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PressureClean
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I just found this site, but I've been in the business now for several years and I wanted to just make a quick comment on this post.
I'd have to disagree with Johnny only to the point that your business is going to do what you want it to do. Maybe I'm just a really positive guy, but before I was a pressure washer, I had started a company in college totally on a shoestring budget - I'm talking like a phone and a cardtable in an office that I couldn't afford - and I competed against some of the largest companies in an industry that had been around for 100 years. I ended up building it to 65 employees and selling it after five years.
It can be done, but you've got to want it in a bad way. I started my company Pressure Clean Inc., with the idea that I was going to completely rule the Western Pennsylvania market. I bought a 3,000 PSI cold water unit at Home Depot that was on sale as a refurbished model for $300, placed a $25 a week ad in the local PennySaver and started doing decks. I worked my butt off and made a little more than $70,000 my first year in business. All from that little $300 pressure washer, how's that for a return on investment?
3 years later and I've got 5 rigs and my crews and I are steam cleaning, pointing and restoring 6 story brick hi-rise buildings from 60ft boom lift trucks, steaming fleets of heavy equipment and doing several hundred decks a year and I can't keep up with all the work we've got now.
I tell you this only to embellish the point that if you think you are going to make a fortune in this business, you will. And if you think you are going to make nothing in this business, you will. Not to sound like some kind of motivational coach or anything, but life is what you make of it. So just go out and get the business and make it work. If you don't have work right now walk into every supermarket in your home town and be persistent until they let you wash their sidewalks. Go back everyday if you have to. Get some cheap, descriptive biz cards made up and walk through every wealthy area in your town and place the cards in the door of each and every house. Pick a house in a nice neighborhood and tell them they've won a free deck cleaning as long they let you put a sign out front advertising your services. If they want it sealed tell them all they have to do is pay for materials. Do a great job, take pictures of it and go to every other house in the area and tell them you just did their neighbors deck and you wanted to see if they needed anything done at their home. I guarantee you will get more work than you can handle in just a few neighborhoods. I can keep going but I think you probably get my point.
Listen and learn from the guys that are making the money and ignore the negative people and you'll go far.
E-mail me if you need any advice or anything at lance@pressurecleaninc.com, I'd be glad to help however I can.
I'd have to disagree with Johnny only to the point that your business is going to do what you want it to do. Maybe I'm just a really positive guy, but before I was a pressure washer, I had started a company in college totally on a shoestring budget - I'm talking like a phone and a cardtable in an office that I couldn't afford - and I competed against some of the largest companies in an industry that had been around for 100 years. I ended up building it to 65 employees and selling it after five years.
It can be done, but you've got to want it in a bad way. I started my company Pressure Clean Inc., with the idea that I was going to completely rule the Western Pennsylvania market. I bought a 3,000 PSI cold water unit at Home Depot that was on sale as a refurbished model for $300, placed a $25 a week ad in the local PennySaver and started doing decks. I worked my butt off and made a little more than $70,000 my first year in business. All from that little $300 pressure washer, how's that for a return on investment?
3 years later and I've got 5 rigs and my crews and I are steam cleaning, pointing and restoring 6 story brick hi-rise buildings from 60ft boom lift trucks, steaming fleets of heavy equipment and doing several hundred decks a year and I can't keep up with all the work we've got now.
I tell you this only to embellish the point that if you think you are going to make a fortune in this business, you will. And if you think you are going to make nothing in this business, you will. Not to sound like some kind of motivational coach or anything, but life is what you make of it. So just go out and get the business and make it work. If you don't have work right now walk into every supermarket in your home town and be persistent until they let you wash their sidewalks. Go back everyday if you have to. Get some cheap, descriptive biz cards made up and walk through every wealthy area in your town and place the cards in the door of each and every house. Pick a house in a nice neighborhood and tell them they've won a free deck cleaning as long they let you put a sign out front advertising your services. If they want it sealed tell them all they have to do is pay for materials. Do a great job, take pictures of it and go to every other house in the area and tell them you just did their neighbors deck and you wanted to see if they needed anything done at their home. I guarantee you will get more work than you can handle in just a few neighborhoods. I can keep going but I think you probably get my point.
Listen and learn from the guys that are making the money and ignore the negative people and you'll go far.
E-mail me if you need any advice or anything at lance@pressurecleaninc.com, I'd be glad to help however I can.
Richard R.
