This past Wednesday I found out my employee was putting in his 2 weeks notice. To be honest, it was a gut punch. The timing felt terrible. We’re just stepping into the busy season, and even though I had already been thinking about hiring, I wasn’t planning on being forced into it quite this fast. For about 30 minutes, I just sat with it, prayed, and worked through that initial wave of stress. Then I responded to him and told him the truth: if he needed support moving forward, I’m here for him. I meant that. That may sound strange to some guys in business, but I really do believe that if we keep giving, it comes back. Luke 6:38 came to mind immediately: “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom...” That verse gave me hope in the moment. I felt like the Lord was reminding me not to clamp down in fear, but to keep my hands open. So instead of spiraling, I just started taking the next step. I put together a hiring video. I built out a hiring page on the website. I started posting. I took phone call after phone call with applicants. I listened to their stories. I tried to stay calm and present instead of reactive. Within just a few days, I had screened over a dozen people. Out of that process, I found Bryan, who I believe is a great cultural fit with a lot of upside and long-term potential. I also connected with Samuel for part-time help, and there’s another strong candidate in the mix as well. So what started as a moment that felt like loss quickly turned into a moment of expansion. Even more interesting, my former employee may still become part of the bigger picture. Instead of viewing him only as someone leaving, I can now potentially send overflow work his way on a subcontract basis at around a 60% commission, which should put him well north of $50/hour whenever I’m overloaded. That changes everything. Now I can market more aggressively. Now I don’t have to panic if the new guys take time to learn.

One thing I’m learning is that your door hanger close rate isn’t just about how good you are at sales or even just your pricing. It’s also about who you’re marketing to. I recently moved to a new city and started my window cleaning business in an area I didn’t know well. So I began door hanging in neighborhoods that looked like solid upper-middle-class areas. I got an average call rate from the door hangers. But once I showed up to quote in person, I ran into a problem. It seemed many homeowners simply couldn’t afford the service. Some even told me they were just curious about what window cleaning costs these days. In one case, a realtor referral turned into a complete waste of time as they were more interested in pitching me their services than hiring mine. Window cleaning is a luxury service. And if you’re pricing your services like a premium offering, you need to be in neighborhoods that can actually support that. I’m also learning that just because someone will pay for gutter cleaning doesn’t mean they’ll pay for window cleaning. Even though both are home services, window cleaning is often seen as more of a “nice-to-have” than a necessity like gutter cleaning. Right now, most of my window cleaning bids fall in the $450–$695 range. At that price point, according to AI, I need to be targeting households earning $150K+ per year. I wasn’t doing that at first and I think I wasted some of my time in neighborhoods that mostly wouldn't pay for window cleaning. One tool that’s helped me a lot is the USPS EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) website. It lets you see income and age demographics for specific neighborhoods within a ZIP code, which makes targeting much more strategic. If you’re doing door hanger marketing, I highly recommend checking it out: https://eddm.usps.com/eddm/select-routes.htm Bottom line: If your close rate is low, it might not only be your pitch or your price, it might also be who you are targeting.