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The Garbage Test

12K views 71 replies 41 participants last post by  Oconomowoc 
#1 ·
This Post is for the employee who is on the fence about starting a business or has taken the plunge and found out it's tougher than you thought. It's also a post for the guy who has no choice but to start a business. It's for the young guy.

The following is not original material. It's old. It's stolen from history, the history that was made over the last 500+ years. Nothing in this world is original, EVERYTHING is ripped off. The sooner you understand this the better off you are.


Who am I​
I'm nothing. I'm just one of many who has failed enough times and has made enough mistakes that certain things started to make sense. Time heals all wounds. Although my post count says "1", I've actually posted close to 5,000 posts on this forum. I had to change my user name. It happens. I'm over it. The following is a summary of 5,000 posts, I'm posting this for selfish reasons, more on that later.

The Garbage Test
Business isn't hard. People are hard. Emotion is hard. Circumstances are hard. Business is easy, you have to be honest, hard working and have good ethics. We all think we have these qualities, even your parents told you so. That's bull$$$$ though, we can't all be honest and ethical right? Look around, look on the 6-O'clock news, some people are rotten. To find out if business will be easy for you or difficult you need to pass a test -The Garbage Test

It's simple, anybody can do it. You have no choice because you have already taken it.

The garbage test. Most people have a garbage can under the kitchen sink cabinet. When the garbage can is full and overflowing what do you do? Do you look around to make sure your wife isn't looking then put your garbage on top. Then quickly shut the door and walk away? If so, you will have a difficult time in business. It means you pass the buck. You shun from responsibility. You don't take charge. It means you're lazy and lack priorities. It means you can't manage time well. It means you failed the test. Business will be a long and hard road for you.

What if you're single and live alone? That means you don't care. That's a problem.

What if you take the garbage out early? What if you noticed is was starting to get full and you pulled it out, bent over, shook out a bag and put a fresh one in? It means you care. It means you understand time management. It means your honest with yourself. In business it's a foundational core to good work ethic. You will do well! Congratulations.


I don't care about you-I care about my customers​

I'm not writing this because I care about you. I'm writing this because all I really care about is my customers. They matter to me. You see, I don't know you so how could I care? Here's the point, you are about to screw my customers. Not just me, but all of us guys who have been in business, made mistakes and fixed them. I'm not being hard on you, after all you don't realize your doing it. You're new at this contracting thing. It's not your fault.

You will screw my customers however. You will underbid, and make it tough on the rest of us. You will undercharge and tell your customer the rest of us overcharge. You will do this because you lack mileage, you lack experience.You will make mistakes then cover your a$$ instead of being honest and telling the truth. You will do this because you are scared. Fear is powerful, it makes honest people dishonest. Over time your business will mature, it will grow up. Your business will tell you that what you were doing in the past is effecting your future. Remember, a business is honest, people are dishonest. Every time you make mistakes you make it hard on the rest of us. It's called reputation. Reputation is important.

Summary of 5,000 posts​

The rest of this are cliff notes. It's meant to nudge you on the right path to success. It's all random thoughts in my head and it has no order, but it's all important. It's meant to make you think. Everything you read after this matters to my customers, it matters to my business.

1.) ECONOMY
This is obviously on everybody's mind these days. Ignore it. The economy has almost $20 Trillion dollars floating around in it. America is a consumer driven economy based off of consumption. This is good for a business owner. It means consumers are judged based on what they purchase, how much they spend, and what people think of them. It's selfish but true. People feel good spending money. If you passed the garbage test you have nothing to worry about.

2.) HONESTY
Be honest and stop lying. Those are some tough words, it's hard to choke down and it's hard to hear. Your customers want you to be honest, honesty builds trust, trust builds relationships. Relationships = currency. Honesty allows you to sleep well at night, sleep is important. Are you honest? I bet I can prove you wrong?

Do you have a blog? Does it have photos? Are the photos real? I visit a lot of blogs and see fake garbage everywhere. I see people trying to be something they are not. A small business wants to look big. A big business wants to look small. We window dress our lives to fit other people, to fit conditions. STOP IT, it's costing you money and customer hate it.

