Soap Warehouse Blog Spot

How to monitor your Social Media Footprint in 10 minutes a day.

2011-09-07T13:14:00.000-04:00

This is for everyone that says "they do not have the time" to put into Social Media to have it work for them. Now granted this 10 minutes is only after you have done the initial set up work and yes that does take a little time, but you can spend 10-15 minutes once a day for a first week or two to be set up to follow all these short steps. I will give you the list then show you where to go to set each one up.

2 minutes: Check Twitter to listen about your company and products.
1.5 minutes: Scan Google Alerts for your company name, products or executives names.
1 minutes: Check Facebook stats at your Companies Page
3 minutes: Look for questions and answer at least one a day
2.5 minutes: Use Google Reeder to check other sites like Flicker, Digg and others.

Total 10 minutes a day.

Now the longer you spend at some, like with Q&A's, that will be to your advantage. You may have days where you find more than one or two questions that would be good for you to answer so realistically you may spend 20-30 minutes on these five items on some days. Or you may only do 4 for the 5 like I do most of the time.

1. Checking Twitter. Well first you have to have a Twitter account. And that is easy and free by going to http://www.twitter.com/. Once you are set up you can then use one of two tools; TweetDeck or Twitter Search.

For TweetDeck you must go to their web site http://www.tweekdeck.com/ and sign up, it's free and then set up your scan board. I like this because once it is turned on at the beginning of the day every time a new item is posted to any of the categories you have it set to show, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. the posts will flash up in the top right corner of your screen and ping you. If you are at your computer you can glance up to see if it is a post you would like to comment on. Remember sites like Facebook are about relationships not selling so just making comments keeps you relevant to your FB friends.

Now Twitter Search is much easier and you can use it as much or as little as you want each day. Just go to the Home Page and up in the search bar put in your companies name. Be sure to place quotation marks around it or you will get posts that contain all the words themselves not just in the order of your business name. For example Joe's Pressure Washing will return "Joe's" "pressure" "washing" and "pressure washing" instead of the "Joe's Pressure Washing" that you want. Or you can go to the advanced search and enter it there before saving. You might also want to chose some that are close, that your customers might enter instead and incorrectly, like "Joe's Power Washing" "Joe's Power Wash" and remember capitalization does not matter. You can also list product names if your business has them, like ours does. After each search you can click at the top on the "Save this Search" button if you where happy with the results. Once it is saved when you come back each day. Look just above the posts and click on the "Searches" tab. A scrolled down menu will appear with all the searches you have saved. Click on which ever one you want to check at that time. You can also keep up to date with temporary items and delete them once they are over.

2. Scan Google Alerts. This is very similar to the Twitter searches we just discussed. You go to www.google.com/alerts to set them up. You list what you want to know about that is coming out on the web and then set it as to how often to send the results to your email account. I have it set for as it happens but I have over 10 alerts, and I might check it a few times during the day. You may only have a few you will need to set for, so once a day or even once a week may be fine. But remember the longer you wait the longer your response time will be to react to anything negative. You will need to have your business name as well as your own name. For those I would set it for all results. But for topics you might want to set it for Only the best results like I do for "restaurant fire", "power washing", "pressure washing", "graffiti removal" and again do not forget the quote marks. You can also set it for whole phrases as well like "fleet truck washing". You can also use a special email account just for these alerts so you do not clutter up your regular account or have your email filters set so that any email coming from Google Alerts goes into a separate folder so it is easy to open and scan them. This is what I do. I also have alerts set for topic phrases to gather information for my blogs.

3. Check Facebook Stats. Go to your company page on Facebook. On the top right hand under the bar, click on the Edit page button, when this comes up on the left side there is a list and near the bottom of the list is a bar graph called Insights. This will give you a lot of valuable information about who is coming and using your site. It can tell you how many daily, weekly and monthly users are using your site. It also shows what posts got interactions. Enabling you to go back to the post and continue the conversation.

4. Search for questions to answer. You need to put your self out there as an authority in your business or just to interact. For this you can use sites like Ask.com at http://www.ask.com/answers/ and click on the Ask People tab, at Facebook Questions http://www.facebook.com/questions/ see what your friends are asking and answer or ask your own question with poll options. With Yahoo answers you can get out into the www audience not just the people you know and this can bring even more people to you. This is the one I use the most. Go to http://answers.yahoo.com/ and set your account up. and then to browse categories. Most of you will find questions to answer in the Home and Garden section. Found one asking about paint colors, if bleach hurts vinyl siding, what size pressure washer to buy to start up in the business and how much should an average pressure washing job cost. All these and more would have been great for many of you to answer. You make your comments and then you are able to link to web pages to back up your answers. You can link to your own website but do not use it all the time or as the sole link. Anyone can click on your avatar with the answer and find your information that you set up when you joined and this is where you need to list your web site and company information. Also if you have good answers, the person that asked the questions chooses the best answer, then you get a better ranking and more people will listen to what you have to say. You can also create a network and gain fans.

5. Google Reader found at https://www.google.com/reader/ this is good if you already have a Google e-mail account or want to get one just to have your Google alerts sent to it and to use the reader. You can link your web site , your competitors sites, Youtube, Flicker any site you want to visit to check on what is new.

Staying safe working in the heat.

2011-08-16T09:20:00.000-04:00

This time of year, is what we often call the “dog days” of summer, many parts of the country have been sweltering under conditions of oppressive heat and high humidity. But suffering illness from extreme heat can be preventable.

Summer heat is an added hazard to your job. Water is the largest component of the human body, making up 50 to 70% of the body’s weight and as the temperatures climb so does your bodies need to replenish that water.

6-8 eight ounce glasses of water a day is what the normal person needs for their body to function properly, but you need even more when you have added factors like heat and exertion that are causing you to loose extra water, through perspiration.

You should always drink an extra glass of water before starting any physical activity, in side or out. This will help keep your heart rate and body temperature lower. Water should be continued to be consumed at a higher than normal rate if your physical activity continues for more than 30 minutes, especially in high temperatures and humidity.

Two main functions of water in the body are temperature regulation and the removal of waste products. If you are not needing to urinate more often, even though you think you are drink enough water, then you probably are not, and may risk becoming over heated and experience heat stroke or heat exhaustion. List to recognize the difference will be given a little later on.

First; following these guidelines can help you maintain proper hydration during work and exercise in hot weather:

1.Weigh your self without clothes before and after a normal days work, especially during hot weather. For each pound of body weight lost you should drink two cups of fluid. This should give you an idea of what you have been missing, so you can make changes to your routine.

2.Drink a rehydration beverage containing sodium to quickly replenish lost body fluids. The beverage should also contain 6-8 percent glucose of sucrose (carbohydrate). But do not replace all normal water consumption with these. Do not drink sodas or coffee as beverages with lots of sugar or caffeine dehydrate you.

3.Drink 2.5 cups of water 2 hours before out side work or exercise.

4.Drink 1.5 cups of water 15 minutes just prior to working or working out.

5.Drink at least one cup of fluid (water or drink beverage) every 15 to 20 minutes during working or physical activity.

6.Weigh your self every night to see how you are doing and replenish, with water, the amount you need to get back in balance. See #1.

As the weather gets hotter your body loses more water. You should drink additional amounts per hour as the temperatures rise to compensate for this loss.

Drink water even if you do not feel thirsty; by the time you do feel thirsty your body could loss between 2 to 5 cups of water, even more when out doors. When you are dehydrated your attention and concentration can decrease by 13% and short term memory by 7%. Dehydration can increases accidents!

How to tell the difference between Heat Stroke and Heat Exhaustion:

While heat exhaustion is a overheating of the body, heat stroke is a severe condition that can result in bodily harm.

It is heat exhaustion if a person shows a marked improvement after drinking small amounts of plain water and being placed in the shade, heat stroke victims may not.

Heat stroke comes on faster than heat exhaustion with symptoms such as dry mouth, gaunt or pasty appearance, vomiting or lapse into unconsciousness.

Although heat exhaustion can exhibit a rise in body temperatures a temp over 103° is at heat stroke level.

A person with heat exhaustion may be perspiring while a heat stroke victim might be dry because their bodies ability to sweat has broken down and is not functioning properly.

A person with heat stroke may also be having mild hallucinations or show signs of mental incapacity prior to unconsciousness, such as not being able to follow simple directions or answer easy questions.

A person on low sodium diets or if they have lost large amounts of fluids containing salt, such as sweating, or are on certain medications are more likely to experience heat stroke vs. heat exhaustion and then giving these victims fluids containing electrolytes and sodium such as a sport drink will be of a higher benefit than that of just water.

How to help someone with heat exhaustion or heat stroke:

First move victim to a cool or shaded area and administer water.
Loosen any constricting clothing or extra layers of clothing.
Check victims temperature if possible, note if they are sweaty or dry.
You can place cool towels or wet clothes on the head, chest, midsection, and arms to reduce body temp, but do not use ice.
Ask the person simple questions and to follow simple commands, such as what day it is, their children's name, to touch their finger to their nose, or count back from ten.
If you suspect heat stroke call for help immediately, lie the person down with legs slightly raised, if conscious allow them to sit up to drink fluids, ideally a sport drink, every 5 - 10 minutes until help arrives.

Keep your self safe when working in the heat and hope for a break in the temperatures.

Blog has moved but will keep this one going too.

2011-08-16T09:12:00.002-04:00

Hello,

As many Internet savy folks know, not having your blog live on your own main site gives you NO SEO benefit. Having a blog is a great first step, but you do not need to be building up Google's presence on the Internet. Therefore about a year ago we moved our main blogging on to our own site at http://info.soapwarehouse.biz/Default.aspx. I will still be posting some of the best articles on this site to keep it current and allow those that find it, to follow us and learn about Soap Warehouse.

We hope to see you there. You can also use the links below to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as well as subscribe to our blogs RSS feed.

Have a great day.

Facebook

Twitter

Rss Feed Soap Warehouse Blog

How to use QuickBooks for Customer Marketing

2011-06-02T09:41:00.000-04:00

One of my Facebook group members asked a question that made me think that the answer should be a blog post.

He wanted to know if most pressure washing professionals are using QuickBooks (QB) for their book keeping. Well QB is the #1 seller for a reason. But we use QB for so much more and since I have friends that work with Intuit in QB design and debugging, I have learned how QB can also help small business owners with their marketing.

And since June is National Entrepreneur Do-it-Yourself Marketing Month this would be a great time to show everyone some tricks and hand out tips.

First if you are not using QB you should really consider it. And if you are not fully using the report features, you are missing out on a major portion of what QB can do for you.

Did you know you can use features in QB to segment your customers in to specific groups to use later for marketing?

Go to your QB and pull up the Customer Center. Once there click on any customer you want. There you will see just under the Customer name a field called “Customer Type” This was designed to be used to indicate almost anything about your customer that you want, but it can be used for marketing by creating reports. It has been reported in surveys to QB that over 60% of QB users do not use the "customer type" function which is a terrible waste. To get to this field click on the “Edit Customer” button, top right. Once there click on the “Additional Information” tab. Now you can access the drop down menu and use the “Add New” feature. I would suggest using this to segment your customers buy type of work you do. For example if you do only a limited type of work like only house or window washing you might want to list the types but Square foot size ranges or type of house or building. Ex: Under 1000, 1500-2000, Two story, split level, ranch, strip mall etc.

But most of you have a range of work you perform like house wash, roof wash, and flat work (such as driveways or side walks). Then your list could look like this: House wash <1000sq, House wash/gutters, Gutter clean only, deck wash only, deck wash/strip & stain, etc. I have not found a limit to the number that you can use and no # is given in QB help.

Some might want to use the “Job Type” under the “Job” tab in this way instead which would also be fine, but if you have already been using QB for a while and have never used the Job function it is not possible to go back and convert past invoices so this may not be where you want to segment. But you can use it moving forward as a great tool to separate invoices for the different jobs you do for customers. But you must be consistent in naming your types of jobs to make reporting easier later. But with the “Customer Type” area you can go back and modify all or as many customer records as you would like.
Once you are using the “Type” area you can create reports that give you details to make e-mail or direct mail campaigns work.

You can also use Custom fields to help you even further. For instance you could set one of these fields to be called “last date of service” then every time you have finished invoicing a customer you go here and enter in the date the job was completed. Later when you need to find customers to fill your schedule in a specific location or area you could create a custom report asking it to give you all house wash only, house/gutter and house wash/roof cleaning customers that you have not serviced yet this year to be listed. This list could further be sorted by adding other criteria like city or zip code and then be exported to an excel file where an e-mail list is made to send out a targeted e-mail offer, for example saying that you will be in that area next week and that you have three slots open and if they call and book an appointment by Friday they will get a free gutter cleaning (Or any other added service benefit you may want to offer)

Using the date of service you can also make your lists for thank you cards for the past month, find customers that have missed their normal yearly cleaning time or even for sending out customer Birthday cards if you have made a field for that.

Other things to look for when researching customer files: Review their invoices. Are they a once a year house washing customer that you have been washing for the last 5 years? You could send out a customer appreciation or referral offer. Is there a pattern of when they call or schedule their service with you? If you are slow in June you could possibly pre sell past July customers early with a phone call or an offer. Have you ever done any extra side work during one of these visits but not every time or have you ever noted there was other work available at this home that you have not done or that some one else is doing? Send them an offer like; “With any house wash every 100 square feet of flat work cleaned, you get 10 feet free.” to help get work you have not had in the past but know is available.

Make use of the notes section! Take notes on the job in a note book or on the quote form and transfer these notes into QB for a future gold mine of marketing information. Like “Customer just put in a pool, add quote for pool deck next year.”

In the newest QB version 11 they have a great new feature that allows you to attach additional documents to the file as a whole or to each invoice, estimate or sales order. You can use this feature to attach photos of the job, either at the time of the job quote, or B & A photos of the job after you are done. Then next time you can pull up what the property looked like to remind you of certain things you may have forgot to include in your costs or to notice changes when you visit that have been made since that last job that might change the price. Such as added planter boxes to the deck railings. You can also use this to attach copies of supply lists or invoices so you can remember how many cans of stain, the exact color and price you paid last time. This way you can find out the current pricing for these items ahead of time and adjust your billing or estimate accordingly. You can go back and attach new documents to old invoices with out a problem so even if you have supply lists, invoices and photos 10 years old you can still add them now to your current customer records. Once you have made and attached the copies, you may be able to get rid of the old paper work altogether. Clutter saving alert!

If you have different crews or employees doing work for you be sure to use the “Rep” drop down menu for this. This can help you track who did the quote? How many hours some one worked or the number of jobs done when paying your employees or if a customer has a praise or complaint you can easily tell who was last at that job. Or if a customer asks for the same tech you will know who to schedule. Even if changed to a new Rep at the next job visit or quote, the older invoice will still retain the past information. Great feature to use.

Now one feature I wish they would change is in the wording of the drop down menu in the “Job Info” tab. Right now it lists: None, Pending, Awarded, In Progress, Closed, and Not Awarded. I would like this to also allow you to add to these ones like: Quoted, Scheduled, Do Not Accept Job, etc.

But even leaving it this way you could still do a search for all pending sales orders to find customers that you quoted for a job (pending) that never called you back, to allow you to make a call or mailing list for follow up contact. You can also get pretty long with your job description with about 100 characters. The “Job Type” names must be shorter, at about 20 characters and this is where you can segment your customers by the work done, if you did not want to use the first location I discussed earlier "Customer Type".
Another really cool new feature in QB 11 is the map and directions feature. Not sure if a booked customer lives near one that is calling to schedule? Just click on the word “map” in blue under the customers address and the location will come up in Google Maps. It can also give you directions between addresses. It also gives you a space to enter notes if you have to remember things like “Gate will be locked, combo is 5-23-16 and must close gate behind or dogs will get out.” But this only works for the main address for the customer, so if you have a commercial customer with one mailing address and multiple locations knowing where their post office box or corporate office is may not be as helpful.

There are so many ways you can use the custom fields for marketing there is no way to list them all and I am sure you might think of ways I have not heard of yet. Only realize that in the older versions there are only 7 slots that can be used for custom field entry and once they have been made and used they can not be changed unless you make one inactive. Once you make it inactive it will not be searchable. The newer QB11 and maybe even QB10 will let you have more than 7. This has allowed us to add things like Facebook Friend and Newsletter subscriber as custom fields to our current customer accounts.

Well I hope this has helped you QB users and any that may be trying to decide if QB is a smart investment. But no matter what computer book keeping system you use, be sure to continuously make back up copies. We back up our QB files to readable/writable disks each week and once a month run a complete drive copy of our data to alternating portable hard drives. This way we can never lose more than a single week of QB data or a whole month of most of our other data to fire or theft. Another way is to pay for off site down loading, which is becoming very convenient and more affordable than ever before.

Inbound Marketing with Social Media

2011-04-11T11:49:00.000-04:00

Finding new ways to market your business with out breaking the bank is one goal almost every small business owner wants to find.

During this month I plan to give you some suggestions, links to resources and hard facts to try and help you reach this goal.

Social Media is the new way to reach old and potentially new customers. Inbound Marketing is the future of small business. Outbound marketing may become all but extinct in the next 10 years. It is necessary to have more than a web site these days and to try and find customers via direct mail, e-mail and other media campaigns. Customers are tuning out and avoiding traditional methods business use to use to sell their products and services. New prospects want to find you when they need you, not you find them and interupt their day. They want real value and information even before they are willing to contact you about a service you could provide for them.

As we know most web surfers will make a decision to stay on your site in less than 3 seconds and many web analyst’s are saying that it has moved down now to less than 2 seconds.

So how can you make your web site be the one a service surfer will find and then stop and take a look at?
I will give you a list of 5 key elements here and then elaborate a little for you under the list.

Quality information above the fold and on the left 1/3 of the web page.
An obvious offer and call to action.
Examples of how to solve their problems (the reason they have searched)
Include visuals (especially video)
Ways to continue to be educated or engage if they want too.

With #1, it must be immediately clear to the viewer that they have found a site that matched their search no mater what it was; example seeing a house being washed for house washing, a painter painting a room for a paint company, etc.

Your business name that corresponds with the work you do: Bill’s Pressure Washing and House Cleaning. You can even use multiple names and have multiple sites if your work is strongly divided, such as All Kitchen Hood Cleaning and Bill’s Pressure Washing. You can still use one phone, just have two separate numbers that are forwarded to a single phone, most phones now will let you know where the number was forwarded from so you will know how to answer the call.

Or you may need to have multiple landing pages added to your web site, designed toward each part of work that you cover. It no longer smart to have just one main page of your web site listing everything you do. You must have that plus a page for your deck cleaning and repair, roof washing and gutter cleaning, house washing, concrete cleaning, Christmas light decorating... any job you do can have its own page which in turn can all link back to one contact entry page.

And with so many new searchers using their phones, iPads and other smaller screen devices you will need to revise your pages to give those viewers information in the way they will see it, only the left top 1/3 of the page.

Ok on to point #2. Now that your surfer has stopped you need to grab them with an offer and call to action. Do you offer same day free estimates? Free gutter cleaning with new roof cleaning? 20 sq ft free concrete cleaning with each 100 ft cleaned?

What ever the offer is, make it stand out, be clear and then have an obvious button to click on for them to take action with. I could write a complete blog just about how to do this, and I will, but for now just know this is what needs to happen to get the contact.

Point #3, to be able to give examples of how you can solve their problem, you first need to know what that problem is! This is where creating pages within your web site with Meta tags and key words to specific words and long tail phrases people to search are become very important. You want some one that searches for “lowest priced house washing in Fulton county” to find your page on house washing, not to be taken to someone else’s page or even to your web site to a page about deck washing or roof cleaning, even though you may do all three, that surfer will have clicked off your site before you can blink. I will expand on this in a future blog post.

#4 - visuals. Visuals are becoming more and more important to surfers; they don’t want to have to read everything they want to know, they want to see it. Pictures tell the story many times much easier and faster than words can. The brain can process pictures over 10 times faster than when reading information that the picture is showing. For example:

These Before and After photos of removing rust from a concrete patio is understood much faster than reading the statements. “We can clean your concrete patio, walk way or drive way from rust, dirt, oil, and tire marks.” or “We can remove rust caused by patio furniture, so on and so forth.” Not that you should not still make the statement, but understand that people scan information, especially text and photos catch the eye. Videos are even better. You can improve the time spent on your site tremendously, sometimes by more than 20% with video. For example if your average page view is currently 6 seconds and you add even one 1 minute video, when it is watched you have increased your view time over 10%. Have multiple videos available that are shorter like 20-30 seconds and you will increase the number of videos a single person will be willing to watch and you can reach view rates of 20-40% higher than your starting 6% rate. Be sure to state near the video how long each one is to increase the chance of even the first view. People will not click on videos they feel are too evolved or will abandon one once it starts if it is moving too slowly or does not start to answer their problem or question.

Lastly give your surfer the option to learn more and engage with you in the future. Offer them newsletters, future discounts if they leave you their email, links to other information they may want to learn about, etc. These are opportunities to be able to contact these people in the future even if they did not click over and fill out your free estimate or contact form. They may just be price shopping and would like the opportunity to try you later if you sent them a discount offer and would be willing to just leave you their email address but not their name, so don’t require it.

I know this has been a little long but I hope you will come back and view the follow up posts that we will have. To be sure you are included, you can join our e-mail list by going to our web site www.soapwarehouse.biz then you will receive newsletters or you can go and like our Facebook page's or subscribe to this blog and you will know when new posts are added. You can even follow us on Twitter.
Thanks for reading.

Blast Off Graffiti Remover

2011-03-03T12:02:00.001-05:00

During the month of March, 2011 call us at 800-762-7911 to order your first bottle of Blast Off at a 20% savings, $19.99 instead of $24.99. Just watch our video and see how fast Blast Off works.

BlastOff.flv Watch on Posterous

Our other graffiti product Shadow Away is also on sale for 20% off.

Shipping costs are additional, but added discounts for multiple units are available.

How to figure chemical soap dilutions?

2011-01-25T09:42:00.000-05:00

I must try and help out customers with this almost everyday so I thought I would make a post out of it and possibly a white paper to send out so I would not have to repeat my self as much and for easy reference.

Plus I can easy get confused or tongue tied on the phone sometimes so it is a good idea to have it all written down some place.

First you will need to know how you are going to apply the chemical mix to start with. Figuring ratios for a pump up sprayer is easy, but the most common piece of equipment for this need is the pressure washer. So you first must know what dilution ratio or fixed mixing ratio your machine puts out. This can be easy for some, but many customers call me all the time saying they have no idea how much chemical their machine takes in and how diluted it is sprayed out.

The first place to look is in your machines owner’s manual. It should give you info like its flow rate or the gallons per minute the machine can generate plus its fixed mixing ratio. This can vary by machine and some larger models may even have a dial that allows the operator to change the mixing ratio. Another place to look if you no longer have your manual or if you bought your equipment second hand and never had one is on the internet by putting you make and model number into the search engine. You can also sometimes go to a local dealer that may have manuals in stock or that can order one for you.

A harder way to figure it out is to use a do it your self method. Take a measured 1 gallon (128 fluid ounces) and place it in your machines chemical mix tank or insert your down stream hose into the gallon container. Turn you machine on and run it dispensing all the water coming out of the wand into a much larger container, such as a 5 gallon bucket. Take care to have the machine set at a low PSI so all the water makes it into the container, a closed 5 gallon tight drum is good for this. Once you have drained the gallon of water out of your chemical mixing tank or with your down stream hose measure the amount of water you ended up with and then divide the amount by 128 (ounces in one gallon) to find out your machines ratio. If you ended up with say 900 ounces you would get the results of 7.03125 which I would consider being a 1:7 ratio. I would run this experiment at least 2-3 times comparing the results and taking the average for best results. Some of our customers have even been known to add food coloring to the original gallon to help them gauge when they have used all of it up.

