Any entire days workflow

Conversation
1

Hi guys, I have been in business about 5 years but one of my biggest weaknesses is my work flow.

It is very difficult to schedule jobs I have learned as there is a ton of factors.

  • First come first serve
  • How long is the job gonna take
  • What vehicle(s) do you need at that job/what service you doing
  • Neighborhoods, I don’t wanna be somewhere Wednesday and be back Friday if I could do both on some day.
  • Residential/Commercial, Do you schedule days based upon this
  • Money, do you move people around if a higher dollar job calls in. You got a bunch of small work and all of a sudden someone big needs work done.

Combining all of these is tough? I hate coming to my house mid day and switching from my van for windows to my truck/trailer for gutters or roof cleaning. Lately I have been trying to schedule windows on window days and gutters/roofs on the same day, however if you have a customer that wants both of those services that throws a wrench in it, or if your gonna do gutters on this house and the neighbor wants windows. Do you side with the routing preference or the by service preference.

How does your employee(s) clock in/out? I know this might sound silly but this is all little stuff that goes into running a business. Currently my guy fills out a paper time sheet in my living room and every 2 weeks I send a picture to my accountant who prints him of a check.

How do you bill clients & send their invoices? This one is my biggest challenge and I need it fixed immediately. Some people try to hand me or an employee a check or cash, some people mail a check and some people pay by card via email or text with the customer factor.

If someone pays by card it is awesome because the customer factor wipes it off as paid and I get the money days later. When they mail a check it goes to my accountant who fills out a deposit slip and runs it to the bank for me. I absolutely hate taking payment at the time of service. That is where checks end up in an employees pocket, get something spilled on them, end up in my sock drawer etc. However it is hard to tell clients do not pay us in person with cash or check. There mentality is I want to pay it and be done with it. But they don’t understand we have to have systems in place and combining payment with labor is a cluster fuck.

I have found myself scattered. Sometimes I will take a check from the customer and mark it paid right in their kitchen but then the next job I bill and they pay by card, my accountant is collecting checks, its just a mess. Then you have people that request a paper invoice and that screws up my whole work flow, then you have people that don’t get their bill via email cuz it goes to spam or they forget to check it. Also I tried telling people I would bill every Friday and they’d message me in like 2 days, I havent gotten a bill what is going on.

How do you follow up on quotes? This one is tough cuz you don’t want to annoy them or come off desperate. Please answer with specifics like you call everyone 72 hours later, you do an email 3 days later and a phone call 5 days later.

How do you manage other areas of communication? I am out in the field working with my guy and I have to take calls, schedule jobs, reply to text, refresh my gmail all day, check facebook messages, manage the facebook page. Who does all of this stuff for you?

I am at a hard point in my business and very down. Last year I net 100k as a one man show with an employee 2 months out of the year plus took 2.5 months of for winter and that is good but I feel so behind. No secretary, nobody out selling, some months I need like 4 guys and a secretary and then 3 weeks later I need a job for just me.

Please tell me your work flow and how you keep organized with so many things to schedule by, customers that pay so many ways, people inquire about services so many ways etc

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A lot to unpack here:

To get you started, I don’t feel obligated to do first come, first serve in the traditional sense. I try and group jobs together by location and service. So I often book out jobs a few weeks, leaving gaps in the schedule to fill with higher paying or closer to home work.

If a big fish comes along, and I would need to bump a customer to make space for them, I will leave it up to the previously booked customer and ask if they are ok with a later date, and will incentivize rescheduling if necessary (discount/freebies, etc.). But many of my customers are business owners themselves, and require no incentive to help me land a bigger job when I explain the situation.

If you’re a solo operator, you owe it to yourself to have a vehicle that can handle all of the services you offer (within reason; jacks of all trades may have difficulty keeping everything on hand). And if you’re sending out employees, you should equip them with all the tools that they are trained to use. Upsells become so easy when you’re “ready to roll”.

Clock in/ clock out can be handled by many crm’s/field service platforms out there.

Your other questions have all been discussed a lot here. I would start with searching one topic at a time and reading as much as you can.

I like keeping my business simple. No employees, just take the work I can handle (this also allows us to charge a premium, since we are in high demand). My wife helps with a little of the office stuff and helping me stay organized. 2019 was a six figure year for us, as well, with minimal winter income. It was more than we really needed to make. Without the overhead of helpers, you might find yourself really happy and a lot less stressed grossing $80k or so.

