what % does commercial make up of your total income

[Apple Roof Cleaning]

I used to be pretty much all residential. The residential market here has gone down the ****ter, I dont care what anyone says. Every single entity I know took a hit the last 8mnths +.

I got real lucky and an old golf contact I made back when I was a pro hit me on the hip a few months back. He is a mng group. I am now doing all the apts in Tampa and Orlando for him that he has. We just fineshed a large flatwork gig for him also in clearwater. After the superbowl I have a 5 story parking garage(6 if you count the elevator) I am cleaning for him also. Adding another Apple powered super pump to the trailor for this one!

I am really a rezzy cleaner...love the fast money, the challange and of course bieng result oriented person I love the results. My strengths are sales and selling roofs and housewashes are what I am great at. But, with that said all the 5 year ARM loans and the insurance criminals spiking the death out of insurance folks just dont have the coin. I am doing rezzies..just not like the years past. We were 50k below last years #'s. I dunno if you count hoa work as rezzie but a nice chunck of that was a rez gig we did and we did such a great job they didnt need a damn thing cleaned this year
Plus Tampa was in a 72% real estate boom last three years. Now folks are getting owned in real estate.

Having the best jan/feb I have had to date, thanks to my commercial buddy . At this point I am over 50% commercial and it scares the sheeit outta me.
But I love the steady money that I can count on. Im sure the rezies will shoot back up soon..Did two nice ones today. Big two story house for 400 and a small tile roof for 375. Cant waite for those long summer days coming home stinking to hi heaven of bleach with over a G in me pocket.

I hear ya Thomas!
We have really felt the pinch too, last year was not a good one for us.
The HOA's have all waited until Hurricane Season was over to send letters, and the Insurance Criminals is a taking everyone's money.

Many people could not keep or get Insurance unless they got a new roof, and many did, hurting us guys.

These new Algae resistant shingles take a good couple years longer to get dirty!

 

[jlpressure]

Hey brother Jeff!
I guess one must do what they must to survive where they are.
Here in Tampa, we target residential.
The commercial jobs here are a Whores Wedding, LOL
Few pay shizit, and then good luck even getting that.

When commercail does come along, we bid, and we bid pretty high.
BUT, all that may change ??

We are going to P/U the tanks tomorrow, or at least see about them, for the biggest roof cleaning machine the world has ever known!

It is a Big Ford F 600 long Flatbed.

I am THINKING 4 525 Gallon tanks, 4 stainless titan Hose Reels w over 300 feet of 5/8 hose, and 4 apple monster pumps!

It will not have the Apple Vari Flow system, since it is a job specific Battleship!

I figure to fill the tanks all up 1/2 way, drive to the job, and fill with water in place.

I JUST sent in a 35 grand bid o a huge complex, and it is looking good!

IF I get this job, the birth of the roof cleaning "Deathstar" shall be upon us, LOL

I make a killing doing condo complexes. It is competitive but I've made a great name for my company and between other contractors not showing up or screwing up peoples properties I've actually been able to raise the prices HOA's have spent in the past. Yes I may not get residential rates but I dont expect to when doing 10, 20, 50, 60 buildings at a time. Its all in how you tackle the jobs. If I was a one man operation it would be hard, but when we go in with 3-4 machine and knock out say 60 buildings at 20 K and we are done in 8-9 days thats a sweet pay day, then we move on to the next project & the next and the next we are on easy street.

I have many PM & HOA's say we used to get it done for this much, I'll tell them now I can't do it for that much and it cant be done properly for that much or maybe you should go with that guy. Whats helped a lot is that all the PM's now requiring W/C and many PWers dont carry it, why I dont know hell one job can pay for it. I also have a pretty loyal group of PM's, it must be my charming personality

Example I am now doing a complex every 6 months I am almost double of the guy who did it the past few years, they told him he had to have W/C and since he was Sole Prop he would have to get W/C on himself, he said no way he cant afford it. Welll at the prices he was doing things he cant afford it. I now have the job

Another example I have 26 buildings we clean out the gutters. Guy had no W/C again and wasnt doing a good job. He charged $5000 and for that $5000 he cleaned the gutters 4 times a year. They asked me to do it and I told them I cant do it fo that price. They hesitated, but I told them he had illegals doing it and no insurance. I now have been doing it for over 2 years and we only do it 2 times a year for 5K it never takes more than a day & a 1/2

Slowly but surely we are getting many the PM's in the area to realize that nothing is free and quality, reliabilty are worth paying a little extra. I tell these PM's I want all their work and I call write and fax them all the time, What I like to hear from them the most is "Jeff we can trust you" and thats what is getting us the work


