How Clearview Washing Went From a No-Show Window Cleaner to a $2M+ Inc. 5000 Company
Fred Hodge Jr., Co-owner ·Clearview Washing · Freehold, NJ
Built Local Podcast with Clay Lawrence · · 52 min episode
The short version
Fred Hodge Jr. and his father started Clearview Washing in New Jersey in 2004 after a window cleaner failed to show up at his parents' house. Now in its 21st year, the family-run exterior cleaning company has about 26 people, has passed $2 million in revenue and made the Inc. 5000 list. Fred credits long-term SEO, a multi-step hiring process that brings 90 to 95% of the crew back each year, and the relationships that opened the door to commercial bids.
What other owners can take from Clearview Washing
- 1
Put money into the brand name, the website and SEO before fancy equipment or paid ads. SEO pays off later, as leads you do not have to buy.
- 2
Make hiring a multi-step test: ask for three interview times, do a phone screen, then meet in person. A candidate who cannot follow the steps will not show up every day.
- 3
Ask questions a candidate cannot script, such as what they liked least about their last job and what they did yesterday.
- 4
Read last week's Google reviews out loud at the Monday crew meeting so people hear their own names in front of their peers.
- 5
Commercial bids are won on relationships. Get to know property managers so you are given the bid opportunity instead of being the third quote.
- 6
Set a job minimum (Clearview's is $399) and market hardest in the neighborhoods where you are already working.
- 7
Add a service only when it fits what you already do and customers keep asking for it.
How did Clearview Washing start?
Clearview Washing started because a window cleaner never showed up. In 2004 someone was booked to clean the windows at Fred Hodge Jr.‘s parents’ house in New Jersey for about $350 to $400. He did not come and he did not call.
Fred was 19 and studying entrepreneurship at Rowan University. His father, who worked in corporate America in Manhattan, suggested they start a window cleaning company themselves. They named it Clearview Window Washing LLC and put an ad in the newspaper. For the first job, they offered a window cleaner from Pennsylvania the whole $600 if he would come out and show them how to do it.
The early years were piecemeal: a job on Monday, nothing until Thursday, another on Sunday. Two small acquisitions steadied the customer base. One came from an owner who was terminally ill and wanted his customers taken care of, the other from an owner who was moving back to Switzerland. Power washing and gutter cleaning followed, and around 2014 the company dropped “Window” from its name.
It is still a family business. Fred’s wife Christine is the CEO, his father is one of the heads of sales, and his mother oversees the office.
How did Clearview market itself as Google took over?
Fred invested in SEO from the start and still does. He bought some leads along the way, but he wanted to build something that would bring in what he calls essentially free leads later. He held monthly meetings to go over each town, each service and each type of campaign.
He also tried door hangers and mailers and found the response was closer to half a percent than the 5% he had been promised. What worked better was a networking group built around trades that share the same customers: pool companies, window installers, landscapers, auto detailers.
Starting again today, he would put money into the name and brand first, then the website and SEO, before fancy equipment or paid ads. He would also be on every social platform, LinkedIn included. He set himself yearly goals for connections there and now has six or seven thousand, with almost 4,000 people following the company page.
How does Clearview Washing hire people who stay?
By treating hiring as a multi-step test. Clearview has approximately 26 people, Fred said about 90 to 95% of the crew comes back each year, and he thinks the company has made only one or two bad hires in four years.
The steps he described:
- Ask for three days and times that work for a phone interview. If a candidate cannot follow through on that, Fred doubts they will show up every day.
- Do a phone screen, generic on purpose: can you lift 50 pounds, where do you live, do you have a driver’s license.
- Meet in person, ideally in the morning, so the candidate sees the crews loading the trucks together.
- Ask unscripted questions: what did you like most and least about your last job, and what did you do yesterday. One candidate said the best part of his security job was standing around on his phone. He was not hired.
- Use a Hirebus personality assessment, which scores a candidate from one to 10 for every role in the company. Fred looks for a seven or better.
- Walk them out to their car, for a glimpse of how they keep it.
He is not looking for experience. “I’m looking for just good people and I’ll mold them,” he said.
How did Clearview go from all residential to 70% commercial?
