People should be smarter, but they aren't and they feed off peoples ignorance, I cant blame anyone for wanting a house, hell they pay rent about the same as a mortgage would be, but then the banks & mortgage companies tell them if they get an interest only they can get a bigger and better house and people fall for it