What every window cleaner hates

Yesterday I pulled up to a gas station to clean their convenience store windows. When we parked we saw that there was a bucket and a pole and clean windows. My heart dropped. I went inside and stood in line to see that a tall man in his forties with brown long hair, a scruffy unkempt beard and eyes that looked like he was sleep deprived or a drinker or drug user was awaiting payment. I asked for the owner but he was on holidays so I spoke to the assistant manager. She is a nice women who always gives me a Tim Horton's coffee (they have Tim Horton's there sorta like Dunkin Donuts but better). She is very nice.

I spoke to her and asked what was going on. Well, a few weeks ago this man gave the invoice. He said he works for me. He gave her a small invoice, whereas mine is a nice Quick Books computer printout, 81/2 by 11. He just said they changed the invoices. I have no idea why she paid him in the past with a different price, a different invoice, and he is a scruffy scary looking guy, whereas I may be scary because I'm tall and have a deep voice. But I'm clean shaven and I try to dress neatly.

I charge her $20+tax whereas this guy charges $10 no tax. He didn't even want payment, he wanted a $10 worth of gas for his old beaten up unlettered Cargo van. He had a another guy with him that looked like it might be his brother who was just a scruffy looking.

I made clear to her that he doesn't work for me, that they are still under contract with us because they haven't cancelled. And furthermore we have been doing the windows for months.

I told her not to pay him. 

She said there was nothing that she could do, we had to wait for the owner to return. But strangely enough she still paid him, sounds like she still has some authority.

He cleans several other gas stations of the same company, but he may just be lying for all I know. And he said that the owner got him to do the windows.

So either I lost the job and they forgot to tell me, or this guy is an impostor, otherwise the owner would have told her about the change.

In any case it's a very small job so it won't hurt me to lose it, but it was maddening.

I did feel like emptying his bucket or doing something, or at the very least threatening him to never return. However I'm a professional and no good comes from revenge or getting even it would just reflect badly on me. Besides this guy could probably beat me up.

I will have to speak to the owner when he gets back and see what's going on.

This occasionally happens to me, but it's fairly rare, usually I'm told on the phone or in person that they are cancelling for someone cheaper I don't remember the last time that I had a situation like this.

Check out my website at http://mmwindowcleaners.com
647-409-8144

What do customers say about you?

What are your customers saying about you?


Have you ever asked your customers why they use you? It's a simple question, and the answer only takes a couple minutes. It can be asked casually in conversation, or you can put it in writing too.

I have been guilty myself of not asking that simple question. It reveals a lot about how you can sell your services to new clients, what customers care about, what angle of your business you can market, and what other window cleaners are not paying attention to in their marketing, hopefully.

What did my customer say? Well, he said that they were very impressed with my window cleaning, he said that we were efficient, we were flexible, able to come on short notice for specific time periods, to clean the windows for important head office visits. He said he had an issue with us regarding our workmanship once, but we quickly resolved it and it hasn't happened again.

Those comments really made my day. They made me feel happy and positive about our work and the company we are.

So do yourself a favour ask your customers what they like about you.

Hopefully, they will have something positive to say. Of course they will, and you will learn.

Do you want to check out our website. Go to http://mmwindowcleaners.com or if you are advanterous you can click mmwindowcleaners.ca

Or call me 647-409-8144

Get More Homestars Reviews

Get More HomeStar Reviews


My last post spoke about using HomeStars to find a reliable contractor. And as I said I used HomeStars to find a good duct cleaning company. Canaduct had hundreds of 10 star homestar reviews. So with that info and checking their website I was sold.

I hired them in large part due to HomeStar reviews. I wondered how they were able to get hundreds of reviews. A couple days later I found out, with this follow up letter.

Now tell me is this a good follow up letter? Would you use it? Any criticisms?

