Creating a Passive Income with Window Cleaning? (E-Myth vs. Rich Dad,Poor Dad)

[WNC_Residential]

[B][U]Organizational Structures[/U][/B]

Are you building your window cleaning business (1) so that you can have your own stable income (2) so that you can sell it (3) so that you can earn a residual income from it?

To me, there is nothing wrong with any of these options. Every one has their own life goals and their business is there to help them achieve their life goals. I have no intention of starting a debate about which one is best. I’m just looking for who does what.

Why?

[B][U]E-Myth vs. Rich Dad, Poor Dad[/U][/B]

Because I have read the E-Myth and Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Micheal Gerber (E-Myth) is about building a business to sell. Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad) is all about building a business to keep so that you can set yourself up to not work it while making a passive income from it.

My goals in my life are to create multiple streams of passive income. I want to build a window cleaning business to keep, eventually not have to work in it, too much, and receive a passive income from it.

I see that many people like the sole proprietorship. I see many who like having crews. I’ve read about some people selling their window cleaning businesses…

… but I have never heard of anybody doing what I want to do, which is build my business to the point where I can be mostly hands off and still make money from it. Every decision I am going to make in creating my business will be about achieving this goal.

[B][U]Final Questions[/U][/B]

What are your goals with your business?

Have you ever heard of anybody doing what I want to do?

[optimumaintenance]

Those are two great books to read and for me I like a blend of the two. Personally, I like to work a little so I will never really be passive. I know a few guys that have window cleaning companies that don’t play a major role in their companies. It has worked well for them.

My goals are to build a stronger client base, refine marketing efforts, and continuing to train employees so they can be more self sustained.

I wish you the best with goals

[WNC_Residential]

@optimumaintenance

Those are two great books to read and for me I like a blend of the two. Personally, I like to work a little so I will never really be passive. I know a few guys that have window cleaning companies that don’t play a major role in their companies. It has worked well for them.

My goals are to build a stronger client base, refine marketing efforts, and continuing to train employees so they can be more self sustained.

I wish you the best with goals

optimumaintenance,

Thanks for sharing this. I’m glad you’ve heard of people who do what I want to do and it works for them.

I like your goals of “build a stronger client base, refine marketing efforts, and continuing to train employees…”. It sounds like you have a good business and you’re making it great.

I, too, like a combination of E-myth and Rich Dad, Poor Dad. What I like about Rich Dad is his emphasis on keeping your business instead of selling it. What I like about E-myth is his emphasis on business systems.

~John Cannon

[smezzell]

Don’t see any reason why you can’t achieve your goals. Create systems others can follow. Fill your company with people who can follow those systems. Step away and repeat with your next venture.

Seems that’s exactly what Chris has done with ACWC and WCR. Seems to have worked well for

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk

[WNC_Residential]

@smezzell

Don’t see any reason why you can’t achieve your goals. Create systems others can follow. Fill your company with people who can follow those systems. Step away and repeat with your next venture.

Seems that’s exactly what Chris has done with ACWC and WCR. Seems to have worked well for

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk

Hey Sam,

Thanks for that. That’s what I envision in my mind and it’s good to know that you think it’s possible, too.

~John Cannon

[whatapane]

[QUOTE=WNC Residential;184706]Organizational Structures

Are you building your window cleaning business (1) so that you can have your own stable income (2) so that you can sell it (3) so that you can earn a residual income from it?

To me, there is nothing wrong with any of these options. Every one has their own life goals and their business is there to help them achieve their life goals. I have no intention of starting a debate about which one is best. I’m just looking for who does what.

Why?

E-Myth vs. Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Because I have read the E-Myth and Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Micheal Gerber (E-Myth) is about building a business to sell. Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad) is all about building a business to keep so that you can set yourself up to not work it while making a passive income from it.

My goals in my life are to create multiple streams of passive income. I want to build a window cleaning business to keep, eventually not have to work in it, too much, and receive a passive income from it.

I see that many people like the sole proprietorship. I see many who like having crews. I’ve read about some people selling their window cleaning businesses…

… but I have never heard of anybody doing what I want to do, which is build my business to the point where I can be mostly hands off and still make money from it. Every decision I am going to make in creating my business will be about achieving this goal.

