[00:00:06] Taylor Lund: Hey everyone. Welcome to Home Service headquarters today we are super excited to bring in Andy PAs from PAs Window Cleaning to the podcast. If you’ve ever wondered if starting your own business was possible, Andy has some encouragement for you. He started his own window cleaning business eight years ago with no background, no experience, nothing but a drive to learn and succeed.

And here we are. Eight years later, his business is thriving. He’s enjoying being his own boss, and him and his wife have nearly 400 YouTube videos documenting their journey and helping people like you learn how to start, run, and grow your own home service business. You are going to love it. Welcome to Home Service headquarters.

Welcome everybody. Today we have Andy Paz of Paz Window Cleaning. We’ve been working a ton together this year, and Paz has been our go-to for information for all things window cleaning or window washing. You can check out his channel PAs window cleaning, LLC. On YouTube and follow along as he takes you on his $100,000 Journey 100 K journey where he is hustling towards $100k in sales this year.

Welcome to the show Pass. Well, thank you so much for having me. Yeah, we’re so excited. Um, you’ve been just such an awesome source of information for us this year is we ask you questions about your business and how you got started. Um. Where you’re going and the a hundred k journey that you’re taking your followers, uh, on has been so fun to watch.

Um, how did that idea pop into your head?

[00:01:54] Andy Paz: So I’m gonna say this really briefly. It almost didn’t happen, if you can believe it. No. Yeah. So, uh, easy answer. My wife and I, uh, we started a YouTube channel last year and, uh, we were just thinking like of ways to like try to have like more regular content because.

There’s only so many ways you can actually clean a window, right? So it’s not like you can’t clean a window a thousand times, just, you know, pretty much, it’s kind of the same technique. So my wife was like, well, at the end of last year she was like, well, why don’t we have a new like segment of like a hundred K journey?

Like, ’cause we were looking at our finances and kind of like, okay, is this doable? Can we reach it? And so we said, all right, let’s just put a hundred k kind of to see how it goes. And. Uh, it’s, is it doable? Absolutely. But let’s just see, you know, the journey of how it is to make it to a hundred k and then.

From there. Yeah, it was like a night before. I was just thinking to myself, I was like, man, I don’t know if I wanna put that out there. You know, it’s like, to a certain degree, it’s kind of personal, right? Yeah. You kind of wanna like have your own business and everything. People can start judging you, you know, all the things that come associated to that.

Uh, but ended up being like, you know what, uh, let’s just end up doing it. My wife was like, no, do you know, let’s just keep going. Um, and yeah, almost last minute canceled it, but she’s like, let’s do it. So we ended up doing it and ever since then, I am like, happy to say that I’m glad that we did not not do it because it was, it’s been an awesome journey meeting you guys and also meeting like other window cleaners in the area and, uh, it is just.

I just don’t see myself like stopping, but let’s see what the future holds.

[00:03:29] Taylor Lund: That’s so cool. And it’s so cool ’cause you already had people on your channel where you were teaching them, um, a lot about business but also a lot about window cleaning as a whole. And now you’re, you’re kind of opening a window into your life and your own personal business.

Yeah. Um, which, you know, that’s scary ’cause it can include some ups and downs and some. Goods and bads. And in a, a industry like window cleaning, um, some busy seasons where you’re feeling like a rock star and then some slow seasons where you’re questioning everything about your life and if you’re doing things right, um, unless they have someone like you where they can say, oh no, like, that’s actually normal.

Um, ’cause I followed someone else on their journey and, and it was okay for them.

[00:04:12] Andy Paz: No, that’s, yeah, that’s a really good point. Yeah, like when I first started, I didn’t actually have any guidance and that’s, I mean, it’s, it’s kind of like I want to be that person that ultimately, you know, it’s my journey. Sure.

But at the same time, anyone can do it. Um, and, uh, I just wanna be that person, hopefully, that when someone watches my channel, they really see that it’s like a legit thing. It’s not like a scam, like, Hey, I, I knocked on X amount of doors and made $20,000 in a month. It’s like, you know, is that really realistic?

You know, type of thing. So, um, but at least to show like a real perspective that it’s not easy, like you were saying. It’s hard, uh, at some points easy at others, but other times, but. Most importantly is just, that’s part of the journey, right? You’re gonna have, uh, yeah. The big season you have to save for until the end of the year where, you know, you don’t have maybe, or the, the beginning of the year, I should say, because January through March doesn’t have a lot of work.

Then you have a little bit of savings, you know, don’t blow off all your money. And then from there you’re like, Hey, you know, now we have this, you know, load up our credit cards, but, uh, and save for

[00:05:12] Taylor Lund: taxes.

[00:05:13] Andy Paz: Yeah. Especially that too. So yeah, it’s a lot of things in between. But yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s, uh. It’s, I just wanna be that person to hopefully help others and inspire others to, you know, be a window cleaner and, uh, you know, progress in their business.