Customers are bombarded by people pretending to be somebody else. Customers are sick of it. Customers are not dumb, when you think to yourself "I'm small, broke, and new.....I need to look big and seasoned" that's a lie. Everybody does it and that's a problem. If you want to succeed be different. Show the customer you're honest, they will love you for it. They will pay you more for it.

When you're honest you build credibility. My blog sucks when you compare it to everybody else and the photos they take and photoshop. All my photos are done with my Android phone. I have an edge though, I'm honest. I don't put garbage on it, I don't lie, and I don't pretend. It feels good to be honest.

Does that mean a blog that has professionally done photos is lying? No, if you think that your missing the point.

Customers will sniff you out and you will lose. Just be honest and start small, tell your customers you are new. When you write make it real, don't pretend, don't give in to the fear. I can't stress the point of being honest enough, it's everything to your business. It does have some initial problems though.

At first people won't like you. You will see some people that love being lied too because we have a culture of marketing that's built around trickery and lies, they will leave you. So much of what you see is fake. Ask your kids what the best cereal in the world is and they will tell you "Fruit Loops" or "Captain Crunch". The cereal companies window dress the boxes and make them seem fun, healthy, and popular. They even entice with prizes. They become so convincing even adult consumers fall for it. They pay $5 a box to be lied too. What the company is really selling is a box of crap that your organs can't process. It kills you.

But guess what? Honesty always wins. People will come back to you. You will build a reputation of being honest and people will trust you. It takes time, your fighting culture. Confused? I'll explain.

I recently wrote a blog post on my blog explaining how a cheap Chinese valve busted and caused a home owner $7,000 in damage. The same part made in America is only $2 more. I'm proud of that article, it was honest. For starters I don't stock Chinese crap on my truck and tell my customers they are getting a quality valve. That's not honest. When I went on a service call it was a real customer and I took real photos with my Android in the back of my truck. I didn't use a fake background and pawn it off as professional. I'm not good with pictures, my customers forgive me......they just want me to be honest. I wrote the article being honest. My customers need honesty and I deliver it. It's not just me, ask any of the older guys on the forum and they will tell you the same thing.

Like I said, some people will leave you because being honest scares people. Fortunately the people that scares are not the customers you want. After some time the great customers come back, they will look to you as the authority in your market. You will be the only one because your competition is too scared to be honest. But your smarter than that, you want to sleep well at night so you are humble and tell the truth. One day you will wake up and you will find droves of customers looking to you for advice. They will pay you for it. You went to the edge and you won. Your competition stays in the middle and wallows like a pig. They lose.

3.) FEAR
I touched on this a little but it's worth exploring. Fear drives emotion. It makes us do dumb things, it makes us be dishonest. You need to get past that if you want to win. Risk and fear go together, lots of risk=lots of fear. This is the question though, what are you really risking? Well, if your honest you risk NOTHING! See how this works?

You have nothing to fear, everybody has fear. Ignore it. One day you will be dead, shortly after you will be a memory. Years later you will be forgotten. Right now you are just supposed to be the best you can be, fear and risk comes from dishonesty and insecurity. It's not real, it's made up. It means nothing.

It will destroy your business. It will effect your customers and you will lose if you give in to it. Eliminate fear and keep the risk, risk is good. Risk is where the profit is. Fear takes it from you. Understand the difference and you win.

4. GRATITUDE
Want to know why people fail? They lack gratitude. I know, it's a tough thing to grasp. I lost everything once, I didn't have gratitude for what I had and I lost it. Lets talk about that.

Grateful people are the best people in the world. They are trustworthy, and they are honest. Grateful people have don't need to worry about much. Why? They are grateful for what they have. What's the lesson here?

If your starting out and you don't have much money be grateful for what you have. Being grateful makes you smile, it makes others smile. It sends a signal to a customer that's it's OK you don't have all the equipment you need, they see somebody that's honest and grateful. You become trustworthy, your shortcomings are OK. People surround themselves with people they like, not the guy with the most tools. If you fail be grateful for the failure, when your grateful for a failure you learn, you grow, you focus on the good stuff. When your not grateful you focus on failure, you focus on fear. Fear causes you to be dishonest, it grows like a disease. You lose. Just be honest ok?

