A Good Budget?
Good day Steve,
I am building a budget for the business. I would value your opinion and experience. In the beginning as a one man band, I am estimating $100 per month for supplies and $500 per month for advertising. I expect to follow your strategy of hitting an area on Saturdays or nights to minimize mailing costs and blanketing everything with a piece of glass. How’s that for a gung ho attitude. Both of these amounts assume that I have your reccomended advanced supply list from ABC, incuding the setups in 1/4" increments. I also am assuming a well stocked supply of postcards, business cards and flyers that would already be on hand.
Obviously time is the best teacher, but I am hopeful to be in the ball park. I realize that you do not know the specifics, but what do you think? Thank you for your input. I welcome it all!
Doug
My Reply:
Hi Doug,
Good morning and it’s good to hear from you.
Actually I think $100 a month for supplies is too much. I mean after your initial purchase, there really is no supplies that are needed on an ongoing basis. Towels get rewashed/dried, the glisten lasts a long, long time, etc. The only supplies you’ll need is probably new blades for your scraper in about 4 to 5 months. And if you hire someone else, then you’ll have to buy ‘em another bucket on a belt, another scraper, etc. But that’s really about it. So again, there’s no ongoing supply expense.
$500 a month advertising is perfect. But don’t limit this to just yellow page advertising or community newsletter advertising. Take a proactive approach and spend the bulk of this $500 on hiring a couple of guys/gals to distribute flyers for you regularly. Purchasing flyers is inexpensive as you know, so you’ll be able to literally get out thousands of flyers for a good amount of money. This’ll generate immediate calls since you’re taking your message directly to the homeowner.
I love the gung ho attitude. 
) That’s the way to do it. During your first active 90 days in the business, really hit it hard. It’ll provide you a real healthy customer base that you’ll benefit from throughout your entire business.
I’m not sure what your financial position is now, but keep in mind that the ABC Basic package is more than enough to get anyone started. I’d rather see someone put their money into flyers and go with the ABC Basic package, and then reinvest into more squeegees (for additional sizes) and towels with the profits made from doing jobs generated from the flyer distributions. But if you have the finances now for the ABC Advanced package, great. It has everything you need.
And having yourself 1000 business cards on hand would be great. We can talk more about postcards later when you’re ready to apply ‘em. But I’d go back through chapter 7 to read about how I distributed postcards. Postcards work great, but for the best bang for your buck, it’s important to hit prospects over the head multiple times with postcards just like with flyers. Postcards though are a tad more expensive, so it might be a bit tough to do both postcards and flyers and meet that $500 monthly goal. I personally would crank it up with flyers and then branch out into postcards after a few months once the profits are coming in regularly. Just a thought. But initially the goal is to go after as many numbers as possible for the lowest amount of money. And flyers allow you to do that.
I hope this helps. Have a great day today and I’ll talk to you soon.
Regards,
Steve
Doug’s Reply:
Steve
I have been reading your success tips. You are a huge help for a new small business starter. You get me thinking and focus me on the goal and help me avoid getting wrapped up in the process. The process is a means to an end and I see it sometimes as quick sand. You need to get through it but if you spend all your resources on tweeking the process you will sink. You help me with your stategies and tips. I read and reread them.
I will keep you posted on my progress. I will give it everything I got…..period. No shortcuts or excuses. When I get going it’s like playing poker on tv i am all in. I am working ok my start date which is coming slower than I hoped but It is tied to a family move. Excuse my spelling and grammar. I am typing on a small handheld. Thanks for listening. I believe you understand.
Doug
My Reply:
Hi Doug,
Good morning. And I’m glad you like the tips. Right…the process can sometimes drag people down if they let it. Sure…some time initially needs to be spent on the process, but I’ve seen people spend way too much time on the "process" and "getting ready". It’s kind of like "ready, aim", "ready, aim", "ready, aim", but there’s no "fire" in there. So they end up on this hamster wheel going round and round. This could be for a number of reasons with "fear" being probably the biggest. I think that’s the number 1 reason why people will hold back and not go petal to the metal and gung ho in their business.
Other folks just want to make sure the time is right. Well…there is no perfect time. No such thing. Still other folks want to become a master window cleaner before they do their first house for a customer. To these individuals I say that it’s necessary to allow for some learning on the job. Because as you do house after house after house for your customers, there will be adjustments that you’ll make along the way. So "Just Do It" as the nike commercial says.
