I hear ya Jason - the job mention was a little tongue in cheek although honestly, I don’t have anything really holding me here any longer and I am looking for a new place to live! I don’t really relish being back in a snowy environment, although VA isn’t as cold as New England where I grew up. I’ve lived in the south longer than I did up north at this point. I still can’t pronounce the letter R but hey, everyone talks funny in some way or another. I thought about Florida but it’s way more competitive than it is here and it’s year round.
I could drive a couple hours to Greenville, but Rick has that area pretty sewn up and he’s better than most of us combined IMO. I do appreciate the kind words though!
Marketing. Sales. Customer service. If all 3 of those are in tune, competition really shouldn’t matter but I have a feeling marketing is your issue. I told the receptionist at my dentist office what I do awhile back over the phone & I was washing her entire property the following week. She could have driven past my sign 100 times & never noticed. A pocket full of business cards & a pizza delivery job would send you down 10-15 potential customer’s driveways every evening & you’d take cash home every day for listening to the radio. My DIY neighbor painted right over the mildew on his vinyl siding a few months back. No amount of ads could have saved him but a short conversation probably could have. It’s out there to be had & I hope you find a lot of it! Best wishes.
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Thanks sir. Painted over mildew - gotta love that!
LOL, You might as well come to Greenville. Everyone else is. More pressure washers here than fleas on a dog now. t’s crazy. I was lucky enough to develop my clients before it got too bad. I’m going to be up about 20-25% this year which isn’t bad considering I do no advertising. Most of my new business comes from referrals from prior customers.
lots of fleas on the dogs there? Sounds like an opportunity to me…
I wasn’t doing wood because I loved getting covered in a wood fur coat, I was doing it because no one else was (with oil) and it pays (restoration). Splash and dash is pretty easy work, beats roofing, framing, concrete, drywalling, etc.
Man, wood working is a tough nut to crack. I have a relative or two who used to (past tense) do it, and they were good at it. Hard to compete with the amish, as they don’t pay taxes and can work their 9 kids night and day. I have equipment in my garage, but I am an enthusiast in winter, not a pro. I can’t emphasize enough that the log home industry is in need of workers, and it pays well. It isn’t wood working, and grinding logs can be a royal PITA, but it is needed. I fill a niche between the big crews and the local painter types.
Just thought I would throw it out there. Permachink offers a training in Tenn I believe, and stain and seal out of Tenn has some videos and some products and their training shindig is in winter. Stain and seal is free, permachink makes you pay about $100 but they give you a jacket and hat and some junk, plus free samples.
Thanks Dirtyboy - I gotcha. Not a lot of Amish down here - I wish we had those diners though - I can remember having great meals in Lancaster off of I believe 222 back in the day. Too much food!
I think Permachink is in Knoxville - not too bad, but 3 and a half hours from me. I just don’t run into it enough. I do not miss the winter - I feel as though winter is about 8 weeks long here - we get some snow, but it’s only a dusting. North Georgia is hilly though, so a light dusting can paralyze the roads, we get more ice than snow. Most times, it’s gone by 10a when the sun hits it!
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I did get some more info on the Epoxy sealer though, it looks like the actual Epoxy has siloxane in it which can be tough to remove. From what the homeowner told me though, they spilt the hardener on his driveway, not the actual sealer (part B) - he sent me the labels from the product they used:
Must be nice, but I don’t envy that heat in summer. I was at Ft Benning in July/August one summer a long time ago and won’t forget that unforgiving humidity and heat. I remember being outside of Macon in like 97-98 and seeing snow on NYE and said what the heck, I could get that at home. I make the annual trek to Tenn for the stain and seal training, it is about an 11 hour drive or so. The other contractors there have a world of knowledge, I just pull it out of them with endless questions. I bring a notepad. The permachink training wasn’t the greatest, after attending some other trainings, but I made some contacts and learned a couple of techniques.
I wish you luck. Lost a lot of work due to banging up my knee, but I am going to make a few tacos next week then I think I will just close it earlier this year. I can bend it completely and could walk correctly today with some discomfort, but got fat from sitting around for almost 6 weeks. tried working on some of my tractor equipment, but big dummy strained it again trying to flip equipment around by hand. Doesn’t matter what it feels like next week, duck tape and a brace will hold it together until I seal the driveway at least. Those guys are thieves for the prices they are asking.
That sounds like a great new marketing gimmick!!!
Well I hope you feel better. Knees and backs are debilitating. I had a hip replaced in 2017 - 25 years of putting up with doctors asking to do “exploratory surgery” - not one of them would let me try it on them first! (Need less to say, they didn’t get the opportunity to play with my back - good thing cause it was my hip all along!)
I had a young chiropractor who found the problem - ended up getting my hip replaced and haven’t looked back. He, and his partner own a practice close by - I do work (pressure washing and handyman) for both of them. I never miss a chance to tell people what I do. Unfortunately like Racer said in an earlier comment - there are lots of fleas on the dog round here as well so it’s been a tough season for pressure washing.). One of the chiropractors has about 2800 Sf of pavers he. We’d washed and sealed so I got some education from Trident and even had them come onsite. The customer was worried about drainage issues and we found that whoever installed the pavers used corrugated tubing for the drains and a few of the areas were installed incorrectly. The correct way to fix it means tearing up all of the pavers (I had a local company quote to do the work on my paper) and it was $42k - they included the sanding I. That price and I was going to just do the sealing. But, as luck would have it, he found mold inside his walls and has to remediate that (it’s an 8,000 Sf house)
He did tell me that he will be calling me to help with that in the next couple of weeks so looking forward to getting some work there.
Take care of that knee!
