Some feedback…
Hey All,
I hope your weekend is going well. After I sent out my recent email to system owners, I received a couple of replies that I thought I’d post here. First…a portion of the email I sent:
"About 2 hours ago, I got a mighty impressive phone call from Lance Gibbs in Massachusetts. He just completed an $873 window cleaning job, but what takes the cake on this job is that the customer gave him a whopping $277 tip on top of the price for a grand total of $1150 buckaroos! Way to go Lance. Tips are fairly common, but it’s not every day someone gets
one that big. Mighty cool. "
1st Reply received:
"Hi Steve,
I did a job this spring which was $950 dollars and the lady gave me $200 in cash for a tip. largest one to date. I wasn’t plugged then if i had been i would have told ya about it. I did a job for 975 and the guy gave me another 100. Tips are from about 10 percent of my customers any where from 5 to 40 dollars.
Severn"
2nd Reply received:
"Whats up Steve,
Im not ready to start posting anything yet but since I started 4 months ago, I have already had 2 $2000 jobs, a few $1000 jobs and I have a job on Monday for $1200. I have done about 30 jobs so far and my average price is around $600. The best part is that most of my customers are guaranteeing me repeat business. Big houses in Southern California! Thanks.
Kevin"
Have a great weekend.
Steve
A $2600 week…
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
No Soliciting Signs…
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
A Competition followup
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
A Window Cleaning Success Story…
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,
Been a long time. Just wanted to let you know how things are going here. Our customer base is at 350 now – up 85 from this time last year. And most of the new customers I get now are word of mouth. We were a little light on the schedule for July and August, so I put out 1000 fliers and got several jobs to help fill the void. Other than that, I have not advertised this year. My target has always been between 400 – 450 houses, so we are almost there. I have one employee who works part time during the school year and full time in the summer. I have to tell you – the hourly rate has skyrocketed since bringing him on. I was averaging $350 – $450 days before hiring him. Now, I average $650 – $850 days. I hit my highest dollar amount today – $930 for one day of work.
Anyway, I thought of you today when I cleaned a house for a new customer. I charged $380 for her house – which Travis and I had done in 3 hours. After we completed the job, I was visiting with her and her husband and they told me she needed them done for a wedding and had called another window cleaner in town. She said that when he showed up, she looked at him and thought she would rather clean the windows herself than let this guy into her house. Then (and this is the kicker) when he told her how much it was, she said she thought his price was "ridiculously LOW!!!!" I never thought I would hear a customer say they thought the price was "ridiculously low."
The last time you and I talked, I mentioned that I was getting 100% of my bids on houses and thought my price might be too low. So, I started raising prices. The first raise, I went from $5 to $6 and no one even blinked. Second raise went to $7 a window. Still, no one cared. I am currently charging about $10 a window and still getting 100% of my bids. So, the big question is, what price point do I stop at? I guess that is a beautiful problem to have, but still, I don’t want people thinking my prices are outrageous. Of course, I really only bump the prices to that level in the high-dollar neighborhoods. Average homes with medium income families I stay between $7 and $8 per window. Oh yea, when I left that house today, the lady and her husband said they knew lots of people with big houses in the area that they would be referring me to. Two biggest lessons you taught me – 1) Appearance 2) Don’t go cheap on your bids. I am on schedule to potentially make two and a half times more this year than I did as a school counselor. Thanks again Steve!
Tony McCoy
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
Partnerships…
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
Is the Recession affecting your Window Cleaning Business?
Hey all:
Hope your weekend is going well. I just had to post this email that I received this morning from a window cleaner. I think it’s a great motivator and I think it goes to show that even though these are hard economic times, if we target the right market for our window cleaning business, our business will not experience slowdowns like many other businesses are facing. It’s all in the target market. Here’s the email:
Hi Steve,
Thanks for everything. Have a great weekend. And just a side note. The only change I see in my business is that I am busier. I personally feel that the people who get there windows cleaned on a regular basis are not going to stop using the services they regularly have done for there residence. Other than the cost of gas and some increases in some other items they are not affected the the mortgage mess because they are not part of it. The stock market may be down, but it does not affect them because they are not short term traders. The only thing they may do is have there broker buy more shares or shift a portion of there money to more profitable investments. Basically, the high end window cleaning customer is squared away. They live in nice homes, they have nice cars, they have vacation homes, there children go to the best schools, and they rely on a vast array of service professionals to keep there standard of living at a high level. Long story short, business is booming if you have the right clientele.
