Gain invaluable insights into the pressure washing industry as we explore the delicate balance between residential and commercial work in this engaging episode. Our hosts discuss the nuances of each sector, pulling from personal experiences that highlight the financial implications of focusing solely on commercial contracts. Learn how immediate cash flow from residential jobs can serve as a stabilizing foundation while understanding the long timelines often associated with commercial contracts can impact your overall cash management strategy.
As the conversation unfolds, we tackle the importance of networking and building solid connections within the commercial side of the business, explaining how essential it is to know the right people to ensure timely payments and ongoing contracts. We demystify the complicated nature of payment processes in the commercial realm, offering listeners actionable tips to ask the right questions when bidding on jobs.
The hosts emphasize that establishing a professional image through clear communication and reliable practices can significantly enhance customer satisfaction and foster repeat business in both sectors. Tune in to discover how to navigate this dynamic landscape effectively, leading to growth and success in your pressure washing business.
Join us on this journey to elevate your pressure washing game, subscribe for more insights, and connect with us to share your thoughts and experiences.
https://www.facebook.com/WASHBROSPODCAST
https://www.facebook.com/mattdrivewayguy
https://www.facebook.com/c3pressure
powerwashingcoach.com
C3washpros.com
mattthedrivewayguy.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, hey, hey, hey.
(00:22):
What's up?
Guys?
It is Matt Jackson and ClaySmith and we're the Wash Bros.
We want to kick off this newestepisode.
I'm trying to blank.
What were we on?
Episode 7?
(00:43):
Episode 5?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Let's see so I think we're on episode episode three
or four now okay, yeah, we.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
So, yes, doing the second season.
I, my brain just got fried.
So, yeah, episode three or fourwe're going to be talking about
commercial pressure washing andgoing about you have like a
residential section and then youhave a commercial section and
how they both can work togetherto help you grow your business
and grow your brand and yourposition in the pressure washing
market.
So you want to kick this thingoff, clay.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Let's kick it off, yeah.
So I think commercial is veryimportant.
The only thing about commercialI feel like a lot of people
they get tied up in thecommercial just strictly going
towards after the commercial,and then what they run into is a
cash flow issue.
So if you're strictly goingtowards the commercial jobs, if
(01:31):
you don't have an idea aboutwhen those checks are going to
roll in, how they're going tostart rolling in, because you
could very well look up and geta net 90 first commercial day
pay, net 90 first commercial daypay, you know, hey, and then
you're screwed.
Um, but if it wasn't forcommercial, I wouldn't have had
like a record break in Februarylast month.
So, uh, commercial is veryimportant.
(01:54):
It's like I always talk aboutwith you.
Uh, we always go towards, likeI, I seek after residential, but
the longer I'm in the game, thecommercial comes towards us.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
I think that's true.
I heard a great quote fromsomebody and it said residential
pressure washing or residentialwork is all about who knows you
, and then commercial work isall about who you know.
So there's a networkingcomponent of going about making
connections with thesebusinesses and getting yourself
out there at a different levelthan just running Facebook ads
or running Google ads and stufflike that.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, commercial work is a whole other ballgame.
If you're really seeking afterit, I highly recommend shaking
hands with people asking around,showing up in stores, showing
up at the actual place ofbusiness, just making
connections with people.
Just making connections withpeople Mainly.
I have never really actuallyseeked after commercial work,
except for, like in thewintertime when we're
(02:51):
campaigning and we're settingourselves up for the spring.
However, I have learned thelonger I'm in the game.
The commercial just comesnaturally.
So I'm very big into theresidential because I know the
residential pays my bills and Itell everybody all the guys
that's listening and all theguys that's ever seeked after
help from me I always say theresidential pays the bills and
(03:14):
the commercial bills the capital.
So the first thing I'm moreconcerned about is what's going
to get me paid today, becausethe commercial it's really a
shot in the dark.
You could get paid within sevendays.
I've had them pay as quick asthe next day and I've had them
be as long as 90 days.
But that is, most importantly,the first question I answer
before I ever give any pricingOkay, how long is it going to
(03:35):
take me to get paid?
So definitely important whenseeking after that work and,
like I say, the commercialdefinitely builds capital.
There's nothing wrong withgoing after commercial if you
can figure out your cash flow.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
That's very true.
I was running into issues withthat last year as we were
growing and getting more intocommercial work and I'm trying
to hit like hey, how can we hitlike six figures in commercial
pressure washing?
We have like multiple trucks.
It's like okay, cool, a $15,000job moves the needle and if you
have a lot of trucks and youyou can officially knock it down
(04:11):
, you can make good money.
But, like you're saying, Ilearned the hard way of like a
net 30 or a net 45 or a net weforgot about you until three
months later of following up andthen you finally get paid Like
that.
That really hurts sitting onprobably like $30,000 or $40,000
in accounts receivable for agood chunk of the year, because
I was always behind on mycommercial payouts and I don't
(04:32):
know if it's something that Ineed to get better at really
stressing to these people andreally trying to set up from the
front end so I'm not chasingdown stuff 45 days later and
they act like they have no ideawho I am, even though we
completed their service and wewere working with like a
contractor.
We're working with somebody onthe low level, but the office
and the corporate they don'thave you in the system and stuff
like that.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So Usually what I like to ask about.
As far as the money part goes,I always like to ask the person,
like the project manager or theproperty manager or whoever
that is.
Nine times out of 10, they'rein charge of getting you paid,
they're in charge of approvingthe quote, they're in charge of
all that.
But I'll always ask right afterokay, when the job's complete.
(05:14):
I always ask.
I say okay, job's complete,you're happy, everything good,
we're approved to get a check.
And once I get that approval, Ialways ask them to connect me
and the person that's in chargeof paying me.
So then, I want to make therelationship with the person
that's in charge of paying me sothat I can be able to
communicate with that person andfigure out what's going on,
because nine times out of 10,they don't really care about
your check.
(05:35):
They're just there for theirregular job.
That's what they do every day,and if you can stay top of mind
with that person, you can getpaid a lot quicker.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
With my experience, that's great insight too, Like
we're so busy chasing the guywho's the decision maker over
the job, but the most importantthing is the decision maker on
when you're going to get paid.
So it's like, hey, you can, youcan have $50,000 of commercial
work, but if you're not gettingpaid on that or it's going to be
a hassle, you might want toconnect and network with those
people that are like thedecision makers of when the
check's going to get sent outand the people in the
(06:04):
administrative side of thebusiness, not just the guy in
the field that's going to say Iapprove this quote, go do it.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, and it all goes back to who you know and how
you treat people and how youprofessionally deal with them,
because at the end of the day,I've never really had any issues
with these people.
They've always done what theysaid they were going to do, and
if they didn't, I would just getin touch with the person in
charge, because I've hadinvoices sitting on a desk just
(06:33):
because I hadn't sent insurance,that I had no idea that I was
even supposed to send theinsurance.
Or they had a problem with myinsurance, or they had a problem
with my workers comp and theyjust hadn't got around to
calling me.
No, we're waiting on this.
Well, nobody ever called me.
So definitely recommend whenyou're quoting these commercial
jobs, let's go to that.
When you're quoting thesecommercial jobs, ask them what
they need up front so youalready have that.
That way, when that job'scompleted, the payment process
(06:56):
is a lot smoother.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yeah, that's smart and that's one of those things
you learn after the fact.
It's like, hey, when youreflect your year, you reflect
these big commercial jobs you'redoing.
You're like how can I get paid,how can I get paid on time and
minimize that pain of like Idon't have money in my bank
account but it's coming in andbeing proactive there, as
opposed to just trusting theprocess that somebody else is
(07:21):
looking after you.
And that's like you.
We fixate so much on like oh,did I get all the red clay out
of the construction site?
Or oh, did I clean the building?
To like the project managers uh, like standards, so like they
can sign off and and and thenlike we're cleared to go, but
we're not thinking about how amI going to get my money as fast
as possible so I can be on tothe next job and not get hung up
(07:42):
on something and be adistraction for me and cause a
stress for the next three monthsbefore I get paid.
So that's.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I would most definitely rather do a month of
commercial.
I mean a month of residential.
Before I spent two weeks doinga commercial job that was going
to take me three months to getpaid on.
But that goes into.
That's why you have more trucks, more employees and that kind
of thing in the long run.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, it's one of those things.
I'm getting more selective onwhat I'm wanting to bid.
Everybody's like, oh, I have 16gallons a minute and I'm going
to do this and that, and it's$15,000 project but it's going
to have to be done in May 10thto May 24th or something like
that, and you're like there's somuch money to be made in
residential during that times,how much?
(08:25):
Or something like that.
And you're like there's so muchmoney to be made in residential
during that times that how muchis that commercial job really
going to cost you in?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
the long run and like what's the heavy factor?
There's so many people on theinternet that I see they just
get caught up in the biggertickets and they're not really
looking at the potential thatthere is in residential.
Because the residential I meanwe're doing what?
90 jobs a month in the busyseason, 120, what 90 jobs a
month in the busy season?
120 jobs a month in the busyseason with residential, I mean
that's bread and butter volume.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, and you're getting paid same day and you're
getting paid a lot of times incash and if you're not getting
paid in cash you're not being 1099 like you are with commercial
.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
So A hundred percent and they're not.
You're the homeowner's notasking for a bunch of paperwork
up front?
Yeah, and the homeowner's notasking for a bunch of paperwork
up front.
You got to deal with thatheadache.
I deal with weight on the checkin the mail.
The check's going to get lostin the mail.
And there's a new thing out thatactually just worked.
I'd never heard of it before, Iwas skeptical about it, didn't
know if I was getting scammed orwhat.
But we did that big job lastmonth and they paid with an
(09:19):
e-check.
So if anybody's listening andyou've never heard of an e-check
, an e-check is legit.
They send you a check via email.
