Horrible! The POX on this covid!!
@cade is this happening with many of the service sector businesses in California? It appears Newsom is wreaking some serious havoc on the economy there. We are seeing a slight influx of people from out of state who are able to work remotely, which includes CA, but I wonder where people supplying labor (like window cleaning) in CA are going? My brother-in-law said there is a sea of for sale signs in Carlsbad.
We moved from Los Angeles to Las Vegas 4 years ago . Cost of living was to high in LA, traffic in the morning was a nightmare . And the homeless problem is out of control . Not to mention the high cost of trying to grow legitimate business . Don’t get me wrong the weather is amazing in California, it’s just to over price. People that move out of California are going to Arizona , Nevada and Texas primary . Also to Idaho, Utah and New Mexico
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Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girls dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day.
But on topic: This year was exponential compared to last year’s revenue.
Can we close Nevada, Utah, and Idaho to California? I want it to be what I chose to move to, not what they are bringing with them!
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This virus has definitely taught me the importance of residential work. I know a lot of us lost commercial work during the shutdowns. At least with residential, I was able to clean the outside of houses.
Some money was better than no money! I am very thankful that I am still cleaning windows.
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Over 15% growth in sales is what we are on tract for. But expenses are waaaaay up. It was an expensive year with crew issues, increased marketing, and overall inefficiencies. Our P&L statement will be in the negative this year.
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@Kyle I imagine this will put you in a strong position for next year. If/when we get a vaccine, hopefully by April from a business standpoint, (its going to be good for business, regardless if everyone agrees with having one) then I imagine there is going to be an explosion of spending. Hopefully we can all catch that wave.
Lol it’s crazy because last year I so desperately wanted more commercial work in our portfolio… now I’m really glad we worked so hard to cultivate a good residential reputation instead. Here in the GTA we know a lot of people struggling to make ends meet because they’re strictly storefront/large commercial buildings
I don’t have a lot of stats. Out of the three guys that sold, two went to Utah and the other to Texas
I’m up in sales but the expenses were up significantly…I’m afraid by the end of December it will be like yours. But, I hired guys with tons of experience, cost more, but they are running on their own and I’m finally freed up to try and actually grow by design next spring instead of retraining or working alone for the first couple of months
About 7 to 9% drop in gross revenue. Lower net because I bought a new vehicle, bigger PW and spent more on equipment and advertising and labor. My janitorial accounts took the biggest hits. Fortunately I diversified into PW and gutter cleaning and traveled farther for jobs.
Next year will be better. My son returned from being a stranded traveler in the Philippines for 7 months and he is invigorating me to hit it really hard next year. He wants to buy into the business and improve our marketing, get a RO/DI and a gutter vacuum.
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Haven’t run any reports lately, but I’m guessing gross sales were down ~30% or more. Discontinued all interiors except for a few vacant homes. Many regulars didn’t bother to schedule at all this year. One large commercial account got stalled halfway through due to an equipment failure (their lift broke down, and they had to send a part out for rebuild).
And I was very laid back in filling the schedule the way I typically do.
We were fortunate enough to secure some SBA funding which floated us through and kept our personal salary only a little below what it had been last year. Did not take hardly any distributions this year, though.
Had plenty of quality time at home, and got to work on some projects that have been put off for years.
Overall, not complaining. Our bills are paid, our bellies fed, and more time for the stuff that really matters. A bit of trepidation over what next year may bring, but I know that whatever may come, we’ll be ok. It might require a little more hustle, though. I’m inspired by all of you who were able to maintain or grow your businesses despite the circumstances.
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the last three years we grew by 46.9%, 19.9%, 18.2%. The number keeps dropping because we keep getting closer to the max we can do by ourselves while not being able to find consistent/reliable/long term employees. In numbers, that represents growth by $50,702, $31,746.5, $34,589.5. This year we’re projected to grow by $3,811 or 1.69%. That’s better than the 20% down that I was imagining earlier in the year, and is also the result of a bad employee experience earlier in the year that led us to not having any employees for a few months and have one only half time right now.
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@leavingnc I was thinking about you the other day Ben and wondering how you were. Good to hear your well, especially with all that CA has been dealing with! I figured you were either too busy to post or out of the business.
We are in CA, and we’re doing well, after I made my post I realized that while we’re only increasing by $3,800, our expenses will likely be about $5,000 less so that’s a net growth of about $9,000. Not bad for during a world wide pandemic.
I haven’t been on for a while because of other life stuff, but I was doing some research and the forum came up so I thought I’d log in again. How are you?
Yes, that is good, especially considering the pandemic! I added pressure washing this year and will be doing a major push next year to grow the pressure washing side and not the window cleaning side. I also gave up almost all my storefronts this year which I don’t regret one bit. Focusing on high end houses and larger commercial. Don’t think I will grow much at all this year, In fact I think I would be down around 10k if I wasn’t for pressure washing. The dollar per hour is so much better for pw, its largely better on the body, and easier to teach employees. I’m still going to have window cleaning employees, but Im going to use that more for gaining customers.
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We gave up a few of our worst ones as well and it feels so good knowing we don’t have to do them. We raised our storefront minimum as well. I just recently decided I’m not going to do gutter cleaning any more. My partner still wants to do it so he’s free too 
I just recently researched and started offering HW removal and I’m much happier to do that than gutter cleaning.
Good for you. Its important to enjoy your work! Clean out those bottom earns to fill more at the top. Its hard to do, especially when I like them as a person, but at the end of the day my family and I lose out because I have to work longer hours to make the same money.
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Happy new year everyone. It was a challenging year to say the least. Looks like we are down 37% from last year.
Our struggles were 1- wrapping my head around dealing with the chaos (how to get employees to come back when they made much more on unemployment, hiring new and training/educating new employees during a busy season) 2-corona virus cancelations & outside only jobs 3- loss of 100% of our commercial business for a couple months and then getting about 75% back 4- employee retention.
It’s been a chaotic 2020. We are in Delaware and are shut down till March 15 when it warms up. I’m thankful for the down time.
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