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The Wash Bros Podcast
Join The Wash Bros, Matt Jackson and Clay Smith, as they talk friendship, business, and how working together as owner/operators of competing businesses has helped them achieve even greater success.
The Wash Bros Podcast
Season 2: Episode 7: Pressure Washing Myths That Are Costing You Money
The Wash Bros, Matt Jackson and Clay Smith, pull back the curtain on the pressure washing industry's most expensive myths in this eye-opening episode. With nearly a decade of combined experience and millions in revenue between them, they're uniquely qualified to separate fact from fiction when it comes to building a successful pressure washing business.
Rather than chasing the latest equipment trends or following questionable advice from online "gurus," Matt and Clay emphasize that true business growth comes from solid marketing strategies and professional branding. They share their firsthand experience of building six-figure businesses with basic equipment while watching competitors struggle despite having all the fancy gadgets.
One particularly costly myth they debunk is the drone pressure washing craze. Despite viral videos making the rounds on social media, Matt and Clay reveal that nearly none of the successful pressure washers they know actually use drones in their daily operations. The $40,000 investment simply doesn't translate to consistent revenue for most businesses.
The brothers also tackle the dangerous misconception that being the cheapest bidder is necessary for winning commercial work. Instead, they highlight how professionalism, proper branding, and asking smart questions about payment terms will land more profitable jobs than rock-bottom pricing ever could. Their practical advice on approaching commercial clients and establishing payment expectations alone could save listeners thousands in delayed payments and cash flow headaches.
Whether you're just starting out or looking to scale your existing pressure washing operation, this episode delivers actionable insights that will help you focus your resources where they truly matter. Stop falling for expensive industry myths and start building a business that generates consistent profit.
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What's up, guys? It's Matt Jackson and Clay Smith and we're the Wash Bros. Welcome to episode 7, where we're going to be talking about what are some common myths that are costing you money in pressure washing. Talking about what are some common myths that are costing you money in pressure washing. And if you've been around for a while, you are aware of these myths just from whether you have personal experience or you're on YouTube and you see all the algorithms talking about the different myths. But what we're going to do here is kind of talk about three big things that we commonly see that are holding you back in your business, and we're going to talk about them and discuss why they're myths and why it's not true. So you want to kick this thing off, clay.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Talk about the myths, my favorite. I love it because so many people out there are following the gurus on the internet and we all know that anybody can be anybody they want to be on the internet. So, yeah, the myth, I think, is a great topic for this episode, especially going into spring. Yeah, the myth, I think, is a great topic for this episode, especially going into spring. First off, I want to thank everybody that's been listening to our podcast, episode 7. It's awesome.
Speaker 2:We've had some great engagement with this Spotify, apple Podcast all over our platforms. On every platform we have, we've had some good engagement. So you guys must be liking what we have to say. So we appreciate you all following. If you have any questions, please comment on one of our videos. Leave us some reviews on these platforms please. That helps us with algorithm and all of that. So we want to keep reaching out to people like you guys that are listening. But, yeah, myths, man myths. That's so crazy that we came up, because I've just been looking at some of these forums on the Internet about the gurus and a lot of the newer guys in our industry seem to think they know a lot of things that the gurus have taught, but some of the stuff is almost ass backwards, I feel like, and and I think that's why we kind of started this, this podcast yeah, no doubt, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we started the podcast because we're tired of seeing the youtubers and the gurus who aren't pressure washing. Talk about pressure washing to sell you new guys and uh, novices on what you need to do and what you don't need to do.
Speaker 1:When you look at the businesses of these guys and they've never been anything more than usually a chuck in the truck, or they had a year of pressure washing business and that failed. And now they're here spewing these myths. Whether or not they mean to or not, they're keeping you down if you believe in them.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. With our experience, and what, uh, almost 10 years experience put together in this business, um, we've probably made what a few million dollars together yeah, easy since then?
