Hi. I’m new on here but I’m interested in getting into power washing. My area is kind of a well to do retirement community but the area is already saturated with other companies and I’m kind of getting discouraged. I’ve made my mind up to invest some serious money and try to get a business running very quickly. I want to do commercial and residential. Can you guys give me some advice? Lots of potential in this area. 8,746 homes in this little area but look at the numbers of power washers! What should I do. This is a dream for me to get into power washing
Maybe instead of starting a PW business, maybe sell and service PW items, build rigs, perform a complimentary service like line painting or seal coating. History shows that the people who made the most during the gold rush were the people selling/leasing land and the ones selling mining gear.
Even though there might be 20 washers, 2 are likely faarcebook warriors with a ryobi butchering people’s drives and won’t be in business in another year. Additionally, half of them probably won’t touch wood, so maybe perform a niche service.
3 Likes
Is power washing a dream of yours or is making money with a business of your own with a low initial investment?
2 Likes
The industry is saturated, in that it’s a low entry barrier and social media and YouTube influencers promote $100,000+ salaries your first year. However that being said it also leads to a lot of people jumping in with no game plan or research and cutting corners just to make a “quick” buck. When their gear breaks, or they aren’t getting jobs because they aren’t spending money or time on marketing, or they have an insurance claim that they can’t cover because they don’t have insurance… it can be the nail in the coffin for their business and they disappear as quickly as they arrived.
8,000+ homes with 10 companies is still an 800+:1 ratio. Homeowners have different price points and what they value, so you can set yourself apart by being professional, friendly, and reliable. There will always be someone willing to do it cheaper and customers wanting to haggle… those aren’t your problems and the sooner you pass on those customers the better off you will be.
If you’re serious about getting into commercial work, invest in a hot water machine. The higher entry cost keeps a lot of the spray-n’-pray crowd out of the that market and will set you up for a different caliber of client.
Well by me there was a post on Facebook asking for pressure washing…21 local companies offered a quote. This is why I see many of them starting to do…anything else also for money.
Here in Lexington, SC when a Facebook post goes up looking for a pressure washer it’s an absolute onslaught of names and companies being posted. Happens about once every week or so on the local “happenings in …” pages and there will be 120 comments within half of a day.
If this is really what you want to do then figure out how to separate yourself from the others. Remember, you don’t have to be 100% unique in your business - think about all the other companies offering similar services in your area and then start to dwindle them down by things such as:
just how local are they? Do they have clean and in good shape looking trucks? Do the workers look presentable? Would the workers take the time to have a conversation with the client? I’m not saying you need to do any of these things, but you’ll quickly be able to dwindle down the amount of companies who n your area if you go looking to do something that sets you apart.
2 Likes
Exactly. Do some research on those companies. Some are already no longer in business. Some are side-hustlers. Don’t just do a search on Google maps and assume that everything you see is up-to-date and accurate. How long ago was their last review? Does the link to their website still work? Do your searches on FB and Insta also. I’ve got quite a few hours in hunting down my local "competition.
Find a skill set nobody else wants to or can do and go from there.
Agree with this question, are you stuck on power washing or are you open to other ideas? I ran into a guy the other day that kills moles for a living, don’t know much about the business but understand he’s been at it for a year, apparently he contracts to kills moles so it isn’t a get paid by the mole business and is almost halfway to his desired 250 customers. His expenses are gas, traps and advertising.
Interested me enough to want to ask if anyone is familiar with this business. Anybody do this as a sideline? Pretty easy work.
1 Like
