I’m considering pursuing some storefront/lowrise commercial work to build recurring income, especially for the winter. I live near Peoria, IL with a population of 70,000 in my target cities. A couple of the cities are quite vibrant and wealthy.
My background is in carpet/tile/pressure washing. I recently added exterior windows for residential mainly as an add on to house washing.
How long do you think it would take to build $1,000 per month in recurring income from store fronts/small commercial with 10-15 hours per week in door to door sales? Would you recommend pursuing this?
Sure, if you’ve had years of experience and have a solid and fast technique you can probably bank 1,000 per month after bidding for 20 hours per week for six months.
No offense, but if you are doing carpet and tile, why not build on that instead? Storefront doesn’t general pay big money, especially if you are not experienced and fast at it.
Why not build a route with carpet for cleaning winter salts out of carpet? Hit more commercial for carpet and tile work? You have more experience there from the sounds of it.
Pretty solid advice re: staying with your specialties. The more services we offer the more difficult our branding becomes.
I am located in a small town so I have to run a multi-service company but if I was in a more populated area I would cut back and get a better margin by specializing.
Knowing your market is key to success of any venture. I know what services my market will support. I stay away from expanding too many services for myself. The little bit of power washing I do, is small scale. We have two power wash companies here, and they don’t have lots of resi work, it’s mostly commercial. I only do small stuff like decks or walkways, no house washing. I also don’t market the heck out of my add ons.
I’d also never get away with only doing exteriors. People want clean windows, and they aren’t going to do it themselves.
I think (IMO) as a carpet/tile guy, I would try to boost more commercial sales, as these go year round, not seasonally like resi tends to be. I would try to build a route cleaning salt out of entry ways November through April/March. Maybe you could set visits to weekly/bi-monthly.
this is very reasonable. it will take some experience in sales and a very solid technique but it can be done for sure. in our experience its also a lot of luck. i think most want to say its all about experience but being at the right place and the right time in storefront sales is a big factor. the more time you invest into pounding the pavement you will land these accounts. just make sure you’re pricing them correctly and everything else will fall into place .
I’m planning to build up commercial carpet/tile. Was considering adding storefront windows as a way to build recurring income and more importantly to have a way to do offer additional services like carpet/tile/pressure washing.
Do you think this is a good idea? or Should I stick with my specialties?
Not really our decision to make. At least with other business interests for yourself, you can afford to give it a shot. If it doesn’t work the way you hope, find a local window guy to give/sell your accounts to.
In my experience it would not take long if you land the right customers. I’m in a similar market and I turn down a lot of commercial work mostly because I don’t have time and winters are harsh here. It seems like a lot of window cleaners just quit showing up. I have only a a handful of well paying (I don’t do anything under $60) commercial monthly and quarterlys that usually average $400-$500 month.
Well said Luke, very doable. I have honestly went to a potential new storefront and landed it on the spot because they saw me doing their neighbors windows and felt it was almost a competitive thing to be a part of. Also, being out there with your company name and number on your uniforms is key to the customers embracing your services before inquiring about the cost. Right place at the right time is honestly what’s landed about 25% of my recurring storefronts. That and consistency obviously. But yes, well said.
I would focus on quality small comercial jobs. My previous business had 4 restaurants that totaled $1385 per month (typical 4 week month-all had different cleaning frequencies). Then every other month I did 2 dealerships that totaled $680. I also did an apartment’s entry way quarterly for $100 (the owner would do move out cleans when needed). One of the restaurants added quarterly gutter cleaning. So at the end of the year I had roughly $24K in commercial work. These better paying accounts provided us a lot of time for residential work (my preferred clientele).
It shouldn’t take you to long to get that going. Make sure you have a solid follow up program in place, because that’s where a lot of your work will come from.
Very true. Make sure your hitting the same places on the exact day every however long your agreed services are set on. Consistency is something people really look for in a window cleaner. They get in the routine of expecting you and when that’s compromised they view the situation differently. When I started I wrote down my appointments on a calendar in my kitchen. I’d wake up, see what ones I had that day and plan them out that day. Good system to build your company on.
Well said man. Quality, not quantity. If you have 4 dozen 40 dollar storefronts you’ll be running around like a chicken with his head cut off trying to keep up and feeling like you need to drop customers to open residential availability but also feeling like slow season is going to need every store you have, catch 22. Less store fronts and restaurants etc for more money and scheduled in the same week can give you empty bi weeks for residential booking but still hit your minimal quota for bills and expenses. That’s how I try to do things. Very smart. I try to have one week as commercial and next as residential etc. and keep them separate. All in all, residential is priority because that is where the money is at.
Funny how your view on this may change once you have employees. At that point you might see it differently. At some point you need to get your current business model setup from just you doing the work to employees that don’t do as good of work, don’t have as high of standards as you do and will be a little slower than you but get paid less.
