Closing business

Every industry seems to have a specialty. So, maybe your specialty is restaurants, maybe Fleet vehicle cleaning with a power washing, which you can also use to clean driveways, sidewalks, patios, and decks. See, there is much money to made in this business that do not involve ladders. Just depends on if you have the drive to own it. Do what ever level you are comfortable with and sock away money to equipment upgrade and shine.

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When I start doing residential, I donā€™t know if Iā€™ll bother with roof line windows. I can climb a ladder, but walking on shingles just seems crazy to me

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I completely understand; Iā€™m not a fan of heights either. A lot of guys in England use the water fed pole; they even have really nice truck/van mounted systems. Wish you all the best though.

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Brother itā€™s only been 4 months, I have underwear older than your businessā€¦give it a yearā€¦reshape your approach. I bet there can be happiness out there somewhere Swishy!

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He wants to throw in the towel. Itā€™s pretty clear. If he doesnā€™t like hieghts or roofs heā€™s gonna have a hard time handling this line of work. As window cleaners weā€™re up high and on roofs all the time. Hell, Iā€™m on a roof right nowā€¦ Lol

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Most windows that open can be removed and cleaned from the inside. Sometimes I go that route if the there are trees or plants in the way of a ladder.

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Iron zion as an owner whose hurt his shoulder and had an employee rushed to the er with a bruised spleen from walking on the same type of metal roof youre on please be careful. One trick on those (if client wont pay for lift which will probably damage roof anyways) is to have employee move ladder to end of roof where you will end up so you can avoid walking on wet surfafce after cleaning the glass-its like ice and you fall instantly! I was lucky and slid onto a lower roof -my employee years later bounced off a newspaper box (glad to see those going the way of payphones as a ground obstruction) adnw as extremely lucky

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I hear ya. That roof was unusually easy to walk. But I do what I have to do. Iā€™m pretty adept to walking roofs like that but the employees are to ones I worry about.

I learned as a young man working with crane riggings that I always need to know where my feet are, have an exit strategy, and be aware of my surroundings. No question this line of work is dangerousā€¦

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were you wearing the korkers made for metal roofs?

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I agree![quote=ā€œIronLionZion, post:28, topic:42789ā€]
No question this line of work is dangerousā€¦
[/quote]

Agreed, always play safe.

Great product, but no matter what metal roof ā€œsuckā€, any moisture on a metal roof become a slip and slide.

Iā€™ve never had the problem of walking roofs either. Guess its from having a step father that was a roofer and had you up there tearing off and installing at 14 years old.

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You canā€™t quit. If you already have repeat customers you drive by that place afterwards and admire your work, I know I do and say to myself ā€œdang those are some clean Windows.ā€ You donā€™t want to give that up to the next guy

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Haha guess Iā€™m not the only one who does this. Love that feeling!

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i started with another company and they took any job they could get and i hated alot of them. now i only go after the work i like and I LOVE IT!
also there is company here that has wfp AND NO LADDERS! so when thereā€™s a window they canā€™t get they skip it as long as customer knows what will happen itā€™s fine.

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Iā€™ve made the decision to stick with it, will eventually get wfp, but in the meantime, I will be hitting up businesses and putting my door hangers just on ground level homes. Out of curiosity, I have a website, how do I promote my business as only doing single story homes? Do I mention safety being anice importance of my company or do I just leave it alone? Also, if I decide to ā€œman upā€ and do ladder work, does anyone have any videos on how to safely clean windows that there is no choice but to have the ladder set below the windows? I feel that there should be at least 3 rungs above your feet to be safe, and videos Iā€™ve seen, there are cleaners who have 1 or 2 rungs above, some Iā€™ve seen standing on the top rung. Thank you some of you for encouragement and advice, and thank you to those who are understand that it may not be for everyone. I realize I do enjoy the work, and the results, and happy customers. I usually donā€™t give up so easily, and now is not the time to start giving up.

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donā€™t be afraid to tell your story. the first day i satrted on my own i put a few flyers that included a bit about me. a guy called to book and said "liked your approach.
the day day before yesterday a woman called to book and could tell she had read the about ken on my web site and i said you read the about me page? she said yeah and i liked what you said.
be who you are, own it! no sorry* i donā€™t do ladders!!
*sorry is: sorry i canā€™t help you with this window not sorry i am who i am. there are lotā€™s of windows and lots of window cleaners.
also i charge $100,000 per window for doing old aluminum sliders because i hate them.

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Donā€™t you use a ladder standoff?

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I do have standoff, but as the picture shows, they are set on either side of the window. My issue has been, two and three windows next to each other, 2here the stabilizer is not wide enough to do that, and the roof line is just above the window, so I canā€™t put the ladder higher, I have no choice but to set the ladder below the windows. My fear is the reach up, I wonā€™t climb higher than three rungs showing, and I wonā€™t have less than 3 points of contact on the ladder. I know, I sound like OSHA, but I value safety and my life.

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I donā€™t generally go beyond three either cause i like the top of the ladder to be higher than my knees. Youā€™re not supposed to go more than two anyway i believe.

Do you have a pic of the windows?

Also, stack ladders are often nice cuz you can often set it on the frame which is super stable and it puts your body in a much more comfortable position to reach everything.

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You know they sell two foot poles right? I have one handy and use it all the time from a ladderā€¦

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