Nw roofs are a different story, I have not got any roofs at any complexes. Ive only bid 6 complexes in the past few years, they usually CHOKE when I give them the price. 4 just never got there roofs cleaned, one the roofs were to far gone with no granules left on them the cheapest shingles I ever saw and one they had someone else do the roofs and from they day they finished to now 8 months later I still see black streaks on all the roof. They got a good 75% of the streaks but I dont call that roof cleaningbwhen you can see black streaks


Chris maybe you should come here and show me how to do sales for roof cleaning and then while your here you can do the roofs too and I'll give you 60% LOL what a deal


Theres money to be made in condos. Theres some complexes I'll never get because they are so damn cheap and yes STUPID, but theres zillions of complexes so some day I'll be the Condo Complex Cleaning KING

I LOVE CONDOS!!!

Jeff

 

[Russ Spence]

from the stuff i have seen you post Jeff you are doing well right where you are i would change a thing

 

[jlpressure]

from the stuff i have seen you post Jeff you are doing well right where you are i would change a thing

Same for you Russ, thats quite a websight & portfolio you have

 

[Russ Spence]

thanks buddy

 

[The Cleaner]

I have some pretty big clients up there in Myrtle Beach area. They have been at me to come up and do some condo work for them.. You may have some real competition soon...Watch out for the BIG DOG RIG !!!

 

[jlpressure]

I have some pretty big clients up there in Myrtle Beach area. They have been at me to come up and do some condo work for them.. You may have some real competition soon...Watch out for the BIG DOG RIG !!!

Theres quite a bit of Condo work here thats for sure. I talked to a large developer my brother works with in Tampa. He has taken or is taking over some large sq footage stuff in tampa , Orlando and I think it was Fort something? Maybe you'll be seeing the KING soon or we'll just pass each other on 95 Maybe not thou, I just dont feel like traveling

I think I heard of you? it was a Tampa company, I may have seen some of your work.

You do the garages or the malls. Do you do B&C 's strip malls

 

[The Cleaner]

Theres quite a bit of Condo work here thats for sure. I talked to a large developer my brother works with in Tampa. He has taken or is taking over some large sq footage stuff in tampa , Orlando and I think it was Fort something? Maybe you'll be seeing the KING soon or we'll just pass each other on 95 Maybe not thou, I just dont feel like traveling

I think I heard of you? it was a Tampa company, I may have seen some of your work.

You do the garages or the malls. Do you do B&C 's strip malls

We do alot of work up and down the east coast.But we are mainly based out of the Tampa Bay area..We do 80% commercial.See you on the road

 

[jlpressure]

We do alot of work up and down the east coast.But we are mainly based out of the Tampa Bay area..We do 80% commercial.See you on the road

To bad we are in competition some what. I'd like to learn how you get the out of state & in state regular work, quarterly stuff. I havent really targetted it but would if it came my way.

Maybe if you ever get out of the biz you could teach someone who whats to learn "Me". I'd like to do flat work all the time, its just plain fun LOL

See ya
Jeff

 

[The Cleaner]

To bad we are in competition some what. I'd like to learn how you get the out of state & in state regular work, quarterly stuff. I havent really targetted it but would if it came my way.

Maybe if you ever get out of the biz you could teach someone who whats to learn "Me". I'd like to do flat work all the time, its just plain fun LOL

See ya
Jeff

My motto has always been, (Your as good as your last cleaning) I always go above and beyond the scope of the work.That little bit of extra work seems to really make them happy.I like to sleep when i get home, so no phone calls from my clients is always a good sign that thier happy. 14 years and with most of the same clients, that says it all for me.


Down here in Florida we have more pressure washing companies stating up every day.That is not so up in the northern states, this is the lowballer state.Its hard to compete with these jerks on the residential work, but i have alot of repeat customers and that list keeps growing, but i count on my commercial accounts for my real income.

I hope to meet up with some of you guys at a roundtable, maybe down here in the Lowballer state Good luck to you, sounds like your doing well.

 

[jlpressure]

My motto has always been, (Your as good as your last cleaning) I always go above and beyond the scope of the work.That little bit of extra work seems to really make them happy.I like to sleep when i get home, so no phone calls from my clients is always a good sign that thier happy. 14 years and with most of the same clients, that says it all for me.


Down here in Florida we have more pressure washing companies stating up every day.That is not so up in the northern states, this is the lowballer state.Its hard to compete with these jerks on the residential work, but i have alot of repeat customers and that list keeps growing, but i count on my commercial accounts for my real income.

I hope to meet up with some of you guys at a roundtable, maybe down here in the Lowballer state Good luck to you, sounds like your doing well.

