Transcript for: Interview with Jackson Blackburn from Mount Baker Window Cleaning
Welcome to an episode of Upflip. We are here in Bellingham, Washington with Mount Baker Window
cleanings, Jackson Blackburn. Jackson, so good to be with you. - Yeah, you as well, Caleb. - All right, well, let's get into it. Let's hear your story. So when did you start
your cleaning company, and what caused you to get into the window cleaning business? - Yeah, great question. So I began Mount Baker
Window cleaning company back in the fall of 2017. And what caused me to get into it was actually more of a need than, "Oh, I'm going to go create
this window cleaning business." - [Caleb] Okay. - It was more of a necessity because I had a lot of
seasonal jobs prior to that where I'd maybe be there for
three months, six months. I was moving across the country to all of these different jobs, trying all these different things, and none of them really clicked for me. And so after years of doing
that, I was very tired. I got beat down, and a little
defeated, to be honest, of switching jobs all the time. And so there came a
point where I realized, I need to do something for myself. I need to be my own boss
and make my own decisions. - Okay. Before you got to the
point where you're at now, did you have anybody who
helped you along the way? - Yeah, absolutely. I actually hired a business
coach a couple years ago. His name is David Moerman, and he owns Home Service Business Coach. He was able to help me triple
my revenue, essentially. - Hold that. Hey guys, if you want to
find out how a single mentor took him from 400,000 to a
million dollars per year, stay around. We're going to find
out how a single mentor shifted his business. All right, briefly talk us
through some of the services that you offer. - Yeah, absolutely. So we are full exterior cleaners, so we'll take care of
anything from the roof down to the concrete. That's going to include roof cleaning, gutter cleaning, window cleaning, sidings, yeah, concrete, flat surfaces. - [Caleb] Uh-huh. - We want to be able to take
care of your entire property, whether it's commercial or residential. - Okay, and what's the most
popular services you offer? - I would say window cleaning
is our most popular service. We clean windows every day, and typically we're cleaning windows at every single job that we do. - What are your most
profitable jobs, and why? - Yeah, so our most
profitable jobs are jobs that we can be at for an
extended period of time. If you're constantly moving
your truck around all day from job site to job site, then that means that your technicians are spending less time
actually producing revenue. So the longer you could stay one site- - [Caleb] Yeah. - The more profit you're going
to be able to produce there. And we can do this through
upselling different services. - (Snaps) Upselling,
hey, a $200 job is good, but a $2,000 job is great. Stay around to find out how
Jackson uses a multiplier method to increase revenue. All right, changing gears a bit here. Heading to a supply store named- - [Jackson] Bay City Supply. - Bay City Supply, how far
away from the warehouse is it? - Oh. it's just right around the corner. - [Caleb] Just a couple minute walk? - Yeah, yeah, we're going
to be there in a second. It's actually where I got all the supplies to start window cleaning. - Really? All right. We're doing blitz questions. You got 10 seconds to answer these. Can you do it? - You got it. - Here we go. WebMD asks, "If you started
out as a solo operator, "when did you know
whether the time was right "for you to hire your first employee?" - Yeah, I'd say if you have
enough work on the schedule to support yourself, you
probably have enough work on the schedule to support
a full-time employee. - Okay, hey, good job. All right, next question is
from Question Everything. They're asking, "What are the
first five things you need "to start the cleaning
business, besides the tools "to do the actual cleaning? - Oh, I would say a website. You're going to want a golf shirt. - [Caleb] A golf shirt?
