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Power Washing Business Plan on Increasing Gas Prices
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| The cost of doing business these days is going up considerably and your power washing business is no exception. Rising fuel and supply prices are probably the most detrimental to your growing business, and raising your prices in response may not be the best idea. | |
When gas prices were lower, you probably didn’t worry about the cost of driving your vehicles to job sites, or even about how much fuel your power washers were burning each hour. But now, with gas prices fluctuating from the upper three dollar to mid four dollar per gallon range, you should be keeping an eye on the bottom line. If you watch the evening news, you have heard that gas could even top off at $5.00 a gallon by the end of the year; that is disheartening news for all of us. Checking the manufacturer’s specifications for your particular power washer is your first step in determining how much impact the rising price of gasoline will have on your hourly wage and eventually on your business. |
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A typical 13 HP Honda portable power washing unit uses about a gallon an hour; your cost estimate per hour would be around $4.25 to account for inflation over time. The larger 20 HP power washers would use just slightly more fuel and your estimate should be about $5.00 per hour for that size machine. A good estimate for a hot water skid unit, taking into account the water burner and the engine (20 HP) would be just over $10 per hour. So, what is a business owner to do? When you first began your pressure washing venture, you should have made a power washing business plan and calculated your cost per hour versus how much profit you want to make per hour. If you haven’t done that, you should take the time to do it now. Knowing and understanding all the costs and expenses involved in running your business is essential to running what everyone strives for: a profitable business. Take a look at those numbers and see what the impact of rising gas prices will do to the bottom line. In these days of rising costs, it may seem simple to just pass those costs on to your customers, but in doing so you may actually loose business and in turn loose money. By scrutinizing all of your expenses, you may find a way to keep your prices the same without lowering your profit margin. Advertising may be a good place to scale back if you already have a steady workload and customer base. You can even use this to your advantage, pointing out to loyal customers that you aren’t raising prices and asking them to spread the word about your power washing business. What’s better than word of mouth advertising? Consolidating job sites may also be essential to insulating your business from rising fuel costs. Sorting jobs by location and even working longer occasional days to work jobs that are close together but possibly not close to your shop can reduce the overall cost of fuel for your power washing business. It may not be possible to absorb all the costs and you might have to pass some of the increase along to your customers. Either way, just keep your customer service top notch and keep an eye on the numbers and your power washing business will be successful.
The publisher of these pages is in no way responsible for any damage caused to you, your pressure washer, anyone else, your property, or anyone else's property by trying to implement or by successfully implementing the above-mentioned performance and services.
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