Advice For Those Just Starting or Wanting To Start Their Business

[iCancelled]

@awesomewash2

Preamble: I am starting my second year in business and would like to offer some help to those interested. Other members here may agree or disagree with what I say. If I say anything that you believe is incorrect, dangerous, or ignorant, please call me out on it.

You don’t need a lot of pressure washing experience to start this business.

Watch some youtube videos on softwashing, read some of the posts on here, use the search feature on this site, if you are unsure of what to search for, ask people on here for things to search for. 80% of the information you need has been discussed already. Hang out, try not to start drama or derail threads. It’s disrespectful and creates a bunch of garbage for people to read when searching for advice.

Always make sure you test what you are doing on a property that knows you are doing this as a test. Never go to a job and make it your first time doing it.

Be careful of who you get your advice from

Take advice from everybody, but only apply the things that are repeated by multiple people. Once you establish your base knowledge you can start testing the more esoteric things.

Safety First!

Your health should be your number one priority. Inhaling bleach all day is horrible for your health. Wear a mask, incorporate it into your price. Wear gloves when using hot water. Use proper safety protocols when on roofs or ladders. The same goes with anything else you are doing. Also, don’t overlook driving. You will most likely be on the road a bit more. Pay attention, drive safe, no texting and driving etc.

Your friends, family, acquaintances, whoever else may put you down.

As your business starts taking form people will put you down, hate what you are doing, attempt to make you feel bad, and many other negative things. No one will understand your business or the amount of time you are putting into it. People will call you selfish, arrogant, greedy, and many other names. Use this as motivation. Once they see your success they will say “You are just lucky, it must be so easy for you”. They will minimize your success and attribute it to luck.

Stop taking advice from people who are not business owners

These people are not business owners, never ran a business, have no ideas the struggles you face. It’s like talking politics with a family pet. A complete waste of time.

No money to start up, no problem

Most businesses should be a rag to riches story. You don’t need a $10,000 trailer with a truck wrapped, office, website, etc. You need the basics. Buy or rent a pressure washer, use or rent a truck, include it in your first purchase price, take money upfront with a contract if needed. If you go to a church or have some sort of large community involvement, ask everyone for small donations and say you will clean the church with the equipment you get. Think outside the box, pop can drive, do whatever it takes. The only reason you don’t have the money to start your business is because you have not acquired it yet. If you want it bad enough you will get it.

File your LLC and get a business bank account asap

Both of these are very easy to do. Spend 10 minutes in google and you will learn how.

You don’t need a business plan

You don’t even have a business yet, why spend hours doing something when you don’t even have your first paying customer. Get your customers, get your insurance, start your business and refine it down the road. You don’t need a business plan for investors or bank credit. Your sales will be proof of concept. Money does not lie.

Stop over complicating everything

Don’t spend countless hours optimizing a business that is not even started yet. Do you have a pressure washer, can you clean something? Ok, get a client, make a deal on a handshake or whatever, get paid. You can optimize everything later. Don’t go ready, aim, fire. Go ready, fire, aim. Most people that go read, aim, fire will end up going. ready… ready… aim… aim… aim… I quit I am discouraged. Get your first customer as soon as possible. Optimize later.

Look the part

Get your haircut, keep your beard looking nice, be presentable, brush your teeth. Be a grownup and show the customer that you are serious and worth their time or money. Something that resembles a uniform without logos works wonders. Jeans and a tee shirt does not.

Get insurance as soon as you can

Working without insurance is a horrible idea. Most people will say don’t work until you have insurance. If you are starving, putting food on the table for your family, don’t want your water to get shut off so your toilet works. Do what you have to do to take care of your family. Just keep in mind, you need your insurance as soon as possible. It should be your number one priority. If you buy a brand new $1500 pressure washer instead of insurance you should stop your business until you can make better decisions. If you spend $1500 on rent and food for one month so your family is not homeless and the next month you buy insurance, well that is a different story.

Stop focusing on your competitors

You have competition, so what? Your competitors should be the least of your concern at this point. Focus on creating a solid service to offer. Worry about them later on.

You’re not a house washer, concrete cleaner, etc. You are a sales man

The biggest and most important part of your business is making sales. Money does not lie and it is directly related to how viable your business is. If you can’t make sales, sales that are only low paying, you will be out of business soon.

You are not your clients accountant

Nancy the senior from the upper class neighborhood who lives in a little shack while their are mansions around her may be loaded. Mark the millennial tech startup founder in the mansion across the street may be on the verge of bankruptcy. You are not your clients accountant, you have no idea how much they make, your price is your price, your service is valuable, treat everyone the same. Don’t give discounts because you feel bad, or feel they don’t have the money.e

Play to win

You think your competition cares if you go hungry? Are they going to pay your bills? Will your customers feel bad if you can’t feed your family because they want a lower price? Does anyone care if you succeed or fail? The answer is no. No one cares about your business, most people will want you to fail, the others just want cheap labor. Create a premium or unique service, strive for perfection, and make the money you deserve. Stop being okay with 5th 4th 3rd 2nd. Be the best you can be and be the best in your market.

If you can’t differentiate yourself from your competitors and they charge lower prices, you will never get top dollar.

