Hey guys, something for the fans of Window Cleaning Magazine and WCM TV. On December 9th 2016 we will be documenting by film and article the journey of Scott O’Donohoe of Reflection Perfection. He is to have a custom built Purefreedom system installed into the back of his brand spanking new van. We are taking our WCM TV cameras along, with the permission of Purefreedom, and we are going to film a fly on the wall view of that installation and we ask Scott about why he made his choices and learn a little about his thought process and why this system is it to be a CUSTOM BUILD?

Fans of Window Cleaning Magazine, in the area? Come and say hello.. I will have one or two free magazines to hand out

Location:

Unit 8A, Estate Road No 1,
South Humberside Industrial Estate,
Grimsby, N.E. Lincolnshire
DN31 2TB

Date: 

Friday 9th December 2016

Time:

Most of the morning at least!

Window Cleaning Magazine has covered Unger’s new product the Unger Stingray (indoor window cleaning kit) quite a lot with videos and articles over this past 12 months. Year on year one of the giant’s of our cleaning industry that is Unger Global  picks up innovation awards for something… it is a wonder that they have any shelf space left at Unger HQ.

This year was no exception when they received the innovation award at the ISSA/Interclean North America 2016. The Unger Stingray impressed judges and it was able to battle off over 12 other innovation entries.

The ISSA/Interclean North America is a trade fair for cleaning products and so winning this award is a very high achievement.

To check out this efficient indoor cleaning system again, watch this video for real window cleaners opinions on the product:

SYNOPSIS: The Unger Stingray is an efficient indoor window cleaning tool that allows an operator to complete their cleaning work up to 25% faster than if using a simple spray bottle and cloth. The Unger Stingray helps with cleaning at heights too with add on sections and its unique microber tri-pad allows the operator to access all corners of the glass or wall surface area. The product is battery powered and the cleaning solution provided in a neat little pouch that simply slips into the machine. The solution is a special formula in conjunction with 3M that helps keep the surface stay cleaner for longer. It is ultra lightweight and easy to use.

Normally reaching the top of the Christmas tree just means grabbing a ladder or balancing on a dining room chair. Not so with the giant Christmas tree gracing Wakehurst Place in West Sussex this year.

Standing at an impressive 118 ft tall, the National Trust Properties redwood is the UK’s largest Christmas tree, so who better to call in to assist with the tricky job of reaching the top of the tree than Facelift.

Now some of you industrial cleaners, window cleaners and soft washers will be aware of the name Facelift as a leading UK provider of powered access and quality safety training.

The Facelift team used a Bronto 61 and Bronto 50 to decorate the tree with 1,800 lights and a lantern made by local school children, a task which took them almost all day to complete.

The tree, which towers high above the mansion property it was decorated in front of, was planted in the late 1890s. Its stature is so impressive that plane pilots approaching Gatwick Airport even use the tree as a beacon when landing their planes over the Christmas period.

The tree was decorated as part of Wakehurst Place’s Glow Wild festival, which will see the estate furnished with brightly coloured lanterns for people to enjoy after dark.

Streamline throws open its doors this December 9th 2016 as they reveal their brand new SMARTANK™ 1000. The SMARTANK™ range are tanks with a low centre of gravity. The 1000 is a larger capacity but only 40 cm in height! This allows for plenty of space for kit you may have in your working day.

Speaking of day to day kit, you might want to throw some of this into the back of your van….this excites us at Window Cleaning Magazine. Streamline© are also introducing on the day a new SoftClean range and have joined forces with AlgoClear SoftClean to provide a package for the treatment of roofs, walls and general areas. Streamline© have gone crazy offering free 5L or 10L AlgoClear FREE when you buy a SoftClean package from them.

YOU MUST RING IN TODAY TO SEE IF YOU QUALIFY FOR THEIR GOODIE BAGS THAT INCLUDE A 20% OFF VOUCHER FOR YOUR NEXT ORDER. YOU MUST RING TODAY TOMORROW WILL BE TOO LATE FOR THE GOODIES!

