June 8, 2025 • 37 mins
The dreaded summer slowdown is hitting pressure washing businesses nationwide, and even seasoned pros feel the impact. In this candid conversation, Matt and Clay tackle the reality of the "summer slump" that follows the spring rush – when graduations happen, families take vacations, and homeowners who scrambled for spring cleaning are suddenly nowhere to be found.
But here's the truth: this predictable seasonal pattern separates the real business owners from the fly-by-night operators. The Wash Bros share their hard-earned wisdom on maintaining momentum when leads slow down, revealing why panic-driven price cutting is the worst mistake you can make.
With refreshing honesty, they break down the myths around being "booked three months out" versus their reality of running multiple trucks that need constant feeding. You'll discover why a two-week scheduling window hits the sweet spot for customer service while maximizing revenue, and how proper systems prevent the scheduling nightmares that plague growing businesses.
Most valuably, Matt and Clay contrast the transactional hustle of newcomers with the brand-building approach that sustains established companies. They explain why door-knocking and yard signs might work initially but eventually signal a failure to evolve your marketing strategy. Through personal examples of commercial contracts worth thousands that came from small residential jobs years earlier, they demonstrate how relationship building trumps hard selling every time.
Whether you're struggling to fill your schedule or aiming to scale beyond a single truck, this episode provides the perspective shift needed to navigate seasonal fluctuations confidently. Remember: summer isn't when you take your foot off the gas – it's when you double down so winter's true slowdown doesn't leave you desperate for work.
Ready to overcome the summer slump and build a pressure washing business that thrives year-round? Subscribe now, and be sure to join our Facebook group where we answer questions and help pressure washers avoid costly mistakes.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hey, hey, hey, what's up?
(00:34):
Guys?
It's matt jackson and claysmith and we are the wash bros.
We want to thank everybody fortuning in this sunday.
Um, we're june 8th, so aboutthe first week of June, and this
is going to be season two,episode 18.
So I can't believe we'realready 18 episodes deep into
the second season.
We want to thank everybodywho's been listening.
Our downloads are really steadyand good and it's awesome to
(00:55):
connect with everybody.
For this episode.
We want to talk about somethingrelevant to probably what
everybody's feeling.
If you're new to the businessand you think, oh my gosh, like
I'm slow, what's going on, am Igoing to make it?
This is part of, like, thesummer season.
You got slumps, like a summerslump, essentially, so a
graduation may have justoccurred.
People who had rushed to havetheir houses pressure washed in
(01:17):
the spring no longer need thatdone.
So this is kind of the ebbs andflows of the season.
So I figured this is a goodepisode.
June is here.
Uh, the summer season is likejune, july, august, um,
different, different, part ofdifferent, different than the
the crazy rush of, like, say,march, april, may.
So for all you new guys, thiswill be a great episode we kind
of talk about our what we do inthe summer, how do we keep our
(01:39):
pipeline full and all that stuff.
So you want to kick this thingoff, clay.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
As always.
Yep, like Matt said, appreciateeverybody listening.
Thanks for all of your support.
Anybody that has any questions,be sure to reach out.
We're happy to help any way.
We can Check outpowerwashingcoachcom.
Subscribe.
We're going to have some coolnewsletters and stuff like that
coming shortly.
Still working on merch.
I know we've said that the lastcouple episodes shortly.
(02:04):
Still working on merch.
I know we've said that the lastcouple episodes, but we'll get
that taken care of.
That way you guys can rock ourstuff and, uh, get the word out
there.
Also, make sure you tell allyour pressure washing buddies
about our podcast.
Um, all we're doing here is justgiving a bunch of knowledge
that we have learned through thecouple years that we've been
doing this and the things thatwe've done to be successful.
Um, and speaking of summerslumps, obviously we're
(02:25):
recording this.
Beginning of June, I did justcome off of a pretty big week
with two trucks.
Matt had a decent week as well,so we're staying really busy.
But we do know that the leadflow can slow down, especially
everybody's starting to take thevacations graduations, as Matt
said.
Nobody's really thinking aboutthe things that need to be done
(02:46):
around the house right thisminute, so that that gets slow
the lead flow up a little bit.
So what are we doing to makesure that we are consistently
getting leads filling the trucks, filling our schedule?
Um, the worst thing you can do,I would say would would be to
panic.
Um, early in the stages ofbusiness, I used to panic.
I used to start cutting myprices.
(03:06):
I used to start begging peoplenot necessarily begging, because
I come from a sales background.
I've always been pretty stoutwith getting business.
But don't start to undercutyourself just because the lead
flow is slowing down.
Stay consistent in what you do.
Consistency is always key toany part of business If you can
stay consistent on the thingsthat are working and don't
(03:28):
switch them up just because it'sthat time of the year.
So, basically, what we do isI've said it in many other
episodes is I just stayconsistent.
I do everything that I've beendoing, even in the wintertime,
when it's slow, the same thingsthat I'm doing.
I may hit it a little harder,may try to farm my customers a
little harder, may look intosending out some I don't know,
(03:48):
we don't do postcards, but thatcould be an option for you.
You could send out an emailnewsletter.
You could reach out to previouscustomers as far as like maybe
an email automation, a textblast there are so many
different ways.
You can kind of just I wouldsay, just light the match and
just try to get it going.
Um, and it was just.
(04:10):
A good example would be likematt he uh, he had some work
beginning last week but ended upwith a full schedule.
It's just staying consistentwith the things that you do on
the daily basis and not justgetting overwhelmed and
flabbergasted or whatever justbecause you wake up and you
don't have any leads or anyquotes to do the next day.
Activity breeds activity.
Get out there and figure outwhat you need to do to make sure
(04:32):
you fill that schedule.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah, and Clay's exactly right.
Um, and even now, like I, we wehaven't had the depth that
we've had in the past.
So with two trucks we literallyeat up like $15,000 a week in
work.
So I know that's a lot to thinkabout.
But it's like you have to haveso many leads and we did 121
jobs in May, so we do so muchvolume that we need to
(04:55):
constantly get leads flowing andthen book those jobs.
Otherwise I'm not going to beable to run two trucks.
Our guys are going to besitting around doing nothing.
So always have faith and don'tworry.
If you don't have a lot of depth, like when you're new and you
got two trucks, you might thinkoh man, like I should have it, I
need to be like a week advanced, I need to be like booked out,
booked out, booked out, so likeI know I'll have space months
(05:26):
and months out.
Uh, I mean the volume we do.
We eat through work so fastthat like to say you're like
three months out.
That's kind of silly to me,because when we're putting up
like $60,000 a month, like it'svery, very difficult to be
months out with that.
No way I'm going to be sittingon $200,000 worth of work.
So like that's just, we churnwork quickly so we have a good
(05:51):
pulse on the market because ofall the work that's coming
through.
And like years past, like lastthe years past I think, the May
we did previously was like$75,000.
And it seemed like that year wehad a little bit more depth to
our schedule.
So I was like booking two weeksout with two trucks, as opposed
to now where I'm booking likethe next week, uh, or like maybe
(06:12):
end of week, like what Clay wassaying.
For this past week I was.
I was like I don't haveavailable, I don't have.
I could fit people in like in acouple of days, and we always,
we always end up doing it.
It.
We're never really dropping toomuch as far as capacity of our
number goes and my guys areworking full-time.
So I'm just kind of teeteringon that line where I have guys
(06:33):
working on the weekends too, soI can literally work seven days
a week and it's one of thosethings.
It's just a numbers game.
Hey, do I do?
I have the lead flow to allowus to work seven days a week
with one or two trucks,potentially on a weekend,
because my full-time guy'staking a vacation the end of the
month and he's trying to getsome weekend work.
And then my other kid, acollege guy he's he's trying to
(06:54):
work Saturdays and Sundays.
So I'm like that's great, buteating through 10 jobs on a
weekend and then having to feedtwo trucks at four jobs a day on
average, you're burning througha lot of work right there.
You're burning through like 60jobs a week.
So it's important that we havethat lead flow and it's also
(07:14):
more important not to stress out, like Clay was saying, because
it's easy to say, oh my gosh,I'm trying to squeeze jobs in
for Wednesday of next week.
How am I going to do it?
The economy is terrible, but wealways end up getting jobs
filled last minute or we'll havea day where we'll book 6,000
bucks.
That was what saved us lastweek, I think.
Wednesday or Thursday I bookedtwo consecutive days of six
(07:34):
grand and it all takes care ofitself.
So if you guys are stressingout, don't worry, it'll happen.
It just takes time.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah, the biggest thing thing you do is freak out
and start switching up things,because that's when you start to
really mess yourself up.
Um, I always tell myself whenit's slower, I'm just going to
enjoy the slow time, I'm goingto take a break and take a rest
because we are steadily going,we're on the go all the daggum
time.
Sometimes you even forget tohydrate.
I know that I do sometimes um,but the biggest thing is taking
(08:07):
care of yourself.
The leaf flow is going to comeback.
Um, it always does.
There's, it's just the, thedata that we have from the
previous years.
It, uh, it's just one of thosethings.
