I did some porch screens for a customer yesterday who works for a major financial asset company. We talked about various things and I pointed out my business calls have dropped off significantly since last November, roughly half of normal.
I asked if it was mainly due to inflation and he said that’s part of it, but from what he’s seen it’s the 5%+ interest rate that money market accounts and other investments are offering. Essentially every affluent customer I normally do windows and housewashes for is stuffing every scrap of cash they can get a hold of into these accounts.
Of course this doesn’t help me at all, so for those of you wondering why you’ve seen a slump in business, here’s an answer.
Big slump in business this year. It started last fall, but I attributed that to both the drought and the daily threat of nuclear annihilation by the Pu-Tang Clan.
This year there’s no rhyme or reason. Your guy may be right, but the less affluent may be cash strapped because we are in a silent depression triggered by Covid.
Were still increasing YoY, but not as much as we projected. The marketing spend and CAC is way up, and underperforming. I’m counting it as investment in future years at this point (plus I have more people on the list to sell sealing, and Christmas/landscape lighting to).
This is my 3rd year in business and the busiest it’s ever been. During busy time I was booked up around 3 weeks however August was slower and September it picked up a bit. Now I have 2 jobs lined up this week only, in October…
If this year the economy is shot then I wonder how good it can get when the economy’s on a roll.
By me it’s real bad but it’s more from ALOT of new people popping up doing this.
Thus when work is there pricing becomes an issue because everyone is trying underbid the other. Getting balked at for .12 a sq foot for a house wash.
Personally, we make it a point to clarify that we are providing a service, not just a clean house. Anyone can leave the home clean, but some are more risky, uninsured, non-responsive when something goes wrong, etc.
I’ve had pretty much zero calls for PW the past three months. I did have a couple request a quote but they had their “son in law come up from Alabama” or the like.
Noticeable drop off of window cleaning and screen repair. A financial guy we know said a lot of affluent customers are stuffing as much cash as they can into money market accounts.
We’ve had a small drop this year but we don’t do paid marketing either, so…….have a lot of estimates out for this season that haven’t accepted, maybe 10% more than last year. In 30 years in business, it kinda goes up and down but not by too much, at least not for us……much success though.
Our marketing ROI is atrocious this year, CAC almost makes washing pontless. Everything else is propping that up, but washes provide a great list of leads for all the other stuff at least. Find services that tend to pop up at the times you’re the slowest. I’m reconsidering offering inside & out window cleaning again, but only during December, February into March, and August. I figure the folks who want it we can get onto a 2-3x a year cycle, and pack them into the months washes and lights are slow. Other than mid-to-late December, Oct 1 through Jan 31 is apparently now known as our “busy season”, so my guys tell me.
You know, I was just talking with someone about this yesterday.
My first year was 2009. I left the restaurant industry because of the economic collapse then.
I always thought I made a killing in my first year. A few grand a week was far more than I was making previously. Now I realize that I was just making more, not making a lot. I had nothing to gauge my revenue by. We may have been at the bottom of the wave then, and I just didn’t realize it.
2010 - 2019, I could tell you how busy we were going to be down to the week. 2020, that all blew up. There’s no rhyme or reason anymore. We used to get smashed starting in February and ride it all the way to July, then August and September slow, then crushed again October - Christmas. It seems we drop off hard in July now and it lasts til October.
If this is a wave, I hope we are at the bottom of it and on our way back up.
This is a good read. I’ve been wondering about it myself. I’m in the heart of Dixie and things have been slow on many fronts for me. I build fences, decks, staining, and nothing sees to be doing super well. I do want to note I invest $0 in marketing. I’ve noticed in my area anyone with a truck and $300 washer has started a business washing or doing any type of handyman work.