When: 9th December 2016

Where: Varitech Systems Hamilton House, 8 Fairfax Road, Heathfield Industrial Estate Newton Abbot, TQ12 6UD

Time: 9.am to 3 pm

Contact details for questions: +44 (0) 1626 830830 or email sales@varitechsystems.co.uk

Website: http://www.varitechsystems.co.uk

At Varitech HQ, Lee Burbidge from Window Cleaning Magazine will give a 3 minute LIVE FEED of their latest SMARTANK™ 1000L. We will talk about Veritech Systems new Softwash range and packages.

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Window Cleaning Magazine Facebook Group

https://www.facebook.com/lee.burbidge.7

Follow Lee Burbidge on Facebook and subscribe to the LIVE FEED notifications. That way you will be notified when a LIVE FEED starts.

Reach-iT is in super drive as they release a video today displaying new products for 2017.

The rinse bar has been given a complete over haul. Reach-iT has done away with rinse cannons and instead have made them into a one moulded piece with closer together canons.

Perry Tait of Reach-iT goes on to say, “ The previous canons solved some issues but also provided a new set of issues,” citing the new ‘one piece’ as a total upgrade.

Window cleaners will find there is also an ‘extra canon’ option, whereby every other canon is  ‘ready to use’. The window cleaner can increase the factory set number of canons simply by piercing their neighbour and allowing the canons to form.

The video from Reach-iT also shows a row of ‘stainless steel’ bristles, these will also be available in 2017.

How do they work?

You simply slide them into a Constructor Pro brush as you would any other set of Reach-iT bristles. Reach-iT believe that setting your Constructor Pro brush with internal ‘steel’ bristles will help with the efficiency on heavily soiled or hydrophobic glass.

“The introduction of stainless steel bristles has never been done before,” says Tait.

This, however, does not take away from the additional Reach-iT option of the ‘pad’ which is also new for 2017.

How does the pad work?

A panel will slide into the middle of the Constructor Pro brush; the panel is velcroed and can take bronze wool pads, micro fibre pads or any other scrubbing pad you desire.

Hey a window cleaner needs options, right?

Reach-iT is shipping out ‘testing’ kits before Christmas to selected window cleaners. We look forward to observing this development further.

Hi my name is Nicolas Phanthip, I am 35 and run my window cleaning business out of Monaco and my business specializes in providing a luxury service to Millionaire customers. My business is called NP Acrobatique MONACO. I have been window cleaning for 19 years. I started my own business in France, I still live there now but I make the official move to Monaco in January 2017. France is finished and I saw Monaco as a great place to make money offering a premium service to high-end customers.

All of my customers are millionaires, this is my customer demographic. Not only do my customers ask me to clean their expensive villas, they ask me to clean their yachts too. This is like a dream come true, as I have always wanted to clean the windows on expensive boats. I am usually asked to clean the windows of these yachts twice per month. I will clean the hull too when requested with a water fed pole and chemical.

My quotes for work are verbal that is how it works in Monaco and customers like me to be as discreet as possible.

WCM: How long does it take you to clean a boat?

Cleaning the windows can take 2 hours and then another 2 for the hull with pure water and the Unger HydroPower for speed.

WCM: Most expensive property cleaned in your life so far?

I had the chance to clean a 300 Million Euro apartment, a phenomenal triplex in the Odéon tower known worldwide. It took me 2 days to do and I don’t mind telling you the bill for the customer was the equivalent price to a 2006 Porsche Cayenne.

WCM: The apartment looks like you might of needed a little rope work?

My water fed pole and my Unger HydroPower was sufficient for the heights required on this job.

I have recently taken up offices downtown and my goal is to stop working at 40. I have advanced three times faster here in Monaco than if I stayed in France!

Window Cleaning Magazine is something I really enjoy reading and the Facebook Group is full of great people with great advice, we all share the same passion. I started at the bottom of the scale, now I want to tell you and the other readers everything is possible.

RoundPartner is a cloud based scheduling software for window cleaning companies, here are the latest updates from RoundPartner:

RP are now offering two subscription packages, 12 months with one month free and a 24 month package that will come with three months free subscription! RP have also added a rolling subscription package so that users don’t have to worry about their accounts expiring.

It looks like RP has rebuilt the ‘Payments’ and ‘Job’ reports in the system enabling users to filter them by date and time. Jobs can now be ordered by postcode which is enabled from the customise RoundPartner section under default job listing order.

