Intro
Welcome to the Home Exterior Cleaning Success Formulas Podcast. This show is for pressure washing, window cleaning, paver sealing, roof cleaning, and pretty much any home exterior service business owner who wants to grow smarter and scale faster. I’m David Kunstek with Clean Marketing, where we help home service companies generate more leads, book more jobs, and build predictable growth systems using Facebook ads, Google ads, high converting websites, and search engine optimization. In each episode, we break down what’s actually working in marketing, sales, and operations so you can build a stronger and more profitable business. Let’s get into it.
Guest Introduction
What’s up there, everyone? Dave Kunstick here with Clean Marketing. We’re here today to record another episode of Exterior Cleaning Success Formulas. And today, we have Tom Jara here on. Did I pronounce that right, Tom? Yeah. Yep. So he is with Wonder Washers. He serves the New Jersey market, Ocean City, and a couple other counties. So just to get started, man, I’ll turn it over to you here. Just give us a real quick snapshot of your business.
So again, Tom Jarrett with Wonder Washers. We serve all of Ocean, Monmouth, Atlantic and Burlington counties in New Jersey. We also do a little bit of traveling because I have customers that move or have a referral somewhere out of our jurisdiction. So we do travel. We do everything, everything cleaning. You know, we have hot water, cold water machines, all your deionized window cleaning. We do interior window cleaning, your basic house washing, oxidation removal. like specialty stains we’ll just sum it all up commercial residential buildings we just pretty much everything on the list of cleaning besides like uh hoods and restaurant ovens and stuff like that we will do that so mostly residential versus commercial um it’s been mostly residential but just this year we’ve been picking up a lot of commercial work which was a big goal of mine for this year so i want to say we’re about like at a like a 60 40 percentage right now
Getting Commercial Work
again i know we’re getting a little off topic already here but but this is interesting because people ask us all the time how do i get more commercial work and you know generally running ads is not the answer so what are you doing to get commercial work
I think it’s just networking with other business owners. I’ve networked since I first started my business in 2022. I just kind of realized that it takes time to build a relationship with a business owner like that. I also do a lot of marketing videos. I don’t just take my phone and just take a quick before and after picture and post it out. I make a whole thing to try to make myself stand out from the rest of my surrounding competitors
yeah like i said i’ve been seeing your stuff and that’s kind of how i uh why i actually get on here because you’re you just look like you know what’s going on
yeah i’m figuring it out
Well, hey, that’s the only way to do it, man. Yeah.
Team & Employees
So as far as the setup of your business, how is your team, your employees, or how are you set up?
So right now I have two full-time employees. We just hired another guy. He’s actually here right now at a customer’s house training with me on windows, house washing. Mm-hmm. but uh they’re they’re well equipped they’re all family guys besides the new guy he’s a younger kid but the other two they’re they’re great they’re fathers i you know they just wanted a good job that they can enjoy and and and feed the kids with
well i get it man jab kids
yes i got three i got five man five man bless your heart
i know man i’m uh i’m gonna be 49 this year my youngest is five so i got i got a way to go yet
Nice.
Starting the Business
All right. So as far as your business, again, obviously you start in 2022 from zero. Did you have experience in the industry before 2022?
The only experience I had was as a kid under 10 years old, power washing his grandfather’s in-ground pool with a pressure washer. That was about the only experience I’ve ever had. I actually started my business in 22 as Wonder Man Handyman. It was a handyman business, which is still here and around, and we still do handyman work in our off-season. But I added power washing as a service, and it just kind of took off doing it the correct way with soft washing, chemical soaps, all that fun stuff. Yeah. Now you see today that I was able to separate and kind of have two different businesses that can tackle two different tasks. Yeah.
Equipment Setup
So what kind of stuff do you have as far as your equipment?
So equipment, we have an F-250 that’s equipped with a five and a half gallon a minute cold water machine. It’s got the FlowPro remote system on it to make it easier when we’re doing big beach houses like this. Yep. I have a soft wash pump that is a flow jet, six gallon a minute for the roofs. I started with that, and I think we’re actually going to be in the process this season to switch over to gas pump. I also have an F-350 that’s going to be set up. I’m not sure if I want to either do cold or hot water with that one. But right now I use it to pull my hot water trailer, which is a hot sea five gallon a minute machine. We use that for all our concrete work. We do use houses, you know, when it’s a little colder out and stuff like that. We’re just first a secondary machine. And then I also just built a Ford Ranger. that has a little four gallon a minute. Everything’s belt drive too, by the way, that’s a cold water machine. It’s just a basic downstreaming setup. Everything’s set up downstream. I really only X jet for like wood brightener or, um, you know, last resort if like something breaks or whatever.