Here it is:

Hi Michael,
I am pleased that you were satisfied with our recent performance, duct cleaning your home.
I would be most grateful therefore, if you would kindly give us a 10-STAR review on www.homestars.com.  It is important to our company that we continue to have updated reviews, lest we be left in our competitor's dust.
Thank you.

Paul  B***
Air quality and HVAC specialist
Www.canaduct.com
Www.heatingontario.ca
416-410-3777(work)
647-999-7062(cell)


________

I was a little surprised about how forward it was in asking for a 10 star review. But besides that it is a good idea, short, and sweet too.

Give me feedback,

Mike Polsky
647-409-8144
mike@mmwindowcleaners.com
http://mmwindowcleaners.com

Links:
homestars.com
canaduct.com

Keep your competition close

There is a saying to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Although a few of your competitors can be your enemy, not all of your competition is, in fact many are not.

My Toronto window cleaning competitors include some good friends and acquaintances, We respect each other, although we do get jealous of each others successes. Especially when they are ahead of us on Google.

Some we have got to know on window cleaning forums, and from there we built up a friendship and trust. And others I have known because many of my friends are window cleaners as well. Because they treasure the flexibility and good pay in the field.

It's good to keep in mind, especially in a service business that there is more than enough work out there for everyone. There is an infinite amount of windows to be cleaned. No one company can clean everyone store and house out there.

Not every business owner has the same focus of his business. In my industry, some prefer to clean stores and commercial, whereas others love cleaning residential and despise commercial. Some do add ons to their regular work, which I will not mention what they are in this post. They serve niche markets and at times make much more than window cleaning.

Keep Your Competition Close

Many times I have used my competition to pass on jobs, to have them do a job under my name. They have also been kind enough to pass on work to me often without expecting anything in return.

They have proven to give me honest and reliable advice when I needed some help with pricing, dealing with employees and subs and their compensation, and common issues in window cleaning.

Of course, you always keep some info to your self, and don't let them know every business strategy that you are planning to implement, but sharing business knowledge is far better than keeping things to yourself for fear that they may copy you. To learn and to grow you do need to share some of what you are doing now and learn what they are trying as well.

Why am I saying all this? Well today, three of my competitors, two - who I do business with who work for me on certain jobs - met up. We enjoyed a burger and fries with them. We shot the breeze, talked about window cleaning, the industry, our marketing, some of our goals and needs, and what we wanted to accomplish in 2012.

So go ahead, have a coffee with your competition. You do of course have to use common sense, take your time to get to know someone, and not give away your "secret" recipe, but sharing information and knowledge with a trustworthy and kind competitor may help you to grow and thrive in the window cleaning field, or whatever field you are in.

I'm not saying there are not unscrupulous or dishonest competitors in your field, so use your head. But there are likely many honest, decent people that are just trying to make a living for their family, that would love to sit down and have a coffee with you. You can learn a lot.

Do you want your windows cleaned? Call the Toronto Window Cleaner. Mike Polsky. At 647-409-8144.

Thanks for reading my blog.

Improving SEO

A couple weeks ago, I spent many hours working on my website. Why? I've been disappointed with it's search engine ranking. Although I'm quite pleased with the layout of my site, the company that helped me create wasn't able to help me when it came to ranking high on search engines.

Althouhgh I have always had a very high ranking on Yahoo for certain keywords. I have never been high up on Google. The highest I got was about 23 down the list.

So I decided to take action.

I bought a book from Chapters. I'm not going to disclose it here due to local competition also reading this blog. If you want to know the book, email me at mike@mmwindowcleaners.com. However, I applied almost everything in the book. However, it only cost me about $30. I have read about two thirds of it so far. I have spent countless hours to implement the suggestions, and improve the layout of my website, and other things.

After about a week, my site went up to about number 5 or number 6 on Google. Other webpages on my webiste are further down the list. I am very happy with the results so far, and I'm getting the calls to prove it.

So if you are going to buy some books for your business. Don't just read it, implement the strategies and methods within. It does no good for you to just read something and forget it. Your website will not climb much if you do nothing.

