Looking for a tile spinner!!

[MikeGaure]

Yer party yer gamble

Not something I’d do, very high percentage of them fail. Especially you get into divorces, no thanks

 

[OxiFreshGuy]

Yer party yer gamble

Not something I’d do, very high percentage of them fail. Especially you get into divorces, no thanks

Well we even thought of that and built exit clauses in the ownership agreement. So far it works. We will both have our own division in each of our cities - I'm actually lucky because I can do field work on weekends and watch my young kids during the week. As soon as my oldest is off to school I'm putting my youngest in daycare and turbocharging this.

 

[ACP]

Honestly I'm so glad to not be a big ass operation right now... businesses here with big overhead are getting wiped out left and right.

We just keep chugging along racking fat a$$ tickets with no stress and almost no overhead.

 

[ACP]

I love the simplicity of this business it's super lucrative but I would never want to have all my eggs in one big carpet Cleaning basket running all kinds of ads and dealing with techs etc.

It can be great but it's a stressful lifestyle, anyone who tells you different is full of shit.

 

[MikeGaure]

Honestly I'm so glad to not be a big ass operation right now... businesses here with big overhead are getting wiped out left and right.

We just keep chugging along racking fat a$$ tickets with no stress and almost no overhead.

Overhead is rough I’m not big but thankfully we’re booked solid and have had some crazy good projects. The other thing that has made a huge difference for us is my business is now operating 100% debt free. We paid off a boatload of debt in the last 8 months and that has been huge for us

 

[MikeGaure]

I love the simplicity of this business it's super lucrative but I would never want to have all my eggs in one big carpet Cleaning basket running all kinds of ads and dealing with techs etc.

It can be great but it's a stressful lifestyle, anyone who tells you different is full of shit.

Carpet, janitorial and windows (99% commercial up to 5 floors)

Flood n fire, mold

Recon

Licensed general I’ll be purchasing and developing properties in next two years

Yea definitely won’t have all my eggs n one basket anymore

 

[MikeGaure]

Yup.
If you follow the news....Northern California , particularly exactly where I am has been devastated by wildfires in the last couple years.

I started my business in Northern Santa Rosa.
Many of my clients were in both Coffey Park and Fountain Grove.
Both areas completely wiped out by fire.

My business of course took a hit cuz there were simply far less homes to clean cuz they were burnt to the ground.
Still don't get work there cuz they havnt even finished building all of them.
That fire wiped plenty of service businesses out including bigger carpet cleaners.

Last fall....a bigger, longer lasting fire came into our area and just by a few lucky turns, it stayed away from town until just about every fire resource was allocated to the area.
Firefighters held it from taking our town but it came close enough that every home here got smoked out.

After the first fire, I worked hard at building my local clientele so when the recent fires came here , my phone rang off the hook for smoke inspections.

Last quarter we did over 100K
I'd probably never want to go through that again even if the money was great cuz it was super stressful...

Anyways,.....once this pandemic and ensuing lockdown hit.....I couldn't care less cuz it was nice to be a little slower.

Bottom line....being light of foot helped me a lot and I got really lucky how things turned out....but my luck was definitely improved by my aggressive tactics after the fires.

We don’t even advertise I’m kind of scared to tbh. Wouldn’t have enough manpower.

A lot of contractors I know are also hammered with work right now some being 4 mos out

 

[MikeGaure]

I've made a ton on window cleaning the last year.
Not my favorite work but it's good money.

All the smoke jobs I was able to farm that part out from a local guy but I do them personally as well.

Trad or wfp? We kill it with wfp. Have a place on base we pressure wash entire 4 story building, all exterior windows, all drapes and rooms there’s like 104 rooms total. Came from a window cleaning referral. We do windows twice a year and building and carpets once a year

 

[MikeGaure]

Drapes we clean low moisture. Since windows won’t open we can’t use solvents and there’s two different materials used on the same drapery panel. Haven’t had any curl and they come out nicely.

 

[MikeGaure]

I don't do enough to get a pole system yet but I want one.
The service I hire uses one.
Paul Brown schooled me in on a couple great onsite drapery methods.

