This is Under Pressure, a podcast where we dive into the untold stories of entrepreneurs and business owners who have conquered adversity to achieve greatness. And now here's your host, Nick Staton.

Today, I have Zach Link on here. He's out of Indiana. Zach, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?

Nic Staton

So I started Applied Pressure Solutions in the early part of 2020. I've done some training seminars and a little bit of side work here and there to kind of get my feet wet and decided this was really something that I wanted to dive full force into and 2020 came around and I pretty much put the brakes on my corporate career, decided we were going to go full time into pressure washing, built my trailer with new and used equipment had a couple thousand dollars of work lined up and we jumped right in to washing some houses. So we've grown every year as far as adding stuff that we're able to offer our clients and continue to upgrade our equipment and increase our efficiency along the way.

Zach Link

Nice. So you're, you're more of the type that likes to do volume instead of spending a lot of time in one place. Correct.

Nic Staton

Yeah. I efficiency in my opinion is kind of everything. So I'm always looking at how we can come in and do the best, the best job for the right amount of time, be able to provide a good service to our customer and then be able to move on to the next job there because there's only so many hours in the day and You know, it's a competitive market out there, so you've got to make the most you can in the shortest amount of time.

Right. Yep. That's exactly how we, we, we, we run our business as well is about efficiency. Um, it's, it's fast, efficient, and the best.

Right. We started, we started the first almost two years with a. four gallon per minute belt driving. The machine was older than I was. I bought it off marketplace for like 150 bucks, but that little unit did, did great. We had that. And then I had, it was, uh, another youth unit that I bought and had shipped to me. It was like a three and a half gallon per minute, uh, belt drive. And then that pump went out towards the end of the first year. So I put a five and a half gallon per minute pump on it, but it's still It only did like 2,500 PSI, but we ran those small machines. And then finally I upgraded to an eight gallon per minute gear drive. And that was a total game changer. Like our, our efficiency went up. The amount of time I got to spend at home increased and our bottom line increased.

Nice. Uh, so you like the gear over, over belt.

Yeah, I mean, the smaller footprints really nice. I've never had any failures. I mean, I'm still running the same the same gearbox setup with over 2000 hours on it, probably closer to three because it was used whenever I got it. And I've never done anything with it besides change the oil one, and then change it from one engine to another. Well, I mean, That says a lot about that, that setup there. I've also got two five and a half gallons a minute, 3,500 PSI belt machine on the new wash truck that I set up last fall. So I have both, but especially for a smaller footprint and everything, I do like the gear drive machine.

Nice. How did you start your business?

Well, Originally, I, when I worked a corporate job, I was a third shift supervisor for four years. And, uh, on my off time, I would buy and resell a bunch of equipment. So I buy like old, old semis, old, you know, co-op, uh, service trucks and stuff like that that hadn't been maintained or cleaned up. So that got me into pressure washing as a whole to clean up my own stuff before I resold it. And then I was on. Instagram and this was like 2017. I came across a video of somebody cleaning their equipment with a mud dog trailer from Ice Equipment and that like got my interest. I like went to their page. I'm like, how much is this? And they're like, that setup was like $20,000. I'm like, okay, thanks. I clearly cannot come close to that right now, but I'm interested. So I started, you know, watching this on YouTube, that on YouTube. When I came home every morning, you know, I kind of knew, notebook of taking notes on this and that and how you lay stuff out and design stuff. And then in 2019, I went to a training event at Powerwash store in Nashville. So I drove like six hours to go to this free training event. Ray Burke, a lot of those other guys that had experience in the industry were there, you know, laying out a lot of information, I could see more stuff, you know, right in front of me that I hadn't actually seen before. And it really kind of helped me that this is something that I wanted to start into and everything. Yeah, I mean, seeing everything on a far off screen and everything versus actually being able to put your hands on it and really see, well, this is how they do this and how they do that, you know, it's Sometimes that little, that's a little bit in the corner that makes all the difference on how you put something together, how that really works or stuff like that. You know, those little minute details can make a, make a big difference.

So you like to build your own stuff as well. I take it.

