I received this question recently via email:
I read and extremely enjoyed the manual. Now that I’m finished and joined MWC association, I’m stilling in the analyze/paralysis mode – maybe due to fear of trying a new profession/business. Where do I go from here? I haven’t got my marketing material in place yet – I guess I should contact your referral for editting my marketing material. I still need to get my website together – having trouble pricing my area. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
2nd email from same person a short time later…
I thinking about doing small two story (max) store fronts & mall strips and was wonders your thought on me purchasing a water feed with DI unit.
"Analysis paralysis" is only natural. It stems from a little bit of fear and sometimes from simply being overwhelmed with information. This was my response to the above 2 emails. I hope it helps you if you happen to be experiencing this also.
Hi <name deleted to provide privacy>:
It’s good to hear from you. Ah…analysis paralysis. I have been there/done that, and many, many other folks have too. So just know you are not the only one when it comes to this. This may sound overly simplistic, but it’s very, very important that you do something every single day to grow/build your business. If you don’t, it gets harder with each passing day to move forward. And what ends up happening is that you do "busy" things, but it’s stuff that doesn’t really boost your business. Does that make sense?
And please don’t make the mistake of joining this, buying that, researching this, redesigning that, etc etc. Many folks do this due to the simple fact that they’re nervous and have some fear in cranking their business up. It’s only natural.
There’s that fear inside that maybe it might flop or that maybe you’ll be disappointed or whatever. But I wish you could be a fly on the wall and listen to some of my phone conversations. There are tremendous incomes being made right now in this business. But the underlying thing that makes these successful system owners a success is that they take action every day. They don’t analyze stuff. They do stuff. Pretty basic I know. But it’s true.
To continue on with this train of thought…just always remember to "do the numbers". I talk about this a lot to folks within my newsletters or within emails because it is so important. For example…I had someone call the other day, and he said he was going to go out and put out 100 flyers. 100 flyers. Now that may sound like a lot to you, but think about this for a second. If you do 100 flyers, based on the average expected return, you will get one phone call. Just one phone call. Not good.
So the goal should be to distribute at least 500 flyers each and every time you set out to distribute flyers. This’ll get you 5 calls. And guess what? Do another 500 the next day and now you have 10 calls. 500 the day after that and all of a sudden you have 15 calls. Not a bad way to start your business, right? So just play the numbers. And play the numbers every single day.
Speaking about every day, one thing I realized in my business is that if I do something every day, good things seemed to happen. If I was out promoting my business, dropping off flyers, talking to maid services, doing estimates, etc etc, it just seemed like the phone rang more, I received more requests for estimates, I made more money, and on and on it went. But if I stayed home all day trying to analyze things or doing "busy" work (pushing papers around), not much happened. So there’s no magic bullet here. The successful system owners are out every day promoting and talking up their business. It’s all about consistency, repetition, and doing the numbers. Sorry to sound like a broken record, but that’s really what it is all about.
So now that hopefully the above will give you that "push" to go out tomorrow or at least on monday (start next week off with a bang), let’s talk about what to do.
Well…the first thing I would do is not get too caught up in your website (he is a ‘Factor member and was referring to the free website he gets as a bonus). Don’t worry about it. It’s not going anywhere. If you work on it over the eekend, great.
But I would definitely not even think about it during the week. You have to take a proactive approach in this business. The website is passive and won’t get you any direct business. We need to get your phone ringing and the only way that’s going to happen is if you directly bonk people over the head with your marketing message. The
website is a nice addition, but it won’t make your business. Proactive marketing makes your business.
And pricing…no worries at all. Simply estimate jobs based on the pricing I gave you. And call me before you present your first estimate. I’ll throw in my 2 cents on what I would charge for the job you’re estimating. I remember my first house I estimated. I was real nervous and wasn’t sure what to charge. So I told the homeowner I’d figure it up and get back to her later with it. I got home and called the folks who I purchased my information from and they talked me through the pricing issue.
