Season 3: Episode 9: Your First 10K Month

Your first $10,000 month in a pressure washing business can feel like a wall, especially when you’re new, undercapitalized, and staring at competitors with hundreds of Google reviews. We get into what actually moves the needle: stacking $1,000 days, finding your place in the market, and building trust fast enough that tomorrow’s schedule stays full. If you’re part time or in your first season, we talk through the mindset shift from “I just need a job” to “I need a repeatable process.”

We also go straight at the pricing drama. When you see $175 or $150 house washes online, it’s easy to panic or judge, but we explain when lower pricing makes sense for a new pressure washing or soft washing operator and when it becomes a trap. We share practical lead generation ideas like local Facebook groups, neighborhood density plays, and leveraging HOA work so your discounts are backed by logistics, not desperation. The goal is simple: get in the right neighborhoods, deliver a clean service experience, and turn early jobs into reviews, referrals, and years of repeat work.

Then we zoom in on what protects your business while you grow: walkthroughs, spotting risk areas like leaky French doors and exposed receptacles, setting expectations in writing, and learning the power of saying no. We even talk about how one oversold promise or out of scope “favor” can trigger liability, slow your route, and burn you out. If you want to scale past $10K months, this is the foundation: standard operating procedures, clear communication, and a service that earns trust.

Subscribe for more pressure washing business growth strategies, share this with a buddy who’s chasing their first big month, and leave a review so more contractors can find the show. What’s the one thing keeping you from a consistent $1,000 day?

Transcript

The First 10K Month Goal

SPEAKER_00 0:30

What's up, guys? It's Matt Jackson and Clay Smith, and we're the Wash Rose. Thanks for tuning in. This is gonna be uh Sunday, March 15th. So if you guys are uh in the area we're in, you're you're starting to realize that like pollen's starting to hit, spring's starting to peek through, and uh what more um uh relevant of a topic to talk about than uh how to hit that first ten thousand dollar a month. If you guys are new new newbies, or if you're part-time, like that ten thousand dollar month threshold, that's a big deal. That's if you work 12 months a year, that's that hundred thousand dollars. So what we're gonna do is talk about how to go about the busy season, how to uh structure your day, schedule your day out, whether you're doing this part-time, full-time, it's all gonna be the same. It just depends on how much uh capacity you guys carry. So this will be season three, episode nine, and uh, I'll let Clay click, I'll let Clay click kick this one off. That was a tongue tissue. Oh, a little tongue twister there, buddy. A tongue twister for me.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Yeah, so as Matt said, ten thousand dollars when you're first getting going in your first season, it's a big deal, right? So you started with very little capital as I did. Um, you know, you got to do the try to figure out the things that you need to put in place to be uh what I like to say healthy. Like what can I do to position myself to have a healthy business? So you kind of go ahead and try to get those good habits, those good healthy habits in the beginning. Um, you're always trying to tweak things, trying to figure out uh what you're doing wrong. And the biggest thing for me, I think, was uh the fear of not having any work tomorrow. So, what are we gonna do to make sure that when you wake up, you're able to go ahead and hop in the truck and be productive? If you don't have any work, what are we doing to uh try to figure out uh the strategies of getting work? Um and I know without very much capital, um, it's kind of hard to do,

