I am new to this forum. I have been learning a lot about window cleaning and find this forum to be an invaluable resource. Several months ago my business partner and I decided to make the plunge and start a window cleaning business. We have several years of experience each in window cleaning and one of our closest friends who is mentoring us used to manage a window cleaning business that was generating over 20k in revenue from just commercial accounts. We decided to do everything right, insurance, bonding, right tools, uniforms, good advertising, etc. With an initial investment of close to $5K we were able to generate $1K in revenue within the first 2 weeks of business and were ready to grow. Then our work truck was stolen overnight out of a gated community. There are few things more embarrassing than having to call a customer at 8 am and say we cannot do their window cleaning because our work truck was stolen.
Needless to say we decided to take a step back and re-evaluate our options. We put everything on hold and we are now putting together a business plan so that we can get appropriate funding to cover the cost of another truck and some other supplies. Yes, we left our tools in the truck, extremely painful learning experience. Luckily we have all the ladders. Unfortunately there are few window cleaning business plans out there that we can use as a template so we have been using janitorial service business plans to kind of get an idea of what important information goes into the plan and what the industry outlook is. [B]Does anyone on these forums have a business plan that they can share with us? (Minus the sensitive information of course)[/B] Even a point in the right direction is useful. We know that each business plan is unique and our own city has its own demographic information, which we are receiving and incorporating from our public library and local small business resources however there are no window cleaning business plans to model after. Any help is greatly appreciated. Once again, thank you.
I used to do volunteer work for the SBA helping people with business plans, that said while what you are looking for is often called a business plan it is really a financial proposal (that is often a part of a business plan if your are looking for financing) a real business plan is about how you plan on running your business, your standard policies and procedures.
You can find what you are looking for on Amazon.com search under “Window Washing” I think it cost $25 and is from Upstart publishing. I’ve also seen business plans included in some of the window washing business start up packages that seem to sell all over the Internet for about $97.
A business plan is a living document (meaning it should be updated every quarter) that lays out how you should be doing business it should include everything about your business starting with a high level overview talking about the short medium and long term potential for your business with research to back up what you think the potential is.
It should include an Overview, Vision Statement, Asset Summary, Financial Projections, Budgets, Financial Proposal (if you need capital, stating how much you need and what it will be used for), a Marketing Plan, Company Operating Procedures, Personnel Policies, Safety Policies, Building and Equipment Maintenance Policies, and probably a few other things I have forgotten over the last 20 years since Business School…
The real use for the document is to keep the owners and manager focused on the desired direction of the company and to make it so anyone who is allowed to can answer operational questions and make decisions based on the policies written in the Business Plan, ALL key personnel should have intimate knowledge of the business plan and the plan should be kept up to date with any changes in the company, it should be reviewed by management at least quarterly.
The reason most people try to put together a business plan is to approach the investment bankers for financing and after 3 failed attempts with banks the Small Business Administration may underwrite the loan IF the Business Plan meets their standards. Most businesses have to use personal capital to finance their businesses because even with a business plan most of the time they have to be in business for 3 years before they can get Startup Capital… I know pretty funny really.
The truth is that if the reason the first reason I gave is the reason a business wants one they have a much better chance of succeeding.
That would make sense for a very large corporate business. It doesn’t make much sense for a business that has barely
been started. The first plan is to get your stuff together and get some work. Until you do that you hardly need a
business plan.
dl
That would make sense for a very large corporate business. It doesn’t make much sense for a business that has barely
been started. The first plan is to get your stuff together and get some work. Until you do that you hardly need a
business plan.
dl
Heres the deal, You already have a Business Plan!!!
You might not know it, you might not have it written down and it might not be very good, but you do have one if you are actively seeking customers and are actively performing window washing there is some plan there. It probably just isn’t written down and organized and your business assumptions are provably not researched and documented but you have a purpose for your company “to wash windows for paying customers”. you have a vision statement “I will be the best or fastest or friendliest or most affordable or hardest working or whatever window washing company in x area”. You have financial projections "this month I should have $x in customers, in 3 months I should have $x in customers, in 6 months I should have $x in customers, in 1 year I should have $x in customers, in 5 years I should have $x in customers. You have a financial proposal “I need this widget, it should make me this much more income and I will pay for it this way”. You already have a marketing plan “I am going to get my customers this way”. And so on through all of the parts of a business plan.
The best business plans are made up as you go and then researched after work. Writing them down in a formal way allows you to look at (and look back at what you want and why) because a lot of times what we think is just stupid once we write it down and examine it. Writing it down in a formal way allows someone else to just pick up your business plan and help you see what does and doesn’t make sense in how you want to do business. Updating your business plan regularly keeps it current with what is happening right now and what you have learned since you last looked at it.
