If you have an effective marketing plan, and depending on your location, you should have around 3-4 months of winter to contend with. The other 8-9 months should be booked fairly solid (eventually).
I prefer to take off winters entirely. Shutdown in early December, start back up in early March.
What I can make by focusing on more lucrative services in the warmer months, more than offsets the benefit of having the “steady income” of route work. Maintaining a route during the good months creates opportunity cost.
If that principle holds true once you bring employees on, then it would make sense to pay just a little less in the good months, and budget for a constant salary to keep those employees during the slow/dead months.
I’ve never tried it, though. I like working solo. But we essentially do the same thing in our s-corp. We take a salary check nearly every month, whether I worked or not. (Well, last winter we took a dividend in December and lived off that for a couple months, but same idea, pretty much).
I have a $600 cash job next Saturday and 3 estimates to go on today and 2 estimates on Monday. Plus a pretty decent commercial lead I have to send out.
I also work around 20 hours a week at my office job.
What I am getting at is that my routes I usually do the first week of every month. Might be tough to squeeze in both of these things.
Do I sacrifice these good high paying jobs or the routes lol? I will have to decide for myself…
When I stopped by last week to pickup my business cards from the place that made them I got to chatting about window cleaning and whatnot and if he would like his storefronts cleaned.
He asked how much would I do it for I said $35 a month. It was exterior only he wanted. He said look at this and showed me a receipt of fish doing it for $17 a month.
I finally agreed to $25 cash exterior since it was close to one of my other good route locations.
He was giving me advice on business lol like “Take a look at what your competitors are charging.” As if I would lower my price just to get it.
Good guy but I didn’t just start cleaning windows lol.
Many benefits of reporting your cash income , one is when you want to buy something like a home you can show all your income and not just part to qualify.
Let’s say you get about half checks and half cash , 20k cash and 20k checks or what ever it might be . When you apply for a home loan the bank will only accept what is reported on your schedule c, 20k minus your expenses . So let’s say you have about 10k in expensive. Your net income will be 10k, that comes out to 833 a month in income . With that income assuming you have no debt the bank will only qualify you for a 333 monthly mortgage Payment . But you if have a car loan , you won’t qualify for anything.
You might say , well I lm interested in buying anything right now . Well the day will come when you do want to buy something , but you’ll just have to wait years to report your correct income to a good rolling average .
To sum it all up , you want to be able and qualified to buy something like a home if a good deal presents its self .
This biggest hurdle in my business is and always has been myself. Me overcoming mental roadblocks, lack of confidence, or not having the knowledge at that moment to move my company forward. The employees are out there, the customers are out there, the knowledge and networks are out there… I just have to get disciplined and grow.
In addition to Genaro’s points, it will also affect how your business is appraised if you ever decide to sell.
Also, if you ever get audited, I think it will look suspicious if you do not have a certain percentage of your income deposited in the form of cash. Then they will start digging deeper, and try to determine whether your standard of living matches what you claim you’re making…
The chances may be slim, but why take that chance?
But my personal reason for reporting all income is simpler: “Pay back Caesar’s things to Caesar”.
I can’t imagine how this business model makes sense in the long term. I know FISH thrives on commercial storefront volume, but in a climate like mine there can be weeks on end where it’s impossible to work outside. It would be very difficult to keep employees, as you’d either have to pay them to do nothing and sit in the office or pay massive unemployment premiums and send them home for a few months. I lost a small storefront to them I was charging $60 (like 20min tops). They were charging far less and the manager tried to talk me down. I said, “no way am I loading up to drive across town and drive back for less than $60, it’s just not profitable”. I showed up for their next service and the assistant talked her manager into letting me keep the contract.
Me either. I got a call last month while I was working a residential job for $525 and the guy wanted monthly cleaning for his storefront. I said $50 minimum he said too high then I saw the pictures it’s 5 pieces of glass we agreed on $35 monthly and he wanted me to be there that same day and there’s no way in hell I could’ve made it lol. I was working that day but said I could be there next day so we agreed.
He texts me later “somebody was passing by and asked to clean the windows” so he’ll call me next month. I sent a text yesterday to follow up if he wants to get on the schedule for the 1st and haven’t heard back
I don’t think I can do these little storefronts when I have residential that pays so well and a couple of commercial accounts I have monthly.
Not sure if monthly accounts around $125 are considered storefronts or commercial but I can only assume he got some bucket bob to do it for $10 a month.
Something to consider when doing store fronts: the shops will know who you are and can even refer you to other shops. But not limited to shops, it could be to their homes or neighbors. Passerby’s will also see your name, you rig, your work and it helps to promote yourself and shows you are relevant. Storefronts, by themselves, are usually not the cash cow as a large commercial or residential job can be, but they do add additional value such as marketing.
Long ago I would agree with you on higher paid employees…but thats not the case. I was paying 35 an hour and upwards…and STILL were no good…hit and miss…calling in about how their brother died last night…same guy died 3 times that year too I think…
A really good friend of mine is a general manager for a large outfit out of LA, and he pays his guys starting just above minimum…I mean 15 or 16 an hour with maybe a quarter raise a year if they did good.
These guys would break their necks for him and was begging for work! They would go in sick as a dog too.
Well, that was then before the 'Rona craze “oh no! you coughed, stay home for 2 weeks WITH PAY PLEASE”
