Yeah exponential growth seems like something unreal. From a business perspective, I like the classic example: which would you rather have? One million dollars, or a penny that is allowed to double every day for a month? Of course, the answer ends up being the penny because by the end of the month it is worth over $5 million. But the interesting lesson is that on Day 27 it is only around $600,000. So even right up until that last weekend, it would feel like we should have chosen the million dollars.
Like you said, with exponential growth, it feels like nothing, until one day it doesn’t.
But, we won’t get there, because countries around the world are taking steps we’ve never seen. People are choosing to voluntarily distance themselves. It’s amazing to see that in the last 7 days alone, people here in the US have started shifting their behavior in ways that, frankly, I never thought would happen. This is why I’m confident that we’ll all get through this. People will do what they can to help. Again, I share the economic concerns of everyone on this board, and I know some have much more to lose than I do. And I don’t have any answers to how we dig ourselves out of the economic crater we’re going into. I hope the government puts some support systems in place and when this is all over, we start the engine again and get going.
I believe there are great points from everyone posting. I worked as a nurse before becoming a teacher. Yes go ahead and laugh about how many different careers I’ve had! For my friend to they’re still in nursing, in California Arkansas Oklahoma Texas and Nevada, Many of them are on call as the hospitals are not filling up. That’s a good thing, people are afraid to go out and risk getting sick. That’s a badd thing, because people that are showing symptoms may not be getting tested to confirm the onus and force more stringent restrictions on their mobility.
I believe there are significantly more people with the virus than we are currently aware of and that the mortality rate may not be as high as currently estimated. This virus is highly contagious, more so than sars and the swine flu. The greatest concern is that those that are not showing the severe signs that many experience are out and about passing the virus on to those that will suffer great health consequences or even death.
I need to clean windows to make an income to pay for my family’s needs but just 5 minutes ago I called ahead and found out my client has her premature grandbaby at her house and I cancel the appointment. She’s in her fifties and that baby doesn’t deserve to be sick too early. We have to be humane and ethical at the same time that we are concerned for or livelihoods. @mshramek and I spoke last week about the need for greater health care coverage for Americans and this may very well be what it takes to push us in a direction that provides better over all care, at least on a basic level, to more people. I’ve lived in other countries and would not trade my health care system for theirs on a whole but that didn’t mean we’re shouldn’t try to improve what we have now. @clevermonkey thanks for the cartoon. One person making the correct choice at the correct moment can save significant pain for others.
Oh be wise, what more can I say.
I’m sorry but at this stage of the game there should not be any social gatherings of 10,20,50 or 100 ppl at all.Most governments around the globe made this mistake by saying no social gatherings of certain numbers but quickly realised(some slowly) that this was a bad call!
As far as the spread of the virus,it doesn’t matter whether you live in apt buildings/complexes or suburban areas.The virus is easily spread by someone who already has it by simply touching door handles,handrails on staircases,buttons on card machines/atms and so on.
Look at the UK now,Boris has been far too late to react to what was happening around Europe probably because they were being stubborn about having just left the EU!
Yes there was a death related to an 18yr old kid with underlying conditions but this proves that the young are’nt as indestructible to the virus as first claimed.
Yesterday my own country was filled with idiots that left there houses because we finally got a nice irish sunny day but i struggled to find a quiet park to bring my dog for a walk.I came across a group of teenagers and had no problem telling them off for stupidly hanging out together as if nothing was happening.I ve managed to convince my daughter to stay at home for the time being.
As for masks,they dont stop you getting the virus.They only prevent ppl that already have from spreading it by coughing.The weaves in all masks still allow stuff to pass through which several medical staff have pointed out.
I suggest that you all just take a seat for the moment.Commercial contracts will still be their when we go back to work eventually as most of them are now closed for business anyway.
Everything keeps changing for us every 12 hours… at this current moment:
Residential Window Cleaning is Shut Down 99%. We are pushing all Interior Services off.
