Hey guys, you’re all amazing. I’ve found the best input around on this forum. I’m wondering if the WC vets can help me out. I’m just branching out on my own, and my goal is to do mostly residential cleaning. (I live in Ohio and wouldn’t mind eventually taking some winter off if I could afford it.)
Do you think it would be possible to start out building a primarily residential business, or do you really need to go after the commercial work too?
I’ve had plenty of experience cleaning and bidding res. and comm. but I’d rather not mess with the comm. work if I don’t have to. What do you think?
Well, I don’t see why it would be a problem to do only residentials. However Most residential clients only want there windows cleaned 1-2 times a year and 3-4 at the most. Just keep that in mine my friend. On the good end though you will make more on residentials per job more then likely but they take longer I’ve learnt from experience. I would say base your prices by the hour if you will only will be doing residential cleaning. Commercial is really good and I like it because alot of times you have year round work and accounts where you clean weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. So its a steady income if you have good paying accounts that you can knock out quick. Hope this helps you out.
As for your question I do believe it would be possible for you to do well with only residential. May I ask why you don’t like commercial?
Commercial is OK, its just that the residential market around here is a little less cutthroat than the commercial market, and the going hourly rate for homes is much better than that of commercial. I’m open to comm., I just want to focus on homes. I don’t really know if that approach will keep me busy with work quickly enough…guess I just need to give it a shot. Thanks!
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Storefront window cleaning is great for filler. When I finish a house early in the after noon I can keep going. If a house cancels last minute, I have storefront windows I can go do. In the summer I can start real early, before I start a home at 8AM… They also keep the cash flow going over the winter, I live in New England. I like to keep 2 days of work a week in storefronts. I don’t seem to have any cut throat cleaners around my neck of the woods so I can charge a reasonable rate for storefront work. Hope that helps. I also get [B]a lot[/B] of residential work from people who ask about my service while I am doing storefronts. Some of my customers also display my business cards.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]PS[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Storefronts break up the monotony of residential work and visa versa.[/FONT][/COLOR]
hey another ohio wcer!! :)I wish I could take winters off, but my commercial accts keep me going thru the bad weather, even if its 2 days a week. A lot of my residential customers are monthly and every other month, but I stop residential Jan-feb & march if weather is bad. I would love to have more commercial. I can make more on commercial in less time than residential, and less ladder work w/ comm, ive found. Ive been trying to make between $60-100.00 hr on residential. Ive been raising my prices and havent received any resistance yet.