Oh, yeah. With your logo on it so
that you can actually go be professional and drive sales. You're going to need a truck. I guess that's a piece of equipment, but we're going to go with the truck. (both laugh) Number four is going to be a customer relations
management system, a CRM. You're going to need a CRM to manage all of your clients' information. Lastly, you're going to need
other pieces of marketing. So maybe that is flyers,
door hangers, brochures. - Mm-hmm. Next question is from Matthew Yates. He asks, "How did you not give up? "Especially when the light
at the end of the tunnel "seems so far away?" - So I had no option. You know, I did not come into
this business with money. - [Caleb] Uh-huh. - And so I had bills to pay. I needed to get by. I needed to get my rent paid on time. (Caleb laughs) And so I didn't have a choice. Like I actually needed to keep going. - Good job. Next question is Rosetta
Hutchinson asking, "How did you get your clients?" - Yeah, so my first clients I got was all through door hangers. I went down to a local print store. I printed out about a thousand of these really thick index cards that I would spend all
night punching holes through and putting rubber bands through. - Wow. - And I spent an entire fall putting those in the neighborhoods
that I wanted to work in. - Okay, good job, you did it. So we're at Bay City now, and what I love is that
you started your business just on a thousand dollars, is that right? - Yeah. - Is that typical for this industry? - I think a lot of people
do start with more, but you can certainly start with as little as a thousand dollars. - Okay, okay, would you be
able to show us what we need? - For sure, let's go. - Okay, let's go - Okay, let's start grabbing things. So just get everything that we need to start our window cleaning business, and tell us how much it costs. - So first thing that you're going to need is a squeegee here. So this squeegee might run you $30 total for the channel, the
rubber, and the handle. You're obviously going to need these if you want to clean windows. - All right, let's get it in the cart. - Second thing you're going to need is what we call a t-bar and a scrubber. So this is what you're
going to actually use to apply solution to the window, and then you're going to be able to squeegee it off the
glass with your squeegee. A t-bar and a scrubber pad
might cost another $25. The next thing you're
going to want is a razor. These razors might run
you $30 for the razor and the pack of razors. These are used to scrape debris that have adhered to the
window for a number of years. Next thing you're going to
need is a fine Brillo pad. This is also used to get
debris off the window that might be stubborn,
that won't come off with just your scrubber pads. So Brillo pads, these will
probably run you 2-3 dollars. All right, next thing you're going to need are some microfiber towels. This will help you detail the window and also clean any
excess liquid or solution off the glass or window sills. You might wanna look
into spending around $50 on microfibers, so you have
a little bit of extra ones. You're also going to want a bucket, something like one of these. This might run you $40, and this will actually help
you keep solution in there. So you can keep your scrubber
pad wet, nice and soaped up. This is a great first bucket to get. You can keep your solution on one side and some extra tools on the
other side to keep them dry. These will run you around $45. - So what else is going to make up that thousand dollar initial investment? - Yeah, so you're going to want a ladder. You know, that's going
to be really essential to get those hard-to-reach windows. Second thing you're going to
want is a golf shirt, okay? Something like a nice
polo with your logo on it, so you can be presentable
when you're out selling jobs and meeting clients. The third thing you're going to want is a well-designed logo, that's going to be a good representation of your brand and your company. You can spend maybe $50
and get this designed on a website like Fiverr or Upwork.
Mm-hmm. - The last thing you're going to want is some marketing material. So I would suggest putting as much money as you have left over into
buying some door hangers that you can then go put
into the neighborhoods that you want to be working in. - Okay. The lawn care industry is
another great opportunity for outdoor service businesses. So if you're looking to get into that and want to make $200,000 a year, go listen to our Episode
5 on the Upflip Podcast, where we hear from
Legends Lawncare founder. Go check it out. - All right. So Caleb, welcome to our office. This is where all the magic happens.