After the 1st job was estimated, it became easier and easier and easier. Practice makes perfect as they say. And that’s certainly true when it comes to both estimating window cleaning jobs and doing the jobs themselves.
One note on pricing though…you may find yourself adjusting your pricing up or down based on your prospects response over time. So there are no hard and fast rules for one concrete price. You’ll need to make adjustments on the fly. But start with $5 a window, $1 a screen, $8 a slider, $8 a french door, and $3 or $4 on transoms/panes of glass. You can’t go wrong with these numbers.
And really the bottom line is what is the worst that could happen if your pricing is off? Instead of making $45 an hour, you make $25? Not a bad thing. Especially when you’re new. So don’t let pricing interfere in you getting out there. You have to get through the first estimate and then it’ll all start falling in place. Trust me on this one. But if you continue with analysis paralysis, you may never do that 1st estimate. 
)
Okay…specifically, if I were you, I would go out tomorrow and get 1000 flyers printed. If you haven’t had the flyers edited yet, then kinkos can do it for you cheap. Do you know any kids or do you have friends who have kids in the 10 to 15 year old range? I used to go out on saturday mornings and take 2 to 3 kids with me.
I’d pay ‘em $20 each for a total investment of $60 max. They would have 1000 flyers distributed by noon. They have soooooooo much energy. And the calls would start coming in that afternoon. If you can’t do the kids "thing", then I guess you could do it yourself, but I always considered my time more valuable then hoofing it through neighborhoods going to hundreds of houses.
So that would be my game plan. If you can’t do it tomorrow, then definitely do it monday. My word of caution is to not wait long. Because as I mentioned earlier, it’ll get harder and harder to get started if you do. The nice thing though is that once you get your first phone call, do your first estimate, and complete your first job, everything just starts falling into place. But you have to finish a bunch of "firsts" before you see the results you want.
I can go on and on, but start with what I suggested above. Get the phone ringing. And then take your profits and buy another 1000 flyers or even 2000 flyers. Keep it going. Remember consistency. Then when the profits really start coming in, consider mailing postcards (listed on my Resources list). This is a huge time saver and will send your business into overdrive.
So once again, everything will start to fall into place if you consistently market your business. And when the phone starts ringing and you’re scheduling jobs, make some time to establish some connections in your town. These connections can send you jobs/business on a regular basis. It really will add some tremendous profits to your
bottom line. And that type of business is all free. It’s a great feeling when you get a phone call from someone who was recommended to you from someone else. And you may as well count the profits because the job is already yours. You can sleep walk through your estimate and still get the job because you were recommended.
Ok…as far as your second email…I wouldn’t purchase a DI unit right now. I think they’re great. But mostly for mid level or multi floor buildings. You don’t have any hotels, motels, or hospitals yet as customers, so I would not buy the unit. I know they are also used on homes, but you have all the tools you need to do a great job on homes.
I would much, much rather see you spend money directly into your marketing campaign. If you have dollars for a DI unit, then you definitely have money to crank up multiple flyer distributions using some "kid help" and getting the message out in a big way.
Invest your dollars into flyers and postcards for at least one year. And you’ll never have analysis in the window washing business again. The reason is because you’ll be swimming in customers. ) After one year, then revisit the DI issue. Just my 2 cents on it. Again…I know DI units can be beneficial, but it’s definitely not needed or necessary in order for you to get out there and start building your business with the tools and knowledge you currently have.
I hope this helps. Just one final note…please, please, please don’t think about this business too much. It’s an easy business. But it’s only easy for the people who take action every day. I know that sounds kind of strange. But the folks who analyze everything just complicate things.
Follow the program, take action, and you’ll be just fine. I see it and hear about it every single day. So folks are doing it. But only the folks who tighten up their belt and dig in. The folks who analyze are just sitting on the sidelines missing out on all the fun and the profits.
Oh…and one last thing. This is the absolute best time of the year to be a window cleaner. So don’t lose this "Spring Time" opportunity to clean up.
Take care for now.
Regards,
Steve