5.) SUCCESS
Success feels good. For your new business to grow you have to fail more times than you succeed. Failure = success, if you get past failure you get to see success. Don't worry, keep your head on straight and focus on the things that matter and you will succeed. Every time you have a little success more success is built off it. The shoulders of failure is is a road, not a road block. Keep your chin up.

6.) COST
Know your cost. Study it daily. Find the truth or you will lose.

7.) PRICE
What are you worth? What is honesty worth? Honesty is directly related to what you are worth. In business we call that "value". Focus on honesty and you will have no problem understanding what people will pay. They will tell you.

8.) MARKETING
Don't sweat it, it's easy as pie. If you read everything above and it resonated with you word will spread like a brush fire. Not at first, but it will spread. The secret to word of mouth is built in this post. Word of mouth is good because it tells you how much value you created in the market place. If it's not spreading you screwed up. Don't take my advice on this, ask any of the seasoned veterans here and they will agree. Many of us don't spend a dime on marketing.

9.) GROWTH
Large companies are an illusion. Focus on staying small and master it. Once mastered growth is easy. Many people see dollar signs with having employees, talk to a business owner over the age of 50 that has been part of growth and you will discover small is better. I will tell you this, in the last 25 years every single construction company that I have known personally that grew to multiple crews is now bankrupt. Every single one. The ones that didn't decided to eliminate employees, stay small, earned a profit, and eliminated stress. Stress is dangerous, avoid it.

10.) INCREASE YOUR LUCK
You need to increase your luck. This doesn't happen by accident, you need to do a few things everyday to help yourself become lucky.
  • Eat healthy
  • Exercise
  • Wake up extra early
  • Surround yourself with the people that matter most
  • Set goals and stick to them
  • Pre-plan your day/week and don't change it
  • Learn to say NO

THE END​

That's it. I wasn't serious about not caring. I do care, I care more than you think. I love people, I love strangers. I like the idea that my life can benefit others. Sorry if that made you feel uncomfortable but I had to say it. If you read everything I wrote and comprehend it you will understand why.

Mike
 
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#14 ·
This Post is for the employee who is on the fence about starting a business or has taken the plunge and found out it's tougher than you thought. It's also a post for the guy who has no choice but to start a business. It's for the young guy.

First of all if I was on the fence of starting a business and I read all this, I think I would work for somebody else... because what you wrote here is bits and pieces of history like you said and it came from 100 different sources in different times and various surcumstances... and if I took a plunge and was trying to start over and read all this, I would be tasting steel before I could read all of this.

I like you Mike, and welcome back, but you have to much on your mind and you should take a vacation and please don't take my opinion and what I have to say to heart

We all been young and we all started out in business on our own and none of us needed to read all this nonsense, lets save this for the leather couch confessions. We all learned from our mistakes and this is why CT is here, so contractors like yourself, from all different trades can share theirs experience and knowledge and pass this on to younger generation, who come here and learn so they don't make the same mistakes.
When starting out we never had this luxury of going someplace and get so much information, we learned in the field, we made mistakes, we got up and moved forward and this why we do what we do best.


following is not original material. It's old. It's stolen from history, the history that was made over the last 500+ years. Nothing in this world is original, EVERYTHING is ripped off. The sooner you understand this the better off you are.

Who cares about all this and why anyone need to understand this... the things people encounter they will know what is BS and what is real, there is no need to understand this unless one lacks any common sense.

Who am I​
I'm nothing. I'm just one of many who has failed enough times and has made enough mistakes that certain things started to make sense. Time heals all wounds.

Don't say you're nothing, you're someone, maybe a father, a brother, etc I know you a decent guy and you a knowledgeable plumber and I respect you and I enjoy reading the advise you give when someone needs help... so don't say you're nothing, because you made a few mistakes or you failed a few times, we all been there, and we all got up and moved on without looking back.

The Garbage Test
Business isn't hard. People are hard. Emotion is hard. Circumstances are hard. Business is easy, you have to be honest, hard working and have good ethics. To find out if business will be easy for you or difficult you need to pass a test -The Garbage Test

The garbage test.

