Pay to Read

As contractors should we ask the PW Forum owners to Require payment to read bbs. Fee

  • no

    Votes: 19 59.4%

  • yes yearly fee 50.00 all bbs

    Votes: 7 21.9%

  • yes yearly fee 100.00 all bbs

    Votes: 1 3.1%

  • yes yearly fee 250.00 all bbs

    Votes: 5 15.6%
  • Total voters
    32
Lou Zehnder

Lou Zehnder

New member
As contractors should we ask the PW Forum owners to Require payment to read bbs. Fee to be used for Roundtables or donation for a charity. I believe this would keep people from looking around and on the fence on getting into pressure washing.
 
Lou I voted no

For me I was already pressure washing before I found this forum and others.

I was using no chemicals and and didnt know That a surface cleaner would clean so much faster than a wand.

Funny thing I dont go up to people and say get in this business..but I do tell people who I meet that are already in the business go check the different forums out you'll be amazed on what you will learn.

On final thing.... Knowing what I know today. Yes I would pay.... to read all of the valuble information/history of success and failure, of what others have tried to be in this business
 
The people that are going to say no..........why? Speak up. I was a landscaper that was told about these forums and within 1 yr. i was totally out of landscaping. If I would have had to pay 50 bucks i would have never payed it and I would be still landscaping.
 
I wouldn't pay...but leave it up the forum owners to run it as they so choose.
 
$500 per forum, but others will start up. I will open the first one up thats a paying site only @ 500 each
 
Chris Tharpe said:
$500 per forum, but others will start up. I will open the first one up thats a paying site only @ 500 each
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If a new forum opened people wouldn't have to go to it........ The members are what make the forums not the owners. We could blackball any forum that was new and didn't participate. The money could help support Round tables......That could make us better. I just surfed lawn site tonight and seen where someone had a huge roof cleaning thread ......... I have done it too.... But not anymore over there. Anyway at any given time they might have 500-1000 people online. Last thing i wanna do is introduce professional pressure washing over there.
 
Your fighting a losing battle. To many good Powerwashing Bulletin boards that are free to get onto and you would never get the true support that you would need to get others to blackball a Powerwashing bb that is all FREE.

This is Rons' bb and he never wanted to charge a dime here in any way shape or form.

You can try to start a pay per play bb but a few have tried and they have failed. So there is nothing you can't bring to the table that would give you enough support because everybody knows to just do a searcth and the free sites will just pop up.

Your best bet would be to disappear from these bb's all together or just face the facts that the internet is an "Information Highway" and people today know how to find what it is that they want and they will find what it is that they need thru lets say a google search. So your doomed there.

A better idea is to find a way to get an org be linked to your site. You can get work from just being affiliated with an org.
 
Lou Zehnder said:
As contractors should we ask the PW Forum owners to Require payment to read bbs. Fee to be used for Roundtables or donation for a charity. I believe this would keep people from looking around and on the fence on getting into pressure washing.
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Why.....To what end?
What is the ultimate purpose?
 
Years ago the possibility was there.... it's long gone now. I would have happily paid to protect the information but at this stage there's no turning back. I honestly hate seeing all you NEW guys getting into the biz :triniti:
I know firsthand what happens to price and market when the new guys roll in and while half or more won't last a year it still introduces the "lawncare" mentality to the business.

Fact is I can sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman in a white dress but there's only so much room to sell "service" when it comes to a vast difference in price. I've had "competitors" (and I use that term loosely) come in 75% cheaper on stuff I've been bidding for 14 years now.

My opinion? Lock the doors and don't let anyone else in :kma:
 
Greg Rentschler said:
Years ago the possibility was there.... it's long gone now. I would have happily paid to protect the information but at this stage there's no turning back. I honestly hate seeing all you NEW guys getting into the biz :triniti:
I know firsthand what happens to price and market when the new guys roll in and while half or more won't last a year it still introduces the "lawncare" mentality to the business.

Fact is I can sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman in a white dress but there's only so much room to sell "service" when it comes to a difference price.

My opinion? Lock the doors and don't let anyone else in :kma:
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Here my argument, if we did lock the door it might be worse.

Guys coming in having no clue, if one thing we can do is raise the standards and teach these new guys fundamentals.

