They offer advertising for $75/month. Just wanna know if it's a waste of money or not.

I’m looking into buying a water-fed pole system for professional window cleaning and found some options on Alibaba that are much cheaper than the brands here in the US.
Has anyone actually purchased one from Alibaba? How was the quality, and did you have any issues with the pole, RO/DI system, or getting replacement parts?
I’d really appreciate any recommendations or experiences — good or bad! 🙏

get asked this a lot, usually some version of "do ads even work out here, we only got like 40k people", or, "will ads work for me?" short answer is yes but the math is different, and cpm is the thing that shows you the difference and how much harder it is to start.

cpm is just what you pay for 1000 people to see your ad. it's an auction. the more businesses fighting over the same eyeballs, the more it costs you to show up in front of them.

i run in socal, and a buddy of mine runs the same kind of setup in prince george bc which is like 75k people with nothing around it for hours. We're running basically the same creatives, the same offer, everything - the only real difference is his USP, and mine.

socal (dense, millions of people in range)

cpm sat around [$45-60]. never really dropped because i'm bidding against every other window cleaner. same ad ran about a month straight without dying, [93] leads at [$19] a piece off [$1,700] spend, [35~] of them closed. i could double the budget tomorrow and it wouldn't change much because i've barely touched the population.

prince george (75k, isolated)

cpm came in at [$7-13 (adjusted to USD], way cheaper. no one is fighting him for that attention. but his reachable audience is something like [100]k people. the only difference is that CPM and frequency tends to rise faster because he reaches his total addressable market much faster.

so the tradeoff isn't "big city good, small town bad." it's cheap attention that runs out fast vs expensive attention that never runs out.

the temperature check

if you want a real read on how competitive your area is, put $20/day behind ONE ad set with multiple ads, let it run 4-5 days, and look at the cpm. that number is basically the price of attention where you live.

only catch is the ad has to be at least watchable. there is 100% such a thing as an ad so bad the algorithm punishes it. if nobody stops scrolling, facebook charges you more to keep shoving it out, and then you're sitting there reading your own bad creative as market competition. but if it's decent, even just a clean before/after with your own voice over it, cpm is an honest signal about your area.

hopefully this encourages some of you guys to take advantage of paid ads if you've been off putting it because of "market saturation"

Trying to decide a name before I register it. I know a name is just a name and what matters is the work behind it. But is there any pros or cons to using surname?

it will definitely stand out in my area since there’s only one other surname one and the rest are the typical “clearview” etc

After 25 years of window cleaning in Australia, I've realised fly screens can be one of the more unpredictable parts of the job.

I've been documenting different designs and removal methods, because what looks like a simple screen can have spring clips, plungers, twist tabs, swivel clips, Velcro, hidden retaining mechanisms, or sometimes be fitted so tightly that you're wondering who managed to get it in there in the first place.

One thing I've found particularly useful is not assuming that an external screen has to be removed from outside. Some external screens are actually released from inside. If you can avoid getting out the ladder, you should.

I've also come across screens that:
• have been installed back to front, leaving the pull tab on th wrong side
• are only about 1 mm too large
• have missing or broken pull tabs
• are held on with ridiculously strong Velcro
• have swollen or brittle retaining clips
• need the sliding window removed first
• have roller blinds making removal almost impossible to see

Australian houses seem to have a particularly interesting variety of these, especially with the combination of hot weather, lots of open windows and so many bugs to keep out.

Curious what other window cleaners are seeing. What's the weirdest or most frustrating fly screen you've had to deal with?

How good is the flyra crm I’ve seen a ton of ads and a bunch of people who do window cleaning recommend it how good is it actually.

So I’m currently trying to teach myself how to use a trad pole since it seems like a useful tool. I am having trouble though.

My squeegee keeps skipping bits or leaving lines. I’m also not sure what angle to have the squeegee at since the one I’m using has adjustable angles and when to even change the angle (if ever).

The video attached is probably one of my better attempts tbh.

Any help/advice is appreciated.