Revenue Progression
So starting in 2022, do you want us to take us through like your, your, you know, how your run with clients are or again, where you’re at revenue wise. So we can kind of see the progression to today.
So 2022, when I first started as the handyman business, obviously I was at zero. You know, I think I, it picked up a decent amount. I think I may want to say I made between like my 40 or 50,000 for the year that I would have made like at a regular W2 job. Yep. And that’s gross from that. I want to say net. All right.
And then next year, I think I want to say I added about like another $50,000 on it. You know, 2023, I was at another, I was at $100,000. All right. And then I want to say this year, we might break $200,000. Okay. So I’m not, I got to be better with numbers. I can 100% come through and say that. But I… I find that like a big, like a big struggle of mine is trying to keep on track with everything from like scheduling, running my numbers, you know, checking on the guys, all the insurances that you need. Like, it’s just crazy. So like the back office stuff is kind of where you’re struggling right now. Yeah. Like, I’ll just tell you straight off the bat, my numbers are going to be a rough estimate. It’s like, you know, give or take maybe a little bit, but roughly around those areas, I want to say that’s where I’m at.
Services Focus
Gotcha. All right. So are there any specific services that you focus on? I know you mentioned a bunch, like what do you consider to be your specialty?
I’d want to say that windows have been a big hit. So I think that we do very well with windows, obviously like house washing and stuff like that, like, uh, you know, specialty stuff we, we get, that’s like our second runner up. But I want to say this year, at least like the windows have been, uh, uh, you know, uh, home run for everybody
cool cool now um with the windows obviously with being a handyman you still kind of do repair and stuff too if it’s needed or screens and
The screens I actually never really gotten into the handyman sides of it. Like we, we used to install windows and stuff, but it’s gotten so busy with the washing that now I’m like, you know what? I just, I have contractor friends that I’ve known from networking. I just give them all the work really.
What Makes Them Different
So aside from that, is there anything else that is unique about your business? You know, compared to, again, you see the Facebook groups, the people that are out there. What are you doing different than everybody else?
I think we just are a little more connected with our customers. I think that because like whether it’s me, my guy Justin or my guy EJ that go out when we talk to a customer, you know, it’s like they’re talking to somebody they knew forever or like a family member. um yeah we just like we’re basically a giant family and we just kind of anybody we you know do business with we kind of just pull them on in and and they are customer for life family member for life
cool
Background Story
um from there what do you feel like the story behind your business is like obviously you start the handyman like what were you doing prior what led you into self-employment
so uh i was for 10 10 years prior like got right out of high school i was a i was a auto mechanic i worked a couple of different shops in the very beginning. Then I ended up sticking with like G Dodge Chrysler Ram for, you know, the remainder of time up until 2020.
In 2021, I was like, I got to get out of the auto industry. I’m trying to figure out something else. I ended up getting a job with a place called Critter Control, which did like wildlife work, like repairing homes and the damage that the raccoons would make or squirrels would make or whatever. So that kind of got me comfortable going up on ladders and roofs and stuff like that.
And then I was just like, I had a little bit of mental health that I had to overcome, do some personal growth for myself. And then I realized once I’d gotten through that, I was like, there’s no way I’m going to be able to go back to a job. I could never really hold a job for longer than a year. And it wasn’t because I was like a bad worker or had bad work ethic. My ethic was amazing. But what it was, was the management and Like the way they would run things or I would see things over time. It just kind of didn’t sit well with me.
Like the way they treated their customers and it just kind of was like a mixture of I can treat people way better than this and I can make more money, you know, doing well for myself and not having to go through like the big guy, like the big top guys or anything like that and just getting chump change. So that forced me into it.
I had the three kids. So I’m like, I got to figure out a way to, to buy a house. You know, I didn’t, I was living in an apartment at that time too. So this has made me able to buy a house, which I just got my first house. That’s really exciting moment.
