Ah. The wonders and joys of door to door.
We’ve all been there.
Looking at your bank account and thinking “shit, I can’t spend any money on ads, equipment, or even gas to get to my next job”
Maybe not you, but for me when I first started those were my exact thoughts.
Door to door was pretty much my only option.
Even with being a somewhat competent marketer at the time ALL my ads at the time fell flat. I had 19 clicks from my first pressure washing ad campaign and got exactly 0 jobs and $80 bucks down the drain.
So I did what most folks do, I shut off the ads in frustration and hit the pavement. With my trusty 2.3 GPM Ryobi I printed out some basic fliers and got to walking the closest neighborhood.
I still remember that first cold February day.
But by whatever miracle I actually got my first job on my 3rd door knock! 3 hour driveway job and a whopping $120 later I had the crispy feeling of success.
“I don’t need ads! Door to door is awesome!”
The next day I repeated the process and got a $400 job this time. “Holy crap, this is sweet- I just made more in a day than my dad, or 2 weeks at my old job.”
I did this for the next few days and made some more money with several more jobs.
But then something happened.
I ran out of houses in that neighborhood.
Frantically I drove around town where all the nice houses were, checking Zillow on which neighborhoods had the most money.
And NOTHING for 3 days of hours each day driving and walking around. I felt completely defeated.
I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working!
Right at this time I went out of town for a week with some friends- all this time thinking that I was back to square one and that pressure washing wasn’t a good business. It’s crazy how much your confidence can fluctuate based on success in the moment.
But wait! As soon as we got back in town I received a text from someone I had left a flier at weeks earlier. “Hey I need my driveway cleaned, when can you do it?”
Its amazing how nice $300 dollars feels in your hand after having no success for a while.
With this money I not only had proof of concept- that people wanted my service, but also I had some money to INVEST in myself and business.
I quickly bought a $97 Facebook ads course from a company I knew and liked, and while looking back the information seems basic, at the time it was like discovering fire.
I learned how these guys spent $1 and generated $2,$3,$5 or more back for every ad they ran.
It doesn’t take a calculus teacher to see the possibilities here!
All you need is a product or service that people want, and as long as you can get your offer in front of your ideal customer that is willing to buy, the rest doesn’t matter.
As soon as I internalized this I got to work.
I started running facebook ads, and testing as much as I could.
I even started being the dreaded “$99 dollar guy” (god have mercy on my soul) doing 4 hour driveways for $99 bucks, much ti the chagrin and hate of surrounding pressure washing business. (Ignore the haters, block them and move on, trust me)
And with about the same numbers of $20 – $30 per customer I made a few bucks. The success was on its way!
Now at this point I had a key component of business. MOMENTUM. As much as I talk now about being selective about jobs and charging high, if you are just getting started or have ZERO momentum, take the first job you can. Its really important to have the confidence that booking jobs brings.
Once you figure things out a bit more, THEN you can be more picky and take only well paying jobs.
Then comes the fun part. As I got more jobs, messages, and phone calls I started doing bigger jobs. I even was able to hire my buddy for $20 an hour, letting us both enjoy our spring and summer hustling but AT OUR OWN FREE PACE.
If you’ve never made money for yourself, I tell you its one of the best feelings in the world.
Even with some of the shittiest roofs, occasional crappy customer, rain, slipping of a roof, Ill take the freedom any day of the week.
All it took was learning HOW to leverage Facebook ads and start charging what the market demanded, and we had a very successful business on our hands.
Click here to read my other post about running profitable Facebook ads
Or even better take a look over my shoulder by downloading my Free FB Ad secrets Mini course HERE.
Keep hustling,
– Spencer