Through relationships, after years of losing bids. Fred believes he was being used as the third and final bid on jobs where the winner was already chosen. That changed when he started spending whole days at golf outings with property managers. Regional managers told him they could not hand him jobs, but they could get him the bid opportunity with every manager under them.
Commercial work mattered because the season in New Jersey is short, with a dead stretch from December to March 1, and commercial clients fill the full nine months. Beating the estimate on a commercial job also saves days, where a residential job saves hours.
In 2024 Clearview was 70% commercial and 30% high-end residential. Its biggest contract to date is a $266,000 holiday lights job won through a government bid. On the residential side it keeps a $399 minimum, markets to high-end towns, and wants each crew bringing in $2,000 a day.
When should an exterior cleaning company add a service?
When it fits what the company already does and customers keep asking. Fred said no to holiday lights for years. Then a Christmas light wholesaler happened to block his truck in at the shop, and the following Monday his sales rep reported three more requests from the weekend. Clearview launched the service under a sister brand, Clearview Illuminations.
Shrink wrapping outdoor furniture for the winter is another add-on. Each wrap gets a Clearview sticker offering to open it for free in the spring with the purchase of any service.
What would Fred tell an owner who wants to grow?
Find a coach or mentor who is already where you want to go, and look hard at what is keeping you busy. Fred and Christine coach other owners through The Process CEO, a platform she created, and Clearview hired two virtual assistants to take the $15 an hour tasks off their plates.
Owners end up back on the truck for two reasons, in his view: they do not know how to hire, and they do not have consistent work for the people they have. “If you do those two things you can finally get off that truck for good,” he said.
In Fred's words
“I used to hate hearing people say there's no one good to hire anymore. That's BS. That means you don't know how to hire.”
“Every time you hire the wrong person you're setting yourself back. You're causing headaches and you're costing yourself money.”
“I realized the game is really in relationships.”
“Are you busy on $15 an hour tasks or are you busy on thousand an hour tasks?”
Questions this episode answers
How did Clearview Washing get started?
Clearview Washing started in 2004 after a window cleaner booked for about $350 to $400 never showed up, or called, at the Hodge family's home in New Jersey. Fred Hodge Jr., then 19 and studying entrepreneurship at Rowan University, started Clearview Window Washing LLC with his father. They placed a newspaper ad and paid a window cleaner from Pennsylvania the full $600 from their first job to teach them how to do it.
How does Clearview Washing hire and keep good employees?
Clearview Washing uses a multi-step process: candidates give three times for a phone interview, pass a basic phone screen, come in for an in-person interview with unscripted questions, and take a Hirebus personality assessment that scores them from one to 10 for each role. Fred Hodge Jr. says about 90 to 95% of the crew comes back each year and he thinks the company has made only one or two bad hires in four years. He also reads the week's Google reviews at the Monday field meeting and names an employee of the month.
How did Clearview Washing win commercial cleaning contracts?
Fred Hodge Jr. says he spent years as what he believes was the third and final bid on jobs that were already decided. That changed when he built relationships with property managers at golf outings, and regional managers began getting him the bid opportunity with every manager under them. In 2024 Clearview Washing was 70% commercial and 30% high-end residential, and its biggest contract to date is a $266,000 holiday lights job won through a government bid.
What does it take to make the Inc. 5000 list as a home service company?
As Fred Hodge Jr. of Clearview Washing describes it, you apply and provide tax returns for, he thinks, the past three years. He says a company has to generate more than $2 million in revenue and show a percentage growth increase over the past three to five years. Clearview Washing made the list after starting as a two-person window cleaning business in 2004.
What marketing should a new exterior cleaning business do first?
Fred Hodge Jr. of Clearview Washing would start with the name and brand, and would not use his last name. Next he would invest in the website and SEO, which he has done since the company's first days, before buying fancy equipment or running Google or Facebook ads. He would also post on every social platform, including LinkedIn, where he says property managers, facility managers and purchasing departments can be reached.
How do Fred and Christine Hodge work together as a married couple?
The Hodges, who run Clearview Washing with Christine as CEO, follow three rules. No business in bed. Clear roles and responsibilities, so she runs the calendar and he runs lead generation and neither steps into the other's lane. And separate workplaces: she works from the home office and he works from the Clearview office.
Need pressure washing in Freehold? Visit Clearview Washing at clearviewwashing.com.