Oh yeah. That was the main goal. That’s I think that’s what pushed me the hardest to just keep going through like the hard nights where you’re up till like, Oh, you’re back.
Yeah. I got a call. Sorry about that. You’re good.
yeah i i it you know the house is what really pushed me into like getting it there because i the kids were in the back of my mind i wanted a backyard for all my kids and my dog and everything to play in and it just got me through like the sleepless nights of doing estimates and like the things i just didn’t want to like go through doing
Next Goals
and what is what is your next goal now because i know every time i hit one i i tend to kind of coast for a little bit that’s just me
Um, my next goal, I want to, I think I want like, well, I added a truck, so I hit that one. I just want to organize everything a little bit better than what I have it. So it’s a little more simple, I guess.
I guess, actually, I would guess you’d say that in the long term, like in the long run of that, I want to be off the truck so I could just, not wear this all the time, put on my nicer shirts that I go and do estimates or network with and just kinda handle on working on the business and scaling it to something even bigger. So that’s really where I’m in at right now.
Well, while you’re thinking about that, What do you think you’ve got to do to get to that spot?
I’ve got to just not procrastinate. Like you said, sometimes you feel like you coast too. Once you hit it, you’re like, oh man, I’ve got to sit down and take a break. I’ve got to do less of that. That’s my biggest thing.
Marketing & Lead Generation
Yeah. You and me, man. I’ve been up and down with my weight for years. I’m not freaking humongous, but every time I hit my goal and I start coasting, I put five pounds back on probably in about two weeks.
I hear that. Until I’m like… What am I doing here? You know?
All right. So here’s the part that everybody likes and that is how do you market your business and how do you find new clients?
So a lot of my new clients come from other clients. So it’s a very referral based business. What I do also is I post a lot on Facebook groups. You know, I’ll post those nice videos that I make. I’ll post those on Facebook groups. I post on my Instagram. I try to stay consistent with posting. It’s really sucks. When it’s busy and you’re trying to make a post, do estimates, pay the guys, create a game plan for the next day, whatever. But yeah, I want to say it gets wild. So it’s pretty much all organic.
Paid Ads Discussion
You’re not doing any kind of paid marketing?
No, I very rarely do paid marketing. I might maybe do a boost on Facebook just to kind of get it seen. But I will say that when you boost a post or something, nine times out of ten, all the people that are messaging you are just the scammers or the fake accounts and stuff like that. But… you think about it as you get your, you get, you know, a bigger out, a bigger reach in your area. People are seeing those videos because whether they’re scrolling on Facebook marketplace, looking for new wheels for their vehicle, or they’re, you know, just scrolling through our group page, those ads pop up. So they will see, people will see, but don’t expect direct messages from that. Very, very little has it been like that. A lot of my customers are referral.
I mean, that’s a great way to go. It’s a hard way to scale sometimes because you can’t control it a lot unless you’re doing some kind of incentivizing or or so forth.
And being in Jersey, I’m in PA here. I’m not too far from you.
Yeah. So, you know, you do lose three or four months a year with the, uh, with, with the exterior cleaning business. Like a lot of people we work with, they switch over to Christmas lights or, um, gutter cleaning.
Uh, we have stuff we, we even, we add a service on now it’s not exterior cleaning, but we’ve had so many people ask us to start running gutter installation ads. And like, we’ve been running, running those and they’re working really well. And the ROI in them is insane. Provide you have the equipment.
I mean, the guys that we’re doing it for, they just go out with sheets of aluminum. They bring a bender with them. They literally roll it right there on the site and put the pieces up out of the back of the truck. It’s pretty cool looking.
That’s awesome.
Mid-roll Ad
So we’re here at about halftime. We’re going to take a quick break so you know how we help business owners just like you.
Here at Clean Marketing, we specialize in helping home exterior cleaning companies. That is our core focus. So pressure washing, window cleaning, roof washing, paver sealing, and more. We build marketing systems that actually produce consistent leads and book jobs.
We do that through Facebook ads, Google ads, search engine optimization, and high converting websites, which are all tied together with proper tracking and follow up. So you’re not just getting leads, you’re getting customers.
