What was your Profession before entering into the P/W Industry?

[newlook 265]

Thought it would be interesting to find out what everybody did professionally or non-professionally before they entered into the power wash industry?

I for one used to work in the Direct Marketing during the .com era (if you could call it that) ~ our company barely made it through the 1st round investors.

Prior to that I was a firefighter in Northern California.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

There is a variety of jobs I have had in my life but the interesting thing is that it started out with wood!

lumberjack/sawmill

cabinet manufacturing foreman

restaurant industry-back/front house + management

casino corporate accounting/auditing supervisor

retail sales

I like many, share in the fact that I worked hard to make my abilities known and the result was a glass ceiling in each and every one. Tired of seeing others with less experience and education be promoted beyond me as the constant theme of "being to valuable in my current position" played over and over again, Beth and I struck out to become independant. We have never looked back.

Going into year 7 now :banana:

Rod~

[reed 500]

Beth,

That was my hardest adjustment when I retired from the Air Force. Putting up with managers that were given the job just out of attrition (?sp) and not because of qualifications. That's where I drew the line and said never again will I work for someone who is less qualified than Me for their position.

Now I work for me and my family. I am the boss and the only one I need to ultimately please and be satisfied with outstanding quality is me. Though I admit, I never seem to be completely satisfied with the work I do. There always is room for improvement.

I love this "Retired" life.

Reed

[RyanH 14]

Hey hey Bill3752....I'm switching from the pressure washing thing to do chem engineering. Funny world!

I ran a janitorial business during college. Midway through school I bought a pressure washer to take care of some of my commerical cleaning accounts and found out I didn't know what I was doing after it took me almost an entire day to clean the coverage equivalent of a driveway. After a few google searches, stumbling around rather helplessly in some newgroups and being told to go out and buy a real pressure washer (they all thought I wanted to start a full blown cleaning service...I just wanted to know how to use the one I had!!!), I finally stumbled across TGS here and learned enough to empower me to buy some of the proper equipment and move into residential cleaning. I made quite alot of money from it considering the time I put in, never compromised quality, and had a lot of fun, but I enjoy designing and building stuff too much to not go on with engineering. I'll always keep the equipment to do side jobs on the weekend, though. It's relaxing and a little therapeutic to see a nasty house brightened up after a good wash. The professors did get a little aggravated though when I would step out of class to answer customer calls. Also have a background in computer programming and made some web pages YEARS ago when the best you could do was code HTML in a basic text browser. Ran a bulletin board before the internet became as popular and cheap as it is now. Then JAVA had to come along and ruin it for me (too busy to learn it). Now with the flash, PHP, etc. I doubt I'll ever get back into the groove. I'll just stick with VB.

[Scott Stone 604]

I was a route supervisor for a milk company. Yes, I was the milkman. At the end I had 133 direct reports. I quit that and started doing this full time because of two things. 1. My Manager thought it would be smart to save teh company money by making me fill in on any drivers that did not show up, and do my own job, with 10,000 customers to take care of, and 2. when my then 1 year old started crying when I picked him up because he did not recognize me. Got a quick interim job that gave me freedom for a year, and then went full time. The plan was two years, but the company decided that they really did not want me to organize the new business arm and get it running the day I started.

I also sorted used bolts in an utility warehouse. ( can you say mentally stimulating)

Scott Stone

[Specialized 14]

4 years U.S. Army, then security at a major Casino, currently Las Vegas Police Officer.

Go Patriots.

[R L S 14]

I worked for a p.w company through high school. Graduated went to collge in Northern California while I worked as a cowhand on several differant ranches. After college I worked for the Forest Service on a Hotshot crew based out of Quincy, CA. Traveled the country fighting fires for 3 years then moved to North Carolina and started washing.

[Degraffreed 21]

I started working in my teens, Dad left home, so I had to help mom take care of us.

I did dishwashing at a nursing home, long john silver, Krogers, extensive work as an apprentice in construction, roofing, siding, plumbing, elec. then I went to work at a Rv warehouse supply facility, worked there for 3 years left, went to serve my country in the U.S Navy, tour lots of countries, participated in Desert Storm, Solmalia conflict. Was stationed in Coronado California with ACB-1, ( Amphibious Construction Battalion unit 1), the best time of my life and the most rewarding also. Then left the miliarty and went back to Rv industry where I am now the facility manager with sales of over $15 million out of my warehouse this year. Had some issues a few years ago with an unhonest employee saying untrue things about my business practices that almost cost me my job. This is when I decide to not leave my destiny in someone else hand.

