How big can you grow? Simple growth strategy for window cleaning companies

[@chascline8024]

There is such a low barrier to entry. I have hired and taught so many guys that eventually become my competitor. They don't usually last in the business but it does happen a lot.

[@bluladder]

It’s true, I’ve been in the same situation. Usually first mistake they make is charging to little, makes it tough to stay in business 😆

[@danielestrella1096]

Hey Ben! I sent you an email regarding your Next Level community. I’m sure you haven’t gotten around to checking all those but I figured I’d let you know just to make sure it didn’t go through a spam filter.

[@bluladder]

Sorry about that, I’ll be able to look at my email and respond before long next week, been out of town for a funeral!

[@danielestrella1096]

@ no worries man. No rush. Just wanted to make sure you received it. Sorry for your loss brother

[@danielestrella1096]

Hey Ben! Just wanted to send you reminder for this for whenever you get a chance to check your emails. Ik you’re probably really busy with all those Christmas light jobs!

[@MichaBusch]

Great video! How big are you aiming to grow your business in 2025 Ben?

[@bluladder]

I’m shooting to grow from about 160k in 2024 to $250k in 2025. Still gotta work on my marketing plan, but I expect that I can do it with either 1 full time or 2 part time employees. Then if I can set aside enough capital I would hope to double that in 2026.

[@MichaBusch]

Nice. That sounds like a nice jump in revenue, without needing a additional truck. In your previous businesses, was the growth more or less linear, or does the growth accelerate once you start to get bigger and have more time for working 'on' the business (assuming you can hire enough staff)? Thanks for sharing your experiences here on KZbin. You provide a really great mix between operational tactics and bigger picture thinking.

[@bluladder]

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement, it keeps me going! And great queston The business I sold grew 20% each year. It was easy to see once I began recording my monthly and annual revenue. That steady growth was primarily due to word of mouth. I had a website and gave at least 2-3 high end plastic business cards to each customer every time I did work, and didn't do any additional marketing after I launched the first month with a few thousand postcards. The bigger or accelerated growth only comes with intentionality. Paid advertisements, whether postcards, google ads, Facebook ads, etc are typically the only way to get significant growth. You pick a target number and work towards it. I know if I stick with what I'm doing right now (mostly passive, SEO, Google LSA, and a sprinkle of door hangers), I would likely grow by $35k... Except I'm almost at maximum capacity, so I wouldn't be able to do it solo. Since I can't easily fit anymore work onto the schedule, I either need to raise prices or hire. I'm choosing to hire so that I can begin to grow on top of my steady base. I don't like the idea of only bringing in $190k for 2 full time (myself plus a helper), so I need to work at increasing the revenue with intentional marketing. To go from $160k to $250k, assuming I'll already get $35k organic growth, I need to bring in an additional $55k if revenue in addition to my current strategy. All I need to do is break down a strategy to get there. I'm entertaining the idea of paid Facebook ads, through a marketing company, but if I don't go that direction I'll do more postcards (EDDM). I know my average window cleaning customer is around $350 per service, closer to $500 on the year with repeat work, so I need to divide $55k by the average annual value $500, which gets me to 110 new customers. I anticipate that with a poor to average response rate for post cards I could get about 30 customers for every 10,000 postcards, so if I push for 40,000 post cards I could easily get there. That's based on 0.5% response rate to the postcards, and a 60% close rate of those leads. It's also assuming I don't upsell other services, or increase my reach with email campaigns for the leads who have rejected my services in the past, so it is a very achievable goal. So I'll start pushing the marketing in late February or early March, depending on weather, and hire by the start of March. Still deciding whether I'll go with a solid full time guy or 2-3 part timers (leaves more flexibility for growth). Each month I'll track my results to make sure I'm hitting my targets with response rates and revenue, and adjust as necessary. If I'm doing better than anticipated, I can always hire more help, otherwise I'll have to pivot or refine my marketing strategy. I know that if I hit 250k that will just about max out 1 truck with 2 guys (me plus 1 helper full time), and that's why it's my target. Thanks again for the question, I think I just wrote the script for another video 😂

[@MichaBusch]

@@bluladder Makes a lot of sense. Cool that you can make an estimation of your forecasted results all the way throughout the funnel. Haha, yes enough material for another video. Would there be any scenario in which you would consider acquiring an existing window cleaning business or route, to scale faster?

[@bluladder]

⁠@@MichaBuschyes as a matter of fact I just bought another competitors business that was moving out of town. It’s like instant guaranteed marketing, gives you a boost right off the back. My biggest issue was not being able to hire yet, the whole idea caught me by surprise. Basically, I gave them some cash upfront, and then monthly payments until the whole amount agreed-upon wasn’t covered. All of the leads were funneled to me, and once I completed the payments (Just recently) I was given access to the customer list, the follow up system they had in place, and now I’m just waiting for the Facebook page any day now. I was able to hold off on any type of announcement or re-marketing campaign to the new customer list until the summer when I usually slow down, so it boosted my summer and I’ll be nurturing the new customer list in the future. I’ve already had a positive ROI, and havent even implemented any official campaign to the new customer list yet. So I highly recommend😂

[@johnmahland363]

My experience is that if somebody cleans the windows once a year, it’s a lot

[@bluladder]

If you wait for them to call you, once a year will be lucky. But if you are proactive and remind them on a regular basis, you’d be surprised how often they’ll get their windows cleaned. Not everyone goes for quarterly window cleaning, but a large chunk of my customers get cleaned 2x per year. I once ran into an older window cleaner who would only clean someone’s windows if they agreed to quarterly cleans. If they wouldn’t agree to it, he wouldn’t touch their home. He filled up his schedule, saved and invested his money, and ultimately retired. For some reason he didn’t consider selling his business, just said goodbye to his customers and then walked away when he had enough cash saved up. But all that to say, it’s entirely possible to get more cleans than once a year, just got to build the proper systems to encourage customers in that direction.

[@tr-e]

Hey Ben how are you? Been watching your videos and was wondering if you could be inclined if I work for you to learn more about the business, don’t need to get paid if that’s not available, just really want to learn. Thank you Ben

[@bluladder]

Shoot me an email [e-mail] and let me know a little about you, and where you live

[@syntax5118]

i just started and im so low on customers i dont have a car unfortenly i do use a water filter system im super chill friendly and all that but still its very slow for me

[@bluladder]

You’re not alone, every window cleaner when they first start has zero customers. Your number one job now is to find new customers and sell your service. Since you don’t have a car, you should definitely focus on storefronts. Once you’ve been able to get a vehicle and ladders you can always look for residential work, but in the meantime, you can get by doing storefront with just a wagon or dolly cart and an extension pole

[@bluladder]

If you haven’t seen this video yet, I go into the basics of getting started START your own WINDOW CLEANING business the CHEAP WAY kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGeckImhodWta80

[@syntax5118]

@@bluladder that’s exactly what I been using for now I keep the grind hard cuz I have a focus a road I go down on I set the bar high I wanna have a good company with in 5 years a house and a drive’s license for now I do have customer when i didn’t start my company legal now that I’m legal and a bit more charge they all jump off cuz I’m to expensive

[@syntax5118]

@@bluladder i have so much work stuff already im ready when i have a car

[@bluladder]

@@syntax5118 just keep pushing forward one step at a time, you’ve got this 👍