gusbuster
LawnSite Silver Member
Heres a way for all you legitimate maintenance contractors to make more income by gaining more customers without word of mouth or advertising. I just wanted to share my experience from this month.
2 months ago, while talking with a friend that is in the same business, he made a comment about how he was asked by a police officer if he had a business license for the city he was working in. The police officer was out talking to him in regards to a noise complaint (Saturday, 10 am) and was making sure he was operating legit. He said, your asking me if I have a license, why dont you ask those gardeners up the street if they have a business license? The officer said to him we only ask if we get a complaint of some sort.
Well anyway, while we were talking about it, came up this idea that was used by other contractors. It was 3 years ago, after 8 different maintenance contractors complained and filed a petition with the City of South San Francisco; the S.S.F. P. D. did an enforcement sweep. If they saw you working in their city, they stopped and talked to you, asked you if you had a business license for South San Francisco, took your name, called the dispatcher. If you didnt, you got a ticket for $75 plus you had to go to city hall and get a $25 business license. The contact with the officer lasted all of 5 minutes. That year, the city collected in business license fees and fines an additional $12,000 during that sweep period. South San Francisco has a population of around 635,000 people.
My friend and I did a similar thing with our city this last month. We got a petition signed by myself and 12 other maintenance contractors that operate in Millbrae. First week of July, we presented this petition asking the city manager to order the police chief to enforce; Business License Tax is covered by Millbrae Municipal Code Title 7 Chapter 1 Sections 7-1.101 thru 7-1.707. The next step we took was to call and arrange a meeting with each councilperson. We didnt get to talk to all of them so at the next city hall meeting, during the public discussion session, we read the petition to the whole city council. Each council member asked us a bunch of questions. Some of the tough to answer without being a bigot.
Well it gets to be the end of July and nothing happens. Yesterday, a Millbrae officer stopped to talk to me when I was getting my morning coffee at 7-11. He asked me if I had business license for Millbrae. I showed him where my sticker was and the end of that. Asked why he was asking me, told me about how they were doing a sweep enforcement that started last Tuesday. The city got some complaints from some local contractors and the city manager asked the police chief to have an officer do a business license check with any contractor working in Millbrae. This officer told me that out of 15 or so people he checked with, I was the first person to have a business license.
Since Monday, I have received 4 calls asking me to quote service. All of them said that their gardeners quit. Gee, you need to have a SSN or Fed Id number to get a business license.
John
2 months ago, while talking with a friend that is in the same business, he made a comment about how he was asked by a police officer if he had a business license for the city he was working in. The police officer was out talking to him in regards to a noise complaint (Saturday, 10 am) and was making sure he was operating legit. He said, your asking me if I have a license, why dont you ask those gardeners up the street if they have a business license? The officer said to him we only ask if we get a complaint of some sort.
Well anyway, while we were talking about it, came up this idea that was used by other contractors. It was 3 years ago, after 8 different maintenance contractors complained and filed a petition with the City of South San Francisco; the S.S.F. P. D. did an enforcement sweep. If they saw you working in their city, they stopped and talked to you, asked you if you had a business license for South San Francisco, took your name, called the dispatcher. If you didnt, you got a ticket for $75 plus you had to go to city hall and get a $25 business license. The contact with the officer lasted all of 5 minutes. That year, the city collected in business license fees and fines an additional $12,000 during that sweep period. South San Francisco has a population of around 635,000 people.
My friend and I did a similar thing with our city this last month. We got a petition signed by myself and 12 other maintenance contractors that operate in Millbrae. First week of July, we presented this petition asking the city manager to order the police chief to enforce; Business License Tax is covered by Millbrae Municipal Code Title 7 Chapter 1 Sections 7-1.101 thru 7-1.707. The next step we took was to call and arrange a meeting with each councilperson. We didnt get to talk to all of them so at the next city hall meeting, during the public discussion session, we read the petition to the whole city council. Each council member asked us a bunch of questions. Some of the tough to answer without being a bigot.
Well it gets to be the end of July and nothing happens. Yesterday, a Millbrae officer stopped to talk to me when I was getting my morning coffee at 7-11. He asked me if I had business license for Millbrae. I showed him where my sticker was and the end of that. Asked why he was asking me, told me about how they were doing a sweep enforcement that started last Tuesday. The city got some complaints from some local contractors and the city manager asked the police chief to have an officer do a business license check with any contractor working in Millbrae. This officer told me that out of 15 or so people he checked with, I was the first person to have a business license.
Since Monday, I have received 4 calls asking me to quote service. All of them said that their gardeners quit. Gee, you need to have a SSN or Fed Id number to get a business license.
John