[00:05:27] Taylor Lund: Yeah. So you, you mentioned that a little bit. So this, this wasn’t, you were, uh. Thinking about, uh, being a window cleaner, ever since you hit adulthood from the time you were 12 on, you knew what you were gonna do. Um, how did you decide to get into window cleaning? Is there a story there?

[00:05:44] Andy Paz: Yeah. Um, it’s kind of like a very, let’s put it this way, the, all the stars aligned.

Let’s just put it that way. Yeah. Um, I, uh, my dad wanted me to be an architect. Um, and uh, fair and back in the two, early two thousands, the economy kind of crashed and everything. So Archite not a good archite for

[00:06:01] Taylor Lund: architects.

[00:06:03] Andy Paz: Exactly. And uh, in one of my classes too, I interviewed an architect and, um, he was even telling me that.

His own company is like laying off a lot of people. And so he says, I strongly recommend do not get in this field because you know, I can have a job now, but tomorrow maybe not, type of thing. Wow. Yeah. Um, fortunately today he always kept his job, so I’m happy to say that on his end. Kidding.

[00:06:24] Taylor Lund: That’s not true for everybody.

Yeah, I know. Um, yeah, I know of people that that was the time where they actually switched industries because. Um, while they were very skilled, they, there just weren’t openings. Mm-hmm. Um, for several years. It was hard to get back into ’cause so many companies reduced their employee count.

[00:06:45] Andy Paz: Yeah. Yeah.

Fortunate

[00:06:46] Taylor Lund: that he kept his job and is still in the industry.

[00:06:50] Andy Paz: Yeah. Yeah. And I think even to this day, I don’t think they, or maybe earlier it’s fine, but like back then it was more like he didn’t have, there was not a lot of like recruitments and stuff. So in reality, even if I were to get the job, you know, or try to get the job, I wouldn’t get the job type of thing.

Right. Yeah. Uh, but, uh, yeah, no. Um, so from there I kind of didn’t know what I wanted to do. Um, you know, I graduated high school and everything, and. At that point, it was kind of like, okay, what do I do next? And so, um, I wanted to kind of go to school for business. At least have that as a foundation. Uh, so I went to school for business, uh, small business.

I took some classes in high school too. Um, and from there I didn’t know really what I wanted at that point. And, uh, while I was going to school, uh, fortunately my, my, uh, family was able to like, support me, you know, be like, Hey, just focus on school. We’ll take care of you. Of course. I wasn’t living a L, let’s call a very luxury, yeah, luxury lifestyle or anything.

It was very minimal, you know, very basic, you know, just the necessities and all that. Um, so I was very fortunate in that end. Uh, but um, I still wanted to at least try to find work, you know, try to say like, you know, what do I, what can I do? So I applied to like Trader Joe’s. I applied to Inn Outs,

[00:08:02] Taylor Lund: Minnesota.

I don’t think guys I’ve, I’ve been, but yeah, we don’t have ’em here in Minneapolis.

[00:08:07] Andy Paz: Okay. Uh, but so I applied to these places thinking like, you know, this will be a good foundation to like apply what I’m learning in school. To also try to like, you know, grow a little bit in myself, you know how to work with others and all this other stuff.

Long story short, none of them ever hired me, and I was kind of like bummed out by that. And so a buddy of mine, uh, from Houston, Texas, ended up actually starting his own window cleaning business. And so I was kind of like, I’m sorry. I said, all right, uh, maybe I should put the, the speaker louder. But, um, but yeah, so I was kind of just like, okay, that’s something as a possibility.

And so, um, a friend of mine was like, Hey, Andy, like what are you gonna do? Like after you graduate, uh, college? You know, like, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna do something or what? And so at that point I was kind of like, you know, I might get into window cleaning, you know, and it was just, it literally was like in that same week that I saw him opening up his business.

And she was just like, oh, well you wanna do my windows? And I’m like, I’ve never done window cleaning before. You know, I’ve never seen any YouTube videos. I didn’t see any of this. I just saw my friend said, Hey, mop and squeegee, I’m starting a window cleaning.

[00:09:15] Taylor Lund: I was like, okay.

[00:09:16] Andy Paz: So, uh, she’s like, no, no, don’t worry.

And I even told her, I don’t know how the price or anything like that, and she was like, just practice on my house. And then afterwards you let me know what you think it’s worth, right? And I was like, man, you know, I, I dunno how the charger. So I ended up going to her house and she had the smallest windows.

So they’re called French windows. They’re like about this size. Right. And we counted her windows and she has 1,250 windows. Yeah. So what the first job? Yeah. Right. And it was two stories at some point, and like half the house was like two stories. And uh, she wanted inside and out. So became 2,500 windows.

And so I can say like after that job, it became a professional kind of, right. If I mess up on one window, I still have 2000 more to go. But uh, yeah, ever since then, um, then um, I was kind of like, well, I bought some of the tools. You know, I went to Home Depot bought like the most basic stuff and uh, got a ladder to get the second story windows.