I've built all of my own stuff. So, you know, everything when anything goes wrong, I could tell you where each fitting is, where each bolt is, you know, what I've had a problem with and yeah. Now, so I built my wash trailer. I've upgraded it every couple of years. And then I built an S650 wash truck last fall with two hot water machines on it.

Yeah. I saw that on your page. I was going to mention something about that thing. It looks like a dang tank.

It's a, it's a semi-serious unit. I'm, I'm, I'm pretty happy with it.

What you doing with that? Is that your commercial rig or?

It was supposed to be mainly my commercial rig but I've kind of used it for a little bit of everything as it stands right now. So I sold my pickup truck that pulled my trailer last fall and I haven't really found a replacement. So I've just been taking the big truck to any job that I need to there and it kind of does it all. It doesn't do it all super great but it can do it all there. So that gives me 650 gallons of water capacity, 200 foot of water intake, My double stack electric hose reels, both machines, you know, both of them are set up with soap tanks, injectors, everything there. So I can pull up and pretty much go to town there.

Nice. Nice.

And I, I still have the capability to also pull the wash trailer as well too. So if I need one of my 12 volts set up. additional water capacity, the other tools and stuff that I can't quite fit on the truck, then I can still hook the wash trailer up and pull behind the F-650 as well.

You have to have DOT for that, correct?

I am under CDL range. I am in DOT number territory, MedCard, stuff like that.

Yeah, that's what we just had to do is we had to go get D.O.T. physicals and then get D.O.T. numbers so that we could actually travel around even in our own state. But we also travel out of state. So that was the main reason. But they were like, how long you been riding around like this? And I was like, two years. They're like, good Lord. And the moment that we got the numbers put on, dude, I left the shop and I just happened to glance down at my phone. And when I did, I saw this light over in the corner of my eye, just like flash. And it was the DOT guy, three lanes over with his little radar light or whatever on the side. And he was flashing it at me. And I just put the phone down and I was like, oh, 10 and two.

Once you, once you realize about it and you're like, Oh man, I gotta be cautious. I gotta do this. I gotta do that.

I tell everybody I'm like, if you, if you hear that, I don't like text you back or I'm not like picking up or whatever. It's because I can't, I'm in the truck that, you know, I can't communicate like that.

But yeah, having the bigger wash truck is something that I wish I would have done a lot sooner. Something I always wanted to do, but then the price of everything had went up so much to find the right setup and everything was just, it was hard. It was still hard for me to find this truck here to get the right engine, the right transmission setup, under CDL weight, you know.

What type of motors are in those things?

I like a school unit. I got this truck here with a 24 valve Cummins in it. They also have some small cats that they put in these, they put seven, three power strokes in these. You could also, I believe, get a V10 gas as well, but I really wanted the Cummins because that's a simple setup that you can find a whole lot of parts for. So it took me a hot minute to find one with a Cummins and one with a manual transmission.

Oh, wow. Nice. So what's been the hardest part so far of, of this adventure?

Just being, probably just being able to roll with the market, the changes and, and just the marketplace to be able to stay on top of your cost of goods and be able to stay competitive in the market there and just stay in the black every year. One little thing can have a big, big ramification there. And you try to schedule this, and this happens, and this happens. And then before long, you're just trying to haul your way back up above water there some days. Employees has been a little bit of a struggle to find the right employee with right values, the right work ethic, because I believe this is a hard industry to find employees to work in because it is, you're hot, you're cold, you're wet, you're dry. I mean, we do a variety of different services. So, you know, there's about six or seven different things that we really have to be proficient at. And, you know, some people, I like this, I don't like this. Well, they all pay the bills and these are all the services that we offer so we can work pretty much year round. So this is the stuff that we need to do. Right. To be doing. Right.

Yeah. It is very hard to find employees. I'm running through that right now and have been for the last year. Uh, it's, it's so hard to, to get people that want to believe in what you do and stick around and not just go everywhere else. A lot of people want to want to piece together a bunch of different things instead of focusing on like one thing and helping build up or whatever. Nobody really wants to do that. They want to come into something that's already built and be a part of it.

Right. I mean, I wish I could come into something that was already built about a million or $2 million a year. I mean, that'd be pretty nice, but that means I'd be working for somebody else. And I started this work for myself. So. That's what I get at.

