Honest oppions needed

Dozer Guy · Oct 10, 2008

Will a "pretty" piece of equiptment get more bussiness than a "not so pretty" piece of equiptment even when the hourly rate is $20-35.00 cheaper and they are perfectly cappable of doing the same job? OR do I need to "pimp" my rides??? who would you hire? thanks D.G.

Lanse · Oct 10, 2008

I;d take the cheap one. Im cheaper then you would believe.

Most would take the pretty one though. I'd think a brush job would fix that, by the time the people see it they've allready hired you.

Heyseed · Oct 10, 2008

Paint never moved any dirt that I know of. I would hire the guy that would do the best job. Less expensive is always a plus. Good referals outweigh good looks.

Anonymous-0 · Oct 10, 2008

I clean snow with an old case 311 with no hood fenders looks rough. with a man new backhoe and every one comes to me. we move the same snow but old look cheeper. RENE'

Anonymous-0 · Oct 10, 2008

Hey Dozer,
There's more to this marketing thing than most folks realize. Out here, there are hundreds of self-employed welders (with portable rigs)... seems the ones with the slickest rigs are the ones making the most money. I've seen similar results in other industries, but won't bore you with statistics. If you can "slick up" your rig with a couple hundred bucks worth of paint and a little "elbow grease", there's no doubt in my mind you'll make that money back many times over! (MHO) ...D

Dozer Guy · Oct 10, 2008

I can go and give est. and next thing i see is a "pretty"dozer doing the same job that i could be doing , I am just glad to see that there are some people out there "yall" who think the same way I do and i know for a fact that i am cheaper.

Anonymous-0 · Oct 10, 2008

Professional looks always get more business.

Anonymous-0 · Oct 10, 2008

It will make no difference to me what a machine looked like if it did the same job. I like to keep my late 30's AC Model M painted, I use in my discing business just because I want it to nice. Stan

glennster · Oct 10, 2008

unfortunately, yes, the better looking equipment will get more work. if you look at it from the customers standpoint, here is a contractor with a new "pretty machine, fancy truck to tow with, snappy uniform, wow he must really know his stuff and be real good. does not matter how good he his, people will more than likely choose him over a well worn piece of equipment. i noticed it with our shop. i bought an older building several years ago. last year, we did a face lift, new windows, brick facia fronts, new signs and lighting, end of year the business did close to 40% more than the previous year. (body shop).

Dozer Guy · Oct 10, 2008

If I was to "pretty" up my rides , do yall think I need to raise my rates to be more competive? or stay the same and show the people what they have been missing?

ericlb · Oct 10, 2008

absolutly, i proved this time and time again with my dump truck, even had numerous people tell me that i got the job because of the way my truck looked, [ my kenworth was always clean, the chrome and aluminum polished to the max and i dressed the truck as much as i could] they always said something to the effect that if i took care of my truck like that i cared about it, therefor they knew i would care about the kind of job i did for them, i always did too , i have a buddy, his truck is mechanicly perfect and he's a nut about preventave mantenence, but the last paint job on it was in 1984, and it looks like H, dot stops it almost every day, just knowing there is some defect on it, [ its been 2 years since they wrote anything on him] he says "fancy paint doesnt make it work any better" true but....

Uncle Ernie · Oct 10, 2008

I like to hire people with clean well maintained looking equipment. I do not expect all new just not beat up. Figure the work they do on their own equipment and the care they take of it mirrors the job they will do for me.
One thing I do NOT like is a super fancy ride that the boss or the estimator show up in. Nice clean and modern is OK but not "Pimped out" as they say today. Feel they are out for the big bucks.

tiresntracks · Oct 10, 2008

A few years ago, the Forest Service hired a bunch of Cats to fight a forest fire. Most of them were between 5 and 20 years old. A friend of mine brought his freshly painted 40 year old 17A D-7. When the fire was almost under control they started sending Cats home. His Cat stayed almost 2 weeks after they sent the rest home. The average person probably knows as much about equipment as the Forest Service.

