Enclosed Trailer Pressure Washing Rig

GrassButler said:
WELP................ ^^^^^^ there ya go!

BTW my offer was for you to drive to Jacksonville to show you how to use and sell the items that you think have their place. When you need to sell the unit, I will buy it from you and drive to GA to pick it up. However, the fair market system will dictate the value. Hit me up B4 Christmas if your in a pinch and want to sell. I'm a player..when you decide you really want to sell.. ( you can keep the noodle and H20 Broom ...they are best in a garage)
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That's all well and fine. The water broom made very quick work of taking care of runoff. Especially cleaning new asphalt after washing about 1000ft of curbs.

socalkol said:
Think Matt was trying to be a nice guy and going to let you come down and show you how to use your equipment more profitably not to lowball you on giving it away. Granted your last message showed your true colors. Im sorry this business didnt workout for you, and I wish you the best in the future. That being said what your asking for that setup is far more then anyone here is going to pay . Your asking for people to pay for your mistake and 10k price for that setup is not much of an incentive considering near anyone on this forum wouldnt use it as is they would be looking for pieces off that rig and make ti the way they want having to part out the rest.

Its hard to take you seriously when you are so defensive and prideful and saying you had great leads but didnt even put 40 hours on your machine in a year. Being a business owner is a marathon not a sprint as they say and this is not the hands off type business that you are looking for.

Hope your future endeavors go more in line with your desires.
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That's not my target buyer. If someone wants bits and pieces and a lowball offer, they'll have to keep looking.

Ralph Q said:
It's obvious he is a weekend washer, who thought he could buy the equipment and use his existing contacts or whatever to make more money. It's not as easy as it seems, if your not in it to win it, then either you accept a mediocre return or sell your stuff and chalk it up to lesson learned. I believe it is the latter. There is no sense in trying to second guess or convince him otherwise. Obviously his other business is doing good enough to try a side project, and eventually fail. But at least he tried. He doesn't sound bitter or without hope, it is, what it is.
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I'm not a weekend washer. I have 2 guys that do the work for me...during the week, or whenever.

Michael DeRose said:
I see maybe 5-6 grand there tops.
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The washer costs 6 grand. The trailer costs 3 grand. The math here is quite simple...



When I said I had leads, I had work wrote up with a local state farm agent that was going to get me 2-3 house washes a week. They can't insure a house with dirty siding. That was in the bag, but wasnt ready to take it on because I saw how much effort was needed in me managing the business, so I opted out. The lead guy I have working for me is a friend. He ran a small pressure washing business "on the side" and is skilled, but he never had the funds to get bigger, or the customer base, so I hired him.
But anyways guys, I'm sorry if I sound defensive. I have a habit of coming off that way so I'm told, but I don't mean to be. I'm just trying to sell my washer as a whole, for what I think it's worth based off the $14,000 I have invested in it and the fact that it's practically brand new.
 
It's just like a used car. Once it comes off the the lot the value goes way down. You may have paid six for that machine ( sounds a little high) but resale is about 4-4200. The trailer may have been 3000 but is now at tops worth 2200. I'll say you might be lucky to get 7000 tops. Good luck to you I hope you get what your asking. Also it isn't that hard to send someone out to wash a house with the right chemicals.
 
Michael DeRose said:
Also it isn't that hard to send someone out to wash a house with the right chemicals.
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That's what I thought too, but I found out I had to be a little more invod than I had time for. I even had to leave work a few times to make an emergency problem fix on the job site.


I can admit I'm giving up too easy. I put 80 door hangers out on vinyl siding houses that desperately needed a wash over the summer. 0 call backs.
 
cnccleaningservices said:
That's what I thought too, but I found out I had to be a little more invod than I had time for. I even had to leave work a few times to make an emergency problem fix on the job site.


I can admit I'm giving up too easy. I put 80 door hangers out on vinyl siding houses that desperately needed a wash over the summer. 0 call backs.
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How many of those 80 doors did you acutally knock on and speak with the homeowner with the intent to educate them about the bennies associated with pressure washing or having an Exterior Restoration Specialist service their home?

Hmmm...
 
cnccleaningservices said:
That's what I thought too, but I found out I had to be a little more invod than I had time for. I even had to leave work a few times to make an emergency problem fix on the job site.


I can admit I'm giving up too easy. I put 80 door hangers out on vinyl siding houses that desperately needed a wash over the summer. 0 call backs.
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I send 1000 postcards out at a time, get about 5-6 calls. But, I might get a few more calls off of them a month or two later.
80 doorhangers is not enough to assess your progress.
 
cnccleaningservices said:
I'm not a weekend washer. I have 2 guys that do the work for me...during the week, or whenever.
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How long have you been pressure washing? and if you had people working for you, you must have had different equipment? 38 hours is about a weeks worth of washing.
 
I think this guy has made it fairly clear that he doesn't want to be in this business,..critiquing his business practice isn't what he's after here. I think he's even only disclosed the little bit he has simply to be congenial,..but I don't think he's interested enough to keep it going.


Jeff
 
Just like most new ppl.....Paid too much to get started......
 
