Relocate Before You Operate: Starting a New Business in Trying Times

I thought I had it all figured out.  I suppose every new business owner imagines making it big… or at least is pretty self-assured that he can make ends meet with his or her venture. 

Thinking back many years, I vaguely recall my parents chanting, “Location.  Location.  Location.”  But what on earth were they talking about?  Frankly, I can’t remember.  Likely, they were trying to dissuade me from renting my first apartment in a complex known for partying, riots and police chases.  Although the lesson was lost then, the message is coming to focus today.

My best guess is that when most people start new, small businesses, they tend to stay close to home, choosing a business they expect will work where they live rather than a location that will best fit their business.  I began with a mixture of the two.

When I decided I could no longer take the humidity and the lack of topographical relief Florida had to offer, I decided to head back to San Diego: the land of idyllic climate.  And in doing so, I thought, “what better place to start a window cleaning business?”  No filling buckets with antifreeze as was mandatory in Michigan lest you break a storefront window with a frozen window mop.  364 days of sun and warmth (it has to rain some time) was perfect for making a living outdoors.  Since I had spent some time considering starting my own window cleaning business and now had decided on San Diego, everything quickly fell into place

Can you spot a predicament yet?  No?  Neither did I.

After filing papers with the city, purchasing insurance, and a truck, I did some research into advertising.  The metro phonebook listed almost a hundred companies under the heading “window cleaning”.  Could that be right?  A hundred?  How could this info have slipped by?  Are there really than many people in one city trying to make a living washing windows?  There are, and now there is one more.

Just as expected, the competition here is fierce.  I have spent many days hanging doors with advertisements literally over those of my competition.  All of a sudden window cleaners are everywhere.  One lives three houses down from me!  There are a lot of competitors, but lucky for me many of them are untrained both in the industry and, just as important, in customer relations.  But even if some of them are less than the pinnacle of the industry, the next guy is always there to step up in his absence.  So what am I doing here?

Some might say that I am paying for my mistake; they would say that I should pack it up and try again somewhere else.  Some days I would agree.  Had I spent a little more time researching the location that I started my business, a 50 mile move in one direction or another might have made my job in finding new clients substantially easier.  But, alas, I keep on.  I will continue to fight for any customers I can get, and rather than be lax about their care as one might in easier times and places, I will do everything in my power to keep them for the years to come.

Thinking of starting up a new business of your own?  Consider sticking with your job on the burger line a couple extra days and investigate which community has the most need of your service first.