I’m posting this guest post because I LOVE IT when people get their hands dirty in order to make money.
I think there’s more lessons to be learned by getting out there and doing small jobs than any amount of reading blog posts.
Using some basic copywriting principles in his marketing, Peter went from making $0 with his powerwashing service…to doing $13,202 per month!
So here’s Peter showing the exact business flyers he used to “automate his marketing” instead of going door-to-door.
Watch for the subtle psychological things happening with each flyer:
————PETER STARTS TALKING NOW————
————PETER STARTS TALKING NOW————
There was no way in hell I was ever doing that again…..
I had just gotten back from going door-to-door trying to sell power washing after hearing from my Dad that it was “a good business to get your feet wet.”
After 2 or 3 anxiety-filled hours of stuttering my way through a pitiful little sales pitch and getting zero results, I gave up.
I don’t know if you’ve ever gone door-to-door before, but for me, especially at the time, it honestly felt like I could have been offering FREE money and people still would have said no.
I felt like a pest!
If you’re at all introverted (like me), or you’re not the smoothest on your feet, then you gotta knock on like 100 doors before you find someone….and it’s absolute agony the whole time.
So, unless you’re trying to get over your fear of rejection, don’t try powerwashing this way.
I’m going to show you exactly how I went from $0 to over $10,000 a month without ever knocking on a door or making a cold call.
The First (lame) Attempt at Marketing:
After deciding I was never going to go door-to-door ever again, I designed a beautiful flyer, that looked something like this…
It was so pretty and nice….
….but it absolutely BOMBED!
I got my friend to deliver a couple hundred of them and I didn’t get a single phone call.
I was shocked… (what an idiot I was).
Now if you’ve been following Neville for any period of time, you’re probably a lot smarter than I was at the time.
You know why this flyer is sooo bad and you probably know how to write at least basic KOPY… like telling people WHAT’S IN IT FOR THEM and offering some bloody benefits…
But I was stressing because I had no idea what benefits I could show.
I started thinking what it was going to look like I was going to have to get a job unless I figured out this whole marketing thing QUICK!
I had a little bit of money left after my backpacking trip in South East Asia got cut short due to a motorcycle accident… but not much…
So, I went to my Dad, hat-in-hand, with my “beautiful”, terrible little flyer and asked him what I was doing wrong…
He laughed, handed me an old Dan Kennedy book on direct response marketing and a few chapters later, I threw away my first “beautiful” attempt.
I started again from scratch. This time I didn’t care if the flyer was “beautiful” or “professional looking.” I realized that didn’t matter.
The Second Attempt At Marketing
Here’s what I came up with my second time around:
I printed out 100 of these new flyers on my little inkjet and got my friend to deliver them to a local neighborhood.
100 flyers printed. Total Cost = $20
But I was still scared, because after my first failure, I remember thinking, “there’s no way I’m going to get calls…”
But the phone rang…..it rang 4 times!!!
I didn’t even know what to say when I answered… I hadn’t really thought that part through!
But it didn’t really matter… my new customers did most of the talking (you’ll find people LOVE to tell you all about their situation).
Within a day, I got 4 new customers and which ended up turning into around $600 dollars in business.
It blew my mind!
I thought, “Hey there’s a lot more neighborhoods…..and if I just send out more of these flyers….I should get a bunch more customers… this is so much better than knocking on doors!”
How to Turn a $69 Driveway Job Into $200+ Worth of Work:
When I met with the first customer, I didn’t suddenly learn how to become a sales star or even a smooth talker, or even know what the concept of an “upsell” was. But I found out quickly.
Usually when people call you to powerwash their driveway, they like to walk around with you tell you their life story and while they’re at it, also show you what they want cleaned…
And usually, there’s a bunch of other dirty stuff right beside the thing they want cleaned.
So there was one thing I would say that worked really well with making more money. It honestly just seemed natural to ask it.
I would just ask:
“Would you like _____ cleaned too?”
People go… “Yea, geez… hmm yea. I didn’t think about that but now that you mention it can you clean that to?”
And you get 80%+ of people saying yes.
I feel like an idiot when I don’t ask… which is a little too often.
Hiring a Roller Blader and Going From $600 to $6,292:
So I quickly learned that I just needed to send out more flyers to get more customers.
I bought a bigger printer and I hired my friend to go out on his rollerblades and deliver 1,600 flyers each week at $0.18 cents per flyer. (At the time I didn’t know about Every Door Direct Mail in the U.S. or Unadressed Admail in Canada… which is what I do now and actually cheaper and more reliable than my friend).
And like clockwork, I would get at least 15 jobs… enough to keep me fully booked for the whole week.
It would cost me on average $25 to get a customer… and I’d bring in on average $200 from each customer right away… that’s 8x my money, which is pretty awesome math.
That’s like having a machine that I throw $100 into, and it throws $800 right back at me.
And as long as these flyers kept being profitable… I kept sending them out.
Mailing 16x to One Neighborhood and Still Getting New Customers:
It was amazing how I could tweak the flyer a tiny bit and send it to the SAME neighborhoods every other week and I would still get more and more people calling in!
One neighborhood in particular, I sent flyers to them 16x one summer and it was still profitable in bringing new people in:
- People would have family coming over to visit and needed to get the home nice and clean…
- Or they were getting their home ready to sell…
- Or they’d see I cleaned their neighbors driveway and realize they wanted theirs done too…
People’s circumstances change and you’ve got to be there when they do.
By hyper focusing on neighbourhoods, you can quickly become the dominate player and can quickly end up cleaning 20% or more of the homes in an area.
Besides mailing a bunch I found these 3 things worked really well and would take one customer and turn it into 2 or 3 more…
Getting Neighbors as Customers Without Door Knocking:
For a service business like this… you make a lot more money by not wasting time and gas traveling long distances between jobs.
A lot of these powerwashing guys are driving all over the place because they’re not doing targeted marketing…
I’ve been able to stay busy in a small town with 5,000 homes and not have to venture out to any of the surrounding areas by doing three things:
The first thing I did this was mailing a letter like this before I was going to do a job…
The second thing was by having a sign and wearing high visible reflective gear:
I was such an idiot in the beginning and went without a sign for a long time! As a result people didn’t realize I was for hire.
The first day I got a sign, I had a lady come up and end up hiring me for $2,000 worth of work… that alone turned out to be a pretty good ROI on my $40 signs!
