Episode 4: Starting a Roof Cleaning Business From Scratch With Spencer Claeys
We have a special episode for you today with Spencer Claeys who built a profitable roof cleaning business with some smart local marketing tactics. Now he has racked up over 500,000 followers on TikTok and YouTube that he guides to making up to $1,000 a day doing exterior cleaning.
We talk about how he leveraged Facebook advertising, works on making the right offer and built a big social media following teaching small business tips.
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Full Interview Transcript:
PocketSuite:
Welcome, everyone, to the Booked Solid Podcast with PocketSuite. We have a special guest for you today, with Spencer Claeys. Thank you so much for joining us.
Spencer Claeys:
Sweet. How’s it going?
PocketSuite:
So Spencer is a pressure washer, a roof guy. You started your business out of a Toyota Corolla a few years ago. Can you just tell our listeners that story?
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, no, for sure. So right when I got out of college, I’d kind of worked every little crappy job I could, been in the Navy Reserve as well, and then the pandemic had hit. So then things were looking kind of weird, but I remember just waking up one day and just being like, I need to make money. I’d kind of just, I’d just finished another job and I was like, I can’t go back to that. So I just went out, bought a cheap pressure washer, started going door to door in my Toyota Corolla.
And so I was doing some pressure washing jobs. That actually worked pretty well. And then the market was kind of weird, and people up here don’t really want pressure washing as much. I kept getting asked like, “Oh, do you do roofs? Do you do gutters?”
So I was like, “Yeah.” That was my instant answer, even though I’d never really done a roof before. I’d cleaned my dad’s gutters before, since I was a kid, but never as a business. But I said yes, and I went out, did the job, and then I was like, okay, cool, roofs aren’t that bad. Make way more money. So then I just went full in on that, and then the next year, just been scaling that, just working on getting more jobs with Facebook ads and running the website and all that sort of stuff. So it really took off.
PocketSuite:
That’s great. I didn’t realize that it had only been since the height of the pandemic that you were doing this. Just so that everyone knows, Spencer now has like 186,000 followers on YouTube, with a fantastic channel about how to run a roof cleaning or a pressure washing business. Where do you live, by the way?
Spencer Claeys:
I’m up in Seattle. Seattle, Washington.
PocketSuite:
Okay, cool. So I guess with the climate there and the trees and the wet, there’s just a lot of full gutters, huh?
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, definitely. If you drive around, there’s so much moss, green stuff growing everywhere. So every area is different. If you were down in the southwest, there’s more solar panels to clean out there. There’s window cleaning pretty much anywhere, or out where you guys are. There’s definitely, when I was in New York a bit ago, I mean, you could see if you drive around, see the houses with some black streaks. That’s the [inaudible 00:02:55]. It’s like this bacteria that grows. But yeah.
PocketSuite:
So you obviously leveled up a lot since you first knocked on a few doors in Seattle, asking to do some pressure washing. Can you talk about some of the milestones in your own business growth?
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, the first step, obviously if you’ve never done anything before, you’ve got to get decently good at whatever it is you want to do. So for me, when I started doing pressure washing, I cleaned my dad’s driveway first. Just kind of learned the basic skills. If you’ve already worked, if you already kind of know what you’re doing, cool.
But then the next step is okay, getting consistent jobs, because that’s really the only benefit of having a job, a place where you clock in, is you have that consistent work. So that’s really the next big hurdle, is just making sure you have consistent work. So for me, that was just, I also majored in marketing, so I was comfortable, familiar with marketing, but then I started learning a little bit more about that because I was like, okay, I need to get good at this. Otherwise, I’m not going to make any money.
And I kind of stumbled into Facebook ads. And once I dialed in the numbers, kind of know how much a lead should cost, how many, on average, how many messages it takes to book a job. Then once you get those numbers down, then you just start scaling up from there. So for me, I only spend like 10 bucks a day on ads, and that keeps me booked solid, as you guys would say.
PocketSuite:
No, that’s great. 10 bucks a day on ads. So just walk people through if they’ve never used Facebook ads before for anything, how as a service business that’s local, like pressure washing, you actually have to visit someone’s house. How would you set that up to get more leads?
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, so there’s really two types of marketing. There’s search marketing and there’s interruption marketing. So search marketing is Google. Someone’s like, I want my house cleaned now. So they type that in. But most people, like 97% of people are not thinking about you. They’re not thinking about your business. So your job is to get in front of them.