Final Questions

What are your goals with your business?

Have you ever heard of anybody doing what I want to do?[/QUOTE

I am all for any of the goals you mentioned. I think the business will always require some attention in order to keep it going in the right direction, but that said I think it could give you a lot of free time if you set it up right.

E-myth is awesome! I love their stuff. I want to take one of their mentorship programs. They have an 80% success rate for business’ who take the program. 80 % of those who take the coarse take their business to the next level. Their model has been proven to work.

I would caution anyone mot to take advice from Robert Kiyosaki. To put it bluntly the guy is a complete fraud. He is far from being a financial/real-estate expert. He is an expert at convincing people he is an expert, and taking their money while feeding them a bunch of trumped up financial and real-estate advice that has never been proven to work in the real world. As a matter of fact most real financial experts would tell you his advice is only proven to be the worst financial and real-estate advice one could give. Just google “Robert Kiyosaki is a fraud” and you will find all the information you need. Here is one link.

‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ Robert Kiyosaki Exposed - Part 1 of 3 Investigative Report - YouTube

One day I had heard how great his book was so I started looking online to try and find an audio version to download to my iphone and i started watching youtube videos of his teaching. I started to get excited and then I stumbled on this one and then looked further online. I almost bought into it. I felt a little foolish and then a little ticked but then thankful I saw the right information.

[Bruce]

[B]“He is an expert at convincing people he is an expert,”[/B]

ha ha ha, pretty funny statement - his real job is marketing too, lol

[phinkle]

My goal is to set up a passive income from my biz. I am 57 this year and don’t want to work forever. There will be a time that I will take a back seat and collect an income while my employees run the day to day.

Selling the business is an option too. I have seen others here buy or sell businesses and the price they give or get does not seem very high usually. If you set it up properly it may be a better selling point. To sell my business in a few years, I would need a big chunk of change. thats why I may end up keeping and letting it pay me.

[Taylon]

In this industry, building a business to generate passive income is probably easier and certainly more profitable in the long run than building it to sell. There’s just not much liquid value on a service business with no tangible assets. And the systems needed for building a business to sell versus building to run automatically are one in the same anyway.

[Maverick_Powerwashin]

@optimumaintenance

.

My goals are to build a stronger client base, refine marketing efforts, and continuing to train employees so they can be more self sustained.

My theory is build a stronger employee base, pay them better than others will, and let them know the costs of running the business (so they know what a nightmare it is ;)). I think you have to avoid greed, to build the business enough to be self sustaining, you have to be willing to pay your employees better than yourself sometimes, they have to stay motivated enough to not go out and start their own business. This theory works best with several crews or branches of the business, take a little from multiple streams, so you can be happy and so can they.

[optimumaintenance]

@Maverick Powerwashing

My theory is build a stronger employee base, pay them better than others will, and let them know the costs of running the business (so they know what a nightmare it is ;)). I think you have to avoid greed, to build the business enough to be self sustaining, you have to be willing to pay your employees better than yourself sometimes, they have to stay motivated enough to not go out and start their own business. This theory works best with several crews or branches of the business, take a little from multiple streams, so you can be happy and so can they.

I couldn’t agree with you more on the employee thing. Even on my about page on my website i say something to the affect that in some cases i may be higher than my competitors but I refuse to short the very individuals that are the face of my company.

I know of companies that pay their guys really low just to pad their bottom dollar and i refuse to do that even if i don’t make as much.

[whatapane]

I think the key would be to develop solid systems to manage your business. The systems need to have simple to follow procedures so anyone can fill any role in the company and catch on quickly. Then as long as you have checks and balances between systems it would help to insure procedures are being followed properly and would cut down on necessary over-site on your part.

Having the ability to fill positions in the company with minimal training cuts down the need for highly qualified employees and cuts down on the wages needed to hire quality employees.

Having the right profit margins I also think would be key as well. If you don’t have enough profit margin built into your services then that limits the amount of management the company can sustain which would be needed if you want to be hands off. The less you want to do the more you will have to create a system or procedure for and the more systems or procedures the more people will be needed to manage them.

Obviously the challenge is to play around with the number of employee per system and procedures and trying to balance that with your expenses and how much you charge for your services to come up with the right profit margin.