Speaker 2:easy, yeah, since then, doing this, uh, pressure washing, soft washing, house washing, exterior cleaning, we have done many things and experimented with many things outside of listening to, um, the gurus and stuff like that. And I just think it's something that a lot of people are afraid to talk about, and I think that me and another fellow online, um, you know, we kind of went back and forth on the internet a couple of days ago and he seemed to be caught up in all the fancy equipment. So the big you know a lot, of, a lot of the myths of, oh, you got to have this, you got to have that, you got to have this. Well, that's not necessarily true. So when I first started, I had two and a half gallon a minute machine. Obviously I maxed that out. We burn up three and just a matter of like six months. So after that I quickly realized I needed a four gallon a minute machine, which is your standard uh, start out option, uh, pressure washer. So we bought a four and a guy four gallon machine and we were able to do almost $150,000 that year.
Speaker 2:So outside of, you know, you don't have to have the fancy softwash system for 50, 60, $70,000 trailer from AC or who's the other guys, heath and all of them. You don't need to spend all those gadgets or whatnot. That's their job. That's the facility. They're awesome to have, don't get me wrong. They're cool to have, but that's not what makes you money. What makes you money is a successful marketing plan. So you got to make sure you put that marketing plan together. You cannot whatsoever be scared of spending money and investing on yourself. That's one of the biggest things that I got caught up in. When I first started, I didn't have any money and I was scared to keep dumping money back into my business because all I was worried about was making money. Stop worrying about making money. Put a good marketing plan together and dump a ton of money into it, but make sure you're successful at it first.
Speaker 1:Obviously, don't just dump into it, but follow what's best for you, for you and your business exactly and, from my experience with the branding side of things, once you lock down that brand, what you once you lock down like what your business means to you and how you're going to spread it to the world then you can put all the money you want into that marketing piece. And clay did a really good job with, like, his branding and making that message really clear and resonate well with people, and then he just started dumping money into it and he's really has taken a large chunk out of the market just from doing that. And uh, instead of people, people will go to the store and spend $5,000 on a eight gallon a minute machine with all these fancy accessories, but they're afraid to spend $5,000 on Google ads when one's making money and one's not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or or whatever. It doesn't matter what kind of marketing strategy you want to do I mean, put more signs out, whatever but I guarantee you, if you're at a hundred thousand dollars a year with an eight gallon a minute machine, you do not need that eight gallon a minute machine. You can literally go back down to a four and you should have never upgraded to begin with, because you're probably thinking, hey, if I got this eight gallon a minute machine, then I'm going to make more money. You're not going to make more money if you don't have the work.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and you get a bigger machine. You need to be. You're able to go through more work faster, so you better have plenty of work rolling in yeah, perfect example.
Speaker 2:Uh, today we went um, took one of my guys with me, we did three thousand dollars worth of work, took two trucks. Don't always happen like this. This is like a perfect morning and we took two trucks, we made three thousand dollars and some commercial work and we were home by 11 o'clock, left the house at seven and was back home by 1130. So, um, obviously, the eight gallon machine they make money, but if you don't have the work to make the money, then you're you, you've already you've. You've just you've skipped a step in your business.
Speaker 1:You're thinking backwards.
Speaker 1:You're buying the fanciest equipment without having the jobs in place or without knowing how to get we're so fixated on trying to get the jobs done and knowing how to clean something or get the work done in a quickly manner, but we don't understand how to fill the schedule in a quickly manner and we don't understand how to put jobs on the books in a fast, efficient manner. It's like our focus should be hey, let's plow forward as much as we do with cleaning into getting our, our business, built up and getting that schedule full. What, like Clay and I, we always talk like we're at that point in the season where you have like $30,000 of work over our head. So, yeah, that's a good problem to have. The problem is now shifting into like how am I going to knock this down as fast as I can to put more money on the books, logistics, logistics. And then it's like oh man, we're rocking and rolling. Like you said, he made three grand by the time I woke up today, which is awesome. And then it's like hey, we know that we can efficiently clean stuff.
