Archive for February, 2008

Window Cleaning Responses?

Hey Guys and Gals:

Figured I’d post a post on feb 29th. Won’t be able to do it again for four years so I might as well take advantage of it. .

Anyway here’s an email recently received. Just some miscellaneous chitchat about a little of this and a little of that. Oh…and I’ve got a super post that’ll be up in a couple of days about this dude who pulled in $8,000 in january just in gutter cleaning, not counting his window cleaning profits. Ah life is good. So definitely stop back and check that out. Here we go:

Hey Steve. Thank you for putting out this program at a reasonable price. I’ve already started the research and in the process of getting started. I got the idea from a guy cleaning windows at an account that I was servicing. He told me that he made about 85,000.00 the year before, I started to laugh. That’s when he asked me why I was laughing. My response was –I’ve been at my company for 12 years and I only make 45.000.00 a year. I’m only making the company the big money not myself.

I’ve been in customer service for about 13 yrs. for a local linen company here is Las Vegas. I will still keep my job with this company, until I start to see the window cleaning business take off. I already have been speaking with a lot of my customers about cleaning their windows, I’ve got a lot of good response. This is Vegas, the weather is always warm. So I should not have a slow time with the business. I’ve already started with the business cards and flyers.

Oh and one thing, I’ve got a business partner. I know you are not to keen on that idea. But my buddy has been my partner on a couple of things and it has worked out. We eventually want to grow this into something big. Our company name is <deleted for privacy> pretty catchy huh. Any ways I just want to say Thank You  Again. 

Joe Hepler

My Response:

Hi Joe:
 
Good morning.  And it’s good to hear from you.
 
I appreciate your comments.
 
Exactly…the window cleaning business is a very profitable business, so I look forward to seeing you making that 85k or more. 
 
Good idea on keeping your current job though at least until you get the ball rolling.  You will find that once things are in place and you follow what I talk about in my manual, the calls will come and the customers will find you.  So it’ll grow pretty quickly.  Just take some good strong initial action to get it rolling.  I know it’s a bit tougher for someone like yourself who has another job, but if you plan your time properly, you’ll definitely be able to do it.
 
When you mentioned that you’ve gotten good response already, that’s the exact reason why I got into the business to begin with. I use to have a mobile oil change business and I was looking to get out of it.  So I began to ask some of my oil change customers (the ones who were in my target market-not all oil customers were in my target market of window cleaning customers) their thoughts on getting their windows cleaned.  The response was overwhelmingly positive.  I mean who likes to spend their weekends doing windows when we can go in there and do it for ‘em for 2-300 bucks or so (or more). 
 
Right…not a big fan of business partnerships, but it’s only my opinion.  You may have the greatest partner in the world over there.  So that’s good.  I’ve just seen so much happen to partnerships. I had a guy in colorado call me recently telling me his nightmare story with what happened to him and his childhood friend.  Long story short…they’re not friends anymore.  But again, you may be associated with a great guy.  Just make sure that you both work equally.  The probs I see pop up is when one guy in the business pushes and the other guy is more of the worker/technician.  Resentments can begin to kick in on occasion.  And make sure you agree on the important details like how you’re both going to get paid for the jobs.  Some partnerships go 50/50 right down the line on all jobs regardless who might have gotten the job.  Other partnerships are arranged where the person who brings in the customer gets the majority of that job’s profits. I personally would go 50/50.  Actually what I would do is hire someone  to distribute flyers/promote and keep 100% of the profits for the company.  )  
 
I like your company name. Very nice.  I’m sure a nice logo can be created around that.  Maybe do a caricature (similar to my logo) with the 2 of you in the logo.  That’ll be very unique. 
 
Take care joe. Have a great weekend.
 
Regards,
 
Steve

A Window Cleaning Plan…

An email recently received:

Hi Steve,

Man, you make this sooo easy, im going to have to start counting how many thank you’s a day I have for all this great info and help.

