Many people do not have the time to do their own pressure washing, or they see themselves using it so little that they do not want to invest in their own unit. So, they end up paying someone else to do it for them. If you own your own pressure washer then you might be asking yourself “can a pressure washing business make money?”
If you own a high-quality pressure, this is absolutely a market for you. For the most part, it is best when added as a supplementary service to a landscaping business or included with a different service. If you are starting from scratch, it is possible to grow a successful pressure washing only business, but starting a business can be difficult.
Particularly because people do not estimate the start-up costs, or the maintenance costs when deciding to start the business. Provided you are driven and are willing to put in the work, then you can absolutely make money with a pressure washing business.
Profit Depends On A Good Pressure Washing Business Plan
When starting a new business, the first thing you’ll want to do is develop a business plan. It does not need to be extremely professional, but it will help you to hash out all the details of starting a business.
The key features of a business plan will address the following: location, start-up investments, business concept, financials, goals, and a breakdown of the market. Once you’ve determined these things, you’ll need a business permit from your county clerk office.
The exact specifications for what you need to apply can vary depending on where you live, but you will likely need to also need to contact your state about tax registration. The county clerk will be able to direct you to the proper people and offices.
After you have the paperwork pieces handled, you’ll need insurance for your business and secure some sort of transportation.
You can definitely use the car you already have, assuming it is suitable for transporting your pressure washer. Once you have a name and a logo, consider getting that painted on the side for on the go advertising.
Commercial Clients Provide Profit
If you already own a pressure washer and want to start up your own business, you still may want to consider getting a commercial pressure washer. If you have a simple electric pressure washer, you may find yourself working for much longer than you would with a commercial grade unit.
Plus, your customers will be expecting professional quality and a more advanced unit will be able to do it much better. You could start by renting a commercial unit, but you really should buy one to save you time and money in the long run. The startup cost may be rough at first, but it will pay for itself later.
A commercial grade pressure washer can easily have a PSI, or pounds per square inch, of 2,500-5,000. This will literally be able to handle whatever job your client has.
The price for these can easily run you as low as $3,000 and goes up from there, so your budget and start-up investment should consider a newer pressure washer. By having this you unit you can expand your client pool from residential homes but also commercial and retail buildings. Retail buildings will require pressure washing services more often which means those clients will be much more profitable to you. They will also make that commercial unit upgrade pay for itself over time.
Pressure Washer Marketing and Business Growing Strategies
Large-scale businesses have entire teams of people with years of education in marketing that run all of the marketing and advertising for the company. You might not have the resources to be able to adopt such a team, but luckily for a small scale pressure washing business, it may not be necessary.
As you begin your business, immediately set up a system for customers to be able to refer you to other people. Create a social media presence with even a simple Facebook page so people have ways to share out your website with their friends. You should also make connections with other local business owners. Think in terms of home improvement businesses like roofers, contractors, landscapers, and house painters. They can often refer their customers to you for their pressure washing needs, or you could even work out a type of partnership.
Some online platforms you’ll want to set up are:
- Yelp
- Google Bussiness
- Bing Places
- Facebook for Business
- Houzz
- Angie’s List
- Home Advisor
- Nextdoor
- Instagram Business
- Twitter for Business
Other marketing strategies include typical paper marketing. Make flyers and brochures, and keep some with you at all times. Business cards are still a crucial part of networking and marketing, so definitely keep a bunch of those handy.
Websites are required elements to operate a successful business of any size. In today’s technological, fast-moving society, people research extensively online when they are looking for a business to provide a service. You must have a website so that people can find you.
This is definitely not something you should go cheap on either. A professional and user-friendly website is your customer’s first impression and it should be very clear on what they need to do in order to contact you. Consider investing in SEO, or search engine optimization, as well. SEO firms help websites achieve higher rankings on search engines. Google is not going to put you in the top position, or even on the first page if someone types in “pressure washing in *city name*” without some serious work and time investment on your end.
An SEO firm will usually help you design a website and can get better results in search engines. However, you must be careful and diligent in what SEO firm you choose to work with if you decide to not do it yourself. There are many bad apple SEOs out there that promise the moon with easy ranks, traffic, and phone calls with little cost or a small monthly retainer. Make sure you fully understand what your SEO is offering and why. One that we can recommend you speak with to get a better idea of what services you need is Inbound Enterprises. They are informative and transparent in what you need and what they offer.
There is no secret sauce to SEO, you can do it yourself. However, the only way it can succeed is if you can dedicate enough time to working on it. If you have the budget outsourcing your SEO can be a better solution.
Here are some great links to more information about how you can do SEO yourself that produces results:
Definitely, also have some level of social media presence and on multiple platforms. Even if you are not well versed in social media, a simple Facebook page can be created in just a few minutes. Instagram and Twitter are also fairly easy to start up, but you might be wondering how on earth you would use these.
You should share before and after photos of your work whenever you can. Always with customer permission if you’re taking photos of their home. During slow times, find articles about the benefits of pressure washing and share them out to generate content and discussion.
Engage with people in the comments sections as well so they know that you care about the discussion. This will help you build relationships with potential customers.
New Business Start-Up Tips
In the very beginning of starting a pressure washing business, you should really hone your skills. It is not just casually spraying down a surface and then you are done. There are many techniques and additional materials that you may need depending on the job.
You need to learn ways to take special care as you pressure wash, such as protecting plants and surrounding surfaces that may be too close to where you are pressure washing. You certainly do not want to upset a customer by destroying their azaleas. Learn the techniques by doing and pressure wash everything you can. Even offer to pressure wash for your friends and family to get you the practice.
Practice and experience is truly the best way to improve your pressure washing skills.
Always make sure you are using the right equipment. You’ll learn for yourself as you go, but there are certain surfaces and nozzles that should never go together.
For instance, an older wood surface should not be pressure washed with a 0-degree nozzle. As it could cause the wood to splinter to some areas. You should also never offer to pressure wash a roof unless you plan on using a soft wash method only.
There are several other strategies you could follow to develop your business. You could specialize in one area such as pressure washing cars and trucks. Then branch out as you earn more capital to invest in other areas or materials.
By far, the most important would be to never take marketing and advertising for granted. You might feel like you’re getting all the business you can handle right now. Then you find a month later that you have no business at all because you stopped marketing. A successful pressure washing business will always be advertising through a variety of methods.