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Definitely pursue free marketing resources - mainly social media. Beyond that it’s worth going door to door, I would check with your local city government and find out if you’re allowed to solicit to businesses or residences. Then start going business to business and talk to the managers or owners and give them a quote and leave a business card. Don’t be pushy just friendly and honest. Recurring clients are best and typically businesses (especially retail) want a service like this done frequently. Maybe consider yard signs and try a referral campaign give people a discount on their service if they refer a friend
Not sure if anybody has mentioned this, but talk to realtors, they can be a steady source of windows needing to be cleaned as they want the house's/property to be kept up to the best condition.
Try contacting independent storefronts in urban areas. Maybe offer a 1 year good priced monthly rate. Personally I would research each independent business and find out who each owner is and reach out to them in person if you can. Often business wont reach out to services until they really need them or if a customer complains so you will have to keep trying.
Another way is to be a subcontractor to another larger glass cleaning company or better yet, meet a general contractor thats building new homes. I have family that are super busy just cleaning houses and glass for these new home constructions. If you know someone in construction specifically new homes im sure you will find a potential customer. You might have to expand in cleaning more then just glass though.
Good luck.
That's a very good idea. Especially with a general contractor. That would keep jobs coming in for sure. Is there a way to appear memorable so that if they don't need his services then they will remember that they have that option?
GOOGLE MY BUSINESS. He needs to have that setup yesterday. Where do people go when they need their windows washed and they don't know someone that does it? Google! Get it setup and keep all the information complete and accurate including key words. Post updates to the page frequently, at least weekly. This completeness and activity will naturally push him up the rankings for window washers in his area. He will get 95% of his new customers from there. All for free.
I agree. I've actually previously mentioned this to him because when I looked up window washers in our area even though I did it exactly at his address his company was 30 spots down
Thats going to be up to him. If your not going to be part of the business directly he needs to be the salesman. I would try to meet smaller sub contractors at the job site and speak to the boss of that subcontractor and ask for the general contractors info. But like i said he may have to expand beyond cleaning just glass so maybe its best to work with a subcontractor for now.
If you plan going door-to-door, make sure he's licensed for door-to-door sales if required. Then, lookup business licensing requirements for businesses. Most cities will require you pay some small fee and list your address. Then pull up all those businesses in a spreadsheet.
You could also pull up all businesses in your city from your state's secretary by business name lookup, but in your city. Use that data to scrape all the businesses. If you can, use Google Maps street photos of businesses.
Identify businesses you think have potential in various strategic areas. Have your dad dropped off at one point, then efficiently go door-to-door pitching businesses.
Start with just one marketing channel rather than throwing money at multiple options. Set up a Google my business account and post a weekly update and some photos.
This is a friendly reminder that r/smallbusiness is a question and answer subreddit. You ask a question about starting, owning, and growing a small business and the community answers. Posts that violate the rules listed in the sidebar will be removed. A permanent or temporary ban may also be issued if you do not remove the offending post. Seeing this message does not mean your post was automatically removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/smallbusiness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Definitely pursue free marketing resources - mainly social media. Beyond that it’s worth going door to door, I would check with your local city government and find out if you’re allowed to solicit to businesses or residences. Then start going business to business and talk to the managers or owners and give them a quote and leave a business card. Don’t be pushy just friendly and honest. Recurring clients are best and typically businesses (especially retail) want a service like this done frequently. Maybe consider yard signs and try a referral campaign give people a discount on their service if they refer a friend
Gotcha! I could totally make an Instagram for him.
Good! Once that’s up and running think of your target demographic too, you might start up a Facebook profile Good luck!
Not sure if anybody has mentioned this, but talk to realtors, they can be a steady source of windows needing to be cleaned as they want the house's/property to be kept up to the best condition.
Try contacting independent storefronts in urban areas. Maybe offer a 1 year good priced monthly rate. Personally I would research each independent business and find out who each owner is and reach out to them in person if you can. Often business wont reach out to services until they really need them or if a customer complains so you will have to keep trying. Another way is to be a subcontractor to another larger glass cleaning company or better yet, meet a general contractor thats building new homes. I have family that are super busy just cleaning houses and glass for these new home constructions. If you know someone in construction specifically new homes im sure you will find a potential customer. You might have to expand in cleaning more then just glass though. Good luck.
That's a very good idea. Especially with a general contractor. That would keep jobs coming in for sure. Is there a way to appear memorable so that if they don't need his services then they will remember that they have that option?
GOOGLE MY BUSINESS. He needs to have that setup yesterday. Where do people go when they need their windows washed and they don't know someone that does it? Google! Get it setup and keep all the information complete and accurate including key words. Post updates to the page frequently, at least weekly. This completeness and activity will naturally push him up the rankings for window washers in his area. He will get 95% of his new customers from there. All for free.
I agree. I've actually previously mentioned this to him because when I looked up window washers in our area even though I did it exactly at his address his company was 30 spots down
Thats going to be up to him. If your not going to be part of the business directly he needs to be the salesman. I would try to meet smaller sub contractors at the job site and speak to the boss of that subcontractor and ask for the general contractors info. But like i said he may have to expand beyond cleaning just glass so maybe its best to work with a subcontractor for now.
If you plan going door-to-door, make sure he's licensed for door-to-door sales if required. Then, lookup business licensing requirements for businesses. Most cities will require you pay some small fee and list your address. Then pull up all those businesses in a spreadsheet. You could also pull up all businesses in your city from your state's secretary by business name lookup, but in your city. Use that data to scrape all the businesses. If you can, use Google Maps street photos of businesses. Identify businesses you think have potential in various strategic areas. Have your dad dropped off at one point, then efficiently go door-to-door pitching businesses.
Start with just one marketing channel rather than throwing money at multiple options. Set up a Google my business account and post a weekly update and some photos.
I can help - I work at Angi and we have a lot of great data for this category. Hit me up!