We’re located in Ontario Canada and this month has been the slowest it’s ever been for a July. I’m honestly worried for August and September when it’s usually dead. Our usual customers skipped their service this year…Mortgage interest rates went up like 3 times this year. Me thinks we’re definteily in a recession
Still booked ahead, but not as much as usual. (But I’ve stopped advertising this year, am busy enough on word of mouth) Located in Florida.
Busiest months to date, hired some more help… booked out 4 weeks still on average
1 Like
I’m booking for the first week in September right now. Are the wildfires in Canada affecting business in Ontario? I know that in the past, wildfires have definitely affected business in Colorado.
nope not affected. We spoke to some competitors and they say they’re experiencing the same. Not good. Interest rates are constantly going up and at this point rent here is getting just as bad as NY. We have a fellow that subcontracts us quite a bit of commercial work and says no one wants to do any maintenance this year…they’re slow with work too
Residential has sucked this year. Route has also dropped off. People are trying to cut costs due to the insane inflation we have seen over the last 2 yrs. Commercial jobs have been good to me this year but the residential has been slower this year for sure in my area.
Unpredictable.
A few weeks ago we were only booked out 1.5 weeks, when typically it should be 4-6 week.
3 weeks ago we had a nice little bump in business, but unfortunately one of my managers got hurt and I was forced back into the field to cover him. Now we are booked out 3 weeks, which is where we should be, but its less revenue than we would usually have this time of year.
I actually hit up a lot of friends from around the country to ask. Most aren’t doing well this year. I think the constant threat of inflation/war/“recession” etc is getting to people. Pair that with the fact that everyone blew their financial load during the pandemic, and the fact that TikTok made our industry sexy to a few million newbies, its going to be a tough few years IMO.
1 Like
From a “supplying you guys” standpoint… It’s been busier than ever here the past few months. I’m super surprised by it. I thought for sure things would have crashed by now.
From talking with window cleaners, it seems like some or super busy, and others are super slow. Not a lot of in between.
We are in weird times.
1 Like
Spring and early summer were crazy busy. Best on record, I believe. Schedule dried up practically overnight, though. I think the crazy heatwave has had an impact on people planning outdoor projects. Plus, all the rain we’ve had hasn’t helped. I’m enjoying some needed downtime at the moment, and hoping for a busy fall.
1 Like
Same here. super busy March -July , And now it’s dead . Always happens every august. time to take a vacation, let the body rest and work on my honey do list
This is year two of taking most of august off, just to recharge. Ads are still running, calls still coming. So no work in the field, just getting quotes out and filling the schedule for when I get back from the Huge.
Had my first round of holiday light quotes out too, so that’s wild.
Same, super busy Feb-June then dropped like a rock. I typically see a slowdown in July due to everyone being in Florida or the lake but this is exceptional.
One more thing, I have noticed an uptick of ‘tire kickers’ gathering multiple bids and/or return calls stating they’ll get their stepson to do it.
Hella tire kickers in my area this year. Lots of route dropping off too. Lots of crappy looking windows in my area. I won’t eat at a place if the windows look bad… Alot of the clowns in my area try to save a few bucks and get the staff to squeegee windows with a homedepot squeegee and rubbers that are 3 months old.
I am about to focus on growing more commercial work. I like doing commercial outsides only and when I can do the job at night and not be bothered. Only downside is getting paid can be slow…
Agreed Mr.T. I offer interiors, but I really try not to. Somebody has to be there for interiors, which usually means working around employees or customers. I’d much rather show up after hours, bang it out, and have the automated invoice go out. What do you offer for payment? I’m just doing net30 right now, but I’m also mkstly doing independent storefronts, not a lot of big commercial work or chains.
For payment I make due upon delivery of service, they can pay online…Then if its over $150 I just have them mail a check. Larger tickets $2000 and up I usually net30 and have them mail check or bank wire. I like to give residential clients option to pay online and I just charge a processing fee…I prefer checks. All those processing fees add up so i am trying to get away from that.
Right on. Whereabouts in TX are you? Just left DFW, wish I’d started window cleaning there, so many more clients than rural New England, haha.
I’m about a half hour east of Austin in Bastrop.
I prefer checks as well but residential clients love paying with the credit card. Take a look at your processing fees for last year and then take a look at your job count. Divide the processing fees by job count and just add that amount to every estimate moving forward. Rough idea to get the point across: $100k in revenue and say everyone used a credit card. 3% = 3k and say 250 jobs for the year puts you at $12 / job price increase. That’s the extreme example but in reality you can raise each estimate by $5-10 and cover all your processing fees for the year. It will actually increase your profit and you can happily tell people to use their card and get their points/cash backk.
As an added bonus, I usually just email/text the invoice over to them if they want to use their credit card as I hate inputting all the data in front of them. That’s the only time I’ll allow a tip option to show up and it definitely gets tips coming in to even further offset the cost.
2 Likes
This was my first full season of window cleaning, and I had help only two days a week. Typically did 5 to 8 jobs a week and was booked solid basically from May to July. I’m located in Muskoka Ontario, which is a pretty high demand and low supply area. Currently slowing down for the last week of August. All in all very happy with my first season!
Our residential sales completely tanked mid July to the present day. Thankfully we’ve had some large commercial projects that were schedule during that time and we didn’t feel it. We just completed those commercial projects, I have about a 1/3 of our employees on vacation over the next week. We are only about 5-7 days out on work. We start hanging christmas lights in 4 weeks so we are trying to keep the schedule full until then.