Cheap Pricing When You Are New

SPEAKER_01 2:30

right? So I actually seen a post online here in a local group the other day, and uh guys advertising $175 housewashes, okay? And a lot of other companies, um, such as, you know, I just had seen a lot of other companies in our area, um, they were dogging this guy, right? For being the cheap guy, for for undercutting the market, market and uh undervaluing themselves. But when you're new and fresh off, a lot of people are forgetting the point that if you charge the same thing that a company like me or Matt is charging, they're more than likely going to go with a more reputable business, the more uh, you know, because you're gonna get the more value. You know, these guys have experience. If you're looking at a company with four to six hundred reviews, as if mine and Matt's have, and you're nowhere to be found on the internet, you don't have a reputation, um, you don't have a track record, they don't know you from Atom, they don't know where you're from. So you have to be cheap. And I think that's where a lot of guys are missing the point. And um, they're quick to judge these newer guys because they're doing, you know, less than $200 housewash. Um the coolest thing about it is if you really sit back and think about it as far as the business aspect of things, when you're first getting going, you know, you already don't have the capital. You don't spend the money in marketing that me and Matt does. Um, there's there's many other variables that go along with this. And if you're worried about these guys undercutting the market, you're worried about the wrong things. Um, you need to put the energy into your business and worry about yourself and worry about what you can do to be successful. I remember six years ago when uh five years ago, however long it's been, it's been so long. I've watched so many houses in the time that I've been, you know, started this business. I was doing $150 housewashes. Everybody hated my guts. Um, a lot of people had a lot of things to say about it, but I just stayed my lane. And now we're a multiple truck operation and we have a $300 medal. So um it's one of those things you got to grind, you got to get your name out there, um, you got to earn people's trust. Uh, you got to build your brand, uh, make those videos, tell them about yourself, tell it about your company, tell them about what you got to offer, build value in your brand, and do good work. And the biggest advice that I can give anybody starting out that's listening to this podcast is no matter how bad it may hurt you, you always got to do what's right while you're learning. So if you go out and you blow a customer's receptacle out their wall or whatever, you gotta make it right. Call an electrician out. If you know how to fix it, fix it yourself. Don't jack lag it, but if you know how to fix it, fix it yourself. And what I've done here recently, I haven't always uh I haven't always done the tape thing. I know you see a lot of the the people that tape up everything and they charge an outrageous amount of extra money because they have to do that. Just use your common sense. If you see any exposed receptacle, maybe throw a piece of tape over it. Usually when they have the boxes and the seals and everything, you're you're usually pretty good. I have in the thousands of houses that we've watched, I've never had any issues with that. But what we're gonna talk about today, um, I know I kind of went off topic a little bit, is how to hit that first big number, whatever it may be, ten thousand dollars, twenty thousand dollars. I know me and Matt can do in peak season ten to fifteen thousand dollars a week with our tip with our two trucks. So one truck, once you get um that brand going, once you get your marketing going, and you should be doing about twelve to fifteen hundred dollars a day. Thousand dollars a day consistently is is a good start. Um, but if you're not quite there yet, you just have to figure out your process, figure out what what can I do in my area in my market to be seen? What can I do to be different? What can I do to earn people's trust in my community? Whether it's blasting all the Facebook groups of the local community Facebook groups, whether it's going and, you know, you can knock on doors, but to be honest, I've never been that kind of guy because I don't want people knocking on mine, you know, it almost seems desperate. Um, but that's what we're gonna talk about today, how to survive the peak season without burning out. And I think that's a very good topic to talk about because if you're not careful and you're working every day of your life, then you're gonna begin to hate your job. And I've been there and I don't want anybody else to get there. So I'll let Matt go ahead and uh spill into the next couple things and uh we'll talk about some good stuff today.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Yeah, and to Clay's point, like we've all been at that stage of burnout, or you you you just start over pressure washing because it takes a toll on your body, your mind, and almost your spirit. It's like, hey, it's great in the beginning. How can I go out and make money? And then you're like, great, I got money, and then uh you you start to have more money, more problems, is kind of the funny expression, but but it is true. Like, you got customers, they start complaining, and then you're like, cool, I make a thousand dollars a day, I really don't care anymore. So, like it's really important that you build a framework from the start, like correctly, like Clay says, that way you're not uh like creating stuff in chaos to begin with. So um like if you're just starting out, like the goal, an easy goal to hit is a thousand dollars a day. And like yeah, you want to charge appropriately, and but you also don't want to like try to compete with somebody who's got 600 stars or and then and then so like it's important to know like where you fit in the marketplace and like what value you provide to the community, and and that's not gonna be like uh oh, like look at me, I can do all this pressure washing technique. Nobody cares about that. Like, are you big referrals? Like people people just like want to feel comfortable hiring you for their service provider. And if you're some big franchise and you got the this and that, and the owner shows up and sells and does an in-person quote, yes, you're probably gonna get a higher ticket. But if you're just starting out and and you're like kind of my initial and Klay's initial business model where we were like that friendly neighbor who's showing up trying to like help the community make some money, that uh probably gonna call a lower price point. So there's nothing wrong with that. There's a lot less overhead in that. So, like back in the day, you go out and bang a $250 housewash, you have no advertising, no uh real overhead, you're doing the work, probably don't have insurance, go out and make money, go out and hit your first hundred thousand dollars in revenue, and then decide is this worth it or not. So like that sounds like a big number, but it's not if you break it down, and that's just like ten thousand dollars a month or fifteen thousand dollars a month in the busy season. Completely attainable if you're doing this part-time.