A couple new questions…

I think I’m going to just go right ahead and get your design reworked from Barbara, she seems really reasonably priced, and better to use my time to Market and do jobs and develop the system. changing the caricature doesn’t seem like a priority though? at least upfront.

Hell though, I’m on a tight budget till spring cash-flow starts rolling in, maybe i will just go ahead and go the "Whole Hog plus the Postage", as Gerber says…

1. Send Out Cards …  I’m seriously considering signing up soon when I get the money raised for the wholesale account.   I have an existing customer list that until now I havent worked very well, even allowing a year or more time lapsing because I wasn’t following up.  Currently as im loging them all to the Customer Factor, it looks like I have a list of at least 200+.

My plan is to start calling them soon to set up appointments for spring,  my sense is to just wait until I do the job again and then send out the cards,  and then if they are not ready to book, have a card to send them thanking them for there past business, saying something like…

Hi John and Judy:  

Just a quick note from your friendly neighborhood window cleaner hoping that you are having a fine spring so far. 

Thank you once again for using our service,  we look forward to speaking to you soon, when you are ready once again to make your windows sparkle and shine.

Aaron Swanson
Clear Vision Window Cleaning

And then doing a campaign from that point on once in the summer say early July? and then a month before thanksgiving,  and then sending out a gutter cleaning reminder (big profits for me) around that time too (probably by postcard…)

Does that sound like a good plan and frequency (use of the card system) to you?  Any tweaking ideas from the expert would be appreciated!  Thanks.

Man, I’m going to have SO much work flow if I do this all, its a little scary in a Really good way.

I’m going to need to hire guys pronto for April.  and get a Job Manager. You recommend using all Subs to start out huh? Paying for everyones individual insurance premiums Vs. going Workmans comp? It does seem easier but do you find it to be most cost effective?

Technically my understanding is that they would have to have there own ladders as well as equipment. I guess it would be smart for me to buy the equipment and the insurance and ask for a commitment for the summer.  And then just only allow Subs on ladders who have there own Ladders?  Otherwise they are the official ground and inside crew.? At what point do you break down and get workers comp.?

Thanks again, with you, your system and my friend I’m working with who is an ex E-myth business coach,   this year is going to Rock!

Regards,
Aaron

My Response:

Hi Aaron:

Good morning to you.

This is what I’m here for sure. I truly enjoy seeing folks start off with no business, and then a few months later they have a business where customers are beating down their door to use their window cleaning services.  It just takes a little push by you at the beginning, but then it’s off to the races.  )  Thanks much for your comments though.  I appreciate ‘em.

Yeah…I use barb for most everything I do.  So she is good with graphic design stuff.  It is better to focus on marketing. But here’s the thing though…don’t go "whole hog" if you don’t have the dough.  It’s much better in my opinion to perhaps get a couple of folks to distribute a good amount of flyers.  The reasons are: 1) you can generate calls immedediately and 2) flyers are cheap so you can do a lot of ‘em (think numbers).

Postcards have proven very, very effective over the years. I mailed out thousands of them, so they definitely work for sure. But the thing with them is that in order for you to see the best results, it’ll require 3, 4, 5 mailings to one area.  So it takes a few bucks to get postcards going the right way.  People need to see your message over and over again.  So if you have some extra bucks, then postcards is the answer. If you’d rather wait and work your way into the postcards, then flyers is the ticket initially.  Just an idea.

Note: Even though I mailed postcards, I still did flyer distributions within the same areas I mailed postcards too. It gives you a double whammy.

Sorry for you needing to manually log your customers into The Customer Factor.  )  We are working on an import feature.  The good news though is that as soon as your customers are in the software, you’ll be able to do so many things with them, including exporting them directly into Send out cards and sending ‘em greeting cards regularly.  I can’t stress this enough.  What this does is not only trigger referrals coming your way, but it also lowers that resistance wall that people have when you first call them for a follow up/repeat appt.  Who are they going to feel more comfortable with?  Someone who cleaned their windows last year, made their money, and now they’re back a year later looking for more money?  Or the person who cleaned their windows last year, made their money, but they kept in touch over the months with correspondence/cards? Nothing fancy. Just "Hey, how are you doing Nancy. Hope your summer is going well." Things like that. I can assure you the resistance walls disappear quick when you "keep in touch".  Consequently you make more money.

