Hi Scott,
We bought out a fellow that had been in business for about 7 years. Along with equipment we took over the accounts that he had.
The first work that we did was heavy equipment in a scrap yard. Loaders, cable & hydro cranes, engines, raditors. Mud over your shoes, scrap metal all over the place. Very noisy and smelled of burning rubber, etc. Had to inspect our truck tires for slivers of steel before you go back on the highway!
If I remember correctly we spent most all day (2 of us) and billed $400 or so.
This was 16 years ago April 1984! We still do work for that company. Conditions there have improved somewhat but still not a nice place to be.
Now we bill them time & material. They say we are too expensive so they only bring us in when they cannot do it themselves. They tried another fellow because his hourly rate were less expensive. They said he took over twice as long to do the same equipment and he ended up charging them even more than we would have!
Wow, brings back the memories, great question!
Dave Olson
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Tidy Powerwash Service, Inc. P.O. Box 781, Catlin, Illinois 61817 Phone 217-427-5557, Fax 217-427-2632 We are a commercial cleaning contractor serving East-Central Illinois and West Central Indiana since 1984.
http://www.tps-inc.com