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contents<br />
FEATURES<br />
4<br />
Virtual Reality:<br />
Pressure washing enters the<br />
video gaming realm<br />
22<br />
18<br />
Overcoming “Affluenza”:<br />
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic made us acutely aware<br />
of the dangers to our health from a virus that can’t be seen with<br />
the naked eye. But business owners face a risk from an equally<br />
contagious and invisible virus.<br />
DEPARTMENTS<br />
3 Editor’s Letter:<br />
Story Book Endings: People can choose to work for or do<br />
business with anybody they want. Why should they choose<br />
your business over your competitor?<br />
4 CONQUER Corner:<br />
Prepare your mind and business for your most successful season in <strong>2021</strong>.<br />
12 Industry Dirt:<br />
A look around the exterior cleaning world for news and notes of interest<br />
Auld Lange Syne…<br />
A ‘Lucky 7’ New Year’s Resolutions<br />
for the Pressure Wash Industry<br />
Pressure Wash News is published 4 times per year<br />
and is independently owned by Jackson Vahaly.<br />
All inquiries should be directed to:<br />
Pressure Wash News, 110 Childs Ln. Franklin, TN 37067<br />
jacksonv@pressurewashnews.com<br />
Vol. 3, No. 1, Winter <strong>2021</strong><br />
Publisher: Jackson Vahaly<br />
Editor: Drew Ruble<br />
Design: Katy Barrett-Alley<br />
Copyright © <strong>2021</strong> 2 Dollar Enterprises/Pressure Wash News. All Rights Reserved.<br />
2 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 3, NO. 1 | WINTER <strong>2021</strong>
EDITOR’S<br />
NOTE<br />
Story Book<br />
Endings<br />
It used to be that in business and<br />
sales, the key to it all was ‘meeting the<br />
customer’s needs.’ We obsessed on the<br />
simple question of ‘does our product<br />
or service meet the customer’s needs?’<br />
Well, nowadays, anyone can meet<br />
their needs and anyone can provide the<br />
benefit. The question now is can you<br />
get them to enter in to a personal relationship?<br />
Can you get them to come<br />
in to the fold? Can you get them to be<br />
part of your story?<br />
Entertainment icon Walt Disney<br />
was at a definitive crossroads in his<br />
movie production career in 1934.<br />
Both his brother (who was his<br />
business partner) and his wife were<br />
trying to talk him out of production<br />
of his “Snow White and the Seven<br />
Dwarves” concept. Industry insiders<br />
dubbed the project “Disney’s Folly,”<br />
assuming that audiences couldn’t<br />
stomach a full-length cartoon,<br />
and that adults wouldn’t pay to sit<br />
through a fairy tale. Disney even<br />
mortgaged his home to complete the<br />
then $1.5 million film as production<br />
lasted three years and took around<br />
750 artists, and nearly two million<br />
individual paintings, to complete.<br />
Amidst those obstacles, how did<br />
Disney succeed in bringing his very<br />
different version of the Grimm fairy<br />
tale to life? He gathered his storyboard<br />
artists to tell them his version of the<br />
story that he felt had been inside of<br />
him his whole life (for instance, Disney<br />
added the humor to the story, in part by<br />
naming each of the dwarves). Disney<br />
opened up to these trusted confidants<br />
and said come in to the fold, be a part<br />
of the story.<br />
The result was a huge success. The<br />
Oscar-winning movie, adjusted for<br />
inflation, remains a top-10 all-time<br />
grossing film. At the time of its 50th<br />
anniversary in 1987, the New York<br />
Times reported<br />
that “Snow White”<br />
had grossed some<br />
$330 million worldwide, and<br />
remained one of the most popular<br />
films ever made. It was also the first<br />
American film to have a soundtrack<br />
album released simultaneously with<br />
the film’s release, featuring such<br />
famous songs as “Heigh-Ho,” “Whistle<br />
While You Work,” and “Someday My<br />
Prince Will Come.”<br />
More importantly, it became the<br />
centerpiece of the Disney brand and<br />
drove enormous future change and<br />
opportunity for Disney. Had Snow<br />
White never been made, had Disney<br />
not<br />
let<br />
others in to<br />
the fold and let<br />
them be part of the<br />
story, Disney wouldn’t be the<br />
global, ubiquitous brand it is today.<br />
Here’s the bottom line: People can<br />
choose to work for or do business with<br />
anybody they want. There are lots of<br />
quality companies and providers. Why<br />
should they choose your business over<br />
your competitor? It’s relationships. And<br />
how do you get in to those personal<br />
relationships? It comes through being<br />
transparent and authentic and understanding<br />
what your story is and how<br />
to share it. Those stories in turn reveal<br />
values that connect you to customers.<br />
So what’s your story? And how can<br />
you start telling it to your customers?<br />
At a time of great turmoil stemming<br />
from Covid realities, political and social<br />
unrest, and economic challenges, it<br />
could be the key to your company’s<br />
future success.<br />
Drew Ruble<br />
drewruble@gmail.com<br />
Editor | PW News<br />
VOL. 3, NO. 1 | WINTER <strong>2021</strong> | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | 3
CONQUER<br />
Corner<br />
Want to Grow<br />
your Business?<br />
Spend more time doing the things<br />
you love? Turn the wrench on these<br />
four company systems this winter.<br />
EDITOR’S NOTE:<br />
Brandon Vaughn, Chief Strategist at<br />
CONQUER®, built his former company,<br />
Pacific Northwest-based All Clean, from<br />
a very small service company with zero<br />
employees to 70 employees and went<br />
from $8,000 per month in revenue to<br />
almost $500,000 per month in less than<br />
six seasons. Vaughn, who was awarded<br />
the 2017 S.B.A Small Business Person<br />
of the Year for the state of Oregon,<br />
now helps small business owners in<br />
the exterior service industry systemize<br />
their companies. Learn more at<br />
go.conquernow.com/apply.<br />
BY BRANDON VAUGHN<br />
“Well…it looks like we will need<br />
to reschedule Marla’s roof for another<br />
day. The moss is frozen solid...”<br />
Of course... our second call today<br />
from one of our techs, with yet<br />
another job rescheduled due to<br />
the dropping temperature of the<br />
dreaded winter season.<br />
Some years - winter proved<br />
to be a welcome relief from the<br />
madness of the year. With my season<br />
ski pass to Mt. Hood in hand, I would<br />
spend my weekdays hunting fresh<br />
powder in the backcountry.<br />
But this winter - I needed to work<br />
on something I had been putting off<br />
for quite some time.<br />
It was time to implement some<br />
systems. With our growth of this past year,<br />
a lot of things started slipping through<br />
the cracks. We experienced higher turnover,<br />
more callbacks, more stress.<br />
So, I was determined to fix some<br />
of these issues. Even with focused,<br />
diligent execution, I barely finished<br />
my systems’ projects before the<br />
winter season was over and the spring<br />
rush began.<br />
If you are feeling like I did, and<br />
want to spend some time working<br />
ON the business this winter season –<br />
here are four system-related projects<br />
you can tackle.<br />
CREATE A<br />
TRAINING SYSTEM<br />
Very few projects can have as large<br />
of an impact as building a training<br />
system that can get new hires up to<br />
speed fast in your company.<br />
Use the down season to record<br />
videos introducing new hires to your<br />
company - what your core values are,<br />
where you are going as a business, and<br />
how they can have an impact.<br />
Start by brainstorming in a Word<br />
document, and write out a rough<br />
outline of everything a new hire<br />
needs to know to be a lead tech.<br />
Focus on a few different categories<br />
like: providing a basic understanding<br />
of their tools, their supplies, your<br />
services, your vehicles, and how to<br />
perform their daily tasks.<br />
The list you end up must now<br />
go through a few different stages:<br />
from rough draft to final outline to<br />
recorded video to edited video and<br />
finally, published. Don’t worry too<br />
much about high production quality<br />
- just get it down in a rough form. You<br />
can use several different methods for<br />
storing your videos. You can put them<br />
in a learning management software<br />
program like TalentLMS, or simply<br />
drop them into a Google Drive, with<br />
some Google Forms for creating some<br />
simple tests. Just get it done.<br />
Just imagine sitting a new hire<br />
down and teaching them all the foundational<br />
basics before they even get<br />
out into the field. You will notice the<br />
overall morale of your team improve.<br />
Trainers experience less training burn<br />
out, and new hires feel more confident<br />
more quickly, which boosts retention.<br />
When we implemented a good<br />
training system, we cut down<br />
training times DRASTICALLY and<br />
could get a new lead technician up<br />
to speed working on his own within<br />
about two weeks.<br />
4 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 3, NO. 1 | WINTER <strong>2021</strong>
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CONQUER CORNER<br />
DESIGN YOUR<br />
CUSTOMER JOURNEY<br />
What does it feel like to be a client<br />
using your company for the first time?<br />
Is it white-glove and concierge-like,<br />
guiding the client through every step<br />
of the process with precise communication?<br />
Or does it feel like a cruel<br />
game of telephone tag?<br />
Use the winter time to map out<br />
every touch point a client has with<br />
your company.<br />
There are four categories of the<br />
customer journey you can work on:<br />
Lead-to-Estimate, Estimate-to-Sale,<br />
Sale-to-Service, and Post-Service.<br />
Lead to Estimate: How easy is<br />
it for a prospect to reach you?<br />
Do you have a system for never<br />
missing a phone call? Does your<br />
prospect quickly get a quote,<br />
and does your quote have a<br />
beautiful presentation quality<br />
that builds perceived value?<br />
Estimate to Sale: What kind<br />
of automated emails are you<br />
sending out that follow-up and<br />
add value to your prospect,<br />
making sure they don’t get<br />
away? What kind of nurture<br />
sequence do you have that keeps<br />
you top of mind even months<br />
after an estimate is given?<br />
Sale to Service: Are you<br />
diligently providing your client<br />
with over the top communication<br />
of when you will arrive,<br />
even providing automated<br />
reminders and on my way<br />
texts? Are you making sure to<br />
ask for referrals even before you<br />
provide service?<br />
Post-Service: Do you have<br />
an automated way to ask for<br />
reviews and referrals? Are<br />
you thanking your client and<br />
following up after service to<br />
make sure they are happy?<br />
For this project, I suggest getting<br />
out a whiteboard and post-it notes<br />
and thinking through every step of the<br />
experience as a client. This exercise<br />
will pay you back for years to come<br />
with increased revenue, higher tickets<br />
and more referrals than ever before.<br />
CREATE A<br />
MARKETING CALENDAR<br />
AND BUDGET<br />
Anyone who has built a marketing<br />
calendar understands the simple<br />
saying “Math is the Path.”<br />
Let’s say you want to grow an<br />
extra $500,000 this coming year. You<br />
can easily calculate how much you<br />
need to spend in marketing using<br />
some quick math.<br />
• $500,000 / Average Ticket =<br />
# of new jobs<br />
• # of new jobs / Your Closing<br />
Ratio = # of new leads needed<br />
