[Yada Yada Yada - www.m-clean.uk]

Mike I'm not sure if your reply is based around your personal business strategy 

''The biggest market we have is homeowners who have the disposable income to afford to pay someone to do the work they can’t or are not willing to do''. - Is that the biggest market your business has?

The second half of the post reads that all pressure washers working at a residential level should focus mainly on the home owner - Is that correct?

From my perspective the biggest market we have is residential, small commercial & then when you're ready larger scale works, (if you want to go to that level).

Nothing is out of bounds - in this instance the larger commercial works are probably too much but there is no difference between
an industrial estate unit frontage, cleaning 3 or 4 parking spaces & a residential block paved driveway.

I based my business model & marketing on getting work to make a good living & that took me away from home for several years because the money was there to be earned that was the justification of being away all week.

For a long time I have ignored the residential market, that is being corrected.

When you started pressure washing you did so on the back of an already established carpet cleaning business, so had a developed client base (I am not saying you gained from this), you understood residential and commercial marketing, had played around with different leaflets and the when was the best time to get the leaflets out.

You had the confidence with customer interaction & an ability to sell a service after an initial enquiry.

It wasn't your only source of income and that allows for experimenting & time to get it right.

As I read it Paul wants to make a living from selling this service but also has his newly started moving service to offer income - unfortunately for him both are new, with no credibility or experience & no real sustainable income.

He may be the best thing since sliced bread for pressure washing but people don't know that, if he limits hisself to residential then he is already on a back foot, the perception is that there is a 'season' for residential work and he will not only have to market but also change the home owners thinking to make a living through the winter.

Small commercial is there and unless there is six inches of snow on the ground then it can be done and my experience is that there is work there that extends the 'season'.

Confidence to sell your service helps you and I to sustain an income long after most people have packed up their pressure washers for the year and then there are the businesses that are 12 month round but offering a much larger scope of services and these would be predominantly commercial only.

Is there anyone on here who can offer residential pressure washing all year round and wont worry about paying their rent or mortgage, without another angle to their business?

Paul is only offering pressure washing, not window cleaning, conservatory cleaning, FSG cleaning - so only low level.

If he opens his services up a little then he could live well through the winter but not as it stands on residential pressure washing only, he has admitted to not being very confident with converting enquiries to paid work so converting a 'season' mentality might be more than he is ready for & my advise would be to ignore nothing but get into a position where he has more 'options'.

[Mike Halliday]

Like all replies on CIU my post should start with ‘in my opinion’ ..... my reply is my opinion based on my personal experience, which really is all we can give unless we are stating facts eg;  a petrol pressure will not run on diesel that is not my opinion that is a fact.

The problem with the internet most people post their opinion as though it was fact ( but that’s a topic for a whole different post )

In my option the biggest market for pressure washing is domestic homes, of course their is a massive amount of commercial work available. But this is not as easy to find as domestic work and (this might be slightly controversial ) in my experience commercial work does not have the same high hourly rate as domestic work,  The job might take 3 days to complete a commercial clean but if I spent the same a amount of time cleaning domestic jobs I would earn more.

There is a slow down in the winter months on the domestic side  but for me this is going from 5-6 days a week to 2-3 days, I could live comfortably on 2 full days a week ( which is actually my plan for when I ‘retire’) but now we are a 2 man team, until last month we worked as a 3 man team so need to add additional service to fill the week so returned to carpet cleaning after a 2 year lay off.

But as I type this post I realise that my business is ‘exterior cleaning’ which includes facia/soffit, conservatory cleaning & gutter not just powerwashing so my advice could be seen as slightly wrong.

But anyone who offers pressure washing should also offer these other services they are an easy addition

[Yada Yada Yada - www.m-clean.uk]

There was nothing in my questions to challenge your perspective but it is interesting how viewpoint is gained.

My experience is completely the opposite.

You clearly aren't wrong and have shown there is a year round market for 'external cleaning' at a residential level.

The job just completed for me was punishing but more than worthwhile, like you I'm into my 50's now and my body doesn't want to be working as hard, my necessity to work as hard now as ten years ago is not the same and there is certainly easier money out there.

When the residential website is completed it will be an angle of my business marketed to suit my capabilities and similarly to yourself for an income as I get older.

If the likes of Thomas Sanderson can quote and achieve the pricing structure they get for conservatory cleaning then there is clearly a market that is rich pickings for anyone offering a quality & personal service, people like you have the confidence to tap into that market and earn a much better  living, for very little extra effort.

You have learned to cost residential works well and to benefit you, from the commercial perspective my experience is the same.

It's that confidence that sets you apart from another service provider in your region, they may offer the same level of service but the difference is you offer that level of service and for the  same time spent on the job are earning much much more than them.

For people like Paul who are just beginning their journey we both agree that a solitary service won't be enough.

If confidence could be bottled a lot of money would be made.

[Paul79]

I'll just leave this here it's an interesting read! Any thoughts on this guys?

https://kopywritingkourse.com/powerwashing-flyers-copywriting-case-study/

[Mike Halliday]

That was interesting, these strategies are well proven In Other industries I’ve seen all the marketing techniques before it’s good though that he has made them relevant to pressure washing