Part of me never feels as if I should never again clean store fronts, I mean I lost a 12 dollar account do to someone undercutting me, then she says Im not per sistant enough when I only missed her a few times in april because of weathe 1 week in may and late to days in june. I gues what Im saying is I have residential accounts that pay 500 and I do that less then a day. and they do not complain nearly as much plus you only schedule twice a year. I just needed to write it out so I feel better!
A dime a dozen, my friend. You’re acutally better off without 'em. Like you said, focus on the worthwhile big money clients. You provide detailed, knowledgable, professional service and if some kid wants to scrub windows with a dish towel for $3.25/hr…heck with it, their image as a business will suffer without you but you’ll move on and take the respectable clients…the big house on the hill for $90/hr…take that storefront cheapskates! 
Yeah use to do store fronts. Spent more time driving then I did cleaning the windows. Plus they don’t want to spend $10 dollars to get their windows cleaned. Not worth it for me right now. Maybe during the winter.
Be on the lookout for a good gig, in a good area and then hit the neighbors hard in the winter. They’ll probably have seen you at some point and probably desperately in need of a cleaning… I need to be working on this strategy right now, myself… going on the white board!
A weekly account?
Missed a few times in April…
1 time in May…
And late in June…
Sorry, but I’d look for another cleaner too.
Matthew
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I had this happen to me once.
I had a radio shack that I did for a while (never missed any cleaning dates though) and actually did the store for kinda dirt cheap and one day FISH walked in and undercut my price by a couple of bucks (remember I was already doing it for dirt cheap) and the manager wanted me to match that guys price. NO WAY! The manager also said if I was gonna give up that easy, and I told him let FISH kill himself here working for that kind of money.
To make a long story short, FISH is no longer here and I’ve picked up the majority of his customers.
Customers soon realize that cheaper isn’t always better.
I used to have a client that I acquired when I was first starting out. 3 windows and a door, 15 bucks every 2 weeks.(the inside had potted plants that needed moved and I told the owner that would be 5 extra for moving the plants) They moved the plants for 3 months and then started not being around when I came and I moved them twice without charging. When I showed up the 3rd time and the plants wasn’t moved I was ready with two invoices one having the extra 5 dollars added to it. I cleaned 2 more times before they called and said they found someone else cheaper…I said thank you because I quoted it too low and made them mad. I lost sleep for about 3 days because that was the first one I lost. They called me back in April to get me to clean their windows again…I said I had an price increase with a min of 35 dollars per visit. Never heard from them again except they did refer 2 customers to me…go figure.
For all the crazy reasons above I concentrate on Residential only. I make more money and have fewer headaches. So busy I am giving work away to two other start ups in the area.
I just can’t see haggling over $5 and $10 dollars all the time. By the time you win the haggle if you do you could have made at least twice that much doing residential windows.
I keep the commercial routes for 3 reasons. 1. I have picked up new customers(residential and commercial) when someone walks by and sees me in a company shirt(and I always have business cards handy) 2. They keep me afloat during the winter months. 3. 2-3 times a year when I have a slow-down, I send my commercial customers a family and friends invite with 10% off any service during that time. I always get new business that way…many ask me when I am running another special because they have a friend waiting for it.
I completely gave up on storefront 3 months ago. I just can’t compete with minimum wage FISHers taking the $100 jobs for $50, and then crackheads on bicycles taking the $15 jobs for $3 and a cigarette.
Residential is where its at. Yeah there’s slowdowns, but if you break your @ss during the busy times, the slowdowns are like a vacation without having to stress over the $8 job 5 miles away
1 Like
Same reasons I’ve kept my small storefront route. And I like number 3, gonna have to use that one day.
I have never been a fan of store front and have been lucky enough to not have to find out the hard way. When I started out I was bidding store front at res prices (I had no idea of pricing). When I found out how much people were charging I was not going to start a window cleaning business. I then found Chris on National and got an ear full. That spring it was down hill. If you can pull it off more power too you. But let’s look at the numbers here. $12 weekly X 52 per year. $624.00 per year not to mention the overhead in managing the client, gas to and from for the whole year, insurance, taxes etc. Sorry I will never see the advantage of store front unless you are a college kid making money while away at school. Residential, easily a $624 gig, once per year with 3 phone calls at 5 minutes each. It’s a no brainer. I have a couple of store fronts, but they are high end chains where the deals were made with management. Well worth the cost. $200 every 3 months for 3 hours of work. They pay because we show up like clock work. But than again someone had to do the work. If no one did store front, it would be a profitable business for someone who did.
I do only 60+ store windows and if I lose any for what ever reason the main one is bad payers but I think that would be for another thread.
I do not come back for seconds.
I mainly do residences.
I keep storefronts for the same reasons as Schnauzer, During the summer, I send M and the girls or a part timer out to do route work and then meet over at the resi, or the route gets done after. We have some restaurants that have to be done before they open at 7, or after they close at 3. Some days it is a juggling act to get it all done. But I just look at the scheduling as another adventure in paradise
we had 21 days of rain in april may was not much better that is whi it was missed.
we had 21 days of rain in april may was not much better that is whi it was missed.
we had 21 days of rain in april may was not much better that is whi it was missed.
I’m a bit tired of storefront, and like servicing homes more. I feel more respected and get less irritated with stupid people doing Resi… I do some sub routework, and have my own small route, but I don’t want anymore. Routework pays decent here (~$40/hr), but Residential is my forte’ for sure.
Always focus on your passion, it will make your journey more pleasurable.
5 Likes
so far im liking both but we’re making decent on both so that may play a factor.
we like the fact we are in front of these people and their customers on a regular basis.
the man i purchased the business from got his largest account from store front. a guy walked up and asked if he did larger jobs that was ten years ago. now he’s my client and the largest window client i have.
but i can see both sides of the coin
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