You just answered your own question. The endgame, when building a storefront route, is to have every single job in a block or plaza (if possible). If you have multiple jobs in one tight area then you are not wasting time driving between work. You can afford to have slightly lower prices because of the volume and concentration of work.
You are viewing this as “What is the value of this job” when the real question that route guys ask is “What is the value of this block/plaza” You have to view each job as an opportunity to get the other jobs.
Currently doing 500k per year in storefront, we don’t do ANY residential, no midrise, no high rise, no pressure washing, no awnings.
It’s taken me 24 years to get where we’re at. Oh, and I do not operate my business at the top of its game … yet.
You’re looking for people that want your services, that have the money to pay you, and WILL pay you … YOUR REASONABLE PRICE. It’s not about “getting every store in a strip”. That almost never happens, a pipe dream really.
Just had an Xfinity store shew my tech away this morning: “we got somebody cheaper.” Yep, agreed to regular service, didn’t bother to call until we showed up. Which means when translated, “I just hooked up my nephew, sorry sucker you lose. And, I have no idea what professionalism is.” But we added four more stores just today as well. Adios Xfinity, we’ll see you in the funny papers.
I stare in amazement when I see two guys working together on a route of tiny jobs. Knowing full well that drive, setup, “set-down”, and paperwork time is doubled with pairings. Makes no mathematical sense, and hurts the tech’s pay directly, sense they are paid by the piece. Also, no two techs will ever be the same speed, and resentment will fester.
Part time and full time. Four full timers to four part times currently.
Tech sales are paid two months of new location value either directly on-boarded or just leads that pan out. That being said my techs pick up very little new work, though, they’re usually just focused on their jobs, which I’m ok with. Don’t expect your techs to be a substitute for a direct sales department and money spent on digital marketing.
Greenlight - Is most of this work in the greater metropolitan Houston Area ? 500k in storefront is very impressive. Your Website advertises Residential ; Did you give it up / never do it ? Why is it on the Website as a service if so ? I agree if done correctly can be very profitable.
This is my 2nd time around in storefronts. First time I was 19 when I started and quickly built it to 600 stores. Had two primary competitors and both did whatever they could to put me out of business. No luck. Why? I was hungry and no one was going to stop me. Second time I was 32 when I started Squeegee Pros out of Charlotte, NC. 22 years later we are in the top 5 nationally in revenue and number of storefronts - nearing 4,000. It is a revenue generating machine that offers permanent residual income as long as you maintain it. I would do the same thing all over again if needed. We still today, after 22 years pick up $1,000 to $2,000/m in new re-occurring storefront work. It all comes down to how bad you want it (I was out selling til 9pm and 10pm as long as the neon OPEN sign was on), how hard will you work to get there (I ate on $3.00 a day when I started), and how long will you stick it out. I’m still at it, heading to my next target of 5,000 then end goal of #1 in the country. Anyone can do this. Oh, and yes, I have all the bucket bobs, 3 of the national “franchise” outfits. Go to WindowWashingWealth.com to hear the rest of the story. We are huge in residential too. This business gets me so excited that I still have trouble sleeping at night. Eat it, breathe it, sleep it, feel it and nothing will stop you!
Like anything else comes down to how much time you put in.
What many people forget when “comparing” themselves to someone like you @jim_dubois is the market they are in. I built my storefront route to nearly 800 storefronts in 2 years. My metro area has a population of 500K. Charlotte, NC is probably 5-6x that size. 4,000 storefronts don’t even exist in my market or any other smaller market.
There isn’t one. To even insinuate your the highest grossing is a pissing contest
My old boss was like this. 7 days a week 15 plus hours a day. All his life. No life ! No fun ! Does he have tons of money yes
One cause he never spends it , 2 because he makes a lot of it. Big deal he’s 52 never did anything went anywhere.
Yes this business can be great , an you can make a good living. An if you work hard you will prosper
But to go at it like that. No thanks !!!
An yes everyone is the greatest & the best window cleaner in the world
I feel bad for anyone that buys one of those franchises.
I have no idea if one even exists. My stats come from networking with 100’s of window cleaning companies around the country. I only know of 3 above the 2,000 mark. I’m sure there are others so hopefully in time these numbers will come out. I’m just as curious as you are.
I’m here in Long Beach Ca and as near as I can tell TexasRich is spot on both with pricing and the reason for the pricing. There’s also another reason the lesser price works: Frequency. Nothing increases efficiency more than repetition and doing the same job every one/two/four weeks can cut your time in half.
Residential guys never get this. If they get to redo the house it might be every 6 months if not once per year. Plus how many times do you get to do all the neighbors houses on the same day?
Personally I’ve done so much commercial work for so long I have a tough time pricing houses well. My hats off to those guys that get $300 for a house that takes 2 or 2 1/2 hours. Commercial and residential=apples and oranges.
Good point, I agree with you. Frequency and quantity. Sure it takes some time to build up the route, but once you do it’s all found money.
Every 2 weeks to 1 time a month= Easy cleans. Personally I prefer monthly accounts because it is hard to get to jobs 2x a month unless you plan it accordingly. Half the time the insides only need a door touchup and dust off, and unless you are ocean front property and get 30mph winds-- the windows will be very easy to clean. “Cleaning clean windows” is always good.
I have a buddy who has his residential set up every 1-2 months, mainly 6x a year with about 700 customers on that kind of “commercial” schedule. Unless on the waterfront, you are cleaning clean glass-- (which is the reason people hire you to begin with, they want clean glass…so tell them 6x a year and you’ll have it all year round!)
It’s a numbers’s game. Get yourself 30-40 stores on a route that you can do in 1-2 days and you got some skin in the game. Add that to your residential, and now it’s looking like you are keeping busy full-time. Oh it’s a little too windy to do residential work? Well, good thing you have stores-- keeps you busy year round.
You can build your residential FROM your commercial in regards to people seeing you work, customer’s stores may need their homes cleaned-- ect, ect, ect-- the main thing is THEY SEE YOU WORKING. That’s half the battle, SEEING YOU-- knowing that your service EXISTS. That’s what gets people going “Hmmmm…I need MY windows cleaned”
As far as the “I don’t want the 15 hour days 7 days a week” thing-- an old boss I had once told me-- and I’ll never forget this: “If there’s anything you want to do in your life, go get it done before you get serious about the business. Because it will become your baby, and you won’t have any time to do much else because you have to feed it and raise it”. I don’t think he’s wrong, depends on HOW BIG you want to be. I’m not for the “4 or 5 guys working under me”, I’d be fine with a solo-operation and that is what i plan on building in the future.
Special situation. The owner of the other company is also an SEO guru, so they have the number 1 Google organic search result window cleaning company in the Houston area on a regular basis, I’m like page 2 on Google.
It’s so lopsided, I pay him for leads (that pan out), and give him mine for free.
It ought to reciprocate bud. If he’s making money off your leads (if they pan out) you should too. That’s just business, If he’s worth working with, he should understand that…
