Please, introduce yourself and your business.
My Name is Joe Heider. I am the owner and operator of Panthers Pro Wash in Charlotte NC. We provide exterior cleaning services, as well as concrete sealing and paver restoration.
How did you start your business?
I started my business in about 2018. I was a background investigator for the federal government prior. One day I decided that I didn't like what I was doing anymore and decided to start a window cleaning business.
I never had any experience cleaning windows, I never even cleaned the windows growing up. But I said screw it and went to Lowe's and bought about a hundred or so dollars in window cleaning materials. I also ordered a stack of 100 cards from Vistaprint. From there I just started going door to door at local retail storefronts and asking if they wanted their windows cleaned.
Within about 3 months I replaced my income as a background investigator with a window cleaning route. From there a friend of mine was wanting his driveway cleaned. I told him I would do it if you'd buy me the pressure washer. And so that's how we got started with pressure washing.
How much revenue was your best year? (include margin if possible)
Every year we do better than the year prior knock on wood. Last year we did approximately $265,000 in revenue. Our margins are usually about 30%.
When did you notice traction when building your business? The “Oh S**t!” moment, what did that feel like?
Kind of a hard one to answer. Because that oh s*** moment happens a lot. I guess the first time it happened was when I got my first you know handful of customers on my storefronts.
But every year it seems like there's another oh s**t! we're actually doing this thing. That happened this year when I hired my two other employees. I now have a total of three, and they are young men and they want to grow it just as bad as I do.
Every time it happens it's just an amazing feeling knowing that you were able to build this thing from the ground up. And it's especially amazing when you can cast that vision on to other people and they trust you enough to say let's do this thing together. It's honestly unexplainable.
What was your childhood like? Were you slinging candy on the playground?
As a child I was very shy. I was not at all the salesperson, I struggled in basic things like reading, I was held back for my ability to read and my social skills. In daycare as a young child they thought that I was a mute. Until one day some kid tried to steal my toy and I yelled at him. They didn't punish me, they gave me ice cream for that one.
But grown up I was exposed to more people, and I was tricked into doing theater. So throughout my high school years I was very involved in the high school shows not just at my school but also the surrounding high schools in the local communities theaters.
What has been your best marketing marketing channel?
Best marketing channel is definitely hands down Google ads. I pay a company or agency I should say to handle all that for us. They've never cost me money. And that's 99% of where all of our revenue is generated is through Google ads.
How many attempts at building something did you make before you found what you’re working on now? Did you always have an entrepreneurial drive?
This was my first business. Although I did have a number of jobs that were sales centered. I worked for vector marketing selling cutco knives. I worked for a telemarketing agency called Red ventures.
As well as Verizon and discount tire. I've always had an entrepreneurial drive, however, I never really pursued it. Of course until 2018.
What is your biggest overhead expense?
Biggest overhead expense I would say is definitely advertising and payroll at this point. However advertising is usually about only 12 to 13% of our revenue for the year.
Payroll is definitely a bigger overhead expense than anything else. This kind of industry there's not a lot of overhead unless you make it have a lot. We are focused a lot on data and technology and integrating that to streamline our process and deliver a better customer experience from start to finish.
So I do spend a lot of money on our CRM, how our website looks, how our ads look and just being able to track leads and follow-ups.
What’s the most important skill you’ve learned?
Most important skill I have learned would be considered a soft skill or as some people would say unskilled traits. Ultimately I believe being kind and courteous in learning to control your emotions is by far the most important thing that you can have as a business owner.
If you're able to control how you feel you can tend to control how others are going to feel as well. It makes handling customer complaints and conflict a lot easier when you're able to bring people back down to your level, and be reasonable with one another.
What do you spend the majority of your time doing, in a given week? (I think a lot of people hear entrepreneurs “work,” but may not understand what that means on a day-to-day basis.
And a given week outside of work I would say that I spend a little bit too much time playing video games. That was always my childhood outlet and I'm just a big boy now.
Outside of that I spend a ton of time thinking about my business, so much so that my fiance tells me I need to chill out.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when first starting your business?
When I started I wish I knew more about financials. I still feel that way. It's not something that comes easy to me because there's just so much information out there.
So we have never borrowed money outside of for vehicles in the business. But I wish I did know more about how loans and business financing and such worked. And that's still something that I wish I knew more about.
The world of entrepreneurship can be misleading. Many people think it’s always easy and always glamorous. What’s a big problem you’ve faced as a business owner and what were the emotions behind it?
Definitely not as glamorous as people make it out to be. I'd say the biggest problem for me is motivation and discipline especially during our slower periods. It's definitely easy to get bogged down especially when the leads aren't flowing in.
It takes a lot more than just sitting around waiting for your ad to work. So I do find it difficult at times to get up and go out and find the sales nowadays. But that has changed now that I have three young men that are counting on me. So we gotta make it happen.
Many people don’t know where to start in the business world, they feel stuck. They may want to start a business to become their own boss and create their hours. What is your best advice for someone who feels completely stuck?
For me the way I got started I basically said I gotta put myself against a wall and make it work otherwise I'll never do it. So I literally just quit my job before I knew whether it would succeed or not.
That kind of mentality is a survival mentality and if you can stay in that mode, of course, without harming yourself physically or emotionally or financially then you'll do whatever it takes to make sure that you provide for yourself and your family.
You can also get stuck in this mode of research research research but you're never going to know everything you need to know until you start doing it. So find that wall and put yourself against it.
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