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Is it possible?

James VanHandle

UAMCC-Member
Hey Jimmy, Im not really wanting to travel the commercial road. I havent ruled it out yet, but Id rather not. Im just want to stick straight to resi work.

We have a high density area here in NJ and we can get good prices for our services. Our main profit margines come from our residential work. Lots of advertising(around 20k this year) keeps the phone ringing. Keep your price up were you need to make a profit and time.

Jimmy V
 

Chris Tharpe

New member
its very possible with Commercial by yourself but much easier if you can sacrifice 35-40k a year and hire someone good to do the work for you.

Its all a numbers game as previously discussed before. It takes time to acquire the numbers but say you pick up 2 new accounts per week that are serviced on 30 day intervals. $235.00 X 2 for the month gives you $470 a week added you your revenue stream. There are 52 weeks in 2010 so you would potentially pick up 104 new accounts that gross $235.00 each making a monthly gross of $24,410.00 and a yearly gross of $293,280.00. Now the thing I have ran into is you can only acquire so many new accounts before you start running out of new contacts, either they say no or they don't have the money. Then you begin targeting the larger accounts as well. Remember that was just Casual restaurants ie. chilis, applebees, cheddars, logans...... if you got 20 fast food stores in there that were on 15 day intervals @ 165.00 then your numbers would do as follows. 84 stores (30 day) @ $235.00 is $19,740.00 monthly and 20 stores (15 day) @ $165.00 is 6600 making your monthly gross $26,340.00 and yearly gross $316,080. At that number you will definatly have to have a second employee more than likely. Now the thing is your up north and you may not be able to service the properties that many times per year so lets say you can only wash them 8 months out of the year. Your gross yearly would be around the magic number $210,720.00 a year.
 

plainpainter

New member
We have a high density area here in NJ and we can get good prices for our services. Our main profit margines come from our residential work. Lots of advertising(around 20k this year) keeps the phone ringing. Keep your price up were you need to make a profit and time.

Jimmy V

I am finding it hard to find ways to spend money on advertizing - I am assuming your 20k budget is filled with lots of mailers? There are only so many newspapers and yellow books out there.
 

James VanHandle

UAMCC-Member
I am finding it hard to find ways to spend money on advertizing - I am assuming your 20k budget is filled with lots of mailers? There are only so many newspapers and yellow books out there.

Yes you are correct. I stay out of newspapers and dumping the yellow pages.We advertise in specific development news papers,homeowners association news letters and such. This targets right were we want to do work. Once you get into a development you stay. We contract Money mailer to send out coupons in direct areas.(very costly but it works) We had 4 full time employees last year. I had all I could do to keep up with the estimates, Sometimes 6-7 a day and we dont do decks. This is why you dont see me on this forum in the summer much!

Jimmy V:yes:
 

plainpainter

New member
Don - I did a quick calculation with Mr. Page's model in mind. And it seems to me you could really kick up a lot of money of money quick doing like $175 average house wash and marketing the crap out of it. Imagine a business where you are so cheap that you no longer have to meet with folks to close the deal. You could have one crew-cab truck pulling a good size trailer - with an assortment of machines enough to keep your guys busy - you knock out the average home in 20 minuntes flat! You and three guys. You could probably knock 20-24 homes a day. Pay an average rate of $15/hr.

If I really had faith that marketing could really bring in that many leads - I'd go borrow enough money and start doing it myself. I think house washing does lend itself nicely to Volume pricing - I mean even the bleach you can buy for bottom of the barrel pricing if you buy in large enough quantities. Anyways - with a model like above - assuming your guys put in one weekend day per week, to ensure an average of 5 workdays a week - you could easily gross over 200k in 3 months time.

And that's with 1,200 house washes. As huge as it may seem - I live in a community where there are over 5,000 homes that make over 250k annual income - imagine how many homes with below that income? If you really look at it - would it be all that hard to get $1,200 customers, if you were cheap enough and spent 10k a month in advertizing? Like I said - if I had faith - I'd be doing it myself.
 

Ken Fenner

Active member
Dan, my UAMCC brother, I have never seen a person change opinions on a topic so much in my life. I saw a very apt quote that made me think of you.

"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary."

There is no singularly correct business model.. There is one sure fire failure though.. not executing any of them. Pick one and run with it.
 

plainpainter

New member
Ken - my model is high price and low volume - I won't be changing from it anytime soon. As well, like I said I don't have faith that marketing could bring in a volume of leads necessary for that model to work - and I don't have an understanding of the logistics of handling complaints, call-backs, non-payers. So it's not really on my radar screen for the near future.

