Hello WCR Nation!!!
My name is Alberto Gonzalez. I am from the Houston Texas are and I am in the process of starting Al’s Window Washing. Like several people here, I am totally new to the business and I have a ton to learn. Looks like I found just the place for that too.
Well a bit more about me… I’m 31 years old, married with a wonderful family. I have been in the oilfield for over 12 years now. I have a wonderful career in the oilfield that I don’t plan on giving up, that brought me 179K in 2012. Within a few more years I will be making somewhere in the ballpark of around 250K a year in my current career path. I know you are wondering… what the heck do you do to make that kind of money, and why do you wanna do window cleaning!!! I practically live on an oil rig for weeks at a time. I do directional drilling. They basically bring us in to drill a well into a 90 degree turn and drill sideways for thousands of feet as we stay within a 10 foot window in the desired pay zone (oil or gas) that will later be fracked. It is a very specialized field that pays very well. OK, so now that I got that part out of the way I can get to the next part that I’m sure you are asking. “What the heck does that have anything to do with Window Cleaning??” Well as I mentioned, I live on an oil rig for weeks at a time. Once we are done drilling a well, I get to come home for weeks at a time as well. I make most of my money on a “day rate” which I only get paid while I am on the rig. I have an annual salary of 46K regardless if I work or stay home all year, but the majority of my income is made on the rig. Which gives me LOTS of spare time on my hands on my “days off”. I am an entrepreneur at heart, and unfortunately I can never stop thinking of ways that I could be making money. I have owned several small business in the last 15 years, from lawn service, pressure washing, party rental, to margarita machine rentals. All were pretty successful for the most part, which I later sold or passed on to friends or families. I have always helped other people start successful small businesses as well, which gives me more pleasure that actually owning my own business at times. So all that being said… it brings me here… to WindowCleaningResource.com where I am off into my new business venture… Al’s Window Washing!!! I was fortunate enough to get my wife out of working so she can dedicate her time to our kids and home, but often times we find ourselves tinkering around with the idea of her running a home based business for us. I also always find myself bored out of my mind after sitting at home for two weeks wondering, “How much money could I have made since I’ve gotten home if I owned my own side business?”
So here lately I have embarked myself into this crazy window washing idea… that has really got me intrigued. This really seems like something that is right up our alley. My wife can manage all the fun backoffice stuff, while I handle all the fun labor stuff!!! (Sound familiar). I have one major obstacle tough, as much as I would love to be extremely successful at this, I find it tough to believe that I can replace my current 180-250K career. I have times when I am home for only 10 days, and then back out for 30 days, and then there are times when I am home for 3 weeks and gone for 20 days. It varies from month to month. So this will have to be a part time time gig for now. My plan is my wife can book appointments for my days off, and I can do them when I am in town. If there is a job that needs service before I get home, then I can easily pass it off to one of my brothers or friends that are interested in doing some side work for me in my absence. Worst case, I can subcontract it out to another friendly local window cleaner in my area. I know the idea seems crazy, but I’m here on the forum hoping to find some feedback, and guidance to make this crazy idea work. As I said… I am totally new to this, but I have a very entrepreneurship mindset and I never let anything get in my way of success. If I could do one residential home per day say between 8am and noon or 10am and 2pm on my “days off”, then I would be perfectly happy. I figured between, window washing, gutter cleaning, pressure washing, or whatever else I find myself venturing into, I should have too much trouble filling my scheduling for my “off days” once I get fully established. All of my previous businesses all relied on word of mouth to grow, so I very familiar with the service side of things and what it takes to EARN repeat business and word of mouth business, and I up to the challenge.
I have a 14 year old son that I hope I can later pass this business on to. He is young and ambitious and has my entrepreneur spirit, and is excited to join into this business venture with me and plans on running his own business one day. We both believe this would be a great opportunity for him and our family.
Sorry for the long introduction, and I hope to contribute as much as I can to the forum and hope to learn as much as I can from all of you Window Cleaning Professionals that have been doing this for a very long time. If you have any ideas for me, both positive or negative please do not hesitate to share them with me. I can use all the help I can get.