No one says a micro business (less than 2.5 million yearly in sales for a service business) using their own money to start a business needs to have a formal business plan in place before the pick up a squeegee and get their first job, but they should have at least thought about these things that go into a business plan. Write them down after work when you find a new answer that appeals to you.
I went over to the Small Business Administration and downloaded this “Answer the Questions to make a business plan” template for you to try out, if you have any questions on filling it out just contact S.C.O.R.E. at the SBA for free help.Business Plan for a Startup Business_0.doc (230 KB)
Mr. Kelly? What business school did you go to? You seem to have an intimate knowledge of businesses that even most business owners seem to lack and your obviously classified as a successful business owner if your a SCORE volunteer. Several of my peers, one of whom is a VP of the fastest growing commercial bank in my town has noticed that Business college does nothing to teach you how to start or successfully run a business, only how to become a good employee or manager. Most of us end up learning these things on our own after graduating business school. Did your college adequately prepare you for starting a business or are you mostly self taught like most successful businessmen?
This is so true and it goes back to it’s the roots of modern education in America. With the exception of Great Books Curriculum’s such as St. Johns College and a few other Curriculum’s, the American Educational system is based on the Prussian Educational System and has the stated goal of training populations so that they are effective as workers and solders. In establishing the Educational System in the US there were strong warnings about over educating the population because over educated citizens were both hard for a Government to manage and make poor workers.
During my time there I spent 3 year in Student Government, as a representative of the school for the United States Student Association a Student Ambassador, active in many clubs and organizations . I often had the duty of escorting Politicians, High School Students and the press around Campus, I was also called on to travel around the US and give speeches to other student bodies and Legislatures.
I also spent 1 year with the student newspaper as a writer and as the advertising manager. Through the Student Newspaper I became a member of “The Denver Press Club”.
Let me stress that I was not doing this for humanitarian reasons, I received a stipend, many scholarships, grants, free classes, Classes such as formal Leadership Classes that were not even offered to normal students, many awards an newspaper articles about me ( at one time I had what I called a “I Love Me” wall that was over 300 Sq Ft of awards articles and ribbons).
I don’t mention all of this to brag, it is all leading up to the S.C.O.R.E. thing. The College got a request from the S.B.A. for someone to help people write business plans, the request went to the Dean of Business who was in fact my professor in several of my Honors Business Courses and I was at that time VERY well know on campus as the “Go To Guy” he could also recommend me because he had actually seen me turn in an A+ Business Plan in an Honors course. So it was not the case of being well respected as a business man in my Window Washing Business, it was a case of being qualified, well known and available at the time when I was needed.
In the end I did not walk away with an M.B.A. (although they did express condolences about that) or any degree, I received letters of Recommendation from 2 College Presidents, 12 Vice Presidents and Countless Deans all of which knew me quite well and had worked with me on different projects (ever try to do a budget for $30 million in student activity fees, finance a new student parking garage and the refurbishing of an old brewery for a student center as well as interview prospective businesses who wanted to sell things on campus, planning events, lobby State and Federal for additional funding for higher education, etc… )
I stopped when I did because of Severe Burn Out, otherwise I would probably still be there now (almost 20 years later) and I am sure that I would have eventually gotten back to transcript juggling and gotten several degrees.
Michael Kelly
P.S. My father was Self Employed also and as a child I had to work with him in his Contracting Business, by the time I got to College ( I was 25 I think) I had already been self employed most of my working life.
Nothing that is specific to Window Cleaning, most things (at least at a level that I can talk intelligently to a professional adviser in their field of specialty field) that are specific to Nano/Micro Business in general.
I also might add that in my life I have held series 6 and 7 Securities licenses (that I received separate training for outside of College) so I am familiar on a professional level with most financial instruments ( Stocks, Bonds, Options, Insurances, Annuities, etc…) and have worked Pink Sheet and NASDAQ and IPO’s unfortunately, those are licenses that are specific to your Sponsor Brokerage House so I no longer hold them. I loved financial Instruments, I didn’t love being a telemarketer which I found out is really all that a Stock Broker is.
As far as I know there is no accredited course (College, Trade School, whatever) that can teach you more than Basic Accounting, Torts and Mass Media Marketing. Pretty much any training is going to be by 1) trial and error (where you will learn the most) 2) Correspondence (there are several dozen courses on the Internet, I am not sure how good they are but they are probably well worth the $100 or so that they are going for) 3) Books, Magazines, Youtube, DVDs and Forums (get as much of these as possible) and 4) OJT or an apprenticeship (this is the best option if you are in your early 20’s or so, have no obligations to speak of and find a good mentor). I recommend using all 4 methods if you can.
I am not interested in studying books at this point. I wasted a lot of time with it in my past.
I think my college was just out to create more teachers.
I would mainly benefit from improving my internet skills using a spreadsheet or another program.
Window cleaning is a simple operation unless it gets big. Then it gets more complicated.
