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What are you doing to make money today?

PressureWashE

New member
Well after reading this thread and feeling like I have the really small stick :redface: I decided to hit the pavement HARD.

I went to over 30 gas stations 10 apartment complexes and some residential knocking...

Landed 8 demos, amd put my bid in for 20 gas stations at 500 each per month... and 3800 for this small apartment complex... all thease prices were lower than there current suppliers, and my work was better...

So all in all, this was good day, going to submit formal bids tomorrow, and do some more ground work.

I want an Obama stick dammit...lol


John
 

Tony Shelton

Environmental Consultant / Past Director
Well after reading this thread and feeling like I have the really small stick :redface: I decided to hit the pavement HARD.

I went to over 30 gas stations 10 apartment complexes and some residential knocking...

Landed 8 demos, amd put my bid in for 20 gas stations at 500 each per month... and 3800 for this small apartment complex... all thease prices were lower than there current suppliers, and my work was better...

So all in all, this was good day, going to submit formal bids tomorrow, and do some more ground work.

I want an Obama stick dammit...lol



John


Cool! That works great for commercial stuff. Chris met with the Budget suites guy, popped a sweet demo and blasted gum up in seconds with the steam valve one and they guy said, "that's what we need, write it up and lets do it".

He's working on the numbers now - It's over 60,000 square feet.

Now we just have to convince him to do it MONTHLY!! :yes:
 

Ron Musgraves

Past President
Staff member
Cool! That works great for commercial stuff. Chris met with the Budget suites guy, popped a sweet demo and blasted gum up in seconds with the steam valve one and they guy said, "that's what we need, write it up and lets do it".

He's working on the numbers now - It's over 60,000 square feet.

Now we just have to convince him to do it MONTHLY!! :yes:


They will do the main areas monthly, the pool areas 90day and the entire property once a year.
 

Mathew Johnson

New member
I started out the morning calling Jeff Lecours for my morning motivational session that he does.

We did a large house wash - 1023.00 plus tax this morning,

Stopped and quoted a house deck wash / restoration project. I will get the job but it will be a PIA, he wants us to bring the water, I told him is would be 225.00 for the water thinking he would say use his well, no dice... he said that was fine. Stopped at a restaurant a mile up the road and asked the owner if I could fill my tank up if needed - offered him 50.00 cash for each load (I think I will only have to fill up once), took care of that problem

Stopped at MCDonalds for a healthy heart lunch

Cleaned three decks at the next project. - They are readyseal decks - maintenance coats

Dropped my employee off at the shop to finish painting screens that we have to install tomorrow at a housewash / window cleaning project.

Then went to Oneonta and did a Doublewide in retirement park, I suspect that I will be getting more work out of the park.... The guy I worked for is on the HOA board and was thrilled. I told him if I got ten units I would do the clubhouse for half price and if I got 20 units I would do the clubhouse for free.

Came home and returned calls that came in today. It was a grandslam day here.

MJ
 
Well after reading this thread and feeling like I have the really small stick :redface: I decided to hit the pavement HARD.

I went to over 30 gas stations 10 apartment complexes and some residential knocking...

Landed 8 demos, amd put my bid in for 20 gas stations at 500 each per month... and 3800 for this small apartment complex... all thease prices were lower than there current suppliers, and my work was better...

So all in all, this was good day, going to submit formal bids tomorrow, and do some more ground work.

I want an Obama stick dammit...lol


John


Those seem like really good pricing John. I believe that is the going rate out here in California for Gas station cleaning as well.

Keep us informed. I hope you get them.
 

Jeff LeCours

New member
Today was good and today was ARGGGGGGGG too

Looked at some jobs to bid, but I think I will complain a little now to get it off my chest. Met with a PM, a new one for a company I do a lot of work for. The property is 25 buildings and about 7 different style buildings. I sort of have the job BUT BUT BUT, now they want to only do the soffit and white trim because they dont want high volume water on the walls/siding of the buildings and windows ARGGGGGG how can you wash soffitt with getting water & chem on everything below? YOU CAN'T Argggggg try to explain that without going crazy

