Pressure Washing Services

Another great area to market as a mobile detailer is in the pressure washing industry. Many detailers forget about this end of the business, but it's very profitable. You are a mobile detailer and that's your main business, but you've already got the equipment on board to do the pressure washing, so why not?

Because the pressure washing business isn't your only source of income you can cherry pick the best jobs and leave the crappy one's to the guys who do that for a living. You can market your services to restaurants to clean off their sidewalks, awnings and dumpster areas. Office buildings to clean sidewalks and lower level walls that get dirty. Another area of pressure washing to consider is graffiti removal, but we address that in more detail in another update article.

In pressure washing you charge by the square foot like your competition, but you can come in lower with just flat rate pricing based on what you believe it will cost to do the job. If you are already loaded-up and trying to find some cars to do because you are slow in the detailing end of the things then it's only a matter of stopping by some businesses and asking about their needs. Most restaurants hire pressure washing businesses on a regular basis. So if you can prove you're insured and you can offer excellent pricing, then you might have a shot and getting some side work.

These businesses will appreciate the fact that this isn't your main line of work as the reason you can charge less. You have to remember many times the low bid is looked at as the low quality unreliable business, so you should explain why you can keep your prices lower than the competition.

Keep in mind also that when I say low prices, I don't mean bottom of the barrel. Many times if you can beat your competition by even 10% you'll get the work simply because of your price. If you look professional with a logo t-shirt uniform, offer solid and concise estimate and contract forms and give them a good price, then you will cover all your bases.

The other important item to remember with pressure washing is that you make sure you don't take enough jobs to kick your total amount of this type of business to over 70% of your total income. If that happens then your insurance company will consider you a pressure washing business instead of a mobile detailer and either drop you or dramatically increase your business liability insurance premiums. Neither of these is a good thing. Insurance companies don't like pressure washing companies and it's hard to insure them, so be careful and watch the income level from that part of the business.

Pressure washing is an easy business which is why everybody with a pick-up truck and a home depot special power washer is now an expert in that industry. Mobile detailing services are much more intricate and a lot more training is necessary to get good at your job. Pressure washing is a matter of pulling a trigger and cleaning things with water pressure and possibly some degreaser if it's dirty. Don't get me wrong, there are things you want to stay away from and leave to the power washing pro's. Things like new concrete that can be scarred and marked, brick cleaning is always easy to damage and large jobs like shopping center sidewalks might look easy but for the price the hours are very long, the work is very labor intensive and overall it generally really sucks. So some jobs you want to leave to the guys who choose to make that their main source of income. You stick to the detailing and pick and choose some profitable side pressure washing jobs to handle and you'll do great!