I know I ask a lot of questions and I know I sound like a retard often times, but [most days] I’m not [quite] as retarded as others. I pick on thing and try to work on that until it’s perfect, but on the business perspective I feel like I’m doing alright. I was looking for a comparison, though.
My first day of business was October 10th. I walked the streets. I walked the streets almost exclusively for two months then posted on Facebook and did other things. I thought it was going to be a long haul, but all of the sudden it picked up… seriously… in the past few weeks. Anyhow, my income is/has been:
Tuesday: $450
Monday: $200
Sunday: $550
Saturday: $460
Friday: $220 (Should have been $470, but it was pouring.)
Thursday: $375
Wednesday: $274
My question: Is it like this for everyone this early on? I’ve worked my tail off and have smoked it, but it’s like the leads started pouring in and I’m book through Friday, have worked the past two weeks without a break and and giving myself next weekend off to catch up on stuff and take care of business. I’ve heard people say this is hard, but there isn’t much hard about this. I’m loving every second of it.
I think we have all at times felt like we’re asking the most basic idiotic questions. Don’t sweat it.
As far as your question though, I think it’s slow for everyone at first. We’ve gotta learn to market for ourselves. How many window cleaners are pro marketers, website designers…?
If you’re doing anything to get your name and number out there, this is the time for residential!! Be glad you’re busy, and use this time to encourage your clients to get you referrals.
Right now, I’m booked a month solid, and I’m still booking something new every day.
My issue is that I could book them faster if I had a second person at least to do quotes. Keep it up man!! Your not a retard! Lol!
The hard part I think isn’t necessarily now. It will be growing the business to sustain you and employees, building systems so that the company starts to run itself and so on. Good job buddy , keep up all the good work. And dont forget…WINTER IS COMING
@Stoneface this is awesome to hear your killing it out there. As i’m right now in a transition for my company from contracting to services, do you mind if I ask how you have been marketing? If you started in October, the six/seven months build up in my opinion is a fast turnaround to become profitable. As I said, my background is on the construction side, and contracting, but when I started out it was a minimum of a year, before I was really able to pull anything from the company that I would consider a profit. And really, I’m quite tired of the up and down of the tendering process, dealing with subtrades, suppliers unable to meet deadlines etc. Which is why I’m transitioning to the services end which I can do the vast majority myself.
Seriously that week you’ve got up there is awesome. $2500 in a week. Lets say you averaged that for only 40 weeks out of the year, and you’re pulling $100k. That’s fantastic work for a new business.
@Ryan-BCML, I’m so freaking sorry for not replying. I’ve been terribly busy and have transitioned from a window cleaning company to a gutter cleaning company. I just sold all of my commercial accounts.
I started just by walking. I walked into probably half of the businesses in Joplin over probably three or four months. I got a list of new companies in Joplin every month and started calling them as well. I looked up businesses on Facebook just by typing, “Businesses in Joplin” then messaged them on Facebook. I’d message until they kicked me out of messenger for a day then the next day I would go back in. I got in the phone book and called them one at a time out of the business section of the white pages. I was going to get the addresses to the very large accounts and mail them a letter through the US Mail (not eMail) and address it to “Management” because the subordinate employees aren’t allowed to open it and they have to pass it on. They opened up I was going to have a seriously short message letting them know to get a hold of me if they would like an estimate and leave them my card.
I think in April I start marketing through Home Advisor and that was TERRIBLY lucrative. I don’t know why no one else can pull down the jobs, but I make it a serious effort to come off professional with the way in which I conduct myself. I try to be personable and friendly, like an old friend, but let everything else do the talking. I have a nice pickup, new and embroidered shirts, a professional logo, my pickup is always clean and in order, I have the absolute best quality supply, I have a ladder rack with ladders hitched up, the bed of my pickup is always organized and clean, my hair is always clean and slicked, I don’t look thrown together. People always ask me, “Can you come out to give us an estimate? We’re shopping prices.” I tell them, “Thanks for contacting us, but if you’re looking for the best price it’s not going to be us. I can give you some references if you would like.” They say, “Why won’t you be the cheapest?” I say, “Our industry is full of what we call ‘bucket Bobs’. The individuals who do this just for beer money on the weekend. We’re not like that. We’re trying to grow and legitimate company. We’re insured, we’re a recognized LLC with the state, we have more and more expensive equipment than most people can afford, etc. I know people who have hired others who aren’t insurance and when they come out to check the progress and their gutters are brought down by an old wooden ladder and they are never to be seen again. That’s not us. We’re trying to build a company that has a relationship with the customers. We’ll come back out to tend any issue with our jobs when it is complete and we’ll come back to clean it for roughly half the price of the initial clean in most cases.”
Keep it up, sounds like you are making things happen. There was a quiet spell for me, but out of nowhere i started getting calls for storefronts and residentials. Because other cleaners do. It pick up the phone or return calls or even not show up. I love being licsensed and insured it sure sets us apart. And a organized truck sets us apart also. Visual is important to people.
No Worries. Glad to hear your still going strong, and things are busy. You hear too much these days of small businesses shutting down. Going nuts myself in cleaning up construction jobs, and then out of nowhere, picked up another 55K in contracts from a client I’ve known for years who asked me to bid a few small things for them. Somehow construction is pulling me back in from services. Went months of little jobs, and general unhappiness with the construction industry. Now its paying bills, and stuff is getting done. No idea what next year is going to hold for me, but right now I’ve got a quarter mil in contracts I need to finish. Plus the regular scheduled service work I picked up this spring.