Ended up then going like that same block, going to the door to door. And then from there I got a couple of jobs. And then from there, word of mouth. And from there was kind of like at that point like, hey, like this is something that is, you know, potential, you know, this is something I’m applying to work, no one’s hiring, you know, even though I’ve gotten.

I went to like, I don’t know how many Trader Joe’s that I went to because I went to multiple, not just one in and out, same thing. And, but yet now I’m actually getting paid to do something here. And then from there, the rest is history, I guess.

[00:10:46] Taylor Lund: Wow. That’s such a cool story, and I mean. Man, you just went for it.

You had a buddy said, I’m doing it. And then all of a sudden you jumped right into the deep end. That’s amazing. Yeah.

[00:10:57] Andy Paz: Well, I mean, it was just, I mean, she kind of pushed me to it, you know, my friend and she really took a chance on me because, you know, I mean, this is not a simple job, you know, and she really supported me and, uh, I, to this day, we’re really, we’re like family friends and yeah.

You know, it’s just nice to be able to, you know, do their windows, but at the same time, still keep that, you know, friendship and all that. Um, yeah, even to this day, I always say to her all the time, like, man, thank you so much. Because if it wasn’t for that job, you know, I don’t know if I would’ve still been going to school trying to figure out maybe do something else or, you know.

Yeah. No retiring.

[00:11:33] Taylor Lund: That’s, um, I, that’s actually a great point that I think a lot of people wonder about is how do I go about getting, uh, that first client, and that’s so cool that it ended up being a friend for you. Um, is that something if someone asks you, do you suggest, Hey, like we all have friends and family mm-hmm.

Um, give them a deal, practice on their home, practice your trade on, on people, you know, are friendly first.

[00:11:58] Andy Paz: Mm-hmm. Um, yeah. So it’s, it’s uh, very nice to do something like that. Uh, friends and family. Um, again, you don’t wanna be a salesman and try to like push something because sometimes. Window cleaning and we’re, uh, is not someone something that everyone does, you know?

Yeah. It’s more of a luxury service, right. It’s not something that Yeah. Literally, you know, all your neighbors wanna have done, but at the same time, maybe instead of saying like, Hey, I’ll charge you, maybe just say, Hey, I’ll do your windows for free, which is gonna be, you know, win-win. But at the same time, try to get more content.

You know, get, like everyone has an iPhone or an Android or whatever. Just have that record, get a little, um, well I’m using it right now for the camera, but like, get a little tripod and just kind of record yourself. Or if there’s a really cool angle, just do that. They know it’s free. They know they’re, you’re helping them out and vice versa.

Get all that information and then just show your work online. Because, you know, even though there, there’s a lot of different window cleaner window cleaning companies, people still retire. Sometimes people move, sometimes people just don’t like it and then they stop, you know, and it can be a combination of all those things.

And at the same time, you can be that next person in your area, if that makes sense.

[00:13:07] Taylor Lund: Yeah. And a lot of those legacy services, if they know retirement is. On the horizon, especially in 2024, where we are today, some of them aren’t making the decision to transition their business online. So if you can get those free uh, deals, take those pictures and turn those into a website, turn those into a Google business.

And get a few five star reviews from people that, um, you did free services for. ’cause if you do a free service for a family member, they’re gonna be willing to take the 30 seconds it takes to give you a five star review. And you’re not lying a couple times. What’d you say? Yeah. And

[00:13:49] Andy Paz: you’re, and you’re not lying.

You’re actually did a service for them. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a price amount. Right. It’s like Exactly. You’re doing the job. Did you like the job? Yeah. You know, that’s it. Yes. That’s a very good point that you brought out.

[00:14:02] Taylor Lund: Yeah. It’s an honest review. All they have to do is talk about the service.

They don’t have to say anything about how they paid for it or didn’t pay for it. They can say, Hey, they did a great job. This was the service they did, and I’m happy with the quality. Um, and then all of a sudden you have five, five star reviews on Google. Um, and, and you’re there. People search in your area.

Um, and you show up, um, where that’s not always true for some of the legacy businesses. Um, another thing you mentioned that I wanted to ask you about is you said you did some business schooling, and that’s something people ask us about is, Hey, I am. Thinking about switching industry or I feel like there’s space in the trades for me.

Um, do I need to go get a business degree first or can I just launch my business? Sounds like you did some schooling first. Has that been helpful for you? And what would you suggest for other people on this journey?

[00:14:52] Andy Paz: So I would say if you have the opportunity, definitely do it because it’s not just, um, I mean everyone to their, to their own, right.

The foundation of going to school is to learn, right? Yeah. So even if, I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t graduate my my college because. Uh, at the end they applied like five different classes and I’m like, why didn’t you tell me this in the beginning? Because I could have just done it all at once. Got that done.

Yeah. I was like, why did they, why’d you tell me at the end? So I ended up not finishing, but I’m kind of being like on the other people that didn’t go to school either. But, um, it’s nice because when you have like the education itself, like for example, one thing I think that. Probably was the highlight of me going to school was like learning about SWOT analysis, you know, strength, wi weaknesses, opportunity and threats.

