Starting and Scaling an Exterior Cleaning Business at 21

[EthanH]

Week 3

Last week’s goals:

• Create new Flyers with up to date pricing
• Start new gym membership
• Cancel all unused subscriptions
• Set up call answering service
• Book in roof cleaning jobs
• Find a place in my community to clean for social media
• Implement inspection cam into day to day jobs
• Change phone number on website / social media
• Order new batch of uniform

This week has been good. I’ve upped my Google ads budget from £10 to £25 / day and have had significantly more leads come through.

My phone answering service is up and running so it’s really cool when I finish a job to come back and check my phone and I’ll have a couple of messages with calls that have been picked up and the customer’s info has all been taken down, then I can call them back and get them booked in.

I’ve now got 3 roof cleans booked in, all for about £550 each so ~£1600 in total which is about 16 gutter cleans so that’s cool. Quoted my first roof clean from a lead that wasn’t a previous customer and got the job for £535 so that was really cool.

I’ve started using my “inspection cam” on some jobs, but mainly I just use it for quoting jobs. It’s much more impressive for the customer when they see me using some high tech looking stuff and seems to get me more jobs so far.

Goals for next week:

• Sort through un-used subscriptions
• Clean more signs
• Update phone number everywhere
• Deposit cash / cheques
• Fix broken van windscreen (pole slipped and smashed my windscreen so that’ll cost me £400)
• Set up new computer

Note: will reformat and add to this when I have my new computer, my laptop has died on me so I’m doing this from my phone.

 

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[EthanH]

Week 4

Last week’s goals:

• Sort through un-used subscriptions
• Clean more signs
• Update phone number everywhere
• Deposit cash / cheques
• Fix broken van windscreen (pole slipped and smashed my windscreen so that’ll cost me £400)
• Set up new computer

This week has been a bit slower for the gutter cleans. Not sure whats happening with the Google ads at the moment but I haven't had a single form submission this week so I need to look into that.

Only had 3 calls come in via my virtual receptionist so that's not great, however one turned into a £650 job so that was cool to see. I have to split the profits with another exterior cleaner in my area though as he has the equipment I need to do the job but I'd rather have half of the money than no money.

I've been quoting more roof cleans, really excited about taking the business in this direction as I've quoted for about £5K worth of work this week. Even if i get 20% of those jobs it's still another 1K/Week.

I really need to get better at selling, up until now the process of acquiring a customer has been:

1. Customer enquires via phone / website form
2. I ask them for their address, check on Google maps / street-view and give them the price to do the job based on the type of house.
3. They say Yes or No
4. I book them in.

(Average gutter clean price £100)

However now with roof cleans:

1. Call customer
2. Find out exactly how / why they want their roof cleaning (there's many methods of cleaning a roof)
3. Give them my pitch of the service I provide and the results they can expect
4. Answer lots of questions
5. Give them a ballpark estimate (e.g. between £1000-£1400)
6. If they are happy with the rough price, I'll arrange an in person inspection.
7. Meet customer in person, (actually come across as likable and like i know what I'm talking about)
8. Check for access by ladders / scaffolding / cherry-picker, check condition of tiles and check the shape of the tiles.
9. Tell the customer the final price (I often will get anxious and under-quote the jobs)
10. They say yes or no

Its a much more in depth process and I know at every roof clean I quote, I'll most likely be competition with at least 2 other companies for the job.

However with the average job being worth about £800, it is going to cost me literally tens of thousands of pounds a year to be bad at selling.

I'm slightly worried about getting through the winter so I'm just going to save everything I can to make sure that I do

I'm happy that I've at least made it to week 4 of this more regular posting schedule, however I need to note these goals down in more places than just here as i get to Sunday and look at these goals and realise I've forgotten about half of them, so what's the point of setting them if I don't even look at them throughout the week.

Goals for next week:

• Find what the issue is with Google ads
• Clean Signs!!!!!
• Update phone number on website
• Organise van
• Get quotes for fixing van windscreen / brake pads etc
• Actually look at these goals throughout the week
• Complete all outstanding quotes

Does anyone have any advice for how to get better at sales? As mentioned, it's costing me a lot to not have this skill so I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks to everyone for reading!

 

[Terrylewis]

Hello mate, I just joined the Forum and out of interest read your thread- as a fellow Brit it’s great to see you cracking on! I have just left you a five star review too. I have a company that carries out a similar service and honestly mate you need to use a heat pressure washer- Therma Tech or Doff machine are good brands. They both offer onsite training and aftercare. Both good as each other and you can charge £700-£900 per day for paint removal plus you can get all the pointing work from the building- we do!!!!!!!!

 

[Terrylewis]

Week 4

Last week’s goals:

• Sort through un-used subscriptions
• Clean more signs
• Update phone number everywhere
• Deposit cash / cheques
• Fix broken van windscreen (pole slipped and smashed my windscreen so that’ll cost me £400)
• Set up new computer

This week has been a bit slower for the gutter cleans. Not sure whats happening with the Google ads at the moment but I haven't had a single form submission this week so I need to look into that.

Only had 3 calls come in via my virtual receptionist so that's not great, however one turned into a £650 job so that was cool to see. I have to split the profits with another exterior cleaner in my area though as he has the equipment I need to do the job but I'd rather have half of the money than no money.