There is an investment in Send out cards for sure. But I personally think about the benefits from that investment (or any investment). Ever play monopoly when you were younger? If you were the one who payed more attention to controlling properties instead of hording your cash, then chances are you ultimately would be the winner. Because the cash would eventually come back to you in the form of rent when your opponents landed on your properties. So your opponents might have more cash initially, but eventually they’ll lose it to you.  Similar analogy here. Be willing to invest in the proper tools/material for your window cleaning business. If you do, you’ll regularly be filling your window cleaning business with quality, repeat customers. I’ll tell you a secret.  Most window cleaners are not willing to make this commitment.  I don’t mean to pick on window cleaners because actually most service type individuals don’t know how to invest in their business properly. This makes ‘em "average".  So if you’re willing to invest a few bucks in the things that they are not doing, you and your business will be rewarded handsomely.

Anyway..I got off on a tangent.  I do that sometimes. Good thing I can type fast. ) 

But good plan on sending cards after you set appts. for the spring. Good idea.

If you do a customer let’s say in april, send them an immediate thank you letter (on your letterhead w/magnetic card included) and then sending ‘em a card in july is great. A few months before thanksgiving is excellent too. Gutter cleaning: perfect. I spoke to a window cleaner in north carolina who gave me the low down on gutter cleaning in terms of what’s involved and the profit potential. I’ll be posting that on this blog in a couple of days. Excellent service to provide homeowners.

So to answer your question, you have got a perfect plan. Just be consistent with it. There will be an overflow coming your way for sure. So it looks like it might be time soon to get a couple of part-timers on board. Yeah..I would go with subs to start to see if they fit into your company.  Any local colleges up there?  I found some real gems at colleges. 

I’m not sure what the work comp laws are in your area, so it’s best to talk to a commercial insurance broker about that. In my area, I could exempt myself and up to 3 employees from work comp.  But I know other areas are a bit different. 

Right….getting the equipment ready is a good idea.  All you really need though is the bucket on a belt, maybe some extra towels, an extra scraper, etc.  Not much.  Reread the part in my manual about some of the extra items needed when you hire a 2nd or 3rd person. 

And again, the work comp is something that you need to discuss with an insurance agent. If you live in an area where you can exempt up to 3 employees like I could in my area, then that’ll be great. No work comp needed.

Excellent, excellent, excellent on working with someone who is an emyth coach.  I’m a huge fan of michael gerber.  Every couple of months, I’ll break out my emyth tapes and listen to them again.  Good stuff and the information is solid.

So have fun rocking. )  Take care for now and we’ll talk soon.

Regards,

Steve

(Note on "Emyth" mentioned above: It was created by michael gerber and he’s an advocate on working "on" the business, not "in" the business. He talks about creating systems so that your business can run on autopilot without the business being dependent on you. You can pick up an audio copy of his program at Nightingale Conant. )

World Domination?

I posted an email below that I recently received where a window cleaner talks about "world domination". )  Oh…by the way, I had a great conversation with a window cleaner friday about the specifics of how to pull in some great profits with gutter cleaning. As soon as I put my notes together, I’ll post it here.

Hi Steve,

It’s me again-Junior from the Custom Cleaning Pros. Anyway, I had a big question regarding the whole commerrcial  aspects of our business. I feel as though the residential side has done us quite well and the money we generate from it is unbelievable but, I feel as though there is this big untapped market in our city for commercial work and I want a piece of that pie!  I have asked around to kind of see who is doing what and right now I’m under the impression that the people who are doing these big jobs are from out of town. I feel that these company should not have to search far for help when they have us here locally!