• All that remains is to figure out<br />
your target Cost Per Lead.<br />
To find that out, take some time to<br />
look over how much you’ve spent in<br />
marketing over the last year and break<br />
it down into total spend per marketing<br />
channel. (For instance, social media<br />
ads, google adwords, SEO, print ads,<br />
postcards, direct mail, etc.)<br />
Take that total spend for each<br />
marketing channel and divide that<br />
into how many leads each of those<br />
channels have brought in. There’s<br />
your Cost Per Lead. Growth literally<br />
becomes a math problem.<br />
When creating a calendar, ask<br />
yourself: ‘What new channels do I<br />
want to test out for this year? What<br />
marketing campaigns can I run for<br />
each month of the year?’<br />
For instance, October is Breast<br />
Cancer Awareness Month. Maybe your<br />
technicians can wear pink shirts and<br />
you can offer matching discounts in<br />
exchange for contributions to charitable<br />
organizations. Think through your<br />
messaging and potential offers for each<br />
of the seasons - Spring Cleaning Offers,<br />
Summer BBQ Cleanup, Fall Cleanup,<br />
Winter Washing, etc.<br />
There is literally an unlimited<br />
amount of clever marketing campaigns<br />
you can run. But remember - the best<br />
marketing campaigns are ones that<br />
are planned out in advance. Take a<br />
couple days, and map out what type<br />
of marketing campaigns you believe<br />
in and can get behind.<br />
ORGANIZE YOUR<br />
COMPANY FILES<br />
Have you ever been frustrated<br />
trying to hunt down that key account<br />
file, re-ordering supplies, or retrieving<br />
those before/after photos?<br />
Get everything moved up to the cloud<br />
this winter season so every company file<br />
you have can easily be accessed by all of<br />
your key team members.<br />
I recommend Google’s G-Suite<br />
over any other cloud based platforms,<br />
for several reasons:<br />
• team members can easily be<br />
added/removed to certain<br />
folders<br />
• everything is saved automatically<br />
and backed up and easily<br />
restored<br />
• you can have multiple team<br />
members viewing and editing<br />
company files at the same time<br />
Make sure you use the Shared<br />
Drives functionality, rather than My<br />
Drive, so that you can take advantage<br />
of all of the sharing features.<br />
I recommend creating four Shared<br />
Drives: Marketing, Admin, Production,<br />
and Sales, then adding in a private and<br />
confidential Executive folder that<br />
contains sensitive HR files and other<br />
confidential company files that you as<br />
an owner will need to have access to<br />
separately. This project definitely takes<br />
some time to sit down and map out<br />
how you want to store files, but it’s<br />
so worth the investment of time. And<br />
here’s a tip: come up with consistent<br />
naming conventions, so that files are<br />
easy to identify before opening them<br />
up. Be careful not to name files something<br />
vague like “Important Client<br />
Info.doc” - but rather, get specific and<br />
consistent like “Princeton Properties -<br />
Property Manager List.doc”<br />
REAPING<br />
THE BENEFITS<br />
As CEO of your company,<br />
remember that working ON your business,<br />
not IN your business is what will<br />
bring you the greatest return on your<br />
time. These types of system building<br />
projects can literally add six figures to<br />
your company over the next year. I’ve<br />
seen it done. I’ve done it myself!<br />
Delegate menial tasks like cleaning<br />
out the trucks, working on equipment,<br />
and fixing engines to someone<br />
else. This winter - turn the wrench on<br />
your company systems.<br />
And then next year, when your<br />
company is running more automated<br />
and more profitable than ever - come<br />
join me on the slopes!<br />
6 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 3, NO. 1 | WINTER <strong>2021</strong>
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Virtual<br />
Reality<br />
Pressure washing enters<br />
the video gaming realm<br />
BY DREW RUBLE<br />
The average pressure wash operator<br />
works hard, beats the streets for sales,<br />
comes home each night tired, and<br />
certainly doesn’t think of their work as<br />
very interesting to the general public.<br />
Newsflash. Think again.<br />
As reported in a previous issue of<br />
PW News, vast sections of the internet<br />
are dedicated to videos of things<br />
being power washed because a broad<br />
swath of the general public finds the<br />
process of transforming grime-covered<br />
surfaces to clean and bright spaces to<br />
be utterly mesmerizing.<br />
In fact, since as far back as 2010,<br />
millions, that’s right, millions of people<br />
have watched clips from YouTube channels<br />
like Power Washing World, where<br />
outdoor furniture, trucks, patios -- even<br />
vegetables—are pressure washed.<br />
BuzzFeed once uploaded a pressure<br />
washing video to YouTube that<br />
garnered more than 1.4 million views<br />
in less than four days.<br />
Many if not most pressure wash<br />
operators are in on the secret and have<br />
been for a long time. A wildly popular<br />
sub-Reddit called r/Powerwashingporn<br />
allows pressure washer enthusiasts to<br />
upload their own pressure wash videos.<br />
The site boasts a community nearly<br />
600,000 people.<br />
What’s the attraction? We reported<br />
it probably has something to do<br />
with Autonomous Sensory Meridian<br />
Response (ASMR), which, defined in<br />
medical terms, describes the experience<br />
of tingling sensations in the crown of<br />
the head, in response to a range of<br />
audio-visual triggers.<br />
No matter the explanation, the<br />
bottom line is that pressure wash videos<br />
have become insanely popular.<br />
BRAND NEW DAY<br />
Now the human obsession with<br />
pressure washing has entered the multibillion-dollar<br />
video gaming realm.<br />
UK-based FuturLab’s PowerWash<br />
Simulator (screen grabs pictured here)<br />
lets interested gamers blast dirt into<br />
oblivion right from their desktop.<br />
The game puts a power washer<br />
in the gamer’s hands and lets them<br />
blast away on a dirty two-story house.<br />
Gamers try to achieve 100% progress<br />
on the task. Eventually the game maker<br />
says there will be more scenes to clean,<br />
continued ...<br />
8 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 3, NO. 1 | WINTER <strong>2021</strong>
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Orlando | Phoenix | Minneapolis | Hattiesburg | Melbourne | Toronto | Bogota Int’l: 1-321-800-5763<br />
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Send your news,<br />
press releases, and story tips to<br />
drewruble@gmail.com<br />
JOIN US<br />
If you would like to advertise<br />
in the next edition of PW News, , contact<br />
Jacksonv@pressurewashnews.com
VIRTUAL REALITY<br />
start, starting with stripping the house<br />
clean from years of dirt build-up.<br />
According to PCGamer.com, when<br />
the game player arrived at Suzie’s, “the<br />
situation is pretty bad. The front door,<br />
windows, porch, garage, driveway, and<br />
roof are all filthy, you can barely see<br />
the original paintwork underneath the<br />
thick layer of dirt. It’s super nasty.”<br />
The house is soon sparkling, though,<br />
via the gamer’s efforts.<br />
additional equipment (more than the<br />
three nozzles offered now), and even<br />
a chance to open your own pressure<br />
wash business.<br />
(Editor’s Note #1:<br />
Are you kidding me?<br />
Do they know how hard<br />
this is? Or perhaps wannabe<br />
pressure washers should try<br />
this virtual approach first<br />
before diving in to<br />
the industry!)<br />
Futurlab has been taking requests<br />
for clean-up scenes gamers would<br />
like to attack in future PowerWash<br />
Simulator editions.<br />
(Editor’s Note #2:<br />
No doubt PW News<br />
readers could fill their<br />
inbox with random, odd,<br />
big, or dirty jobs they’ve<br />
done in the past.)<br />
HOW IT WORKS<br />
Reviewers from TheVerge.com<br />
write that there’s no winning or losing<br />
in this game. Instead, you “receive feedback<br />
from the client when the job is<br />
done, a before and after picture to show<br />
the impact of your work, and a recap on<br />
how many gallons of water you used.”<br />
According to TheVerge.com, attention<br />
to detail is key to better feedback.<br />
“It does not focus so much on how<br />
quickly you clean, but rather how<br />
successful you are in cleaning each<br />
portion of the house,” the website<br />
review stated. “Even when a spot looks<br />
clean, you will need to keep washing<br />
until you get the on-screen notification<br />
that a particular spot on the house is<br />
cleansed. A hint feature can show you<br />
which portion of the specific area you<br />
may have missed, such as cracks on the<br />
sidewalk.”<br />
One of the challenges gamers face<br />
while indulging their ASMR using the<br />
game is selecting the right nozzle for a<br />
particular part of the job.<br />
“Choosing the right nozzle will<br />
determine how much surface area you<br />
cover, and some are better for certain<br />
situations,” the website explains. “The<br />
yellow nozzle covers a large amount of<br />
dirt, the red one is ideal for removing<br />
dirt from small areas such as the balusters<br />
on porch railings, while the orange<br />
hose provides a balance between the<br />
two in terms of size.”<br />
(Editor’s Note #3:<br />
No, I don’t think soft<br />
wash is an option.<br />
Maybe in version 2.0)<br />
A CASE IN POINT<br />
PCGamer.com described in detail<br />
one scenario presented by the game. A<br />
client, Suzie, wanted her home’s exterior<br />
cleaned. In an email, she explained<br />
that she had just divorced her good-fornothing<br />
husband and wanted a fresh<br />
(Editor’s Note #4:<br />
Sounds almost like a<br />
pre-employment tool for<br />
pressure wash company<br />
owners looking not just for<br />
workers interested in the<br />
task at hand, but who can<br />
think through equipment<br />
choices and do work a<br />
customer is satisfied with.<br />
Perhaps this game can<br />
become part of the preemployment<br />
protocols in<br />
the industry!)<br />
THE TAKE AWAY<br />
FuturLab said it released the early<br />
demo of its game in part due to the<br />
Covid-19 outbreak. “Frankly, we<br />
thought folks could do with a relaxing<br />
stress reliever right now!” the company<br />
stated on its website.<br />
(Editor’s Note #5:<br />
Maybe some of these<br />
people needing a little<br />
relaxation would like to<br />
pick up a wand and work<br />
for your business for free!<br />
Sheesh!)<br />
10 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 3, NO. 1 | WINTER <strong>2021</strong>
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INDUSTRY<br />
DIRT<br />
A look around the cleaning equipment<br />
world for news and notes of interest<br />
Send your company news and press releases to drewruble@gmail.com<br />
A Fresh Perspective<br />
Photographer Ron Burkett created a beautiful and<br />
unusual piece of art during the lockdown. He used a pressure<br />
washer to draw an epic wildlife mural on his driveway<br />
and captured it from above with a drone. It’s viewable on<br />
YouTube. “During the ‘stay at home’ order of the Coronavirus<br />
pandemic of 2020, I decided to catch up on some projects<br />
around the house,” Burkett wrote on Facebook. One of those<br />
projects was pressure-washing the driveway. But instead of<br />
just washing the concrete, Burkett used the pressure washer<br />
to draw mountains and trees, wolves and elks, and turn them<br />