If you’re tired of guessing with your marketing and want a predictable growth engine for your business, head over to cleanmarketing.net and book a strategy call with me first. That’s cleanmarketing.net. Now let’s get back into the episode.
Estimation Process
So as far as you get someone calls you or they come into your website or however they’re coming in. How does your estimation process start?
So if somebody’s contacting us to get an estimate, they’re either calling or texting my phone, emailing us through our website, or they might just see the email because we put all the information right there on any post, anywhere we post it. And that’s really it. I mean, it’s either email the website or they just call or text me.
After that point, I’ll either, I’ll get the address, the name, you know, all their basic information. I try to figure out the best day I can come out in person and do it if they want me to come out in person.
Yeah, if they’re okay with me doing it over the phone or on Google, because sometimes these houses, you could get like 80 pictures of the house and see completely everything. And you could just ask them like, hey, does it look the same as it does in these pictures? I could pretty much base it off of that.
But most of the time, I like to personally try to get there in person because then they have a feel for who you are as a person, what you represent, and stuff like that. It’s more personable.
CRM & Follow-ups
So do you have a software to use? Is it paper quotes? What do you do when you do an estimate for somebody? Do you do estimates?
I use a CRM called Marcate. I love Marcate. Follow up everything. It’s one of the best ones. I use it for my everyday schedule and you can even plan your route like that. I haven’t had any complaints with customers.
You send everything to them electronically, put your logo in there, give them options of services to pick from if they have multiple services that they were interested in. It’s great. I mean, I think I paid like $55 a month or something because I have a couple add-ons where like, you know, when you send them an invoice, it’ll ask them like, hey, can you, you know, what’s your service? A five-star service? Can you leave a review?
Yeah, so you’re using a review acquisition with it as well.
Yes. The follow-ups. The email and text message blasts. So if you have a promotion or something that you want to do, you can send it to them that way. That’s important, man.
People always miss that point. Like your cheapest customer this year or the ones you had last year. And there’s no cost of acquisition other than sending an email or a text and keeping in touch. It’s just a missed piece.
Yeah. Again, even with us here, yeah, we run people’s ads. We do their search optimization and so forth. But a lot of times, people are just focused on getting new customers in the door, and they just forget to go back and keep servicing and keeping in touch with the old ones.
Right. It’s hard to grow and beat every year after year if you’re not bringing back your old ones.
Exactly.
Upselling & Repeat Work
For example, adding services to what you’re doing so you can go back. If you weren’t doing window cleaning and you are now, you can go back to all your power washing clients and offer window cleaning.
The main thing you do, window cleaning, power washing. How do you price your jobs?
I kind of just price them all as a, like I try to stay in a certain area of like cents per square foot. Usually I like to stay anywhere from 23 cents to maybe 33 cents. And that’s for power washing? Yeah. And that’s, that’s, that’s power washing.
And then like, for instance, like windows, like, you know, if we’re doing just the outsides, I might do 10 bucks to 13 bucks per window. If it’s insides and outsides, then maybe like, you know, 15 to 16 bucks or 17 bucks per window or something like that along the lines. It plays a part if it’s a ranch house, it’s a four-story house, you know, stuff like that. They’re always different. But I always try to keep it within a range that’s fair. You know, like we have like 80 other power washing companies out here that say they do windows and this and that. And I try to always be within the middle. You know, I don’t want to be the cheapest. I don’t want to be the most expensive. But I want to be the best quality at an affordable rate for everybody.
So you have the equipment to do windows on a four-story house?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, we have like, we got a 30-foot pole, 40-foot pole. I have a Blue Dragon Deionized, the three-stage system, and then a couple of cheaper systems. But yeah, we’ll get up and do it on it. We’ll get a lift if we need it for like a commercial building or something. But usually nine times out of ten, we’re good to go.
Favorite Jobs
Cool. All right. So kind of a fun question, and you probably have these in your head. Tell us about maybe your top three favorite jobs you’ve ever done. whatever um well i’m sitting in one right now because i’ll pick the phone up and show the view to you guys there’s a rooftop deck and i mean cleaning the windows for this place once a month this is a monthly customer we’re actually here doing her annual house wash so we’re here a little longer but um this house is amazing customers great to work with i always get great shots with the drone Or, you know, just taking pictures, videos of us all working.