Speaker 1:The next level in business if you're wanting to be successful is how can I get work, how can I fill that schedule and kind of push my logistics? Every time, every month, you're like okay, how can I spend a little bit more on marketing, or how can I try to land bigger jobs and projects here and there so I can fill that schedule up even more. It's less about oh man, how am I going to clean this huge building? It's going to be. How am I going to get that next building on the schedule for this month too? And that's kind of a reframe that that you and I like to do. We're not chasing oh. I'm stressed about this huge project I got to knock out in a week or two. It's more. How can I get another?
Speaker 2:one of those, absolutely. Once I've booked one, I'm already trying to book the next one. So, yeah, it's, it's awesome. Don't get me wrong, though. The equipment helps a ton. It's great. All the gadgets are cool, love all of it. I'm fascinated with it myself, but I'm more fascinated in trying to find work, coming up with a successful marketing plan. Where can I throw my money to make more money? It's almost like being a financial planner initially, I mean, or you know, working the stock market, but it's your business. So if you're, if you're fixated on the next little gadget that Johnny blah, blah blah that you've seen on YouTube coming out with, and you're fixated on the wrong things, you need to fixate on the business first, the business side of things, because the business side of things is what makes you money, it's not the equipment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no doubt, and as far, as the equipment goes.
Speaker 1:Know that these guys make money with selling you new equipment. They don't want you to have a piece of equipment for five years. It's like, hey, we have to constantly tell you this is the newest, best thing. We have to constantly say that works perfectly fine, but now you have to change to this. So don't get wrapped up in saying, oh, I need to have these skids set up with 10 gallons a minute on each truck, and then a 12 gallon a minute roof pump and then a lawnmower surface cleaner to get all these jobs done. And then the jobs will come like. You're being sold by these dealers who are selling you equipment, and a lot of them work with the gurus or they're in these facebook groups and they build up these groups to push their equipment, and to push this is the only way to do it. So these myths are built up so they can make money off of you, not necessarily so they can help you pressure wash.
Speaker 2:The biggest myth I think in the pressure washing industry is drone pressure washing and I get a lot of my friends and stuff and people all over the internet and Facebook and social media. They'll send me those reels of the drone cleaning the buildings or whatever me those reels on of the drone cleaning the buildings or whatever. But I don't know a pressure washer in our industry that's cleaning with a drone. Um and and this is what I tell everybody you know you can spend forty thousand dollars on a drone, but then what you're not going to clean with that drone every day it's not going to pay for.
Speaker 2:It may pay for itself, but you know if you you get lucky and land one big job. But me personally, I know probably 100 pressure washers and none of them have a drone right you can.
Speaker 1:Of the people I know that don't have drones make far more money than the people that have drones.
Speaker 1:We do have a guy local here that has a drone, but I don't see him using it much, yeah unless you're doing some massive buildings, that has no clearance from the ground to do a lift, cause we ran into this issue a couple of times when we're doing some hotels out of state and they're like, hey, can you look at this other one? And it's like on a main street and we couldn't put a lift on it because it would be a logistical nightmare. And then I could say, all right, maybe in this rare occurrence it would make sense to have a drone.
Speaker 2:Or like a skyscraper in the city or something. But still still, you still got to worry about uh the uh, overspray and all that. Where's it going? Right?
Speaker 1:That plus think of it breaking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just seems a lot, of, a lot of liability or if you hit something, or well, you know, know whatever a fancy toy. That's what it is, yeah it's just a fancy gadget that uh it, it and oftentimes just distracts us. Yes, it's cool as shit, love it cool. Yeah, that would be cool to pressure wash with a with a uh drone, but that's not gonna make me money. That's not gonna make me, uh, consistent money. I want to be consistent exactly.
Speaker 1:It's funny too, because I recently upgraded both of my machines on my trucks and we just keep it simple at the eight gallon a minute machines. We go down to georgia so we use north georgia airless and they've been with us. We've been using. We've been using them pretty much since the beginning. So I've probably bought like five or six machines off of them and, uh, they got all their fancy like 10 gallon minute plus machines and you see all these guys online they're running like a hundred gallon buffer tank in a short bed truck and they got 10, 10 gallon minute machines off of that.