I found great improvement in my site by just putting $30 down. And I'm continouly working on my site to get it up to #1. Perhaps that is a pipe dream, but being within the top 5 is pretty cool.

Wanna Check out my website? Let me know what you think.Toronto Window Cleaning - M&M

Are you in the Toronto area and want your windows cleaned? Call Me, the Reliable Toronto Window Cleaner at 647-409-8144.

The High Cost of a Low Price

I just got off the phone with my phone company feeling anxious, frazzled and like I wasted half an hour of my life.

You see, in November I was threatened to be cut off by my phone company, which was actually a cable, cell phone and media company: Rogers Cable. Now that's not because I wasn't paying, but they wanted me to switch to their way of offering telephone service, through the cable line. But that's not the point of the story, so I'm not going to go into that whole interesting story.

After getting scary letters that they would cut my service, and send men to break my legs...just kidding. After receiving those letters, I realized that I would need to find a new phone service or find myself out of a land line.

So in haste, I went with a cheap company that actually uses POTS (Plain old telephone service through the copper phone line). They offered great prices, 5 features including call display name and number, call forwarding, call answer, three way calling. For just $34.95 + TAX. In addition this price doesn't include any sneaky access fees that the others charge for such silly things like 911, Touch tone calling, system access fees, etc.

I wouldn't have to worry, like I would if I switch to cable, that the cable box that converts cable to telephone, would in a power failure run out, and I would have no phone service in an emergency, when cell service would not work (I didn't work in the great blackout). No, plain old copper wire telephone service would work come ice or blackout.

When I wanted to sign up for this service with YAK, I had to wait nearly an hour to reach a live operator, and I had to listen to the same commercial 100 times, that's almost as bad, as the torture the Americans administer to suspected terrorists! After waiting an eternity I got through and signed up.

I was told I would have to wait 5 to 7 business days to be connected. those few days past, and weeks too, when I wondered what the heck is going on?

I called again, and had to wait another hour, and endure the Chinese telephone torture. After finally getting through, I asked what the problem was, they were not sure, but assured me I would get phone service soon. More weeks past, with no phone service, and I just assumed I would never be hooked up.

Until as the new year came in I realized I was connected. I was happy. And knowing I would get many services at fire sale prices.

Shock came in a few days ago when I got my first bill, after just three weeks. 65! I called them, and fortunately got through right away. I guess they are serous about answering the phone when they know they may get their money faster.

Turns out that their prices went up this new year, although the receptionist was strangely unaware of it, what do they not know how much their prices are?

So although I signed up for 34.95 as soon as I was actually connected, I was billed at 38.95. Seems like a bait and switch too me. I was sold a bill of goods, and then they switched it on me. Because Yak made me wait, I fell under their new price.

I was furious, but of course, knowing how one gets what they want on the phone, I kept my voice, determined but calm and fairly low.

They seem to not know that their price was raised even though I been checking their website twice a week every week for months. And the other packages they offer are substantially different. I know what price I was quoted and I have it written down.

They claimed because they're system is computerized they can't give me the price I was quoted and signed up for. That they would have to credit me every month and they were only willing to give me one month and a half credit.

I of course, since they pulled a bait and switch wanted the price I was quoted and signed up for. The lady said she has to research what the price was at Nov 12 on Monday then call Tech Support to enter it manually if that price was 34.95, then call me back.

Otherwise, what did I get for cheaper phone service. Bad Tech Support, and unknowledgable staff, wasted time on the phone, anger, frustration, and feeling I'd been cheated and swindled. A sneaky price increase too.

What a high price to pay for a few bucks.

Dress for Sucess!

Today I met with a mid size janitorial company based in the Greater Toronto area. I had spoke about subcontracting window cleaning jobs from him, since many of his customers need window cleaning done.

His client list included a who's-who of Toronto, an impressive client list which they showed me when I met with them.