And it's like, man, I'll do this shit my damn self or whatever. At the end of the day, you know, I need people, but I want people, but I don't need people. I want the right, I want the right ones. I don't need you. Uh, if you feel like that, I need you then just go on somewhere else because you're, you're not the right fit.

Cause if you have to micromanage everything or you lose sleep on, if this was done right, or that was done right. Or, you know, you know, It can almost just make a small void at some point there. So I've had three employees on payroll over the years. And then I've had my wife work with me some. So I've got two part-time guys that I'm able to use kind of as their schedule's free. One guy owns his own wash just here in town. Another guy has a couple of days, he's free a week. So that kind of helps. But I just look at it right now as if I'm working by myself, every money, all the money that I make comes back into the household. So that has its own benefits as well.

Right. Um, so when did you find yourself under pressure, uh, with, with pressure washing and stuff like that?

I'd say last year was probably a pretty stressful point. I lost both of my full-time employees and the same, like five days span. And we still had probably six or eight weeks of work booked up. So that was a little unplanned for especially with being kind of the prime time of the year there right around the first week of July. That was not what I had anticipated. So we had to work our way through it, work longer hours, move stuff around, and really try to prioritize all of our time. I ended up taking my wife and daughter with me a lot of days. And, you know, they wanted to go and I needed my wife's help. So we left at seven o'clock in the morning and didn't come home till 10 o'clock at night some night. But, you know, that's what you got to do some days.

Sacrifices sometimes, man.

I mean, we say it's a family business and sometimes I really mean it's a family business. Some days more than others. Right.

How do you manage your mindset?

Some days are better than others. I mean, I try to start off every day with a positive attitude and try to come back to that positive attitude. You know, everybody has their highs and lows. Some days I could be in a low spot for, for a couple of days there, but still kind of do what I have to do day in and day out and focus on longterm objective there, you know, I chose what I'm doing here. I know what the end goal is, so focusing on trying to get to that end objective.

Right. That's what's up. Are you excited for anything in 2024?

We've got a lot of residential work and everything lined up here. I've got a big HOA fence we're going to be doing in a couple weeks here. It's like 8,000 feet of three rail vinyl fence. I've got a pretty big deal coming up with a construction company that does site development for subdivisions and stuff. They've got between 400 and 500 pieces of equipment that they want to have washed during the summer here.

Do you do post construction or anything like that since you do all that equipment stuff for all those people?

I've done some, but never anything large scale, mainly just on a house while we're washing it and everything, the type of soil we have up here. We really just don't have a whole lot of post construction.

So you don't get like red clay or none of that stuff up there after they build or nothing like that. So the concrete doesn't get messed up a whole lot.

Not very much. It just depends on the right soil type to really have that. A lot of times, we'll have it on certain brick homes and stuff before they put the gutter system and everything in place where it's splashed up and then soaked into the brick while it's fresh there. We'll have that, but as far as a lot of your bigger stuff, there just isn't a whole lot of play in the ground here. We've got more of a brown, black topsoil.

Cause that's what we do. We, we, we, uh, do a lot of post-construction where it's just around the brick or parking lots or, uh, sidewalks curbs. We actually picked up a contract with a company doing that. That's the reason I asked.

Yeah. A lot of NMD 80 I've seen. Yeah.

I'll use that store. Most people don't want to mess with acid at all. So as soon as they hear anything like that, they're like, ah, nope.

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely one of those things you gotta be, uh, careful with and everything that can come back and bite you and be a little bit harsher than anything else that the average washer may use on a day-to-day basis.

Smells like raw eggs and it'll burn the shit out of you.

Yeah. I remember the first time we, we did, uh, some post-construction cleanup on the back of a house and I went spraying. and I was done with what I was spraying there. I took my gloves off and I didn't have anything on my gloves that I knew of and I had a little pinhole on my gloves and everything I touched after we had worked for a few hours and I finally took all my gloves and stuff off I felt everything that I touched and

Felt that for a few days afterwards and the calcium up to the top of your surface is what it does. And I learned that because a spec got in my beard and you couldn't tell, but it kept itching. So I kept just like scratching it like that. And then finally I got over in front of the mirror and I was like, what the hell? I was like, Oh my God, that crap bleeding. It had like literally ate my hair up and everything right there in that spot.