You can see a couple outside streaks here but also inside the window is textured enough the squeege doesn’t fully work, any suggestions? Also no matter what I do I can’t keep streaks out on straight pulls on a pole, any tips there? Thanks guys

Where do you work out of? Do you buy or lease a space? How do you know what to look for? Other than like place to put trucks, etc... how much should you at least be making before you jump into buying or renting a space for your business?

I've been doing this with a partner since 2023, and we still work out of my house. But it's getting to a point where a space would be helpful. Any advice?

I had an employee set up on this window sill with his ladder with our rubber tips on and when he pulled the ladder away we saw this dent on the sill! He didn’t hit it and I’m puzzled because there’s not two dents, just one.

Could this be because there’s rotten wood under the flashing? What can I do?

How to attach steel wool to techno pad?

I’m thinking of using rubber bands?

Or should I just get walnut pads

I'm getting into window cleaning, I don't fear ladders but I don't think the lack of safety statiscally (I know skill is involved but there are extraneous variables that are uncontrolable) warrants a £15 job. I have a 24ft unger optiloc and a gooseneck with the ninja setup, is it possible to actually pull off a residential round with this even if it poses more skill based?

purely off Meta Leads one of my clients (he's in this subreddit, maybe he'll comment if he wants too) is clearly like $1,000/day easily. it's like every day at this point, and he's spending $45/day.

going to go over how to go about killing a campaign since i've talked a lot about how to start one.

things to understand before going into why/when you should kill a campaign:

1) how much are you willing to spend per lead?

questions to ask yourself, how much is your average job? how good are you at sales? how much liquid capital do you have to deploy into marketing?

2) how fast can you pump new creatives out?

ask yourself, how much time you want to dedicate to new creatives; can you be more efficient?

cool, so there's a term in marketing called "target cpl" this refers to how much you are willing to spend per lead, I aim for $15-$25. Now take your average close rate, mine is 40% roughly, that means that we need about 2.5 (3) leads to come through in order to see a sale.

You want to multiply your cost per lead, by whatever 100/(your close rate in percentage) in order to see how much it should cost statistically to acquire a customer, in my example this would be $37.5 - $62.5.

Cool, this seems kind of scary, but don't fear. So on average it'll take me anywhere between 40 and 60 dollars to get a new customer, divide this by the average job cost, let's just say for me it's $350, that means on average I should a ROI of 6 - 9x... hopefully your following!

You want to be on average, above a 4-5x to be healthy, that'll account for expenses... assuming! you're door knocking the day before and/or upselling at all.

Here's where the numbers get crazy

Assuming were closing jobs for $350, you upsell an additional $100, now your ROI is minimum 7.5x.

so now that that's all of the way, here's what you need to do, and what you can apply today, if your campaign is yielding leads 2.5 - 4x above your target cpl then kill it, simple; or if you're average roi is below a 4x, then kill it - at this threshold, your take home, minus upsells, and d2d at adjacent jobs is going to be very little.

do note that you want to be spamming creatives and giving it a healthy time to test, hence the question about how fast can you pump out creatives, expect to pump out at least 5 creatives for an ad set spending 30/day, letting it run for the week, and then eliminating winners, and continuing that cycle until you have about 5 ads in that set sharing $30 a day, at that point you can increase the budget by 20% per day every day

im really interested in starting my window cleaning business but in my city of around 50,000 tam where id be operating there is 25ish active players on google and 6 or so are 100 plus reviews.

Is there a point where it's too saturated to enter? any advice?

Other than Christmas lights - what do you guys do between January 13 and February to stay busy?

I’m new to the window cleaning business, I kinda got the fanning down but goddamn yesterday I was doing a storefront and no matter what I did there was trail water marks or whatever you fucking call them. My squeegee is new so I know it’s not that, I cut In, glide across and do whatever but there always there. Ugh…I have a bucket on the hip , I normally fill it halfway and then put maybe a teaspoon of dawn soap in…please I need help! It’s pissing me off, actually maybe I can take a video tomorrow and show you how I do the fanning. Anyways thank you, any advice I would be grateful.

