I feel like I got hit by a train

[juniorc82]

Cleaned residential and rentals with the helper from 8am to 4pm on friday, took a 2 hour nap got up loaded the trailor and worked from 8pm - 9am at a retail store doing vct maintenance. I freakin hate the all nighters. No matter how hard I try to schedule around it ,my customers seem to have radar as to when I am gonna be the most physicly exhausted then demand that we come at that very moment. After resting yesterday and waking up still a little bit sore in the legs and back this morning I am less than excited about a porn shop that is scheduled to have their floor scrubbed and recoated tonight. Maybe I will post some pics lol. Im only 30 and cant imagine working like this till I retire. I think it may be time to raise prices some and look at hiring a second helper so Im not going balls to the wall like this.

 

[Becker]

Most people do not survive a collision with a train. So could yourself lucky.

 

[Jimmy L]

Either you have on call some people who can work at a moments notice or you really need to step back and decide which battles you choose.

I was one of those who thought he could do it all and took on everything I could.

But the wife stepped in and said you are never home and either you choose or I am leaving.

I always love the hunt but there are times when I love laying on the porch waiting for my master to come home from "her" work.

ArF ArF Arf!

 

[Steve Toburen]

Im only 30 and cant imagine working like this till I retire.

That is why God created something called "employees", Jon. You don't need a "second helper" since that implies they will be "helping" YOU.

Steve Toburen
www.SFS.JonDon.com

PS Now I absolutely know the challenges of getting to "Critical Mass" in your business as in the business can run with you or without you thanks to full time employees who work on "auto pilot". (Is there such a thing?) So in your transition period look for quality, ON CALL part time employees that you will train AND that can do the job without you. (Sorry, but I cut my teeth in this business doing VCT floors and it isn't exactly rocket science.)

I assume you are making really, really good money doing this all night stuff, Jon. So pay your on-call people really well too. Jeff Cutshall in his encap routes pays his part time help 25% of gross. So if your on-call guy is cranking out 125.00 per hour or more (and he should be or either he is dogging it or you are seriously under-bidding the job) than he'll be making thirty bucks or more per hour. In most parts of the country that is seriously good coin for a part time gig. (In Santa Cruz 30 bucks an hour isn't even minimum wage.)

I did many a 24 hour shift back in my start-up days. Am I "too good" for this stuff? Of course not. I'll do anything legal to provide for my family. But for most of us pushing a rotary floor machine around a VCT floor at 3:30 AM simply isn't our "highest and best use" in growing our company.

 

[Art Kelley]

You'll be all right after a good sleep. It's amazing how much workload the body can take if you fuel it and rest it properly. Don't let anyone tell you you can't do it. I do it and will continue to do it for a few more decades. Sometimes it gets ugly and you feel like Leon Spinks after getting mugged and waking up naked with your teeth missing in an 8 mile motel room. But amazingly you recover.

 

[floorguy]

hummmm why are the stores letting you in to do floors??? Other then to buff...

Most places had to much crap on their floor for the holidays...

and was this a lock in???


SCREW THOSE

 

[juniorc82]

My current assistant is more than capable of doing several tasks on his own . With this said he is a student teacher and will be leaving for grad school in NYC in a year or so , with this in mind I dont want to dish out the money to turn him into a lead tech if I will be losing him. On the other hand a year in the cleaning industry is somewhat of an eternity and I do feel obligated to make the most out if while I have reliable help. I will probley let him rock the back up truckmount on some rentals tthis summer on his own and maybe hire a new helper and maybe groom the new guy for my current helpers depature. The situation with having a "helper" is becomin insufficiant. Their are alot of jobs that are strating to become a neusance that a well trained assistant could take on alone. For example running an auto scrubber in a retail store and dust mopping doesnt require a master floor tech. I should make him lay finish in the adult book store tonight as I can live without having small talkm with the creepy manager who reminds me of gilbert godfreed

 

[GCCLee]

