plus many people aren’t “maintainers” of their property and it’s not a must have like HVAC when it breaks or whatever
where I am at, people have about 1k sft more for their money, which is great on the roomy side, but it creates a lopsided too much home to take care of for the corresponding income. so a flood of 3-4k sft homes with a typical 1500-2500sft income = pain in the neck large swaths of geographic dead zones that never hire
you mentioned 10% of population hire, but I have found that reduced even more since we are talking about detached dwellings (subtracting all the apartments etc), see what % you come up with when you look at dwelling counts on Melissa data etc
“there’s plenty of glass to clean out there for everyone” is a common mantra on forums, there would be if there was government stating that everyoen had to have their glass cleaned every year, since there isn’t, there is a very limited number of people who will hire to have their glass cleaned
this is a psychographic business numbers game for sure
Much of the way the market is here in san diego is my fault. I never considered what you just said.
Yes it IS easier to be responsible for just my family. Man, try caring for everyone who works for you…THEIR families! Man, I already have a kid. You hire on, unless you can get your heart out of the mix, you will be like me and act like you are feeding everyone.
One cancellation? Dude. That just cost a lot more money than the 200 from that one gig.
@Bruce and @dgalkin I honestly appreciate your honesty and insight in this. This is some real down to earth, reality for us. I have been looking for this type of discussion for some time. Thank you.
I’m a little over 18 years in the business, and have between 10-15 cleaners depending on the time of year. About 60% route, 20% residential, 20% larger commercial (may or may not be on a schedule).
Really the key to growing is selling. Obviously you have to manage the people, but the reality is that sales takes a lot of time and effort; whether it’s investing in mass postcard mailings or cold-calling door to door. I built mine by cold calling door to door. Now I have a salesman who does that for me.
All of Dave Galkin’s points are true about the scarcity of our customers. But that doesn’t mean you can’t grow, it just means that if you want to go you will need to address those issues and figure out a way to get around them.
Successful businesses of any industry need systems that are scalable. Window cleaning is no exception to this. That is definitely one advantage to a franchise that Dave was alluding to. The systems are there, and they are scalable, if you choose to follow them.
Hey Bubble_Guy. Heres my 2 cents for what its worth.
I started my business in spring of 2015 after 10 years in the industry. My goal was and still is to build a good brand with a large crew that I can eventually sell and move on to doing something else. I now have to excellent employees and three trucks. My wife runs the office and I run the field. In the spring summer and fall, we all work 40-60 hours per week. Once the winter hits, I give all the work to my guys to keep them busy and I basically have 2-3 months off. Only need to answer the phone, book work and clean towels for the most part. If I could get one more good guy I could easily be complete out of the field and we would just be responsible for running the office and supervising big jobs. Its totally doable. I couldn’t recommend it more.
Posted this in the members area but it fits in this topic.
I have also a window cleaning business, i want to grow big time.
My backstory:
I started early 2014 with zero customers, worked fulltime as a truckdriver i did deliveries for bars,restaurants…, in my free time i ordered 1000 flyers did a lot off bootstrapping like they say.
Picked up my first customers.
A lot off struggle didnt make much cleaning
windows but i kept going. (I did about 5k!? In my first year)
2015 was a little better kept my fulltime job 4 days in the week now this year i did (±25k)
I had bills to pay so i was scared going all in.
In 2016 just for the summer i watched a youtube video from Keith Kalfas( didnt expected much from it) but i kept watching and heared him talk about Audible/podcasts this was a huge gamechanger for me.
The things you can learn out off books it keeps amazing me!! (Fastlane millionaire, rich dad poor dad…)
I stopped my job did 90k in 2016 and hired my brother. Last year we did 180k and since last month i hired my second guy.
My goal in 2018 is 300k i want to hear off you guys.
What do you recommend me, what do i need to think about ?
If i can help anybody out i am willing to help.
Give me credit for my written english
I have the same thing as @dgalkin no hobbies just 2 little kids 7 months and 2 years old
I think you will find doubling your sales 2 years in a row may be tough but you’re going in the right direction with getting in place the employees to get the work done.
