How to Start a Pressure Washing Business – A Step-by-Step Guide

The global market for pressure washers is around 1.8 billion, and it is expected to reach around $3 billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of more than 3%, according to CISION PR Newswire.

Looking at this number, if you have made up your mind to start your own pressure washing business with lower startup costs and high-profit margins, then this is the perfect timing.

But, you might wonder where to initiate, the costing parameters, and which equipment to purchase. Well, don’t worry. This article is for you.

We have come up with a complete guide on how to start a pressure washing business from scratch. Also, we have highlighted the top tips that will make you clear about starting a new business.

Why is Starting a Pressure Washing Business Worth It?

As the global pressure washer business has tremendous growth scope and will grow by $3 billion by 2024. The good thing is that starting a business allows you to develop a great relationship with your clients, and they will contact you every time they need your pressure washing services. Thus, establishing customer loyalty is easy.

Making money with the pressure washing business is easy, all thanks to the low startup cost and favorable pricing. In the beginning, you can expect to earn between $40,000 and $50,000 per year.

Moreover, you don’t have to train extensively to qualify or earn a degree to pressure clean. You need basic business management skills and a few tools, and you are ready to follow your passion.

How to Start a Pressure Washing Business Step-by-Step?

Step 1: Learn How to Pressure Wash Like a Pro

Pressing washing demand for right skills and experience, as one wrong blast from your washer’s jet can damage your clients’ property. 

So, to ensure that you don’t make such mistakes, you need the proper knowledge, pressure washing skills, and experience. 

You can choose a pressure washing business course or get on-the-job experience by working for another company. The other alternative is that you can seek online help like YouTube or another tutorial channel to learn about how to pressure like a pro.

Step 2: Research and Create a Pressure Washing Business Plan

Developing a good and solid business plan helps you discover the specifics of your business and discover the unknown in your business, allowing you to maximize profit and eliminate the bottleneck. 

Here is some essential key component of a solid business plan

1. Executive summary

   The executive summary includes some of the main components of planning a business, like the purpose of your business and your mission statement. How will you define success for your business?

2. Overview

   Provide the complete background information, legal formality, and critical business components.

3. Industry analysis

   Do market research and outline the finding. See the size of the pressure washing industry in your area and the level of opportunity.

4. Competitive analysis

   Analyze your competitive market and see what your competitor is doing, what’s their weakness and strength, and how you differentiate your business from others.

5. Marketing strategy

   What is your marketing strategy? And how will you reach your potential customer?

6. Management

   What considers yourself a pressure business owner? Why do you run the business, and what’s your unique selling point.

7. Operation plan

   This section includes a detail-oriented plan of your day-to-day operation. How will you run your job site, will you hire a staff, and how much will your business cost and all.

Step 3: Get Your Pressure Washing Equipment

Now you have a ready-to-execute business plan, but if you do not have the right equipment for your pressure washing business, it will be hard for you to get success in business. When it comes to equipment, you can buy or rent. And if you have just started renting, it is the best option.

Here is the equipment you’ll need:

• High-powered pressure washer
• High-pressure and low-pressure hoses
• Angled tips
• Nozzles
• Surface cleaners
• Water inlets
• X-jet
• Sewer jetters
• Dual lance
• Reels
• Vehicle (van or truck)
• Soaps and chemicals

Step 4: Set Up Your Pressure Washing Business

When it comes to setting up the pressure washing business, it takes a lot of dedication and proper licensing. You have to choose the name of your business and acquire the correct license, permit, and insurance. Let’s discuss all these things in detail.

1. Choose your business name & open a business bank account

   Select an attractive and relevant name for your pressure washing business and buy a domain name to compete in the market. Later open a separate business bank account to keep your personal and business expenses separate.

2. Register your pressure washing business

   Registering your business is essential to running it successfully. It will provide you with many legal benefits, such as tax relief and personal liability protection. 

   Here are the four business structure

   • Sole Proprietorship
   • Partnership
   • C Corporation
   • S Corporation
   • Limited Liability Company (LLC)

3. Get a business license

   Getting a business license is another essential need to launch your business. A business license is something that small business owners do not have to worry about. It is easy to acquire.

4. Get insurance

   The insurance is for the protection of you and your employees. A pressure washing business is such a business where a washer’s forceful spray could easily damage the siding on a home or even cause an injury. 

   This is the reason why insurance is essential. It helps you pay for legal expenses, medical bills, and repair costs.

