Building a business is always exciting, no matter what type of business it is, but it is a complicated issue where you need to deal with a bunch of things to get the business going and start earning money after investing your bunch of hard-earned money.
One of the most popular business types nowadays is the pressure washing business because it doesn’t need a lot of capital money to start, and if you like buildings and cleaning, pressure washing could be a fun business to do with a lot of revenue coming in.
According to Jobber, pressure washing industry has grown 5.7% per year on average between 2018 and 2023 in the U.S.
So if your goal is to start a pressure washing business and get into the business of cleaning stuff with powerful pressure washers, this article will seek to talk about the steps to take to start a pressure washing business and what you need in general from costs to documents to make it legal.
Things to do Before Starting a Pressure Washing Business
Before starting a pressure washing business here are some things that you should do:
1. Learning About Pressure Washers
The very first and most important thing that you need to be aware of and follow through on is a type of pressure washers.
You need to know what it is you can use, how you can use it, and know their types so that you don’t damage any of potential clients’ objects or buildings.
After you learn about pressure washers, this will also help you to make the right choice when you are buying your equipment.
Once you learn all about these washers, you also need to learn how to use them.
You can do this by watching courses on the internet on YouTube or actually taking courses, or borrowing a friend’s pressure washer and using it on your buildings or objects first until you master it.
You can also work for a pressure washing business for some time to learn how they work.
2. The Money You Need
A question that everyone asks before starting any business is the money you need to get the ball running and make profits.
With the pressure washing business, the money you need solely depends on the equipment you want to have, how quality you want to go, and whether you are going to stick to the basics or you are going to have additional equipment to support additional pressure washing business like different nozzles to your pressure washer.
There are many things to consider. Do your own due diligence, and create a plan of the things you need, like pressure washers, a van to carry around the stuff, maybe an office, or anything that you are going to need to get your business rolling.
This will give you an estimated number of the money you need.
How To Start A Pressure Washing Business?
If you want to start your pressure washing business, then here is an easy step-by-step guide on how you can do this:
1. Create a Business Plan
Create a business plan by including specifics of your business. This will act as a roadmap for you to refer to. A business plan will also help you identify opportunities and eliminate hurdles. Here’s what all things your business plan should include:
- Executive summary
- Market research
- Company description
- Management and operational structure
- Marketing and sales strategy
- Product/Service description
- Financial projections
While forming your business plan, thin.
2. Set up Pressure Washing Business
Once you have a business plan mapped out for you, now it’s time to take action!
To set up your pressure washing business, you will need to think about a relevant business name and get it registered. After this, you will need to obtain the necessary license and permits. Here’s how you can choose to register your business to form a legal entity:
- Partnership
- C Corporation
- Sole proprietorship
- Limited Liability Company (LLC)
- S Corporation
Remember the kind of business structure you choose will affect your business and its liability.
When you are taking action, the first thing to do is to be legal. You need to create a legal entity, possibly an LLC so that you can buy the products under your company’s name and bill your clients under a legal entity rather than doing it personally.
This could also give you tax benefits when billing customers and over or under a certain amount of income, depending on the type of company you create and the state you are living in. Consult with a lawyer to start the process of creating a legal entity for your new business.
3. Insurance
There are different types of insurance, and you need to have at least three different types of insurance for your business to make sure that you are not liable for anything that happens during the job.
You need to have liability insurance to cover any damage that you may cause while cleaning; workers compensation to make sure that if anything happens to others during the job, they have coverage; and equipment insurance to cover if something happens to your equipment like if someone steals them or some insurances also cover any technical damage to the equipment.
You need to make sure whether you need additional insurance apart from these if you bought some other things to your legal entity either physically or on paper to enhance your services to your clients.
4. Open your Business Bank Account
The next step now is to open a separate business account. Do not skip this step, as it is very important to separate your business account from your personal one.
This helps you in tracking and managing your finances, helps with income tax filing, tracking profit, etc., among other things.
5. Advertising
The last thing after setting everything up is to get clients on board.
To do this, you need to do some good advertising to attract potential clients to your company and get the ball rolling.
You can take a look at many different formats of advertising, from fliers to social media advertising.
You can work with a marketing specialist to talk about these details and let them do the work for you to get clients on board with good advertising. To do the marketing yourself, here are 4 Ways To Get More Pressure Washing Leads.
However, you need to choose the right way because you need local clients, and it is not as broad as advertising your business to the entire world.
This is rather easy, but you need some concrete and better advertising campaigns to reach out to the potential clients within the area you can go and do the service.
Things You Need To Start A Pressure Washing Business
Is Starting a Pressure Washing Business Worth it?
Starting a pressure washing business might be a good idea for you as there is a demand for pressure washing in almost all areas.
The best part is that you can start this business with a low investment and expand it over time as you get more and more clients.
Also, if your client likes your service, then you will get repeated business from them.
Another advantage of starting a pressure washing business is that you do not need a team for it initially or a degree and can start it singlehandedly.
All things considered, we think that starting a pressure washing business is worth it.
How Much Investment Do I Need to Start a Pressure Washing Business?
The best thing about starting a Pressure Washing business is that it does not require you to put in a lot of money as compared to other businesses. You can start a pressure washing business for as low as $10,000. Some things that you will need in order to get started are:
- Pressure washer
- Nozzles
- Surface cleaners
- Engines
- Pumps
- Chemicals, etc.
Depending on whether you choose to buy these new or second-hand, the cost for these supplies will range from $2,000-$25,000. Apart from this, you will also need a vehicle, and if you do not have extra space, then you will have to rent out space which will cost you between $500-$2,500 monthly. Insurance, permits, and license will cost you $500 upfront.
Now as far as marketing is concerned, some companies spend thousands of dollars each month on it. But since you are just starting out, you can expect to spend $200-$400 per month on it, and so on.
The Verdict
To conclude, starting up a pressure washing business is actually not that easy; it requires a lot of time of research even before you start doing something for real.
You need to know a lot of stuff about pressure washing and pressure washers and figure out how much you need as an estimate before you start the process, and make sure you have the finances for it.
After deciding and learning about all this, you need to create a legal entity followed by getting insurance to cover your equipment, your clients, and your workers when you start hiring people.
Once you do all this, the last step is to start your advertising to get clients, which is one of the hardest parts of starting up a business, no matter what the niche is.
Pressure washing is a fun business to do if you get everything right and make sure you know all of it in detail.
FAQ
How to get clients for your pressure washing business?
There are many ways in which you can get a pressure washing business. You can:
- Go door-to-door and distribute the template.
- Give an ad in the newspaper.
- Create a website.
- Create a social media page.
- Do online advertising.
How can I scale my Pressure Washing business?
Once you start getting many clients for your pressure washing business, now you can purchase more equipment and hire people to work for you. As you keep getting more and more clients, you can hire more people to work for you and scale your business.
How profitable can a Pressure Washing business be?
A successful pressure washer can make $25,000 to over $60,000 annually independently. And if you hire a team and cater to more clients, then you can make four to five times this amount. All in all, a mid-size pressure washing business easily makes $100,000 to $200,000 a year.
Amit Gupta is the founder of National Planning Cycles, a company that helps startups, individuals, and small businesses with their financial planning. He has a vast amount of experience in the finance sector, having managed Google Play accounts for some of the world’s most successful unicorns. Amit is an expert in his field, and he uses his knowledge to help others achieve their individual goals.