I've been quoting more roof cleans, really excited about taking the business in this direction as I've quoted for about £5K worth of work this week. Even if i get 20% of those jobs it's still another 1K/Week.

I really need to get better at selling, up until now the process of acquiring a customer has been:

1. Customer enquires via phone / website form
2. I ask them for their address, check on Google maps / street-view and give them the price to do the job based on the type of house.
3. They say Yes or No
4. I book them in.

(Average gutter clean price £100)

However now with roof cleans:

1. Call customer
2. Find out exactly how / why they want their roof cleaning (there's many methods of cleaning a roof)
3. Give them my pitch of the service I provide and the results they can expect
4. Answer lots of questions
5. Give them a ballpark estimate (e.g. between £1000-£1400)
6. If they are happy with the rough price, I'll arrange an in person inspection.
7. Meet customer in person, (actually come across as likable and like i know what I'm talking about)
8. Check for access by ladders / scaffolding / cherry-picker, check condition of tiles and check the shape of the tiles.
9. Tell the customer the final price (I often will get anxious and under-quote the jobs)
10. They say yes or no

Its a much more in depth process and I know at every roof clean I quote, I'll most likely be competition with at least 2 other companies for the job.

However with the average job being worth about £800, it is going to cost me literally tens of thousands of pounds a year to be bad at selling.

I'm slightly worried about getting through the winter so I'm just going to save everything I can to make sure that I do

I'm happy that I've at least made it to week 4 of this more regular posting schedule, however I need to note these goals down in more places than just here as i get to Sunday and look at these goals and realise I've forgotten about half of them, so what's the point of setting them if I don't even look at them throughout the week.

Goals for next week:

• Find what the issue is with Google ads
• Clean Signs!!!!!
• Update phone number on website
• Organise van
• Get quotes for fixing van windscreen / brake pads etc
• Actually look at these goals throughout the week
• Complete all outstanding quotes

Does anyone have any advice for how to get better at sales? As mentioned, it's costing me a lot to not have this skill so I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks to everyone for reading!

Make up some business cards and go into every letting agents in a 10 mile radius and ask to speak to the property manger. Follow this up by following them on linked in and send property manger/letting agents an email every three months

 

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[Shubham Gacche]

Thankyou! As of last Friday I've done about £700 worth of work for customers I have found using an app called "Bark" It essentially allows me to purchase leads for about £7 per lead and so far I've purchased 8 leads costing approx. £60 in total and have made £510 so far with another £350 job lined up for Friday.

So overall I'm really happy with the ROI of this. Each £1 spent is making me over £14 in work. I'm aiming to hit £1000 revenue in my first week and this is only using one form of marketing / lead gen.

I want to start trying other marketing approaches such as Facebook and Google Ads but don't know where to start with this if you have any advice?

I think within a few weeks if I up my marketing I could average £2500 a week revenue.

Hey Ethan, I have also newly started a marketing Agency, where we help businesses like your get a consistent steady stream of clients booked in without having to do anything extra themselves. We generate the leads, verify them and send them to your inbox. and if you want, we can also call them on your behalf and set up the meetings so that you can directly go there and make the quotations.
and as @jclean mentioned Ads spend will be near in range of £500-£800 but i am so confident that it will work for you that if i don’t get you clients, you wouldn’t have to pay me anything. would that be worth a quick chat to you ?

 

[EthanH]

Week 5

Last week’s goals:

• Find what the issue is with Google ads
• Clean Signs!!!!!
• Update phone number on website
• Organise van
• Get quotes for fixing van windscreen / brake pads etc
• Actually look at these goals throughout the week
• Complete all outstanding quotes

Good week this week. Had my best day revenue wise of £650, however due to splitting the profit with another company and some equipment breaking I only made ~£100 for 8 hours of work so that wasn’t great. However I was able to use a scaffold tower for the first time which will be a good skill for roof cleans in the future.

I have my first roof clean coming up on Tuesday so that’ll be the start of something new for the business. Profit should be ~£400 for the day which is great. I’m starting to see much more consistent income, my goal at the moment is to get to £1500 a week consistently, then I can think about hiring an employee.

Goals for next week:

• Update phone number on website
• Get quotes for fixing van windscreen / brake pads
• Create PDF document for roof cleaning (to explain the process to customers)
• Add roof cleaning section to website
• Create spreadsheet tracking revenue / customers for the past few weeks.
• Deposit cash

 

[EthanH]

Week 6

Last week’s goals:

• Update phone number on website
• Get quotes for fixing van windscreen / brake pads
• Create PDF document for roof cleaning (to explain the process to customers)
• Add roof cleaning section to website
• Create spreadsheet tracking revenue / customers for the past few weeks.
• Deposit cash

It's been a tough week so far, I've had to re-schedule 3 jobs due to all the gutters being frozen and the jobs I have been able to do have taken more than twice as long as usual. I was de-motivated for a couple of days but I've pulled myself back together, the goal for now is to minimise my costs for the winter and just focus on surviving through to spring.

