Homeadvisor Worth it?

Start out printing flyers off of your computer. Make them catchy looking. Do like 4 per sheet of paper and trim them out, drop them on doorsteps. After your first few residential jobs pay a printer to design and print 1,000 and deliver those. Maybe even do 500 of one design and 500 of another to see which one is profitable, then run with it.

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Great idea!

When I first started, I printed around 100 flyers, but after going from strip mall to strip mall to land one or 2 clients, I don’t like the design anymore.

What would be the best way to find neighborhoods to target the best neighborhoods?

I’ve been using Zillow to target specific neighborhoods when I felt like door to door, but then I always get sidetracked and start hitting storefronts in stripmalls, and then start getting tired of walking around 5pm.

I’ve landed a few reoccurring accounts doing that so far, but Its not enough.

I feel residential would be amazing to start building capital for a WFP, and gaining referrals.

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@Windowmen get this book/download this book.

It will give you the path and direction to run a very successful residential window cleaning business.

It’s a must have book!

Invest in yourself and your business, not a 3 party lead source generator. Make yourself money not them.

Good luck on your journey hope this helps!

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Still try for the strip malls when you can to fill in the blanks, but 1 or 2 strip mall stores pay a base rate of about $15+ each, 1 or 2 residential base rate pay about $200/$300+ each. Focus brother, focus! :wink:

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Yeah, I neeed residentials!

Thank you wcs and Garry!

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WFP is just a means to an end. Ya gotta get the work before you worry about optimizing.

Residential is good short and long game. Route falls somewhere in between.

Residential work will allow you to make a day’s wage off one decent job sold. So actively selling residential jobs is the best way by far to make money RIGHT NOW. The problem is, once that job is done they probably won’t have you back for months or even years, so the next day you start from scratch again and sell another job. You’ll get referrals but it takes a pretty large base of established customers to get by on referrals alone.

Route work is a lot of leg work to build up. Lots of follow-ups. Lots of unbillable hours fleshing out each stop. Landing a 20 dollar monthly account from possibly hours of marketing doesn’t feel great in the beginning. It can take a while to pay off your “sweat equity” but once you get that route where you want it, then that’s reliable money every week/month/year as long as you show up and do the work. Big routes can feel like you’re constantly plugging holes, since there is just a natural turnover among your accounts as shops close/move, managers change, and businesses get sold or go under.

Just some stuff to think about when you plan your efforts at the outset. Personally, I would like to maintain about a 40/60 route/Resi ratio. Just enough route work to make my bills though the low season, but not so much that it crowds out better paying residential work during the high season.

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Which is exactly why you need to always be out there offering your services. You may land an area that has little or no window cleaners for store fronts and you land several. Try not to stay too focused on just them and skip residential, or visa versa. It ain’t easy to get a collection of either. But putting yourself out there and always chasing, then you will find.

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Awesome, all of you have helped immensley, I started getting comftorable only walking into stores and asking for owners.

I’m definitely hitting neighborhoods tommorow!

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Let us know how it goes

I’ve used Homeadvisor, lots of people that have never use it often bash on it. But it’s given me 67 leads in a month. Flooded me with work. It’s worth the try

No way man, don’t buy a lead. I know where you’re at and know what it feels like…we all do.

Don’t listen to anyone who promises you something without proving it first.

It should be FREE and if you get the job, THEN you pay.

Who’s to say that these are even real potential leads? You’re paying for tire kickers, they SHOULD charge for the lead if the job is landed.

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For very few people, this type of program works. The overwhelming majority, it just doesn’t. No way it is worth it to pay a 350 annual membership AND pay for leads.

You can’t control the leads or what type they are. But you have to pay for them. Tons of people in my area would love to have me clean their windows. But not a large percentage of them are actually willing to pay the money it costs. You will most likely find the “coupon clipper” type of leads with this. That’s to say only people who get something for the least amount of money. That is IF you even get viable leads. Lots of complaints have been made about getting fake leads from HA.

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