I figure I’d be doing good if I could service close to 200 customers in a 1yr period. Being in Montana so maybe working only 9mos outta the yr due to cold.
Granted some would take all day. Others could be 3 in 1 day. Some may only want serviced once per year.
But I figure 200 or so is a good personal goal.
Here’s my question - I live in a remote area. Although there are no other window cleaners getting after it, my concern is that you could put a pin on Dillon, stretch a string out 60 miles, round up everyone and not round up more than 10,000 people…
So does anyone have any sound input as to whether 200 is a reasonable goal?
Reasonable depends on your time frame. If your shooting for 200 in your first year w/ that small a base (I do 2 counties w/ a combined population of about 400,000) it might be difficult. Also what kind of or hourly goal have you set yourself? 200 customers that average $150 each is easier to get than 200 that average $500 each.
First of all, my hat goes off to anyone averaging $500 per customer (residential)
You might experience some good and bads things having NO competition.
Good : No competition … duh
Bad : That market is not used to have their windows cleaned, so besides advertising, you are going to have to educate the customer, explain them the benefits of using such service and it’s value.
Advice : since your market is reduced and there’s no competition you should add more services like pressure washing or gutter cleaning.
I think 200 can be a reasonable goal, as long as you’re not disappointed if you don’t meet that goal. But it’s always good to strive for something. I can look back at my records sometime, but I seem to remember doing that number as a one man show. I also live in a large metropolitan area, though.
Dang, I just missed you taking your hat off for me. Last year I think our average residential window cleaning job was $496. But again, I work in the DC metropolitan area, which is pretty affluent area.
My goal is the typical $50.00 per hour on the job not including travel etc. Your right, it would be easier to build smaller accounts. That is a good point.
Once you build a business w/ those small accounts then you can begin to add new jobs that bring in more money and either raise the price of the original customers or replace them w/ better paying ones.
I think your goal is pretty ambitious if you’re working solo. Doing the math, you’ll need to hit at least one customer per day, four days a week, 52 weeks a year. It takes time to get customers, so figure one day of sales, marketing, business administration, doing estimates, etc. Allow yourself one day a week for this. The formula gets even tougher if you project no service for three months a eary. Now back out the three months you mentioned and you are down to 40 weeks a year. You will have to serve 5 customers every week to meet that goal and you will have.
Is your population consistent throughout the Year? Our population spikes May to October. Probably 85 percent of my window cleaning revenues are generated mid-Aprl to the last day of October. I do very little window washing November to mid-April.
I might start with an income goal rather than a customer goal, then find the most efficient way to reach that income. Having an income goal will help you identify the type of customer you will market to.
Someone mentioned multiple services. Start looking into what else you might do. I’m multi-service and it helps a lot.
You can never focus 2 hard on your clients. Obsess over your clients. Never under estimate the power of their referrals and the weight they hold. Goin in cold blows.
I feel for you, and it is possible. I live about 2 hours south of you.
First, you don’t have much in your 60 mile radius, but Butte is just beyond that (65 miles) and there is almost 35,000 there (according to census numbers). You also have Anaconda (almost 10,000) that is another 18 miles beyond that. That is about the same size area that I do.
Why wouldn’t you charge for drive time? It’s not “your” time, so someone should pay for it. If you’re target market is spread out over a great distance, as you indicated, you’ll be wasting a lot of time not getting paid.
IMO, you should set an hourly rate and include the time for travel AND setup (at least 20 minutes), then build your pricing structure around your desired hourly gross. If you want to make $50/hr, that comes out to $16.67 for every 20 minutes of travel. Do three accounts in one day, and you’re throwing away $48/day/worker. That’s close to $250 a week, on a 5-day work-week. Or, in a 9 month season, it’s $9,742.50 (2504.339) - close to $10,000.
CACB has some really good points. It will take time to get these customers. You can get them too. Start making some good marketing strategies, hit Kevin up! You can do some very inexpensive stuff. Set up a table with a sign up sheet with peoples’ emails on it, and offer a free window cleaning (exteriors) raffel (raffle?). You can do a BUNCH of stuff especially with no competition. Word of mouth will travel fast in a small town like that, so MAKE SURE what they say about you is good.
When I first started I made small goal rather than have disapointments
Why not start with the month or week
And always remmber your last job could be your next job.
Small town small minds big on gossip.
Ottra
Small town, big on gossip? Oh yeah. It takes time to build a reputable business in my area. Many people are skeptical until they’ve heard your name around a few times.
I figured out what type home I want to target. Log homes. They usually have big beautiful windows and there is noone around marketing to them. I cleaned 1 last Friday that took me 12hrs and grossed a pretty penny. Although they are often miles away I think they would be a good niche and that I could position my company as the log home window experts. Plus, instead of having 200+/- customers I could potentially have 100+/- customers which would be easier to manage.
Multiple services can be good, as it helps you target seasons and upsell customers. Our marketing focus is on fence and deck cleaning in the spring, window cleaning through summer, gutter cleaning in the fall, etc. Not that services don’t overlap, but it helps to have a reason to go back to existing customers all year long.
200 new residential accounts would be good.
at that rate you would have to get some help your second year if you continue to run at that pace…not all customers will roll over for the next year…and the third year you’ll be running a few guys and so on.
The only problem is running at that pace for a long period of time is you might get wore out