Ooh, like it. - Yeah. - What is your projected revenue for 2023, and how did the profit
margins break down for that? - Yeah, so we're going to be aiming for 1.1 million in revenue for 2023. - Whoa. - Yeah, and we are aiming for
about a 20% profit margin. And that profit margin is after I'm paid, our managers are paid, that's
what's left in the bank to help reinvest into the business. - Is that typical for the
window cleaning industry, 20% profit margin? - You know, I think that is a
really good place to aim for. I think a lot of people
fail to achieve that, because they haven't
budgeted for the year well. So they'll either overspend
in marketing or equipment, or they'll pay themselves too high, and they won't actually
have money left over to reinvest- - [Caleb] Mm-hmm. - [Jackson] back into the
business at the end of the year. - Okay. Hey, Upflip family, is
starting a cleaning business sounding good for the low
initial expenses and big payoff? You may remember Chris, from Episode 102. He made $6,000 his first
month, $18,000 the next month, and now earns $125,000 per month
with his cleaning business. The best part is he partnered
with us to reveal everything in a free Upflip masterclass. In under one hour, you will
have all the tools you need to start your very own cleaning business. If you're an entrepreneur
looking to make $10,000 in less than 60 days,
I highly encourage you to click the link in the description below and join us before it's too late. Seriously, what do you have to lose? It's free. Okay, Jackson, where to? - Yeah, so we're going
to head off to a job site that the guys are at right now. They're doing a little bit
of roof, gutter cleaning, and I think some window cleaning. So let's go check out what they're up to. - All right, let's go. Where are we at and
what are we doing here? - Yeah, we are in beautiful
Ferndale, Washington, and as you can see, we've got
a client's house behind us. We're going to be washing the roof, we're going to be killing
some moss that's on the roof, and also preventing it from growing back, as well as cleaning the gutters
and their exterior windows. - All right, can we check out your truck? - Yeah, absolutely. So this is one of our trucks
that we use for soft washing. This truck is designed for
small to medium soft wash jobs. So anything larger, we've
got a bigger trailer that's actually going to take
care of those kind of jobs. So this truck is designed
for a house this size. So this truck can come out,
we can take care of the roof, we can do the siding, can
pressure wash the driveway. This truck can really do it all for anything that's medium-sized. - So we were just checking
out at the hardware store stuff to get into the business. What are the other
must-haves once you step up to like some bigger gear like this? - Yeah, absolutely. Some equipment that you have to have would be a soft wash system, okay? If you're going to be washing roofs, you're going to be washing siding, you're going to want to
be able to spray chemical and have a soft wash system. And so this is a 12-volt soft wash pump, and it is an electrical pump that is powered by a switch right here. You can actually see,
this is our proportioner. We can adjust the different
levels of chemicals, soap, and water that are coming
out of the end of the hose. So, you know, the percentage
that you use on a roof is going to be different
than the percentage that you use on siding-
Yeah. - and you can easily
control that all right here. - Okay, and what are you
spraying on the roofs? - Yeah, so sodium hypochlorite is what we're spraying on the roof. And then we also mix that with something called a surfactant, which is going to help let
that chemical sit up there- - [Caleb] Okay. - And do its job longer than, you know, if you were to spray without it. - Okay. Jackson, I can tell you run
things excellently around here. So going to your customer experience and how that customer experience
contributes to your success. - Yeah, absolutely. We like to really focus on
our customer service here. So we actually believe that we are a customer
service-based business that happens to clean windows. When you call into our office, you're going to get someone on the phone that is happy to talk to you, happy to answer your questions,
get you on the schedule, get you on the books, and help
just deliver this experience that you're not going to get with another window cleaner in the area that might be too busy
to answer their phone, maybe they're up on a ladder. We actually have dedicated
people in our office that are ready to help you. - Okay. All right, we got some window
cleaning going on behind us. And my next question is, Jackson, what is one thing that you
wish that you would've known before you got started in your business? - So I probably would've
chose a different name. So obviously we're called Mount Baker Window Cleaning Company, and that does two things. That limits where we're
going to be working, and that also limits our services, right? So I've actually named a location, and I've named the services
that we're going to be doing, which is great if you're
just trying to stay localized as a business, but it stunts our growth. We can't go franchise, we can't
go expand into other places with a name that's localized like that. Whereas if I chose a
name that isn't specific to a location with a broader reach, let's just take for example, you know, Trojan Property Services
could be, you know, could be the name of
a theoretical company. Now you're not limited to one location, and you're not limiting your services. So property services, what's
under the umbrella of that? Well, there's many things that you can do with a name like that. - How would you describe
your company culture, and how has that helped your business? - Yeah, absolutely. So we're really big into
our company culture here. I would say it's one
of the biggest factors that we've got going for us. So, you know, I started
this business years ago to be able to afford my time to go snowboarding, mountain
biking, snowmobiling. So I wanted a way that
I could have the time and also the money to go
do the things that I love. And so now today, we want to provide that for everyone that works for us, you know? So that's why we're paying them
