Just curious if there’s any guys on the forum that are strictly commercial window cleaners. I’m talking storefront and commercial.
What are the pluses and minuses of commercial only cleaning? Also, if you transitioned from residential and commercial to straight commercial, how was the transition? Would you do anything different?
Speaking right to me.
I’ll think about those questuons today. And answer later on.
Not me. But it seems like it’s starting to be Tommy’s @gotlift niche. It’s a great niche to be in especially since you don’t have to schedule houses. Commercial/storefront can be done on your schedule, not the customers.
I know. I’m considering dropping houses all together. It would open me up for more monthlys
Dropped the residential work and I’m 100% storefront now. Less stress. Easier work.
100% commercial, the only time I do residential is if it’s a million dollar home or one of my clients would like their home done, usully give them a discount they love it. it’s repetitive business unlike most residential.
I’m commercial primarily. But I do houses if they come up as I can schedule them. Commercial pays less in the immediate, but it’s consistency makes it worth it. In January when everyone is going stir crazy, I’ll be making the same money I made in the summer.
Commercial - you only sell the job once, then reap the rewards sometimes for years to come.
And my residential success rate is usually around 90%.
Finally, residential money for me is savings account money. I can’t count on it coming in, so I don’t let it effect my budget. So it becomes my vacation and toy money (getting a motorcycle next week, going to Ireland in September).
@IronLionZion I will take all your houses 
75 grand and they’re yours. Lol. Just don’t hold me liable when the customers start complaining about their dogs rectal exam appointment at 1:30 pm… And don’t forget!
Seriously tho. If I could find good, local, help I would probably keep them and try to get more. Being out in the country it’s hard to find solid help. If I were in a city it may be easier. At least for now, I’ve resigned to operating solo. I’m keeping my options open tho.
But for me commercial is where it’s at. Love my easy office stuff.
This year I’ve started to weed out and even turn down an increasing amount of residential. Probably a few years ago I would have considered more getting rid of storefront than residential. I find the money generally is quite a bit better with residential, but there are more potential hassles as well. I guess I’m just finding it extremely tiresome to manage both branches and balance them out with the lack of help I have now.
I don’t think I would drop them entirely. The money is good, and it usually seems to come at the right time. But make the commercial the priority. Even in the scheduling - businesses first and fit the houses in as they come.
I dropped all resi 3 or 4 years ago. Much less stress. Houses just raise the intensity level for me.
Pluses:
Schedule is full all year.
$0 spent on marketing.
Will always lead you back to resi, if you change your mind.
Minuses:
WINTER! Brutal. Every year.
Travel. Traffic is a headache, gas, wear and tear, mileage.
Good. Just feels awkward when people ask for resi and you say no, unless you have someone you can refer.
I actually may have done a blast of mailers first but they arent very effective come to think of it.
Would have targeted stuff closer to home, dealerships, larger storefronts, industrial parks, chains, restaurants, hotels.
Wouldve tried to get my resi on a maintenance schedule, outsides only, once a month.
We only do large commercial, no route, no residential. We used to, but dropped out of residential market about 10 years ago. As mentioned earlier, we’ll do a house if it’s connected to a commercial account (boss’s place, etc).
Passed along all my residential clients 6 years ago. I still get resi requests several times a week but I pass them on to newer companies and young kids just starting out. I found resi has a real profit ceiling in our area. $$/hr just wasn’t making me happy like commercial/condo work.
Storefront routes I passed on 4 years ago. Paid well, fun challenge, super easy to grow. Maybe again some day. Loved doing storefronts but wanted to work less and earn more.
I’m 99% commercial and condo building. It just pays too much to ignore.
Now when your doing “Condos” I assume the entire community exterior. How do you work the interior? Do you have a set price since they are similar and your guys give a quote and scedule all of them on a separate determined day? Or do you just turn it all down?
What do you do when you want to take a couple days off or week off ? Do you just skip them a week or 2?
If your solo operator…yup.
Like @wcs says. If some of them are the carrying type, perhaps let them know if it’s a week or two. Especially if they get inspections.
I’ll only skip by weeklies for rain or bad weather. Otherwise I absolutely try not to skip any service dates. Rather, I schedule as such to have one week route then one week either houses or commercial buildings.
By scheduling my regulars one week and bi annuals the next I potentially have time in the mix for days off here and there if that’s what I choose to do. Really it’s all about scheduling for me.
