Fakers in the industry

It was 1989 and Al Gore’s wife was going around with the PMRC trying to shut down Rock music (Ozzy, Judas Priest, etc) as well was Rap music because it wasn’t decent.

So Ice T came out with Freedom of Speech. It was the first album that I bought that had the “Explicit lyrics” badge on it. “Freedom of speech, yeah but watch what you say”.

Thus the shotgun in his mouth. But apparently the internet has ruined our brains…

This was also right when NWA was about to pop off with their album and basically create a whole new genre of “Gangsta rap”.

Oh, and Judas Priest came out with their greatest album “Painkiller” around the same time - while they were being sued in court.

3 Likes

Alex I feel you on the bad week I have been having bad weeks for almost a month now. My roof system has taken almost 3 weeks to get all the parts shippe ( still missing 300ft of hose). It’s it rained 13 or 14 days straight. Weather was good for 5 day and now it’s raining again forecast say rain all week. Have done random jobs here and there. My back has been hurting on every job this year (between the bones). When I look at Facebook highrise stuff I can’t help but feel like I wish I didn’t quit my old highrise job

2 Likes

I like your story better. On the up side I went and did some route work pick up two stores gave estimates for 4 other stores said check back next month. On top of that gave to estimates for to people who saw me doing my route work. And it didn’t rain today.

3 Likes

I think there will always be someone who will say…“Business is great all the time.” That just isn’t the case in any service business. Where I live the downturn in the oilfield industry has really hurt our economy. There have been thousands of people that have lost their jobs. I have lost some clients this year. This year has been tough. I just take one day at a time. A lot of people are cutting back on their expenses. I totally understand. My family and I have cut back as well. Hopefully the oilfield will pick back up in 2017.

Mindframe has a lot to do with it, for sure. And the grass always seems greener on the other side.

… Until you realize it isn’t. Earlier this week I was clued in to the fact that the grass is pretty lush on my side of the fence.

(Now before I share this story, I just want to clarify that I mean absolutely no disrespect to Matt, who may find this post someday in the future. I’m not trying to belittle or make fun of you in any way, or gloat over my own success. This is simply to share what I learned from our exchange, and I’ve tried to leave out any details that would make it easy to identify your company)

(And my apologies for the long read)

Monday and Tuesday I was doing a big job with old storm windows, some power washing, gutter cleaning and whitening, the whole shebang. This was on a higher end lakeside community. And as I was starting out, I noticed that there was a kid cleaning windows next door. Much easier job- tilt in windows with removable muntins. It was obvious right away he didn’t know what he was doing. But he looked determined to figure it out, and I was rooting for him in my head. I figured he was the homeowner’s son, doing it for some spending money or something.

Later that morning, I find out it’s a professional team. The kid I saw was the new helper to the owner, who’s been cleaning windows longer than me.

So I go over and introduce myself. The owner was super nice to talk to, and we talked a bit about business and pricing. He told me he charges a per man/per day rate of (insert $xxx amount between $239 and $241). This particular job they were on, he had scheduled 3 days for him and his helper. So 6 man-days at $xxx/day. The job had 52 double hungs with muntins and a bit of scraping.

I realized that the job would have taken me well under 2 days solo, working at a very comfortable pace. I would have charged less and made way more money. And if not for the scraping, I would schedule one long day to bang out the whole house.

And I also realized, that for the job I was actually doing that day and the next, I was making close to what he would probably be able to take home in a week working with a helper.

So I shared a little bit of my pricing structure, my timeframe for completing a job like that, and even encouraged him to check out WCR (if you’re reading this Matt, Welcome! We should meet up sometime :smiley:. I know there’s a lot I can learn from you, with the fact that you’re already incorporated and have a background in highrise and lift work)


Learning these details about my “competition” caused a strange boost in morale for the remainder of the week. Not in an arrogant sense of, “Wow, I totally blow their socks off!”, but more like, “Hmm, last week wasn’t as bad as I thought. I’ve got my stuff together more than I think I do.”

And I’m hoping that I was able to provide some encouragement to another business owner. I would like to wish him continued growth and profitability in this profession :sunny:

11 Likes

My work car. Gonna add another one to the fleet

6 Likes

I was having my own little pity party stuck in phoenix traffic then this drove by, kinda changed my perspective a little.

Stuck in traffic and Locked up.

2 Likes

Fakers suck. Get some heights in your life.

4 Likes

Looks like fun how high up are you

576feet.

if we are all honest, we are all fakers to a degree. Some larger than others.

5 Likes

I’m Definetly faking it till I make it.:roll_eyes:

5 Likes

No really, I do have 50 employees and 27 trucks and I can clean a strip mall by myself in 30 minutes. I make $800 per hour because 600 is for suckas.

But seriously, when you’re 57 stories up, I call that legit.

1 Like

Rise & Shine Window Washers are the fakerz!

1 Like

That was great Malcolm! One of the TV shows I was willing to watch.

1 Like

I worked two hours. Tomorrow is a new day.

Happy Labor Day back at ya’. :slight_smile:

1 Like