Anyway….if you do the initial work and go through the process (getting your supplies in order, practicing on a few homes, etc.), you’re ready go. Just hit it at that point and understand that you’ll be fine tuning your own technique that suits you and your business. You’ll make a few mistakes, but we all did. This is all part of the learning on the job process we all have to go through. Learn from ‘em and move on. Just keep on moving. I can’t stress that enough.
Don’t be one of these window cleaners who stays home waiting for the phone to ring from a yellow page advertisement. Always be proactive in your approach. If you do, and you do it consistently, you’ll create a snowball that couldn’t stop if you wanted it to. And there is no better feeling my friend than looking at your schedule seeing that your next few weeks on your schedule are filled with jobs. That’s one mighty fine position to be in. )
Take care for now and please keep me posted. Have a great day.
Regards,
Steve
More Talk about Direct Mailing…
Steve,
I am in the process of having your marketing materials modified by the source that did yours , with my own contact info. Here’s where I have hit my stumbling block. I’ve never done a direct mailing, I didn’t know if you had any idea of what is the best way of selecting your target addresses to mail to? Income? Property value? I’m trying to figure out what’d be best. I was looking to mail to each potential client 6 times a year minimum so at least every other month. I know massive action is the best way to go, so I’d like to try and get out at least 50,000 postcards or more if I can afford it.
Luke
My Reply:
Hi Luke,
Good morning. Barbara is a great person to pick for doing design and edits, so she’ll treat you good and make sure you’re happy with everything she’s done.
The first thing that I would recommend that you do is go back into chapter 7 again and reread the method of mailing that I did. Because I didn’t do any specific mailings to homeowners based on income, property value, or any other criteria. I kept it real simple by doing "carrier route" mailings. When you mail to a carrier route, you’re mailing to each home in the route. So the postcard would be addressed to "Postal Patron", not to the individual homeowner.
The key is to do some initial research by driving into various subdivisions and deciding whether they are your ideal prospects. But it’s really easy to decide that though. As soon as you enter the subdivision, you should have a pretty good idea whether it’s your target market or not. Then using either a local direct mail house or dick tudor (the person who did all my mailings…info. in manual), you give the mail house a street number, street name, and zip. From there they can determine what route number the home is in. So that particular home and all the surrounding homes in the route will receive a postcard.
I had the advantage of being able to walk into dick’s business and see an actual map on the wall of all of the carrier routes in my area. So I could see for example that "haile plantation" was in route 67. So I would instruct Dick to mail postcards to route 67 since I knew haile plantation consisted of homes that were in my ideal target market.
Once you’ve done your initial research and you pretty much know what routes are good routes, then it’s just a matter of routinely mailing to those routes. A couple words of advice though: First, try and mix into your mailings some flyer distributions. In addition to all the postcard mailings I did, I also distributed flyers every single saturday to various routes. So the homes were getting hit from all angles. Pay a couple of kids to do this for you and they’ll be able to pump ‘em out quickly.
And the second bit of advice would be to not make the mistake of pumping out 50,000 postcards to 50,000 different homes. You need to take advantage of the repetition factor, so it’s important to space those postcards out and hit homes repeatedly.
You do mention about "if I can afford it", but the thing to do is to mail to just two to 3 routes at first. This might be maybe 1500 to 2000 postcards initially (depending on how many homes are in each route). You’ll get calls from this mailing which will turn into jobs which will provide you the dollars to reinvest.
Now keep in mind that the first mailing gives you the lowest response. So those 2 to 3 routes need to be mailed to again about 3 weeks later. See how this works? So I wouldn’t look at it as 50,000 postcards at once. I would buy 5000 postcards at a time, mail to a few routes, reinvest some profits back into buying another 5000, and then continue on.
As a side note, a window cleaner recently mentioned a great printing source to me. They offer a quality postcard (14pt thickness and UV coating), but their pricing is the best I’ve seen. It’s http://www.gotprint.com I was about to say it’s $105 for 5000 postcards. That’s what it was the last time I checked. But I just checked today and they have the pricing listed at $99.55 for 5000 postcards, color front/black back. Unbelievable pricing. There’s not really any price break by buying more cards like 10,000, so I’d simply buy 5000 postcards at a time.
If you have any questions on this, let me know. It may even be better with a phone call. 256-546-2446. But check out Chapter 7 again first though. The next step is just deciding who to use for the mailing process. You certainly don’t want to have to buy postal permits and do all this mailing stuff yourself. So look for a local direct mail house to work with or contact Dick. Again, his info. is in the manual. Take care and have a great day.
Regards,
Steve
A Marketing Idea to Apply Now!
