Just another day in paradise

Texas drivers are gonna have to be patient with me. The old kw has 4.88 gears and only goes about 72 mph maxed out. Spent most of the week getting my liability insurance going and trying to get out and shake hands and hand out business cards. Haven’t gotten work yet but I’m confident it will happen soon. Mat have an engine swap on a tub grinder next week. I’ve been anti Facebook forever but am toying with the idea of a business page and building a website through google domains. Need to get my name out there without burning a tank of fuel every day.

Facebook is basically the go to place anymore. But it and Craigslist always attract price shoppers. I'm sure you are better than I am at this but when I was in Idaho, there used to be a table at the local cafe all the local old boy business owners would grab some coffee and a bite. That was the place to advertise or look for work, 8 businesses that knew pretty much everyone else including the neighboring states. All it took was a round of coffee. Unless you needed a job then they'd buy you breakfast a lot of times.

Loml used faceplant advertising for her cafe, cheap and the results were obvious at the cash register.
Doesn't use them now as the business has grown, sure did help in the beginning.

Ed

Put a link to this thread on FB, good as any web site you're gonna cobble up on your own.

Joe H

Mike L said:

Texas drivers are gonna have to be patient with me. The old kw has 4.88 gears and only goes about 72 mph maxed out. Spent most of the week getting my liability insurance going and trying to get out and shake hands and hand out business cards. Haven’t gotten work yet but I’m confident it will happen soon. Mat have an engine swap on a tub grinder next week. I’ve been anti Facebook forever but am toying with the idea of a business page and building a website through google domains. Need to get my name out there without burning a tank of fuel every day.

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A buddy of mine works on bucket trucks in town. He ended up going to Florida right after the hurricane. He and I were chatting on the phone when he was driving down.........I had called to have do a crane inspection for me.
He said he gets alot of work from Linked In...............I was kinda suprised. Thats' where he picked up all of the work in FLA. Prompted me to join Linked In but I honestly haven't done anything with it...............nor have I inquired of my buddy how he found the FLA work. I guess people do searches in Linked In to find people providing services. I'll ask him........
Might be something to look into.

I’ve got a LinkedIn but really haven’t figured out how to make it work for me. If you learn something please pass it along. As much as I’ve hated in it for many years Facebook has gotten me more interest than anything. It certainly has a better return than burning diesel every day trying to meet people.

[QUOTE="Mike L, post: 1084138, It certainly has a better return than burning diesel every day trying to meet people.[/QUOTE]

So that economical fuel sipper getting 4-6 mpg on the expensive stuff isn't the best run around vehicle??
How much is diesel down there?? $5.99 for 9/10ths of a gallon (who the f**k came up with that idea anyway??!!)

I'll ask my buddy what he does and how it works for him.

Mike L said:

The old kw has 4.88 gears and only goes about 72 mph maxed out.

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Ohh, that's not going to fly with texas traffic. You're going to need some 3.55's to keep up down there.

I do hope it picks up for you, I think once you get going, you'll be fine. What happened with the "buddy" hook up you had down there?

crane operator said:

Ohh, that's not going to fly with texas traffic. You're going to need some 3.55's to keep up down there.

I do hope it picks up for you, I think once you get going, you'll be fine. What happened with the "buddy" hook up you had down there?

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guy was actually my old employer. Not sure what happened. We were in contact up until I was ready to go and then he disappeared. I’m going to try and reach him today. He’s got a bunch of stuff going on so maybe he just forgot.

You went too far south man

My stepdaughter lives in Oklahoma. She wanted us to move there but I said no way. Oklahoma isn’t big enough for me and vetech63 to share!

On another note. I did reach my old employer today. He’ll be sending me a subcontractor packet to fill out. And then in a whim I stopped at the local barko dealer. Asked if they hired subcontractors. “Not usually because we don’t want them stealing our customers”. (Fair enough). I then told them I was the barko man back in my dealership days and they hired me to swap an engine in their shop on a barko 930 mulcher starting tomorrow.

Mike L said:

On another note. I did reach my old employer today. He’ll be sending me a subcontractor packet to fill out. And then in a whim I stopped at the local barko dealer. Asked if they hired subcontractors. “Not usually because we don’t want them stealing our customers”. (Fair enough). I then told them I was the barko man back in my dealership days and they hired me to swap an engine in their shop on a barko 930 mulcher starting tomorrow.

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That's great I bet it feels good to have something to do

The Peej said:

That's great I bet it feels good to have something to do

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sure does. I’m sick and tired of riding around burning diesel just trying to make some connections

Do you have some kind of agreement down on paper for the single job or are you trusting them based on your conversation?

It was done on a handshake.

Monkeywithawrench said:

[QUOTE="Mike L, post: 1084138, It certainly has a better return than burning diesel every day trying to meet people.

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So that economical fuel sipper getting 4-6 mpg on the expensive stuff isn't the best run around vehicle??
How much is diesel down there?? $5.99 for 9/10ths of a gallon (who the f**k came up with that idea anyway??!!)

I'll ask my buddy what he does and how it works for him.[/QUOTE]

just saw this. I bought diesel this morning for $4.69.

Monkeywithawrench said:

$5.99 for 9/10ths of a gallon (who the f**k came up with that idea anyway??!!)

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I think someone does not understand that pricing of fuel is based at the 1/10 of a cent or 1/1000 of a dollar. It is never sold by 9/10 of a gallon.

Gas price wars (maybe back in the 50's or earlier) had sellers undercutting their competition by 1/10 of a cent when that amount of money actually meant something. This is how my father explained the situation to me. He owned a couple service stations and worked at many through his youth prior to purchasing his first. It was a good place for my mechanical head to grow up. It also taught me that I hate dealing with the general public.

Mike L said:

just saw this. I bought diesel this morning for $4.69.

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Tha's a $1.30 cheaper than up here!!! And thank you for reminding me.............I'll go call my buddy while I'm firing up the grill for dinner.
On another note..............went in to work this morning finish installing a valve block and run some hydraulic hoses for an angle plow. Sent a text asking for the truck to moved into the shop. Got there........truck still sitting outside.......no problem. Fire truck up to build up air...........the old man comes running right out.."I'll get it!! Sorry, got busy........." No problem. He gets in truck after shaking my hand, pat on back about how good of a job I've done.........and moves it into shop. I go to work, in and out of cab, etc. A couple hours later, he shows up with a mask on........"I tested positive for COVID. Been sick as dog all weekend.............so has my son (with whom I was dealing with on Friday). My first thought was...........Are you FUCKING kidding me?? You didn't think to mention this BEFORE you shook my hand, patted me on the back, and breathed all over me?? Had a dive job for this afternoon...........nice day for it. Called my partner at noon.............your call buddy, here's what's going down.......He's going to Grenada with girlfriend later this week. Dive didn't happen..............later next week when he gets back........and I don't get sick.
Just when you think all this crap is behind us..........NOPE!!

treemuncher said:

I think someone does not understand that pricing of fuel is based at the 1/10 of a cent or 1/1000 of a dollar. It is never sold by 9/10 of a gallon.

Gas price wars (maybe back in the 50's or earlier) had sellers undercutting their competition by 1/10 of a cent when that amount of money actually meant something. This is how my father explained the situation to me. He owned a couple service stations and worked at many through his youth prior to purchasing his first. It was a good place for my mechanical head to grow up. It also taught me that I hate dealing with the general public.

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YOU are correct sir!!! No comprendo, compadre................I'll have to educate myself tonight...............TO THE GRILL I GO, BY THE QUEEN'S COMMAND!!