The third thing is to send a letter like this to the neighbors afterwards…
The Free Driveway Experiment:
Would you spend $90 and work for free for a week… if you knew it would make you $21,000+?
I hope you would.
Because that’s how I got 45 out of 90 homes in a neighborhood to become customers, which has so far resulted in more than $21,000 in business.
Let me explain…
After cleaning a few driveways I started to notice something very interesting:
As soon as I cleaned someone’s driveway and they were able to see what a difference it made and how awesome it was to save 5 hours of back breaking, clothes soaking, mud splashing labour… it was like a switch had been flipped…
It was like suddenly they were the kind of people who clean their home and pay someone to do it for them.
They’d inevitably ask me if I could clean a bunch of other stuff for them and it would result in each customer being worth anywhere from $200 to as much as $2,000.
And it really got me thinking…
If I can just get someone started and committed to taking that little baby step, then the rest becomes really easy…
So, I picked a gated community of 90 homes, where I had already done some work and I sent out this letter for a free driveway cleaning:
I ended up getting 42 of them to become customers and it has resulted in over $21,000 in business!
From 6,202 to $13,000
The key to scaling up from the $6,202 was to make sure I kept the “customer getting system” up and continuously working.
If you rest on your laurels and get lazy (which happened to me more than once), the business starts to dry up.
At first I was going door-to-door myself trying to get business. This didn’t work at all….not to mention it was extremely stress-inducing for me.
However when I started using copywriting principles to automate my marketing through flyers, it effectively got me from $50 an hour to being able to make $150/hr or more.
Sincerely,
Peter Van Straaten
Hey, it’s Neville again:
Isn’t it pretty sweet how he found out that:
- Knocking On Doors = Slow and ineffective.
- Sending Out Flyers = Easy and profitable (with the right flyer).
Essentially the flyers were automating the job Peter was manually doing.
With concepts learned in the KopywritingKourse it’s easy to see why this “pretty” flyer failed:
The flyers that did really well look ugly…..but they seem personal, genuine, and offer a real benefit to the reader!
Some valuable lessons here :)
If you’d like to know more about the psychology behind flyers like these and how to write your own copy that sells, checkout The Kopywriting Kourse.
Download this entire post (we’ll send it to your email)
Sincerely,
Neville Medhora
P.S. There are many more direct mail marketing examples you can see here (including markup on how to improve them).
P.P.S. If you want to get the editable templates for these powerwashing flyers join the Kopywriting Kourse:
Get editable templates for these powerwashing flyers when you join Kopywriting Kourse:
As a member you get instant access to all the templates:
– Yours to modify with your own contact info, text, images –
– Download in Google Docs or Microsoft Word format –
– Easily edit them in your web browser –
– Print them for your own business –
– Join here –
Will start doing this for my company. Thanks for the detailed instructions and for having this out for free. Will also probably sign up for the course, it looks interesting :)
Do you need a license to pressure wash in Florida?
Thank you for giving us very detailed information…
Hey Neville,
Such a wonderful article you had posted. I am glad to reach you and read your post. Very helpful information. Thanks a lot for sharing. Keep posting. Good wishes..!
Great article Neville! Thanks for sharing!
Awesome and very inspiring. As local power washing company operator, my team is always finding ways to get creative with our marketing. We just revamped our Vallejo Power Washing website too! Strong online presence is a must especially after the COVID situation.
Thanks for the article!
Glad you made these flyers and got results, keep up the good work! Great article!
Love this! How much are the flyers? And how do I get them customized?
Gonna try this for sure. Thanks for sharing. This is much better than what I was putting out in the marketplace.
Very simple and effective way to drum up business
Upselling power washing services is such a great way to increase your revenue and homeowners usually don’t mind having other areas of their property cleaned once the power washing contractor has arrived. Great info!
This is a great story, not just for the power washing company but also because it means more homeowners in that area were taking advantage of the benefits of pressure washing for their property! Thanks for sharing.
This is a fantastic read, I’ve not had much success with a flyer I designed myself having just started my pressure business over a month ago, but after reading through this a few times now I am ready to make a new one. Not a good time of year for it but I’ll give it a good go! I mainly do patio cleaning and this post has inspired me for some new flyer design ideas :)
We recently just incorporated power washing into our business. Really appreciate you taking the time to write this article. It was helpful and entertaining!
Hi Pete/Neville,
I had a great time reading on your experience and perspective of operating your powerwashing business. I quite enjoyed the free driveway experiment and how that produced a great return on investment and time for yourself. Thanks for your successful thoughts and flyers!
Hii buddy. As i have go through your whole article i found it really very interesting and helpful . you did A GREAT work , i must appreciate it.
What do you think about making your own website for your business,and have you ever made one? Or would you?
I love that this information is all about a pressure washing business. Great job!!!
Hi Neville, Very impressive success story you’ve shared with us. Thank you so much sharing it. In point of “Flyer Distribution”, this article is really very effective. But somewhere there was a motivational touch which everyone can feel. Once again, thank you so much for sharing this.
can i order your flyers and put my info in them?
Hey Christopher you sure can, we include all the downloadable (and editable) templates inside The Kopywriting Kourse!
https://members.copywritingcourse.com/subscriptions/
Hey Pete, thanks for posting this! I’m going to give it a try this week. Window cleaning business has really slowed down, so I’d like to have a more active way to attract customers.
Question: do you recommend buying your own printer and using that, or going with like a local print shop? How much have you found you spend per flier?
Thanks,
Jace
sunshinewindowco.com
How did you go about following up with respondents?
I had a few kids hand out several flyers for us. It actually worked way better than I thought!
This is actually a great strategy. Simple works. Obviously this could be tweaked for the carpet cleaning industry. Only problem is you can’t see how bad someones carpet may possibly be from the outside compared to being able to see driveways. I might not offer that but I really like the “will be in your neighborhood” letters. Good stuff!
I get it..from 0$ to 13.00..$, point taken..:)
This is so perfectly written. Well done. I don’t even have a driveway and I want to order your service.
Hey Peter, how did the roller blader deliver that many flyers a week? It’s illegal to put them in a mailbox. So did he put them on the door or under the mat? That would be difficult on roller blades. I walk door to door and it takes me awhile to deliver 100 flyers. And I am in excellent health.
He put them on the door. It really depends on the neighborhood. If it is hilly with stairs and big distances in between houses it takes much longer. But we mainly focused on easy neighborhoods.
