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How did you get your window cleaning business going

nearlyclean

Well-known member
Messages
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I'm into my 4 year on my own and I say the first 2 years are the hardest

I went out every evening 2 weeks canvassing before I started on my own and managed to pick up 20 customers,some ***hts I would canvass 3-4 hours and not get anything and then be out 15 minutes and have 3 customers book in,I gave myself a start date and stuck to it and when that day came off I went in my little Fiesta with ladders on top,Not done much traditional for years.Some of the customers I had then have cancelled,moved or died but I replaced them with work closer to my core round.Every 4-6 months I push a note/leaflet through all houses that I dont clean on my round and this has really increased my round.I did a lot of one off cleans,gutter cleaning and builders cleans to make up my week.I also use to rent some work off another windie (since brought).

I found free listings on the internet really good at getting you noticed like Google maps,Yell.com,Touchlocal windowcleaner.index and others.

After about 2 years I could see I had a core business and focus on building my rounds around these customers (adding their neighbours to my list)

Thinking that having a compact round is the way to go really help me to develop my round where I have average of 15 customers in same street and within 50 meters (hose length of car)

Another "old window cleaner" said it takes 2 years to get a established and about 10 years to get a good round" ;)

I know some of you have only been going a year or less ,keep going it only gets easier :)

 
Ye i can now see that it does take some time to get established. My round is still very small. Had a few set backs at the beggining of the year that really slowed things down but hopefully I can get back on it now and start building.

 
I am still building my business. started out late march this year using wfp from scratch no experience before, so new to it all.

To date i have 60 customers mostly all 4 wkly. Still need a lot more but started from nothing as i am sure a lot of others did.

 
I don't think any window cleaning business is ever complete.

I started a round which I built up over 12 years, then moved and am 4 years into developing this one.

When you get enough customers then it is time to refine - shrink the miles you drive each day, get rid of the ones that say not this time, and get rid of the ones that bring down your hourly rate.

I've just taken a young lad on to help me part time, which is the next stage in my building program.

Currently about 300 customers - 80 % 4 weekly, rest 8 weekly.

 
Have any of you guys got a website and, if so, have you gained many customers because of it. I start for proper in three weeks time after cleaning windows at weekends and on my days off work. Running a website doesnt look to be too expensive. I have also looked at the "yell sites" that yell.com offer. They cost about 125 pounds to set up then 240 pounds per year to run.... that does sound a bit expensive. Has anyone used yell.com for setting up a website?

Its not the best time of the year to start but I am going to canvass and canvass and, hopefully, i will build up a good customer base.

 
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