Lightning Gene said:
Just like most new ppl.....Paid too much to get started......
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I dont think thats the case at all- He didnt do his due diligence

I paid almost 15k right out of the gate for my rig

But i shopped around, i researched, i talked to many vendors, i read this forum - basically wore out the search function before i pulled the trigger- all after i secured a commitment on a good sized profitable fleet account

That was a couple of years ago - that rig paid for itself many times over

The bottom line is if you Fail to Plan then Plan on Failing

I wish him luck
 
This statement is in general,..not pointed at the original poster.

I can see both sides of the "Paying too much to get started" argument. On one hand if you spend alot of money to get started you should have a game plan in place,..so,.in theory the plan works out and the contractor can recoup.

On the other hand,..spending just enough to get started doesn't put so much pressure on you too recoup expenses,..and the startup cost isn't such a burden,..And this business can be started fairly cheaply,..it's the knowledge that is most important,..not a big "Do it Fast" rig that you can't utilize anyhow.

So, considering plans don't always work out,.... I think I actually side with the starting cheaply with a good plan. Not so stressed, which makes concentrating on the business itself much easier.

* Spending enough money is necessary to do the work efficiently and professionally is ideal,...But,..just as an example,..when we started cleaning roofs we were using pump sprayers,Ha,Ha,..and we kept getting more work because we were getting them clean,..and that's the important thing,..speed and efficiency is ideal,..but not necessary to do the work,...We cleaned sidewalks and patios with a wand and cleaner applied by pump sprayer,..it worked, was just slow,..but it's how we started.

Also,..we didn't have the benefit of these boards when we started in 1996,..didn't have the internet until 2003, and found these boards in 2005 I think.

Looking back I'm glad I went through all the different methods we used to keep going,..and there were many,Ha,Ha,...Kinda' boring these days on the R & D end.

Jeff
 
When I first started, knocked entire neighborhoods and cycled through each week for my first year. I put out postcards on mailboxes only to have the post office eventually call me and tell me to stop and that they had been collecting all the cards behind me and trashing them. I got 0 calls outside of a network that I had already built with other businesses.

I'm 4 years in now and life is good. The challenge was the point.
 
814jeffw said:
On the other hand,..spending just enough to get started doesn't put so much pressure on you too recoup expenses,..and the startup cost isn't such a burden,..And this business can be started fairly cheaply,..it's the knowledge that is most important,..not a big "Do it Fast" rig that you can't utilize anyhow.

So, considering plans don't always work out,.... I think I actually side with the starting cheaply with a good plan. Not so stressed, which makes concentrating on the business itself much easier.

* Spending enough money is necessary to do the work efficiently and professionally is ideal,...But,..just as an example,..when we started cleaning roofs we were using pump sprayers,Ha,Ha,..and we kept getting more work because we were getting them clean,..and that's the important thing,..speed and efficiency is ideal,..but not necessary to do the work,...We cleaned sidewalks and patios with a wand and cleaner applied by pump sprayer,..it worked, was just slow,..but it's how we started.

Also,..we didn't have the benefit of these boards when we started in 1996,..didn't have the internet until 2003, and found these boards in 2005 I think.

Looking back I'm glad I went through all the different methods we used to keep going,..and there were many,Ha,Ha,...Kinda' boring these days on the R & D end.

Jeff
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I washed entire houses, some million-dollar. I washed 5k sq ft driveways, I washed 10 foot high brick fences. All of this with a HD 3.2gpm 3800psi machine and pump sprayer. This lasted for two years. Last year I upgraded the machines. This year I finally went with a battery powered sh mix setup. Next year full trailer machine...

It has taken time and failure. And yet, here we are.
 
814jeffw said:
This statement is in general,..not pointed at the original poster.

I can see both sides of the "Paying too much to get started" argument. On one hand if you spend alot of money to get started you should have a game plan in place,..so,.in theory the plan works out and the contractor can recoup.

On the other hand,..spending just enough to get started doesn't put so much pressure on you too recoup expenses,..and the startup cost isn't such a burden,..And this business can be started fairly cheaply,..it's the knowledge that is most important,..not a big "Do it Fast" rig that you can't utilize anyhow.

So, considering plans don't always work out,.... I think I actually side with the starting cheaply with a good plan. Not so stressed, which makes concentrating on the business itself much easier.

* Spending enough money is necessary to do the work efficiently and professionally is ideal,...But,..just as an example,..when we started cleaning roofs we were using pump sprayers,Ha,Ha,..and we kept getting more work because we were getting them clean,..and that's the important thing,..speed and efficiency is ideal,..but not necessary to do the work,...We cleaned sidewalks and patios with a wand and cleaner applied by pump sprayer,..it worked, was just slow,..but it's how we started.

Also,..we didn't have the benefit of these boards when we started in 1996,..didn't have the internet until 2003, and found these boards in 2005 I think.

Looking back I'm glad I went through all the different methods we used to keep going,..and there were many,Ha,Ha,...Kinda' boring these days on the R & D end.

Jeff
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Jeff, a great post (as usual). Green dot headed your way.
 
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