Originally I was going to meet the marketing director in a coffee shop, at the last minute he decided to invite me to his office. Where I would also meet the CEO. This was turning into more of a job interview, and a situation where I want to make the best possible impression.

So I decided to dress well for it. I didn't want to overdress, and look out of place, wearing a complete suit. Instead I wore suit pants, and nice dress shirt top button unbuttoned, and nice polished, good quality dress shoes and socks.

It turns out I made more of an impression then a would have hoped for.

He was impressed because he found some window cleaners in the past have not taken care of their personal appearance when servicing his clients, appearing with dirty rags coming out of their pockets, cutoff jeans and unkempt appearance.

As he told me himself, the way I dressed, showed that I cared about my appearance, that I would dress with appropriate attire, or the people I send would dress appropriately when doing jobs.

He appreciated that because he is concerned with image, and he wants to project a good image with dress, and other matters.

The way I dressed today, practically got me a subcontracting agreement before I opened my mouth.

As you probably know, the way you dress speaks volumes, and dressing appropriately on occasions when you meet important contacts is very important.

Don't feel you need to overdress, but dress appropriately for the occasion, and you may find your business will flourish as you build important relationships with other companies.

Stop leaving so many voicemail messages

Stop Leaving So Many Voicemail Messages

One thing I have learned in the last few months is this. Stop leaving so many voicemail messages.

We hope by leaving them that a prospective customer will call us back when they get a chance, but they rarely do. There are some that have a personality that they return all calls and all messages. But so many, for one reason or another don't. This also applies to email messages too.

Sometimes you might leave one message initially to get the ball rolling. Perhaps you are calling the wrong person and they forward the message to the appropriate party.

But when trying to land a job, don't keep leaving messages. It is far more effective to keep calling, when you get the person on the phone (this requires some patience) they will usually feel like they need to make a decision, and often will make it on the phone. Or they might tell you to call back in a week (call back!). It might takes repeated efforts but some of your efforts will pay off. So be persistant. However, leaving messages will not lead to the same success.

Some other people are worse, and you need to see them in person. Be concious though to do this at a time that you are in the area, and are not needlessly wasting time or gas.

Thanks for reading my blog!

Are you in the Toronto area and want a quote for window cleaning. Call the reliable Toronto window cleaner at 647-409-8144. Or visit my website http://mmwindowcleaners.com

A shout out to Sean!

A Shout Out To Sean
 
Sean is the Salesman for Window Cleaning Resource - of which my blog is posted on the forum. Thanks Chris and Alex.

Sean is a very successful businessman, and has helped WCR to acquire much of their commercial work.

I watched Sean's video today about his new approach to pricing. I must say I'm impressed. He's not going to lowball his prices anymore to win accounts - and he will charge what is good for him - working on commision, and high enough for the guys who work at WCR and Chris and Alex.

I too don't believe in charging lower than I want for an account simply to match local competition or get a client.

My belief in pricing is too charge at a rate/hour that you want, and a rate that you know the majority of your desired clients will accept.

I would rather charge too high and not get a business, than charge too low, and kick myself later, and find myself over time with a lot of underpriced work.

My pricing philosophy is always changing, based on what I think I can charge, what high prices others have charged, and when I find out that I'm not charging what others do.

The most current change I have made to my pricing is to not treat all glass the same.

Before, even when cleaning a large piece of glass, I would charge what a small piece of glass would cost. Most customers understand that they will pay more if they have a store with big glass than if their store had small windows.

If I need to just clean windows with one method, cleaning with just a squeegee and applicator I will charge a basic rate per window. If I have to use a pole (I'm tall - 6 feet 2) than I will charge up to double that rate.

I would advise all of you to not treat all glass the same. Let's say you charge $1/per outside pane) for a regular pane that requires no polling. For one that requires polling, or is much larger charge $2/per pane.

Your pricing philosophy can change, be willing to accept new ideas and make adjustments where necesary.

