Mine have taken an absolute beating. Weather’s been uncharacteristically cold but warming up. Have definitely been getting way fewer calls and inquiries than last year. Not sure if I’m terrible at my job, the economy is in the toilet, or some combination of the two 
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We scaled down this year, so if you look at the schedule we are booked out til late August - September.
That being said, actual sales volume is down. We closed a location over the winter, and haven’t marketed since March, so that has something to do with it. With the downscale there’s no real way to quantify as opposed to previous years, so we’re just rolling with the punches at this point.
P.S. - Its an Election year. If 2016 and 2020 taught me anything its that things are going to get threadbare in the fall. Be prepared my friends.
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I’ll start by noting that last year was my first year, so the numbers will show an increase in sales. Last year, I worked about four months and missed the spring rush while setting up my business. A mild winter allowed me to start back up in early March this year, so I’ve worked about four months so far. Due to several factors, I know my numbers aren’t apples-to-apples. However, comparing the four months I worked last year to this year, my sales are up 80% and my average ticket price has increased 47%.
Did you do anything last year that you aren’t keeping up with this year? Maybe you already washed every house in town? 
I’ve been mulling that over last night. I did an eddm blast around this time last year. This year I tried one earlier which accounts for the April sales I believe. I am debating on another but they are so dang expensive and sales so much lower that I’m unsure about another.
I have Facebook ads, Craigslist stuff rolling. I stopped doing my yard signs because competitions friends and family were ripping them down as fast as I could put them up 
I’m going to hit the cork boards and drop flyers off but once again, those get ripped down quick unfortunately. My SEO and website shows up as #1 on Google maps packs and top of Google as well. Kind of strange to be honest.
I did an email blast with all my previous clients at the beginning of the year that generated interest. I think In July I will send out a mass text letting everyone know 10% off for the month and see if that grabs me anything. Not sure what the deal is but hopefully i can correct the ship before end of season. Currently I’m projecting to make about half of what I did last year which is…troubling.
What’s your ROI on them? Last year? In April?
We found ours is pretty different purely depending on what day we drop them off at the USPS (thus what day they go into the mailboxes).
Track where every lead comes from, and you’ll know whether those signs/flyers/etc. are worthwhile or not. They may have come down fast, but may have each gotten you 1 job before they did…
Don’t forget to offer those past folks cash or a credit for referrals. They almost all know more people like themself, who also need your services.
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It’s hard to do with those eddms. I always ask how people hear about me, but those seem to have a delayed response. I get a lot of " I held onto your flier from the mail last year" so hard to quantify in the moment. I will definitely add a referral bonus that’s a great idea. Will include that in the mass email text I send out.
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You’ll get those, which is an awesome bonus for sure. For us we have tracking phone numbers for each marketing channel, so we know based on which phone number they called how they really found us (unless they call the main line). But if you put a time sensitive call to action ($50 off any upgraded wash / xx% off add on services this month only) on them, more people will reach out right away. Those who will keep it until they want to spend the money will do that too.
You definitely want to know how they’re performing though. I get marketing people emailing all the time wanting to send out EDDMs for us, touting their amazing 4:1 ROI… we quit sending them when it drops that low 
We’ve also tested so we know the best day to drop them off so almost all of them hit mailboxes Fri/Sat, which increases response too. But in the end, they’re really not a significant driver other than in the busy season. Do all the things, track which ones work best, and when time/budget allow or not, you know which ones to keep doing and which ones to quit doing (and when).
Busier than the previous years but I may be feeling the summer slump a tad. July is looking good but I’m curious how this August will look. Although I wouldn’t mind taking off a week if it’s slower.
We’re right at the same as last year, literally like less than 1% difference.
Not sure if you are somehow personally aware of that, but fortunately, where I live people are generally very good about leaving signs alone. I do have 1 instance where it was obviously a city worker that snatched my signs down. Others where it was highly likely a city or county worker, and 1 where it was either personal toward me or toward pressure washing, likely the former. FWIW.
People do it… one of my sales guys was putting up a Christmas Lights sign by a neighborhood and a couple of people started yelling at him that he couldn’t do that. He pointed to another companies (also Christmas lights) sign on the opposite side of the entry and they said “we know him”. He placed it anyway, it was gone by lunch. I put one on the opposite side of the hwy facing their entry (only bc it annoyed me and I drive by there late at night on the way home), it lasted a day. I almost went to the builder to cut a deal to put lights on their entry sign in exchange for him hosting my signage, but I was too busy to do all that just to give them the proverbial finger.
I get it. I know it works that way, but from what I have gathered online, people just generally assume it was “the competition”. The easy out, not considering other possibilities.
As I posted:
In that case, there were (short version) 3 signs on 1 stretch of a ~4.5 mile rd that were snatched down after being there for about 6 weeks. Other signs, not pressure washing related, were not touched. On 1 end of the road my sign was snatched down, the pressure washing sign right next to it was not. There was also another PWing sign of the same vendor about 2 miles into the road that was not touched. Only mine were literally torn down. I know it’s not that vendor. We’ve had signs together for months now. I don’t think he even checks his signs. This has been maybe 2 weeks ago. I replaced the signs and they are all still up.
Personally, I think it was a specific potential customer that didn’t like my price and thought I should go with what he thinks it’s worth. I could be wrong, but that makes the most sense all things considered and he can identify my signs by the phone number.
This 1 took me a few to sort out, but once I googled the “city” (small town) it was clear because the signs inside the the border were snatched up and the the ones just outside were all still there.
I’ve got signs up, long-term, that I did not think would last long. Others came down pretty quick, but overall I’d say a solid 80+% of my signs are still up. 
Yeah, I get it too… what’s happening to the signs is generally irrelevant. They’re disposable ultimately. In the end the question is does it generate anything before it vanishes.
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Wish that was the case but it’s been seen and even gloated over online. I threw in the towel with that. I cant be everywhere at once and it’s not worth my aggravation
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They make nice target backers for shooting, and they are a decent spray shield when painting with latex, or rattle can spray bombing equipment.
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Definitely heading into a midsummer lull.
I think (Residentially speaking lol) after the 4th of July rush, most people are more focused on saving money for their family vacations, parties, events, etc. than they are getting their house cleaned.
We had been booked out solid through April/May/June. July is still looking decent, but not what it was, I did increase prices when things were busy, due to high conversion rates. However, it’s definitely time to lower pricing and keep jobs on the horizon, until we get those rates back up (fingers crossed).
I like to use them to cover the rust holes in my trucks footwells.
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That was my point, if you have personal knowledge, then it is what it is. 1 of my 1st signs out was snatched at record speed. I replaced it and it was gone again. It’s a good spot for signs. Good enough that there’s a 1/2 size billboard there with ads on each side. It took me a minute to notice the “private property sign” on one of the billboard poles, but once I did, I realized that apparently that property owner doesn’t allow any distractions from the billboards ads that they are renting out. I wasn’t putting anything directly on his billboard or poles. So I realized that at $2+/sign it was just a losing game for me.