Nowadays, I just pay for the post office to do it. Much easier.
Pete, good write up & well done!
However I’m puzzled…
I’m from the UK & your $69 is around £49 pounds.
now your offering a driveway + front entrance special for $69
well what about the driveway size your from Canada / USA …you all have MASSIVE drives?
AND your saying to the customer will save 5 hours of work?
in which case your working for chump change? OR I’m i missing something?
If i offered that here in the UK (London) for an average drive for 2 cars and surrounding areas i be swapped with calls! Seriously cos at that price your working minium wage!
Do let me know that thoughts.
Cheers!
Alex,
I’m obviously not speaking from Pete’s perspective but suspect I can shed some light on your query…
The approach with the low priced job is to attract lots of work in order to get in front of people to and then ‘upsell’.
So, Pete cleans the driveway and, as he mentions in the post, he walks around with the owner to discuss the house and what else needs cleaned (patio at the rear, cladding, etc).
As a result, on average the job increased from $69 (just a driveway) to $200 (e.g. driveway, cladding, concrete walkways), because he’d be doing more work.
So the good marketing will get you in front of more people, and good sales skills would get more £ for every customer.
That make sense?
Flyer distribution
thx for that chris, i had a feeling it was along them lines, anyway i will be puting out my flyers next week,…
However i expect a better response WHY?
Cos i’m gonna use a Secret TESTED headline thats made MILLIONS in the cleaning biz!
will report back!
cheers guys!
Spot on.
How did your flyers go with the tested headline?
Hey Alex, I do that for up to 750 sq. ft. Remaining areas are at $.12 per sq. ft. Brick pavers are $.15 (I know it’s a lot of pavers over there).
Besides that it really has to do with how fast you can clean. You need to have at least 4gpm and surface cleaner or you’ll be too slow.
Not sure if you’ve pressure washed before but it really comes down to the equipment. It takes a homeowner 5 hours because they have a little electric pressure washer. When you have the right equipment you can clean much much faster.
Hope that clears it up.
One of the biggest things I find with customers is to build trust. Once you do a job for them and you do it well there is a lot of trust established. And not always but mostly there is an upsell that will happen. Or a referral. I think working one territory is important so you cut odwn on travel costs including fuel & tolls. Own that territory – be ‘the external cleaning guy’ in your area. My pressure washer puts out 16 litres of water per minute at 3000psi. I use a 21inch whirlaway on wheels. i can do up to 180 sqm an hour with this machine although buy the time you rinse off with the wand actual cleaning ability is about 100-120sqm per hour. I’m 58 yrs so I dont move too fast so it takes me 15 minutes to set up. 15 minutes to pack up (there’s 30 minutes before cleaning). I do the AU$69 driveway deal up to 100 sqm. So I am probably earning $46 per hour on a ‘lost leader’ offer which could well lead to an upsell. By comparison if I drive a truck in AU the going rate is $25 per hour (or employed cleaner $22 p/hr). When I clean roofs or do stencils I always get above AU $100 per hour. My pressure washer uses $5 of fuel per hour and don’t forget to use premium small engine oil SAE30 in your pump and motor and change not later than every 30 hours of use. If the admin of this excellent site is ok with it please feel free to email me if you have a question – hopefully I can answer it for you. Regards Ted
Thanks for those tips.
Do you use a hot water pressure washer or cold?
Very insightful story, i bought a pressure washer for almost $400 and made it back on 2 jobs, very profitable business. I was looking to do door to door but was nervous but I do appreciate the story, and if you’re in the Columbus are please look me up at http://www.handsofintegrity.com in Columbus, ohio
This post is evergreen and I’m using these principles now for my newly minted home cleaning business.
Really enjoyed the article. I was wondering if there was a way to pass my contact info on to Steve Jones down in Naples, Fl?
I live in Port Charlotte about 40-45 miles north of Naples and wanted to reach out to him about his pressure washing business. Would that be possible or to maybe get his company name so I could contact him? I appreciate any help on this you might be able to help with
Thank you.
David A Ward
Pristine Property Source
941-628-8850
dward@git-fl.com
Just re-read this article. I’ve been pressure washing for a number of years. In my experience, the best advertising is to be seen working. I’ve also had a lot of success in going door-to-door with fliers and meeting homeowners in person. Lot’s of businesses drop off fliers, but if the homeowner can meet you, if even for just a brief moment, it makes a lot of difference.
All that said, I did create a website so people would have another option of finding me: Power Wash Blacksburg
What program do you use to create your flyers?
Very good info everyone. Thanks for sharing.
tedspowerwash.com.au
Just a follow up, I pay $10 per 100 flyers at Staples. Granted they are black and white but they work the same. I use the $69 approach on small driveways and bump the price up for much longer driveways and people can’t believe the price. There’s no estimates. They just want to know when can I do it. They are instant customers and usually I pick up their pool decks or houses. At the end of the day I know I could have gotten more money but you know, if I can do a excellent job for a fair price, people will appreciate someone not gouging them. I figure I will have repeat business for years to come. Thanks Peter for the motivation !
I started a pressure washing business 3 months ago handing out flyers. I put them on all the dirty driveways here in Naples Florida I can find. I get about 4 calls out of 100 flyers. Some referrals but most first timers. If you stop handing them out they stop calling. It’s only myself doing this so I spend more time cleaning. But tomorrow I have a free day and I am not coming home until dark until I hand ou as many flyers as I can. I figure this time next year will be easier because all these customers will need their property cleaned again. No one should have dirty property.
In Australia we can legally drop flyers into letterboxes. I can do about 100 per hour on foot. I am thinking of getting a Honda postie bike (automatic 110cc) so I can deliver more. A good way to get work is to be seen doing it (need a simple not too busy sign on your vehicle) or talk to people even if just for a few minutes. A simple website with samples of your work, or better a facebook page for your business and keep updating with new photos of finished work and testimonials.
great stuff…love the attitude and the writing especially. Good Luck and keep up the great work.
Pete, Your extremely clever ! Do you sell this in hard copy, book form ?
Going to use this for my personal training business, not sure how the free offer would work on that though?
An offer for personal training business could be:
Free 1 hour session.
Free 1 week tailored diet plan
Free 1 month tailored exercise plan
Get them in the door to get to know, like and trust you. Then upsell/suggest other services you provide when they get to know you better.