This brings about my next and most important question how do we get our foot in the door and who do we need to talk to to al least be considered to perform these big gigs for places such as the Mobile Museum of Art, the Mobile Press Register, the FBI Building, and the Train Station(all which are buildings that are made of mostly glass)?  I know there is alot of haslte when it comes to the commercial side of our work but its something that we must conquer to complete our quest of WINDOW CLEANING WORLD DOMINATION…lol!  Thanks for your time and
effort-Junior-CCP

My Response:

Hi Junior:

Good to hear from you.

If you want into the commercial market in a big way, then the buildings you mentioned in your email are where you need to focus. I wouldn’t spend a great deal of time fooling around with the little $10 to $30 storefront type accounts.  Too much competition which means your pricing has to be low.  Plus..you work hard to get the account only to lose it next week to a window cleaner willing to do the account cheaper. 

What I would seriously recommend that you do is look at investing in a water fed pole system.  What this does is prevent a lot of competition from entering your market (multistories)  The reason is because window cleaners are notoriously cheap.  )  So if you’re willing to invest a few bucks, then you’ll have a serious leg up on other window cleaners. 

Anyway, with a water fed pole, you won’t need to squeegee or towel any glass.  You would use deionized water which literally just "falls" off the glass.  It saves you a ton of time and allows you to attack multiple floor buildings without getting on a ladder.  You can buy the pole in sections. So 3 story, 4 story, 9 story, etc can all be done depending on how long the pole is (how many sections you bought). 

Go to google and simply type in "water fed poles". I just did it and came up with two websites that you can research:
https://www.waterfed.com/
http://www.tuckerusa.com/
There are others too that you can research. 

I would really encourage you to dig into this multiple story (not high rise) arena.  There is a lot of money to be made using a water fed pole system. Again keep in mind you won’t be up against much competition at all.  Not many window cleaners own a water fed pole. And if you do run up against competition in multistory work, no probs.  Because being able to do the glass so quick (due to having a water fed pole) allows you charge less than a window cleaner using ladders.  But yet you’ll still walk away with a real healthy profit per hour.

Right….window cleaning world domination is a must.  )  It’s definitely doable.  I think you’re well on your way. 

Take care for now.  Have a great night.

Regards,

Steve

A Customer letter…

Hi Folks:

I recently wrote a post that included a couple of letters for prospects. Lo and behold, a few days ago I got an email from a window cleaner asking for a customer follow up letter.

Quick notes before I post the question/reply.

I personally just called customers up vs. sending letters. At the end of every appointment that you do, you should always, always ask your customer this question: "Mrs Jones,  it’s important to get your glass professionally cleaned on a regular basis so that the glass stays protected year round. Most of my customers have their glass cleaned every six months while others have it cleaned every year. What time frame suits you the best?"

And then don’t say anything. Wait for the customer to commit with an answer. If she/he  is noncommital, then put ‘em down for 6 months and start making your follow up calls then. But you need to have some follow up date. We’re not in this for the one-time window cleanings, right?  Although we’ll certainly take ‘em, our business needs to be built around a few hundred REPEAT customers. This is what separates the "so-so" window cleaners from the extremely profitable window cleaners. The average window cleaners are running all over the place looking for those quick hits. Us profitable window cleaners are taking our time "training" our customers to come back again and again. Cool, huh?

Now getting to the letter. To rely solely on a follow up letter to get the customer to call you and close the sale isn’t the way to do it. One on one communication on the phone is what closes the sale. But a letter could be used as kind of a reintroduction to you and your service. In addition, within the letter you can let them know that you’ll be calling them in a few days. So 2 or 3 days after the customer receives the letter, use the phone to secure the job.