The garbage test belongs in the garbage, and let's leave that under the sink... because it makes no sense.
Business is not easy, business is work and you have to stay on top of it... Nothing is easy in this world, and everything that comes easy will be gone as easy as it comes. Emotions we don't bring emotions into our business because emotions will get the best of you...what we do bring is compassion for what we do, and we never mix business with pleasure.
People are easy... when we meet someone we can feel as we know them all our life or we dislike them, feel distrust or trust for someone...connect of disconnect. The question in that lies in our own behavior, style or personality type from which comes our own strenght,weakness and even tendencies, body language,character influence,etc and this is why we're drawn toward or away from certain people... and being able to read these differences in personalities can dramatically effect our success in business and as professional contractors.
There is lots of rotten people, and we meet them all the time, disloyal customers and contractors, etc we all been there, working with a customer spend time and effort and they tell you, they will let you know and next day someone else is doing the job, because they used your estimate to get a better price and award them the job... That is the most important part in this business to spot people like this and don't waste time on them.


I don't care about you-I care about my customers​

You will screw my customers however. You will underbid, and make it tough on the rest of us. You will undercharge and tell your customer the rest of us overcharge. You will do this because you lack mileage, you lack experience.You will make mistakes then cover your a$$ instead of being honest and telling the truth. You will do this because you are scared. Fear is powerful, it makes honest people dishonest. Over time your business will mature, it will grow up. Your business will tell you that what you were doing in the past is effecting your future. Remember, a business is honest, people are dishonest. Every time you make mistakes you make it hard on the rest of us. It's called reputation. Reputation is important.

This don't even belong here, frankly I'm surprised you put this in here.

The hacks screw people and your customers not the younger generation that comes here and looks for advise or asking questions or share theirs mistakes, etc. because you been there and we all been there, and if there was a site like this when you started out, we would all sound like we about to screw an old timer because we just didn't know any better.
Competition is what makes you tick and what makes you do better. I never worry about someone cutting my prices, better them then me. My goal is to make money, not run around like a chicken with no head and by the end of the month have nothing to show, except a s^*t load of unhappy customers. They don't make me look bad...
Your business will not mature, you will mature and you will become better and after that happens, you will have a successful business and your business will grow so let's not put a wagon in front of the horse my friend.


Summary of 5,000 posts​

The rest of this are cliff notes. It's meant to nudge you on the right path to success. It's all random thoughts in my head and it has no order, but it's all important. It's meant to make you think. Everything you read after this matters to my customers, it matters to my business.

1.) ECONOMY
This is obviously on everybody's mind these days. Ignore it. The economy has almost $20 Trillion dollars floating around in it. America is a consumer driven economy based off of consumption. This is good for a business owner. It means consumers are judged based on what they purchase, how much they spend, and what people think of them. It's selfish but true. People feel good spending money. If you passed the garbage test you have nothing to worry about.

Economy sucks and everyone knows it and feels it, so stop kidding your self with this. This is the 4th recession I been through, and this one the worst its ever been, so there is lots to worry about for the new generation who will be getting out of college, or your next door neighbor, or anybody who is running a business or trying to open a new business of any type.

2.) HONESTY
Customers are bombarded by people pretending to be somebody else. Customers are sick of it. Customers are not dumb, when you think to yourself "I'm small, broke, and new.....I need to look big and seasoned" that's a lie. Everybody does it and that's a problem. If you want to succeed be different. Show the customer you're honest, they will love you for it. They will pay you more for it.

People who try to be who they're not, they're to obvious, these people will never make it in life nor in business and if someone is dressing theirs life there is nothing wrong with it, again as i said before it all has to do with personality and being liked or disliked. As long as people learn to accept who you're and what you about, there will be no problems, and who cares about anyone trying to be they're not, they only fooling them self, nobody else.

Small business trying to look big, its called tactics and its working well if they can deliver what they promote, because money draw money... if not they just another company who will be shut down... I wouldn't lose sleep over that.



I recently wrote a blog post on my blog explaining how a cheap Chinese valve busted and caused a home owner $7,000 in damage. The same part made in America is only $2 more. I'm proud of that article, it was honest. For starters I don't stock Chinese crap on my truck and tell my customers they are getting a quality valve. That's not honest. When I went on a service call it was a real customer and I took real photos with my Android in the back of my truck. I didn't use a fake background and pawn it off as professional. I'm not good with pictures, my customers forgive me......they just want me to be honest. I wrote the article being honest. My customers need honesty and I deliver it. It's not just me, ask any of the older guys on the forum and they will tell you the same thing.

