Hey All:

One of the challenges I face sometimes is getting window cleaners to not get dragged down by all the negative news that we hear every single day. It’s dangerous and can really impact our businesses negatively if we’re not careful. Because what it does is paralyze us into inaction. We say to ourselves "What’s the point…the economy is bad so who’s going to want their windows cleaned?" And guess what? We stop marketing which results in no one wanting their windows cleaned. :o )

So we need to put our head down, ignore the naysayers and plow forward. It has nothing to do with being in denial or sticking our heads in the sand. We know the economy is going south. But we CANNOT let this affect the action we need to take. I wrote about this subject in a recent newsletter.  So I won’t expand on it in this blog post. All I really want to do in this blog post is copy an email below that I received the other day from a gentleman who just spent his first week in the window cleaning business. As the title of this blog post states: "Recession…what recession?" Here’s the email:

Hi Steve well I passed out about 1300 postcards in baggy’s started last sunday and had my first job on tues in which i earned $215.00 for 6 hrs work and he paid me cash! i took longer then i should have because i also cleaned the mold on several of his windows, they were a mess,

next time i’ll charge more, but how do you figure that in ? for future reference, i had , so far

10 calls for estimates and today i booked 3 more jobs for about $500.00 worth of work

i still have to call back the rest of the people i left estimates with, how long do you wait until you call back people? i’m pretty exicted right now and i still have about 3700 post cards to get out.

i had the magnetic car signs made too, and i was at my bank friday and i guy walks up to me and says i saw your truck , please call my wife we are selling our house and need the windows cleaned , so i have another estimate to do, cool huh? i also ordered a couple of tee shirts and my supplies , its pretty amazing how the numbers worked out, just about how you said it would , you know your stuff! and most of the people who called me loved the post card in the baggie they thought it was great and a very unique delivery system, which i took credit for ! so thats it for now , all in all a great first week in the business.

Oh just one more thing as i was driving around last Monday getting the baggies out , i raised the pass window for a while , it was little cool, but when i got to my target market, i forgot to lower it and threw the baggie w/rock through my own window smashing it into a million pieces , what an idiot i said to myself , my girlfriend couldn’t stop laughing, so a lesson learned , check your window before you throw, i wonder if anybody else has done this?

Thanks again Bill

My Response:

Hi Bill:

Good morning.

Cool…$215 cash is great.  Keep in mind, as I tell everyone, don’t focus so much on the "time" at the beginning of your career.  Because you will be slower when doing the first few jobs.  It takes a bit of time to streamline your operation.  So I would keep your pricing the same and not worry about it.  In a couple of months, that 6 hours would be knocked down to 4 to 4 1/2, so then your pricing would be accurate.

It seems like you’re moving in a great direction.  Excellent.  I would call folks back in 3 to 4 days. You’re presenting a nice looking estimate package, right?  Cover letter, reference  page, estimate sheet, business card?  I always wanted to give my prospects a good 3 or 4 days to look that over.  

Yeah…the magnetic sign will draw attention to your business, but wait ’til you see what happens with the yard sign.  Make sure you pop that in every yard of every customer you do a job for, and you’ll be amazed at the folks who will be walking by, see your sign, and either ask you for a business card or for an estimate.   It all works out.  Thanks much for your comments.  I appreciate them.   

And I’m sorry to hear about your window. I haven’t heard about anyone else doing this, but I’ll keep you posted.  Has your girlfriend stopped laughing yet?  :o ) 

Take care for now and have a great weekend.

Regards,

Steve

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