Hi, I would love to hear from some other women owners who work their business…any positive/negative feedback being a female owner, has it helped or hindered you? Thanks:)
I think it is a huge plus…because I work with Tony, he takes care of things that I can’t/won’t (like being on ladders) and I help by keeping curious homeowners busy chitchatting. Some, especially senior homeowners are leery of people in their homes. Having a wife along for a partner seems to put them at ease. They will often ask if we are the ones that will actually be doing the job, or if someone else will show up on the day of their cleaning. It works well for us, but I think you have to have a system in place for it to work smoothly.
Mrs. Squeegee, it’s great to see you here!
Hey my wife also helps me out, well really, I guess you can say she runs the business. With making calls, invoicing, and she’s even landed some big accounts, I don’t know how I would run the business by myself. I think she likes to spend all day with me-LOL.
But its true my wife helps out doing the interiors while at the same time talking with the homeowners, puts the homeowners at ease with strangers walking in and around their house. In fact I think that being a husband and wife team really helps getting older residential customers.
Thanks Micah. It’s nice to see familiar names.
My wife works with me too, and we get a long pretty well. Is hard if you don’t have a all around good relation, because you spent a LOT of time together.
On the business side it has been great, at the beginning I thought it was going to be negative making us look like the “small guy” (exactly what we are) but considering our customer base is 99% residential, it works great, for the same facts presented by Mrs Squeegee here. It gives a sense of security to our customers, not having 3 or 4 guys working at their house, also knowing they’re dealing directly with the owners assures them they will get an excellent service.
same here. Residential customers are much more at ease it seems when a married couple is in their home. Its a great conversation topic too. She is co-owner by the way. Handles all the money.
Reminds me to bring home some flowers, box of candy and a bottle of wine for the wife. Cant imagine what our company would be like with me doing all the paper work.:eek:
[FONT=“Georgia”]This year at the IWCA Convention and Trade Show we’re putting together a special woman in the industry round table lunch. Grab some lunch and network with other women facing the same issues you are. It will be a great opportunity to make connections, and put together a pool of people you can reach out to all year round when you need to bounce an idea off of someone, and really what is better than a free lunch? You just have to register for the convention and mark that you will be attending this event and you are set to make new industry connections.
If you have any questions or suggestions for this session just let me know, and I hope to see you all in Reno in January.
Shelby Diltz, CMP
IWCA Convention Director
400 Admiral Blvd.
Kansas City, MO 64106
Phone: 816.471.4922
Fax: 816-472-7765
Email: [email protected]
Web Site: IWCA - International Window Cleaning Association
Join us at the 2010 IWCA Annual Convention & Trade Show: Your Best Bet
January 27 – 30, 2010 at the Silver Legacy Resort & Casino
Reno, Nevada
For more information keep an eye the convention pages of the IWCA web site at IWCA - International Window Cleaning Association - Convention [/FONT]
Shelby,
What a great idea for the IWCA Convention! I think I said something about doing more for the women in our business. My wife looks bored when I kibbitz about cleaning windows with the boys. There are so many women just like her, doing the taxes, taking care of insurance issues, keeping the books, etc. They should have a chance to kibbitz with each other too. I wonder how many of us would go under if it weren’t for them. My wife has probably kept me out of prison!
I wholeheartedly agree guys! Without my wife’s support and help I shudder to thin what my business would be like, not to mention my life in general!