Have a great weekend,
John
P.S. Recession, what recession. Recessions are for wimps!
My Notes: Gotta love the "recessions are for wimps" statement. 
I wrote an article not too long ago about the economy and the window cleaning business. Here’s the article if you haven’t read it yet. So don’t buy into all the negative talk out there. If you do, you’ll end up with a case of "Stinkin thinkin". And then it WILL sink your window cleaning business.
Cheerio,
Steve
Window Cleaning “Competition” and other Stuff…
Hey All:
Whew…what a couple of two weeks. Lots of folks getting into the window cleaning biz. It’s a blast helping ‘em get off the ground but it’s a bit time consuming, so I’ve been "missing in action" from the blog for the last 2 week. I’m also working on cranking up a window cleaning forum which I’ll let you know more about later. Plus The Customer Factor is getting some serious behind the scenes enhancements and upgrades. Cool stuff.
Anyway…one subject that seems to pop up time and time again is "competition". I have a hard time understanding why anyone would be bothered by it. Here’s an email that I received the other day (my notes are after the email correspondence).
Steve,
I am a recently graduated business student. I was really encouraged by everything you had to say in your manual, everything looked good and I was really motivated to go forward with the business. UNTIL I looked into your directory at 3 Bears to check out my "could-be-competitors" It turns out someone else already has your program and is executing it perfectly in my area.
The website is designed exactly as you would have it. It has your reference letter on it and is copied to a "T". But i don’t see how I am to offer a competitive advantage when someone already has the program in my area offering the same thing? Any thoughts or ideas? My confidence in the program has dwindled 
Kolby
My Response:
Hi Kolby:
Good morning. As far as competition, I really don’t understand why that would affect your mindset towards the window cleaning business. Any idea how much glass there is out there? There could be 4 or 5 of my system owners in your area and there would still be plenty of glass out there to clean. So don’t be discouraged by "competition".
Some more notes on this subject:
1. By having another company in your area who happens to be using my "look" and "image" is a plus to you. What this does is give the prospects in your area a feeling that your company is part of a franchise which means the company is bigger than one person. Prospects feel much more secure knowing they’re being taken care of by a franchise vs "Joe’s window cleaning service" for example. Two of my most successful system owners are within 25 miles of each other. Their businesses ends up piggybacking off of each other and really provides prospects in their area a sense of security.
2. And competition is a good thing. I should probably do a class on this subject because of the misconception that some people have that competition is bad. It’s not bad. And if you follow my program, it won’t affect you at all. There are many reasons. Two I already explained earlier (lots of windows/glass and a look of "bigness"), but another one relates to how some prospects will call you thinking that you’re the other guy. Now the reverse may happen as well. So it all evens out and therefore won’t affect you in a negative way. Keep this in mind. To explain further…assuming he is using my "look/image", and you decide to go with the same "look/image", each time he sends out his marketing message (mails a postcard, distributes a flyer, etc. etc), he’s helping you.
Finally…are you sure he follows my program step by step? Unfortunately many people try and reinvent the wheel, so not everyone will follow my manual as it’s presented.
And it really isn’t realistic to expect to be the only type of service in any town. I’m sure there are quality carpet cleaning franchises in town. Does this mean one gets all the business and the others don’t? How many maid services are in town? I’m sure there are dozens. So similar to these types of service businesses where there are plenty of carpets and plenty of homes to clean, there are sooooo many windows out there.
All you have to do is apply some of what I talk about in chapter 7 to make prospects aware of you. And that’s another thing. This other gentleman may be using postcards to market his business but not doing any other type of marketing. See what I mean? Between the amt. of windows out there and the myriad of marketing methods available to you, there are so many different ways to get it done in the window cleaning business. If you just apply what I talk about in chapter 7, you’ll build a successful business regardless what the other gentleman is doing (or not doing).
