PressureWashingBossPro Blog — Commercial Accounts

Monthly Storefront and Sidewalk Pressure Washing: Setting Up a 30-Day Account

The monthly storefront is the bread and butter of commercial pressure washing. A sidewalk, an entry, maybe a curb line and a couple of planters. Gum, spilled coffee, tire marks at the curb and whatever the evening crowd left behind. It is not a big job on any single visit, but it repeats every month, it fits neatly before opening hours, and a route of them adds up to real, predictable revenue.

Why Storefronts Make a Good First Commercial Route

Storefronts are usually where companies land first, as covered in Winning Commercial Pressure Washing Accounts: Where the First Ones Come From. This article is about setting one up so it runs every month without anyone babysitting it.

Storefront sidewalks are a good fit for a growing company for a few reasons. The work is mostly flat concrete, so a surface cleaner does the heavy lifting. The visits are short, so several can fit into an early-morning window. And the stores tend to cluster: a strip of shops on Main Street or a row of suites in a center lets the rig park once and wash several fronts in a row.

Setting Up the Location

In PressureWashingBossPro, each storefront is an address under a client. If one owner has three shops, that is one client with three addresses. If a property manager runs the whole center, that is one client with every suite under it.

On each address, fill in the job details:

• Surfaces: Storefront and Sidewalk, plus Dumpster Pad if the back enclosure is included.
• Square feet: measure the sidewalk from the satellite view on the property map. A long front walk is easy to underestimate by eye.
• Surface and method: usually concrete with a surface cleaner; add hot water if there is grease near a food tenant.
• Access notes: where the spigot is, whether it is locked, which outlet the store lets you use, whether the entry mats need to be moved.

The crew sees all of it on their phone: “Storefront, Sidewalk · 2,400 sq ft · Concrete · Surface Cleaner” under the address, with the access note right below.

The 30-Day Cycle

Set the location's minimum days between visits to 30. After each completed visit, the clock starts over. When 30 days pass, the visit comes due and appears on the Waiting List map and list.

The Waiting List colors each pin by status: not due yet, due now, or overdue past a 7-day grace. For a storefront route, that means the office can open the map on a Monday, see every sidewalk that came due, and drop them onto the commercial rig's early mornings for the week. Nobody keeps a calendar of last-washed dates.

Some storefronts want twice a month in summer, or a pre-holiday extra visit. Those can be added as one-time jobs on top of the recurring cycle, or the cycle can be shortened for the busy season. More on how cycles work across all commercial accounts is in 30-Day and 90-Day Visits on the Waiting List: Recurring Commercial Pressure Washing.

Washing Before They Open

Nobody wants a wand and a surface cleaner going while customers step around the hoses. Most storefront work happens before opening, which in practice means very early starts. A few practical habits help:

• Route tight. Group storefronts on the same block or in the same center onto one morning. Auto-route Closest First from the shop, then adjust by hand if a store opens earlier than its neighbors.
• Note the opening time. Put “Opens 7am, be off the walk by 6:30” in the access notes so the crew knows the deadline.
• Move and replace the mats. Note in the access notes where the entry mats go so they end up back in the same spot.
• Leave the entry dry. A squeegee or blower on the entry right at the door keeps the first customer from slipping on a wet tile threshold.

Photos and Billing

Because the store manager will usually arrive after you leave, before-and-after photos matter on every visit. The crew takes them in the app, and they stay with the visit on the account. When the manager texts asking whether the gum by the door was done, the office can look at the photo instead of guessing.

Billing can work two ways. A small independent shop might prefer a card on file charged when the crew taps Complete. A property manager or multi-store owner usually wants the account set to Monthly, which sends one statement each month covering every location, each line labeled by address. Example pricing might be $95 a month for a short front walk and entry, more for a long center frontage, but set your own from your service list.

Building the Route Out

One storefront is a nice extra. Ten on the same morning is a route. Once the first few are running, look at the Waiting List map and notice the gaps: the shops between your current accounts that are not customers yet. Those are the easiest next bids, because the rig is already parked next door.

Every new storefront goes in the same way: an address, its details, a 30-day cycle. The software keeps them coming due. The crew keeps them clean. For the full picture of how storefronts fit with drive-thrus, HOAs and the rest of your commercial work, see the commercial pressure washing software overview.