We’re at the end of the year, and what a ride it has been! With our current workload, it feels like we’re going to scream into the finish line of 2022 with our tires busted, sparks flying from our rims, and thick black smoke pouring from our engine. But I can’t complain; I love being this busy this late into the year. And the reason for that is what I want to talk about today: services beyond window cleaning. Our clients use many companies to help them maintain their properties, and the fewer phone calls and appointments they need to make, the happier they will be. And the more of those services you can provide, the more money you make. This is easy math, and that’s my favorite kind. But what kind of services can you offer your clients as a window cleaner? Some are much more obvious than others, but you may consider adding a few additional services that require a new skill set, are well worth the time to learn, and can be integrated quite easily into your window cleaning business model. Here are a few of my favorites:
Many of you might already offer pressure and soft washing service, which has become an increasingly popular add-on for many window cleaners for many years. This is a service where you already have a foot in the door with your window cleaning client and can quickly turn your average residential clean into a high invoice house wash. You can keep it simple and offer basic washing services. It is fairly easy to learn, but I highly suggest you take the time to do so. The amount of damage you can do with a pressure washer in a short time is…. impressive. If you’d like to further your training and your scale, you can get into more intensive services like oxidation removal, large-scale commercial cleaning, or parking lot services.
Gutter cleaning is another easy service for us squeegee slingers to get into, and just like washing services, many of you already do. I’d be willing to bet that most of you who’ve decided against adding gutter cleaning have based at least part of that decision on the fact that gutter cleaning stinks. Literally! It can be gross, sloppy, and dangerous work. But gutter vacuum systems have come a very long way in recent years. A gutter vac system can be pricy at first, but I’m sure that any of you who’ve been cleaning with a water-fed pole system understand what I mean when I say that when the system is used to its full potential, it’s easy to justify and recoup the expense. Gutter cleaning is a big one for us this time of year, and admittedly, I’m still doing my cleaning the old-school way. But these old-school bones are very much looking forward to buying my own gutter vac system before the next fall.
The next couple of services I’d like to mention are still very easy to integrate into your window cleaning company, but not nearly as many window cleaners seem to offer these. Glass restoration service and window film installation can be very lucrative. Glass restoration is something that I myself haven’t added, but the brains I’ve picked about it all agree that if you develop your skill, you can pretty much write your own ticket with this service. But window film is very near and dear to my heart. Like any other service, this will require a new skill set to succeed. One thing you must consider if you decide to get into film installation is something that many of us might not be fully familiar with, including inventory management and the cost of goods sold. Many of us are only used to selling our time. For the most part, any of the services I’ve mentioned above only cost us the amount of time involved and our supplies and chemicals that frankly don’t add up to much in the per-job sense.
But window film will require you to stock several options, and waste can be a profit killer. You’ll need to learn how to measure and cut efficiently from your rolls of film, and you’ll want to strive to become as ‘perfect’ as possible. If you mess up cleaning a window, you just need to clean it again. If you mess up filming a window, you just wasted product. Your skill level can differ between a significant profit or a struggle to break even. On the topic of film, security film has been gaining in popularity for several years and is something to consider. This is huge for storefronts and has also been picking up steam in the residential market. Security film is a product designed to drastically slow entry during a burglary or smash-and-grab. Many of the same skills required to do solar or decorative window film well apply here, but I felt it was worth mentioning on its own because there are some key differences. Security film is thicker, heavier, and much harder to cut than solar or decorative film. And if this film isn’t anchored to the frame, which is most commonly done with a wet glaze, its useless. So, plan on developing impeccable caulking skills or budgeting in a subcontractor for this part if you want to be successful with security film. 
That’s the list of my favorite add-ons, but this rabbit hole goes deeper than what I’ve laid out. Holiday lighting, landscaping, junk removal, and many property maintenance services run quite well with the systems you already have in place. Do some homework and see what you may want to add for yourself.
Shameless plug time: Maybe none of those interest you and you’d like to get crazy like me and start something completely different? I’ve had a lifelong passion for art and all things nerdy. So I decided to take my grandma’s advice. No, not the grandma that told be that investing in 90’s internet company stocks would set me up for life, but the one who told me I should do something with my art. SO here I go, giving it a full swing. If you grew up in the 80s or 90s, if you love taking shots at pop culture or if you’ve ever just wondered what He-Man or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would look like as window cleaners, do me a favor and head over to dopesqueegeetees.com and buy something, will ya?
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