First Customer, Lessons Learned, Input Needed

Yeah. 2 weeks into biz, got First storefront customer. Friday/ 2 PM - Offered 20 inside and out. 5 ea. 4x12 and upper panes at each with ledge. Just wanted to “Break the ice.” Got inside, one full pane with tint glue, the rest had remnants; baked on hard. Used Soap, alcohol, ammonia, mixes…scraped and scraped and scraped with 4" wallpaper scraper. Worked 5 hours. Still not done, told client would have to come back tomorrow, it was dark. Sat.- Bought adhesive remover, acetone, denatured alcohol, isopropyl alcohol. Worked 9 AM to 1 PM. Oh yeah, storefront faces south, blazing sun all day long; washing burning hot glass. Anywho - client said he had a surprise for me. End of job, gave me $40 to show his profound gratitude. Wants me to return every 2 weeks.

Lessons learned - check every pane before offering quote? Who knew! How about putting in written contract with my outrageous fee for doing a storefront glass restoration. I figure this 20 dollar job to be worth 270…not 40. So I’m pretty angry with myself and the client. Well… he says he’s my customer for life, and oh, by the way has a second Barber Shop he wants me to take care of. Also…4 doors down is another biz done by “a franchise” for the amazing price of…20 inside and out. By the way, I did not leave until glass looked spectacular…I do good work.

That said…would love to hear from you REAL pros how this should have been handled. Thanks

When you clean a store front, unless pre arranged I certainly would not be removing tint, that has its own up charge and its a LOT like $50 per pane and a wallpaper scraper wow, did you scratch any glass?

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No. Fresh blade. Kept it slippery. Tell me what to use…unger glass scraper? And tint had been pulled from windows. I just encountered the glue. Fun. Fun. Thanks for the reply, I am Steve also.

I would have handled this excactly as you did. Do what you were contracted for and learn for the next job.

Must have been satisfying for the customer to realise your dedication.

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just be aware what you can scrape and what you can’t
glass cleaning.pdf (159.7 KB)1462991009GG_008_20150428_General_Glazing_Guidelines.pdf (412.8 KB)

So…I shouldn’t have scraped?

In the situation it sounds like you had few choices, older glass should be fine, be cautious with glass newer than 15 years old, but then it can vary from region to region.
Just be aware that the glass manufactures state is not an approved cleaning method for tempered glass and you can be held liable for any scratches you cause, others have had scratch waivers written up for some protection.

Sounds good on the aspect of you got to learn a valuable lesson from it all. The learning process is frustrating at times but in a few years you will look back and laugh about it all. Definately upcharge when busting out scrappers, 0000 etc. basically anything that isn’t what we call a “maintenance clean” should have an extra bit of money added to the price tag at that point. If your busting out a scraper for a very light bit of work I wouldn’t worry about it though. Keep on keeping on.

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DSWCNORTX - Honored to hear from you. Still looking for a reply that would state what kind of scraper would have been appropriate. Was I supposed to use a 1 inch scraper on a 4x12 window? I did not back down from the challenge. I could spend another 4 hours getting all the snot glue from the edges. There was old snot glue around the edges of the other windows. Somebody took off tint from all the other windows. The tint was probably shot, front faces south to blazing hot sun. As one female customer was leaving this Barber Shop, she said," Dang, I almost walked through the window." The door was right beside it. This job was one of the worst window nightmares I have ever encountered. I don’t doubt “the franchise” was in and tried to get the job to be turned down for reality price. Stupid me, all I saw was the first customer that didn’t say, “No, the franchise already does it for a dirt cheap stinking price.” (Note sarcasm) I thought I will work these windows, keep the customer and be thankful I landed a customer for life. 24 years ago, I had twenty storefront customers and made 120 bucks in about 4 hours. Now there are so many stinking window cleaners in my area I am wondering as I am almost 3 grand into setup, if I should just flush it down the toilet, go find something else to do and let the TWO franchises butt heads and fight over the bones for 20 bucks.

One word ----- Residential.

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Consider using a “Factor Sheet” to make those labor intensive adjustments pay for themselves. You don’t have to show this to your customer, but instead have a line on your quote sheet that reflects above and beyond your standard cleaning price.

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10-4 on residential. Going after that next. Gotta start somewhere. Thanks for the factor sheet. Saved it as a picture. Will not steal contents, but much appreciated feedback. Yeah, this is a real life start up from someone who left a job, is broke, but loves glass ( get it) and is able to make beautiful windows. If one leaves a job, it’s like, okay, left the job that I hate, what do I actually like, no, love to do…the answer was clean glass…am very picky and good at it; but if I’m going to starve, I may have to find something else. Being in sixties, I don’t know if I can cut the modern day industry. I love people, am not shy and take pride in a job well done…and making it look like no one was there when I left. This forum is important to me, am trying to build a livelihood from it. Thanks folks.

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Feel free to use that as a guide to build your own factor sheet from, but hope it outlines how cleaning dirt off the glass is just one aspect of getting the whole thing as clean as possible, and there is a charge for that.

First, props to you being in your sixties and starting a business. You are never too old or too young to find your own success.

Second, storefront IMO is not where the money is. As you can see, people will pick the already dead and clean bones for a speck of meat. You need to branch out into residential and low rise commercial. Figure out your USP and the value that benefits the customer directly. Market the heck out of that.

I don’t know how much you embrace technology (websites, video, etc.), but that is important in today’s world. It will be part of the solution getting your business up and running for commercial and residential.

The scraper? Most like an Unger Ninja scraper, 6 inch, with stainless blades. Carbon blades rust, and as we know, rust can cause a scratch.

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@LoveGlass

Don’t give up on route work.

The nightmare of a job is over buddy.

Route work can be very lucrative if done correctly.

It’s less wear and tare on the body and also is a constant revenue stream.

If I can help with any advice let me know.

In regards to the correct scraper, as @anon82274079 said Unger Ninja scraper, 6 inch, with stainless blades.

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When you give your estimates it will help to have an EXCLUSIONS and INCLUSIONS area so that they are clear what they are getting for the money they are giving you.

The price you gave was for maintenance. Removing tint has got to be the most labor intensive that we do. In my exclusions portion I put “does NOT include stain removal of any kind. does NOT include paint removal of any kind. does NOT include removing anything other than biological substances off of the glass”

then "your service includes: Tracks, wiping of sills, frames/mullions."
This way, when you go to explain to them they understand. We give estimates based on the time it takes to clean the glass or remove what they want off the glass. You just have to find out what exactly that is. Your gig could’ve made you 400 bucks.

Each time there’s an issue like this, document what happened, and figure out some ideas on how to keep it from happening again. Then work it in to your estimates and sales.

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Yeah. Great feedback just as I hoped. Thank you so much. Another fresh week this week. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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this is all you need my friend. Get familiar with these and you will not be asking too much about sizes and quantity per scrape. I have went through a lot of scrapers and this is the top of the pyramid in my opinion.

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I remember my first residential job, quoted $150 for inside and outside cleaning + tracks and sills. 6 hrs later I finally left that house with my tail between my legs. Customer was very happy but told me they thought I undercharged… duh! Lol oh well, lesson learned. Now I do a house that sale size in 3 hours and charge about $350.

I did the same kind of job for a commercial storefront a few years ago. Ended up scraping off what seemed like miles of glue. I don’t know that you could have done much different. Def want to get a scratch waiver signed next time and as soon as you realize that you will be scraping that much you should explain why the price will be going up. If your customer is not ok with paying you more for an 8 hour day than that’s not a customer you want to have. My 2cents…

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