We're going to review the Western MVP3 snow plow, and I'm going to recommend you watch this video before you pull the trigger on buying.
<h5>Western MVP3</h5>
I absolutely love the lift and hooking system on a Western snow plow. How they actually attach to the truck. But that's where the love affair stops. Western MVP3 plows need dramatic improvement. Today I'm going to show you two identical trucks and two snow plows put on within a couple days of each other. One of the cutting edges on one of the trucks is gone, and the other cutting edge is absolutely fine and in good condition.
<h5>Western Snow Rep</h5>
I called up directly the Western snow rep. I had him come up to my house and take a look at this. And I got absolutely nowhere. I didn't get a good answer. I did learn that there may need to be some micro adjustments in the T-bar of the actual snow plow to keep it from biting more. If this is the pavement this is your snow plow to keep it from biting more into...

Get your free sample contracts today!

Stan: You spoke, I listened. A lot of you guys are emailing me, texting me "Hey can I get a copy of your contracts?" "Can I get a copy of your proposals?"

Stan: Absolutely. They're now all free at Dirk Monkey University. I've got a spot where you can go and you can get a free copy of my snow plowing hourly contract, an actual landscaping proposal that I turned into a customer, a copy of a lawn maintenance contract that you guys can use. You're gonna have to modify all of these for your own needs, and I also put in a sample of the reference sheet that I give out to new customers, those that haven't worked with me before, just to establish my credibility and authority in the market. You guys can use this to do the exact same thing.

Stan: When you get to Dirk Monkey University, what you're going to find is a donate button. Don't feel like you have to use that.

Stan: Everything okay, cat?

Stan: I know when you're first getting started, times are...

How to Build a Retaining Wall

Retaining walls fail for a number of reasons and I want you guys and gals out there that are installing retaining walls to learn a few tips and tricks of the trade that will help you improve your installation skill, and we'll separate you from the herd. What I am going to show you at the site today is a really common reason why a retaining wall falls apart. The first thing that we look at is the choice of blocks. A lot of times, landscapers will migrate towards the cheapest block and they tend to be hollow and have a lip on the back and neck. They're solid on the top and then they're hollow on the bottom, and what happens is that water can get trapped in there between the cavity and it has nowhere to go. Then it goes through a freeze-thaw cycle, expands, contracts and pushes the blocks over. They also have an inadequate pinning system. Because they're light, they're easy to pick up and they're fast to install. You see they have their connection method...

How to Build a Boulder Retaining Wall

I'm at the base of this house, and what's happening, the issue we have today is this entire porch and the decking behind it is sliding down this hill. This is going to be about a 16-foot tall boulder retaining wall we have to build, and what's happening is it's sliding into this lake that I'm standing out on a dock on right now. We set the plan into motion about six months ago. I had an engineering firm come out here, and what we're going to be doing is we're going to be building a retaining wall to tie in with the neighbor's retaining wall starting at this point. It's going to be five foot tall and then as we go, we're going to raise this wall up to catch this porch, to save this porch from sliding in. Then the wall is going to stay at that same height and wrap around and tie into the corner of this deck. To get down here we've got to create a ramp, we've got to create a road so that we can get an excavator with a thumb down here. And...

Stan: Very good. Good. So let's talk about the difference between an independent contractor and an employee. Especially within the construction industry, it's real easy to confuse these two things. Especially, if you start to use somebody on a regular basis, you have to be very careful. Now, the IRS is awesome enough to give us a 20 factor checklist. Something that you can look up on your own, on the internet. Here's the form. I'm actually gonna use to go down that Jeff was nice enough to print off before we started this. They also have a second set of forms, which gives you links, which gives you consequences, which gives you a more thorough outline. But today, we're gonna talk about this 20 point checklist. We're gonna go down, what we consider, the most important points of this checklist. What do you find, Jeff, are the things that contractors make the biggest mistake on when they hire a subcontractor?

Jeff: As far as classification?

Stan: Yes.

Jeff: Yeah. Well, I mean a lot of...

How to do Retaining Wall Bids, Estimates and Proposals

Okay, it's time to build a retaining wall. What you're going to see behind me is a wall that we built a few years ago for a customer in a site in Minneapolis.  We used the Versa-lok standard unit. The customer did their own secondary retaining wall and they used a different block. I wouldn't recommend doing that, but they did this after the fact and out of our control. When you look at this garage you can see where we actually had to dig back the soil to sneak a wall in behind this garage and keep the pressure off from the garage from the yard today. I'm going to teach you how to bid doing a job like that, because the customer right next door wants the exact same thing done. So what we're going to do, we're going to break this proposal down into removal, excavation, and then retaining wall installation. A couple of the details that we need to take into consideration is the joint space from one wall to the next. Now...

Stan: See, there you go.

Jeff Law: I'll have to know.

Stan: All right, today is going to be one of the most informative sessions for all of you guys that have questions about hiring your first employee, and what it means to be a subcontractor versus an employer, which is something that typically happens within the landscaping and construction industry. I have Jeff Law with Law Tax & Financial here with me today. Jeff is the expert, I'm not the expert. I have the same questions that you guys have. I have 30 years experience hiring people and going back and forth with the IRS on different matters, I never seem to win though. First off, let's go over the question of; you're just a brand new contractor coming out Jeff, and you're going to hire your first person. What do you do right out of the gate? What's the first things?

Jeff Law: Well, once you have that person when you're ready to put somebody to work, you're going to want to determine whether they're an employee or a...