The Roof Cleaning Institute Of America Training & Certification Forum
"Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"

I started cleaning roofs in August. No one here in Iowa new much if anything about roof cleaning. I do this part time as I work for the railroad. I average about two jobs a week or more. The service speaks for itself. The person will either make or break the business. You will get out of it what you put in it. This is a service business and needs to be run/directed as such. If you can't make it in this business it's because you were not willing to put the time in needed to educate the public or you just don't have the passion for the service.

My two cents.

I am sort of in the same situation as Bruce,I am retired and roof cleaning is my second career. Roof cleaning does not feed my family or pay any bills except for the ones it generates. I will admitt if it had to,I would not be roof cleaning today. One reason is that it is really a new service up here,and homeowners are unsure so in the beginning work is tough to come by steadily. My first year I did about thirty roofs.I have cleaned almost three hundred roofs so far,all the profit has gone back into the buisness building it up,again a luxury that most new buisness owners don't have. I heard if a buisness makes it past five years it should succeed,in this economy we already know how hard that will be. I am pretty much done for this year but am eagerly planning next year.

It has been a real struggle for me. There are alot of dirty roofs but people don't seem to care
Most of the roofs I look at are in the $800 to $1200 range. When you give the price it's like you showed them naked pictures of there wife. They will say. That much? Nooooo I'm not spending that.

dude i have no choice i sold my tree biz for this i gota hit it no mater what im raiseing a family of 4 this is are main income only geting $375 most of the time lota knocking

Mike, Gary you have both been around for years.  Have you seen alot of roof cleaning businesses fail?  Thoughts on reasons for failure, mistakes that new guys can learn from?? Thanks

Well whipper snapper, when I was a kid we had to walk to and from school in three feet of snow and it was uphill both ways!!

Sorry I am not an oldtimer, but I would imagine that 4 out of 5 fail since that seems to be the commonly believed statistic for small business failure rates in general.

Robert Kawasaki wrote a very cool book called 'Rich Dad Poor Dad'.  He actually grew up with a rich father and a poor step father and states the differences in their thinking.

In it he says there are three reasons were people succeed and one were they fail the most
The three reasons they succeed
Other peoples Ideas (We didn't invent service business or roof cleaning)
Other peoples money (your customers and investors or loan officer)
Other peoples efforts (your employees or the guys whos business you buy from him)

The reason he lists for failure:
Other people opinions

He explains that this means your family and friends will usually say your silly for taking the risks of a business.  The people who understand money the least label money as evil or hate large business calling them corrupt.
People are the ones that are actually evil or good and money gives both types the power to achieve their goals.
He states that many people naturally focus on the negative and forget the positive in life.
He also states that in a capitalist country with only 3% capitalists that we spend 40,000 hours of our early years in school learning from teachers who never learned how to succeed.  That this same school system was created by capitalist in order to fulfill the need of Other peoples efforts.  In order to have capitalists they need workers and that is what we are brought up to believe we should be.
He quotes the sayings we all heard growing up
Go to college.  Get a good job.  Find a solid career.


The Small Business Administration in your area is your friend.  The first thing they will ask you is: do you have a business plan?  Most answer no.  At this point they will tell you that is the first step.  I have had many friends that could not fulfill this step and they all failed in their respective business ventures.  The biggest reasons explained to me by an SBA rep were these. 
Lack of education on their business and business in general
Lack of motivation
Lack of Capital

We started with only the second one of these.  We gathered the rest over some years.
Due to the fact I was raised poor and had minimal bills along with a serious amount of motivation are the main reasons I survived the first three years.

We broke the 5 year hump and I now manage more money than anyone in my close family ever has and will make more than any of them ever has by this time next year, based on our current growth rate.  Most fail in the first five years.

Another great thing I learned from a self made millionaire mentor I met when I was 21:
It is easy to fail.  You can go do it right now.  Go hang out with your unemployed friends and see how easy it is.
It is hard to succeed and most people are not able to handle how hard it really is.

A contradiction to this I learned around the same time:
If it's too hard, you are doing something wrong.

Somewhere between these two I found the truth.




-- Edited by Baltimore MD Roof Cleaning 410-482-4367 on Friday 29th of October 2010 12:04:14 AM

Thanks for the correction Bro. I goggled his name to get it right and didn't even notice it said Kawasaki, that's hilarious. I had a kx80 dirt bike when I was a kid. I could probably still ride it (tiny dude).

good point about them not all failing.  A 9-5 with benifits  leaves a lot of good time for family.  If I had children yet I would not be able to devote as much time to all this as I do.  Looks like that may change in the next year or so.  I don't want to be 60 when the kids move out so it's about time.

Some people make it big in $$ without ever owning a business and some have been in business 30 years and make no money to speak of.  Some people think money will make them happy.  I believe that happiness will help lead me to financial success not the other way around. 

One thing I have noticed about financially succesfull people is they look at failure differently.  They usually see it as a bridge or learning step or even an opportunity to move to the next thing.  I wonder how many people fail at a business only to succed somewere else or in another business??

I love my work. But it isnt easy to make a living at. We can't just do roof cleaning because the local price expectations are too low. We cant just do pressure washing because every one has a girlfriend, brother or second cousin thats a "pressure Washer. Cant just do paver sealing because every painter, landscaper, and GC offers paver sealing.
But what I can do is work at it, sell myself and the value on every job, not just the service, make good decisions on equipment, have insurance -one of my guys fell off a ladder the other day- track advertizing carefully so your not throwing money away.

Good luck to all. I know its a struggle.

To tie in a life changing book about business and to answer the O.P's questions about business failure. Every business owner should read and reread E Myth. It is the one book that can make or break a business owner. Failure rate is highest among the technicians. I have seen over my nearly decade on the forums that the technicians that worry about equipment, chemical mixes etc and forget about the importance of selling benefits and making their phone ring are the first ones to go.



-- Edited by PA Roof Cleaning Pros on Saturday 30th of October 2010 12:25:32 AM