You want to get your SH in bulk. There are a few places around the Detroit area that sells to us power washer. There is a pressure pump repair shop on the side of town. Go in and ask them where there is a place to buy SH from. I have a place on this side in Ypsilanti,Mi that has in bulk at 3.45 gallon. And yes guys the prices are going up.
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No tacos guys 
Didn’t get the bid. Oh well, there will be more
Thanks all for the help!
So what was the winning bid? Thought your price was pretty reasonable.
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I asked, he wouldn’t tell me lol
The company that won it has 500 5 star reviews on google, I have 9 
I have three reviews after 25 years. Reviews don’t mean anything. Bottom line is price, followed in about 5th place by quality.
I thought my price was fair, but I guess I should have lowered the price some to get the job. I really wanted it, its our local county Sherrif’s Office. Would have made for some awesome pictures on our website lol
On commercial, I concur. They assume everyone can do the job, and that everyone bid and will perform the same job. If you want to offer premium service for a premium price, you won’t be wanting to delve into too much commercial work, you won’t win it. If you want to do a lot of commercial, get your processes locked down and pretty air tight. That will matter there.
Reviews matter to residential clients most of the time, and are often useful in hiring if you do a fair amount of that as well.
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I miss jobs all the time. Don’t worry about it. Commercial can be cut-throat with pricing when they are only looking for the lowest bid but that’s not always the case. I don’t take it easy on them because I could be working on something else or enjoying a day off but sometimes I get lucky & it ain’t because it’s cheap.
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Worry if you don’t ever lose jobs…
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I agree with Jason. In my experience for commercial jobs, pricing is the focus and on residential jobs, quality and service are usually more important (hence why we rarely do commercial). There are exceptions of course.
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I disagree. About 40% of my business is commercial and without a doubt, the most profitable, with the exception of roof cleaning. I sell myself as the solution to their headache. I tell them up front that I’m not the cheapest, but will consistently do a great job and watch out for their interests. On probably 60% of mine, I decide when it needs cleaning and how often, annual budget needed, contingent problems, etc. If I see something wrong with property, I let them know. My job is to take the headache of maintaining the property off of their plate of ‘to do’ items. I send photos after each service with any problems with property noted. Once you develop a client and they trust you, and you maintain that trust, you never have to worry about someone coming in cheaper. Even on larger projects, like a large strip mall, often they just send me info and say let them know a price, so they can budget it.
Once you’re in that market, word of mouth, and legitimate by association, in other words, most of my new business is walk in the door, give them a card and say, I noticed that your so and so is dirty. And then I rattle off a few of the clients that I service who happen to be extremely well known names and you’re in.
Much like @Innocentbystander apartment business, they know what they’re getting and they don’t have to worry about it getting done.
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I agree with that also and was going to say, some commercial jobs i’ve done have been very profitable, but these are the ones where the business owner either knows who we are because we’ve been recommended to them by someone they know, or they saw us work on another job, or are already a customer for another one of their properties and reach out to us directly. But the ones that call 5 companies and only look at price, i don’t hear from again, and that’s ok.
But: i prefer institutional jobs than commercial jobs.
I just got home from removing snow off a provincial police station’s roof, for the government of Québec, with my crew. They didn’t look at price, they just know we’ve done work at the local prison, court houses, and some other government buildings for a few years and they trust our service.
@Racer, i would like to offer the level of service you described, but it sounds extremely time consuming. I will try to implement some of these things as i can.
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For many people on here reviews mean everything. Most customers here won’t bother calling if you don’t have a decent Google presence.
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I back that man, for myself I am a HUGE review person, even before I go to any restaurant, I’m looking at google reviews and that decides if I go there or not.
In today’s world, google presence(or Facebook) is everything, that’s not to say the old fashion way won’t work(word of mouth and feet on the ground door knocking(which I will have to do this year lol))
I have a landscape business for 7 years now, and never spent a penny on marketing, google keeps my phone ringing off the hook, I did do a ton of SEO work back in the day on it and it does rank very well in Google Businesses. I’ve done the same work on my pressure washing website, and now it’ll take a few months for google to pickup on everything I’ve done and rank me well(I hope).
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Jatkinson, your absolutely right and I appreciate the advice!
7 years in the lawn and landscape industry I’ve found my Niche with high end high paying customers that tip 20% on top of their bills that are already above the top of the market. I tried getting commercial jobs at the beginning, I’ve bid on hundreds of commercial buildings and HOA’s, and have only landed a handful, everyone here FIGHTS to get them like they are the Holy Grail, I’ve literally seen an acre of grass get cut for 14$ lol they probably spent that in gas alone. The ones I have had, the following year I get dropped because they found someone cheaper and then in the middle of the season they are calling me back begging because the company they hired is terrible, which brings me to my favorite line “You get what you pay for” lol
My philosophy is simple, if I’m not making great money, I’m not doing it lol
and I’m not desperate, because desperate people get desperate results. I know my worth(for the most part lol) and won’t undercut myself.
I do want to focus more on residential, I am only a one-man operation 
Is there a way on this site to do a multi quote reply? I’d like to reply to everyone out of respect because I appreciate the time they have given to respond here, but I don’t want to be that annoying person who post 6 times in a row lol
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I think the profitability of commercial jobs literally comes down to how much competition is in your area, I live in a very populated area with 100s+ pressure washing companies lol
I love your approach, you are their solution, the problem is stopped when they hire you!
You sound like the man in your area lol that’s awesome! Obviously you have the years of experiences behind you boosting your confidence to the sky, I gotta fake it till I make it lol
Your jobs/contracts sound incredible, do you have any advice on how to acquire such quality clients 
I am definitely ready and excited to start door knocking on houses and businesses that need work, I am hungry and very driven! What time do you guys start door knocking? The northern folk, not you Floridians lol I’m up in Michigan, I was assuming early April I can start going out and trying to line some work up
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This is my 4th year, I don’t have a soft wash set up. I’m only part time and I don’t do roofs. I do use some various 15 gallon tanks that have a 12v, or I use racer’s cleaning gun to spray chemicals on decks. I tested doing my pole barn roof with racer’s cleaning gun, it wasn’t efficient but it could do it.
Just saying, you don’t need one to make any money.
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Where the lead comes from probably has more to do with it than anything. Referrals are best because you pretty much have the job before they even call you. If a third party contractor calls you for a price on cleaning a building, whatever you charge comes out of their profit. If the building owner calls you, they are considering all aspects & not just pricing. Racer is walking up in there like he owns the place & turning them into customers before they ever think about calling anybody. Then he gets on his Harley & rides to the bank.
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I pictured Racer more as a BMW Motorrad kinda guy. Those hard plastic saddlebags just stuffed plum full of folding money.
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I’d never say reviews are everything. Everything is a piece of a collective presence strategy. They’re going to get us in Google organically, our reviews are awesome and useful in overcoming objections (esp. price). You still want them to be seeing you in their mailbox, truck(s) on the road and in their neighborhood, maybe some signs here and there. Most of all you want them to see you involved in the community, and caring as a business about the things that they care about. Nothing is a stand-alone solution to building your business. Following up with clients that you already served are probably one of the most important things to be happening. That’s when you make sure they know who you are when it’s time for them to have you out again, and that your name is on the tip of their tongue when their friends and neighbors ask for a reference.
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