Speaker 1:And logistically you and I are like how are you going to keep that thing full of water? Like, but they're like people are selling you this. Like, hey, more gallons a minute, you can knock this job out in 40 minutes versus 30 minute or 40, 40 minutes versus an hour. But then you start to think and you're like that thing's going to constantly be searching for water. Do I need this? All that? So, like, I actually did not upgrade my setups to 10 gallon machines because, oh, it's a eight gallon. Eight gallons are fine and it's one of those things where I know they're going to work. They're not super sexy, but they're just a workhorse. But I'll post stuff on social media and these guys are like, oh, is that a 10 gallon a minute machine? Because, like our surface cleaners are clean fast. And I'm like, no, it's basic a gallon machine.
Speaker 1:But the questions aren't how did you get that job? What did you do to get that job? The question is, oh, you're cleaning this thing fast. What machine is it? And you kind of notice like it's ingrained in these people oh, what's your equipment? What's your equipment? What's your equipment? The first thing they always ask is like, what's your equipment? They're not asking how did you get that job? Like, how are you growing the business? Like, where are you finding these? Everybody's always like, oh, what's, what's that equipment and how can I buy that equipment?
Speaker 2:right, right, yep, yep. I think 100 agree. And then the 10 gallon a minute machine is not. It's harder to find parts. It digs up gas. Um, when I mean parts like if you need a, a downstream injector for a 10 gallon minute machine, that's not as common as an eight gallon a minute machine downstream injector.
Speaker 2:So it doesn't pull as well, yeah, running all kind of other problems and I think it guzzles gas a little more yep so right now I'd say the eight gallon a minute machine is the most efficient one on the market, especially if you're doing a lot of residential. Uh, really good for commercial too. I haven't had any issues. And then the other thing is being the cheapest on commercial jobs. I think that's one of the biggest myths too. You don't have to be the cheapest, you need to build value in your company.
Speaker 2:Boom so when you first get started you think you got to be the cheapest. I mean, I guess, I guess you're kind of right, you got to, you got to kind of, you got to do something to try to give yourself a shot versus somebody like me or Matt that has three and 400 Google reviews online. So Google presence is very huge, social media presence very huge and build a relationship with that commercial. The whoever the whoever the decision maker is plays a big part in it.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I think too, you got to be aware of the market and aware of the factors that are in there besides just pricing, because a lot of times if somebody's looking at the bottom dollar price on, say, they're the purchaser or they're like the GC on it, they don't necessarily want to get the cheapest guy because there may be something wrong with that and it may mess up their project.
Speaker 1:It may be subpar results like there's more that, there's more than go, more than more than just pricing. That goes into this equation all the time. But like to clay's point, if you're competing against somebody like me and Clay who can be competitive because of our equipment and our knowledge and we have a team of employees, you got to know where to fit. You can't just say, oh, I'm going to, I have value, I'm going to charge more, and I see that all the time. A lot of times the opposite is true with with the newbie game, where they're charging astronomically out of the ballpark pricing because they don't know what, know what their pricing should be, and out of the ballpark pricing because they don't know what, know what their pricing should be and I'm like, yeah, 30 cents a square, it's not going to win any commercial cleaning there, buddy.
Speaker 2:But well, they have also seen that that stuff online.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Uh, the guru stuff, exactly. Um, and the biggest thing I see with the gurus online is uh, today they will say they did this amount and that you should charge this amount. But then when they come out and they say, okay, this is what I made for the year, none of their numbers ever add up and usually they're way lower than you'd expect correct.
Speaker 2:Especially going off of these high, crazy prices. It's almost like they're setting us up for failure. So just be careful who you're listening to. I'm not saying uh-and-so, I'm not calling out anybody. It's just there's a lot of misinformation going around and I feel like it's appropriate to kind of address it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and think too, if these guys are watching, especially if they're in your space, they're going to tell you stuff because they want to set you up for failure. If they're bidding against you and I see this a lot on the Facebook groups People will post hey, this is what I'm looking at today, like what should I quote it at? And they're posting their numbers or they're posting the location of these things and somebody could easily figure out who the decision maker is and come in and undercut you. So if you're posting when you're in the process of bidding a job that's a big commercial job or something be aware that people are probably seeing a post that you're posting about and I will try to come in and undercut you or they will try to steal that from you.