Stacking 1K Days With Volume

SPEAKER_00 9:20

So like how can you stack that thousand dollar day? And it's it's I was doing this in the weekends, and then I think we did like fifty, sixty thousand dollars before I decided to go full-time. But like it's super, it's super attainable to do. Word of mouth is great. Everybody everybody knows what pressure washing is nowadays, so you just have to figure out how to compete with what your strengths are and not try to compete against somebody else. Uh I'd say the point that Klay made about like not burning yourself out. So this is where it's important to like be honest with yourself, understand the market, understand where you fit in the market, and like where you can win. If if you're doing door knocking, if you're starting out with no budget, take advantage of those neighborhood groups. Clay does a great job of being in the neighborhood groups, like he's he really climbed up from like word of mouth in these groups and like building him himself and his name in the community. Whereas like other people may have to buy that with advertising, buy that with like putting yard sides everywhere, door-to-door flyers, like door knocking. So, like, figure out your end. And it it may be going through your family neighborhood if you're uh just starting out, or like, hey, if you're part of a big neighborhood and community, like hey, try to pressure wash everybody's house in that neighborhood. Whether it be like posting on your Facebook groups or just like connecting with your HOA people or just connecting with your neighbors, give them a deal. Hey, if it's $250 to wash your house, that's a great great deal. $300 to wash a house, that's a great deal. Make make sure that whoever you work with feels like they're getting a deal. So for instance, like if you're going cheap, you want to make deals and you don't want to do a one-off. So it's one thing if you're like, oh, I do a $150 house wash, that's great. But are you getting like 20 houses in that neighborhood? And is it just like door to door to door and the logistics make sense where you can make $10,000? Like understand, like, hey, if you're giving somebody a deal or you're working like on a volume model or a discount model, make the logistics make sense for you. So you're not just losing money. We're doing work in this HOA community that we've done work for in years, and we're giving everybody like a ridiculously good deal. It's like not not to pull the $150 house wash out of the pocket, but like on houses that back up to like the fence that we were pressure washing, like the community fence, I think it was like a $2,500 uh commercial project for the HOA. We were like, hey, we'll spray the sides of your house for $150. And we ended up uh having almost too many people sign up for that. So you have to look at the logistics, look at the total number, and then look at the time you guys are spending there. If you got a truck in a spot and there's two houses back to back, and you can rent a 1,500 square foot house next to a 1,500 square foot house, softwash them both for $150 apiece, everybody feels like they get a deal. And if the logistics make sense, you're making probably $300 an hour if you're not having to move your truck. So it's it's a thing like Clay says, don't just hate on somebody without understanding the numbers, and don't be too like averse of trying to make deals happen, especially if you're young and you're new and you and you need work, because you could get into a neighborhood and that neighborhood could lead to like years and years of work and relationships, and that's just kind of an example of of what our team is currently on a project of, like HOA work, and then that plugs you into the HOA management company, and then you can kind of climb and figure out like, oh, the contact that manages that one property also manages other properties, and then that can grow and scale into bigger projects. So you never know what opportunities you have that you may overlook because you're so dead set on pricing.