There is now a downloadable spreadsheet of customer and booking data which is available in the ‘My Account’ section.

RP goes on to say, ” We have made a number of improvements throughout the system. We have upgraded to faster servers making our system quicker than ever before. We’ve made improvements to how our system is backed up and kept secure to ensure that our users data is protected. We want RoundPartner to be at the forefront of technology so we have taken advantage of multiple cloud services to improve our system”.

RP announces a new co-director who has joined the team and is providing lots more ideas on improving the service. RP says, “We took part in Run The River 2016 for TeachFirst children’s charity which was great fun and we recently took part in a Hackathon designed to test the Amazon Echo”

What Window Cleaning Magazine finds exciting is RP looking into Amazon Echo to see how it could be integrated into RoundPartner and help users of their software and functions.

OMG! We do hope this one works out, can you imagine asking your Echo, ” What work do I have scheduled tomorrow?” whilst you are chopping the onions for dinner? We will be following this little gold nugget very carefully and of course WCM will give our followers, subscribers, fans and Facebook members all the exclusive developments on this and more from RoundPartner .

Click here for the Magazine: http://www.windowcleaningmagazine.co.uk/magazines/

Campus IWCA is an online training and education portal for you and your staff where you will find an ever-expanding catalog of safety and educational materials that are accessible 24/7 from your office, home or mobile device.

Courses will range from interactive e-Learning courses, tests, webinars, videos and other multimedia content and publications. Topics vary from industry specific training, environmental health and safety topics such as OSHA General Industry training including 10 and 30 hour certifications.

Administrative and executive topics of interest will also be available. Each individual learner has their own login and profile. Once a learner enrolls in Campus IWCA all their learning is tracked. Many courses have CEUs that are earned upon successful completion of the course material.

A comprehensive record of the courses taken, grades and CEU’s earned are all compiled on a transcript and become your official record of training along with certificates of completion. This transcript can be printed or downloaded on demand. For companies that want to ensure they have proof of outside general safety and industry specific training Campus IWCA is a perfect solution. IWCA members receive a discount on their subscriptions, which are based on the number of employees you have enrolled in the program.

Visit the Campus IWCA Website:
www.CampusIWCA.org

#CampusIWCA #Safety #ELearning#WindowCleaning #IWCA

For the UK leaving the EU, it will be neither brief or plain sailing. With the Prime Minister announcing she will trigger Article 50 in early 2017, at least now we see the starting pistol has been loaded. But how does this affect your business and your responsibilities to Health & Safety? Which regulations will survive and which will go? Will window cleaners be returning to ladders? Ermmmm…no.

The UK will continue to meet its EU obligations whilst we are in the EU, so regulations concerning Health & Safety laws will remain. How the mass of H&S regs will look after the Brexit negotiations is anyone’s guess.

So it is business as usual for now, the HSE will support and lead Departments as the work on negotiations progress.

Separately, however HSE are starting fundamental reviews of the regulations governing the use of hazardous materials in the workplace (excluding asbestos)

Up for review are COSHH, CLAW and DSEAR regulations.

What is the aim of the review?

HSE are in consultation with the cleaning industry. They want to simplify the regulatory framework making it easy for duty holders to comply with their duties in doing so maintaining a high level of H&S protection and to promote proportional risk management. The review not only covers the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH) but also, Control of Lead at Work Regulations (CLAW) and Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations (DSEAR)

Pierre Cruse from HSE’s Chemical unit says, “Early feedback from the review findings gave an indication that small employers find regulations complicated and that there was a need to simplify”.

The consultation proposed changes to the Risk Assessment Guidelines came to an end last month.

You have been running your window cleaning business for a few years now; you might even be way into the role of an employer. But you want to succeed further, right? You want to be EPIC!

You may even have that hungry fire deep down in your belly, the fire that screams out, “ Take over the World!” ..And that’s great. But how do you go from your gut instinct and desire to growing a large successful window cleaning, pressure washing or soft washing business?

One key element is SYSTEMS.

What is a SYSTEM?

A system is like a company’s reference point, a working corporate bible that guides all employees so that everybody conforms to your corporate standards, procedures and qualities. It is the tool that you use to teach new recruits with, the tool that keeps the company message uniformed.