Are you in the Toronto area and want a quote for window cleaning? Call the Toronto Window Cleaner at 647-409-8144 or visit my webiste at http://mmwindowcleaners.com

Accounts Payable

One of the most pressing problems in running a small business is getting paid promptly. In a business like Window Cleaning there are a number of customers that pay immediately. And when your focus is on cleaning houses, you might get paid right away nearly all the time.

However, my business while including residential, has its main focus on cleaning businesses. Many of these are billed and mail a cheque to my office.

How do you get your customers to pay in a reasonable amount of time? Many business suffer, while they are doing a lot of work, a lot of their money is tied up in accounts payable, and people taking weeks or months to pay. That really drains your business, and could stop you from running a profitable business.

Let me share a couple ways that I keep my accounts payable under control. Perhaps you can implement these suggestions for your business.

State Terms

It is important to state at the beginning what you expect in terms of payment. The time that you expect payment, for example, on receipt, or 30 days. Be clear, state upfront what you expect in regards to how and when you get paid.

For our company, I always say due on receipt. I expect payment promptly and I don't automatically give them 30 days to pay. I expect them to take my invoice, and on the day that they usually write cheques, within a few days they will write the cheque and mail it to my office.


Keep Good Records

There are many programs that permit you to keep your business organized and to create invoices and monitor accounts payable.

I use Quickbooks Easy Start for my small business. It keeps everything organized for me, my banking, invoicing, payment, and accounts receivable. With the click of a mouse I can see how much overdue an invoice is, I can easily email reminders, copies of the invoice and so forth. If you aren't organized you can't easily catch those who are taking too long to pay.

Remind them

After 14 days I remind the customer by email that we haven't received payment. I don't at that point say it's overdue, but I say in a nice, kindly written email that we haven't received payment and we are reminding them. I write down the invoice number and date too, and email them another copy of the invoice.

After 30 days, I email them, saying the invoice is overdue, that our terms are payment due upon receipt, and ask them to mail the cheque immediately.

If we still don't receive payment, I call them personally, in the rare instance that that doesn't work, I pay a personal visit.

Give Lattitude

You do however have to be reasonable. One of my customers is Burger King, and the cheque comes from Miami, which is far away from Toronto, ON. So I realize that it will take time for my invoice to go from the managers hands in the mail to Miami, thru Miami back to my office. I give that customer 30 days before I remind them.

Does this work?

My experience with this payment system that I implemented in the spring has been very positive. I have only three customers that take more than 14 days to pay, namely that Burger King, a dealership that has gone bankrupt, which I'm not even sure I'll get paid, and one other company.

All others pay within a week to 14 days. One customer actually pays us through electronic payment, which is incredibly fast.

Remember, it's your money. It's not rude to ask for your money to be paid to your business in a timely manner. By all means be reasonable and kind when reminding customers, but as the saying goes the squeaky wheel gets the grease, if you are not asking for your money, you may be the last business to get paid.


Thanks for reading my blog.

If you are in the Toronto area and want your windows cleaned, call me, The Toronto Window Cleaner at 647-409-8144

setting pricing

Pricing is one of the most important factors in your business. And in business, pricing is one of the 4 types of marketing. Pricing is vital if you wish to stay afloat, and thrive in business.

Of course in different parts of North America pricing the price of the cost of living varies. In big cities like Toronto, one needs to price higher, and window cleaning companies in general may price higher in big cities like this. In Toronto the cost of housing is high (although housing prices are expected to be flat or drop). An average house here costs $370,000. Rent goes for about $1000/mth for a two bedroom, and the price of gas is about $1.10/litre. Prices in general are a little higher here than in some small towns.

So when setting pricing, you may charge a little higher in a bigger town like here than in the boonies.

However, one thing that seems to be similar everywhere is competition. There are tons of window cleaners in Toronto.

When setting your prices it is better to go from a high point, and then gradually lower the price you are offering if you are not breaking through. When starting out you would want to target larger places if possible, so that your route can grow faster, and you may have customers that take the window cleaning more seriously.