I created a spreadsheet covering the last 12 weeks tracking my revenue and costs etc and it has been super interesting, I now know that my costs each week are ~£400 so my weekly goals are much clearer. The only thing I'm super anxious about at the moment is that I need new tyres, brakes and a new windscreen which all together is about £700 I don't really have at the moment. It's all a learning experience, and I'll know how to prepare for winter much better next year.

I've started my first roof clean too which was challenging and took a lot longer than expected, the weather isn't helping much as it needs to be above 5 degrees Celsius for me to apply the chemical treatment to the roof, and it needs to be dry, so at the moment the chances of finding a day that fits this criteria is pretty impossible.

Goals for next week:

• Update phone number on website
• Get quotes for fixing van windscreen / brake pads
• Add roof cleaning section to website
• Pick up Hi-vis uniform
• Quote all outstanding jobs
• Start sign cleaning Tik-Tok

 

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[datagod]

Week 6

Last week’s goals:

• Update phone number on website
• Get quotes for fixing van windscreen / brake pads
• Create PDF document for roof cleaning (to explain the process to customers)
• Add roof cleaning section to website
• Create spreadsheet tracking revenue / customers for the past few weeks.
• Deposit cash

It's been a tough week so far, I've had to re-schedule 3 jobs due to all the gutters being frozen and the jobs I have been able to do have taken more than twice as long as usual. I was de-motivated for a couple of days but I've pulled myself back together, the goal for now is to minimise my costs for the winter and just focus on surviving through to spring.

I created a spreadsheet covering the last 12 weeks tracking my revenue and costs etc and it has been super interesting, I now know that my costs each week are ~£400 so my weekly goals are much clearer. The only thing I'm super anxious about at the moment is that I need new tyres, brakes and a new windscreen which all together is about £700 I don't really have at the moment. It's all a learning experience, and I'll know how to prepare for winter much better next year.

I've started my first roof clean too which was challenging and took a lot longer than expected, the weather isn't helping much as it needs to be above 5 degrees Celsius for me to apply the chemical treatment to the roof, and it needs to be dry, so at the moment the chances of finding a day that fits this criteria is pretty impossible.

Goals for next week:

• Update phone number on website
• Get quotes for fixing van windscreen / brake pads
• Add roof cleaning section to website
• Pick up Hi-vis uniform
• Quote all outstanding jobs
• Start sign cleaning Tik-Tok

Congrats! What a great read that was. Just a friendly reminder try to change tyres as soon as possible. When it's wet you could have huge problems, you won't stop easily. Not worth risking life.

If you need winter tires there. Go get them! Again not worth risking life.

Good luck and keep it up. Waiting on new posts.

One note. On your website : this .. today for a free quote within 24 hours! Add spacing on mobile is not redable that text at all.

 

[sb08]

Great read Ethan, keep it up mate.

Shaz

 

[EthanH]

Week 7

Last week’s goals:

• Update phone number on website
• Get quotes for fixing van windscreen / brake pads
• Add roof cleaning section to website
• Pick up Hi-vis uniform
• Quote all outstanding jobs
• Start sign cleaning Tik-Tok

Being 100% honest, I've had a terrible week. Lots of stuff going on in my personal life has meant I've had to take a step back to sort myself out. Desperately need to pull myself together. At the end of the day, shit happens, I just need to get back up and running asap. The success of the business is a direct reflection of myself so I need to work on separating the two more effectively.

One up-side this week was that I've been donated a high vis uniform to help with my signs cleaning work, I've also been given some gardening equipment to help me clear around the signs too as so many are obscured by bushes / trees etc. Nice to that people want to help me out.

Not the most interesting read but I'd rather be transparent with how everything goes.

Goals for next week:

• Update phone number on website
• Get quotes for fixing van windscreen / brake pads
• Add roof cleaning section to website
• Quote all outstanding jobs
• Start sign cleaning Tik-Tok

 

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[datagod]

Curious @EthanH how are you doing lately?

 

[EthanH]

It was my business’s 1st birthday this week, here's a very very overdue update.

(Note: This post is a mess but I just need to post)

Being completely transparent at the end of last year I had a pretty messy break up which left me miserable for a good while and I lost all motivation for the business. I essentially just sat in my room feeling sorry for myself, watching my bank account slowly drain to 0 with my business expenses coming out.

6 Months on, whilst I feel much better within myself, I’ve made very little progress. Many of the goals of my last post still haven't been done. I’ve since had my best week and day to date so I was very happy with that, however it didn’t last. I’ll go from having a good couple of weeks to not working at all out of pure laziness. The truth is I genuinely love my work, I will often do jobs for free for people because I get so bored sitting at home and love seeing the happiness I can bring people.

The main problem that I face is that I have no consistency whatsoever. Last year I made it on national television with my sign cleaning work which was a huge achievement. However, instead of doubling down on what was working, I got overwhelmed by it all and stopped. Most of my weeks are spent just waiting for people to contact me (I also suck at getting back to people too) and completing 1 or 2 jobs per week to cover my expenses, then I’ll sit around all day on my phone or playing golf or stupid stuff.

I have virtually no systems in place so I’m essentially trying to run a business with the mindset of a lazy employee. I feel my best when I’m working, making money and making progress, yet I sit around all day feeling bad about myself until I get a call or message about a job. It's pathetic… I feel a constant lack of fulfillment as I waste my life away doing the bare minimum to get by.

