1
#1 clean
The twenty-five years is the biz, not me (I am sixty-one). This is about getting customers NOW versus then (residential window cleaning service begun in 1986 and peaked during early 1990s), taken up off and on in between ESL teaching jobs in SE Asia (where I saved a much larger percentage of my pay packet even though my wage was less than here and now). Last time I seriously tried to market this service was 2006, and I gave up because it was just too much effort for too little reward. For personal reasons I need to raise capital this summer. It's not about long-term investment, just socking away some cash short-term.
Straight off - because I am much older than before I can no longer work 12 hours a day, running down stairs distributing flyers and doing ten jobs per day. Secondly, I am in Canada, not UK. Thirdly, I do work for individuals in apartments, retail inside and out customer service and take pride in my work. In fact, I am a perfectionist. I do things that add 30% to the time to do the job because I want my customers to be happy - the edges touched up with paper towels, razoring for paint spots, taking care to get no drips on couches and hardwood floors, wiping the sills, and of course washing the screens inside and out (and if paid more demildewing frames). Moving all the furniture. And back. You get the picture. Nobody else does this, neither the guys who slosh and leave streaks on exterior jobs nor the very few competitors I have had who did what I guess you could call this 'boutique' work niche. It's not only for my clients that I am detail and service-oriented, I get a kind of satisfaction doing custom work.
My old price was CAD25-40, now it is 40 to 70 (24-41 pounds). Takes me 40 to 90 minutes. To keep this in context *minimum* wage here is about 7 pounds per hour (persons making this do NOT hire me), a senior on pension gets about 900 pounds per month, and no serviceman does house calls (furnace, plumber etc) for less than $300, so my service is not expensive. Working class flat rent is over $1000. This is the second-most expensive metropolitan area in Canada.
But, 'everything' seems to have changed when I first took up a squeegee in 1986 in Vancouver, canvassing in my building, then the neighbourhood, then the entire residential area in which I lived. I made very good money seasonally cleaning suites in apartments, building up a client list. I used to travel every winter.
To keep this in context, 99% of my customers are...
a. Caucasian (especially northern European - particularly Germanic in the broadest sense). I am happy to clean for the Iranian, Korean, Russian and Chinese population here (non-Anglo population totals perhaps 50% of my suburban city), but for whatever reason they never hire me.
b. Female or homosexual
c. Over 50, especially over 65
d. Lower-middle class and a few true middle class
So, I have learned to avoid buildings with working couples, families, Asians, the poor and the very rich. This leaves almost no one left, as metro Vancouver is majority non-Anglo immigrant, and if my observation is correct the middle class is shrinking. I used to know the neighbourhoods where retired women and retired couples lived, and I lived in what was then the *** 'ghetto' (West End). But instead younger people have moved in. Certainly younger people have gotten older but they haven't replaced them in the same places. Something demographically new and strange (to me anyway) is going on that isn't helping my business.
Here's what *used* to work fabulously, from best to not best (but still somewhat effective)...
1. customers calling the people they know in the building while I am working in their suite
2. knocking on doors while in the building and saying, 'I just washed the windows of Mrs. Jones, would you like yours done while I'm here today?'
3. #2 but making appointments for another day (closer the better)
4. Canvassing from intercom and doing job on the spot
5. #4 but appointments for another day (closer the better)
6. flyers under every door while in building
7. Taping a flyer to exterior of building
8. City directory calling everyone in building with a listed phone number.
Notice that advertising *anywhere* is not even on the list. I tried local publications and it never paid for itself. Trying to establish a relationship with the building manager (doing his for free in exchange for permission to canvass door-to-door) worked only in the very early 1990s.
Reflections on 1-8
1. Only worked for old women who were socially connected with their neighbours. They had to offer or do it spontaneously really.
2-3. In the mid-90s door-to-door started to be a problem. Now it borders on criminal, it is certainly considered very suspicious
4-5. I used to do this one or two evenings per week in order to get new customers, but the problems are technical. Now intercoms are hooked up to phones. I can't make a list of who is in what suite. Half the time the codes are a secret. It's as if there is a fortress mentality now.
6. This works a little still, but first I have to get in the building. I learned a long time ago that asking for permission from the caretaker provided only an opportunity to say no. Plus, most buildings here are no longer independently managed. They are operated by a few large companies.
7. This was never great
8. No such publications exist anymore, and anyway rarely did many people like being telephone solicited. But if I put in the time I got leads.