Hey All,
A few days ago I received an email from a window cleaner asking me for some thoughts on how to drum up business right now to cover his typically slow january/february (he’s in a colder climate). I figured that all window cleaners might benefit from my reply to him, so it’s posted below.
I hope your year is going super so far. We’ll soon be coming up on the busy, busy, busy season. Yippee!! Please let me know if I can assist. 256-546-2446. Take care.
Steve
Hi Aaron,
Good morning and it’s good to hear from you. From talking with other window cleaners in colder climates, it has been a bit slow this month. You should move to florida. )
Are you in an area with subdivisions/homes near trees? Just wondering if gutter cleaning is a viable service in that area. Some areas have limited trees which makes it a bit more challenging in offering the gutter cleaning service. But I know lots of window cleaners who are doing very well cleaning gutters. I spoke to a window cleaner last night who said he averages about $75 an hour cleaning gutters. He charges on average about $125 per home and it takes him no more than an hour and a half to do.
On this blog, I do have some blog posts about gutter cleaning and other services to be provided in the winter. You may have to search a bit to find the posts, but it’s good information that I think will benefit you.
When you say your return on flyers is low, how low? And how many do you pump out? I talk about numbers all the time within my newsletters/manual, so is there any chance you can consistently distribute 1000 flyers each and every single saturday? That’s some strong numbers that’ll provide you strong results. I did this repeatedly using 2 to 3 kids (pay ‘em $20 each). We’d go into 2 or 3 subdivisions and in 3 hours, at least 900 to 1000 flyers were left behind. Doing this consistently has to overall give you good activity (phone calls/jobs). But it’s all about getting in the habit of doing every week. I had it inked right in my schedule:
Saturday: 9 to 12, flyers to Haile Plantation, Meadowbrook.
With that said though, given the time of year, sure, I think some folks will definitely hold onto the flyer and call more towards march during spring cleaning time. I think that’s a natural response. Not everyone of course. But it’ll definitely happen.
To avoid this (having people wait ’til march to call), maybe you could offer a discount or special of some kind that "expires" at the end of the month. Or maybe have it expire at the end of feb 15th. I’m usually not a big fan of discounts, but it could drum up some good business if done correctly. And when I say done "correctly", I’m referring to building it up by distributing multiple versions of the flyer to let’s say 2 (no more than 3) neighborhoods at most. So this flyer would be your "discount" flyer. Clearly show the expiration date of Jan 31st or Feb 15th (i would lean more towards feb 15th). And show the normal pricing (ex: Gutters are normally $125. Until feb 15th, take advantage of our $99 special). But don’t just rely on that initial flyer. I mentioned "multiple" flyers above. You have to follow up with another flyer a week or so later. This flyer would remind them about your specials and that the expiration date is coming up.
The final flyer (distribute 3 flyers total) can be distributed one week prior to your expiration date offering prospects one last chance to take advantage of your specials. This really, really works. So I would start working on creating the flyers today. Determine what specials you can offer and what your expiration date is and go from there. Make a slight tweak to flyer #2, but keep the same "look". Again, you just want to remind them of your specials that’ll soon expire. And the same applies to flyer #3.
And finally, have you thought about sending a "new service" or "winter special" letter to your current customer base? This is a great way to drum up business fast. Since you’re a member of The Customer Factor window cleaning software, this is piece of cake to handle. Create the letter, think of what specials/new service you can offer, and send it to all the customers in your database.
The advantage of a letter is that you can explain the "why". In a flyer, there’s usually not much room for the "why". I’m referring to why you’re offering the special. So in your letter, explain to your customers that this time of the year is typically the slowest for window cleaners, so you’ve decided to do something out of the ordinary. For example, you can write that you’ll include a free ceiling fan cleaning with each window cleaning if their service is completed by feb 15. Or your gutter cleaning service is just $99 until feb 15th, etc. etc. I’m sure you get the idea.
A word of caution. Be careful of going to crazy with discounts. Keep in mind that if you offer to do a window cleaning job at half off, chances are that you won’t be able to go back in a few months or a year later and get full price for it. And the goal in this biz is to create "repeat" customers, not "one time" customers. Sure…the one time customers are nice at this time of the year just to drum up business. But you want to turn those one time customers into repeat customers at some point, and it’s hard to do (and remain profitable) if you’re doing their follow up service at half off or something similar. So please keep this in mind.
I hope the above helps Aaron. Take care for now and have a great day today.
