Things you won’t do anymore as a window cleaner

Respect…

But, if you feel you are a “servant”, you need to get out of the biz immediately.

You are nobody’s bitch. You offer a luxury service, and deserve to be compensated for it.

A servant clears dishes from a table. A servant picks up stanking, stiff socks from a laundry pile. A servant cleans someone’s shit stains from a bathroom wall.

You are a business owner. An equal. You have 5 employees that got that job done.

That alone puts you above the crowd.

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Also… NEVER be upside down on a job.

I don’t care if the Pope calls, never do any job if you’re not going to profit.

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So if I own the business and still choose to clear the dishes I’m not a servant but an employee who clears dishes is a servant sounds very narrow minded.

I must not have understood possibly.

I just don’t understand where you get this idea that, because we’re in the service business we should do work we don’t care for .
Yes we are in the business of making people happy , an if we don’t make them happy we won’t be in business for long.
We need to make ourselves happy also , by choosing what we enjoy doing , an what we don’t, an what we feel is most profitable
There not your customer , until you agree on a price , An agree to do the job at hand, so I don’t need to make someone happy until we sign on the dotted line.
So when they call , an it’s a service I’m willing to do , then it’s time to make them happy , an service what there paying me for, an what I enjoy doing.

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I did a oil to gas conversion in my house a couple of years ago. I live in a cape with no basement, so my oil burner was Under my stairs. I have a detached garage.
I wanted a Navien Tankless water heater, so long story short. I got 6 companies to come over to give estimates. 3 of them wanted noting to do with it, because they didn’t want to deal with all the work under the stairs
I understood an moved forward, I don’t blame them if they can keep there schedule filled with easier work like Basemant set-ups an whatnot why take on a job that’s a PIA.
One guy in the phone said straight up , he didn’t even come over “We don’t do Capes anymore.”

Why do you say this? Do you not have examples where it has lead to positive numbers?

a servant washes his disciples feet… a servant gives up his life for you…

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This is also my view, I could be 100% flat out 7 days a week if I chose to accept bond cleans, I get 3-4 calls a week for them, bond cleans here pay $500-$900 each, but that being said is crappy maid work. Most companies in my local area offer them, they all have 4-6+ employees/subbies takes 3-4 guys/girls ALL day to do a bond clean, many throw in the windows (windex insides, pressure wash outside windows call it professionally cleaned…). I just had a call while I write this for another bond clean.

(FYI: a bond clean is an end of lease clean where the bond is the security deposit paid to the realtor, for return house must be squeaky clean.)

When I started in business it was coz I had spent the past however many years working for other companies and you know of course I could do it better, or more to my style of work I enjoy/able to tolerate. When you work for someone else you have to do the job at hand, you don’t have much choice if you want to take home a pay check at the end of the week.

To my knowledge there are only 2 cleaning compaanies in my local area that only specialize in windows and that will turn down regualr cleaning jobs, myself and 1 competitor.

I have had customers who have told me I am much more expensive than and they tell me the name (whos name is such and such window cleaning, but do carpets, bond cleans etc.) I beleive they quote based on how many bedrooms, but they still accept my quote due to unhappy experience/results with the other companies.

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Allow me to simplify my thought process -
Would you rather be paid for a job (a) 50.00 in loose change, or (b) 45.00 in cash?

I’ll take the easier money all day to avoid the aggravation. Sometimes bigger, more complicated jobs take their toll elsewhere. That goes for the employees as well. They know when they are getting paid the same for difficult, stressful work as they do for the simple, cut and dry stuff.

But I’ve done this for years and recognize the damage stressful accounts can cause over time. You may too at some point.

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and what is stressful, difficult, complicated, a royal pain or low profit enough to avoid consistently is defined differently by different people

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I don’t ever do storm windows and tons of people here do.

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I think we can all agree though … if we were rating the PIA Factor on a scale of 1-10 the CC would be higher than the Maintenance clean.

An the Average Window would be lower on the scale than the interior sky light.

Yes where on the scale is subjective !!

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-I don’t do homes that have windows on a “second level” roof, with no way to get out of said windows from inside. You can’t (Well I shouldn’t say that, you can do what you want) put the sectionals on a barrel roof and expect to be safe.

-I won’t go up on a wet/dew coated (In the mornings any dew on those tile roofs will be like ice if there is any kind of mold/mildew to make it slippery) roof until later in the day when I know the sun has dried the roof to a safe entry level. I fell once about 8 years ago, I went down like a sack of rocks–slipping off the morning dew on a tile roof coming off it. I was perfectly fine but ever since then I am very very careful on roofs. The brush broke my fail :wink:

-That’s about it. I normally don’t run into much (Aside from the normal window-related things). Change a light bulb here or there, wipe down some things while I am up there. I am pretty meticulous when cleaning so if I don’t see it, chances are the customers won’t either (But I have been wrong before)

Funny reading the replies, I am in agreement with a lot of them. Not a fan of CCU

I’d like to thank everyone on here who doesn’t do CCU. Keeps me busy on CCU which pays amazing if you learn to price it right. I do 3 CCU’s a week on new houses because no one will touch them. :money_mouth_face:

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You can learn how to knock them out quick and effectively and make $100/hr because everyone is so scared to do them.

Point taken @bo0r4dl3y-- no doubt there is plenty to be made from it!

I have done plenty over the years for the employers I have worked for. I am not sure of the profit margins (Not my WC business). It always came out spectacular, but it would take hours, if not days-- longer. Results before and after leave you with that “visual gratification” feeling which is always good.

Personally, I’d rather be doing maintenance cleans (Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or bi-monthly) Nothing like “cleaning clean windows”, right?!

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I certainly hope if you are grossing 100 an hour CCU, that you make 50-75 an hour just doing normal cleans.

Otherwise, I would laugh pretty hard at you. I’m already doing 100+ an hour normal cleans. When I’m on a CCU, I’m at 150+ gross, and hour. Otherwise, what would be the point? More risk, more work, ought to translate to more money. If not, then just push marketing for the work that’s easier and less risk.

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Don’t think anyone mentioned scared in here ! But if that’s what makes you feel better, an superior all the power to ya .

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I don’t work under 35 degrees

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I get what you are saying. Personally I dont mind construction cleans and our employees dont either. A mix of work can be good for changing things up.

1 ccu taking 8 hours at $800 or 2 maintenance cleans taking 8 hours for $800. The ccu is one location and likely half the amount of windows of the maintenance cleans. I dont think the ccu is more work but simply each window takes longer with the process. The longer process translates to more per window but maintains similar hourly possibly.

I dont think there is more risk involved if work is being performed by a trained person.

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