Very effective with little risk

I do pressure washing and soft washing but some of those jobs can bog you down.
Definitely a mixed bag but you gotta do pressure washing for smoke

Bog you down if yer alone. Thankfully that’s where my crew comes in. Now the pressure washing from the lift I do. Don’t want my guys crashing into the building. I get it knocked out in a day as long as weather is fair. OSHA on base has shut me down before

 

[StevenB.]

I do a dry solvent vac with MF rag over upholstery tool. No water.
It's been great

I might try that, my old school method works well. You hold your upholstery tool up to your shirt and open up your waste gate valve until it sucks your shirt up to the tool without wrinkling. OMS works but back in the day we used Perc or 111 trichlorethane. Those are far too hazardous to use in a home, but we didn't know any better back then.

 

[OxiFreshGuy]

@Scroty-sack I'm the inconsistent one ? Let's hear your evidence.

I think Robs spot on about you. All brawn but no brains.

 

[OxiFreshGuy]

@Scroty-sack It's obvious you don't like it when someone is more successful than you. I guarantee if you were on Rob's level success wise you would be boasting it from the mountaintops about how smart and good at business you are. Instead you dismiss it - because you can't compete on that level.

You aren't hard to figure out.

 

[MikeGaure]

@Scroty-sack It's obvious you don't like it when someone is more successful than you. I guarantee if you were on Rob's level success wise you would be boasting it from the mountaintops about how smart and good at business you are. Instead you dismiss it - because you can't compete on that level.

You aren't hard to figure out.

Looks like you have a man crush on mike and at the same time holding onto Rob as a security blanket now that’s amusing

 

[OxiFreshGuy]

Looks like you have a man crush on mike and at the same time holding onto Rob as a security blanket now that’s amusing

Not true as I've called out Rob on a number of things. Cant have a man crush on someone who doesn't act like a man

 

[ACP]

Trad or wfp? We kill it with wfp. Have a place on base we pressure wash entire 4 story building, all exterior windows, all drapes and rooms there’s like 104 rooms total. Came from a window cleaning referral. We do windows twice a year and building and carpets once a year

Sounds like your well diversified.

We started exterior services about 3 years ago.

Windows, roof, gutters, siding, power washing walkways, driveways etc. I had an employee full time doing it but now just sub it out, all I do is sell the jobs which is easy when your already in the cleaning industry.


The full house packages are good money and realtors love it. Carpets, tile, roof, siding, windows, walkways and driveway.

 

[MikeGaure]

Sounds like your well diversified.

We started exterior services about 3 years ago.

Windows, roof, gutters, siding, power washing walkways, driveways etc. I had an employee full time doing it but now just sub it out, all I do is sell the jobs which is easy when your already in the cleaning industry.


The full house packages are good money and realtors love it. Carpets, tile, roof, siding, windows, walkways and driveway.

I also use subs when we’re backed up or someone else can just get in and get it done quicker. What’s tough is cross training staff.

 

[MikeGaure]

I've seen my window guys on pressure washing jobs.
They use way too much pressure and I'd never hire them to do it attached to my name.

Put a helper on some soft washing and had a few problems.

Haven't had enough soft wash jobs to confidently train someone yet

Those are the easy jobs to train. Was talking more on the construction side , floors, showers, cabinets, granite ect

 

[MikeGaure]

I'll never dip into construction. I just want my demo license to advertise WDR

I’m licensed for resd n commercial so in another two yrs will be developing. Also looking to build an RV park illness @Kipp as a good spot to point ppl
I love construction, was a truss designer before market tanked 08’. Mechanics and hammers are in my blood! Gives me excuse to get more tools too!!!

 

[MikeGaure]

That's awesome.
Yer story impresses me.

Fer me.....one of my focuses is to be able to nose ride before I'm dead.
Shouldn't have waited till 50 to start surfing

Fat guys like me don’t like the ocean. Something about sharks and whales that might consider me as one lost and try to reclaim me