Don't run out of Customers!

An email recently received…

hey steve,
im done reading the manual and am fully ready to get started on this business and will be purchasing my supplies hopefully by the beginning of december. just had a question though.

my mother owns a pretty successful housekeeping company and her clients usually use her service bi weekly or at least once a month and her and her girls are busy year round. in this window cleaning business, i would think that people would only need this service once or twice a YEAR…how would i be able to work year round as this my only business if customers dont really use this service very often. what if i run out of work? what if i have a bunch of business a few months and then i have none for the rest of the year or something?

given i advertise as much as possible but like i said…this service isnt used bi weekly or monthly…or is it? im definitely going to find out when i get out there but just something that i thought of and thought maybe you can shed a little light on it, given your experience.
thanks for the quick replies.
oscar

My Reply:

Hi Oscar:

Good morning and congrats on finishing everything up. 

Right…maid services generally do their customers on a more frequent basis.  Residential window cleaning won't be as frequent.  It might be every 4 months, 6 months, or every year.  That's why it's important to consistently market your business.  Because this'll get you a steady stream of phone calls coming in that you can turn into dollars.  And by doing this, you won't be relying on your current customers. 

So keep it consistent.  There are a number of different marketing techniques you can employ as discussed in the manual.  If you just do a handful, you'll never run out of customers.  The only way that you'll run out of customers is if you decide not to market your business for a few weeks.  I have seen this happen on occasion.  What happens is a new window cleaner will go out there gung ho, market like crazy, get lots of phone calls, and line up jobs.  But he/she makes the mistake of filling in every available hour doing the actual jobs.  There is no time available to market and expose their business.  So what happens over time is the calls dwindle and their schedule opens up a bit.  So make sure you leave yourself some time every single week to market your biz. 

The great thing about this business is that if you're consistent with it for the first full year, you'll then have a regular flow of repeat business coming in, plus you'll be getting referrals (use Send Out Cards for maximum referrals) from current customers, and of course you'll be getting new business.  But since you're now starting at ground zero, it's necessary to consistently and regularly market your business to get that phone ringing.  Again…you won't run out of work if you do this consistently.  Fill your schedule up.  Keep it going and continue to fill your schedule up.  Always leave time available for a little marketing though.  And yes, you might not have the advantage of frequent repeat jobs like your mother does, but you'll still be able to build a very profitable window cleaning business with plenty of repeat customers. The jobs just won't be as frequent.  But if you have new customers coming in wanting your services, that'll more than make up for it.  In other words, you're not just relying on current customers.

Lastly, if you're looking to fill in any gaps, you can always secure a few commercial window cleaning jobs.  They need your services more frequently then residential window cleaners do.  The problem though is that you do have to be cheaper than you would if you were pricing a home, so keep that in the back of your mind.  But if you want frequent customers, getting a few commercial accounts is an option.

Hope this helps.  Take care for now.

Regards,

Steve