I own a small pressure washing company here in Victoria BC. I have found that flyer dropping is profoundly more lucrative than online marketing. Perhaps it’s because I ran adds myself online…with my own ad copy… but had flyers professionally made. Maybe there is more to to this ad copy thing than I gave credit to.
I love the idea of hyper focusing on specific neighbourhoods. I’m going to try it! Your method of sending a letter before and after is ingenious too! I’m glad I found this article.
Hi Pete / Neville,
I love this post and I want to copy some principles from it, but I have a few a question – how are you actually mailing these full-page flyers via EDDM? When I contacted USPS (and print shops) about doing something similar, they kept saying that normal 8.5″x11″ flyers on normal paper aren’t acceptable…and they kept suggesting to mail on 6″x11″ post cards instead.
It sounds like you are printing these flyers yourself, so how are you going about the distribution of them? Do you use a mailing shop to help w/ this?
Thanks!!
I’m in Canada and use unaddressed admail, so it may be a bit different. I do have to fold my flyers to meet the thickness requirements, so you could check back on that. In the beginning I just paid people to drop them off and hiring on craigslist, so that could be another option
Very interesting case study. I think the ideal would be something in between the pretty and ugly (yet informative).
Design and color help evoke emotions with your customer in addition to pertinent text info.
Great stuff, Peter! Looks like you did a fantastic and quick job of learning and applying Dan’s techniques and mindsets. And you’re certainly getting the rewards!
I did have one thought though. As I’m sure you know, the more personal you can make copy, the more likely you are to hook their attention.
What if you were to get the names of the people whose houses you hadn’t worked. Either through your current customers or through the County Appraisal District.
Then instead of the generic “Dear ________ Resident” you could say “Dear Mrs. Jones” or “Hi Nancy”
Obviously that would take more time, but if you sent the information to an outsourcer, you could get it done for a few bucks. Which, if it converted even one more customer, is well worth it.
If you test it (always test!) and it doesn’t work, then no harm done. But I’d be interested to see if it improved conversions at all.
Anyway, stellar work! Keep riding the wave, sir.
Really good information with great pics of the flyers. I’ve been working on flyers for a while now with my business. It’s been a real testing phase. It will be very interesting having some good information to draw from and a new perspective.
Old fashion marketing is a good way to get some money coming in while your waiting on traffic to hit your website and your SEO is to get ranked higher and higher.
Thanks for the in depth break down of the article, you covered just about everything.
I do door to door Airashion now for a company they offer pressure cleaning later in the year and they make a killing we make pretty good cash aswell about 10 sales a day around 200 take home for the contractor cash its nice but when I got thinking I could do this on my own and did the math I craped my self almost lol so I just got my washer today and will be starting tomorrow I will for sure use your flyer ideas thank you for the info I will be doing door to door aswell but im good at sales and convincing the customer. If you want to get door to door sales its all about the number of doors you knock on. staying positive and learn how to read people ive only ever had one day under 10 sales at around 70 a yard pretty nice I say cant wait to bring all the cash to me and not the company. there a great company but you cant argue with that income.
Wow, Matt. You are pressure washing 10 houses per day at a minimum of $70 per houes?? That’s amazing!
How has business been since you started 7 months ago?
I’m looking at buying 50-100 corrugated plastic ad signs that slide onto metal stakes. I live in the metro area of one of the largest cities in the U.S. The traffic at particular stop lights close to where I live can back up quite a bit. Its not unusual to have grassy areas very close (about 7 ft) to the roads/highways that back up throughout the day. I’ve thought about staggering 2-3 signs in the grassy areas that hundreds of people will see as they move forward in the turn lanes, about 10 cars, the light changes and they’re sitting for a few minutes waiting for their light to change. Many people would see my signs twice. I realize many people text, get on social media, look at news, etc between lights. Has anyone else done this? Cost is about $4.25/sign.
How is it working out for you since you posted this?
Well, that is just what some business like pressure washing can do, also here you’ve got the very good idea and marketing move, congrats I wish you the best!
Curious what fonts you used? I downloaded the entire post but it’s just a PDF. Thanks.
But yeah thanks Neville, this whole website is gold
I must have read this article 1000 times..its fantastic. Inspired me to create my own website. I always thought that the hard part would be getting up and running, but thats the easy part! Getting users is the hard part. Handed out some fliers – created thanks to this blog. Theres a picture of the flier on the facebook page: wwww.facebook.com/wethenet
Great article, as always.
Also, it inspired me for similar business. Thank You :)
Yours,
Jerzy
This is a tremendous article that highlights just how counter intuitive all of this stuff is because it deals with a lot of fear!
From presenting your offer plainly, to upselling, to getting customers on the hook – all of it is an issue that deals with understanding nuance and dealing with the fear of being direct.
Learned a ton from this, and love applying it :-)
Wow I recently found this website, it’s GOLD. I bookmarked this one specifically but I might as well bookmark the whole website.
This is good stuff you guys! I went through a similar situation growing my window cleaning business. I do windows first then PW and gutter cleaning make up other services I offer. You have got to learn how to write effective copy for your flyers if you want them to work. I have guys tell me flyers don’t work for them and then I see there flyer and I know why! I get calls all the time on my flyers because I spent a little time reading how to write effective messages. I start with a header line that gets straight to the point. You have about 2 seconds to grab some ones attention before they toss it! What can you do for them and what problem you solve and I mean fast in the first 2 lines. Make an offer and a call to action. There are great examples of this all over , you do not have to think it up on your own. When I learned to do this my flyers would generate 3 or 4 calls per 100. Folks these are $200 window cleaning jobs .. that is 600 or 800 in revenue a week not including gutter or PW adds . I pay $56 per 1000 to print flyers. So about every $10 in flyers is bringing $ 600 bucks in! You can teach anyone to pressure wash or clean windows , but the trick is learn how to market yourself. One of more true but accurate statements I have ever heard was from a successful window washer with a huge list of clients .. He said “running a successful window washing business has very little to do with washing windows” of course you need to wash windows well and do quality work, but there are a lot of good window washers that will never have a real successful business because they do not get that message. As soon as you really get that message then what happened for me will happen for you…. lot’s of business! Good Luck!
“I pay $56 per 1000 to print flyers.”
How in the world were you getting them printed for that cheap? I’d love to know your provider!
The cheapest I’ve found for 8.5×11″ flyers on just standard paper is $130 but that’s before shipping. $189 is the cheapest I’ve found locally.