But it is also much more than that. Systems can set out clearly how much a job should be charged out, for example. It would cover everything from your pricing structure, your customer service, how you clean a window right down to how you or your staff will answer the phone.

So, how do you start a SYSTEM?

It’s very easy once you get into the flow of it. Start by breaking your business down into chunks. So, window-cleaning activity, sales calls, customer service and so on, for example. Everything you do in your business you list. Then under every title in your list you think about how you want your business to carry out that task.

Let’s take ‘Sales’, you might list under Sales things like Sales Prospect Calls, Pricing Jobs (over the phone) and Up Selling. You would then analyse what you do with each of these jobs, and look at how you do it and what you want to set as your corporate standard. You then get this down into a written format so that everybody can relate to it. Make it clear, step by step instructions. Make it foolproof.

A system needs to be picked up by anyone, even new recruits, and from that staff should be able to deem how a ‘job’ should be done and in what manner and what is expected of them.

Of course it goes without saying that new staff will have one to one training and that this training will include your system, but it is also there for people to reach for, should they want to clarify a procedure that they are not sure about.

SYSTEMS will free you from your business ( more about this later).

This SYSTEM builds up into as many volumes as you see fit covering every aspect of your business. It then becomes the corporate framework readying you for that HUGE, EPIC growth… go get ’em Gazelle’s….

 Window Cleaning Magazine will have more on Systems for your business from our carefully selected writers, such as Peter Artusa. 

The Unger Ultimate is a special, high value collector’s item made especially to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of Unger craftsmanship from 1964 to 2014. Only 1,964 of them were made and distributed around the world back in 2014. The product to buy would cost a whopping £120, but when you look at the detail you can see that this bad boy is a crafted work of art with only the highest quality material.

The handle is carbon fibre, the channel is manually pressed and given a heat treated coating. Even the springs and screws get the special treatment. The squeegee is topped off with Unger soft rubber. I was presented mine by Unger UK back in 2014, for my work with the Magazine and by all accounts most people display their Unger Ultimate proudly.

Not so everyone. WCM hardcore reader and fan Nicolas Phanthip, 35 of NP Acrobatique Monaco bought four Unger Ultimate’s at the cost of 140 EUROS EACH! We featured Nicolas last week in our blog whose business caters for the Millionaires and Billionaires of Monaco.

His most expensive property cleaned to date was a property worth 300 Million Euros. He cleaned this with an Unger HydroPower and poles.

Today Nicolas dropped WCM a line to explain that his high end residential properties demanded only the best, when it comes down to squeegee work. He reaches for one of his four Unger Ultimate’s. Yep thats right, Nicolas USES his Unger Ultimate servicing his wealthy clientele!

Nicolas says, “ When it comes to the top luxury customers I have, the price is really high. This job I am doing today (today’s date of blog post) I will charge the customer 200 Euros per hour and so this is why I use the expensive Unger squeegees. Like this customer, some of my customers pay for this luxury and so my tools need to reflect this.”

“This high end residential property will take me 4 hours to complete, 800 Euros is not bad for a morning’s work”

Nik Smith, 35 of NS Services based in Cranbrook, Exeter UK has been window cleaning for the past three years with the majority of his work in Cranbrook which is a new build town area. Nik’s business also covers most of East Devon and Exeter and is 75% residential.

This Christmas Nik decided to rally window cleaners to a fantastic gesture of love and goodwill towards a man he has never had a full conversation with!

Nik moved into a new build site with his wife Kate. It wasn’t until they both noticed the red brick dust that blew over from the remaining building site that would cover the completed houses that Nik and Kate realised no window cleaner was operating in the area.

Nik decided to become a window cleaner. His wife went to B&Q, he tells Window Cleaning Magazine with a big smile, and she brought back a non commercial squeegee set. That was three years ago, today he hires a guy called Jamie who works the doors 5 nights a week and works with NS Services during the day. Nik operates out of a huge ex-BT truck so big that it can literally carry everything you could imagine for window cleaning and pressure washing. It is like a business premises on wheels!! Although Nik’s business is mostly residential he does carry out some commercial work such as high street store fronts.