My current assistant is more than capable of doing several tasks on his own . With this said he is a student teacher and will be leaving for grad school in NYC in a year or so , with this in mind I dont want to dish out the money to turn him into a lead tech if I will be losing him. On the other hand a year in the cleaning industry is somewhat of an eternity and I do feel obligated to make the most out if while I have reliable help. I will probley let him rock the back up truckmount on some rentals tthis summer on his own and maybe hire a new helper and maybe groom the new guy for my current helpers depature. The situation with having a "helper" is becomin insufficiant. Their are alot of jobs that are strating to become a neusance that a well trained assistant could take on alone. For example running an auto scrubber in a retail store and dust mopping doesnt require a master floor tech. I should make him lay finish in the adult book store tonight as I can live without having small talkm with the creepy manager who reminds me of gilbert godfreed

Paradise ?

There used to be one in Springfield, not even with blinders bro!

Chris

 

[juniorc82]

Paradise ?

There used to be one in Springfield, not even with blinders bro!
but
Chris

no its called cirilla's its more of a boutique and costume shop. definateley not as raunchy as some of the other ones out there but they have weird hours and the only time I can get in there is late at night. The good thing about my area is that it is infested with hardcore bible thumpers so even though my bid was super high they accepted it because evidently several other cleaners turned down the job because they didnt want their vans seen parked in front of the store

 

[GCCLee]

no its called cirilla's its more of a boutique and costume shop. definateley not as raunchy as some of the other ones out there but they have weird hours and the only time I can get in there is late at night. The good thing about my area is that it is infested with hardcore bible thumpers so even though my bid was super high they accepted it because evidently several other cleaners turned down the job because they didnt want their vans seen parked in front of the store

I know the feeling about the Bible Belt. Pole Dancing on about everyother corner, only a few booktores at the time though. I knew to much too young.

Good on you for looking through it and proffiting, evil lurks within those walls homie.

 

[mcatt]

I hear you. I don't do night work anymore because hated it

 

[ACE]

I’m proud of you Jon. If everyone had your work ethic the world would be a better place. You will grow your company into something great. It all takes time and you must take on some undesirable work temporarily to take it to the next level. You will find a way to make those accounts run smooth and profitably or replace them with something better.

 

[Becker]

Did 6 jobs today and feel fantastic.

I don't miss the days I mixed late night comm with res work.

 

[juniorc82]

Did 6 jobs today and feel fantastic.

I don't miss the days I mixed late night comm with res work.

Im glad you feel great. I must point out that there is a diferance between "late night work" and "all night work" If you dont do alot of vct work its a nasty beast of a job at times. And the night I described on this thread I worked almost 24 hours straight/ I think too many nights like that could even break the will of the most commited owner ops

 

[hogjowl]

I would have been one of those cleaners who would not have wanted his van seen at such a place.

I don't clean stip clubs or abortion mills either.

But, somebody has to clean those places and I hope you made good money while you were doing it.

 

[Connor]

I would have been one of those cleaners who would not have wanted his van seen at such a place.

I don't clean stip clubs or abortion mills either.

But, somebody has to clean those places and I hope you made good money while you were doing it.

I had one call to an abortion clinic years ago, my former secretary sent it to the competition without even saying a word, she knew I wouldn't take it. I probably won't work for the GBI crime lab morgue anymore either.

A "sports pub" called one morning wanting service, but it was actually for the strip club next door. The owner said it was hard to get service there.

 

[juniorc82]

most of the couples I saw in there where middle age married couples. you could hear just as much filth and vulgaruty at any bar or tavern on a friday night

I would have been one of those cleaners who would not have wanted his van seen at such a place.

I don't clean stip clubs or abortion mills either.

But, somebody has to clean those places and I hope you made good money while you were doing it.

 

[Goldenboy]

Coret keep up the good work. Cleaning in strip clubs could put you u p in the Top Ten for Nationally Ranked Carpet Cleaners. You are making jiMmY very jealous.


Golden Boy