into a wonderful scene.<br />
Serving Communities<br />
There were numerous national news<br />
stories about pressure wash companies<br />
offering up free services in the wake of both<br />
Covid-19 sanitation needs in their communities,<br />
as well as clean-up help in the aftermath<br />
of tensions over racial injustice and resulting<br />
rioting and graffiti damage on public or<br />
historic structures. Here are just a few examples<br />
of such goodwill that caught our eye.<br />
Centralillinoisproud.com reported on<br />
Pekin, Illinois-based Magshine Pressure<br />
Washing offering free pressure wash in places<br />
across central Illinois affected by recent graffiti<br />
and riots. In a Facebook post, company<br />
owner Brandon Lawson said he would offer a<br />
pressure wash to any local building, company,<br />
or home vandalized by rioters. Lawson said he<br />
just wanted to offer a hand to the community.<br />
“We’re all going through a bad time but there<br />
are a lot more good people out there than<br />
there are bad people let’s just come together<br />
and make it happen,” Lawson said.<br />
Al.com reported that a Confederate<br />
memorial statue in downtown Huntsville,<br />
Alabama got a mysterious pressure-washing<br />
recently to clean red paint dumped on<br />
it by protesters. Local television station<br />
WAFF attributed the overnight cleanup<br />
attempt to a concerned citizen who owns<br />
a local power washing company, but did<br />
not identify the individual. The statue was<br />
defaced with paint in late May 2020 when<br />
protestors were gathering regularly on the<br />
courthouse square in the wake of George<br />
Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.<br />
And the Jefferson City News Tribune in<br />
Missouri reported that Wash Authority<br />
owners Karen Loaiza-Wulff and Eric Wulff<br />
cleaned and sanitized the playground<br />
equipment of 10 local elementary school<br />
playgrounds in the aftermath of the<br />
Covid-19 outbreak.<br />
In the Everflo<br />
Paynesville, Minnasota-based<br />
Everflo®, a brand of Valley Industries,<br />
introduced in December 2020 the<br />
new Everflo® 12 Volt On-Demand<br />
Soft Wash (Bleach) Pumps. This<br />
dual-purpose pump was designed and<br />
engineered to handle bleach applications,<br />
while upgrading user systems<br />
with minimal investment.<br />
The company says it is ground<br />
breaking and perfect for cleaning<br />
black mold, algae, lichen and mildew<br />
from surfaces that are not tolerant of<br />
the impact of high-pressure washing.<br />
This bleach pump can also be used for<br />
disinfecting high-traffic indoor surfaces<br />
with antibacterial or antiviral bleach<br />
formulas. Simply spray, let<br />
dwell, and rinse – no scrubbing<br />
or high-impact pressure<br />
washing required.<br />
The pump features an<br />
automatic power switch that<br />
turns the pump off when no<br />
flow is needed, Motor Shield<br />
Technology that shuts the<br />
pump off if an internal leak<br />
is detected, and self-priming<br />
up to 10 feet while having the<br />
ability to run dry. Additional product<br />
features include corrosion-resistant<br />
Viton valves and Santoprene<br />
diaphragm, polypropylene pump<br />
manifold with Quick-Attach ports,<br />
and a standard mounting pattern for<br />
quick installation.<br />
Replacement pump heads are<br />
available to keep the pump running at<br />
a fraction of the cost of replacing the<br />
entire pump. It is available in 2.2, 4.0 &<br />
5.5 gallon per minute offerings.<br />
In only 10 years, Everflo®<br />
has become a leader in innovation<br />
and quality for on-demand,<br />
12-volt diaphragm pumps. It<br />
currently offers several variations<br />
of diaphragm, soft wash, and<br />
potable freshwater RV pumps.<br />
These pumps span a wide range<br />
of applications within the agricultural,<br />
lawn and garden, and fluid<br />
transfer industries. The Everflo®<br />
lineup continues to grow exponentially,<br />
and includes high pressure diaphragm<br />
pumps, adapters, fittings, and other<br />
universal accessories to keep pumps<br />
running smoothly.<br />
12 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 3, NO. 1 | WINTER <strong>2021</strong>
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INDUSTRY DIRT<br />
Making a Difference<br />
The McDowell News in Marion, North Carolina<br />
profiled a local organization called Freedom Life,<br />
which serves men and women during and after<br />
incarceration to help them transition and transform<br />
their lives by becoming positive contributors in the<br />
community. Even in a strong economy, people with<br />
a criminal record struggle to find employment. For<br />
those who lack job experience and training, it can<br />
be even more difficult to overcome the past and<br />
take their lives in a new and positive direction.<br />
To address this very real need, Freedom Life<br />
launched a new subsidiary business called Freedom<br />
Pressure Washing, which works to provide a professional<br />
work environment, spiritual mentoring,<br />
and job/life skill development. Freedom Pressure<br />
Taking Charge<br />
Newly-installed Cleaning Equipment Trade<br />
Association (CETA) president Jimmy Welch<br />
sent the following letter to his membership in<br />
November 2020.<br />
“The year 2020 has given the worldwide<br />
cleaning industry the opportunity to help combat<br />
the global pandemic by contributing expertise<br />
in cleaning, sanitation, and disinfection. Industry<br />
members strived to protect their own workers<br />
and customers -- and to share the tools for<br />
doing the same with others. The Cybersecurity<br />
and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) list<br />
of essential businesses includes many entities<br />
served by CETA manufacturers, distributors, and<br />
suppliers. The list ranges from chemical and critical<br />
manufacturing sectors, to healthcare, agriculture,<br />
and transportation systems. In response<br />
to needs of essential businesses, our industry<br />
members have in many instances added new<br />
product offerings, such as disinfectants approved<br />
by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)<br />
and the misters/sprayers for their application.<br />
The focus on cleaning and disinfection – from<br />
shopping carts and doors on frozen-food cabinets<br />
in grocery stores to high-contact areas in<br />
restaurants – has made members of CETA more<br />
visible. In turn, the visibility has strengthened<br />
the organization. (The circumstances of the year<br />
have led to some unexpected areas of industry<br />
growth, too, such as the increase in demand for<br />
graffiti removal tools.)<br />
Washing was launched in January of 2018 and<br />
soon gained contracts with a large grocery chain.<br />
As the number of store contacts grew, and thanks<br />
to a People in Need grant through the Community<br />
Foundation of Western North Carolina, a second<br />
pressure washing team was started in January of<br />
2019. In addition to the supermarket contracts,<br />
Freedom Pressure Washing now works with fast<br />
food restaurants and regional businesses to provide<br />
pressure washing and surface cleaning.<br />
Danny Hampton, executive director of<br />
Freedom Life said the entity was seeing a 95%<br />
success rate with the individuals they have the<br />
privilege to work with through Freedom Pressure<br />
Washing.<br />
“Although PowerClean 2020 slated for<br />
Reno, Nevada had to be cancelled, virtual<br />
meetings will carry us through until we can<br />
meet in person at PowerClean <strong>2021</strong> in New<br />
Orleans, Louisiana. Until we convene in the<br />
Pelican State, know that all CETA initiatives –<br />
benchmarking, standards (safety – THC 335H,<br />
performance – CPC 100, technical), distributor<br />
certification, CETA University, CETA<br />
Education Foundation, continue. View and<br />
monitor developments by visiting our website<br />
(https://ceta.org/) frequently. I challenge you to<br />
become involved in CETA – your organization<br />
– any way you can, and to promote the organization<br />
to peers. A strong and active membership<br />
that reflects our industry will ensure a long,<br />
vigorous future for CETA.<br />
“It is a great honor to begin my service as<br />
president of CETA. I look forward to working<br />
with you, as well as with the board of directors<br />
and staff who themselves work tirelessly on<br />
behalf of CETA members and the industry.”<br />
Welch, vice president, engineering, at<br />
American Pressure in Robbinsdale, Minnesota,<br />
has more than four decades of experience in<br />
all aspects of the cleaning equipment industry,<br />
including tenures as head of R&D/engineering<br />
for MiTM, General Pump, Pressure Pro, and FNA<br />
group. He is also credited in numerous industry<br />
patents, and has had a hand in the design of many<br />
of the best pumps on the market today.<br />
A Giant Among Us<br />
Raymond E. “Ray” Simon, 83, of Toledo, Ohio,<br />
died on Sept. 18, 2020. According to The Blade in<br />
Toledo, Simon started the Giant Towel Co., which<br />
sold large towels to car washes, in 1972. He eventually<br />
started to sell pumps used in pressure washers, which<br />
became Giant Industries. Giant Industries now has<br />
about three dozen employees and sales of about $15<br />
million. Simon ran the company until the mid-2000s,<br />
when he sold the business to son, Ed. According to<br />
the paper, the story goes that Simon was heading<br />
to California in 1959 when he ended up in Cedar<br />
Rapids, Iowa, and started selling pumps for a German<br />
manufacturer along the Eastern Seaboard. It was that<br />
work that spawned the ideas for the Giant Towel<br />
Co. and later Giant Industries, as well as his love<br />
of flying. “He became known as the salesman who<br />
would fly a small plane into town to sell pumps, and<br />
the customer would meet him at the airport. It was<br />
faster to fly than to drive,” The Blade wrote. “Simon<br />
came back to Toledo to start Giant Towel. The pump<br />
business took off as they became more important in<br />
the market. The company now sells a whole line of<br />
pumps and accessories, and also still sells towels.<br />
Big Weekend in<br />
the Big Easy<br />
The annual joint conference of the Cleaning Equipment<br />
Trade Association (CETA) and the Power Washers of North<br />
America (<strong>PWN</strong>A) will take place Sept. 8-11, <strong>2021</strong>, at the<br />
Hyatt Regency in New Orleans, Louisiana. These associations<br />
are coming together again for PowerClean <strong>2021</strong>. See<br />
industry leading exhibitors, experience equipment training,<br />
attend seminars, network, and have fun. While both associations<br />
will remain independent and have events on their<br />
own, CETA and <strong>PWN</strong>A feel that these two associations<br />
can combine efforts to work towards a common goal: “Two<br />
Teams. One Vision. Advancing the industry forward.”<br />
The Hyatt is centered downtown near Champions<br />
Square, Smoothie King Center, and minutes from the<br />
historic French Quarter, Arts District, and Mississippi<br />
Riverfront. If you registered for PowerClean Reno 2020,<br />
your registration will carry over to <strong>2021</strong> New Orleans. If<br />
you have any questions, call (800) 393-7962.<br />
14 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 3, NO. 1 | WINTER <strong>2021</strong>
INDUSTRY DIRT<br />
Honda Innovation<br />
Alpharetta, Georgia-based Honda Engines, a<br />
business unit of American Honda Motor Co., Inc.,<br />
announced in October 2020 it was launching two,<br />