So lets us say your machine has a permanent setting of 1:7 and you need to take your concentrated chemical and get it up to a 1:25 application ratio. So you need to figure out how much water to add to your chemical, that once it is placed in the chemical mixing tank or suction hose dropped in the container you are down streaming from, your machine will produce the needed 1:25 ratio.

This means we have to use the algebra we never thought we would ever need once we learned it and then forgot back in school and create a mathematical equation to do our work for us.

First we will put the dilution we need to end up with on the left side of the equation (see below)

Next we have the detergent, ‘d’ and water to think about. Say we want to make a 5 gallon container, ‘p’ of chemical product mix. And (p-d) is the amount of water we need in the container and 7p is the additional amount of water that the machine will be adding while dispensing the contents of the container. So we set p=5 gallons and we solve for d and find that d=1.538 gallons of detergent.

1 = ____d_____
25 (p – d) + 7p

Now I am not going to sit here and teach you how to step by step figure an algebra equation that many would not be able to remember just like back in high school. But I am going to give you the link to a web site that has a dilution calculator right there for you.

http://jansson.us/mixingratio-concentration.html#pressureWasherCalculator.

What I suggest is that you go to this site, make the calculations for all the products you regularly use knowing your own machines ratio and our products dilution rates or the ones you use with our products. I would then round the results and make a dilution chart to keep as a mixing guide.

Here are just a few examples from what some customers I know have and the products they use.
Customer #1 uses Brown Derby with cold water that we suggest mixing at 1:50. His machine is set from the factory at a 1:20 ratio and he mixes his premix in 5 gallon pails that sit on his truck.

His equation would look like this:

1 = ______d_______
50 (5 – d) + 20*5

But in the calculator it looks like this:
Detergent Water
Final Mixing Ratio: 1:50
Pressure Washer Mixing Ratio: 1:20

Desired Volume of Pre-mix: 5 gal

Pre-mix Concentration: 41.18/%
Detergent: 2.059gal= 263.5 fl. oz
Water: 2.941 gal= 376.5 fl. oz

Giving this customer the directions to take 2 gallons (rounded down) of our Brown Derby with 3 gallons (rounded up) of water to make his pre mixed 5 gallon pails to down stream with his machine to get a very close 1:50 ratio of cleaner to water.

Let’s take one more case:

Customer #2 uses Mighty Max as a house wash at a 1:20 ratio and his machine is set at a 1:7 ratio. He on the other hand only wants his 5 gallon pails filled with 3 gallons of mix so they are easier to carry and move around the houses. His results would be this:

Detergent Water
Final Mixing Ratio: 1:20
Pressure Washer Mixing Ratio: 1:7

Desired Volume of Pre-mix: 3 gal

Pre-mix Concentration: 38.10%
Detergent: 1.143gal = 146.3 fl. oz
Water: 1.857 gal = 237.7 fl. oz

Or if rounded, 1 ¼ gallon of Mighty Max to 1 ¾ gallons of water, making a slightly greater than 1:20 mixture.

Once you know your normal values you can more easily adjust the mixtures as needed for other considerations like water temperature, air temperature, or amount of product you have left available to do a job. How to estimate soap use for your season will be kept for a later post. Use this winter time off now to make these charts and be better prepared for spring.

Blast Off Graffiti Remover, no water needed.

2010-12-07T16:31:00.001-05:00

Soap Warehouse is introducing it's latest group of products.

Blast Off Graffiti Remover, Shadow Away Graffiti Remover and Cleen Fast commercial spray cleaner.

First we will tell you about Blast Off, it works like nothing else on the market today for removing graffiti.

You spray it on a dry hard surface that has a graffiti tag of paint or permanent marker on it, wait around one minute or less and then just wipe off with a dry cloth.

See for your self, watch our 60 second video. No water is needed, in fact water reduces the effectiveness of the product and the surface needs to be dry before applying Blast Off for it to work properly.

You will not believe how easy graffiti will come off. Blast Off works on metal, plastics, fiberglass, vinyl, tile, grout, composites and many natural stone surfaces. It is great to use on vehicles, metal buildings or machinery casings, in bathrooms on walls, stall dividers, and fixtures.

Blast Off is pH neutral, biodegradable, non corrosive and contains no petroleum distillates and is safe of factory applied paint and powder coats. Easy and very safe to use.

Blast Off can of course not be used on surfaces that have been spray painted, or painted with Latex or Epoxy paints as this is what it is designed to remove. It should also not be used on Screen printed signs as it will remove the dyes as well.

Blast Off is most effective on new graffiti on hard non porous surfaces that have not had any other cleaner used previously to try and remove the tag.

Our next product Shadow Away is for larger graffiti tagged areas on concrete or masonry or when a shadow has been left from trying to remove graffiti with a cleaner that did not entirely finish the job.

Shadow Away is also pH neutral, biodegradable, non corrosive and contains no petroleum distillates and needs to be applied to a dry surface.

Shadow Away will remove shadows or ghosting that has been left behind by other cleaners. It is a spray that is designed to make a gel to get down into the pores of concrete, mansonry and to cling to verticle surfaces. Shadow Away will continue to work and stay on the surface dissolving the paint or marker as long as the area is keep wet with the Shadow Away or Blast Off until it has completely released the stain from the surface. A brush may be used to push the paint around to be sure it has been completely released. A white powder will apear as the product is allowed to dry but that will rinse easily from the surface once you know the painted area has been loosend and or removed by wiping. Once you have released all the paint with Shadow Away you may use a pressure washer to rinse the area clean.

I will talk about Cleen Fast in our next post.

National Cleaning Expo coming to Charleston.

2010-09-02T11:46:00.004-04:00

The next National Cleaning Expo event will be held September 29th and 30th at the Embassy Suites North Charleston - Airport/Hotel and Convention Center located at 5055 International Blvd., North Charleston, SC 29418.

This event is in the same location and imediately follows the CETA Powerclean show being held the 27th and 28th.

Soap Warehouse was a sponsor of the Tampa NCE event and will also be a sponsor in Charleston.

We would like to take this time to congratulate the winner in Tampa of the Soap Warehouse $250.00 product prize coupon, Mr. Brian Welker of 'Great Panes Window Cleaning and Under Pressure Cleaning' from Statesboro, GA.

Soap Warehouse will repeat this $250.00 product prize coupon again at the event in Charleston.

Our main product manufacture I.T.D. will be at the CETA Powerclean show so those that plan on attending on the 28th, for CETA's first ever Industrial Users Day, should be sure to stop by and say hello to them and tell them how much you like their products that we sell.

I.T.D. is a manufacture for many distributors and suppliers across the country not just Soap Warehouse and has a great reputation in the industry.

I hope to see you in Charleston.

What is the best truck wash soap?

2010-08-26T12:12:00.001-04:00

This is a topic that has been hotly debated in chat rooms, on forum boards and at round table discussions for years. And the fact is there is NO SINGLE best truck wash soap.

The best soap is what ever gives you the best results for the job and regulatory situation your business may come across. For you this may change quite often to hardly ever at all.

Here are 5 things you have to consider and determine for your self, what soap is the best truck wash soap for you for each job.

1. Do I have waste water issues to consider that can not be easily fixed, possibly with just reclamation?

If so you may first want to see if the job can be done effectively with a “Green” product or by using a two step, waste water neutral process. Remembering though that even when using a 100% “Green” product the materials that are being washed off will NOT be “Green” and you will still have some waste water issues to deal with.

2. Is the soap going to require that the washing process take too long and take too many steps to complete to be cost effective?

For instance is the soap a no brush that can just be sprayed on and rinsed off? Or could the soap cause an additional step, like having to apply aluminum brightener, to be required for surfaces dulled by the use of the wash soap or a wax applied? Is the soap a safe finish product that won’t harm poly coats, glass or aluminum?

3. Is the soap easy and safe to use for equipment and operator?

You need to find the right balance for you and the job you are doing. Can the product run though the washer pump or must it be down streamed. Some times you must take added safety measures, goggles, wet suit, water proof shoes, etc to have a chemical strong enough that will do the really tough work fast. Other times the best cleaner can be as safe as plain water.

4. What will be the final cost to use the soap you chose?

Just because a product is expensive or inexpensive should not be the biggest factor in what you choose. You can buy an expensive product and end up using only a few ounces, spending a dollar or two a gallon, compared to another inexpensive product that you must use at full strength that ends up costing you many dollars a gallon. Take the time, Do the math!

5. Finally how good and for how long will the vehicle' look last once washed?

Because face it, if a soap does only a fair job of cleaning, and does not get the results the customer wants, they will find someone else to do the job next time.

Here at Soap Warehouse we have products that will cover all these different needs.

Our #1 seller Brown Derby is a fast, no brush, great results product. But you may have to follow the wash with an aluminum brightener or use it in a two step process on some types of vehicles. You also have to be sure it does not dry on hot metal or glass. But it is #1 for a reason, IT IS A GREAT SOAP that does a great job fast!

We have quite a few no brush "Safe Finish" truck washes, one that even leaves a near wax shine with no wax build up because there is no wax in it, it just looks that way, our Big Rig Truck Brite. It is our best results safe finish for that reason. Not to be out done though by our top selling safe finsh Blue Lighting.

We have a super concentrated ecomonical truck wash like our Truck-N-Tuff aka T-N-T. One 6 gallon pail can be mixed 1:9 to yeild you 54 gallons of product you just spray on then wash off in most cases. Pump it straight through a pressure washer with no added diltution with a low volume fine mist nozzle and you can wash whole fleets of rigs with just a few gallons.

Our two step wash products give you that "dirt just falls off the truck" action plus leaving you with pH neutral waste water that all you will need to do is filter to the required level before discharging into the proper sewer line.

All of our truck washes even those that are DOT hazardous when shipped in thier concentrated forms, once mixed and used at the recomended dilutions rates on their labels are Biodegrdable and all cassified under the USA's CLEAN WATER ACT as non toxic pollutant's.

If you have any questions about any of our truck wash products call us today at 1-800-762-7911.

Leave more than just your good work behind after a service job.

2010-08-11T12:48:00.000-04:00

I hear about and see everyday in forums where satisfied customers can not find the contractor that provided a great job or service for them.

Take the below example just posted yesterday at http://www.thegrimescene.com/ as an example:

“Mildewed in Morton Grove, IL

About 5 years ago I signed on to this forum as my mom needed her cedar deck and fence washed and sealed. I found some great people who thankfully advised me to stay away from sealmax and others and hooked me up with a great contractor. The guy did a wonderful job but moved to Florida--he gave me another name and we rolled on. Now, Mom needs her deck and fence done again in a big bad way and I can find no one. I am just looking for an honest worker who will do a superior job. I know workmanship should not come too cheap and I put attention to detail above all. Anyone out there that could steer me in the right direction? Chris”

Here is a customer that would love to find the same person he last used and was recommended but can not locate the information since it has been so long ago.

So how can you improve the chance that you will be contacted for the follow up business, one, three even five or more years down the line?

1. Leave a card or collateral print pieces behind when you leave. This can be a nice flyer with a tear off business info card area to be placed in a Rolodex or passed on to a friend. Least effective unless person is a pack rat.

2. Leave a useful promotional item like a magnet, note holder clip, jar opener, or any thing that has the potential of staying around for a long time to keep your name in mind and in front of your customer.

3. Leave a business card, sticker, magnet or laminated info card near or attached to the work that was done. And be sure to tell the customer that you have done this. Great way to be used again.

4. Follow up contact with the customer by mail or e-mail. Number one way to get repeat and referral business.

I know that the third suggestion sounds strange but here is where I have seen it work.

Take a deck builder that staples laminated business cards to the underside of the decks he builds in a number of places, including top stair risers and the anchor board against the house etc. he knows later, if any repair work needs to be done, that owner or even the following home owner has a good chance of finding out who built the deck, gazebo, fence etc.

I know our electrician puts his magnet inside our electric fuse panel door. Or the AC furnace man that leaves his sticker on the back of the AC unit or side of the furnace.

Same with a carpenter friend of mine; he leaves a small info card stapled along the back edge of doors or inside door frames he hangs, window frames of windows he installs, under chair rails or moldings. This way later he may get the call to do other work. Sure the customer might forget its there or it not get found until repair work has started, but once found, the owner will remember who did the work the first time and could call or recommend him again to others.

The fourth item is the reason that yearly or quarterly informational post cards and seasonal e-mails to former customers help retain these customers as future income or as part of a great referral business. You need to keep your name and business fresh in past customers minds with out irritating them by contacting too frequently.

Don't underestimate the impact of the great work you have already done in bringing you new and repeat business.

Laundry products from Soap Warehouse

2010-08-09T12:54:00.001-04:00

For most of you that are in the pressure washing business you might be asking why should I care about what laundry soaps Soap Warehouse sells, I'm not a laundry?

Well good question! One reason is that just like being able to buy superior, concentrated chemicals to do your cleaning jobs you can also benefit buy getting superior professional grade laundry products that commercial laundries, dry cleaners, hospitals and other commercial operations use. Second is that it can save you money while making you and your employees in your business look great.

Do you use uniform shirts for your business? Are you paying to professionally clean uniform shirts and pants? Are you having trouble getting your uniforms clean enough? Are some employees uniforms fading faster or looking dingier than others?

It is important for your businesses image to be sure that all employees look clean and professional at all times.

Crescent is our best selling detergent for washing uniform shirts and pants, especially medium to dark colors to release dirt and grease in hot temps of 100 - 140 degrees. This is an oxygen enhanced enzyme detergent using 2-4 oz in your home washer per load. Also great for khaki pants and white shirts too.

Flex is an all in one detergent with built in oxygen bleach that is safe for all colors. Flex also has great deodorizing power when washing at 110 degrees and above. Get those sweat stains and smells out of shirt collars, pits and cuffs and leave them clean with no lingering scent. Can be used at lower temps and still remove latex paint, blood and other stains. 2-6 oz per load depending on temperature and soil level.

Rave Plus is great if you are mainly a cold water washer. It is phosphate free and great for jeans to keep them dark longer. Economical yet effective and can be used at all temps. Great for permanent press or khaki pants as well. Use 4-8 oz per load depending on temperature and soil level.

Then we have Scat! our all purpose stain remover. Don't want to buy professional detergents to get rid of sweat stains and odors? You should never have to worry if a stain or odor will come out. Spray Scat! on when you take off the stained item, saturating the stain past the stain line. Just throw it in to the hamper, sort and wash as normal even days later. The stains should all come out. Visit the Scat! site at http://www.scatstainremover.com/ to see all the ways to use Scat!. Scat! comes in 1 gallons or 16 oz trigger spray bottles and in cases.

Any of these items can be added to your regular chemical order.

The detergents come in 40 lb pails (5-6 gallon size)

and you can try any one of these products once for half price when you add it to your regular order. This offer of course may be limited or changed at any time but will be valid from the time of posting at least until the end of September 2010. Please mention this offer when ordering.

Visit our site http://www.soapwarehouse.biz/ anytime for a complete product list, descriptions and pricing.

National Cleaning Expo Events

2010-07-27T15:14:00.003-04:00

The National Cleaning Expo’s are events for the Pressure Washing Industry that are held across the country. Since their beginning in 2008 these events and round table discussions have increased in size and popularity in bringing contractors together to discuss their business, meet with suppliers, to improve networking and to improve the industry as a whole.

The next few events this year will be on July 30th and 31st in Tampa, FL being held at the Crown Plaza Westshore, located at 5303 West Kennedy Boulevard, Tampa, Florida 33609. And then in September on the 29th and 30th in Charleston, SC held at the Embassy Suites Hotel Airport/Convention Center, 5055 International Blvd, North Charleston SC 29418, immediately following the CETA show that ends on the 28th. Contractors are not normally allowed to attend the CETA show since it is a manufactures exhibit. But this year contractors are being invited to view the CETA show the last day, on the 28th for a small fee of $25-$45 depending on how soon you register, so plan to come a day early to the National Cleaning Expo and take advantage of this great opportunity. To visit the CETA web site go here http://www.ceta.org/ or to register to attend on the 28th go here http://www.ceta.org/documents/PC2010_industrial_users_reg.pdf to print and fill out their form.

Information for the National Cleaning Expo events can be found at http://nationalcleaningexpo.com/. Every event is different and pricing changes for each location depending on venue and speakers. Some events are free or have industry organizations that come and put on their own additional classes that enhance the NCE events them selves. For instance the RCIA (Roof Cleaning Institute of America) will be sponsoring a free social at 6 pm on July 29th as a prelim to the start of the show on Friday. And the PWNA (Power Washers of North America) is hosting a Pressure Washing Boot Camp and classes during the NCE, $99.00 for members with the following subjects and speakers: Fleet Washing- Eric Clark BOD (PWNA Instructor) and Wood Restoration- Mike Hilborn ED (PWNA Instructor).

There will also be other classes costing $59 each with special speakers such as Tony Shelton-Residential Coil cleaning “are you missing $$$$” 1.5 hours, Mike Kriesle – SEO “Getting the Phone to ring” 1.5 Hours, and Mark Belyan- (property Manager) “How to get my business?” 1.5 Hours.

The main show of this National Cleaning Expo will include for free the following speakers; Daryl Mirza- “Taking your business from one to four hundred employees!!!”, Mike Hilborn- Getting to the next level. “Implement systems”, Ron Musgraves- Trouble getting in the door? “Selling Commercial property managers advance Techniques”, A.C. Lockyer- Popcorn Marketing. “Residential Marketing for the Overwelmed”, Joe Crowder- Interior Floors cleaning instruction “Work all year round”, Michael Tessaro- “Are you making money in your business? Learn how to analyze your bottom line” and Chris Tucker – “Talking about Roof Cleaning Today”.

Organizations, distributors and suppliers also come to these events to find members, show their products and sell products at special promotional prices to the attendees. There are also fun and games for the attendees with prizes given way, product demos and presentations put on by the exhibitors as well as door prizes and the main event prize of a complete washing “skid outfit” to be given away at both of these events.

Soap Warehouse http://www.soapwarehouse.biz/ will be a sponsor at these events with $250 prize certificates, bucket games prizes, products being demoed and monetary support being given to the National Cleaning Expo organizers to help further these events and the pressure washing industry. If you attend please check out our brochure with our event special offers for attendees.

The complete speaker line up for the NCE Event in September has not been finalized but may include many that will be at the Tampa July event.

Keep checking the NCE web site http://nationalcleaningexpo.com/ for updates. And remember you need not be a member of any organization to attend a National Cleaning Expo event or round table, just be engaged in business activities related to the pressure washing or mobile cleaning businesses such as; pressure washing, fleet washing, exterior maintenance, commercial or residential cleaning, kitchen exhaust cleaning, flat work, carpet cleaning, etc. Please support your industry.

Industrial equipment cleaning products.

2010-07-06T08:00:00.001-04:00

This month our product focus is on a small group of our products that does not get a lot of attention except from the few customers that use them on a daily basis, so for the rest of you, this maybe a totally first look at these items.

First we have our “Parts Cleaner”. If you have a machine shop or pressure washer repair side of your business you most likely use a parts cleaner of some kind to remove oil, dirt and the like from motors parts and such. Actually we sell the most of this cleaner to mechanics that have nothing to do with pressure washing but have cycle and small engine shops like lawn motor repair.

This product comes as a powder, sold in 25 or 100 lb increments and is used at one lb per 5 gallons of water. This mixture for use in hot dip tanks usually set at 110 to 180 degrees. This heavy duty alkaline cleaner cleans ferrous and non-ferrous metal parts of oils, grease, soils and other debris.

Our next product “Phos-tize HD” is also used primarily in motor cycle or machine shops. This liquid is a heavy duty hot degreasing and de-rusting compound that is also used in hot water, high pressure washers, steam cleaners and in hot dip tanks. Dilution can be a little as 2% and up, and will leave metals rain bowed, blued and prepared for re-assembly and painting.

This next product is one used by commercial building maintenance companies and the like. Our “Non Acid Aluminum Coil Cleaner” is a great new “Green” solution to the old acid versions that are being phased out of use. This liquid product is used in the cleaning of air conditioner, evaporator and condenser coils at a rate of 1:4 cleaner to water, but it can be diluted up to, but no more than, 1:40 in some applications. Coil cleaning is a necessary service that should be done at least once if not twice a year or quarterly depending on the equipment, environmental factors and time of use the equipment is in operation. The more the use, the more frequent the cleaning needs to be. With this being a non acid “Green” product, operator safety and client concerns to maintain new “Green” building initiatives can be fulfilled.

Another non acid product is our “Drain Opener” that is also for commercial building use. This liquid product will dissolve and liquefy hair, paper and grease found in commercial floor and sink drains in bathrooms, kitchens, and restaurants that empty in to sewer drains. Not for use in out side water drains that flow into storm drain systems. Do not use on aluminum, or pore through aluminum drain covers or catch strainer baskets. Remove cover and/or strainer before using product and replace after cleaning is done. Not for home use.

Also for cleaning drains as a maintenance type product is our “QwicZyme”. This has biological action to break down food wastes, grease and other organic matter in drains and pipe systems that cause clogs. QwicZyme deprives odor causing bacteria of their food source, thus inhibiting their growth and ability to produce obnoxious odors. This can be used indoors or out in any free flowing drain and is safe for disposals and septic tanks. Warm water must first be added to the drain and pipes to increase the temperature before using to activate the QwicZyme to work. Once added to the drain and pipes QwicZyme should be left to stand over night in the trap and pipes before flushing with fresh water. Treatment is 1 quart per 25 cubic foot of pipe and it is suggested to be used weekly for optimum free drain flow performance.

Information on these and the rest of our regular Industrial Degreasers can be found on line at http://www.soapwarehouse.biz/.

Clean Across America. How you can help.

2010-06-28T16:45:00.003-04:00

This year the dates for the campaign are July 24 -31. And as stated on their web site:

"Clean Across America is a volunteer effort that started with one local contractor in 2000. With growing support from organizations like the Power Washers of North America and the Take Pride In America Foundation, CAA has grown into a national effort with support from pressure washing contractors across the nation!"

Over the years Clean Across America has donated over $250,000 worth of services of time and chemicals.

Soap Warehouse has wanted to participate in the worst way but besides just sending in a donation, which we have in the past, we would like one of our customers to donate their time so we could donated the chemicals. But so far in the last three years no one as stepped up and volunteered. So I hope with this post and more awareness that we can find at least one of our very many customers that would be willing to do some project no matter how small for this great cause. We understand that the majority of our clients are fleet washers and truck wash operators that don't do any kind of exterior washing, but all we can do is ask, to see if even one among the less then 20% of our customers, that we might find someone.

If you would like more information please visit their site Clean Across America.

To fill out and participate please get a form at Clean Across America, but if you are also a PWNA member and want to participate there is a different form to fill out you can find here; PWNA form.

"The individual contractors select which projects each wants to get involved with. Some contractors prefer large, highly visible projects requiring lots of hours to complete but most participants opt for projects that can be completed in a single day." Many drive across the country as was the case when some of the monuments in Washington DC where cleaned a few years ago, but you can chose something right in your local town or community.

Ideas would be; to clean the side walks of the town square, clean a historic building, clean a shelter weather for human or animal, or a food bank. Any thing that would be a benefit to the community at large is a worth while project.

Read the Cleaner Times article about the PWNA's Clean Across America campaign project here!

You can also find videos of past projects at the CCA site as well. You too would be able to contact local media; newspaper, radio and television a like to ask them to cover your donation work, giving you more than enough publicity to pay you for your efforts. Plus if you contact us and you get your chemicals for free you get even more value for the time that you volunteer.

I hope to hear from someone in the coming few weeks so Soap Warehouse can play a larger role in this worth while effort to give back to America the Beautiful and have a Happy 4th of July!

Car Wash Products from Soap Warehouse.

