Hey everyone! This is my first post and I am just wanting to give a little info and background about myself and get some feed back and info from yall.
I am 26 years old, I do know all the EPA regulations for water/sewage, I am a master ASE med/heavy Diesel Tech. I worked for Tennant floor scrubber and sweepers for 4 years ( an familiar with cleaning solutions as far as interior goes ). I have been doing pressure washing as a side gig for 2 years now. I have been using a 3000 psi 2.7 gpm ( I believe that is correct ) pressure washer that I pieces together from units I have repaired or had to tow away for customers. I have been doing strictly pressure washing ( have no ventured into the soft clean yet ) driveways, side walks & gutters. I am wanting to go into this as my full time career and make the leap while I can and have no regrets as to why I never pursued working for myself. To clear up why I am wanting to go from being a master tech to this is because 3 years ago I broke my arm really bad and ever since doing this job has been extremely tough on me and I do believe I am burnt out. My house is paid for, my vehicles are paid for, single, and no kids ( minus my fur babies ). So I have taken 10k out of my savings to invest into equipment for my start up and have taken more out to put into a business account as a start up cushion basically. I averaged 25k last year while only doing it during the spring and summer on Saturdays and a occasional job on a Sunday.
So what info I am after ( yes I have read alot mainly screen shots due to not always having great service while working on the road ). How would yall invest 10k into start up equipment? 2500 of it I plan on investing into a 6x12 sa electric brake enclosed ( thatās cash out the door ) and rest into the actual equipment itself. I have read alot on the do and dont, agree and disagree but I am wanting to compile and compare off of what I have set as a budget for myself and get some insight i might possibly be missing. Thank yall in advance . Yes I am aware of the search button and have done alot ( over 400 screen shots to be exact lol).
Iām the oddball here but buy the best equipment money can buy. 8 gpm machine, good reels etc, and let marketing be secondary. Everyone says they will upgrade when they get busy. Doctors donāt start off with used rusty scapels. Search on how top vent your bleach tank to the outside of trailer. Put in an inverter and fan. Heat in a trailer is the death of an air cooled machine.
As strong an urge as I have to play devilās advocate here and contradict you, advising more be spent on marketingā¦ I just canāt when it comes to Coreyās story.
He managed to pull down $25k on weekends with a 2.7gpm machine. He apparently already knows how to get jobs, and price well.
Heās got his finances in better shape than probably 90% of Americans.
When he uses his new equipment to knock out what work he already has, he can use that income and all the free time heāll have to market himself and grow.
So @DieselCorey, thatās my roundabout way of saying ā+ āā to what IB said
Heck, Iām a contradictory kinda person and I forget what it was like trying to find business 20 years ago sometimes. But I started with about a 50k budget and bought right from the beginning. I know everyone might not be able to do that but there are a lot of business that started with junk that arenāt around anymore either. I think this guy had his head on straight and will do ok
budget for the small stuff and incidentals.
I made a costly mistake and just budgeted for the big pieces of equipment and accessories.
When you find you want to go use your new stuff, there is a ton of little stuff needed to make it all work.
For instance, buying a tank. I budgeted for a 125 gallon buffer tank. Okay, $200. Well, it cost $300 just to get to a position where I could USE the tank! Hudson float valve, hole saw, bulkheads) 3, fittings, suction hose, tubing, elbows, hose clamps, d rings and tiedown straps, PVC pipes and fittings, ball valve(s), etc, etc, etc. Hardware to mount your machine, $20, hardware to mount and plumb your chem tank, $XX, fuel stabilizer and enzymes, all the stuff to do oil changes and such, title, taxes and tags for the trailer, business insurance and license, OMG it just never really slows down until youāve got up and running. Like my father used to tell me, work up a budget, then double it.
I started the same as you, except open trailer as I am in the south and hot water, I have never regretted it. I just could not see starting with lesser equipment. @Innocentbystander constantly tells people to start like a professionalā¦and I think he is giving good advice.
This is my first year and I completely agree with @Innocentbystander, start with the best stuff. I bought a 4gpm trailer setup and already regret not going with an 8 gpm. Thanks goodness I have been able to get by with the 4gpm though.
And I am especially happy that I have been able to pay off my whole setup after just 5 weeks of working on the weekends and maybe one day after work each week. So save the time and struggle and go for the best with everything. Bite the bullet if you have toā¦ it will pay off in the end.