[WNC_Residential]

I am all for any of the goals you mentioned. I think the business will always require some attention in order to keep it going in the right direction, but that said I think it could give you a lot of free time if you set it up right.

E-myth is awesome! I love their stuff. I want to take one of their mentorship programs. They have an 80% success rate for business’ who take the program. 80 % of those who take the coarse take their business to the next level. Their model has been proven to work.

I would caution anyone mot to take advice from Robert Kiyosaki. To put it bluntly the guy is a complete fraud. He is far from being a financial/real-estate expert. He is an expert at convincing people he is an expert, and taking their money while feeding them a bunch of trumped up financial and real-estate advice that has never been proven to work in the real world. As a matter of fact most real financial experts would tell you his advice is only proven to be the worst financial and real-estate advice one could give. Just google “Robert Kiyosaki is a fraud” and you will find all the information you need. Here is one link.

‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ Robert Kiyosaki Exposed - Part 1 of 3 Investigative Report - YouTube

One day I had heard how great his book was so I started looking online to try and find an audio version to download to my iphone and i started watching youtube videos of his teaching. I started to get excited and then I stumbled on this one and then looked further online. I almost bought into it. I felt a little foolish and then a little ticked but then thankful I saw the right information.

Thank you for the video.

I, personally, have little respect for Robert Kiyosaki simply because I had to read ALL his books to feel like I was reading one book. He really dumbs down each book in order to sell more books. So, it makes sense to me that that’s how he approached his whole information system… seminars and such.

That said, there are some good ideas in his books… ideas that I would have never heard of had I not read his books.

The reason I like Michael Gerber is because he gives the substance that Kiyosaki lacks. He actually tells you how to create a business. Kiyosaki just tells us how to think about business / investing. For me personally, both of those authors fit well together. They compliment each other’s weaknesses.

I would never go to a seminar of Kiyosaki’s. But I would have no reservations about attending more educational events from Gerber… just judging from the quality of their books.

Thank you for putting your views out there… I like that. I’m glad you did not loose any money on Kiyosaki’s crap.

~John Cannon

[WNC_Residential]

@Bruce

“He is an expert at convincing people he is an expert,”

ha ha ha, pretty funny statement - his real job is marketing too, lol

So True!

[WNC_Residential]

@phinkle

My goal is to set up a passive income from my biz. I am 57 this year and don’t want to work forever. There will be a time that I will take a back seat and collect an income while my employees run the day to day.

Selling the business is an option too. I have seen others here buy or sell businesses and the price they give or get does not seem very high usually. If you set it up properly it may be a better selling point. To sell my business in a few years, I would need a big chunk of change. thats why I may end up keeping and letting it pay me.

Hi Phil!

If you want to set up your business to sell or to draw a more passive income, then I think reading the E-Myth by Michael Gerber would be a good decision. I would not recommend following much of Kiyosaki’s advice until you’ve had a lawyer and accountant sit down and talk with you first. Kiyosaki is only good for some interesting ideas. For actually setting up a business Gerber is the answer.

I genuinely wish you the best of luck… I hope your business thrives!

~John Cannon

[WNC_Residential]

@Taylon

In this industry, building a business to generate passive income is probably easier and certainly more profitable in the long run than building it to sell. There’s just not much liquid value on a service business with no tangible assets. And the systems needed for building a business to sell versus building to run automatically are one in the same anyway.

Hey Taylon, That was very well put. I agree 100 percent!

~John Cannon

[WNC_Residential]

@Maverick Powerwashing

My theory is build a stronger employee base, pay them better than others will, and let them know the costs of running the business (so they know what a nightmare it is ;)). I think you have to avoid greed, to build the business enough to be self sustaining, you have to be willing to pay your employees better than yourself sometimes, they have to stay motivated enough to not go out and start their own business. This theory works best with several crews or branches of the business, take a little from multiple streams, so you can be happy and so can they.

Brett,

I love your strategy of letting the employees know how much it costs to run the business. That is a strategy other innovative business have used in other industries.

Also, your idea of paying them well to keep them… I totally agree.