2010-06-18T09:23:00.000-04:00

This month our product group focus will be on our Car Wash line.
Many of our products can be used with automated equipment, with pressure washers and with simple hand washing, bucket and sponge applications. Be sure to read the description of the product and know the proper dilutions for your specific equipment.

Proper dilution is the best way to get the results you want at the lowest cost possible.

Let us first look at the soaps that where made to be used in automated systems:

High Foam Cherry – As the name says, this is high foaming car wash with a fresh cherry scent. It was designed to be used in a drive thru system or self serve wash bay but can be used with a pressure washer or by hand washing as well. It rinses well and is pH balanced. It has a wide metering range of 1:150 to 1:8000 depending on your equipment. For example for a self serve system you pre mix 1 gallon of soap to 10 gallons of water and then place that 10 gallons in the system set to meter the mix at 1:35 yielding you 350 gallons of product from that single gallon.

Foamy Brush – This product is extremely high foaming and was made to use in self serve brush bays. It has an even stronger cherry scent then HFC. Metering dilutions are 1:150 to 1:800. It can also be use in a touch less drive thru and is pH balanced too. It can also be ordered in three colors; red, blue and yellow for businesses that need tri color soap washing and is sold in a kit of three 5 gallon tight drums.

We still sell a touch less pre soak but it is not listed on our web site due to its not as big of a seller like our soaps are. If you need this product please call.

If you need only a moderate foaming wash for your self serve bay wands or drive thru then our High Pressure Car Wash is what you would want to try. It has a nice lemon scent and is also pH balanced safe for painted finishes.

We also have specific products like the Foamy Tire, Spray Wax and Rinse Aid for those consumer added product selections for the automatic, self serve and no touch washes. Foamy Tire’s high foam clings well to tire walls and rims to dissolve the brake dust, grease and road grime. Spray Wax is a lemon scented highly concentrated product, 1 oz per 5 gallons of water. It enhances sheeting, discourages spotting and speeds drying time. But for even more of these benefits use our Quick Dry Rinse Aid, when applied in the rinse cycle in automated systems you get even more sheeting of excess water which results in less or shorter blower time needed which can decrease your line time per vehicle.

Now on to a few of our other products;

Wash and Wax is our number one seller for hand wash car detailers. This highly concentrated high foaming product has acrylic polymers that leave a great shine. The wash quickly penetrates, emulsifies and removes heavy dirt leaving a high gloss shine that will not spot chrome.

Bay Wash is just that a chemical to wash and clean your wash bays. This is a highly acid product and all safety measures must be followed but this will take years off a neglected property or will keep your nice one looking great for years to come. This will clean and brighten painted block, brick, tile, vinyl and masonry without damage when used as directed. It will remove the soap scum from walls, grease and oils from the track lines and concrete floors that came from the passing vehicles through your system. Nothing turns a wash customer off more than seeing a dirty looking facility. How can you clean their car when you can’t even keep your own property clean?

I hope this makes you aware of what we have to offer and if you need something we did not write about, please call, we may have it or will be able to have it made for you.

Have a great day.

How to properly mix our products.

2010-06-08T12:40:00.002-04:00

I know this may seem rather odd to be writing a post on how to mix product, but we get calls all too often about why a product is not working well, or the way that it should, or how it had in previous times and more times than not, the reason can be traced back to how the product was mixed. Therefore I will be going over as many points here as I can think of. If you think of more please add them to this post at the bottom.

First it is important to mix the component packages in the order they are labeled and it states in the directions.

For the most part they are very simple instructions but by not adding parts in the correct order you can either make a small difference, or all the way up to making things even hazardous.

If a kit comes in A, B and C and it clearly states put A in then add water, then please do that. I know some might like to start filling the drum before they pour in the first powder but there is a reason. First is to be sure the ingredients in the A component dissolve well. For instance it is much harder to mix a powdered chocolate drink powder into a full glass of cold milk then it is to put the powder in first the then pour the milk on top and then mix. Same principle. And make sure the water is not too cold! Even tap water in some parts of the country and during times of the year maybe colder then needed for proper mixing conditions. Try to use luke warm tap water, but if your water is cold add some hot water, say a gallon to every 4-5 gallons of tap water, that you are adding to the mixing drum (prior to pouring it in). In other words have a 5 gallon pail that you are using to add water that you have mixed the hot and cold water together before pouring it into the drum.

Next if it says to use 45 gallons of water, then add 45 gallons, not 20 or even 40 but 45. If the amount of water is too small and you add in other ingredients early, you might cause a reaction due to having too high of a concentration of raw chemicals together.

Next, always add the second, third and so on number of ingredients slowly to your mixture. One so that you to not splash chemicals back on to yourself or into your eyes (Always wear protective gear when mixing) and second so that you have time to properly stir and mix the solution for complete integration.

I know some people like to put all the powders together and then add all the liquids or put them in after all the liquids are in the drum but this can cause hazardous results. Some of the chemical powdered ingredients should not be put together, or they could have come packaged that way. Or one powder may be needed to be added only at the very end when you have the most amount of water because it may produce a stronger reaction if added too soon or when less water is present.

When pouring the liquid components into a partial solution, add slowly and stop once or twice to mix well so the new liquid does not settle straight down to the bottom of the drum, since it will be much denser than the solution already in the drum. Once you have emptied all the liquid that will easily pour out be sure to scrape the walls of the pail off to get all of the liquid out. If it is too difficult you can just add a small amount of warm water, say 1/2 gallon, and with the lid on and tightly closed slosh the water around in the pail to dissolve the remaining residue into a thin enough liquid to be pored into the drum with the rest of the solution.

Once you have finished adding ingredients and mixing make sure you top off to the proper level. If you have a product where one drum will make two, be sure you have thoroughly mixed the first 55 gallons, transfer half of the drum (27.5 gallons) to a second drum and then fill both back up to the 55 gallon level. If you wait for even a day before transferring make sure you thoroughly remix the first drum before you start to pump out the 27.5 gallons in case you have settling of ingredients. This can sometimes be the reason why one drum seems to work much better than the other because you got an uneven amount of active product ingredients in each drum.

This is also the reason you mix any super concentrated product all at once and DO NOT just pump out 1 gallon of a 5 gallon mixture and make only 11 gallons of product at a time. These super concentrated pails are designed to be completely mixed because of how much the ingredients will settle out or layer in the pail. if you try to mix partial batches, no two mixtures will be or will work the same.

Same can be said if you mix a drum and then only pump out small amounts at a time. You should always remix at least for a few minutes to reintegrate the solution. Some products settle out more than others and temperature can be a large factor in this. If you store your chemicals out in an unheated building or area, products will have the tendency to settle more quickly than if left at 70-75 degree average room temp.

Our products are all produced with a very short pre-ship storage time. We try to have product made from just a few weeks to only a few days before they are ordered and ship out. This way they are very fresh and have a long storage life, most at least two years if stored properly. This way you can buy a large volume of product to save money and shipping costs and even if you do not use all of it by the end of your wash season, you can be sure it will still work when you mix it and use it at the beginning of the next season. With this said it is important that if product has not been kept in the most ideal conditions that when it is mixed you can take additional steps to try and make it still work for you. We have had customers call that have let product freeze or nearly freeze, get wet or exposed to moisture that the powders become solid, etc. Many of these problems can be addresses with sometimes no ill effects to the end mixed product.

If you have a liquid component that has frozen or has gotten extremely cold, you must raise its temperature high enough to allow it to pour but not too high to destroy the products chemical integrity. We suggest that you get a larger container than the 5 or 6 gallon pail the liquid is in, fill it with warm water and place the pail into it. Do NOT use HOT water, this way the temp is brought up slowly. It may take more than one dunking application to have this work. But do not do what one customer did. He broke open the pail, dumped the frozen rock of liquid into an open 55 gallon drum and then poured boiling water on it trying to melt the ice block of concentrated product. He ended up not getting all the product dissolved before he added all the water to make the 55 gallons and then it did not work properly even days later once he got all the settled melted bits mixed.

Now sometimes if stored for a long time the bagged powder mixes can compress and get firm, but they should not turn to solid blocks. Only if they are exposed to moisture, heat and sit for long periods would this ever happen. If it does sometimes it can still be usable but you must allow the block to soak, break up and dissolve in a much smaller amount of water than normally used for mixing. Again using warm water, not hot, add the solid powder to about twice the amount of water by weight than you have of the powder. So if you have 5 lbs of solid powder place it in 10 gallons of water and wait for it to completely break down before mixing it with the other ingredients in the proper order with the other ingredient and the proper amount of additional water.

I hope this has been helpful and as always, if you have any questions please give us a call. 1-800-SOAP-911

What to consider when making a business brochure?

2010-05-24T08:00:00.002-04:00

Besides a business card the next most usable customer marketing item you should always have available is a business brochure.

I have been approached a lot, so far this year, about this topic so I thought this would be a great subject to go ahead and discuss.

I will focus on what should be in a general business brochure rather then the physical parts of a brochure such as; type of fold, paper weight, gloss vs. matte, B and W vs. single or multi color. Those items can all be addressed once the content is hammered out and the budget is established. So lets get into the backbone of your brochure, the information and the call to action.

You want your brochure to be an extension of your business, a continuation of the branding you have already established with your business card, web site, etc. Try to make it so your brochure is easily recognizable that it came from you and your business. Your logo, phone number, web site address, location coverage area, type of work you perform, should all be easily seen and spelled out briefly and clearly. A brochure should be just a snap shot not a photo album, a few paragraphs about a few main topics not a novel.

Leave the longer in depth information to be found on your web site, or in an individual product and job phamplet that you give to your bookable customers when discussing a job, but not in your general business brochure given out to the broad general prospect population.

Make sure any brochure piece that you make or have made is multi market usable; such as a mailer, handout at a home show, or a customer referral piece. No exact pricing should be mentioned here so the brochure doesn't become obsolete and you waste printing costs. This way you can save on being able to produce more pieces for less money.

For your call to action you should use phrases like "Call for our current special" or offer" besides the typical call us for a quote. Might have something like "Contact us for a quote using this code." (leaving a space blank you can fill in) This will help with tracking a special event, or location placement, or to track when a mailing was sent out.

Your extra offers should ALWAYS be perceived value items and not a % discount off the cost. For every 10% you give away it takes 10 more of the same job with out the discount to make it up. Offers can many times be small normal up sell items. You could say, "Call now to receive one free service with your cleaning." or booking" (the service does not have to be explained until they call). This way you can change it is as you need.

It is good to have several offers available for you to use, tiered according to the work the customer wants, once you are speaking to them. For example: Roof wash - free gutter cleaning, House wash - free window cleaning, Driveway flat work or Deck cleaning (if you charge by the square foot)- free 10-20 ft of an additional walkway, or door stoop. Never use the offer to take away from the original work to be done. For example; giving 20 square feet free off of the driveway they called you to clean. You do not want to give the perception that the work they called you for is not worth the full asking price.

Plus if you give a dollar off discount to a customer, they will end up only remembering the price they paid,
which included the discount, not the original price. So when they call again or tell others what they paid they could think you have gone up or are not giving them the same deal and possibly go else where.

Your brochure should show a few good, clear, before and after shots of your work, and put in testimonials. I know they take up space but it is important potential clients feel you have satisfied similar customers like them for the work they need done.

You can have a small logo, address and phone number section that is easy to tear off (inside back lower corner of a tri-fold) with a code number added as a referral piece. But be sure to still have the same information included else where (like the front cover) so the initial customer still retains your contact info.

You can have a section (like a back panel or inside fold) stating the date and service that was done, if any other work was recommended or date when work should be repeated. But what can be even better is to have this actually put on a peel off sticker (instead of printed in the brochure) that you can attach in the blank or used address mailer space of the brochure, this you then leave with the customer after completion of the job, it becomes a reminder as well as a referral piece for future contact.

I hope this information was helpful next time you go to create your business brochure.

There is more to Flat Work than just using water!

2010-05-19T14:41:00.001-04:00

Concrete contract cleaners can find some equipment companies stating in advertisements that their product is so good, no chemicals are needed, that you just need water. They go on to state how "Green" and environmentally friendly their way to wash is.

But what they may fail to mention, is for some of these types of concrete cleaning equipment, the way they make the concrete clean is by using so much pressure or agitation that a complete layer of concrete is removed, or etched off to get this back to new looking results. Or that even with using water alone, grease and oils being lifted out of and off of the concrete surface are themselves, bio hazards and in many areas will still need to be reclaimed and not be allowed to just flow into storm drains or even some sewer lines. Check the regulations in your particular area.

I am not saying you should not use rotary surface scrubbers or hot water sprayers but that you should be using both chemicals and equipment to give your customer the result they want, clean concrete, without ending up with something they don't, thinner or etched concrete.

For your general, basic, flat work concrete cleaning we have our “Concrete Cleaner”. This works well in combination with pressure washing equipment. With its organic solvents dissolving grease, tire marks and other debris the equipment doesn't have to work as hard to remove them from the concrete and can leave a clean but unmarred surface.

We have degreasers as well like “Mighty-O”, “Mighty-Max” and “Mighty Max Plus” these all contain butyl, a great oil and grease cutter. But do not use them on asphalt parking lots, only concrete. The differences between these three mainly are the amount of butyl they contain, 3%, 6% or 10% respectively. These are perfect for drive thrus, parking garages and concrete parking lots where a lot of vehicle, oil, grease and transmission fluid have been deposited and soaked into the porous surface of the concrete. These locations can be spot treated, in the heavy traffic areas, before the pressure washer or surface cleaner is used over the entire location. Many times additional cleaners may not need to be added.

For more difficult restoration cleaning, we have a product called “Pro BRC” or Building Restoration Cleaner for brick and masonry to remove years of neglect, mold, mildew and dirt. It will restore brick and mortar lines back to original or near original color with out using damaging high pressure that can loosen mortar joints.

If you have a customer with mineral water deposits from their sprinkler system discoloring their brick buildings or concrete walkways, we have “Concrete Rust Remover”. This is a powder that is mixed 4 lbs per 5 gallons of water. You just have to spray on to the stained areas and then clean as normal for these marks to lift off. Works on white pebble/rock bedding areas too.

We also carry some more environmentally friendly products when other products can not be used due to Home Owners Associations or other factors, like our “Natures Green APC” all purpose cleaner or “Mighty Green” which is in the same family as the well known Simple Green®. But "Green" on does not equal "Green" off, so be sure and follow the 'best practice' rules for waste water for your location, reclaim may still be needed.

For more detailed product descriptions of the above mentioned items, go to www.soapwarehouse.biz and look under the Exterior Products tab 'Concrete Products' and under the Degreaser tab.

New Consumer Web sites just launched

2010-05-05T15:54:00.000-04:00

We are growing here at Soap Warehouse and we just launched a new, home consumer web site, www.shopsoapwarehouse.com. This site focuses on our new acquisitions of last year, Scat stain remover and our laundry line, along with some of our non hazardous chemicals that home owners could use on their own such as car wash, detailing, household cleaners, and others.

Now don't think we are trying to cut out the middle man or the contractor to do work for their customers, but lets face it, many home owners want to do some tasks on their own. We also will not be selling these smaller size versions of these safe products to consumers at the same price point that contractors receive when they buy from Soap Warehouse. But by us putting some products now in to smaller packaging, it may allow us to supply contractors with smaller sample sizes, so they may be able to try more products.

This move was also necessary because of the second site that just was launched, the Scat product and distributor site at www.scatstainremover.com. The original Scat site was informational but also had a consumer shopping cart that when sales where made, they went directly to Soap Warehouse. But since the Scat site needed to be available to all Scat distributors not just Soap Warehouse, and because Scat is both a commercial and home consumer product, the shopping cart part of the site had to be removed and put on a new separate site, therefore the www.shopsoapwarehouse.com was needed. The new Scat only site, www.scatstainremover.com, just has product information with all of the distributors listed, but no pricing.

I hope that this explanation will let you to understand why you might think you are seeing more than one Soap Warehouse when doing web searches. Our normal site is still www.soapwarehouse.biz.

Thank you for your support and we look forward to a great washing season.

Products for House Washing

2010-04-09T08:00:00.001-04:00

To continue with our exterior maintenance product discussion, today we will touch on house washes.

We have quite a few products that can be used for this job as well as those we recommend for this use.

Our most economical product is our "Citrus X-terior" house wash. This product was specifically designed for those who where use to doing house washing with a bleach only solution. With "Citrus X-terior" you can add bleach to it, to get the mold killing and color removing properties that bleach provides, while having the added benefits of a product that contains the actual cleaning ability of surfactants and the added benefit of a clean citrus scent to help cover or reduce the smell of bleach, if you are using it with the product. "Citrus X-terior" is a great all on its own for cleaning vinyl siding, hardiplank, wood or brick facades.

For surfaces that need a stronger approach or that have known greasy dirt concerns you can use our “Mighty Max”, the 6% butyl, non caustic product we discussed earlier. We found it made no sense to add other names to or re-label the same product for every type of job it can do. There fore many of our products can multi task even if the job description is not in the product name like “house wash”. “Mighty Max” is great to use in a pump up sprayer to pre treat problem areas as well as being used as a general house wash. “Mighty Max Plus” since it has a higher amount of butyl 10% plus an added amount of sodium hydroxide it is great on removing those stubborn black streaks from gutters without brushing. But care must be made to not let the product sit to long or allowed to dry on painted surfaces or glass that it can etch, since it does contain sodium hydroxide.

Just about any of our other general all purpose cleaners like “Mighty-Green”, “Natures Green”, and “Rite Stuff” can also be used as a house wash and are recommended when customers or regulatory agencies require that a “Greener” product or method be used to clean.

There is a final product some of our customers do use for house washing but that we do not have label directions nor can recommend proper dilution rates for and that is with using “Brown Derby”. Even when greatly diluted the amount of sodium hydroxide can be a deterrent for using on painted wood surfaces and around glass. If you use it we can not offer advice or make any recommendation in regards to house washing. For this reason “Brown Derby” is not listed in our catalog section of house washing products.

With that said, sodium hydroxide is still a widely used method for roof cleaning and “Brown Derby” has and can be used for that. Care still must be made in keeping the rest of the house rinsed well with water including any glass during the roof cleaning process not to cause damage to other surfaces. But the Asphalt Shingle Manufactures of America recommends in their own technical bulletin that only professional bleach solutions should be used on their shingle products in which our “Citrus X-terior” can be used as recommended with bleach to clean roof shingles of black mold streaks.

Lastly the product “Bio Barrier” that we have discussed at length in the past, was designed to be used after house and roof washing to retard the re-growth of mold. This product will add months if not years of continued good looks after a cleaning has been done. But it does require repeated treatments to extend the life of its benefits.

We hope these monthly posts are helpful and we look forward to next month and our next product group.

Exterior Maintenance Products for Concrete, Wood & Fabrics.

2010-04-08T10:38:00.000-04:00

Each month we are featuring a group of our products to help our customers and potential customers learn what products we carry that they might not be aware of. Plus this gives information regarding the differences between some items as well. This month we will discuss products used for exterior maintenance jobs.

For concrete flat work we have a basic “Concrete Cleaner” as well as degreasers like “Mighty-O” “Mighty-Max” and “Mighty Max Plus” these all contain butyl, a great grease cutter. The differences between these three mainly are the amount of butyl they contain, 3%, 6% or 10% respectively. We have a product called “Pro BRC” or Building Restoration Cleaner for brick and masonry to remove years of neglect, mold, mildew and dirt. It will restore mortar lines back to original or near original color with out using damaging high pressure that can loosen mortar joints. To remove rust stains from concrete, sometimes caused by certain mineral waters or irrigation thru metal water lines, we have “Concrete Rust Remover”. This is a powder that is mixed 4 lbs per 5 gallons of water for best results. We also carry some more environmentally friendly products when other products can not be used due to Home Owners Associations or other factors, like our “Natures Green APC” all purpose cleaner or “Mighty Green” which is in the same family as the well known Simple Green®. We also have a bio degradable Economy degreaser called “Rite Stuff” that contains an organic solvent if butyls are not allowed to be used.

For wood cleaning for decks and other wood structures we have the following:

“Deck Wash” for regular cleaning of most wood surfaces it can clean anything from cedar to pressure treated wood. Now if a softer approach is needed to clean, and in no way can contain any acid or harsh ingredients, then our “So Safe” can be used. This percolating product comes in a powder that is mixed just prior to use and only in the amount that is expected to be used, since it will loose its cleaning ability if left to sit. This is perfect when you just need to lift off a layer of dirt with out touching the stain, finish or the woods own character like with teak or a newly stained deck. Now if you are in need to remove an existing finish or stain then you will need one of our strippers. We have two; the first is just called “Deck Stripper” and can handle most normal single layer or worn stain jobs. But if multiple or thick layers of stain, sealer or varnish need to be removed then we have the product “Super Stripper” that will do the job. With either of these you will need to follow them up with a neutralizer to stop the chemical action and for that we have our “Wood Brightener”. This comes in a powder and is mixed 4 lbs to 5 gallons of water and can also be used alone to brighten a previously untreated wood surface. The last product we have in our exterior wood section is our Bio Barrier mold inhibitor product. This should be applied to a surface after it has been cleaned and is completely dry. This will prevent the re-growth of mold on wood in areas having known pre-existing problems. Bio Barrier does not kill mold, that is why the surface must first be clean and old mold removed, but once applied to a surface it should stay mold free for at least 6 months if not for a year or more. Length of time will depends on factors like amount of time area is in the shade, how much water or moisture it comes in contact with, how much air circulation is available to the area and if the surface is horizontal or vertical.

Next is a product for outdoor cloth or plastic fiber fabrics found on lawn furniture pads, umbrellas, awnings and fabric gazebos called “Carpet & Fabric Cleaner” this is a great multi use product. It is formulated with optical brighteners to give colored fibers deeper tone and better contrast. It will help restore color to fabrics that are faded by dirt and grime. It contains no harsh chemicals that will damage fibers and will help to extend the life of the outdoor fabrics use. Companies such as Sunbrella® suggest to only use mild detergents for heavy soiling or to remove molds and mildew by adding a small amount of bleach to the cleaning solution, hot water should NEVER be used on Sunbrella® fabric and may require some brushing to remove stubborn stains from between fibers. “Carpet & Fabric Cleaner” can be used in this recommended manner.

Tomorrow we will cover our products for house washing.

Here at the Mid America Trucking Show

2010-03-24T18:47:00.003-04:00

I have now posted entries for all four days we were at the Mid America Trucking Show, please see all posts below:

It is Wednesday afternoon on March 24th and I spent three hours setting up our booth.

We are now ready for the on slaught of attendees that will be coming to the Mid America Trucking Show for the next three days. I will be adding to this blog entry over the next few days to keep you up to date as to what is going on.

Tommorow, March 25th is the first day and will open at 10 am for a V.I.P. session prior to the 1:00 p.m. general admitance. This place is huge and I hope to get a chance to look around before the doors open in the morning. Until tomorrow.

Sorry I did not post last night after the first day, we were all very tired. Still beat today but will get these photos up and report how things are going.

Here is the booth all ready in the West Wing #62124. I think we have a great location.

Thursday was slow during the first 4 hours of V.I.P. only. We could not even get one person to register for our VIP only drawing so we did not have to have one. But by 1:00 and the regular opending we had some takers and drew our first winner at 1:30.

Rich won a 5 gallon pail of Big Rig Brite. Our next winner also won some Big Rig but has not been by the booth again for a photo. The last drawing of the day was for an Aqua Force arm brace but he did not put his phone on the entry and only put down a P.O. Box so we will have to first contact him by mail and my have to draw a replacement winner after the show. We will post all winners in our April Newsletter.

Today was the second day and quite a bit busier but not too much to handle. We had better luck with winners today.

The first Big Rig winner, Machelle.

Our second Aqua Force Arm Brace winner, David.

We also had our first of two days of Big Rig Network drawing winners at their booth at 2:00 p.m. Here is the winner,

Jeanie chose a case of 4 Big Rig Brite gallons vs. a 5 gallon pail for the convience to travel with just a gallon at a time on the road. She is a real women truck driver not just a trucker wife.