So there’s a lot of different ways you can do that. Facebook ads, TikTok ads, whatever ad you want. You could run a billboard floating through the sky. It really doesn’t matter. But as long as we get our message in front of somebody. So for me, Facebook has just been the easiest, it’s the simplest, and you can really just, I feel like you can put your business out there the quickest. So that’s why I like it.
PocketSuite:
Cool, cool. Yeah, it works really well. I remember I’ve used it before. You can get right to the zip code, right to the place. So as a solopreneur who’s working by yourself, often people think of advertising as something that’s done by John Hamm on Madison Avenue in a cool office. How did you figure out how to write an effective ad yourself?
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, I mean it definitely didn’t come overnight. I remember my first campaign, it just flopped. It’s one of those weird things where if it doesn’t work, it’s super frustrating because you’re putting money into it. So it feels like going to the casino, it feels like gambling. But I remember just, I took a few courses, read books. Eventually later down the road, I’ve had some really good mentors that have helped me. But getting comfortable with that, it definitely, it is kind of hard, but once it works, it’s like discovering fire, it’s so awesome.
But yeah, just once you figure it out, like I said, I got my book. I kind of teach how to run the ads through that. But you’re putting a message to a market. That’s all marketing really is. We’re just putting a message out to our market. So like we said, you could have a billboard, you could have a Facebook ad, you could have an ad on Google. We just need to put our message in front of somebody. So I want to keep it pretty simple.
So once you figure out that, then all you really need to do is, okay, what am I offering? And have some sort of, oh, that’s another key is having a really good offer. That’s where I would first start. So have a good offer. Then it can be as simple as putting up a picture, putting up a video of you doing the work, or whatever ad you want to run. And then just putting that out, targeting people who you think would most likely purchase your services, which is homeowners in most cases. So find those things, line those all up, that’s pretty much all you need to do.
PocketSuite:
So I have a marketing background too. So what we’re talking about, everybody, is iteration or A/B testing. It’s that idea of spend $10 on an ad and if it doesn’t work at all, it’s like, oh, okay, well I’ll try something else tomorrow until you get something that works and then you double down on that. And all of a sudden-
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, exactly.
PocketSuite:
So yeah, that’s a great strategy. Do you remember the first ad that really worked for you?
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, I remember, I think it was a $99 driveway cleaning special. And it’s kind of funny because in this industry there’s this whole stigma against being the $99 guy because everyone’s like, oh, that’s the cheap guy. But I remember that was the first thing that really worked. I think I heard it from someone, you want to be the cheapest, the best, or the quickest. Choose two, I think it is. So something like that. So you can either be cheap and quick or fast, or no, it’s not going to be cheap if it’s good and the best.
So basically you’ve got to figure out what you’re offering, where you want to structure your business. And for me, I started being the cheapest. And then once I figured it out, I was like, okay, I can actually charge way more money. So then I switched it up. And then recently some of the best ads have just been a simple eight to 15 second video of me cleaning something, paired with my offer and then just explaining the whole process behind it. So that formula works really well right now.
PocketSuite:
It really does. Any sort of cleaning video is just the whole trend online.
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, it’s satisfying. People like to watch it.
PocketSuite:
Any sort of pressure washing, car detailing, anything kind of calming that just looks nicer at the end, people just love that content.
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, and that’s another really good point too, because we’ve got to remember what all these platforms want. They want people on the platform. So we want to keep them engaged. We want to have a good ad that not only makes us money, but we also want to keep Facebook happy. If we have some crappy ad that someone saw and they’re like, ugh, and they click off, Facebook hates that.
So then you’re going to have a lot higher cost per acquisition of a customer, because Facebook doesn’t want to show your ad. They still will, if it even gets approved. But the better we can help them out, the more engaging we can make it. So yeah, that’s where a lot of those cleaning videos do really well because they’re very engaging so you like to watch it.
PocketSuite:
So you have a whole video on your YouTube page about how to make a good offer versus how to make a killer offer. And I think this is good advice for anyone starting out. So can you just explain what that means?
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, so I mean offers is like, there’s been entire books written about it. I know Alex [inaudible 00:10:24], Dan Kennedy, they talk a lot about that thing. So it’s kind of a hard thing because a good offer is just something that you’re kind of like, hey, we exist. Better than nothing. It’s better than nothing. Because that’s really most businesses’ problem, is literally just telling people, hey, we exist. That’s really a lot of what marketing is. Because that’s the biggest problem, is people don’t know you.
So from there, that’s your good offer. But then a killer offer, or even better, an irresistible offer, or we also call it the Godfather offer, an offer so good you can’t refuse, so that comes down to really knowing your target customer, exactly what people want. So what we want to do is we want to know our customers better than they know themselves.