I’m only writing all this stuff down because it's best to just be completely transparent, I SUCK AT THIS. (that's the part i need to own up to and work on)

Whilst I can say that I’m progressing, it’s at a snail's pace, I have a friend with a similar business and he has £15K+ of work booked in for the next couple of months yet I have about £1,200 and the thing is he started his business after I did and I told him what to do, bit the difference is that he actually did the work consistently while I didn’t.

I’m making the transition into focusing on roof cleaning which is where I wanted to get to ever since I started the business so I am happy with that. I’ve done a course on it, bought all the equipment and, since reaching out on a national roof cleaning forum, I’m going to spend 2 days next week with a company that has been doing it for the last 3 years so that I can learn the ropes. I’ve also recently bought a drone which is amazing, my before and after pictures now are super high quality compared to before.

I’m aware this has been more of a structure-less rant than a concise forum update but I needed to start somewhere. MJ’s books changed my life and this forum was absolutely crucial in supporting me through the ups and downs of the last year but I’ve neglected all I’ve learnt from both.

I want to say thankyou to @Spenny for planting the seed of getting back onto the forum and for the support he’s given me over the last year.

I’ve spent far too long aimlessly drifting and It’s time to make the change from being event focused to process focused.

I’d love to hear what you think.

 

[jclean]

It was my business’s 1st birthday this week, here's a very very overdue update.

(Note: This post is a mess but I just need to post)

Being completely transparent at the end of last year I had a pretty messy break up which left me miserable for a good while and I lost all motivation for the business. I essentially just sat in my room feeling sorry for myself, watching my bank account slowly drain to 0 with my business expenses coming out.

6 Months on, whilst I feel much better within myself, I’ve made very little progress. Many of the goals of my last post still haven't been done. I’ve since had my best week and day to date so I was very happy with that, however it didn’t last. I’ll go from having a good couple of weeks to not working at all out of pure laziness. The truth is I genuinely love my work, I will often do jobs for free for people because I get so bored sitting at home and love seeing the happiness I can bring people.

The main problem that I face is that I have no consistency whatsoever. Last year I made it on national television with my sign cleaning work which was a huge achievement. However, instead of doubling down on what was working, I got overwhelmed by it all and stopped. Most of my weeks are spent just waiting for people to contact me (I also suck at getting back to people too) and completing 1 or 2 jobs per week to cover my expenses, then I’ll sit around all day on my phone or playing golf or stupid stuff.

I have virtually no systems in place so I’m essentially trying to run a business with the mindset of a lazy employee. I feel my best when I’m working, making money and making progress, yet I sit around all day feeling bad about myself until I get a call or message about a job. It's pathetic… I feel a constant lack of fulfillment as I waste my life away doing the bare minimum to get by.

I’m only writing all this stuff down because it's best to just be completely transparent, I SUCK AT THIS. (that's the part i need to own up to and work on)

Whilst I can say that I’m progressing, it’s at a snail's pace, I have a friend with a similar business and he has £15K+ of work booked in for the next couple of months yet I have about £1,200 and the thing is he started his business after I did and I told him what to do, bit the difference is that he actually did the work consistently while I didn’t.

I’m making the transition into focusing on roof cleaning which is where I wanted to get to ever since I started the business so I am happy with that. I’ve done a course on it, bought all the equipment and, since reaching out on a national roof cleaning forum, I’m going to spend 2 days next week with a company that has been doing it for the last 3 years so that I can learn the ropes. I’ve also recently bought a drone which is amazing, my before and after pictures now are super high quality compared to before.

I’m aware this has been more of a structure-less rant than a concise forum update but I needed to start somewhere. MJ’s books changed my life and this forum was absolutely crucial in supporting me through the ups and downs of the last year but I’ve neglected all I’ve learnt from both.

I want to say thankyou to @Spenny for planting the seed of getting back onto the forum and for the support he’s given me over the last year.

I’ve spent far too long aimlessly drifting and It’s time to make the change from being event focused to process focused.

I’d love to hear what you think.

Put everything you earn into marketing,
force yourself to work every day.

If there is no work, your work is gaining customers.

At this stage you dont need to focus on systems.

Just focus on marketing / sales
(gaining clients) !
It took me 10 years and I think another 5 years to really get to the level I want.
( building a multi million business is possible)

The first years of a business are the hardest because you still have to learn everything.

This is the time of year when you are most likely to gain new clients. This determines the rest of the year... do not waste this period.

 

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[ChocolateFactory]

Hi Ethan, sorry to read about the breakup.
You're being way to hard on yourself. A breakup always sucks and we're all human beings and not robots.
Now I don't know you, but to me it doesn't sound like you're lazy, but rather a bit exhausted and overwhelmed. This is natural. It's unrealistic to expect that you can just keep giving 100% all day every day over an extended period of time. It's also normal to procrastinate and distract ourselves using instant gratification like scrolling on our phones.
Maybe this video will make sense to you:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arj7oStGLkU


Maybe ask yourself why you are putting off getting back to prospects/customers? Is it uncomfortable? Do you just not enjoy talking to people very much? Whatever it is, maybe this actually isn't a strength of yours. But does it have to be you doing this? I feel you're at serious risk of building not a business, but a job for yourself. If you want to scale, maybe you would be better off hiring someone who can do that for you. Someone who is good at this, who enjoys talking to customers and who can make sure your calendar gets filled up - so you can do what you enjoy, actually doing the work and helping people.