There’s another house that we do in Monmouth Beach now regularly. And that one’s huge. Actually, that one, you can go onto my Instagram and see the latest video we did with that house. That one had like a cedar shaped roof. We did the windows in and out. We did the whole house or patio. It was like like every square foot of that house we touched
and then uh i want to say the last one that we did that i think is my favorite is the little miniature golf course we did in my local hometown bayville all right and it was like uh i don’t know if you’re familiar with blackbeard’s cave that used to be in bayville but um i’ve heard of it you know on a brochure like traveling to jersey but uh yeah yeah and i mean they’ve been around i want to say like 50 40 years maybe don’t quote me on it but i know since i’ve been a kid small kid like they’ve both been around and now blackbeard is gone i think they were building like storage units or something over there
but the this place called porto mini golf now she changed it to called something to do nj we did like there was a cedar shake shack like a pirate ship in there you know we did all the concrete and the turf and the waterfall it was it was super cool super unique and then we helped her paint it all the all the wood stuff like the boat and the and there’s like a bridge and the shack and all that stuff we painted all that and then it looks like immaculate cool and that was this past year yeah that was actually we finished that one two weeks ago
Nice nice nice
Leadership Style
so what do you feel like you do operationally that makes it makes your business more efficient
Well, I’m one of the bosses that get in and work with the guys. That’s again, why you see me in work clothes today. So I feel like the guys also, cause I personally, I remember, you know, having jobs in the past where like the boss is always just sitting down doing nothing, you know, like whatever. I know bosses can be busy. Now I get it. But I always try to get in here and work with them. You know, we’re actually all like friends. We hang outside of work. Like I said earlier, we’re a huge family. And I think that’s kind of what, makes it like enjoyable for them, the guys also to be working with me.
We kind of have the same thing here, like a, like next door. And like, I rent four rooms in this building. I’ve been here for 20 years, but you know, the people I see every day, you know, I’m operations manager, my ads manager, you know, my content developer, web developer. There’s five of us here and I have five people work remotely, but yeah, it’s the same way. We see each other every day. We go out to lunch on Fridays. Now I’m the old man. So I’m like near 50 and these guys are, you know, late 20s early 30s at best and right you know we just have different tastes and things the evening stuff there that they keep going i go to bed that’s just that’s my age
Fixing What Didn’t Work
but so um let me see here so what are some things in your business that has not worked well that you found a way to fix that really turned things like just turn business around for you
I want to say, I guess, the way I went about things in the beginning, because I didn’t have a CRM. I was doing, like, paper, and I’m like, yeah, dude, this ain’t working. There’s no way. Because, like, it takes up, like, an hour of your time, like, each day at least, you know, like, depending on how many customers you did and you want to get all that stuff out. So I want to say, you know, jumping into, like, technology and whatever was the fix for that.
Using AI for Content
Yeah. You know, and I wouldn’t say it really doesn’t work, because I used, like, when I would make a post and you make a caption for your post, obviously ones that sound more professional and look good, you know, will stand out from, like, the ones that are like, hey, I can power wash your shit. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree.
So, like, I was always pretty decent at that, but I actually started using AI. to help me kind of tweak what I would like, I would put what I want to say into a chat GPT, you know, and then I would, it would tweak it for me. You might have to correct a couple of things like spelling maybe, or like maybe if something sounds a little weird, but that kind of improves it too.
So, I mean, I feel like I’ve tried numerous things and they’ve worked to an extent and I would just always want to improve on those things. If that makes sense.
I mean, AI man. Yeah. everybody’s gotta get on that train now it’s just oh yeah crazy i mean you can even go as much to i don’t know if you type it in but i’ve just gotten really big i found out you can talk to chat gpt like physically just hit the recorder i’ll sit here and start talking some thoughts about what i want to do how i want to approach something and then i say so what would be the best way for me to organize this push the button and do it a thought process that would have taken me hours yeah gets you know gets spilled out it is crazy
AI Images & Fun Examples
even imagery man i don’t know if you noticed but just in the last month a chat gpt added i don’t know what they put into it but it can do images now and yeah edit your images in an insane way it’s i absolutely love it you just make me an image about like my kids use it and i’ll be like the craziest thing you want to see my daughter be like hey i want to see a dragon getting chased by a cat in a rainstorm through new york city and And it’ll make exactly what she says. They do that for hours sometimes.
