Where are you located?
Whether it works or not, Iād be insured before I stepped foot on another property. Talk to a local agent and let them know what your doing and go from there. If it looks like its not going to work, cancel the policy and its all good. Not a good idea to wait until you get busy to get insurance. Like everyone has said, start out the right way. My insurance agent was one of the first calls I made when I decided to do this. He spent a couple of days working on a quote and then I told him to give me a little time to get things going. It was a couple of months later when I called and told him to move forward on the policy, but that was before I ever cleaned anything or got my first customer. Paying that insurance premium every month along with all the other expenses with getting started should be motivation to get work.
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Talk to whoever carries your auto policy. Iām with shelter and was able to save enough by adding another policy that it payed about 25% of my GL cost.
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I 100% agree. I misread his post before I liked it. I thought he said he was going to get insurance and was glad to hear it because most try and justify why they shouldnāt.
Get insurance and, if it doesnāt work out, cancel your policy. I know you want to save a buck but youāre thinking backwards. Too much can happen thatās out of your control and ruin what you have going. If you only want to do 5 houses a month just charge an extra $20 or so to cover your insurance. Itās not like youāre trying to market to clean 50 houses a month. At only 5 houses you could probably charge twice as what you normally do and still fill your schedule for the month. I know I already mentioned but raise your prices to cover your expenses so you still hit your hourly rate.
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On my third agent. First two said no pressure washing.
Check with Shelter
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if you have an Erie Insurance in your area Iād check with them
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That makes more sense. I thought you meant you were having problems getting insured because you were a new company.
What state are you in? I have a great agent that bends over backwards for me. Iāll see what states she can cover!
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Do not order a complete pressure washer. When you are ready, order a pump from Water Cannon and an engine from either Home Depot or Harbor Freight. an 8 HP engine will power a 4 gpm pump and give it about 2800 PSI. An 8 HP engine at harbor freight costs $220 with a 1 year no-questions-asked replacement warranty. Then you can build a very simple base for it out of wood. With the money you saved building your own, buy 200ā of high pressure hose. Boom. You now have a stationary setup, 200ā of hose, a gun, and you still saved at least a few hundred bucks over a ācompleteā pressure washer.
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Thatās what I did but I got the 22 horse with an 8gpm udor. Love it too!
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Iāll be upgrading to that eventually!
Iām uploading a video to YouTube right now that has it Washing.
Iāve got to say this isnāt good advice. Putting together a jerry-rigged pressure washing skid made of wood and a harbor freight engine seems like asking for trouble. Not to mention that thereās nothing inherently wrong with buying a ready-made washer so long as itās not a big box store machine. Not to mention that the money youād āsaveā putting this rag tag machine together is going to be lost in the hours you spend putting it together and then taking it apart when the pump fails because your wooden skid killed the pump.
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I mean 
Lol
Iāve ran my āJerry riggedā as you would call it system in 95 degree heat 6-10 hours a day and made THOUSANDS with itā¦ its a $1,000 pump on an $800 motor. How do you see my pump as Jerry rigged? 
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My ājerry riggedā pressure washer putting in work.
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Well, one company said that, Next Insurance, and the other, State Farm, I have a different business policy with said no pressure washing.
Again, where are you from? I sent my agen an email a bit ago asking what states she covers.
Oregon.
Iāll let you know when she emails me back.