Life just happens. Instead of the breakup, you could have been hit by a bus. What would that have meant for your business? There's not much you can do to protect yourself against being hit by a bus, it could just happen. But you can protect your business against that by implementing processes that are less reliant on you as a person. I really think this is a great chance for you to learn how to scale your business to the next level. Don't beat yourself up over this - learn from it. What have the past months taught you? What are you really good at, what brings you motivation to keep going, and which tasks don't you enjoy, so it might make more sense to outsource them?
Don't just go: "Oh, I just need to get off my lazy a$$ and work harder" - that's not a viable long-term strategy. You know yourself best - if you're highly motivated to go out and help people, but don't like setting up the appointments, I would strongly recommend you to consider outsourcing the sales/making appointments part and rather concentrate on getting the work done - until you're so busy that you can hire someone to help with cleaning, too.
You've got this. And please keep us posted, I really enjoy reading about your progress.

 

[EthanH]

Put everything you earn into marketing,
force yourself to work every day.

If there is no work, your work is gaining customers.

At this stage you dont need to focus on systems.

Just focus on marketing / sales
(gaining clients) !
It took me 10 years and I think another 5 years to really get to the level I want.
( building a multi million business is possible)

The first years of a business are the hardest because you still have to learn everything.

This is the time of year when you are most likely to gain new clients. This determines the rest of the year... do not waste this period.

Thanks for the response. I'm starting up with my sign cleaning stuff I did last year again and posting a lot more regularly on social media.

I'm just getting FB ads up and running at the moment so I'll start investing a lot of money into that. As I'm getting more into the roof cleans the cost per lead can afford to be a lot higher as the average job value is about £1000 so i can afford to spend up to £100 to get a job.

In the past I've obsessed over getting work for as cheaply as possible and given up on running ads as the profitability wasn't as good as referrals / organic traffic but I'd much rather make less money up front, and actually get fully booked, then as I complete more jobs it should accelerate the organic referrals alongside the ad campaigns.

One idea I've had for a while now is reaching out to local Facebook groups and offering to do free pressure washing for the elderly / disabled (not sure how to structure the FB post without it sounding weird) but I love helping people more than anything and I'd be able to make a post about each job I do which should get me more paid jobs, and get me some good content for my website / socials too, all while helping out people who either wouldn't be able to afford my services usually or are unable to do it themselves. Perhaps i could ask them to do a post about it and leave me reviews in exchange for the free service.

I was worried at first in this business that I wouldn't be able to scale it to the level I wanted, but now with the sort of jobs I'm getting into I only need to clean 2 roofs / week to make over £100k/year and thats without any employees (each roof clean is about 1.5-2 days)

I just need to get stuck in with it.

 

[EthanH]

Quick update today.

Just finished my first solo roof clean for the business yesterday and I'm amazed by the results. I'm aware I haven't really shared much of what I actually do for my customers so I'll attach a couple pictures of this most recent project:





Super happy with how this has turned out. I charged just under £800 and it took me just over one day to do. After costs I was left with about £500 which isn't too bad but it was super tough. I'm still under pricing these first few I'm doing just to get the experience in. If i was quoting full price it'd be closer to £1000. I really believe in this service as I can essentially make a roof look brand new again for about a tenth of the cost of a new roof, in a fraction of the time. The customer was super happy too so I love that.

I've started to put my drone to good use now and the photos I'm able to get are great, plus I'm able to use it for inspections whilst I'm quoting, which often impresses the customer a lot and gets me more jobs so it's been a pretty great investment for only £250.

I've been running FB ads for the past 2 weeks and I've not had the best results so far but at least I'm not losing money, just gotta keep testing.

I'm going to start running roof cleaning FB ads in a couple of weeks now that I have some good experience with the process, this is what I'm excited about as I see this to be the way forward for the business. The cost is about £600/ month but my minimum charge for roofs is £600 so I only need 2 to be profitable, and in the meantime I'll be able to get loads more experience in sales and quoting jobs which has been one of m y weak points as I'm quite shy and young so I find it challenging sometimes when I'm quoting for jobs that are thousands of pounds but I'm getting there.

On another note, the new website is finally live. I've got a web designer friend who's done it for me and I'm really happy with how it's turned out. I need to get some professional photos done too where I don't look stupid but that's for another day. There are lots of small mistakes and things we need to change on it as it's literally just gone up yesterday but we're getting it sorted this week. It looks a lot more professional than my previous one so it will add another layer of confidence to potential future customers. Here's the link so you can see: Impact Exterior Home - impactexteriorcleaning



Another idea that I had was reaching out to the people who comment on my sign cleaning posts. I seem to, on average, get about 30 comments each time i do my sign cleaning and in the past I've just thanked them for the support in a reply and left it there, however, I think I've been wasting the opportunity to reach out and ask them if they need anyone who needs any cleaning doing. Maybe I could dm them saying "Hi ______, thanks for your support on my recent post, I really appreciate it. Any chance you know anyone who needs any pressure washing doing?" or something along those lines...
I expect the response rates will be low but they are actively engaging with my content so I think at least a few would convert. What're your thoughts on this?

