lowballing

mario said:
i looked at the guys rigs thats washing houses here for 99.00, 6 trucks, no ladders, cant even see his little pressure washers in the back. no brushers, no tanks ,just little trucks that haul ass. To cheap a$$'es and broke a$$'es. no trailers hauling heavy stuff around. just hauling ass and making cash. hes been in buisness 6 years.
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I still rather drag my big ass trailer across the state and make myself $15,000 in 5 days then jerk off around town for pennies...:rolleyes:
 
DustinC said:
Don't market to people who shop on price.
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I have a question. How do you define areas or customers that don't shop by price? I have quoted work in some very nice neighborhoods and not got the job. I have also quoted some more modest areas and as soon as I tell the customer my price they ask when can I do the work. Some of the cheapest people I have seen have been in areas where you would think they would appreciate and pay for quality work.

I see the same thing with commercial work. There are some stores around me that I know have cleaning contracts but the work is so bad you wonder why they just don't do it at all. Whats the point of paying someone half of what a good contractor would charge if the work is so poor you can hardly tell that any cleaning was done at all?
 
the way i see it is customers usually get two to three estimates, what is the reason for this? surely not to pay the highest price!
 
The Cleaner said:
Good for you!! Go ahead and sell yourself and your future short.:rolleyes: It takes time in this business to build up a great reputation, it does'nt take long at all to ruin one..you will never make it legally in this field if you charge prices that you are quoting, good luck, let me know when your selling your equipment, i can use a good pressure washer to wash my truck with.:D
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customer qoute...

" eco clean was the most prompt in contacting me to see the house and provide an estimate. He was flexible as far as scheduling and we had a pleasant experience working with him. He made a significant difference in the appearance of our gutters, especially. He was also mindful not to disturb the bird's nest under our porch! Although he wasn't the lowest bid, we still went with him and were glad that we did. I would highly recommend him to others."


Thanks the cleaner!!! your opinion concerning my future is not that important i dont even know you:confused:... the opinions of my customers do!i was only trying to understand my competition. not just cry about it. since you are so concerned i will let you know how i advertise next year and how it turned out. yea sell my equipment:D hahaha what a lil cocky thing to say!!!
you must think your something special... i guess??
 
pressurepros said:
Let us know how that works out for you.. LOL

PS: Your way-off mentality and model fails to account for the marketing you will need to do.. Your cost estimates aren't even close.. work smart, not hard. I'm trying to save your business here.
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i accounted
depreciation+ misc overhead=$10-15 per job..... not a scientific formula but thought it was a conservative guess?? so what do you pay per job? i have never been enlightened by your extensive business saving acumen in the past ken? still here..hard to take anything constructivly from someone who starts the post with a such wiseass response???

"Let us know how that works out for you.. LOL"
 
It is what it is, JP.. been around business (goin on about 20 years) all of my adult life. You have to understand, I've seen a thousand guys not use the sense the good lord gave them, not listen to the advice that people gave them and become a part of the 95% of businesses that fail in the first five years. One either comes around or they don't. Your success or failure is not my concern.. you're right there.. so I won't bore you with facts.

I don't waste my time anymore sugar coating responses to foolish threads on the internet. I have nothing against you personally. I don't even know who you are. Join up on TGS and look through the business and marketing sections.. you may pick something up. Depreciation and overhead... how about customer acquisition cost? How about company profit? The list goes on and on.

Mike FP, wanna know the real statistic? One in 20 people actually gets three estimates. Thats a stall tactic that means you're presentation was lacking somewhere.
 
pressurepros said:
It is what it is, JP.. been around business (goin on about 20 years) all of my adult life. You have to understand, I've seen a thousand guys not use the sense the good lord gave them, not listen to the advice that people gave them and become a part of the 95% of businesses that fail in the first five years. One either comes around or they don't. Your success or failure is not my concern.. you're right there.. so I won't bore you with facts.

I don't waste my time anymore sugar coating responses to foolish threads on the internet. I have nothing against you personally. I don't even know who you are. Join up on TGS and look through the business and marketing sections.. you may pick something up. Depreciation and overhead... how about customer acquisition cost? How about company profit? The list goes on and on.

Mike FP, wanna know the real statistic? One in 20 people actually gets three estimates. Thats a stall tactic that means you're presentation was lacking somewhere.
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ken, where did you get the statistics from concerning how many estimates people actually get before contracting with someone? im speaking from my own experience from what i see not from what statistics tell me, if even any exist on this subject. i would like to see these statistics if they do exist. also for the record i said 2 or 3 estimates. now bring on the statistics!
 
DOG said:
I'm still here D%$@.... over a year now.:rolleyes:
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Since you brought it up I was wondering how much growth you have seen in sales over the last year, we have see a 200% growth due to some large commercial contracts and next year looks to be the best yet. Nick "The Cleaner" is always on his game as well, we have seen sooooo many come and go you have to excuse the bluntness that we may have from time to time.
 
no problem Spence,not tracking growth.. way to small time for that I don't have one commercial account yet..

I'm still paying my dues, my time will come..I am still the highest ranking contractor on service magic and have yet to have an unsatisfied customer..

I will never quit... I don't owe a soul for the equipment I have acquired and its almost to commercial level...though I am the little guy in my market, big time playas are very nervous of me...they have tried many underhanded BS tactics to undermine my ability's....

I was just trying to figure out the competitions methodology in this thread and was bashed ... i extend a hand to both ken and nick to forget about all interpretations of all postings made in this thread...
Thx Russ and Ron for your efforts...i will continue lurking now
 
Ken I too have to wonder about that 1 in 20 thing today. I"m not starting a debate here, but lately it's been that here in my area. I've honestly had more problems in the really high rent districts than in the middle areas. Some of this could matter where plants have closed/are closing and such now. I don't have the statistics but I can tell you this. I've seen more "price shopping" this year than last year in the "high dollar areas" than ever before. I'm actually having an ok spring compared to last year (well if the weather would ever change) but ya here people are shopping around.'

I'm yet to come in as the lowest bid but I've lost a few in the last few weeks cause I was the highest. I"ve had several "yearly" people flat out cancel that I've done for 3 or 4 years now cause of plant lay-offs. I had two larger jobs lined up for spring that canceled. I don't think they got someone else but just flat ain't getting it done. (these are all 250.000 plus homes). On another note, the middle areas are upping the bucks for work now. People that never even thought of getting guttering done up are paying the extra for it. Oh well just my experiences here....YMMV.
 
I think many of the low ballers are new to the industry and are really not aware of the correct pricing of the jobs they are doing.
They were prob working before they started spraying water at a job making just over minimum wage which = $300 a week ( to just have a number).......so in their minds they are looking at - if I can clean 4 houses a week at $99 I have given myself a raise......LOL
They are missing the big picture. And the first time they have equipment malfunction are out of business cause they have nothing in reserve for the repair cost.
My opinion.
 
Running ads are great but your business should be a lot of referrals also. Most of my customers want my service because they knew I care and took time out of my day to give them an honest in person estimate. Also explain little things the last guy never mentioned. Even though the last guy was gonna wash the gutters did he mention it or make sure he rinsed the sidewalks back off. Just being friendly and honest ppl will ususally go with who they liked and not worry about the extra 25 or 50 bucks when they can get service. But then again this is only my forth year.
 
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