Is it better to specialize, or to have a wide range of services as you start a new power washing business?
This is a question every new power washer must answer as he or she sets out, and there are good arguments for both approaches. If you are starting up a new power washing business, you will need to be familiar with both sides of this issue.
Arguing in favor of specialization, the strongest favorable point is probably the relative ease of this approach: Only having to learn one discipline in the industry will allow you to build expertise faster. Building expertise will make you more confident, which will pay off in sales calls, and help you to build a reputation in the local community.
Specialization will also allow you to better control your expenses, by allowing you to only buy the equipment necessary to perform your chosen type of power washing. This is no small advantage, as even with a narrow focus, there are many different methods to achieve the same ends in power washing, and it takes experience to find the right method for your business plan.
Task specialization will also allow you to target your advertising more effectively. You can home in on a specific niche in the available power washing market, and appeal to your customers as the outfit with exactly the services they require. If you know everything there is to know about one part of the field, you will undoubtedly understand what that market requires of the contractors currently serving it, and you will be able to adhere to those needs. You won't be pushing services that aren't required, and you won't be spending money on advertising and equipment that doesn't pay you back.
Specializing is, to many small businessmen, an easier, less expensive path to take in a field with so many different disciplines. It is less expensive, and easier to manage a company that sells just one service, and customers can be confident in that companies' expertise. But there are also compelling reasons to avoid specialization.
Few businessmen would advise anybody to try to provide every service for which a power washer can be used. Indeed, it might be impossible to ever stop adding to the list of uses for these machines, and there is considerable expertise in each discipline and also considerable risk to people and property if power washers are misused. Offering a broad range of services may be possible, but should not be attempted without a serious commitment to learning the skills necessary to performing each task well.
One good reason to offer more than just one service is the flexibility gained. Upselling services is a great way to build income while also adding to the value your customer will place in the relationship between your cleaning business and his or hers. Many people like the idea of one-stop-shopping, being able to call one company to set one appointment to have several services provided simultaneously.
Flexibility also extends to survivability when times get rough in any one industry. Nobody wants to be the best plopple washer in town if the plopple industry suddenly collapses. Now your power washing business suddenly has to find a new set of customers, learn a new discipline, change insurances (possibly) and do all the other tough stuff it did when you first started out. That is a lot like opening a new business.
Offering a broad range of services also provides the opportunity to broaden your network of business contacts. You will be meeting people from many different walks of life, and will be able to catch bits of information from other industries that may turn out to be useful; few people over-estimate the power of broad-based networking. Who can say what opportunities may arise as a result?
It may also be true that widening your focus, at least in the beginning, will allow you to sample more types of work, to enable you to pick one to concentrate on in the future. This is a bit like having it both ways, but it is common for new businesses to drop some services as the demand for more lucrative services grows. Wide focus allows you to find which services are best for you to provide.
There are many different services available to provide in the power washing field. Power washers are wonderfully useful machines, and can be used so many different ways, that it can be difficult to decide whether to try to do it all, or to concentrate effort on a narrow reach of services. There are good arguments on both sides, and the decision you make as you start out in this business is an important part of your business plan. Sound research is of paramount importance in making this choice, but an understanding of the arguments around the question may lead you to decide to specialize in a few services, while retaining the flexibility to add as opportunities arise.
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