The problem is they had 5.2 million dollar lawsuit and ripped all the old stucco off most of the buildings and put new stucco, but NOT new windows, the property is totally paranoid about water intrusion. OK I see them worrying, but these buildings need washing now or in the future, so just do it now instead of just the soffit. I explained and explained and explained, that the mold & mildew has to go. I explained the windows if they leak will leak possibly, I explained if I cant spray chem on windows they will water spot bad. I practically begged them to le me have a meeting with the HOA BOD and do a sample, I explained I washed 6 buildings last year with not a single problem with water intrusion

We I find out in a few days I hope, if they will meet with me and figure out their fears. If they listen to reason I think I can relieve their fears we'll see

Next complaint

I have had a rush job for over a week, get in ASAP they said, well they garages are fulll with guest Argggggggg. So I finally get about 60K cleared for tomorrow last minute, so I go to the water dept to rent a fire hydrant meter, thats at 9AM this morning, the head guy tells me no problem placing the meter today and I can use it tomorrow. I explain I need it, I will have 4 workers there at 8am. He says no problem. I think GREAT.....Argggggggg
I figure after my boys soccor tonight I will take a quick drive by its about 20 minutes out of my way, so its now7:30PM and I drive by YUP NO FRICKING hydrant meter, so no work for 4 guys tomorrow and this is a rush job argggggg

Sorry just had to complain, I was measuring stuff and ALLLLLLLLL over town today, a real endless day and now I have 3 proposals I have to get done NOW.

We are slamming and its great just some days it can be a bit much

I love PWing


:yes:
 

Scott Davis

New member
Lots going on right now.

First, we did an estimate for an apartment complex last year sometime. I got a call from the manager explaining that we were $13k over the lowest bid and $8k over the second lowest bid. No problem I say, because when we estimated to begin with we gave NO discount for such a large roof. (over 175,000 sqft), we haggled back and forth and finally came to an agreement. I say "Ok, so If I send over the new invoice, you will sign it and send it back?" She says "No it has to go to New York to be approved." Great more waiting.

I get an email yesterday from the Manager saying she has the representative from New York on the horn and he wants us to do 2 complexes for them but of course wants a deal. And of course I am out of town, so I still have not been able to talk to them, and Celeste tried to call but did not get an answer.

I will be speaking with them tomorrow, and am going to push for a signed contract.

We could be looking at well over 600,000 sqft of roof between the 2 complexes, and this company manages 7-10 others in the houston area.

We sent out 4k postcards a ocuple of weeks ago, and have only had 2 responses, so we were getting pretty discouraged. Then yesterday finally, we had 5 calls, and 3 email from postcards alone, plus 3 off of google searches. These postcards went out to homes over $500,000 and 7-15 years old, in our target area. These roofs average over $1k each. Add on the house wash, driveway, pool decks, etc...Thats what Im talking about!

This was all while we did a $1,700 large tile roof cleaning and house wash.

Celeste has our first dinner w/ our new networking group on Wednesday (Also her Bday. Yes she chose to work on her Bday. She's awesome)

I love roof cleaning!
I love PM's!
I hate Xjets! (lol for you Jeff)
 

Mathew Johnson

New member
We stripped a deck in a snow flurry today. Worked in the rain most of the day.

On the way to the job at sun up

  • Started out with a deck wash
  • The around the corner to do a house wash
  • 3 miles away we did two trex deck washes
  • Stopped and looked at two projects that I have to submit bids on while on theway to a chemical company
  • Opened account a chem company... Bleach at 11.75 a fiver and Oxalic at a little over a buck a pound
  • Went and washed another deck, front porch and an ungodly amount of patio furniture
  • Final Job was a deck strip, when I intoduced myself to the homeowner to let him know that we had arrived, I commented on how dirty his house really was (rubbing my hand on the vinal and showing him the dirt). I sold him a discounted housewash because we were there already. (I thought my employee was going to kill me) I tried to sell the housewash on the initial visit and no dice. And we had a snow flurry
  • Got home at 7:30 tonight
  • JUST THAWED OUT


  • Tomorrow - three house washes, a barn wash prep (readyseal maintenance coat) and a deck wash prep (readyseal maintenance coat) Another long day for sure
 

Scott Davis

New member
John, slow down buddy. It takes time. Alot of time. I have been in business 2 years. Matt for 6. Jeff for like 40 or something. :biggrin: The business will come, but only if you go and get it. Even then, it will take time. Dont get desperate. When you get desperate you start discounting heavily, and you SOUND desperate and wont close as much work.