Commercial window cleaning is “stable”, some accounts have suspended due to closure
Powerwashing services are still going, but drastically down, use to wash 10-15 houses a week… down to about 5.
12 months ago we trained in a secondary service that involved electrostatic sprayers and disinfectant chemicals… it never really took off. Fast forward to now… those sprayers are selling for 10k-20k online… chemical went from $15 a gallon to $120… we are flooded with disinfectant calls since all the major companies found out we have all this equipment and chemical. Scrambling at the moment…
We were thinking about doing this as well but weren’t sure If the government would flag us for advertising against COVID-19. What exactly were you disinfecting before the epidemic ? Parks? Medical buildings?
“As for masks,they dont stop you getting the virus.They only prevent ppl that already have from spreading it by coughing.The weaves in all masks still allow stuff to pass through which several medical staff have pointed out.”
True, but they do keep you from touching your face
During this time, the one man operators will survive… those that have the bigger companies with lots of overhead are taking the biggest beating and losing the most invested.
Kyle, I’ve thought about you a lot the last few weeks after I saw this thread. I’m sorry for the struggles you’ve gone through. I streamlined last year back to a solo operator, and I can’t even imagine the weight of having employees going into all of this. I’ve followed your posts casually over the years, and I can only begin to imagine the work you have put into your business.
I do believe internally driven people like you will always find a way to push through, which is to say that I believe in you. I don’t think that means this time will be easy, but I do believe that you are a survivor. I’m sure your family appreciates everything you do for them, and I’m sure you’re setting a great example for them about how to have a good work ethic.
For whatever its worth coming from another random window cleaner, all the best, man.
quick update:
First I want to say… everyone is hurting. Not just window cleaners and powerwashers. A lot business people are literally losing everything and some are in some bad places. As a business owner for the past 17 years, my heart hurts for some many people locally and online that I have just tried to support and listen to.
For us, its been almost a month since the Stay at Home orders and we are limping along. We have 5 employees laid off. Sales are down 75% from this point last year. Window Cleaning is pretty much shut down for us. We are doing about 6-8 hours a week of exterior window cleaning. Our Low Pressure House Washing is almost what we were doing last year. Its keeping atleast one truck on the road atleast half a week and its paying the base bills and payroll for the business. Thank God for powerwashing. We also have 4 weeks and counting of window cleaning work that continues to come in that is on hold.
We tried disinfecting work for a little over a week. Had some issues and concerns. Got some great advice from our local OSHA Hazmat guy and we sold our electrostatic sprayers and wisely got out of it.
We dont have a huge payroll overall, so the PPP loans don’t help us tremendously. We are also getting screwed on the PPP loan. They are classifying us as a seasonal company, but in 2019 we didnt get a full crew on the road until the last week of march due to a lot snow last march. They are making my monthly payroll figures be based February - June 2019. Their formula from the SBA is only giving us half of what our actual monthly payroll really is.
I’ve got many great friends in this industry … some that are honest with me and set me straight… @DaveYogi … thankful for you listening to me rant 2-3 times a week on voxer. Hopefully when we all get back to work it sparks a lot of unity and encouragement in our industry.
The business will survive… battered and bruised… but still kicking. We pour so much of ourselves, our money, our time, into these companies… when something like this hits, its like a part of your insides is ripped out. Maybe I need to listen to Dave more and relax.
God bless all of you. I really pray for y’all. @Kyle you’ve been an inspiration and source of wisdom. You’ve got the systems in place to weather this well. It’s hard laying off folks. You provided them with a job and hope for a season or more and they should not hold any grudge as this is the sad state of everyone’s affairs. Va ne crains pas.
I don’t know if this is worth a shot for any of you all, but I live in SD which is impacted relatively low in my area, and I actually have been having success cleaning exterior only with e-invoicing and e-payment and offering $40-50 a month exterior cleaning on a lot of the rich lake homes in the area, and if this trend continues, and with the Gardiner V3 packpack I’m getting to drop my setup times to 0, this could be really good. Anybody else try something similar?