This one store in Newton Abbot, Nik cleans the windows on a two weekly schedule. Every morning the same homeless guy sits in the doorway minding his own business reading books. He has never seen him drunk or on drugs and he has always been polite and moved so that Nik could complete the cleaning of the glass in the doorway. The homeless man is called David.

This Christmas, Nik decided to do something really nice for this homeless guy. He put out an appeal through Social Networks requesting food, toiletries, warm clothes, blankets, sleeping bags in fact anything he felt this man could use. As always, window cleaners from a far gave generously.

Picture ^^^ Nik (Left) Lee reporting for WCM (Right)

Window Cleaning Magazine was there to witness how overwhelmed David was by the festive greetings and well wishing as he was surrounded not just by survival provisions like food, warm hats, gloves and sleeping bags, but Christmas presents too that included Christmas cards, a Christmas Cracker, Christmas sweets and £300 in cash raised by the window cleaning community.

What a lovely Christmas Eve story we leave you. Nik and Kate would like to thank everyone that helped in his appeal and we all wish David the very best.

From Window Cleaning Magazine, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and please give a thought and pray to those that are less fortunate, those that do not sit in front of a warm fire next to a Christmas tree, for those like David.

Lacking focus in your business is like going to work in a dead end job. That might appeal to some of you (and I’m not knocking it, but it just ain’t me)

If you are the owner of a window cleaning, pressure washing or soft wash business and your goal is to grow and build a business, then you need to focus… if you want to be super successful you need to be SUPER FOCUSED.

All successful window-cleaning businesses I know are focused and it is interesting to see at what level of focus gets you those big bucks! Oh yeah, there are levels too.

Focus will buy you success and success comes from believing you can do it.

To become successful you need to really want it, you have to be so focused that your critics do not even get a look in, you have to BELIEVE in yourself and your mission. You have to have conviction.

In the next issue of Window Cleaning Magazine (Jan/Feb 2017) I write about my personal experiences on FOCUS. I have been on both sides of the fence. That’s right, I had focus and at one point in my business life I also lost that focus. I talk with real time experience in the hope that others can take something from it.

So the first question to yourself should be where do you want to be?

If it is to be comfortable and not ever worry about bills, take two or three holidays a year, then start to focus on those goals that will take you there. If it is to be the biggest in your geographical area then start that focus NOW!

To be a HUGE business, you need the power of SUPER FOCUS. You need to research your business, your goals, your demographics so hard like you only have 24hrs before that really important BUSINESS FOCUS TEST.

The test that will decide if you will succeed or not in business. The test that will make you or break you.

I don’t care if you sweat as hard as Paris Hilton playing Sudoku, if you want it.. You will get it. And you will work hard!

Back in 1991 I picked up a book for a very different reason called The Midas Method by Stuart G Goldsmith. This was years before I started a business. The book taught the reader of visualising your goals and adopting successful goal getting.

I spoke briefly about this with Josh Latimer on his Quick Talk Podcast.

I remembered about visualising goals and becoming focused from that book when I started my window cleaning business in 1999. I would apply these methods, without even thinking about it.

(I will explain in more detail in my article due out in the Jan/Feb 2017 issue of WCM)

In the coming article I will tell you about how my friend laughed and mocked me and I still remember the words to this day… he laughed and said, “ You think your going to have lots of people working for you and lots of vans”… I felt knocked!

But I ignored the critic and continued with my focus to build a business with 60 staff.

As I said earlier I have been on both sides of the fence and the past couple of years I have refocused all of my projects with a further SUPER FOCUS in 2017.

My cleaning business currently has 26 staff, with a new window cleaner hired just a month ago and I expect to pick up more employees along the way throughout the coming year.

As a business owner you are always learning, and I think to taste both success and failure is another key element in the progress to your goals.

I had chosen the wrong managers in the past to run my teams, I left the wrong people supervising my contracts, again you learn. You never will know it all. (Now that’s another article I can write all together, right there)

Recently I had a window cleaner say to me, “Why do you always make out the window cleaning side of your business is bigger than what it is?”

At first I was defensive. It was never my intention to give a false impression.