Hey Mark,
I’m starting my own powerwashing business and you seem to know your stuff. Would you mind sharing your email, I’d love to talk to you and here what you have to say.
– Thanks in advance
Great layout and amazing advice !!
Wish me luck with my business! Thanks Pete and Neville.
vic
No problem Victor, glad you got some good stuff out of this :)
Really love this article, thanks so much for sharing.
It amazes me how people like to question and get suspicious… WTF
I imagine it was web designers just getting insecure but seriously, this is just some free advice and ideas…
Yes of course, I’m sure Pete may well get a few more clients if he had a website too… But hey, he doesn’t need them and what great inspiration for anyone who needs to find work quickly, rent a machine, print some flyers, get working. LOVE IT
Thanks Matthew, appreciate it!
Meh….sometimes you gotta realize what channels are driving your revenue. It seems like for Pete it’s NOT necessarily through a websites…it’s more in-person and through flyers.
If I were him, I’d focus more on those than website!
I actually just started a pressure washing business myself and then came across this page and its amazing!
Peter your story is great and i know i’m going to conquer this like you did.
Yesterday i had 100 flyers with stapled on rubber bands hung on door knobs in my own neighborhood. I designed my own flyer completely and exactly a day later i have 3 jobs ready to go!
That was just me testing it out to see how it goes because i figured every house needs pressure washing, it would be the best direct way to get starting work.
Sending out a few friends on long boards to get a much larger area and see how that goes tomorrow!
Awesome Brett!
Shoot me an email if you have any questions pete_vs AT me.com and keep me posted on how it goes!
So how did it go? Are the flyers working? No face to face interaction or short script with the home owner?
Curious to know because I’m about to do the same!
Thanks Brett! Goodluck!!
Doesn’t look like Brett responded :(
How about you Victor? Did you start, and if so how did it go?
What website / software can you use to design a flier like that?
With the cheesy marker circle icons and all that jazz? I feel like this is a dumb question and should be obvious but I can’t find anything.
I use pages on a mac, photoshop or illustrator.
If you google “vector hand drawn circle” or “vector arrows” there’s a bunch of places you can get them, then you paste it as layer underneath or above wherever you want it.
Hope that helps.
Hey Jonathan, a lot of this stuff can also just be done in a simple Google Doc or Microsoft Word file. There aren’t any complicated designs or anything!
Or just pay someone on Fiverr.com $5 to do it.
Thank you for all this information.
How do you get the actual file templates?
You can make your own in Microsoft Word or Google Docs. The flyers shown here are very basic in design.
Email sent! Thanks for the reply!
David Creel
Pete,
I live in the Houston area and am following your advice from this fantastic article. I basically copied your flyer and so far in the first month I got 18 clients! I have a regular job that I work shift work (4on/4off, rotating 12 hour days) so I do the pressure washing on my off days.
In your opinion, what do you think the timetable is for me to possibly do this as my full-time (and only) job?
That’s awesome David!
It boils down to how much you want to make, how many clients you need etc.
For me, I didn’t have a job when I started so I just kept mailing and targeting more neighbours so I stayed busy. I typically like to be booked out a week or two in advance, it is comforting to look at the schedule knowing you have money coming in.
One thing to consider, is seasonality. Not sure if it is the same down in Houston but up where I am, the season drops off in the fall due to weather and I switch into other services like gutter cleaning.
Email me at pete_vs88@me.com if you have some more questions or want to talk to further about it.
DAMN!!! Great job David!
Hi David!
Just came across this post and your comment, and I was thinking of starting a similar business. Sounds like you’re off to a great start! I’m curious – how have things gone for you since starting (it’s been about a year since your post :)?
Cheers and good luck on your journey!
Neville, small world just doing some google research about writing good flyers for an upcoming drop in some Austin neighborhoods and came across your blog! I should have asked you more about it on Wed night!
Great stuff here it’ll be super helpful – I got the council to give the address of every str license holder in the city so we can super targeted drop!
Lol….definitely a small world Adam!!
Very good article!!!
My question is you are providing a physical product that many home/business owners need or want, unlike myself, i do custom rhinestone, vinyl and graphics, something most home owners have no need for. Do you think a strategy like this on just a little different basis would work for me to attract commercial business?
Thanks
Steve
Hey Steve, I’m not 100% certain this would work because I haven’t tried it myself……but it seems like it wouldn’t work NEARLY as well.
EVERY home Peter targeted could use some powerwashing.
I’m sure only a fraction of those homes could really use some rhinestoning!
Maybe if you did something more like painting curb numbers this would work:
http://www.nevblog.com/painting-address-numbers-on-curbs/
I remember when a landscaper hired me to design his postcards. Now, I’m not a professional graphic designer, so I wrote all the copy and sent it to my graphic designer (whom I no longer work with… you’ll find out in a minute) and told her specific instructions on what I wanted.
A few days later she sent me the postcard back and it looks like your first one. I almost crapped my pants… actually, I think I left a stain or two. Anywho, I was PISSED. Couldn’t follow simple instructions. If I sent that to my client I would have been fired.
So, long story short, it turns out she was able to follow instructions and got my postcard up and running for my client. Phew!
Got to be different than everyone else.
Oh, and a side note… graphic designers are good at one thing: designing! Don’t trust them with copy.
-End Rant
Pretty graphics don’t necessarily convert in all situations. This is something David Ogilvy frequently grumbled about the marketing industry: Graphics designers aimed for awards….not sales.
Sometimes a supposedly “crappy design” is better!
Yeah!
When I was in real estate I designed my own crappy looking postcards and got results while all the other agents were wondering why I was getting calls and they weren’t.
I did EDDM on cheap paper printed on our office color printer. It’s all about the message.
Thought, for my client I wanted the message and the design all there, since he was targeting affluent neighborhoods.
I remember this billboard and flyer I saw around for years that worked incredibly well.
It was just a big white or yellow background, and it said:
“I buy ugly houses:
713.301.1546”
That simple statement brought the calls in like crazy. Literally like zero design (unless you consider the simplicity of it “the design” like Apple does).
Hey David!
Congrats on the success! I saw your comment and I had a question (if I may trouble you). You said “I did EDDM on cheap paper printed on our office color printer. It’s all about the message.”
I’m trying to do the same thing, but I’m being told by all the print shops (and USPS website) that you can’t just use regular full-size copy-paper for EDDM.
Am I missing something, or how did you manage to do that?
Thanks in advance for the help!
