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Great thread guys!

I washed my first house as "Spray Wash" in November of 2009, so I guess that makes for about 2.5 years is business. Right now we are taking on several night-time type customers involving monthly/weekly maintenance contracts. The hardest part I'm dealing with now is staffing these overnight positions, so the fun usually falls back on me. I've got plenty of business to keep one crew slammed, but not quite enough to have a second full time crew, so I have to pick up the slack where that is concerned.

I basically need 1 full time crew, one part-time crew, and one part time night time crew, but I can't find a those willing to work part-time @ night or swing shift for me. So basically I feel like I'm working myself to death on washing and QC daytime and two to three night jobs/week.

Since we do a lots of "large scale projects" I also have to keep several "part-time guys" around as needed. It is hard to find labor that devotes the same quality as you will as the owner.

The other "hard" problem I have is transitioning my long term guys into the new protocols that I establish. My customers LOVE my employees, I get tons of compliments on them, but sometimes they get slack on the checklists that I create and new systems I implement.

Interesting topic! As most here know, house washing and roof cleaning is a fairly cheap and easy service to start, which adds to one of the first problems, beating the prices of the guys who are doing it because it seems like "easy money". Another thing is, unfortunately the public perception of this work is "Oh boy, you're spraying water",....It takes a long time to get the immediate public to see that you are different from the guys who are just spraying water and taking a check,.. for basically what the homeowner could have done themselves.

For the guys who have been doing this for 2-4 years and have a " MAKING A LIVING INCOME" business you're the lucky ones. But in my opinion 2-4 years is just getting rolling in this business. And the CUSTOMER BASE is one of the most important things you'll have 6-8 years down the road. And the way to build a customer base is by setting yourself apart from the other guys. Giving prices over the phone doesn't seem like a good idea to me,..I mean, I like my presentation to customers(although gets redundant Ha,Ha,) I want them to meet me and let them here me talk, and then they see I am not the average guy spraying water. Taking the time and going to customers home is vital in my opinion.

I remember years ago getting into big debates on other sites about my brushing of houses,Ha,Ha,..I bet alot of those guys are out of business now,..I set my service apart by doing this since day one,..and people LOVE it,..and it's not hard and probably adds 1/2 hour to 45 minutes on the average job. You have to do things others won't do and what the home owner can't or won't do. It also lets you charge more money and make up for the "extra work" of brushing.

I will add to this topic at a later time, but I have to go fishing now.

Jeff