Also, another concept I've been playing around with is some sort of referral scheme for past roof cleaning customers to be incentivized into helping me get more roof cleaning jobs. Either something like "Just to let you know, we've started offering a scheme to past customers where we will pay you £50 for each roof cleaning referral you get us that turns into a paying customer". My main issue with this is that paying a customer for leads sounds a bit pushy and desperate so maybe i could do it instead as "we will give you a £50 discount on future services for every roof cleaning referral you get us that turns into a paying customer", I like this idea as it gives them an incentive to get me another roof cleaning job, but also get repeat work for them in the future so that's a win win really. I'm probably overthinking this massively as I seem to do with most things but let me know of any thoughts.

Bit of a messy post with this one but I'd really appreciate any feedback / suggestions. Thanks!

 

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[EthanH]

Hi Ethan, sorry to read about the breakup.
You're being way to hard on yourself. A breakup always sucks and we're all human beings and not robots.
Now I don't know you, but to me it doesn't sound like you're lazy, but rather a bit exhausted and overwhelmed. This is natural. It's unrealistic to expect that you can just keep giving 100% all day every day over an extended period of time. It's also normal to procrastinate and distract ourselves using instant gratification like scrolling on our phones.
Maybe this video will make sense to you:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arj7oStGLkU


Maybe ask yourself why you are putting off getting back to prospects/customers? Is it uncomfortable? Do you just not enjoy talking to people very much? Whatever it is, maybe this actually isn't a strength of yours. But does it have to be you doing this? I feel you're at serious risk of building not a business, but a job for yourself. If you want to scale, maybe you would be better off hiring someone who can do that for you. Someone who is good at this, who enjoys talking to customers and who can make sure your calendar gets filled up - so you can do what you enjoy, actually doing the work and helping people.

Life just happens. Instead of the breakup, you could have been hit by a bus. What would that have meant for your business? There's not much you can do to protect yourself against being hit by a bus, it could just happen. But you can protect your business against that by implementing processes that are less reliant on you as a person. I really think this is a great chance for you to learn how to scale your business to the next level. Don't beat yourself up over this - learn from it. What have the past months taught you? What are you really good at, what brings you motivation to keep going, and which tasks don't you enjoy, so it might make more sense to outsource them?
Don't just go: "Oh, I just need to get off my lazy a$$ and work harder" - that's not a viable long-term strategy. You know yourself best - if you're highly motivated to go out and help people, but don't like setting up the appointments, I would strongly recommend you to consider outsourcing the sales/making appointments part and rather concentrate on getting the work done - until you're so busy that you can hire someone to help with cleaning, too.
You've got this. And please keep us posted, I really enjoy reading about your progress.

Thanks for taking the time to write this, just checked out the video too and it's exactly how my brain works, I always struggled with doing homework in school as I'd just put it off indefinitely up to the point where I just stopped trying altogether. It seems that habit has carried from homework to the "unsexy" and repetitive parts of my business like sending quotes / messages to customers and I'm ashamed of how I've been in the past about this.

I love making my customers happy but I just get in my own way sometimes. I think it's partly due to the fact that I've always been very shy / social awkward so i sometimes don't know the right thing to say and then just put it off until I feel like it's too long overdue that there's no point doing it at all (exactly the same as i was with homework)

"Life just happens. Instead of the breakup, you could have been hit by a bus", totally get this too, sometimes I feel like I'm the most arrogant person to waste all the opportunities I have. It's such a blessing that I get to wake up each morning, then on top of that, get to do work that I find meaningful and fulfilling. I need to stop being hard on myself, but at the same time, just break the cycle and do the work, even if it's the last thing that I want to do because in the end it's the process / habits I need to commit to, not the destination / results.

I'd love to hire someone in the future to do the customer support / sales side of things but it's not financially feasible currently, but once I start getting employees, I think that'll be one of the first people I'd get. It's been one of my biggest worries during this entire process that I'm just creating a job for myself instead of a business so that's my main focus for this year. My aim is to get 1 employee before the end of the year (probably a labourer / technician to work alongside me so jobs take less time), then I can think about getting them trained up and into their own van so they can work independent of me. But first, i need to ensure that the amount of work I am getting in is sufficient to support this, and that I am doing the work I need to do to support this move as I won't just be responsible for my self but for someone else too.

 

[ChocolateFactory]

The new website looks nice!

Couple things:
- The photo is great, but you're hiding the phone number on your van - your phone number isn't easily visible on the website otherwise either (and it seems like there are two different numbers)
- Love the before-after shots with the slider
- You should also add before-after shots for roof cleaning (guess you are aware of that)
- You could add a video to get the user's attention, explaining a bit what you do etc., showing the drone shots etc.
- I don't know if it would make sense, but as a customer, I would love it if I could just book an appointment online

Marketing-wise, you could probably think about what the main reasons would be for someone not to buy your services, for example:
- It's not important to get gutters cleaned
- It's cheaper if I just do it myself

You could write something or create a video about why that isn't true, and how it makes much more sense to hire a professional to do the job for you. Or something like that.
But those are all minor details, I think the website is already great!