You print it off, you cut itoff, you cut it on the dotted
line, you sign the back of it,you take it to the bank and boom
, it works just like a regularcheck.
So that is another thing that alot of these property
management companies, from myunderstanding, are trying to do
to make sure you get paidquicker.
(09:40):
So don't be skeptical aboutthat kind of thing.
I just went through it.
I took it to my bank.
They were very familiar with it, very familiar with the process
.
It's something new.
Just call it an e-check $10,000job.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
So there's stuff that he knows, that he's talking
about here that are really theright way to go about things and
that's what I'm going to startimplementing on my end of the
business of, like, hey, makingconnections.
Hey, okay, cool, this is therequirements for the jobs.
When you're doing the RFQ, whenyou're filling out the quote
request, say you get the job,cool.
Before I schedule, what's theprocess of me getting paid?
Like that's also like aprofessional, that's what we do.
(10:26):
Like you're not going to say,oh, I want to buy that house and
they say, great, we're sold onthe house.
Like you go to financing, yougot to get, you got to get
funding.
There's a process involved withthat.
So we should carry that sameprocess when we're doing these
commercial jobs where, hey, youhave ten thousand plus dollars
sitting on the line.
We're not going to just sithere all day long.
That should be factored intoyour equation when you're going
(10:47):
about bidding on these jobs andseeing if these jobs are even
worth it.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah, I mean we did a car dealership last year
Thursday, friday and Saturday.
I think I did it Thursday,friday and Saturday night and
then Monday I got a text thateverything looks great.
Then I got an email that saidinvoice paid $13,000 with the
Amex.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yeah, that's what you want.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
That transaction fee kind of hurt a little bit.
But I was like damn, that waspretty quick Convenience, I
guess bit, but I was like damn,that was pretty quick.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
You know convenience, I guess.
Yeah, no doubt.
And two, that's another thing.
It's like how, how are yougoing to pay?
Are you going to pay with acard?
Because, like you said, there'sfees associated with it and if
somebody's going to pay 10 grandwith a card and you're paying
three percent on that, that's afew hundred dollars.
So, like I, I like checks, um,or another thing we've done is
like achs, where they just kindof direct deposit into your
account.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
So it's just there's yeah, we've done is like ACHs,
where they just kind of directdeposit into your account.
So it's just there's yeah,we've done that too.
It's really.
I mean, all these companies,they all do want to be paid
different ways, their accountingand all set up different ways,
so just got to get familiar withit.
Then, once you've done a coupleof jobs with them, it's a
breeze really.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
And a lot of times you got to be set up as a vendor
in their system, I know.
And then, whether they do itfrom their own system or you're
doing it through like athird-party system, there's a
couple people I've uh, like Iknow we did some work with
amazon and I was going throughand looking up like there's
certain vendors that amazon likerequires to have in a portal.
(12:11):
So there's like I can't, Idon't know it's called like a
veto or something like that.
It's it like this giant thirdparty property management
company that a lot of these hugecompanies use.
So like, if you're in thatportal, like these companies are
going through and selectingpeople in there and reaching out
to call so you can almost putyourself on a directory of like
a preferred vendor list forthese massive corporations and
(12:34):
then they reach out to youbecause you've had to go through
the hoops and jump through thehoops and kind of put all of
your stuff through theircriteria first, so they're not
just calling somebody off ofGoogle.
A lot of times they're going tobe in these directories of like
approved vendors.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
And if you're going to go through the headache of
doing all that, they say, well,I guess he might might be a
pretty decent contractor.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Exactly.
I know there's a big propertymanagement group here that I've
worked in with and it was kindof a pain in the ass to get in
but they required like a $2million umbrella policy on
things and like you almost haveto up your insurance to be in
this group.
But they manage like thousandsof units in the whole South
Carolina area and then they evencover like Georgia, north
Carolina.
So it's one of those things islike okay, well, they have a
(13:21):
hundred unit townhome community.
They need to have pressurewashed like almost yearly in
just one of their locations andthey're going to go through and
call people in their list.
I had the woman.
She reached out and she waslike well, you're in our system
as this.
So I was like, okay, at leastpeople are seeing me.
So it's kind of like putyourself into positions where
people are able to see you inlike a commercial setting as
(13:41):
opposed to just on Google,because a lot of times it's like
you said, you're dealing withsomebody on the backend who's
just procuring a contractor andthey have to go through their
internal portal and say, okay,there's three pressure washing
companies in here.
I turn a portal and say okay,there's three pressure washing
companies in here.
I'm going to get a quote ofthese three and I'm going to see
who's the best price or who'sthe best for this project and
(14:03):
like nowhere to be seen.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, don't be afraid to tell your customer they're
not going to be a cheapest.
I mean you kind of.
I had a customer the other dayit was a HOA president saying oh
well, you're kind of in themiddle right now.
Well, that's where I want to be.
I don't want to be the cheapestguy.
A lot of people are looking atthe cheapest guy.
Commercial is a differentballgame.
You just got to be very careful.
You got to build value in yourcompany.
You got to build value in yourequipment that you have.
(14:26):
Build value on your process,how you explain how you're going
to do the job, and that middleways sometimes works out.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Exactly Cause a lot of these guys.
If they've gone the cheaperroute, then they got to hire
somebody to fix it and they'relike, okay, well, I could save a
hundred bucks on this one, butI'm going to have to spend a
thousand bucks to fix themistake of this first guy.
So it all depends.
And then do you really want tobe the guy working for the
cheapest bid?
Cause usually if they're notgoing to respect you, they're
(14:55):
going to say, oh, this guy's thecheapest, it's not worth your
time.
I've almost like, like you weresaying, when somebody hits you
up and they're like, oh, you'rein the middle, I'm like let's
take it or leave it.
I'm on top of Google for areason.
Like you, reach out to me.
We have value in our companyand we're moving forward.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So you either can work this with us and we both
win, or you can find somebodycheaper.
And what's that headache goingto cost you?
I know we're talking aboutcommercial here, but I always
love the residential customersthat are like, oh, Freddie down
the road is $50 cheaper than you.
Can you match that?
And I'm like Nope, and they endup hiring me anyway.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Half the time I can't tell if people just want to
play a game or not.
And it's funny because theywill never go to a restaurant
and say you know what?
That $40 steak looks great, butcan you do $30?
Because if I go down to Biloand I buy it myself and I cook
it, it's worth $30.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
It blows my mind, man , and we're the small businesses
.
And then you know.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Yeah, the same people that say like support small
business, like down with the bigcorporations, they're going to
take time out and protest.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Like these big corporations, they're the ones
that are trying to beat up theguy down the street that's
trying to make an honest livingcorrect and uh, when I first got
started in this business Iwould try to do a lot of kind of
like more of the cheaper to thefreeze type stuff for the
people I know and my friends.
But now, the longer I've beenin business, the longer I've
learned that I'm actually goingto keep paying.
(16:17):
You know you're either going topay full price or you're not
going to get my service exactly.
I gotta pay my bills, as you doif I come to your job.
If I come to your job, you knowI'm gonna have to pay full
price exactly.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
I kind of have the excuse now.
I'm like, hey look, I gotemployees to pay too, so like
it's not fair to me to pay theseguys without like.
I'm like, hey, they make apercentage of the job, so it's
not fair to my guys for doingstuff at a discounted rate.
But it is funny because I hadsome corporate friends and like
I'd throw them a deal in thebeginning and then the problem
is like their dumb asses wouldtell their neighbor what they
(16:51):
paid to have the job done andI'm like no, no, no, no, no stop
stop this nonsense.
I was like I actually dealt withthat this morning yeah, it's
like oh well, you did his housefor like 200 bucks.
I'm like yeah, because I'm hisbuddy.
And then here's the problem.
I had this morning.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, here's the problem I had this morning.
We're doing like a front of ahouse on a roof wash for 600 and
he asked how much for mydriveway.
I just threw 100 bucks on therebecause it's like just one of
those subdivision type driveways.
So he told his neighbor that Iwould do his driveway for 100
bucks I've had a couple hoas, uh, one that we did in the fall.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Uh, it was one of those really tiny driveways.
They're like 50 dollardriveways.
When we were cleaning all thecurb sidewalks of the
neighborhood for like six grandand then we were doing the house
washes for standard pricing,I'd say, yeah, if you want to
throw on that driveway, it's 50bucks.
People are calling me like hey,well, you said you could do our
driveway for 50 bucks.
I was like when we were on yourstreet and it would take us
(17:47):
three minutes, but we're notgoing to do that anymore and I'm
just already moving.
You want me to come back yeah, Isaid hey, I told you guys, when
we're there this is what it'sfor.
I feel like with peoplesometimes it's not even worth
following up with and like ifsomebody's gonna say, oh, I'm
(18:08):
reaching out to you becauseyou're like you can give me a 50
driveway, I'm like sorry, Ican't no Like or I just respond.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
That's basically what I do.
It's like what's the point intrying to negotiate with
somebody who's reaching out toyou because they think they can
get something severely under themarket value.
It's like they're they'resaying oh, I want a freebie,
Okay, Well, sorry, Not.
Sorry, Not my problem.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
And it's usually the ones in the nicer homes.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
These are like $500,000 plustownhome communities and it's
like Thornblade.
You do stuff in Thornblade,which is a nice area in
Greenville where you're on agolf course and every house is
almost a million dollars plus,and those people are like $100,
$200, $300 pressure washer typepeople and I'm like, all right,
(18:59):
have the handyman or have yourpainter do it.
I'll see the stripes in yourdriveway the next day.
I drive by.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, 100%.
And then another thing you justreminded me about make sure
there's a lot of newconstruction going on in our
area.
Not really sure about who I waslistening, but if there's a lot
of new construction going on inyour area Not really sure about
who I was listening, but ifthere's a lot of new
construction going on in yourarea and these people are
wanting you to clean theconcrete, take a look at that
concrete and try to see what'sgoing on and make sure it's not
going to milk up on you, becausethere's a lot of concrete
(19:28):
contractors.
