I surprised myself this year by achieving gross return of 50% more than last year. Mainly I attribute this to the results of going above and beyond on every job in the last few years to ensure that clients are very satisfied with my work and would be likely to repeat business with me and/or pass my name along to others.
I had to hire an employee mid-way through the year to help with the growing work-load. He has turned out very well (I went through a couple before I found him) and I hope he sticks around. I have given him a few raises and he is now earning decent coin and deserves every penny.
How has your year been? Did you surprise yourself with year-over-year growth? Did you earn the same as last year? Did you make less than last year?
More than last yearā¦ came as a surprise.
More than last yearā¦ planned for it.
About the same as last year, I want to earn more next year.
About the same as last year, I am totally fine with this.
Less than last year by accident.
Less than last year on purpose.
0voters
(this poll was inspired by @leavingnc his post detailing how much he has increased his revenue byā¦ very inspiring! Some year end statistics)
I have only been part-time since April so I canāt really say anything. But I will have to say that I have been surprised about the accounts you can get when you work towards it.
My whole year was the worst since I started! Except for the last 3 months that is!! Finally freaken busy!
Went from dirty looks from the wife with me on the couch to āwhat time are you getting home already! Youāre never here anymore!ā
I doubt Iāll ever understand what makes em tick. Has anyone ever had the day (only counts if you have been married over 5 years, newlyweds donāt count) where the wife still greets you when you come home like your pets do?
My gross was about the same as last year but I had much more family time and I worked bigger jobs that will pay off with repeat business and visibility.
I made about the same as last year. It has worked out well. My goal is always to spend as much time as I can with my family. This business has allowed me to do that.
We hit nearly $40K in revenue! Its my first year in business and it was much better in terms of revenue than I anticipated with me working the business on the side of my full time job. I hired a friend that I have known for half my life and he has been the best thing to happen to the business. He even landed our largest customer through a personal contact. There have been some headaches along the way, but its been a great learning process. Funny thing is I still havenāt decided what I want out of the business. My #1 goal this past year was to break even and have a debt free business. We achieved that. I havenāt put much thought into my goals for the coming year, but the short list is to get more organized, go after more commercial customers, and possibly hire a second employee to get me out of the truck to focus more on sales. It occurs to me that I havenāt fully committed to the business at this point and we hit $40K! So if I focus more, not let minor issues get me down, and stop being lazy and self-doubting, then who knows what we can achieve.
Very good. Family is the highest virtue of time well spent.
My goal was to escape having to answer to a boss and to be in control of my time. I still feel liberated as a self-employed person and feel these simple goals are still worth all the effort of running a small w/cleaning business.
2016 was a down year (actually, it was the first time my gross had declined from the previous year in 10 years of busiā¦errā¦self-employment). Lots of distractions, poor time management and some bad bidding, as well. So our gross went up ~23% in 2017. And we surpassed our previous record year (2015) by about 7%.
Iām lousy at tracking, but my seat-of-the-pants feeling is that I put in less work last year than I have for the past several years. I attribute that to bumping up my pricing (service minimum went up by $50, and per-window by another buck), and getting a little more serious about power washing. I also started to limit the number of jobs I took on that had storm windows, since Iāve found I always do poorer on them hourly and energy-wise (something Iām beginning to value more highly).
In 2018 Iād like to triple the amount of power washing I do. Then maybe Iāll finally crack six digits. But only if I can pull it off in less time and effort than I put in this year
Id prefer working less hours with better paying jobs and easier work at somewhat lesser annaul sales because you can build and add to that up each year.
You say you want to triple the amount of power washing but with less time and effort. Is it possible to add that much more work while working the same hours?
As a result of this thread I have tightened up my business plan for 2018. It was a bit loosy goosey before but I still achieved all my mental, unwritten goals. I now have written down my plan, crunched the #'s and made some appropriate phone calls.
Good luck and God speed to you all for this new year 2018. Donāt forget to update the year on your invoices!