Step 5: Decide Your Pressure Washing Services Pricing

After you learn how to start a pressure washing business, setting your prices for your pressure washing jobs is an important decision you will make for a successful power washing business. It will help you maximize productivity while maintaining a good relationship with the customer. 

Having a good pressure washing business means figuring out how much you can charge for your service. The cost of running a pressure washing business can be high.

You may have to pay for things like staff, equipment, and insurance in the long run. It is called “overhead.” It will be hard to make money if you charge less than $50 an hour. Your operating costs will eat away at your cash. Most people spend between $185 and $380 on a pressure wash for their home.

Step 6: Launch Your Business

Now, that you have done everything from planning to equipment to deciding the pricing of your pressure washing business, it’s time to launch your business. However, when it comes to launching, it is not enough to just start a business; if you want your business to be successful. 

You need to take steps to plan and execute a well-timed, memorable launch that will bring your product to the attention of more people in more locations.

Here are the three innovative, strategic, and most of all effective to boost pressure washing businesses.

1. Leverage your network

   Promote your business first and foremost on a free channel that is already available to you, like your personal social media account and your sending email to your contact list. It can go a long way in gaining traction.

2. Consider offering a discount

   Rewarding early customers with a deal that fits your profit margin can help you gain traction early.

3. Test paid ads

   Even if you start with a small budget, paid ads can be one of the most effective ways to get in front of your ideal audience. Testing early and learning from your results can help you drive your first few sales and optimize your ad performance as you scale.

Step 7: Use Service Scheduling Software to Schedule and Dispatch Jobs

A pressure washing business that uses outdated tools to run back-office operations makes it hard for customers to book their jobs. Customers will have to contact the back-office team to set up a meeting time. People who need to know more about their service requests have to call the back-office team.

Out-of-date tools like spreadsheets and online forms make things even more confusing. At that time, an all-in-one power washing business software like FieldCamp helps your company to automate daily operations and streamline your entire business. You will be able to plan and schedule tasks that escalate the productivity and profits of your pressure washing business. 

Moreover, using software, you can track your team of technicians and assign jobs with a single click. All you can do is digitize your entire operations so that you can give more attention to how to grow your business.

How to Market Your Pressure Washing Business to Get More Customers

To market your business effectively, word-of-mouth and customer referrals are the best options that help you enhance the traffic to your company. Additionally, you can even do the marketing on your own.

You can even build a responsive mobile application that quickly demonstrates your handyman business operations.

1. Build a Simple Website

   People use search engines to find anything they need. Hence, creating an online presence by building a website is an excellent step for advertising. The website doesn’t have to be anything fancy. You are good to go as long as your consumers know what home repair services you offer, at what price, and at what hours. Ensure that the website is mobile-friendly since most users search the web from a phone.

   Hence, creating an online presence by building a website is an excellent step for advertising.

2. Social Media Marketing

   Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have become commonplace for marketing your business. Nowadays, people spend 30% of their time online on social media. Hence, it is an excellent opportunity for your business growth, and you should capitalize on it.

   Create a page for your business on these major social networking sites and free job listing sites, and keep posting regularly. You could post updates about your work, video testimonials from clients, tutorials and DIY projects, and even social issues in your locality. Doing this gives the clients a glimpse of how you conduct business. Also, you can share your business cards with customers.

   You can use vehicle signage for low-cost marketing efforts to help customers view your business operation on running vehicles. Such marketing efforts help even if the vehicle is parked near your house and the neighbors ask about the work quality.

3. Testimonials

   Customer testimonials are one of the most effective ways to market small businesses. They boost your company’s reputation and help build trust amongst your consumers. Hence, next time you service a client, request them to provide a testimonial. They can also leave an online review.

   You can compile a book of testimonials or put them up in your office. Thank them for their feedback, and resolve any problems if it arises. It is also essential that you address any negative reviews of your consumers. Take immediate action to rectify the situation.

   It will create an impression among your customers that you care about their opinions and the services they get.

Ready to Start Your Own Pressure Washing Business?

The power washing business nowadays is involved in enhancing the customer base by delivering the best cleaning services.

We have seen the step-by-step guide through which you can include the necessary metrics in your marketing plan. Starting from deciding your business plan to target market your brand, everything is included to enhance your business growth to a great extent.

Now, when it comes to managing your pressure washing company, It is hard to control the field workforce with outdated field service software. Then an ideal power washing business software like FieldCamp, a field service scheduling software, allows you to create and manage the task for your cleaners. 

This software solution helps you efficiently automate your pressure washing business operations and enhance your business productivity. To know how it helps your business, start your FREE trial today.