Hey All:

Hope everyone is having a super day today. For those of us firmly entrenched in the window cleaning business, a couple grand a week may not be such a big deal. But for those fairly new to the business or just getting started, this could be a windfall. And it’ll confirm for you that there are profits to be had in the window cleaning business for those who perform a quality service. So don’t let the doomsayers tell you any different. To prove it, Doug Marozas, a successful window cleaner in California, went into his account with The Customer Factor and printed his sales report for last week. He’s given me permission to post it on the blog. In 6 days, 16 customers were serviced with sales totaling $2635.00. Not too shabby.

As a side note, do you like the look of the report? There are literally dozens of different reports that can be run in The Customer Factor. Plus a heap of other functionality is included. Way too much to go into in this blog post, so take a few minutes to review the features listed on the website.

Have a profitable day!

Steve

Hey All:

A recently received email. Please make sure to read my "Notes" at the end.

Best,

Steve

Hi Steve:

 
I have recently started a flyer campaign, but it seems that every neighborhood I go to there are "No Soliciting" signs. I do not want to anger people in these communities. Do you think I should go ahead and continue with the flyers in these areas. I would prefer to do the postcards, but at this time I do not have the funds to do it. Thank you.

Jerry

My Response:

Hi Jerry:

Right…you’ll see some "no soliciting" signs, but you can’t let that deter you.  You don’t want to make anyone mad obviously, but at the same time, you need to generate profits for your business.  And flyering is an excellent, inexpensive way to do it, so it’s important to distribute flyers regularly to these types of areas.  The way that I rationalized it in my own mind is that I’m not soliciting anybody.  I’m not knocking on doors and trying to sell ‘em vacuum cleaners or encyclopedias.  I’m simply leaving a flyer under the door mat.  So I’m not intruding on their space or their time.  If they’re not interested, then they can throw it away.  Anyway…that’s how I handled this "no soliciting" issue. 

I learned to walk right on past the "no soliciting" signs when I was in the insurance business.  Being on straight commission, if I payed attention to all the "no soliciting" signs out there, I just flat out wouldn’t eat.  So I had to ignore ‘em.  One of my prospecting methods in the insurance biz was to walk into businesses and drop off information about my insurance product to the business owner.  I prepared a few packages the night before and dropped ‘em off the next day.  I saw many, many "no soliciting" signs on business doors as you can imagine.  I walked right past them.  But once again, I wasn’t selling them anything right then and there.  I’m simply taking a few seconds to drop my info. off for them to review.  And I’d call on ‘em later.  Many business owners may have taken my package and thrown it in the trash, but no biggie.  The bottom line is that I sold my insurance products to lots of business owners with "no soliciting" signs on their doors.  So a lot of commissions would not have been earned if I took "no soliciting" literally.  

And let’s not forget that many clients would not have benefited from my products if I decided to not enter their business which may have had a "no soliciting" sign on the door.  So think about it in those terms.  It’s important to think about the benefits you would be providing people if they used your service.  Think about all the people who would never get to experience your valuable window cleaning service if you paid attention to all the "no soliciting" signs.

If the "no soliciting" signs bother you that much, then enter these neighborhoods and distribute flyers for a short time period until you have some customers coming in regularly.  Then reinvest into postcards and/or community/association newsletters.  They’re the perfect way to bypass all "no soliciting" signs.  Take care for now.

Regards,

Steve

Notes: Some window cleaners may consider this approach aggressive in terms of ignoring "no soliciting" signs. And perhaps it is. But what are the options?   Do you then avoid the proactive approach and place ads in newspapers or stick in a yellow  page listing waiting and hoping for prospects to call you?  Sure you’ll get calls, but for the best results, it’s necessary to take a proactive approach (especially new window cleaners), and sometimes proactive approaches by definition can be a little aggressive.  On the brighter side though, these "no soliciting" areas can be filled with a goldmine of customers since most window cleaners will not enter these communities.  More business for you.  ) 

And finally, as mentioned in my reply email above, I never considered it "soliciting".  So that’s how I justified it in my mind.  I’m not knocking on doors.  I’m not calling them on the phone.  I’m simply sticking a piece of paper under their door mat.  Actually I had other people do it, but the point is that prospects received a non-intrusive piece of paper about my business under their door mat.  If they had no interest, then they could easily throw it away.  No muss no fuss.  

Steve 

Hey All:

How have you been? Whew…things are heating up over here. Been absent from the blog in the last few days due to some projects needing to be completed (announcements coming soon), but we’ll be doing more regular postings from here on out. Today is just a small "competition" confirmation post. To provide some background, I wrote a blog post recently where I responded to a window cleaner’s question and concerns on competition in the window cleaning business. Soon after that post, I received this email:

Hi Steve,

I was reading on your blog about the  guy with the competition "problem".

It really isn’t a problem. In my area there are about 10 window cleaners for a population of about 135,000. A few years ago I noticed more and more started out here and I was getting frustrated! The commercial route work was getting cut throat so I sold my route to a newcomer and went residential in 2007. And then more guys were starting in residential but this time I saw it as a good thing because that showed me that the market was growing. Some went out of business because they were to cheap, while I charge premium prices with premium service. Competition is great!!

Severn

My Response:

Hi Severn:
 
Good morning.  Right…competition shouldn’t be an issue for any window cleaner willing to be different from the crowd.  There are too many cookie cutter window cleaners out there.  So it’s pretty simple to rise up and be noticed.  Take care and have a good day.
 
Regards,
 
Steve  

Notes: Two things I’d like to bring to your attention about severn’s comments.