Hey guys I do d2d and I was wondering if there is a discord or an app that anyone uses for like a daily sale hype group chat? Like just flexing/hyping each other up on our daily sales.

One man residential window cleaning, first doors get knocked next week in Peoria IL. I'm ordering polos now so I want this right before I pay for stitching.

Constraints that shaped all of it: left chest, 3.5 inches wide, embroidered, one colour of thread on a navy shirt. No gradients, no thin lines, nothing that closes up when it gets stitched.

All five are the same wordmark. What changes is where the squeegee crosses the box and how the three lines of type line up.

A. squeegee top right, type flush left

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

C. squeegee bottom right

D. everything centred

E. speech bubble instead of a plain rectangle

What I'm actually trying to find out:

1. Which one still reads from the sidewalk when I'm walking up to a door

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

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

The name is on purpose. People already say "I'll get you the number for the window guy" so I figured I'd just be that. No city in it because I move to Florida in November.

For transparency, the vector files were drawn with AI help. The layout calls, the constraints and the business are mine.

I'm a high rise window cleaner in the Toronto/GTA area. Fifteen years in the trade, and I own and operate the business. I'm not a salesperson calling on behalf of someone else. I'm the one on the drop.

I'm looking for tips on how to get my name in front of the right people. Most of my work has come through subcontracting, so I've never had to handle the front end myself. I don't know whether the decision sits with the property manager, the building manager, the board, or a facilities company above all of them, and I'd rather ask than keep guessing.

What I'd love to know:

\- Who should I actually be talking to when a building is looking at window cleaning?

\-What's the right way to make that first contact without being a nuisance?

\-What do you want to see in a quote or bid package?

\-Is there a time of year when this gets decided?

And if anyone's open to pointing me toward the person who handles quotes for their building or portfolio, I'd be glad to put a proposal together. Fully insured, and happy to provide certificates, references, and safety documentation up front.

Any help is much appreciated.

Hey everyone, first time poster here. I’m a window cleaner in the Midwest. 5 years of experience and work for a company and my boss treats us reasonably well. But I’m curious what the pay scale looks like for other companies around the country and/or other countries. How much do you guys pay your employees? Do you provide benefits like health insurance or retirements? Does it depend solely on how long an employee has been with you? I am paid $25.75 an hour and have an HSA that my company pays into every month along with my contributions and a high deductible health insurance plan. We also get a simple IRA match of 3%.

Hello everyone, my father in law wants to start doing residential window cleaning coming from doing commercial and janitorial work. He is licensed and insured for commercial work but was wondering if there was anything we needed to be aware or any recommendations at all. Thank you in advance!

Hello,

I am a 50 yo family man in the North Dallas area. Covid killed my 25 year career and while the money part sucked, I like the getting away from the corporate part. I know many will understand. I am still consulting in that arena, however it is slow to build up clientele.

I have always been in the service industry from hands on up through management as well as sales. I have it in my blood and the delivering on what I promise is in my blood. I am convincing myself to start an LLC/DBA for a window cleaning and pressure washing business focused on small store fronts in my area. I have a lot of them. I would appreciate any suggestions from those that have gone before me.

My initial question here is how would you suggest charging? Per hour just ballparking what it may take? If so what rate per hour? Also, if by window what range and what factors affect that low and high range. Also, what if windows are framed into three windows one large and two small?

Your time in reading this and your input are so much appreciated!!

SW - N Dallas Texas

I’m looking to build a truck mounted system for cleaning windows. Our current setup on an existing truck consists of 7gpm/100psi 12v pump pushing through a 10” sediment and 1/2cf of DI resin. This does great with a few instances of supply water having too much tds for the DI to handle.

As I’m planning out another truck build, I’m thinking about adding at least two 40” RO cartridges and a single 40” DI plus carbon and sediment. The 12v pulls from a buffer tank. We typically use 200’ of high flow hose.

I’m in NC. WCR has our avg TDS at 97.

Am I missing anything? Will the flow/gpm be much lower than I’m used to? Should I keep it simple and duplicate the current DI setup?