But I mean, going back to whatyou're saying, matt, with the
two trucks, I mean, I figuredthat out last week.
You can, you can soak it upreally quick, what I call
sponging up the work.
You sponge it really quick,especially with two trucks, two
(08:28):
guys going.
I think we did 31 jobs lastweek.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
That's not.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, so we sponged a lot of work last week.
And going back to what you weresaying about the guys that are
saying they're three months out,well, if you're two or three
months out, it's probably timeto look into growing into
another truck even with oneexactly yeah, I mean, even even
with me having one truck, I Iwas never three to four weeks
(08:54):
out.
I was always steadily two weeksout, scrunching on man.
If I had to work six or sevendays a week, I would um, and
you're also when you, when youstart booking that far out, you
start running into the issueswhere people are wanting to
reschedule or something came up,their dog got sick, they got
called into work and they justso happened.
I just absolutely have to be athome for the job, or they got
(09:16):
sick or ended up having to havean emergency surgery.
There's all these things.
If you keep it outside that twoweekweek window that things are
going to come up and people aregoing to start rescheduling,
then you're going to startrunning into other issues just
because you're like, oh crap,this guy's having to reschedule.
That messes my whole daggum dayup.
Now I'm having to call theseother people and figure it out
(09:36):
and it's just.
It's just one of those things.
Two weeks is the sweet spot.
Two and a half weeks you'rekind of pushing it, but if
you're two to three months out,I would bet my money on it.
That you're having issues withscheduling problems also.
Yeah, and also another thingthat uh, we me and matt both
actually have been running intoum.
Going back to, like what I wassaying about the scheduling
(09:58):
problems people are not showingup for these jobs.
If you're treating yourcustomers poorly, you're not
showing up these jobs jobs.
If you're treating yourcustomers poorly, you're not
showing up to these jobs, you'regoing to leave a sour taste in
their mouth and they're going tonot call you back.
You're not going to ever have achance.
It's very unprofessional.
Make sure that you're showingup when you say you're going to
show up.
If you don't run a CRM, makesure you're calling or shooting
(10:20):
that customer a text to remindthem about the appointment.
We have CRMs in place thatremind the customers about their
appointment, telling them whenwe're going to be there, and
then it lets them know when ourtech or whoever's showing up to
the house is en route to the job.
So make sure you get thosesystems in place.
If you don't, it helps me outtremendously.
(10:40):
If I was working on pen andpaper with 31 jobs last week, I
would be lost.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Exactly, and the volume we do.
I occasionally drop the ballbecause, like you said, when
you're talking to so many peopleall the time, something changes
.
You're texting a customer atlike nine o'clock at night and
you're like, yeah sure, I'll putyou on the schedule for then.
And then you're like frick,they text you like that
appointment time slot and thenyou forgot to put on the books.
And so like we scramble, justbecause we're human beings, like
Clay says, when you're doing 30something jobs in a week, like
(11:11):
every single week for the spring, summer and then fall year,
stuff happens and, like you do,you need to do everything you
can to manage people in a CRM,just so like we don't end up
being like like I did a job lastweek, somebody completely
dropped the ball.
They had a graduation partythat week, freaked out, not only
did like I, like they reachedout to me to have it done, but
(11:34):
there's like four other pressurewashers that were like reached
out to as well because they'retrying to fit it in.
And every one of those peoplethey're like oh this, this guy
is horrible, don't ever use hiscompany.
He's terrible.
He hung me out to dry.
How dare he think he can be abusiness owner.
That's what it goes on when youdrop the ball.
So you don't want to putyourself in that situation.
You don't want to say, oh, I'mfour weeks booked out, or I'm
(11:55):
four months booked out Ninetimes out of 10, something's
going to come up, like Clay wassaying with budget.
If somebody says, oh, that $800pressure washing job in two
months from now, they're goingto be like I found something
that I want to spend that $800on first, and then you just
disappear.
Or what happens more times thannot?
Somebody just calls another guy, gets a quote for $100 less.
Boom, you lost that job.
(12:16):
Yeah, well, not even.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I mean if they run across somebody that could do it
two weeks or sooner at a time,yeah, or a month closer at a
time.
You're saying you're two monthsout A lot of people aren't
loyal anymore, no matter howmuch you think they like you or
how loyal they are to you.
If they can get it done quickerand it's more convenient for
them, they're going to alwayschoose convenience over loyalty
(12:39):
any day.
And that's just something thatI've learned.
Unless it's a family member,and unless it's a family member,
unless it's, you know, a greatfriend of yours even if it's a
family member.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
If they need their house cleaned for a party, an
event or they just want to haveit cleaned, they're not going to
wait for you.
Like we are a service provider.
If there's a need for theservice and you said you're
three months out or two monthsout or one month out, you just
sound like an idiot to everybody.
And if you want to play thegame of like, look at me, I'm so
booked up and I'm so backed out.
It's funny in the facebookgroups people talk smack about
(13:07):
the guys who are like thefacebook gods, who lie about
everything, and they're like oh,I'm mr do-it-all myself and I
hold on to everything.
And like I don't move my truckfor less than 1500 bucks.
And like, oh, we're so bookedout.
It's like don't kid yourself.
Stop lying to yourself yourself.
We all know what's up.
Just be honest, grow yourbusiness, don't brag about
(13:27):
stupid things.
It's like ego.
You're holding on to ego.
At the end of the day, nobodycares.
The purpose of the Wash Bros isto encourage you to make those
moves that you need in yourbusiness.
Now, if you're part-time andyou don't necessarily care to
make this a business, you can dowhatever you want to.
But if you're serious abouthaving this as a business and
you're saying, oh, I'm threemonths out and I'm a solo
operator and I'm doing one totwo jobs a day, you may want to
(13:50):
reassess what you're doing here,just so you're not setting
yourself up for failure.
Where you're complaining aboutthe market being slow, you're
complaining about this justbecause you're not going all in
on this.
And kind of the point of thisepisode about the summer slump
is this is where you start torealize the people that are the
chuck in the trucks that justsimply bought a pressure washer
or nowadays they may have afancy one because they financed
(14:11):
it on their personal credit andthey are like making money in
the spring.
But as the summer months come,the summer slump is here, and
then that's when you're going toreally see who's the good who,
who has been working in theirbusiness, growing their business
, versus just who shows up andhalf-ass does this Like.
This isn't coming from a frameof trying to like say anybody's
(14:32):
better than anybody, but it'sjust from the experience that we
have had.
Successful guys have had, likethis is what's required to make
that next jump and that nextstep.
Otherwise, you're going to beone of those people that you see
selling their Facebook rigs onMarketplace.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Well, not even that.
This is the time that you needto be making the money and
working hard and making surethat you're making the most of
the busy season.
I know that we were talkingabout summer slump, but it does
just kind of steady, slow up alittle bit, but you need to be
making the most of everythingthat you can right now, because
November, december, january theycome really quick and it hits
(15:09):
like a brick wall Exactly,really quick and it hits like a
brick wall.
So exactly, you got to make sureyou're putting up plenty of
money for the slow season,making sure you're able to have
a great Christmas, make sure youcan not stress about money
while we're sitting on our tailsdoing nothing other than trying
to get better for the busyseason coming up ahead to the
next year.
(15:30):
Obviously, I always say that,you know, in the winter we're
getting ready for the spring,and in the spring we're getting
ready for the winter, like inthe spring and summer.
Right now they're in the busyseason.
We're making sure that we'repreparing ourselves for the
wintertime.
When it's getting slow, we'reputting our money back, we're
making sure our stuff's in order, or either we are looking into
other services that we couldoffer during the slow season.
We're looking into, maybe,commercial work, making sure,
(15:52):
seeing if we can do any of that.
I mean, there's so many thingsthat you can be doing right now
um to making sure that you'resuccessful I think too clay has
a good point there.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
I mean, we're talking about a summer slump.
I look at it from like highlevel data of like okay, when
we're hitting capacity at allcylinders, it's.
It's like march, april, may, uh, june, and then the summer
slump is usually like July,august, kind of around the dips.
Like first week of June Highschoolers do whatever.
(16:22):
First week their families areon vacations, graduation just
occurred, you're still in thebusy season, so we have to max
out what we're doing here.
It's just not as easy to getwork in the heart of the summer,
in the heat of the summer, whenpeople are doing their
vacations and other things andoftentimes people take vacations
like owner operator, pressurewasher companies or like people
(16:43):
in general from like June andJuly.
They take their foot off thegas because they're taking a
vacation.
And Clay's got a great pointthe vacation for us is the slow
season.
So this is where we need to beplowing ahead.
We don't need to be like oh,look at our neighbor down the
streets taking their vacation.
They're taking their twovacations a year, like we have
the whole winter and off seasonto do that.
So we're keeping the pedal downto the metal and grinding it
(17:08):
out and not pushing our scheduleback and trying to do
everything we can.
We're working six days.
I think I worked six days thispast week and we had a big
commercial project on Saturday.
That was cool.
We banged that out and I'mpretty much booking six or seven
days a week in this seasonbecause that's where you make
your money and we're moving theneedle more by working like
extra Saturdays in June than wedo in all of like January and
(17:36):
probably all of January andDecember.