I think that that’s like a big thing that, you know, normally people don’t talk about. You know, people might

[00:15:45] Taylor Lund: think

[00:15:45] Andy Paz: like, what is that? You know, what’s the definition of that? Um, but just stuff like that you learn and then from there you can apply it into your business. Even then, uh, I took a class and they were like, okay.

Start a business, what business do you wanna start? Like, just in theory, you know, like, just, let’s say you want to be like in, I don’t know, you wanna be like a, like you wanna sell something in sports, you know, you wanna sell jerseys, you wanna be like the next, you know, sports, you know, business type of thing.

Uh, which is great, but how are you gonna advertise? How are you gonna do this? There’s other big competitors that are out there, you know, big, uh, corporations. How are you gonna compete with that? So, all these things, you know, it’s, it’s, you know, we’re having a little brief discussion, but when you’re actually in class for weeks, months, learning how to digest all that, it does benefit.

But at the same time, you don’t need a college degree in a sense to, you know, be able to start your own business. At least just have the foundation. Learn, read books, look on, you know, uh, YouTube videos, podcasts. Right. Yeah. Get a good understanding. But you know, in a sense, school does help that like extra more personal aspect into the business.

[00:16:49] Taylor Lund: Totally. It, and it, depending on what school you find yourself in, you can get the personal attention of teachers. Mm-hmm. People who have done that. Um, and at the same time, I think a, a huge thing you said is, uh, put in the work and. Find education somehow if you can’t afford school. Read books, get on the YouTube university.

Um, yeah, because there are things you need to learn, um, but it’s not out of your reach. Um, yeah, and I think that’s really, really cool. Um, so tell me a little bit just about you and your business. Um, when did you guys start? What are some services you offer? Um, and yeah, what, uh, what area are you in and who do you target?

[00:17:32] Andy Paz: All right. So I might have you repeat some of the questions. No worries. Well, we’re here in Pasadena, California, a California company, and, uh, we started this business, uh, back in 2016. And, uh, from there along the way, I ended up getting married, and then from there my wife ended up joining the business. So it’s been Congratulations.

Oh, thank you. Yeah. And, uh, she’s been an awesome, uh, person to be around. I mean, even, like I said, the honey Kay journey came from her. So if it wasn’t because of her, you know, we wouldn’t be able to provide all this content and all this other stuff. But anyways. Um, so what services do we offer? So I’m gonna rewind or back up a little bit like when I first started to now, because it’s changed.

Okay. This hasn’t been always the same because people ask me that all the time, like, what should I get into? Yeah. Pretty much. What, what, um, what do you want to get into because mm-hmm. There’s, when you get into window cleaning, you can do obviously window cleaning inside and out. Screen cleaning, gutter cleaning, um, solar panel cleaning, pressure washing, soft washing.

There’s like a whole list of things, right? Yeah. And if you’re a one person, or in our case, you know, two person company, it could be a little bit overwhelming because, you know, you still have to give bids. You still have to do this. But anyways, yeah. Uh, when we first started, I did, uh, window cleaning, solar panel cleaning and gutter cleaning.

And so Cool. Um. The only reason why I say that’s because now we don’t offer gutter cleaning. Even the, this shirt in the back says gutter cleaning. We ended up, uh, offering gutter cleaning because, uh, I don’t know how it is in different areas, uh, whoever’s watching like what area you’re in. But here in LA everyone wants their gutters for like a hundred dollars and it’s like two stories high.

And it’s kind of like, how, how can I clean gutters for a hundred dollars? So yeah, not a lot of people wanna pay. Um, but I did invest in a machine that’s kind of like a gutter vac. It’s called a gutter vac. It’s like an HVAC type of thing that just sucks everything on the rails. I see. Um, and uh, it made my life easier.

I didn’t have to get on the ladder and all this other stuff. But eventually one day it just popped. I was sucking like stuff from the gutters and then next thing you know, it just started making a noise. And then like you just see the top of it and you see like this pop and like a smoke come out. And I was like, well, I guess it’s done with the gutters so well that’s the end

[00:19:41] Taylor Lund: of our service.

[00:19:42] Andy Paz: Yeah. But even then, like it was already difficult to find customers and all that. But anyways. Now what we focus on is just window cleaning and uh, solar panel cleaning. Um, and screen cleaning is kind of easy because, you know, it’s like a hamburger and fries, you know. You want me to clean your screen through?

Yep. Throw it in. Yeah, throw it in there. But at the bottom of the bag. Yeah. But, uh, but yeah, we had that and then we were thinking at some point to do pressure washing. California’s a little bit difficult, uh, when it comes to that service because, uh, when I was getting into it, um, obviously pressure washing, you need to have like a gas powered, it’s the way to go, especially when you’re doing multiple jobs, right.

But they were trying to ban, they already banned like the gas powered leaf blowers because of the noise and the pollution. So they’re trying to implement, implement that with all the other services here. And so having a pressure washer with the gas powered, you know, in one year, they can say, no, you can’t have that anymore.

