[Russ Hawthorne]

Hi all,

Up until now window cleaning has been my part time job, very small scale around my shifts and career.

Things have turned upside down recently where I now need to focus on my business and make it my livelihood.

I'm having a website made and will start doing leaflet drops/using social media whereI never have had to before. Can I ask which form of advertising you get most of your customers from?

I also need a new camera for my gutter vac system, struggling to find a camera (probably a go-pro type)  that connects bluetooth to an iphone, anyone currently using this set up? I see lots listed that use wifi but I'm guessing this only connects when you're connected to a wifi network. My old system had a screen so I could show my customers there and then.

This is all brand new to me scaling a business up so any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Arnold Palmer]

Where are you based?

[dazmond]

Leaflet a chosen area then canvass a few days later with said Leaflet in hand...

Upsell all the add ons to your window
cleaning customers (conny roofs,gutters,fascias,soffit and solar panel cleaning)

Its a good time of year to generate more work

[dazmond]

It's not rocket science.....

Persistent and hard work every day (living and breathing your business for many months)will get you there....

[Ched]

The cameras that use wifi, create their own wifi network that your phone connects to to see the images.
I would check the ratings for the app they use to see if they are any good. I have a v50 elite  https://amzn.to/4chdXlz and it works well but that's on android.

[JandS]

GoPro is brilliant for viewing and taking pictures of potential gutter cleaning etc jobs from the safety of your pole....get the Gardiners GoPro adapter for your pole.......I have a holder for my Android phone on the base section of my pole at eye level where I can view what the camera is looking at at the head of the pole and can also take pictures  using my phone to activate the camera using the app.

[Scottish Cleaning Service]

When I first started 5 years ago I joined Checkatrade and it was great. The only problem was the location, I was getting work all over the place and I generally took it. Took on a job 8 miles away in posh area and charged £13 so it wasn't worth my while. After the second clean I got the neighbour for £16 a month, now I have 10 customers a month and its well worth my while. Now established, I don't have any advertising bar website and can pick and choose. Your best advertisement is your van.

[Stoots]

So easy to build a round these days. I struggled for 2 years with leaflets and canvassing to get to about 300 customers.

Could get that now in a few months just using free Facebook groups.

I had over 60 enquires last week just from posting in about 30 local groups. I only wanted a handful to top up a few that I had dumped recently but ended up with about 20 new uns 

And that's just groups within a 5 mile radius of my home. If I was starting out and wanted work fast i could probably go further and find dozens more groups.

It's not something I do much because I don't have the time or the capacity to take loads of work on but social media is king these days. Making Facebook  and Instagram reels/posts daily especially for stuff like gutter cleaning will reap rewards.

There's a young lad in my town that started a carpet cleaning business last year. All he  does is post to you tube/insta/tik tok and fb everyday. He makes videos of  what he is doing, he's got 100s of thousands of followers and subscribers and in just a year is working flat out 6 days a week with an employee . He has never done any traditional advertising like canvassing and leaflets. So move with the times and learn everything you can about marketting a business online. 

[PHILIP HARDY]

1: Smart sign written van.
2: Do a good job and mention to the customers you talk to that you're looking to expand.
3: Buy some work off someone in your area with pockets to sell, do this by mentioning to the other local windies you are looking to buy, you will be surprised how many will have 5, 10 or 20 who don't quite fit in their schedule well, often they don't cost the earth.
4: Upselling to existing customers gets you over the in the short term while building up numbers
5: Leaflet drops and canvass afterwards but try to do this on estates where there is a chance you can get a few together,
I know Stoots loves his social media but in my view a Facebook customer has a 70% probability of being a time waster, short term gain for long term pain.
Hard work, dedication and commitment are the secrets of nearly all success.
Oh and the best tip, AVOID NEGATIVE PEOPLE, they will suck the life and joy out of all that you need to succeed in.

[Russ Hawthorne]

Thank you for the input everyone, really appreciate it, some great info, gives me a bit of  focus and direction