I'm making more money just likethe weekend work in the summer
than like an entire month in theoff season, cause we we
understand the seasons, weunderstand all that.
Um, but I would say too like I'mlike Clay's point that's a
really good point he alwaysbrings up is is like what we're
doing now is setting ourselvesup for going into the slower
(17:56):
season.
So like the, the busy springrush, that that was great.
Uh, summer, summer is great too, but figure out what you're
doing now to position yourselffor that.
Like july, august, that's more,more of like that slump we're
going to get into where kids goback to school and then the fall
season starts.
I've been doing a lot more videostuff.
I got more photos done for mymarketing that we push in August
(18:19):
.
So like we're thinking ahead,like Clay's saying, like I got
some video shot, we're going tostart really hitting that hard
again.
So every couple of years we'reredoing our video ads, our
branding and our marketing, justso we stay fresh in everybody's
eyes.
And otherwise, like like claysaid, like if, if I'm just
getting complacent and notgrinding and looking forward,
(18:40):
I'm just going to get passed bysomebody like clay who's staying
fresh and grinding and growing.
It's like you can't just youcan't just get to a certain
level and then just say, oh,this is going to be a continuum,
like you got to keep pushing,otherwise you're going to get
past yeah and don't let.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Yeah, you got it.
So you're going to be makingthe connections now for the, for
the winter time, to at leasthave some sort of work, like
last week we did more money andmore jobs than we did all of
december and january, I think,put together.
So that's a big perspective.
Like I said, make sure you'regetting all that you can get.
And when Matt says he's bookingout a week, he's booking, you
know, 30 to 35 jobs a week,maybe more sometimes.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
So that may be some of you guys that are listening.
That may be more than yourwhole month, right?
So that's, that's another thingthat you need to think about.
Like, the knowledge we'regiving you is really good
knowledge.
It's just not some crap that wepulled out of a book.
It's not something that wepulled from a guru.
This is actually real stuffthat we're telling you about.
Me and Matt have the samebusiness model.
(19:41):
We're telling you exactly whatwe're going through, what we
have learned and what we havedone to grow two trucks apiece
and trying to just keep thembusy, keeping those schedules
full, doing big numbers, doingcrazy numbers that we never
thought we could even do, or Ididn't think I could do.
It just blows my mind when youstay consistent at what you do,
make the relationships do goodquality work, be good to your
(20:04):
customers, show up when you'regoing to show up.
Put the right processes and Idon't know what word I'm looking
for right now but just put theright things in place to make
sure you're providing greatquality, quality work and good
customer service so that theyreturn.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
And don't let your ego get in the way.
I remember when, like Clay andI first got together, we were I
was still, I think I think I wasstill an owner operator and
then I made the jump in 23 andthen like you're putting up big
numbers but I'm like just waituntil you got like two trucks
rocking.
And then now you're doing likewhat you.
What you do in a week now isprobably like what you're
(20:41):
killing it in a month before andthen you're just like that's
just a five-day week it's like,but like you didn't let your ego
hold you back to that.
Oh I'm, I'm the smartest guy.
Look at me.
I'm killing it at like at me.
I'm killing it at this muchmoney.
I'm killing it at $15,000 amonth right now.
In the beginning, I don't needany help, and now you're banging
that out in a week.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Yeah, a $15,000 a week now with two trucks is
nothing.
It's like, okay, give me somemore, can I have some more?
Let's do some more, let's work,and I'll find some more work
where can we let's make sure wekeep the schedule full and let's
keep pounding it.
And you know, before you know it, we'll be at 70 or 80 grand a
month.
So that's uh and and then.
Then, once you hit those bignumbers you always hear the big
(21:22):
gurus talk about oh, I did thisin a week or I did this in a
month.
Well, the biggest key is yougot to make sure you stay
consistent with it, because youcan hit a big number once and
it's awesome, wow, okay, cool.
But the really the braggingcomes into it when you keep that
number consistent.
So that's what we're working onnow exactly because then you
become a business and that'slike kind of the difference.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
When you can be a one-man army and killing
yourself and grinding and likeyou said you can, you can do it
for a couple years.
But like when you got a teambuilt out, you got multiple
trucks running.
And what's cool to me is like Igot these college kids that
help out in the summer andthey're back again and I mean
I've had some kids.
They work for me in 2023, theywork for me in 2024, and now
they're back working and theyjust pick it right, pick it up
(22:04):
and rock and roll again.
And like they're getting repeatjobs from when they did the
houses in like June of 2023,because it's like that two year
mark and it's kind of cool tosee everything go together.
And when you have two trucks,you can either have your guys
run them or say it's a bigproject or roof or something
complicated.
You don't necessarily want anemployee to do it, I'll pop out.
(22:26):
Sometimes I pop out if it's acool job and I like the customer
or just take some pictures anduse it for marketing.
So like you're just openingyourself up and buying time for
opportunity.
You can ask Clay and I weredoing it because, like in the
spring I was running a truck alittle bit Like you can make a
ton of profit when your guys outthere banging out $8,000.
And you're out there doing thesame thing, you're, you're
paying your guy a percentage ofwhatever that is and then you're
(22:48):
walking home with $12,000 inyour pocket.
That's huge.
Or you can have your twoemployees run it and walk away
with maybe $10,000 a week, like,however you do this, it's up to
you and it's just when you'reopening the door as a business
and you're banging out work andlike we're talking about here,
like you got to keep your footdown because, like the ebbs and
(23:10):
flows of the summer and all thatstuff, like the ebbs and flows
of the summer and all that stuff, like the amount of like we can
have a bad week and make it upthe following week and we're
kind of making up from a slowerstart to the spring because june
seems to be hitting a littlebit better than made it.
So we're trying to trying toalways adapt and keep, keep the
ball rolling forward, justbecause, like clay says, like
you can hit a huge number onemonth.
But if, if you're consistentlynot, it's not going to remove
(23:33):
the needle, but if you'rehitting consistent numbers you
can move the needle over theentire year really quickly.
I think I was looking at ournumbers revenue-wise and we're
probably around the 180 mark forthe year.
So end of this month we'll bein the $200,000 range and I
don't know how this year isgoing to end up.
(23:54):
But I mean, we always hope forgrowth and it seems like it's
been more of a grind than it hasbeen in the years past to hit
the number.
But who knows it could, itcould be a later year.
So all you can do like Clay saysis just put your head down and
keep going.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yeah, just keep plugging away.
Always, uh, uh, always.
Live by the that phrase.
You know, activity breedsactivity.
Get out there and wave at thethe people walking down the
street and in the neighborhoods.
Make conversation with them ifyou need to, because they'll
remember you.
They don't sell them, you know,but if you you're nice to them,
say hey, how you doing, I hopeyou have a great day, type thing
(24:30):
.
They're gonna remember you, youknow.
Don't just oh, oh, I hate my job, I'm miserable type guy just
walking around the truck, andyou know they're going to say,
damn, that guy looks miserable.
I don't know if I want him tocome to my house, but if you
(24:51):
give them a smile and a wave, sothey're going to at least get a
quote from you, right?
So, uh, just the small thingsthat you don't think about, that
I think about just because I'ma business guy.
I'm always over analyzingthings, always trying to figure
out what can I be doingdifferently, the little things
that I can be doing, likeputting a card on the next door
neighbor's door, just because Iwatched their neighbor's house,
saying no, oh, we're here in thearea, maybe greet them, say hey
(25:13):
to them, whatever, notnecessarily hard selling like
door-to-door type sales, but sayhey, we just watched your
neighbor's house, just thoughtI'd drop a card off.
So neighbors are always curious.
Whether you think it or not, orthought about it, neighbors are
always curious, especially whentheir neighbor's getting
something done.
It's always like a competitionin the neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Exactly right, and if you're a new guy too, you have
to have a realistic expectationon how fast your growth will be.
You're seeing the growth of meand Clay over time, but it's
still been like on my endhitting it really hard and
really consistently for the pastfive years.
And then clay is what likethree years pretty strong,
(25:55):
something like that uh, 21 yeah2021, four years, three years,
something like that.
So like, and then and then clayand I have been working kind of
like like we've been like washburn it up together, so like
clay had kind of a jump of likehaving me help him, as I've had
like mastermind groups and stuffthat helped me jump.
So like if you're in the WashBros and you're connected to us
(26:19):
and you just following us andlistening to this like you will
accelerate your growth muchfaster than if you're just
trying to figure it all outyourself.
But you also need to have faithin the process because it takes
time.
And if you're doing everythingwe're doing and if you're
grinding and you have a coolbrand behind yourself and
pushing and, like Clay says,you're not trying to hard sell
people, we want people to say,oh, that guy's awesome.
(26:41):
I'll use him one day BecauseI'm at that point now where
between commercial jobs areflowing into me because of not
only my online reputation butword of mouth from customers I
have.
I had one customer the jobs I doat Presbyterian great guy
washed his house for years.
$300 job over deliver beenawesome, cool, great
(27:04):
conversations.
Thought nothing of it besideslike, hey, that's cool dude.