Risk Checks Before You Spray

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Absolutely. The biggest one of the biggest mistakes that I see a lot of people make is they buy off more than they can chew. Um, and that's kind of the philosophy that I go by, you know, um when I'm picking these jobs and doing these things. Like uh we had an incident uh this just this past week where uh you know the job paid a lot of money, but the risk in doing that job was just not worth it. So um it was some things that we had talked about that when I, you know, I quoted this job a year ago and they just now worked it in their budget and I get out there, and um, there's some things that I needed to be careful around. And the risk of damaging those things wasn't worth the risk of what I was making on the job. So that's a good perfect example. Never butt off more than you can chew and not always don't always make it about money because uh one little mistake in trying to make that check and you going out and damaging something is uh will almost cost your business, you know, depending on um where you're at in business. Um if you go out and damage a uh just say a $1,500 whatever, if it's a sheetrock or whatever, uh just say that water leaks into somebody's house and you're you you work very careful, you don't have the experience, you don't really know where you're spraying or what to look for on these things, you got to be careful. Um, just because one little mistake can absolutely destroy your reputation for one, and then for two, you got to make it right. And if you don't have the money to make it right, then you're pretty much done. So definitely be careful when you're walking out to these jobs, look around the house, make sure no windows are open. Ask the customer, hey, does any of these windows leak? Um, French doors is one of the biggest things on these houses. If they have French doors, they always leak. I don't care who you are, who put your door in, whatever. Always be careful around the French doors, around the thresholds, around where the doors split. They have seals in them, but they they it doesn't matter. I've never seen a French door that does not leak. So that's one of the biggest things that I look around and I'm easy around. Um receptacles, they do not go good with bleach. I kind of mentioned that earlier. You will blow a receptacle out the side of a house. So you got to be careful around those. Stained wood is another thing. You see any kind of stained wood in these stained ceilings, stained columns, um, and then doors. Um, you know, uh the cost of staining a door is probably uh average ticket anywhere from six to a thousand dollars and sometimes even more, depending on the house that you're washing. So um, another thing about the doors, I've seen a lot of scenarios where a customer will use interior paint on the outside of their door and they'll paint it their self. And uh that can cause a bad reaction with the bleach. Um it's just so much more that people don't think about. They think that you can just go out and spray a house, and that's just not the case. You got to be very careful, you got to know the things that you're looking for because one, you know, one little mistake can mess you up, it can give you a bad review. Um, somebody will go and, you know, people are quick to post on social media about a bad experience, and it's really not a big deal, but they'll make it a big deal. And uh you just don't want to get any of that negative stuff out there. Um, always make sure all the windows are shut, like I kind of mentioned earlier. Um, there's been a case where I've actually sprayed in a window before because I couldn't realize if it was dirt, you know, if it was open or closed. So you just got to watch out for little things. Um, the little things can make the biggest difference because if you you mess something up, you know, customers gonna be pissed off. It doesn't matter. At the end of the day, all the liability falls on you, and you got to realize that. So it's not as simple as just pulling a hose and spraying a house. There's just many things and many variables and many things that you can mess up that you may not think. So I'm always defensive when I step onto a job site. I walk around the house with a customer and ask many questions. Is there anything that particular that you were really concerned about that you wanted to make sure we get done today? If I see the black streaks on the gutters, I make sure that the customer is aware that, hey, we don't use any brushing. Um, the streaks on the gutters, any tiger striving like that, we don't offer that. I know some companies do, but I go ahead and set expectations with the customer before we ever even pull a hose off the truck. Um, because if I cannot exceed those expectations with that customer, we're more than likely not going to do the job because they're gonna be a problem, right? So that goes into chasing the money thing. I know that you need that money, I know that you need to get that job done, but if you're already getting red flags from that customer before you begin and you cannot set expectations with that customer, it's not worth it. So that goes into one of those things. Do not bite off more than you can shoot with that customer. Um, and that took me a while to realize um with customers is you know, you you gotta you gotta go ahead and do that walk around. If you feel like you can't make this customer happy, you're probably not the right fit. And I'd rather a customer be pissed off at me because I cannot, because I walked off a job. I don't want to say walked off a job, but mutually parted ways with a customer, then for me to go ahead and wash that whole house, spend all that time and money because time is money, right? What's your time worth? I'd rather go ahead and mutually part ways with that customer if I can't make them happy versus wasting my time and money on their job when I could have been washing somebody else's house and making them happy.