Before starting out, you might want to consider not quitting your day job, or having your spouse work more, so that you are not under extreme financial pressure. It's good to be hungry for work, but if you start in a desperate look for work, you may be tempted to price very low at the beginning which causes problems down the road.

A reasonable price is very important. Consider this, you have ordinary expenses to pay to run a business, gas, insurance, equipment, depreciation, and taxes. You also have unpaid labour you do for your business, canvassing, bookkeeping, meeting with the accountant. In addition you start out in business as an investor, hoping to have a good return on your investment in money and time. So don't feel like you are pricing too high if you are targeting $60, $70, or $80/hr (averaged over the day's work). You are an investor, you work tireless unpaid for long hours, and you have bills to pay. You are not an employee, who merely works 8 hours, only does a minimum of unpaid lobour, and has benefits like workers comp, unemployment insurance, and an employer paying into your old age pension (in Canada at least). You are the owner of a company, an investor, and a tireless unpaid labourer.

If you start out pricing too low, you will find it hard to raise prices later on, you may struggle, as many have working many hours, but not seeing a lot of profit. You may be working hard, but find it hard to hire an employee, because you can't pay him a decent wage. Or you may find expenses so high, that you feel you must cut corners by doing shoddy work, skipping windows (that are dirty), skimping on equipment, having a beatup car, an not being able to take a decent vacation. The worst thing is to feel like a slave of your business.

As an example, I've been able to secure many contracts with big stores, charging about $1 or $1.25/per window/per side.

You may worry that pricing at a higher level will make you lose a lot of jobs, when someone cheaper comes along. Well, I've been window cleaning for six years, and that has rarely happened. When someone is happy, and you maintain a good relationship with them, and you do quality work, they won't look for someone else. Think about it, if they quit with you, who they trust, they have to risk having a bad window cleaner take over that they regret using. People aren't as attached to price as you may think.

And no, I don't work in a dream, or pie in the sky market, Toronto is ultra competitive. In Toronto which is a large city of 5 million people. The window cleaners run the gambit, there are bums who clean windows for alcohol, drugs, who are very unreliable. There are window cleaners on bike, usually not very good, but there have been a few good bike cleaners, there are those who have been window cleaning for years and never raise their price, they skip windows, skip cleans just keep things going. They usually have a beat up car, work like a dog, and don't really see the fruits of their labour. And there are some window cleaners who price decently, do good work, and are picking up new jobs regularly, while holding onto their existing clients. A friend of mine did a search of all listed companies in the Toronto area and counted 350, and I'm sure there is many more than that.

Toronto is doing ok economically, there is no subprime market mess here, but the economy here is sorta lukewarm, unemployment here is higher than the rest of Canada, business in the core, find it hard with high business taxes, and there is high competition so there is no pie in the sky dream market.

Pricing at a higher level enables you to have a leverageable business, you can hire and keep good employees paying them well, you can enjoy vacations or whatever you do to refresh yourself, you can earn dividends on the good investment your window cleaning makes as you sell route, have employees or sell franchises. Plus all the hard work you did at the beginning of the business you get paid back for.

Of course pricing takes a certain amount of experimentation. You may start out a bit too high, or realize you are not charging enough. It is useful to learn more about your market, your cost of living and what others charge. But in the end, look at what you want to make.

But remember don't price like you are the employee because you are not.

Price at a high level, and work from there, target larger jobs, be persistent, and make changes where necessary.

negativity

Negativity is something that you should not listen to too closely in establishing your business. It is a corrosive influence that stops you from pursuing your dreams, establishing a business, or pursuing a direction in your business.

All around the world, in every business there are people saying that something cannot be done. That you can't make money doing something. That a certain venture is unimportant, or all prospective customers are price shoppers who will dump you when someone less expensive comes along.

