[texas girl]

Having been in business for a very long time I have figured out some ways to add to my income during the winter months, etc.
I have added chandelier cleaning to my list of services. With a 12 or 10 foot step ladder it is easy for us to clean hard to reach areas. I charge 30 to 50 dollars, depending on how high up, intriquette design, etc. I really press this before the holidays. I also have been cleaning all kinds of fixtures. Indoor and outdoor. Average ten dollars per. Also clean mirrors of all sizes and types. Also during slow months have a sale! Offer a free gift with a no obligation estimate. I order inexpensive things like cool pens, calculators, calenders, etc. I had some door hangers made to advertise these specials, and I paid a person a half dollar for each house they went to. She was required to log in the address of each house, and she received twenty five dollars for each house she picked up. I picked up about 15 houses from that, but it was a lot of flyers. But the good news is that I have almost all of the houses now as repeat customers. Usually 2 times per year. Anything you can use your special equipment for to help provide any type of service is extra money that adds up. I also vacuum the tops of cabinets, clean off cobwebs from very high places; clean insides of windows that get usually the outside only. Use your imagination. Older folks do not want to stand on a ladder of any size. Anything to help them. Change light bulbs from high places. I also have a small janitorial service. Contract labor. I make a percentage from each job. Some times managing people is a pain in the rear end but if you pay them well and keep on top of your affairs, it pays off. 

One year (1997) we had almost 3 months of solid rain . It was that experience that made me think of other things to do besides just traditional window cleaning. That was rough. Once you have regular customers you can add these services any time; good or bad weather. I'm sure there are lots of other things along these lines that you could offer(power washing-gutter cleaning). I have about 300 commercial accounts. Do you all do mostly residential? I like to do both. Train some folks to do commercial; some to do residential. Market them both. Doctors offices. Attourney offices. All business and retail spots.

I always say "If you want to catch a lot of fish, put out lots and lots of bait". Going back to a previous "no" will get you a few accounts.
Take care of the people who represent you. Be 100% honest in all of your dealings. 100%. Be diligent, beleive in yourself, and keep moving forward. Pray. I have faith that if I am good to my people and to my customers I will get mine in the long run. Having faith is important. Show up and make your customer's day better. Smile!

[windows_chepstow]

There's not many chandeliers around Chepstow  that we could clean in the winter and if they were, I'm not sure I've a squeegie big enough to fit them!  Our equivallent would be 'lamp shades' - but I'm not sure what the demand is for cleaning them. 

We might be in similar work - but it's a little different here in the UK.  Smaller probably!

I'm uneducated, but have saw quite a few repeats (re-runs to you) of Dallas which has supplemented my meagre knowledge of Texas.  I thought you had it sunny all year round!  I can't believe it gets as wet and grey as some parts of the UK - like Scotland for example - (where the men are as miserable as the weather and wear tartan skirts - even the window cleaners.)  If you ever go to Scotland, never look up a ladder.


It's okay here, I'm sort of down towards the South of the UK which is fairly mild.  The further North you get (and I'm well qualified to know this being a Geordie), it gets worse till you get to 'Sweatie Sock Land' (Scotland) where it's the worst.  Never mind though; the people there historically are half pig, half Geordie (You wouldn't have a Jock if it wasn't for a Geordie going over the border and copulating with a sow) - so they're hardened to it.  Even Wavie Davie!

So after confusing a Texan and offending just about all the 'Scotch' window cleaners I'll finish by saying us window cleaners in the UK, clean windows just about all year round.

[rosskesava]

Crickey.

Chandeliers.

I don't think I've ever seen a real live one in a house. Like windows_chepstow says, lamp shades. Just how do you squeegie lamp shades.

But.... Texas Girl - what a lot of good ideas. I like the idea of offering all types of services and then using an outside company and taking a percentage.

I also thought Texas was the land of everlasting sunshine, big roads, big cars and even bigger buildings. Either that or lots of dusty soil blowing in the wind behind a vehicle going down a dusty track to some outback ramshackle farm.