So for me, I know how to speak to them, I know how to talk to them. And that’s another really key point. Notice how you speak to people and notice how they’re going to speak to you back, because we’re speaking the language of our market. And so once we can really effectively articulate their problem to them the best, that’s really how you start having a killer offer because you can explain to them exactly what they want.
It’d be like if you told me exactly what type of women you liked, and then I was able to write an ad with the exact description of the woman that Hansa just gave to me, you’d be reading this ad, you’d be like, holy crap, that’s awesome. I know that’s a random example, but that’s kind of what we’d want to be doing, versus, hey, here’s girls over here on this website. I mean, random example, but it gets the point across. Versus, you know, you want to be as specific as you can.
PocketSuite:
And can you tell me about a time when you got that feeling of I just made a killer offer, and what it was and why you feel like you nailed it?
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, because there’s so many different things that go into it when you have, because obviously most people are just like, what’s the price? That’s their biggest question. But like I mentioned, I can’t remember who said it, but it’s like he who can the best articulate the problem that your customer’s facing is going to win the sale.
So if you can correctly articulate exactly what they want, what they’re looking for, that’s the best way to go about it. For me, I think that was, like right now I run, one of my best specials is a 299 roof and gutter cleaning special. But then I walk them through the whole thing, how exactly the process is going to go, what they can expect. I give them the whole thing. And that sort of process works really well.
PocketSuite:
Yeah. You have actually a lot of good money making videos on your site that are seasonal, something like this. You have one, how to make 5,000 a week hanging Christmas lights. How is that in terms of just thinking about the year ahead and having those seasonal promotions, was that a big part of how you built your business?
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, I mean, like you said, solopreneur business, I don’t really have, I’ve been kind of flying by the seat of my pants, but you notice seasons, notice what people like to spend money on. So that goes back to the offer. We want to know exactly what people are doing right now. So right now it’s springtime. We’re getting into a lot of spring cleanings. So a lot of cleanings there. Over the summer, that continues, if you know how to market.
And then the fall, roof and gutters is a lot more popular, and getting into the winter you have Christmas lights. So it really becomes being adaptable, being able to figure out what your customer wants and then just offering it to them. So I think a lot of people, and that’s what I really love about this business, it operates out of a truck, but I mean, it doesn’t really matter. If people want junk hauled, I’ve hauled stuff for them before. Whatever someone wants you to do, find however many people want it done. That’s how you find what business you should be getting into, if you don’t have a business yet.
PocketSuite:
Yeah, no, it’s good. Seasonal promotions are great. We have this tool called smart campaigns, where you can just message all of your former clients and tell them, hey, spring cleaning’s here. Do you want that 299 gutter deal or whatever it is that you’re selling. Or, hey, the holidays are here. I’m much more comfortable being up on a roof than you are. Do you want me to hang your lights for you? Stuff like that. It’s a great way to stay booked solid and have another reason for former clients who hired you and are happy with you to book you again.
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, no, totally. Yeah, for that, I mean, because I think the graph was like 97% people are not thinking of you or they’re not thinking of your business. So if you have a way to get in front of them like that. So definitely, yeah, just finding what people want. That’s the biggest thing, that even when I do help other people with their business, it’s just answering those obvious questions.
Because I’ve had people try and exactly duplicate what I’m doing, but they’re trying to do it in South Georgia or somewhere and they’re trying to speak to people the same way that I’d speak to people up here and it doesn’t really work the same. So you’ve got to really know what your people want and know how to speak to them wherever you are. Because this type of shit works anywhere. It works in any industry. A lead is a lead, so it doesn’t really matter what you’re doing, as long as you know your customer and know what they want, and you can give it to them. You’ve got a good business on your hands.
PocketSuite:
Yeah, absolutely. What was the most surprising thing about building a business in this industry for you?
Spencer Claeys:
Most surprising thing is I just love the freedom aspect too. And just being really, also just being open with your customers, really good at communicating. I think if you do that, for me, I was able to just, I don’t have any uniforms. I call my customers all by their first name. There’s no corporateness. So I really love that. I really love the freedom to be able to just do whatever you want, and as long as you’re providing a great service and a great business, you’re going to make a lot of money. People don’t really want to do business with super corporate structure, I’ve noticed. I mean, some people do, but on the other hand, I prefer to go to smaller, locally owned stuff as well.
PocketSuite:
It’s a feel good thing for sure.
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah.