But the biggest challenge is this - windows are no longer filthy! Maybe there was a change in legal landlord responsibility, but unlike late 1980s when people were salivating to hear my offer, it's a luxury now. They are cleaned once a year which for many people is good enough. I used to get great aesthetic pleasure cleaning windows that hadn't been washed for five years. Now, only buildings with young and low-income people (students etc) stay in such buildings. Building managers tell me 'we do it once a year'. My response falls on deaf ears, "Yes, but do they do the patio doors, the inside, and how good of a job do they do?" I don't wash for storefronts because many hobos and companies do this. I don't do contract work because I like being paid cash every hour or two. And have a distaste for falling off scaffolds (an acquaintance with a 'real' window cleaning business had two guys die). I just want to do old-fashioned home service in apartments, moving little old ladies vases and cleaning her windows while listening to her stories. I came to have fond memories for my regular customers. Knowing their families, their tastes and histories - like the barber who is a listening post to their troubles. And I made a very good living too. I targeted medium size jobs because the set up and close down time was about the same for very small jobs (one balcony sliding door and one side window), and big jobs paid less per hour. But I took what I could get. Now, if I work smart I get 4-6 jobs a day - that's 75-150 pounds per day. But I can manage only one or two days per week maximum. Takes me three hours a day just to get to the primo (concentrated) residential area by train. I have tried shifting focus to my own suburb but it's too ethnic and high-class (plus new complicated windows) here.
I have adapted my flyers - adding prices (people seem to be shy to call unless they know a ballpark price), now I offer time-sensitive discounts (hey, if more people on one street get in done the same few days it saves me time so I'll make the price cheaper), discounts for first customer in a building. But after flyering like crazy I am getting almost no response. I revived my business from a customer list I had briefly revived in 2006 (many moved or died) and now I am scrambling trying to figure out how to reach my targeted customers. I have also added hand scrubbing of concrete patio floors, railings and ledges for upper middle class who own luxury condos. Why? They asked! It pays better but I have some arthritis in my shoulder and it's really hard work.
Where to learn the basics of whatever marketing works today for boutique window cleaners? I think of my buddy's Thai wife. She has a housecleaning service - five customers only. They get her once every two weeks. Compare that to 500 customers (twice a year usually) I had and constantly hustling to renew the list. Weather-sensitive. Busy only in spring and fall (summer slow, winter very slow).
Does anybody on this forum operate a retail service like this? What marketing is most effective for you? I tried Craigslist and I keep getting called by property managers who want wholesale work. And that online marketplace is flooded with duplicate ads. Mine gets lost.
I remember a German friend in 1992 telling me that no way could he operate such a business in Cologne. People would ask for license, insurance, bonded, blah blah blah. But I ignored all the conventional paperwork. I build up a business on superior service, reliability and trust. And I am finding it hard to revive. Suggestions?
P.S. Do you have the same problem in UK? I used to be able to slide or crank almost all windows out and reach. All the new buildings have ridiculous impractical windows that make it impossible to clean without professional gear. I presume it is the safety maniacs. I used to stand on ledges and do things that risked my life. Now I use a pole. No more police being called thinking I am committing suicide. Maybe Vancouver is an exception, but no new housing is being built for the middle class. It's like Hong Kong here (in more ways than one). Housing is either for the very rich or subsidized places for people on welfare. The normal 'house proud' retired Dutch, Swedish, English or Canadian couple has no place to move into. I think I am going to have to try my skills in one of the few cities popular with retirees.
Straight off - because I am much older than before I can no longer work 12 hours a day, running down stairs distributing flyers and doing ten jobs per day. Secondly, I am in Canada, not UK. Thirdly, I do work for individuals in apartments, retail inside and out customer service and take pride in my work. In fact, I am a perfectionist. I do things that add 30% to the time to do the job because I want my customers to be happy - the edges touched up with paper towels, razoring for paint spots, taking care to get no drips on couches and hardwood floors, wiping the sills, and of course washing the screens inside and out (and if paid more demildewing frames). Moving all the furniture. And back. You get the picture. Nobody else does this, neither the guys who slosh and leave streaks on exterior jobs nor the very few competitors I have had who did what I guess you could call this 'boutique' work niche. It's not only for my clients that I am detail and service-oriented, I get a kind of satisfaction doing custom work.
My old price was CAD25-40, now it is 40 to 70 (24-41 pounds). Takes me 40 to 90 minutes. To keep this in context *minimum* wage here is about 7 pounds per hour (persons making this do NOT hire me), a senior on pension gets about 900 pounds per month, and no serviceman does house calls (furnace, plumber etc) for less than $300, so my service is not expensive. Working class flat rent is over $1000. This is the second-most expensive metropolitan area in Canada.
But, 'everything' seems to have changed when I first took up a squeegee in 1986 in Vancouver, canvassing in my building, then the neighbourhood, then the entire residential area in which I lived. I made very good money seasonally cleaning suites in apartments, building up a client list. I used to travel every winter.
To keep this in context, 99% of my customers are...
a. Caucasian (especially northern European - particularly Germanic in the broadest sense). I am happy to clean for the Iranian, Korean, Russian and Chinese population here (non-Anglo population totals perhaps 50% of my suburban city), but for whatever reason they never hire me.
b. Female or homosexual
c. Over 50, especially over 65
d. Lower-middle class and a few true middle class
So, I have learned to avoid buildings with working couples, families, Asians, the poor and the very rich. This leaves almost no one left, as metro Vancouver is majority non-Anglo immigrant, and if my observation is correct the middle class is shrinking. I used to know the neighbourhoods where retired women and retired couples lived, and I lived in what was then the *** 'ghetto' (West End). But instead younger people have moved in. Certainly younger people have gotten older but they haven't replaced them in the same places. Something demographically new and strange (to me anyway) is going on that isn't helping my business.