Thank you all for the input and I will for sure pull some extra money out for advertisement. Iād assume door hangers & yard signs to be best? I already have designed a card and have got 2,000 of them sitting here on my desk right now. Iāve busted my ass off since I was 15 working non stop. I purchased my house for 20k at 20 ( a complete shit box house in a good neighborhood but it was owned by a old cat lady and had to be completely remodeled ) so I literally slept in a pop up camper for 9 months while working full time & remodeling the house with the help of some friends after work and on weekends & have banked as much money as possible. All side job money Iāve earned over the past 8 years have gone straight to savings and never touched.
@inoocentbystander I will look into a 8 GPM unit instead, I have thought about the air flow issue & have already came up with a design to fix that. I have a old blower motor out of a chevy 3500 15 passenger van ( very strong blower because itās 1 blower for dash & vents in headliner ) , that I am going to weld a aluminum casing for and wire up into a secondary harness that Iām going to have plugged into my truck which is already wired for a similar set up for my car hauler with a winch on it. So that should help with the air cool engine for sure. The only reason I decided with a 4gpm machine and simple set up for my first rig is because I honestly can have the business with no problem I just havenāt persued due to it only being a second job for the moment. I was wanting to set it up for mainly residential and mild commercial at best for now to build up and get more experience especially for the soft wash portion before I dip really big into the commercial side of things. I then plan on either having someone else run the residential side and I set up a bigger trailer for commercial/residential .
Based off just running with this home made rig Iāve set up and the money Iāve made just front weekend jobs. I figured for now the 4GPM set up would be suitable for a start up to build the name even further. If it does get to a point where I need to invest into more GPM & hot I will for sure do it with no hesitation what so ever. There is very little competition in my area so itās pretty much a open field for me.
If yall can find any better corrections in my idea Iām about to put out there Iād greatly appreciate it . Here is why I decided on a 4 GPM unit , with a 300 FT pressure reel , 200 foot garden reel, 6x12 SA drop door trailer, 24inch surface cleaner, 15 inch surface cleaner , pressure edger , and going to do a downstream soft wash set up ( most houses around here are all single story some double ). with the 10k 2500 trailer, 4000 for the rest listed above. 3500 cushion in business account . I will for sure go do about 1,000 to 2,000 for advertisement . I have a HOA already contact me due to a loyal customer who lives in the neighborhood has used me for his house and all his rental properties since I started. They want me to come by in 3 weeks to give a quote on cleaning all 6 entrance brick signs, clean the concrete around the club house & pool, also to make me their dedicated pressure service for the neighborhood ( only HOA approved contractors are allowed to do any maintenance on the houses in this neighborhood which is exactly 1,080 houses ). If the set up above is undersuitable for residential and light commercial anything else I need or would be helpful that I have overlooked will be much appreciated. I plan on jumping head first into this and hit the ground running because itās how I operate, but I do want to try to eat the whole cake when I only have room for a piece right now.
also to clear up how Iāve been able to get that much money in just 2 seasons and weekends is because the only other pressure company in this area is bigger but they wonāt come to you and do anything for less than 400 from what Iāve been told by a few customers who only wanted driveways or gutter done. So naturally I will come out there just for those jobs. For just a basic 2x2 drive way ( 20ft by 20ft ) I will do it for $200 and include free front patio cleaning with it. and word of mouth and neighbors just walk up wanting it done that day also.
With setup and tear-down plus throwing in the patio cleaning I donāt think heās off on his price. Yes, if this was .50 on a large job I would be laughing my butt off. But were talking a driveway and patio. I have a $150 minimum so a small drive around me would be .45 Sq if they wanted it done.
#Iām the village idiot and I fully support his advice.
Sounds like youāve got finances well organised.
Sounds like youāve accomplished plenty with a little machine.
Sounds like youāve thought it through and are comfortable with and committed to this industry.
If you need experience juggling injury and self employment, youāre welcome to pm me. Itās unfortunately my area of expertise lolzzzz
Appreciate the advice and will definitely take any advice on that end. Iāve been working 12 hours at work and doing jobs after work, and weekends. Today just got my LLC agreement and everything waiting on a few pieces of equiptment to show up so I can do my insurance then I am set up!!