PocketSuite:
When did you decide to start helping other people getting into pressure washing or roof cleaning to start their businesses? Your YouTube channel is really dedicated to helping people succeed.
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, I really went in on it last year. The start of last year was when I went hard. And then because yeah, I’ve been doing the business for a couple years and I was in all these Facebook groups, and people are just constantly, how do you get more customers? How do you get more business? And meanwhile, I’m literally just spending five, $10 a day on ads, and sometimes I’ll even shut my ads off because I’m too busy.
And once I figured out the Facebook ads, I was like, okay, more people need to know about this. And so yeah, that’s one of the big things that help out today. So there’s just so much money, there’s so much opportunity out there. So no reason to hold back.
PocketSuite:
So you decided to share what you know, and can you just talk about the process of going from okay, I’m sharing a couple videos about explaining how I do it to these Facebook groups that I’m in, to 186,000 people following along your business story. I can see from the comments that a lot of people are starting to build their businesses based on your ideas. How did that journey happen?
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, I mean it really started hard from TikTok actually. So TikTok was my biggest platform. It still is. I think I have almost 350,000 on there.
PocketSuite:
Oh, wow.
Spencer Claeys:
And then, so YouTube grew way slower. I think I was posting since January of last year, but I don’t think I got my first thousand subscribers until maybe the springtime. And then, so I was going just a little bit. I’d only posted a few videos. And then once I saw that, and then once I really learned the power of YouTube, of being able to put up a video and then people can watch that video for years, because TikTok is awesome, but it has a very quick burn rate. People watch the video and it may go viral, but then in two days it’s going to be dead. No one’s ever going to watch it again.
But YouTube has much more of a longer term presence. And then once I’ve been doing this for a while, I was like, okay, well I need to start thinking long term. How am I going to make money if I’m not necessarily doing roofs? Not going to be 26 forever. So the more I can help share that, spread the message.
PocketSuite:
Yeah, that actually really aligns with what’s happening in social media these days. If you do see being an influencer or sharing what you know as part of your business plan out there, TikTok is where all the attention is right now. But YouTube is where you can create a record of who you are and what you do that really stands for itself.
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, TikTok is cool. I would definitely still recommend it for anyone trying to get off the ground. But then, I mean, YouTube is just cool because I think you just really need to set your expectations very low, just be like, hey, I’m putting these videos out just to help other people. If it helps one person, then it was worth it. So I think for me, that was kind of a switch in my brain, where I’m just trying to help people. I don’t care if this video gets 10 views because it will, in the beginning, it’s going to get only 10 views, if you’re lucky. Maybe it’ll get less than that.
But eventually it’ll start to gain traction. And then just the way the algorithm works, it’s just going to pick up over time. And then some shorts go off, they’ll go viral instantly. You can’t really control these things. So that’s what I would say to anyone trying to get started. You can’t really control all of it. You can just control the value you and the help that you’re putting out.
PocketSuite:
That’s really cool. And does it help you book clients now? Is it its own sort of profit source for you? What has your journey with social media been?
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, social media has been great because, yeah, I’ve got a few jobs from it for sure, for roof cleaning. But I mean, I don’t focus on, as you know, I mostly talk about business, so you could do that too. I’ve heard of a lot of people do that. Hey, this is my business. And at the end of the video they have book my services, which is a really smart thing to do.
But for me, I have some books, some courses on how to do all this stuff, even do some one-on-one coaching as well. So make some money from that, helping people. And then the more people that see that, the more people want to buy the book. But you could do choose to do either one. You could just try and be the influencer thing or actually using it for your business growth, whatever business you have.
PocketSuite:
So if I were to buy your book, what would I learn from it?
Spencer Claeys:
Well, I got a couple right now, and the third one is on the way, but it’s the first one’s just how to market your business, how to use Facebook ads primarily. And then the second one is a little bit more specific, how to start a roof and gutter business. So it’s whatever you’re looking for. And then the third one is called Your First 100,000 Followers. And that’s the social media thing we’ve been talking about. So it’s how to get started on there, pour gasoline on your social media channels, and get after it.
PocketSuite:
So just simple how-tos, like this is how I did it, this is what you do to do something similar, get booked solid.
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, exactly. I love books too, because I love reading as well. I’m always reading a book, especially when I’m on a job. And I’ve found that for me also, when I learn a skill and if I can encapsulate it in a book, then it’s like, okay, cool, now I can move on to the next skill. So that’s how the journey started. I started getting good at ads. So then I wrote that book.
