Top Headach's when you started up?

The Office Business
1

What were the top 3 headach’s you had when you started up in window cleaning?

Mine were:

  1. Getting the price right, I usually underestimated the time needed.
  2. Not realising the running costs.
  3. Becoming distracted with non-productive things.
2

I had been in the business for 11+ yrs wen I decided to go out on my own. I have covered both sides Manager/ Worker. I knew the business quite well.

The biggest headaches :
1 Understanding how customers can put up with crappy service from other companies.
2 How customers “undervalue” window cleaning.
3 How some managers talk “down” to you , like your an idiot. It doesn’t bother me. I have learned to roll with it over the years.

:smiley:

3

Three biggest headaches when starting up? Mine were;

  1. Getting customers to trust me to do the job properly. If you are new and they’ve never heard of you, it can be tough.

  2. Cash flow. I had to put payroll and taxes on my credit card for the first six months. I didn’t sleep well during this period.

  3. Finding the right employees. Window cleaners are quite a bunch of banannas. At the company where I worked before I started my business, they had to send just me to do the FBI building because I was the only one in the company who never commited a felony.

4

Three biggest headaches when starting up? Mine were;

  1. Learning how all the different types of storm windows and screens come apart (without breaking them).

  2. Seeing so much glass out there yet so many people who couldn’t care less if it was clean or not.

  3. Learning to deal with long winters when I’m mostly a resi guy. Ended up with too small a commercial route with too many small $$$ clients. I just dumped most of them this week.

5

[LIST=1]
[]cash flow
[]finding more work while I was working all day
[*]dealing with the seasonality of the biz… up in the spring down in the winter type of thing.
[/LIST]

.

6

im still starting out but here are my headaches

  1. going door to door handing out fliers “my legs are sore”
  2. coming up with the cash for marketing and supplies “supplies mostly covered”
  3. staying motivated and keeping my head up which isnt to hard but sometimes a headache
7

My bigest headaches were

  1. Not making enough profit to have fun.
  2. Reliable, intelligent, clean, car owner and trust worthy helpers.
  3. Advertising. (Still is).
8
  1. Seasonality
  2. Clients that talk your ear off and follow you around
  3. Acquiring capital for larger purchases
9

biggest headaches…

finding good employees…
putting enough $ aside for slower times (winter)…
underestimating jobs… sometimes I still do, but getting better… I’m surprised when I give a high estimate and they dont even blink…
how some people seem to look down on our profession, even tho sometimes we’re making as much as they are (or more) …

10

1-Finding good workers that dont milk me
2-Not having enough hours in the day to do all that needs to be done
3-…and the biggest of all and it still is a throbbing migraine…stop thinking about the biz…even dreaming about it!

11

for me,
1 - underestimating prices
2 - finding empoyees that will work without being bitched all day (not that I mind having an excuse…heh heh)
3 - registering my dba. I swear, the county recorder here has the crappiest, least user friendly site in the world. Going in person is just a pain.

12

Have to agree with the 3rd one… however some people on this site really help me to maintain my motivation and keep my head up!

13

Getting affordable limitless height limited liability insurance.
Giving my friend15% and his name on the invoice each high-rise I get.
Still there, and ****ed!

14
  1. Staying focused and determined despite hearing the word ‘no’ (i went to 91 places of business before my first “yes”. I will never forget)
  2. Worrying about my competitors despite growth
  3. Learning to hold out taxes
15

[COLOR=#333333]how some people seem to look down on our profession, even tho sometimes we’re making as much as they are (or more) …[/COLOR]

+1

When it comes up at social functions that I run a window cleaning and janitorial business, I often get an awkward response from other “professionals.” Although I have a bachelors degree, have attended several colleges, and I make more $$ than more than social workers and many teachers, to some cleaning windows is just not important. Oh well, I am laughing my way to the bank :slight_smile:

16

1.operations
2.marketing
3.finance/admin

the 3 headaches not having deep enough pockets to hire for to be ceo from day one

lol

17

This is a great question.

  1. Not even knowing what headaches to have was a big headache!
  2. Not knowing the principles to apply for making good decisions.
  3. Landing jobs fast enough to meet targeted goals.
18

Great Question, I sure wish I had forums like this when I started.

  1. how to price…
  2. where/how to market… its like swimming in a tank full of sharks (we wasted a lot of $, luckily had very little overhead)… door hangers worked well for window cleaning…
  3. cash flow… and still is the most difficult to manage…
19

From a PWers point of view

  1. marketing
  2. getting enough money to go from cheap equipment to professional equipment
  3. EMPLOYEES - every year they seem to get worse and worse, not wanting to work, ZERO common sense
20
  1. Finding great employees
  2. Finding great employees
  3. Finding great employees

In that order.