1) Notice how he mentions the commercial route work was getting cut throat so he went residential?  Commercial  work is definitely more cut throat w/o a doubt. I’ve probably mentioned this before, but the reason it’s so competitive is because anyone can do it. Any person can buy a squeegee and a bucket from home depot, call themselves a window cleaner, and then walk into any strip mall store and take business from other window cleaners based on price alone. The main selling point has to be price in a situation like this. What other selling point can he use? So let cut throat price games begin.

2) And the 2nd thing about severn’s comments that jumped out at me is that some window cleaners went out of business because they were too cheap. Sometimes I feel like a broken record talking about pricing windows, but it’s imperative that window cleaners charge a respectable price for a window cleaning job. It needs to be win-win between you and the homeowner. Being cheap doesn’t help anyone. You may think it helps the homeowner. Sorry. It doesn’t. Because if you’re too cheap, you’ll need to cut corners on the job in order to profit. So the homeowner ends up losing. Then when it comes time for them to be serviced again, they sure won’t be excited to have you back. They’ll have long forgotten about your low price and they’ll only remember the service they weren’t happy about. How can you build a repeat business this way? So price jobs which allow you to NOT cut corners on your window cleaning service and where you can make a healthy profit for your business. A win-win for everyone.

Have a Great Day!

Steve

Hey All:

Hope you are having a fine day today. Yesterday I received an email out of the blue from a window cleaner with a business "update". I thought it would make a good motivational blog post for those of you not yet out of the starting gate in your own window cleaning business. And even if you are out and about in your business, sometimes all this negative news that surrounds us each day can dampen our spirit and cause us to lose our focus, our commitment, our attitude, etc. So the post below should pick you back up and fill you with confidence.  There is no better business to be in than the window cleaning business. Enjoy!

Hi Steve,

My Response:

Hi Tony:

Good morning.  Thanks very much for the update.  I love the progress you’re making.  Cool stuff.  Great news on not having to advertise this year.  A tapped into customer base will continue to come back to you and also provide you that word of mouth advertising as you mentioned.  It all results in us not needing to do as much direct advertising.

As far as price point, there is no definitive answer to that question.  But I definitely wouldn’t keep going up and up.  At some point, you need to settle in on a price and stay there (at least for awhile) simply so prospects/customers have some idea what to expect.  My advice would be to go up until you’re not closing 100% of your estimate presentations.  That’ll give you the feedback right there that you need as far as pricing.  If 90% end up taking your bids, then you’re at a price point where folks are now thinking about it.  So that would be a good stopping point for your prices.  Hope this helps.

Anyway…thanks again for the business update and for your comments.  Good stuff Tony.  Take care and have a great day.

Regards,

Steve

Final notes: I remember talking with tony back when he first bought my package. And I remember the concerns that he brought up as far as making the leap from a counselor to the owner of a window cleaning business. Well….those concerns and fears are history.  If we fast forward a couple of years, counseling is a distant memory and $650 to $850 days are the norm. 

So if you have similar fears, concerns, or trepidation, just take the necessary steps, follow the program, stay focused on the end result, ignore the constant negativity that is all around us, and you’ll see success in the window cleaning business. Oh one last thing…Tony is a member of my window cleaning software The Customer Factor. This software and successful window cleaners seem to be joined at the hip. 

Have a profitable day.

Steve

Hey All,

Happy belated 4th of July. I hope you all had a great weekend. I received an email recently asking what my thoughts were on partnerships. Here it is:

Hi Steve,

I am moving forward with my planning on starting the window cleaning business.  I cannot wait.  I am wondering what your thoughts are on looking for a partner to help build this business quickly.  I plan on following your plan, and I want this to be very successful right from the beginning…thinking that 2 people would be better than one in building this.
 
George

My Response:

Hi George:

Good morning.  I’m glad you’re excited about your window cleaning launch.  I really am.  If you put forth the required effort consistently the first 30 to 60 days after you launch, you won’t look back.  What’ll ensure that you do this is that I think you said you were going to do window cleaning full time, right?  So the retail job will be gone once you launch your window biz?  This’ll free up all kinds of time for you, so that’ll be great.

Whew…I really don’t know about a partner. Especially since you don’t know who that partner might be.  Perhaps if you and a long time friend or childhood buddy were going to crank it up, then I’d say great.  But a partner for the sake of a partner isn’t very doable in my opinion.

The reason is because it takes consistent effort, especially at the beginning.  So both of you would need to get involved in similar ways and spend the same amount of time/effort.  I’ve seen many, many partnerships where one person does all or most of the work.  The other one is more relaxed and slacks a bit a more.  This’ll create resentment in the one doing all the work.  This happens quite frequently actually.  I just heard of a partnership in colorado go bad between good friends because one person was doing all of the business generation.  All his partner did was show up to do the actual jobs.

I don’t want to sound too negative on partnerships because I’m sure sometimes they work well.  If you do go this route, I’d map it out with a complete expectation of duties between both of you. Will you both market?  Or will it be only you and he/she is only expected to work with you on the jobs?  How much money will he/she invest in the marketing?  Or is it all your money?  Just some questions to think about.  And how will he/she be paid?  A 50/50 split? 

If I were thinking a partnership for my business (which I wouldn’t do), I personally would rather hire someone to market for me.  Pay them either hourly or pay ‘em a large percentage of the job since he/she found the job for you.  There are all kinds of ways to structure a partnership.  It doesn’t have to be 50/50 either.  Maybe you’re going to do the majority of the work so you can structure it 70/30 with the bulk of the revenue going to you. 

Two people being better than one is a good one…in theory.  Especially 2 people in a "partnership" right out of the starting gate.  My thoughts on it are this if you want another person to assist…why make him/her a "partner"?  Why not just pay him/her a flat amount or percentage of a job? Anyway…again, just some thoughts to think about.  Take care for now.

Regards,

Steve