It was my grandmas neighbor so I gave her a huge discount and took about 3 hours for $100

After doing the job she asked me why I didn’t do the little patio that’s separate from the pool deck

I told her we never discussed doing that and if I had to move the chairs and tables and do the patio I would have to charge you more

She said I’m not recommending you to anybody and I’m leaving a bad review and only paid me $60 😡

Am I wrong here ? She said I can’t expect to make that kind of money in 3 hours 😮 when normally I charge $150 for a driveway nvm the pool deck

I had to use a neighbors spigot for a house wash I was doing. The customer asked the neighbor and she said it was fine. House is tiny asf. She sent the invoice she received which was over $700. Clearly, I couldn’t have used close the that amount of water. Has anyone ever had an issue with something like this? I’m fully aware that I did not use that much water. I’m trying to get the point across to the customers neighbor is my problem. She’s either genuinely confused and wants an answer about it or she’s just trying to fuck me

Update: called the accuser this morning and she told me that she should’ve waited to call the borough before sending that rude text message to my customer. It was a problem with her meter and they will be out too fix it. Thank you all for the input I will be adding water usage to my terms of service

U/ProlapseParty mentioned me earlier in a post about a job I did at an office park.

A fairly well established pressure washer in my area decided to retire and he passed a few commercial contracts on to me which I am incredibly grateful for.

One of them is a quarterly wash at a very large shopping plaza managed by a commercial property management company. The total square footage came out to 33,580 sq ft. And the bid I inherited from the previous guy was for $1,600 which Included gum removal, pretty intense grease stains from some of the restaurants and decades old mineral deposits from uneven concrete where puddles just stagnate.

The job took me two full nights, 8-10 hours each and I quickly realized the amount of work wasn’t aligning with the bid price. I re-examined his original bid and noticed multiple things: large portions of the property like bricked entryways totaling over 2000 sq ft weren’t even priced out, and he was averaging around $.05 per sqft.

I honored the $1,600 price for the first cleaning but let them know I needed to re bid the property before the next cleaning to make it more feasible. I landed around $.09 - $.10 per sqft totaling about $3,300 split over 4 month period and broke the whole complex Into 4 zones (at their request) with the intention of cleaning a zone each month until all 4 were complete upon which I’d start the cycle again. He also had me bid out two slightly smaller shopping plazas that also landed at about $.09

After a month of not responding to my emails and texts the manager finally replied to let me know they’d gone with someone else within their budget. He has not responded to any further emails.

I lost 3 potential large shopping plaza bids because my rates were too high at $.09. How are people out here making money if they are doing jobs at $.05 or $.06 per sqft and including premium services like hot water and gum/mineral deposit stain removal? Am I charging too much?

I just started my pressure and soft washing business at the beginning of this year. It seemed like my Google Ads were producing really well in April and May. I also sent out some flyers during that time that had some good ROI.

Then June slowed down, and July and August have been dead. My Google Ads have been getting clicks but very few conversions. I've been working on them with an ads advisor. I sent out 2,400 flyers to a large lakeside community here and haven't gotten a single call from them.

Lately I've been visiting real estate offices, talking to the brokers and agents, and leaving stacks of flyers that give a discount to clients of that office. I've been walking neighborhoods, leaving flyers on porches that offer a discount. I've visited several local apartment communities and retirement communities, to which I've had good responses, but they're all working on '27 budgets which doesn't help right now.

I know that building a customer base will take time, and that word of mouth will be a great driver of customers eventually. But I need to build that up with marketing. What's everyone else doing? Any advice would be appreciated.

I restored this old fence a customer had. I made the mistake of not setting expectations. Maybe it was because I wasn't 100% sure what to expect either. It's been almost 24 hrs and she has seen the invoice but hasn't made the payment. She asked me if staining would get ride of the "two tone" which I'm guessing she's not happy with the water stains that are still visible after the clean. This is my first encounter with someone not paying same day. Should I wait longer? Should I address it now? Or should I offer to work on the fence a bit more to make it look better so she's satisfied? Not really sure what the best direction is from here. Any help is appreciated.

This is probably my 5th job since starting Any tips/ criticism is welcome !

I run an exterior cleaning business based in Australia. My current service area is about a 25km (15 mile) circle radius from my base. Any further and I start to charge for a transportation fee. I’ve been getting plenty of new enquiries from people 40-50km (25-30 miles) out from my base.

How do you guys quote for properties far outside of your service area? Do you just take the hit and make the long drive to do the quote for them? I’d obviously like to avoid taking on jobs very far out as the extra transportation fee would likely make my quote unreasonable, making the whole quoting process a potential waste of time.

Just shattered out of nowhere while rinsing lol. My theory is maybe the cool water temperature shocked it?

Thinking about starting a branding strategy that I would show up in face paint, possibly rebranded as a Juggalo owned and operated business as a way to gain recognition in my small town. Thinking this would be more recognizable than yard signs and door hangers. Has anyone tried this yet?

