Commercial Cleaning and the Economy

pressurepros

pressurepros

New member
Of course this year I am getting ready to reintroduce a dedicated commercial division and now I am not so sure that's a great idea. Many of you guys (Ron, Scott, Russ etc) have weathered some ups and downs since you have been doing this for awhile. The general consensus I hear amongst the trades is that commercial work is going to be affected hard by the coming recession. If I introduce the commercial end I am looking at a huge nut.. truck(s), equipment, labor, and a salesperson. This will only be the second year for my operations manager. He ran two residential crews (sometimes a third) last year. I may be dumping a sh*tstorm into his lap.

Though I guess at this particular moment I am looking for someone to ease my mind and talk me out of it, the best thing is to perhaps share some thoughts on waht commercial work goes through during economic slowdown.
 
Well thats all i do, and if thats the case i will have to look for something else to do..I have seen the ups and downs over the 15 years of commercial work.The only thing i can say is you have to always be out getting accounts to make up for the one's that will drop you.

I dont care how good you are and how great your equipment is, they will always look to save money, and the first thing to go is the service guys pressure cleaning , window washing , landscaping etc..

I have been fortunate over the years but i can feel the downslope of this business everyday. There was a time that i could not keep up with the commercial and residential work, i put on 3 rigs and 6 guys at one time and now i am back to 1 big rig and 3 guys me included.

I think we are in for hard times, not only is the stock market in bad times but the housing market as well. The only place people can put there money where it is safe is under thier mattress, at least they know it will be there tommorow. If it gets any worse than it already is, we are going to all feel it, it will all trickel down and effect us all. Oh yeah i almost forgot fuel will soon be $4.00 a gallon and we are in a election year, just more crap to add to the recession we are in ,that nobody wants to admit!! well anyway GO Giants !!
 
Kory said:
You could always open a strip club or Pawn shop. I here these are recession proof.
Click to expand...


It may come to that, and that is where i will host my first Roundtable :D
 
Back on topic....


It is somewhat of a scary time to be investing/expanding....But you may want to think of this expansion as broadening your income sources rather than relying on strictly residential (where you could also start to see a decline).

Where you're located, is commercial cleaning done on a seasonal basis like residential?
 
Daniel, its not that bad where I am at temp wise. In fact, the south has been just as cold, if not colder than we have been all week. I haven't done any winter work for the last two years. We get calls but I tell people they have to wait until spring. I'm not really sure what the commercial market does in winter. Lets put it this way.. I have not seen a single guy washing in winter. That doesn't really mean anything becaus i am not prowling the streets at 2 am so they may be out there.

I'm not worried about the residential end. I'm fairly entrenched in that. My existing customer base can keep my guys busy this year even if I didn't get a single call.
 
The car wash business is feeling the squeeze of the down turn in the economy. People are just not buying things that are not needed. I know many car wash owners that are complaining about sales being really bad. I just hope things change real quick or all us service industry professionals are going to have to get creative when it comes to making money.

Ryan Stewart
 
Historically in the Phoenix area carwashes downturn this time of year. The holiday and post christmas slow down in the car washing industry is incredible.

My experience is that most of the commercial stuff stay pretty stable. There may be a few blips and people shuttering doors, but for the most part, these are not real strong accounts anyway. You will want to find customers that profit off a downturned economy by buying foreclosed properties and distressed sales. This could be any type of commercial management company in the short term.
 
I started my business in 1990 , which was during the last recession. I have survived a two year drought in 1999-2000 and my business still continues to grow and be more profitable every year.

The reason why is I don't let the "talking heads" determine my marketing plan, business plan or bottom line. I go out and get the work every day.

There's an old story about a blind guy that sells hotdogs on a street corner. His business was good and he sold 4 case of hotdogs a week.

One of his customers asked him what he was going to do about the recession and he said "what recession" the customer then told him it was in the news everyday. The guy had no idea because he didn't read the paper or watch tv.

The guy decided to cut back his purchase to three cases and week so he wouldn't get stuck with the extra hot dogs he wouldn't be able to sell because of the recession.

A couple of weeks went by and he was selling out a little earlier every day but wasn't getting stuck with the hot dogs so he figured the economy must really be slowing and he cut back to two cases a week so he wouldn't get stuck.

The bottom line is he went out of business because he listened to someone else and didn't keep on doing his regular thing.

If I was him I would have added soup, sandwiches and snacks to my menu and stayed open longer. That's how you handle a recession.

People will always need our services and as long as you are reasonable priced, honest, dependable, and have a positive attitude you will make it through anything.

Go out and get some new accounts today and prove the talking heads wrong.
 
apluspower said:
I started my business in 1990 , which was during the last recession. I have survived a two year drought in 1999-2000 and my business still continues to grow and be more profitable every year.

The reason why is I don't let the "talking heads" determine my marketing plan, business plan or bottom line. I go out and get the work every day.