Speaker 2:So it's almost one of those things keep, keep your cards close and that happens, that really does happen. I mean that I. I mean I I wouldn't ever snake anybody and anybody in our area knows that. But I mean, if I can travel two hours and make a few grand, I'm going to do it, you know. So don't put it past anybody, especially if they're asking where you're at and what you're doing and how you're doing it, what you're quoting, because they'll show up to that place if they ain't got nothing to do and they're hungry for work. So there's always someone out there that's hungrier than you are.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 1:And again, business is about playing to win.
Speaker 1:Never want to do it in a bad way, but I feel like if you're a competitive guy and you want to grow a business and you're saying, hey, there's skin in the game, I want to get what I can get, and I'm not saying be dirty about it, but understand that there's nothing hurtful about somebody like trying to bid on something that you're bidding on, because we're all in the same space and I see people get butthurt about stuff like that. But that's where you need to know your numbers and know what works for your business. I know like we'll bid on stuff all the time and I'm assuming we probably bid on commercial stuff all the time together too and like I'll work for like the city of Greer here and there, and then you quote them last year and then they follow up with you again this year and it's like who are they talking to? Are they trying to drive both of our prices down to the bottom to get the best bid? And that's probably not just a residential thing, that's commercial and all of the above Because-.
Speaker 2:Ain't nobody loyal.
Speaker 1:Ain't nobody loyal.
Speaker 1:The hose ain't loyal no, not at all that's why you don't underbid yourself, you don't put yourself in a hole or say you, oh, I want to do whatever it came to win this job, and then you're regretting it doing it. And that's like you're never going to lose if you put, hey, this is how much my business takes to run smoothly and this is the profit margin that I need for this job or a residential job, and then so if I get it, I'm not regretting that I get it and I think people try to win a job that's commercial. And then you're like man, this is, I could have better used my trucks in a cleaning, soft washing a 3000 square foot house for two days. Then I could have in these things parked here. So, like, understand your numbers on each job, job and and then as you get past the whole like beginner stage, you don't really quote on pricing. So you want to quote based upon, like, how efficient you are, how much time it's going to take, and understand the market rate.
Speaker 1:And that's how, because, like I'll talk to clay and and those, there'll be guys bidding on like apartment complexes or condos and they're pricing it purely based on a square foot number. And I know I ran a townhouse community, a townhome community by Clay, and he's like oh, you should have done this. And I was like well, I was pricing it on square footage and my square footage of that was like 7 cents a square. And you're like no, you got to price those by building at like a hundred bucks a building. So it's one of those things. It's like all right, well, Per unit.
Speaker 2:Per unit, yeah, exactly, yeah, charge them by the unit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's something I didn't know.
Speaker 2:So that's like where our communication helps out, because if I'm just basing it on square footage, I'm nowhere close to the ballpark that I need to be yeah, and that was something that I learned from a local competitor that's no longer in the area anymore, but anyway, um, yeah, and another thing with the commercial bids I have, I've had a lot of hoas, uh, townhome communities, neighborhoods, a lot of commercial stuff, and they'll say, well, I gotta get three bids. Okay, great, if you're looking for the cheapest one, you might as well throw mine out, because I'm not going to be your cheapest. I don't plan on being your cheapest, but I want to provide great value to you. I want to give you a good quality job and I want to make sure that you're happy and follow up with you when it's done.
Speaker 1:A lot of guys are're going to say okay, and then they're not going to come back out and they're not going to follow up with you and they're not going to. They're going to get their money and they're going to run. Yep, you would be surprised how many people will choose us, because we're a little bit more expensive but we look more professional and they got burned the last time.