Regards,
Steve
A Mighty Cool Story…
Hi Steve,
Got to tell you a story and I’ll keep it as short as I can. I had a good friend come in the store yesterday. We both had limo companies and were doing good when things were good. Then he sold his business and got into concrete pumping. Now as there is zero construction in this area he’s hurting. Anyway he came by the store and we shot the s… for a while putting the world to rights.
He’s obviously concerned like me that at his age, 51, who would employ him. He was late on his mortgage and he was very
scared. Here’s a guy who is a great role model for any kid, extremely professional, has a great family, is a really nice guy and terrified about what is going to happen next. I had to tell him my tale and my plan to start a window cleaning business. I showed him your course, that I have in a very nice binder, and he was impressed. Like me I think he thought window
cleaning meant throwing some water on the window and squeegeeing it off. I now know it is quite a science.
Anyway he then changes the subject, I think, and starts talking about working in Naples Florida with his son for two years. But starts to tell me about this little breakfast place they would go to. There was a very chirpy server who was always upbeat and cheerful. However she would disappear for a few days every now and then and sometimes for a week or two.
One day he confronted her and said " I’m sorry but I have to ask, you are always happy and upbeat, are you like this all the time?" she said ALL the time. He then said " You weren’t here last week and you are always gone for two or three days at a time. Is that your schedule or are you taking time off?. She said " Yen. We go to the beach 2 to 3 times a year, cruise or go
somewhere nice. Eitherway we like to travel. My buddy then says " how can you do so much on the pay and tips you get here?" Steve this is the kicker. The girl then said. Wait for it " I have a window washing business". I nearly fell on the floor laughing.
Great story.
Have a great day Steve and thanks for the opportunity to change my life for the better.
Stewart
Limited Time To Work It…
Hey All,
Received an email below from a window cleaner who faces a time crunch like most window cleaners do when they first get started in the window cleaning business. I thought other window cleaners may benefit from it. Take care for now.
Regards,
Steve
Hi Steve,
Thanks for your email. I did receive all your information and have been reading through it very diligently. I have some business cards on order from PS print and hope to get those in the next few days.
I am really excited about starting my window cleaning business but right now have a bit of a dillema. The company I am working for just switched my schedule from not working weekends to working every other saturday in addition to working monday through friday. With my wife also working on saturday it only leaves me 1 free saturday to pursue my window cleaning business. I was hoping you could provide me with some strategies for this type of situation as tough as it seems.
As much as I would love to walk away from my current job and focus my 100% attention on building my window cleaning business, I do depend on the income to pay my bills at the moment. I would appreciate any ideas you might have or any words of encouragment you have to offer.
Thanks again for putting together such an awesome business package, you truly are a pioneer for this industry and I am sure many others have you to thank for changing their lives for the better through your knowledge and your willingness to help. Hope to hear from you soon and if you dont mind I would love to give you a call in the next couple of days to talk to you for a bit.
Thanks,
Christiaan Marais
My Response:
Hi Christiaan,
Good morning and it’s good to hear from you. Um…that is a tough schedule to try and also build a window cleaning business. It can be done, but since there are only 24 hours in a day, it may take some sacrificing on your part to see it all come together. So at some point, you do plan on taking window cleaning full time, right?
If I understand correctly, you have 2 free saturdays each month? Do you have any time after work at your full time job? Or is that an all day thing? I’m trying to figure out if you have any small chunks of time that would allow you to actively market your business (flyers/postcards/door hangers), and then that would free you up to do window cleaning jobs only (no marketing) on saturday.
If not, and you only have saturday to market and perform your window cleaning service, I would consider hiring a part time person who wants to make a few bucks on the weekend. Your focus should always be on the marketing side of things. Without that, you’ll never get any calls. So I would focus your 2 free saturdays on flyer distribution. It’s inexpensive and generates almost immediate responses/calls.
The reason for a part time helper is because some jobs are lengthy. If you market from let’s say 9am to 12pm on saturday, and then do a job after that, you might run out of daylight. Plus when you really get going, after 2 or 3 saturdays of continued marketing, you may start filling up your schedule nicely. But since you only have the two saturdays per month to do jobs, you might find yourself needing to knock out 2 jobs after your marketing time (9am to 12pm).
So a parttime helper will really be a must almost from the beginning of your business. Just be willing to not as make as much per hour for each job you do. The goal during this time is to not necessarily to make a financial killing, but to build a customer base that’ll cushion your business when you walk away from your full time job.