Ok…here’s the email/reply:

steve i need a letter of some sort for the customers needing a repeat service. I want them to know i’m still here. can you please give me a good letter which i could send out. thanks

joe

My Reply:

Hi Joe:

Good morning.  Sure..I’ve done up a letter and posted it below.  Just make sure you follow up with a phone call. Letters are too easily dismissed.  So folks need to be prompted into action and into an appt.  A phone call will do this.  The letter just breaks the ice a bit, but it generally won’t be responsible for securing the appointment. Here’s the letter. 

Hi John and Sue:

Steve Wright
Clearview Window Washing Service

I asked them to call us within the letter. Some will, most won’t. So as mentioned earlier, set a time to call them back and secure the appointment. As a side note, you can send personalized letters automatically from within my software program, The Customer Factor (Update: closed ’til April).  It inserts the "last job date" and does everything with one click. 

Take care for now. Have a great day.

Regards,

Steve

Postcards On Sale!

Hey All:

I was notified yesterday that psprint is having a big 50% off sale on their postcards.  This is outstanding pricing. I just checked their site and we’re talking about $160.78 for 5000 postcards. Obviously you can get less quantity than that, but the price point is perfect when you get 5k.  So that’s about $32 for a thousand cards. That’s cheaper than getting flyers printed. I’ve used pspprint for years for my printing and they do a great job. What I like about ‘em is that their card thickness is 14pt.  Many postcard companies use the thinner 12 pt card stock which makes for a more flimsy postcard.

In all fairness though to the other company I’ve used in the past, they just increased their card thickness from 12 pt to 14 pt, so that’s good. This company is 48hourprint. Their overall quality is similar to psprint, but with all things being equal, the pricing for 5000 cards from psprint is currently better than 48hourprint.  48hourprint is at $269 for 5000 postcards. Feel free to do some comparison shopping and check ‘em out yourself. Make sure you select color front/black back (4" by 6").

Another company I’ve used is Postcard Press. But they usually run the highest ($289 for 5000 postcards) as far as pricing compared to psprint and 48hourprint. This company might come in handy if you want to buy lesser quantity. For example, they charge $95 for 500 cards where 48hourprint charges $116. Psprint with the sale they’ve got going on, still beats ‘em both at $36.70 for 500 cards. Not quite sure how they offer a quality card that inexpensive, but this is good for us. )

I’m not sure how long psprint will keep their sale going.  I can’t seem to find the expiration date listed on their site. So I’d check it out at your convenience and get some postcards. Let’s fire up some inexpensive postcard campaigns!  Whew…$160 is hard to beat for 5000 postcards. Even if  you don’t  necessarily want to mail them, they could be just as effective if they were distributed similar to how flyers might be distributed.

Ah…springtime is in the air. Can you feel it? Your target market will be in full blown spring cleaning mode very, very soon. So start planning your method of attack.

Talk soon! 

Steve

A Winter Time Plan…

Although this is probably a post that would be a bit more relevant at the beginning of the winter (at least in the snowy climates), I did get an email a few days ago asking: "what can I do in the winter"?. So I figured I’d post it below. Maybe it’ll give you ideas on some different services you can provide in spring, summer, fall, or winter in addition to window cleaning.  But make sure you use window cleaning as the door opener and then feed off of that with any additonal services.

Here’s the email:

Hello Steve,
I’ve been cleaning windows with your program for about 2 years.  Do you have any ideas/suggestions one can offer to get thru the winter months.  I’m located in the <location deleted> area and window cleaning is almost impossible during Dec., Jan., & Feb.

Thanks
Steve

My Response:

Hi Steve:

How have you been?  Good to hear from you.

Usually this is a question I get at the beginning of the winter.  )  So you’re about to come up on a wonderful time to be in the window cleaning.  Well, since you’ve been involved now for a couple of years, then I’m sure you’re aware of that already.

Anyway…I have many folks that have branched off into lots of different directions.  Some ideas:

–How about buying a water fed pole system?  This is great for the mid rise market like hotels, hospitals, etc.  They need our services all year long.  And it’s a service not many window cleaners provide.  The reason is because even though a water fed pole system isn’t that expensive, there is some investment involved.   So whereas anyone can afford a squeegee/bucket and walk into any storefront to ask for their business, not many window cleaners can do that with the multi floor buildings.  It opens up a great market for window cleaners willing to spend a few bucks.