SOPs Contracts And Insurance Reality

SPEAKER_00 18:20

That's great insight too. And it's one of those things like Clay and I both love growing, and uh you you never want to like, oh, the the notion of like the customer's always right is always kind of planted in the back of people's heads. It's almost like an entrepreneur's spirit is like, I want to do good, but I also almost want to people please. And that's almost something you have to break as you grow in business because once you get to the point where you're scaling, you've got multiple trucks on the road, you have to like create operations and standard operations and procedures. And I know you guys have heard about that, like write stuff down. You can't keep everything in your head, but you also got to change how you approach the situation with a customer. If you are over here trying to be like, Yeah, sure, Mr. Customer, we'll take care of that. You know what I'm saying? When you guys show up at a house, it's the house wash, and then they say, Hey, can you do that too? Can you throw in that? Can you throw in that? The problem is like when everything's verbal, you're kind of putting the control in the customer's court, and that can lead to issues down the road because like expectations aren't set. You're letting the customer dictate what's gonna happen. And like we've really had to pivot recently um to Clay's point, like of having issues. Like we had a insurance claim uh recently, the first time in like seven years of our operation, where we were cleaning and inside of a warehouse, like a big industrial warehouse, like good money, like $20,000 plus ticket. So, of course, you don't want to say no, but it required like spraying around certain things, even though there was like an electrician there, we were told it was safe. But yeah, a little bit of overspray, fried like a fire panel, had to have a complete system replacement. If I didn't have insurance, that would have been like 20 grand out of pocket. So that kind of shifted my mindset. When whenever you're dealing with people who are like, Oh yeah, man, like you're cool, we do this all the time. Hey, look, uh, I understand uh like we no longer do this or we don't do this because a professional company, like a corporate company, you look at the biggest companies in the world, everything is gonna be in writing, or it's not gonna happen. So, like we want to make sure that expectations are clear as day, they're written. We're not dealing with Karen situations. I had a repeat customer the other day that was just going to town on us over nothing. And it's like, look, you got oil stands in your driveway, that's not that's not part of your service. You got red clay cue all over your hardy board, that's not part of the service. You got tiger stripes on your gutters, that's not part of the service. Sometimes we can't restore your um front patio that's been baked in uh red clay all day long because of the poorest nature of that. Like, we're not we're not doing all of this stuff. So, like, as we've scaled and grown, the power of saying no is more important to us in our success than saying yes and trying to get the job. Like Clay says, everybody wants to chase the money, but you gotta think about your sanity, you gotta think about the protection of your business, whether that's your business reviews or the liability. Like you don't want to just say, Oh yeah, sure, we can do that. It's like if you guys are doing a lot of work, people will be like, hey, can you climb up on a ladder and uh and and change that light bulb up there? I can't reach it. I know you guys are on ladders. No, we don't do that. If you happen to be on a ladder, changing a light bulb, you fall, there's an insurance claim, your insurance company is gonna say, That's not what you're insured for, that's not covered. Okay. So like don't open yourself up to not only slowing your business down, but but putting yourself into situations where you're gonna get issues. And if you allow a customer to kind of push you into a situation and you're not following your company policy, you're looking unprofessional and you're losing that customer. That's something back in the car sales day. I like they they stressed into us of like, hey, get control of the customer. Like, don't let the customer dictate the terms, don't let the customer push you. Like you have to kind of maintain that control of the customer, and you need to carry that same thing with business. Otherwise, once you get skipped. Once you get a lot of work, you're trying to hit that $10,000 a month, you're trying to do this part-time. Like if you allow the situation to dictate what happens, you're never going to be successful. But if you break it down and you have a plan, you're not only are going to be uh it's going to be a lot more calm, peaceful situation, but you're going to be able to control that and truly grow your business.

