Hello All,
I am doing just this right now! I literally started about 1 month ago (Nov '22) and I am now in the process of figuring it all out. Including how to scrub and squeegee like a pro and be able to teach someone. Any and all help, suggestions and resources would be very much appreciated.
Michael
I just did this, though 99% res not route.
We areived Dec 31st 2021 and as of today weāve made $112,669 with expenses of $49,752. Will hopefully make another 8-10k before the end of the year.
Here is the monthly breakdown.
Hey brother, I am right where you were last year just starting out.
Please whatās your best advice?
Best practice for finding new employees?
Best practice for training new employees?
What else?
Thanks in advance
Peace
Solo, you and 1 worker, secretary?
How did you land your residential jobs being new to the area? What worked best? Eddm? Website?
So I left my business to my business partner in CA in Dec and moved to TN. I started Jan 1st and got my first customer Feb 2nd. We and a friend had intended to move out here at the same time but we moved our time table up so he arrived in June like we had all originally planned. So I was solo from Jan-May and then he worked part time from June to now. No other people.
My best advice is be persistent. When you put out marketing donāt expect immediate results but imagine that youāre planting seeds. The more seeds you plant (I put out tens of thousands of pieces) the larger your harvest.
I have no advice on employees. Iāve never had good success, the one employee I do have was one of my best friends and he worked for me in CA and then heās working for me here.
You have to do everything. I have a website, I run facebook and google ads, I put out door hangers and I sent out 10ās of thousands of mail pieces. I started with door hangers then by hand addressing postcards to high end neighborhoods. then we tried clip flyers for a few months and then EDDM. all of those (except doorhangers) seems to have about the same return per dollar. I havenāt been able to discern a clear leader.
The first customer I got got one of my postcards, then she was happy and left me a review (I ask almost everyone to give us a review via email so weāve collected 48 5 star reviews on google) I took her review and slapped it on my next batch of postcards. 2nd and 3rd customers came from door hangers. 4th from a Facebook post in one of those local groups.
It takes time to get going but itās like a snowball. Around 30 or so google reviews we started reliably coming up as the top of that local box on google search and that helps. You start to get some referrals. Then youāll start to get some repeats. You just gotta do everything.
Thanks, I know going in that employees are gonna be a challenge
Michael Stillman
Weeki Wachee Window Washers
(352)293-1696
4 months
What Iām talking about is I moved to a new areaā¦like I said, its proving more difficult than I imagined. You didnāt understand what I wrote or what? Iāve been in a new city for over 2 years and not one job on my own. How hard is that to understand man?
And why is your post intentionally vague?
How long would it take if I moved to another place?
I would buy a business vs. spending so much time and money getting established. In addition to WC, I would do gutter cleaning with a vacuum (doing GC by hand or roof walking with a blower doesnāt interest me), pressure washing and high overhead vacuuming.
I would rather have a smaller client list that needs multiple services than be specialized into just WC. It is more cost effective to provide multiple services to good clients and is more peaceful than constantly establishing new relationships.
The volume I would be satisfied with would be enough for me and one employee. I am not interested in having multiple crews.
Its hard to undertand that you havent got 1 window cleaning job in 2 yrsā¦ and im not looking for someone to ask me questions to see how much they rhunk i coukd make. Im asking about what others are capable of doing if they had to move to a new city. Without going over aaallll the varibales. How long until you could be full time. Its my post i can be as vague as i want. Im not looking for help from you. Im wanting to hear whats possible.
Check this out man, you asked a question to the whole community. You didnāt address only a few people, you didnāt even want only people who have done what you were asking.
You want to hear whats possible, anything is possible.
Youāre not looking for help from me, personally? Yeah its your post, yeah write what you want. Thats what Iām doing too.
Online presence + commercial sales.