Started my business in 2004 and I do both now. I love making my customers happy with the final result of quality work.

I chanllenge anyone to follow your dreams and do not listen to the NaySayers.

Do it and do your best. I follow a quote I heard while learning real estate from wealthy people and it goes like this.

"No one plans to fail, but people fail to plan" those 10 words I live my life by.

Degraffreed

[James 624]

I was a Quality Control Mgr.- Made parts for Auto,medical,electric and connector fields. I started window cleaning on weekends 17 years ago. Went full time rather quickly. Took second shift jobs for a couple of years until I could take the winter off. I got into pw because pw's and painters were ruining my customers windows . That was about i2 years ago. I started researching the wood market because I had to clean the windows on a huge house. It was covered in CWF. Most of the other houses in the hood had CWF on there sky lights. It cost the deck company a few thousand. My biggest break came when the yellow pages left my ad out of the book. After my nervous break down I developed relationships with deck builders that spring.

Because of my Quality back ground and the internet. I was on a window board and I had been having problems with blades I was buying. The distributor told me nobody else was complaning . I had sent samples and I told them what the problem was. They did nothing.So I posted the problem and the letter on the board. Well it was a problem all over the country. I had the president of the blade company call me the next day! That was 10 or 12 years ago.......No matter how small your business is the net can make you seem big!!!!

[Craig 111]

Neat to see all of your backgrounds!

I worked at Asst. Superintendant at a Country Club 4 yrs, Superintendant for 2 years. Moved to CA (from Wisconsin) in Dec. 1998. Worked as Manager for Marriott's Desert Springs 3.5 yrs. Owned/Operated photography business 2 years. Internet/Fleet Sales at Palm Springs Motors 3.5 years (Ford, Lincoln & Mercury New Sales). Power Washing business 3 years.

Before that:

My dad put me to work bucking a chainsaw when I was 8 years old. Bought my first three-wheeler and lawn mower when I was 10. Started lawnmowing business at 10 and made $4000 my first summer!! I was all for the small business after that....

[newlook 265]

This is outstanding stuff folks.

I mean the p/w industry has a slice of pretty much every trade out there:

Police Officers, Oil Riggers, Scuba Instructor, Lumberjack, Hot Shot, Quality Control Mgrs(James :))., Army, Navy, Air Force Retired (Reed :)), Luxury Hotels (Craig), Firefighter, Web Designers (Ryan), Engineers, Milkman (Scott :)), RV Industry, Marketing background (Beth :)) and the list goes on and on and on....

Damn....this industry has some depth.

[tropical wave 22]

Very interesting reading everyone.....Grew up in Connecticut, sprayed lawns for a Chem Lawn type company, our sales manager left the company to start a power wash company, so I also left to work for him and got my first taste of this business (and my my, how things have progressed since the 80's with new equipment and chems), U.S. Coast Guard Gunnersmate for 6 years, currently a police detective in a large Chicago suburb, detatched to the Gvmnt (DHS ICE) formerly known as U.S. Customs, working Federal narcotic and money laundering cases.

[GymRat 14]

My real job is a trainer in the boiler house at a local Manufacturing plant. Hope to turn my pressure washing business into something real this spring.

Have a son going to the University of Delaware (2003 national champions) who on full football scholarship and is graduating this Saturday with a degree in Mechanical engineering. Have a daughter who is on partial scholarship for swimming attending Radford University.

Wife is a medical technologist.

John

[Aplus 525]

Hired out of college at age 24 by EDS. Completed their year long computer operations development program.

Computer operator on IBM, Burroughs, DEC, Tandem, & others that slip my mind right now. Moved into production support, which is the group above the computer operations, that is called on to troubleshoot problems and restart jobs.

Moved into technical writing for about a year, creating manuals and procedures. Did a couple years as a business relations analyst, interfacing between customer requests and the the programmer/developers.

Library support came next, which is creating and maintaining thousands of volumes of backup tapes, which at the time were reels and just starting into cartridges. Boring as hell.

In 1991 started working with the first commercially available CD recorders. Two pieces, a writer and an encoder, made by Sony, weighed about twenty pounds, and cost $20k! Blank CD media first cost $50 per disk! That was fun and exciting stuff, and for a time I was the corporate knowledge base of everything relating to CD creation. When I left, we had recorders in banks of 8 postion towers, burning 100's of CD's a day for developmental work all over the country, at least as it pertains to automotive diagnostic development for General Motors.

Moved into pc desktop support, setting up and deploying 1000's of computers at several GM locations.

Moved into server system administration, again supporting 1000's of users over several locations.