all-new engines designed specifically to increase the<br />
performance of pressure washers—enhancing the<br />
user experience and making jobs easier. Replacing the<br />
Honda GCV160 and GCV190, the company says<br />
the all-new Honda GCV170 and GCV200 pressure<br />
washer engines delivers more power and more torque<br />
for premium residential applications, along with a<br />
range of technological attributes, innovative features,<br />
and a simple design that make the new models even<br />
more reliable and easier to operate and maintain.<br />
According to the company, both engines offer<br />
best-in-class power and torque that deliver peak<br />
performance in the toughest of operating conditions.<br />
More power and torque from the engines<br />
(GCV170: an increase in torque of 18 percent and<br />
a nine percent horsepower gain over the GCV160;<br />
GCV200: an increase in torque of 13 percent and<br />
10 percent horsepower gain over the GCV190)<br />
allow the pump of a pressure washer to produce<br />
a steady, even amount of high pressure to the hose<br />
and cleaning attachment, the company stated in a<br />
press release, while reducing the need for the operator<br />
to repeat spray.<br />
“The Honda GC Series, part of our legendary<br />
family of premium engines for residential applications,<br />
provides efficient power, superior fuel efficiency,<br />
and quiet operation for customers who rely<br />
on their outdoor power products to get jobs done,”<br />
said William Walton, vice president, Honda Power<br />
Equipment. “When it comes to pressure washing,<br />
the new Honda GCV170 and GCV200 models<br />
enhance our current GC Series, offering a host of<br />
added benefits—delivering more power and torque<br />
than earlier models and innovative design features<br />
that provide for an easy, enjoyable operating experience<br />
for consumers.”<br />
Both all-new Honda GCV170 and GCV200<br />
pressure washer engines meet the SAEJ1349 net<br />
horsepower standard, which rates engine power with<br />
the muffler and air filter in place. This net standard<br />
rating accurately reflects real-world operating conditions.<br />
Because pressure washers often are operated<br />
in tough outdoor conditions—after long periods of<br />
storage, in temperature extremes, with high loads,<br />
and with frequent stopping and starting—the power<br />
and torque of the pressure washer engine are factors<br />
that affect performance.<br />
In addition to higher net power output, both<br />
engines also offer class-leading torque, delivering<br />
more power to the<br />
pump, resulting in more<br />
consistent pressure and<br />
cleaning capability. Further,<br />
the new Honda GCV170<br />
and GCV200 pressure washer<br />
engines offer overhead valve<br />
(OHV) design that increases combustion<br />
efficiency, allowing for lower compression<br />
ratios and greater power output.<br />
Last, the new Honda GCV170 and GCV200<br />
pressure washer engines are designed with a number<br />
of innovative features that make them consistently<br />
reliable, season after season:<br />
• Honda Cycloflow technology enhances the<br />
air-fuel mixture and makes it easier to start the<br />
engine and idle smoothly while making it more<br />
resilient to poor quality fuel. New V-shaped<br />
valves and a pent-roof shape of the combustion<br />
chamber enable air in the cylinder to flow<br />
more smoothly. A longer stroke also enhances<br />
turbulence in the cylinder, which helps the<br />
mixture of air and fuel.<br />
• A Fuel Off position allows the user to stop the<br />
flow of fuel to the engine when the pressure<br />
washing is complete. The Fuel Off position<br />
allows the engine to run until the majority of<br />
fuel in the carburetor is consumed, preventing<br />
sticky carburetor buildup that makes for<br />
cleaner storage and easier future starting.<br />
• The addition of Auto Choke and relocation of<br />
the wax thermostatic element from the top to<br />
the side of the cylinder improves heat transfer<br />
and makes for easier engine starting in all<br />
conditions.<br />
• Honda GCV170 and GCV200 pressure washer<br />
models are configured to make engine operation<br />
more convenient and efficient, enhancing<br />
the overall experience of using a pressure<br />
washer:<br />
• The new engine design reduces the number of<br />
steps required to start the engine by 75 percent<br />
over previous models.<br />
• A simplified engine layout with user friendly<br />
features, including a quick-drain oil tube, a<br />
larger fuel tank opening, easy-access spark<br />
plug, captive carburetor bolts and a finger-operated<br />
filter cover make quick work of disassembly<br />
with fewer tools and quicker repairs.<br />
• A new muffler structure and resin protector<br />
reduce engine noise and improve operator<br />
comfort and safety.<br />
• Enhanced<br />
balance of the crankshaft<br />
reduces engine<br />
vibration.<br />
• The new Honda<br />
GCV170 and GCV200<br />
pressure washer engines<br />
also feature a robust, polygon-square<br />
shape with a sleek, flat top<br />
that leaves room for pressure washer manufacturers<br />
to include their brands and logos. And<br />
the engine shape is designed to fit neatly into<br />
the frames of pressure washers.<br />
Both all-new Honda engines are assembled in the<br />
USA at the Honda Power Equipment Manufacturing,<br />
Inc. facility in Swepsonville, North Carolina using<br />
domestic and globally sourced parts. This Honda<br />
center of excellence is involved in the continuous<br />
development of world-class power equipment<br />
products. While providing product engineering,<br />
prototype development and testing, the associates<br />
work closely with suppliers to further the company<br />
goals of technologically advanced products and local<br />
parts sourcing.<br />
The Honda GCV200 pressure washer engine is<br />
available now, and the Honda GCV170 pressure<br />
washer engine will be available in spring <strong>2021</strong>. Both<br />
models carry a two-year non declining warranty.<br />
Parts and services will be widely available via the<br />
Honda national network of dealers.<br />
Honda Power Equipment, a division of American<br />
Honda Motor Co., Inc., markets a complete range<br />
of outdoor power equipment, including generators,<br />
walk-behind and robotic lawn mowers, pumps,<br />
snow blowers, tillers, string trimmers, outboard<br />
marine engines and small, general-purpose engines<br />
for residential, commercial and rental applications.<br />
Honda is the world's largest manufacturer of<br />
engines for a diverse array of automotive, powersports,<br />
marine, aerospace and power equipment products.<br />
The company offers a complete line of small,<br />
general-purpose engines for industrial, commercial,<br />
rental industry, and consumer applications. Honda<br />
engines supply smooth and dependable power for<br />
thousands of different product applications including<br />
pressure washers, lawn mowers, rescue and construction<br />
equipment. Additionally, Honda engines are<br />
some of the quietest and easiest to start of their kind,<br />
even in harsh commercial and construction environments.<br />
Such attributes have made Honda engines the<br />
popular choice for original equipment manufacturers<br />
looking to add value to their own brands.<br />
16 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 3, NO. 1 | WINTER <strong>2021</strong>
INDUSTRY DIRT<br />
Lifetime Achievement Award<br />
Patrick G. “Pat” Wingen,<br />
who died last year,<br />
was recently named<br />
2020 CETA Lifetime<br />
Achievement Award<br />
Recipient by the Cleaning<br />
Equipment Trade Association<br />
(CETA).<br />
Wingen made his mark in the<br />
pressure washing industry as CEO<br />
of AaLadin Industries, guiding the<br />
company in growth and innovation, and<br />
in serving as the first president of CETA.<br />
After receiving his bachelor’s degree<br />
at South Dakota State University<br />
in Brookings, SD, and his MBA at<br />
the University of South Dakota in<br />
Vermillion, SD, he joined the industry<br />
working at Alkota. Shortly thereafter,<br />
in 1981, Pat joined with Bill Busker<br />
and Eldean Kjose to create AaLadin<br />
Cleaning Systems. Their goal was to<br />
build the best quality equipment<br />
with a new design<br />
and easy serviceability.<br />
Over the years, Wingen<br />
started and grew several<br />
other companies, including<br />
Steel Eagle Inc., making pressure<br />
washer accessories, such as hose<br />
reels, surface spinners, undercarriage<br />
cleaners,vacuum systems, and more. In<br />
April of 1994 he was named the South<br />
Dakota Small Business Man of the Year.<br />
AaLadin was at the forefront in<br />
many industry advances, including<br />
these features:<br />
• Quick-change coil design—<br />
a vertical heat chamber<br />
with a lift-out coil<br />
• Two-piece coil design with<br />
cold- water wrap and helical coil<br />
• Bucket insulation<br />
• Rotational molded fuel tanks<br />
• Poly float tanks<br />
• Diagnostic control panel for<br />
flow, temperature, and fuel<br />
• Flat-free tires<br />
• Swivel front casters<br />
• High efficiency heat chamber<br />
• Stainless steel wrappers, belt<br />
guards, and control panels<br />
• Self-contained pod assembly<br />
for pickups<br />
• GFCI cord assembly<br />
• Past recipients include of<br />
the Lifetime Achievement<br />
Award include:<br />
• 2013: Roy & Linda Chappell of<br />
Chappell Supply & Equipment<br />
Co. and John<br />
Sr. & Brenda Purswell of Alklean<br />
Industries, Inc.<br />
• 2014: Gary Scott of<br />
Alkota Cleaning Systems<br />
• 2015: Ralph A. Notch<br />
of AR North America, Inc.<br />
• 2016: Charles Tibboles<br />
of R.W. Beckett<br />
• 2017: Tim & Karen Layden<br />
of High PSI<br />
• 2018: Dr. Marlo Dean Karcher<br />
NA and Mr. Roger Walz of<br />
Alkota Cleaning Systems<br />
• 2019: Gregg Brodsky of Alkota<br />
Cleaning Systems<br />
CETA established the Lifetime<br />
Achievement Award in 1995 to recognize<br />
those who have achieved excellence<br />
in the pressure cleaning industry<br />
and to honor those who have made<br />
significant contributions.<br />
Nominees must have made a significant<br />
contribution to the industry and<br />
will continue to distinguish their work<br />
in the improvement of our industry.<br />
Please contact Awards Chair,<br />
CETA, with suggested nominations<br />
and requests for information at info@<br />
ceta.org.<br />
S A LS EA SL TM<br />
E S TM<br />
PARTS, SUPPLIES & EQUIPMENT<br />
Shop online at dultmeier.com or call today for your free printed catalog!<br />
Omaha, NE 1-800-228-9666 Davenport, IA 1-800-553-6975<br />
VOL. 3, NO. 1 | WINTER <strong>2021</strong> | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | 17
Overcoming<br />
“Affluenza”<br />
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic made us acutely aware of the<br />
dangers to our health from a virus that can’t be seen with the naked eye. But<br />
business owners face a risk from an equally contagious and invisible virus.<br />
[EDITOR’S NOTE:<br />
Chuck Violand founded Violand<br />
Management Associates in 1987 with<br />
the objective of helping owners of small<br />
businesses build profitable businesses<br />
for their long-term professional and<br />
personal success. As an author and<br />
popular keynote speaker, Violand is a<br />
respected authority on entrepreneurial<br />
small businesses, having spent more<br />
than 30 years as both a business<br />
consultant and an executive coach.<br />
He is a regular contributor to trade<br />
journals and newsletters and is the<br />
author of the popular weekly leadership<br />
series Monday Morning Notes. Violand<br />
Management Associates, LLC is a<br />
consulting firm working internationally<br />
to help entrepreneurial companies<br />
achieve sustained profitable growth.<br />
Look them up at violand.com for details<br />
or contact them at 1-800-360-3513.]<br />
BY CHUCK VIOLAND<br />
As healthcare professionals around<br />
the world struggle to address a<br />
pandemic brought on by the spread<br />
of COVID-19, another virus has been<br />
running rampant within the ranks of<br />
business owners and their companies<br />
for years; one that continues to go<br />
largely unrecognized. COVID-19<br />
may be dominating the headlines,<br />
but the virus I’m referring to is alive<br />
and well and thriving in far too many<br />
business owners.<br />
This virus can have as debilitating<br />
an effect on the health of a business as<br />
the current pandemic has on our own<br />
health. And, unfortunately, washing<br />
our hands, coughing into our sleeve, or<br />
social distancing is completely ineffective<br />
in controlling its spread.<br />
The virus I’m referring to is<br />
Affluenza. Although I’ve seen the<br />
virus’s destructive effects on businesses<br />
for years, my first exposure to<br />
its name occurred when I came across<br />
the term in an article written by Dr.<br />
Denise Kenyon-Rouvinez in The Family<br />
Business Advisor newsletter.<br />
As a business advisor myself, I’ve<br />
witnessed the terribly harsh effects<br />
Affluenza can have on previously<br />
healthy companies. I’ve worked<br />
for years to restrict its spread<br />
but, regrettably, I have not<br />
always been successful<br />
in my efforts. There are<br />
times when the virus<br />
gets such a strong grip<br />
on an owner that he<br />
becomes blind to the<br />
harmful effects it’s<br />
having on his company,<br />
or he enters a state of<br />
denial about what’s taking<br />
place.<br />
Affluenza doesn’t usually<br />
manifest itself when a business<br />
is young or struggling. Most<br />
companies and their owners seem to<br />
have a built-in immunity that protects<br />
them during times such as these. It’s<br />
when a company starts to succeed that<br />
their owner’s immune system becomes<br />
compromised, and the virus comes<br />
to life and spreads its infection with<br />
alarming speed and devastating, sometimes<br />
even lethal, effects.<br />
Although I have no hard data to<br />
support my claim, I feel the physical<br />
and mental makeup of many entrepreneurs<br />
predisposes them to carry the<br />
18 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 2, NO. 1 | WINTER 2020
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OVERCOMING<br />
“AFFLUENZA”<br />
Affluenza virus, although it can go on<br />
undetected for years. Many seem to be<br />
drawn to a “work hard, reward lavishly”<br />
lifestyle which appears to serve as a<br />
catalyst for the virus.<br />
As with many other business<br />
ailments, Affluenza infects a company<br />
when it is flush with cash or when<br />
sales are robust. But the symptoms<br />
go unnoticed. It’s when the company<br />
is put under pressure or when it’s<br />
attacked by outside influences such as<br />
economic turmoil or market changes<br />
that Affluenza raises its head and can<br />
cause irreparable damage.<br />
When symptoms of the virus are<br />
first detected one of the strategies to<br />
combat it that many companies adopt is<br />
to increase sales. While there is nothing<br />
wrong with increasing sales, doing so<br />
doesn’t cure the disease. Instead, it<br />
simply masks the symptoms, bringing<br />
temporary relief to the pain, much like<br />
taking an aspirin to treat COVID-19.<br />
It does nothing to treat the underlying<br />
problem, and it will sometimes backfire<br />
and actually feed the virus.<br />
The troubled email I received from<br />
the Chief Financial Officer of one of my<br />
clients got my attention and serves as a<br />
textbook study of Affluenza at work.<br />
We had developed a close working<br />
relationship over a span of years, so the<br />
CFO felt comfortable approaching me<br />
for advice. In her email she was expressing<br />
alarm at financial decisions the owner of<br />
the company was making. Most troubling<br />
was the owner’s instructions for<br />
her to bury some of his purchases on the<br />
company income statement where they<br />
might not be noticed.<br />
Apparently, he was concerned they<br />
would raise uncomfortable questions<br />
when his numbers were reviewed, both<br />
by the bank he was working with and<br />
by me during our conferences.<br />
This was a company that had<br />
enjoyed several years of rapid growth<br />
and financial success. They were on top<br />
of their game, celebrated as a model<br />
of success in both their local community<br />
and in their industry. It was not<br />
surprising that the owner wanted to<br />
start reaping the rewards of his accomplishments,<br />
as he had worked hard to<br />
get where he was. Unfortunately, he was<br />
choosing to make financial decisions<br />
that would contribute to the company’s<br />
eventual decline. This brings me to<br />
the first underlying cause of Affluenza.<br />
We don’t know how to handle financial<br />
success. As ridiculous as this might<br />
sound, handling finances and financial<br />
success is a learned skill. Our parents<br />
are usually our first teachers and, if they<br />
were successful managing their money,<br />
there’s a good chance they passed on<br />
sound financial lessons to us. If they<br />
weren’t particularly good with<br />
their finances, then we may need<br />
to reprogram some of the money<br />
lessons learned in our youth.<br />
Another critical point in our<br />
lives when we’re especially open<br />
to learning money lessons is early in<br />
our business careers. The people we<br />
associate with in business, the mentors<br />
with whom we surround ourselves,<br />
and the business experiences we have<br />
all leave lasting impressions, sometimes<br />
affecting the financial decisions<br />
we make both professionally and<br />
personally for the rest of our lives. As<br />
with the lessons we learn from our<br />
parents, these early business experiences<br />
can have either positive or negative<br />
consequences on our behavior.<br />
Most small businesses are started<br />
on a financial shoestring. Business<br />
owners learn how to make one dollar<br />
do two dollars’ worth of work, and<br />
they become masters of cash flow in<br />
a cash-strapped environment. When<br />
their company finally enjoys some<br />
measure of financial success after years<br />
of struggle and sacrifice, the owner<br />
sometimes finds themself unprepared<br />
to handle the change. They haven’t<br />
developed the discipline needed to<br />
manage an abundance of money. So<br />
they find ways to move it out of their<br />
life to return to the more familiar world<br />
of being strapped for cash.<br />
As with so many other personal<br />
behaviors, destructive financial behaviors<br />
can be turned around. One of<br />
the ways to accomplish this is with a<br />
concerted effort over a long enough<br />
period of time to allow the new behaviors<br />
to become habits. Although we can<br />
do this on our own, the chances for<br />
success usually increase dramatically<br />
when we have someone to help hold us<br />
accountable. In the case of the owner<br />
mentioned above, listening to the<br />
advice of his CFO would have saved<br />
him a lot of heartburn … and money.<br />
As with many diseases, Affluenza<br />
is harder to detect in the early stages<br />
when it is easiest to cure. Conversely,<br />
it’s easier to detect, but harder to cure,<br />
in its later stages when behaviors have<br />
become habits.<br />
You can usually trace the genesis of<br />
business problems to when a company<br />
is doing well: sales are strong, profits<br />
are deep, and cash flow is healthy. This<br />
is when business leaders lose focus,<br />
become complacent, or adopt attitudes<br />
of entitlement. This brings us to the<br />
second underlying cause of Affluenza.<br />
Our decisions are driven by ego<br />
and a sense of entitlement. Growing a<br />
business demands a lot of sacrifice on<br />
the part of the owner. It can exact a<br />
heavy toll in terms of time spent away<br />
from family, mental exhaustion, and<br />
even getting worn down physically.<br />
When business begins to go well, it<br />
seems logical that some owners would<br />
feel a sense of entitlement to lavishly<br />
reward themselves for their sacrifices:<br />
the luxury car, the vacation home,<br />
the abundant travel. There’s nothing<br />
inherently wrong with any of these<br />
indulgences. It’s when they interfere<br />
with the performance of the company<br />
You can usually trace the<br />
genesis of business problems<br />
to when a company is doing<br />
well: sales are strong, profits are<br />
deep, and cash flow is healthy.<br />
This is when business leaders<br />
lose focus, become complacent,<br />
or adopt attitudes of entitlement.<br />
or when they take value away from<br />
customers that they get in the way.<br />
Sometimes Affluenza is driven by a<br />
swollen ego, similar to the attitude of<br />
entitlement above. The primary difference<br />
is that with a swollen ego we use<br />
Affluenza to draw attention to ourselves<br />
or to maintain an appearance of success.<br />
An ego that is out of control is one of the<br />
most difficult areas to address with any<br />
business owner, as they are usually the<br />
last one to recognize when their ego has<br />
gotten out of control, and they usually<br />
don’t want to be told about it by you.<br />
Sometimes Affluenza doesn’t<br />
20 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 3, NO. 1 | WINTER <strong>2021</strong>
manifest itself with purchases or financial<br />
decisions. Instead, it shows up in<br />
subtle behaviors or in attitudes toward<br />
other people.<br />
We forget what it’s like to have a<br />
boss. Few of us are plopped into our<br />
position of authority overnight. We<br />
usually grow into it over time. As our<br />
company grows or as we rise through<br />
the ranks in our business, it’s easy to<br />
forget what it’s like to be one of the<br />
“workers.” The Queen of Mean, Leona<br />
Helmsley, is famous for her off-handed<br />
comment about “the little people.”<br />
While few of us would be brash enough<br />
to make such a comment, how often<br />
does our behavior unconsciously telegraph<br />
a similar message?<br />
When we’re the boss we can ignore<br />
feedback we don’t want to hear. We<br />
don’t feel the need to ask others for<br />
their opinion, but we can freely give<br />
our own. We don’t need to follow the<br />
chain of command we put in place if we<br />
feel like meddling. And we surely don’t<br />
need to go to the boss to ask for a raise;<br />
we just write ourselves a bigger check.<br />
As we learn lessons throughout our<br />
life, we frequently adopt rules to help<br />
guide our future decisions. One of the<br />
rules I’ve used in my life is the “Alex<br />
Bevan” rule. When I was in my early<br />
20’s I owned a night club, and one of<br />
the entertainers I hired was a popular<br />
Cleveland recording artist named<br />
Alex Bevan. In getting to know Alex,<br />
I learned he lived a very frugal life. I<br />
found this interesting considering his<br />
popularity and success … and the<br />
popular image of recording stars living<br />
lavish lifestyles. Alex told me his father<br />
advised him early on to “always live<br />
like you don’t know when you’ll get<br />
your next gig. That way you’ll never<br />
have to compromise your values to<br />
get it.” That was great advice for a<br />
recording artist. It’s also great advice<br />
for business owners.<br />
CHECKING YOUR EGO AT THE DOOR<br />
A 2018 Harvard Business Review (HBR)<br />
article titled “Ego is the Enemy of Good<br />
Leadership” made some interesting observations<br />
about bosses with swollen egos.<br />
According to its authors, Rasmus<br />
Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter:<br />
• “Our ego is like a target we carry with<br />
us. And like any target, the bigger it<br />
is, the more vulnerable it is to being<br />
hit. In this way, an inflated ego makes<br />
it easier for others to take advantage<br />
of us. Because our ego craves positive<br />
attention, it can make us susceptible to<br />
manipulation. It makes us predictable.<br />
When people know this, they can play<br />
to our ego. When we’re a victim of our<br />
own need to be seen as great, we end<br />
HBR offered the following advice for<br />
up being led into making decisions that<br />
bosses who can actually acknowledge they<br />
may be detrimental to ourselves, our<br />
may have an ego problem:<br />
people, and our organization.<br />
• “Consider the perks and privileges you<br />
are being offered in your role. Some of<br />
• “An inflated ego also corrupts our<br />
them enable you to do your job effectively.<br />
That’s great. But some of them<br />
behavior. When we believe we’re the<br />
sole architects of our success, we<br />
are simply perks to promote your status<br />
tend to be ruder, more selfish, and<br />
and power and ultimately ego. Consider<br />
more likely to interrupt others. This is<br />
which of your privileges you can let go<br />
especially true in the face of setbacks<br />
of. It could be the reserved parking spot<br />
and criticism. In this way, an inflated<br />
or…a special pass for the elevator.<br />
ego prevents us from learning from our<br />
mistakes and creates a defensive wall • “Support, develop, and work with<br />
that makes it difficult to appreciate the people who won’t feed your ego. Hire<br />
rich lessons we glean from failure.<br />
smart people with the confidence to<br />
speak up.<br />
• “Finally, an inflated ego narrows our<br />
vision. The ego always looks for information<br />
that confirms what it wants<br />
stones of selflessness. Make a habit of<br />
• “Humility and gratitude are corner-<br />
to believe. Basically, a big ego makes<br />
taking a moment at the end of each day<br />
us have a strong confirmation bias.<br />
to reflect on all the people that were<br />
Because of this, we lose perspective and part of making you successful on that<br />
end up in a leadership bubble where we day. This helps you develop a natural<br />
only see and hear what we want to. As a sense of humility, by seeing how you are<br />
result, we lose touch with the people we not the only cause of your success. And<br />
lead, the culture we are a part of, and<br />
end the reflection by actively sending a<br />
ultimately our clients and stakeholders. message of gratitude to those people.”<br />
VOL. 3, NO. 1 | WINTER <strong>2021</strong> | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | 21
AULD LANG SYNE<br />
Auld<br />
Lang<br />
Syne...<br />
‘Lucky A<br />
7’<br />
list of New Year’s Resolutions for the Pressure Wash Industry<br />
BY DREW RUBLE<br />
According to History.com, the<br />
ancient Babylonians are said to have<br />
been the first people to make New<br />
Year’s resolutions, some 4,000 years ago.<br />
A similar practice occurred in<br />
ancient Rome, after emperor Julius<br />
Caesar established January 1 as the<br />
beginning of the new year circa 46 B.C.<br />
Named for Janus, the two-faced<br />
god who looked backwards into the<br />
previous year and ahead into the<br />
future, the Romans made promises of<br />
good conduct for the coming year.<br />
For early Christians, the first day of<br />
the new year became the traditional<br />
occasion for thinking about one’s past<br />
mistakes and resolving to do and be<br />
better in the future.<br />
New Year’s resolutions today are<br />
a mostly secular practice. Instead<br />
of making promises to the gods,<br />
most people make resolutions only<br />
to themselves, and focus purely on<br />
self-improvement<br />
Why do we make them? Psychology<br />
Today wrote that “there is something<br />
so emotionally resonant about the<br />
possibility of turning over a new leaf,<br />
combined with our awareness that we<br />
should really lead better lives, means<br />
making New Year Resolutions is an<br />
almost universal activity.”<br />
According to the Statistic Brain<br />
Research Institute, while as many as<br />
45 percent of Americans say they<br />
usually make New Year’s resolutions,<br />
only eight percent are successful in<br />
achieving their goals and 80 percent<br />
have failed by the start of February.<br />
So why do we fail?<br />
Jonathan Alpert, author of Be<br />
Fearless: Change Your Life in 28 Days,<br />
told Business Insider three of the<br />
biggest reasons people fail to complete<br />
their resolutions each year.<br />
First, he said, our resolutions aren’t<br />
specific enough. So, for example,<br />
according to Alpert, resolving to “lose<br />
weight” is an easy way to set yourself up<br />
for failure, as it is nebulous compared<br />
to a more specific resolution like “run<br />
a 5K by summer” or “lose 10 pounds<br />
in 100 days.”<br />
Next, we aren’t framing them<br />
positively. Alpert says don’t frame your<br />
resolutions with negative language.<br />
So instead of ‘Don’t eat junk food,’<br />
we should be saying ‘Eat carrots and<br />
peanut butter as a healthy snack.’”<br />
Last, our resolutions aren’t really<br />
come from our personal core desires,<br />
but rather what we think other people<br />
want us to do. Alpert says set goals<br />
instead for yourself and only yourself.<br />
In the spirit of this 4,000-year<br />
tradition, we talked with several big<br />
hitters in the pressure wash industry to<br />
ascertain their advice about what we as<br />
an industry should be resolving to do<br />
this year in <strong>2021</strong>.<br />
22 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 3, NO. 1 | WINTER <strong>2021</strong>
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AULD LANG SYNE<br />
Here then is our list of resolutions for the<br />
Pressure Wash Industry in this New Year.<br />
#1. Resolution<br />
to get past the<br />
politics of the day.<br />
Small business confidence fell to<br />
an all-time low after the election of<br />
former Vice President Joseph Biden,<br />
according to a 4th quarter 2020 CNBC<br />
| SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey.<br />
In the survey, conducted Nov. 10 to<br />
Nov. 17 among more than 2,200 small<br />
business owners nationally, 53% of<br />
small business owners said they expect<br />
tax policy to have a negative impact on<br />
their business in the next 12 months,<br />
while 49% said government regulation<br />
will have a negative impact. By<br />
party affiliation, the divide was stark.<br />
Among Republicans, 75% said tax<br />
policy will be a negative and 72% said<br />
regulations will be a negative. Those<br />
numbers dropped to 15% (taxes) and<br />
11% (regulations) among Democrats.<br />
Overall, the survey found 34% of small<br />
business owners saying Joe Biden will<br />
be good for small business, while 55%<br />
say he will be bad for small business. By<br />
party, 89% of Republican small business<br />
owners say Biden will be bad for<br />
business, while 86% of Democrats say<br />
he will be good for Main Street.<br />
No matter a change in regime in<br />
the nation’s capital, like it or not, our<br />
first New Year’s resolution is to get<br />
past it and focus on being successful no<br />
matter the political landscape.<br />
America is obviously very narrowly<br />
split politically, which means your<br />
customers are going to be a mix of<br />
50/50 and your employees are going to<br />
be a mix of 50/50 as well. A change in<br />
the presidency could no doubt result<br />
in a drastic change economically as the<br />
dominant parties propose two very<br />
different economic systems. With the<br />
transition happening in January <strong>2021</strong>,<br />
the question becomes: how do you<br />
shape your business regardless of your<br />
political affiliations to take advantage<br />
and be successful regardless of who’s<br />
in charge?<br />
Consider the age-old tale of the<br />
optimist and the pessimist. In it, a<br />
university research team is said to have<br />
placed two little boys alone by themselves<br />
in very different environments<br />
to study the power of optimism and<br />
pessimism. Researchers put one boy<br />
in a room with all the latest toys, all<br />
the cool new gadgets, and everything<br />
that a little kid could ever want or<br />
hope for in a play room. Then, in the<br />
other room, they placed another boy,<br />
but in the middle of that room was just<br />
a six-foot-tall by 10-foot-wide pile of<br />
horse manure.<br />
After a while, researchers went to<br />
the room where the boy had all the toys<br />
he could possibly imagine, only to find<br />
him sitting in the middle of the room<br />
crying and upset. “Little boy,” they said,<br />
“why are you so miserable -- you’re in<br />
this room with all the toys, why are<br />
you so sad?” The boy responded “This<br />
is awesome but the more I think about,<br />
and the more things I play with that I<br />
could possibly break, I realize I could<br />
get in trouble with my mom and dad.<br />
So I’m afraid to touch anything and<br />
I’m just bummed because there’s toys<br />
here but there’s too big of a chance of<br />
me getting in trouble.”<br />
The researchers then went to the<br />
other room and found the other little<br />
boy screaming with joy and happily<br />
climbing over the top of the pile of<br />
manure. “Little boy,” they said. “You<br />
are in a room full of horse shit, why<br />
are you so happy?” And the little boy<br />
looked at them with a big smile on his<br />
face and said “Well, gosh, with all this<br />
horse crap in here, there’s bound to be<br />
a pony somewhere!”<br />
As a business owner, that’s how<br />
you have to look at political situations<br />
when they happen. If you’re a good<br />
business owner, you’re going to take<br />
assessment of any political, economic,<br />
or social changes, whatever they may<br />
be, and come up with a game plan<br />
from which you are going to win no<br />
matter what.<br />
Joe Biden’s record of business-related<br />
legislation in his four-plus<br />
decades in political office is minimal.<br />
But as food for thought on what could<br />
be forthcoming – and must be incorporated<br />
in to your game plan moving<br />
forward -- Lendio.com author Ben<br />
Glaser outlined Biden’s stated plans for<br />
small businesses in his administration.<br />
According to Glaser:<br />
Biden has pledged that he will<br />
institute a concerted federal response<br />
to the pandemic, as opposed to the<br />
patchwork of state policies preferred<br />
by the current administration. Sciencebacked<br />
policies like a public mask<br />
mandate are likely.<br />
Biden plans to order the<br />
Occupational Safety and Health<br />
Administration (OSHA) “with setting<br />
and enforcing a rigorous emergency<br />
temporary standard so employers<br />
follow a clear set of rules to keep<br />
workers safe from COVID-19.” A<br />
Biden administration would also<br />
“create a ‘Safer for Shoppers’ program<br />
No matter a change in regime in the nation’s<br />
capital, like it or not, our first New Year’s<br />
resolution is to get past it and focus on being<br />
successful no matter the political landscape.<br />
that gives compliant businesses a sign<br />
for their window so shoppers know<br />
they have done what they can to minimize<br />
the risk of exposure.”<br />
Biden’s coronavirus plan also calls<br />
for financial relief efforts for small<br />
businesses. This includes a “‘restart<br />
package’ that provides small business<br />
owners support for retaining and<br />
rehiring workers and covering other<br />
costs of restarting in this challenging<br />
environment.”<br />
The campaign also supports<br />
“a temporary small business loan<br />
program designed to address unanticipated<br />
shortfalls in revenue by offering<br />
interest-free loans to small- and<br />
medium-sized businesses around the<br />
country through the duration of the<br />
crisis,” as well as federal funds for statelevel<br />
small business relief efforts.<br />
Additionally, the Biden campaign<br />
has emphasized stricter oversight of<br />
existing small business relief efforts<br />
like the Paycheck Protection Program<br />
(PPP) to ensure that money is really<br />
going to small businesses. Biden has<br />
proposed reserving half of all future<br />
PPP funds for extra-small businesses<br />
(those with 50 employees or fewer).<br />
Biden has stated he would work<br />
to ban all but essential non-compete<br />
clauses in employment contracts, as well<br />
as no-poaching policies and mandatory<br />
arbitration clauses. Non-competes<br />
were originally used to keep high-paid<br />
executives from taking industry secrets<br />
to competitors. But in recent years,<br />
non-competes have become common<br />
even for entry-level positions and have<br />
been used to prevent large swaths of<br />
workers from taking better jobs.<br />
Biden also advocates the removal<br />
of burdensome licensing in certain<br />
industries.<br />
Under a Biden presidency, corporate<br />
tax rates would increase. President<br />
Trump lowered the corporate tax<br />
rate from 35% to 21%. Biden would<br />
repeal much, though not all, of this cut,<br />
increasing the rate to 28%.<br />
24 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 3, NO. 1 | WINTER <strong>2021</strong>
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AULD LANG SYNE<br />
Many of Biden’s policies relate<br />
to workers and organized labor, and<br />
would affect the relationship between<br />
small businesses and their employees.<br />
For example, like most Democrats,<br />
Biden supports raising the federal<br />
minimum wage to $15 an hour.<br />
Speaking of that…<br />
#2. Resolution<br />
to not allow the<br />
minimum wage<br />
increase, or any<br />
other legislation<br />
impacting your<br />
business, to destroy<br />
your performance<br />
or morale. Instead,<br />
think creatively<br />
and prosper!<br />
The state of Florida, home<br />
base to the largest percentage of<br />
pressure wash operators in America,<br />
recently passed a $15 an hour<br />
minimum wage legislation. As a result,<br />
Florida’s minimum wage will gradually<br />
increase. It will not reach $15 per<br />
hour until 2026. As of now, Florida’s<br />
minimum wage is $8.56 an hour. With<br />
the November 2020 vote, that will rise<br />
to $10 per hour on Sept. 30, <strong>2021</strong>.<br />
From there, it will increase $1 per year<br />
up to 2026.The federal minimum wage<br />
is currently $7.25 per hour. The change<br />
will put the Sunshine State on a short<br />
list of states that have enacted a $15<br />
per hour minimum wage. Other states<br />
that have approved the same minimum<br />
include California, Connecticut,<br />
Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New<br />
Jersey, and New York.<br />
Obviously, if somebody starts<br />
getting paid $15 an hour to flip a burger<br />
at McDonalds, then your employees<br />
that are cleaning roofs<br />
are going to rightfully<br />
say “well,<br />
I’m worth<br />
a lot more<br />
than that!” So,<br />
essentially, now,<br />
every blue collar<br />
FIGHT worker in Florida<br />
has to get a 43%<br />
FOR $15<br />
raise. And, in reality, this phenomenon<br />
reaches the professional ranks,<br />
as people will say if the roof cleaner<br />
is now making $25 an hour then I as<br />
a professional person with a college<br />
degree making $40,000 a year deserve<br />
a raise. It’s going to cascade across all<br />
levels of the workforce.<br />
The pessimist says “man, that’s<br />
horrible, now we have to spend so<br />
much money on our workers, my business<br />
is screwed.” Instead, as in our first<br />
resolution, we have to learn to go with<br />
the flow -- not just to save our business<br />
but to flourish as a business. How?<br />
As more states and countries raise<br />
minimum wage, CEOs at classic<br />
American brands such as Waffle House<br />
and McDonald’s are among the restaurant<br />
chains to already announce plans<br />
to increase menu prices. Their message<br />
is a dose of reality. This is what the<br />
voters wanted and this is what we as a<br />
business serving that population have<br />
to do to remain solvent.<br />
Some PW News readers will well<br />
remember the late 70s, a time of<br />
tremendous inflation, an economy on<br />
the brink, and gasoline prices going<br />
through the roof. Savvy small business<br />
owners didn’t fret. When people came<br />
in to shop at a mom-and-pop, or<br />
requested a service from a small businessman,<br />
they were simply informed<br />
that prices had been raised to keep<br />
up with inflation. People might for<br />
instance look at a part in a hardware<br />
store and say “gosh, that part is expensive,”<br />
and business owners would say<br />
“I know – inflation,” and everybody<br />
would say “yeah, inflation, it’s killing<br />
us.” Then they would suck up the price<br />
and move on.<br />
The minimum wage is no different.<br />
You have to be ready to look at your<br />
customers in the eye and say “well,<br />
you know that the minimum wage<br />
just moved up to $15 an hour, which<br />
is almost double what it was, it’s a 43%<br />
increase in salary I had to give all of my<br />
employees, and that in turn has put me<br />
up to $300 an hour for my service, not<br />
the $225 that we were last year.”<br />
It’s all how you view it (and how<br />
you present your story).<br />
Another example of rolling with<br />
the punches has to do with the new<br />
realities of operating a small business<br />
in a time of Covid-19. You need to be<br />
prepared to explain to customers that<br />
An Even 10<br />
Here are a three other pieces<br />
of advice we heard from PW News<br />
readers when we asked them what<br />
operators in the industry should<br />
resolve to do this year.<br />
RESOLVE TO TAKE<br />
CARE OF YOU:<br />
improve yourself as an owner and<br />
employer to improve your business by<br />
taking better care of yourself, finding<br />
life balance, reading a book, getting a<br />
coach or mentor, and learning something<br />
new.<br />
RESOLVE TO GET<br />
MOBILE-FRIENDLY:<br />
If you aren’t optimizing<br />
your website for use on mobile<br />
devices, you’re harming your business.<br />
Sixty-one percent of users are<br />
unlikely to return to a mobile site they<br />
had trouble accessing, and 40% will<br />
jump ship and visit a competitor’s<br />
site instead. Google rewards mobilefriendly<br />
sites with better rankings.<br />
66% of online shopping time is<br />
being consumed on smartphones,<br />
and that number seems only to be<br />
increasing with each year. Not only<br />
are consumers using smartphones<br />
to search (more Google searches<br />
take place on mobile devices than on<br />
computers in 10 countries, including<br />
the U.S.) and make purchases (70%<br />
of all mobile searches result in action<br />
within one hour), but they’re not letting<br />
mobile devices out of their sight:<br />
91% of American adults have their<br />
smartphone within arms-reach 24/7.<br />
Taking these numbers into account,<br />
you can see that mobile optimization<br />
affects nearly every aspect of your<br />
business, from brand building to traffic<br />
generating, to customer service, to<br />
establishing relationships.<br />
RESOLVE (WHEN<br />
POSSIBLE AGAIN)<br />
TO BE SOCIAL:<br />
Meaning in person, physical<br />
contact, not virtual. Yes, this is<br />
extremely tough and maybe impossible<br />
in Covid-19 times; but when<br />
normalcy returns, you just have to get<br />
over your shyness, or your penchant<br />
for keeping your nose to the grindstone,<br />
and you have to get to some<br />
community chamber meetings, start<br />
networking and building relationships.<br />
26 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 3, NO. 1 | WINTER <strong>2021</strong>
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www.ceta.org | 800-441-0111 | info@ceta.org
AULD LANG<br />
SYNE<br />
if you can’t put two employees in a<br />
truck and it requires two trucks to get<br />
to a work site that there are financial<br />
consequences of that that have to be<br />
passed along to the customer.<br />
#3. Resolution<br />
to innovate, not<br />
bellyache - and stop<br />
trying to sue other<br />
innovators!<br />
Why is Chick-fil-A having its best<br />
year ever in business during Covid-<br />
19? It’s arguably because they hire<br />
clean-cut kids with good manners<br />
who say “it’s my pleasure to serve you”<br />
and who don’t have tattoos and blue<br />
hair and piercings and all that kind<br />
of stuff. It’s because as a corporation,<br />
it has a plan. It sends those selected<br />
kids to college. You can’t even get the<br />
opportunity to own a Chick-fil-A franchise<br />
now unless you’ve been vetted<br />
and selected through the Chick-fil-A<br />
organizational structure.<br />
Chick-Fil-A has been so successful<br />
because it looked at problems as<br />
puzzles to solve before anyone else did.<br />
Who did a double drive-thru before<br />
anyone else did? Chick-Fil-A. Who did<br />
a quadruple drive through? Yep. When<br />
it was too hot for employees to stand<br />
outside taking orders, who put thousand<br />
square-foot awnings out? Um<br />
hmm. The company never just says ‘I<br />
give up.” Instead, it finds solutions, put<br />
itself out there, and makes it happen.<br />
Stop bellyaching about Covid-19 and<br />
politics and new regulations and how<br />
hard it is to find good workers, etc., etc.<br />
Pull yourself up by the bootstraps, and<br />
make some tough calls to make things<br />
happen in your business. Innovate!<br />
Tackle deficiencies and stumble on<br />
opportunities. Be willing to listen to<br />
your customers and customize solutions<br />
to meet the needs of your customers.<br />
Necessity breeds invention. You are<br />
craftsmen. Innovate and fall in love with<br />
your businesses again. Get engaged,<br />
not enraged. Stay on the cutting-edge,<br />
looking forward with hope, not the<br />
ledge, thinking about jumping.<br />
Next, and importantly for the<br />
industry, when someone in the<br />
industry does innovate and finds a<br />
better way, stop trying to quash their<br />
innovation. Take the approach that a<br />
high tide raises all boats. Resolve to<br />
be an industry builder not an industry<br />
destroyer. Remember the saying<br />
“there’s nothing new under the sun?”<br />
Others have said there’s only 88 keys<br />
on the piano, so somebody is eventually<br />
going to write a song that sounds<br />
like yours. Stay loyal to partners with<br />
whom you develop products. To do<br />
otherwise is no different than what<br />
we see going on in politics right now<br />
(about which we rightfully bellyache).<br />
Chances are you are not the only<br />
person coming up with products like<br />
new soaps and valves that can improve<br />