Here's what *used* to work fabulously, from best to not best (but still somewhat effective)...
1. customers calling the people they know in the building while I am working in their suite
2. knocking on doors while in the building and saying, 'I just washed the windows of Mrs. Jones, would you like yours done while I'm here today?'
3. #2 but making appointments for another day (closer the better)
4. Canvassing from intercom and doing job on the spot
5. #4 but appointments for another day (closer the better)
6. flyers under every door while in building
7. Taping a flyer to exterior of building
8. City directory calling everyone in building with a listed phone number.
Notice that advertising *anywhere* is not even on the list. I tried local publications and it never paid for itself. Trying to establish a relationship with the building manager (doing his for free in exchange for permission to canvass door-to-door) worked only in the very early 1990s.
Reflections on 1-8
1. Only worked for old women who were socially connected with their neighbours. They had to offer or do it spontaneously really.
2-3. In the mid-90s door-to-door started to be a problem. Now it borders on criminal, it is certainly considered very suspicious
4-5. I used to do this one or two evenings per week in order to get new customers, but the problems are technical. Now intercoms are hooked up to phones. I can't make a list of who is in what suite. Half the time the codes are a secret. It's as if there is a fortress mentality now.
6. This works a little still, but first I have to get in the building. I learned a long time ago that asking for permission from the caretaker provided only an opportunity to say no. Plus, most buildings here are no longer independently managed. They are operated by a few large companies.
7. This was never great
8. No such publications exist anymore, and anyway rarely did many people like being telephone solicited. But if I put in the time I got leads.
But the biggest challenge is this - windows are no longer filthy! Maybe there was a change in legal landlord responsibility, but unlike late 1980s when people were salivating to hear my offer, it's a luxury now. They are cleaned once a year which for many people is good enough. I used to get great aesthetic pleasure cleaning windows that hadn't been washed for five years. Now, only buildings with young and low-income people (students etc) stay in such buildings. Building managers tell me 'we do it once a year'. My response falls on deaf ears, "Yes, but do they do the patio doors, the inside, and how good of a job do they do?" I don't wash for storefronts because many hobos and companies do this. I don't do contract work because I like being paid cash every hour or two. And have a distaste for falling off scaffolds (an acquaintance with a 'real' window cleaning business had two guys die). I just want to do old-fashioned home service in apartments, moving little old ladies vases and cleaning her windows while listening to her stories. I came to have fond memories for my regular customers. Knowing their families, their tastes and histories - like the barber who is a listening post to their troubles. And I made a very good living too. I targeted medium size jobs because the set up and close down time was about the same for very small jobs (one balcony sliding door and one side window), and big jobs paid less per hour. But I took what I could get. Now, if I work smart I get 4-6 jobs a day - that's 75-150 pounds per day. But I can manage only one or two days per week maximum. Takes me three hours a day just to get to the primo (concentrated) residential area by train. I have tried shifting focus to my own suburb but it's too ethnic and high-class (plus new complicated windows) here.
I have adapted my flyers - adding prices (people seem to be shy to call unless they know a ballpark price), now I offer time-sensitive discounts (hey, if more people on one street get in done the same few days it saves me time so I'll make the price cheaper), discounts for first customer in a building. But after flyering like crazy I am getting almost no response. I revived my business from a customer list I had briefly revived in 2006 (many moved or died) and now I am scrambling trying to figure out how to reach my targeted customers. I have also added hand scrubbing of concrete patio floors, railings and ledges for upper middle class who own luxury condos. Why? They asked! It pays better but I have some arthritis in my shoulder and it's really hard work.
Where to learn the basics of whatever marketing works today for boutique window cleaners? I think of my buddy's Thai wife. She has a housecleaning service - five customers only. They get her once every two weeks. Compare that to 500 customers (twice a year usually) I had and constantly hustling to renew the list. Weather-sensitive. Busy only in spring and fall (summer slow, winter very slow).
Does anybody on this forum operate a retail service like this? What marketing is most effective for you? I tried Craigslist and I keep getting called by property managers who want wholesale work. And that online marketplace is flooded with duplicate ads. Mine gets lost.
I remember a German friend in 1992 telling me that no way could he operate such a business in Cologne. People would ask for license, insurance, bonded, blah blah blah. But I ignored all the conventional paperwork. I build up a business on superior service, reliability and trust. And I am finding it hard to revive. Suggestions?
P.S. Do you have the same problem in UK? I used to be able to slide or crank almost all windows out and reach. All the new buildings have ridiculous impractical windows that make it impossible to clean without professional gear. I presume it is the safety maniacs. I used to stand on ledges and do things that risked my life. Now I use a pole. No more police being called thinking I am committing suicide. Maybe Vancouver is an exception, but no new housing is being built for the middle class. It's like Hong Kong here (in more ways than one). Housing is either for the very rich or subsidized places for people on welfare. The normal 'house proud' retired Dutch, Swedish, English or Canadian couple has no place to move into. I think I am going to have to try my skills in one of the few cities popular with retirees.
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