I am very interested in this window cleaning business. I would like to start small, but my ultimate goal would be for it to grow where I had about 20 employees or so. My question for now is, as it is still small, what kind of money can I look forward to making? I know it all depends on what you put into it, but I am curious if there are any window cleaners making $55,000+ a year? Has anybody experince any kind of growth where they were able to employ other people within the first year or so? Also, when starting is it best to focus on residential, commercial or both?
I greatly appreciate any advice, life lessons or business tips.
Thank you i advance to anybody that is willing to help.
I am in the Fresno, Ca area, and if anybody would like to help teach somebody, please let me know.
I think you could easily do 100k+ your first year if you have prior experience with sales and marketing. Otherwise, simply doing flyers and working solo you should do 40-50k no problem.
My second year earnings allowed me to get married (in Vegas!), Buy a modest new home and add 2 new vehicles to my fleet. A large part of that success involved hiring the right people, which turned out to be a much bigger challenge than I had anticipated.
Write your revenue goal down, figure your average price per home and work backwards from there. For example, if you want 50k your first year, and your average ticket is $250 than you’ll need to do 200 homes that year. With a 1% response rate on 20k flyers and subsequent referrals you can hit that revenue goal.
I started out with commercial, and it really helped me that first year. In fact, most of the homes I did in year 1 came from people seeing me cleaning commercial.
Oh…and get a helper as soon as you can and pay your taxes.
So much depends upon location, commercial vs residential…economy…and market saturation…I think central valley is good because it’s dirtier than any other place around…so frequency in cleanings are good. Check out your competition and see how they are doing. Fresno still has high unemployment…and the economy lags behind LA and SF bay area by at least a year…ii think it’s more do able for a one man show than for a big outfit of 20…I don’t think there are any big outfits fom Bako to Sacto…you can be the first.
I had a small growth each year because I wasn’t pushing to grow. Last year (#10) I decided it was time to start really pushing a business model, not just clean windows. Adding 1 full timer and a part timer has had amazing results. Marketing is a key that I am still trying to figure out in my area, which is a hard one to break into. Which, now that I am established is a good thing
Last year was our best year to date, learn what you can. Care about what kind of service you provide and the customers will take care of you. Don’t just focus on the money aspect, focus on building a business that can run with no glitches if YOU are NOT there. Then yes, you can grow to what ever size you wish. Just don’t let that be your only focus in life though… there are way too many other more important things.
another thought, it does depend where you are… read the posts about socal, it’s tough but doable.
Do you have no experience with window cleaning. It’s take a lot of time to learn it. It is easier to get an customer than to hold here in Holland, your price and quality must be good.