 

[EthanH]

The new website looks nice!

Couple things:
- The photo is great, but you're hiding the phone number on your van - your phone number isn't easily visible on the website otherwise either (and it seems like there are two different numbers)
- Love the before-after shots with the slider
- You should also add before-after shots for roof cleaning (guess you are aware of that)
- You could add a video to get the user's attention, explaining a bit what you do etc., showing the drone shots etc.
- I don't know if it would make sense, but as a customer, I would love it if I could just book an appointment online

Marketing-wise, you could probably think about what the main reasons would be for someone not to buy your services, for example:
- It's not important to get gutters cleaned
- It's cheaper if I just do it myself

You could write something or create a video about why that isn't true, and how it makes much more sense to hire a professional to do the job for you. Or something like that.
But those are all minor details, I think the website is already great!

Yes, i definitely need to get a new photo done. The designer said it'd be better to get one of just the van as the main "hero image".

There are currently two different numbers as I started the business with my personal mobile number and now I've got a dedicated work phone two so it is a bit confusing, however the business phone diverts to my mobile anyway so that's all good. I just need to get the signs on my van re-done to show the new number.

I've just sent over a bunch of roof cleaning images over to the designer so he should upload them this week.

I think it'd be great to get some videos done for the business too, maybe explaining the process a bit so the customer knows what they're getting.

It'd be cool to implement some kind of "online booking" feature, however I'm not sure if that'd work as my schedule is very varied as some days I'm working all day and others I'm out quoting jobs all day but there might be a way.

There are definitely a lot of questions out there that i could answer that'd be quite valuable for potential customers so I think a blog section would definitely be worth doing. It'd probably improve SEO too so that's a bonus. Most people don't even realize that you can get your roof cleaned in England so it's a growing market for sure, just need to produce some content to create awareness about it. I did a training day with a similar business a couple of months ago and he has about 40k subs on Youtube from posting exactly the same jobs I do, and now he gets all his leads from Youtube, and he doesn't need to explain all the ins and outs of the process because people have already seen what he does on Youtube. Might be something I could replicate.

 

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[ChocolateFactory]

I do think you should keep your face on the website. If anything, maybe you should even post on YouTube/TikTok under your own name to build your brand.
I'd much rather order a job from Ethan, who seems like a nice and reliable guy, than just some random anonymous company.

 

[EthanH]

I do think you should keep your face on the website. If anything, maybe you should even post on YouTube/TikTok under your own name to build your brand.
I'd much rather order a job from Ethan, who seems like a nice and reliable guy, than just some random anonymous company.

I get what you mean. I've just been speaking to my web dev about this and the reason he was asking for a picture without me in it was so I can look like a bigger company, but I'm not sure if it's more beneficial at this point to look like I'm bigger than I am, or to lean into the advantage I have of being a friendly 1 person service at the moment.

 

[EthanH]

I'd love it if anyone could have a look at my current offer to my roof cleaning customers?

This is a real example of how I quote for roof cleaning jobs, following an in-person meeting with the client to discuss their needs and check for access / inspect the roof.

Here's one I sent today along with the accompanying document I attached.

I'm really trying to craft a unique offer that can differentiate my business from the competition. Let me know what you think!

 

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[Bounce Back]

I'd love it if anyone could have a look at my current offer to my roof cleaning customers?

This is a real example of how I quote for roof cleaning jobs, following an in-person meeting with the client to discuss their needs and check for access / inspect the roof.

Here's one I sent today along with the accompanying document I attached.

I'm really trying to craft a unique offer that can differentiate my business from the competition. Let me know what you think!

I ran a commercial cleaning business for some years so had a similar service quote type flow as you. I wasn't an expert at it but here is my suggestions to try:

Offer email

• Make it 1/4th as long as it is now. And send them a link to book the job (if you have tech now) preferably with a 5-10% discount if they make the booking within 24-48 hours of getting the quote. If you don't have that tech yet pick a day and time and say "Can I get you booked now for next Tues at 8am?".
• Change the 40 google review thing to "check our many 5 star reviews on Google" and/or link to a gallery of before/after images instead. 40 sounds low - it is having the opposite effect than you think it is.

Quote

• Get those social media icons out of there
• drop those logos of cleaning products/tools - doubt customers care
• separate the cleaning and biocide treatment into two different lines and add a third line for 2 year moss-free gurantee ($0 charge). Combined all as one is presenting lower value proposal.
• drop the FAQ from inside here - I actually think this is bringing new ideas of doubt to someone you are trying to close
• Drop the project description in lieu of simple bullet point list of the cleaning process (if it must be on this page) - honestly combine these two pages into one including:
  • Your logo, contact info, insurance, pic of the before, itemized pricing (see above), quick bullets of what cleaning includes, testimonials/certificatons, then a visual coupon (see above about booking quickly discount).

Overall with these things you have like 30 seconds of the customers attention to look at the quote (they largely made up their mind about you when they spoke on the phone/you did the quote in person). Every single thing that can take their attention better be something that points them to closing/choosing you - nothing can be weak or they will be bored and move on.