During those 17 years, I was provided with so much training, along with professional development seminars, that it would take a couple pages to list it all. I never passed an opportunity for free training when it was offered.

When I left EDS in 2004, I hated everything about the corporate world. THey sucked, and treated employees like expendible pieces of crap. At this point I don't think I could ever go back to being a number in a big corporation.

[newlook 265]

Tony,

Very interesting....so in a round about way.....you were the one that help evolve the CD?

[redinbaugh 14]

At 18 I left Ca and went to Alaska with 3 duffel bags and a ice chest full of food in the back of my 76 chevy.Worked in the oilfield for 6 years.Got laid off and moved back to Ca.Joined the labor force in the ever growing construction trade.Tried to apply for a contractors license....what a joke that is.Started a cement resurfacing bus. I was working on easter sunday when a man approched me with some equip.for sale.

powerwashing equip.I talked briefly about what he did. I did some research and looked at his previous tax forms and the rest is history.

[Aplus 525]

Tony,

Very interesting....so in a round about way.....you were the one that help evolve the CD?

Well I wouldn't say I helped evolved the CD, a joint venture between Sony & Phillips did that. But I can say that we dumped tons of 'seed money' that was likely used to further the research and development. Like I said, blank CDR media was $50 a pop, and only available from one supplier, a company called Taiyo Yuden. We bought hundreds at that price, and like any other emerging technology, the price gradually came down.

It's also important to realize that I'm speaking of data CDs, not music, which were already out in the stores. The idea of actually being able to dump data, arrange it, encode it, and actually 'burn' it to a CD was completely unheard of at the time.

It was no doubt the most enjoyable working time of my career. I had a nearly unlimited budget, I was sent to Vegas for the Comdex show, went on several research trips, and set the standards for equipment, software, and how we would incorporate it within our company. Alas, good things always come to an end, as that did, and I had to move on to something else.

[newlook 265]

Outstanding and Good Stuff Tony.

Comdex....oh those were the days. Great convention..good location....lot's of fun....

[PLD 14]

Computer network engineer. 15 yrs.

[Washaway 64]

For the last 24 years I have been in the offshore oil business. I started at the bottom scrubbing the deck, what we call a "roustabout". I have worked my way up the ladder over the years, & have been the Offshore Installation Manager (Toolpusher in oilfield lingo) for the past 6 years. I have worked all over the world, the persian gulf (Saudi Arabia, Oman, Abu Dhabi), Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Singapore), West Africa (Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea), North Sea (England, Scotland, The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark). I am now back home working in the Gulf of Mexico, hope to stay here, had enough of the international flights & airports for awhile. This job has given me the oportunity to see the world, been to 29 different countries, having lived in a few of them. I only work 26 weeks a year, so I have alot of free time (well I used to before I got married 3 years ago). My wife will soon be finishing school to become a school teacher, so doing this pwing thing while I am home from offshore keeps me busy, gives me much needed exercise, and every time she writes another check, I have something to put into the account to cover it. She likes me doing it because "I am not bothering her all of the time".

Whether you love your job or not, you must admit that you've gained some experiences and have some stories that are priceless. The travelling must have been a b...h but you got to see some very interesting parts of the world.

[Washaway 64]

Dropped out of school for a semseter, in grade 10, to help out at home. Worked for a company fueling airplanes at an airport (everything from 737,727,medivac choppers and 2 seater sesnas). I was responsible for a 12000gal fuel truck, full of A1-Jet fuel before I even had my drivers license.

Went back to school the next semester and also worked on a farm for 5 five years (carpentry, electrical, plumbing, crash crop growing, operated all kinds of farm eq't and learned a lot)

I jumped into the computer industry and became a Network Technician and Administrator. Was hired by HP and I quit after a 1.5 months to go on my own. Didn't like the corporate structure and hated being just a digit.

Had my own business for 2 years and got so burned out that if someone mentions their computer today I run as if my life depends on it.

So....here I am.

[Jon 533]

Pro beach bum, love the water so much figured I'd get into this business!

[Ron Musgraves 240]

college thats it

[PLD 14]

Had my own business for 2 years and got so burned out that if someone mentions their computer today I run as if my life depends on it.

So....here I am.

Ditto. Turned a hobby into a good living and then into a pariah. Shame really, as I once loved it and made tons of money...

[Washaway 64]

Ditto. Turned a hobby into a good living and then into a pariah. Shame really, as I once loved it and made tons of money...

It is a shame. I made a lot of money, very young, so much that I'm ashamed of admitting it:)

It's a dangerous industry though.....IT that is. My profession now will never be substituted for some remoter PW in India.