Hey Folks:

This month, I wanted to talk to you about the benefits of keeping your focus in your window cleaning business.

So what do you say we get right to it? Here we go...

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The benefits of keeping your Focus
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Without beating around the bush, I see a lot of window washers trying to either:

1. work other businesses in addition to window washing hoping something clicks.

and/or

2. offer many, multiple services in addition to window washing.

Let's talk about number 1 first.

1. Working other businesses in addition to window washing hoping something clicks.

This is probably the hardest thing for me to do...keeping focus on one business/one opportunity. Can you relate to that? I think that's a problem with many people.

I mean there are soooooo many business opportunities out there, and they all sound great when reading about them. They really do. So what do we do when we're surrounded by all these supposedly "great" opportunities?

Well...I used to buy into or join lots of them. But I'll tell you the first thing I did when entering the window washing business. I looked back over the years and analyzed the successes and failures I've had. I knew that window washing was the last stop for me, so failure wasn't an option. The wheels had to stop spinning.

After my little "realty check", it finally hit me like a ton of bricks...

It simply all boiled down to having too many irons in the fire all the time. It's tough to spread yourself out among 2 or more businesses. Not only in terms of time, but in terms of deciding which ones to invest in.

Something has to give, so the end result was nothing really took off. In one time period, I was selling asset protection to high income prospects, servicing a bunch of payphones I bought, and talking to day care centers about buying some personalized books for the little kiddies.

Needless to say, bah humbug on that. And the bank account showed it.

But being a "business start up junkie" required some discipline as my window washing business grew. Whenever a business looked appealing or an opportunity arose, my blinders had to come on. Contrary to popular belief, the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.

After my initial success of capturing window washing customers, I quickly realized that the profit potential in the window washing biz can be absolutely enormous. Why veer off course and dilute that profit by spending time building or doing another business?

One of the reasons I think I was so intent on forming another business is because of the philosophy of "don't put all your eggs into one basket".

This was drilled into me from a very young age. But here's the thing-windows are NOT going anywhere. We'll have glass forever, and more of it is appearing every day. It's a business that will never dry up and blow away unless people start living in caves. :o)

So I encourage you, regardless whether you're in the window washing biz part-time or full-time, give it 100% part-time or 100% full-time effort. The rewards can be tremendous as I am seeing all across the country from hundreds of my students.

2. Offering many, multiple services in addition to window washing.

This is a killer way to make lots of additional profits on top of window washing profits, but my experience has shown that if you do this BEFORE you've established a certain level of trust with the customer, it'll be much harder for you to accomplish this smorgasboard approach.

At the completion of a window cleaning job is a perfect time to go after the add on business like cleaning ceiling fans and mirrors like I discuss in my manual How to Start Your Own Residential Window Washing Business. But before you even secure them as a customer, it's way too early to bombard them with lots of other stuff.

Just plant a seed. Be subtle about it. The best way I've found to handle it is to use a "leave behind card" after the job is done, and then cement it further throughout the upcoming months, and throughout your entire relationship with that customer by sending out periodic correspondence.

Your little leave behind card could be similar to a tent card that you see in hotels. Inside the card is a listing of your additional services. Or have a flyer made up that details all your additional services and leave that with the customer.

And as far as "future correspondence", below is a letter you're more than welcome to use in case you want to capture additional business besides your window washing jobs:

Dear John and Nancy:

Thank you so much for the opportunity to regularly
maintain the cleanliness of your glass.

As you may be aware, in addition to cleaning and
maintaining the windows of our ever-growing cust-
omer base, we have recently expanded our services
to include:

--pressure washing
--blind cleaning
--gutter cleaning
--driveway sealing
--awning cleaning

And if you are in need of assistance with anything
else, please let us know. Although window washing
is, and will continue to be, our main focus, our
customers are continually asking us if we do any
additional services, so if we have the knowledge
and tools to get your desired job done for you,
we'll be glad to take care of it. If not, we'll
point you in the direction of a reputable person
or company who can.

Thank you once again for the opportunity to be of
service to you and we'll see you soon for your next
window cleaning.

Sincerely,

Steve Wright
Clearview Window Washing Service

There's a goldmine sitting with each customer if you stroke 'em over the years using the above approach vs. using the one time "hit 'em over the head" approach.

The above letter also serves the dual purpose of keeping your company name in front of your customers, so even if a customer didn't need any additional work done, you'll still benefit from the exposure.

Now I talk about customers above, but what about prospects?

Well...when dealing with prospects, the trust factor definitely hasn't been established yet, so it makes it an absolute necessity to focus on capturing the window washing job and forgetting about the myriad of other services you perform.

I mean if you're marketing for window washing prospects, and they respond to your window washing advertisement, it only makes sense to hone in on window washing, right?

Yet I see a few folks try the "jack of all trades" approach where if the prospect doesn't make a decision to get their windows cleaned after the estimate has been presented, the window washer will immediately turn their attention to service #2, service #3, etc.

I know the theory is that if you offer 10 different services, they have to pick one, right?

Not necessarily.

Too much stuff presented can cause confusion and indecision. People really don't like to make decisions, so too many choices forces them into making a complicated decision. Therefore they don't make ANY decision.

If you try and push too much down their throat, they may resist, and then you walk away with zilch, nada, zippo. A lot of income could be lost over the years as a result.

I'm sure you've heard about the saying that goes like this: "Jack of all trades, master of none". That fit me like a glove for years UNTIL stepping into the window washing biz.

As I mentioned earlier, that's when I looked back over the years and wised up, and then instead of "master of none", it was more like "master of one". The results were extraordinary.

So try it if you don't already. Present your window washing estimate, attempt to close the deal, or through your proper follow up strategy get the deal closed for window washing. Turn them from a window washing prospect into a window washing customer.

THEN step back and watch your relationship with that new customer turn into all kinds of additional services and jobs, in addition to you raking in the profits by regularly cleaning their windows.

In conclusion, resist the distractions and resist the urge to branch out into other "things". Focus, focus, focus! If you're in the window cleaning business, then BE in the window cleaning business.

'til next time.

Best Wishes,

Steve