So that investment that you put into that now is for nothing. And so electric is not gonna be as good, especially with like, you know, multiple jobs throughout the year. It’s not gonna last as long. That didn’t end up working. Uh, but now we’re just happy, we’re like fully booked with work and it’s just, uh, window cleaning and solar panel cleaning and that’s kind of it.

[00:20:59] Taylor Lund: That’s awesome. Um, so as far as those services go, um, is there a more profitable jobs and less profitable jobs, or are they all about the same?

[00:21:12] Andy Paz: Yeah. So, um, that’s the thing I would say the best is to kind of give like a bid in person because they’re not all, not all jobs are the same. I get a lot of times because I think maybe they’re in like the service, you know, like knowledge of the service area.

They’re like, oh, my house is X amount of square feet. I don’t know what that means. You know, like for me, you can literally have a house that’s like literally one room, but the whole like outside of the house is like all glass. Yep. Or you can just have like two windows. You can’t really compare the same.

Right. Totally. Um, and also to the angle of it, you know, I’m not gonna charge the same price as like, let’s say a one story. Window or like a second story window compared to like a fourth story window, you know, that’s like a way different ballpark. You know, you’re gonna charge more because it’s more effort.

The, the difficulty and maybe the equipment you have to buy is maybe a little bit more pricey because of the height of it. Uh, but, uh, yeah, it’s, it depends on the job, but normally, you know, it’s, it’s just, you know, averages out. Is it french windows? Is it one or two stories? Is it single pane? Double pane.

So you kind of get an idea in the beginning. It might start, in my opinion, like, uh, it’s best to always just look at the job and just charge that way. But maybe in the beginning you might just want to count the windows and be like, okay, here’s the windows here and there. Yeah, it’s this price. And so, but once you kind of get into it, you’re kind of like, ah, this is the next amount.

Job and that’s an X amount of jobs. So, yeah.

[00:22:33] Taylor Lund: So how do you go about bidding? You mentioned you have to be there in person. Mm-hmm. Um, do you use something to create bids? Do you give it to them in person? Um, and if someone’s like, Hey, uh, I am calling three different people and I need a bid by tomorrow, uh, do you just say, Hey, you know what, I can’t do that.

Or do you try to fight for bids? What does that look like?

[00:22:57] Andy Paz: So it depends on the year. Sometimes I just say like, I can’t come, even though I really want to do the job potentially. ’cause remember it’s just my wife and I, so we can’t do every single job. We’re limited. Right? And um, and at the moment we’re just happy just being us two.

Um, yeah. But when it comes to those type of bids and all that, um, we like to do it in person for one, one main reason. I don’t know how the windows are because yeah. Like, is it okay if I say a little story that was kind of like, yeah, please. Do we love

[00:23:26] Taylor Lund: stories?

[00:23:27] Andy Paz: Yeah. Okay. So I think this is like my favorite story because it’s like, it’s, it can’t happen to anyone.

So, um, and then remind me where we’re at because I don’t wanna go away. I avoid it. But I remember, um, I was doing a job and it was right before a holiday and, uh, I forgot which holiday it was, but I was doing a job and it was just outside only. It was very easy. I had all my equipment and I was like, okay.

Right in the middle of the job, someone calls me and says, Hey, I would like to have my windows cleaned, you know, this and that, this and that. And I was like, oh, I don’t know. Tomorrow’s a holiday, but you know, send me a picture and I can kind of, you know, I’m like all over the place. I think even my internet was bad, so I couldn’t really check the address or I was lazy and I didn’t wanna check the, I don’t know, it’s one of the two.

But, uh, I just know that all my hands are full, like doing the windows and everything. They sent me a very nice, innocent, like cute picture of like a dog in the front of the house and a very simple one story, like maybe a couple of French windows. And I was like, oh, that’s not bad, you know? And then they just wanted outside only.

So I was like, oh, okay. So I said, oh yeah, I think I could potentially be able to do the job right. So the guy was like, okay, perfect. Let me know. And so the job ended right, my first job. And then, um, he, I told him, Hey, I’ll be there in about, I don’t know, let’s just say like 20 minutes, 30 minutes, or whatever.

And he was just like, okay, hurry. I was like. Hurry. Okay. So yeah, that’s what I thought. I’m like, okay, I’m not gonna like break the law just to give a bid, right? But, uh, so I’m driving and like he kept texting me like, hurry, hurry. And I’m like, okay, this is kind of, that should have been a red flag. But anyways, yeah.

Yeah. So I was like, all right. So I ended up showing up at the job. I knocked on the door and apparently the person that I was talking to was, uh, a construction company that lit, like rebuilt the whole house pretty much. And so what ended up happening was he wasn’t there, but like his assistant was. Was there and he’s like, Hey, the owner or the, the manager’s not here.

Let me walk around with you to show you the job. Did that piece of that photo that he showed me was like the smallest of the smallest part of the whole house. One story by the way, the rest of the house, two stories, and it was just like a huge like mansion project, and I. How in the world am I gonna do this job?