Yeah, so it's something I'm always on the lookout for. We just don't quite have the right soil type to have a lot of that here. But I've been trying to find the right builder to get in with just to do new construction wash downs and be able to maybe do some new construction window cleaning and stuff like that.

Yeah, that's definitely a good niche to get into is that is new construction work and stuff like that. Cause that's another consistent, uh, base of work that you could have for your company.

Yeah.

They could lead to so many different things. Cause it sounds like you do several different things. So you could come in and be like, Hey man, I could wash your equipment. I could clean all your concrete. I could do all your windows and you don't have to call nobody else. I'd be a one-stop shop. We got you.

Right. Right. Yeah, so I'm always trying to build up that recurring revenue stream. So we've got some feed trucks, we wash some other trucks that we wash on a monthly and bi-weekly basis, some window cleaning accounts, whether they're weekly or monthly, some dealerships, stuff like that. So having that guaranteed money is always nice compared to hunt and kill, hunt and kill from one job to the other. Right.

So what, what's been the best part of your adventure?

Probably learning more about myself and what I'm able to, you know, what I'm able to do, what I'm able to put together, the stuff that you learn along the way, you know, learning stuff and applying it are always two different things. So. learning, this is what we do with this, this is how we do this, this is what makes this go easier, this is what helps seal the deal on a residential house wash, this is what people are concerned about when doing a roof wash, this is the best time for me to go get supplies, how much do I need to buy to get the cost down, what really motivates and employees, you know, what's the best time to contact people, you know, just kind of putting all that stuff together at play, but doing it on your own is, I guess, different than working for somebody else.

Do you, um, do you have systems or anything like that in place?

Or I have, I have a small amount of systems, but I need to work on getting a lot of my systems out of here and on to something that's more accessible for everyone.

You know, I've got a lot or anything like that yet.

Yeah. Yep. Yep. I've got a, I've got a website at Google, my business profile, a Facebook page and Instagram page, a company email addresses. We've got a CRM.

What kind of CRM are you using?

I'm using joy. Okay. So, So it's not one of the most popular ones out there. It's more of just a contractor invoice as an invoice. Kind of like a scheduler, more or less? No. So it allows you to have, you know, estimates, your invoices. Uh, I mean, you can have all your different job types saved in there, all your customer information. You can text them, you can email them. Uh, they can get financing through. through the app there. It takes cards, it takes PayPal, Venmo, all that different stuff. It's just not as focused on pressure washing as some of the other CRMs are. So it's simple. It's like $20 some dollars a month. And one of the features I really like about it is I can see every time somebody opens the estimate or the invoice. So that's a really cool feature.

So if they haven't paid and they've opened it, you know, then you're like hitting them back and you're like, Hey, what's up?

Yeah. And sometimes as much as I like that feature, it gets a little frustrating too. We had a restaurant that we did work for and they didn't pay their final invoice for like a hot minute at the end of last year. So every other day I would just, you know, send them a follow up, you know, after. 24 hours that says, you know, send a follow up about this invoice. So I kept clicking that and every other day I'd send it, they'd open it. And I'm like, all right, send it again. Fine. I emailed them. And then they're like, Oh, we don't find that in our inbox. But if you want to send it to us again, I'm like, you have it in your inbox. You've looked at it nine times. You've got it. I'll send it to you again. And Long story short, they paid us and apparently they had to change the part after that and they hired a different window cleaner. So you win some, you lose. Yeah, that's what's up. But I, I've looked at some other CRMs out there, but the one that I have right now, it works fine with the amount of, you know, customers and clients that we have. So I'm going to continue to use it until I really find something that I guess I'm really lacking that causes me to have to change.

How are you staying in touch with the con with your, uh, contacts and stuff like that? Are you having to like manually hit them up and message them and stuff like that? Or you got any thing on automated?

