The next 30 days: sign storefront routes before the year ends
Late October to mid-November is the window to sign monthly storefront and small commercial window routes. Who to approach, what to say, and how to price it.
Residential window cleaning is about to get lumpy. You have a pre-holiday rush coming, then a January that can go very quiet. The fix that lasts is not another residential promotion. It is a set of storefront and small commercial accounts that pay you every month, rain or shine, and the next 30 days are the best time of year to sign them.
Here is why now, who to go after, and exactly what to do between today and mid-November.
Why this window works
Shop owners are getting ready for their busiest weeks. Holiday window displays go up in November, foot traffic climbs, and a smudged storefront glass is the first thing a customer sees. A manager walking past their own front door in late October is already thinking about how the store looks.
Some businesses are also planning next year's spending in this stretch. A monthly service that starts in November becomes a line item they renew without thinking about it in January.
And this work fills the dead weeks. Storefront glass does not stop getting dirty in January. A route of monthly accounts gives you steady work when residential calls drop off. The slow season guide shows how commercial routes smooth out the year.
Who to approach first
Start with businesses where glass is part of the sales pitch:
- Restaurants and cafes with big front windows. Grease and fingerprints show fast.
- Retail on a main street, especially clothing, gifts and anything with a window display.
- Salons, gyms and studios with glass fronts.
- Real estate, insurance and dental offices in strip centers. Steady, low-drama accounts that pay on time.
- Car dealerships, if you have the crew for it. Lots of glass, high standards.
Skip anything above two stories or with a property manager you cannot reach for now. You want accounts you can sign with one conversation.
Week one: build the list
Pick two or three commercial strips or a downtown area close to your current routes. Walk or drive it and list every business with dirty or average glass. Aim for 40 names. Note the business, the number of panes, and whether there is a manager on site.
Route density matters more than any single account. Ten storefronts on the same street that take 15 minutes each are a better morning than four scattered across town.
Week two: walk in
Go in person, mid-morning on a weekday, when it is quiet. Bring a one-page price sheet and a squeegee.
What to say: "Hi, I'm Jordan with Clearview. I do the windows for a few shops on this street. I noticed your front glass and thought you might want it clean for the holidays. I'd be happy to do the front right now at no charge so you can see the difference, and if you like it, I do monthly service for most stores this size starting at around $40."
The free front-pane demo is the closer. It takes five minutes and the manager sees the result while you are still standing there. Leave a card and the price sheet either way.
Week three: price it simply
Commercial pricing for storefronts is usually per visit, billed monthly. Typical ranges for small storefronts run roughly $30 to $80 a visit for outside glass, more for inside and outside or larger fronts. Offer three simple options:
| Option | What it covers | Example price |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly, outside | Front glass and door, exterior | $40 a visit |
| Twice monthly, outside | Same, every two weeks | $35 a visit |
| Monthly, in and out | Both sides, door and frames | $70 a visit |
Put it in writing, month to month, no long contract. Small business owners sign month to month more easily. The pricing and quoting guide covers good, better, best layouts in more depth.
Week four: follow up and get them on Google
Text or stop by every business that did not say no. "Just checking back. Happy to start the first week of November so the glass is clean before the holiday displays go up."
For every account you sign, do two things. Add "Commercial window cleaning" and "Storefront window cleaning" to the services on your Google profile if they are not there, and ask the manager for a Google review after the first month. A storefront owner writing "they show up every month without me having to call" is exactly the review that wins more commercial work.
That review matters. Across 14,348 window cleaning listings in our data the median company has 7 reviews and 55.7% have fewer than ten. A few reviews from business owners can set you apart. Only 19.3% of profiles show Saturday hours, so if you can service shops before they open on weekends, say so.
What 30 days of this can look like
A hypothetical. Forty businesses visited, ten free front-pane demos, six signed accounts at $40 to $70 a visit. That is somewhere between $240 and $420 a month in recurring work from one street, and a route that takes about two hours. Do it on two streets and you have a quiet January covered.
The Google Business Profile guide has the setup for adding commercial services and the benchmark report shows where your profile sits.
If you want help building the commercial outreach list and setting up review requests for new accounts, any service is available as a free 14-day trial, no card. Text or call (801) 515-4729.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, window cleaning companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor