- Residential
- Commercial (1-3 story)
- Commercial (mid-high rise)
- Storefront
- CCU
- Other
0 voters
I grossed more with commercial (annual/biannual 1-3 story office buildings, banks, hotels, lodges) than resi or storefront in my third season. I still need to review my second and first seasons with this criteria.
Edit: I see that in my second season, 2017, I also grossed much more with mid-rise commercial, followed by resi with a very small amount of storefront.
Iām 100% resi but Iād rather be 100% storefront
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I tried to do multiple ones since i do commercial, store fronts, mid rise high rise, and resi now.
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Same here. Iām 30% residential. Itās all high end residential so the money is good, but the commercial stuff is my bread and butter. Personally, I like the mix.
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I have a good balance of storefront an Resi. Some commercial
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Malcom - Thanks for doing the poll and brining the discussion over here from the Vendors List thread.
Although I donāt think I can cast a vote and be accurate. We have to choose one or the other and I am more balanced across categories. I wish there was a hybrid category ( a mix cat. ).
Anyway - Currently I am at 67% Storefront - 33% Commercial ( 1-3 story ).
Prior to selling Residential business in 2014 I was 47% Storefront - 23% Commercial - 30% Residential
Also in the other thread JHans had speculated most were Solo Operators. So I will add I do have employees. Thanks - interested in the feedback.
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wow that is odd, I traded all my storefront for resi
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What did you enjoy more? And is your stability in income affected much?
I really disliked storefront work, all stores in my area wanted to be cleaned between 8-9am, I was only able to fit in 1-2 storefront each day before I would start the rest of my day.
I donāt really have any downtime throughout the year as winter here if very mild 70s. I do really well with bookings always consistent , so far I havenāt needed any aggressive marketing other than web presence and a phone book ad.
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I am in a very small town at the end of the road so there is no way I could afford that level of specialization. My multi-service cleaning company also does janitorial, carpet cleaning and floor maintenance. My favorite service is window cleaning but I also get a decent margin from carpet cleaning and floor work.
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Ya thats nuts !
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100% residential. Did my share of strip malls/restaurants/Lowes etc, not going back. Too many restrictions, time constraints and demands. It didnāt pay very well either. You spend 3-4 hours at a Lowes meeting their requirements, have to hunt down a clueless manager for a sign-off, call some 800 number in Florida and get āapprovalā from the service contractor and wait a month for the check. Out of the blue you get a call asking if you can remove fossilized bird poop off the INSIDE window frames next time as āthey feel it should be part of the jobā, and that was the last straw.
Residentialā¦you show up on time for the bid, schedule a date, do what you promised (plus a little more) and get paid. Simple.
@mshramek Iām curious to know what fits in the āotherā category. I included that category because I wanted to cover all bases but wasnāt sure what would go there. Thanks.
Well there was no option for a mix, so i put other because we do residential and commercial. We are pretty evenly split so I was just being a little nit picky with āprimarilyā 
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Yep. 95% residential. Retained a few small shop fronts (9 or 10) very close to home, a couple of big golf clubs, a dentist, and one real estate company. But by far the majority of my work is residential. Iām aiming (as I get older with a few health problems) to get as many single story houses/clients as possible (why get up a ladder when you donāt have to?).
Waiting a month (or more) for my hard earned $$$$ is not for me. That was the killer in the end.
With residential the cash flow (for me at least) is much better. You get paid on the spot with cash, or overnight via the internet. Thatās just much much better for my personal and family needs! Besides, in the city where I live, commercial window cleaning is a truly overcrowded market. Theyāre all fighting for all the big commercial contracts and undercutting each other like crazy (= less profit for everyone)! So why stress? I just focused on what the the competition wasnāt doing (or doing really badly), and filled that niche! So I do residential. Everyoneās different, but that works for me.
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Malcolm we rebuild transmissions.
Just kidding! We are 40% storefront, 25% mid-rise commercial, 35% residential.
98% is Window Cleaning and 2% is Gutter Cleaning. Those are the only 2 services we offer. We clean a ridiculous amount of glass.
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Anyone do gutter guard installation? Super simple and you can easily get 1200-1500 in 3 or 4 hours
100% Storefront, 5 days a week. Not sure what I am going to do in the Spring when resi and pressure washing clients start calling. Guess I will be working Saturdays or hiring some help.
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