New Member
Lance,
I don't won't to sound as if I'm expressing opposition, but I'm not sure being positive always works. When I started this business, I had the same attitude as you did. I thought I was offering something that had never been heard of before in this area. I soon found out that my area was either saturated with the negativity of pressure washers or folks that were somewhat uneducated about this type of cleaning. Not knowing a whole lot about it myself, I stumbled and fumbled around trying to BS my way around as if I knew all about it. Didn't do real well.
One also has to consider personalities in this business. I have seen some that couldn't sell their way out of a wet paper sack and some that could sell a pair of hubcabs as a full set. Either you have it or you don't. Those that don't, have to learn. This usually takes a little more time.
One thing I'm curious about, you said you just sold a 65 employee business. Are you saying that the sale of this business didn't give you an advantage over others? Not saying you did, I'm just curious.
I will admit that I like your attitude. It is definitely uplifting and gives a lot of incentive even to me that has been in it long enough to go broke. I have always heard by most of the journeymen here of the bbs and those abroad that it usually takes about 2 to 3 years to really get off the ground.
So far, their advise has been right on target. I feel like my business is growing, but not at the rate I'd like.
Take Care and Welcome to the site.
Richard R.
I don't won't to sound as if I'm expressing opposition, but I'm not sure being positive always works. When I started this business, I had the same attitude as you did. I thought I was offering something that had never been heard of before in this area. I soon found out that my area was either saturated with the negativity of pressure washers or folks that were somewhat uneducated about this type of cleaning. Not knowing a whole lot about it myself, I stumbled and fumbled around trying to BS my way around as if I knew all about it. Didn't do real well.
One also has to consider personalities in this business. I have seen some that couldn't sell their way out of a wet paper sack and some that could sell a pair of hubcabs as a full set. Either you have it or you don't. Those that don't, have to learn. This usually takes a little more time.
One thing I'm curious about, you said you just sold a 65 employee business. Are you saying that the sale of this business didn't give you an advantage over others? Not saying you did, I'm just curious.
I will admit that I like your attitude. It is definitely uplifting and gives a lot of incentive even to me that has been in it long enough to go broke. I have always heard by most of the journeymen here of the bbs and those abroad that it usually takes about 2 to 3 years to really get off the ground.
So far, their advise has been right on target. I feel like my business is growing, but not at the rate I'd like.
Take Care and Welcome to the site.
Richard R.
Hi Lance,
Congratulations on your success ! You happen to be the
exception to the rule. You would be successful doing anything:
cleaning offices, windows, powerwashing, selling football tickets, stocks and bonds, you name it ! Your customers did not have their decks cleaned and sealed, etc. they bought that something in your personality: that confidence, nice smile, good looks, charm and a good line. You have the natural gift to be able to sell "the sizzle".
Not everyone is so gifted ! It's definitely a positive attitude but that's not the whole thing ! It dosen't matter how many positive thinking books people read. The regular guy can't become Zig Ziglar or the scads of other guys selling their format.
The main difference between you and another powerwasher is first off, he is hung up on equipment. He needs to have the biggest, shiniest, most powerful, hottest, you - name - it. Lance could do the entire job with a hose and a mop. So, OK you went to Home Depot. My point is it doesn't matter ! People buy you. In otherwords, Lance is probably the guy that everyone instantly likes and wants to make friends with. It's a wonderful, powerful natural God-given asset.
Continued success and keep writing you're a breathe of fresh air !
Johnny
Congratulations on your success ! You happen to be the
exception to the rule. You would be successful doing anything:
cleaning offices, windows, powerwashing, selling football tickets, stocks and bonds, you name it ! Your customers did not have their decks cleaned and sealed, etc. they bought that something in your personality: that confidence, nice smile, good looks, charm and a good line. You have the natural gift to be able to sell "the sizzle".
Not everyone is so gifted ! It's definitely a positive attitude but that's not the whole thing ! It dosen't matter how many positive thinking books people read. The regular guy can't become Zig Ziglar or the scads of other guys selling their format.
The main difference between you and another powerwasher is first off, he is hung up on equipment. He needs to have the biggest, shiniest, most powerful, hottest, you - name - it. Lance could do the entire job with a hose and a mop. So, OK you went to Home Depot. My point is it doesn't matter ! People buy you. In otherwords, Lance is probably the guy that everyone instantly likes and wants to make friends with. It's a wonderful, powerful natural God-given asset.
Continued success and keep writing you're a breathe of fresh air !
Johnny
PressureClean
New Member
Thanks for the positive replies guys, I appreciate the nice things you said.
You do have a point, I have been told that I could sell ice to Eskimos in the wintertime, but I believe anybody can get themselves to that point. It may take reading some of the hundreds of sales books I've read and going to the Tony Robbins and Zig Ziglar seminars, but I think anybody with an interest in growing their business would do this just for personal development which translates to success in their business.
