March Year 1 - Lucky Window Cleaning LLC hopes to secure contracts with 10-20 business 5-10 churches, and 50-100 residential properties.
March Year 2 - Maintain contracts from year 1 and work towards securing contracts on 50-70 business, 10-20 churches, and 100-200 residential properties
March Year 3 - Maintain a high level of retention from year two, continue to build clients in all three areas.
March Year 4 - Maintain a high level of retention from year three, continue to build clients in all three areas.
March Year 5 - Sell business
Retention is subjective. People move and sell, new folks may or may not use your services. Businesses close or struggle to reap profits and cut expenditures. Always be selling.
Have you drilled down into how you will execute each goal ? You will secure customers ? How ? If advertising - how will you pay for this ? If ( a big if ) you are able to secure that many clients in year one and grow into year two and three - how do you plan to find, hire and retain great employees ? Do you know how to do payroll taxes for those employees? Yes ? Great ! NO ? How will you get this done ? Now you are maxed out at year one - hired your first employee - how do you plan to get your second service truck up and running ( as in pay for this) ? Are you shoe stringing, Cash Flowing, Or taking on debt ? Is your 5 Year " Plan " your actual business plan ( Projection ) ? If so, it’s a good rudimentary start. Consider ALL of the details and variables and re-write it using a business plan template while reading as many business and financial books you can get your hands on. If you don’t know how money works and how it works for you - learn this.
I am TRULY not trying to diminish your high spirits and ambition. Having that " Go get it " attitude is the first step. And I love that level of " Get out of the way " ambition. Reminds me of me when I started 27 years ago on
$50.00 worth of supplies and an idea. The questions I pose are based on the challenges, obstacles and questions I had to answer along my journey in growing my business. It’s based on mistakes I have made and learned from over that time. Its based on vision and dream vs reality and how those two come together.
I believe forums such as this should be a supportive environment where you are not only challenged in constructive ways but encouraged.
WDW. Great feedback! An honest no BS few from a person with a ton of experience. Thank you.
When I thought of this post I was giving an end game yearly snap shot with out writing a book. When a painter paints he see the picture in his mind before the first stroke, when a builder builds a house he see the house in his mind before he starts to build.
My point is that seeing the end product in your mind and making that image 4K is probably the second hardest thing you can do. Every thing else is just steps in a process. The hardest part is employees which you could write a library on the subject.
When I coached soccer there was an old saying. Train players so good that they can go anywhere, but treat them so good they will never want to.
I will end by saying that your post is powerful because it has gold nuggets of vital information that if taking seriously can only help anyone wanting to make progress.
That’s a good attitude Lucky614 as you said. " Steps in a process ".
Stay Focused, Stay Positive, and check in here as often as you need to. Also search for old topics In your spare time and take in the knowledge from the many who have contributed to this industry / occupation.
I’m curious why you are targeting churches. I did some pro bono WC for a church that was doing some good nonprofit deeds but I’m not aware of churches in my area having funds for discretionary work such as WC.
Bruce, great insight and statistic. What this tells me is if there are 100 window cleaners losing 10% for the same reason each year. You have an opportunity to gain all the new customers coming in with a great marketing strategy.
Lucky, be sure to implement a detailed marketing plan on HOW you will secure commercial and residential accounts. With an aggressive marketing strategy you should be able to easily triple those numbers in your first year alone. Easily. This is what my company did. 377 storefronts the first year, 300 homes done the first year. Second, put everything you do in to systems so your company is on auto-pilot by year 5 when you sell. By doing so, you will create much more value. Go to WindowWashingWealth.com to learn more.
Thanks for the response. I plan on using the marketing blueprint book that Chris gave me for free. I would be happy to read your book, try the methods, and let you know my findings.