When I sold cars, the guys who sold the most cars, were the ones who didnt need to sell cars.

Customers can sense desperation, and they want confidence.

It is a fine line im walking with these apartments. I want these apartments sooo bad, but dont want to let them know how bad. Dont get me wrong, I am asking them for the work. I plan on asking for all of their complexes tomorrow, but I am trying to do it w/ confidence by convincing them that we are the best thing for them, and that while we want them, we dont need them to survive.

See ya in 18 days :clap:
 

PressureWashE

New member
John, slow down buddy. It takes time. Alot of time. I have been in business 2 years. Matt for 6. Jeff for like 40 or something. :biggrin: The business will come, but only if you go and get it. Even then, it will take time. Dont get desperate. When you get desperate you start discounting heavily, and you SOUND desperate and wont close as much work.

When I sold cars, the guys who sold the most cars, were the ones who didnt need to sell cars.

Customers can sense desperation, and they want confidence.

It is a fine line im walking with these apartments. I want these apartments sooo bad, but dont want to let them know how bad. Dont get me wrong, I am asking them for the work. I plan on asking for all of their complexes tomorrow, but I am trying to do it w/ confidence by convincing them that we are the best thing for them, and that while we want them, we dont need them to survive.

See ya in 18 days :clap:

I fully understand.. When im talking with a potential client I sound like I have plenty of other accounts as well.. Sales is not the problem I am having its just getting the phone to ring.. Once they are on the line.. I will sell them, I promise you that.

I know I need to patient and i will,

some days are better than others that's all.

Call me sometime Scott. and did you check on those places I mentioned earlier?

John
 

Jim Chesmore

New member
I had a PM call last week for a bid and when I dropped it off another PM in the office said "ooo, ooo power wash guy, I NEED to talk to you, DONT GO AWAY!" That led to one more bid. As I dropped off the second bid I asked if she had anything else for me to look at and sure enough she did, that bid will get phoned in today...

Now all I need is for all the bids to be accepted and find a reliable helper.
 

Scott Davis

New member
Just found out our biggest competition underbid us by a SUBSTANTIAL amount on these apartments. Now I have to decide if it is worth taking it at the lower price out of spite for the other company. I will still make out pretty good at the lower price, but it makes me sick thinking about it.

what to do, what to do......
 

Tony Shelton

Environmental Consultant / Past Director
Im glad everyone seems to be doing well.

:saai:


Just keep doing what you're doing. We just got over 300 houses for annual coil cleaning yesterday from a property manager that recieved a fax by accident from us in January. (Residential property manager - we didn't mean to send them a fax because we don't do residential work, so it got removed from the recurrent fax list.) We took on the work because it doesn't require any interaction with the renters, just pull in, do the work and get out.

You just have to plug at it everyday and use the day hours for meeting people and the night hours for faxing and working on website type stuff.

You're doing the right thing by getting out there. Now, wait a couple of weeks and go back to the same places. It does work. Most guys don't want to do that. By doing it you set yourself apart as one who really wants the business and is willing to do anything to get it.
 

PressureWashE

New member
Just keep doing what you're doing. We just got over 300 houses for annual coil cleaning yesterday from a property manager that recieved a fax by accident from us in January. (Residential property manager - we didn't mean to send them a fax because we don't do residential work, so it got removed from the recurrent fax list.) We took on the work because it doesn't require any interaction with the renters, just pull in, do the work and get out.

You just have to plug at it everyday and use the day hours for meeting people and the night hours for faxing and working on website type stuff.

You're doing the right thing by getting out there. Now, wait a couple of weeks and go back to the same places. It does work. Most guys don't want to do that. By doing it you set yourself apart as one who really wants the business and is willing to do anything to get it.


Than you Tony, I will continue to Push and push.. I know thease things take time, I just need to keep at it.

John
 

Ken Fenner

Active member
Scott, your response is typical of a single mailer. Try breaking down your list into smaller chunks and doing multiple mailings. Your ROI will jump.
 

Ken Fenner

Active member
Cool, that should give you a decent return. one other trick I have found is to start a campaign with an intro letter and magnet before you send out postcards.
 
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