Hope this helps and get the confidence back. If you were a bird on my shoulder and listened in on my phone conversations or read some of my emails, you would know how profitable this business (yes…even with competition) is. Take care for now. Talk soon.
Regards,
Steve
Kolby’s Reply
Steve
Wow… I must say thank you for the very detailed and thorough response you sent back… I really appreciate that and it goes along way to back up your customer service!! His message and "about us" section is identical. I am definitely not afraid of competition. 
There are a lot of windows here in this area and it looks like he just got going in March. But his customers do seem to Love him, according to Kudzu.. so he must be following your steps.
But here is another question.. can you tell me a little more about the car situation? With gas prices the way they are, I really am not wanting to buy a company truck unless i have to, i like you blurb about making your car into a traveling window service vehicle, I have a nice gas friendly vehicle… 2000 Nissan Sentra But i was a little Leary of making it the estimate vehicle and the work vehicle.. cause it wasn’t a high caliber vehicle…is it a conversation starter with the car? or what are your major reasons for going with the car instead of a small pick-up? what are your thoughts on this?
I noticed in your pics that your vehicle wasn’t a super "high dollar" vehicle, any reason for this? i would think you would by a company truck or two?? Just curious as I am headed down that route I hope.
Thanks again!!
Kolby
My Response
Hi Kolby:
Good morning. Thanks much for your comments.
There is no need to buy a truck at all. As you’ll see in the manual, I used my car. I then stripped it of the work "look" and it made a nice estimating vehicle on my Friday "estimate day". No specific reason for me not using a light truck, but if I already had a vehicle in place, there is no sense buying something I don’t need. My focus throughout my business was to spend money on what mattered, and that was all the various marketing tools I used. I’d rather spend a few hundred dollars on getting a few postcard campaigns out to prospects vs me buying something that won’t directly put profits in my pocket.
Now that’s not saying buying a truck is wrong. I have a number of system owners who have branched up and out by buying a truck or two along with hiring the people to run ‘em. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. But again, I already had my car in place and when it was stripped down, it really made the perfect estimate vehicle in my opinion.
So I would start with what you have. You can build up over time. The biggest mistake I see new window cleaners make is that they want to have it all from day one. The main focus should be on bringing in that first customer. And the next one and the next one. The vehicle is secondary. Put your money where it will give you the biggest return on investment. A truck won’t do that.
Take care for now and have yourself a great day.
Regards,
Steve
Some notes: Specifically about competition. As mentioned above, I don’t understand why any person in any business would feel threatened by competition. I’ll never forget when I first started selling my window washing program back in April 2003. As soon as my product was online, I received a series of really nasty emails from a "competitor" who shall remain nameless. No sense embarrassing them. But instead of embracing the competition and striving to make his program better, he lashed out. Maybe he thought he could scare me so that I’d pull my product offline. Sure…like that really worked.
Another thing that competition does is it makes you better. Or at least it should. Being the only business in any town makes us fat and lazy. We develop the mindset that we’re the only game in town so therefore prospects have to come to us whenever they want their windows cleaned. But by having competitors out there, we work harder and we develop better systems. This ultimately will make us a better company and therefore a more profitable company.
What I liked to do when a window cleaning competitor came to town is to call ‘em up. Contrary to popular belief, they’re not the enemy. So I called ‘em and arranged a place for us to meet. I let him/her know that if they have any jobs they can’t handle or if they need any help as far as information and/supplies, let me know. I’d be glad to help. And I also let ‘em know that if there are jobs I can’t handle or prospects I can’t squeeze into my schedule, then I’ll point them in his/her direction. So we both ended up winning in our respective businesses.
And finally…
The worst thing that we can do with competition is bad mouth them to prospects. It just makes us look bad and causes the prospect to think twice about your business. I never use any service business that trashes their competitors. I can’t trust a company that seems like they have a case of sour grapes. So if you run into a prospect that may have received a window cleaning estimate from a "competitor", just say "great…they’re a good company". Then proceed to explain what your window cleaning service is all about and wrap it up with…"good luck on your decision".
Have a profitable day.
Steve