above an industry standard. We've got a four day work week. We want to give our
employees the resources so that they can also go pursue their love for recreation and the outdoors. And then we bring that around full circle by giving back to charities
that help other people in our area get outside. So that would be the Baker 542
Ride Special Olympics team. You know, we donate money to them to help them get on the slope, as well as the Whatcom
Mountain Bike Coalition. That's a group that actually
builds and maintains mountain bike trails in Whatcom County. So everything we're doing is for ourselves and the
community to get outside. - Cool. So you've become a coach yourself. So what are the benefits
of providing mentorship as a business owner? - Yeah, so I absolutely love working for Home Service Business Coach. The people that we have in our group, in our program, are so
fantastic to be around. We've got this community full
of motivated entrepreneurs who are on the same journey to grow and scale their business. And so being able to connect with them in our weekly Zoom meetings, it's just a fantastic opportunity to be around such high energy. - How did you get into coaching? - So I became a coach
after David saw the success that his teachings actually gave me. So I was able to quickly
turn around the systems that he taught me, implement
them into my own business and scale at a very high speed. And so within about a year,
or actually a little less than a year of me joining his program, he actually turned around
and made me a coach. - Oh, okay. There you go. Are people getting their windows cleaned every month of the year? How does your revenue vary
between the the different months? - So it's definitely a seasonal business, and we're going to have
our highs and our lows. I would say that on our best month, that we're doing around $120,000, and then in the dead of winter, we can do as little as $20,000. - Wow, okay.
So you can see, it's either really low or really high. And so we learn how to
just ride these waves. - What are some of the
ways that you make up for that lost revenue
during the winter season? What are the techniques that you use? - Yeah, so one thing that we started doing is holiday light installation. So we have a holiday
light leasing program, which means that we
actually store the lights. We do everything for the clients. It's a very white glove service- - Mm-hmm.
so they don't even need - to think about it
Yeah. - Other than picking up the
phone to call us in the fall. We'll take care of everything
for them, from design, installation, removal,
maintenance, and storage. And that has been great for our team, because now we're able to keep people busy through November, December,
and then take-downs in January. So it really adds like three
more months to, you know, what might be an eight-month
seasonal business. - So if somebody's just starting out, and they need to get all these supplies, is it better to offer a range of services, or just focus on one thing first? - Yeah, so everything that
we've gotten here today is going to be specifically
for window cleaning. You know, for another $50, you
can get a bucket and a scoop and go clean some gutters. - [Caleb] Yeah. - But I would really try and
focus on just that window cleaning first, because
the other equipment that you're going to need
to get into pressure washing or soft washing, is definitely
going to cost more money. But if you can get enough
jobs and clean enough windows in your first few months,
then you can easily expand into offering pressure washing
and soft wash services. - Okay, so once you get the basics down, you can just start adding
more and more services? - Well, not quite. You really don't want
to overextend yourself. You want to be known for being
really good at a few things. You know? And for us, that's just
cleaning the exterior of homes. You want to keep your business processes as simple as possible
if you want to scale. So if I could do everything over again, I would've just jumped straight into roof and gutter cleaning. - [Caleb] Really? Okay.
It is easily the most profitable out of any of our exterior cleaning services. - What's been your biggest
mistake as a business owner so far, and what did you learn from it? - Yeah, so I'd say our biggest mistake was not having good systems built around onboarding employees and actually getting
them trained up to speed. If you don't have a good training, a good onboarding process set
up, good systems around that, then you're going to
lose employees, right? And so, on the other hand,
if you do have that set up, as soon as an employee
comes into your company, you're walking them through the steps and then giving them the tools for them to actually have success at their job. And what that does is actually
you're going to increase your retention with your employees. If you can onboard them and train them with proper systems and give them tools, they're going to stick
around for a lot longer. - How long do your employees
typically stick around? - Yeah, so, you know,
maybe a few years ago, we were getting 6, 8, 9
months out of our employees. Currently, most of our
employees have been here for over a year. So everyone that was with us last fall has come back for the spring. - Cool. - So we've really worked
on retaining our employees and focusing on the things that make this job enjoyable for them. - Mm-hmm. How much does each of these run? So you got the proportioner, you said, and then this pump here. What does that cost? - Yeah, so these pumps are
maybe on the higher end, around $700, on the lower end, maybe $400. - Okay. - And to be honest, you have to replace them quite frequently. You know-
Yeah. - We'll maybe go through two
pumps a year on this truck. - Mm-hmm. - A proportioner might run
you around a thousand dollars on the top end. - Okay, what are some other
equipment and their prices? Let's just go through
the whole truck here. - Yeah, well, so this whole skid is great because we've got all of
our equipment on one thing. So we've got a pressure washer on here. We have a water purification system for our water-fed pole unit, which is this handle right here. - Yeah. - It's going to allow our technicians to actually clean windows from the ground. - Okay.