–Gutter cleaning.  This is the other end of the spectrum in terms of investment.  Nothing.  A bit of labor is all.  But you’ve already got the ladders already, so gutter cleaning fits in nice with what we’re doing.  You may want to offer that year round and not just in the winter, but it’s something that folks would be willing to pay for in the winter where they might not be willing to pay to get their windows cleaned in the winter.

–Pressure washing.  An investment is required of course, but again, folks will pay year round for this service.  And not just houses either.  Driveways, decks, roofs, etc.  I have a number of people doing this.

–Christmas light installation.  Of course the holidays are over now, but it’s something to think about for next year.  I did a lot of this beginning right after thanksgiving until the first week or so of january.  You charge them up front for both the set up and removal.  And then you come back the first of the year to take the lights down.

I could go on and on.  There is also blind cleaning and working with the smaller storefront commercial type customers.  Although I didn’t do any storefront customers, the fact is that they do need their glass cleaned year round, so it’s an option..

Hope this helps.  Take care for now. 

Regards,

Steve 

A Marketing Technique that’ll REALLY turn your Window Cleaning Business on its Head (in a good way).

Hey all:

The other day I received an email from a window cleaner asking me what my thoughts were on him participating in the local home show coming up in his area in April. You can read everything below, but before getting into it, I wanted to urge you to contact your local chamber of commerce and see if there is a home show coming up in your area. There is an investment in renting a booth obviously, so some of you new window cleaners might not have the funds to swing it, but if you can, do you have any idea how many targeted window cleaning prospects will walk past your booth over the weekend? A LOT! Literally in the thousands.

I’ve talked about home shows before, but this is the time of the year to plan for ‘em. They’re usually held in late march/april, so proper planning is important right now in order for you to have a successful show. Anyway…happy reading.

Hello Steve!  My name is Junior and I am with the Custom Cleaning Pros here in <location deleted>. We have only been in business for about two years now and I must say I feel like we have the window washing business down packed. Your absolutely right when you say this business is pretty simple yet very profitable. Our business is doing great and we are having success beyond our wildest dreams! There is only one problem though-you can never make enough money-so I am always pondering how to generate more(aka acquire more prospects).

I have kinda assumed the role of the person in charge of marketing in my company and not to boast or brag but I seem to know my stuff when it comes to figuring out how to reach people. On April 18-20, my city is hosting the Home Design And Remodeling Show which will bring in 50,000+ people to the convention center over three days. Now as a marketing major I have this bright light that comes on over my head that tells me that this is a great branding and marketing opportunity for us to get some exposure and to  reach our ideal customer.

The problem is that it cost about $1,000 to reserve a booth and I guess because the lack of success with other expos in the pass my business partners are reluctant to side with me regarding this event. My question is should I take their advice and just stick to what has been working for us and use the money in that manner or should I take the risk cause I feel the benefits far outweigh the monetary loss upfront and sign up and continue on my path to WINDOW WORLD DOMINATION..lol? Thanks for your time and effort.

Junior

Custom Cleaning Pros

My Response:

Hi Junior,

Good morning.  Sure…I remember you well.  We spoke a few weeks ago. 

First I’d like to provide you with some information on home improvement shows which I wrote about before.The first is a newsletter that addresses home improvement shows. Click here to read it.

This 2nd link is from a blog post about a window cleaner’s experience with the home show he attended. It was posted in march of ’07, but the home improvement show he went to gave him the immediate jump start he needed in his business. Click here to read the post.

So now back to your email.

I’m glad to hear your business is doing super.  Excellent.  But you’re right…you can never have enough customers.

