What would you do differently with your business if you could have??

[Clean County PW]

What would you do differently with your business if you could have??

For one I would have started younger then the age of 34. Of course back then my wife had a good paying job which left me unmotivated to start a business. I regret this now because my friends that have started there businesses years ago are light years ahead of me. Maybe because they were Motivated much more at an earlier age even though they didn't need to be financially.

Another thing would have been to buy A hotwater Powerwasher much sooner then buying 3 Cold water ones first. Didn't know there was so much more potential work back then for a Hot water PW which is a must for Commercial work.

There is one great thing that I did almost 3 yrs ago which was to give up smoking after 20 yrs of doing this nasty habit. There's $1000's saved right there along with having a much more healthy of a lifestyle.

So what would you have done differently if you could have???

 

[mattia]

I am with you on the smoking part, Just need to stop know!!!

Started at the age of 21 had my daughter and lived on my own...

Was not the most adult thing to do...


Matt

 

[Mike Hughes]

Luckily, I never started smoking.

I started my business when I was 25, and I wish I did it sooner. I started shortly after I was married, and we had a son about a year and a half later. My wife has not worked since 1999 because we have decided to prioritize her staying home with our child.

All of these things have made this business' survival very difficult. I wish I could have started when we had two incomes............this is and continues to be very stressful.

 

[Aplus]

I would have got a h/w rig a lot sooner. I focused on residential work, and really didn't pursue commercial stuff. There is a lot of money to be made outside the residential stuff.

Another thing is I would have started doing this full time alot sooner. I just left my full time computer biz job of 17 years to do this. I wish I had done that years ago. So obviously, I wish I had started when I was younger.

But at least I've spread out my considerable costs over several years, and outright own everything I have.

 

[ron p]

i wish

that i had started with a box truck, not a pick-up truck.
Would be better if i had a bigger[move gvw] truck now.
Dave Olsen is my PW hero. He has the best equipment on the BBS. bar none. He will wash anything.
Equipment,hoods,multi-story building's,ect....
He also has employee's that have worked for him for over 10 years.
Untill ive reached a level of success and have equipment like he has,i wont be happy.
Also i wish that i had started out working for an PW co. before i started my own. Would have given me a much better insite.
As far as starting when i was younger,yes i would of been stronger but i would have been too immature to handle it.

 

[Jon]

.

 

[Dave Olson]

Thanks Ron P for your kind words,

Just remember I didn't start out with the equipment that we have today. Took a lot of years and a lot of bucks! Not sure if you saw the pictures that I posted on Delco's BBS of what my equipment looked like when I started. I will try to post a couple of them.

This is what my old Dodge looked like when I bought it in 1984.

Dave Olson

 

[Dave Olson]

This is what the inside of the box looked like back then.

 

[Dave Olson]

This is what the Dodge looked like after we had it for a few years.

 

[Dave Olson]

Guess I don't really think of myself as cleaning anything, we just try to do what our customers ask.

Today we just completed cleaning the interior of a 5000 gallon stainless steel tank (project took 4 men 2 days) in a local industrial plant. Acess was from the top of the tank and the tank was on a third story mezanine. Product that was inside stuck to the walls and baffels was rock hard. They soften it somewhat for a few days before we arrived. This allowed us to clean the upper most part of the tank from the manhole and not have to install scafolding.

We hit it with 3000 psi 8-9 gpm and got as much as possible. Then ran my boiler up to 280-300 degrees for a couple hours to soften up the remaining material even more. Cooled it down and put couple guys inside and used airhammers to break/loosen from the walls and floor.

Of course this is confined space so we had permits, retrivel equipment, air blown in and continous monitoring of the air.

We ended up with about 150 gallons of solid material that we put in barrels for our customer.

Would have taken pictures but could not do that in their plant!

Sorry to get off the subject of this thread! This is one of the types of jobs that some of the local plants call on us to do. If it would have been easy they would have done it themselves.

Dave Olson

 

[ron p]

the pics

look like the start of a bad B rated movie.
I know it takes money to make money.
I would rather earn it then barrow it.
The boiler,tank,and plumbing im sure i can figure out.
What is your specific pump and how are you powering it?
If you were to set-up one more truck what would you do diffrently then the set-up you have now?
I know you just installed that water tank. Did you customise the hole in the roof yourself?

 

[Dave Olson]

Ron P,

The primary pump that we have been using all these years is made by Wheatley. It is a duplex pump. We are currently using 1-1/8" plungers and it is powered by a 20 hp, 220 3 phase electric motor. It is belt driven and runs at 485 rpm.

If I was to set up another truck it would be like our White truck. Heavy chassis to carry at least 1000 or 1500 gallons of water. 18 foot van body. Pressure washer unit would be single fuel either diesel or Lp. I like Lp better! Engine would be liquid cooled. Pump output 10 gpm at 3000 psi. 1,000,000 Btu boiler. Attached oversized generator (10,000 kw or so).

Here is a recent picture of the back of our White truck. A unit like I have described would fit nicely where the 5800 Series Hotsy is sitting now!

Dave Olson

 

[Bill3752]

Dave, I used to run chemical plants for a living, and used water blasters on occasion, usually when we gelled a batch. Couple of questions:
1. Do you provide vac truck service when doing this type of work?
2. What is your charge out rate for this type of work?
3. Do you ever use higher pressure (say 10K +)?
Because of my background, several ex-peers (plant managers) have asked me if I am interested. I have turned down the opps, because of capital reqt's, safety and permitting issues, and perceived profitability. Am I a fool for not looking at this more closely?

 

[Dave Olson]

Hello Bill,

In the project that I was talking about, this plant has their own sanitary plant so vac truck was not needed. When we need vac trucks we bring in another company and rent their machine.

We do have an old American Aero waterblaster. It operates at 10,000 psi @10 gpm. Very hard to set up for a small project. Also the tank that we did was only 8 foot wide. Our wand with shoulder mount and safety hose is about 7 feet! It is not recommended to operate any of this equipment with less than a 4 foot wand!

If you have customers wanting this service, look into short term rental of a blaster. There are several companys that rent all sizes of blasters and related equipment.

I will try to post a picture of our blaster.

Dave Olson

 

[charlie]

To answer your question what would I have done differently. Nothing. Prior to owning my pressure washing business I worked for a pest control company for 10 years which taught me about on how to sell and service at the same time. When I started my pressure washing business I was still working full time. After 2 years doing part-time decided to do it full time.
If I would of started this full time I wouldn't of made it. Now i can't wait for next year.



Charlie

Ps. I also own a pest control business also now. Keeps me real busy, but goes hand in hand