And keep them safe. Hoses themselves might run $400 for a, you know, 200-foot length.
Yeah. - You could have a setup
that's as cheap as a thousand, or you could have a set up
that might run you over $6,000 for like a dual-user water fed system. However, my advice for anyone
getting into the business would not be to go ahead and
buy yourself a $20,000 skid right off the bat. - Okay. - You know, you can get all this equipment for a lot cheaper and
actually make it yourself. - All right, guys, so you can
start off with a simple setup with maybe about a thousand dollars, but if you want to upgrade
to the proportioner, it can save you a lot of time. It just costs a little bit of extra money. Now, I know you do a three
year plan, is that right? - Yeah. - All right, so talk to us about your vision and your planning and what you plan to do
within that timeframe. - Right, so every year we
create a new three-year vision. So the last one we made was for 2025. This year we're going to
be making one for 2026. The three year vision
is a way for us to know where we're heading as a company. So, you know, something
that my mentor, David, used to say is, you wouldn't get on a bus if you didn't know where it was going. So why would someone want
to join your company, your business, if they didn't
know where it was going? So this is a way for us to
look into the future and say, "Hey, where do we want to be?" And when we actually construct
our three-year vision, we ask for everyone's
opinion in the company. We're talking to our managers, we're talking to our technicians. "Hey, where do you guys see us going? "What do you think is
and should be our vision "for the future?" - Cool, okay. You get everybody involved. - Yeah, absolutely. - It seems like there's a big problem in hiring for industries lately. Has that been a problem for you guys? - Yeah, hiring for us has
actually gotten easier as we have evolved in
how we look for employees and what we're able to offer employees. You know, and things
that you need to look at are what are you offering them? What are the benefits? What does your job ad look like? And what are they signing up for? Is it just coming out here to maybe clean gutters in the rain? - [Caleb] Yeah. - Or is there a deeper
meaning behind the job that they're signing up to do? - Where do you find employees? - Yeah, so we've been
actually having a lot of luck finding employees via social media. Our social media platforms
actually have a better chance at finding a core value match. - [Caleb] Oh yeah.
Than a, you know, a program like Indeed where you might get- - Yeah.
Very generic responses. - And so you're on social media. Are you using Facebook
Ads or just organic posts to reach those people? - For social media, we are using Facebook to reach out to potential clients, but we're actually trying
to utilize Instagram to showcase our company culture
to help us find employees, since a large part of our
business is constantly recruiting. - What's a tip for those Instagram or Facebook advertisements
for really capturing somebody that you would want to
work for your company? - Yeah, so we're just trying
to showcase our employees and what we do here. You know, so the posts that
get the most engagement for us are our staff outings. You know, there's a photo
of us playing paintball or you know, having a
hibachi meal, or you know, we've highlighted our
employees in the past with them maybe kayaking or skiing. And those seem to be the
posts that do the best for us. - Yeah. All right, Jackson, how
many employees do you have? - Yeah, so in our slow season
we'll have as little as eight. And then in our busy
season, we'll have as many as 12 employees on board. - Okay. And what's your training
processes for those employees? - Yeah, good question. So we've created a
two-week training process. The first couple days we
have them in the office, we're going over video
modules that we've created. We're going over PowerPoints,
we're testing them, and we're giving them safety
training, things like that. And then for the next two
days of that first week, we've got our guys actually going out to our operation manager's house and cleaning it top to bottom with us. - Really? - Yeah. So he's got actually the