Confidence Scripts That Build Trust

SPEAKER_01 22:20

Yep. And another thing is uh confidence goes a long way with a customer. If you don't have any confidence and you're out there and you're uh sociably awkward, um, always have a routine on how you want to, you know, greet a customer. You don't want to be the guy that's shy, that doesn't know how to talk to people. And one of the things that I used to tell my guys in the car business is the last thing you, you know, like I just said, the last thing you want to do is be socially awkward. You want to, you want to make that customer feel like they've known you forever, right? So if you need help with that, maybe as stupid as it sounds, talk to yourself in the mirror. You know, figure out how um a customer is seeing you. Look at yourself, talk, talk into the mirror. Hey, Mr. Customer, my name's Clay with C3WatchPros. Appreciate you having us out today. It looks like we have this, this, and this um in your quote here. Um, does that sound right? You know, very professional, very easy, very simple. Don't really have to think about it, it's second nature to me. And that's how I train my guys, right? So um, if you go out and you're like, hey, whatever, and I'm here to wash your house type thing, and you don't carry on a conversation with that customer, um, and you act like you don't know what you're talking about, they're not going to be very confident in uh who they've hired. So um little things that make a difference, uh, just go, you know, come up with a routine. First thing I do is knock on the door, take a few steps back. I don't crowd the door, I'll wait for the customer to come in the door. Hey, good to see you this morning, right? So just simple little things. There's different ways you can go about it, but the little things matter, especially to a customer, um, because sometimes a lot of people are already socially awkward as it is, and you want to make them feel comfortable. Um, and making them feel comfortable is you know makes them feel confident in who they are. Um, and then, you know, if they don't feel confident in you, I feel like they are gonna be harder to deal with, right? Um, they're gonna look at the house a little harder after your clay, they're gonna nitpick everything, um, and they're just gonna question on the quality of work that you did. Um, so if you're confident, um you make them feel comfortable, you've you make them a friend. I can't tell you how many um clients that I have that it just feels like I'm known forever every time I go back. And um they are um whenever I have another one of my guys go out and do a job that I've done for years, they're kind of red flaggish, but I've taught the guys that work with me so well on the routine of making them feel comfortable. And then they're usually happier uh with the with the with the guys that work with me more than they were with me. I literally had this week a customer text me and say, hey, I wasn't very satisfied with your work two years ago, but your new guy or whatever did a great job and he's redeemed your company. Like, what the crap? There's no good feeling as a business owner than having a customer tell them that, hey, wasn't satisfied with your work last time, but your guy that you know works for you did a better job, right? So it kind of sucks, you know. I wish the customer, that's a that's another thing. The customer, nine times out of ten, they don't like confrontation. So they're not going to say, hey, I'm not really happy, blah, blah, blah. Uh, they would rather just go post to the internet and tell everybody else how shitty of a job you did. They are not gonna go and tell you, hey, can you come fix this? And that's another thing that I always tell a customer before I leave. If there are any issues, please let me know. Feel free to call me. I know that it's hard to look at everything when we do our walk around when everything's done, but if there are any issues, please call me and we'll come out and fix it. And uh that goes a long way, but sometimes, you know, it's uh it's just the the society we live in. They're scared to say anything, they'd rather just post it all over the internet.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

