Executive Summary
Your executive summary is the first part of your business plan, but you usually write it last because it is a summary of all the important parts.
Your executive summary should get the reader’s attention quickly. Tell them about your power washing business and how things are going. For example, are you just getting started, do you have a pressure washing business that you want to grow, or do you run a chain of pressure washing businesses?
Next, give an overview of every part of your plan that comes after this one.
- Briefly explain what pressure washing is.
- Talk about your pressure washing business.
- Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of the people you’d like to buy from you.
- Give a quick summary of your plan for marketing. Find out who on your team is the most important.
Tell what you want to do with your money.
Company Overview
In your business summary, you will talk about what kind of pressure washing business you have.
You could, for example, focus on one of the following types of businesses that use pressure washing:
- This type of pressure washing business cleans driveways, patios, decks, garage floors, and the outside of homes.
- Commercial pressure washing: This type of pressure washing business can help clean parking lots and the outside of commercial buildings.
- Pool cleaning: This type of pressure washing business focuses on cleaning empty pools and pool decks.
- Cleaning cars is the main focus of this kind of pressure washing business.
In the company overview, you need to explain what kind of pressure washing business you will run and give some background on the business.
Include answers to things like:
- When and why did you start the business?
- What big steps have you taken so far? Milestones could include things like the number of customers served, the number of services done, making $X in sales, and so on.
- The law is up to you. Does your business have an S-Corp structure? An LLC? A business run by one person? Tell us about how the law works in your country.
Industry Analysis
In your industry or market analysis, you need to give an overview of the pressure washing industry.
Even though this may seem pointless, it has more than one use.
First, learning about the pressure washing business makes you smarter. It gives you a better idea of the market you are in.
Second, market research can help you make a better marketing plan, especially if you use it to find market trends.
The third reason is to show readers that you know what you’re talking about. You do just that by doing the research and putting it in your plan.
In the industry analysis section of your pressure washing business plan, you should answer the following questions:
- How big (in dollars) is the pressure washing business?
- Is the market going down or up?
- Who are your main rivals in the market?
- Who are the main market suppliers?
- What changes are happening in the field?
- How fast is the industry expected to grow in the next 5–10 years?
- How big is the market that matters? That is, how big is the market that your pressure washing business could serve? You can figure out such a number by figuring out how big the market is in the whole country and then applying that number to the population in your area.
Customer Analysis
In the “Customer Analysis” section of your business plan, you should talk about the customers you serve or hope to serve.
Different types of customers include people, schools, families, and corporations.
As you might guess, the type of pressure washing business you run will depend a lot on the type(s) of customers you choose. People would react differently to marketing campaigns than, say, corporations.
Try to figure out who your ideal customers are by looking at their demographics and how they think and feel. In terms of demographics, you should talk about the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the people you want to help.
Psychographic profiles can tell you what your customers want and need. The more you can figure out what these needs are and how to meet them, the easier it will be to get new customers and keep the ones you already have.
Competitive Analysis
In your competitive analysis, you should find out who your direct competitors are and then focus on them.
There are other businesses that do pressure washing that are direct competitors.
Indirect competitors are other things that customers can buy besides your product or service that aren’t in direct competition with it. This includes other cleaning services, handyman services, and stores that sell pressure washing products you can use yourself. You should also talk about competitions like this.
For each of these competitors, give an overview of their business and a list of their strengths and weaknesses. You won’t know everything about your competitors unless you have worked for one of them. But you should be able to learn important facts about them, such as
- What kind of clients do they work with?
- What does it have to do with pressure washing?
- What is the price range (high, low, etc.)?
- What are their strengths?
- What do they not do well?
Try to answer the last two questions from the point of view of your customers. Don’t be afraid to ask customers of your competitors what they like and dislike about them.
The last part of your competitive analysis is to list the ways you are better than your competitors. For example:
- Will you make using your services easier for people?
