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Growing?

Terry Miller

New member
OK, We are nearing our exterior season end. How was your year so far? profitable, busy with small or no profit? How about those gas prices? Now an election for President! What is the world coming to? By now we should be in the black, even though the first quarter was bad. Prices of my paint went up over 20% this year. I bought some good items this year to cover some losses. A new truck, car, estimating program and best of all a Bandit. They all cost money, but will pay for theirselves and save us money. That is what we must look at. Of course a tool cost money and maybe we have to pinch pennies to get it. Evaluating the use and longivity of it may be helpful. As in a mechanic putting off a special tool to remove wheel nuts easier and quicker. That would be a no brainer? How about the new hose you bought. Did it pay for itself? The trailer you built and now do work in 2/3 the time. These are all vital for our livelihood. We must continue to grow whether we have to spend in bad times or getting a new way to work. It is all growing. So, how have you grown this year? Thank you.
 

Carlos Gonzales

New member
Alot of questions in your post Terry...lol.

For us...mmm...I am okay with this year's #'s...we got really busy between April and Sept. Our gross #'s shot up during this time but our profit margin was less due to overruns ~ bidding errors ~ and the dramatic cost increase in materials.

I am looking at next year already and I honesty don't know where to sit our budget at? Most years I am pretty good at our projections but for the last 2 seasons I have been off by a pretty decent margin ~ meaning the budgets were projected on what I felt was going to be the "trend" in the market and then BANG....contract, after contract after contract....so we have surpassed what our expectations were but our expectations weren't that high.

And as you know, we have also done work in or will be doing work in 2 other states (MT & NM). So the tax component is still be played with this and also ramp up cost for equipment was an unexpected expense due to the timing of the contract in Montana that we did.

So..the short answer is yea....we did okay! :D
 

Chris Tucker

New member
Our business just keeps growing every year it seems.
I thought business would really drop off this Summer with Hurricanes, high Gas Prices, and uncertain Economy ?
In my part of the Country, many customers live in deed restricted communities.'
Thus, they HAVE to get their roofs cleaned.
The HOA's could care less if money is tight.

As we get more time in business, we find word of mouth has taken over.
Mnay new customers come from the guy down the street we did a year ago.

Plus, we have a 1000 member non profit singles group that knows what we do.
I am President of this group, so many customers are friends I socialize with.

Our Tampa Bay Rays Baseball Team is winning their division.

55 of us went to see our Baseball Team clinch a playoff spot.

I got two jobs from group members from this Socail Outing :)

Hey, in todays economy, whatever it takes.
 

Jeff LeCours

New member
My business grows every year, this year it grew slower than prior years. As long as I am doing an extra 30K+ a year more, I am happy I shoot for around 50 more each year I don't think we'll do that. I cant complain its still some good numbers. what helped me a lot this year is my crews being more experienced I had 4 guys that knew what they were doing and I shaved at least 20% of the time off every job from the prior year. I had less hiring & training than other years that saved $$$ for sure. I also went with travel time instead of paying them regular hourly wages for the travel, that saved me some months over 2K a month.

I paid off some biz debt and should be debt free in 2 years, which will be great. Keeping up with maintenance on equipment and no debt will be great for the pocket book. There's a lot of things that are helping my business grow every year and I am learning every year

Terry I know you asked me at the RT about selling on quality, I mentioned at first with PM's its all about price, well I didn't really explain it well, I also sell on quality, its a major part of every proposal I send and many of my letters now sell on Preventative Maint & Quality. I do give good rates, always profitable for me, usually very profitable. I let the PM's know I am giving them a great rate and that rates may go up on the next job. I have many that now know our quality and hardly ever balk about price, even when I am higher than all other bids, I figure I dont always have the customer in front of me so I sell on 3 things at times Quality Work, Great Rates & On Time Service. Its a balancing act and one I get better with over the years. But I love this PWing business and I fight to raise prices and standards in my niche, its hard this year with the economy as it is, but I will continue to grow, because I am always thinking of how to grow

I hope 2008 is good for all and 2009 is GREAT

Jeff
 

Terry Miller

New member
Jeff,
Very nice write up. You are hitting the nail quite often! We all swing a hammer, but actually nailing it is what counts! LOL How long have you been in business? We sound similar in what we do. It doesn't matter what we do, only how we do it. Growing, proper proceedures and good employees. What a good combination. We are working very hard to grow our business, more so this year as you. Not a good year for most of us. Our employees are our family also. We work hard together and all prosper together. Each employee has their own business cards. We give them 10% of anything they sell. It is a good fit also. I'd actually like to build this part of our business. We as you, give, Quality-Service-Price. Always a good thing. Thank You.
 

David Vicars

New member
Since this is our first full year in business in MB, we have to use this as a barometer of things to come. We are seeing repeat and referrals from the
job we did at the end of last year. Have been networking all the time and
that is starting to pay off. Are we where I had hoped, no but Sept looking strong and Oct., Nov., outlook is better than we thought.
 

Carlos Gonzales

New member
Since this is our first full year in business in MB, we have to use this as a barometer of things to come. We are seeing repeat and referrals from the
job we did at the end of last year. Have been networking all the time and
that is starting to pay off. Are we where I had hoped, no but Sept looking strong and Oct., Nov., outlook is better than we thought.

David,

Wonderful, wonderful and wonderful...glad to hear that your winter months are going to be solid. As mentioned before, our year has been up and down. Looking at '09 with more variables in place then years past. I am also looking for the first time in some contigencies with what we do.

Everybody stay positive ....even when the chips are down!! We are LEADERS!!!!!
 
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