Hi Eric,
I used 90 lbs Index paper that I got for like $12.50 for 250 sheets. It was just above the minimum thickness for EDDM mailings, and I used full 8.5″ x 11″ paper.
If you decide to print them yourself, be sure your printer will be able to handle this type of paper.
Land your FIRST client with just 2 hours of reading like THIS GUY
(see what I did there?)
Well, it’s true. I just discovered Neville, Gary Halbert and copywrite this past weekend and was immediately HOOKED. It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for and needing to develop my marketing strategy.
Although I’m really just scratching the surface on the subject, I employed my new copywriting skillz into the 3rd installment of a weekly newsletter and whattayaknow…. GOT MY FIRST CLIENT (thank you Neville & all other resources).
I learned of Neville, Halbert, etc from Noah Kagan on the Tim Ferriss podcast and couldn’t believe how apt it was to me as I am just launching a business and trying to develop as a marketer (I didn’t even know what copywrite was… I know, I don’t watch mad men).
I sent out my first two newsletters before coming across this stuff. They were crap; boring, bland data that didn’t have a call for action or present readers with a benefit.
If you’re interested, here is link to the newsletter which scored me this client and incorporated some of my newly formed copywrite skillz:
http://eepurl.com/bpWg3H
Looking forward to engaging more with everyone and mastering this copywrite stuff.
THANKS!
You can buy consulting at https://copywritingcourse.com/secret
Glad ya like all the content coming out Pat!
Bookmarked. I have had Dan’s book but haven’t read it cover to cover. It made me think to grab it once more and continue doing some digging. Pretty impressive Pete!
Glad ya liked Glenn! Make sure to grab these images and put them in your own swipe file!
I love the transparency in the copy, nicely done. I also like how you have a real image of yourself…you’re not just a creepy letter obviously trying to sell me. Great move with the reflective gear and doing free work to get $2K back in return. I just love how you tweak, revise, revamp & crush it. Great piece I just read!
Glad ya liked Ry! I actually really liked the reflective gear and sign also, that’s something that seems so obvious that I too would overlook.
Thanks Ry!
It can sometimes feel a little goofy with the reflective gear but it gets noticed haha!
I started using hi visibility gear because the long sleeved shirts protect me from the nasty Australian Sun. But also most tradesman wear them too so it creates credibility with the customer & public. Even though it’s bright yellow it’s still a uniform and looks more professional than no ‘uniform’
Pete, What are you doing in the winter months?
Let’s not get too personal here….just take the lesson and be happy :)
I use very similar campaign for gutters cleaning for fall months.
Oh damn……you’ve got like every season covered Pete!!
hello Pete Van Straaten !
thanks so much for sharing your story, it’s so impressive
yep, very impressive indeed :)
-Do You think that we can’t adapt this business and the marketing around for other coutries, I live in France?
-How did You choose the tools for working (washing mashing, didYou started with pro tools from the begginings ?)
-I have a book from Dan Kennedy , I think it’s No BS Direct Marketing , it’s probably the time to read it …..
If people are offering power washing services in France, then there’s probably a good chance it would work.
I didn’t start out with too professional of equipment but as soon as things starting going I’ve constantly been upgrading.
If I was starting out, I would rent at first (make sure you also rent a surface cleaner) and then if things seem consistent invest in professional equipment.
Thanks You Pete !! :D
I find it funny how people assume this stuff WON’T work in other countries.
Most first world countries operate in much the same way.
This was a great guest post or case study thank you both. Lots of gold nuggets here and I plan to swipe them out.
I recently bought a Pressure Washer (last month) and it’s true first time using I was manky dirty, shit in my eyes you name it. A lot of fun, but your hands forearms and back take a beating so your copy/benefits resonated with me.
I priced out someone to come wash the house but the cost was more than it would cost me to pick up a good machine myself.
Now I am thinking invest in 2-3 decent machines hire some folks and put them to work. I can do the marketing and keep the phone ringing following your samples and a few of my own. Insurance hmmm how much does this cost you Pete Van Straaten to have 2 million in coverage?
Brilliant stuff Noah and Pete
Thank you
Hey Mark,
If you’re serious email me at pete_vs88@me.com and I can point you in the right direction with the equipment that makes things a LOT more profitable.
My insurance is about $120 per month.
Thanks Mark……but I am NEVILLE not Noah!
Checkout the picture on the front page of https://copywritingcourse.com ;)
Hey Mark,
Just curious how this endeavor has gone for you. Did it get off the ground? :)
Hey man, great post!
While I love the content, there are quite a few grammatical errors and typos I couldn’t help but notice. Need a fellow copywriter to do some proofreading? Let me know.
Thanks, and keep at it!
Rob
Hey Rob, typo’s don’t matter than much.
GREAT CONTENT does :)
Looks damn impressive!
I’m creating a sales page for my coaching services. My kopy skills will be tested to the most now. I’d say here, one learns the most when you do it for your own business. Should be the 1st thing to be done – at least what I’ve experienced so far.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Hey Sabita, just remember than when it comes to selling coaching, it’s not JUST about kopy.
It’s mainly about how many people currently want your coaching. For example I have a page like this where I sell consulting:
https://copywritingcourse.com/secret
….I essentially have like 2 paragraphs of copy on there, but it still brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars…..but because there’s an audience of people who know and like my stuff.
I’d say getting established or well-recommended in a niche will be the best method.
Peter
People get crazy about online copywriting, scaling their online biz via referrals, discounts and your post is a truly offline example and much more.
Copywriting and its benefits actually started in direct response and continued to web.
I really appriciate your hardwork and the way you handled everything. Just awesome!
All the best.
@neville thanks for posting :)
For sure…….copywriting was taken far more seriously back then, because when you wanted to “test” something you literally had to deliver letters which cost lots of money.
When you post something digitally it’s essentially free, so screwing up often carries little consequence.
Peter,
Can you share the link to the Joe Polish letter?
I own a residential house cleaning business and I’ve struggled to find marketing that works in my area.
Google Adwords typically falls flat. Thumbtack is too price sensitive. SEO is a long game (but making progress).
From a traditional marketing point of view, I’ve sent out some terrible postcards in the mail and did a 5,000 flyer drop (which got me 0 phone calls). The flyers were bad, but not that bad!
I would love to try some of the methods in your post out.
Thanks,
Michael
Adwords is going to rely more on building your funnel like Peter here did.
It’s expensive to get people in the door, but:
– how long do they stay?