Looking forward to tomorrow to be the busiest and hopefully we will have all our winners get back by the booth. More updates soon.

Well the last day opened an hour earlier and was busy early too. We had real brisk business until around 1 when it started to slow down slightly. Had a lot more takers for our in booth spin to win prize wheel.

Attendees were able to win prizes like a micro fiber towel, a sticky dash pad, product samples of our Oder Out Netrualizer or Scat fabric stain remover, a great personal utility bag for tolietry items or cash off coupons for our products in either $10, $20 or $50 amounts.

We had our second Big Rig Network drawing at their booth at 2:00 There was a larger crowd than on Friday.

and our winner was John who chose 5 gallons of Brown Derby for washing his tractor and trailers.

By 3 p.m. the crowds really died down but we stayed all the way until 4 even while breaking down to keep spinning our prize wheel and scanning badges. We unfortunitly did not have any of our last day booth drawing winners available to come by our booth for photos since most had put their entry in on Friday and where already back out on the road. But we will be listing all our winners in our next Newsletter.

Can not wait to get a good nights sleep and then head home tomorrow for the 7 hour drive back to Atlanta.

I'll be back at work bright and early Monday morning to start getting out all the show orders and prize winnings, sending out requested information, and doing post show follow ups.

Hope to hear from you all soon.

Mid America Trucking Show 2010

2010-03-02T14:35:00.003-05:00

The Mid America Trucking Show is the largest trade show event for the trucking industry held annually in Louisville, KY. Located at the Kentucky Exposition Center, one of the largest venues of its kind in the country, this year’s event will be held March 25th-27th. MATS will show case over 900 companies and their products with over 70,000 planned attendees from all 50 states as well as over 50 foreign countries. This Heavy-Duty Trucking event is a one-of-a-kind for the trucking industry.

Soap Warehouse has been selling industrial transportation detergents to the trucking industry for the past 17 years but has only recently been exhibiting in these shows. Last year they were a part of the "Big Rig 2009 MATS Sweepstakes Giveaway" and will repeat this year as well in the 2010 Giveaway. If you are a driver with a current CDL please go and enter online www.bigrignetwork.com for that drawing. They also exhibited at the Great American Truck Show in Dallas TX, last August having over 3000 attendees stop by their booth.

Soap Warehouse will be exhibiting this year at MATS in the West Wing at Booth 62124 holding their own booth drawings for their finish safe truck wash "Big Rig Brite" as well as a great new product, the "Aqua Force" arm brace, that is used on a pressure washing wand to reduce arm fatigue while washing. If you are planning on attending the show please go to print out an ENTRY FORM, fill it out and fax it to 770-939-5501 to enter prior to the shows start to guarantee you the best chance to win one of these great prizes.

You can view how the "Aqua Force" arm brace works here.

If you want to order one now please go HERE and click on the order now button. Enter the word 'soap' in the coupon field to get free UPS ground shipping, offer good only if ordered now until the end of the show March 27th.

Soap Warehouse will also have other smaller booth prizes and samples to give out to attendees that stop by to discuss product and to new customers who take advantage of their show special offers by placing an order during the show. If you are already a Soap Warehouse customer, stop by to pick up your customer gift at the booth, this item is being given only to current customers, don't forget to ask for it. Soap Warehouse also has a limited supply of free entry tickets to the show, so if you know you are coming to MATS give them a call at 1-800-SOAP-911 (800-762-7911) as soon as possible to get your free pair or two, only while supply lasts. Also if you are a current Soap Warehouse customer you can call by March 5th to be placed on their VIP list to gain early entry to the Halls on opening day March 25th. Normal show hours start at 1 p.m. but you can get in at 10 a.m. and miss a lot of the crowds, have three extra hours to be one of the first to see exhibitor's products.

To view Soap Warehouse's complete line of over 100 product items go to to their main web site. To be added to their newsletter and coupon specials please enter your name and e-mail address there.

Other features on line is an archive of past newsletters, their BlogSpot, MSDS downloadable file, credit application, order form and much more.

You can view a short presentation about Soap Warehouse here:

Soap Warehouse Slide Show

View more presentations from Soap Warehouse.

Other events that will be going on during MATS; first to kick off the show, the annual Paul K. Young Memorial Truck Beauty Show with 100 entries vying for honors in the country’s premier truck beauty show. The show is held in Lot “J” on the west side of the complex. Friday night March 26th right after the halls close at 6 p.m. two free concerts will feature country bluegrass band The Grascals and country music star John Anderson, presented by Mobil Delvac. Complimentary tickets will be distributed, while supplies last, from Mobil Delvac's Booth (#18160 in the North Wing) on Friday. Going on all during the show is a gathering of more than 100 of trucking's elite fleets looking for new drivers held at the Driver Recruitment Center in the West Wing and the Internet & Technology Center also in the West Wind that will showcase the most innovative technology available to the trucking industry in one centralized location.

Ladders and other equipment Safety

2010-02-24T13:28:00.002-05:00

Safety is not only to be considered with the big pieces of equipment like your pressure washing machine or with the chemicals you use, but with everything else too.

Having to work off the ground is the second highest cause of server injury behind miss use of a pressure washer in this industry. It can be from improper use of a ladder, not wearing a safety harness on a roof, wearing incorrect foot wear or glasses. Reasons for not using or following safety guidelines can be big or small but even small ones can be a big mistake.

Take not wearing safety glasses, goggles or a face shield when using a pressure washer. Sure it can be a pain especially if you already wear glasses for daily vision but just one miss directed spray of water or chemical causing permanent blindness is not something to play with.

Ladders are the number one cause, according to OSHA, over all occupational hazard injuries in all industries. Here is a link to their flash card on ladder safety that you can print out on heavy stock paper, cut out and laminate. http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_Hurricane_Facts/portable_ladder_qc.pdf. You can also pay companies to supply you with these kinds of materials. Here is the same info on a single page form to place in your MSDS or safety book. http://www.osha.gov/Publications/portable_ladder_qc.html. OSHA's site http://www.osha.gov/ should be bookmarked on your computer for quick reference for all safety information.

There are also many good ladder safety videos on Utube and other sites that you can access and use in your safety instruction plan if you do not have the funds to go buy them. Here is just one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD0U6Df3ReA&feature=fvw. To find more just do a search inside Utube or other search engine for 'ladder safety'.

There is also added equipment that can improve ladder safety, things such as painter arm braces as they are sometimes called, or ladder stabilizers or ladder braces. These items attach to the ladder near the top that extend out and then will brace against a surface to help stabilize or diminish the side to side movement of a ladder. There are also ones that extend and curve out form the back of a ladder to rest on the roof surface to provide stability without increasing the width of the ladder. Here is a site that has some really neat ladder attachments. http://stores.homestead.com/LadderMaxLLC/StoreFront.bok They also have ladder levelers. Here is another site as well http://www.globalwholesalersinc.com/quick_connect.htm with ladder products.

Next once on the roof you need to be wearing a harness and have the proper anchoring to arrest a fall. You need to purchase a well fitting harness, ropes, anchors, clasps and hooks that are made for roof work. Here is one site I did not include yet in the other safety equipment blog http://www.discountsafetygear.com/. They have a wide range of items. Most of the time you will not be able to attach and remove to reuse roof anchors but you do not want to spend all your profit on the more expensive perment mount anchors. Most guys I have talked to suggest buying the inexpensive temporary or labeled 'reusable' anchors and plan not to remove them when you leave. Since removing anchors once attached can cause damage to the roof or take time and costs more money for you to try and patch the holes you have made to avoid causing future damage for the homeowner. Plus they will already be in place for work at this same location in the future.

Pressure Washer Safety and more

2010-02-24T12:11:00.001-05:00

Your pressure washer is one of your best tools to do your jobs but it is also one of the most dangerous if proper safety measures are not followed when operating it.

Thousands of people are injured every year by improper use of a pressure washer and not all are by amateurs, hundreds of even so called professionals have accidents. As demonstrated here in this article and why accident attorneys shop for workers comp claimants. http://www.bignews.biz/?id=816222&keys=accident-claims-jet-wash

Most professionals use the higher powered gas machines many of which are also hot water machines. Both of these factors can cause good things such as reduced time spent doing a job, reduced amount of chemicals needed and so on. But more power and hotter water can also increase bad things as well such as the potential for increased accidents and damage to property.

First make sure your equipment is always in good working order, do not let little problems like loose connections or worn fittings turn into major trouble. Second; Wear your safety gear! Heavy shoes or boots, long sleeve shirts and long pants, safety glasses, goggles or face shields, gloves and any other item indicated on the MSDS when using chemicals. We have had too many customers that have had to call us or hospitals just because simple measures were not taken. Had a customer on his day off go check on one of his job sites. He did not bother to change clothes, walked up on a worker using the washer and he was back sprayed with caustic chemical that burned him without him knowing it until an hour or so later once the damage had already been done. He now has permanent white scare spots on this arms and legs.

Third know your equipment, how to operate it, and how to maintain it. Cleaner Times magazine has a great series for companies that have a machine shop and do their own work on their pressure washers. Go to their website and check out the archived articles to find lots of great information. http://cleanertimes.com/. Cleaner Times also have great articles on safety and covering all aspects of your business.

Keep a log book on all of your equipment. When and where purchased, where the instruction information is located if not with the log, the cost of and when and where repairs and maintenance was preformed on the equipment. This information can help you with calculating job expenses, handling insurance claims and at tax time figuring deductions. If you have to keep smaller logs with separate pieces of equipment or in separate vehicles or locations fine but make sure you routinely bring at least copies of all of them to be in one location. The best thing would be to scan the pages into a computer file and then burn a disk of the data that is stored in a fire safe or safe deposit box. This is true for all your important business documents. I had a customer just after I started working here that had a fire burn down her house with all her records inside. Her shed with her rig was saved but nothing else from all her years of work. It took her weeks just to contact all her customers because she had to look up every number, remember every name, every vendor. It took her almost two years to get her business back to where it was and to sort out the insurance and tax mess that the fire caused.

Here is another site if you are not familiar with them you should be The Power Washer Advisor. They have great information no matter what equipment you use. Here is their safety info area http://www.the-power-washer-advisor.com/pressure-washer-safety.html. They also have a great blog area where I have learned a lot so I know you can too. I feel it is much easier to direct you to the places that have good information instead of trying to reinvent the wheel or try to pass it off as my knowledge. I know there is plenty in the business I do not know and that is why I am constantly searching and reading up on things about the industry. If there is something you want to find out about and do not have the time to look give us a call. I will be happy to find information and make it available to everyone. Because if you want to know about it I am sure someone else does too.

More in our next installment

How do you mix and store to use your cleaning chemicals?

2010-02-18T16:25:00.000-05:00

Now that we know what chemicals we are using to do our work we need to know how to properly handle them.

First know how and at what concentrations the containers of chemicals you are using come in. Many times contractors forget to properly label or mark the containers cleaners are in that can cause serious safety concerns. For instance a customer that always carried premixed products on his rig for his hired help to use right out of the container, but then one day he got busy and poured a non diluted amount of product in the same container that usually held the diluted product. Once out on the job his employees not knowing the product was not the same strength they were use to, applied it directly on a surface causing damage that the business owner ended up having to pay for. Luckily the employees wore proper safety gear and none of them were injured. But what if that had not been the case?

Our products are sold highly concentrated to save you money but they must be properly labeled to be used safely. This also can be a big loss of income as well if you are wasting product by not using the proper dilution rate. The old adage more is better is not the case with chemical products for cleaning.

All cleaning products, not just Hazardous ones, should be labeled following OSHA guidelines. You can easily purchase the correct NFPA Diamond or HIMS warning labels to place on any and every container as needed. Here are a few places to find them:

Compliance Signs: http://www.compliancesigns.com/nfpadiamonds.shtml
Label Master: http://www.labelmaster.com/shop/labels
Safety Sign: http://www.safetysign.com/

To learn more about them here is a web site to check out: http://www.ilpi.com/msds/ref/nfpa.html
To get a free guide to using NFPA labels you can get here: http://www.graphicproducts.com/guides.html

Always follow the label directions on how to mix products that come in kit form. There is a reason they are labeled A, B, C. Do not think you should mix all the powders in first (A and C) because you think it is easier. There can be a safety concern if you mix some product components out of order or with out the proper amount of water in the mixing tank or drum.

Care should also be used when transferring mixed product to secondary containers so not to spill or splash contents. Use siphon pumps, funnels and other approved items to help with this. Be sure to label these as well so not to use one pump with another chemical which might cause a reaction. It is much safer to have each pump or other type of transfer item marked to know which chemical it is to be used with. Even using measured pump dispensers can make the job safer for large or small amounts. Here are some links: http://www.championjanitorialsupply.com/products/dispensers/288
http://www.championjanitorialsupply.com/products/dispensers/266
http://www.refrigeratorparts.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Category_Code=chemb&Product_Code=MAN-01273&Screen=PROD&Store_Code=refrigeratorparts
http://www.jiffysupply.com/servlet/the-552/Hand-Transfer-Pump/Detail
http://www.toolhawker.com/Fluid-Lubricant-Transfer-Pump_item_41084.html

Next item to cover is how to store chemical products. Read the label and MSDS that will tell you proper storage temps as well as other considerations. You should not leave an open bag of caustic in a laundry wash room that could allow moisture or water to get to it. It also might be mistaken for laundry detergent and cause sever skin irritation or burns not to mention damage to the washer if accidently used. Keep chemicals away from other normal household products, kids and pets. Store in a cool (not cold or hot), dry area in as air tight as possible. Products should also always be kept in the containers they where shipped in until mixed or transferred and properly relabeled. No old (deteriorating) or empty chemical container should be reused for another purpose due to cross contamination of incompatible ingredients. Always properly dispose of empties as soon as possible. Plastic containers that did not contain hazardous products can even be rinsed and recycled according to the plastic code marked on the container.

See you tomorrow.

Do you have a safety plan?

2010-02-16T14:41:00.001-05:00

Most small businesses, including pressure washing, do not follow the same rules or guidelines like large corporations because they are not as closely watched by local, state and federal agencies, but they should. OSHA and ANSI safety guidelines should be known and followed. Here are their sites, please go find and read the sections that cover your business. OSHA http://www.osha.gov/, ANSI http://www.ansi.org/

As we have touched on in earlier posts, you should still follow best work practices and procedures no matter what the size of your operation, or number of employees (1-100+). Since labor is usually your number one expense, keeping this expense safe should be a number one consideration. We will assume that you already know and have the insurance you should have to safely operate your business, this being a topic to cover at another time. This being the case we can move on to more specific things for safety.

First know the chemicals you will be using for the jobs you will be doing. The first way to know what you are working with is to read and understand the MSDS that came with the product. If for some reason you do not have an MSDS for a product, get one immediately, and place a copy in every MSDS book it needs to be in. Please reference and read our earlier post on MSDS procedures at some point during this series. Date posted 9/17/09.

Second be sure you have are using the safety equipment suggested in the MSDS including, masks, gloves, aprons, boots etc. Here are a few sites to find these items.

Lab Safety http://www.labsafety.com/
Approved Gas Masks http://www.approvedgasmasks.com/index.htm
Masks N More http://www.masksnmore.com/index.html

Next be sure any first aid measures that are called for in the MSDS of product you are using can be met. This includes having eye wash bottles, hydrofluoric acid cream (Calcium Gluconate gel 2.5%) as well as a stocked first aid kit available with you on every job, on every rig or in every vehicle.

Here are a few links to places you can go to find these items:

Mask N More http://www.masksnmore.com/sweykit.html
Lab Safety http://www.labsafety.com/Plum-Saline-Eye-Wash-Solution-500mL-Bottle_s_156646/Personal-Eye-Washes_24545268/

For Calcium Gluconate gel: ATT Minerals: http://attminerals.com/other_items.htm
Lab Safety: http://www.labsafety.com/Calcium-Gluconate-Gel_24544074/?CID=9PP001
The First Aid Kits: http://www.thefirstaidkits.com/products/41780.html

Not all medical facilities understand or know how to deal with chemical emergencies so you must have the information ready for them including the emergency phone number listed on the MSDS for the product you are using. For us that is Infotrac at 800-535-5053. If you get your most of your products from the same supplier you should put the number they supply in your automatic dialer in your cell phone or at least in the address book under 'MSDS Emergency'. If you use any hydrofluoric product from us you will also receive a special hazard sheet along with the MSDS every time you purchase product that contains any amount of hydrofluoric acid, because of how hazardous it is. Keep this with the MSDS to have available for medical staff.

Tomorrow we will discuss safety procedures for mixing, storage, and handling of chemicals while you use them.

Safety, what Pressure washing businesses need to know.

2010-02-15T12:14:00.001-05:00

This will be a series on safety that will discuss some areas we have touched on before, but is always good to review, as well as new topics. And as always, please feel free to add to, and comment on, these blog postings. This is how we all learn is by sharing with one another.

In these next few days and blogs we will go over; the MSDS, why you should have them and use them. Chemical safety; how to mix, store and use products. Equipment safety; such as with your pressure washer, and ladder. And also safety equipment; goggles, gloves, hats, harnesses, etc. while we discuss these other points.

I will try to include links to other sites and materials that you can review on your own to future educate or to back up the material we cover in this series. If you know of others I did not find or get a chance to cover please bring them up and add them to the blog information that it has the closest relationship with.

I hope you will find these blogs a useful reference that you can refer back to in our archive by doing a word or phrase search.

See you tomorrow.

Kitchen Cleaners, not just for hood cleaning.

2010-02-15T11:52:00.002-05:00

Here at Soap Warehouse we have over 80 individual products in over 7 categories.

Many times business that buy from us get caught up in the one or two products they have used in the past, and do not look or know what many other items we have to offer.

In kitchen cleaning for example; we have the main stays for hood cleaning, our “Hood Cleaner” and “Smoke House” but we have so much more to offer.

We have “Oven and Grill” a cleaner for flat cooking grills and for vertical surfaces inside ovens and standing ovens like chicken rotisseries. This product has a high viscosity, there fore it will cling to the upright surfaces longer, without added foamer, to allow for proper contact and better cleaning.

“Mighty-Green” is a user friendly degreaser that is not friendly to grease. Since this product is Non Abrasive, non-flammable, non corrosive, bio degradable and non toxic it is great to use in a kitchen setting. It can be diluted for light jobs like cleaning glass or mirrors up to full strength for really tough grease cleaning on tile and stainless steel, weather it is used on floors, walls or appliances.

“Natures Green” All Purpose Cleaner, is similar to Mighty-Green for cleaning, but it is also all natural for those wanting a true ‘Green’ approach to their cleaning. This degreaser can similarly be used from full strength to a dilution of 1:10 for almost any kitchen surface cleaning need.

“Ceramic Tile and Grout” is what you need to clean those ugly grease stained grout lines from black or dark brown to an almost like new lightness. Once used to get the area back to a fresh clean, maintenance is much easier using 8 oz per gallon of hot water to keep the floors grease free and squeaky clean. It will also clean stainless steel, chrome, and plastics found in most kitchen and bathroom applications.

Another place grease can be a big problem in a kitchen, is in the floor drains. Our “Drain Opener” is designed to dissolve and liquefy grease, hair and even paper that can be found in commercial kitchen and bathroom floor drains. This is not a 'use at home' product, but made only for commercial applications. All aluminum covers or strainers must be removed before application, so not to damage them, yet this is a non-acid product. If this product is too strong for your use our next product should work for you.

“Qwic Zyme” is a product that contains biological components that will break down food wastes, grease, hair and other organic matter found in kitchen and bathroom drains. Its biological action deprives odor causing bacteria of their food source, thus inhibiting their growth and ability to product obnoxious odors normally found in sinks and around floor drains. “Qwic Zyme” is safe to use in food disposals, septic tank systems and can be used inside and outdoors. The main things to remember when using this product is follow label directions and to use warm water to activate the enzymes first in order to work properly.

We also have quite a few USDS approved butyl degreasers that can be used around food processing equipment and storage areas to clean, coolers, floors, equipment housing, walls and counter tops: “Mighty-O”, Mighty Max” as well as “Mighty Max Plus”.

For current pricing information go to www.soapwarehouse.biz and click on the 'Kitchen/Exhaust' tab or call us at 800-762-7911.

Why should I run a background check or drug screening?

2010-01-22T08:00:00.002-05:00

We are now to our last point, the background/drug check.

Most small business employers do not see the need to spend money on a background check or drug screening if they have already done the other three steps we have already been over. But this could be a more costly mistake to your business not to. Small claims lawsuits where on the rise the last 10 years and they do not look like they will decrease any time soon. There are commercials on every hour of the day on television and the radio telling people it is all right to sue, almost like a God given right to do so and you have to protect your self, your family and your business.

I will mention the main reasons here but please read this very good article I found by Less Rosen from the carwash.com from the on line addition of their magazine: http://www.carwash-digital.com/carwash/201001/#pg32. This article says it all.

1. There is no single place private companies can go to confirm or verify criminal records of prospective hires. Background checks once only a seldom seen practice are now even routinely done when renting an apartment or to be able do volunteer work at schools.

2. Screening is legal but only if done for every applicant at your business as we discussed earlier about hiring procedures, or at least for everyone doing a certain job. Make sure it is also listed in your handbook with the guidelines spelled out. It should also include the guidelines for any follow up or random testing later as well. Such as a mandatory test for anyone driving a company vehicle, involved in a traffic accident.

3. Screening is well worth the cost. It can save you anything from time lost from a hung over worker, cost of damage claims of customer property, from insurance claims of stolen equipment, to the extreme of lawsuits from customers for criminal actions the employee did while at their location. It can even lower your insurance premiums. This is also why paying for your employees to be bonded, which will include a background check, can be a good thing and a great marketing tool.

4. Screening does not deter prospects or slow down hiring. (Unless you hire by driving to a street corner and pick up day labor) Good workers understand the need for screening and most appreciate knowing they will be working for an upstanding company if hired, as well as most likely working in a safe environment.

5. Screening is not hard to have done. There are many local, regional and national companies that do this work that pay to have access to the records you need and the employees to find the records that you do not have the time or money to find yourself. There is even a professional organization for this work, the National Association of Professional Background Screeners. You can find them here: http://www.napbs.com/ and use their member directory to find one near you.

6. If you feel the need for the extra step of drug screening above a background check, it too must be administered equally to be a legal hiring practice. You can find qualified medical companies to do this just by putting in your city, state and the words drug screening in a search engine. Most companies work with established chains of clinics like Quest and LabCorp to do the work or the healthcare company your business uses may also offer these services at discounted rates for their clients, just call them and ask. Some even have lower healthcare premium rates for companies that require testing for all employees because they know this should lower the number of claims for your business.

I hope that this weeks series of entries have been helpful to you and even if you may not or will not include all these steps into your routine hiring practices, that you have found some parts you feel are worth exploring or using in the near future. Feel free to comment to any entry in our blog, mention steps you have found or currently use your self that could help others and always feel free to e-mail us directly with questions or comments. Have a good weekend.

What goes in a handbook?

2010-01-21T08:00:00.003-05:00

Well practically everything can including the kitchen sink!

Or at least everything and anything you want your employees to know, understand, like the rules to follow, with lists of what will happen if the rules are not followed.

This goes well beyond just the hiring information or application we have discussed so far, as you will see. Some companies included their application inside the first pages of their handbook, which is removable, giving the new applicant the opportunity to see and read the handbook before they even fill out or turn in their application. This allows the applicant to see if they could or would like to be a part of the company and follow the rules that are in place. I myself have gone through applications and interviews, to be offered a job that once I saw their rules, I said no. Or ones that I was allowed to see their handbook with the application and did not even bother filling it out. This saves both you and the applicant valuable time and possibly money. Of course it is to say you should never just hand out your application or handbook to just anyone that comes by looking for a job. I would never suggest at any time that you allow your handbook or even an application out of your office if they have not already been hired. If you have a large business or one that hires crews seasonally you might also want to have a hiring seminar that you have advertised and booked applicants to attend that allows for you to discuss all aspects of the work you are offering even before a single application is filled out, just like I use to do once or twice a month for DirecTV technicians.

