When we restarted our business we chose to do interiors only. At the time, we were repeatedly told we would never make it. When we finally retired 15 years later, there were four more interior only outfits in the area we served.
We also live in Oregon, not far from Troy, and I hated always wondering and worrying about the weather. Even in the summer the wind could pick up or a summer rain could pass through. Nothing most outfits anywhere don’t have to deal with but I still disliked the uncertainty. I also wanted to avoid pressure washing exteriors and hefting bigger ladders around - and although I wasn’t old, I was OLDER and realized the necessity of trying to avoid excessive demands on my body.
Like “full service” guys, we also got busier in the summer because the exterior outfits didn’t even want to consider doing interiors. Understandable, but I always felt there was some shortsightedness involved on their part since many of them wouldn’t even do bids for interior jobs which they might have done later. So when fall and the rains arrived many of those outfits found themselves without work lined up. We never found ourselves in that spot - even in December when I figured we would be really slow. Turns out, many people simply didn’t decorate for the holidays or would be out of town and wanted work done while they were gone.
We have been retired two years now and we still get calls weekly about jobs (most from former customers) and I still get a pang from having to say no. I enjoyed the work, interactions with customers, and the satisfaction of doing a job well and the resulting appreciative (generally) homeowner. And, of course, the money was nice too.
We also live in Oregon, not far from Troy, and I hated always wondering and worrying about the weather. Even in the summer the wind could pick up or a summer rain could pass through. Nothing most outfits anywhere don’t have to deal with but I still disliked the uncertainty. I also wanted to avoid pressure washing exteriors and hefting bigger ladders around - and although I wasn’t old, I was OLDER and realized the necessity of trying to avoid excessive demands on my body.
Like “full service” guys, we also got busier in the summer because the exterior outfits didn’t even want to consider doing interiors. Understandable, but I always felt there was some shortsightedness involved on their part since many of them wouldn’t even do bids for interior jobs which they might have done later. So when fall and the rains arrived many of those outfits found themselves without work lined up. We never found ourselves in that spot - even in December when I figured we would be really slow. Turns out, many people simply didn’t decorate for the holidays or would be out of town and wanted work done while they were gone.
We have been retired two years now and we still get calls weekly about jobs (most from former customers) and I still get a pang from having to say no. I enjoyed the work, interactions with customers, and the satisfaction of doing a job well and the resulting appreciative (generally) homeowner. And, of course, the money was nice too.