They're just throwing a lot ofthe concrete together.
It's not a good qualityconcrete anymore, like it used
to be.
I had one a couple of weeks agoand it was two and a half years
old and it was just a shittyquality concrete, like it was
shedding.
So just make sure that you'redoing little test spots on these
concretes, because it couldturn into a nightmare down the
(19:48):
road and you're trying to fix it.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
I think that's very accurate.
And also, if you're quotingsomebody, make sure you're aware
of, like, what they want tohave clean Cause, like you were
saying with new construction, alot of times, yeah, if it's just
organic stains, that's, that'seasy.
But if you're going out toquote stuff and people are, hey,
I just had this work done andit's like red clay stains, like
you got to prep differently forthat.
You need to have acids, youneed to understand how to clean,
(20:20):
that you can't just blast awaywith pressure and you have to
set that expectation.
Hey, if the person, if theperson's expecting it to be acid
washed and then and thenpressure washed, that's going to
be a completely differentservice than just showing up and
hitting it with surface cleanerand then throwing some bleach
on it.
But to your point as well we wedeal with a lot of shitty
concrete, so it's easy to stripe, stripe it, it's easy to, like
you said, milk it where, like,the cream starts to come off and
like fibers start to appear.
Like a lot of times I don'teven have my guys hit it with a
(20:44):
pressure washer.
If it's new, I'm like just giveit a good solid rinse and then
put some chemical on it andthat's all we're going to do,
because we're not trying todestroy somebody's $10,000 patio
they just had poured, even ifit's two years old and at the
end of the day, it's probablynot your fault.
I mean, you know, it's just athe shitty quality of concrete
(21:07):
and people doing their jobshalf-ass, really yep so but yeah
, as far as, as far ascommercial stuff, that's kind of
an area we're trying to pushthis year.
Um, just because, like you said,like we have multiple, we have
two trucks that can stay prettybusy and usually if I can
allocate both trucks, we we cancompetitively bid on these jobs,
say, like somebody's goingagainst it solo and um, it's
(21:33):
good to move the needle, but atthe same time we we don't like
allocate huge amounts of timesto commercial.
We rather, uh, fill ourschedule with residential and
almost bake a couple days forlike a large commercial project
in with that.
So it's like icing on the cakeas opposed to our bread and
butter.
Because, like you said, I seeguys online where they're like
all commercial.
I'm like dude, that's astruggle because you're probably
(21:55):
sitting on a ton of cashwaiting to be paid upon, even if
you got jobs lined up whereit's all going to pay itself.
It's not the same as when yougot that residential when, hey,
I got paid.
Today Money's going right backinto my business and it flows
evenly.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
It just makes more sense to me.
You're building a clientele,you're building a customer base.
You can do the same withcommercial, but you're not doing
it as fast.
I can gain a lot more customersin my database that I can get
residually throughout the yearsand make just as much money than
just focusing on straightcommercial if not more money.
Because I think what thebiggest May that you had last
(22:31):
year was 70 grand and most ofthat was just residential.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Oh yeah, like 90% of that is going to be residential
and our Mays are prettyconsistent because the same
people like our best customers,the cream of the pressure
washing customers they're likeput me down for May Because in
our area we have bad pollen andusually May is when it clears.
So like I can guarantee youlike year after year, we're
going to be in that revenueballpark within probably five
(22:56):
thousand dollars, unless I addanother truck and we really grow
.
But like we're like maxing outat like 70 grand because we're
loading up two trucks and we'rejust like going to go into town
for that entire month and to meI'm like, hey, it's going to
cost me a lot of.
It's going to have to be reallyworth it to do a job in that
time, a year.
That's not a residential jobwhere we can consistently knock
(23:20):
it out.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Yeah, If a commercial job, an apartment complex or
one of those calls me during Mayor whatever, I mean, I'm
usually like I'm probably notgoing to be available, but I'll
take a look to see how big thejob is, See, if I want to work a
you know a Sunday or a Monday,or, you know, try to do it when
I'm not busy.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Exactly.
There's certain um biggerproperty management companies
that we work with are likefacility management and it seems
like all the time it's likemiddle of may.
And companies that we work withare like facility management
and it seems like all the timeit's like middle of May and
they're like schools graduatingin the end of May.
Like we need you to clean thefootball stadium and it's like a
$20,000 project.
But you're like I don't knowhow I would fit that in my
(24:02):
schedule and usually it's downto like the wire.
Where they're like you eithersay yes or no and then you're
like I got enough businesscoming in.
That's going to be stressful.
We're going to like drop theball.
And then, of the people that dothese jobs, I've had calls from
them to me needing help, CauseI remember, like one of the
bigger guys in our area, you'veprobably got a call.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
They called me and you both.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
They're like, hey, desperate, like we, we need this
done the end of the week andyou and I are both like we're
booked up two weeks plus, likeI'd love to help you.
but this thing, january, we'reboth sitting around looking to
get work yeah, call me injanuary yeah, but I was like hey
, call this guy, call this guyand you're like literally
offering people to makethousands of dollars for
cleaning a cool project andeverybody's busy.
(24:44):
That's kind of like understandyour seasons, understands how
much something's worth.
Like the commercial work I liketo do is usually in the middle
of the summer, like july.
We've done a few like tenthousand dollar plus projects
for plants that have shutdownweeks and usually they're around
like the fourth of july,because these plants run 24 7
(25:04):
and they have usually a week ortwo around christmas or around
like the 4th of July where theyclose and they do all their
maintenance and it's it's likereally awesome to say hey, I
know, in July I got $15,000coming in when normally
residential kind of tapers downdue to vacations and holidays.
So like that makes sense.
But in the middle of May, ifyou want me to clean your
(25:25):
football stadium, it ain't goingto really happen.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Oh man, you get a real good suntan around that
time of year.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
No doubt, yeah, no doubt so.
But you've you've been doing alot of good commercial and I
mean I see you on top of Googlenow a lot with your advertising.
So do you think that that helpsa lot?
Or or is a lot of yourcommercial coming from like word
of mouth with your previouscustomers?
Or have you reached out andtried to make connections with
(25:53):
builders and stuff like that,because I know you have projects
that are like new constructionor like red clay cleanup and you
seem to like have creativerelationships with these guys
where they reach out to you forestimates and you're like kind
of plugging in with bigger guysaround the area.
So like what do you think hashelped the most with that, with
getting that?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Like I said, I think it's just time in the business.
I don't necessarily think it's.
I mean we do a great job ofmarketing.
I mean everybody knows that.
Everybody in our area knowsthat I do a good job of
marketing and I believe it'sjust like I say.
I think it's more time in thebusiness and my consistent
marketing and I've alwayspreached that on about every
(26:37):
episode on here and I've alwayssaid to you my consistency in
marketing has always been a bigdeal and it's always paid off
and being all in all the timeinvesting back into the business
, not being afraid.
Sometimes you make thosedecisions and there's
butterflies in your stomach,keep you up at night, really
bother.
You have a couple headachesduring the week, but then you
(27:00):
either learn from it or you growfrom it.
I think that's been the biggestthing since I've been in
business.
I had a lot of experiencebefore I started the pressure
washing business with the salesand then running a multi-million
dollar business with the cardealership and maintaining
numbers and knowing where tothrow money in certain places to
(27:23):
make stuff do different things,and this is just a smaller
scale of that, except I'mplaying with my own money.
So it's like how much do youwant to gamble?
The marketing, yes, I would say, is a big deal, but a lot of it
now that I've done a lot ofthinking about it, because I've
(27:43):
thought about going into adifferent style of marketing for
commercial.
But I'm just going to let thetime of the game pay it off and
the people that I've done workfor previously.
The commercial game is kind oflike the residential game.
What's it saying?
The birds of a feather flocktogether.
Your million-dollar businessowners like me and you, we're
(28:08):
all collaborating together.
And these guys that do propertymanagement, they collaborate
together.
These guys that run gasstations, they collaborate
together.
And so I do some restaurantwork too.
And all the Greeks, theycollaborate together.
So it's all the same game.
But at the same time you got todo things a little differently.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
That's true.
Yeah, I guess, like you'resaying, the guys managing the
big properties are friends withthe other guys that manage the
big properties and they'reprobably saying, hey, who do you
have?
That's a great guy that canhelp me out.
And you plug in word of mouthin that too.
And because from the commercialside it seems like running a
Facebook ad or going on Googleand just running ads you're not
(28:53):
going to get a lot of commercialwork as much as you're going to
get residential work, becausethese people seem to be looking
for more of a professional likean established company.
That is a better reputationthan just somebody spending a
lot of money on Google ads atthe moment.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
The biggest thing that I've learned is the easier
if you put your processestogether as a company to make it
easier on people, the betterthey like doing business with
you, because anybody can go pickup a pressure washer and learn
how to use it and do a good job.
But the world is lazy.
If you could put the processesin place.
Okay, this is what I'm going todo.
(29:30):
I'm going to send you a quote.
It's going to come to youremail.
If you have any questions, giveme a call or shoot me a text or
shoot me an email.
But if you decide to moveforward with my company, click
approve on my quote and thenI'll be reaching out to you to
get you on the schedule.
Nine times out of 10, when Iget that approval email or that
approval text or whatever it is,within five to 10 minutes I'm
(29:52):
already reaching out to thecustomer, sometimes quicker, and
I've already got them on myschedule.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I think that's huge.
Everybody's so fixated on howmany gallons a minute they have
in their machine and how theycan clean better than that and
clean better than you.
I know you were talking to meabout this on on your tiktok,
which you got a lot of followerson there.
But with a lot of followers youget a lot of trolls and they
were commenting on like your wetconcrete had lines in it and
they missed they completelymissed the point of like they're
(30:19):
focused so much on like theright technique to avoid leaving
lines on wet concrete beforeyou post-treated it, but they're
missing the fact.