~John Cannon

[WNC_Residential]

@whatapane

I think the key would be to develop solid systems to manage your business. The systems need to have simple to follow procedures so anyone can fill any role in the company and catch on quickly. Then as long as you have checks and balances between systems it would help to insure procedures are being followed properly and would cut down on necessary over-site on your part.

Having the ability to fill positions in the company with minimal training cuts down the need for highly qualified employees and cuts down on the wages needed to hire quality employees.

Having the right profit margins I also think would be key as well. If you don’t have enough profit margin built into your services then that limits the amount of management the company can sustain which would be needed if you want to be hands off. The less you want to do the more you will have to create a system or procedure for and the more systems or procedures the more people will be needed to manage them.

Obviously the challenge is to play around with the number of employee per system and procedures and trying to balance that with your expenses and how much you charge for your services to come up with the right profit margin.

This makes a lot of sense and well thought out. My personal preference would be to work my system out so that my employees are paid a good wage… so that they do not go to the competition or leave and create their own business.

~John Cannon

[whatapane]

@WNC Residential

This makes a lot of sense and well thought out. My personal preference would be to work my system out so that my employees are paid a good wage… so that they do not go to the competition or leave and create their own business.

~John Cannon

I used to think this way until I learned that money is not the only incentive that attracts employees. Think of it this way, If you are passionate enough about something you do it for free. Money is not peoples strongest motivator. Most people don’t want money. They want what they think money can buy them; security, free time, status etc. If you can provide the things people think money can buy them they will actually be happy working for you for less money because you are providing them the things they really want.

security: If they feel like the job they have with you will never go away then they won’t leave you to go work for someone else if that company does not appear as stable as yours. And if your companies is stable and they already work for you then why chance it elsewhere?

Free time: If they have more freedom to request hours off then that’s a great bonus. Or maybe flexibility with their hours.

Status: If you have the best run window cleaning company in town they would hesitate to go work for a lessor competitor because it feels like a demotion. would you rather work for Quick Trip or Joe’s Gas Station.

You get the point. Now I’m not talking about paying them dirt cheap. I believe in paying a competitive wage. By competitive I mean what are other companies who require similar skills or qualifications paying their new hires? these companies are your competition in terms of hiring new employees. As far as competing with other window cleaners for new hires when you offer them the other benefits we talked about you might be surprised who they choose to work for. Heck if they do choose the other company they may come back to you after they quit Joe’s Window Cleaning.

I would rather work for an employer who pays me a little less but I enjoy going to work everyday than a company that pay’s more but is not run well which creates a crummy work environment, as long as the pay is fair. Use the extra money to you don’t pay them to create a more stable enjoyable company for you, your employee’s and your customers.

[Streakless_Windows]

@whatapane

I used to think this way until I learned that money is not the only incentive that attracts employees. Think of it this way, If you are passionate enough about something you do it for free. Money is not peoples strongest motivator. Most people don’t want money. They want what they think money can buy them; security, free time, status etc. If you can provide the things people think money can buy them they will actually be happy working for you for less money because you are providing them the things they really want.

security: If they feel like the job they have with you will never go away then they won’t leave you to go work for someone else if that company does not appear as stable as yours. And if your companies is stable and they already work for you then why chance it elsewhere?

Free time: If they have more freedom to request hours off then that’s a great bonus. Or maybe flexibility with their hours.

Status: If you have the best run window cleaning company in town they would hesitate to go work for a lessor competitor because it feels like a demotion. would you rather work for Quick Trip or Joe’s Gas Station.

You get the point. Now I’m not talking about paying them dirt cheap. I believe in paying a competitive wage. By competitive I mean what are other companies who require similar skills or qualifications paying their new hires? these companies are your competition in terms of hiring new employees. As far as competing with other window cleaners for new hires when you offer them the other benefits we talked about you might be surprised who they choose to work for. Heck if they do choose the other company they may come back to you after they quit Joe’s Window Cleaning.

I would rather work for an employer who pays me a little less but I enjoy going to work everyday than a company that pay’s more but is not run well which creates a crummy work environment, as long as the pay is fair. Use the extra money to you don’t pay them to create a more stable enjoyable company for you, your employee’s and your customers.

I agree. Buying your workers meals, or giving them gifts from time to time to show them you really appreciate how hard they work, is a great way to keep company morale up without having to pay more money everyday, every hour.