How to Start a Pressure Washing Business

Posted 2 years ago by Max Komonov

More often than not, when people start a pressure washing company, they don’t consider the steps that come into play in order to guarantee that business’ success. The questions of how to start a pressure washing business ultimately have the same exact answer. There’s more to starting a pressure washing business than buying a pressure washer. In reality, there are many steps that one needs to take if they want to know how to start a pressure washing business that garners success.

Whether you’re wondering how to start a pressure washing business or have already begun to start a pressure washing business, there are a few key things to know in order to guarantee a profitable, lucrative, successful business. This is why we’ve created a step-by-step list of the most imperative facets of building a pressure washer business from the ground up. Yes, you will need more than just a pressure washer and some resolve.

Let’s get started!

Learn How to Pressure Wash Like a Pro

First and foremost, you’ll need to learn how to pressure wash like a pro. Consider how likely someone would be to recommend you if you’d done a terrible job pressure washing their home… it’s probably not very likely.

Learning how to pressure wash properly will not only help you gain experience, it will help you avoid causing damage to the surrounding area as you clean the home. Moreover, you’ll discover whether or not you actually enjoy doing the work! If you hate it, then why would you start a pressure washing business?

Courses & guides

There are many courses and guides available online and at most home goods stores that you can watch, read, and learn from in order to become a great pressure washer. If you own a pressure washer, a good practice would be to read the owner’s manual and then look up some examples of pressure washing online.

After that, practice on your own home, the driveway, fences, patio, cars, etc.

Putting in the leg work

Doing some pressure washing on your own home may not immediately make you an expert, but it will help you gain experience. It’s better to make a fixable mistake on your own property than to damage someone else’s who is paying for your service.

Another option would be to contact a local pressure washing company near you and offer to work for free for a day or two in order to learn and take notes. Whatever the case, at this point at least you will know whether or not you enjoy doing the actual work!

Determine Your Business’ Profitability

You’ll want to know if your pressure washing business can make a profit prior to undergoing all of the necessary steps of branding, legalizing, investing, and marketing your business. Pressure washing businesses can either be incredibly profitable or tank immediately depending on how much time the owner and founder spend or spent on this key step. Essentially, if the money coming in is less than the money going out, your business will fail. You’ll want to calculate your expenditures with your revenue and put them together in order to determine whether or not your business will be profitable.

Expenditures

There’s a big reason why so many startup companies operate within the digital realm or industry of software — they have minimal upfront cash requirements.

However, pressure washing businesses, which are based on services, require significantly more capital to start. The four main upfront costs which you’ll have to pay for include:

power washing gear
insurance costs
customer acquisition costs
and costs of transportation.

In addition, there are also ongoing fuel, maintenance, and marketing costs. Be sure to research these costs prior to enacting a business or marketing plan.

Revenue

The concept of this business is pretty simple: you make money by pressure washing for paying customers.

The price you charge for your services should not only be competitive, but they should also earn you a profit considering all of the upfront costs that go into starting a pressure washing business.

After determining a price for your services, and how many potential customers you will have in the first few months, continue your calculations and formulate a business plan that can measure your success. Remember, the goal is to make a profit, not to scrape by.

Legalize Your Pressure Washing Business

You will need the proper licensing, insurance, and permits in order to avoid court or going bankrupt if you damage a customer’s property or even harm the customer themselves by accident. Be sure to contact your city licensing office or county clerk’s office to find out the requirements in your area since requirements vary from state to state.

The following documents are normally required in order to legally own and operate a pressure washing business:

business license
bond
contractor permit
environmental permit
sales tax registration
liability insurance
workers compensation
and equipment insurance.

You should also consider joining voluntary pressure washing associations to be surrounded by a network of those in your industry. Again, it is vital to obtain the proper documentation prior to starting a pressure washing business.

Marketing Your Pressure Washing Business

Once you have gained some experience, determined your profitability, branded your business, and obtained the proper documentation, it’s time to start marketing your pressure washing business. Granted, there are thousands of ways to market a business. However, you’ll want to consider the most effective method and/or platform from which you can entice customers.

Consider that your business operates locally, and services locals. The locals you will be providing services for will mostly and undoubtedly be homeowners. With this in mind, a relationship based on community must be backed by trust. No one is going to hire a business that they don’t trust. To start, be sure to craft a marketing strategy that focuses heavily on things that older, professional homeowners use every day such as their email, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

You’ll essentially want to create copy and messages that hit home with the locals by using keywords like local, professional, experienced, etc. More often than not, it’s best practice to consult with a third-party marketing company to generate new leads, and follow up yourself with those with whom you have just done work.

However, before you begin this process, you’ll need a website!

Are You Ready to Start a Pressure Washing Business?

Not only will you need a website to serve as the face of your business, but you’ll also want customers new and old to be able to interact with it via different pages for info, blogs, updates, etc. It’s also important to track data analytics for the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

Luckily, all of this and more are available on Ecwid, probably the easiest ecommerce platform on the internet.

About The Author

Max has been working in the ecommerce industry for the last six years helping brands to establish and level-up content marketing and SEO. Despite that, he has experience with entrepreneurship. He is a fiction writer in his free time.