A handbook must cover every employee in your business by being specific to each job position and must also include all general information to cover everyone from the boss on down. I have listed here a few good sources you can check out to help you:
http://www.gaebler.com/How-to-Write-an-Employee-Handbook.htm
http://www.howtodothings.com/business/a4614-how-to-write-an-employee-handbook.html
http://www.life123.com/career-money/freelancing/freelance-writing/how-to-write-a-handbook.shtml
and from my personal freind Don Schwerzler founder of the Family Business Institute:
http://www.family-business-experts.com/employee-handbook.html

Here are things I think you should include:

The exact check list or order of the hiring practices including the location of the testing facilities if used.
The rules in regards to the application and that all information becomes part of their permanent record and must be truthful.
A list of the job descriptions of all employee positions, with their specific one highlighted or indicated so they know the exact tasks their job will entail.
Include here the start and end time for work for the different positions, days of the week, reasons where overtime may me needed and how it will be paid.
When job performance reviews will be made, they should be at least once a year for everyone; either at the same time each year, or when each employees hire anniversary comes up.
A list of all the reasons someone may be terminated from their position.
How job performance infractions will be given; verbal then written warning before termination except for theft, drug use, sexual harassment, battery of any kind, (list what ever you feel is necessary) which are grounds for immediate dismissal.
You can state what ever you rules you want to make; for payment of last wages, deductions if any and why, if theft or damage was involved etc.
In other words you can list in your hand book any rule you wish, so long as it is not illegal, and if it applies to all if it is a general rule or for everyone that holds that same position if the rule is task specific. For instance you can not list as a reason for termination not wearing safety gear for the bookkeeper, or failure to deposit funds for the window washer. But you could list removing company property, not authorized, from the premises for anyone.

You can include rules such as if out side food can be brought to work, where and how it is to be labeled and stored. If some things like water in coolers on trucks will be supplied by the company but the cups to drink from will not. When and where breaks from work are allowed and for what. How many days notice must be given for doctors appointments and if they will count against sick time or will be unpaid time off, etc. In fact any situation you can think of should be addressed in your handbook and if not list the steps that should be followed if no rule is listed, such as speak to a supervisor, owner or manager. You can also make changes to the rules at any time so long as everyone is told of the change, gets a copy and signs off that they have been notified of the change.

The most important thing is documenting that the new hire has been made aware of the rules and understands them. This is done by having the new hire put their initials in blue ink on every page of the handbook with a company witness watching and that a final page states that, fill in the name, has read and understands all the rules and that any questions where answered to their satisfaction which is signed by both the new hire and the company witness and that final page is removable and placed in their file with the handbook itself then given to them for their records and future reference.

Handbooks can be as simple or detailed as you wish them to be. I have seen some that were only two pages to ones that where so thick they where bound! Just make yours what you feel is best for you and your business. Tomorrow will be the last installment the background check.

What goes on your application?

2010-01-20T08:00:00.002-05:00

Well the first is obvious, the name address and phone number of your company.

Next, instructions to the applicant such as fill out in blue ink (blue is the accepted legal color, not black which can be later said to a copy or forgery, blue shows it is an original)

Not to attach a resume unless it is to become part of the official application, but that all information still must be filled out in total on the application even if listed on their resume. This way it is in the hand writing of the applicant and they cannot say later you attached a false resume to their application, or they did not know a mistake was listed on it.

You probably already know the things you can not ask on an application or in an interview like, marital status, age, whether they have children, or if a women, plan on having children, their religion etc…

But there are things you can ask for as ways around them:

You can't have them list their birth date but they can mark a box stating that they are of legal age (18 or 21 etc.) to operate certain equipment, for insurance reasons. Only once hired can you ask for a list of their dependents for reasons such as for insurance, not before hand on an application. But they might ask you in an interview about your insurance coverage and you should only state an individual policy price which might have them ask you ‘What would a family rate be?’ As long as they ask the question that gives you this information you are safe. But you must be careful not to indicate that any of the unasked information was used in the hiring process for that job. Never make notes on the application itself during an interview, use a separate piece of paper.

You can ask if they’re legal citizens, have a criminal record, ever plead guilty to traffic violation etc. these are part of public record and can be verified. You can ask if there is any day they can not work or would rather not work. For instance have a list of days, Sunday thru Saturday on the application with instructions for them to circle or mark all days they are available to work. Same with times of day they can work. Of course you can also include in the job description the days and times that are required for the job and if they will not work on a certain day (due to their religion) they are the one making themselves unable to be hired, not you.
Here is a list that was just posted on Grime Scene (a great pressure washing forum) please think about joining: guidelines-interview-questions-you-can-legally-ask

Ask them to list not only the standard past employers, business references as well as personal and education, but for industry specific certifications as well. You should also state that copies of the certifications are to be provided to be placed in their file if they are hired. These can be very useful tools for you as a business and in marketing. You can also state that they must be able to be bonded if you would like. This also can be good for you for insurance reasons as well as in marketing your business.

You need to include a statement at the bottom of the application just before the signature line that tells the applicant that all areas must be filled out completely, must be accurate and may be checked on and any lack there of can be used as reason not to except them as a candidate for employment, to hire as an employee or for termination at any time if they become an employee and statements are later found to be false.

Make sure your application is as detailed as you need it to be, do not worry about it only fitting on one page front and back like a store bought one. Some of the best jobs I ever had, had applications 4-5 pages long.

You might want to add a section next to each past job entry asking for a description of the work they did at that job, ask for the name of a supervisor or co-worker that is still there with phone number if different from the main number, and ask why they left. If there are gaps in education or employment ask what they were doing for that time even if it was not work in the current field they are applying for. Answers to these may give you a clue as to other aspects that could affect their job performance with your company or reasons why they would make the best fit. Any negative information you find that may cause you to not consider the candidate should be brought up to the candidate so they can challenge the information. If you don't and you do not hire them, and they later find out what you where told was miss information, they could come back legally against you in some instances.

For some of you that have businesses in a state like GA, with employer right to hire/fire laws, you may not have to give any reason as to why you did not choose someone so long it is not one of the illegal ones, but for many of you the employee holds more cards than the employer does in this process and you have to make sure you stay on the right side of the law. As with any of our blogs the information given here are general guidelines and you should check what the laws are currently in your state. Tomorrow the Handbook.

What to include in your hiring proceedures?

2010-01-19T08:00:00.001-05:00

Most of you never went to college to take classes on hiring, so unless you have earned a degree in Human Resources, everyone needs help in this area. Most of what I know I learned by having to learn it myself while running a business, managing other's businesses and working with very good HR people over the years. Here is the short version of what you need to know.

1. Your hiring procedures need to be written down somewhere, preferably in a handbook, which we will discuss in detail in the next blog.
2. Your procedures MUST be the same for EVERY applicant, so not to come under scrutiny by the Federal Fair Practices Act.
3. That this written procedure includes the end game as well as the beginning and that you have listed reasons and procedures for employee termination (firing) as well as hiring.

This way, no unhired prospect, current or former employee can win in a law suit against you. This is not to say they can not file one, anyone can do that, but you just want to be sure they will not win and walk off with a big payday for it.

The things to state and have in your hiring procedure:

That your company’s application must be filled out in full and any omissions or discrepancies, found at any time, can be grounds for immediate dismissal.

That any attached resume becomes a part of the application and fails under the same above rules.

That even if a job offer is extended, excepted and work performed, passing of a MVR check (if they will be driving your vehicle), a background and/or drug screening must be completed and passed before the job becomes official, and not passing any part will be grounds for dismissal and only hours worked to be paid at minimum wage. (Or amount agreed upon, your call)

If a job is offered then copies of a drivers license, if they will be operating a vehicle, and any other form of ID needed to comply with the filling out of the Federal and State Tax forms will be made at that time, not when they turn in the application. Asking for copies before a job is offered and accepted is against the law in some areas and puts your business at risk for theft of applicant’s identity.

You can place an evaluation/probation period, say from 30-90 days to be sure they can perform the work, before you extend certain privileges, or final salary rate etc.. and state that a non passing performance is a valid reason for termination.

Have a preprinted form that will list all the information for the official job offer including: new hires name, address, job title, job description, hours work maybe performed, rate of pay for work including rate of overtime, length of probation period, changes that will occur at end of probation, sick time you are giving per year, time off or vacation time per year (and list of any other benefits such as use of a company truck). This should be signed by you and the new hire with a copy to both parties.

That the new hire has received and read the company handbook, initialed each page in front of a witness, have signed and dated the book to keep and returned the acceptance page also signed and dated along with the witnesses date and signature.

This may sound like over kill but believe me, the very first time you need something like this and you do not have it, may be the last time for your business.

The rest of the particulars can be spelled out in the handbook that we will review later. Tomorrow what needs to be on your company’s application?

What is the cost of your new employee?

2010-01-18T08:00:00.003-05:00

The number one expense in a service business is your labor costs. So you need to be sure that the money you spend is for someone that is qualified to do the work you are paying your hard earned money for.

The first way to do this is to have a set hiring procedure in place before you every place that first want ad.
Second you should have a detailed application just for your company not some office supply store form.
Third you should have an employee handbook made, given to every new hire and signed for.
Fourth you should run a background check and if possible a drug screening as well.

Taking these steps will not only give your customers value that you can spot light in your marketing but will give you added value as well in the long run by knowing you have skilling, qualified, honest, drug free employees representing you and your company. The old adage 'You get what you pay for' can be attested to by anyone that has just hired someone off the street or because a friend of a friend said he was a good worker and knew what he was doing, only to have anything from major trouble to just routine annoyance caused by this person. Hopefully you have not been damaged too severely so far but by following these steps you will greatly improve your odds of never having to worry about it.

These steps can save you money by reducing employee absenteeism, possible reduction in insurance premium rates, reduce or eliminate loss due to theft, increase the quality of employees that should work faster and safer allowing you to do more jobs without increasing man power.

I will go over in the next four blog posts this week information on each of these points and where more information can be found, that you can go to, and use on your own.

Hood Cleaners. Which will work best for you?

2010-01-02T08:00:00.003-05:00

Here at Soap Warehouse we have many products, that to some, seem that they can do the same thing. And in some cases that may be true, but the subtle differences of each product is for certain reasons and we hope that focusing on product groups together will help our customers find the right one for the job they are doing.

We will also tell you what current or customers in the past have personally found when using a certain product. For this first installation we will explore Hood Cleaners.

With hood cleaning the main chemical ingredients used are potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide. Both need to be used with care and special cautionary actions taken when using them. Such as wearing protective eye wear when mixing and applying, protective clothing and gloves to cover exposed skin. These chemicals are very caustic and that is what makes them such great grease cutters and removers. The ingredient potassium hydroxide is more water soluble than sodium hydroxide but costs more which is reflected in product pricing.

Now our basic 'Hood Cleaner' contains Potassium Hydroxide which some people prefer to handle and mix rather than Sodium Hydroxide, but there is really not much of a difference in their use. 'Smoke House' is our Sodium Hydroxide product. Both are used at 1:100 chemical to water ratio. They are used the same way by applying to a dry surface starting from the bottom up using hot water, allowing a short dwell time and then being rinsed with clear water from the top down into proper collection devices for treatment and disposal according to local wastewater codes.

The 'Smoke House' has been said to work the best on 'Chinese' restaurant grease, which seems to be different that 'normal' cooking grease at other restaurants. 'Smoke House' does costs less than the 'Hood Cleaner' but I have some clients that will only use 'Hood Cleaner' even on 'Chinese' grease and when they only want to purchase and use only one product.

Speaking of that, our Brown Derby also contains mainly Sodium Hydroxide, and we have had customers over the years that will use Brown Derby for anything and everything, including hood cleaning. We had a customer that had used Brown Derby for almost 5 years to do kitchen exhaust cleaning and I finally convicence them to try 'Smoke House' instead. Even though it costs exactly the same, the formulation and percentages of ingredients are different and he could not believe what a difference he got with using the 'Smoke House'. That is not to say that Brown Derby did not do a fair job of cleaning but once the same restraunt was cleaned using 'Smoke House' the difference was clear. He now only buys 'Smoke House' for his kitchen work and leaves using Brown Derby for his fleet washing.

We also have supplementary products like our 'Oven and Grill Cleaner' to be used on flat grill surfaces and inside ovens. Our foaming agent, which can be added to any of our products when additional cling time for vertical surfaces, like exhaust flues are needed. But even with foam, a little goes a long way. If you create too much foam height you are just wasting money on your chemicals because so much of the chemicals are suspended in the foam that never comes in contact with the greasy surface. Using just enough to create a stiff foam to increase dwell time is all you need.

Now these hood cleaners can not be used on aluminum without damage, there fore the cleaning of any aluminum framed filters that may be in an exhaust system, must be handled and cleaned with a different product, like our Mighty Green. It is non-hazardous, non-corrosive and safe on skin, so you can soak filters in a flat tank of concentrated product putting them in and out with your bare hands with out any worries. It also has a great clean scent. Just rinse with water to remove the grease once the filter has soaked for a long enough period of time. If the filters are really bad additional soaks maybe needed or the filter completely replaced. I have seen some pictures of some pretty bad clogged filters that Mighty Green has brought back to useable life.

Hopefully this breakdown of our different Kitchen Hood Cleaning products has helped you.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T08:00:00.002-05:00

Welcome to 2010. With one decade almost behind us already we have a lot to improve upon to end this first ten years in the positive and not the negative.

By now if you have been following along with us since 2008 we have informed you to get or upgrade your web site, improve your SEO, have great business cards, know how and where to advertise, and have introduced you to some of our great products.

This year we would like to hear from you to know what more you would like to learn? We will also explore some of our products in more detail each month, as well, depending on the time of year and when they are most often used.

For example, although we still have outside exterior maintenance cleaning going on in the Southeast and out in the Southwest, most of our customers are in the deep freeze of winter and either not working or have moved inside to other work such as commercial kitchen exhaust cleaning. Now for some this is an all year business but not for everyone. So my next blog will cover our Hood Cleaning products.

Others move to things like increased home carpet, air duct and window cleaning or inside car detailing. So in February and March we will cover products for that.

Once the spring starts to get here and we get back from Louisville KY and the Mid America Truck Show we will move into truck fleet wash products and then exterior home products for April and May.

Come June & July we will be in full swing of the outdoor cleaning season and will explore our car wash and deck products.

I plan in August to cover our new large laundry product line since by then we sould have many of the older Orenda customers on board by then.

September will bring us to heavy duty equipment products for the commercial contruction industry. By October we will discuss our aircraft cleaner Top Gun as well as 'Green Products' that we have or products we are converting over to being 'Green'.

November we will discuss our degreasers and how they differ as much as they seem they are the same. By December we will be running out of product lines so it will be on what ever we have missed or what will be new for 2011.

I hope these product line blogs will help you understand and choose the product that will work best for your own business applications and you will enjoy them along with the other informational blogs we will be posting.

Talk with you soon.

5 Smart Things you can still do in 2009!

2009-12-28T13:24:00.000-05:00

This list will be short and sweet with a few reasons to do them.

1. Make a list of items, supplies and equipment you need to buy or replace for next year.
      Why, because some may be small enough (a new roll of hose) that you can buy them now before year end and be able to write it off on this years taxes. Second you can see if any item might be on sale now to save you money next year. Third give you ideas and costs to plan and budget for during 2010.

2. Reconnect with friends and collegues that are in the business.
      Why, because they might have something you need that they want to sell or get rid of (again saving you money). You might have something they need that you want to get rid of (making you money). Discuss what worked or did not work for them this past year, might clue you in on changes for yourself next year. Make sure you share your sucesses and failures as well so they will be more apt to help or send you business.

3. Look for places to find free or nearly free information for your business, like blogs and product websites.
      Why, because these places can give you ideas on how to do your buiness better without having to leave your house (or where ever your computer is). Information is always changing and being in the know can sometimes make or break your business. Even go to look at sites of products you do not currently use, say a stain brand you know of but costs too much for your normal clients. These site's information could still be worth while no matter what brand of stain you use.

4. Add content to your website. Why, because adding content will improve customer loyalty, impress new customers, and move your site up in searchablity ranking so new customers can find you. And if for some reason you still do not have a website. GET ONE NOW! Many you can start are free for the asking.

5. Create a list of CRAZY goals for 2010. Why, because if you write down goals you would like to happen in the next year, say get 20 contracts over $10,000 each, have 5 crews working for me, etc... rewrite and revist this list once every three months, you might be supprised how many of those crazy goals you closed in on in 2010. Create your own reality for a great 2010 now before 2009 ends.

Happy New Year.

Changing advertising trends for 2010!

2009-12-21T12:44:00.002-05:00

To continue on the topic of our last few posts; I follow a number of advertising gurus and web marketing folks and here is what I have been hearing about the trends that will be going into 2010.

1. The Internet, especially Google will still hold the highest return of homeowners and businesses that search for cleaning services. The numbers of these searches far exceeds any other service including those by phone book companies such as yellowpages.com, and does not come close to the hard print phone books. So you need to not only be on the internet with a well equipped web site but keep up with SEO to improve your placement and search ability for customers to find you. Affiliate sales opportunities may also be worth looking into for your buiness.

2. Social Media will continue to increase significantly throughout 2010 and companies that can incorporate things like Twitter, Facebook, MerchantCircle, YouTube, Hot Frog, LinkedIn and others will bring you new clients at little cost. Like I have mentioned before try to spend at least a few hours per week blogging, linking and changing content on your site to drive search engines and new customers to your business.

3. Direct Mail, is not dead, this media will be abandoned or greatly curtailed by many which will make it more profitable for those that continue to use it. Your message will start to stand out instead of being buried by similar companies. Especially to existing customers, postcards, newsletters and sales special flyers may be the most important thing you do in 2010 to keep your repeat business. Also printers and marketers may run more deals and specials as so many other companies cut spending in these areas.

4. E-mail offers, will start to lose its luster next year. With the expansion of many businesses that have finally heard the word that e-mailing is fast, inexpensive, and labor reducing especially through third party facilitators, e-mails will start to get lost or buried in the in box. This does not mean you should stop using them but try to cut back to only really important messages that your customer will want to open and do not depend on them to bring you the bulk of your new customers.

5. Yellow page phone books, as stated above they will continue to lose a large part of the market share and you should not be spending large amounts here. If you have an ad, think about downsizing, moving those dollars to the internet, yet keeping yourself visible to the older, over 50, customer that still tends to rely on phone books and print ads. You may have to keep what you have only if you are in a very competive market where you are still getting a large number of your leads and new customers from using them.

6. Newspapers and other print ads, although the numbers for these have declined somewhat over the past few years there is still use and value to be found in them. Again older customers tend to be the ones that are reading the newspaper and print ads like in local publications and direct mailers like Valpak will continue to work. You just need to gauge your past success with current ones and make changes accordingly.

7. Billboards, Radio and Television are all big ticket items that may be marketing opportunities this year. Check your area for special deals they may be giving to small business to make up for the losses they are feeling from big business cut backs. Look for a company that has a presence in all three medias in your market to find the best deals. This may only work for those in large city markets but keep your options open. One month of well combined media advertising can win big, especially if right at the beginning of your target season.

Now is the time to make sure you do not lock your business into spending money that will not give you enough of a return or chance to make you money in 2010. Happy New Year.

The 5 reasons why it is important to advertise your service business during a down turn in the economy.

2009-12-11T11:38:00.000-05:00

1. Advertising lets customers that have never needed you before know you are here and available.

Many people do not seek out services until they need them. All funeral directors know this and your business has to be advertising so when these new customers need arise, you are on their mind. Most people gravitate to the company whose name they have heard about or seen more often, no matter what their performance record is. It is your quality of service that will make a repeat customer and makes your next word of mouth advertiser.

2. Advertising shows customers that your services are needed and stand the test of time.

When people see that you are advertising and can identify with the services you provide, they are more likely to remember you when that service need comes up for them. If no one owned a car then no one would need an auto repair shop, but most people do, so knowing that a repair shop is in their neighborhood will at sometime come in handy for that business in the future.

3. Advertising lets your previous customers know you are still in business.

Repeat business is a large part of every bottom line and if your previous customers are unsure that you are still around, because they have not heard from you in a while, they might go to someone else they have seen advertising that they know are available and use them instead. People are lazy and many times will take what they currently know instead of taking the time to find out for them selves, like looking up your number and placing a call.

4. Advertising lets new customers know you have been around and will continue to be here.

New customers that can see by your advertising that you have been in this business for a period of time will feel better knowing you are not a fly by night operator, that you must have a level of quality associated with your service, and that you should still be around to stand behind your service in the future. That is why testimonials are very important in service advertising.

5. Advertising keeps you working while others are not.

Businesses that are sitting back waiting for an old or new customer to come to them because they do not want to spend the money for advertising during a down turn time, may just be waiting until they close their doors for good. If you are not out there looking for new business, contacting past customers to ask for their work and competing for the few available dollars customers have, you will be holding an empty money bag at the end of the day, week, month or year.

Here is to hoping you had a good 2009 and that you will have a very prosperous New Year in 2010.

Are you part of the new digital age?

2009-12-03T13:32:00.002-05:00

I hate to text, I even have texting blocked from my phone. I never saw the need to twitter, yet I just got us signed up before going to Texas and have sent out some tweets, but I do have a personal facebook page besides our business one and business listings on Linkedin.com and MerchantCircle.com. But there are some new social networking ideas that I think every business person should atempt even if they are not a big player in this new digital wave.

I spoke before about a company Bookfresh.com, and they just asked me to join their group on MerchantCircle.com. A business to business only site not unlike facebook.com and very close to Linkedin.com. Merchant Circle puts you in touch with other local business that might use your service or that could help you network to find new customers. Bookfresh is doing something like what I had mentioned in a previous blog about getting a virtual office to take calls and make appointments for you and your business.

They also use the social network feature of linking you into facebook that allows new customers to find you and book jobs right from thier facebook page. How cool it that. You do not even have to pay for the marketing to find these new customers, your freinds and their freinds on facebook does it all for you! And if you still have not made yourself a website like I have written about in other blogs, they have a simple single web page for you that you can customize or if you already have a web site (good for you) that you can link to, increasing your exposure for SEO.

Another great new thing that just came out late October is an 'app' to Valpak.com. Here is an article that tells about it. http://blog.kudzu.com/?p=1775. Many of you might already use or know about Valpak, a national company that sends out local coupon sheets in a blue envelope to homeowners in the zip codes you want to market too. Well they have recently added an on line version and are giving out this free app to link phones and hand helds to Valpack on line to instantly get their users coupons. Go here to see it or get it. www.itunes.com/appstore/. What a great way to be on top of the list when a customer deceides that they need their house washed, deck, driveway or roof cleaned, or maybe even help with holiday light instalations (if you offer that) here is how to contact them http://www.valpak.com/advertise/index.jsp.

Also you do not have to be using the local Valpac blue envelope program to use the on line one. You can do them separatly or together.

Here's to you, your business and better marketing the digital way in the new year.

How to forcast marketing, Tea leaves, crystal balls, or data?

2009-11-09T16:59:00.000-05:00

This problem is one that I am working on here at Soap Warehouse and one that I am sure most of you have to deal with at least a few times a year if not monthly. Where do I spend the money I have on advertising? How to I figure out what is working and what new to try?

I read this short article yesterday that got me to thinking of a plan of action.
BUSINESS MARKETING: Tea leaves, crystal balls, or data?
Maybe it can help you as it hopefully will help us here at Soap Warehouse.

