Need Advice: Thinking of starting my own window cleaning business

Newbie Corner
1

So for those of you who haven’t read my REALLY long introduction post… here is a brief summary (I promise I will try to keep it short this time)

I’m 31, from the Houston area. I work full time on an oil rig, I live on a drilling on land about +/- 30 days straight (or however long it takes to finish drilling our well). I then get anywhere from 7 days up to 3 weeks off (or how ever long it takes to move the rig to the next location and get to the point where they require our service. I’m in the directional drilling business. I make a pretty good living doing this, and there is no way that I would ever be able to replace this with a window cleaning business, at least not any time soon. Last year I made 169K, by the end of this year I should make closer to 200K. Even though I make pretty decent money, I still find it very difficult to sit at home for days or weeks at a time and not do anything. I starting my first business when I was 18, and I have always had the entrepreneur bug since. My most recent business was my very succesful Margarita Machine Rental business. I had 8 margarita machines that I rented out every weekend for $100 each, plus extra mixes sold, and delivery fees depending on the area. After coming to work on the rig, I was no longer able to service my customers on the weekend, so I gave the business to my dad. I gave him 4 margarita machines worth about $1800 each (used), and kept 4 of them. Now he makes about $400 a weekend on them.

Anyways… My point is this. I wan’t to start my own window cleaning business soooo bad. Primarely I just want to do it to make a little extra cash on this side when I am sitting around at home on my days off. I’m hoping that one day I can pass this business off to my son, who has strong desires of being his own boss one day. Since he was a young boy he always saw me work hard for my money, and would join me in my personal business ventures at times.

So here is my dilemma… Due to my previous business ventures serving residential customers, I am extremely aware of what it takes to run a successful small business and how to deal with residential customers. The problem is, I am not certain how I will be able to manage servicing my customers, when i am gone for 20-30 days at a time. I would love to start my business and establish a nice client base that would keep me busy on my days. Realistically though, if a customer calls the very next day after I leave to my rig, that means that I will not be able to service that customer for about 20-30 days until I get back home. Personally, I find that unacceptable. But you tell me…do you ever schedule customers 20-30 days out? So my initial thought was to just get started anyways, and just setup a store front route for once a month. That way every time I come home, I can hit my usual round of store fronts. I know what you are thinking… stay away from store fronts!!! But personally, I think that would be the best option for me. I know there isn’t much money in it, but if I can bring home a couple hundred bucks every once in a while I will be happy. Trust me, I’m not doing this 100% for the money, but I am also not doing it to loose money. Within a few more years I will be in a new position that I will be working two weeks on, and two weeks off. So 6 months working full time, and that will leave 6 months to my window cleaning business.

So before I go on and on typing away… What are your thoughts? Do you think there is a possibility for me to be successful at this business, considering my lack of availability. I’m even thinking of hiring a friend or family member to help me get started. He can do the jobs while I am gone, and I will pickup where he left off on my days off. I will pay him an hourly rate. Then one day, when my son is old enough, he can slowly take over the business.

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I think that anything is possible. I also think that your situation is a tough one. Even trying to run your business just on the weekend is a lot more difficult than it sounds

3

So short term your looking for a hobby that pays for itself, and long term- a business that can be built into a viable career for your son. Am I correct?

I think that storefront is a great answer for your short term goals- its fun and not very demanding schedule-wise. Its also how a lot of people gain experience and get started in this business. If you learn some good technique, and work at building tight routes, it can be pretty profitable. I think the only shortcoming to storefronts is that you’ll have a harder time selling them on the weekends, when businesses are busier and managers/owners are sometimes not around.

There are some on the forum who book out months in advance for residential work (@buddyo comes to mind), though I believe that they have large lists of repeat clients that they do this with.

Those are my thoughts for now- I may think of something more when I’m actually awake… lol.

4

you wont be hungry enough to make it work. All you need is a decent hobby/voluntary work to occupy your freetime

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Tim, Alex:

Thanks for your replies… I feel I little better about starting now. Would love to hear some more comments. I won’t be doing weekends unless the client requests. I’m planning on setting up a route between 8am to 3pm when my wife and kids are home from school and work. I will try to squeeze in a residential one eventually… once I perfect my skills on the store fronts of course.

Question:

If a residential customer calls us, and they want to book a residential service, how would they react if we told them… “Well our first available appointment would be x day, is that OK with you?” (which is 20 to 30 days from the day they called, and I will visit them as soon as I got home from my rig)

Personally I just feel like they would say… “Oh my, that’s a little longer than I expecting. Uhhhmmm… I’ll just call back to reschedule once I talk to my husband!” (and of course they never call back). I’m sure that is just something I will have to deal with considering my circumstances. Now once I do their initial service it would be easy to schedule their next service 6 months or 1 year later once I know what days I will be home. I’ll just have my wife call around to fill my schedule for the days I will be home.

So… when a first time customer calls you for a residential service, what is the furthest away that you have scheduled them? Would 20-30 days be waaaay to long? What is the best way to phrase that conversation when I need to break it to them that I cannot service them for 20-30 days.