cleanest house in town, because we're constantly cleaning it. And then the second week, what
we do is have them shadow. And so they'll slowly start to
get their hands on the tools, start cleaning and helping
our lead technicians out so that by the third week
that they've been onboarded, they're ready to go with the
lead technician on their own. - What are some other
systems and processes you use to help train up your employees? - Yeah, so we've used a
program called Talent LMS, which essentially allows us
to make an in-depth module for every service that we offer, in this system-
Oh. - So that we can actually
show them a video, give them a PowerPoint presentation, and then test them to see
what they retained from it. - This is a physically demanding job with a lot on their plate. So how do you motivate your employees? - Yeah, absolutely. That's a really good question. One of those is through incentives. So we incentivize our
employees to get good reviews. We've opened up a tip line for them. And then beyond just those
monetized incentives, you know, we've got right behind us,
this is our career paths, which actually should be
updated for years down the road. You know, we made this poster
when we were a lot smaller to show the possible positions
that would be opening up. So when someone gets hired on
as an assistant technician, we can show them, you know,
if you do really well at this, you can become a lead technician. And then if you want to get
into any other career path, you know, we're going to have a customer service role available. Maybe you want to do marketing,
maybe you want to do sales. We're about development here. - Yeah. - We don't want someone to get hired on as an assistant technician
and stay there for years. You know, we want to bring
them up through our company, hire within, and develop our talent. - Okay, do you always
have people start here, or can somebody jump in here
if you see potential in them? - Yeah, so the only role that
we've actually ever hired for, from outside of the company would be for a customer service representative. But everyone else has to start
as an assistant technician and work their way up. - Okay. How has your role as a
business owner changed? - You know, when I first
started the business, I was doing everything. Okay, I was the one that was on the truck, I was communicating with
clients, I was doing our sales, I was doing our advertising,
I was fixing our equipment. I was doing everything
under the sun that it takes to run a business. And as we've grown, as we've scaled, I've basically found people
to fill those roles, okay? So I've split myself into now, you know, eight different people instead of just me. So we've got specialists
in every single department. And so now my role in the
business is to check in with Trent, our operations manager, and make sure things are running smoothly. - So how do you choose what things to delegate or not
delegate as you're growing? - Another great question. So I would find the things that either you really don't enjoy doing or that you're maybe not so good at doing, and delegate those right off the bat, so that you can then focus
on the high level tasks that you like doing, that
you're good at doing. And that's what's going to push you along and get you growing your business. - Okay, that's great info. Talk to us a little bit
about your social media. What platforms do you use, and how do you engage with customers? - Yeah, we use Facebook to
advertise to our clientele. It can be a really powerful tool if you know how to utilize it correctly. If you don't know how
to utilize it correctly, you can end up spending a lot of money and actually wasting it. Maybe you're targeting people that aren't going to be
interested in your services, or they're not in the correct area. So it's really important
to know what you're doing if you're going to dive into the world of Facebook advertising. - All right. Have you wasted
money on Facebook Ads before? - Absolutely, yes. - How much did you lose? - We lost around $6,000 one year- - Ooh.
