Window Cleaning Business Is Dead

I just joined these forums and am glad i did. You should be able to get alot of ideas on here that you can stategically test out as inexpensively as possible (not to mention the motivating factor), definitely go to Squeegeenomics (i;m hoping Kevin gets one on the east coast quickly - hint, hint before Spring) and I’ll be there. I’ve spoken to Kevin a couple times, great guy and extremely helpful. Go, and then buy him a beer or 6 and grab his ear and I promise he will turn things around for you. Chris and Alex also, they have it going on. I don’t think any of us want to see a fellow window cleaner fail. Email me anytime.

Sorry, I fired the guy I met to say and streamlined his duties to my existing managers.

Thanks Jim, I appreciate those kind words. For those listening, Jim is also a very friendly, easy-going guy who’s very down-to-earth despite his significant business expertise in our industry.

(Unfortunately an East Coast thing probably isn’t gonna happen.)

Jump on a plane and come over to Beverly Hills for a couple of days!

You can probably do the whole thing (hotel + flight) for around $650. That’s only one good residential window cleaning job.

One job in the next 12 months.

Join us next Friday Jim.

You won’t regret it.

Neither will you Enviro.

And you can pay for it 5 months from now: http://bit.ly/fDpSzb

I wish I could and I’m sorry I’m going to miss it cuz I know it’s gonna be GREAT! I already had family plans for that weekend. Oh, by the way I’ll let you know how the blanket pricing personalized flyer delivery program works out (from your flyer I downloaded). I have 15 neighborhoods almost ready to go. If it proves successful I’ll make it 100 nbhds starting off with weekly delivery and if they test out profitably will continue delivery 1x/m until i maximize profitability with those nbhd’s with as many customers as possible.

Too bad.

Yeah, please let me know how that flier works out for you.

Enviro: I went out selling storefronts for 2 hours yesterday and landed $164 worth of work. Its not dead :slight_smile:

1 Like

There you go, and it’l’ never be dead as long as you are out there selling - no matter what the economy. Yes, there are good days and bad. In 2010 my company averaged $1,600/m in new account commercial revenue. Of course there is a loss factor of accounts in there too each month, but my point being “we always pick up new accounts and I’ve been in the same area for more than a decade”.

Congratulations!

Let me clarify that. We averaged picking up in monthly new accounts a monthly average reveune of $1,600 per month brand new revenue over the course of 2010. Nothing crazy, but the consistency really adds up year after year.

Let me clarify. I didn’t mean the hourly you pay your employees. I meant the hourly each employee produces.

Mine for instance produces between $50 and $70 per man hour. There are some company’s in my area that have twice as many storefront accounts, but produce half the hourly. At the same time there’s one company I know of that has 4+ times as many accounts and produce $60 to $90 an hour. We’re pretty much in the middle and I’m fine with it.

It’s a touchy subject for some company’s and I’ll understand if you aren’t comfortable answering. Either way 2300 storefront is Very Impressive…

We always sell for a $60 per hour average, of course more if we can get it, but sometimes lower if that 's what it takes to get the account to certain point of course. Of course some of my guys have been with me 8 to 10 years and end up producing more because they have their routes down to a science. Our new guys - that can be a whole nother story, if they even make it. Thanks for the compliment!

1 Like

Woah! That’s awesome! It’d be great if you could elaborate a little more on how you landed those storefronts :slight_smile:

Its all in the timing. Its winter, so most Bucket Bobs hibernate / stop showing up til April, leaving store owners in a bind when we get pummeled by snow. Mother nature does my selling for me… and my million dollar smile :smiley:

It looks like small business owners like have no chance or resoureces of the compete big like you. Are you taking business away from small business owner who are trying to survive this economy.?

Rarely do we take business away from a competitor on purpose, but it has been known to happen. My managers and sales guy just walk and talk dirty storefronts hoping for a sale. I do have a couple of shady competitors on my list - i’ll leave it at that. It’s very rare that a storeowner will change w/c co’s unless he is extremely unhappy. Then that becomes the other w/c co’s issue because the storeowner was going to change co’s at some point anyways. I will say that I lose customers every once in a while because Louie the Lowballer comes down the street.

Don’t worry about what Jim is doing. If I recall, he mentioned his target pricing is at least $60/man hr. so it doesn’t [I]appear[/I] that he’s bidding as low as he can just to get accounts to keep his people busy.
I’d advise you to be in tune to what sets you apart from your competitors locally. This thread has so many stories of guys and girls making a good go of it in all corners of the country. Have you decided if you can do it?

#1 - Small business owners DO have the ability to compete with the big guys. Remember, the big guys have plenty more mouths to feed, and the small guys just have their own.

#2 - Let me reverse the question and ask you if you, as a small guy, would have any problem with stealing business away from a big guy?
Probably not, I know I don’t. Its business, and competition, great or small, is healthy,

To which resources do you refer?

If I was a big window cleaning business owner I will not take business away from small company who is trying survive to pay bills. I will help him/her if only he/she is a member of Window Cleaning Resources

Why don’t you answer Ninja’s question? “#2 - Let me reverse the question and ask you if you, as a small guy, would have any problem with stealing business away from a big guy?”
vic

I could be cleaning all kinds of super dirty windows right now if the state would send me my license.
every store I go to right now is filthy. the pnc bank I went to was down right embarrassing it was so dirty. if I was a district manager I’d have a talk to the branch manager why it was so filthy. it honestly was so dirty it doesn’t look like it’s been cleaned in 5 years. I’m not even exaggerating.