One man operations??

Joel Hawley

Joel Hawley

New member
I have been reading and studying the info posted on this board for the last few days and have drawn a few conclusions but wanted to get som feed back from the BTDT's (that is Army lingo for Been There Done That)

Starting out I am A one man operation so from what I have read there are some jobs that it would be hard for me to make any $$ at and still be competitive, the first one that comes to mind is fleet/new car lot washing. It sounds like you need 1 man on the sprayer and 1 to 2 wiping them down (depending on the number of vehichles) in order to be cost effective.

Lets say initialy my goal is to obtain several comercial accounts and subsidize that with house/drive way cleaning. With my ultimate goal once I am up and running and have had effective advetising time to deal mostly in commercial flat work

In your opinion what is the biggest commercial or any job for that matter should a one man operation take on where he can still make $$ yet be competitive?

I will have a surface cleaner and a hot/cold water rig
 
Being an ex NAVY man your BTDT's term reminded me of what we used to say the Word NAVY stood for "N-ever A-gain V-olunteer Y-ourself".

My motto is take on any job that you think you can handle as a one man operation. I at times have a couple of part-time guys work for me but usually I am a one man operation. I have cleaned buildings to Staining 3000 sq' houses by myself. By far staining houses was the toughest thing I ever did by myself. One year I think I did at least 5 houses by myself with the average price being at least $3-$4000 per house. One house I stained that summer was on the water and it was 3-floors. IT took me almost 2 weeks to complete and the price was over $6000 for Powerwashing and Staining. I was averaging about $500/day on these Type jobs. Not bad but brutle work.

Today I won't go near Staining houses anymore but I never pass up powerwashing any type of house.

As for commercial flat work I take on anything that DOESN"T have to be reclaimed. Be prepared to work thru the night if you do Commercial Flat work and make sure you have INSURANCE!!!!!

Also your idea of mixing Comm. Flat work with doing some residential work(CASH) is a good one. This is what I do and your Goal of doing just Commercial flat work in the future is also my goal.It looks like us Military personal must think alike:)
 
Ya John, we alway said US Army stood for

Uncle
Sam
Aint
Released
Me
Yet

As far as insurance goes I wouldn't cross the street with out it, that is one quick way to throw alot of hard work out the door by not having insurance. I have $1,000,000 in liability set up I am just waiting for a couple more quotes to come. Insurance business must be real good because it is hell to get these guys to call you back.

Right now I am just itching to get out there and get after it. Get this house sold and my daughter out of school for the summer so we can get to Maryland.

What do you mean when you were talking about flat work that dosen't need to be "reclaimed" What does the term reclaim mean?

Thanks for the info
 
Water has to be reclaimed when doing some commercial jobs. Basically, you cannot allow your runoff water to enter any storm drains.........to protect the environment. It is against federal law........among other things.

There are all kinds of systems, varying in price, that you can buy to pick up your wash water. Some systems even treat the water so you can reuse it to wash with.

For more info on regulations, visit www.epa.gov
 
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