Now he has a job as like afacility director at a big
university and it's just like,yeah, it's like, just keep it in
the budget and we're good.
So that's just like an openpipeline.
Just because I've been in thegame long, proved myself, he's
like hey, you're trustworthy.
I know you do a great job forme.
Here you go.
So by making thoserelationships with people over
(27:26):
time and like staying on themand being cool, you're opening
yourself up for this.
We just did a downtownGreenville project $3,000, we
made it in like five hours and Ihad a guy doing video there to
working on our marketing.
So it's one of thoseopportunities that came because
we cleaned his buddy's drivewayand he said, oh, you need to
(27:46):
call this guy Matt because hehas like and ask him about his
Corvette.
So it was like I made aconnection with this guy because
he had a Corvette and I have aCorvette and like I wasn't hard
selling him.
Like Clay is saying, like I'mnot over here trying to like oh,
let me pressure wash yourdriveway.
I'm not trying to trade moneyfor time.
Or I'm not trying to trademoney with these people, I'm
over here just trying to be agood person.
(28:07):
And then they remember timecomes for them to have a big
project, hey, you're the firstto call and you never know when
relationships you're making now,a couple of years down the road
, they're going to reach out toyou and be like hey, do you want
to bid on this huge building?
Or, like clay, he's gotrelationships in the car space,
he does a lot of work withdealerships and stuff like that,
and it's like hey, that.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Absolutely Always helps with the summer slumps.
You could always reach out andsay hey, remember that
conversation we had.
But, like I said, I'm not oneof the DIs that's going to hard
sell.
I don't throw the clip flyers,I don't put the yard signs out,
I don't knock on your dooruninvited or any of that mess.
If, in my opinion, if you'rehaving to do all those things,
you're not doing a good enoughjob in your marketing and you're
(29:00):
not creating a good enoughbrand for yourself.
I understand, like when you'restarting out, you got to kind of
do some of that stuff,especially if you want to stay
busy, if you just drop, you justwent straight into this and
you're just looking for word.
But if you're years into thisand you're having to put out
door hangers, you're having todock on doors, on invited,
you're having to solicit you'rehaving to do all these things
(29:28):
that I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
You need to do a better job in coming up with a
marketing plan to keep yourselfbusy.
Boom, that right.
There could be a clip in itself.
People mess up like and and andtoo like, depending on what
phase you're in business.
If you are brand spanking new,like zero to two years, you need
to put in a lot of hustle andyou're going to have a lot of
transactional business, whetherthat be door to door, like
hammering Facebook groups, likeclip flyering, like you said,
you're getting a transactionalsale.
(29:51):
You see these guys on YouTube.
They like go to somebody'shouse, ring their doorbell and
they're going door to door andthey're saying, hey, can I
pressure wash your driveway for$99?
Like, you're gonna have a limitworth how much value people
perceive you by doing thoseactivities.
But if you don't have valuebecause you're a brand new
company and you need to cut yourteeth and need to make your
money, that's a great way to doit.
(30:12):
On the contrary, if you havetons of money say you're later
in life, you're wanting to pullmoney out of a 401k this is like
like your fun project and likehopes of a business.
Yeah, you can dump $50,000 intomarketing and you can get
yourself in front of a ton ofpeople.
So you see this a lot of timeson the Facebook groups too.
(30:32):
These older guys, they can jumpinto something and dump a ton
of money into it and they canget a lot of work.
But we wanna look at that.
How is their brand like?
How is how are people likecoming to them?
Like you can hustle your wayinto things but eventually, like
people will figure out ifyou're a fraud or if you're not
a fraud.
So that's why I like theimportance of hey, like five
(30:55):
years, your business has becomelike a well known brand, a
well-known name.
People are coming up to youLike I could not run any ads and
probably do $300,000 orsomething a year just on, like
maxing out one truck, just onreputation.
But like we choose to grow, wechoose to keep the ball rolling
and all this stuff.
But like you need to assessyourself and like Clay's saying,
(31:16):
if you're a couple of yearsinto business and you're still
relying on, like door to door oryard signs or stuff that's more
in the newbie category, likeyou really need to figure out
how you're working andpositioning your brand and how
people perceive you as a company, because they're probably
viewing you no differently thaneverybody else.
So if you're viewed in the eyesof a customer, it's kind of
(31:38):
spammy.
You're going to be no differentthan the guy, than than the
hundred other guys.
Like, there's so many peoplethat go to door to door and
knock on my customers doors orthrow clip flyers and my
customers call me back andthey're like, yeah, this guy was
trying to solicit pressurewashing, but I already got a guy
and that's exactly how we asthe wash bros, and how you're
trying to do.
(31:58):
That's how you should want todo it, because you're building
that reputation and that brandwhere better jobs come to you
than just hustling somebody.
It's like there's levels to thegame 100% and it's just hard.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
You don't have a great marketing plan.
It's very hard and you're justinconsistent.
So the biggest thing is justtry to be as consistent as you
can be.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yep, and consistency is important too with, just like
, the image of your brand.
You don't want to be all overthe place, because I've been in
this business long enough whereI see guys every six months or
every year.
They're doing somethingcompletely different, they're
changing their brand and to me,as somebody who likes marketing
and branding, I think it looksterrible and if I was a consumer
, I'd be really confused and I'dsay, oh, they're no longer in
(32:42):
business because they are movingaround so much Like keep it
simple, figure out what worksand keep showing up, like Clay
says, every day.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Yeah, and another thing I kind of want to end with
, the biggest thing that I'verun into this year is a lot of
guys they're not doing a goodjob for their customers.
Or when I say good job, they'renot doing a good job for their
customers.
Or when I say good job, they'renot providing the customer
service, they're not showing upor they didn't do that one
little extra thing, or theymessed something up, and I mean
there's so many different thingsthat can go wrong and what
we're doing dealing with iswe're having to deal with the
(33:16):
repercussions of it and it'sturning that customer into
something where they have thatscarcity mindset, where they're
scared to use even a reputablecompany like me and Matt.
Me and Matt have done our job.
We have hundreds of reviewsonline, we have a great online
reputation, we have a lot ofreferences and we're still
getting questions because ofthat one newbie or that one guy
(33:37):
out there that did somethingunintentionally, probably,
probably, but we're having todeal with the repercussions of
it because they didn't ask thequestions to someone that knew
what they were doing.
Maybe, maybe it was an egothing I don't know.
But if you don't know whatyou're doing or you need help
with a customer, you need helpwith your process or just reach
out to us.
I just I've noticed a lot ofthese things.
(33:58):
That's like the guy not showingup at one of Matt's customers
house the other day and Mattended up being there and it just
makes the customer scared.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Like they're just timid, they're, they're scared
of you and and they just theythrow a wall up and it's just
hard to deal with a customeryeah, it is funny because Clay
and I will do big projects andlike we show up and we're like
the customer's freaking out oversome such such a tiny little
thing and I'm like man, we werejust washing a $50 million
building in downtown Greenvilleor Clay's doing dealerships and
(34:28):
there's hundreds of thousands ofdollars of cars surrounding it.
It's like we will not destroyyour plants, don't worry.
It's like we have a lot ofexperience.
We've done many projects where,like, if we didn't know what we
were doing, we wouldn't stillbe in business.
And don't think you're thesmartest guy in the room.
Ask questions, like Clay sayingwe're the.
We have the Wash Bros group onour Facebook it's.
(34:49):
I have notifications on myphone, so like as soon as
somebody posts in there, I seeit.
So if you're on a job andyou're stuck and you want to be
like, what do you?
What should I do here?
What should I do in this?
Make sure, make sure to drop acomment, engage in that group or
, if you haven't joined italready, go and go to the wash
bros on Facebook and join thatgroup.
It's a lot of information inthere and we we kind of share
(35:09):
our day to day updates, so it'sa good group.
If, if you guys want, if you'relike hey, I like to listen to
the show, how do I get in touchwith you?
Go to the wash bros.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Make a post in there and, uh, we'll definitely be on
it pretty quickly.
We're not going to roast you,we're not going to clown you,
we're not going to troll you,like all the other groups that
you're probably in.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Just, you really need help.
Just reach out.
Yep, yeah, we have nothing togain there for for being a troll
, but we're.
We're at that 35 minute markand clay's trying to watch a
race, so yeah, anything else.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Car fan if you're a nice car fan, make sure you
comment below tell me who yourdriver is.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
I'm big into nascar, so heck yeah, but that's
everything on my end.
You got anything clay?
Speaker 2 (35:50):
no, just make sure you follow all of our pages.
Uh, clay smith is my personalpage on facebook.
I see a lot of you guys havealready been following me here
lately.
Um, c3 watch pros llc.
Is my business page.
Uh, the watch bros podcast pageon Facebook.
All the other platforms Spotify, Apple podcast, YouTube, the
whole nine.
Matthew Jackson on his personalpage brand up he's got the
(36:12):
brand up page.
It helps you with branding andstuff like that.
Follow him at the driveway guyLLC.
And.
Uh, join our Facebook group.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Yep, the brand up stuff is kind of cool.
I have my VA.