What was he reading into me? My website (it looks professional)? Pictures of my vans (I have had a few over the years)? My use of the word ‘WE’ as opposed to ‘I’? Is it because I think big?

Do you know what? It didn’t matter.

FOCUS and BELIEF and THINKING BIG are the ingredients to success. I’m hoping he has got that now.

So, success only costs £00.001? What is that all about Lee? I hear my readers chime.

Well I took the liberty of searching the net for the book I told you about earlier in this blog, The Midas Method and I have found USED copies on sale at AMAZON (click here). Fill your boots.

I just want to end this blog with this: Success comes in different shapes and sizes. Just because your business might not make the million pound mark does not make your business a failure, far from it! It makes you proactive in your own destiny. Something a lot of us would kill for.

Enjoy the read, find your FOCUS, and ignore the critics.

Many business owners read Window Cleaning Magazine, but it turns out passionate employees are also taking to the computer keyboard seeking out the Magazine. This week’s Featured Readers are a badass husband and wife team who still party like rock stars hanging high in the Seattle skyline!

They say marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can’t sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can’t sleep with the window open.

Jim Cox Wright, 51 and his wife Melissa, 46, fight over windows all right, but not for night time disagreements. No, this pair are more likely to fight for windows to clean instead as they passionately clean the building they are assigned to.

Jim has been cleaning windows for over 24 years initially specializing in chair work or industrial rope access and from time to time work with a mechanical platform. His wife has helped him in the past on the glass for extra pocket change. They have been married for 20 years and have an 18 year old daughter who thinks that they are both ‘nuts’ in their job choice.

Jim landed a job with UBS (United Building Services) in Seattle. UBS are a major player in Building Maintenance with huge business premises and a fleet of vehicles.

One day they asked Jim if he wanted to run the night crew cleaning inside windows.

“I was like sure, much better than freezing my ass off during the day. And it’s a little slow that time of year anyway”, said Jim.

Jim went on, “After awhile I mentioned my wife (Melissa, known as Missy) could clean glass and she was hired on as part time. So the running joke was, hey in the summer she can do some stage work. We all laughed and joked and never took it too seriously. But then a 39 story, 440′ residential high-rise in downtown Seattle decided that they wanted a 5-week rotation. The shop was like, this is a full-time job for two people. All the guys really didn’t want to be stuck in the stage all day long because it was, well stage work. They all wanted chair work”.

“Me? I’m 51 yrs. old and did my chair time. I have trained a few of my co-workers too. Don’t get me wrong; I can still hang if needed”.

Quick fire Q&A with Jim: Quid Pro Qou.

WCM: Why do you like reading Window Cleaning Magazine?

JIM: I like reading through the articles about the industry and checking out the different products. And seeing other cleaners do their thing.

WCM: Do you talk about work at home?

JIM: Yes. Everyday.

WCM: How long have you been cleaning high-rise windows together for?

JIM: As a team, it has been 6 months now.

WCM: Has your wife ever tried or wanted to try chair work?

JIM: Oh hell no! She’s not even interested.

WCM: Who makes the sandwiches for the day’s work? lol (we think we know this answer)

JIM: Lol the wife does.

WCM: Biggest building worked together?

JIM: The one we do right now since this is the only account we now do for BMU, 2 bodies, full time. It’s the 2nd tallest privately owned building in the City. A 440′ tall monster that takes about 5 weeks to complete depending on the weather. Then when that cycle is done we start again.

There is so much construction going on around town. The board members decided that instead of quarterly cleaning they wanted a continuous cycle. So here we are hanging out together. Literally.

WCM: Scariest moments so far?

JIM: I’ve had countless hours standing in the cradle without any problems. So, I let Missy take the controls one day. At the end of the day she was bringing the boom arm in and about half way in the boom just let’s go with a massive moan. Real loud like. That was scary. Wind is not cool either.

WCM: What are your go to squeegee choices?

JIM: Missy likes to use the 18/22” Ettore. I am Ettore or Sorbo.

WCM: What safety checks do you have to run before you start?

JIM: We have a daily checklist that gets put into a logbook. It involves a visual inspection, then there is the master control box test, up down, in out basic stuff. Then up and off we go. But mostly we are the eyes and ears of the thing. If anything is out of the norm it gets reported and it is serviced immediately and regularly.