I think a home design and remodeling show is the absolute perfect vehicle to generate more profits.  Without a doubt.  #1, by the time the show is here, it’ll be springtime, so people are automatically in spring cleaning mode.  And #2, just the title of the show (design and remodeling) tells me it’ll be a great show. People attending the show are interested in design and remodeling stuff as it relates to their homes, so they care about their homes. And probably not too many poor folks or low to middle income folks will attend.  So you’re talking about the ideal person at the show to go after with your window cleaning service.

I personally would be willing to dump a couple grand into this marketing tactic because I know it works.  I’m not sure what other expos you participated in, but were they the exact same show as what is happening april 18 to 20th?  Or was the target market of the past shows a bit different.  Because I really feel that this particular show coming up would be an absolute winner for your business.

I do want to say though that it’s very, very important that you present a rock solid image for your company at the show.  $1000 is just for the booth space.  But I would invest another $500 or so into some personalized items (giveaways), I would get a 2 or 3 panel quality brochure made up and display them in take one boxes on your booth table. 

And if I were you, I’d be willing to hold 2 or 3 drawings to give away two or 3 window cleanings to the ones who win.  Have little address pads made up so visitors can leave a name, address, and phone.  Then get 2 fishbowls with a large sign over them that says "Free Window Cleaning" in red.  Folks come by, fill in their info. tear it off the pad, and drop it in the fishbowl. 

Another idea is to take a video of yourself cleaning some windows. Upload the video to your website. So visitors walking by your booth can see you in action cleaning windows.  Do you have a laptop?  And within the video, you can explain the importance of making sure windows are cleaned regularly.

I firmly believe this show would  be a wise investment for you to make.  As tony mentioned at the 2nd link above, he got 180 people from the show to request estimates. He wrapped up $10,000 in jobs on the first day!  We’re talking serious numbers here.  Although distributing flyers and postcards work very well, you simply won’t get those kinds of numbers from either flyers and postcards in a 2 day period.  So what other form of marketing can you do where you can attract your ideal target market in one weekend?  Nothing that I’m aware of. 

So a thousand dollar booth rental and a few hundred in additional expenses to make sure your image is top notch will gain you a whole slew of new customers.  In addition since you’re collecting names, addresses, and numbers, you’ll have people you can insert into The Customer Factor software (congrats on joining up by the way) and send personalized follow up letters to them which will turn some of them into even more jobs over time. 

The right home improvement show will pay dividends to your company for years.   But as mentioned, don’t just show up at the show with a table/table cloth and plop some business cards on the table. Start planning now so you can put together an attractive and high impact show. This isn’t something you want to wait for the last minute to plan for. But the preparation and planning will be well worth it.  Hope this helps.  Take care for now.

Regards,

Steve 

Transitioning to Employees

I received a comment not too long ago in response to one of my blog posts. I posted the comment below. As a side note, I get a lot of blog comment spam, so if anyone has direct questions, it’s really best to email me. Ok…here’s the question:

Hi Steve,

I started my window cleaning business last year 2007 on a part time basis because I have a full time job working 40 hrs. a week for someone else. My question for you is how to transition from my full time job making 50K a year + bennies? It doesn’t seem to be an easy task.

My customers like the work I do and I have even gotten a couple of refferals as a result. So I thought I would do another year part time and see where it goes, if I can pick up a few more customers and the ball starts to roll referral wise if you know what I mean?

The only advertising I did was through Dex yellow pages which generated lots of calls and plenty of estimates/jobs. So I am kind of afraid to do the flyers altough I think it would really generate a lot more biz for me I am afraid I won’t be able to handle the work load just on weekends. I work 4-10′s so I am off on Friday’s and work almost every Friday cleaning windows.  I’m just not sure how to do this transition and need some advise. Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,
Rick

My Response:

Hi Rick:

Good to hear from you.

I think the question you posed is one of the most challenging for all window cleaners. It’s a tough decision on when to make the jump to the next level and bring in people to assist. And I can especially understand your particular challenges as far as when to leave a job paying 50k plus. A tough call.