Right? And on the side of it was the icing on the cake because this, okay, I wanna get the angle right. So pretty much this window went from like the ground all the way to the roof, and then it went into the roof, if that makes sense. All like one, it’s like two panels, but it was like this, right? And I’m like.

Man, like, how am I gonna do that? You know, I have the right equipment and everything to do it, but I’m like thinking like, okay, I have to put the ladder. I can’t walk on the roof. Like, it was just a very weird angle. And the, and the, the assistant was like, oh, don’t worry. Um, but I was, or I should say, this is the main, main important window that we want to have cleaned.

Don’t worry, I have, uh, ladders for you. And these ladders are like stacked ladders that were made outta wood that would look like a hundred years old. And I’m like, man, this, I’m gonna like, you know, hurt myself if I use that. So this is a sketch. Yeah. I was like, yeah. So I to, I was like looking out, I’m like, I’m not gonna do this job.

So, uh, but, but the point is, and then I ended up, the guy ended up getting upset with me and all that stuff because I told him I wasn’t gonna do the job and I was kind of like, Hey, you kind of lied to me a little bit. You showed me like the smallest part of the house. Cute dog, by the way, but like the rest of the house, why didn’t you tell me it was two stories.

Why didn’t you tell me that this one window was like the biggest window that you wanted or the most important window to have clean? It just didn’t work out. But anyways, the point I’m trying to get at is like, this type of job is better to see in person because what happened if the way said, Hey, this job is, let’s say a hundred bucks, right?

Like, this is a hundred bucks, but it’s like I would be there all day and then probably not finished, come the next day. Have to do the whole thing all over again. If, if I had to, you know, type of thing. But, um, yeah, it was just very difficult, uh, when it came to all that, uh, when it came to talking with him.

But the whole idea of, um, of giving a bid, you wanna see the house because all on another part too. Was there construction done on it? You know, does it have like residue? Does it have, uh, over spray with paint? You know, like that stuff you have to make sure, what are you charging? You know, are you doing a construction clean?

Are you doing a regular clean, like an organic, clean, you know, taking up, you know, just debris, dust or bird poop, whatever, uh, just out of the window or, you know what I mean? So a lot of things are that as a factor. Yeah. But most importantly, how, what are the size of windows? You know, is it just like a two by four or is it like.

Sometimes just a whole glass wall, you know, 30 by 10. It’s like you can’t really charge the same, you know? So yeah, it kind of is difficult. But again, once you’re in it a little bit, you can say, oh yeah, this is gonna take me X amount of time, charge, maybe you know, X amount, because that’s how much work is involved.

So, yeah.

[00:28:11] Taylor Lund: That makes a lot of sense. And uh, thanks for sharing that story about, uh, kinda you would’ve gotten burned if you gave them an estimate right? Right. From that first cute little picture with the dog.

[00:28:23] Andy Paz: Yeah. ’cause I was even telling them, oh, it’s probably around my minimum. You know, because it looks so, it looks so basic and you know, like we have a minimum.

That’s another thing too, have a minimum because like, you need to have like a, being licensed and insured, you can’t just do a job for 20 bucks. You know? You need to have, yeah. A minimum. And like I always suggest, if you’re in the field, start off like at 150, like that’s a good starting point. And even if you feel like, oh man, you know, like I could have charged more, it’s a good spot.

Because what happens if you would’ve said, oh, it’s 50 bucks, and you’re like, oh, you know, you wanna at least make some type of profit, if that makes sense. But Totally. Um, but yeah.

[00:28:59] Taylor Lund: So do you Um, I have to ask ’cause I feel like these, uh, guys on YouTube are just, uh, all over the place right now doing the door to door sales.

Mm-hmm. Um, the, hey, I’m in the neighborhood and here’s my deal. If you buy right now, um, do you, uh, do you do that when you’re in a neighborhood? Let’s say you had a five hour job or a four hour job and you know you don’t have anything else to do that afternoon. Do you ever go door to door and give people a deal?

’cause you’re in the neighborhood?

[00:29:28] Andy Paz: At this point, no. Uh, where we’re at, we’ve been doing this, what, eight years, right? 2016. Eight years. So, uh, we’ve been doing this for so long that at this point we’re kind of already fully booked with work. So it’s not just like, of course we’ll love to have more clients.

But I kind of cheated ’cause I wrapped my car with all advertising. So, you know, I just parked the car in front of the house, the neighbors see the, the, the car and they see my work. So that’s kind of a way, and I do get a lot of people that way. You know, I’m driving to work, you know, to the job site and they’re like, oh, I saw your wrap, or, that’s some

[00:29:58] Taylor Lund: great advice.

Yeah. If you can afford a wrap on your car, that’s. 24 hour advertising, but it’s not cheap. So I would

[00:30:07] Andy Paz: say maybe start off with magnets. That’s what I did. But, uh, I gave a bid one time, and this is before the wrap. And when I arrived at the location, the magnet wasn’t there anymore. So I was kind of like, well, I think it’s better just to now wrap the car.