Everybody wins something and everybody will losing something, good or bad, honest or dishonest, it don't matter... There is no need to even think about that or have this thoughts cross your mind, unless guilty conscience are catching up. We all trying to do the right thing in our own way, people who do wrong by others, sooner or later it will catch up with them and when it does it theirs problem... they have to face the concequences... so screw them.

Chinese valves will be sold for as long as we around and after we're gone. Any valve could bust, made here or anywhere on the planet, s^*t happens and you got the job, insurance paid for the flood and you made a living of of that, so I don't know why you complaining... not to mention the guy who installed the valve, expected that valve to be a good product, which is being sold by USA based consumer... Why blame Chinese, we're the once who let all this products into our country... if this is your thinking, you should be posting on your blog why we cannot make enough our own products so we don't have to rely on cheap products from there... but before you ask that or you start to wonder, ask your self that question and see if it will make any difference why...


3.) FEAR
I touched on this a little but it's worth exploring. Fear drives emotion. It makes us do dumb things, it makes us be dishonest. You need to get past that if you want to win. Risk and fear go together, lots of risk=lots of fear. This is the question though, what are you really risking? Well, if your honest you risk NOTHING! See how this works?

It will destroy your business. It will effect your customers and you will lose if you give in to it. Eliminate fear and keep the risk, risk is good. Risk is where the profit is. Fear takes it from you. Understand the difference and you win.

Fear is caused by people's imagination, everyone has their fear of something like water, darkness, snakes etc.

Fear in business can kill it and the fear in business develops when someone is trying to analize to much, afraid to get hurt, afraid to fail, what is, what is, etc people like this don't belong in business, they need security, a weekly paycheck and no headaches... and if they're trying to start a business, they need a doctor and theraphy to over come this...reading this here will do absolutley nothing.


4. GRATITUDE
Want to know why people fail? They lack gratitude. I know, it's a tough thing to grasp. I lost everything once, I didn't have gratitude for what I had and I lost it. Lets talk about that.

Grateful people are the best people in the world. They are trustworthy, and they are honest. Grateful people have don't need to worry about much. Why? They are grateful for what they have. What's the lesson here?

If your starting out and you don't have much money be grateful for what you have. Being grateful makes you smile, it makes others smile. It sends a signal to a customer that's it's OK you don't have all the equipment you need, they see somebody that's honest and grateful. You become trustworthy, your shortcomings are OK. People surround themselves with people they like, not the guy with the most tools. If you fail be grateful for the failure, when your grateful for a failure you learn, you grow, you focus on the good stuff. When your not grateful you focus on failure, you focus on fear. Fear causes you to be dishonest, it grows like a disease. You lose. Just be honest ok?

Very true :thumbsup:

5.) SUCCESS
Success feels good. For your new business to grow you have to fail more times than you succeed. Failure = success, if you get past failure you get to see success. Don't worry, keep your head on straight and focus on the things that matter and you will succeed. Every time you have a little success more success is built off it. The shoulders of failure is is a road, not a road block. Keep your chin up.

Have to disagree with you there Mike except for the honesty part... You don't need to fail first to succeed. I have been in business almost 30 years and I never failed because I was always a go getter, I always made it any which way I could and made it work when others thought it was over. I always valued the results and accomplishments and worked hard to achieve them. I don't believe mixing business with pleasure, I am in business to build relationships not friends and I am always straight up with I want and what I expect. I don't leave room for failure, but it can happen to the best of us, we just don't think about it... Work hard, be straight forward, don't cut corners and never go back on your word, and you will make it in any business.

6.) COST
Know your cost. Study it daily. Find the truth or you will lose.

You 100% right

7.) PRICE
What are you worth? What is honesty worth? Honesty is directly related to what you are worth. In business we call that "value". Focus on honesty and you will have no problem understanding what people will pay. They will tell you.

Your worth is your experience, knowledge and delivery of what you said you will do and do that to the best of your ability, that is what your price is and that is what people paying you for... Honesty is common sense, its expected from anyone, that will not put food on your table.
Go to a HO house, look at the job and tell them " you know, this is a big job, I will be honest with you I never done this before, but I think I can do it" see how many jobs that honesty will get you. If you want to put Honesty issue across, before anything, have to be honest with your self, and if you never done something, but seen it being done, and have confidence you can do it, take it and do it and act like you been doing this all your life, that the only way you will complete this job... if you have any doubts in your mind that you can do this job, walk away... better do this later when you grow more, then do it now and fail and end up with a lawsuit...