In Facebook Ads, because we thought we
had set it up properly, but Facebook didn't think so. (laughing) - Okay, remember that
guys, Facebook can be good, but you can waste a lot of money if you're not careful with it. - People really aren't
interested in getting spammed with advertisements, okay? They don't want to see a bunch of posts that are, "Oh, save $50
on your roof cleaning," or, "It's time to get
your gutters cleaned. "Call right now." That is probably the least effective thing you can do on social media. What does really work are posts that show your community involvement. So for instance, we had a made a post about us cleaning up a local
skate park and resealing it. That got twice as many likes as any other photo that we've ever posted. So community involvement,
showcasing our employees, that's how you're actually going to get the community to engage with you. - Okay, talk us through the
booking and estimating process. Is it mostly on paper
or just all electronic? - Yeah, I'd say most of it's electronic. So there are two main ways that people can get in touch with us. One would be going to our website and filling out a request-a-quote form, or actually physically calling us. There's a lot of information online for us to be able to
quote houses virtually. - Yeah. - You know, there are realtor sites, there are Google Street maps,
there are the county assessor. So there's plenty of
ways for us to be able to actually come up with a
price that's going to work just with our computer. - Okay. - However, a lot of our sales
is going to be done in person. So any job that we think is going to be over a thousand dollars, or let's say the house is
valued over a million dollars, we're going to want to meet
that client actually in person, because there's actually a
better chance for upsells when you do that. - Okay, so what percentage
of jobs do you think you're visiting in person
versus quoting online? - Yeah, I would say it's
about half and half. You know, if it's a quick and easy quote, maybe they just want a window
cleaning or a gutter cleaning, and that information is here online, then we're going to
quickly send them a quote. You know, if they want
a little bit more done, or they have a big house, we think that they might be
a really good client of ours, then we're going to
actually want to go out and create a relationship
with them by meeting them in person and looking at
their entire property. - Do you have a wild guess about how much that increases your conversion ratio when you're going in
person with the customers? - Yeah, I would say that
it actually increases our conversion ratio by about
20% on those actual jobs that we're going to look at, you know? Because when someone's actually able to meet you face-to-face, we're able to provide a lot
more value in that sense. You know, and we are a
premium-priced business, so let's say a client, a potential client, is getting three different quotes. Two of them come in from online, and they've actually never met them. But then actually we
show up at their doorstep and are able to give them a lot of value in that in-person conversation. They're way more likely to book with us because now they trust us, they've met us, they see that we're
actually there to add value for their experience. - Sounds like you have a boatload of leads coming in every month. Do you know about how many leads you have? - Yeah, so we aim for about
200 leads a month plus in the busy season. - Wow. So how do you manage and
nurture all those leads? - Yeah, great question. So we use Jobber, that's our CRM, which is your customer
relations management software. - [Caleb] Okay. - And what's great about
Jobber is that you can track the progress of that client from the time that they contact you. So you're invoicing the job,
and then following up with them months down the road to see if they need your services again. - Okay. And what are some great tips for managing and working with your leads? - Yeah, well, you're
going to want your leads to go into the same
place where you're going to be creating quotes, creating invoices, and then following up with
clients down the road. So if you have everything in one place, then that's less work for you, essentially to be doing on the road. - Okay, so you can do all
of that right in Jobber? - Yeah, absolutely, and
Jobber has saved us. - Are all the supplies usually ones you can find at hardware stores, or do you need to go to special
places to find the rest? - Yeah, so we actually use a
lot of specialty, you know, distributors, so people that
have the best equipment. We are always looking
for the best equipment that we can buy, because when
equipment breaks on the job, that's a loss in revenue,
that's a loss in profit. - [Caleb] Yeah. - Your guys are out there
with broken equipment. It's frustrating for them. So we try and get equipment
that isn't going to break, that's going to have some longevity that we can use for a long time and get the most money out of. - Mm-hmm. Before we were talking about
your mentor, David Moerman. - Yeah. - Okay, and you said that he took you from 400K to a million
dollars a year in revenue. And how long did that take,
and what was that like? - Yeah, so it all happened really quickly. I hired David because I
was missing a lot of pieces to business that he was
able to essentially give me. You know, he has been
there and done that before. And so he was able to give me
the equations and the formulas to plug into my business to help it grow. - Okay. - And that's really what's so
great about hiring a mentor, is they've done this before. You know, we're not trying
to reinvent the wheel here. We are just trying to do
something that maybe someone else has come before you and
done really successfully. So finding that person
and asking them for advice can be incredibly helpful-
Yeah. - To grow your business. - So what systems were the most important in helping you do that? - Yeah, I would say that
the most important system that we implemented was
our training system. - Was there one thing in particular about that coaching that
