Wesley Tarbox
Everything filed under wesley tarbox, listed in full rather than as a feed.
Articles
- What an apprentice actually does in the first year on a crew
Very little of it is the trade. The first year is spent proving you can be relied on, and the people who understand that get taught faster than the people who do not.
- Storm season brings knocks on the door. Which contractors to let in
After a hailstorm the street fills with trucks from out of state. Some of them do good work. Telling which is which takes about four questions.
- Seven questions to ask before you sign an engagement letter
The engagement letter, not the conversation, is what governs. It is also the last easy moment to change anything, and almost nobody uses it.
- Where your complaint actually goes after the first phone call ends
The person who answers has a script, a system, and a narrow band of authority. Understanding that band is what turns a frustrating call into a resolved one.
- You hit submit on your return. Here is what happens on the other end
Filing is the visible half. What follows is a processing pipeline with its own timetable, its own checks, and a set of letters that mean very different things.
- Filing season is open, and so is the season for tax refund scams
Small shops make good targets in March. There is money moving, unfamiliar paperwork, and one person doing the books between jobs with a phone in their hand.
- Washing a house in spring without stripping the paint off it
A pressure washer will clean siding and it will also drive water behind it, cut into soft wood, and take a coat of paint with it. The pressure is the smallest part.
- Your hourly rate is not your wage. How to build one that survives a year
Most people set a rate by asking what the guy down the road charges. Built from the bottom up instead, the number is usually higher and much easier to defend.
- The cleaning a service tech does that a homeowner never thinks about
Filters and lint screens are the visible half. The parts that actually foul up sit one panel further in, and they are the reason equipment gets replaced early.
- The work is going wrong and the crew is still here. What to do first
Raising a problem mid job feels like picking a fight. Done properly it is the cheapest moment to fix anything, and the crew usually knows it before you do.