What you just said there of likethe process, of how easy you're
making it for people when youmake it super easy to connect
with you.
You give them a professionalprocess of giving them a quote,
you make it really easy for themand then give them a call back
(30:41):
and you schedule them within ashort window of time.
Meanwhile, these guys are overhere measuring their dicks on
social media all day, looking atthe most technical equipment
they possibly can.
But like what you said is likethat's how you need to focus on
business, as opposed to seeingoh, I can clean that driveway
five minutes quicker than youbecause I have a better surface,
cleaner, and people don't getthat and that's like the big gap
(31:03):
between you, me and a lot ofthese other people who are stuck
in the owner operatortechnician mode.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Anybody that does the volume we do and does the
amount of work that we do.
I mean most of these guys.
I look them up, they'll havefive Google reviews, so I know
they don't do a lot of work.
They're newer into the businessand the longer they're in the
game they'll understand.
But anybody that knows and hasdone the amount of work that we
have done knows that no matterwhat you do, you're going to
have lines in your concrete whenit's wet.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
And there's also going to be concrete where, even
if you do everything absolutelyperfect, you're still going to
get lines and the.
Thing that the customer doesn'tcare.
We care because we are in itevery day.
Customer says that's great,there's no more leaf stains on
it.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yeah, well, here's the thing If you got enough time
to sit around and wait andwatch that concrete dry, you're
not busy enough.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
That's facts, right there, that's facts so once you
see, I mean once you've watchedenough and you understand,
you'll be thinking of me later,but I just laugh at those guys.
But anyway, it gets a lot ofengagement.
I enjoy it.
That's true and almost to yourpoint.
It's like if Amazon delivered apackage to your house and one
(32:13):
day you ordering it and the boxwas kind of crinkled up a little
bit and you just say I'm noteven gonna touch this, get out
of here.
Like, that's, that's not whatyou do.
You just say, oh great, it camehere.
In one day the box got damaged,cool, like, but it's still what
I wanted.
And another point too I guesswith the pressure washing we
don't realize we're only there.
So we see like the before andthe after within.
(32:34):
When we're there, we're notseeing the leaves that fall on
the driveway, the next rain thatmakes it muddy, the customer
that pulls their car in with mudon their tires.
There's so many times wherethese people have been dickheads
to us about like, oh, youmissed this spot.
To us about like, oh, youmissed this spot.
And then I'll go to their houseand I'll say, bro, you just
pulled your car in and you ranover your grass and you track
mud all over your driveway.
Are we really looking at thisissue right here?
(32:54):
It's like we clean yourdriveway, just like you get your
car cleaned, and then you'regoing to drive the next day and
you're going to get dirt on yourcar.
A bird's going to poop on yourrun through a mud puddle by
accident.
You're gonna go at the car washand tell them they didn't do a
good job, absolutely and if, andthen it's like managing that
(33:16):
expectation with customers andnot allowing a customer or the
internet to drive you into thislike insane ocd mode where
you're not doing the appropriatethings and focusing the
appropriate ways in yourbusiness to grow your business
as a true professional.
And, like you said, if you're,if you're able to do all that
stuff, you're not busy enough.
So if, instead of wasting yourtime trying to like, optimize
your pressure, washing and beinga dickhead and being anal
online, figure out how to getbusy to the point where that
(33:36):
doesn't matter to you and thenyou focus on the processes that
are that customer experiencethat separates you from
everybody else a hundred percentagree so but yeah, all that in
total, yeah, all that, all thatin total helps build the image
and make you better in thecommercial setting where you're
(33:57):
a professional being shopped bya true professional, so like
it's a, it's a professionalworld on that commercial end,
more than like, oh, the guy downthe street is my neighbor and
he pressure washed my driveway,let me, let me, let me have it
done for that much.
So, like, if you're not focusingon like how we were discussing
the processes and thatprofessionalism within how we do
our business, that's probablywhy these guys struggle to get
(34:20):
like repeat commercial work oror they're just down to a price
point and, like you said, I'llgo look at commercial work all
the time and the quality of workand commercial work is terrible
compared to the previous workthat I've seen in residential
work from either guy before meor whatnot.
Yeah To me.
I don't know if that's due tolike there's more competition in
(34:41):
the residential space whereguys are really like working
there's way more guys doing itso they can.
They can get people like that,or or there's just bottom dollar
cheap.
But I I hear what you're saying.
I'm always looking around atlike shopping centers.
I was up in easily off of 123 inlike that big shopping center
out there and I was looking atthe sidewalks and they were just
(35:02):
trashed or like I've seen theguy that does those yeah, and
then you can always tell whenthe surface cleaner is like a 12
inch surface cleaner, that like100 they're, they're not doing
it the right way, it's just likea guy that knows the owner of
the building or something thatdoes always handyman work yeah
and that's the thing you don'tlike.
You don't want to go about andcompete with the handyman
(35:24):
caliber people and there's goingto be customers who own stuff
and they're like, well, this isgoing to be the guy I go after.
Uh, like I'm trying to go afterand I think you're probably
trying to go after too like thebig professional property
management companies that likemanage big stuff, like we've got
a job coming up forPresbyterian college, which is a
big college in our area, andthen, um, like that's a decent
(35:45):
size ticket but like it's aprofessional process and we do
it efficiently andprofessionally, where the guy
who's doing that is not going tobe able to compete with us on
time, price or quality.
We're trying to find those goodopportunities in the commercial
pressure washing space wherewe're dealing with professionals
or we're washing a hotel orwe're doing stuff where it isn't
just the cheapest type ofcustomer and somebody just
(36:08):
looking for the bottom dollar.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
The biggest thing is creating the residual income
coming in, and that's what we do.
A residential that's the way Ilook at it, because a lot of
these guys are one and done, youknow facts.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
You see these guys, especially online where they
flex.
All I do is commercial, I don'trun ads.
And then, five years down theroad, I'm like I wonder what
that guy's up to.
Oh, he's working at the postoffice.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Yep, anybody can be anybody they want to be on the
internet.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
That's true.
That's that's very true.
And two, I look online and like, I try to build, like, okay,
we're trying to build like oursocial profiles.
And it can be just like chasingvanity metrics and you see guys
with like 10,000 followers ontheir pressure washing page.
But I was thinking, okay, youhave 10,000 people, but most of
those people are probably otherpressure washers not in your
(37:02):
market.
So, apart from just dickmeasuring, what good is that to
growing your pressure washingbusiness in your area?
Dick measuring, what good isthat to growing your pressure
washing business in your area?
And it's like I'm working oncampaigns to grow my math, the
driveway guy page, and I'm like,okay, there's, I could easily
run these big ads for throughoutthe country and then have all
these followers come in, butit's going to do me no good when
(37:22):
they're not people exactly.
So it's figure out what youwant, be goal, goal-driven and
be like no nonsense.
That's kind of my approach andI think that's your approach as
well.
That's why we're a lethal force, whether we're working together
against each other.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
I'm all about the.
I'm all about the money, manRight, all about the business.
I'm not.
I don't care about whateverybody else thinks, or I mean
, I care about what my customersthink.
That's about it.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Yep, it's, it's almost a sport to me.
It's like I'm not gonna, I'mnot gonna get, I'm not gonna
allow it to get into my headwhere I'm going to be like a
dickhead to somebody or likelower my moral standard.
But it's a sport and it's likethat's like rising tides raises
all ships and like iron sharpensiron.
(38:11):
So if, if you're not in acircle of people where you got
guys like Clay and I and youpush each other every day, um
great opportunities, listen toour podcast here, the wash bros,
and then we're building thatgroup of the, the, the wash bros
in itself, so where we're goingto post daily stuff and
motivate each other and try tohelp everybody grow, not just me
(38:32):
and Clay.
You see what we've been able todo in the last few years of
just talking to each other.
The objective here with the WashBros podcast is to connect with
others and kind of grow thatwhole band of brothers or
however you want to put it, ofguys in our industry where we
can share things and growtogether and like, really
compound this.
So I know, I know for me it'sbeen super beneficial and I I've
(38:56):
enjoyed like this podcast andI've enjoyed the group that
we've started and I mean I hopeeverybody else can take one or
two pieces of information andreally run with it like like we
have.
So that's kind of my soapboxfor the day.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Heck, yeah, yeah.
Make sure, if you have anyquestions to like, comment,
whatever, send us a message.
We're going to plan oneventually having some guests on
here soon to cover some bigtopics that might help you grow.
Make sure you go to our YouTubeand subscribe.
Make sure you're liking andsharing our content.
We are all your buddies in yourmarket in your area.
If you're liking and sharingour content, we are all your
(39:31):
buddies in your market in yourarea.
If you're not making any friendsin your area with your
competition, I suggest that youat least try.
Not everybody's going to wantto be your friend.
They're going to tell you toscrew off whatever, but it's
beneficial if you can find thatone guy like me and Matt did.
We found each other to helpeach other out.
It's been very beneficial.
And then if you have anyquestions, like I say, just
(39:52):
comment below.
We'll try to answer these live.
When, when we stream this liveand, uh, spotify, apple podcast,
every pot, every platform, makesure you're following us on
there.
That way you get notified whenthe next episode is launched.
And then, uh, we plan on.
We have talked about t-shirtsand stuff.
Once we get enough people outthere, um, try to get our
t-shirts out there, and me andMatt both we're working on our
(40:12):
appearance at the hugeconvention.
Maybe we can work on somethingthere and try to get everybody
together.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
Yeah, I think that'd be super cool and the
consistency that we're doingwith our new format here has
definitely helped us a lot withgetting out there.
We have this like metrics appsfor our podcast and we just
crossed 2,500 downloads.
