First job!

Neighborhoods with vinyl houses in the $250k’s are probably going to be your best bet. Chances are, if a neighborhood is full of dirty houses, especially low-income neighborhoods, they don’t have an HOA on their backs, and they don’t really care that it’s dirty. A lot of HOA’s where I’m at will fine the homeowners anywhere from $10 to $25 a day for every day they don’t get their house or driveway washed past a certain date. Find those neighborhoods, get the HOA contact info off the pool house or entrance sign, and call/email every name listed on that board. Sometimes they can’t legally recommend you to the homeowners directly (if it’s a property management company that manages several hoas), but they may decide to use you for common areas. That can get your name in their bulletin, on the HOA Facebook page/website, and in the eyes of the homeowners. Also, whether you get in contact with the HOA or not, those are the neighborhoods you want to start sending out eddm mailers to now and every month for at least the next few months. The ones that you get the best response from, you just keeping milking till the cow runs dry.

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Just keep marketing to who you have been. There soffitts and gutters get dirty, window sills, etc. And even most brick homes have some vinyl or wood on them.

CVS doesn’t pay anything, forget them. Plus I’ve never seen a one of them that cares. Focus more on restaurants and other businesses.

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One thing I would do is transfer that over to a new domain or just get a redirect site to your current domain. It’s cheap and easy. Get something that is catchy and easy to remember. Will be much easier to put on a card or flyer than your current domain. No one will ever take the time to type that in as it is currently. Hope your business takes off!

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I’m not anymore. I was over visiting my mom and she likes going to Ollie’s in Prattville. That 88 year old wheelchair bound women will wear you out shopping lol. I’m in Mississippi now but I’m originally from Selma. (Selma is a good place to be from. Far from) Do you have hot water? If not you’re better off staying away from storefront flatwork. If I’m not mistaken CVS uses a national service provider. Personally I wouldn’t fool with an nsp.

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Thank you everyone for all of your support! It really means a lot that you’d take the time to chime in. This is a really good community.

I will look up local HOA’s and use your advice @BigJake. I have also been looking into eddm. I wanted to do it already but held off.

Question on door hangers… Is it better to just do eddm instead of actually hand placing each and every door hanger? As of now I’ve only been riding through the neighborhoods with my window down and placing my magnetic business cards on the mailboxes.

@Racer the only reason I thought about that particular CVS is because the outside is just green all over with organics. It looks horrible. But hell almost all of the lettering in the signs are not working. So they probably just don’t care.

@Molski yeah, I guess I wasn’t thinking when I made the domain. I just figured I’d use my business name. I chose to just go with the name I have because I knew it wouldn’t be already taken and I wouldn’t have to worry with any legal stuff like copyrights or trademarks. I mean it’s just my name with an LLC lol. Maybe I can try something like MontgomeryMetroWash or washing… Something like that. Hell maybe something even simpler.

@Kps0410 I only have the 5.5/2500 cold water machine. It’s going to have to do as my starter. And yeah CVS was just a thought. But I asked a bank… They gave me the same “contact corporate” line. It was PNC Bank. I was kind of just stopping at any local business I saw that could use some work.

I’ve got some people helping me network. My realtor and loan officer who I worked with when purchasing my first house back in September are actually really about helping me out. I tag and post to promote them on Facebook and they in turn do the same for me. It hasn’t gotten me a call yet though.

Had some woman call me the other day who got my number from a pawn shop that I never dropped off cards to. She was trying to sell some Troy built pressure washer she got from home Depot lol and they gave her my number thinking I would want to buy it. :joy: I told her no thank you…I couldn’t use anything that small. I have a $1,500 machine. I thought it was funny.

I have 3 people to follow up with now though after the new year starts. Maybe I’ll be able to get all three. I’m pretty sure about two of them. I’m going to just keep chomping at the bit even if it’s just a few people at a time.

I’ve got a lot of small time young kids with Troy builts as competition here though. I’m not knocking them though, there’s plenty of work for us all. The young men have hustle.

For a website, try (your area code)wash.com. If it’s not taken, it’s super easy to remember. I live in an area with 4-5 different area codes that service the same metro area (Atlanta). So it doesn’t work as effectively for me. Careful with the mailbox stuff. The wrong person gets ticked off at something on their mailbox, and you’ll be paying a fine for every mailbox they find your stuff on. Either way, it is federal property, and illegal. Door hangers are fine, as long as the neighborhood doesn’t have a “No Handbills” sign. Check your local codes on door hangers, solicitation, and littering first though. The county I’m in makes it illegal for any door to door soliciting without a canvasser license, but you can solicit in “No Soliciting” neighborhoods once you get it. They will lock you up for it around here. Seen it happen. Door hangers are allowed, but leaving flyers under a windshield wiper is illegal. Bags with business flyers/cards and rocks is also littering. And just flat out annoying. Especially when you’re not paying attention and hit it with the mower. Eddm probably ends up being cheaper by the time you figure in gas and time spent walking. I’ve got a local family-owned company I use for all my postcards and signage. I pay about $7 a piece for full color front and back 18"x24" signs. Paid about $325 plus shipping for 5,000 6.5"x9" full color front and back eddm postcards. Used the templates from the PWRA store. Cost .17 a piece at the post office to have them sent out. I’ve had some luck with local monthly mailers, but they can get too expensive to be worth it sometimes.