He helps me post stuff, so justfollow it.
It's a lot of pictures andreels and we try to do helpful
stuff and there's a book as well.
So if you guys just we'retalking about this episode like
work on your brand, work on yourmarketing, figure stuff out,
like just give that page afollow, brand up your business.
(36:45):
It's got tips and tricks andI'm not trying to sell you
anything on any of theseplatforms, because our main
focus is the Matt the drivewayguy, of course.
So we try to build value, buildourselves up in the community
with other things.
And then you got to help outthe wash bros, so that, or you
can go and get the no pressurepressure washing book we have on
Amazon.
It's free If you, if you guyshave Kindle unlimited you want.
The audio book is up there too.
(37:05):
So that's everything for thisepisode.
We hope everybody has a greatweek and make sure to join the
wash bros page and we'll see youon the next one.
(37:29):
You.
Hey, hey, hey, what's up?
(00:34):
Guys?
It's matt jackson and claysmith and we are the wash bros.
We want to thank everybody fortuning in this sunday.
Um, we're june 8th, so aboutthe first week of June, and this
is going to be season two,episode 18.
So I can't believe we'realready 18 episodes deep into
the second season.
We want to thank everybodywho's been listening.
Our downloads are really steadyand good and it's awesome to
(00:55):
connect with everybody.
For this episode.
We want to talk about somethingrelevant to probably what
everybody's feeling.
If you're new to the businessand you think, oh my gosh, like
I'm slow, what's going on, am Igoing to make it?
This is part of, like, thesummer season.
You got slumps, like a summerslump, essentially, so a
graduation may have justoccurred.
People who had rushed to havetheir houses pressure washed in
(01:17):
the spring no longer need thatdone.
So this is kind of the ebbs andflows of the season.
So I figured this is a goodepisode.
June is here.
Uh, the summer season is likejune, july, august, um,
different, different, part ofdifferent, different than the
the crazy rush of, like, say,march, april, may.
So for all you new guys, thiswill be a great episode we kind
of talk about our what we do inthe summer, how do we keep our
(01:39):
pipeline full and all that stuff.
So you want to kick this thingoff, clay.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
As always.
Yep, like Matt said, appreciateeverybody listening.
Thanks for all of your support.
Anybody that has any questions,be sure to reach out.
We're happy to help any way.
We can Check outpowerwashingcoachcom.
Subscribe.
We're going to have some coolnewsletters and stuff like that
coming shortly.
Still working on merch.
I know we've said that the lastcouple episodes shortly.
(02:04):
Still working on merch.
I know we've said that the lastcouple episodes, but we'll get
that taken care of.
That way you guys can rock ourstuff and, uh, get the word out
there.
Also, make sure you tell allyour pressure washing buddies
about our podcast.
Um, all we're doing here is justgiving a bunch of knowledge
that we have learned through thecouple years that we've been
doing this and the things thatwe've done to be successful.
Um, and speaking of summerslumps, obviously we're
(02:25):
recording this.
Beginning of June, I did justcome off of a pretty big week
with two trucks.
Matt had a decent week as well,so we're staying really busy.
But we do know that the leadflow can slow down, especially
everybody's starting to take thevacations graduations, as Matt
said.
Nobody's really thinking aboutthe things that need to be done
(02:46):
around the house right thisminute, so that that gets slow
the lead flow up a little bit.
So what are we doing to makesure that we are consistently
getting leads filling the trucks, filling our schedule?
Um, the worst thing you can do,I would say would would be to
panic.
Um, early in the stages ofbusiness, I used to panic.
I used to start cutting myprices.
(03:06):
I used to start begging peoplenot necessarily begging, because
I come from a sales background.
I've always been pretty stoutwith getting business.
But don't start to undercutyourself just because the lead
flow is slowing down.
Stay consistent in what you do.
Consistency is always key toany part of business If you can
stay consistent on the thingsthat are working and don't
(03:28):
switch them up just because it'sthat time of the year.
So, basically, what we do isI've said it in many other
episodes is I just stayconsistent.
I do everything that I've beendoing, even in the wintertime,
when it's slow, the same thingsthat I'm doing.
I may hit it a little harder,may try to farm my customers a
little harder, may look intosending out some I don't know,
(03:48):
we don't do postcards, but thatcould be an option for you.
You could send out an emailnewsletter.
You could reach out to previouscustomers as far as like maybe
an email automation, a textblast there are so many
different ways.
You can kind of just I wouldsay, just light the match and
just try to get it going.
Um, and it was just.
(04:10):
A good example would be likematt he uh, he had some work
beginning last week but ended upwith a full schedule.
It's just staying consistentwith the things that you do on
the daily basis and not justgetting overwhelmed and
flabbergasted or whatever justbecause you wake up and you
don't have any leads or anyquotes to do the next day.
Activity breeds activity.
Get out there and figure outwhat you need to do to make sure
(04:32):
you fill that schedule.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah, and Clay's exactly right.
Um, and even now, like I, we wehaven't had the depth that
we've had in the past.
So with two trucks we literallyeat up like $15,000 a week in
work.
So I know that's a lot to thinkabout.
But it's like you have to haveso many leads and we did 121
jobs in May, so we do so muchvolume that we need to
(04:55):
constantly get leads flowing andthen book those jobs.
Otherwise I'm not going to beable to run two trucks.
Our guys are going to besitting around doing nothing.
So always have faith and don'tworry.
If you don't have a lot of depth, like when you're new and you
got two trucks, you might thinkoh man, like I should have it, I
need to be like a week advanced, I need to be like booked out,
booked out, booked out, so likeI know I'll have space months
(05:26):
and months out.
Uh, I mean the volume we do.
We eat through work so fastthat like to say you're like
three months out.
That's kind of silly to me,because when we're putting up
like $60,000 a month, like it'svery, very difficult to be
months out with that.
No way I'm going to be sittingon $200,000 worth of work.
So like that's just, we churnwork quickly so we have a good
(05:51):
pulse on the market because ofall the work that's coming
through.
And like years past, like lastthe years past I think, the May
we did previously was like$75,000.
And it seemed like that year wehad a little bit more depth to
our schedule.
So I was like booking two weeksout with two trucks, as opposed
to now where I'm booking likethe next week, uh, or like maybe
(06:12):
end of week, like what Clay wassaying.
For this past week I was.
I was like I don't haveavailable, I don't have.
I could fit people in like in acouple of days, and we always,
we always end up doing it.
It.
We're never really dropping toomuch as far as capacity of our
number goes and my guys areworking full-time.
So I'm just kind of teeteringon that line where I have guys
(06:33):
working on the weekends too, soI can literally work seven days
a week and it's one of thosethings.
It's just a numbers game.
Hey, do I do?
I have the lead flow to allowus to work seven days a week
with one or two trucks,potentially on a weekend,
because my full-time guy'staking a vacation the end of the
month and he's trying to getsome weekend work.
And then my other kid, acollege guy he's he's trying to
(06:54):
work Saturdays and Sundays.
So I'm like that's great, buteating through 10 jobs on a
weekend and then having to feedtwo trucks at four jobs a day on
average, you're burning througha lot of work right there.
You're burning through like 60jobs a week.
So it's important that we havethat lead flow and it's also
(07:14):
more important not to stress out, like Clay was saying, because
it's easy to say, oh my gosh,I'm trying to squeeze jobs in
for Wednesday of next week.
How am I going to do it?
The economy is terrible, but wealways end up getting jobs
filled last minute or we'll havea day where we'll book 6,000
bucks.
That was what saved us lastweek, I think.
Wednesday or Thursday I bookedtwo consecutive days of six
(07:34):
grand and it all takes care ofitself.
So if you guys are stressingout, don't worry, it'll happen.
It just takes time.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah, the biggest thing thing you do is freak out
and start switching up things,because that's when you start to
really mess yourself up.
Um, I always tell myself whenit's slower, I'm just going to
enjoy the slow time, I'm goingto take a break and take a rest
because we are steadily going,we're on the go all the daggum
time.
Sometimes you even forget tohydrate.
I know that I do sometimes um,but the biggest thing is taking
(08:07):
care of yourself.
The leaf flow is going to comeback.
Um, it always does.
There's, it's just the, thedata that we have from the
previous years.
It, uh, it's just one of thosethings.
But I mean, going back to whatyou're saying, matt, with the
two trucks, I mean, I figuredthat out last week.
You can, you can soak it upreally quick, what I call
sponging up the work.
You sponge it really quick,especially with two trucks, two
(08:28):
guys going.
I think we did 31 jobs lastweek.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
That's not.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, so we sponged a lot of work last week.
And going back to what you weresaying about the guys that are
saying they're three months out,well, if you're two or three
months out, it's probably timeto look into growing into
another truck even with oneexactly yeah, I mean, even even
with me having one truck, I Iwas never three to four weeks
(08:54):
out.
I was always steadily two weeksout, scrunching on man.
If I had to work six or sevendays a week, I would um, and
you're also when you, when youstart booking that far out, you
start running into the issueswhere people are wanting to
reschedule or something came up,their dog got sick, they got
called into work and they justso happened.