This along with a program I love FreeMind, these I hope will help keep our marketing fluid, impactful and as cost effective as possible.

With the FreeMind application I will enter in all the options we have found this year for marketing. I will put in all the dates (when I have to have work orders in or closing dates) and costs of all the opportunities we might want to try this year. Even if I doubt we will be able to afford a few of them. At least they will be on the radar as ideas to shoot for later.

Then as the year progresses and results are measured with each marketing program I will be able to see if something worked and we need to continue on this path, that will cause us to negate other programs, or if we will stop one method or avenue, leaving open the time and money to try another tack on our marketing course.

This way I can start out this year with a set budget but not a definite place where all the resources will go so that we can make changes during the year or even each month as things change.

I hope these can help you as well.

What have you learned this year?

2009-11-02T13:58:00.000-05:00

I am one of those people that think you should try to learn something new everyday. And if not everyday at least look to find new information or things to learn 2-3 times a week.

If you are not learning you are not growing as a person or in your business. So take a minute to ask your self "What have I learned this year?" If you don't have an answer, or don't think you learned enough maybe you need to start looking for things to learn and places to learn them.

I hope many of you took advantage of the trade shows and coventions offered this past month or this year.
That you are on at least one forum chat room that puts you in touch with others in your field of business.
That you tried to find new ways to do your jobs more efectively, less costly or faster.
That you learned ways to improve getting you & your business in front of customers with advertising.

Soap Warehouse wants to help you learn and to grow. Because face it, the more you grow, the more product you will need and the more we will grow with you. We only want to give you the best in products and in knowlege. So if there is a topic you would like more information on or resource links to, just let us know and we will be happy to spend the time, you may not have, to find the information you need to learn and make it available to you.

One great site I found this year that I have been letting all my car detailers know about is a site called Book Fresh http://www.bookfresh.com/. Now this site can be used by more than just car detailers and if you have been trying to find other ways to increase your customer base or if you have too many empty days to fill this may be it.

BookFresh is a service that you join and they get a cut for their service. With one system they offer, you fill out a list of your own service information for the jobs you are willing to do and lets you put prices to them. Then potential customers go on line, look at what you offer at the price you list and then deceied if they would like to book your services. It also lets you tell the customer when you are available to do the jobs. So say Tueday and Wednesday is always a slow day for you, you can leave those days as the only ones open for new customers. Each job has a time limit set with it, say roof cleaning under 1500 sqft 3 hours, and you have open three time slots per day. The new customer goes on line, finds the day and time they like, places the order, pays for the service and recieves a coupon. You then get an email notice of this new customers information, order and payment. You know you have already been paid before you even load up to drive to their home. Once there you take the coupon and do the job. Of course you should have already called and spoken to them, made sure the job falls in the specs you put down for the job and may even possibly up sell them for other services that they can pay for once you get there.

Don't want to pre-price your services, Book Fresh has another service to book free consultations for job bids. They place you on search engines like Google & Yahoo locally to find you customers. Take a look http://www.bookfresh.com/resources/handyman-business-marketing-software/.

Book Fresh gives you a website (even if you do not already have one) for customers to see your work, read testamonials, it even lets you link to any other website you already have, and offers many free business services for paying clients.

I think this service is a great idea that can move any business, that is not yet on line, into the computer age and open up new possiblities to gain the newer computer savey customer. More than 70% of new customers go line instead of picking up a phone book these days and you need to be where the customers are looking.

I hope you all keep learning and that this site can help some of our customers businesses.
Please let us know if you use them and how it works for you.

10 Rules For Killer Business Cards Slideshare

2009-10-13T09:58:00.002-04:00

Short but Important SlideShare Presentation:

10 Rules For Killer Business Cards Slideshare

View more presentations from Steven Fisher.

Are you going to a Convention this month?

2009-10-01T11:45:00.002-04:00

October is a great month for the Pressure Washing Industry and starting next week there will be one event a week all month. In fact there will be so many taking place it would be very hard to get to them all or sometimes to even choose between them.

For some the choice is easy, if you sell equipment as well as do pressure washing work you might be going to CETA the 18th-20 out in Reno, NV. If you live in the North Central area of the country and have been a member of the PWNA for a long time then you will probably attend theirs near Chicago next week the 8th-10th. But there is a new one this year that many contractors might want to take a look at and that is the UAMCC (United Association of Mobile Contract Cleaners). This is their very first convention that will be held in Orlando the 22nd-25th later in the month. It will be packed with speakers and programs geared to better your business. Even if you have not planed to go to any of these it is not too late, especially for the UAMCC. Please try to make it to at least one of these.

I wish I could go to all of them but in fact I unfortunately will not personally be able to make it to any of them. But Soap Warehouse will be participating and supporting them in small ways.

At the UAMCC we have sent 3 $100 product coupons to be given away as prizes at their event. We have contacted the PWNA to offer them the same thing but as of this posting we have not heard back if they will accept this donation. We are also offering all members of these groups a special offer on product for this month and next, wether you are a current customer or not. Either 10% off the product cost of one order with proof of membership or attendance at one of these events or a free 5 gallon container of any one liquid product item, found in our exterior or degreaser tab section of our website, with any other purchase for one order. One only offer per customer.

These events are a great break for you after a very difficult season, for great networking and an opportunity for learning to improve your business. Here is hoping these events help you have a good end to this year.

Why you need MSDS books?

2009-09-17T12:15:00.000-04:00

Well September is here and with it the last quarter of the year. Now is a good time to look and see what business goals you set back at the first of the year still have to be done, evaluate things you have tried this year so far to see if you want to continue with them next year or put on the front burner things you still need to do before this year runs out.

So far we have done all the major products we had planned like putting out a monthly newsletter, writing in this blog at least once a month, trade shows and new advertising campaigns in new channels. But even I still have some things that got pushed aside that I need to get done and marked off my to do list.

One big one is to contact every customer to make sure they have a copy of an MSDS for every product they have purchased from us. This one item is very important for you, for your business and for your employees if you have them. This needs to be done and checked at least once a year. So very soon you will be getting either an email or letter in the mail with a list of the MSDS's you should have on hand especially if you still have the product at your house, on your truck or rig.

MSDS's are always sent out by us the first time you buy a new product, when the product contains Hydrofluoric acid or when it is requested by you, our customer. You can get a needed copy by calling 800-762-7911, emailing us or downloading it from the website.

By law (OSHA either federal or state) you need to have a book made up of all MSDS for every product you use routinely in your work that you or employees can be exposed to. So many more products than just ours should be in there. They need to be cataloged in alphabetical order; by letter tabs are even better. You should probably have more than one MSDS book in your possession. The first should be at your home or office where the bulk of your chemicals are kept. And the others should be carried out on the road with you in your truck or on your rig itself. And if you have more than one truck or rig, one for every one of those as well. It is also best for at least the ones on the road to be kept in a waterproof binder with the pages inserted in plastic page covers so dirt and water will not mess them up. If you do not have these books in place yet, this is a great time of year to get them at the lowest possible cost, while back to school supply sales are happening.

If you do not know what is found in an MSDS, or all the sections of an MSDS, now would be a great time to learn. You can go here to learn everything you need to know about an MSDS, like why you should have them, what are the different sections of an MSDS so you know where to look if the situation comes up and you need it. During an emergency is not the time to wonder if the health cautions or first aid directions are found in section III or VII! Plus if you ever get asked for your MSDS by OSHA, the DOT, a police officer or even a customer to prove what is or is not in a product you are using at their home, this will help your business look professional and possibly not be fined for not having them.

The most frightening calls I have gotten are when customers call us frantic with an injured employee and they do not know where an MSDS is or they did not keep the MSDS we sent them and that employee needs immediate emergency care. I hope you never have a need to open your MSDS books but it sure is important that they are there if you ever do.

Texas was Great!

2009-08-26T12:08:00.013-04:00

Well we are back home from the Great American Truck Show and even with a few hick ups before we started we had a great response and met some great people that we hope will become new customers. Here is a photo of me at the booth just before opening on Thursday August 2oth. I do not have an official head count yet from the show but I know over 10,ooo came by just our booth because our neighbor booth scanned around 6,ooo individuals and they did not get everyone.

I spoke to a little over 200 attendees personally about how they are washing their rigs and fleets and discussed our product line with them. We had 9 attendees that sent in a prize registration to us pre show and one of them, Bill Harlow won 5 gallons of Big Rig Brite. We also had one winner, Gregory Gipe, that won one of the Fox Fury Headlamps stop back by the booth the day after his name was drawn to pick up his prize and have his photo taken.

Here is a list of all of our winners:

8/20
12:30 Big Rig Truck Brite – Ladd Winkleblack – Mount Pleasant, TX
2:30 Big Rig Truck Brite – Larry Williams – Jacksonville, AR
4:30 Fox Fury Headlamp – Ervin Van Beck – Apple Valley, MN

8/21
12:30 Big Rig Truck Brite – Richard Herrington – Garland, TX
2:30 Big Rig Truck Brite – Bill Harlow – Applegate, OR
4:30 Fox Fury Headlamp - Gregory Gipe – Pearl City, IL

8/22
12:30 Big Rig Truck Brite – Marcus Deal – Alvarado, TX
2:30 Big Rig Truck Brite – Russ Cross – Kirbyville, TX
4:30 Fox Fury Headlamp – Bryan Fontenot – Brookshire, TX

Thank you to all of the nearly 100 people that entered. And if you went to the show you have until Monday Sept 21st to purchase from us with the show specials we offered.

I got a real treat when I got the chance to meet Alex Debogorski from the History Channel's show "Ice Road Truckers". He was a lot of fun and spent time with everyone that lined up to see him during all three days of the show. He is just as nice in person as he appears on the show and was traveling with his wife Gene, his sister and two sons of his eleven children. The country singer Tracy Lawrence also did a show for attendees Friday night, but tickets were limited, he did not stay and sing as long as promised and would not sign autographs so everyone I spoke to on Saturday was not that pleased with the performance or with him but everyone was saw was very happy they stopped and met Alex. I guess that is why I saw 20 Alex T-shirts to every 1 of Tracy's on Saturday. Being a nice person pays.

Here at the Show/

2009-08-21T08:37:00.002-04:00

Well we made it to the Great American Truck Show with a few set backs but the start is going well.

We were to have 5 staff at this show but the owner of Soap Warehouse got a badly infected cyst on his hand and had to stay back in GA in the hospital to have it taken care of. So down 2 members from that. Then on Wednesday right before 5 pm we had an email from our models staffing company Statementmodles.com that our model decided she did not want the job she was paid a month ago to do and they were refunding us our money. Thanks a lot! So down to 2 staff members. Thank goodness we have friends here in Texas. We called and got a local friend that has done other kinds of trade shows in the past, although not for industrial soaps to drive over to help us at the last minute.

So far we have had a good response, seen some new owner operators that had sent in their drawing entries in early to us, some that read about us in the GATS newsletter or saw our ad in the Land Line magazine. We hope to have the next two days to be just as good. Will update everyone on how the whole show turned out along with a list of all our prize drawing winners at the end of the show.

The Great American Truck Show is almost here!

2009-08-13T16:45:00.007-04:00

Well it is almost time to leave for Texas and I can tell you even though I have been getting ready for three months I think I will still be doing things until the minute we pull out of the parking lot!

We will be located in the left show room as you enter near the Pride and Polish areas at booth 14049. If you see the Trek Bikes you have found us, they are right next to us. Should be a big draw if they don't run over folks in the aisles!

We will be giving away prizes three times a day all three days of the show. Three Fox Fury Command 20 Headlamps and Six - 5 gallon pails of Big Rig Brite.

We will also have booth gifts of microfiber towels, dash sticky pads and sample sizes of our Odor Out neutralizer spray for drivers to use in their rig cabs. And one special item for Soap Warehouse customers that stop by to say hey. We will also have show only product specials.

The Fox Fury Command 20 Headlamp is a great item for truckers or anyone that has to work out at night and needs to have their hands free to work. It has 20 LED lights in a two row bar that fits across your forehead, with three different settings to adjust the amount of light you need for a task; from 4 center lights, 8 or all 20. It also has a red rear light to warn anyone coming up from behind you that you are there. Perfect for when you are walking outside of the truck checking on the trailer.

I have also just signed up for Twitter and if I can get service inside the Dallas Convention Center I might even take the time to send out a few tweets.

Well we sent out all the tickets people asked for a also a few extra to customers that buy a lot of truck wash that could possibly have folks they know going to the show, so if you get some in the mail and can not go please send them on to some one or some trucker that may like the chance to have that free $10 entry ticket paid for.

Have a great next 10 days and if I do not have a chance while at the show I will write again once we all are back here in GA. Remember the office will still be open while we are in TX so keep they orders coming and we will get them shipped out!

What to do in this economy?

2009-07-30T11:35:00.004-04:00

I am sure many of you are asking that question and to stick with the Car Wash theme I would like to end this month by sharing with you a great article I found. It is The Economic Impact Study in regards to professional car washing and detailing.

If this is part of or your main business go here and take a look: http://www.carwash.com/article.asp?IndexID=6637242

This web site http://www.carwash.com/index.asp is full of information for all you automatic, self serve and hand wash car wash and car detailers. This site also includes for members, and it is free to join, a bulletin board forum, information from their magazine where back issues are archived.

Soap Warehouse also just joined http://www.carwash.com/ as a vendor and we hope to pass information we find interesting and helpful on to our customers here as well but please take the time to check them out and possibly bookmark them as a future resource.

We will be busy getting ready for the Great American Truck show starting on Aug 29th so if any of you are involved in big rig fleet washing please try to drive to Dallas and check it out. We will be at booth 14049 near the Pride and Polish area.

Great American Truck Show

2009-07-23T11:34:00.007-04:00

I can not believe we have only three weeks until August 20th and the Great American Truck Show in Dallas, TX. It will be running from Thursday August 20th at noon until Saturday August 22nd at 6 p.m.

We have been working very hard to make Soap Warehouse's first major trade show a success and we want all our customers and friends to share that success and be a part of it.

Please let us know if you would like a free pair of tickets to attend the show. Normally $10 a ticket for entry you can be our guest for free. Just call or email us and we will be happy to send you some. There will be free tractor parking, and many activities like a Free Concert by Tracy Lawrence. Please use this link to visit the GATS home page for all the info. http://www.gatsonline.com/

Myself along with the owner of Soap Warehouse and other staff will be on hand to meet you at our Booth #14049 to discuss our great line of truck washes and aluminum brighteners that will be the focus of this show. We would love to meet any of our current customers in person or any possible future customer that would like to introduce yourself to us. When you come by to see us make sure you let us know who you are, because all of our current customers that stop by will receive a special item just for coming by to say hello. We would love to hear stories of how our products have or are working for you and your business too. We will also have other booth only items to give-a-way to any attendee that stops to talk and discuss our products with them. We will have show only pricing specials as well as coupons for future purchases with us.

You may fill out a prize entry form before you even get to the show to have the first opportunity possible to win one of our daily booth prizes. You will find the link on the front of our website http://www.soapwarehouse.biz/ fill it out and fax it to 770-939-5501 to be entered.

We will be giving away every day of the show a Fox Fury Command 20 Headlamp and two 5 gallon containers of Big Rig Brite Truck Wash. The Fox Fury Headlamp has a retail value of $90 and the truck wash will be delivered to the winners location a value starting at $70 or more including the shipping.

These as well as our in booth give-a-ways are just some of the reasons to come meet us and enjoy yourself at the show.

The office in Georgia will still be open to serve our customers during the show, taking orders and shipping out product but please be understanding if the phone does not get answered as fast as usual or if someone has to call you back since we are leaving the front office just a little short staffed that week while the rest of us are in Texas.

Again we hope to see you at the show and please call us for tickets and fax your entry in for our prize drawings.

Pricing how to avoid the mistakes.

2009-07-01T08:00:00.003-04:00

Pricing is a big issue right now for us and for many others. We just finished an in depth mid year review and have found that the overhead costs that have been sneaking up on us over the last year or so have really affected our bottom line. So like many others we are going to have to adjust our pricing upwards to keep things moving. No we are not in trouble or anything and in no danger of having to close like so many others including some of our customers this last year but we realized that in some cases we were giving away the farm and not leaving anything for the company. Every business needs to at least keep up with the cost of living and doing business and so far this year we have been going in the other direction. Very soon you will be seeing an across the board price increase. While we are cutting and trimming costs in areas that we can you should be pricing your products and services avoiding these mistakes to be sure you keep your business healthy too.

All pricing is, is risk. The risk of setting a price you and your customers can both live with and continue to do business. But most risk can be managed with good information.

1. Low ball pricing and undercutting your competition. For some businesses this is a strategy, but not a very good one for long. Pricing yourself and your services too low all the time may bring in great sales numbers but not the bottom line profit to stay in business. You do not have to get all of the price conscious customers there are out there. Know what your service costs you to offer it and price accordingly.

2. Using the same margin for everything. No one says you must make the same % of profit for everything you do. You may need to decrease the margin on less time consuming work, and increase the margin on the infrequent or costlier jobs. You can afford a smaller margin on the higher sales volume of the quicker jobs. Say a complete strip, stain and reseal job for a 3000 square foot deck at the back of the house vs. the quick concrete driveway cleaning at the front.

3. Knowing the difference between markup and margin. Markup is based on your costs and Margin is based on the price. If you price a service with a 20% mark up on the cost of the products you use for the job and then offer your customer even a 10% discount on the total service you may end up with not making the margin you need to run the business.

4. Not taking all costs into account. Every job priced must cover all your costs. Not just the cost of the soap, water and gas to get you there but also some of the cost to purchase equipment, operate and maintain it along with all your bookkeeping and other costs it takes to get and process the job. Every business needs to know its basic hourly overhead for a whole month even if you do not do a single bit of work for that month.

5. You need to know what the competition is charging for the same work. That does not mean you follow the price they charge but you need to find out what value they give vs. what you offer and price accordingly. If you use a better machine, better soap and give superior service include those costs in your price and be able to defend those prices by showing and explaining to the customer why you cost more.

6. Discounting instead of giving added value. Every 10% discount you give means you have to do 50% more work to make the same profit if you had not given the discount. You can discount yourself out of business. So make your discounts mean something when you give them, use them sparingly and try and give your customer added value instead. Give the customer an added service for free as an incentive instead of a discount. Clean the gutters with every roof cleaning, clean windows with a house wash etc. Most of the time you would be right there doing the first job anyway so the labor cost is very low, the material cost could also be next to nothing so why not put a price on the extra service and give that to the customer instead of a cash discount that mean cash not in your pocket.

I hope this helps you price your work to your customers to keep you running a healthy business and that you understand when we have to reprice our products to keep our business healthy too.

Summer is heating up is your business?

2009-06-01T10:43:00.004-04:00

Already it is June, kids out of school and temps are rising and hopefully your jobs and profits with it.

We all know it was a very slow start to this year with the bad winter hanging on in the Northeast and the rains in the South and Midwest. But things are starting to slowly pick up.

I was hoping that I could get a discussion going on what each of you are seeing in your area, good and bad so you can see that there are others out there just like you.

For us at Soap Warehouse the economic, environmental regulation and weather issues that effect you directly effect us.

We also want to bring you information that will help you meet these challenges and hopefully aid you in over coming some of them. Here are some links to information that may help or at least inform you during these times.

For environmental regulation info go to http://www.washwater.org/ or http://www.epa.gov/

For business building join one or more networking groups. Here is an article about Kudzu:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2008/september/196302.html

Links to different sites are here:
Kudzu http://www.kudzu.com/
Merchant Circle http://www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/
Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/

Is that Yellow page ad just not bring you in the business any more try other places:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/marketingcolumnistkimtgordon/article199484.html

I hope some so these ideas help you reve up your revenues this summer.

Lots of work in the Bahama's

2009-05-05T15:30:00.008-04:00

As some of you may know Soap Warehouse sells products across the US but we also sell to customers in places like Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. So far we only have a few customers in these places and we sell only a few things like airplane cleaner, house and car washes. So when I had the opportunity to travel to Treasure Cay, Green Turtle Cay and Marsh Harbor in the Bahamas last Thursday and Friday to visit some golf cart rental companies I went for it.

I was amazed at the opportunities that are there that no one has tapped into. So if you ever are considering a place to slow down and retire but still do some work once in a while these little islands are ready and waiting.

In the larger cities like Nassau things are about what they are here in the US just slower, but once you get over to some of the little islands, things are drastically different. These islands are too small for many cars, so they use golf carts! These islands thrive on tourism and they know one way to make a tourist pick them over the competition is appearance. For example: If you had the choice of renting a four person golf cart between 2-3 different companies and they all are together in the same area at the dock when you landed, would you go to the one where you saw carts up on blocks obviously in need of repair with others with stains on the vinyl, or to the one with scuffs on the cart bodies with pealing decals OR would you head for the one that had gleaming clean carts all nicely parked in a row? Well you guessed right the clean ones rent first.

Even the Police use golf carts!

I spoke with some cart shop owners who admitted that some times a new customer will come in and ask to rent a certain cart by just its looks and only later ask the price or if it is electric or runs on gas? They already know what I was trying to sell them on. Appearance sells or in this case rents. The same also goes for the rental houses and cottages. Most are found only by being listed on the Internet and can only be seen first on line before they are rented out, but if real life does not measure up in person to the photo there can be trouble.

Same goes for your business. You may ask how can she compare my business where I am to something in the paradise of the Bahamas?

Well it is simple. If you pull up in a sparkling clean vehicle with a clean rig just like in your ads or on line this new customer will be happy you are here to do work for them. They have the perception that their property will come out as nice. Also if you have before and after photos on your web site they also have in their minds how clean their property should be once you are done and are obviously ready to pay you to get it.

Always look at your self and business as if in a mirror and see if you like what you see?

Have a great week and I am glad to be back home, but it sure was pretty to look at.

New Web Site

2009-05-01T08:00:00.003-04:00

Well Good News,

We are finally getting the new Web site up today Friday May 1st, 2009. It is a few months behind schedule from when we wanted it and there are still many additions and changes to be made but for the most part the basic system will be up and running.

New features include a new tab layout which allows you to go to the type of work you will be doing to see the products we recommend using for these jobs. That does not mean you may not use a product that is not on that drop down but these are the ones most used or recommended for the task.

Then on each tabbed page that is opened you will see the products description, sizes and prices. Current customers will still be able to go to the private customer log in area to see or print out a complete current price list so jumping around page to page to find pricing will not be necessary.

Coming soon will be the option to place items in a shopping cart order form. Although it will not be able to figure freight costs, since there are too many variables, it will send your order request to us here at Soap Warehouse where we will calculate the freight according to the order form and we will contact you back with the exact amount and departure shipping information for you.

There will now be a front page area we will place major announcements for anyone to see, links to our Blog, resource materials, our e-mail sign up button, and every month a link to our current Newsletter. This way everyone can come to the site and see the Newsletter instead of us trying to send out multiple batches of e-mailed newsletters just to clients we have e-mails for. We will still for a while send out e-mail notices when the new newsletter is available on the site.

Coming soon too hopefully will be photos and videos from our bi-monthly product contests. If you do not know about these contests please call and ask for the link to the forms and instructions. You could win product credit on your account by just sending in photos, videos and testimonials about the products you buy and use from Soap Warehouse. The link will be on the site as well shortly.

We will also have a page showing photos and information on previous and up coming events Soap Warehouse has sponsored or exhibited at. Right now these are only available at our intuit website at http://soapwarehouse.intuitwebsites.com/index.html there on the More Info page.

We will still have the private current customer only log in area with special offers and information, just for current clients.

We are adding a MSDS page listing for all products, right now it is just one large down loadable file but soon each tab page will have a link with each product to its own MSDS and in the future a technical product data sheet.

I hope that the new changes will make visiting our site easier and more enjoyable and we would love to hear any ones comments or suggestions about the site. Please send them to linda@soapwarehouse.biz. We are sending this out as an e-mail and are also posting this in its entirety as an entry in our blog.