– How much do they spend?
– How many others do they bring to you?
If you have systems in place, like Peter does, your expensive cost per click (or better yet, cost per conversion) can quickly be offset with:
– upsells
– a high customer lifetime value
– referrals
– etc.
Def model (don’t steal) what Peter has laid out here and make sure you target your ideal client. (Obviously home owners will be better than apartment renters)
Good luck!
Hey Michael,
Joe’s letter is in his paid “Rich Cleaner” System… I don’t think it’s anywhere free but if you google it the course will pop up.
Personally, I don’t bother with adwords because searches are quite low for where I am and with adwords your directly competing with everyone else.
What’s great about offline and direct mail is you can go directly to the home owner and you show up ALONE, not with all your competitors.
I would test out a letter with a very small offer (look at popular groupons) or free offer letter, to get your foot in the door.
Peter,
Thanks a ton for your reply!
I’m definitely going to give this a shot. Already bought a bigger printer and am 1/3rd through Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. DM book.
Can you explain how you got this to work with EDDM? I didn’t think you could send letters… Just postcards and flyers and stuff. Did you just reformat and make the material speak to a more general audience?
Thanks,
Michael
Pete,
Thanks a ton! Great info. You’ve inspired me to give this a shot.
-Michael
Hey Michael,
Did you ever figure out how to mail full-page flyers using EDDM? I’m running into that same exact problem right now – the print shops are all telling me to use postcards instead and that you can’t mail regular paper flyers.
=/
Hey Michael, you definitely should research this more.
You can also copy what people in the curb painting business do. They have similar flyers that perform pretty well.
Definitely worth your time to crack this nut like Peter did…..it could be the difference between no business and lots of business!
Hey Michael,
For flyers I use unadressed ad mail/Eddm
For letters I send with first class mail.
You can send letters unaddressed ad mail – it just can’t have a specific address and it will go to the entire letter carrier route, so it’s not as precise
Neville,
New Printer: Purchased.
Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. DM Book: Complete.
Ultimate Sales Letter: Purchased – begin reading this evening.
… what should I cram into my brain next?
P.S. I finished the Kopywriting Kourse about 1 month ago :)
The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert…..Chapters 1-25!
Life changing stuff!!
Hey Michael
I’ve Joe Polish cleaning copy somewhere in my swipe file, if I try to find and email to you :)
Hey Michael
I’ve Joe Polish cleaning copy somewhere in my swipe file, I’ll try to find and email to you :)
Haris I’d definitely be interested in that! I have a house cleaning business and we’re really trying to ramp it up.
thanks man!
Hey Haris,
Could I get a copy as well? My email is wilson.hung5@gmail.com
Thanks!
Wilson
Hi Haris,
Could you send me a copy of the letter as well lazardx1@gmail.com. Thanks
Henry
Hi Haris,
May I trouble you for a copy of the cleaning file as well? My email is samuelsmithy@gmail.com
Thanks so much in advance!
Travisnewtonmba@gmail.com
I’m going back to postcards and if you still have that file and want to share my email is above.
Thanks man!
If I were in your area, Peter. I’d give you a call for pressure washing. I have a deck that needs to be stripped of old, chipping deck-over paint. I’m completely sold on the fact that I shouldn’t have to do it myself. Great job!
Thanks Tom!
Just pay ME $200 and I’ll tell Peter to wash the deck for ya
Neville, and Peter,
Great read! But is this for real?
1) How did you find out about Neville?
2) Why did you want to guest post? (Expected to see a “start a pressure washing business” course sale.)
3) Would this work in the U.S.?
1) I’ve been following Neville for a couple years now and I’m a Kopywriting Kourse customer
2) Neville posts awesome stuff. His Kopywriting Kourse is great. I thought the post may be interesting for his audience, hopefully get more people to buy his Kourse and get me in his good books :)
No pressure washing course for sale. Buy his course if you haven’t yet.
3) I don’t see why it wouldn’t work in the U.S… Canada is very similar
Hey Roger
1.) Umm….yes?
2.) Lots of people offer to guest post. I personally allowed Pete because I was pretty impressed with the content. It’s fun to see offline stuff working (you see less of that on marketing sites).
3.) Of course it would. He did this in Canada…..it’s not like he tried this in the jungles of Zimbabwe.
Great Post!
However, as long as you’re at it, why not also put some before/after pictures on your flyers? That could increase your revenue in a really nice way, people are crazy about social proof!
Thanks for sharing Pete’s story Neville!
Thanks Robin,
That first flyer was before I had any before and after pictures, so I just went with it haha…
Now, I always put the pictures in and list how many houses I’ve done in their neighbourhood, along with their testimonials…
It definitely gives it a bump.
Hey Robin, there ARE before/after pictures of the flyers :)
This was a great post. I enjoyed seeing your progression from going door to door, to these highly effective flyers, and how you kept learning as you went. Thanks for sharing this!
Yeah it’s pretty cool to watch.
It’s even cooler to learn all of this from someone else’s failures without having to do it ourselves
This is a great example. Joe Polish has some good stuff that’s similarly old school from his carpet cleaning days, which all came from Dan Kennedy and Gary Halbert if you want more of this stuff.
It kills me that people just can’t understand the math so they don’t believe it. Comments here are a good example. At $20/100 flyers and an average sale of $200 only one in 1000 people have to respond to your flyer to break even on the ad. How good do you have to be to get that response rate? Not very.
Once you’ve got a profitable ad you’re literally buying money.
I have friends that send terrible post cards, no offer, untargeted list, and still get 1-2 clients per $100 spent with an average lifetime customer value of ~$5k. Do they start spending thousands of dollars on direct mail or hire a copywriter? Nope. Insanity.
So true…
Something I learned from Dan…
Good math will make up for mediocre marketing.
But the best marketing in the world won’t make up for bad math.
They can send $5,000 to me…..and I’ll just send them Peter’s flyers ;-)
“At $20/100 flyers and an average sale of $200 only one in 1000 people have to respond to your flyer to break even..”