I just absolutely have to be athome for the job, or they got
(09:16):
sick or ended up having to havean emergency surgery.
There's all these things.
If you keep it outside that twoweekweek window that things are
going to come up and people aregoing to start rescheduling,
then you're going to startrunning into other issues just
because you're like, oh crap,this guy's having to reschedule.
That messes my whole daggum dayup.
Now I'm having to call theseother people and figure it out
(09:36):
and it's just.
It's just one of those things.
Two weeks is the sweet spot.
Two and a half weeks you'rekind of pushing it, but if
you're two to three months out,I would bet my money on it.
That you're having issues withscheduling problems also.
Yeah, and also another thingthat uh, we me and matt both
actually have been running intoum.
Going back to, like what I wassaying about the scheduling
(09:58):
problems people are not showingup for these jobs.
If you're treating yourcustomers poorly, you're not
showing up these jobs jobs.
If you're treating yourcustomers poorly, you're not
showing up to these jobs, you'regoing to leave a sour taste in
their mouth and they're going tonot call you back.
You're not going to ever have achance.
It's very unprofessional.
Make sure that you're showingup when you say you're going to
show up.
If you don't run a CRM, makesure you're calling or shooting
(10:20):
that customer a text to remindthem about the appointment.
We have CRMs in place thatremind the customers about their
appointment, telling them whenwe're going to be there, and
then it lets them know when ourtech or whoever's showing up to
the house is en route to the job.
So make sure you get thosesystems in place.
If you don't, it helps me outtremendously.
(10:40):
If I was working on pen andpaper with 31 jobs last week, I
would be lost.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Exactly, and the volume we do.
I occasionally drop the ballbecause, like you said, when
you're talking to so many peopleall the time, something changes
.
You're texting a customer atlike nine o'clock at night and
you're like, yeah sure, I'll putyou on the schedule for then.
And then you're like frick,they text you like that
appointment time slot and thenyou forgot to put on the books.
And so like we scramble, justbecause we're human beings, like
Clay says, when you're doing 30something jobs in a week, like
(11:11):
every single week for the spring, summer and then fall year,
stuff happens and, like you do,you need to do everything you
can to manage people in a CRM,just so like we don't end up
being like like I did a job lastweek, somebody completely
dropped the ball.
They had a graduation partythat week, freaked out, not only
did like I, like they reachedout to me to have it done, but
(11:34):
there's like four other pressurewashers that were like reached
out to as well because they'retrying to fit it in.
And every one of those peoplethey're like oh this, this guy
is horrible, don't ever use hiscompany.
He's terrible.
He hung me out to dry.
How dare he think he can be abusiness owner.
That's what it goes on when youdrop the ball.
So you don't want to putyourself in that situation.
You don't want to say, oh, I'mfour weeks booked out, or I'm
(11:55):
four months booked out Ninetimes out of 10, something's
going to come up, like Clay wassaying with budget.
If somebody says, oh, that $800pressure washing job in two
months from now, they're goingto be like I found something
that I want to spend that $800on first, and then you just
disappear.
Or what happens more times thannot?
Somebody just calls another guy, gets a quote for $100 less.
Boom, you lost that job.
(12:16):
Yeah, well, not even.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I mean if they run across somebody that could do it
two weeks or sooner at a time,yeah, or a month closer at a
time.
You're saying you're two monthsout A lot of people aren't
loyal anymore, no matter howmuch you think they like you or
how loyal they are to you.
If they can get it done quickerand it's more convenient for
them, they're going to alwayschoose convenience over loyalty
(12:39):
any day.
And that's just something thatI've learned.
Unless it's a family member,and unless it's a family member,
unless it's, you know, a greatfriend of yours even if it's a
family member.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
If they need their house cleaned for a party, an
event or they just want to haveit cleaned, they're not going to
wait for you.
Like we are a service provider.
If there's a need for theservice and you said you're
three months out or two monthsout or one month out, you just
sound like an idiot to everybody.
And if you want to play thegame of like, look at me, I'm so
booked up and I'm so backed out.
It's funny in the facebookgroups people talk smack about
(13:07):
the guys who are like thefacebook gods, who lie about
everything, and they're like oh,I'm mr do-it-all myself and I
hold on to everything.
And like I don't move my truckfor less than 1500 bucks.
And like, oh, we're so bookedout.
It's like don't kid yourself.
Stop lying to yourself yourself.
We all know what's up.
Just be honest, grow yourbusiness, don't brag about
(13:27):
stupid things.
It's like ego.
You're holding on to ego.
At the end of the day, nobodycares.
The purpose of the Wash Bros isto encourage you to make those
moves that you need in yourbusiness.
Now, if you're part-time andyou don't necessarily care to
make this a business, you can dowhatever you want to.
But if you're serious abouthaving this as a business and
you're saying, oh, I'm threemonths out and I'm a solo
operator and I'm doing one totwo jobs a day, you may want to
(13:50):
reassess what you're doing here,just so you're not setting
yourself up for failure.
Where you're complaining aboutthe market being slow, you're
complaining about this justbecause you're not going all in
on this.
And kind of the point of thisepisode about the summer slump
is this is where you start torealize the people that are the
chuck in the trucks that justsimply bought a pressure washer
or nowadays they may have afancy one because they financed
(14:11):
it on their personal credit andthey are like making money in
the spring.
But as the summer months come,the summer slump is here, and
then that's when you're going toreally see who's the good who,
who has been working in theirbusiness, growing their business
, versus just who shows up andhalf-ass does this Like.
This isn't coming from a frameof trying to like say anybody's
(14:32):
better than anybody, but it'sjust from the experience that we
have had.
Successful guys have had, likethis is what's required to make
that next jump and that nextstep.
Otherwise, you're going to beone of those people that you see
selling their Facebook rigs onMarketplace.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Well, not even that.
This is the time that you needto be making the money and
working hard and making surethat you're making the most of
the busy season.
I know that we were talkingabout summer slump, but it does
just kind of steady, slow up alittle bit, but you need to be
making the most of everythingthat you can right now, because
November, december, january theycome really quick and it hits
(15:09):
like a brick wall Exactly,really quick and it hits like a
brick wall.
So exactly, you got to make sureyou're putting up plenty of
money for the slow season,making sure you're able to have
a great Christmas, make sure youcan not stress about money
while we're sitting on our tailsdoing nothing other than trying
to get better for the busyseason coming up ahead to the
next year.
(15:30):
Obviously, I always say that,you know, in the winter we're
getting ready for the spring,and in the spring we're getting
ready for the winter, like inthe spring and summer.
Right now they're in the busyseason.
We're making sure that we'repreparing ourselves for the
wintertime.
When it's getting slow, we'reputting our money back, we're
making sure our stuff's in order, or either we are looking into
other services that we couldoffer during the slow season.
We're looking into, maybe,commercial work, making sure,
(15:52):
seeing if we can do any of that.
I mean, there's so many thingsthat you can be doing right now
um to making sure that you'resuccessful I think too clay has
a good point there.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
I mean, we're talking about a summer slump.
I look at it from like highlevel data of like okay, when
we're hitting capacity at allcylinders, it's.
It's like march, april, may, uh, june, and then the summer
slump is usually like July,august, kind of around the dips.
Like first week of June Highschoolers do whatever.
(16:22):
First week their families areon vacations, graduation just
occurred, you're still in thebusy season, so we have to max
out what we're doing here.
It's just not as easy to getwork in the heart of the summer,
in the heat of the summer, whenpeople are doing their
vacations and other things andoftentimes people take vacations
like owner operator, pressurewasher companies or like people
(16:43):
in general from like June andJuly.
They take their foot off thegas because they're taking a
vacation.
And Clay's got a great pointthe vacation for us is the slow
season.
So this is where we need to beplowing ahead.
We don't need to be like oh,look at our neighbor down the
streets taking their vacation.
They're taking their twovacations a year, like we have
the whole winter and off seasonto do that.
So we're keeping the pedal downto the metal and grinding it
(17:08):
out and not pushing our scheduleback and trying to do
everything we can.
We're working six days.
I think I worked six days thispast week and we had a big
commercial project on Saturday.
That was cool.
We banged that out and I'mpretty much booking six or seven
days a week in this seasonbecause that's where you make
your money and we're moving theneedle more by working like
extra Saturdays in June than wedo in all of like January and
(17:36):
probably all of January andDecember.
I'm making more money just likethe weekend work in the summer
than like an entire month in theoff season, cause we we
understand the seasons, weunderstand all that.
Um, but I would say too like I'mlike Clay's point that's a
really good point he alwaysbrings up is is like what we're
doing now is setting ourselvesup for going into the slower
(17:56):
season.
So like the, the busy springrush, that that was great.
Uh, summer, summer is great too, but figure out what you're
doing now to position yourselffor that.
Like july, august, that's more,more of like that slump we're
going to get into where kids goback to school and then the fall
season starts.
I've been doing a lot more videostuff.
I got more photos done for mymarketing that we push in August
(18:19):
.
So like we're thinking ahead,like Clay's saying, like I got
some video shot, we're going tostart really hitting that hard
again.
