A BARTENDER TURNED HIS WINDOW CLEANING HUSTLE INTO A SIX-FIG BUSINESS

For Kyle Ray, there are Are Few Things More Satisfying than Cleaning A Dirty Window.

IT’S “Instant Gratification,” The Texas Native Told Business Insider, and something he first experiences in High School while Working Odd Jobs. “IT’S ONE OF THOSE THINGS THAT SEEMS MINTHESS AND EASY, but it’s Actually Rather Complicated and Takes Skill, and i Just Enjoyed it a Lot.”

In 2007, Ray Needed Work. He’d dropped out of College to start a real estate business with a friend u ultimately failed, and thatn spent a year working a 9-to-5 cubicle that drove Him Crazy: “i didn’t like having a boss.”

He quit, picked up Night Shifts Barthending and Waiting Tables, and Dedicated His Mornings and Afternoons to Building a Window Cleaning Business.

While he has had some experience from hisnage years, he needs to refine the skill.

“The Fastest Way for me to Gain as Much KnowLEDGE AS I COULD AS QUICKLY AS POSSIFE TO ACTUALLY WORK FOR SOMOBODY,” He Said. “SO I WORKED FOR A WINDOW CLEANING COMANY FOR LIKE THREE MONTHS AND THEN I WAS LIKE, ‘OK, GOT IT.’”

Ray Bought About $ 100 Worth of Equipment at Home Depot, Loaded His Truck, and Drove to Strip Malls All Over Houston. He was storefront-to-storefront, asking General Managers if they Needed Their Windows Cleaned.

His first client was a massage parlor.

“I walked in the door Because their Windows were filthy and i ascked to they’d like a quote,” he recalled. “They told me no. They do it themedelves. I told, ‘well, you didn’t do a really good jab, and i can a better jab. If you let me, IT’S BUCKS.’”

Ray, Whose Second and Third CLIENTS WERE A HAIR SALON AND A Wing Shop, Called HIS Hustle Geek Window Cleaning.

Pivoting From Commercial to Residicts Work

Ray Spent About a Year Cleaning Brick-and-Morefronts. Residency didn’t cross his mind unil the generager of one of his commercial clients asked if he’d clean his house Windows.

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HIS First Residential Job Took Three Hours and Earned Him About $ 300.

“That’s a light a lightbulb went off and i was like, ‘i need to get good at residency,’” Said Ray.

While more lucrative than commercial jobs, it requires more skill.

“Your Typical Commercial Locations Have Big Pieces of Glass. Its Very Easy to Clean. There are no obstructions in front of the Glass,” He explained. “Residential is smaller. It can be single hung. It can be a divvided litow! Multi-Level, SO Two-Story or Three-Story Windows.

He Also Found It Harder to Land Clients, at Least in the First Couple of Years.

“I Waled Go Out and Knock Doors, and I Wauld Get Two People in A Day, butn I was wouldn’t get anybody for like or two,” Said Ray.

He wasn’t discouneded Because and he was onto something. He decide to drop his commercial clients and go all in residency.

Growing to Six-Figures Using SEO, A Unique Pricing Structure, and ‘Unreasonable Hospitality’

For Years, Geek Remained a Side Hustle for Ray.

“I Enjoyed The Work a Lot, and it was bringing in okay, but it was enough with to quit waiting tables and bartending,” he said. “I was working seven days a week. It starts to become a hamster wheels I got myself into, and i couludn’t figure out how to grown fast to produce the level of leave the other jobs.”

That Changed AROUND 2014 When he started figure figing out how to leverage seo.

“I Started Reading a Lot of Books About It, and Started Building My Website and Doing All the SEO Stuff that you would back then,” he said. “I was getting more consistent jobs and more references from Customers Because We were doing a really excellent jab for say. And then, in 2015, if you were googling ‘Window Cleaning Houston,’ We were showing up in the no. 1 Position.

Around the Same Time, he was retrinking his pricing structure. A Major Benefit of His Commercial Work Was the Custency: Once he Locked in a Client, they’d typically Want to return weekly or every other week.

HIS residency clients were more sporadic. To Encourage say to set up recurring cleanings, and experiment with a pricing model in which clients goat a discounted price.

“I’ve been basically tweaking that program SINCE 2015, and i’d Say probably in 2019, 2020 is realy figured it out – how to sell it and how to get People Set,” Said Ray. “Andn wen we started really cooking with Fire.”

Geek’s “Always Clean Program“OR ACP, Puts Customers on an Automatic Cleaning Program. Their monthly rate is determining by the services they select – Geek has expanded to offer pressure, Gutter Cleaning, and Roof Cleaning – Their Home, and the Frequency of the Cleanings.

Ray, who has been in the business for nearly two decades, Believes that Maintenance Programs, Rather than One-offs, are The Futow of Window Cleaning: “I Think People Are Catching on Now, and There Are a Couple of People Doing, But Back When I Started Doing It, Everybody Though I was crazy.”

He Also Believes in Excellent Customer Service. One of the Business’s Core Values ​​is What He Calls “Unreasonable Hospitality,” Which he Describes AS “ORDINARY CUSTOMER INTRAORDORY EXPERIENCES.”

He trains his technicians to go Above and Beyond.

“If we show up to someone’s house and their garbage cans have been dumped, we just go robbed and we’ll be like, ‘hey, where do you your garbage gans?’ Or, ‘hey, this light fixture was really Dirty. “We will unreasonable Things to make sura that you’re super happy.”

Hospitity is in his blood. He GREW up Watching His Mom, Who Ran A BREAD-BAKING Company, take supreme care of her customers. He sturgery into the idea of ​​providing exceptional customer care after years of waking tables.

“You can be be an asshole waiter. Or, you can be a really hospitable, Friendly waiter – and you’ll make a tears More Money,” He Said.

Ray Has Teams of Technicians in Houston and Austin, where he and his wiffe currently reside, and plans to expand to Dallas in 2027.

The Business Generated Six figure in Revenue in 2024 and is on track to exceed $ 1 million for the first time in 2025. Business Insider confirmed these by revolutionwing His 2024 P&L and ServiceMonster Dashboard.

Ray Has Big Goals that Plans to Achieve by Implementing His Always Clean Program, Phasing Out One-off Cleanings, and Continuing to Unreasonable Hospitality.

“The goal is to go to $ 40 million a year in revenue in five years and $ 100 million a year in revenue in 10, and then expand out of state,” he said. “We know how to get there and we’re just going to go for that and see what happens.”