the industry. If you have a valid patent,<br />
great! But if you don’t, don’t stir up<br />
a bunch of discontent in the industry.<br />
Take the high road and focus on selling<br />
the virtues of your product over the<br />
competitor’s. Innovate and compete on<br />
a level playing field. Anything less is<br />
bad for the industry.<br />
#4. Resolution<br />
If you haven’t already,<br />
resolve to join an<br />
industry association<br />
(or a few), and help<br />
lift this industry<br />
up to a higher status.<br />
There are several entities serving<br />
the pressure wash industry. The<br />
Power Washers of North America<br />
(<strong>PWN</strong>A) is a trade organization that<br />
is specific to pressure washers. The<br />
United Association of Mobile Contract<br />
Cleaners (UAMCC) is, as its title<br />
suggests, a “united” organization for not<br />
just pressure washers but also window<br />
cleaners, janitorial services, carpet<br />
cleaners, and other general cleaners.<br />
And the Pressure Washing Resource<br />
Association (PWRA) provides<br />
resources for individual contractors to<br />
grow but does not serve any type of<br />
certificatory or regulatory function.<br />
There are benefits to all. As an<br />
individual contractor, it is not unrealistic<br />
(and, arguably, sensible) to be a<br />
member of all three.<br />
How better to stay on top of<br />
industry trends, new ideas to grow your<br />
business, and networking for support<br />
and education? Annual conventions<br />
and ongoing training offerings and<br />
sessions can be particularly beneficial.<br />
Networking with more experienced<br />
professionals in the field who have<br />
“been there, done that” will enable you<br />
to fast track your way to success and<br />
profitability – all the way ensuring you<br />
take the proper safety measures, walk<br />
the proper ethical line, and serve to<br />
improve the industry as a whole not<br />
weigh it down. Being a member of an<br />
association also means you have access<br />
year round to fellow professionals in<br />
other markets whom you can call and<br />
discuss problems and solutions with<br />
as they arise in your business and your<br />
market.<br />
As the <strong>PWN</strong>A website states,<br />
such advice and guidance can be the<br />
difference between winning and losing<br />
an important contract and making or<br />
losing money on a particular job. You<br />
need the most up to date information<br />
about topics like OSHA, ladder safety,<br />
water fed safety, fall protection, chemical<br />
safety, and more.<br />
Also, importantly, these orgs serve<br />
as the voice of the industry speaking<br />
on your behalf to policy makers and<br />
regulatory agencies. As <strong>PWN</strong>A also<br />
smartly says, a lawmaker, without the<br />
knowledge and understanding of the<br />
importance of the contract cleaner, can<br />
make an uneducated decision that can<br />
put you out of business. That alone is<br />
a reason to support at least one of the<br />
organizations.<br />
#5. Resolution<br />
to follow the rules and<br />
guidelines for safety<br />
and business<br />
operations in the<br />
pressure wash<br />
industry and<br />
stop driving up<br />
costs for the<br />
rest of us.<br />
It has been said (and I think rightfully<br />
so) that the biggest thing that<br />
holds back this industry is the industry<br />
itself.<br />
What people mean by that is that<br />
there are a lot of operators out there<br />
nationwide who would like to “play<br />
professional,” and even who are often<br />
already members of one of these professional<br />
associations, but who still won’t<br />
wear their safety ropes, still do business<br />
under the table, still want to cheat the<br />
government on their taxes, and still<br />
don’t want to obey OSHA laws.<br />
It has to stop.<br />
Most companies out there check all<br />
those boxes successfully. Nevertheless,<br />
there are still far too many marginal<br />
companies in this industry that occasionally<br />
think about checking those<br />
boxes but never do.<br />
continued ...<br />
28 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 3, NO. 1 | WINTER <strong>2021</strong>
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AULD LANG<br />
SYNE<br />
Every time someone in our industry<br />
goes looking for the shortcut, or fails to<br />
deal with safety and OSHA requirements,<br />
or workers comp requirements,<br />
and they do so because they’re more<br />
interested in skirting around them than<br />
acknowledging these are the things<br />
they have to deal with, and that they<br />
need to be compliant with regulations<br />
like the Clean Water Act, we all suffer.<br />
Allowing members in our industry<br />
to persist with the attitude of ‘don’t<br />
tell me what to do, if I want to get<br />
up on roof without my safety ropes<br />
on that’s my decision, it’s not going to<br />
hurt anybody else,’ is simply no longer<br />
feasible. Because in fact it does hurt<br />
other people. The minute that person<br />
falls off the roof and gets injured or<br />
dies, it registers on the entire industry’s<br />
loss modification risk ratio, plummets<br />
our collective reputation, and raises<br />
rates for all of us (not to mention the<br />
unnecessary loss of life).<br />
No wonder when you walk into<br />
your local bank to borrow money to<br />
build a building or something like that<br />
that they too often look at you and say<br />
‘oh, you’re just some stupid little pressure<br />
washing company.’ Why? Because<br />
we’re too often acting like stupid little<br />
pressure washing companies!<br />
There must be accountability.<br />
#6. Resolution<br />
to diversify and expand<br />
your business<br />
this year when<br />
opportunities<br />
arise.<br />
Beyond traditional pressure wash,<br />
new opportunities have always existed<br />
(especially now) for operators to<br />
expand services in to new niche areas<br />
that can be both profitable and these<br />
days even help ease the Covid-19 crisis.<br />
For starters, the consensus seems to<br />
be that America’s obsession with cleanliness<br />
will be a permanent social shift.<br />
Pressure wash operators are certainly<br />
well positioned to promote their<br />
existing services, as well as re-channel<br />
their resources and technical skills to<br />
certain aspects of interior cleaning,<br />
specifically, sanitizing businesses, to<br />
meet that market need.<br />
In addition, and importantly from<br />
a consumer perspective, certifying<br />
businesses as properly sanitized for<br />
customer use could well be a wave of<br />
the future. That’s because consumers<br />
now want peace of mind that a business<br />
is clean and the ability of a business<br />
to prove that cleanliness to customers<br />
could become paramount to remaining<br />
in business.<br />
The Daytona Beach News-Journal<br />
recently pondered just how paranoid<br />
post-coronavirus America will be as it<br />
returns to public places.<br />
The conclusion appears to be very<br />
paranoid and vigilant.<br />
The newspaper also profiled a<br />
Sarasota pressure washer’s savvy<br />
expansion of services aimed at ensuring<br />
that public trust.<br />
John Cloud runs Gorilla Kleen pressure<br />
washing, a good sized operation<br />
with clients ranging from the municipality<br />
he lives in (pressure washing<br />
public exteriors) to the Ringling<br />
College and Ed Smith Stadium, spring<br />
training home of the Baltimore<br />
Orioles.<br />
Cloud told the News-<br />
Journal he’s always offered<br />
sanitization services but that<br />
they were seldom requested<br />
prior to the recent pandemic.<br />
Now, by contrast, he said, he’s essentially<br />
doing as much sanitization as<br />
exterior cleaning for his clients, and<br />
purports that an important psychological<br />
principal is leading that growth in<br />
his niche business.<br />
“I’m printing stickers that go on the<br />
door that say this area was sanitized<br />
with this chemical shown to be effective,<br />
and we show the date,” Cloud<br />
stated. “From an optics standpoint, if<br />
I’m an employee or a customer, I’d be<br />
happy to see that…I think the establishment<br />
or business would be saying<br />
to the public, hey, we care about taking<br />
that extra step for public safety.”<br />
Steam is another obvious area for<br />
expansion and diversification of a pressure<br />
wash business. One alternative to<br />
using herbicides to get rid of weeds in<br />
lawns and other areas is to use steam.<br />
After all, you already have hot water<br />
and nozzle on the job.<br />
As carpet cleaners increasingly<br />
go out of business in day and age of<br />
hardwood floor preferences, bolting on<br />
a carpet cleaning service for the odd<br />
job can also make sense (heck, carpet<br />
cleaners are increasingly switching to<br />
pressure wash to survive!)<br />
These are just a few ideas for a side<br />
hustle that can add to your bottom line.<br />
Keep your eyes and ears open (listen<br />
to your customers!) for opportunities<br />
this year to diversify your business and<br />
make more money on every job site.<br />
#7. Resolution<br />
to fill the role as<br />
a crucial cleaning<br />
service in the<br />
Covid-19 Age; but also<br />
to do so truthfully as<br />
customers express<br />
their renewed desire<br />
for cleanliness to stay.<br />
Essentially, live and prosper as a<br />
result of society’s newfound obsession<br />
with cleanliness, but always tell the<br />
truth in marketing the value of your<br />
products and services in the fight<br />
against about Covid-19.<br />
As Mulberry PR recently advised,<br />
the emergence of the novel coronavirus<br />
has brought the cleaning industry<br />
to the forefront of peoples’ minds.<br />
Commercial facilities, transit systems,<br />
and homeowners are cleaning more<br />
frequently and thoroughly to protect<br />
employees, patrons, and loved ones.<br />
The extremely contagious coronavirus,<br />
which causes COVID-19, has left<br />
people searching for answers and best<br />
practices for cleaning and infection<br />
prevention.<br />
While there are still many<br />
unknowns surrounding the virus, one<br />
thing is certain: cleaning will continue<br />
to be viewed as essential for maintaining<br />
health and safety. In this new<br />
era, it will be increasingly important<br />
for product manufacturers, distributors,<br />
and building service contractors to<br />
nurture relationships with customers<br />
and prospects through truthful and<br />
accurate marketing.<br />
Mulberry PR says the evolution<br />
taking place is that businesses have<br />
moved from a view of cleanliness<br />
from “good enough” to “must have”<br />
and, as such, marketing in the cleaning<br />
industry these days must be done<br />
with a careful approach to messaging<br />
stressing honesty moving forward.<br />
Companies that implement marketing<br />
best practices will be better positioned<br />
to get their products and services<br />
in the hands of frontline cleaning<br />
professionals who are instrumental in<br />
protecting the public.<br />
Good Luck in<br />
<strong>2021</strong>!<br />
Have Your Best<br />
Year Ever!<br />
30 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 3, NO. 1 | WINTER <strong>2021</strong>
www.WettSupply.com 651-340-7077 johnw@wettsupply.com<br />
Pressure washer pumps and accessories<br />
DIRECT SALES<br />
W<br />
Wett Supply<br />
651-340-7077<br />
A Nationwide Wholesaler<br />
with 30+ Years Experience<br />
If you are cleaning, distributing<br />
or manufacturing, email or call<br />
us today.<br />
johnw@wettsupply.com 651-340-7077
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