I thought as long as I don’t tamper with anything in the mailbox I was fine. It’s just a magnet on the outside. I’ve seen a lot of things on mailboxes before. I also didn’t know it was a fine. And if it’s federal property I need them to pay for me a new one :joy:. But thanks for telling me. And I didn’t know going door to door with hangers was a jailable offense lol. I’ve also seen the flyers under wipers around here too. I thought about doing that. Now you have me questioning everything lol.

Oh BTW, I used to live in the Atlanta metro area. Peachtree City, Sharpsburg, Newnan area.

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It all depends on your local county and city codes and ordinances. Same as pressure washing. Some counties in GA make flatwork illegal. Where I live, they about outlawed all flatwork because Quik Trip was letting all their waste water flow into the storm drain, and they traced the heavy metals and hydrocarbons back upstream right to them. Fortunately some local companies at the time sat down with county officials and helped talk them out of it, but they still require “100%” waste water reclaim. $2,000 fine and 60 days in jail if you get caught not reclaiming waste water.

Atlanta is crazy about their water that’s for sure. I remember those days. Atlanta has soooo many regulations compared to here. Alabama and Montgomery is very small business friendly. Just business friendly all together really.

I’ll check into the codes and ordinances. It’s a pain doing the digging though. I’ve looked through a few before for other reasons.

Biggest lesson you’ll learn. If it’s dirty or not is not a factor if someone gets a house washed.

I know, sounds crazy right? Either someone takes care of there property, or they don’t

Usually house being really dirty is a result of someone who doesn’t take care of their home
(Who won’t hire you either)

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It’s headache here for sure, and most don’t even bother looking into the local laws. They just wing it and hope they don’t get caught. I made the mistake of calling the county courthouse and talking to a few different departments about the soliciting stuff. You get a different answer from just about everyone you talk to. Ended up just digging into the code book for myself. Google Alabama pressure washing bmp’s, as well as your local county’s, if you haven’t already. Lots of boring, but necessary reading. Never wanna get caught with your pants down lol!

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I like HomeAdvisor; they bought out Angie’s list. It works great for me.

Yep. Just like cars. Those with the cleanest cars tend to wash them the most.

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Where most new guys make a mistake is they go after the really dirty houses. Those owners don’t care or can’t afford. Want the nicer homes that are starting to show a little dirt or green or roof stains

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The ones I’ve been targeting have been just that… Just starting to show or slight dirtiness. I haven’t seen any horrible looking ones.

That first house I did was bad and he said he had it washed last 3 years ago. It was white vinyl all the way around. Said he’d get back with me on doing it again in about a year/year and a half. He has a large 1,500-2,00 square foot garage with a man cave above it that he said he wants done next along with the surface cleaning on some of the concrete that he decided to forego this time.

I looked at the Alabama department of environmental management for any special instructions on pressure washing and it basically said a permit and reclamation is not required. “No monitoring requirements apply to this discharge” but does have a list of Conditions.

I’ve though about home advisor, but I don’t want to be sucked dry by a leech if I can help it. The $280 or so initial fee and then the lead fees and you still may not get the job even after paying all that. Just doesn’t seem like good business for me. Great business for home advisor lol.

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Thumbtack is another option. It doesn’t have a initial fee. It’s got the same reputation as HA. Some like it, most hate it. I don’t like it but when I first started I used it a bit with some luck. The fees suck but hopefully you only pay them once and develop a referral network from it. It’s a lower risk option. I hear it varies from location.

Easiest thing to do is call your local water department, and those in any county you plan on washing in as well. Granted, I’m sure Alabama is a bit more lax than, say, Atlanta lol! In the county I’m in, Gwinnett, you’re supposed to collect 100% of run-off, even on residential driveways, unless you use no soap or other chemicals. Even then, you are supposed to direct all wash water through an oil absorbent berm. Being that the Oil Dri headquarters is based a few minutes away in Alpharetta, kinda makes you wonder…

I hear you but it’s up to you as a business owner to sell your skill set and get the job. I’ve paid $1,500 a month for leads and grossed $12,000 from those leads…it’s what you make of it. Good luck with everything!

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Insurance policy is acquired and in place! Damn policy is 98 pages long :flushed:, wish I knew that before hitting the print button to have a hard copy in hand lol. Gonna need more ink! :rofl:

It’s probably 2 pages of what they will cover and 96 of what they won’t! Haha

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Teds been awesome to me ( never have filed a claim though lol). Always gets a COI to me in minutes

Your in good hands. Congrats with moving forward

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