Sorry. That's the limit of my lack of knowledge of Texas.

So you actually get rain there too. Where I work is along the Soath Coast (the bottom right of the bottom of the UK). Our patch is along just 20 miles or so of coast line along the cliff tops in a thin strip. The weather during the summer is often better than most places because we have the South Downs behind us and 2 rivers - one to the west and to the east.  During the winter though it is often just yukky and almost windy all the time. During Autumn and Spring it can be diabolical. Every Friday we do our commercial round last and Friday all we did was clean salt off the shop windows. The Friday before it was sand with a greasy muck, and the Friday before that the wind was so strong it was blowing the water off the windows when we mopped them. Two Fridays before Christmas we suddenly realised we were driving towards a tornado. It ripped up a few tree's in a place called Rottingdean. (Seriously - 'Rottingdean' and it was not like the American ones but still nasty none the less) We took the diplomatic decision to go home.

However .......... you've given me a lot to think about. Thanks.

And windows_chepstow.... How rude. I was born in Scotland and I can assure you that my mother changed my socks every week or so and my father wasn't half pig half Geordie - he was a complete pig and pure bred from his miserable father and from his even more miserable father before him. 

Cheers

Ross

[windows_chepstow]

No, Rosswhatsit...

'Sweaty Socks' is Cockney rhyming slang for 'Jocks' (Scottish people - not macho 'football' players (for the benefit of Texas)).  It's nothing to do with how often you change them. 

Incidentally, Americans call rugby, football (although they wear protective head gear and pads, unlike the tougher British version).  (For the benefit of Scottish people).

The Oxford English dictionary definition of Scottish is:  Adjective.  Relating to Scotland or its people.  Being half Geordie, half pig.

[windows_chepstow]

cockney rhyming slang was replaced by Nanny Swearword.  It should read
C O C K N E Y.  Just to let you know it's not my spelling or fingers playing up here.

[rosskesava]

Hi Chepstow

I still think my father was a complete pig. Had he been half Geordie he would have been more normal. Maybe he weren't a pure bred Scots then although I can still remember the disgustingly vile taste of bonnie scots porridge being made with just water and tons of salt.

So in the morning, as I'm from north of the border, do I put on my 'jocks'?

Cheers

Ross

[windows_chepstow]

Poridge is made for oats.  Oats is food for horses and Jocks!

'Nuff said?

[rosskesava]

Just told my missus I was half Geordie and half pig.

She said 'what happened with you then?'

I said ''

She said 'what happened to the Geordie bit then?'

I reminded her she was form Essex and blonde.

I am now in the dog house.

[zeusjazmin]

cmon now lads remember the words of the great song "and sent them homewards to think again",i will let you borrow my copy of braveheart
btw have you tasted porridge?its great
ps its not always bad weather ,we got 25 dry days last year

[windows_chepstow]

I know the feeling.

I tell my missis, she's Welsh, with a pointy head, that she's the result of a millenia of inbreeding.

When we lived in Germany I told people that Helen hated being there, because she missed her Mum, Dad, brother, sister, aunts and uncles.  In fact she missed BOTH of them.

That's very true down this kneck of the woods, so I'm sure Essex women all wear white Ron Hills and high heels.

To Texas, wor lass's kidda (that's my good lady wife's brother) would be the type that is capable of playing a banjo really fast, without looking at the strings, and not only has a pointy head, but sharp teeth also.  I'm sure you know the film I'm talking about.

[rosskesava]

I live in Brighton. Down here people have 3 kids - one of each.

The schools teach that there are 3 types of people too. Those that can count and those that can't.

Sorry Texas Girl. You gave such good idea's and somehow it degenerated into this. Maybe that is why you are doing so well.

Still... we have to have fun. 

Thanks for your input.

Ross

[AuRavelling79]

Chepstow and Brighton eh?