Speaker 1:I've had countless people. They're like well, you're not the cheapest I got. I got my guy last year, messed stuff up and I wasn't happy, so I'm spending an extra 100 bucks to have you guys do it the right way and they get burnt by that person yeah, they get burnt by that cheap person. They see, I go with somebody who's got reviews and may charge a little bit more money, but at least I'm not gonna have a bad taste in my mouth correct.
Speaker 2:I found it that, uh, you know, the first couple years of business I was, I was just in a my regular unmarked truck pulling a trailer. But then when I got that wrapped truck, I could see a difference in the customers and how confident they were in hiring me. As is, you know, when I was just looked like another neighbor in the neighborhood pulling a trailer with a tank on it, it seemed like people asked a lot more questions. That way I didn't look as professional very nice, clean truck, clean trailer, whatever. At the time I really didn't know any better.
Speaker 2:But as I kept growing my business and I put a wrap on my truck okay, I still have my trailer. And then I got my skid and now I hardly get asked any questions. They're like okay, here's my water. Uh, hook up, go ahead, get work, let me know when you're done. As if before it was, they wanted to ask 20,000 questions before you get started because they were a little bit nervous about who they had just hired to come out to wash their home. So professionalism goes so far.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 1:And that professionalism isn't just what you say and do you know how to pressure wash and the technical?
Speaker 1:And that's where kind of like back to what we're talking about earlier this episode.
Speaker 1:People are so fixated on an eight or ten gallon minute machine or a soft wash pump that they'll have 30 grand in the back of their trailer, but they're pulling it on an unmarked truck they're pulling it with and they don't look like a business. It's like instead of spending all that money on the super efficient machines and equipment, spend that money on your brand and build that business up. So people look at you as a business and they don't look at you just as an owner operator and say, oh, I wonder what he does on the. I wonder what he does during the week, because he's out here on a Saturday and he's probably doing this on the side or this is a part-time gig for him. Like. People view you completely differently if they say this guy is all out in his business and it's not him, it's a business. Whether you're running the truck yourself or you got employees. They're like this is a business I'm, I'm hiring and I'm not hiring just some guy well, yeah, like I say, it gives them.
Speaker 2:It gives them so much more confidence and the money. Like you I think that was a great point you're spending $30,000 on a trailer but nobody even knows who you are riding down the road. You can make so much more money if you do. I mean, we have more than I have, more than what I need on my skid from C3 skids and obviously we buy from North Georgia Airless too, but I have way more than I need and you know, 20 to $25,000 is all I need. So and it's honestly probably too much more than I need. I just kind of spoiled myself a little bit with the electric reels and all that mess. But, yeah, just just be a little smarter making decisions. The money is in the business, it's not in the equipment and a lot of people get fixated in that and, um, I think that's just something great that we addressed into this episode. And yeah, like I say, just get it. Get ahold of that decision maker with the commercial work.
Speaker 2:Commercial work is a whole nother ball game. You got to price it differently. It's you, you gotta, you gotta. Come into figuration. You're going to get that 1099 at the end of the year. You got to make sure you have the proper insurances, the liability if something happens, because stuff's a lot more expensive on a commercial building or facility, whatever you're cleaning and it. Another thing is one of the first things I ask is okay, when I would love to do this job for you and some people may think this is unprofessional, but this ties a play into how I'm pricing things uh, the first thing I ask is hey, when am I gonna get paid?
Speaker 1:I mean, that's a very important thing in commercial, because I know you've run into these issues, matt, where you do a what a fifteen thousand dollar job and you have to wait three months for the check, exactly and that's that that should be factored into just considering whether or not you want to do the job if, if you're like, hey, this is gonna eat up a lot of my time in a busy season where I could make more money doing residential, get paid under the table essentially or not not get paid with a 10, 10, 99 and I know I'm gonna get paid that same day, versus get strung out over something that's going to take three months to get paid and that hurts your, that hurts your cashflow and that's like you were saying. That's something I learned last year with constantly having like 40 or $50,000 in accounts receivable where you're like man, this is, this is tough. I know I got the money but it's not in my bank account when I need it. So that's a very that's a good thing that I'm going to take from clay.