This way your not bidding agaist the guy trying to find this out only to heading down the path of being out of his retirement money. When they go broke he learns he needed to charge more, resulting in your jobs during this time period lost because customers didnt know any better either. Yes you may fix or repair some of his work for some and others will be stuck with messed up decks. These customers may just decide to go another route from the bad experience.

FOOd for thought.
 
Ron Musgraves said:
Here my argument, if we did lock the door it might be worse.

Guys coming in having no clue, if one thing we can do is raise the standards and teach these new guys fundamentals.

This way your not bidding agaist the guy trying to find this out only to heading down the path of being out of his retirement money. When they go broke he learns he needed to charge more, resulting in your jobs during this time period lost because customers didnt know any better either. Yes you may fix or repair some of his work for some and others will be stuck with messed up decks. These customers may just decide to go another route from the bad experience.

FOOd for thought.
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That "no clue" makes for an easy sell on my part - thats what I would prefer :) . We just won a log home bid a month ago at a premium because the homeowner felt I was the only one of three who knew what the hell I was talking about. The other guys (both 1 man shows) had no clue about the proper methods and were lost when she asked specific questions (she did her homework... even suprised me what she knew).

It's easy to outsell the uneducated. These forums allow them the opportunity to learn my trade and skills at little to no expense on their part and the HARDEST part (pricing) can't be taught IMO. You have to know your business to know your pricing or your just winging it.

I try not to share the business specifics anymore. I know my competitor can punch in my name or biz name and pull up tons of info on me and how we do stuff. It's just too easy to cut your own throat and this is my livelihood.

Actually I find this topic a bit comical being what has happened between Mike and Lou. I have nothing against either party but can completely understand a particular side of it as I've been through it.
 
All you have to do is look at the landscaping, painting, and snow fighting trades to see whats to come in the pressure washing market. Those industries have become so cut throat it's hardly worth getting into them anymore. Painters average $25 an hour as a business in many instances. Lawncare is lots of volume or get out and snow removal is drifting more and more that way. When an industry becomes overly crowded and you don't have a niche thats what happens. Everyone wants to work so the prices keep getting hammered.
 
greg/sd said:
The uneducated hack we can deal with its the lowballer who has got on these bbs's and learned the proper way to clean things that is the problem. they drive down prices and still do an acceptable job that hurts us all.
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Public awareness and better regulation will clean the hacks and lowballers from your market area faster than SH on a black stained roof.
 
the Roof Cleaning Institute is going to Pay to Read. Not exactly as its really a certification that your paying for, but it's virtually the same thing. I have a feeling it wont work.
I think it's cool to be certified but don't see how it will help my business one iota.
I dont know how these things are paid for, except vendor sponsorships and I use the vendors that sponsor. I think that is the only way to go.
 
Greg Rentschler said:
.... and I'll be retired in Tahiti sipping on Mai Tais before that happens
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I'm talking commercial work.....I could care less about some grass cutter with a cold machine. Your average HO could probably not care less about reg's as long as he gets a low price on cleaning his siding. But that same HO would probably care if he seen a hack washing oil, dirt and caustic down a storm drain at the local Marathon.

Everyone knows to put his aluminum and plastic in the recycle bin. They know the dangers of lead paint. They know what a CFC is and anyone with even a minor knowledge of automobiles knows you can't get R12 refrigerant. If they seen a pipe dumping green shit into a creek from a plant they'd call someone.

Someday, they will know that the guy cleaning the jack in the box without reclaim is polluting. Public pressure on the store owners will make them screen their PW'ing contractors. Putting a green globe sticker on your rig or having a green name won't be enough.

We just had a call last week from a local env group asking about our equipment and chem's...
 
jon chapman said:
I dont know how these things are paid for, except vendor sponsorships and I use the vendors that sponsor. I think that is the only way to go.
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It's a $300 computer program that runs itself, hosted on a pressure washing company's web host moderated by volunteers.

Who wouldn't eat the cost of PWI to host it on their domain? anyone?
 
I could not pay that much. I am small only did
$12,000 this year. This is going to grow thanks to boards like this.
I was a hack, you guys are makeing me a pro.
For this I am gratefull but still poor.
If this and others were a pay site I would still be hacking.
I now bid jobs for enogh money to cover my expenses and make a profit.
I have learnd that frome you guys. I am proof that these boards do convert the hacks. If it cost $500.00 it would be worth it but I would not have spent $50 becawse I thought I knew it all.
In short the boards are there to make us all better not exclude the ones that don't know better.
 
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