These are just some thoughts above. And when you feel like you have some consistent calls coming in and the jobs are starting to stack up, at that point, it might be good to walk away from your full time job. I really am not in a position to say when you should do it though because I don’t know your current finances and debt load, but I do know that if you market your window cleaning business actively (9am to 12pm every other saturday), you’ll eventually have a really nice customer base that’ll continue to grow due to your continued marketing and the referrals coming in from satisfied customers.
I hope the above helps. Thanks a bunch for your comments also. And feel free to call anytime at 256-546-2446. Take care for now and I’ll talk to you soon.
Regards,
Steve
Happy 2009!
Hi All,
Happy New Year to all of you in window cleaning land! Let’s make 2009 a year to remember. Even though the so called experts are giving the economy low marks, window cleaners overall are cleaning up literally. Although clean glass might not be as high of a priority to homeowners as some other home type services, if we go after the right prospects, you will get business…and plenty of it. So try and avoid the constant blah blah that you hear all around you every day. I know it can be hard, but there is no question that the business, jobs, and profits are there. We just need to go after it.
Speaking of "going after it", what many business owners will do during tough times is scale back their promotional efforts and dilute their marketing strategies. I can’t speak for other businesses, but in window cleaning, this is what you don’t want to do. The last thing you want to cut back on is your investment in your marketing. This is actually the time to pour it on. The reason? Because most window cleaners have cut back. They’ve followed the crowd and they believe the sky is falling. So this opens up tremendous opportunities for the window cleaners who are aggressive in their efforts. By the time the economy straightens up and they get back on their horse, it’ll be too late because you’ll have all their customers. 
Just kidding of course since there’s plenty of customers for us all. But you will have put a serious dent into their potential prospect base because you’ve already "been there, done that".
It’s simply necessary to think out of the box in a major way and do the exact opposite of what most window cleaners are doing currently. I love what warren buffett said recently. I’m not sure I remember the exact phrase, but it went something like this: "Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful." So as most investors are sitting on the sideline afraid to invest, he’s going on a stock buying rampage and buying, buying, buying. He’s a smart cookie because he knows that most people are herd followers and just do what everyone else is doing.
Anyway…I wish you all the very best in 2009. If you have any questions or need assistance, please let me know. My number is 256-546-2446.
Sincerely,
St eve
5 Marketing Rules for 2009
Hey All,
I hope you all had a mighty fine Christmas and are ready for the New Year. Here are some marketing rules that will assist your business in 2009 and beyond. Enjoy!
1. Get lots of exposure and do it repeatedly. Obviously telling a few people or having some customers talk about you is great, but it’s not enough. You have to get your message out into your target market in a BIG way using leverage whenever possible. When I’m referring to leverage, I’m referring to having fellow service business owners talking about your business to THEIR customer base. It’s a lot easier than you as just one person having to do all the talking. So get other business to talk it up. The jobs you’ll gain from this talk will put you on the map. Some people don’t realize how much power there is in numbers. Imagine having 10, 20, 30, or more businesses out there spreading the word about you. Powerful!
2. Be Memorable – If your marketing doesn’t wake someone up and make ‘em remember you, then you did it wrong. It absolutely needs to be memorable. So tweak it until it is. The good news is that there are loads of average joes out there just following the crowd, so it’s not too hard to stand out and be noticed.
3. Be Meaningful – Today more than ever it is important to provide consumers with REAL value. The importance of providing value in your marketing and in the jobs you do will get the wheels turning quickly. Many people don’t know this, but I do zero advertising for my window cleaning software product The Customer Factor. And the reason is because I don’t have to. Other software users do my advertising for me. So again, be meaningful, provide value, and then get out of the way and watch your business grow.
4. Fear of Loss, Social Proof, and Testimonials are the reason why I was able to charge what I did for window cleaning. Using my window cleaning service wasn’t cheap. But by using a combination of these tactics (fear of loss included reverse psychology of giving the prospect an estimate and then walking away…social proof and testimonials came from word of mouth advertising from satisfied customers and lots of references in each estimate package) it worked. Of course it all has to be backed up with a quality job which relates back to point 3 (be meaningful and provide value).
5. Reinvest a good portion of your profits back into marketing. The percentage to reinvest depends on where you are in the business and what your ultimate goal is for your business. If you’re just starting out and you want to eventually go full time, then a 30% reinvestment is good. If you’ve been in the window cleaning business for a year and you’ve got the ‘ole marketing machine producing results for you, then 15 to 20% may be a good reinvestment. But always, always reinvest a portion back into your business.
Lets make 2009 YOUR Best Year Ever!!!
Take care for now.
Steve