I love Chepstow, the Wye Valley and the Brecons - fantastic for walking and camping or just a drive in stunning scenery. Chepstow's got to be the driest part of Wales - rain skips over the top and lands on our side of the Severn instead!

Don't know Brighton - Mum does cuz she goes on old biddy coach trips and stays there every year (or Eastbourne). I bet Brighton gets good weather generally - bit cold in winter though?

Texas - - yeah I saw Dallas too - when Victoria Principal (Bobby Ewings wife) was the hottest one on the block - bet she's pushing 60 now! (Ahhh! how adolescent dreams fade over the years!)

Sorry I'm rambling now!

[windows_chepstow]

Dear Zueswattsit,

I take it you're Scottish?  Don't lend me Braveheart.  It was a silly film (movie to texas) that starred an Australian because they couldn't find a decent  'Sweaty' to play the part.  So they had to resort to a 'British Reject' who's ancestor had been deported for rape or murder or something.

And no, I don't remember the song - 'Sent 'em home again'.  In fact I've never heard of it! I think I know what you're getting at though.

What I do remember is the Battle of Culloden - the final battle of the Jacobite uprising, when your Charles Stuart was defeated by the English forces led by the Duke of Cumberland.  You wouldn't have roads in Scotland (never mind windows to clean) if the English hadn't dominated and conquered you lot!  Roads were put in first to move English troops about; windows followed.

Thank your lucky stars you've got a job - because of the English!

On a final note:  I'm from the Kingdom of Northumbria; therefore an Northumbrian first and a Geordie second.  I'm only English when it suits me.

[AuRavelling79]

Windows Chepstow - And of course living in Monmouthshire aka Gwent you can play the Welsh/English card too as it suits you!

[rosskesava]

The Brecons - Beautifull. Just stunning.

Brighton - anything goes here. If you like the bizare, the unusual or the down right weird, this is the place.

The person who lives 3 doors away from me is a Rastfarian Quaker.

We do the windows in a large popular pub/carvery along the cliffs and 2 of the cooks are gay and have big fights out the front, the cleaners are both pigmy's and the person who does the gardening has a wooden leg and and an artificial hand and refuses to use anything 'electric'. The manager has a glass eye and and steel teeth and his girlfriend is a new age fen shui consultant who wanders around the place in the morning (because that is the best time) doing weird chants because she is also a druid and a white witch.

Seriously. I could go on and on with other oddities.

I have now learnt to just accept these things as the norm and sometimes when I go back home to see my family they are shocked.

When I moved down here, 12 years ago, from London, I couldn't believe it.

We do the windows for some people who are (to my mind) complete fruit cakes.

Last Friday night I saw 6 men on mopeds dressed up as Roman soldiers complete with toga's etc. going through the middle of the traffic. No one turned an eye.

There's a statue of Queen Victoria that's about 20ft in the air and every so often a different wig gets put on her. Last week she had a beard stuck on her along with fetish type chains over her privates.

Three weeks ago (I think) there is this amazing huge peuter fountain near the Palace Peir and someone had put detergent in it and it was all bubbles blowing everywhere but no one noticed. 

And, we're surrounded by the South Downs. They are really something else.

It's very different place to the normal seaside town and in the summer, the tourists....students by their thousands and the whole place fills up. In winter, it's just us who live here.

[zeusjazmin]

hey cheapstow,or whatever they call you,what a memory you have ,can you really remember the battle of culloden,you must be a good old age now
anyway we have now gone upmarket,we put sugar in our porridge now,

[texas girl]

Windows;