Now if I can convince a close friend or family member or hire someone to do some part time work for me on the side, that would solve my problem. Although that would cut into my profit margin, which defeats the purpose of me starting my business, and takes all the fun out of it for me if I let someone else do the work. But it would be the blind leading the blind because not only do I need to train myself on window cleaning, but I would also have to train someone else, and I can’t do that until I perfect my skills… I really need to find a friendly window cleaner in my side of Houston that is willing to do some sub-contract work for customers that would rather not wait the 20-30 days. Hopefully they call to book their service a couple days before I get back home, and I wouldn’t have to worry about subbing it out.

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I dont have too much of an issue getting customers to book two weeks out. Repeat customers love me and I’ve been able to get them to wait. New customers seem very willing to just hang up with you and find someone that can meet their needs sooner, this is the category that I think that you will fall under.

Because I started my business only working on the weekend, I was very limited to the time that I could schedule, but I’ve been able to book a month out. As far as converstation, don’t mention that you have another job. You don’t want your customer to think that this is just a little side thing for you. You want them to think that this is your business and thats how far out your booked. Gives you a little credibility.

As far as getting a friend. I would personally get someone up and going with you as soon as possible. Yeah, it may be the blind leading the blind but he’ll be up and running just as quickly as you are. Will it cut into your margins for now, yes, but he will be able to add to them for the 20-30 days that you aren’t home. And as soon as you two are running decent and you start doing resi, hire another part time guy. I would feel more comfortable if I had two employees out at a home instead of just one.

I’ve been doing this part time. I have two part time employees that come out with me on the larger jobs. On the medium sized jobs I might take one with me. Small jobs I do myself. With the amount of work that I’ve been able to do with the two part timers, I can send both of them out to do a job by themselves if I want.

That’s my $.02.

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I’d say the best way to go is with an employee or two, maybe a partner. I don’t normally suggest a partner but you need someone you can trust while you are away. When you are off the rig, you can work with them and when you are gone, they can keep things running.

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Making the money you make the last thing I would want to do in my free time is clean windows. Have you thought about possibly funding a different start up business, maybe web based or at least something not on the service side? You got experience with party rentals, possibly expand on that? I am not saying I don’t like what I do, but I am saying that I do not want to be back cleaning windows everyday in 100 degrees.

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[MENTION=2009]jonnyald[/MENTION]
What makes you assume that I won’t be hungry enough to be successful?
[MENTION=5152]wws[/MENTION]
Thanks again for those tips. I recently was able to get my wife out of working after 12 years. Our goal is for my wife is to run a successful business from home now that she is home and able to answer ALL phone calls that come in. In the event that I do need to schedule a few weeks out, I will make sure she handles it appropriately. I might have her throw something along the lines of… “Well due to our recently “specials” that we ran in your area we have booked several of your neighbors, and unfortunately the soonest available appointment that I have for you is two weeks from now. Will that work for you?” If they say “Yes” then great, I will provide the service on my next days off. If they say “No”, then she can quickly say… “Actually, I do see one spot that is available from a customer that recently rescheduled… How about this date and time?” If she has to schedule it before I get home, then I will pass it on to my helper. At the same time, I will try to book store fronts for as frequent as I can. If their appointment falls on my days off, then I will simply pass it on to my helper. I have no problem passing on the work to someone else regardless of how much I profit. My goal is to rack up enough business to stay busy enough to hire someone. We want a business that my wife can run from home, and I can help when I am home. She works out daily, so I can have her deliver door hangers in target areas as she goes for her daily “walk”…lol. She will be doing cold calls, and following up with potential new clients and existing clients for repeat services. She is 4’11" and weights 110 lbs soaking wet, if not I would train her to clean windows too. So it’s best that I just keep her in the office running the show. Eventually my teenage son can help with the window cleaning and door hangers. He is 5’10" and very fit, so he should be able to handle the labor part soon. Also my dad is 63, and is in great shape for his age. He will be retiring next year, and is always looking for ways to make extra cash. He has 3 rent houses, runs the Margarita Machine Rental business that I passed on to him, and is a full time machinist. My mom has owned her own Residential Cleaning Service for over 35 years. She has two crews going, and they service 10 homes weekly. She runs around and helps them where needed. I’m thinking of eventually adding a Post-Construction Clean-Up Service for home builders for pre-move in clean up. At the same time, I know for a fact that some of her current customers would hire my services. They are all between 250-400K homes. So I probably have a few residential customers before I even start my business. She said none of them get their windows professionally cleaned. I’m going to wait until I get plenty of practice on residential windows first, before I market myself to them though. Several years ago I owned a pressure washing business, and lots of her customers hired me to do their homes just for the simple fact that I was her son. They were very pleased with my service, and I was able to add on some of their neighbors along the way. So I can do gutter cleaning, and pressure washing again, along with my window cleaning, and I pretty much have instant business right there.

I would love to start this business up for my wife so she can run it, we can hire the right help, and I can help on my days off. I just have to help her get things going to start the business. I have successful started pressure washing service, lawn service, and a margarita machine rental companies in the past. All which I had to sell or pass on due to my focus on career advancement. I have no doubt that I can be successful at this. With my experience and work ethic, combined with my wives work ethic and customer service skills from her job, I think we will be on the right track to running a successful window cleaning business.

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You want her to LIE?!?!

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well,perhaps im wrong as my perception is based on my experience here in England. Here the recession has bitten deeply and only the most determined can make a new business work. What im saying is that when the rain is pouring or the wind blowing hard(maybe in your case Sun beating down hard ) will you be driven enough to head out to those windows when you have an oilrig paycheck lining your pocket .

12

Ya we have considered all sorts of possibilities for different home based business that we can start. We have thought long and hard about expanding back into the party rental business where we have lots of expertise. The only problem is that Houston is EXTREMELY saturated with party rental companies. Not that I would ever let that stop me, but it is a rough business to get into. When I first started my Margarita Rental Business, I didn’t realize that there were 25 other companies that rented margarita machines. I was pretty much booked up since the very first day I started, always had more business than I could handle. I have the disposable income to invest in tons of really cool party rental equipment, but with the current party rental market in Houston, there really isn’t much room for profit. If I did, I would have tpurchase large equipment, like train rides, mechanical bulls, or large rides that bring in between $500-$800 for three hours. But it takes up a lot of space requires very expensive insurance, etc. You have to to hire lots of help to run the equipment. Return on investment isn’t the greatest either with current prices. We have also thought about the web based businesses, but haven’t really found the right one. We’ve considered my wife starting a Corporate Party Event Coordinator Business where she would coordinate corporate parties. You basically network with DJ’s, caterers, party rental companies, etc., and simply nogotiate deals. Then all you do is mark up the price to the corporate company and charge for your services. It can be a very profitable business and requires little to no investment on the business owners part, as you simply sub-contract third party companies to provide the equipment. Eventually you can purchase equipment where you see necessary, to increase your profits. But we haven’t decided what we really want to do.

Currently the Window Cleaning business seems very appealing to me. I plan to really make this work. Regardless of what my current full-time job income is, I’m not afraid to break a sweat to make a little money. Hell… I sit around all day in a trailer watching TV and computers for 12 hours while I am working on a rig. I do very little manual labor. So a little manual labor when I’m on my days off would be great exercise for me.

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No Larry… I will make sure she tells them the truth that I have another full time job, and we are a new company and don’t have the staff to promptly service them yet and I won’t be able service them until I am off from my full time job. Just like I’m pretty sure EVERY other part time window cleaner does out there. Right?

How about some productive advice for a fellow Texan and newbie here trying to start a Window Cleaning Business Larry.

You are the “professional” here… How about some advice? How do you suggest I address that situation?

14

If you have someone to handle scheduling and phone calls and such, maybe find a fire fighter or someone who works that type of schedule, one or two days on two or three days off. This would help for customers who need it sooner rather than later. It would be much easier to partner with someone in a similar situation(full time job, days off at a time) than trying to do it with an employee right off the bat.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I don’t claim to know how every part time window cleaner handles this situation. Your case is more extreme than most due to you being gone for long stretches. I don’t believe being dishonest is the best way to handle it, though. I think the idea [MENTION=4853]phinkle[/MENTION] gave about bringing on a partner is something you should consider. Another fellow Texan and member here [MENTION=3083]smezzell[/MENTION] has a job that keeps him away for weeks at a time and he has a partner in the business. Seems to work well for them. Good luck, feel free to give me a call if there’s anything else I can do to help.

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Great point… My brother works full time and is an IT Manager. He has a pretty flexible schedule and is off on Weekends and works half days on Fridays. I also have a couple of friends that are fire fighters and others that work a night shift. I will talk to some of them to see who is interested in making a little extra cash here and there… Thanks

17

Thanks Larry… I see your point. I agree, the best solution would be to find a partner to help out in my absence. I’m sure I will be bugging you soon for advice regarding Window Cleaning in the Texas area. Do you know if your insurance broker would be able to assist me with an insurance quote. Or do you suggest I find a local insurance broker?

18

I’d check locally first. If you have trouble finding someone who can do it for you, I’m sure he could help you out.

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I’d tell a customer I was running a special only if I really had been.

I suppose if you really have that much drive to keep a well-paying job and start another business you can make it work.
For me, I think I’d feel pretty out of control if I couldn’t commit decisively to regular times for storefront or definite dates for residential and know that I could absolutely keep those appointments.
One thing you could do -and here is where to do it- is thoroughly school yourself on running a window cleaning business from the get-go with one or more employees. If your wife is that willing, you could both get started on the ground floor together. Incidentally, back in 2006-7 I had a girl working for me as a window cleaner. She was I think 5’0" and not too much over 110 and did quite well until she burned out!

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Welcome.
How long have you been cleaning windows?