Speaker 1:Uh, when I do these jobs say, hey, look, when are we getting paid? What is your terms? And that's that's not unprofessional, I think. I think that's actually professional if you're just doughy eyed and saying, yeah, sure I'll do whatever. Give me that ten thousand dollar job and they just string you along, that'll. Uh, they're like, oh, this guy doesn't know, we don't care, we don't have to have urgency with paying it and from the start you address the urgency and say, hey, when am I getting paid? So they say, all right, this guy needs to be paid at this amount.
Speaker 2:They're going to submit the form to their accounting department so you get paid in a timely manner yeah, because you got to think most of these guys are just sitting behind a desk, they don't care, they're just. They're just trying to check off a checklist, like okay, I was told that I had to get this done and I'm going to find the guy to do it.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:The person hiring you more than likely is not in charge of writing your check.
Speaker 2:So the next thing I do is I get a hold of the person in charge of writing the check and then I say, hey, I just did some pressure washing, just wanted to get an update on the on the payment to our company so that I can be looking for it. One simple little message will speed up the whole process so that you're top of mind with that person. And what I normally do is I do follow up every week, a week, a week and a half, and say, hey, just following up again if I haven't heard from him. But nine times out of 10, I hear from that person within a few days and they tell me when the check's in the mail or we make some other arrangement. So we get a lot fixated on the wow, I just closed a $20,000 job. But if you don't get paid for however long, and you're stuck on that job for two weeks when you could have been cleaning residential houses or whatnot, then you're kind of going at, you're kind of screwing yourself at that point.
Speaker 1:Yep, and that's kind of a realization I've made, just being selective on things and saying oh, you look online. No myth. It's like get into commercial, that's where all the money's made. You got to be smart with it. Like you had a great job today where you made really good money in a short amount of time and you do other good jobs where you've got these like really favorable commercial jobs. But there's a lot of them that aren't the greatest.
Speaker 1:Whether you think you need to be chasing the bottom dollar to get the job or you're not aware of how long it's going to take to get paid. Like there's a lot more to consider when it comes to commercial work than there is with residential work. So if you go about it, make sure you're going about it smart, you're asking the right questions and that way you're saving yourself versus having a headache down the road when, like in my situation, you weren't getting paid in like three to six months, which is like completely unacceptable. But since I didn't start the conversation correctly from the beginning, I own that as a mistake and I learned, and I hope you guys take that lesson of my failing in the past and then you don't have to deal with it yourselves, because it's not a fun place to be in when you're just getting sent to voicemails and emails are going unopened and all that crap.
Speaker 2:And the biggest thing is not letting people forget about you. Like I say, stay top of mind. It helps so much. I mean, that's just where it's at. But I had a GC reach out to me actually this week. I'm glad you brought that up. Sometimes they're just not worth it. I had a GC reach out to me this week. We were modding on a car wash and it was a $5,200 job, I think that's what it was. It was a big ticket. And the guy said I'm good with money, when can you do it? And I'm like, uh, I don't think I can do it for a few days at least. You know, just just trying to. He hit me on a spot just trying to figure out logistics in my head. Well, he wanted it done same day or the next day and I said that's not going to happen. So sometimes it hurts a little bit but it's just not worth it.
Speaker 1:And then as you, as you grow this into more of a business, then just like that transaction hustle that a lot of guys start out as where you're like, oh, I'm every job, like you got to view like the total health of your business. So okay, it's going to take X amount of time to do it. I'm going to have to move this many people off of my schedule and piss off this many people. How much is that worth? What's the time?
Speaker 2:What's that relationship with those customers to you worth? And and then this guy's going to pay me in what? Two weeks? I don't think so.
Speaker 1:So it's well, not only that factor, it all probably, more than likely, a lot, of, a lot of these people that are like call me, it's like a rush is hurried. I never talked to them again and I've reached out. I follow up and they just don't respond back.
Speaker 2:Well, not only that, it's a red flag to me that it's going to be a headache later on.