- Will you sell or do things that your rivals don’t?
- Will you give your customers better service?
- Your prices will be better, right?
In this part of your plan, you should think of ways you can do better than your competitors and write them down.
Marketing Plan
Usually, a marketing plan has four parts: the product, its price, where it will be sold, and how it will be promoted. In your pressure washing business’s marketing plan, you should do the following:
Product: In the product section, you should say again what kind of pressure washing business you have, just like you did in the company overview. Then, describe the goods or services you’ll be selling. Do you, for example, do things like wash windows, clean pools, or sweep chimneys?
Price: List your prices and how they compare to those of your competitors. In your plan, the product and price sections are basically where you list the products or services you offer and how much they cost.
Place is the location of your pressure washing business. Write down the location of your business and how it will affect how well it does. For example, is your pressure washing business in a busy shopping area, a business district, a stand-alone office, or is it only online? Talk about why your website might be the best place for your customers.
Promotions: In the last part of your pressure washing marketing plan, you’ll write down how you’ll get potential customers to your business (s). Here are some ideas for how to promote your business:
- Put ads in local newspapers, magazines, or radio stations.
- Reach out to websites.
- Distribute flyers
- Engage in email marketing
- Put up ads on social media websites
- Improve your website’s SEO (search engine optimization) for the keywords you want to rank for.
Operations Plan
In the other parts of your business plan, you talked about your plans. In the operations plan, you explain how you will reach those goals. Your plan for operations should include two different parts.
Everyday short-term tasks include everything you need to do to run your pressure washing business, like answering calls, scheduling technicians, billing customers, collecting payments, etc.
Long-term goals are the steps you need to take to get there. This could be when you think you’ll get your Xth customer or when you hope to make $X. It could also be when you want to take your pressure washing business to a new city.
Management Team
A strong management team will show how successful your pressure washing business could be. Show the backgrounds of your key players, with a focus on the skills and experiences that prove they can help a company grow.
You or someone on your team should have run a business before that does pressure washing. If so, talk about what you’ve learned and what you’ve done. But you should also talk about any business experience you have that you think will help your business do well.
If you don’t have a strong enough team, you might want to put together an advisory board. A board of advisors would have between two and eight members. These people could give you advice that would help your business. They would answer questions and give planning tips. If you need to, look for people on your advisory board who have successfully run a pressure washing business or a small pressure washing business.
Financial Plan
Your 5-year financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement. For the first year, it should be broken down monthly or quarterlyly, and after that, it should be done annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, your balance sheet, and your cash flow statement.
Income Statement
Profit and Loss, or P&L, is what most people call an income statement. It tells you how much money you made and how much it cost you, so you can see if you made a profit.
You have to make some assumptions when making your income statement. For instance, how many people can you help each day? Do customers who bring in new ones get a discount? By how much will sales go up every year? 2% or 10%? As you might guess, the assumptions you make will have a big effect on the financial projections you make for your business. Try to find facts that back up what you think by doing as much research as you can.
Balance Sheet
Balance sheets show you what you own and what you owe. Balance sheets may have a lot of information on them, but try to focus on the most important parts. For example, if you put $50,000 into building your pressure washing business, you won’t start making money right away. Instead, it’s an asset that you hope will bring in money for years to come. In the same way, you don’t have to pay back a $50,000 check right away if someone gives it to you. You’ll have to pay that back over time instead.
Report of Cash Flow
Your cash flow statement will help you figure out how much money you need to start or grow your business and make sure that you never run out of money. Most business owners and entrepreneurs don’t know that you can make money and still go bankrupt if you run out of cash.
Make sure to include some of the most important costs of starting or growing a pressure washing business on your Income Statement and Balance Sheet.
- Cost of office tools and supplies
- Payroll or salaries paid to employees
- Commercial insurance
- Taxes
- When you’re starting a new business, you’ll also have to pay for things like legal fees, permits, software, and equipment.