And then I knew how to build a business. And so I wrote that book, which all those got me to having hundreds of thousands of followers. And so then I felt, I was like, okay, this is the next thing. This is the next skill I can teach. So the next book I write might be How to Write a Book or something like that. Just going up the stairs of all the skills. So that’s what I’ve been doing right now, which is kind of fun.
PocketSuite:
Nice. So that’s awesome. So you’ve got a couple books out, you’re helping people build their businesses. Are you still solo out there, or have you hired people now that you have a booked solid kind of thing? Are you hiring more people to take more jobs, teaching them what you know? What’s your plan for growth?
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, I mean, I made that decision a while ago. I was like, I love this business, but I also don’t really see myself having the next roof cleaning company where I have 50 trucks and stuff. So I’ve just, I’ve kept it solo. I’ll have some buddies out to help me if I need help from a job. I’ll definitely hire someone to come out. So there’s that.
But yeah, I kind of also was like, okay, well if I can take all this info, keep it online, put it online, grow that business as well, I’d rather have the online take off because I also have some other partners that we might be going both directions. I might be helping them grow their own roof cleaning thing or partnering with them or something. So there’s still a lot of things in the works, but yeah, just kind of-
PocketSuite:
Yeah, there’s a lot of lifestyle questions at that point of when you fill up your own book. You did one thing, which is starting to teach other people, train other professionals. The hiring people route, you can make a ton more money if you are doing three times the work with three people under you, but it’s so much work, right?
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah. So I think you’ve got to decide what you want, because you can do anything you want to, as well. That’s the other thing that goes back to the freedom thing. The part I love about this business or whatever business you have cleaning wise is you can choose whatever you want. You can do it yourself if you want and just make it, you kind of treat it as a job. Or for me, I saw it as a stepping stone into making some quick money and then I can move on to the next thing. Or you can scale people and hire people. Yeah.
PocketSuite:
What do you do with your freedom?
Spencer Claeys:
I go to the gym, post videos on YouTube. Pretty much that’s my main thing right now. Yeah, I’m always editing. I do some coaching calls and such, but I don’t really have too much, I wouldn’t call it free time. I usually just call it, because I’m pretty much always working. My girl will tell you, I’m always on my phone making a TikTok or something.
PocketSuite:
Yeah. But you get to decide how you’re going to spend your day and what avenues to explore. Really cool. So what is your advice for anyone who comes across your TikTok channel or your YouTube, thinks that, hey, I’ve got a Toyota Corolla, maybe this is for me, I could make a lot more money doing this. What warnings, are there major safety issues with getting up on roofs? Do you need certifications? What is your baseline advice for someone just starting out?
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, so I mean, I’ll say this, definitely be safe, make sure you’re licensed, bonded, insured, all that sort of stuff. That being said, when I started, a lot of other people started, maybe those things aren’t quite up to par, but you’re still getting after. At the end of the day, get out there, start making money. I won’t tell you to not. Be smart about it, obviously. And also what you mentioned too, being up on a roof. But find the demand in your area, find what other people want to do. You’ve just got to have that hustle. It’s just got to be in you, making that money.
It’s hard in the beginning, don’t get me wrong, but it’s one of the most rewarding things you can do when you have your own business and you can look back and the times you were hustling, it’s pretty awesome. So yeah, just getting after it is the key, though.
I pretty much laid out everything on all my videos, and yeah, I mean, you get some questions here and there that were just like, man, you didn’t really watch the video. This is not that hard. At the end of the day, it’s not that hard. I don’t want to complicate it. I’ve seen a lot of channels where people try and complicate things so then they can sell a course. I try and make it as simple as I can, share as much as I can. And then my courses and books are only for people who want to actually go deeper, and I’ll actually show you in-depth stuff. But yeah, just getting started, getting after it, that’s the biggest key for anyone.
PocketSuite:
Yeah, just get started, make some money, it’ll fall into place. Okay. Where can people find you on TikTok? Where can people find you on YouTube? Where can they get some of your books or your courses?
Spencer Claeys:
Yeah, just hit up any of, I’m just Spencer Claeys is on any channel, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and then yeah, any of those bios will have access. You can get my books, get the courses. And if you buy some of the courses, some of them come with one-on-one calls with me if you want to dive deeper. So yeah, that’s pretty much it.
PocketSuite:
All right, awesome. Well, thank you, everyone, for joining the Booked Solid Podcast. Best way to support the podcast is run your business on PocketSuite. That’s what we are made for. So I hope you think about that. But also, we’d love a five star review on any podcast service, and thank you so much for joining us.