Speaker 1:Exactly, I think too. It's like a gut thing. You've got to trust your gut. If your gut's like this guy's, an asshole, you probably shouldn't go into business with him.
Speaker 2:Right, 100%. Yeah, so we've talked about the myths. You don't have to be the cheapest to get the commercial job. The hot tickets are not impossible to get and commercial work is another uh animal. And then the fancy equipment. Don't get it. Don't get uh fixated on the fancy equipment and fancy gadgets before thinking about your business first.
Speaker 1:Yep, and it's pretty good I think that touched on everything uh, if you guys don't know, I have I have my uh old book. I made, uh no pressure pressure washing. Got around 300 uh reviews on amazon for this thing, so I try to keep it up in the top. If you search pressure washing books on amazon, it's up up there and uh, but my point was this was like what I started with. Uh, let's see you can see the uh caliber out of the back of my truck and this was my uh equipment.
Speaker 2:So he was the $99 guy.
Speaker 1:I was a hundred, I was $125 guy.
Speaker 2:I was a little better than $25. Guy with the turbo tip turbo tip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's turbo tip, so that Northern tool uh, surface cleaner too, right there.
Speaker 2:Heck yeah.
Speaker 1:So I didn't have to finance a rig. I didn't. I didn't start myself in the hole and even what I learned with kind of taking on debt to grow once I had a business to like expand and have trucks and wrap trucks and just deal with payroll and all that nonsense Like it's a pain, and I incurred this while I had a strong business. So if you're brand new and you're trying to oh, I can finance this equipment because I have a good credit score and it's a business expense and it's a write off Try to focus on building your jobs first and building up that business. And, like Clay says, if you're doing a hundred thousand dollars a year and have an eight gallon a minute, you probably don't need to have an eight gallon a minute. You probably should be focusing on how do I grow my revenue and make more money than going through and and having all the fancy bells and whistles when you're not doing a ton of work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, we're not knocking you because you do.
Speaker 1:My thing was if you have an eight gallon a minute machine and you're only doing $100,000 a year, that just tells me that you thought about the equipment before. You thought about a pressure washing business and they don't think about the sales and marketing. You got to prioritize that sales and marketing and shaking hands and connecting and networking and then building that reputation and creating that brand so people come back to you and then you can grow that business to the point where you can say, yeah, I'm going to go down the store like Clay does and buy a skid for $30,000 in cash.
Speaker 2:And then off to the races. I got the video to prove it. If you go to my facebook, clay smith, go to reels, go to probably one of the first reels I made and there's a video of me and casey caudillo sitting there in his office counting the cash and I made that video so everybody could see it right, yeah, he's.
Speaker 2:He's a drug dealer, and the drug of choice is sh and skids he's a skid, daddy, but uh, I think, uh, if you guys are watching, I think that casey may be having a pretty stout deal coming out. Um, on his page. Make sure you go look c3 skids page. He's got a great deal coming out sometime this weekend. It may already be out. I know that sunday night and you guys are watching now, but make sure you go there and check it out and thank me later. Um, if everybody would please go, leave us a review on all of our platforms. Um, for this podcast. Appreciate you listening, as always. If you have any questions, please leave them in the live stream or the video. Um, we'd be happy to answer any questions. We're working on making our appearance to the huge convention. We'd love to meet all of you. And then, uh, what else you got?
Speaker 1:matt uh, nothing much. Just hopefully everybody's in a good season. Uh, dropping this thing, it's going to be march 23rd. So where we are in south carolina, pollen's everywhere. So I don't know if you guys are in similar situations if you're in the south, but, like when pollen coats everything, everybody's just waiting until it's over and then, once it's over, it's just balls to the wall. But with clay and I we've built up enough where we're, we're balls to the wall right now. So we're all just counting our blessings and waiting for it to get super hectic and crazy and and kill the rest of this spring and summer and uh, hope everybody else is able to as well yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:We hope to see you guys. Well, we will see you guys next week, next Sunday, every Sunday. Tune in, check us out.
Speaker 1:Yep, alright, guys, I'll see everybody.
Speaker 2:Peace.