Figure out your USP, unique selling point. Why should your customers use you instead of $99 Jose with the 2.5 gpm machine in the back of his rusty truck. What about the mid range guy? Why are you better or different? You charge $300 and they charge $200 and do the same job at the same quality. Why should they pay you more? Figure out your USP.

Minimum starting equipment

I would say a 4gpm@4000 psi belt driven machine, 200-300ft pressure washing hose, 200ft garden hose, hose reels, a small surface cleaner, m5-xjet, something to haul it to and from a job site, chemicals.

That should make you a good sum of money over a year. You can invest more the following year.

EDIT: Thanks everyone who has sent me messages. I was not expecting the overwhelming support you guys have offered and I am so happy that I could give you guys the encouragement to finally make that step forward!

This is great information

[PSIKorey]

I run a Simpson 3600 PSI 2.5 GPM machine that i got as a gift from family. I don’t really have trouble with jobs with it. Its just slower than i would like. I’m going to be purchasing a 4000 PSI 4 GPM here in the spring and run both washers. The Simpson Has no issue reaching two stories. What i was thinking is running the Simpson on small ranch homes when i have the business/ need to run two at a time.

The reason i bring this up is, for a starter washing this washer has been great. Would i like to have had a premium washer to start? Of course i would have. I am great full for what i have for sure. More so I’m great full for having to learn on something that isn’t the best. For me this has made me come up with creative ways of solving different problems.

I personally think that starting on something sub par is better for a new person. Reason being if i would have had the best to start i don’t think i would be doing as much research as I do now.

This is just me personally. May not be for everyone.

[MrSparkleVA]

I started out with the Simpson Megacrap 325. I will tell you that when you double your H2O volume with the 4k/4gal, you’ll never go back to the Simpson.

[CoAuHunter]

Thanks for all the encouragement! I am getting ready to start up. I have my trailer almost done and I have started with some pretty inexpensive equipment mostly bought at auctions that I was planning on just reselling. But my job had other ideas and was laid off so now going into business with it. I have been lucky enough to find some great forums like this and know a someone in the business. So now just excited to start getting some jobs under my belt!

[1stschceextiorclning]

Super helpful post

[Kps0410]

I want to begin with saying that everyone can learn something from someone. no matter how little or how much experience they have. Sometimes learning what not to do is as valuable as knowing what to do. As far as equipment I will admit I’m an equipment snob. If you can’t start with professional grade equipment then stay out of it until you can. It does a disservice to the customer, lessons the contractors profitilbility and causes the customer to stereotype other washing contractors. I’m preaching to the choir. I’ve done this since the mid 80s joined the army. Got back into it for a while then due to insurance needs went back to turning wrenches now I’m about to start back Even though a lot of my old commercial accounts have said they’ll pick me back up I’m not doing anything until I have the equipment to properly serve them.

[jrich]

Was this forum allowing dumb questions years ago? I feel now it is more militant lol. Not dure if you will see this 6 years later.

[jrich]

Just wanted to say thanks for your post. I’m on the edge of starting up. Been researching for months. Have had that trigger half pulled a few times but this time it will be fully done. I know the post is 6 years old but had to let you know its still being appreciated!

[jrich]

You still here? Curious if your company ever took off.

[BobsPressureWashing]

Click on the name, go to their profile and it tells you when they were last here:
Seen
Jun 30, 2018

[qons]

@jrich

Was this forum allowing dumb questions years ago? I feel now it is more militant lol.

This guy got banned for all the trouble he caused. lol.

We don’t mind people asking questions. What we’re looking for is:

1. What have you found out from your on searching on the site? (ie Did you even bother to search)

2. How many hours have you logged on the site?

Guys who create a login and ask a question and have “read time” of less than 10 minutes, are looking to be spoon fed. And some of the guys here still help out.

But we’re professionals running our own businesses. We’re busy. We’re hard workers. And we didn’t build up our business getting spoon fed anything. That would hurt us in the long run, not helped us.

That said, get a few days of “read time” under your built and you can fire away whatever questions you have. But guess what happens? With all that “read time” you won’t have to fire away questions because you’ll know the answers or know how to find the answers. And the few times you don’t, we’re here for you.

[jrich]

Thanks for the rough suggestive reading time. I feel I have read quite a few posts where someone is being told to read more and answer there own question, enough to not ask questions myself prior to pluggin it in the search bar and sifting lol.

On a side note, did you feel there was a certain point when starting out that you had to put the books down and start actually using the information your reading about to properly retain/more thoroughly understand?

[qons]

@jrich

a certain point when starting out that you had to put the books down and start actually using the information

Yep. One of the best teachers is hands-on training. At some point you just gotta get up and do it. Start with something easy in our industry. Practice on your own house or a friend’s house. That’ll help you get things rolling, get a feel for things, and give you a little experience.

[jrich]

Those are my thoughts exactly. As I keep chugging knowledge from this site I am getting together a mostly rental setup, for the end portion of this season. Start applying stuff I have learned from here and start finding gaps in areas I thought I had touched on or didn’t realize existed. I feel by doing it for free it will give ample opportunity to learn to apply proper procedures.