helped you reach your goal? - Yeah, absolutely. So David is really big on
delegating tasks, okay? And so he taught me how
to do that in my business. So the first thing that
I did was went ahead and made Trent our production manager, and then I went ahead and
hired an office manager. So I essentially split my role
into two different people. And once you're able to do that, you create specialists in those roles. And so for you, yourself,
as a business owner, to believe that you're
going to be the best in every single area of your
business, is just crazy. - Yeah. - Especially when you
are running a business, your mind is on a million
different things happening, right? You're thinking about the
overview of the business, finding someone that can
focus in on one certain area is going to help you grow. - Can you walk us step by
step through the process? Job comes in, quote
comes in on the website through the form, and what are
your next steps from there? - Yeah, absolutely. So the first thing that we're going to do is call the client. We want to call them as quick as possible. You know, we want to give these guys a great first impression, and that is quick customer service. - Yeah. - So we're on the phone,
we're calling them right away, and we're saying, "Hey, we
saw that you just put in "a request for a quote. "How can we help you today?" And then they're going to let us know. They're probably going
to reiterate at that time what they put into the request form. - Mm-hmm. - You know, I want my roof cleaned, I want my gutters cleaned. And so at that point, you know,
we're going to assess, okay, is this something that
we can quickly do online over the phone with them
and send them a quote? Do they want this quote right now? You know, is this a thing
that they're looking for speed in getting a quote? Or do they want us to actually
come out to their house, greet them in person, and physically look over
every aspect of their home? - Okay, so you gauge where they're at, and then once you gauge
that, you might go in person, you might do it online. What are the next steps in
getting them that quote? - Yeah, so then the next
step would be to schedule it. So you know, the way
that we quote in person is we actually have Trent or Mikey, they are two of our
managers, go out in person. We don't have a sales team at the moment. I would rather send out our employees that have actually been on
the job for a number of years that know all the technical
aspects of our cleaning. They're actually able to add
the most value to the client and educate them the most
on our cleaning processes, rather than a salesman
who might just be there to close the job. - Okay, so you don't need
to do high-pressure sales? - No, no. We're actually pretty against
high pressure sales here. We'd rather educate the client
on what needs to be done to their home and what we
recommend, and let them decide what's best for their own home. - Wow, I respect that. What's your monthly marketing
budget for window cleaning? - Yeah, so we try and not
exceed 7% of our revenue for marketing. You know, in the beginning, I don't mind spending a little bit higher, because you're going to
need to get those clients to grow the business, right? But once you get to a certain level, I don't believe that you
should really be spending over 7% of your budget. - And what is the most effective way to market a cleaning business? - Yeah, so I would say
when you're starting up, the most effective way
to market your business is going to be organic marketing, right? You're going to want to
use the time that you have to go do boots on the
ground marketing, okay? Go talk to neighbors, get in a BNI group, join the Chamber of Commerce,
get your truck wrapped. - Yeah. - Those are the things
that are going to help get people looking at your
brand, get eyes on your company, and ultimately help grow your
business in the beginning. - Okay. You mentioned before that you upsell jobs and that those are the most profitable. When did you start implementing that, and why is that the case? - Yeah, so last year we actually found out about this app called CompanyCam. And what CompanyCam allows you to do is draw up reports for clients. So when we go out for
an in-person assessment to go quote a property, we will
look at the entire property. So let's say we got called
out just to look at Windows. Well, we're not just going
to look at their windows, we're going to look at their roof, we're going to look at their gutters. We're going to look at their siding. - Yeah.
And then with that, we're going to be able to
give them recommendations for other items at their
house that they might not know that they need to get cleaned. - Okay. - But from our professional view- - Yeah.
We realize that that's a place
that we can be cleaning, and we can be adding more
value for that client. So really, us trying to upsell
is making a recommendation to add more value to
that client's experience. - Okay. Hey guys, remember that. When you're at the job site, don't just quote the
one that they asked for. Go for some extra. All right, big question. What is your number one advice for the new window
cleaning business owner? - Yeah, great question. The most important thing to do
if you're just starting out, is to not put all your
money into your equipment, but rather put it into your advertising, put it into your marketing, and make a fantastic brand that's going to help drive sales in your business. If you go out and you buy a $20,000 skid like that's on the back
of our truck right now, you're going to have no money left over to find your clients. You're going to have the
equipment to do the job, but no one to do the job for. On the other hand, if you
can put all of your money into advertising and
actually driving sales, then the equipment can come after that. - Guys, remember that. Customers are way more
important than equipment. And that's a wrap. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Before you go, make sure
you check out our interview with Chase Lille, who
started $144,000 per year pressure washing business
at just 18 years old. (bright, upbeat music)