There’s my 2¢

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no offence but it sounds like your “business” although making you money is totally out of control and therfore causing you stress. here are some of things i did that have improved my efficiency since i began in 2013.
i started using qbo
i started using the customer factor for crm, scheduling, invoicing, payments email snail mail and much more. (routing, employee clock time with gps, job duration) and more and more
i started using quoteflare to make quoting more consistent and accurate and completable by customers and staff with no cleaning experience
i hired a helper to work from home to handle calls and help customers with quotes and invoicing.
i added nice job to get more reviews.
i dropped gutter clean out changing light bulbs etc. i clean windows! specializing in residential some commercial if it fits no store fronts. i don’t do storms i no longer accept aluminum sliders
at first most business came from one area door knocking and flyers but as website traffic increased we had to start scheduling by area or route.
most jobs are prepaid by cc we no longer accept payment on site (except the odd older person) (2 years ago we started offering 5% discount if they pay when they book most do)
i added pipedrive to help keep track of calls and emails.
look me up if you want to chat kenswindowwashing.com

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Grossing 80 k :hushed: after expense and taxes thats like nothing. I grossed 148, I net 100k last year and feel like I’m stuck lol also bad with money.

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What do you say to customers that say no I am going to pay you right now and start to hand you a check. I have major confidence when giving bids but I become a scaredy cat when I have to put the rules down on people.

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Jack of all trades man that is something I think about a lot. When I started my businesses I used to kind of sell how I was a one man show specialist and I gave into doing gutters, then roof cleaning. People ask me about pressure washing & christmas lights now and I keep fighting it off. When you become a jack of all trades you have to invest in more crap, train more things, learn more skills etc etc and its just a circus. Also employees are nice and a nightmare at the same time. It is so nice to go do a house and one persons on the waterfed and someone else is inside, or one person is popping off screens while the other is cleaning but it is expensive and comes with headaches.

How do you go about getting to emails, facebook messages, phone calls etc

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Here is one of my issues, I feel like I have tons of work but not a lot of work at the same time and also I am by no means a secretary nor do I know 50% of the customer factor functions. That is one of my growing pains, how do I train someone to be a master secretary if I don’t even know 100% of the customer factor myself. Also it is very hard to hire when you have such drastic changes in your volume of work. I am at that point where combing everything together I am getting drowned but I am not so busy that I could pay someone to manage facebook, answer calls, emails text, quote, schedule etc. You know how like your so busy that the phone is annoying but also not busy to the point where your secretary would be staring at the wall for 6 out of 8 hours with no work.

One of the biggest hurdles in business, some weeks you land a large commercial job and got your repeat work and need 6 guys, the next you need 3 guys and the next your schedule is dried up. I have no clue how businesses manage that because you can’t hire people and be like go away, come back, go away, come back, go away

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that is why you need someone who can work from home. there are companies that provide virtual assistants or you can look for someone directly.
you need a system for consistant accurate quotes which it is what i use quoteflare for.
got to go, more later.

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I tried Pink Callers and they said I needed to gross 500k per year to hire them for a thousand a week. I am gonna do a trial with quote flare. I have always been skeptical as there are many variables to window cleaning but the other side is all of the gas and time that goes into giving bids.

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Eh, I keep it simple, and just do what I can do, no employees. It’s simple and sweet. Yes I hustle, but that is my jam.

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One of my issues with not having employees is providing top service to customers. I am a pretty fast window cleaner but if I have to go to someones house & do windows in/out and gutters or maybe a roof cleaning and windows it can be a bit long. One thing about having employees is you realize how much faster stuff can get done. I cannot imagine going back to the days where I’m at a house 4 or more hours.

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$80k was just an example. You may realistically need a bit more than that to cover you & your family’s needs & goals. There are more than a few solo operators who are grossing well over 6 figures, working balanced schedules that leave them plenty of time for administrative tasks as well as non-business pursuits. @Bruce has mentioned them before on the forum.

Remember, “it’s not about how much you make, but how much you keep.” Learning to be disciplined and frugal with your money is the only way you’ll ever feel like you’re not struggling to get by. Otherwise, lifestyle inflation takes over, and no matter how much you make, you’re always spending too much to have anything left over for the slow times. It’s a lesson that was hard-earned for my wife and I.

There’s nothing wrong with having employees. They can be a real asset in a well functioning business. Not everyone is cut out for being an employer, though. I’m not suggesting that you’re a bad employer, but the impression I’ve gotten so far from reading your posts is that having employees has caused you more stress than anything else, so far. Though I could have misread you.

I’ve never taken on employees, so in a way I don’t have anything to compare to, to see “what I’m missing.” But over the last 14+ years of self employment, I’ve managed to tackle some surprisingly large projects without causing undue strain on my customers. If anything, I’m the one who feels awkward, not them. I’ve had residential jobs that spanned over several days. I prefer to avoid projects like that now, since they tend to be less profitable in the long run. But I proved to myself that it can be done, and setting the proper tone and expectations with the customer was everything. (I still have many jobs that take a full day to complete solo.)

Specializing is where it’s at, imo. I’m strictly pw’ing, windows, and gutters now. And might be dropping gutters as an independent service and offer it as an add-on only next year. Everything I need stays on my truck, apart from the extension ladders that only come out for gutter cleaning season and the occasional 3 story first time clean where the wfp won’t cut it.