So thank you, everybody who'slistening, and last month we did
a little bit over 500 listens,so we kind of put this on the
(40:40):
back burner for almost a yearand we were able to bring it
back and within like the firstreal month of us doing it, we
were already at 500 listens forthe month.
So we look forward to growingthis and compounding this and
then like really moving theneedle and helping everybody
else out.
So big thanks to everybody wholistens.
And I mean, is there anythingelse you want to talk about
(41:01):
today, clay?
no man, I'm good, we'll see youguys next week sweet and if you
guys like the episode, we'll bestreaming this thing live
tonight.
You're watching now.
It's going to be Sunday evening, so make sure to drop a comment
below and share it with allyour friends and we'll see you
on the next one.
See you guys.
Hey, hey, hey, hey.
(00:22):
What's up?
Guys?
It is Matt Jackson and ClaySmith and we're the Wash Bros.
We want to kick off this newestepisode.
I'm trying to blank.
What were we on?
Episode 7?
(00:43):
Episode 5?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Let's see so I think we're on episode episode three
or four now okay, yeah, we.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
So, yes, doing the second season.
I, my brain just got fried.
So, yeah, episode three or fourwe're going to be talking about
commercial pressure washing andgoing about you have like a
residential section and then youhave a commercial section and
how they both can work togetherto help you grow your business
and grow your brand and yourposition in the pressure washing
market.
So you want to kick this thingoff, clay.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Let's kick it off, yeah.
So I think commercial is veryimportant.
The only thing about commercialI feel like a lot of people
they get tied up in thecommercial just strictly going
towards after the commercial,and then what they run into is a
cash flow issue.
So if you're strictly goingtowards the commercial jobs, if
(01:31):
you don't have an idea aboutwhen those checks are going to
roll in, how they're going tostart rolling in, because you
could very well look up and geta net 90 first commercial day
pay, net 90 first commercial daypay, you know, hey, and then
you're screwed.
Um, but if it wasn't forcommercial, I wouldn't have had
like a record break in Februarylast month.
So, uh, commercial is veryimportant.
(01:54):
It's like I always talk aboutwith you.
Uh, we always go towards, likeI, I seek after residential, but
the longer I'm in the game, thecommercial comes towards us.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
I think that's true.
I heard a great quote fromsomebody and it said residential
pressure washing or residentialwork is all about who knows you
, and then commercial work isall about who you know.
So there's a networkingcomponent of going about making
connections with thesebusinesses and getting yourself
out there at a different levelthan just running Facebook ads
or running Google ads and stufflike that.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, commercial work is a whole other ballgame.
If you're really seeking afterit, I highly recommend shaking
hands with people asking around,showing up in stores, showing
up at the actual place ofbusiness, just making
connections with people.
Just making connections withpeople Mainly.
I have never really actuallyseeked after commercial work,
except for, like in thewintertime when we're
(02:51):
campaigning and we're settingourselves up for the spring.
However, I have learned thelonger I'm in the game.
The commercial just comesnaturally.
So I'm very big into theresidential because I know the
residential pays my bills and Itell everybody all the guys
that's listening and all theguys that's ever seeked after
help from me I always say theresidential pays the bills and
(03:14):
the commercial bills the capital.
So the first thing I'm moreconcerned about is what's going
to get me paid today, becausethe commercial it's really a
shot in the dark.
You could get paid within sevendays.
I've had them pay as quick asthe next day and I've had them
be as long as 90 days.
But that is, most importantly,the first question I answer
before I ever give any pricingOkay, how long is it going to
(03:35):
take me to get paid?
So definitely important whenseeking after that work and,
like I say, the commercialdefinitely builds capital.
There's nothing wrong withgoing after commercial if you
can figure out your cash flow.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
That's very true.
I was running into issues withthat last year as we were
growing and getting more intocommercial work and I'm trying
to hit like hey, how can we hitlike six figures in commercial
pressure washing?
We have like multiple trucks.
It's like okay, cool, a $15,000job moves the needle and if you
have a lot of trucks and youyou can officially knock it down
(04:11):
, you can make good money.
But, like you're saying, Ilearned the hard way of like a
net 30 or a net 45 or a net weforgot about you until three
months later of following up andthen you finally get paid Like
that.
That really hurts sitting onprobably like $30,000 or $40,000
in accounts receivable for agood chunk of the year, because
I was always behind on mycommercial payouts and I don't
(04:32):
know if it's something that Ineed to get better at really
stressing to these people andreally trying to set up from the
front end so I'm not chasingdown stuff 45 days later and
they act like they have no ideawho I am, even though we
completed their service and wewere working with like a
contractor.
We're working with somebody onthe low level, but the office
and the corporate they don'thave you in the system and stuff
like that.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So Usually what I like to ask about.
As far as the money part goes,I always like to ask the person,
like the project manager or theproperty manager or whoever
that is.
Nine times out of 10, they'rein charge of getting you paid,
they're in charge of approvingthe quote, they're in charge of
all that.
But I'll always ask right afterokay, when the job's complete.
(05:14):
I always ask.
I say okay, job's complete,you're happy, everything good,
we're approved to get a check.
And once I get that approval, Ialways ask them to connect me
and the person that's in chargeof paying me.
So then, I want to make therelationship with the person
that's in charge of paying me sothat I can be able to
communicate with that person andfigure out what's going on,
because nine times out of 10,they don't really care about
your check.
(05:35):
They're just there for theirregular job.
That's what they do every day,and if you can stay top of mind
with that person, you can getpaid a lot quicker.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
With my experience, that's great insight too, Like
we're so busy chasing the guywho's the decision maker over
the job, but the most importantthing is the decision maker on
when you're going to get paid.
So it's like, hey, you can, youcan have $50,000 of commercial
work, but if you're not gettingpaid on that or it's going to be
a hassle, you might want toconnect and network with those
people that are like thedecision makers of when the
check's going to get sent outand the people in the
(06:04):
administrative side of thebusiness, not just the guy in
the field that's going to say Iapprove this quote, go do it.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, and it all goes back to who you know and how
you treat people and how youprofessionally deal with them,
because at the end of the day,I've never really had any issues
with these people.
They've always done what theysaid they were going to do, and
if they didn't, I would just getin touch with the person in
charge, because I've hadinvoices sitting on a desk just
(06:33):
because I hadn't sent insurance,that I had no idea that I was
even supposed to send theinsurance.
Or they had a problem with myinsurance, or they had a problem
with my workers comp and theyjust hadn't got around to
calling me.
No, we're waiting on this.
Well, nobody ever called me.
So definitely recommend whenyou're quoting these commercial
jobs, let's go to that.
When you're quoting thesecommercial jobs, ask them what
they need up front so youalready have that.
That way, when that job'scompleted, the payment process
(06:56):
is a lot smoother.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yeah, that's smart and that's one of those things
you learn after the fact.
It's like, hey, when youreflect your year, you reflect
these big commercial jobs you'redoing.
You're like how can I get paid,how can I get paid on time and
minimize that pain of like Idon't have money in my bank
account but it's coming in andbeing proactive there, as
opposed to just trusting theprocess that somebody else is
(07:21):
looking after you.
And that's like you.
We fixate so much on like oh,did I get all the red clay out
of the construction site?
Or oh, did I clean the building?
To like the project managers uh, like standards, so like they
can sign off and and and thenlike we're cleared to go, but
we're not thinking about how amI going to get my money as fast
as possible so I can be on tothe next job and not get hung up
(07:42):
on something and be adistraction for me and cause a
stress for the next three monthsbefore I get paid.
So that's.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I would most definitely rather do a month of
commercial.
I mean a month of residential.
Before I spent two weeks doinga commercial job that was going
to take me three months to getpaid on.
But that goes into.
That's why you have more trucks, more employees and that kind
of thing in the long run.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, it's one of those things.
I'm getting more selective onwhat I'm wanting to bid.
Everybody's like, oh, I have 16gallons a minute and I'm going
to do this and that, and it's$15,000 project but it's going
to have to be done in May 10thto May 24th or something like
that, and you're like there's somuch money to be made in
residential during that times,how much?
(08:25):
Or something like that.
And you're like there's so muchmoney to be made in residential
during that times that how muchis that commercial job really
going to cost you in?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
the long run and like what's the heavy factor?
There's so many people on theinternet that I see they just
get caught up in the biggertickets and they're not really
looking at the potential thatthere is in residential.
Because the residential I meanwe're doing what?
90 jobs a month in the busyseason, 120, what 90 jobs a
month in the busy season?
120 jobs a month in the busyseason with residential, I mean
that's bread and butter volume.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, and you're getting paid same day and you're
getting paid a lot of times incash and if you're not getting
paid in cash you're not being 1099 like you are with commercial
.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
So A hundred percent and they're not.
You're the homeowner's notasking for a bunch of paperwork
up front?
Yeah, and the homeowner's notasking for a bunch of paperwork
up front.
You got to deal with thatheadache.
I deal with weight on the checkin the mail.
The check's going to get lostin the mail.
And there's a new thing out thatactually just worked.
I'd never heard of it before, Iwas skeptical about it, didn't
know if I was getting scammed orwhat.
But we did that big job lastmonth and they paid with an
(09:19):
e-check.
So if anybody's listening andyou've never heard of an e-check
, an e-check is legit.
They send you a check via email.
You print it off, you cut itoff, you cut it on the dotted
line, you sign the back of it,you take it to the bank and boom
, it works just like a regularcheck.
So that is another thing that alot of these property
management companies, from myunderstanding, are trying to do
to make sure you get paidquicker.
(09:40):
So don't be skeptical aboutthat kind of thing.
I just went through it.
I took it to my bank.
They were very familiar with it, very familiar with the process
.
It's something new.
Just call it an e-check $10,000job.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
So there's stuff that he knows, that he's talking
about here that are really theright way to go about things and
that's what I'm going to startimplementing on my end of the
business of, like, hey, makingconnections.
Hey, okay, cool, this is therequirements for the jobs.