So, but everything adds up, right? I mean, we’re trying to focus more on like the. You know, the entry and not like investing, like the whole, like high end. Yeah. Let’s,

[00:30:29] Taylor Lund: let’s get into that for a second. So, yeah. Okay. Um, you said something, uh, really interesting there that, uh, you don’t necessarily need that full on, uh, new truck with nice wrapping right from the get go.

Um, and you also said today, um, maybe you don’t do door to door sales, but was that different when you were just getting started?

[00:30:51] Andy Paz: Yeah. So honestly I feel like things have changed, but I mean, how do I say this? Like, if I were to go back, I would never change how I was because, um, it helps you or I help, I’m gonna say in my perspective.

It helped me to be where I’m at today because I wanted to make this work because I knew if I don’t do window cleaning, what else do I have there? You know, I did a little gig of, um, working for a swim coach and that kind of helped, you know, tread water a little bit. Well, I guess literally nice. I was able to, you know, yeah, do that a little bit.

But, you know, it’s seasonal too, you know, like in the summertime’s a big thing, you know, so I had to be, you know, certified for doing CPR and all that. Part I’m trying to say is that when I didn’t have that, you know, I didn’t have a plan B, you know, if I’m going to school and starting this business, I was kind of like, you know, what do I need to do?

So to answer your question, I felt like doing door to door, even though like I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know, like I just know that door. There’s houses, there’s doors I can ask. I, I would say. Out of like a hundred if not more houses that I did. I only got two jobs. Oh yeah. Was that discouraging?

It was, and I ended up getting like, I don’t have it here, but I had like an old school little like flyer and I would go and leave it at the door, you know, even though, you know, no one answered, I’ll put it there, not inside the mailbox because that’s illegal, because you know, you have to go through the mailing system and all that, but I’ll put on the door or the gate or whatever.

I didn’t know like how to advertise. I didn’t know what to do. But I was just so fortunate that that same block that I did at my friend’s house was the, where I got two jobs, and that two jobs helped me to like kind of scale outwards. Like one of them had a business and was like, oh, you know, I do dentistry or whatever.

Can you do my office? And it was like super easy. Wow. Ended up doing that. Another one, it referred to us to a friend, so it worked out in that sense. But like for me, getting rejected was like, actually like made me see like, okay, you know, like again, I don’t have any plan B, but now I know how to talk to people.

Now I know how to go there. I’m not like, oh, hi, my name’s Andy. Do window cleaning. Yeah. And then they’re like, okay, what do you want? Uh, can I please clean your, like, you look insecure, right? And not confident. And a lot of people don’t wanna hire that. But, um, but again, doing today, I would say it’s very difficult, you know, still to do door to door and actually get a sale from that.

Because when something is in your mind, like for example, like if you’re hungry right there and then, you know, what do you want? I don’t know what’s out there. Maybe you guys have like an in and out version that’s pretty popular. I don’t know. What, what do you, I dunno. We have five

[00:33:27] Taylor Lund: guys. There you go.

[00:33:28] Andy Paz: Okay.

Five guys. I know. Five guys. We have that here too. Uh, so like five guys, right? If you’re really hungry and you’re like, you know what? I’m not on a diet or anything like that, and I want something, right? Hey, someone mentions five guys. You’re like, let’s do it, right? Yeah. But if you, but let’s say you ate right now and you ate five guys, and someone’s like, Hey, I’m McDonald’s.

You know, do you want a burger? You’re kind of like. I’m already full. So, you know, you have that double-edged sword of like, you know, trying to go to a house that maybe they don’t want it, maybe they just don’t, you know, need the service at all. Or even haven’t never done the service. Right.

[00:33:58] Taylor Lund: Yeah. But

[00:33:58] Andy Paz: getting that confidence of going in, going there, but eventually you would wanna transition out of that and then going from there to like online.

Because when you become, I’ve seen a lot of people on YouTube, not to be specific, but I’ve seen that a lot of people go there and they’re like. Hey, I’ll charge. Let’s just say I, like, let’s just stay with the a hundred dollars. Hey, let’s, I’ll do your house for a hundred dollars, but, uh, do you want, oh, I don’t know.

No, no, no. But right now we have a special, we’ll do it for 50 or something like that.

[00:34:22] Taylor Lund: Yeah.

[00:34:23] Andy Paz: That’s not gonna be a good reputation because what happens if that person would’ve said yes the first time? And then would it been like, oh, now like you’re doing $50 cheaper. Like, you know, is it the best reputation, best, you know, thing you wanna have as a business?

But, uh, at the same time, it’s like, now I’m gonna go kind of sidetrack. If you’re offer a bid and they’re like, Hey, can you take 25, $50 off? You know, that’s something different, you know, a bigger ticket item, right? Ticket, uh, service. But going from like, you know, something that’s door to door, it’s not the best look.

