Advertising Powerwashing business

[Scott Lefler]

Hello,

I'm looking for some good advice from a successful person in the powerwashing industry. I have been running my own powerwashing business for 3 years. I average 5-10 jobs per week. My idea of a successful powerwashing business is someone who averages 30+ jobs per week. What I'd like to know is; What method do you use to advertise, and how much would you spend on such a method? I would greatly appreciate a response as I am currently struggling to keep my business afloat. I advertise in the ameritech yellow pages, I spend about 300.00 a month on the ads. Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from someone soon.

Scott

Detroit, MI

(MICHIGAN POWERWASH)

 

[Beth]

Scott,
It's a formula. One egg in each basket.... Not the whole dozen on one place. (what is Beth driving at...) Oh! Yeah.... Try small local papers in the handyman section, try things like Clipper Magazine, try other avenues. Try postcards. Try radio, or cable tv. As you expand your advertising vehicles, you will capture other audiences, since not everyoen looks to the same source. That's what makes you grow.....

Stay away from coupon mailers that go into envelopes right now. No one wants to open them. Anthrax phobia.

Worked for us. Good luck.

Beth

 

[charlie]

Beth is right. Just another thought start charging a little more before you will be above board. I am not saying double your price maybe a 5% increase will do. Do less jobs make more money. What do you do Decks, Concrete or what?


Charlie In Wisconsin

 

[Schaeffer]

Make sure you have signs for the work site(s).
The guy next door maybe watching you, and if he likes your work he WILL write your number down and call.

I ad. in the local paper, but get most jobs by word of mouth and the signs.

My 2 cents.

 

[MBryan]

We do mostly kitchen exhaust but we get in about 100 jobs a week. We advertise in the local business yp's, send out postcards and do cold calls. We also did a big trade show this year that was successful. We will spend about $50k this year on advertising out of $1.3m gross. Not sure if that is the right percentage but it has worked for us. You may want to consider the kitchen exhaust arena, it's not really as hard as it looks and you can get some good start up information from the guys on these boards. You could probably pull in a couple hundred more bucks a week for only a few hours.

Matt

 

[powerclean]

How can you judge somebodies success by how many jobs a week they are doing?
Do alot of jobs mean that they are making alot of money? Would you rather do 50
jobs in a week at $50 per job, or work for three days on a job and make $3000?
Which way is more successfull? I would say that if you have been in business for 3
yaers, and are paying all of your bills and have money left over at the end of the month
that is pretty successfull!

 

[Beth]

Powerclean -

I agree. Welcome to the board. Please share your name and location. Thank you.

Beth

 

[Scott Lefler]

I guess you have a point about the quantity/size of the job. I was referring to residential jobs, I should have specified that. Anyhow, most of my work comes from deck restoration. I powerwash, and seal them. When I said 30+ jobs per week, I was mainly referring to 30+decks per week. I have seen other companies in my line of powerwashing (deck restoration) gross in the 300-350,000 per year range, working out of their home, and I was just wondering how in the hell they raked in that kind of volume, as I believe that advertising/image is the single most important aspect of running any business.

Thanks for the advice, and please keep it comming

Scott

p.s. What is kitchen exhaust?

(MICHIGAN POWERWASH)

Detroit, MI

 

[charlie]

When they say they do 30 plus decks a week they are probley doing retreats also. We live in a climate that to do 30 a week would be hard do to do to the weather. If you really want to grow to that megatude you would have to have alot of employees. Do yourself a favor increase your price 5% next year. Spread your advertising around. My biggest selling point that the owner is on the job with my guys. Just to let you know I live in Wi.

Charlie

 

[MBryan]

Scott,

There is a kitchen exhaust cleaners section on this board and you can also get some information from a company called Delc0 in texas. Their website is www.dcs1.com. My website is below if you want to see some before and afters of kitchen exhaust cleaning.

Matt

 

[Lisa]

Matt,

I seen your site. Very nice looking. I like your logo too.

 

[Jon Fife]

whats up,

I think you may need to re-figure your job numbers. If you work 30 weeks out of the year in Michigan doing 7 decks per week (you said 5-10) that is 210 decks per year. My average deck costs about $700. That is a gross of 150k per yr and that is not including fences, roofs, and concrete which you may also be upselling to your customers. If you get up to doing 30+ decks per week, I think that would put your gross up closer to 800k-1Mil. These guys you are talking about are probably only doing twice as many decks as you.

Here are a couple ideas that may help you double you business next year (these are the same things I will be doing)

*service a larger area

*ask everyone of your customers for references

*every job you work on, knock on the 6 closest doors

*go meet every local fence and deck builder and get them to up-sell your services to their customers. Offer them 10% of every job you get

*yard signs are #1

*try and get at least half of your two-year old customers to use your services

Jon Fife

 

[ParadiseProWash]

Jon I like your way of thinking I have been thinking about taking my business more into the wood restoration and less into the house washing. I could do those as add on's but I think I want to target the wood restoration market. I have thought about changing my company name to reflect more toward decks and less toward washing what is your or anyone elses comments on this matter.

 

[Beth]

I would suggest you NOT change your name just to add a service. Did McDonalds change their mane when they added a new burger or breakfasts or salads? Nope. Name recognition is very valuable. Keep the name, and add to your service offerings. I can't stress this strongly enough.

Beth

 

[ParadiseProWash]

Thanks Beth I respect your opinion it was just an Idea I have been tossing around in my head but yes you are right it would almost be like starting over from scratch wouldnt it.

 

[Beth]

Hi Morgan,
It sure would be like starting out.... Don't want to do that twice....

Beth

 

[Scott Lefler]

Jon,

It would be nice if the average deck cost $700.00 a piece, if I charged that much here in Michigan, I would be out of business.

The average here is $400-450.

Thanks for the advice,

Scott

(Michigan Powerwash)