You know I like to crank out numbers. It just seems no matter how absurdly high you price your services - being an owner/operator never makes killer money. It would be a kick a$$ model if you have white collar professional wife bringing in 6 figures - and doesn't really care if you bring in any additional money.
 

Carlos Gonzales

New member
Ken - my model is high price and low volume - I won't be changing from it anytime soon. As well, like I said I don't have faith that marketing could bring in a volume of leads necessary for that model to work - and I don't have an understanding of the logistics of handling complaints, call-backs, non-payers. So it's not really on my radar screen for the near future.

You know I like to crank out numbers. It just seems no matter how absurdly high you price your services - being an owner/operator never makes killer money. It would be a kick a$$ model if you have white collar professional wife bringing in 6 figures - and doesn't really care if you bring in any additional money.

Hey Dan...just out of curiosity ....what is your definition of killer money?
 

Ken Fenner

Active member
Dan, you are right about owner operator. Too low of a ceiling on efficiency and output. I highly doubt there are any owner operators out there making more than $75K per year. Most I would guess fall in the $25K-$50K range.
 

plainpainter

New member
Hey Dan...just out of curiosity ....what is your definition of killer money?

That is a good question that doesn't have any real answer. For me personally 'killer' money would be like an honest to goodness $85 hour job with bene's.

So if I made $170,000 plus bene's for working my booty off - that's what I would call 'killer' money. I have a skewed sense of reality compared to most guys - Its because I come from the world of software engineering and it was't uncommon for someone that was an average SQA engineer to make 95k with less than 10 years experience back in '01. Heck I have one friend who complains about money problems all the time - and how 'overworked' her husband is as a pharmacist/director with his 150k base salary and 30k 'side' job for what amounts to 50 hours total a week of work!

It just seems to me that if you run a company and have employees, do marketing, accounts, purchase trucks, take care of repairs - that we should have a salary similar to mid-level white collar job that has absolutely nothing to worry about at the end of the day.
 

topcoat

Contributing Member
Ron is the only person I know who makes that kind of money. Most of us wouldnt want to do (or couldnt do) what he has to do to make that happen.
 

plainpainter

New member
Ron is the only person I know who makes that kind of money. Most of us wouldnt want to do (or couldnt do) what he has to do to make that happen.

Man - I was the lowest rung of the ladder at the last company I worked for as their IT guy, making 65k with bene's. According to an inflation calculator that's worth $79,400 in today's dollars. It just seems to me owning a business with like half a dozen to a dozen employees and you should be making triple that salary. I didn't mind the money back then, but it wasn't enough even with a wife's salary to even afford the most basic home.
 

topcoat

Contributing Member
Dan

I dont think its an accurate comparison between IT and pressure washing. In principle, you probably have a good point, but I dont think its substantial enough evidence to build a business model around. You are going to drive yourself crazy if you dont forget about your past life!
 

Jim Chesmore

New member
That is a good question that doesn't have any real answer. For me personally 'killer' money would be like an honest to goodness $85 hour job with bene's.

So if I made $170,000 plus bene's for working my booty off - that's what I would call 'killer' money. I have a skewed sense of reality compared to most guys - Its because I come from the world of software engineering and it was't uncommon for someone that was an average SQA engineer to make 95k with less than 10 years experience back in '01. Heck I have one friend who complains about money problems all the time - and how 'overworked' her husband is as a pharmacist/director with his 150k base salary and 30k 'side' job for what amounts to 50 hours total a week of work!

It just seems to me that if you run a company and have employees, do marketing, accounts, purchase trucks, take care of repairs - that we should have a salary similar to mid-level white collar job that has absolutely nothing to worry about at the end of the day.

You should not care what anyone else is making or the time they put into whatever they are doing, its a waist of time. How much is enough for YOU, based on your needs and wants, not compared to all your friends.
 

Carlos Gonzales

New member
You should not care what anyone else is making or the time they put into whatever they are doing, its a waist of time. How much is enough for YOU, based on your needs and wants, not compared to all your friends.

Exactly...and to take it one more step....it's not ALL about the money baby. Money is important...don't get me wrong...I love me cheese BUT...there are a list of "things" that can be viewed just as important as $$!!!
 

plainpainter

New member
I have a lot more respect these days for all the small shop owners, from seafood shops to bookstores to crafts stores to pizza/sandwich shop and appliance stores - I bet a lot of these small business owners don't make anywhere near the money I had always assumed they did.
 

James VanHandle

UAMCC-Member
I have a lot more respect these days for all the small shop owners, from seafood shops to bookstores to crafts stores to pizza/sandwich shop and appliance stores - I bet a lot of these small business owners don't make anywhere near the money I had always assumed they did.

As long as I am happy, can pay the bills,save some money life is good and who gives a crap about ALL THE OTHER.
 
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