IMO commercial work is the best money per hour per day, but the payments can be slow. Once, a national firm owed me over $25,000 for a two person crew I provided that worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week for Niketown in Seattle. I nearly strangled the national company owner when he came out to Seattle. They eventually did pay, but only after I had to let that whole crew go. I'm restarting again, after a four year break. I was wondering if you folks had any bad experiences with national companies? Any "bad guys" we need to avoid? These guys get away with squeezing the last drop of capital out of the local company and then just contracting with another one. Their cash flow never suffers. We need a way to get their contract payment history BEFORE we invest all our savings paying to get their work done. We also need a way to fight back.

Just a word of warning to new guys, if a national firm calls you, see if the last guy to do the work they want you to do is still in business.

Thanks, I'm glad I got that off my chest.
David Schutt

The fellows on the floor care board came up with the term MMM for the national contractors. It's a fitting expression - it stands for Maintenance Management Mafia.

Very few are worth working for. But there are a few that are pretty good too. Exercise extreme caution!

I don't want to post names here of problem MMM's so e-mail me and I'll reply with a couple to watch out for.



Rick Gelinas

MMM, that's about it. This jerk was certainly trying to look like a "made" guy. Gray sharkskin suit and a black limo. What a chump! When they get behind paying us, we local guys need a way to get our national organizations, like IICRC, LMCCA, etc. to put the word out, so we can boycott them. In fact, our organizations should be actively educating the public not to use them. Support the local guys, etc.

David Schutt