Husband Wife Teams

So, my wife just told her employers to kiss her sweet talents good bye. After seeing how much fun and $$$ I was having playing with squeegees in the sun, she decided to join me in the pursuit of happiness.

How many husband wife teams are out there working the windows?

Do you drive each other crazy?

(the jobs we have done together so far have been fun and rewarding… but after awhile?)

I have high hopes that she can complement my lack of people skills and I can complement her lack of squeegee skills… that a synthesis of our super powers will catapult our business to the next level.

I would love to hear feedback from those of you currently working in tandem.

My wife and I have never done it and we likely never will. Its more advantageous finalcailly to spilt up. My wife has and will do billing on occasion or something else in the business but working in the field together is another story.

I know quite a few couples that do that and like it but we never would.

My wife never once even considered helping me out, no matter how busy I was,… and she can actually clean windows as she used to help out with her dads business in the summer holidays!

I think its a great way to work if your better half is willing to do manual labour,… some extra time together will almost certainly make the marriage stronger too. :slight_smile:

My fiancé and I worked together last year. It was my first year and I was to poor to pay an employee so because she’s so great she helped me out on a lot of jobs. The customers loved her but I always felt a little weird/ unprofessional about it. But your first year you have limited options on what you can do when your over booked. It worked out but Id never want it to be a long term thing

My wife and I worked together part of our first year in business. We were together 24/7 and at least in our case it was tough because work frustrations always went home with us. Plus, she wasn’t as detail oriented as me so I was always getting on her about it. So it didn’t last too long for us…

however, now she has some house cleaning jobs to help us in winter and she takes all phone calls and does majority of our estimates (closes a very high % of jobs). This works better for us :slight_smile:

My wife and I started off working together. She would write out the bills as we traveled. Now, 99.9% of the time she does the book work only as she has a different part-time job. I get a load of compliments from customers whom she conversed with on the phone. And I have had female field employees in the past. People love that and want them to return.

As a mention in another topic earlier my wife is also my business partner.
In my first year she was helping me from time to time for the big jobs and joined the business full time in my second year.
that was the best move we ever did for our company !
Now I can’t even imagine running the business without her.
Don’t know how things will work for you and your wife but I can’t complain from our partnership at all !

Try to give your wife responsibility and make her feel like partner not only an employee

Good luck

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I was under the impression you’d given up window cleaning Jesse?

My wife has never helped me and probably never will on the field, but if you can get her to do the behind the scenes, bookkeeping, follow ups, marketing pieces, etc…but it will be tricky to navigate because she is your wife first and your helper/employee last

Once a window cleaner always a window cleaner!

ACTUALLY, we booked a lot of jobs because people liked that we were a husband and wife team. And I did a GREAT job cleaning those windows, thank you very much! It did add some stress working together so much, but we also had a good time being together and feeling accomplished at the end of the day. Now we are too busy for us to do windows together- as Ian said, I do the estimates, billing, etc.

I would say it can be very helpful when you are first starting out to have your wife with you, but don’t plan on it staying that way for very long- like someone posted above, it does not stay financially viable for too long as you get busy (or apparently as your wife starts to irritate you…!)

Rachel Malone
Malone’s Window Cleaning

As the rest of us lol
Add it to the top ten list of top threads :wink: jk

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After a couple years it was my woe and I and one if her brothers when we needed help. Customers loved it, when we were expecting our first child she even was given baby gifts and extra tips :slight_smile:
Now those same customers ask about her and the kids each time we talk or come do their windows.

It actually made our friendship and relationship stronger being together all day everyday for a number if years. I love her for putting up with me :slight_smile:

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My fiancee just left her job in NYC 10 days ago to come work for me as office manager :slight_smile:

There is a learning curve, but it is working out good now. She’s developing her systems to run the office with, and has spent a bit of time in the field with me learning the protocols of a typical job. I’m actually a bit dismayed that she’ll be in the office, because she’s actually a kickass window cleaner lol.

