Hey everybody!!! So I have spent some time here lurking around picking up a bunch of information. So many knowledgeable people here and it’s time I join the forum and learn more about the window cleaning biz.
Little introduction about me first before I fire off a couple questions. I started my business back in March of this year doing regular move out cleaning for property managers and once the busy season was over I felt lost and really wanted to add to my business. I have a couple commercials cleaning contracts that keeps the cash flow coming in but I wanted more. So I decided why not windows? I did some small advertising on Facebook and craigslist and got several nice size residential jobs. These are customers that want twice a year cleaning. The jobs went very well, my customers were happy and commented that it was nice to see outside again. I accomplished this with absolutely no experience at all. I self taught myself by buying the basic equipment from lowes and went to work on my own house. Needless to say the wife was happy lol.
So here I am at the end of 2018 and I really want to grow the residential window cleaning side of my business. I just landed a pretty big twice a year commercial account, and I am in the process of purchasing a wfp for that specific job so more training at home coming up. I’m just gonna drop a few questions below that I have about the business in general and trust me I have a bunch more for later lol.
I’m in Virginia, where in the winter it can be 70 one day and snowing the next. Do you guys stay busy in the winter? Do you put a lot into marketing this time of year?
I would love to get a average of 8 to 10 residential customers a month. What is the most effective way to obtain that goal? What has worked best for everyone here? I’m thinking flyers, Facebook and Craigslist? Maybe a print ad? Mostly in my city the competition is doing commercial, I dont see many folks advertising residential window cleaning.
Last question I promise lol…Do most of you try to sell recurring accounts for monthly or quarterly? And what type of paperwork should i show up with at a customers house when doing the quote?
Sorry for the long post and questions, just trying to learn more about this business and how to grow it.
Typically residential would drop completely off after Christmas and pick back up again around March/April, depending on the weather. I’d hold off on advertising right now, wait until mid-February or so to get things rolling.
Most customers tend to have their windows done once a year, sometimes in the fall and spring. Monthly and quarterly is pretty much nonexistent in my experience.
Back in the day, ValPak worked wonders but with the advent of online marketing it has fallen by the wayside. We got our start here in KY by using Angie’s List, which was great until they merged with Home Advisor, which IMO is a scam.
Now one thing that has been a lifesaver is Nextdoor. You can’t advertise on it, but what you do is have a customer post how wonderful a job you did on their neighborhood, and you’ll find it really gets the phone ringing.
My advice…go out if your way to do a kick butt job, always do a little extra like mirrors, change a couple lightbulbs, batteries in smoke detectors etc. Word will get out you’re different from the others and business will come in. INCLUDE the screen cleaning, INCLUDE the sills. Don’t flippin’ nitpick every type of window and cost, people just want the bottom line.
Yeah I dont hear many good things about home advisor or thumbtack. Seems like a scam to me but of course I haven’t tried them so who knows.
I forgot to mention I am a fulltime firefighter so 8 to 10 jobs a month and I will be happy lol
Good job getting it started newbie:) Hey I too started my biz basically without any experience and learning from YouTube videos. And just like you, I didn’t go full force right away as I (was) a FT licensed electrician; doing WC kinda as a “heck who knows idea” to make extra cash. To move the story along, it’s sounds like you’ve got a good head on your shoulders, and have got the right direction and for some, the ability to overcome “just do it” “crash & burn, just get up and try again “. Its important to have in these early stages of the business. Moving forward, I haven’t found FB advertising to help get calls, nor anyone with money to find me on CL (Craigslist).
I’ll share with you a little trick that has worked to help drive calls and confidence in a business… Do a (or just a few) small WC jobs, and ask them to write down their overall review, gather those up and add them to your website, advertisement, etc (of course ask their approval first). This will generate “if they trust him 5stars, he might be good for me” idea. This has always worked and still does for the biggest outfits around the world.
I believe for someone who is trying to build a business you are correct. In this case it’s just supplementing existing income it sounds like.
There is no need to try to build a “brand” or market all year for something that is not meant to generate a large steady work flow.
Trying to build a brand in this industry is highly unlikely to your average person proof is in the brands that exist.
I would recommend store fronts, something that is re occurring. The tough part is this work is fast paced and to make descent money it takes time. Must be fast, efficient and dedicated to sell. New guys will not make worthwhile money for a year or more fulltime, if part time, even longer.
Residential is where your full time job will pay off as a selling point, these are the people who it matters to and want a more personal service.
Again, being new and part time will take much longer to develop skills to make decent money and a customer base will take much longer with once or twice a year cleanings to generate the money you are thinking to generate.
^ Very good points. I was trying to get across the point that even if we get called for a bid it might be a year or more before we get the notice to proceed.
For example I was called to bid on a lodge in May, 2017. They called because they saw my Facebook advertising. I emailed the bid in May, got no response, did one or more followups, got no response. Then I forgot about them and assumed they were just price shopping or tire kicking.
I was surprised to get a call early December 2018 saying they were ready for me. I was very happy to have temperatures above freezing so I went and did the job.