When you're doing the RFQ, whenyou're filling out the quote
request, say you get the job,cool.
Before I schedule, what's theprocess of me getting paid?
Like that's also like aprofessional, that's what we do.
(10:26):
Like you're not going to say,oh, I want to buy that house and
they say, great, we're sold onthe house.
Like you go to financing, yougot to get, you got to get
funding.
There's a process involved withthat.
So we should carry that sameprocess when we're doing these
commercial jobs where, hey, youhave ten thousand plus dollars
sitting on the line.
We're not going to just sithere all day long.
That should be factored intoyour equation when you're going
(10:47):
about bidding on these jobs andseeing if these jobs are even
worth it.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah, I mean we did a car dealership last year
Thursday, friday and Saturday.
I think I did it Thursday,friday and Saturday night and
then Monday I got a text thateverything looks great.
Then I got an email that saidinvoice paid $13,000 with the
Amex.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yeah, that's what you want.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
That transaction fee kind of hurt a little bit.
But I was like damn, that waspretty quick Convenience, I
guess bit, but I was like damn,that was pretty quick.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
You know convenience, I guess.
Yeah, no doubt.
And two, that's another thing.
It's like how, how are yougoing to pay?
Are you going to pay with acard?
Because, like you said, there'sfees associated with it and if
somebody's going to pay 10 grandwith a card and you're paying
three percent on that, that's afew hundred dollars.
So, like I, I like checks, um,or another thing we've done is
like achs, where they just kindof direct deposit into your
account.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
So it's just there's yeah, we've done is like ACHs,
where they just kind of directdeposit into your account.
So it's just there's yeah,we've done that too.
It's really.
I mean, all these companies,they all do want to be paid
different ways, their accountingand all set up different ways,
so just got to get familiar withit.
Then, once you've done a coupleof jobs with them, it's a
breeze really.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
And a lot of times you got to be set up as a vendor
in their system, I know.
And then, whether they do itfrom their own system or you're
doing it through like athird-party system, there's a
couple people I've uh, like Iknow we did some work with
amazon and I was going throughand looking up like there's
certain vendors that amazon likerequires to have in a portal.
(12:11):
So there's like I can't, Idon't know it's called like a
veto or something like that.
It's it like this giant thirdparty property management
company that a lot of these hugecompanies use.
So like, if you're in thatportal, like these companies are
going through and selectingpeople in there and reaching out
to call so you can almost putyourself on a directory of like
a preferred vendor list forthese massive corporations and
(12:34):
then they reach out to youbecause you've had to go through
the hoops and jump through thehoops and kind of put all of
your stuff through theircriteria first, so they're not
just calling somebody off ofGoogle.
A lot of times they're going tobe in these directories of like
approved vendors.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
And if you're going to go through the headache of
doing all that, they say, well,I guess he might might be a
pretty decent contractor.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Exactly.
I know there's a big propertymanagement group here that I've
worked in with and it was kindof a pain in the ass to get in
but they required like a $2million umbrella policy on
things and like you almost haveto up your insurance to be in
this group.
But they manage like thousandsof units in the whole South
Carolina area and then they evencover like Georgia, north
Carolina.
So it's one of those things islike okay, well, they have a
(13:21):
hundred unit townhome community.
They need to have pressurewashed like almost yearly in
just one of their locations andthey're going to go through and
call people in their list.
I had the woman.
She reached out and she waslike well, you're in our system
as this.
So I was like, okay, at leastpeople are seeing me.
So it's kind of like putyourself into positions where
people are able to see you inlike a commercial setting as
(13:41):
opposed to just on Google,because a lot of times it's like
you said, you're dealing withsomebody on the backend who's
just procuring a contractor andthey have to go through their
internal portal and say, okay,there's three pressure washing
companies in here.
I turn a portal and say okay,there's three pressure washing
companies in here.
I'm going to get a quote ofthese three and I'm going to see
who's the best price or who'sthe best for this project and
(14:03):
like nowhere to be seen.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, don't be afraid to tell your customer they're
not going to be a cheapest.
I mean you kind of.
I had a customer the other dayit was a HOA president saying oh
well, you're kind of in themiddle right now.
Well, that's where I want to be.
I don't want to be the cheapestguy.
A lot of people are looking atthe cheapest guy.
Commercial is a differentballgame.
You just got to be very careful.
You got to build value in yourcompany.
You got to build value in yourequipment that you have.
(14:26):
Build value on your process,how you explain how you're going
to do the job, and that middleways sometimes works out.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Exactly Cause a lot of these guys.
If they've gone the cheaperroute, then they got to hire
somebody to fix it and they'relike, okay, well, I could save a
hundred bucks on this one, butI'm going to have to spend a
thousand bucks to fix themistake of this first guy.
So it all depends.
And then do you really want tobe the guy working for the
cheapest bid?
Cause usually if they're notgoing to respect you, they're
(14:55):
going to say, oh, this guy's thecheapest, it's not worth your
time.
I've almost like, like you weresaying, when somebody hits you
up and they're like, oh, you'rein the middle, I'm like let's
take it or leave it.
I'm on top of Google for areason.
Like you, reach out to me.
We have value in our companyand we're moving forward.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So you either can work this with us and we both
win, or you can find somebodycheaper.
And what's that headache goingto cost you?
I know we're talking aboutcommercial here, but I always
love the residential customersthat are like, oh, Freddie down
the road is $50 cheaper than you.
Can you match that?
And I'm like Nope, and they endup hiring me anyway.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Half the time I can't tell if people just want to
play a game or not.
And it's funny because theywill never go to a restaurant
and say you know what?
That $40 steak looks great, butcan you do $30?
Because if I go down to Biloand I buy it myself and I cook
it, it's worth $30.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
It blows my mind, man , and we're the small businesses
.
And then you know.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Yeah, the same people that say like support small
business, like down with the bigcorporations, they're going to
take time out and protest.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Like these big corporations, they're the ones
that are trying to beat up theguy down the street that's
trying to make an honest livingcorrect and uh, when I first got
started in this business Iwould try to do a lot of kind of
like more of the cheaper to thefreeze type stuff for the
people I know and my friends.
But now, the longer I've beenin business, the longer I've
learned that I'm actually goingto keep paying.
(16:17):
You know you're either going topay full price or you're not
going to get my service exactly.
I gotta pay my bills, as you doif I come to your job.
If I come to your job, you knowI'm gonna have to pay full
price exactly.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
I kind of have the excuse now.
I'm like, hey look, I gotemployees to pay too, so like
it's not fair to me to pay theseguys without like.
I'm like, hey, they make apercentage of the job, so it's
not fair to my guys for doingstuff at a discounted rate.
But it is funny because I hadsome corporate friends and like
I'd throw them a deal in thebeginning and then the problem
is like their dumb asses wouldtell their neighbor what they
(16:51):
paid to have the job done andI'm like no, no, no, no, no stop
stop this nonsense.
I was like I actually dealt withthat this morning yeah, it's
like oh well, you did his housefor like 200 bucks.
I'm like yeah, because I'm hisbuddy.
And then here's the problem.
I had this morning.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, here's the problem I had this morning.
We're doing like a front of ahouse on a roof wash for 600 and
he asked how much for mydriveway.
I just threw 100 bucks on therebecause it's like just one of
those subdivision type driveways.
So he told his neighbor that Iwould do his driveway for 100
bucks I've had a couple hoas, uh, one that we did in the fall.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Uh, it was one of those really tiny driveways.
They're like 50 dollardriveways.
When we were cleaning all thecurb sidewalks of the
neighborhood for like six grandand then we were doing the house
washes for standard pricing,I'd say, yeah, if you want to
throw on that driveway, it's 50bucks.
People are calling me like hey,well, you said you could do our
driveway for 50 bucks.
I was like when we were on yourstreet and it would take us
(17:47):
three minutes, but we're notgoing to do that anymore and I'm
just already moving.
You want me to come back yeah, Isaid hey, I told you guys, when
we're there this is what it'sfor.
I feel like with peoplesometimes it's not even worth
following up with and like ifsomebody's gonna say, oh, I'm
(18:08):
reaching out to you becauseyou're like you can give me a 50
driveway, I'm like sorry, Ican't no Like or I just respond.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
That's basically what I do.
It's like what's the point intrying to negotiate with
somebody who's reaching out toyou because they think they can
get something severely under themarket value.
It's like they're they'resaying oh, I want a freebie,
Okay, Well, sorry, Not.
Sorry, Not my problem.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
And it's usually the ones in the nicer homes.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
These are like $500,000 plustownhome communities and it's
like Thornblade.
You do stuff in Thornblade,which is a nice area in
Greenville where you're on agolf course and every house is
almost a million dollars plus,and those people are like $100,
$200, $300 pressure washer typepeople and I'm like, all right,
(18:59):
have the handyman or have yourpainter do it.
I'll see the stripes in yourdriveway the next day.
I drive by.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, 100%.
And then another thing you justreminded me about make sure
there's a lot of newconstruction going on in our
area.
Not really sure about who I waslistening, but if there's a lot
of new construction going on inyour area Not really sure about
who I was listening, but ifthere's a lot of new
construction going on in yourarea and these people are
wanting you to clean theconcrete, take a look at that
concrete and try to see what'sgoing on and make sure it's not
going to milk up on you, becausethere's a lot of concrete
(19:28):
contractors.
They're just throwing a lot ofthe concrete together.
It's not a good qualityconcrete anymore, like it used
to be.
I had one a couple of weeks agoand it was two and a half years
old and it was just a shittyquality concrete, like it was
shedding.
So just make sure that you'redoing little test spots on these
concretes, because it couldturn into a nightmare down the
(19:48):
road and you're trying to fix it.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
I think that's very accurate.
And also, if you're quotingsomebody, make sure you're aware
of, like, what they want tohave clean Cause, like you were
saying with new construction, alot of times, yeah, if it's just
organic stains, that's, that'seasy.