So every couple of years we'reredoing our video ads, our
branding and our marketing, justso we stay fresh in everybody's
eyes.
And otherwise, like like claysaid, like if, if I'm just
getting complacent and notgrinding and looking forward,
(18:40):
I'm just going to get passed bysomebody like clay who's staying
fresh and grinding and growing.
It's like you can't just youcan't just get to a certain
level and then just say, oh,this is going to be a continuum,
like you got to keep pushing,otherwise you're going to get
past yeah and don't let.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Yeah, you got it.
So you're going to be makingthe connections now for the, for
the winter time, to at leasthave some sort of work, like
last week we did more money andmore jobs than we did all of
december and january, I think,put together.
So that's a big perspective.
Like I said, make sure you'regetting all that you can get.
And when Matt says he's bookingout a week, he's booking, you
know, 30 to 35 jobs a week,maybe more sometimes.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
So that may be some of you guys that are listening.
That may be more than yourwhole month, right?
So that's, that's another thingthat you need to think about.
Like, the knowledge we'regiving you is really good
knowledge.
It's just not some crap that wepulled out of a book.
It's not something that wepulled from a guru.
This is actually real stuffthat we're telling you about.
Me and Matt have the samebusiness model.
(19:41):
We're telling you exactly whatwe're going through, what we
have learned and what we havedone to grow two trucks apiece
and trying to just keep thembusy, keeping those schedules
full, doing big numbers, doingcrazy numbers that we never
thought we could even do, or Ididn't think I could do.
It just blows my mind when youstay consistent at what you do,
make the relationships do goodquality work, be good to your
(20:04):
customers, show up when you'regoing to show up.
Put the right processes and Idon't know what word I'm looking
for right now but just put theright things in place to make
sure you're providing greatquality, quality work and good
customer service so that theyreturn.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
And don't let your ego get in the way.
I remember when, like Clay andI first got together, we were I
was still, I think I think I wasstill an owner operator and
then I made the jump in 23 andthen like you're putting up big
numbers but I'm like just waituntil you got like two trucks
rocking.
And then now you're doing likewhat you.
What you do in a week now isprobably like what you're
(20:41):
killing it in a month before andthen you're just like that's
just a five-day week it's like,but like you didn't let your ego
hold you back to that.
Oh I'm, I'm the smartest guy.
Look at me.
I'm killing it at like at me.
I'm killing it at this muchmoney.
I'm killing it at $15,000 amonth right now.
In the beginning, I don't needany help, and now you're banging
that out in a week.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Yeah, a $15,000 a week now with two trucks is
nothing.
It's like, okay, give me somemore, can I have some more?
Let's do some more, let's work,and I'll find some more work
where can we let's make sure wekeep the schedule full and let's
keep pounding it.
And you know, before you know it, we'll be at 70 or 80 grand a
month.
So that's uh and and then.
Then, once you hit those bignumbers you always hear the big
(21:22):
gurus talk about oh, I did thisin a week or I did this in a
month.
Well, the biggest key is yougot to make sure you stay
consistent with it, because youcan hit a big number once and
it's awesome, wow, okay, cool.
But the really the braggingcomes into it when you keep that
number consistent.
So that's what we're working onnow exactly because then you
become a business and that'slike kind of the difference.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
When you can be a one-man army and killing
yourself and grinding and likeyou said you can, you can do it
for a couple years.
But like when you got a teambuilt out, you got multiple
trucks running.
And what's cool to me is like Igot these college kids that
help out in the summer andthey're back again and I mean
I've had some kids.
They work for me in 2023, theywork for me in 2024, and now
they're back working and theyjust pick it right, pick it up
(22:04):
and rock and roll again.
And like they're getting repeatjobs from when they did the
houses in like June of 2023,because it's like that two year
mark and it's kind of cool tosee everything go together.
And when you have two trucks,you can either have your guys
run them or say it's a bigproject or roof or something
complicated.
You don't necessarily want anemployee to do it, I'll pop out.
(22:26):
Sometimes I pop out if it's acool job and I like the customer
or just take some pictures anduse it for marketing.
So like you're just openingyourself up and buying time for
opportunity.
You can ask Clay and I weredoing it because, like in the
spring I was running a truck alittle bit Like you can make a
ton of profit when your guys outthere banging out $8,000.
And you're out there doing thesame thing, you're, you're
paying your guy a percentage ofwhatever that is and then you're
(22:48):
walking home with $12,000 inyour pocket.
That's huge.
Or you can have your twoemployees run it and walk away
with maybe $10,000 a week, like,however you do this, it's up to
you and it's just when you'reopening the door as a business
and you're banging out work andlike we're talking about here,
like you got to keep your footdown because, like the ebbs and
(23:10):
flows of the summer and all thatstuff, like the ebbs and flows
of the summer and all that stuff, like the amount of like we can
have a bad week and make it upthe following week and we're
kind of making up from a slowerstart to the spring because june
seems to be hitting a littlebit better than made it.
So we're trying to trying toalways adapt and keep, keep the
ball rolling forward, justbecause, like clay says, like
you can hit a huge number onemonth.
But if, if you're consistentlynot, it's not going to remove
(23:33):
the needle, but if you'rehitting consistent numbers you
can move the needle over theentire year really quickly.
I think I was looking at ournumbers revenue-wise and we're
probably around the 180 mark forthe year.
So end of this month we'll bein the $200,000 range and I
don't know how this year isgoing to end up.
(23:54):
But I mean, we always hope forgrowth and it seems like it's
been more of a grind than it hasbeen in the years past to hit
the number.
But who knows it could, itcould be a later year.
So all you can do like Clay saysis just put your head down and
keep going.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yeah, just keep plugging away.
Always, uh, uh, always.
Live by the that phrase.
You know, activity breedsactivity.
Get out there and wave at thethe people walking down the
street and in the neighborhoods.
Make conversation with them ifyou need to, because they'll
remember you.
They don't sell them, you know,but if you you're nice to them,
say hey, how you doing, I hopeyou have a great day, type thing
(24:30):
.
They're gonna remember you, youknow.
Don't just oh, oh, I hate my job, I'm miserable type guy just
walking around the truck, andyou know they're going to say,
damn, that guy looks miserable.
I don't know if I want him tocome to my house, but if you
(24:51):
give them a smile and a wave, sothey're going to at least get a
quote from you, right?
So, uh, just the small thingsthat you don't think about, that
I think about just because I'ma business guy.
I'm always over analyzingthings, always trying to figure
out what can I be doingdifferently, the little things
that I can be doing, likeputting a card on the next door
neighbor's door, just because Iwatched their neighbor's house,
saying no, oh, we're here in thearea, maybe greet them, say hey
(25:13):
to them, whatever, notnecessarily hard selling like
door-to-door type sales, but sayhey, we just watched your
neighbor's house, just thoughtI'd drop a card off.
So neighbors are always curious.
Whether you think it or not, orthought about it, neighbors are
always curious, especially whentheir neighbor's getting
something done.
It's always like a competitionin the neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Exactly right, and if you're a new guy too, you have
to have a realistic expectationon how fast your growth will be.
You're seeing the growth of meand Clay over time, but it's
still been like on my endhitting it really hard and
really consistently for the pastfive years.
And then clay is what likethree years pretty strong,
(25:55):
something like that uh, 21 yeah2021, four years, three years,
something like that.
So like, and then and then clayand I have been working kind of
like like we've been like washburn it up together, so like
clay had kind of a jump of likehaving me help him, as I've had
like mastermind groups and stuffthat helped me jump.
So like if you're in the WashBros and you're connected to us
(26:19):
and you just following us andlistening to this like you will
accelerate your growth muchfaster than if you're just
trying to figure it all outyourself.
But you also need to have faithin the process because it takes
time.
And if you're doing everythingwe're doing and if you're
grinding and you have a coolbrand behind yourself and
pushing and, like Clay says,you're not trying to hard sell
people, we want people to say,oh, that guy's awesome.
(26:41):
I'll use him one day BecauseI'm at that point now where
between commercial jobs areflowing into me because of not
only my online reputation butword of mouth from customers I
have.
I had one customer the jobs I doat Presbyterian great guy
washed his house for years.
$300 job over deliver beenawesome, cool, great
(27:04):
conversations.
Thought nothing of it besideslike, hey, that's cool dude.
Now he has a job as like afacility director at a big
university and it's just like,yeah, it's like, just keep it in
the budget and we're good.
So that's just like an openpipeline.
Just because I've been in thegame long, proved myself, he's
like hey, you're trustworthy.
I know you do a great job forme.
Here you go.
So by making thoserelationships with people over
(27:26):
time and like staying on themand being cool, you're opening
yourself up for this.
We just did a downtownGreenville project $3,000, we
made it in like five hours and Ihad a guy doing video there to
working on our marketing.
So it's one of thoseopportunities that came because
we cleaned his buddy's drivewayand he said, oh, you need to
(27:46):
call this guy Matt because hehas like and ask him about his
Corvette.
So it was like I made aconnection with this guy because
he had a Corvette and I have aCorvette and like I wasn't hard
selling him.