8.) MARKETING
Don't sweat it, it's easy as pie. If you read everything above and it resonated with you word will spread like a brush fire. Not at first, but it will spread. The secret to word of mouth is built in this post. Word of mouth is good because it tells you how much value you created in the market place. If it's not spreading you screwed up. Don't take my advice on this, ask any of the seasoned veterans here and they will agree. Many of us don't spend a dime on marketing.

Marketing cost money and good marketing makes money... but to keep making money, you have to deliver what you promote.

85% you will get a job is word of mouth and it stops within a circle of a HO's family or close friends if they need something done... it is a minimal exposure and during bad economy marketing is needed and its good for business to find new people, because now people holding back, not knowing if tomorrow they will have a job or not, so now exposure is good the more of it you get the more word of mouth will be in effect again.


9.) GROWTH
Large companies are an illusion. Focus on staying small and master it. Once mastered growth is easy. Many people see dollar signs with having employees, talk to a business owner over the age of 50 that has been part of growth and you will discover small is better. I will tell you this, in the last 25 years every single construction company that I have known personally that grew to multiple crews is now bankrupt. Every single one. The ones that didn't decided to eliminate employees, stay small, earned a profit, and eliminated stress. Stress is dangerous, avoid it.

Large companies are not an illusion, they got to be large by being profitable and having a good reputation... if you lack integrity in any business, big or small you will not be around Period, again, don't take on more then you can handle. Illusion is fraud in business world.
10.) INCREASE YOUR LUCK
You need to increase your luck. This doesn't happen by accident, you need to do a few things everyday to help yourself become lucky.
  • Eat healthy
  • Exercise
  • Wake up extra early
  • Surround yourself with the people that matter most
  • Set goals and stick to them
  • Pre-plan your day/week and don't change it
  • Learn to say NO

Thats right if you have bad health the money, the business is all meaningless, so take good care of yourself, get rid of not needed stress and people who're fool of themselves out of your life's and live each day as it was your last one, have no regrets and don't look back and you will make it in any business.

THE END​

That's it. I wasn't serious about not caring. I do care, I care more than you think. I love people, I love strangers. I like the idea that my life can benefit others. Sorry if that made you feel uncomfortable but I had to say it. If you read everything I wrote and comprehend it you will understand why.

Mike

We know you care Mike, thanks for the thoughts and welcome Back :thumbsup: and please, as I said before, take a vacation will you :laughing::thumbup:
 
#28 ·
It bothers me this thread became confrontational. I don't know why. I tried to make it clear this was for people just starting out. In the current recession new business ownership jumped 30%. Some people need help, it's up to us to help them.

These were my thoughts, my ideas. They work for me. I'm proud of what I wrote and I wouldn't change a thing. Some people understood the use of metaphors in the article. Some didn't. The garbage test is a metaphor, It's not real.

Greg gave his opinion. I respect Greg for that, he gave reasons for his stance. That's honorable. When you don't give reasons that's not. Anybody can be negative, it's expected.

This isn't Russia, if you don't like it you don't have to read it. Some people liked it and some people didn't like it. I take a hard stand on most things and that makes people think. That's the point, almost 500 views in less than 24 hours means people read it. If a couple people read it and gave it some thought than the article worked.

Mike
 
#29 ·
Hey Mike, I was just getting into your blogs, then you dropped off - so it's good to see you back on here.

That was one heck of a post, one that new to contracting types should be able to use and prosper with.

Interesting new name. If thats "falling waters" whats the word for "water under the bridge"?

Anyways, for what's it's worth, I'll be honest and tell you that I fail the garbage test miserably.
 
#30 ·
Don't worry. I failed the "The Garbage Test" also. You see, that's the point. If I hadn't failed the garbage test years ago, and if I hadn't figured it out......and fixed it, I wouldn't of been able to write the article based on fact. Failing the garbage test is important. It doesn't mean you fail, it means the road becomes tougher.

Thanks for the kind words.

Mike
 
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