For those of you who have never looked at our blog please take this chance to do so, you find some valuable information there. We also want to use the blog to answer any customer questions so please send us some.

Have a Great Weekend and Thank you for being a Soap Warehouse Customer.

Be Just 1% Better!

2009-04-30T08:00:00.003-04:00

I just read some very interesting but true advice I would like to pass on to you.

It is better to be just 1% better for 100 reasons than to be 100% better for only 1.

If you take that philosophy with your business you will see that even little changes make a big difference.

For example if your biggest competitor is always giving a 10% discount to new or referral customers and makes a big point of it in their advertising, then you offer 11%.

Now sometimes you can not out do someone or something by even 1%, take "available by phone 24 hours as day" for an example. But you can offer a faster response time either for a call back or actual booked appointment. But you must be able to follow through on your claims so chose carefully. You could offer a superior brand of stain for deck work instead of the run of the mill that everyone else carries, this does not mean that you do not charge for it, just that you carry and market it as the best in the industry. You can offer discounted window cleaning with a house wash or complementary gutter cleaning with a roof cleaning. Anything that the customer perceives as you giving that extra 1% over and over during your job for them will make you stand out, get you referrals and more jobs.

Always leave the owners property better then you found it, and I do not just mean on the job you are being paid to do. I mean make sure you pick up all of your trash or even their trash that your cleaning uncovers, within reason. If your service included furniture removal and replacement for a deck or patio cleaning be sure it is put back correctly or better than you found it. It may cost you only a few extra pennies to rinse off those plastic planters, deck chairs or cushions to make them look better. Of course you can always offer side services for a complete through cleaning job on these items first. And you must be willing to do these sort of small jobs that take up extra time before you offer them to the customer. It does you no good to advertise that you offer these services and have to later, while on the job, refuse to do them because you have booked your time so tight that you can not accommodate them. No matter how much pre-planning you do or questions you ask something else will always come up.

But if you do that extra 1 % for the customer over and over it will pay off 100 times over.

Bio Barrier

2009-04-24T08:00:00.002-04:00

The next product I would like to discuss is Bio Barrier. I wrote about this product last year but I will mention it again after speaking on Citrus X-terior earlier this week. Bio Barrier is a great follow up product to any cleaning where molds and mildews have been a problem. Like with roof shingles - once the black Gloeocapsa Magma algae has been killed and removed, or with vinyl siding or wood decking- once the green, yellow, or black mold and any mildew has been killed and removed.

Bio Barrier needs to be applied right after a through cleaning of the surface has been done and the area to be treated is thoroughly dried. Bio Barrier is not a mold or mildew killer but rather a growth inhibitor. Bio Barrier protects a surface it is applied to from the harmful micro-organisms that cause odor and mold growth from coming back. A properly treated surface will have effective protection for 6-12 months depending on the environment and frequency of exposure to direct water or indirect moisture.

Bio Barrier does not have to be used on the whole house, roof or deck. You can locate, mark or document, like with photographs or a drawing of the problem areas before cleaning is done to easily locate them later for treatment. Bio Barrier is used straight, not diluted. It can be sprayed, sponged or wiped onto the surface for treatment just so a light but complete wetting of the product is applied to the surface material. Bio Barrier does not have to be used to soak, saturate or be allowed to run down or pool on a surface to be effective.

Bio Barrier can be used as an add on to your normal cleaning as an added value, additionally priced service. For just pennies you could be able to give a no growth guarantee with your cleaning that would be a perceived added value to your customer.

Say for instance you clean a house and a few days later come back to apply Bio Barrier just to the problem areas. If you have left a sign in the yard stating your company name and number, plus left cards with your current customer with a referral offer, you may very well be coming back to that area to do a new job besides doing the Bio Barrier treatment and moving your sign to a different house's yard in the same neighborhood.

Bio Barrier will make you look good to your customers and if you did a quality first cleaning job it should bring you added word of mouth business as well when the mold does not grow back in just a few months. It also gives you a leg up as to why you should come back on a yearly basis to clean the house and retreat for the mold.

Bio Barrier is available in 1 gallon bottles and 5 gallon pails. You can call to order Bio Barrier at 800-762-7911 or go to our web site http://www.soapwarehouse.biz/ where you will find a Data Sheet and other valuable information about Bio Barrier.

Citrus X-terior House Wash Cleaner

2009-04-22T10:42:00.005-04:00

I will be writing some entries this year about certain products that we carry, depending on when they are the most popular or when I may have been asked about them by a customer. So I will start with this newer Soap Warehouse House Wash "Citrus X-terior" for the Spring cleaning season.

The Citrus X-terior product has some great features: nice citrus scent, it can be used with bleach, it is very economical in price, but is still a good cleaner even when using at the top of its dilution rate of 1:50, non hazardous or DOT regulated, and it is biodegradable.

The advantages of using Citrus X-terior instead of using just straight bleach with water for house washing are the following:

One, you can use less bleach than you would normally use if you where just house washing with bleach and water alone. This reduces the effects bleach alone can have on plants and grass, without reducing the reason you are using bleach, which is to kill molds and mildews while removing the colored stains that come with them from the surfaces of the house.

For an explanation of how bleach works please take a look at the article I wrote on bleach for the "Cleaner Times" magazine. http://www.cleanertimes.com/pdfdocs/2009CTMag/Clearing%20the%20Air%20on%20Bleach%202009-02.pdf

Two, you have the advantage that you are truly using a soap cleaner to wash and remove dirt, oils and other harmful residues from the surface of the house, not just changing their chemical makeup to become invisible. This will extend the life of the paint, vinyl, hardy plank or brick surface of the house while improving its appearance.

Third, the clean citrus scent masks the strong bleach odor and leaves the customer with a more pleasant lasting reminder, than that of the just bleach.

Now Citrus X-terior is not for every job you may have, especially with the extremely dirty or neglected homes, but for a general once a year house cleaning product, Citrus X-terior is a very good one to have available and will make you money.

Citrus X-terior is available in a 1 gallon bottle, 5 gallon pail or a 55 gallon kit. Call the office to order 800-762-7911 or for current pricing, or go to our website: http://www.soapwarehouse.biz/.

Storm Damage

2009-04-16T13:09:00.005-04:00

Here is just a few of the reasons Soap Warehouse was out of power, phones and Internet from Monday April 13th around 10:15 AM until Wednesday at 6:30 AM.

I am sure all of you know how frustrating it can be when things beyond your control come crashing into your life. Atlanta is a beautiful city and is not called the city of trees for nothing, but it can have it's downside.
Our Warehouse and office are located in an small office park that backs up to a huge golf course and Old home neighborhood in Dekalb Co. We had crews working on a main side road for over 24 hours practically moving only 20-30 feet at a time restoring the downed lines to get our small area back up. With the major drought followed by this month of heavy rain and the new leaves just coming out catching the strong winds, all these reasons together made Monday's thunderstorm look like we had a tornado come through here.
We appreciate every ones understanding and patience in allowing us time to get back to being able to receive and fill orders. And for the few customers that were worried when we did not answer our phone, fax or e-mails until I got home Tuesday night and was able to retrieve them off site and answer them, thank you for your concern.
Photos courtesy of the Dekalb County Champion Newspaper.
With this delay our new website should be up by early next week and I will be sure to let everyone know when that event takes place.
Thanks again and everyone take care.

Taxes

2009-03-27T08:00:00.001-04:00

One of the most dreaded words of the small business owner.

I wanted to share a few tips we have found to pass on along with some other links that may help some of you.

First tip: Get some professional help. I do not mean to have to pay a fortune for this help but too many small business owners think they can do it themselves and find out only years later after an audit, that they either owe money they don't have or wasted money they could have gotten back, but is now too late to recover it.

Even if you just read up on the subject, go on line for a self help like at Entrepreneur.com or pay for a tax filing program you will be ahead of the game.

Here is a link to a great lady I know Diana Crawford. She did these tax audit videos for a client and it has helped many people. Besides just being an accountant with a CPA degree she is an Intuit QuickBooks expert. So if you use QuickBooks (I suggest you use some type of computer program) and have a problem give her a shout. She will help anyone or at least steer them to a local person that can. She teaches QuickBooks small business classes for free and does Beta testing for Intuit on new versions of QuickBooks and is an Intuit Trainer. If you already have QuickBooks there is a wealth of free information just through Intuit on line.

http://www.expertvillage.com/expert/2239.htm (cut and paste the link)
dcrawford@cmccpas.com This is her e-mail. Please indicate on the subject line or in your e-mail you are a Soap Warehouse customer. She is also available to do any ones businesses taxes, her firm handles clients across the country.

Right now we are planing to start recording her free "How to set up your small business with QuickBooks" sessions so she will have more time to devote to hosting other advanced classes. We are also discussing with her to possibly make a video just for pressure washing businesses to address their specific needs to put on our site. I will let everyone know as soon as new sessions are available.

Next make sure you are tracking every expense. Do you give out coupons or give discounts for services to customers? You need to track that money as cost of advertising, this expense is to be taken against the money you made. If you list your total income minus cost of labor and supplies but forget this amount it could be costing you hundreds of dollars a year in tax savings.

Mileage vs actual cost: Always keep a log book in your company vehicle listing the beginning millage on Jan 1. on the first page and then keep a millage log to and from every customer or stop. List every dollar spent on gas, oil changes, tires, tune ups, repairs etc. I also suggest putting this information into a spreadsheet at least once a week or so. This way at the end of the year you can evaluate if you should take the flat mileage rate of the miles you drove for work or the actual costs of using your vehicle for business. Don't forgot the mileage on your personal vehicle either especially if it is used to do other errands like deposit money in the bank or pick up office supplies. Keep an estimate book in your family , so if you meet someone, hand them a card and give them an estimate, you can write off some of that mileage as well.

Even something as simple as doing your laundry can save you money. If you spend the few extra dollars to put a company name patch on your clothes you are then able to write off not only the cost of the items, but the cost of the patch and cleaning them for the entire year. Because they are then considered a uniform not just personal apparel, but I suggest wearing them sometimes even when you are not working to promote your business name. I will sometimes wear our Soap Warehouse business tag out just to try and start conversations and get new leads. Even putting a sign with your business's name and number on your personal car will allow you to write off the costs it takes to do it plus gives you the added advertising. I have even lent a set of magnetic signs to friends to put on their vehicle when I know are going on a long cross country trip to generate calls. I never know where my next customer may be coming from.

Good Luck dealing with Uncle Sam this year.

Changes for the year.

2009-03-25T11:13:00.005-04:00

First I would like to say we had a lovely time in Savannah GA for the PAMA Seminar (Professional Aviation Maintenance Association). We where a Bronze Supporter of this event and it was very nice to meet Aviation Maintenance personal from all over GA and the South. Some knew of our product "Top Gun" but many were introduced to it for the first time. We look forward to work with as many of these great people and companies as we can in the future.

We want to congratulate Mr. Charles Wilson of Luthersville, GA on winning our "Top Gun" product package at our booth. We also want to thank the attendees that bid and won our "Top Gun" product in the PAMA silent auction.

I hope that at least some of our Northern customers get to attend this weekends Pressure Washing Seminar in NY. Soap Warehouse is a Silver Sponsor at that event.

(ADDED LATTER: We wanted to congratulate the four winners of our 5 gallon product door prizes at the Seminar and to Joe Torres the winner of our Exterior sample pack in our drawing from the fax entries we received after the Seminar.)

We are also looking forward to our next event that should be in May over in Charleston SC for a local PWNC (Pressure Washers Network of the Carolina's).

Next we are moving closer to putting our new web site on line. It will have new tabbed features to make navigating through the web site easier. It will eventually allow customers to place orders, choosing the products, sizes and amounts they want with us following up by contacting them back with the total including shipping and expected delivery date.

You will be able to see what the product total will be when you send the order to us and we will then calculate any shipping charges according to the filled out request.

You will also be able to see MSDS info for each product on their product page or find it in the MSDS table listing. Prices will be listed with each product but an inclusive price list will still be available only by logging on to the customer only area or by a request that we send you one by mail, fax or e-mail.

We will have this Blog, Links and other information available to help our customers.

If there is any thing you would like to see on our site please contact us and request it.

Time to Stock up

2009-03-02T14:50:00.003-05:00

I can not believe this is March already!

We have been very busy planing for this year.

We are currently working on designing a new web site that we hope improves our customers enjoyment of our site.

This has been a very cold snowy Winter for many of our customers and as such a slow start to the new year. But with signs of Spring finally peaking through now is the best time to make sure all of your equipment and supplies are ready for the Spring boom.

If you are reading this blog and have not yet given us your e-mail address, please take time to do so. You miss out on so many opportunities when we can not keep you up to date. E-mail your address to soapwarehouse@hotmail.com, subject: add address.

Last December we started a monthly Newsletter which includes information on special offers, contests as well as things you should be aware of such as price changes, up and down.

This year we plan to get out as much as we can to meet current and new customers. We are supporting both the Mid America Truck Show the middle of this month & the Northeast Pressure Washer Seminar in NY at the end of this month. We plan on attending a PAMA seminar in Savannah, GA on the 21st of this month, going to and exhibiting in the PWNC meeting mid May in Charleston, SC and later in the year going to TX to exhibit in the 2nd largest Truck Show in the country; The Great American Truck Show in Dallas TX, Aug 20,21 & 22nd. And if we are lucky we will finish out our show year in October exhibiting at the PWNA meeting and supporting again the AOPA Expo in November. Please make plans to come and see us and attend these great events. We will send out more info as the year goes on.

Here is wishing you all a great month and start to the beginning of the pressure wash year.

New Year, New Prospective

2009-01-21T16:42:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year!

Sorry I am a bit late but we have been busy planing great things for the new year for our business and you should be doing that as well.

I know how everyone is down and depressed about how last year went, the economy, a new administration and the uncertainty of what this new year will bring for us all.

So let us make plans on the positive side. How many of you know what a SWOT Analysis is?

Well a SWOT is a very simple but helpful tool for you and your business.
S - Strengths
W - Weaknesses
O - Opportunities
T - Threats

Now that you know what the letters stand for let me explain how to use this to analyze your business or any problem or question you come across during the year in running your business.

SWOT analysis provides insight at a point in time - like a snapshot, of whatever you want to analyze. It could be business as a whole, like whether you should add another rig to your business, or even if you should stay in the business line you are in, say house washing or maybe expand by adding window or deck washing, reduce it by doing gutters only or change all together like going into kitchen exhaust work.

This is how it is done: start by dividing a page into four quadrants with a vertical line and a horizontal line.

The top two analysis quadrants are Strengths and Weaknesses. The bottom two quadrants are Opportunities and Threats. Let us say the Question is "Should I add a new rig this year?"

So then with what ever your question is, start to list the things that belong in each section.

You could list in the Strengths that having another rig can increase the number or kind of jobs you do. So in the Opportunity box you could then figure exactly what that number could be and the income opportunity that would bring. Then in the Weaknesses area you may list the extra personal it may take to run it or the limit of use you could get out of it during the year and in the Threats of course would be the cost of the rig, also its cost of operation including the cost of the personal to run it.

This way you can see what this could do for your business or if it would be even a good idea at all. And the question does not have to be a large one. It could be as easy as should I increase or change my cell phone plan or carrier?

Too many times the small business person sees what somewhat else is doing thinks "Hey I can do that", or "That is a great idea" and goes off spending time and money without really taking into consideration all the facts.

Here at Soap Warehouse we have lots of big new plans for you and our business this year, but with each one there are steps we have to take to be sure we are getting the results we want and need from these changes.

I wish all of you a very good new year and I hope all your plans are fruitful.

Happy Holidays

2008-12-15T11:22:00.004-05:00

Hello All and Happy Holidays!!

I hope everyone had a good year. That despite the down turn of the economy and that you will continue to be in business this coming year and are looking forward to it.

I know that even with tough situations we faced this year we managed to stay afloat and in the black even if not nearly as well as in years past.

We are looking forward to making changes and offering new things that we hope will keep you, the current customer, happy and bringing new business in the upcoming year and years ahead.

If you have any ideas or comments please let us know. We still need some customer’s current e-mails in order to keep everyone informed. Please forward us an e-mail if you have not received a newsletter or other e-mailed correspondence from us this year.

Thank you and see you next year.

Getting the right business exposure.

2008-11-03T08:00:00.003-05:00

This is a list I got from Entrepreneur magazine a while ago.

Top 11 things to get exposure for your business:

#11. Be reachable - Have a clear and concise business card. Have a press contact listed on your web site that can answer questions and be reached on the first call.

#10. Get on-line. As I had in a previous entry this is a #1 need in today's market. Add articles even if just links, showing that your company is in the news as a leader.

#9. Perfect your elevator pitch. You should always be able to tell anyone in just a sentence or two what you and your company does, and have a business card ready as a follow up.

#8. Show your face. Have a press folio made up and photo's available to be used for any print article. Also good to use the same ones on line to let the contact know on site they have the correct company they are looking for or saw info on.

#7. Establish yourself as an expert. Speak at meetings (even if just the Rotary Club), become a media contact.

#6. Do not send sloppy copy. Have a pre created standard press release about you and your company, even if just the same as on line that can be used by anyone in the media.

#5. Know your audience. Make sure where the press release is going is where you want your future customers coming from.

#4. Tell the whole story. Think as if you had to write a headline and two paragraphs about your company. What would it say. Be complete, brief and concise with your info.

#3. Plan ahead. Check with publications you read or would want to see your story in. Find out what their upcoming issues will be covering and see if you can write a story or give info that they may want to use and quote you on.

#2. Distribution channels: These are ones that the media go to when looking for information. PRWeb, Business Wire, PRNewswire, Market Wire. If you can get your business story on one or more of these it will work for you.

And #1. Respond Promptly. Most writers are on a time line and will move on to their next contact if you are not immediately available for comment or with a story.

Good luck.

End of year check list.

2008-10-06T09:10:00.004-04:00

Welcome to a new month and the last quarter of the year.

With the year winding down I wanted to touch on things to do before the end of this year to get ready for next year especially if this is a slow time for you.

A great idea is to do a Business Wellness Check.

First take a look at the increases you have had during the past year and make sure that your prices are still in line with the changes. If not now is the time to make the rate chart changes for next year. You may be able to make the sales pitch for next Spring to get a contract now is for the company to lock in today's pricing before next years inevitable price increases. Just be sure you can still make even a modest profit at this price. It never makes sense to work just for works sake it, you must be able to make a living at this.

In fact price adjustments are something that you may need to do twice a year or quarterly depending on how volatile the year is for your vendors. Even if the new pricing is to just new customers during the year.

You need to see where your major increases were and make the needed adjustments now. If it was in supplies are there ways you can save? Can you make better purchase decisions that will help you next year? For example is there anyway to maximise your purchases? Can you buy 3 or 4 kits of product instead of 1 or 2 at a time and save some on the rising fuel costs? Are there more affordable options for your supplies? Have you been using your products at their optimum? For example are you sure you are using the right concentration for the job or are you using more than you need there fore are wasting money? Are you able to buy in bulk for consumables at discount or bulk shopping locations like Sam's, BJ's or similar companies.

Next evaluate your equipment needs. If you have had to make repairs repeatedly on a piece of equipment during the last season, now maybe the time to consider replacing it. Many times Winter is the time of year when equipment vendors have sales or give discounts on end of year models getting ready for next years models just like the car manufactures. It is hard to stick to a busy schedule when equipment failures put you behind and possibly lose you jobs and money.

One thing to not forget to put on your business wellness check list is to make sure your business stays in compliance with your local, state and the federal waste water regulations.

Here is a link that I think will be helpful to many of you: http://www.washwater.org/. This will allow you to find links and the information you need at one site.

In these days or increased awareness with droughts, water restrictions and tighter regulation you need to be in the know instead of on the receiving end of a warning or worse a heavy fine.

These are just a few items to put on a check list. Make yours as long or short as you need but be sure it covers all of the areas that effect your bottom line. Even down to the cell phone use and insurance policies. Every cost to you and your business makes a difference in the end.

Have a good month and next time will be about increasing your business exposure in the community.

Join an Organization!

2008-09-09T11:31:00.004-04:00

It has been a month since I last posted but I wanted to bring this up since it is nearing the end of the rush time for most of you and so many organizations are going to be having their yearly conventions in the upcoming months.

It is good business to be a member of organizations connected to your line of work. It could be PWNA, IKECA, or even smaller local groups.

Even though there can be costs incurred when being a member you can normally write off part or all of the expense as a business deduction and the benefits greatly out way the costs.

The first and biggest benefit is Net Working. You get to know others that are in your business. They understand who you are and where you want or need to be to take your business forward. You can get new fresh ideas or just discover old tried and true methods that have worked for others.

Second benefit, is the conventions and or meetings themselves. They give you time to get away from the daily grind, experience and meet new people and participate in discussion groups or classes that are held there. Even if you are the one that has been in business forever and knows it all, you get the benefit of being in a community of peers that can bring a stability and balance into your life. The adage “All work and no play” is for every one. You need the chance to get out and see what else is out there.

Third is keeping up to date with new information. You always need to keep your eyes ahead looking to where you want to go. It may be fine for a while to do things the way you always have done it or use the same chemicals you always have in the past. But new things are always coming up with products and application methods. We here at Soap Warehouse have people that are constantly looking to make new combinations or formulation changes geared to what the future wants, needs and restrictions will be.

In the very near future many product ingredients are going to be restricted, banned or priced out of reach and we have to grow with these changes. Many areas are facing water shortages, water restrictions and clean water guidelines that have to be followed or fines or worse will happen to you and your business.

I also believe subscribing to magazines, reading articles, subscribing to web sites, contributing to chat boards or forums and blogs are also a good way to do this. Feel free to visit our link section and check out some that we have on our web site http://www.soapwarehouse.biz/.

If you are member of PWNA or are going to the convention in late Oct. Please be sure to check out the Special Offer located in the customer only section on our web site to receive a special value offer.

Have a good month and participate in something to help you and your business before the end of the year.

5 Reasons to Have a Web Presence Now.

2008-08-08T15:55:00.004-04:00

This is a good article from Entrepreneur.com and if you have never looked at thier site it is one that you should book mark. You should always take some time to look at what is working for others to find what can help you and your business.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/microsites/microsoftofficelive/article192174.html

Follow this link or cut and paste it in your browser to get there.

But in short these are the main points:

1. Visibility: With more and more consumers logging onto the Web to research products and services, if they are going to find your business, your business needs to be on the Web. If a potential customer Google’s your city name and your service would they find your website listed or just your competitors? Try this today and see who is out there where you should be too.

2. Reach: With a Web site, you are no longer limited to a local customer base. Of course with most of you proximity is a major factor but on the web you are able to reach many more prospective customers this way even in your local area. You can hand out only so many business cards. Even if your name has been mentioned and no card given could this person looking for you find you?

3. Customer service: When customers can log onto your Web site and easily find the information they want—when they want it—their satisfaction increases. Having ways on the web site that customers can contact you besides reaching you on the phone is key. Have an e-mail address or form to fill out saving them time for a question or quote.

4. Competition: A professional looking Web site can level the playing field for smaller companies trying to compete against larger enterprises. It’s also a way to stay in the game; even if people can’t find you on the Web chances are they can find your competitors.

5. Credibility: When you can point customers, partners, even potential employees or investors to a Web site, it tells them you are a serious business. Use lines like doing business for over 10 years. Satisfying customers in the Tri-area since 2001. Even if you have just started you can use lines like “Only use top quality products.” And list them if they have name recognition with your customer. List what groups you are affiliated with for example the local BBB or PWNA.

And remember once you have your site up send us the link and we will put you in the customer link area on our web site to help more people find you.

End of Summer

2008-08-01T11:16:00.003-04:00

Hello, and welcome to the end of summer.