But if you're going out toquote stuff and people are, hey,
I just had this work done andit's like red clay stains, like
you got to prep differently forthat.
You need to have acids, youneed to understand how to clean,
(20:20):
that you can't just blast awaywith pressure and you have to
set that expectation.
Hey, if the person, if theperson's expecting it to be acid
washed and then and thenpressure washed, that's going to
be a completely differentservice than just showing up and
hitting it with surface cleanerand then throwing some bleach
on it.
But to your point as well we wedeal with a lot of shitty
concrete, so it's easy to stripe, stripe it, it's easy to, like
you said, milk it where, like,the cream starts to come off and
like fibers start to appear.
Like a lot of times I don'teven have my guys hit it with a
(20:44):
pressure washer.
If it's new, I'm like just giveit a good solid rinse and then
put some chemical on it andthat's all we're going to do,
because we're not trying todestroy somebody's $10,000 patio
they just had poured, even ifit's two years old and at the
end of the day, it's probablynot your fault.
I mean, you know, it's just athe shitty quality of concrete
(21:07):
and people doing their jobshalf-ass, really yep so but yeah
, as far as, as far ascommercial stuff, that's kind of
an area we're trying to pushthis year.
Um, just because, like you said,like we have multiple, we have
two trucks that can stay prettybusy and usually if I can
allocate both trucks, we we cancompetitively bid on these jobs,
say, like somebody's goingagainst it solo and um, it's
(21:33):
good to move the needle, but atthe same time we we don't like
allocate huge amounts of timesto commercial.
We rather, uh, fill ourschedule with residential and
almost bake a couple days forlike a large commercial project
in with that.
So it's like icing on the cakeas opposed to our bread and
butter.
Because, like you said, I seeguys online where they're like
all commercial.
I'm like dude, that's astruggle because you're probably
(21:55):
sitting on a ton of cashwaiting to be paid upon, even if
you got jobs lined up whereit's all going to pay itself.
It's not the same as when yougot that residential when, hey,
I got paid.
Today Money's going right backinto my business and it flows
evenly.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
It just makes more sense to me.
You're building a clientele,you're building a customer base.
You can do the same withcommercial, but you're not doing
it as fast.
I can gain a lot more customersin my database that I can get
residually throughout the yearsand make just as much money than
just focusing on straightcommercial if not more money.
Because I think what thebiggest May that you had last
(22:31):
year was 70 grand and most ofthat was just residential.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Oh yeah, like 90% of that is going to be residential
and our Mays are prettyconsistent because the same
people like our best customers,the cream of the pressure
washing customers they're likeput me down for May Because in
our area we have bad pollen andusually May is when it clears.
So like I can guarantee youlike year after year, we're
going to be in that revenueballpark within probably five
(22:56):
thousand dollars, unless I addanother truck and we really grow
.
But like we're like maxing outat like 70 grand because we're
loading up two trucks and we'rejust like going to go into town
for that entire month and to meI'm like, hey, it's going to
cost me a lot of.
It's going to have to be reallyworth it to do a job in that
time, a year.
That's not a residential jobwhere we can consistently knock
(23:20):
it out.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Yeah, If a commercial job, an apartment complex or
one of those calls me during Mayor whatever, I mean, I'm
usually like I'm probably notgoing to be available, but I'll
take a look to see how big thejob is, See, if I want to work a
you know a Sunday or a Monday,or, you know, try to do it when
I'm not busy.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Exactly.
There's certain um biggerproperty management companies
that we work with are likefacility management and it seems
like all the time it's likemiddle of may.
And companies that we work withare like facility management
and it seems like all the timeit's like middle of May and
they're like schools graduatingin the end of May.
Like we need you to clean thefootball stadium and it's like a
$20,000 project.
But you're like I don't knowhow I would fit that in my
(24:02):
schedule and usually it's downto like the wire.
Where they're like you eithersay yes or no and then you're
like I got enough businesscoming in.
That's going to be stressful.
We're going to like drop theball.
And then, of the people that dothese jobs, I've had calls from
them to me needing help, CauseI remember, like one of the
bigger guys in our area, you'veprobably got a call.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
They called me and you both.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
They're like, hey, desperate, like we, we need this
done the end of the week andyou and I are both like we're
booked up two weeks plus, likeI'd love to help you.
but this thing, january, we'reboth sitting around looking to
get work yeah, call me injanuary yeah, but I was like hey
, call this guy, call this guyand you're like literally
offering people to makethousands of dollars for
cleaning a cool project andeverybody's busy.
(24:44):
That's kind of like understandyour seasons, understands how
much something's worth.
Like the commercial work I liketo do is usually in the middle
of the summer, like july.
We've done a few like tenthousand dollar plus projects
for plants that have shutdownweeks and usually they're around
like the fourth of july,because these plants run 24 7
(25:04):
and they have usually a week ortwo around christmas or around
like the 4th of July where theyclose and they do all their
maintenance and it's it's likereally awesome to say hey, I
know, in July I got $15,000coming in when normally
residential kind of tapers downdue to vacations and holidays.
So like that makes sense.
But in the middle of May, ifyou want me to clean your
(25:25):
football stadium, it ain't goingto really happen.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Oh man, you get a real good suntan around that
time of year.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
No doubt, yeah, no doubt so.
But you've you've been doing alot of good commercial and I
mean I see you on top of Googlenow a lot with your advertising.
So do you think that that helpsa lot?
Or or is a lot of yourcommercial coming from like word
of mouth with your previouscustomers?
Or have you reached out andtried to make connections with
(25:53):
builders and stuff like that,because I know you have projects
that are like new constructionor like red clay cleanup and you
seem to like have creativerelationships with these guys
where they reach out to you forestimates and you're like kind
of plugging in with bigger guysaround the area.
So like what do you think hashelped the most with that, with
getting that?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Like I said, I think it's just time in the business.
I don't necessarily think it's.
I mean we do a great job ofmarketing.
I mean everybody knows that.
Everybody in our area knowsthat I do a good job of
marketing and I believe it'sjust like I say.
I think it's more time in thebusiness and my consistent
marketing and I've alwayspreached that on about every
(26:37):
episode on here and I've alwayssaid to you my consistency in
marketing has always been a bigdeal and it's always paid off
and being all in all the timeinvesting back into the business
, not being afraid.
Sometimes you make thosedecisions and there's
butterflies in your stomach,keep you up at night, really
bother.
You have a couple headachesduring the week, but then you
(27:00):
either learn from it or you growfrom it.
I think that's been the biggestthing since I've been in
business.
I had a lot of experiencebefore I started the pressure
washing business with the salesand then running a multi-million
dollar business with the cardealership and maintaining
numbers and knowing where tothrow money in certain places to
(27:23):
make stuff do different things,and this is just a smaller
scale of that, except I'mplaying with my own money.
So it's like how much do youwant to gamble?
The marketing, yes, I would say, is a big deal, but a lot of it
now that I've done a lot ofthinking about it, because I've
(27:43):
thought about going into adifferent style of marketing for
commercial.
But I'm just going to let thetime of the game pay it off and
the people that I've done workfor previously.
The commercial game is kind oflike the residential game.
What's it saying?
The birds of a feather flocktogether.
Your million-dollar businessowners like me and you, we're
(28:08):
all collaborating together.
And these guys that do propertymanagement, they collaborate
together.
These guys that run gasstations, they collaborate
together.
And so I do some restaurantwork too.
And all the Greeks, theycollaborate together.
So it's all the same game.
But at the same time you got todo things a little differently.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
That's true.
Yeah, I guess, like you'resaying, the guys managing the
big properties are friends withthe other guys that manage the
big properties and they'reprobably saying, hey, who do you
have?
That's a great guy that canhelp me out.
And you plug in word of mouthin that too.
And because from the commercialside it seems like running a
Facebook ad or going on Googleand just running ads you're not
(28:53):
going to get a lot of commercialwork as much as you're going to
get residential work, becausethese people seem to be looking
for more of a professional likean established company.
That is a better reputationthan just somebody spending a
lot of money on Google ads atthe moment.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
The biggest thing that I've learned is the easier
if you put your processestogether as a company to make it
easier on people, the betterthey like doing business with
you, because anybody can go pickup a pressure washer and learn
how to use it and do a good job.
But the world is lazy.
If you could put the processesin place.
Okay, this is what I'm going todo.
(29:30):
I'm going to send you a quote.
It's going to come to youremail.
If you have any questions, giveme a call or shoot me a text or
shoot me an email.
But if you decide to moveforward with my company, click
approve on my quote and thenI'll be reaching out to you to
get you on the schedule.
Nine times out of 10, when Iget that approval email or that
approval text or whatever it is,within five to 10 minutes I'm
(29:52):
already reaching out to thecustomer, sometimes quicker, and
I've already got them on myschedule.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I think that's huge.
Everybody's so fixated on howmany gallons a minute they have
in their machine and how theycan clean better than that and
clean better than you.
I know you were talking to meabout this on on your tiktok,
which you got a lot of followerson there.
But with a lot of followers youget a lot of trolls and they
were commenting on like your wetconcrete had lines in it and
they missed they completelymissed the point of like they're
(30:19):
focused so much on like theright technique to avoid leaving
lines on wet concrete beforeyou post-treated it, but they're
missing the fact.
What you just said there of likethe process, of how easy you're
making it for people when youmake it super easy to connect
with you.
You give them a professionalprocess of giving them a quote,
you make it really easy for themand then give them a call back
(30:41):
and you schedule them within ashort window of time.
Meanwhile, these guys are overhere measuring their dicks on
social media all day, looking atthe most technical equipment
they possibly can.
