Without anyone else mentioning it, I am new here. So forgive me in advance if this is in the wrong category. Anyways I was thinking about this and would love more educated opinions and thoughts on it. The way it seems is that everyone wants to be the number one guy in there state or a one-hundred mile radius. I think that is great but it seems as well it could be a bad thing. My idea was instead of starting off and being the guy who services everywhere. I should be the one person in my hometown and only one surrounding town. In that there is 8,564 households that are owner-occupied, which means those are all potential customers not counting businesses. The Business model could afford to run lower prices or set prices thanks to a short travel time. As well it would be great free advertising and allow the word of mouth to spread faster. Lastly if you become really good and valuable it would allow you to charge more to travel else where. I apologize if this is a lot but it would be nice to have some opinions from those who know more than I do.
The majority of washers I know only service a fairly small radius. I service within about a 20mi radius and trying to get it down to less than 10 for the majority.
Well, where you are will have a lot to do with the answer. IDK what the ratio is of homeowners that will even hire someone to wash their home, so your potential market will be a lot smaller than that number. What sort of area it is, etc. (if you have a bunch of HOAs, more people will be hiring
I did not realize you were in Greenville, SC. I am looking at doing this in Simpsonville and Fountain Inn. Mainly because of the tighter competition in the heart of Greenville, SC. The though of expansion their later is a possibility.
I’m right near 5 Forks so I do a fair amount in Simpsonville. About a 15mile radius. Far side of there about as far as I go in that direction. There’s a ton of competition everywhere these days, but I’m not really trying to grow much. See new trailers and guys every week. I’m about as busy as I want, sometimes too much. I’m shifting more and more towards commercial though. I go to just past 26 towards Spartanburg and about 5 miles above Greer. Try not to do too much past downtown Greenville residential wise, but I kind of own the commercial in downtown. Well, Precision does a lot of new construction stuff down there. What’s name of your company?
There’s enough business in your area though that you could specialize in that area - say 4 miles from Fairview Rd exit. Boatload of business down there.
If I was starting over, I’d do what you’re talking about. Just market really heavy in relatively small area. There’s such a thing in the landscaping business called route density. Because drive time is wasted time and expense, the more concentrated you are the more efficient you become. Swore I was really going to focus and promote with 3-4 miles this year, but been so darn busy haven’t done squat towards that.
Right now its The Businessman Brand LLC but I’m getting a DBA registered so I can be called JP Power Washing. The Businessman Brand LLC is almost like a holding company for any business I want to pursue. Absolutely that is what I was thinking as well. Service that area and start doing all the new homes coming to the area. Right now I have a Briggs & Stratton 2.5GPM at 3300 PSI, hoses, etc. but I am not doing any jobs because I am trying to do this strategically so my likely hood of failing is lower. The goal is either one or two things. One start basic (Less Professional but works) , save cash, upgrade, and grow. Two is to wait, save up for a nice equipment build (5K to 20K trailer with equipment), market heavy and grow.
Middle thought: maybe hire a commission only plus mileage to go door to door in that area. Then once a month run a mail marketing campaign to those areas. I am an expert in Google and Facebook ads so I would have that covered.
That is what I was thinking about as well. If for the regular season I could average two to four homes per day or more (More would be nice if that many people need my service.) . I could then grow that out to hire employees and keep expenses lower. Lower gas, less working hours, etc. Then once that area meets a good stable place to have repeat business every year. Then maybe grow into the next town or area. Without getting to far ahead of myself it would be even better then to have a landscape company that leverages the same model and previous clients.
EDIT: I believe I would need more than two to four jobs a day in order to hire someone. How many do you think is possible?
That depends on how hard you want to work. When you build it up to where you can’t take care of it all by yourself.
So what do you do for a living.?
You joined 2 years ago, you haven’t made much progress so far. See you’ve only read an hour total.
Right now I am a Graphic Designer and Advertising Specialist. Which means I manage about $500,000+ in AD spend on Google and Facebook every year. I joined two years ago but was young and immature. I lived at home and didn’t have bills to pay. Which partly meant I didn’t have to care as much. Now I am slightly older (18 then and will be 21 in September), I am married and I want to build a business to provide for us. So now I have a reason to care, be committed, and understand the importance of maturity. I came on here two years ago thinking I knew everything, along with a lot of arrogance and pride. Now I realize the importance of. humility, honor, integrity, your word, and who you are. That brings me to now. I loved pressure washing when I did and want to build my own business around it now.
Nice plan, I would say find a way to beg/borrow what you need to get some legit contractor grade equipment, and go from there. You should be able to pay it off pretty quickly in increased productivity.
