Depending on when you start, those who experience their first slow season truly feel the pain of a lack of work. I felt this every time it rained and clients halted projects. Last year, I had Mid Valley Disposal as my biggest client, and I was excited about the consistent work and payment, as it was supposed to be a rain-or-shine client. Unfortunately, I lost the contract right before the rainy season in California. In places where rain or snow with road salt is common, this time of year might be lucrative depending on the client. It’s crucial to save as much money as possible during the busy season so that you’re not stressed when the work slows down. Maintaining a good relationship with rain-or-shine clients is vital. Here are the lessons I learned from that experience: 1. Keep your client happy. 2. If there’s a quality issue, offer a refund or show more concern than the client to demonstrate you care. 3. Send before-and-after photos to clients for every job to prove you’re working and to avoid uncomfortable conversations about charges. 4. Balance large and small clients. If a large client drops you, it could mean losing 70% of your portfolio. A smaller client might only account for 10%. Aim for a healthy mix of 50% small clients and 50% large clients. 5. Don’t get comfortable. As soon as you do, you risk getting rusty with your sales skills. Always practice and maintain your sales abilities, as they are essential for securing work.

Just got off a 1 hour coaching call helping out a fellow fleet wash business owner. He’s having difficulty getting clients to agree to his pricing and whenever he’s about to close they ghost him. I’ve been there, we’ve all been there. It’s tough facing rejection and getting ghosted. His problem was closing the deal at the end of the interaction. Buddy had 10 demo’s and he has a complied list of 500 potential clients. He calculated all the business he’s lost from not closing and it’s coming out to 10k a month. Sometimes we have to just put our foot in the door and begin to build that relationship before raising pricing. And that can be a simple conversation as “hey it took more work then expected and I have to increase the price per unit from 15 to 18 a truck or 30 to 35 or 40 to 50 depending on the client and the type of work. Some time the least paying most consistent clients help keep you busy on these long stretches. He gave me an example of a potential client. He told me his strat and right off the bat I explained how to cut time down without sacrificing quality. In this business the faster you do the work the more profitable you’ll be. We came up with an action plan and were just waiting for the results tomorrow. Stay tuned. Also thank God trump is alive lol

Just wanted to thank the first three members here for helping me grow my tiny community. You guys make me feel pretty happy with this big win for me. I know it’s a small incremental step forward but it really gives me motivation to keep going. I ended up making my very first YouTube video. I know it’s not the best but it’s the first step of many. This one is for you guys. https://youtu.be/oGC3TASLydU?si=I5UUxV1_7Xd47ItG

Sometimes the hardest place to start is the very first step. What do I get? What brands are good? How much should I invest? These were all the questions I had in my mind 3 years ago while I dead broke with a restraining order from my wife, sleeping in my sisters guest room. When I first started I just got my car paid off and I had some money saved up from some stock investments I had in my Webull account. First thing was first, I needed a truck. I scoured the internet for something reliable. I looked at YouTube on reliable trucks and figured out what to buy. I was able to convince someone to trade a 2001 dodge ram 2500 for a 2013 dodge dart and 5000. You don’t have to do this you could schedule all your cleanings on one day and rent a truck for 30$ a day from U-Haul and make it happen. I didn’t know this until later when I was doing trash hauls with a friend of mine. Anyways I bought what I could and got a home model 3000 psi at 2.5 gpm and started to do some details after getting my first check from my new truck wash job. I got like 300$ worth of equipment off a Home Depot credit card and started detailing. Eventually I built a trailer and things slowly started taking off from there. TBH you could rent a pressure washer for 4 hours for 50$ from Home Depot that has the specs you need to get started.

One of the fundamental of business is sales. You can have all the gear in the world but if you can’t sell you’ll stay broke. In these discussions with your potential clients you’re negotiating deals with low cac and high ltv. One of my biggest client was a garbage disposal company, cleaning a fleet of 70 trucks in 4 different locations. Averaging $1725 per week with a low churn bringing LTV in the 100k+ range. Naturally big contracts like this have their downsides. You’ll encounter the Costco problem, the bigger the client the cheaper they’ll want per unit. Calculating your bottom line is important to make sure you’re staying profitable. If you want more info on how to acquire customers, please feel free to ask me questions.