But like what you said is likethat's how you need to focus on
business, as opposed to seeingoh, I can clean that driveway
five minutes quicker than youbecause I have a better surface,
cleaner, and people don't getthat and that's like the big gap
(31:03):
between you, me and a lot ofthese other people who are stuck
in the owner operatortechnician mode.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Anybody that does the volume we do and does the
amount of work that we do.
I mean most of these guys.
I look them up, they'll havefive Google reviews, so I know
they don't do a lot of work.
They're newer into the businessand the longer they're in the
game they'll understand.
But anybody that knows and hasdone the amount of work that we
have done knows that no matterwhat you do, you're going to
have lines in your concrete whenit's wet.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
And there's also going to be concrete where, even
if you do everything absolutelyperfect, you're still going to
get lines and the.
Thing that the customer doesn'tcare.
We care because we are in itevery day.
Customer says that's great,there's no more leaf stains on
it.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yeah, well, here's the thing If you got enough time
to sit around and wait andwatch that concrete dry, you're
not busy enough.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
That's facts, right there, that's facts so once you
see, I mean once you've watchedenough and you understand,
you'll be thinking of me later,but I just laugh at those guys.
But anyway, it gets a lot ofengagement.
I enjoy it.
That's true and almost to yourpoint.
It's like if Amazon delivered apackage to your house and one
(32:13):
day you ordering it and the boxwas kind of crinkled up a little
bit and you just say I'm noteven gonna touch this, get out
of here.
Like, that's, that's not whatyou do.
You just say, oh great, it camehere.
In one day the box got damaged,cool, like, but it's still what
I wanted.
And another point too I guesswith the pressure washing we
don't realize we're only there.
So we see like the before andthe after within.
(32:34):
When we're there, we're notseeing the leaves that fall on
the driveway, the next rain thatmakes it muddy, the customer
that pulls their car in with mudon their tires.
There's so many times wherethese people have been dickheads
to us about like, oh, youmissed this spot.
To us about like, oh, youmissed this spot.
And then I'll go to their houseand I'll say, bro, you just
pulled your car in and you ranover your grass and you track
mud all over your driveway.
Are we really looking at thisissue right here?
(32:54):
It's like we clean yourdriveway, just like you get your
car cleaned, and then you'regoing to drive the next day and
you're going to get dirt on yourcar.
A bird's going to poop on yourrun through a mud puddle by
accident.
You're gonna go at the car washand tell them they didn't do a
good job, absolutely and if, andthen it's like managing that
(33:16):
expectation with customers andnot allowing a customer or the
internet to drive you into thislike insane ocd mode where
you're not doing the appropriatethings and focusing the
appropriate ways in yourbusiness to grow your business
as a true professional.
And, like you said, if you're,if you're able to do all that
stuff, you're not busy enough.
So if, instead of wasting yourtime trying to like, optimize
your pressure, washing and beinga dickhead and being anal
online, figure out how to getbusy to the point where that
(33:36):
doesn't matter to you and thenyou focus on the processes that
are that customer experiencethat separates you from
everybody else a hundred percentagree so but yeah, all that in
total, yeah, all that, all thatin total helps build the image
and make you better in thecommercial setting where you're
(33:57):
a professional being shopped bya true professional, so like
it's a, it's a professionalworld on that commercial end,
more than like, oh, the guy downthe street is my neighbor and
he pressure washed my driveway,let me, let me, let me have it
done for that much.
So, like, if you're not focusingon like how we were discussing
the processes and thatprofessionalism within how we do
our business, that's probablywhy these guys struggle to get
(34:20):
like repeat commercial work oror they're just down to a price
point and, like you said, I'llgo look at commercial work all
the time and the quality of workand commercial work is terrible
compared to the previous workthat I've seen in residential
work from either guy before meor whatnot.
Yeah To me.
I don't know if that's due tolike there's more competition in
(34:41):
the residential space whereguys are really like working
there's way more guys doing itso they can.
They can get people like that,or or there's just bottom dollar
cheap.
But I I hear what you're saying.
I'm always looking around atlike shopping centers.
I was up in easily off of 123 inlike that big shopping center
out there and I was looking atthe sidewalks and they were just
(35:02):
trashed or like I've seen theguy that does those yeah, and
then you can always tell whenthe surface cleaner is like a 12
inch surface cleaner, that like100 they're, they're not doing
it the right way, it's just likea guy that knows the owner of
the building or something thatdoes always handyman work yeah
and that's the thing you don'tlike.
You don't want to go about andcompete with the handyman
(35:24):
caliber people and there's goingto be customers who own stuff
and they're like, well, this isgoing to be the guy I go after.
Uh, like I'm trying to go afterand I think you're probably
trying to go after too like thebig professional property
management companies that likemanage big stuff, like we've got
a job coming up forPresbyterian college, which is a
big college in our area, andthen, um, like that's a decent
(35:45):
size ticket but like it's aprofessional process and we do
it efficiently andprofessionally, where the guy
who's doing that is not going tobe able to compete with us on
time, price or quality.
We're trying to find those goodopportunities in the commercial
pressure washing space wherewe're dealing with professionals
or we're washing a hotel orwe're doing stuff where it isn't
just the cheapest type ofcustomer and somebody just
(36:08):
looking for the bottom dollar.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
The biggest thing is creating the residual income
coming in, and that's what we do.
A residential that's the way Ilook at it, because a lot of
these guys are one and done, youknow facts.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
You see these guys, especially online where they
flex.
All I do is commercial, I don'trun ads.
And then, five years down theroad, I'm like I wonder what
that guy's up to.
Oh, he's working at the postoffice.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Yep, anybody can be anybody they want to be on the
internet.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
That's true.
That's that's very true.
And two, I look online and like, I try to build, like, okay,
we're trying to build like oursocial profiles.
And it can be just like chasingvanity metrics and you see guys
with like 10,000 followers ontheir pressure washing page.
But I was thinking, okay, youhave 10,000 people, but most of
those people are probably otherpressure washers not in your
(37:02):
market.
So, apart from just dickmeasuring, what good is that to
growing your pressure washingbusiness in your area?
Dick measuring, what good isthat to growing your pressure
washing business in your area?
And it's like I'm working oncampaigns to grow my math, the
driveway guy page, and I'm like,okay, there's, I could easily
run these big ads for throughoutthe country and then have all
these followers come in, butit's going to do me no good when
(37:22):
they're not people exactly.
So it's figure out what youwant, be goal, goal-driven and
be like no nonsense.
That's kind of my approach andI think that's your approach as
well.
That's why we're a lethal force, whether we're working together
against each other.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
I'm all about the.
I'm all about the money, manRight, all about the business.
I'm not.
I don't care about whateverybody else thinks, or I mean
, I care about what my customersthink.
That's about it.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Yep, it's, it's almost a sport to me.
It's like I'm not gonna, I'mnot gonna get, I'm not gonna
allow it to get into my headwhere I'm going to be like a
dickhead to somebody or likelower my moral standard.
But it's a sport and it's likethat's like rising tides raises
all ships and like iron sharpensiron.
(38:11):
So if, if you're not in acircle of people where you got
guys like Clay and I and youpush each other every day, um
great opportunities, listen toour podcast here, the wash bros,
and then we're building thatgroup of the, the, the wash bros
in itself, so where we're goingto post daily stuff and
motivate each other and try tohelp everybody grow, not just me
(38:32):
and Clay.
You see what we've been able todo in the last few years of
just talking to each other.
The objective here with the WashBros podcast is to connect with
others and kind of grow thatwhole band of brothers or
however you want to put it, ofguys in our industry where we
can share things and growtogether and like, really
compound this.
So I know, I know for me it'sbeen super beneficial and I I've
(38:56):
enjoyed like this podcast andI've enjoyed the group that
we've started and I mean I hopeeverybody else can take one or
two pieces of information andreally run with it like like we
have.
So that's kind of my soapboxfor the day.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Heck, yeah, yeah.
Make sure, if you have anyquestions to like, comment,
whatever, send us a message.
We're going to plan oneventually having some guests on
here soon to cover some bigtopics that might help you grow.
Make sure you go to our YouTubeand subscribe.
Make sure you're liking andsharing our content.
We are all your buddies in yourmarket in your area.
If you're liking and sharingour content, we are all your
(39:31):
buddies in your market in yourarea.
If you're not making any friendsin your area with your
competition, I suggest that youat least try.
Not everybody's going to wantto be your friend.
They're going to tell you toscrew off whatever, but it's
beneficial if you can find thatone guy like me and Matt did.
We found each other to helpeach other out.
It's been very beneficial.
And then if you have anyquestions, like I say, just
(39:52):
comment below.
We'll try to answer these live.
When, when we stream this liveand, uh, spotify, apple podcast,
every pot, every platform, makesure you're following us on
there.
That way you get notified whenthe next episode is launched.
And then, uh, we plan on.
We have talked about t-shirtsand stuff.
Once we get enough people outthere, um, try to get our
t-shirts out there, and me andMatt both we're working on our
(40:12):
appearance at the hugeconvention.
Maybe we can work on somethingthere and try to get everybody
together.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
Yeah, I think that'd be super cool and the
consistency that we're doingwith our new format here has
definitely helped us a lot withgetting out there.
We have this like metrics appsfor our podcast and we just
crossed 2,500 downloads.
So thank you, everybody who'slistening, and last month we did
a little bit over 500 listens,so we kind of put this on the
(40:40):
back burner for almost a yearand we were able to bring it
back and within like the firstreal month of us doing it, we
were already at 500 listens forthe month.
So we look forward to growingthis and compounding this and
then like really moving theneedle and helping everybody
else out.
So big thanks to everybody wholistens.
And I mean, is there anythingelse you want to talk about
(41:01):
today, clay?
no man, I'm good, we'll see youguys next week sweet and if you
guys like the episode, we'll bestreaming this thing live
tonight.
You're watching now.
It's going to be Sunday evening, so make sure to drop a comment
below and share it with allyour friends and we'll see you
on the next one.
See you guys.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.