Ewe.. Snot!

Julie my wife has been ill, really ill. It started with a violent chesty chough then a headache caused by heavy congestion and then sneezing fits, aching limbs and a sore throat for good measure. Its all really rather nasty. The doctor said that she had a chest infection and then a virus on top, just for that little something extra. But the surprise was that Julie, who thinks that ‘time off’ is a place in china, somewhere between Hong Kong and Shanghai, actually had to take 4 days off in a row. Which is unheard of. She loves work and I think that she is addicted to it which is a shame because there are far more fun and exiting things to be addicted too.

But to tell you the truth, I don’t care about Julie for this week, and I have no sympathy whatsoever. None. This is simply because I sneezed, one of my eyes went watery and I also coughed. This means I have man-flue and that is far worse than anything Julie could ever have. Man-flue is by far the worst affliction in the known world and I for one have lost many a good friend to it. This means all my sympathy has to be saved for me and I have none to share.

Did I have time off work? No I didn’t, I like to think that I can work my way through anything. I thought this was a brave and selfless act and that as a boss my staff would look at me for an example to follow when they are struck down with the terrible illness that is man-flue.

Can’t imagine Spartacus staying in bed with the sniffles the day he fights the roman armies, or William Wallace on the battle fields of bannock burn with his box of Kleanex and a Lemsip can you? no good leadership wouldn’t allow it.

But that was wasted, they didn’t care either. That is until this morning when 2 of my managers came in with sore throats and sneezing…

Which I guess means they caught the deadly virus from me. Opps. This actually got me thinking as to why I turned up to work in the first place. Did I really need to be here? Am I so important that the business cannot survive without me for a couple of days?

My ego would automatically shout that if I was not at work the walls would fall down, there would be a fire and all my customers would leave me because I wasn’t there to help them. But in reality, I know I could have time off.

This brings me to the reason for this post. The difference between being self employed and a business owner.

Business ownership is different from being self employed. Self employment is just that. You still have a job to do (the ‘employment’ bit), but you decide what job you will do and how and when to do it (the ‘self’ bit) but self employment is dangerous. Its dangerous because it relies on you to generate income. If you don’t work, you don’t get paid.

A business owner is a person who has set a chain of events into motion that will eventually lead to a constant supply of money. If he is ill one day, his money will still come in. if he decides to go on holiday, his money still comes in. If he has an accident, his money still comes in. this is because he works on his business not in his business.

The good news for us is that window cleaning is such an easy business to develop from self employment style owner operated format to a business owner format, in other words, others go out and work your vehicles for you. That leaves you time to build your business. you become a business owner and not self employed.

If you’ve not got yourself into the window cleaning industry yet, what on earth are you waiting for? a written invitation from the queen? If you are fortunate enough to be a Concept 2O™ owner, congratulations, you can be a business owner, whenever you choose.

Carl Phillips
Director
Clear View Plus Ltd

Growing your business - Part 2

Well after reading part 1 I hope you have been able to identify some of the motivating factors for you when you are growing your business. The importance of these motivating factors cannot be over-stressed, identify them and you will be able to fall back on them time and time again, they will serve you well. If you’re unclear on your personal motivating factor/s, then please spend more time thinking on the subject, you will not be disappointed, I can promise you that.

Lets move on now to the window cleaning industry itself and why you should consider it worthy of your time, energy and investment.
Now when the general public think of window cleaning, what do you think springs to mind? Unfortunately for most of the public, the image of George Formby plucking a banjo singing that rather irritating song is the default image, followed by the ‘adventures of a window cleaner’ film of questionable repute.
For those of the general public who have never seen a television, the very mention of cleaning windows brings to mind unhealthy images of Joe flatcap with a set of ladders, old jeans and a holly t-shirt.

None of the above stereo-types are what you really want as a business owner as you can imagine, if your motivating factor is pride in your business you should justifiably be feeling a little uncomfortable at this point because the general public’s perception of the window cleaning industry at present is not that far from the truth.
In order to help us understand this issue and why things are the way they are we have to take a closer look at the industry.

Window cleaning falls into the category of home services. The home services industry at present is worth some 6 billion pounds annually and is one of the fastest growing industry sectors. Which is nice. A home service is categorised as a service carried out for the general public on their own properties.
As you can imagine, the sector is growing fast for two reasons. Firstly, the swing to ‘cash rich time poor nature’ of our society. People are working longer and harder than ever before and there is less time to do those laborious but necessary tasks around the home. Secondly, the population of the UK is growing at the fastest rate in many years, causing the home building industry to build far more new homes than ever, more good news then.

So why is the window cleaning industry viewed as negatively as it is then? Well firstly, using traditional methods, ladder bucket and a squeegee, window cleaning is a cheap to business to start. We have already provided some testimony as to the size and growth of the industry, so with plenty of work out there and cheap set up costs the industry is open to anyone. Even those of an unscrupulous nature unfortunately.

That is until they start to view it as a business. when a person decides to become a window cleaner, they find that gathering enough customers is not the issue. There is always work for a good window cleaner. The trouble is, is that window cleaning using traditional methods has a skill level, a skill which has to learned over time, even ladder work is suited to some individuals more than others.
This is fine if you just want to earn cash and work for yourself rather than for an employer and by far and away the greatest majority of the window cleaners in the UK at present fall into this category of individuals working on their own rounds.

As we said before the problem arises when that same individual decides that he or she has been cleaning windows for a long time and wants to grow their business by employing staff of their own. After all, there are only so many windows one person can clean in the day.
Now the same individual runs into all sorts of problems. They can always find someone to help out, but the training process is a long one and staff are never as fastidious with your clients as you are. Window cleaning with traditional methods is hard work and there is always the temptation to cut the odd corner or two.
Besides the training times and trust issues, the problem is further compounded by the fact that once trained, there is nothing stopping your new staff member from purchasing his own ladder and equipment and starting out on his own. From personal experience this can be very frustrating to say the least and the employment process has to start all over again.

Since the introduction of water fed pole technology some ten years or so ago, this was just the way it was and this state of affairs may account for the fact there are still no national domestic window cleaning companies in the UK.

Pure water systems have changed the status quo beyond recognition. They clean windows faster in a safer manner and provide substantial extra benefits for their clients.

In part three, I want to focus on how pure water technology affects the traditional window cleaner in a little more detail, in the meantime, as always, feel free to leave me a comment.

Best regards,

Carl Phillips
Director
Clear View Plus Ltd