The toughest part I found about all this is switching from girlfriend-boyfriend type communication to President-Vice President style communication. She is naturally inquisitive about things and I’ve always been more of a “my way or the highway” guy, so it was a little tricky at first. Since those peaks and valleys in communication got ironed out it has been working great.

The best part about our arrangement is that I now have someone that cares about the future of the business as much as I do, and wants to make things work perfectly. My organization skills do not exist, and she is a bonafide Research Scientist, so playing off our our respective strengths and weaknesses creates a superb management structure… especially for a small company.

Another thing that I’ve noticed as a plus is that she has been around me for 2+ years and has seen how I run things (phone estimates, customer service, marketing etc). By default she came as a fully trained and well versed asset to the company.

I would never find that elsewhere :slight_smile:

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[COLOR=#333333][INDENT]The best part about our arrangement is that I now have someone that cares about the future of the business as much as I do, and wants to make things work perfectly. My organization skills do not exist, and she is a bonafide Research Scientist, so playing off our our respective strengths and weaknesses creates a superb management structure… especially for a small company.
[COLOR=#ff0000]
Another thing that I’ve noticed as a plus is that she has been around me for 2+ years and has seen how I run things (phone estimates, customer service, marketing etc). By default she came as a fully trained and well versed asset to the company.

I would never find that elsewhere :)[/COLOR][/INDENT]
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Chris, I think I am in a similar situation with regards to my wife complimenting my skills. I am a brainstormer / idea person and my wife is more of an organized / get-'er-done type. I have a ton of good ideas, but the implementation often gets lost in the fray.

Plus, she has been working in marketing for the last 2 years (specializing in social media marketing) so that couldn’t hurt.

As far as the jobs she has helped me on in the past, we developed a great conversational humor-laced approach with the customers. Having someone socially competent to joke with and butter up the customers really adds to the service. The 20 year guy helpers I have used in the past did not understand the social component of the job (or did not care) and I would always start to cringe if the customer started talking to them because I didn’t know what they were going to say.

I am confident that the company will grow and we can hire excellent employees. Meanwhile, working on oceanfront properties in the sun is enough to make us happy waiting for future business success. I think that if you are loving life and happy with what you are doing, that will shine through and you’ll get even more customers, success & opportunities.

That’s awesome that your company is thriving, Chris. Best wishes for your future success & happiness.

[COLOR=#ff0000]Try to give your wife responsibility and make her feel like partner not only an employee [/COLOR]

No worries [MENTION=6039]Window’Spas[/MENTION], my wife will never stoop to being my employee ! If I ever get too bossy, she gives me one of those looks that stings for at least 5 minutes :slight_smile: lol

I was kind of pushing it to the sidelines when I got a job in the social work field @karlosdaze. After working for an organization for 2 months, I understand why the job market is so frustrating.

90% of the competent people in the job market right now are working for way under what they deserve. Seems like you can do ok in an organization if you know how to shift the blame onto other people, suck up to the right people and just don’t take any risks. Basically, the complete opposite of what it takes to run a great business.

I quickly saw that making $12.30 per hour (with a bachelor’s degree, no less) was a ticket to indentured servitude. Put in your time and don’t rock the boat and you can take on a bunch more responsibility as a manager for said organization - always being on-call 24-7 - and you can make the princely sum of $16 per hour.

It was great to have this realization, though. Now, I don’t feel like I am missing out by not having a “real job” whatever that is.

I should get a “real job” every couple of years for a month or so just to remind me how great working for myself is lol :slight_smile:

last 2 yrs iv employed young ladies/women and currently have 1 on my team . a womans viewpoint is well worth having . and i find they are very detail oriented . i suppose the ideal would be to find one thats as strong as an ox ,who can run with a triple ladder over rough terrain .

[MENTION=2009]jonnyald[/MENTION]

I’ve got one for you Jonny:

thats her eXACTLY ! Cheers jesse , good to hear you are still in the game