Yes... a window washing business can be profitable, but you will have much more long term success and profitability if you expose your marketing message and your company to your prospects over and over again. If you don't, you'll be remembered briefly today and forgotten tomorrow. That's just a fact. The advertising "gurus" state that someone has to see your message at least 7 times before they feel comfortable with you, your service, or your company. Now I'm not saying that you have to mail out 7 postcards or distribute flyers 7 times to the same neighborhood of window cleaning prospects before someone calls you. No. But every time you do advertise multiple times, or get the message out repeatedly to a prospect, you'll get more calls, you'll end up with more business, and consequently, you'll make more money. It really is amazing how this works, but subconsciously your prospects will begin to trust you and begin to get to know you if they see your advertising message(s) all over town or they hear your company name on a regular basis... even though they probably still don't know you from a hill of beans. Way back when I was younger, I had a business as a "Bankruptcy Petition Preparer" where I was assisting people in filing for bankruptcy. When I first got into the business, I started advertising in the local Pennysavers and other publications. At one point I was in 13 different publications. Initially, I received very few calls and it was getting a bit frustrating. What I was paying the advertisers was certainly more than what I was making. But I also knew that if I didn't give up, it would only be a matter of time before business would boom and people would begin to trust me simply because they see my advertising message week after week after week. And lo and behold... it worked. The phone eventually started to ring. And it didn't stop. As a matter of fact, it worked so well that the local bankruptcy attorneys got together and proceeded to force me out of business by filing all this legal mumbo jumbo against my company. They couldn't compete with me on price, so they eliminated the competition. Oh well. But back to using repetition in the window washing business. Think about this for a second... You mail a postcard to a neighborhood filled with your desired prospects. A week later you distribute flyers (or have someone else do it) in that same neighborhood. Then the people in that neighborhood see you at one of their neighbor's houses doing a window washing job. At this point what they're thinking is "Hey... this guy is serious about his business. He must be good because I've received some quality information about his service and now I see him around the neighborhood. Maybe I should give him a call and get my windows cleaned." See what I mean? Repetition when it comes to marketing may not really be earth shattering news to you, but it really needs to be stressed, especially in the residential window washing business. Remember, you're trying to gain access to a person's private sanctum-their home. It's a lot easier to gain access if they feel comfortable with you BEFORE they even give you a call. Then when you cement the prospect's comfortable feelings about you by showing up with a solid image and estimate presentation, your chances of securing the job have just increased dramatically. Within my manual, How to Start Your Own Residential Window Washing Business, I even go so far as to mention that if you only plan to do one postcard mailing to one neighborhood (if that's the marketing method you choose), and do no more mailings, then it would be best to save your money. Sure you'll get some calls from one mailing. I've used 3 different versions of postcards and they all worked exceptionally well, but you won't see the absolute full benefit unless they're used repetitiously. "Repetition" is another one of those lessons I learned the hard way. In the first few months of my business I spread myself too thin and was not consistent with any one marketing message. A good example is when I went out and bought some radio spots on a Jazz station. Radio isn't cheap, so I naturally couldn't afford to run my radio commercial for an unlimited number of times. I did end up running it 2 times a day for 12 weeks, BUT that is not nearly enough. I received 2 calls from that radio spot, for a cost of $1,500. Um...not a good deal, huh? Unless I had a huge budget where I could set aside quite a few thousand dollars and just continually run ads all day long for six months or so, this type of marketing would never work because my prospects simply would not be exposed to my message enough. So... don't forget to use repetition and consistency when spreading the message of how great you and your window washing company are. If you do employ this tactic, then instead of being forgotten quickly like most window washing businesses are, you'll be remembered. And what does that mean to you? You'll simply put a whole bunch more profits in your pocket! Best Wishes, Steve
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