I don't have anything automated. I typically go through and if I haven't heard from somebody from like 20 20 or 21 client list, I'll go back through and get a hold of them, be like, hey, Zach, you know. springs around the corner here. It's been a while since we've washed your house. Is this something that you want to get on our schedule before we get too booked up in the coming weeks or something like that? And then wait to hear back from them. But I've probably had a vast majority of them already reach out to me proactively before I've had a chance to reach out to them. Right. So that's, that's something I'll do on a rainy day. A lot of times it's I'll go through and just take screenshots of all the people I want to contact. And then I can just, You know, click on that contact and then I'll just drop that text in there and send to a couple dozen at a time there. And that gives me a couple hours of back and forth text. And they usually try to get some more work put on the calendar. Right. Oh, that would probably be something that other stuff has that, that would probably make that.

That's what I was about to say is I have a CRM system that we just got into, uh, beginning of last year. So this will be the second year of having it. And it's a high, go high level CRM that we had built out for our company. And it's basically based for us, but a lot of it's on automated. So like say that we're out working and you hit us up for a job, it's going to start talking to you so that we don't lose that customer. And then, so then as soon as we get back, then we, we can start chiming in and talk to you. Cause the main thing is, is them getting communication with you whenever they hit you up. So we also have a VA that we just hired. So she's answering phone calls, but say that it, she just happens. It doesn't go through when she doesn't answer it or I'm not able to answer it. Then that's when the automated text messages start kicking in. But then also all those people that are locked into our CRM. we can automatically go into the automation keys and we can set up a 52 week campaign to where everybody that hasn't been washed in a while or whatever it may be, we can go through and we can filter those people and start hitting those up and giving them emails and letting them know, hey, you need to get some pressure washing done or something. Not sure exactly what they say on it, but I know all that set up and all that gets sent out through our system.

Yeah.

So I didn't, I didn't know. I like to ask questions and see what other people's systems are and stuff or whatever.

Yeah. I, I saw something about Joyce there and I downloaded the free version, used it for a while. I'm like, this is simple. I can do this, this and this. And then I went to the elite version so I could put, um, you know, COI and, um, terms and stuff like that in there. I have photos and stuff like that. So I was like, this solves that problem. And I just kind of rode with that, but yeah, you can ride that for a while.

It just depends on all what you're wanting to really do. Like if you ever got to where you were a lot bigger, you'd probably want to go to a go high level. Uh, just for the fact, it would be a lot easier for other people to be able to get on there, say, you know, an admin or whatever it may be, because you don't want to answer the phone. The admin logs in in the morning. She changes over to where the phone doesn't go to you. It basically goes to her phone through the hours that she's locked in for the day. So then you don't get bothered no more and stuff like that while you're out actually doing production. Cause that's another, that's another key thing is, you know, answering the phone or the phone ringing and stopping you from working.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're like, come on. Just decline, go on about what you're doing. If you're up on top of something or harnessed up or whatever, you know, that's the last thing on your mind is trying to answer that phone at that point.

I added that VA in man, and she's already, uh, locked in us. I think it's a little over $600 in jobs, uh, that would have missed. I mean, that kind of adds up.

Did you go with an American VA or a. Okay.

Yeah. We pay $1,500 a month for 40 hours, which is not really bad at all. If you really think about it. Yeah. It's a lot cheaper than what you're going to pay any American. I'll tell you that. Yeah. Cause it really ends up to, I think $18,000 a year where most Americans are probably going to want in the round, like in the twenties and thirties. Yeah.

Yeah. And you, from what I've seen, you may just get a lot higher quality of driven employee as well.

Yeah. I mean, eventually you may want to have an actual office person there or whatever, you know, but for the time being for now, just to have an admin and have extra help and have that help for the phone that plays a huge key, man.

I'll tell you what. Solve that current problem. Yes.

Um, so how can people find you?

So I can be found on Facebook. My name is Zach link. And then, uh, I can also be reached out my email as well as the link at applied pressure solutions.com.

Nice. All right.

Well, I guess we're on most active.

That's where you're the most active at.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. And then you said you had a website as well, too.

Yep. It's a apply pressure solutions.com.

And you're out of Indiana. We're at an Indiana.

We're just south of Crockerville, Indiana. So it's about 45 minutes west of Indianapolis.

There you go. Well, guys, that's how you can find Zach. He's out of Indiana. It was great chatting with you today, Zach.

Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. And remember, pressure doesn't break you, it makes you. Until next time, friends.