That would be the worst weather for me. I’d faint in the heat, I just hate it. Probably I’d have to quit working at 9am and stay indoors all day. Then again we had about an inch of snow last night… I don’t like that either.
What is this snow of which you speak??? LOL
The way this economy is going, we all could go from business to homeless.
No doubt… A very low % of my Fall repeat accounts are going this year. Good thing I have my route!!
I can understand that from a lot of you guys that are in different regions! You guys have the winter to deal with with very cold elements to work around like ( SNOW ) then the freezing temps ! I will take the heat over those elements any day ! But when we are having 115* weather with 75% or more humidity, I am thinking how nice it would be to be around 50*
Have or has anyone of you ever thought of adding pool cleaning to your business ? I added it 2 years ago … WOW is all i can say … What a awesome add on. It is not rocket science by any means to learn how to service a pool the right way and to keep it simple. I have 40 pools that i take care of at $ 85.00 and on up a pool per month.
Do the math !!!
The Xmas lighting is a big thing also … You are already at the customers house doing windows… They know you and you have a good repor with them so why not offer the whole package deal ! Gutter cleaning here in Az is like bringing sand to the beach ! No work here in the city and surroundings of Phx,
You just have to be INNOVATIVE …
Funny how this post went from losing account to the economy ! LOL
One of my customers is a snowbird that comes from Oregon ( portland ) He didnt want to drive his 2010 BMW m3 convert, back to phx, as i was talking to him he asked if i would drive it back and he would pay for everything ! I jumped on that in a heartbeat.
He paid for my flight and gave me $ 650.00 to make it back and said i could keep the rest ! I made it back in a day 1/2 and put $ 422.34 in my account.
Where else are you going to go and get paid that kind of money and drive a $ 80k bmw and flirt with girls on the road and hit speeds over 140 mph ? Good thing there was no party poopers or i would of been in the pooper !
Moral of this is … be resourceful and open to different things.
I thought of it, I even came up with what I thought… was a brilliant idea to advertise with direct mail.
I’ll share my secret in hopes you give some good advice on how to get the hang of it. I think I priced the tools at around 1500 hundred bucks with that vacuum thing. But then I started reading about electricity and it all got kind of complicated.
Anyway my advert Idea was to use google satellite to see who actually had pools, compare that to our cities property assessment map to get addresses and only mail out to the 1 in 20 people that actually have a pool. I don’t know if that’s a good Idea but it’s what I came up with at the time.
Brilliant! A childhood buddy of mine has a pool cleaning company and does very well with it, everyone has an above ground pool around here.
Never thought to use satellite for that purpose. Pretty cool though I’ll pass that along to him if he’s not already doing it.
Funny thing is when I just looked at the satellite of my town, I saw that, apparently, there’s a listing for an airport in my neighbor’s backyard lol wtf?
You can also go to a list broker and buy a list of people with pools, broken out by neighborhood, income home value what ever. they are pretty cheap
So, your customer gave prior approval to hit 140MPH?
I’ve been looking all over the world… Manhattan… Wow! But also Buckingham Palace, Paris and Johannesburg/Soweto. If you go to street view in south africa all the houses have walls around them with barbed wire on top, their windows are covered with bars.
Some places like the Acropolis didn’t allow street view but they have their own pics inserted. Maybe they thought it would be bad for tourism, showing their hand or whatever.
I just tried googling list broker winnipeg but never got a find. Just real estate brokers etc. What would these people be called?
Look up fairfield marketing in conneticut. Ed waschilla owns it he can get a list for just about anything. I dont have his number on me right know but if you need it let me know. I think you would google mailing lists.
Well , Lets just say he didn’t give me prior approval ,But he knew the temptation would be there for me. When i left Oregon he said to me with a grin on his face … I know you will do the speed limit right ? I just smiled with a grin from ear to ear !
I even had it cleaned at a carwash to get all of the 140 mph bug splatter off the hood ! LOL Thats how i roll ! LOL
He looked on the computer to see my average speed and it came up 80 mph … He looked at me and said WOW … that is pretty good ! I told him yeah it is … But i think the computer is is not working right ! He knew i drove it faster than that becasue he asked me how it handled at 100 mph … I told him it felt like i was doing 65 mph ! He laughed. Iasked him if he would like me to take his Lamborghini gallardo to Oregon for him ! He said thanks but no thank you .
Well my best advice is to get to know a person in the business or if you have a friend that is in the pool business and go around with him and help him for free.
Most pools are pretty much the same even though there are saltwater pools and then the traditional chlorine pools. Salt water pools are great and it is even better if they have the pebble tech bottoms compared to the older type pools. There are a lot of variables in pools since some have the pop up heads on the bottom. But to keep the balance at its right level is the pretty much the same on all pools. I do not do those above ground pools since those are a pain in the but. But get ahold of a pool service tech and ask him to teach you or if you know of a friend that is in it … Buy him lunch and i am sure he would be more than willing to teach you. I dunno about going to a broker and buying pool routes ! If you do really check into the customers … There are a lot of scammers out there selling bogus pool routes ! All of my pools i have are from my customers that i clean there windows. The best part is i use there equipment to clean but i bring my own chemicals.
Winter time is great since you do not have to really worry as much since people do not swim in there pools even if the pool is heated … Summer time can give you problems big time if you dont take care of a customers pool right ! A pool here in the midst of summer can look like a green swamp in a matter of a few days … Then you have some work cut out for you for sure !
I hope this kinda gave you a idea.
So if you have customers with pools hit them up ! I am sure they would rather cut you a check than the other guy. But it could be a double edged sword if you mess it up … You could lose them as a customer from cleaning there windows !!!
But the best thing to do is go out with someone and see if you even like doing it … It’s not for everyone !
not helpful at all.
GoogleMaps/Google Earth is addictive 
They are a bit creepy though. I found my old car in a total of 2 different places on it. Apparently my neighborhood was originally where the big NJ airport was, before they built Newark Liberty up the road. Didn’t realize that it was right next door
Then what is it MIKE THE WINDOW CLEANER that you were looking for ?
I gave input the way i took it from what i read ! Maybe it is past both of our capacities … All i know is … The added service i am doing … It is working for me quite well ! Maybe someone else on here can maybe understand what you are really wanting !
Sorry to be of no help to you !
I used to do about 8 buildings and a $6 Million house for this guy, George Mildrag. He owned a company called Entech, and apparently helped design the Pontiac Fiero.
Interesting thing, he originally lived in his car. His engineer co-workers called him “Back-Seat George.”
Died a couple of years ago… he was an inspiration to me.
Good thing he didn’t try living in the back seat of a Fiero!
I’m sorry if I seemed rude… it comes naturally to me, a reflex.
I guess I was looking for a book called “How to Start and Operate a Pool Cleaning Business for Dummies”
And you’re right, that is past the capacity of a forum. Maybe if I watch enough you tube videos I’ll be able to fake it till I make it.
No problem Mike … But the best way to learn the pool business is to go out with someone you know or see if a pool cleaner tech will take you around ! It is the hands on experience that is going to really help you. Youtube is useless …
But anyways … no harm or fowl taken.