It wasn't always that way though, good salesmen are built not born. I've been through my share of the tough times just like everybody. You don't grow a company quickly without experiencing growing pains. My last company we had times when we couldn't figure out how we were making payroll that week, then somehow we'd push this client to pay faster or do whatever it took to get the money. We've had major equipment problems like this year when I was stuck 50 feet in the air when the hydraulic line on the boom truck blew at 4:00 AM and it took several hours to get me down. We had a customer go bankrupt before they paid us nearly $10 grand they owed to us. That hurt. I'm sure you guys have been on jobs where nothing went like you expected. Like the 3,000 sq. ft. supermarket sidewalk earlier this year that took literally 9 hours to powerwash because the burners kept shutting off on BOTH hot water units! We have those problems too, but you get past them by staying positive about what you are doing. My worst day as a powerwasher is better than the best days I EVER had working in a corporate bureacracy stuck in an office and listening to corporate blowhards bark orders.
It's how you handle the bad times that earns you respect from your people and brings out the true caliber of what kind of person you are.
To answer Richard's question about the selling of my company giving me an advantage. It might have in terms of experience running a large company, but it didn't in terms of capital. Like I said before, I bought a refurbished cold water unit from HD and placed small ads. I started my company with $1,000 out of pocket and everything else was financed from internal business. I did this because I figured if I was going to be on the cover of Inc. Magazine in five years, I wanted to have a good story that other entrepreneurs could relate to. Starting with a $1,000 is also a heck of a lot more motivating to get your butt out there and make the business work.
I love this business! There is nothing more satisfying than powerwashing a deck or brick and watching the original beautiful color of the wood or brick come through as the dirt & grime washes away. Customers love what we do and it's instant gratification. There's not to many businesses you can get that kind of feeling from.
Keep up the great posts guys!
You do have a point, I have been told that I could sell ice to Eskimos in the wintertime, but I believe anybody can get themselves to that point. It may take reading some of the hundreds of sales books I've read and going to the Tony Robbins and Zig Ziglar seminars, but I think anybody with an interest in growing their business would do this just for personal development which translates to success in their business.
It wasn't always that way though, good salesmen are built not born. I've been through my share of the tough times just like everybody. You don't grow a company quickly without experiencing growing pains. My last company we had times when we couldn't figure out how we were making payroll that week, then somehow we'd push this client to pay faster or do whatever it took to get the money. We've had major equipment problems like this year when I was stuck 50 feet in the air when the hydraulic line on the boom truck blew at 4:00 AM and it took several hours to get me down. We had a customer go bankrupt before they paid us nearly $10 grand they owed to us. That hurt. I'm sure you guys have been on jobs where nothing went like you expected. Like the 3,000 sq. ft. supermarket sidewalk earlier this year that took literally 9 hours to powerwash because the burners kept shutting off on BOTH hot water units! We have those problems too, but you get past them by staying positive about what you are doing. My worst day as a powerwasher is better than the best days I EVER had working in a corporate bureacracy stuck in an office and listening to corporate blowhards bark orders.
It's how you handle the bad times that earns you respect from your people and brings out the true caliber of what kind of person you are.
To answer Richard's question about the selling of my company giving me an advantage. It might have in terms of experience running a large company, but it didn't in terms of capital. Like I said before, I bought a refurbished cold water unit from HD and placed small ads. I started my company with $1,000 out of pocket and everything else was financed from internal business. I did this because I figured if I was going to be on the cover of Inc. Magazine in five years, I wanted to have a good story that other entrepreneurs could relate to. Starting with a $1,000 is also a heck of a lot more motivating to get your butt out there and make the business work.
I love this business! There is nothing more satisfying than powerwashing a deck or brick and watching the original beautiful color of the wood or brick come through as the dirt & grime washes away. Customers love what we do and it's instant gratification. There's not to many businesses you can get that kind of feeling from.
Keep up the great posts guys!
Richard R.
New Member
Lance,
It's good to hear someone actually spell out exactly how I feel in this business.
That's exactly why I started my business. The instant gratification.
It's a good feeling.
If I could just get paid for the good feeling this work gives me, I would be a multi millionaire.
Take Care and keep growing.
Richard R
It's good to hear someone actually spell out exactly how I feel in this business.
That's exactly why I started my business. The instant gratification.
It's a good feeling.
If I could just get paid for the good feeling this work gives me, I would be a multi millionaire.
Take Care and keep growing.
Richard R