Yeah, it’s funny. Just the other day, I was messing with it, and I made a picture. Because I put pictures in all of my guys and my team, so it knows how my team looks, how they talk or whatever, and everything like that.
And I told it the other day, I was like, make a movie cover of, an animated movie cover of the Wonder Washers team surrounded by millions of germs in a city fighting it in their superhero costumes. And dude, it looked like an Avengers cover. It was the funniest thing ever. Posted it on my story, sent it to the guys. AI is awesome. I love it now.
AI for Invoicing & Automation
i just it’s only increasing man like i seen uh someone else show me a system like they you they don’t use marquette they use jobber but they’re sending out their uh invoices they use something called panda doc like we use that too and they have it they have their ai where they they already have their their forms and their terms conditions and all that stuff like in with a gpt like you can make make ones or just there
so literally when they’re on a job and they have calculations, they can just talk to it and be, hey, I’m at this address speaking to Bob Smith. He has 15 windows he wants cleaned. Some are second stories, four on the third. We’re going to power wash his driveway, which is 500 square feet.
And literally, that GPT takes that, builds the invoice, throws it in Zapier, which is a tool that disconnects things, sends it to Pandadoc, and literally emails a finished proposal like that. right out of chat t it’s insane like when he told me about it like i wasn’t sure i ever worked well and he just gave me a demo it was crazy
once he put his prices in there like what he charges per window what he charges per square foot what a second story a third story see literally he can just walk around walk the property with the customer chat tpt on and talk about what they’re going to do and it blows out i have to look into doing that it’s crazy the process up a little bit more it’s insane how it works
Biggest Wins
So in business since 22, what would you consider your biggest wins?
I want to say like just getting these like crazy awesome houses and having awesome customers at the same time. Because like I was saying before, like my whole goal is to like just kind of create an atmosphere for customers and the workers just to enjoy while we’re there doing something. You know, you don’t want to feel weird with somebody in your house cleaning your windows. Same thing like if it was like a plumber changing anything. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
I want to say that’s probably the coolest thing, just because very rarely do I really have any sour customers. And even when I do, I still win them over. We’ll call it a Karen. You get them, buddy. You get them.
Yeah, I’ve had my fair share. But I could tell, like certain customers we have, I like to call it contractor PTSD, because you can 100% tell when they’re like, Well, you’re going to call me back, right? Or you’re going to get here, right? Like, I know you said 9 o’clock. It’s 930. I’m like, I know, ma’am. We’re running a little late. You know, there’s traffic. And you can just tell when those customers are like that.
Winning Over Tough Customers
But we had one recently, very nice lady. She wanted us to clean solar panels on a ranch house. And she was very skeptical. Like, she did her research. Like, I know you shouldn’t power wash them, this and that, blah, blah, blah.
I have the window brush in my truck so i can just like come take a look and i’ll show you what i use and this is the way you should be doing it i told her you’re more than welcome to get other uh you know quotes this and that i advise you to just because maybe i’m not in your price range you know maybe there’s something about me you didn’t like
but I’d go over, I’d show her the equipment. You know, I’d talk to her, walk her through our process. And she was like, okay, you know what? She called, I left the house. She called me like five minutes later. She was like, I just want you guys to do it. You seem like a real nice guy, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And we went over there, did it. I told my guys, I said, take some extra time and make sure no spots missed because they were pretty dirty. But I was like, just make sure that she’s super happy before you leave. That way we’re allowed to leave a sign.
She was like, I haven’t put a sign in my yard in the last five years from any person tractor or whatever and she texted me when they were done she’s like i’m putting a sign in my yard i want to thank you you’re awesome i was like great cool you know you win those people over and she posts me on the group chats and all that stuff same story and you win those people over you’re gonna have one awesome person doing work for you out in the social media field recommending you anytime anyone’s like hey who can clean solar panels or hey who can clean my house or windows they’re gonna be like this person definitely they’re gonna be the first people to refer you
Pricing Objections & Professionalism
Yeah, that’s an awesome story, though. And we have those too. Trust me, man. We talk to a lot of pressure washing companies and You know, sometimes you get the people are like, why are you charging what you charge? You just run ads. And I’m like, I was like, listen, I could say the same thing to you. Like, you just have a really expensive water gun and you spray soap and water. Right. Which I know, I know is not the case. But, you know, I just kind of bring it down to them, you know, and just like, hey, let’s just talk about things here a little bit.