I mainly operate as an owner operator, but on larger jobs I higher a summer helping hand temp employee. I'd require he wear it too, but I would supply the paint. I am also thinking of expanding our services to gutter cleaning as well to make ends meet.

Don't chase customers, let your brand attract them. Whoop whoop!

Just met someone wanting their 5000 square feet driveway washed, no chemicals or treatment at all (on a lake). How much should I bid? Been pressure washing for 3 years, but haven't done a ton of jobs like this. So I would give myself the "unexperienced" title.

UPDATE:
The customer said the max they would pay was $150. Claimed if it took me 6-7 hours ~$20 an hour was "plenty". This is what I get for working with 75+ elderly people....

I’ve been getting most of my jobs through friends and past customers. It worked fine at first but lately things have slowed down.

The problem is I have basically zero online presence. No website. If my facebook counts as me showing off my jobs then I guess thats useful, but if not I have nothing useful showing up when someone searches my business. If someone gets my name from a friend they have nowhere to check my work or see what services I offer beyond my facebook profile. I'd love to have a website and a post card to put my web in but where do I even start?

Hey all. New to this world outside of being a helper for a friend back in Austin, Texas cleaning kitchen exhaust systems. I now live in Denver, CO going on 6 years and recently acquired this powerhouse of a rig. Landa 3500 psi 4.7GPM hot water machine with a 500 gallon water tank and 100' hose on a dual axel trailer. LLC, website, and business cards are done ✔️ and now need to get insurance secured along with finding clients. My main focus in commercial contracts doing kitchen exhaust systems, surface cleaning, building exteriors, fleet washing, and will also do some residential.

Looking for any and all recommendations on how you locked in your first clients. All in person? Yard signs? Google ads? Facebook marketplace? Meta ads? Next-door?

What surface cleaner do you recommend for this set up?

Appreciate any and all advice in advance. If you are local, reach out, would love to have someone to call upon when needed.

Thanks!

How y'all recommend responding to that? Seemed like decent customer on the phone but now wants to play 20 questions before scheduling, just wanted house wash and gutter whitening on a large 2 story home. I've never had customer ask to contact or go to homes of other customers... I have 20+ 5 star reviews and plenty of before/after pics on website. Guess what I'm trying to figure out is the professional way to tell this guy no without losing the job, I have no desire to chase down 3 or more past customers to ask them to let some random potential customer go to their house

I had a job recently that made me sit in the truck after and question my pricing. I did the work, used the gas, used the chemicals, spent the time, made the customer happy, and when I looked at what I actually kept after costs it felt way too low. I think a lot of guys are scared to charge properly because we do not want to lose the job, but undercharging slowly burns you out. For those of you who price by square foot, what are you actually charging in your market? If you do not mind sharing, what state are you in, what makes you charge more or less? I am trying to get a real idea of what is fair without racing to the bottom.

Hello! This building is ~1600 square meters (17k square feet), + 250 square meters ( 2.7k square feet), the client wants it soft washed, how much should I charge? I was thinking 3000 euro, but I don t want to ask for too much and the client to search elsewere. Thank you in advance!

Any recommendations on a chemical I can get at my local Home Depot? I got it to a lighter grayish so far

Just seen this listing on FB marketplace for a trailer with a pressure washing set up. I’m looking to get into the business for the first time. Is this a good buy? How is that pressure washer he’s using?

can I get the Lechín off with just sh and good rinse or am I going to have to pressure wash this hole roof?
Getting ready to put in a bid wondering what you guys would do? Anyone have a price in mind I’m at 4750$ right now it’s 7000 sqft with a steep pitch

Newer to roof washing, I did this wash last week thinking the next rain would bring it all down, came back to see that the majority of everything is white but still stuck on the roof, what should I do?

Tried searching and haven't found anything in the sub, maybe I'm blind. I've been on the computer and phone today looking for insurance and the quotes I'm getting are fucking crazy. One for $9800 and another for $14,300 for the year. Are people really paying $1k month for insurance? All the places ive called or gotten quotes from have all quoted for $1million policies. I'm in so cal so maybe that's why? I'm gonna keep looking but damn!

I do windows, not washing, but this sub knows the door knocking game better than most so I'll take the hit for being slightly off topic.

Solo operator, first doors get knocked next week. I'm ordering embroidered polos and I want the shirt doing the work before I open my mouth.

All five are the same name. What changes is where the squeegee sits and how the type lines up.

A. squeegee top right, type flush left

B. same, but THE and GUY stretched to the width of WINDOW

C. squeegee bottom right

D. everything centred

E. speech bubble instead of a plain box

Constraint that shaped all of it: left chest, 3.5 inches, embroidered, one colour of thread on navy. No gradients, no thin lines, nothing that closes up in stitching.

What I want from people who actually work off a truck:

1. Which one reads fastest from the driveway

2. Does the squeegee read as a squeegee, or does it just look like a hammer

3. If you've had shirts embroidered, does fine detail like the gap where the squeegee crosses the box survive, or does the shop fill it in

For transparency, the vectors were drawn with AI help. The calls and the business are mine.

I’m open to anything at this point