Exactly right. And and and to Clay's point, like you almost have to create, like we were talking about, like a standard operating procedure. I like he said something that I I would do too when I go out to greet a customer is like give customers space. Like when you're ringing the doorbell, you don't know who's gonna answer. It could be the wife, it could be the husband, it could be grandma that lives there. Like you may not have dealt with that person. So to them, you're a stranger at the door. And if you have like a big presence to you, uh you're you're intimidating looking, that could carry the first impression a certain way with people. And so, like what we always do is like say you're on a porch, we'll ring the doorbell, we'll almost like get on the bottom layer. Like, we'll we'll like be on the the walkway area. We're like, hey, Mr. Customer, I just I'm starting to give give you space. I know after COVID everybody's crazy, and then from there we can come in and be be like friendly, and and I would also say that's probably psychologically, like you make contact and then you come in, it's like okay, you're like acknowledging them that you're coming into them, like you're you're changing the dynamic, you're not like ringing the doorbell and being like this close, and then the customer answers the door and it's like, what do you want? Like we clay and I are kind of anti-that door-to-door salesman guy because you always see it on Facebook where there's like the aggressive, like hyped up on caffeine or nicotine kid who's just like ring, ring, ring, ring, ring. I'm not gonna leave, I'm in your face. And then the only option for me to leave to remove that pressure and that tension is for you to like buy something for me. And that's that high pressure crap that we don't like dealing with. So like like you almost want to create the experience is like, wow, that person was great. That person was like respectful, that person really like is here to help and serve me. They're not here to like hustle me. And like little things like that overcommunicate and set the expectations is huge. Like there's so many times where people are like trying to be a dickhead or trying to be an asshole, or they just think like, oh, a contractor's out here to get me, he's gonna make 300 bucks on cleaning my house, I can clean my house myself, that's a lot of money, or 500 bucks, whatever, whatever the price is. And they're gonna nitpick you because they feel like they need to get their money. So, like it's all about how you position the situation from the start. But like what we will do with some of these types of people is if you if you have a feeling that they're gonna be like looking behind you, they're gonna be watching you when you work, just maybe like leave stuff that isn't clean yet. So when they go around you they point stuff out to you, you make sure to go back and double clean stuff. Like like like we do this with Indians. You almost have to bake in extra service knowing that it's gonna happen. So if like ring the say the job normally takes uh an hour, ring the doorbell at 45 minutes so you're not spending that extra 15 minutes with them walking around nitpicking everything. They're gonna do it anyways. They want to feel like, oh, I pointed it out, he went above and beyond it, and he tried to clean it and he cleaned it. Like we want to like like we are selling a service here. The product of pressure washing is this service. So if you don't understand that, it has nothing to do with the price, the price gets you in the door. The service dictates whether or not they're gonna use you again, whether or not you're gonna get a review, whether or not you're gonna get a tip, like whether or not your company is gonna be successful or not. So like once you get in with the pro the price, you're gonna be able to uh dictate like the outcome based on that service. So like don't be so preoccupied with like oh what my equipment is, or or like how's my marketing strategy? Because you could fly your neighborhood and say, here's a low price, the price gets you in the door. What happens once you show up? That's gonna dictate whether or not your company's successful. And that's why, like, with us, like we have super friendly techs. I got Ryan and I got my college kids, they all have cleaned years and years for me. Like, um people just want confidence and comfortability, like they want to be comfortable. And you could say, Hey, I know that like me spraying this gutter is not gonna clean this, but I'm gonna do so anyways, and just kind of bake that into your approach. It's like at the end of the day, we gotta protect our time, we gotta protect our reputation, and we gotta protect our company. So, like, don't go over and and and say, Yes, Mr. Customer, I'm gonna climb up on your roof and remove something, or like, yeah, I'm I'm I promise you I can I can clean everything, it's gonna be perfect. My biggest bet beav is when people oversell because like we've been in this game long enough, you guys probably been in this long enough where you know what you can c you know what you can clean and you know the expectation that's gonna happen. So, like a newbie is always like, oh, it's gonna be perfect, like we'll make it so perfect. You're setting the wrong example. Uh you're you're kind of putting putting an impossible um a thing in the customer's mind, so you're just setting yourself up for failure. So, like a big thing that Clay and I do is how can we almost like not oversell ourselves, but like set an expectation and exceed that expectation? Because at the end of the day, that's all that matters. Like, if the customer thinks like you're gonna repaint their house and it's gonna be beautiful and all their like paint oxidation and streaks are gonna go away, and they see that the house got brighter because we removed some light dust and some green hair there, they're gonna be mad. Even though you did everything to your like job description. So, like the biggest thing like we're going through and I'm learning is like lockdown, expectations almost underpromise and overdeliver and then just over-communicate because people in today's world are crazy. And that prevents burnout, that prevents like having to chase issues because like we want to be moving forward and making money, we don't want to be moving forward and then having to schedule a bee back at one job to try to fix something or or wondering why somebody's not paying us. Like, we want to have everything streamlined so we can hit that ten thousand dollar a month and we can focus on growing the business the

When To Fire Customers

SPEAKER_00 31:43

right way. Because once you get to a level of clay and I's at, like, you got to figure out how to minimize mistakes, you got to figure out how to like make everything flow efficiently because it's more important to us to get through our jobs than it is to try to like stress about booking a job because we know the jobs are going to be booked.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