Um, you know, it really, you know, it’s professional. There’s no way I could clean windows like you guys. I can try. Could I probably power wash? Yeah. I have a small power washer, but you know, it’s, it’s, it’s for my ATV is what it’s for. You know, will I do stuff once in a while? Yeah. But I know it looks bad, you know, and if we need something, we just, we just get it done because like I, I have a little surface cleaner from Harbor Freight, so you know it was like 30 bucks. But if I were to do my sidewalk, it would probably take me about two and a half hours with my 2.4 gallon a minute pressure washer. Whereas someone like you can come along, do it right. Kill the growth so it doesn’t come back. Right. Spray it all off. I get it. I get it, man. It really is a profession. And when you do it professionally, it just makes a difference. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
Advice for Beginners
So as far as parting advice, again, obviously we’re at the end here. What would you tell someone that was new getting into the business? Maybe… Things you would correct from when you started that would make a bigger difference faster for them.
So the first thing I would tell somebody is you don’t need the best equipment. Some of the equipment I have, it is not the best, like it’s not the top rated stuff. Upgrade as you grow to the things that you need. I would say if you’re going to build like a little truck skid, get a Ford Ranger. They’re good on gas. If you travel a little bit, it won’t kill your expenses for gas. You could put a little small machine in there and do two-story houses no issue you know maybe even three-story peaks with a four gallon a minute belt drive you know maybe a little extension off your gun just get get the basic stuff that you would need to to do the job you know correct research research what you need to do research downstreaming research you know how sodium hypochlorite works the do’s and the don’ts all the basic stuff like i said you know just and when it starts getting hard if you start picking up don’t give up Don’t, you know, don’t coast like we do sometimes. But just keep your head in the game. And, you know, failure is not an option.
Talking About Kids & Side Hustles
Cool, man. Cool. That’s all good advice. I mean, I think about that stuff. Like I have two boys. They’re 15 and 17. And, you know, they’re getting jobs this summer. And we’ve talked about it. And I was like, man, you know, you could probably make more pressure washing in four hours on the weekend than you’ll make all month. Like working at Burger King or McDonald’s or something like that. We just never pull the trigger on getting a small set off. You know, but we were even talking about doing it. And maybe it’ll still happen this year. I don’t know. They’re still in school yet this second.
Yeah. But, yeah, it’s a lot to learn because I know when I talk to you guys, like, again, everything you just said about learning about the bleaches and the, you know, what to do and what not to do. And I’m like, crap, if I have my kids out, we have to get insurance because, you know.
Yeah, that’s another big one. Definitely make sure you have the right insurance.
Learning Curve & Mistakes
Yeah, because like me, I pressure washed for my parents like five years ago. It was my first time running a pressure washer ever. Period. And, of course, I’m like, more power, more better, you know? Right. And I did their lawn furniture with a red tip, and it got clean. Oh, it was super clean, I’m sure. It was very clean, but then when I touched it, it felt very textured. You know, it etched everything. And long story short, I put their furniture at my campground, my campsite I have, and got some new stuff because it was just bad.
Yeah. Yeah. I’ve had my fair share, man. I remember when I first started, I was using pressure. I didn’t know what soft washing was, and I streaked an oxidized house. It happens, man. It’s part of the learning curve. But if somebody starting out is watching this or researching something else and can learn the right way to do it, that could save them that hassle in the long run. They’re one step ahead.
Yep, I agree, man.
Outro
Well, thanks for coming on, Tom.
Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it.
Yeah, man. I mean, really good advice. And again, I’ll let you know when this is going to drop. Send it out. And again, we’ll talk again soon, man.
Awesome. Thank you.
So that wraps up this episode of Home Exterior Clinic Success Formulas. If you got value from today’s conversation, make sure you subscribe and leave a review so more business owners can find the show. And if you’re ready to grow your home service business with real marketing systems, including ads, SEO, and a website that actually converts into customers, visit cleanmarketing.net and schedule a strategy call with my team. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you on the next episode.
