No worries. I used to never raise my prices. I was like most people. I was so scared I would lose a lot of clients if I raised my prices. I met Kevin Dubrosky for the NOLA convention a few years ago. It was nice to talk to him in person and bounce ideas off of him. He really got me thinking. That is when I started raising my prices 4% each year.
I had some complain about the price increases. I already knew which ones would do that. I have a minimum of twice a year. Some clients I clean outside only one time, then 6 months later in/out. The clients that complained about the price, I started doing that. Majority of them are the larger homes. I really look forward to those days when I only have the outside to clean. Works well for both of us. I get off earlier and they save some money.
The group I started with was all about growth and I did well with them, built a 13 person operation and I didnāt like it or make enough more to make me like it more than solo.Moved and built solo business intending to add people. After this time I have never looked for help they were either there for me or they werenāt.
Then my first Divorce & I didnāt want to deal with anyone for several years. I was doing mostly storefront business. It kept growing and I gave away the scattered stuff to other solo window cleaners. Iāve never worried about competition. My route got really tight with little driving time. After while a helper or so worked with me. And a second time mostly residential. My just didnāt have help for a year and kept raising prices on new work to where I had to raise prices on old customers to make me want to do them. I should learn from that.But saying no is something I donāt like to do tho I know how and do say no to distances from home.I like how happy it makes them and have gained a lot of good regular work from being Johnny on the spot and getting it done last minute.
Looking at this scarcity thing some talk about here and tying it into my end game, At 60 with 3 no stress helpers I decided I should semi retire and been trying ever since. Before this I had been showing up at almost every house we did, keeping in touch with my cult following as my one helper calls them. Now I only show on large days or something they canāt handle. Only 2 and 4 times a year.customers- Iām thinking of just working May and June and 2nd time Nov Dec. , I do each aria a certain week to scedule each house close to the next. I increase prices every year 2 1/2 % Inflation has been 3 1/2% since the 1950ās .leave it like that for the loyal customers that as incentive to sigh up for my scedule. 4% for anyone else. As this time space fills raise prices on new. Sounds like a plan , just need to let it be known and do it. If my help disappears, I will have consolidated my best customers to make it easier to take care of. Iām tired of this business after 40 years and want to build things. But Iām making the best money I ever have. Iāve always looked at it as a job with many bosses my customers. I only put them all in one basket once , a big job , I had for years and got terminated a few months later. I like a lot to baskets.
hello-awesomā¦havenāt read the rest of this topic-stopped here.iām a solo-about to hire-u read my mindā¦everywordā¦thanksā¦25 yrs doing windows, love it .but gotta grow-at least one guy. doing grouponāgetting flooded w/good stuff(just gotta work-upsell the coupon). angieslist iāll get into soon. growing- mr.winingerāthanksāi may contact uā¦
The strategies I am developing are the how-tos. The why-for is so that I can have more family time.
When I visited my grandson I taught him how to play with the toilet handle and how to stand. I want to spend more time with him.
Great post Alex. Iām surprised it has not gotten more attention. I hired on several years ago right be for 2008 and then took some good hits and had to let guys go. I hired back on once more only to face more set backs.
When I first started out 20 years ago I had nothing. I couldnāt even afford to buy a squeegee and bucket etc. I bartered with an Ace Hardware to clean their Windows for the equipment and they became my first regular customer. It took me a while to get serious about my business because I always saw it as something temporary until I could do what I really wanted to do. Getting married helped me get real serious ( had to pay for a ring etc. and provide stability etc.). After about I years in I had grown it into what I could reasonably call a business. The problem is, when I first started I was broke and never really had the money to advertise heavily like I wanted to so grwth was slow. Also as my business grew so did my life and family ( and personal expenses wedding, hoise, kids etc.) I always struggled to rally push my business like I wanted.
My wife started working for me in the office, which helped a ton, and we grew a lot and started hiring on. Then the economy took some hits, and I also started having kids. After our second kid my wife had to focus on the kismds and I was back to square one. Not only was I struggling to out work on the schedule for myself and 1-2 other guys but now I was overwhelmed with office responsibilities. The economy was up and down and I wasnāt sure if having guys on was the right move. I decided to scale back down to just me. That way I could focus on doing taking care of my regular customers and not have to rely on much advertising.
I stayed afloat. We took some big financial hits on a personal level but we kept our head above water. We have spent the last 4 years climbing out of the whole. It was an extremely slow process and difficult. We had a kid every year for the last 5 years. We have finally stabilized ourselves and are ready to poor some fuel in the fire.
Long story short I have operated solo for the last 5 or 6 years (or so) after having hired on and had to scale back. I used my creativity to continue growing without hiring on. I have learned to encorperate my business into my family and life style. It is not always easy but the more disciplined and dedicated you are the easier and pre enjoyable and rewarding it becomes.
In an effort go keep growing I have:
Narrowed down my market to select customer types.
Narrowed down my market geographically.
Improved my customer service in an effort to create value beyond just clean windows.
Cut expesnse to the penny and streamlined my operations to be highly efficient in an effort to increase profits, be highly competitive in an unstable market, and make my business as storm proof as possible to weather the up a and downs of the economy.
Whether this is the best approach or was the right direction to take it is what I have done and I have grown because of it. My biggest challenge now is my first kid started school this year and I take her and pick her up 3 days a week which drops my available job times to 6 hours those days. This is killing me! My wife stays home and had an in home daycare to make money. We plan to buy a van so she can take the kids with her to pick my kids up. Once we cross that hurdle I will be ready to really push for growth and poor on the fuel! Iām not sure what my future holds in terms of whether or not I will hire back on or stay solo, but for now I share your passion!
This very close to my situation. Every time things get goodā¦bam another kid. 1 more year and my youngest is in on school. This time weāre really done. Iām a stay at home dad trying to run a ābusinessā. I probably get on average 20hrs a week to work. My wife is a nurse, so at least her work has been steady.
Iād also had to hire, let go, hire again and let go again.
Funny thing. When I first opened this thread for some reason I didnāt see any responses, only the original post. Not a sure how that happened. When I looked back to we the response after having posted there was like 70 some previous replies that I never saw! My first line in my post was, āgreat post On surprised it didnāt get more responsesā. LOL Go figure.
My oldest is 7 and I have 5. My youngest is 1. Its so hard but there is nothing more important to me than my family after God Himself. The one thing I always think about is how hard it is now with a wife, five kods, and a mortgage and about how if I had known how easy I had it back when I was 20 I would have done so much more! Now I try to think of what it would be like to have 10 kids and I try to work that hard now! That always crosses my mind! Lol
this response got me thinkingā¦[quote=āwhatapane, post:73, topic:36436ā]
In an effort go keep growing I have:
Narrowed down my market to select customer types.
Narrowed down my market geographically.
Improved my customer service in an effort to create value beyond just clean windows.
Cut expesnse to the penny and streamlined my operations to be highly efficient in an effort to increase profits, be highly competitive in an unstable market, and make my business as storm proof as possible to weather the up a and downs of the economy.
[/quote]
How has everyone streamlined your business to make it as efficient and profitable as possible?
As a solo operator I find the āworkā part to be the simplest part. This year I have implemented a few more thing to stay in front of my current clients and their friends.
follow up calls and emails
mailers every 3 months
All estimates and invoicing is now automated (it has help a lot)
Whats have been the best marketing tool for you a solo operator to reach your target market?
For me its been referrals and being seen.
Now to bring up the dreaded topic ādisability insuranceā question. What are you folks doing for the ājust in caseā factor that we all deal with?
this post is kinda is all over the place just trying to get everything out at onceā¦Sorry