Ok…let’s step back and look at the situation. You mentioned your customers love your work. Excellent. And from your comments, it appears that you have just enough work for you to handle right now. And you want to do some additional advertising to bring in more jobs and more profits. I have some people currently who are facing that exact problem where they did some advertising, have another job, and now they have a backlog of jobs. I guess that’s a better alternative though then sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. )

What I would do if I were sitting in your shoes is to go out and get one or two part time people to help knock your current jobs out faster. Take a baby step first and start with a part-timer so you don’t have to commit to giving your helper a set number of hours per week. The ideal situation is simply to find someone looking to make an extra $100 or so a week. They could easily make that working one day with you.

If you have any colleges nearby, this is a great place to attract presentable individuals looking to make extra money and need flexible work hours. I used to visit the student activity centers that are set up in colleges and place a little flyer on the bulletin board explaining what I was looking for. I cut little tabs at the bottom so someone could yank a tab with my contact info. on it and call me.

An alternative is to place a general ad in the newspaper, but I personally wouldn’t do that. Most people responding to your ad will be looking for full time work. Plus you’ll get inundated with too many calls from turkeys. If you do run an ad in the newspaper, it would be best to screen them first. You do this by making them listen to a 60 second voice mail message about what the position entails, what you’re looking for, etc. etc. Then you provide them your address and ask them to send you something in writing explaining why they want the position. It’s a great way to weed out people. Michael Gerber (of emyth seminar fame) explains this really well and hired applicants exclusively this way. It’ll save you a lot of time.

Anyway….ok we now have a person on board. The advantage that you have is that you do have money coming in from another job. So it’s not like you’ll be sacraficing a lot of dollars by paying someone to assist you. I always explain to folks that sometimes there is a short term loss with the potential of huge gains right around the corner. I’m not talking about actual "loss". I’m just saying that instead of making $250 yourself on a house you do on saturday, you might make "only" $150 or $175 since you’ll be paying your assistant.

But it’ll only be short term because you’ll now have the ability to crank up a flyer campaign and not worry about getting "too many calls". When you get the calls, you’ll be able to schedule ‘em no probs since you now have a helper.

With that said though, I still wouldn’t go out and distribute 5000 flyers. Just ease your way  into it. 1000 flyers gives you 10 calls. You’ll turn that into at least 7 jobs. Now keep in mind, as you know not all 10 calls will come in right away. So let’s assume you get the 7 jobs over one month, can you handle 7 jobs (in addition to what you’re doing now) in one month with one assistant? If so, how about a plan of action that involves you putting out 1000 flyers on the first saturday of each month?

And then just go up from there. If you’re consistent with 1000 flyers each month, it won’t be long ’til you’ll need a 2nd person to assist on the weekends (keep all contact information of the people who call from above mentioned flyer in the student activity center).

The thing I can’t really help with though is the decision on when to break away from your company. At what point will you feel totally comfortable leaving? Can you get health insurance through your wife’s work? Or is this another expense you have to pick up? So I’m not sure how much you need each month to support your lifestyle and not miss a beat if you lose your full time income from your main job.

I do know many window cleaners that have made the tough decision to leave their employee though. The thing that’s nice about the window cleaning business is that it does provide peace of mind as you build your customer base because of the repeat nature of the business. It’s a real business that isn’t going anywhere, so unless you move or they move, there is an excellent chance you’ll be continuously cleaning their windows for a long, long time. As a matter of fact I received a call yesterday from a new window cleaner who said it perfetly. He secured a couple of jobs totaling a little over $700 and they both want their windows cleaned every 6 months. So he told me: "I just increased my yearly income by $1400" Just 2 jobs! So it doesn’t take many jobs/customers to replace 50k a year income.

I hope this helps and I hope you take that next step. It’ll be a step out of your comfort zone, but the rewards on the other end are tremendous. Take care for now.

Sincerely,

Steve