So, um, but, but yeah. So, uh, keeping that all in mind, you wanna kind of go, start going online, like I said, you know, those photos and pictures that you have. Open up an Instagram, Facebook, you know, these things are free. They’re, you know, they don’t charge you, you know, so kind of have some content because they’re like, well, how’s your window cleaning?

You know, I can have this shirt, I can have the wrap. I can have the truck and be like, I do window cleaning. They’re like, well, let’s see your work. You’re actually my first client. Or, you know what I like, I’ve only, but if you can show, hey, this is what I have, this is the, the services that I do. Oh, okay. So you are legit, you know, type of thing.

So that helps out a lot. But yeah, it transitioned more into online.

[00:35:30] Taylor Lund: Yeah, totally. I think, I mean, so many nuggets of truth there. Um, I think ending up with, uh, it used to be have a Yelp and you’ll get business now it’s. Have a Google business listing. Mm-hmm. Uh, in your area with a few five star reviews and people will start calling you.

That’s how we find businesses today. If you see them, they’re in your city or the city next door, and they have five star reviews, you’re calling them. Um, oh yeah. But another thing you said was, uh, so you got two. Uh, people out of a hundred. And I just think there’s so many people that are gonna resonate with that, that, you know, door to door is really, really hard.

Yes. Um, but you also said you learned a ton. Yeah. And so we just wanna encourage people out there. If, if you’re in a door to door job right now. Uh, we feel you. It’s hard, um, but you’re probably learning a ton. And when you do finally get that sale, you said that those two sales led to more sales. Um, they led to more relationships and good stuff came outta that hard period.

[00:36:35] Andy Paz: Well, and also to, I would say, to go with that point, I kind of was spoiled because that was like the same block. So like my ratio ratio was probably like two out of 10. That was really good. 20%, you know. Yeah, in the long run after that, it was kind of a bummer, but I would say that that helped out a lot because like you said, build up the confidence, do this, do that so that when someone does call you, let’s say from a Google or Yelp, and also side point, I would say have multiple.

Yes, areas of services like, uh, of advertising online because I have a Yelp and Google, um, and you know, I have those two. Um, but at the same time, if I would’ve only had a Google or if I only had a Yelp, you know, we could have lost potential on other platforms for sure. Not saying that, not saying that you have to pay, you know, for both.

If you have the finances for that, great for advertising, but if you don’t, at least you just have a platform because not everyone uses one service. It’s fair to say

[00:37:26] Taylor Lund: as many free. Accounts as you can have online that you can keep looking legit. Mm-hmm. Where it actually looks like a legitimate business and not a scam.

It’s gonna help your SEO and it’s gonna help you look better.

[00:37:40] Andy Paz: And also like you said too, why don’t, like, in a sense, I don’t know every platform, ’cause every area is different, but like, let’s say, why don’t you, if you’re gonna start off, maybe start with like five different services. You don’t wanna overdo it and have 10 because then you’re gonna, you know, it’s like, what is it?

Be a jack of one trade Master. Yeah. Master there. That’s the one. Yeah, you probably said it, but, uh, but if you maybe have like five, you know, and try to like, just kind of split test, you know, if you have these five platforms. After a few months or maybe a year, whatever you feel comfortable with, you notice that maybe these two are, or maybe these three are your biggest, you know, draws for your service.

And even ask when you give a bid too, where’d you find me? You know, unless it’s like, you know, we got you from Yelp or something. I’m like, oh, from Yelp, but. Just kind of focus on that because at the same time, you don’t want to be spending money on the other ones and it doesn’t work, you know, because Totally a friend of mine, um, I, he lives in, uh, Miami and um, he’s also a window cleaner.

And I was like, Hey, so like, you know, he we’re talking about, you know, different services and I was like, oh, we’re talking about Yelp. And he is like, yeah, Yelp doesn’t work here. Not at all. Like no one uses it. Whereas here, maybe, I don’t know, it’s in Minnesota, but here, like a lot of people do use Yelp. And so that’s, like I said, if you wanna split test, you know, you can find your niche in that area.

[00:38:54] Taylor Lund: Totally. And I mean, if they’re free, why not?

[00:38:57] Andy Paz: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You don’t have to pay, you know, and they’ll probably give you a deal eventually. Like I remember with Yelp back in the day that they said, Hey, spend 150 in one month, we’ll give you 300, uh, free credit. So, and technically I was getting 450 credit, if that makes sense.

Yeah. So, and that boomed up business. So that’s awesome.

[00:39:14] Taylor Lund: Thanks for joining us today on Home Service headquarters. That’s the end of part one with Andy Paz. Join us next time for part two where Andy answers questions like what software he uses. Can you start this business as a side hustle and more? In the meantime, check out his YouTube @PazWindowCleaning, where you can find a ton of content about starting a window cleaning business.

And if you’re near Pasadena, California, head to PazWindowCleaning.com where you can inquire about their amazing window cleaning services. Thanks for joining us today at Home Service Headquarters. We’ll see you next time.