For many of you time is running out for you to make the main money of your season. But that does not have to be the case. I know this has been a very rough year so far. Every one's business is down whether due to drought, high fuel costs, higher costs of everything else or just regular business that is just not there this year due to your customers not being able to afford your services.

Unfortunately some of our customers have had to take on second jobs or new more stable primary jobs and put their pressure washing business on the back burner or on hold to make ends met.

Here are some ideas to help you think outside the box to keep your PW business going in these lean times.

One problem when the economy slows down is that your customers slow down payment to you as well, especially true if you are doing monthly contract work instead of pay as you wash jobs.

One way around this to keep a good cash flow is to look at your contract jobs and see how much profit you have built into each one and then decide if giving a customer a prepay discount would benefit you and your cash flow. Say you are making $350 profit on a fleet wash job that you usually give NET 30 to but lately that has been becoming NET45 or worse. Wouldn't it be worth say $50 for you to have the money in your hands sooner and for sure than worrying when you are going to get it, if you will or having to spend extra time and money to get it later? So go to your customer and offer them a prepayment discount on their next job. Of course if they are already so behind in paying you on past work taking this money now may slow down the payment of the older money, but not always. This can also work as with a split payment discount. Say give them a certain amount or % off if they pay half up front and the rest stay NET 30.

Also with so many small PW going out of business call on them to see if they would like to sell their contacts for a small fee or get a kick back from you for clients they are no longer going to service. Say if they have a customer that they were washing each month; they could introduce you to the customer, saving the customer the time and trouble to find a new and probably different PW then yourself, with the promise of when this customer uses you, you pay the old PW a set fee for the introduction. This one time cost will easily pay for itself in a few jobs with your new customer. I have seen this work with PW's that are having to retire or go out of business for other reasons in the past.

This is why it is always a good idea to be friendly with the other PW's in our own area. Don't treat them as an enemy that are out to get you and your business but as someone that can help you and back you up when needed. Just be sure they are as ethical and do as good as work as you do for your mutual benefit.

Join websites with other local and national PW's. You can network sometimes to the point that if you need help on a job to get the bid they can even work with you like a subcontractor to get the job done. Or if one of you are too busy to do work for a customer that the other one can do the job, giving the other PW a referral fee. Some PW's have been in business for so long and know the others in their area so well that they can swap customers or give referrals to each other without hesitation of monetary reward because they know they will be paid back later with a new job from someone else. EX: Some PW's may specialize in commercial flat work and will hand off house washing to a friend knowing when the house washer gets asked about flat work they will call on them or use them for that customers job.

As I mentioned in a previous session, even if you normally do private home jobs, go by local businesses that need washing or you have seen someone else clean in the past and leave your card. You never know if their old washer is one that just gave up the business and they will be needing someone new. Odds are they will at least call you for a quote if not the job and the more cards you have out there the greater your odds become. Also I will again mention that the bad housing market is a boon for a PW to create curb appeal. Go visit Realtors and give them a stack of your cards as well. Even offer to wash their house for free for the referrals.

I hope you all have a better last half or quarter of 2008.

Happy 4th of July

2008-07-07T10:44:00.002-04:00

Good morning and I hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July.

Hard to think that for most half of the summer is already over and only 5 or so more weeks until schools are back in.

I have not posted recently in the hopes of our customers finding the blog and participating in it. So far that has not been the case even though I know a few have found it a read it. I did not want to get to many entries on it to make it difficult for new viewers to see what we have started.

But before much longer I will be adding new posts covering other topics and products. If you have a specific question or product you want to know more about please let us know by posting to this or by contacting us directly.

We hope all have been having a busy and productive season.

Getting Commercial Cleaning Contracts

2008-06-13T08:30:00.002-04:00

As I said yesterday nothing improves curb appeal more than a clean appearance and that applies to a business as much as a home, maybe more.

Businesses rely on public perception to keep and improve their business. A run down dirty outward appearance of a business location can mean the difference for a new customer not to stop by or from even going into a business. For this reason businesses are more likely to want regular routinely scheduled cleaning done to their property and that means possible business for you.

Repeat business is 75-90% of any businesses income. If you do not have good repeat business and a plan to find new customers you will soon have no work to do and be out of business!

Even if a business owner or manager that you go to speak with already has someone doing work for them, leave a business card with a quote, making sure it has a time limit on it. You never know when something will come up, the other company may not be able to meet their obligation, or may do something to anger the owner enough to try someone else. If you had never stopped by and left them your information you may miss the opportunity.

Since most jobs are gotten from word of mouth or from prior contacts, not putting in the time to scout out new prospects can mean death to the growth of your business. As I have mentioned before you should spend at least 20% of your effort (time and money) to find new business.

The only difference with commercial work vs. home owners is many times they want this work to be done during off hours, meaning when they are closed in the evenings, over night or on the weekends. Since many businesses are now open nearly 24 hours a day you usually can find a time that is slow enough to allow you to work or where you can block off areas to clean so not to restrict your clients own business while you do yours. Of course special care must be taken when working close to the public with proper signage, that proper safety measures are taken and to be sure you carry enough liability insurance.

It is also good business practice to have prepared information packs for the prospective business customer that includes; copies of your business license for the area you are in, certifications, insurance binders, bonds, references and any other information that will make the client feel comfortable going into a contract with you and allowing you to do business with them. Many chain locations have corporate restrictions in regards to hiring local companies. If you want to do business in this area it may also be good for you to contact the company at the corporate level first to see if they have their own certification process you must apply to before you can be considered to do work for them at the local level.

Good luck in finding those contract jobs.

Flat Work – Cleaning Concrete for the Home Owner

2008-06-12T08:00:00.002-04:00

One great up sell when you are cleaning a customers home, gutters or roof, besides decks and their other wood accents, is to clean the concrete areas as well. Areas such as sidewalks, driveways, curbs, flower or garden trim edgings as well as pool decks and patios.

The best way to clean these flat surfaces is with a specialty circular cleaning machine. And although many contractors use water alone with this kind of equipment, application of even a small amount of specific concrete cleaner will make the job come out that much nicer in less time. Our "Concrete Cleaner" contains an organic solvent designed to dissolve and remove grease, oil, black tire marks and embedded dirt. And of course with all pressure washing using hot water will improve the cleaning and shorten the amount of time as well. Hotter water allows the surfactants and other components in the cleaners to work their best.

But even if you do not have rotary equipment you can get good results with a regular pressure washer. Just be sure to use the correct size nozzle, proper concentration of cleaner, all with the lowest setting possible for your machine to remove the dirt and follow your local ordinances in regards to the water run off or need for reclamation equipment.

Our "Concrete Cleaner" is organic, bio-degradable, is USDA approved and classified as a non toxic pollutant under the Clean Water Act.

Another problem that may come up when cleaning concrete, brick or rock surfaces is red rust deposits from hard water in areas where iron is in high concentrations. This red coloration can be a headache and many companies actually etch the top of a surface off to remove this color which in time can cause major damage. We have another solution. You can use our "Wood Brightener" to remove those rust stains from even white decorative gravel in flower beds.

"Wood Brightener" contains a mild Oxalic Acid which when used at the proper mixture of 2 pounds of cleaner per 5 gallons of water it will remove the rust color safely from the rocks in and around flower beds. You can spray on with a hand pump and allow it to sit for about 5 minutes and then rinse well with water. Repeated applications maybe needed if buildup is sever and has been on the rock surfaces for a long time. Repeating the application is safer for plantings rather than increasing the solution strength or dwell time.

Nothing improves the curb appeal of a home more than having a clean bright appearance.

Deck Cleaning and Stripping

2008-06-11T10:33:00.006-04:00

The first step to deck cleaning is to first find out if the wood only needs a general cleaning or if there is an old finish that needs to be removed and if the customer plans to retreat, seal the wood, stain or paint.

If you have a good finish under just general dirt, a good deck wash is all you will need. Our "Deck Wash" is designed especially for cedar wood and is fine for all other kinds of exposed wood surfaces. With a deck wash you are just loosening and removing surface dirt, mold and mildew. It is best to use hot water at the lowest setting possible that allows you to remove the dirt without damaging the finish or raising the wood grain. Followed with a good rinse, when dried, the original natural color or treated color should be easily seen when dry. If needed a new coat of sealer for wearability or new coat of stain can be applied by either you or the customer.

But if the deck has an old finish that is worn out in places, old paint or a badly faded finish you will first have to remove the old materials with a stripper. When ever you use a stripper you have to also have mixed up and available to use right after using the stripper a neutralizer, like our "Wood Brightener", to bring the ph of the wood back down to normal after using the stripper. We have two different levels of strippers.

Our regular "Deck Stripper" is made to penetrate and emulsify old paint, varnish, stain, dirt, grease and oil. Our "Supper Stripper", which is three times stronger than the regular "Deck Stripper", is for removing newer or thicker build ups of stain, paint or other materials. It can also be used to clean asphalt or fiberglass shingles. Both strippers can also be used on other wood surfaces such as fences, free standing structures like gazebos or wood roofs or siding. Again be sure to follow any stripper with a neutralizer like our Wood Brightener to stop the chemical reaction of the stripper on the wood and make the surface ready to take a new paint or stain after it is rinsed well and thoroughly dried.

If you had seen problem areas of mold or mildew you may want to think about using some Bio Barrier to retard the return of new mold growth.

Please see the earlier session a few days ago on Bio Barrier on this Blog; you can use the search to find Bio Barrier as well. Or go to out website www.soapwarehouse.biz.

Carpet & Fabric Cleaner and Qwiczyme

2008-06-10T12:31:00.005-04:00

These are two great products not a lot of our customers know about.

Carpet and Fabric cleaner is a great addition for the car detailer, interior home cleaner as well as the RV dealer and commercial exterior professional. You can use this on fabric upholstery in a car, RV or in the home. When used with professional carpet machines this helps give carpet back the rich tones and contrast of color they should have. This product is great on fabric awnings on building facades as well as the ones on RV’s. This will remove those black streaks and when used with Qwiczyme deodorizer you can also breakdown mold and mildew in carpet and fabric fibers. Qwiczyme leaves a clean wintergreen fragrance, and it can be added to your normal carpet cleaning solution.

The Carpet & Fabric cleaner is mixed 1-2 oz per gallon of water. It can be sprayed on with a spray bottle, applied directly with a clean brush, sponge or cloth left for a few minutes, agitated if needed and then rinsed with clean water with excess water and dirt removed with a clean cloth or towel, or extraction equipment with or without brush agitators.

Qwiczyme can be used by it self or in combination with Carpet & Fabric cleaner when you have mold, mildew or other organic materials such as pet urine to remove and to remove odors that are effecting the carpet or fabric. Qwiczyme is mixed 2-4 oz per gallon of warm water. The water must be at least lukewarm for the enzymes to get to the correct temperature to work properly. Mix this product as needed.

I ask for any of our customers that have used these products to comment on their use and the results they got when using them.

Thanks and see you latter.

Bio Barrier

2008-06-09T09:45:00.004-04:00

I want to talk today about a product many of you might not know about that can add value to your house washing, Bio Barrier.

Bio Barrier is a Mold Growth Inhibitor. It helps stop the re-occurrence of that ugly black mold (Gloeocapsa magma) on roofs as well as the green mold that loves to come up on wood surfaces and vinyl siding in areas where the sun does not reach.

Besides looking bad mold and mildew will eventually cause permanent damage to your customer’s property. You already have a customer wanting a cleaner looking house, so sell them the added benefit of keeping it clean longer.

You first clean the existing mold from the hard surface, roof, wall, deck etc. with your regular cleaning method starting with the molded areas first. Then once the surface is dry, many times in the hot summer weather that is by the time you get back around the house, that is when you apply the bio barrier. Bio Barrier is applied to a dry surface straight with no dilution. You just wet the surface using a hand spray pump or similar method, do not drench or allow puddling. You allow the treated area to thoroughly dry, no rinsing. You want at least 24- 48 hours of time to elapse before the surface gets wet again. So do not apply if you know it will be raining in that time. Once dried you have a protective barrier that stops the microorganisms that cause odor and mold growth from attaching to the surface for between 6-9 months or longer depending on the exposure to water and moisture. So if it usually took 6-9 months for mold to start showing on a surface, schedule to be back the next year before it gets a good hold again.

If you add Bio Barrier to your cleaning package adding say $50 to your price, that will practically pay for a five gallon pail of the product with one sale and this will give added value to your customer and make your next years cleaning that much easier.

You need only treat the areas where you found mold in the first place to help stop the spread of future outbreaks. You do not have to treat the whole house.

Most roofs get mold starting on the North side or shaded areas first so treat those with Bio Barrier after your cleaning. Decks, fences and vinyl siding normally get mold where the sun does not reach for enough hours of the day if at all. This allows areas that get wet to stay moist and damp thus it becomes a perfect place for mold to start.

Increase the value of your service to your customer as you increase your bottom line.

Making your chemical dollar go further Suggestion #3

2008-06-08T08:00:00.001-04:00

Continuation:

Third stretch your cleaner as far as you can to still get the results you need. Most people, pressure washers included, tend to think more is better. Twice the dirt means twice the cleaner and that just is not true. Many times the more soap you add the harder it gets to get it clean. Sometimes all you need is hotter water to make the soap you already have do the job better. That is why our dilution rates are doubled with cold water. Turn up the heat and you will increase the cleaning power of the soap you already are using. Always first start a job with the least amount of chemical you think it will take and work up. Do not start high and think you can work down. Most operators will never dial it down to the same lower level that they could have cleaned with had they started the other way. This has also been proven in washer tests. Sometimes all you need for the soap to work well is softer water. You can spend pennies per gallon on a water softener like our “So Soft” that will stretch your soap and help it work better. It will also promote the sheeting off of water for vehicles and houses to dry faster.

Please add your comments on how you save on product cost, additives you might put in like bleach or any other suggestions.
Also if you have any questions about these suggestions as to how we can help you save money, just ask.

Making your chemical dollar go further. Suggestion #2

2008-06-07T08:00:00.001-04:00

Continuing from yesterday:

Second use as few products as you can for as many different jobs as you can thus reducing the number of different products you have to buy, allowing you to buy in bulk, making it easier to store and manage. I have some customers that will use, say Mighty Max for almost all of there exterior cleaning jobs. They will buy one 55 gal kit in the beginning of the year to use at different strengths with different additives during the year thus saving money since they got one kit and saved on shipping water weight of pails. So if you are buying over one year even 10 pails of Mighty Max, two at a time every other month, that would be $350 plus the shipping costs five times, where as one kit is only $205 and shipping one kit is less than even one set of two pails. Saving you hundreds!

Tell us your best all in one product? Is it Brown Derby? Mighty Max? Smoke House? We would like to hear from you and let everyone know what you add to these to give you the best results for the jobs you are doing. Maybe if enough of you like a certain product with a certain additive we can have it made that way and possibly save you even more.

Making your chemical dollar go further. Suggestion #1

2008-06-06T08:00:00.002-04:00

Most of your expenses fall into one of three areas; supplies, fuel and labor.
Labor is the only near constant you have. You either work for yourself or you have a crew that work X number of hours a week for a certain amount. The next expense is fuel and we all know that is rising out of this world making everything else go up. So that leaves your supplies as the best place to be able to cut costs. So how can your supplier help besides lowering their prices? We can make suggestions.

First, as we spoke of earlier at the start of these posts:
Buy as much product as you can at the best freight rate you can get.
Paying $50 for 5 gallons of product and spending $50 to get it there costs $20 a gallon. If you bought 4 pails ($200) for the same $50 in shipping, your cost per gallon drops to $12.50. And if you had bought all four of those pails separately even over just a few months and freight rates had stayed the same, you would have spent $400 on the same amount of product you could have spent just $275 on, saving $125. We are always ready to calculate rates for you with different carriers or amount of product that can be shipped. We are happy to help you get the best $ per gallon rate you can get.

To help you with this we are posting the weight chart for our products on our website in a special permanent file area that you can go to at any time. www.soapwarehouse.biz. Of course freight prices will always be changing but you will be able to see what pails and drums vs. kits weigh.

Let us know what your suggestions are as to how to save on product costs.

Post cards

2008-06-05T08:00:00.001-04:00

Next to business cards post cards can be money well spent it just depends on how you use them.

Spending hundreds on bulk mailings in mailers or on post cards can be great for the large companies that are building and maintaining name recognition, but for the little guy this kind of marketing expenditure is just out of reach.

But don’t give up on post cards yet. One thing they are great for is repeat customer business and customer loyalty.

Say you have a customer that gives you a referral, but you do not have a referral business card program in place like I spoke of yesterday. You can use a post card as a thank you for sending you business and list an offer on it as your thank you, such as $20 off your next visit. You would be surprised to know most people like to see a concrete figure instead of a percentage, even when the percentage off may have been greater in the long run. For example you offer $20 off of your next service instead of 10% off, which they perceive as less value, and their next service call costs $300. You have saved $10 but they are happy they got the $20 off.

Post cards are also great for recouping lost business. Say you see that a loyal customer that calls every year has not called you yet. First send a kindly reminder card that their service is due, it may have just slipped their mind or they have been busy and have been meaning to call you. Remind them your days fill up fast this time of year and to call soon, they need a reason to call you. Then if still no call you may want to extend an incentive offer to them. Always make a definite offer with a definite dead line. Like you have an opening during such an such week and can do it for X amount but only if they call by a certain date. Also never offer more than 10 or so percentage of what you are making for the job depending on your expenses and mark up rate. You are trying to get back business you lost not give it away just to have a job to do.

One more important thing is for your card to have your customers name on it. Do not use the standard Dear loyal customer. Your customer needs to feel like they are important to you not just a number. That salutation may be fine for a general card you are sending to all of your customers to make an announcement but not when you are trying to win back a customer.

Good Luck

Business cards

2008-06-04T08:00:00.001-04:00

One item that is your best spent money for the dollar is your business cards. They are the least expensive way to get your name out and get jobs. Make it a goal to hand out at least 10 cards a day to people you meet. True many will just get tossed out in the nearest garbage can but you never know when someone will need your service and dig out that card that guy gave them. Or when they will hand your card over to someone else that mentions to them they need to find someone to wash their house. You can expect only 10% of any type of advertising including business cards to generate a call. Then it is up to you to land the business.

It is a known fact that people need 3-5 contacts from someone before they may buy. Also it takes someone to hear or read something at least 3 times before it sinks in. And the number one way to get business is by referrals. So how do you get those referrals? Leave your customers at least 10 cards with their name on the back and ask them if they liked your service to hand them out to their friends. Also make an offer to them: like you will give 10% off or $25 off the next job for them or even send them a gift card worth $25. And that if their friend calls and uses their name that you will also give the new customer the same offer. Make it what ever you want but keep it the same so you will remember what your offer is all the time. You will find that if you change offers, one person will talk to another and may not be happy to hear the offer was not the same for them, a sure fire way to loose business. That is why referrals work, people talk! And remember one satisfied customer will normally tell two friends while an unsatisfied customer will tell at least 10 people they may not even know so increase the number of good referrals and work extra hard never to have the bad ones.

Since exposure is the key to generate new business. Post your cards everywhere you can. On subdivision notice boards, dry cleaners, the corner pub, just about anywhere in areas you like or want to work. Do not put them in locations where the type of customer you want probably does not go, like a Laundromat. If a client does not have $300 to buy a washer to wash his clothes why would he hire you to wash his house? But drive out of your way and post on the club house bulletin board in a upscale subdivision where you want to work, where you know the disposable income level is high and esthetics are important to the potential customer.

Good Luck and keep passing out those cards.

Where have you found new business?

2008-06-03T08:00:00.003-04:00

I meant to ask this open ended question yesterday for anyone to answer as to what is the best way you personally have found to get new business? And where have you found it?

Was it by a traditional method? Or have you stumbled on a great but unique angle?

Please feel free to tell everyone here what you have found. Remember Soap Warehouse sells all across the US and this will not be like giving away your best kept secret. Most of our customers will never come in contact with each other or even work in the same area. Although some of you do live in the same part of the country and have even referred other local pressure washers to us for which we are very grateful. We only hope to make everyone’s business better with this blog and not try to take business from each other. That is one reason we have a link to other open sharing sites like Grime Scene and Power Wash Network. Please see their link on our links page.

What job or type of work is your most profitable and why?

This will probably have a lot of answers, maybe as many as there are companies. I have heard from some clients that state they will only do fleet washing because that is the only place the money is and then the next week I will hear the same thing from a Hood Cleaner.

We also ask for anyone that has a web site to please forward it to us for us to link to you from our web site as one of the bonuses for being a Soap Warehouse customer.

Hope to hear from someone soon.

Where to find new business

2008-06-02T10:16:00.003-04:00

Good Morning and Welcome to a new month, June!

I can not believe half of the year is almost gone. How many of you have been making the goals you set for this year? How many of you even set goals? Goals are a very important part of business. If you are spending all of your time working and no time building your business, you will soon be out of business. You can not just sit back and expect the customers you currently have to always be there to meet your obligations. It is said that if you do not spend at least 20% of your effort; meaning time and money, to increase your business you will not be able to sustain it for long. Most new, independent or self owned businesses are out of business in the first 2-3 years. All businesses loose at least 10-15% of their customers each year for what ever reason. And in these tough economic times let’s face it, that percentage is probably higher. Keeping your clients equipment or property clean is not going to be a top priority for them when they have other bills to pay. So if your client base is shrinking or at least dragging right now what can you do to fill in the gaps? How do you find new customers? You need to look in places you may have not before.

For example, since the housing market is slow in most areas right now, many times the difference between which house sells is its curb appeal. Contact realtors in your area and give them special pricing to give to their sellers for you to do exterior cleaning. Sometimes just a freshly cleaned roof or front walk and driveway will make a new buyer like the house and think that the property looks great and that it will not need maintenance any time soon. Also contact new home builders about after construction clean up in a development. With so many homes sites out there they need to make their subdivision look the best to new home buyers. Also look for maintenance contract work that won’t dry up with the weather. For example I recently had a funeral home owner contact me looking for a referral for a company to do his three locations. He told me "No one has ever come by to see me about starting a monthly contract to clean my buildings, hearse and limos." He reasoned that most people including pressure washers do not like to call on funeral homes. But this is a business where image is key and they always have customers. There is never a slow month for a funeral home.

Have a good day and keep looking for new opportunities.

Ways to beef up your Product Dollar!

2008-05-20T13:50:00.003-04:00

Let us show you how your Dollar can do more for you.

Save more per gallon when shipping as much weight as possible for the same rate.

Example: 2 kits of Brown Derby weigh 200 lbs, but you can usually send 1 extra kit for the same freight fee with most carriers, lowering your freight cost per gallon by 1/3.

Buy as large a quantity as you can at one time to save on product costs.

Example: If in the past you have used 5 pails or more of Mighty Max during the year at $35 per pail? The the cost of a kit is less than the cost of 6 pails. $205/35=5.85 pails. You won' t have to worry about rising product or fuel rates, you pay just once and you also get over 5 extra pails of product for the same cost. Thus lowering your overall product costs, insuring your supply and when stored properly most products are good for two years.

These ideas could possibly insure that your rates will not increase to your customers when your competitors might and may actually bring you more business.

Welcome

2008-05-20T13:45:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the Soap Warehouse Blog Spot

I hope this effort will give our customers information and education from us and from our many customers that work with our products every day.

Please feel free to make comments, ask for information, answer questions or respond to previous information put on this blog. If we feel an answer should be elaborated on, changed or corrected we will be monitoring the advice given and make changes as soon as possible. But we caution everyone that unless it is advice the staff here at Soap Warehouse has given ourselves we do not stand behind the advice and can not be held liable for anyone following any advice a third party makes on the blog since it will be open for all customers to use and view. We reserve the right to remove, restrict or change anything an outside party puts on the blog and will not allow any foul language, hateful comments, derogatory or non factual material on our company blog.

I will begin by posting helpful hints and asking for any questions you may have about our products.