Hey! Forget about that stupid"Dallas" stuff you  may have seen on TV. Real America is nothing like that hollywood stuff. I guess you guys do have a different style over there. Or should I say a different market and environment.  I am not a big business, but I am the largest in this Central Texas Area. Probably because I began doing this right out of college. I keep very busy doing commercial work and am marketing more and more residential. Yes, the weather is rough during the winter months. Last April my son was killed in Waco, TX. The cliff he was sitting on at a City park broke. Both the cliff and Brad fell 100 feet. I crawled into a cave for a couple of months. My son was 20. It has been hard. The reason the cliff broke is because the rock in this area is limestone.  I did not know that limestone is like chalk when it is wet. Well, it is! My son was attending college on a full coverage baseball scholarship. The Houston Astros called him 2 weeks before he died. What a bummer, huh! Anyway, I was relating to how we have lots of rain at times.  I live on a beautiful lake; the entire park below us was under water until this past week. Our weather is probably a lot like yours during the winter and spring. Our summers are long and hot. I was born in Iowa, which is much higher up North. It is cold as poop and  I hated growing up in that horrible environment. I joined the Army out of High School and came to Texas, served my time in the army as a driver of VIP"s, and went to school here to become a teacher. I cleaned some windows for a friend of mine right before I was to begin my teaching job; had immediately picked up 3 other accounts that day, and I was on my way. I never have had a teaching job.  I got my investment back that day. So that is how I started. I had some cards printed up, and I  was on my way. I liked it. Don't believe what you see on TV about America. I don't allow my daughters to watch MTV or VH1.
we are a lot like you.

[Duke]

Ok, sorry to hear that. It's a hard act to follow. Anyway....talking about diversity in the job...apart from cleaning windows....with a pole you can do other stuff too....like cleaning vehicles.....(nice little earner) and even swimming pools (once emptied) and also potentially lucrative. !......let alone all the usual guttering and conservatory roof stuff. Have pole...will travel !

[texas girl]

chepstaw;
What is a "Geordie"? Don't you have light fixtures that are made of glass and are intriquette like chandeliers? There are  a lot of new homes being built around here, and they almost all have lots of light fixtures that require time consuming cleaning; Take them apart, clean them, put them back together, or other types. Yes, Texas is sunny, and things are big in Texas! Yes, there are trucks everywhere! I drive a bright yellow Ford F150 super crew cab with a V8. I like it a lot. I took it down to the beach at Corpus Christi, TX last April for spring break with my 2 teenage daughters. 3 blonde chicks in this big truck. There was a long line of cars on the beach, and almost enough room for a path beside the cars along the sand dune. So I tested my 4 wheel drive. It works! That was something else! So, Texas is great. I've been to Padre Island, San Antonio, Austin, Houston, Dallas, Galveston, and a few other places. There is a lot to do here. The boat ramp is 5 minutes from my house, and I can see it from here. There is a camping park down below, and a swimming beach that I can walk to. 5 minutes the other way is a very large park sponsored by the Army. It has a large beach, club house, water slides, paddle boats, and a boat dock. Also there are lots of places to play sand volleyball, camp, picnic, ride horses, bike trail, hike and last but not least;FISH! Well, enough about all of that. It is very beautiful here, but the show Dallas? I think Hollywood is off the deep end. Life over here is good; but a lot more conservative than hollywood, MTV, etc.  I do not allow MTV to br viewed in my home.  I rarely watch regular TV because it is really trashy.Great to be welcomed here! Take care!

Texas Girl

[AuRavelling79]

Texas Girl:-

A Geordie is someone from North-East England (Durham, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear etc) just below where it joins Scotland, Newcastle, Sunderland and Gateshead are among the larger Cities up there.

Southerners think of it as an area of dying industry but it's turned about significantly over the last fifteen years and is now very cool! (As in teenage/young adult cool!) Fantastic scenery outside the towns - Cheviot Hills are much underrated. Farne Islands can be bleak and haunting.

Famous people from the area:-
George Stephenson - father of the steam locomotive
Admiral Collingwood second-in-command to Nelson at Trafalger 1805
Grace Darling - daughter of a lighthousekeeper who rowed out to help save 9 people from shipwreck in 1838
Alan Shearer Captain of England football (soccer) team
And of course - Windows_chepstow!
See how boring I can be!

By the way can you paragraph your posts to make them easier to read please?