Anonymous-0 · Oct 10, 2008

My wife and I have owned rental homes for the past twenty years and the last few years I've been hiring out more and more large jobs of all types. Except for hauling away trash, I feel better hiring someone who shows up in a vehicle reasonably clean, with a real sign on it--- but the newer and more expensive the vehicle, I think, the more I'm going to be charged to cover the cost of the ride. In fact, what I look for most is someone who talks to me in "plain english", about how they are going to do the job, no techno-babble, no hype about how great you are--that's just like a too-fancy truck.

ericlb · Oct 10, 2008

if this works here she is, this is the truck i used, that is up until it was destroyed by a idiot who pulled out on the hiway right in front of it, she aint a pimp is she? she's 30 years old, my replacement kenworth is good but it dont look like this one

Traditional Farmer · Oct 10, 2008

I hire the man I know will give me an honest days work and knows how to operate it his equipment, don't care what his equipment looks like.

motorv8N · Oct 10, 2008

I've experienced both extremes.

We had the carpet in the house redone a few years ago. I watched the two installers pull up in a beat up rusting van with no name on the side. I knew right then the job would be crap and it was. Had to get the store owner out three times to show him the hammer marks on my walls and uneven seams and get them fixed.

A few years prior to that we had our roof redone. The owner showed up in a Hummer if you can believe it. I knew right then the job would be crap and it was...

It's a fine line. I want to see a well-maintained, neat, middle of the road piece of equipment. I don't care if it's fifty years old. I don't want to see junk and I sure don't want to see too much flash.

Jim H SW-PA · Oct 10, 2008

Clean { washed } no mud on it, is better than pretty when you take a machine into a job,fresh grease and clean fittings show you take care of it and it's reliable.And this shows your not afraid to get a scratch on it, and word of mouth will get the business for you.

jose bagge · Oct 10, 2008

raise your rates because that's what it takes to make it worth your while- raise your image standards because that's what you do for a living and you have some pride in your operation.

When you don't have to apologize for the look of your rig, you can ask for what you're worth without any qualms.

why settle for a butterface when a lil' make-up will fix her right up?

old · Oct 10, 2008

Its a sorry fact that if you have something that looks good but runs like crap you can get a job but it you have something that looks like crap but run real good you can not get the job. Looks deceive, but the way a machine does not but few people can see past what something looks like even if it will not do the job at hand
Hobby farm

jimva · Oct 11, 2008

The problem is that the term "you get what you pay for" has been drilled into peoples heads and they honestly believe that the fancy, new equipment and higher price gives them higher quality work.

People look at the guy with the higher price, new truck hes driving, new tools and equipment and think, "gee he knows what hes doing, hes getting plenty of work because hes able to afford new equipment and tools. lets hire him"

The guy with the older but reliable equipment, tools and lower price, they think "gee, this guy is cheap, becasue hes not as good and hes not getting as much work as the other guy who has the new tools. Lets not hire this guy."

Anonymous-0 · Oct 11, 2008

I have a friend who is a carpenter, self employed. He always drove an older but clean pickup. He showed up at his book keepers one day - the book keeper took a long look at his wheels and said, "Always dress for success". He bought a new pickup and noticed a jump in business. He now only works off of "word of mouth" advertizing.

His work habits didn't change - only his appearance. He told me this story when I asked him why he didn't have his business name on his truck.

Paul

Traditional Farmer · Oct 11, 2008

Most people are Superficial these days and most don't have enough knowledge to know if they are getting ripped off or not.The biggest ripoff artist I know with earth moving equipment has the nicest looking equipment around and should have becuase he runs it at 1/3 the speed of everyone else

trucker40 · Oct 11, 2008

You will get more work if your stuff looks good,unless you are just real good at what you do and dont care because you have plenty of work.Also its not just what the people you are working for think,its the rest of the public that sees you working.Yeah that good looking truck does not say old truck it says this is what a truck should look like,same with all the rest of the equipment.A dozer ought to look like a dozer.I think a certain amount of rust is alright,like the undercarriage and stuff,but it ought to be recognizable as a dozer,not some rust covered thing you arent real sure what it is.Keep your stuff looking good a while and you will get a reputation of being somebody the public likes to have working on visible jobs next to the Interstate or in higher class areas,and after a while it wont make so much difference because you will have the money to upgrade.I could be wrong too.

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