Anyone in greater Dallas area who I can shadow/do labor for learning with?

Hello everyone, I joined the site three days ago and have been soaking up as much information as I can. I am new to power washing, and when I say new I mean I’m a week into it. I was left without work because of the Covid mess, and my parents needed their driveway done. I rented a machine and instantly became addicted. After that I was able to get a hold of a 7 year old 3200 psi 2.8 gpm Rigid machine…yeah. I bought a surface cleaner, some SH and did a little clever marketing in my small home town and ended up lugging it around 6 yards doing flat work and one chimney. I’ve made enough now to where I can grab a 4 gpm to sustain me until I save up for something bigger. I am completely obsessed with the possibility of starting my own business and am constantly searching to learn more. That brings up my question. I have been calling PW businesses that are about an hour out of the area where I would start one and giving a proposition. I will work for them for free if they will take some time and teach me a few things. I have only contacted 2 so far and have been turned down, so to all the pros out there: Am I just unaware that this is bad practice? How would you react if I called you with the same question? And is there a better way of framing it so it seems more beneficial to the business? Its been said on here a lot, but thank you again for taking time out and posting such useful information on this site.

Honestly, I thought about going to work for a company to gain more knowledge as well, but its not fair to the company in my opinion. From a business standpoint there is nothing to gain but overhead and possible liability. I’m sure there is someone out there that would help but from what I see, there is a mountain of information here and elsewhere and nothing beats good old fashioned hard knock learning curve. You can avoid some but not all of the learning curves.

Depending on where you’re located there are guys on this forum that will offer to teach you for a day or too.

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Thanks for the info. I’m actually in Texas. Dallas area at the moment but only for 2 weeks maybe.

You’ll be better off asking if you can shadow one of their employees, versus working for free. An untrained worker creates a lot of liability and I’m pretty sure it’s not legal to let someone work without paying them. Plus the added slowdown of a person constantly asking questions, etc. But if you’re just there to silently watch, that’s a different story and you may find people more receptive. Usually people on this forum are pretty cool about allowing someone to shadow them that’s also on this forum, maybe someone in your area will speak up on here. Outside of that, read everything you can on here and watch every video. Best of luck!

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Labor-for-learning is not unheard of in this industry. I adjusted the thread title to hopefully attract the right readers.

I do know that some guys will charge a day rate for you to shadow them. But it might be well worth it, in the long run.

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