How does everyone deal with competition? Im in Medford Oregon and I want to start a window washing business eventually adding in gutter cleaning and pressure washing but in my area there are 13 other services that are preforming the same treatment and I don’t know how to stand out from the rest. I am currently a cement mixer truck driver so it’s a huge leap in a different direction. Do I quit my day job and put all my time in this? I have a 10,000 dollar start up and want to know what everyone’s thoughts and experiences are so I don’t fail or do something stupid.

Today, a first step into field marketing! I started rolling out "Gage of Quality!" stickers to my regular commercial customers. This badge, inspired by Fallout, certifies that the owner of the establishment cares about its cleanliness. It also allows me to obtain visibility from the customers who frequent the premises. Did someone here ever tried this kind of advertising?

Welcome to the BluLadder Pro Network — built for Next Level Clean pros like you. You’re part of the first wave to join this group. I’ll be dropping tools, templates, and strategies each week to help you run a real business, not just chase gigs. ✅ This group will eventually be paid, but as a founding member, you’re in for free — and unlimited access to the community for good. Here’s what to do next: - Drop a quick intro in the thread below, let us know how long you’ve been in business and where you’re located (City/State) - Try out the free tools (more coming soon!) → bluladder.com/pro/apps - Let me know what tools or resources you’d like next in the “Feature Wishlist” post Once we’ve got 15–20 active people in here, the founding tier closes and we go paid. Let’s make this a group worth being in.

One thing I’m learning is that your door hanger close rate isn’t just about how good you are at sales or even just your pricing. It’s also about who you’re marketing to. I recently moved to a new city and started my window cleaning business in an area I didn’t know well. So I began door hanging in neighborhoods that looked like solid upper-middle-class areas. I got an average call rate from the door hangers. But once I showed up to quote in person, I ran into a problem. It seemed many homeowners simply couldn’t afford the service. Some even told me they were just curious about what window cleaning costs these days. In one case, a realtor referral turned into a complete waste of time as they were more interested in pitching me their services than hiring mine. Window cleaning is a luxury service. And if you’re pricing your services like a premium offering, you need to be in neighborhoods that can actually support that. I’m also learning that just because someone will pay for gutter cleaning doesn’t mean they’ll pay for window cleaning. Even though both are home services, window cleaning is often seen as more of a “nice-to-have” than a necessity like gutter cleaning. Right now, most of my window cleaning bids fall in the $450–$695 range. At that price point, according to AI, I need to be targeting households earning $150K+ per year. I wasn’t doing that at first and I think I wasted some of my time in neighborhoods that mostly wouldn't pay for window cleaning. One tool that’s helped me a lot is the USPS EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) website. It lets you see income and age demographics for specific neighborhoods within a ZIP code, which makes targeting much more strategic. If you’re doing door hanger marketing, I highly recommend checking it out: https://eddm.usps.com/eddm/select-routes.htm Bottom line: If your close rate is low, it might not only be your pitch or your price, it might also be who you are targeting.

Do any of you guys use automatic mileage tracking apps? I'm testing out the free version of MileIQ. It's easy to use and convenient but it only tracks 40 drives per month for free. It seems to be very convenient but don't know if it's worth the $90 per year. How do you track mileage?