Glad to be of Service Sir :-))
WHY do so many people regard window cleaning as a low-skilled profession, and something that anyone can do. Window cleaning is NOT 'a low skilled profession', 'a lesser trade; or 'unskilled at best'.
Cleaning windows at a high speed and at a high standard, and delivering amazing customer service and making a decent profit at the same time is a real challenge.
Look at what Charlie Mullins has done for plumbing with Pimlico.
He's delivered amazing customer service, he's got plumbing into the media, and he's created an awesome company that is so successful that British Gas and other giant competitors are having board meetings to talk about him 'cos they're terrified about what he's gonna do next.
Window cleaning is tough business.
Gnarly weather, difficult customers, hassles with equipment, usually working alone, and you only as good as your last performance. Running your own window cleaning business as a one man band is stressful AND lonely.
And this is before you begin the challenge of finding decent customers that pay their bills and give you enough profit to live a decent lifestyle and save for your retirement.
If you've 'made it' as a window cleaner, you've done something really special. Only one in ten companies succeed, so WELL DONE!
If you are struggling as a window cleaner then start the process of doing something about it.
Just so you know, I'll be running "One to One" workshops for West Midlands window cleaners very soon and I'll make an announcement about this soon.
These workshops will last 60 minutes, and they will be FREE, and I will give you some easily-implemented ideas that can potentially transform your business.
Places on these 1 to 1 workshops are limited, so pre-register now by calling or texting me on 07 799 033 759 or email me:
oliver@oliverthewindowcleaner.comI've attached something I've written about what it is like to earn your living as a window cleaner -
Recommended reading if you ever need a cure for insomnia!
When I’m Cleaning Windows
By
Oliver James Metherell
Between 2003 and 2011 I worked part time as a black taxi driver in Edinburgh and led a team of mountaineers on a project called “Super 7”. We visited every one of the seven continents and either climbed a mountain that had never been climbed before (Antarctica, South America) or established a first ascent (Europe, Asia, North America, Africa and Australasia).
A first ascent is when you start at the bottom of a cliff and make a new route to the top, pioneering a new climbing route over ground that has NEVER been climbed before.
Climb a new route; and you get to name it. My favourite name was “24-Hour Party People” that I climbed with Kevin Neal and the late James Edwards (Sleep easy bro’).
We named the new climb we’d created “24 Hour-Party People” as a nod to the deep hedonism that’s such vital part of the climbing sub-culture; and because we climbed the steep new ice route up the mountain (Mt Aspiring: The ‘Matterhorn’ of New Zealand) in a non-stop 36-hour push without a wink of sleep.
Our patron was Sir Chris Bonington and he described it as “A brilliant project – so much more exciting, innovative and adventurous than the ‘Seven Summits’. It’s true exploratory adventure by young guys who are talented climbers attempting something that is bold, innovative and very adventurous”. On completion we received Royal recognition with an invite to Buckingham Palace to meet HM The Queen.
Hanging up my ice axes; after years of being a climbing vagabond and pioneering first ascents on obscure mountains that only climbing geeks have heard of; was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. See (
http://www.super-7.co.uk/) if you ever
need a cure for insomnia.
But I’d found something I loved even more: High-velocity water fed pole window cleaning. Inspired by a day spent with Roger Needle and his crew, I set out to pioneer new techniques in the craft of window cleaning.
I was also inspired by The Isle of Man TT Race. When I was Assistant Editor at ‘Motorcycle Sport’, I rode pillion on the insane Honda CBR1100XX Super Black Bird (at one time the world’s fastest production motorcycle) piloted by a former TT racer.
I was the passenger on a motorcycle being driven by a man who had done a lap of the TT circuit at an average speed of over 121 mph. The TT circuit is infamously dangerous. Barry Sheene mounted a successful campaign to get it deleted from the Grand Prix roster in the 1980s, and it includes A-roads, B-Roads, country lanes and humpback bridges.
Hunched over the handlebars, The TT racer rode this ballistic powerhouse of a motorcycle with an utter contempt both for his own life - and the lives of other road users.
With 164 horsepower kicking like a mule my knees skimmed the tarmac as the bike carved through the twists and turns. Leaned over at a crazy angle, we took ‘The Racing Line’ through the curves of a twisty B-road.
Whenever the bikes tyres met the slippery white paint of the road’s centre lane markings, the rubber would ‘break traction’ and beneath my seat, I could feel the chassis of the bike writhe and twist uneasily in protest - like an un-settled cobra.
I was struck not just by the speed at which TT racers can ride ‘point to point’; but the laser-like precision of where they place the bike on the road.
Starting my window cleaning career in Birmingham, I decided to make a ‘conscious uncoupling’ of the idea that fast work = shoddy work; and I decided to approach water-fed pole window cleaning (then a fledgling industry) with a ‘race mentality’, combining high speed with ‘scalpel’ like precision.
In my attempt to become ‘The Michael Schumacher of The Shine’ I was inspired by Churchill and his battles in Britain’s darkest hour. I wanted to fight an epic battle on behalf of the region’s affluent home owners. A battle against a small minority of window cleaners that are ‘average’ at best; and window cleaning brands that are so bland they melt into oblivion.
My tragic obsession with window cleaning continues to develop. I’m a now a window cleaning geek, and one of a select number of people in the UK who can empty an entire public bar with my talk of ‘Zero Degree Splay’ brushes, ‘Bi-Angle Rinsing’ and ‘7-Stage Signature Techniques.’
Not all of my fellow brethren in the guild are gentlemen. Before I started outsourcing our calls, I was getting threatening ‘phone calls every few months. E.g.: “Stay out of Harborne.”, “Listen Pal, Dinnae be putting down any more leaflets in Quinton.” And rather ominously: “Watch. Your. Back.”
One morning when the business was still based at my home I came out to transfer water from my water plant to the van to find that someone had come into my back garden during the night and hacksawed my transfer pipe in two. Then I had my safety cones stolen while I was working round the back of a customer’s house.
I speculate that my competitors are wannabee gangsters rather than actual bona fide villains. But if I get found face-down in the canal with a knife sticking out of my back then you’ll know what happened!
After being in the trade for 8 years, I have now begun work on the ‘Exit Exam’ of my window cleaning apprenticeship: How not to look like a complete fool when I trip over my pole hose like a muppet and land ‘flat on my face’ in front of a pack of “Yummy Mummies” on an up-scale suburban street.
My intention is to create an amazing prestige window cleaning service with stellar customer service. Our company (est.2011) is called Oliver James – Wind0w Cleaner™ and we serve over 700 home owners in Birmingham, Solihull and Sutton. Our clients include OBE’s, MBE’s, CBE’s, Surgeons, Barristers, a high court judge and A Knight of The Realm.
I work in partnership with ‘Top Gun’, ‘Best of The Best’ local window cleaners. Affluent home owners get quality home services from a brand they can trust.
Quality window cleaners get work with decent profit margins. If you are billing about £200 a day right now then you could have an extra £350 a week in your pocket if you work with us. Window cleaners get a better work/life balance, we make sure our team members have finished work by 3pm at the latest.
And window cleaners save themselves up to 5 hours a week of notifying customers, scheduling work and chasing debt – plus, they don’t have the hassle and expense of sales and marketing. .
I want to elevate the status of and pay of window cleaners in The West Midlands, change window cleaning culture in our area forever, and make Birmingham a better place through window cleaning.
Businesses come and go. Revolutions never die.
Who Else Wants to start a revolution?
Text / Call: 07 799 033 759
oliver@oliverthewindowcleaner.com