 

[Bounce Back]

One thing medium-ish term you may want to look into because you seem into drones by the way is I have connected with a bunch of guys on LinkedIn that are using drones now to do soft-washing/roof-washing. You seem prime to be one of the early ones into the niche. Just throwing it out there if you haven't heard yet.

 

[ChocolateFactory]

I get what you mean. I've just been speaking to my web dev about this and the reason he was asking for a picture without me in it was so I can look like a bigger company, but I'm not sure if it's more beneficial at this point to look like I'm bigger than I am, or to lean into the advantage I have of being a friendly 1 person service at the moment.

I know a company that does €40M+ in annual revenue and they still use the owner's name, even though they now have lots of employees and people are aware of that.
And even companies with 50+ employees still use the faces of their staff on their website.
So I also wouldn't think you're a 1 person service just because there's a photo of you on the website.
On the contrary, if your photo wasn't on the website, I might be thinking you're using random contractors to do the jobs, so the quality may not be very good.
I'd definitely milk the coverage you got for the sign cleaning for what it's worth, I'd even link to the articles on your website.
Maybe even add a section about it and ask people to let you know about signs that need cleaning.
Definitely keep using the photo, it's great. Also starting a YouTube channel would probably be a good idea if you can find the time to do it.

 

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[ugudango]

I get what you mean. I've just been speaking to my web dev about this and the reason he was asking for a picture without me in it was so I can look like a bigger company, but I'm not sure if it's more beneficial at this point to look like I'm bigger than I am, or to lean into the advantage I have of being a friendly 1 person service at the moment.

From the industry you're in I noticed most people like to see a friendly face online so definitely go for it. They like to do business with a person rather than a faceless brand as it's a big trust point for visitors who are not familiar with you

 

[Dockid]

Yes, i definitely need to get a new photo done. The designer said it'd be better to get one of just the van as the main "hero image".

There are currently two different numbers as I started the business with my personal mobile number and now I've got a dedicated work phone two so it is a bit confusing, however the business phone diverts to my mobile anyway so that's all good. I just need to get the signs on my van re-done to show the new number.

I've just sent over a bunch of roof cleaning images over to the designer so he should upload them this week.

I think it'd be great to get some videos done for the business too, maybe explaining the process a bit so the customer knows what they're getting.

It'd be cool to implement some kind of "online booking" feature, however I'm not sure if that'd work as my schedule is very varied as some days I'm working all day and others I'm out quoting jobs all day but there might be a way.

There are definitely a lot of questions out there that i could answer that'd be quite valuable for potential customers so I think a blog section would definitely be worth doing. It'd probably improve SEO too so that's a bonus. Most people don't even realize that you can get your roof cleaned in England so it's a growing market for sure, just need to produce some content to create awareness about it. I did a training day with a similar business a couple of months ago and he has about 40k subs on Youtube from posting exactly the same jobs I do, and now he gets all his leads from Youtube, and he doesn't need to explain all the ins and outs of the process because people have already seen what he does on Youtube. Might be something I could replicate.

On the SEO side of things, I would recommend that you send an email to the journalists who have written about your business and ask them to include a link to your website. This will give you a significant boost in authority.

 

[EthanH]

I know a company that does €40M+ in annual revenue and they still use the owner's name, even though they now have lots of employees and people are aware of that.
And even companies with 50+ employees still use the faces of their staff on their website.
So I also wouldn't think you're a 1 person service just because there's a photo of you on the website.
On the contrary, if your photo wasn't on the website, I might be thinking you're using random contractors to do the jobs, so the quality may not be very good.
I'd definitely milk the coverage you got for the sign cleaning for what it's worth, I'd even link to the articles on your website.
Maybe even add a section about it and ask people to let you know about signs that need cleaning.
Definitely keep using the photo, it's great. Also starting a YouTube channel would probably be a good idea if you can find the time to do it.

Yes i need to find the links for the sign cleaning stuff if i can. The main coverage I had was an interview on BBC Northwest which is a pretty huge channel, but I'm not sure if there's a link i could use for that. There were a couple of smaller newspapers so i could reach out to them and ask but it's been a while since it happened.

Funny you mention about the YouTube stuff as I've just ordered a few bits so I can start recording videos last night. I've got a go pro hero 10, and I've just ordered a bunch of batteries and a clamp for it so i can set it up on pretty much anything to record me work.




Organic content is 100% the way forward with advertising, I know of lots of guys who get all their leads from Youtube alone, and besides that, it'd be great for customers to check out the videos before hiring me so they can see how it all works.

 

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[EthanH]

On the SEO side of things, I would recommend that you send an email to the journalists who have written about your business and ask them to include a link to your website. This will give you a significant boost in authority.

I'll definitely try to sort this. I really haven't made much use of the coverage I got.

Only things that I've noticed is that I'll mention to someone about the sign cleaning stuff and they'll have seen it previously and remember me so it's a weird feeling.

 

[EthanH]

From the industry you're in I noticed most people like to see a friendly face online so definitely go for it. They like to do business with a person rather than a faceless brand as it's a big trust point for visitors who are not familiar with you

Thats 100% what I think. I'd rather differentiate myself from the competition by presenting myself as a friendly, personable business, rather than looking like another soulless, anonymous corporation