Incorrect and a common fallacy. If you spend $200 to get one invoice of $200 you have lost money. By your calculation, 100% of that gross billing would have gone towards advertising. Now, what about labor, chemicals, gas, insurance, phone, etc? None of your overhead and none of your direct costs would be covered. What about paying yourself and the profit for the company? Generally speaking you want to spend 10% of your gross on advertising. So, for $200 spent, you would need $2000 in billing. (10 customers). Since you can then figure on closing 50% of calls, you would need 20 people to call from every flyer. That’s not unheard of but it requires a good headline/catch, a strong call to action, and a targeted customer list. LTV is something that is harder to qualify until you have been in business awhile. If you are active with constant contact with your customers then yes, they will spend more money. Most guys though do a job, then forget that their previous customers are their cheapest and best source of revenue.
NOT exactly. Lets also look at repeat business aka lifetime value of a client.
And one more thing to my earlier comment. I’ve never found that leaving flyers at people’s houses works. What has worked for me is brief personal interaction with the owner, telling him that I pressure wash, and handing him a flyer.
Hey David,
One thing to add..
WHO you send it to matters a fair bit.
80% of my customers are 65+ years old and are in pretty affluent neighbourhoods.
David…….your website says you’re a direct response copywriter…..but you’ve never got flyers to work?
There’s LOTS of ways people who pressure wash get business with flyers. Even people who put those “Door Hangar” flyers end up getting tons of business.
Think you need to try out Peter’s method.
I’m an electrician and flyers work brilliantly for me. Simple AND targeted works a treat, I have 2000 a week going out, last years ROI was 460%.
Geez Louiz……if you’d ever like to do a similar post as Peter’s, lemme know Mark!
A very interesting article. I’ve been in the pressure washing business. Some years knocking on doors and handing out flyers has been the only way I’ve been able to get business. Other years it’s been a combination of customer recommendations, people seeing me working in their neighborhoods, leads from the paint store, sign in the front yard, etc. Every year is different.
It’s easy to add value to pressure washing jobs and build my price. By adding window cleaning, walkways, patios, painting attic vents as add ons, I can often add $200 to $400 to my price. Pricing it a la carte let’s the customer decide what he wants to pay.
I will try this guy’s flyer and see what happens.
Ohh nice, it’d be interesting to see if it works well for you David!
So, this sounded too good to be true.. so I googled the business name, didn’t find anything, then I searched the phone number, found petevanstraaten.com and clicked on it… redirected to petevs.com which is a weight loss IM site… I’m not impressed.. looks quite fishy to say the least and definitely casts major doubt on the claims in this article.
Hey Jeff,
Not to get defensive or anything but just to clear things up a tiny bit…
I’ve never built a website more than just washmecleaning.com or washmepressurewashing.com… I just never felt the need to.
As for the weight loss site, that was me just screwing around because I’ve lost some weight over the years… I went ahead a changed it because its not active anyhow.
If you have any doubt that’s fine… but all those numbers are still active. Go ahead and try them and hear my voicemail. I won’t answer if it’s not a local call though.
Uggh…..haters gonna hate.
Remember Peter has a physical powerwashing business…..meaning a website will hardly do much good.
Far more business will be generated through the methods he’s doing offline.
I disagree — there is a painting company (clearly physical labor) that won a contest run by Infusionsoft based on their extremely effective email marketing & the way their website was set up to upsell.
I’m sure there’s exceptions to the rule Maddie, but most physical business owners will unlikely get as advanced as that.
Just wanna second that just because it’ a “physical” business has nothing to do with not needing a website. In fact that’s old fashioned thinking. Flyers are great but a lot of folks Google ANY service, especially labor, or word of mouth but still check website. So in fact he could grow more (if he wanted) by having a website. Check out Phil Rozek he’s a local SEO guru and regular guy and he works for a lot of service biz who get customers from websites.
I write website copy and write blogs for business- so this is called “content marketing” to attract folks who are actually ready to buy as they are doing research on a chosen topic on phone or computer/talblet.
I disagree, Neville. If I wanted pressure washing (or any other service) done, the *first* thing I’d do is look for a website. I get lots of flyers in the mail every g*ddamn week, and I don’t even look at them – they go straight into the recycling bin. I’ve never received one of Peter’s flyers, but then I’m not in his “territory” (same metro city area though) – but even if I had, it would suffer the same fate as all the others.
Neville – you should give Jeff G. a refund! :-)
Pete – great article! I clean gutters for extra money and plan on putting this to use!
Agree with Neville here (although seeing this 18 or whatever months after its bene posted!).
This type of sale is usually something that is not seeked out, so Peter “creates” the problem. Not many people say “Hmm, my driveway looks grimy, let me look up a powerwasher guy”. It’s a sale of convienance. Also, seeing the neighbors getitng their stuff cleaned triggers a “keeping up with the Jones” type of compellingness (is that even a word? Nah…) and triggers the pride switch.
Great job
My first thought when reading your copy?
“Wow, this guy is so friendly and *I trust him already.* Can he wash my driveway RIGHT NOW??”
And don’t get me started on the amazing copy with your “You’ve Won a Free Driveway Cleaning” letter (everything post-“second attempt” is amazing but I especially like this one):
– It’s upfront and honest: “Free” can set off alarm bells in prospects’ heads, but you assuage their fear right away by explaining WHY you’re cleaning for free.
– “No-cost, no-obligation, not teeny tiny print” makes me comfortable. “Hey, this guy isn’t trying to hard sell me! So refreshing.”
– You target a huge pain point and explain why you’re the ideal solution. “Why break my back cleaning when I can just contact Peter? Good question…”
Oh, and the cherry on top? Ridiculously good execution of Dan Kennedy’s “Rule #2” of direct marketing:
THERE WILL BE REASON TO RESPOND RIGHT NOW.
Fantastic post, man! And super instructional for every last one of us. The Force is strong with this one…
-Joey
Thanks Joey!
Just to give credit where it is due, the Free Letter is modelled very heavily on a Joe Polish carpet cleaning letter and some letters in Dan Kennedy’s magnetic marketing…
It sure works well everytime I use it :)
Thank you Jo……of wait, that was meant for Peter! :)
Just curious, but were you sending out the one pager $69 offer flyer first? This is how I see your process:
1. Send out $69 offer (1 page flyer)
2. When clients book, send out letter to neighbors.
3. Follow up with a free driveway cleaning.
Is this correct?
Yea, that’s right.
Except for the free driveway I don’t usually send that after. I will swap that out as an alternative to the $69 offer if I really want a rush of new clients.
I switch up “the reason” for free based on the situation. For example, if it’s a new neighbourhood I’ll say hey I’ve done lots in these neighbourhoods but I’m new to your neighbourhood. So to get to know you I’d like to give you free driveway cleaning.