My oponion

Russ, I think this pretty much goes on in every industry. Without getting to the whole business structure type of thing, basically they think (and prolly can) that if they just learn the technical work, everything else will work out.

Well, I could teach a monkey to clean a hood, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to have a successful kitchen exhaust cleaning company. These kinda people aren't going to be around long, so I don't even consider them a threat. When I get the usual "Hey, how do I get that foam stuff" call, I just tell them to go to a cleaning school and get some training first, then they can worry about things like foam, or whatever. They all want the magic bullet.

I wonder how many of them have notepads full of figures showing if they just cleaned 3 hoods per week they could gross more than their current job, so that's what they should do? They don't consider the cost of doing business, just see the gross revenue and the luxurious lifestyle of a greaser :D and think they've found the ticket.

This kinda reminds me of this guy that was at the gym the other day. He was wearing a Bodybuilding.com T-shirt, looked like he was about 200 lbs over weight and was telling me about his plans to be a personal trainer and make all this money. He knew EVERYTHING because he went on bodybuilding.com and read a bunch of threads...what a joke!

This is one of my gripes about having a free public forum like PWI. It's great in some ways, but there isn't a way to filter out the morons that are just looking to use the great information that everybody shares. I wish there was a moron filter....then again, I may not be here if there were :D
 
That's the other thing to think about, why make the requirements higher? It's so much easier bidding against guys that are untrained.

We just did a big job walk and not one company pulled a filter, or opened an access panel. How they were able to turn in a proper bid is beyond me, but it just goes to show you the difference between guys that know what they are doing, and them who can only talk the talk.
 
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Educate the end user. Period!!!

PW in Arizona is way out in front of most places.

Selling it is even easier, I have competitors call me all the time and thank me for making there life easier. I thought at first I was messing the market up and making my life tough.

i was wrong, the market not budgets and expects good washing and they ask the right questions.

Apple for apples and oranges for oranges.

Phoenix is not a low ballers paridise. They exsist but quickly find out people do not want to hire them after asking a few questions.

Companys are getting tough with the vendor list and actually requiring GM to hire from the lists of approved vendors.
 
I am a newbie to the power washing biz. Before I even had purchased my first piece of equipment I came online and somewhat educated myself on what I would need to make it work. Ater a few months and the volumes of information to be found here and other forums I felt I was ready to go forward. I was dumb enough to start with a partner who I thought may be benificial but instead is more interested in just getting that beer money. I am part time with a full time job with plans on flipping that soon.

I agree it would be nice to have some sort of certification< but that doesn't always stop the hacks and flyby nighters. I had taken a real estate class a few years back and the teacher had passed everyone in the class. His point of doing that is that the test has nothing to do with being able to actually to the job proficiently. It's like a shade tree mechanic may do better work on your car than the lisenced guy at the Ford dealer. That piece of paper won't make you a good mechanic or even a good pressure washer. Let those guys come and do their worst. It just makes those of us who do the homework and take pride in our work look that much better. I have turned down jobs because of lack of knowledge or proper equipment and told the potential client why. I have also informed them on the pitfalls when they do find that guy who says he can take the job for a price that seems to good to be true.

Something I use for potential clients is a binder with copies of insurance and photos of past work. I also included pages of rip offs, misconceptions and what to look for in a pressure washer.

I have every intention of being here for a long long time. With the information gather here and elsewhere I learned it is harder than it looks. Just because Tiger Woods makes golf look easy doesn't mean it is and because a professional power washer makes cleaning a home look easy doesn't mean it is.
 
I have to kind of apologize , I am not trying to be an azz , I just get tired of the same questions that are right here and already answered , use the search button thats what I did then when I could not find what I was wanting to know I asked a question , I had already tried and failed at what I was wanting to know so I shared my experience and searched for a result.

I just dont get why people will call you that dont have any equipment and ask how to clean what chems and how much chem , how to apply, how long to dwell , how long to rinse and then how much to charge .Come on man lets be for real , I dont mind educating but help me out a little.

I got this email today , I am going to edit location and name but this is what I am talking about.


This is a REAL email
I am trying to get a roof cleaning business started here in Florida
and have been looking all over the internet for tips and ideas to help
get me started up with the least problems.

Since I have not cleaned any roofs yet I don’t have any pictures to
use for my flyer and so I wanted to know if you would let me use a
before and after picture from your website and some of your wording?

I would only use it locally here in Florida and just long enough to
get started. I would not put it on any webpage because I don’t have
one and I would be very very grateful.

I plan to only clean roofs and gutters for now.

Do you think there is enough money in just doing roofs and gutters?

What pumps do you use for spraying your chemicals?

Is there some chemicals that are better than others?

I plan to use gutter zap for the gutters and will cover most of the
plants around the home.

Is there a good bulletin board on the internet that would help? ( I
got your name from one of the bulletin boards and you seem to know
what you are doing! )

Any help you can give me would help.

I look forward to hearing from you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I really dont mind helping but is this not a bit much ?
 
I have received similar emails in the past. I use to answer them to the best of my ability. I also have been asked by locals if they can work with me to learn the business so they can start there own. This I always refused because of the location issue. I did have a guy work with me a couple of years ago who was starting a business about 45 minutes from my house. He was a nice guy who use to call me often. I didn't mind having him do a few decks,house washes and one building job with my company. To top it off I also even paid him a few bucks by the end of they day. It was a cool experience and like I said he is a nice guy but I won't do that anymore in the future because there is no benefit to me to teach locals to eventually compete against me for jobs in my area. Also I thought about what happens if a guy who is trying to learn the business gets hurt while working with my company???

I'll help when I can on the bb's but thats about as far as I'll go for the newbies. The rest they can learn from doing searches on the bb's and attending roundtables and other avenues like that.......
 
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