There's an old story about a blind guy that sells hotdogs on a street corner. His business was good and he sold 4 case of hotdogs a week.

One of his customers asked him what he was going to do about the recession and he said "what recession" the customer then told him it was in the news everyday. The guy had no idea because he didn't read the paper or watch tv.

The guy decided to cut back his purchase to three cases and week so he wouldn't get stuck with the extra hot dogs he wouldn't be able to sell because of the recession.

A couple of weeks went by and he was selling out a little earlier every day but wasn't getting stuck with the hot dogs so he figured the economy must really be slowing and he cut back to two cases a week so he wouldn't get stuck.

The bottom line is he went out of business because he listened to someone else and didn't keep on doing his regular thing.

If I was him I would have added soup, sandwiches and snacks to my menu and stayed open longer. That's how you handle a recession.

People will always need our services and as long as you are reasonable priced, honest, dependable, and have a positive attitude you will make it through anything.

Go out and get some new accounts today and prove the talking heads wrong.
Click to expand...

Going out and getting accounts all the time :rolleyes: I belive if you read my post, that is exactly what i said. And i was talking about down here in Florida when i said thing were slow, due to the fact that everybody that moves down here or losses a job becomes a pressure cleaner.

Up North where i originally moved from, pressure washing was never done unless you were having your house painted. There are alot less pressure washing companies up north than in the south,so competition is alot less.
 
Nick,
Sorry to hear things are tough down there but I would still spend the vast majority of my time selling, cold calling, setting up advertising, handing out flyers in residential neighborhoods, calling my existing customer base and making sure they are happy and nobody else is trying to steal them from me.

It is much cheaper and easier to get another sale from an existing customer than it is to go out and get a new one, so work them first.

The point of my previous post was that we as the owners of the business have to make it happen we can't let someone else determine what happens to our business.

Good luck.
 
Nick

Guess I must be the guy with the hot dogs cause I just bought a rig and started actively seeking out power washing jobs and hood cleans.

I can't help but laugh that I fall into the category of the guy who starts a pressure cleaning company when he loses his job. Well, in my case, I am a licensed general contractor and a licensed roofing contractor so I can bid on other things besides washing.

I chose to do hoods because I have had ten years of nothing but high end residential home building and remodeling projects. I can't bring myself to work for homeowners anymore.

I prefer commercial. I look forward to work each night and I don't have to deal with the hand holding and ass kissing. I can do my job in peace and quiet. Its almost therapeutic.

In addition to hoods, whenever I am in a shopping center or other commercial property I am looking for other profit centers. I am meeting with a PM next week to discuss my proposal for awning restoration and quarterly maintenance program on a large pedestrian mall.

Oh and today I got a call from FPL about reflective roof measures and incentives. I told him that reflective roofing was great but it needed to be periodically cleaned. Normal air pollution, dirt, construction dust and mold would reduce the reflectivity and encourage heat retention.

I think I may have stumbled on to another profit center. Too bad my area is mostly residential.
 
CKS1 said:
Nick

Guess I must be the guy with the hot dogs cause I just bought a rig and started actively seeking out power washing jobs and hood cleans.

I can't help but laugh that I fall into the category of the guy who starts a pressure cleaning company when he loses his job. Well, in my case, I am a licensed general contractor and a licensed roofing contractor so I can bid on other things besides washing.

I chose to do hoods because I have had ten years of nothing but high end residential home building and remodeling projects. I can't bring myself to work for homeowners anymore.

I prefer commercial. I look forward to work each night and I don't have to deal with the hand holding and ass kissing. I can do my job in peace and quiet. Its almost therapeutic.

In addition to hoods, whenever I am in a shopping center or other commercial property I am looking for other profit centers. I am meeting with a PM next week to discuss my proposal for awning restoration and quarterly maintenance program on a large pedestrian mall.

Oh and today I got a call from FPL about reflective roof measures and incentives. I told him that reflective roofing was great but it needed to be periodically cleaned. Normal air pollution, dirt, construction dust and mold would reduce the reflectivity and encourage heat retention.

I think I may have stumbled on to another profit center. Too bad my area is mostly residential.
Click to expand...


I am happy for you. I still dont know how this became about me? I am ,and have been doing just fine for many years, i was just making a statement on how things have slowed down since i have been in this business.
 
The Cleaner said:
I am happy for you. I still dont know how this became about me? I am ,and have been doing just fine for many years, i was just making a statement on how things have slowed down since i have been in this business.
Click to expand...



Ya, the man is just making a observation:confused: . Its always all about you nick isnt it LOL

When it gets so bad Nick and you want to give up.......I'LL TAKE THE WORK:D
 
jlpressure said:
Ya, the man is just making a observation:confused: . Its always all about you nick isnt it LOL

When it gets so bad Nick and you want to give up.......I'LL TAKE THE WORK:D
Click to expand...



Thaks Jeff...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top