WCM: Best part of your work?

JIM: Best part for me is the views and the hustle and bustle of the city. But most of all, I love seeing the smile on my wife’s face. She has big balls and I love telling everybody about her “bad ass job”. Lol

Have you ever wanted a business loan, a loan to get you started? How do the Banks know if your idea is going to fly or not? Are they really just buying into you and your past credit to satisfy themselves that the loan would be repaid? Or are they doing more? How can they tell if window cleaning is a good bet for them?

Business Manager: Hi, how can I help you today?

Me: I would like to borrow 20k for my new business venture.

Business Manager: Ok, what is your new venture?

Me: It’s a lemonade stand.

Business Manager: Ok, then…….?

That scenario of meeting the bank’s business manager is probably played out every single week, fifty two weeks of the year.

Heeeey, starting a lemonade stand might be the best business idea since sliced bread. Wait, ‘sliced bread’? Now there’s a business idea! The point is, what do the banks think of YOUR industry and ultimately your business idea. You might want to start your window cleaning, soft washing, pressure washing business with some decent top of the range equipment, you might need a van. It soon mounts up. Whereas some equipment manufacturers offer finance deals that include vans, invariably your needs may require an overall starter bank loan.

How does the Bank know? Lemonade stand or window cleaning? 

Banks do their research and are nearly always thorough with their industry analysis on sector trends. They have to be, lending out Billions to business can be risky if you dont understand all the potential risks. They put in time, money and resources into analysis reports on different industry sectors. It is this that helps them understand the business you require a loan for.

For example, this is what Santander thinks. Their analysis of the window cleaning industry in the UK is as follows:

Window Cleaner:

What has been happening in the window cleaning sector?

Demand for window cleaning services has grown over the last twenty years or so for a variety of reasons:

1) Modern building styles use large areas of glass and other specialist cladding and finishes which has boosted demand for window cleaners, particularly those able to work at height.

2) The appearance of business premises of all types has become increasingly important, so regular window cleaning is essential.

3) Domestic householders have less and less time to devote to window cleaning.

4) There are more elderly people in the population, who need help with window and other cleaning tasks.

However the industry has remained very fragmented, with many small businesses, often operating from home. Competition has kept rates low and, as this is a very labour-intensive industry, staff wages also have remained low. This has led to problems recruiting and retaining able employees.

Recent years have seen the industry attempting to improve standards and raise the status of the window cleaning industry through education and training for employees. Because much of the window cleaner’s work is potentially dangerous there have been several initiatives in recent years aimed at reducing falls and raising the industry’s awareness of the need to carry out risk assessments under the Work at Height Regulations. New technology such as telescopic pole systems have reduced the need to work at height, although because this type of equipment is expensive it is generally used by larger window cleaning firms. Larger firms may also have introduced a range of other services for customers such as general cleaning or gardening services.

Although the window cleaning market as a whole is forecast to grow, the current downturn in the economy is likely to affect demand as business customers may close down or reduce the amount they spend on window cleaning services. Domestic customers may lengthen the window cleaning cycle to save money, or decide to clean their windows themselves. During periods of recession competition always increases for window cleaners because there are many more unemployed people looking to earn money. The window cleaning business is easy to start up in because the cost of the equipment needed is quite low.

You will have to decide whether:

1) There is sufficient demand in your area to support your proposed business.

2) You will be able to compete successfully against established window cleaning firms.

3) You will be able to weather the current downturn in the economy, which would mean less work and more competition.

Keeping up to date with developments

Joining a trade association is an excellent way of keeping up with developments in your industry. Join the Master Guild of Window Cleaners here

The Cleaning and Support Services Association (CSSA) represents all sectors of the cleaning industry.

The British Cleaning Council represents the UK cleaning industry as a whole, and organises national exhibitions and awards. It promotes the Clean Britain Awards.

The British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICSc) is not a trade association, but an independent body with members from all areas of the cleaning industry. Contact BICSc at 9 Premier Court, Boarden Close, Moulton Park, Northampton NN3 6LF or visit the BICSc website for more information.

Subscribing to a trade journal is another good way of keeping up to date with the latest industry developments.

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