Of course, when weighing a particular venture, you cannot go in with rose coloured glasses, you must weigh the positives and negatives, but be careful who you are listening to. If you are listening to a person who is unsuccessful (in other ventures too), or didn't try hard enough, then why are you listening? If you are listening to someone who tried every possible method and failed and perhaps is very successful at something else, then he may be worth listening too. Often though, you got to give something a try, and learn from your mistakes. It has often been said that successful entrepreneurs make mistakes.

Why am I saying all this? Well, I have pursued commercial and storefront window cleaning for 6 years, and have been successful both as a franchisee and the initial success I'm enjoying as a independent, incorporated business. Yet over and over again, people say you can't make money at storefront, the customers are price choppers, and they don't care about their windows being cleaned.

If you listen to the crowd, you will never try this lucrative work. So if you want to learn more about pursuing this endeavour ask me, or whatever new venture you are getting into, ask those who know, don't ask those who gave it a half hearted try, or are just repeating what others say.

If one listens to the negative voices, we would never fly, go to the moon, or run space missions. There are always those who say something cannot be done.

What separates a great entrepreneur from a failure. Persistence. Sometimes things don't work out right away, a particular method you are using is failing, or you are pursuing the wrong market. A successful entrepreneur keeps trying before giving up, whereas the negative voices often try a little bit then give up.

Are you in the Toronto area and want your windows cleaned? Call Mike the Toronto Window Cleaner at 647-409-8144

The trap of being busy

Are you busy? How's business? These questions are like the how do you like the weather questions for business people.

They are good conversation starters, and are an enjoyable start to a discussion. However in those words lie a trap.

like alcohol for an alcoholic, being busy is like the alcohol for a business person. Being busy often makes us forget, or not realize that our business is floundering or not established properly.

It feels good to be busy, it makes us think that we are successful, because we have work, we have customers, we get paid, and it seems like we are building our business. But therin lies a trap. Often business people who work very hard, feel that they are successful, that they have built a good window cleaning route, or other business. However, they may be fooling themselves.

I know how good it feels to be busy. When establishing my business, it was scary. It was extremely worrying and frustrating to spend days canvassing, and not get any clients. I doubted myself, I wondered am I pricing to high? Am I targeting the wrong clientele? Is there too much competition? It was scary.

However, as I got some new clients, and as I cleaned windows, I felt good, I felt like business was rolling in, that my business principles were sound, and I was targeting the right people and pricing well. Being busy made me feel good. Because let's face it, men especially, need to work, and window cleaning for me fills that need for work.

However, when you look out in the world of small business and especially window cleaners. The busiest window cleaners are often slaving. They price too low, they wonder why they find it hard to make ends meet, they start cutting corners, feeling frustrated in not having good help they don't take vacations, they might leave their jobs for a few weeks to take the vacation. Being busy hides the flaws of their business, and lets face it, one of the biggest flaw is pricing. Often they have so much work because there prices are very low. But yet, pity them, they can't make ends meet, they cut corners, causing problems with their customers, they miss doing jobs because they are too busy, they work out of a beat up car that is always in the shop, they don't take vacations and get needed rest, and they might take chances with the equipment they use. But they don't know, they are so busy they think they are succesful. They might also fear raising prices, but their busy ness is the main problem, clouding their judgment, hiding the problems.

Most people equate busy ness with success. If you say that you only work a little bit each week, people think you are strange, and unsuccessful. They worry about you, even though your business is unfolding the way it should, and you are building a good well established business. You might look at a store, and if they are not busy assume they are going out of business. Most people equate busy ness with success. That is not true.

You can build a successful business through pricing with good margins, you wouldn't need to work as much, you don't need to cut corners, you don't need to skimp on equipment, you can take nice vacations, and hire help, and get away from being a technician, just working on running your business.

Stop looking at how much you are making, and look at how much you are charging. One of the biggest factors in your success is looking at your profit margin, making it as big as you can given market conditions and then marketing it to the appropriate parties.

Stop worrying about busyness, worry about profit margins instead.

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