Absolutely. Like when you're on our stage of business and our level of business, because we've been doing this for a while, it's not worth it for us to be caught up on a three or four hundred hour job when we could be, you know, if we spend four hours on a $300 job, we could have done knocking out two or three of them in the time that we've been dealing with a difficult customer. So that's why kind of why it's important um when you get to our stage. Uh, when you're not as busy, you're just trying to get going, it's really not that big of a deal. Um, but you got to keep in mind, if you're spending that that long with a customer, um, two or three years down the road, they're gonna they're gonna have those expectations down the road when you go back, right? Um and that's where we run into with us being in business, we end up firing our clients because we just don't have time to do it anymore. Like you want to make a customer happy um and you want to exceed those expectations the best you can, but some customers just aren't for you, you know. Like I said earlier, uh just don't buy off more than you can chew. Um, that's the biggest thing. A lot of people will just chase the money. It's not always about the money. You know, me and Matt, we can soak up 10 or 15 grand and sometimes more, depending on our tickets, in a week, right? Um, and you know, we were happy about 10 or 15 grand a month just five years ago. So uh we want to do everything we can to help you get to that point. Um, I know I've had a lot of you guys reach out, ask some questions um that are you know pretty easy to answer. Um and that's just you know, being new into the game, we've we have washed a lot of houses. We have been through a lot of scenarios, me and Matt both. We've had the insurance claims, we've had to go through those. Uh, we've made our mistakes, and we're just here to help you.

Resources Community And Closing

SPEAKER_01 33:41

Um, so I think this has been a pretty good episode, a lot to learn off of, especially. I think we've given you guys a lot of golden nuggets. Um, and you know, this is not anything we're making any money off of as far as the podcast goes. We're just helping the pressure washing community. Um, tell all your buddies in the pressure washing community about us. Make sure you give us a follow or follow on Apple Podcasts, uh Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcast on, um, whether you know you watch us live on Facebook, YouTube, wherever, um, help us uh grow this community so we can help more people. Um, you can follow me on my personal Facebook page, Clay Smith. You can follow Matt at uh Matthew Jackson on his personal page. Um, my business is C3 Wash Pros. Follower, follow me on everything. Um, and I also have a TikTok, the pressure wash guru. If you want to follow me on there, I have some pretty cool content. Um, Matt Jackson, um, uh, you follow his personal page on Facebook and uh Matthew, uh Matthew, Matt the Driveway guy. Um, that's his business. So check us out on Google. You can see how relevant we are in this space. Um, we have some pretty good businesses that um we're still growing, we're still learning, just like you guys every day. So go spawn. We appreciate you listening to all this podcast, and I'll let Matt close us up.

SPEAKER_00 34:58

Yep. As always, like thanks for listening. If you guys probably see, we've been starting to try to create some engagement. I've been running some like uh Facebook ads. So, like our Wash Brothers group now is like almost 5,000 members. So share that. Uh, we're really working on adding value, seeing how we can connect with more of you guys, and uh, we're gonna be working on like a school community. I got a lot of cool things I'm working on internally in my business with like implementing go high level, trying to get my front-end like marketing stuff, like tracking inbound leads, leveraging some AI agents, some a lot of cool stuff that I think is the future and it's really important. And like I know this episode we're talking about like how to get your first 10k, but like steps that are requiring to like how do you break through that like $50,000, $60,000 a month threshold, and how do you like really try to make a dent in your industry? So, like a lot of cool stuff we're gonna be sharing on our pages. And again, if you guys uh want to check out um say the washbrospodcast.com, you can get our resources, got books on Amazon, uh no pressure pressure washing, and then we have the washburst blueprint. So, depending on what stage you are in business, you can get both of those books in print, digital, or on audiobook. But like Clay said, go to our Facebook group, join there, connect with us, lots of great resources, and we are both really hoping to grow a lot this year. Clay's already breaking records, and I'm positioning myself to be to be in a really good place too. So, like if you're brand new, you're catching this one, you're seeing us live on one of the Facebook groups, go back to the first episode. We've probably got like 80 episodes. Like we were in the shoes you're currently in. So, whatever stage of business you're in, whether you need motivation, some advice, or just want to listen to something for an hour or so, check out the Washbros podcast, and you'll not be disappointed. So that's everything I got. Uh we'll catch you guys on the next one.