Like Clay is saying, like I'mnot over here trying to like oh,
let me pressure wash yourdriveway.
I'm not trying to trade moneyfor time.
Or I'm not trying to trademoney with these people, I'm
over here just trying to be agood person.
(28:07):
And then they remember timecomes for them to have a big
project, hey, you're the firstto call and you never know when
relationships you're making now,a couple of years down the road
, they're going to reach out toyou and be like hey, do you want
to bid on this huge building?
Or, like clay, he's gotrelationships in the car space,
he does a lot of work withdealerships and stuff like that,
and it's like hey, that.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Absolutely Always helps with the summer slumps.
You could always reach out andsay hey, remember that
conversation we had.
But, like I said, I'm not oneof the DIs that's going to hard
sell.
I don't throw the clip flyers,I don't put the yard signs out,
I don't knock on your dooruninvited or any of that mess.
If, in my opinion, if you'rehaving to do all those things,
you're not doing a good enoughjob in your marketing and you're
(29:00):
not creating a good enoughbrand for yourself.
I understand, like when you'restarting out, you got to kind of
do some of that stuff,especially if you want to stay
busy, if you just drop, you justwent straight into this and
you're just looking for word.
But if you're years into thisand you're having to put out
door hangers, you're having todock on doors, on invited,
you're having to solicit you'rehaving to do all these things
(29:28):
that I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
You need to do a better job in coming up with a
marketing plan to keep yourselfbusy.
Boom, that right.
There could be a clip in itself.
People mess up like and and andtoo like, depending on what
phase you're in business.
If you are brand spanking new,like zero to two years, you need
to put in a lot of hustle andyou're going to have a lot of
transactional business, whetherthat be door to door, like
hammering Facebook groups, likeclip flyering, like you said,
you're getting a transactionalsale.
(29:51):
You see these guys on YouTube.
They like go to somebody'shouse, ring their doorbell and
they're going door to door andthey're saying, hey, can I
pressure wash your driveway for$99?
Like, you're gonna have a limitworth how much value people
perceive you by doing thoseactivities.
But if you don't have valuebecause you're a brand new
company and you need to cut yourteeth and need to make your
money, that's a great way to doit.
(30:12):
On the contrary, if you havetons of money say you're later
in life, you're wanting to pullmoney out of a 401k this is like
like your fun project and likehopes of a business.
Yeah, you can dump $50,000 intomarketing and you can get
yourself in front of a ton ofpeople.
So you see this a lot of timeson the Facebook groups too.
(30:32):
These older guys, they can jumpinto something and dump a ton
of money into it and they canget a lot of work.
But we wanna look at that.
How is their brand like?
How is how are people likecoming to them?
Like you can hustle your wayinto things but eventually, like
people will figure out ifyou're a fraud or if you're not
a fraud.
So that's why I like theimportance of hey, like five
(30:55):
years, your business has becomelike a well known brand, a
well-known name.
People are coming up to youLike I could not run any ads and
probably do $300,000 orsomething a year just on, like
maxing out one truck, just onreputation.
But like we choose to grow, wechoose to keep the ball rolling
and all this stuff.
But like you need to assessyourself and like Clay's saying,
(31:16):
if you're a couple of yearsinto business and you're still
relying on, like door to door oryard signs or stuff that's more
in the newbie category, likeyou really need to figure out
how you're working andpositioning your brand and how
people perceive you as a company, because they're probably
viewing you no differently thaneverybody else.
So if you're viewed in the eyesof a customer, it's kind of
(31:38):
spammy.
You're going to be no differentthan the guy, than than the
hundred other guys.
Like, there's so many peoplethat go to door to door and
knock on my customers doors orthrow clip flyers and my
customers call me back andthey're like, yeah, this guy was
trying to solicit pressurewashing, but I already got a guy
and that's exactly how we asthe wash bros, and how you're
trying to do.
(31:58):
That's how you should want todo it, because you're building
that reputation and that brandwhere better jobs come to you
than just hustling somebody.
It's like there's levels to thegame 100% and it's just hard.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
You don't have a great marketing plan.
It's very hard and you're justinconsistent.
So the biggest thing is justtry to be as consistent as you
can be.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yep, and consistency is important too with, just like
, the image of your brand.
You don't want to be all overthe place, because I've been in
this business long enough whereI see guys every six months or
every year.
They're doing somethingcompletely different, they're
changing their brand and to me,as somebody who likes marketing
and branding, I think it looksterrible and if I was a consumer
, I'd be really confused and I'dsay, oh, they're no longer in
(32:42):
business because they are movingaround so much Like keep it
simple, figure out what worksand keep showing up, like Clay
says, every day.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Yeah, and another thing I kind of want to end with
, the biggest thing that I'verun into this year is a lot of
guys they're not doing a goodjob for their customers.
Or when I say good job, they'renot doing a good job for their
customers.
Or when I say good job, they'renot providing the customer
service, they're not showing upor they didn't do that one
little extra thing, or theymessed something up, and I mean
there's so many different thingsthat can go wrong and what
we're doing dealing with iswe're having to deal with the
(33:16):
repercussions of it and it'sturning that customer into
something where they have thatscarcity mindset, where they're
scared to use even a reputablecompany like me and Matt.
Me and Matt have done our job.
We have hundreds of reviewsonline, we have a great online
reputation, we have a lot ofreferences and we're still
getting questions because ofthat one newbie or that one guy
(33:37):
out there that did somethingunintentionally, probably,
probably, but we're having todeal with the repercussions of
it because they didn't ask thequestions to someone that knew
what they were doing.
Maybe, maybe it was an egothing I don't know.
But if you don't know whatyou're doing or you need help
with a customer, you need helpwith your process or just reach
out to us.
I just I've noticed a lot ofthese things.
(33:58):
That's like the guy not showingup at one of Matt's customers
house the other day and Mattended up being there and it just
makes the customer scared.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Like they're just timid, they're, they're scared
of you and and they just theythrow a wall up and it's just
hard to deal with a customeryeah, it is funny because Clay
and I will do big projects andlike we show up and we're like
the customer's freaking out oversome such such a tiny little
thing and I'm like man, we werejust washing a $50 million
building in downtown Greenvilleor Clay's doing dealerships and
(34:28):
there's hundreds of thousands ofdollars of cars surrounding it.
It's like we will not destroyyour plants, don't worry.
It's like we have a lot ofexperience.
We've done many projects where,like, if we didn't know what we
were doing, we wouldn't stillbe in business.
And don't think you're thesmartest guy in the room.
Ask questions, like Clay sayingwe're the.
We have the Wash Bros group onour Facebook it's.
(34:49):
I have notifications on myphone, so like as soon as
somebody posts in there, I seeit.
So if you're on a job andyou're stuck and you want to be
like, what do you?
What should I do here?
What should I do in this?
Make sure, make sure to drop acomment, engage in that group or
, if you haven't joined italready, go and go to the wash
bros on Facebook and join thatgroup.
It's a lot of information inthere and we we kind of share
(35:09):
our day to day updates, so it'sa good group.
If, if you guys want, if you'relike hey, I like to listen to
the show, how do I get in touchwith you?
Go to the wash bros.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Make a post in there and, uh, we'll definitely be on
it pretty quickly.
We're not going to roast you,we're not going to clown you,
we're not going to troll you,like all the other groups that
you're probably in.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Just, you really need help.
Just reach out.
Yep, yeah, we have nothing togain there for for being a troll
, but we're.
We're at that 35 minute markand clay's trying to watch a
race, so yeah, anything else.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Car fan if you're a nice car fan, make sure you
comment below tell me who yourdriver is.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
I'm big into nascar, so heck yeah, but that's
everything on my end.
You got anything clay?
Speaker 2 (35:50):
no, just make sure you follow all of our pages.
Uh, clay smith is my personalpage on facebook.
I see a lot of you guys havealready been following me here
lately.
Um, c3 watch pros llc.
Is my business page.
Uh, the watch bros podcast pageon Facebook.
All the other platforms Spotify, Apple podcast, YouTube, the
whole nine.
Matthew Jackson on his personalpage brand up he's got the
(36:12):
brand up page.
It helps you with branding andstuff like that.
Follow him at the driveway guyLLC.
And.
Uh, join our Facebook group.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Yep, the brand up stuff is kind of cool.
I have my VA.
He helps me post stuff, so justfollow it.
It's a lot of pictures andreels and we try to do helpful
stuff and there's a book as well.
So if you guys just we'retalking about this episode like
work on your brand, work on yourmarketing, figure stuff out,
like just give that page afollow, brand up your business.
(36:45):
It's got tips and tricks andI'm not trying to sell you
anything on any of theseplatforms, because our main
focus is the Matt the drivewayguy, of course.
So we try to build value, buildourselves up in the community
with other things.
And then you got to help outthe wash bros, so that, or you
can go and get the no pressurepressure washing book we have on
Amazon.
It's free If you, if you guyshave Kindle unlimited you want.
The audio book is up there too.
(37:05):
So that's everything for thisepisode.
We hope everybody has a greatweek and make sure to join the
wash bros page and we'll see youon the next one.
(37:29):
You.
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