I too beleive in giving that extra. It does pay off with customers being loyal. I also have just about given up on residential. Trust has help my company grow and yours too.

I'll be in Orlando in June maybe I'll call up the Big Dawg

Have a great one!

 

[Russ Spence]

thts good advice.... doing the extra ,going the extra mile never killed any one

 

[Doug Dahlke]

Did my first commercial job last week. The PM called and was very pleased with the work. Hopefully I will be quoting some more work for them soon. The same company has a couple of properties here in town under a different account manager. They are going to pass along a referral for me. It would be great to get some more work like this.

 

[jlpressure]

Did my first commercial job last week. The PM called and was very pleased with the work. Hopefully I will be quoting some more work for them soon. The same company has a couple of properties here in town under a different account manager. They are going to pass along a referral for me. It would be great to get some more work like this.

Good luck. Dont wait for them to pass it on, ask them for his name & # and send him a letter of intro and then give him a call or even drop some donuts off with biz cards all over the box. Be a little aggresive , dont wait for them to come to you, you go to them

What was the job you did?

JL

 

[Doug Dahlke]

It was a shopping center about 50 miles from my house. Had a Publix with a strip of stores along one side. About 13,000 sf of flatwork. I also quoted cleaning the store fronts once a year after the pollen season here. Also a separate quote for the curbs around the parking lot islands that will probably be done once per year. They want the flatwork done once per quarter.

Any tips on getting in with places like Starbucks, Waffle House or Blockbuster? I have been to the local stores and they tell me those decisions are made at corporate. I contact corporate and they say they are happy with thier current vendors but the stores look like crap. The PM guy at Waffle House did call me back and said he would add me to thier vendor list but they had no current needs.

 

[Russ Spence]

It was a shopping center about 50 miles from my house. Had a Publix with a strip of stores along one side. About 13,000 sf of flatwork. I also quoted cleaning the store fronts once a year after the pollen season here. Also a separate quote for the curbs around the parking lot islands that will probably be done once per year. They want the flatwork done once per quarter.

Any tips on getting in with places like Starbucks, Waffle House or Blockbuster? I have been to the local stores and they tell me those decisions are made at corporate. I contact corporate and they say they are happy with thier current vendors but the stores look like crap. The PM guy at Waffle House did call me back and said he would add me to thier vendor list but they had no current needs.

I try to get in with a manager or a district manager and bribe him ! I will give him freebies at his own house for the contact ! works in alabama anyway

 

[Clean County PW]

I try to get in with a manager or a district manager and bribe him ! I will give him freebies at his own house for the contact ! works in alabama anyway

Russ its funny you said that. I do work for this big time business owner here who owns a ton of stores. When I found out his stores were being put out to bid for monthly powerwashing I called him and said I;ll do his personal stuff for free if he gives me his stores to clean....Well needless to say he blew a head gasket... His response was " John that is illegal because where putting out our stores for bids to be cleaned" and my response was how do you figure that when you own all these stores...He wouldnt budge and I was forced to put in a bid.. End result my cousin got his stores and has since lost them to Fleetwash..Me I still do this Business owners decks and houses. Still pisses me off when I think of this lost oppurtunity and for awhile there I was a little peeved at my cousin but then again I never had to deal with Fleetwash taking any of my work.....yet.

 

[Russ Spence]

Hey brother Jeff!
I guess one must do what they must to survive where they are.
Here in Tampa, we target residential.
The commercial jobs here are a Whores Wedding, LOL
Few pay shizit, and then good luck even getting that.

When commercail does come along, we bid, and we bid pretty high.
BUT, all that may change ??

We are going to P/U the tanks tomorrow, or at least see about them, for the biggest roof cleaning machine the world has ever known!

It is a Big Ford F 600 long Flatbed.

I am THINKING 4 525 Gallon tanks, 4 stainless titan Hose Reels w over 300 feet of 5/8 hose, and 4 apple monster pumps!

It will not have the Apple Vari Flow system, since it is a job specific Battleship!

I figure to fill the tanks all up 1/2 way, drive to the job, and fill with water in place.

I JUST sent in a 35 grand bid o a huge complex, and it is looking good!

IF I get this job, the birth of the roof cleaning "Deathstar" shall be upon us, LOL

man i got chills thinking about that ...... kind of like a good pep talk before a big game ...... i cant wait to see that ... when you get done can i come and pay my respects to it ?

 

[Ron Musgraves]

Russ, Your best thread to date Buddy.

 

[Russ Spence]

yes and my tables have turned since meeting you Ron , I know do almost 100% commercial ,thanks for all your help !

oh and I have been doing all those canopies ! thanks for the help there I have finished 10 already 700 to 2200 each