As far as finding time for calls and such, this is what we currently do (not saying it will work for everyone, but it’s been a gamechanger for us):

All calls are screened. Our voicemail directs people to send an email or text with the details of their project along with pictures if possible. We try and get back to those leads within 24 hours. People who only leave a voicemail, we typically get back to within 48 hours. This weeds out the tire kickers and price shoppers. Emails we can reply to any time of day, and texts I’m comfortable returning between 8am-7pm, a bit wider time window than I would feel comfortable calling someone.

I try not to book more than 6 hours of work per day. During the busier seasons, that doesn’t happen as consistently, and I usually work 8-9 hours one or two days out of the week. But it leaves me a little more breathing room for office work and life in general.

6 hour days have other advantages. If a neighbor approaches me for a housewash, many times I can squeeze them in for that day, which people are just thrilled about. It also leaves me room for upselling on the spot. There’ve been more than a few occasions where I left home with say $700 of work on the schedule, and come home with $1000+ due to these last minute additions.

There are a lot of different ways to run a business. This is what seems to be working for us. We still have our pain points and goals we’re still working towards, but a key in our overall mental health has been simplifying as much as possible.

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13

Sounds like you’re trying to be the jack of all trades. That’s not a winning game. Simplify. You cannot do everything. Filter out what is your most profitable and focus on that.

It’s sad that scaling is viewed as the end all be all. I have yet to meet one window cleaning business owner in my service area of 4 million that has scaled up to multiple teams and still enjoys what he’s doing. In fact, I’ve met many that wish they could scale back to being much smaller. One reason is that for them bottom line profit didn’t blow up through the roof like they thought it would. I know a window cleaner who grosses well beyond 6 figures working part-time with only a bicycle and small trailer and I guarantee you his margin is wider than any company with multiple crews to juggle that doesn’t have proper systems in place and that gets lost in the details, which is most companies that I know.

I’m not a nature manager as I find it boring and tedious so I can’t say I’ve got tons of freedom of speech on this subject. However, outside of wcing I have two other businesses and know many many many owners that realize, in this day and age, scaling up is not as sustainable as it once was. They counsel me to keep it simple in all things.

For example, one good friend and long time mentor has built several businesses over the years. One expanded to the largest in the province and had most of the country locked in. He grew tired of it, chopped it up, sold it off, and kept the best team as his only team operating out in the field. Gross is only a fraction of what is once was, but profit is through the roof, zero stress because of manageable systems in place and he hasn’t set foot in an office since. Part of it is he’s focused on one thing and he absolutely dominates it. He’s now moved on to building other companies which would never have happened if he kept feeding the fire.

Focus man, focus!

One lesson I learned from hearing these experiences is to be smart about what you take on and not to zoom in too far into the daily workflow details as you’ll get lost in the possibilities. Keep the overall perspective and focus on what really matters. You can’t do that if you’re dissecting details. If this doesn’t deter you then invest heavily in building systems to help you manage and stick to them religiously to stay balanced and to be able to back away from the day to day details. In my experience, unless you’re very well disciplined and naturally organized then even this will be a challenge and end up being too complicated. It’s worth a try.

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Yeah, but how well do you know him, really?

:stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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Working on it everyday :wink:

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You are absolutely correct having employees is stressful. Also I am in the middle of a major change in my business. I am actually relocating about 2.5 hours away and am going from Residential Window, Gutter & Roof cleaning to just commercial window cleaning. One thing I have learned is residential stuff is what brings so many headaches and work outside of work. A restaurant isn’t going to text me at 8 pm that they need to move their appointment, complain about spots between the panes, call and say it’s gonna rain in 5 days etc etc. Currently I do about 85% residential and my friend/competitor has told me the pros to commercial and I am very interested to have a restart with my move and go all commercial. Commercial work is you get the account, you do the work, you bill and get paid. There is no changing of appointments constantly, no nit picking, you can route it easier, no phone calls throughout the day. I also am gonna take the decals off of my truck and remove my facebook page. It will be nice to not have social media to monitor, homeowners calling, changing appts etc. Just show up to your repeat accounts unbothered bill and get paid. I might solicit some property management places and offer roof and gutters to them but no residential work, no facebook, less phone calls.

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My friend is doing well, he does window washing, gutter cleaning, gutter guard installation, pressure washing, soft washing, roof cleaning, christmas lights, told me he has done some dusting, does playground sanitation post covid. That might work for him but to me that is way past my brain power

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Also I gave into the pressure of people asking me to do more and seeing competitors that do. We have all had someone call us for windows and X to which we reply we don’t do X and they go oh well this company does bot. It is hard to just say I am a window cleaner and stick with that!

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i don’t understand why you bothered with your original post in that case but it soesn’t matter.

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Go read:

  1. The Pumpkin Plan

  2. Fanatical Prospecting

  3. The 1 Page Marketing Plan

  4. How Much Should I Charge?

  5. Bottleneck Breakthrough

  6. Home Service Millionaire

I read these in 2020 and I wish I had found them sooner,

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