Bottom Line is....

[Jesse 15]

Scott, I agree your equipment will help you with your dollar per hour increase. I know Jarrod will be touching on that subject at the St. Louis Roundtable the end of Feb.

Hey Don,

Can you tell me more about this St. Louis round table in Febuary? I did a search for it but could not find the info but would really like to attend if possible.

Thanks allot,

Jesse

[Barry M 73]

Hey Don,

Can you tell me more about this St. Louis round table in Febuary? I did a search for it but could not find the info but would really like to attend if possible.

Thanks allot,

Jesse

http://forums.thegrimescene.com/showthread.php?t=8915

[Jeff Robison 14]

I agree about the equipment. I have an 8 gpm machine, hose reels, great chems and there are not too houses that take two guys over an hour and a half from roll up to roll out. The price stays the same and hourly is well over $200.00.

I also have a Swabby for flat work. 10x faster than normal surface cleaners. Typically I am well over $300.00/hr on bigger jobs, but we do everything faster than most companies can.

This random price per hour stuff does not mean much, it is all on an individual company basis. I feel a company needs to work up total volume by any profitable means necessary and then purge the less profitable accounts.

Jeff Robison

Titan Exterior

678-360-2518

[mikew 14]

The bottom line is WE ALL HAVE TO RAISE OUR PRICES DRASTICALLY.. Only if your prices need to be raised.

I know that sounds weird but it's true, if we want to raise credibility to our industry, and stick together.Credibility doesn't come with higher prices. It comes with being credible.My prices will jump 20% across the board in 07 this is as a skilled craft no different than Plumbers, Electricians, etc.. and we should be compensated so.. If you need to raise your prices by 20% that simply means that your prices are too low.We have tons of overhead, headaches, etc.. This is one of the reason s I hear from so many customers that the guy that washed their deck, house, whatever 2-4 years ago is no longer in BIZ, then I tell them, you know why..? he made no money on his jobs, and decided to get out , A lot of hacks go out of business every year, & not just because of their prices. Their credibility probably had a lot to do with it too.I cant tell you how many customers tell me that every year, it is in the hundreds, I hear that all the time too. I don't get scared though. I know what I'm doing and the idiot that thay are talking about did not know what he was doing.so word to the wise, if your not billing minimum $150 an hour or close to it, you would be better off getting a job at Walmart, or Macdonalds, Rephrase - If you don't #1 - Master your craft, #2 - Have a good handle on your business plan & goals, #3 - Use advertising that works, #4 - Learn how to close the sale, #5 - Use professional equip, chems, & ethics, #6 - Perform every job professionally, #7 Charge accordingly - You will definately go out of business!!!!! However, if you do all of these things, you will succeed!

Jarrod,

Excellent points!

Mike

[racechaser 64]

I charge xx amount per linear foot per story. So as I've gotten faster over the past couple years that is like giving myself a raise. If I buy an 8gpm next spring I will still charge the same xx amount per foot and the hourly rate is what it is.

Exactly what I was saying. This per hour stuff is going to confuse, discourage and cause huge price swings between newbies and their competition eventually causing their demise and failure.

Everyone is not going to make $150.00 per hour. A newbie may make half of that even charging the same as an established company simply because of slower equipment and a "new washer learning curve". I mean set up and break down is a routine that each needs to develop on their own. It is also something that can shave an hour off a job. Is your inexperience going to cost the client an extra $150.00 because you're not effecient and very disorganized.

Scott

[Don M. 14]

Don - and anyone else interested.....go take a look at www.powerwashsuccess.com This is Cujo's new marketing co (NO, NOT PWNA RELATED) He's got a tele-seminar coming up in January that may be right up the alley of what you're looking for.

Roger, I went to it. There was no mention of Cujo anywhere (I'm not sure of his real name). It looked like a site that he may have bought the rights too and just named it powerwashsuccess.com. Interesting stuff.

Don

[Celeste 341]

Don,

That is Cujo's (yes he does go by that :)) new marketing business site. Once you login, there's a great little freebie with wonderful marketing information....I'm participating in the telephone seminar he's having in January. I have a lot of respect individually for Cujo and his business practices - I feel like any business "advise" he provides is going to be well worth listening to!

Celeste

[Don M. 14]

Okay, now I feel better. I just went to the grass roots site and saw his name all over it. :)

Looking forward to the teleconference. I've got to go out and get a speaker phone now.

I forgot to add something. I think all this stuff is GREAT! So many times I've read 200 post on xjetting vs downstreaming. I am really glad to see somewhat of a shift towards this kind of material.

[Rfitz 14]

Don,

Unless that was a cedar home, or at least 5000-7000 sq ft, or over 2 hours away, I would never charge that much for a basic house wash, somewhere the communication was crossed, here are my approx house wahing examples within a 30 minute radius of my office..

2500 sq ft house with 2 car garage $250-$300

3500 sq ft home 3 car garage $350 $400 etc etc etc.. in my box truck I have 1-5 GPM we apply soap with and 1-8 GPM machine we rinse with and can do most houses in under 1 hour 2 guys (me and a helper) the bigger the house the bigger the discount, same goes for decks, Apartments, condo's etc..

For example last year we did a 94 unit apartment complex in 2 days, 3 guys 3 machines, I also have a full size van with a 6 GPM machine, each unit also had a deck to clean as well,

I think that person who told you my price was misunderstood, I think my prices are competitve in my area, unless he was over 2 hours away, or something else he wanted done, not sure..? Also, ther may have been a bid in there to hand scrub gutters, I typically charge $1 a linear ft, because the chemical to remove the black streaks is very expensive, and it takes almost longer to do those as it does to wash a house, especially if they are 30-40 feet in the air, and also my typical charge to wash only and stain decks is approx $1.25 a sq ft, if stripping and sanding is required I charge $2.00 a sq ft, but keep in mind we brush and roll all decks, we never spray, customers here do not accept that method.. and we do 2 coats on all horizontal surfaces, I havent seen a product yet that covers well with only 1 coat, even with wood tux it took 2 coats.. 2 coats makes a huge difference in the appearance

[Don M. 14]

They may have had their wires crossed. We'll talk at the RT. :)

[Jesse 15]

http://forums.thegrimescene.com/showthread.php?t=8915

Thank you Barry. I am officialy signed up now.