What frustrates you about your business? What would you like to learn more about? (In the window cleaning world)
Mega cheap window cleaners.
I met one recently that started business in April. He said he shoots for $25/hour. I don’t fault someone who’s starting out who thinks that’s a great rate. But, when I started explaining to him why he needed to AT MINIMUM double that figure (he’s doing store front work mainly), he shook his head and looked at me like I was crazy. Me, standing next to my lettered truck with wfp and ladders. Yeah, I don’t know what I’m talking about.
scheduling and staying organized
Ability to purchase bigger pieces of equipment when I need them. Our poor credit habits when we were younger have bit us in the behind so that we have to save up for those big ticket items and it’s frustrating when you have to make due at times. :mad:
Customers that know you are coming to work in their homes yet schedule other personal appointments on the same day and put the big rush on you.
Customers that want an exact quote over the phone yet get annoyed when you start asking simple questions like “How many windows do you have?” Had a guy reply with, “If I’m gonna go around counting all my windows, I may as well clean them myself while I’m at it!”
I agree with John Kieser and try to stick with $1 a min. This covers expenses, driving time and wages. Like Tony, I was a financial idiot in my youth and still suffer it’s repocussions. KC…juggle and adapt. Our schedules are so dependent on weather and customer whim that this is always one of our biggest challenges. That being said… I guess my pet peeve would have to be slow payment on some of the larger accounts. I once did a restuarant chain that gave me an extra $900.00 a month. It took them five months to start paying me. In the meantime, I was paying my help, using my gas, wasting hours on the phone. When they finally got me in their system and sent me a check for $4,500.00 I dropped them. Mainly because it came down to me getting so upset that I lost my cool and told a woman that "I just want my GD money. (wa-a-ay out of character for me) at which she responded that she was a christian and didn’t like that kind of talk. I told her that I tried to be a good christian and didn’t like getting pushed to that point. I also told her to crack the book to dueteronomy and it would explain to her why a good christian would pay me my money. I got the check two days later, paid to date. It was my choice to drop them and when they called a couple of weeks later asking why,after finally getting in their system I would do this? I told them that they would get an answer as soon as I could get them in my system. That was six years ago. They are still waiting. : )
[B]THEGLASSMACHINE[/B]
[I]“because glass looks its best when you can’t see it”[/I]
I’m my biggest frustration in my business. My time management and organizational skills are lacking, always have.
I think a gun & illegal low ballers should do the trick. So…I think I need a course in firearms & how to get away with murder?
Clients that expect everything for nothing! People wanting an exact quote on their windows over the telephone.Or making a special trip to go quote the house only to have them pick a lower bid. ( rarely do estimates in person anymore unless its a commercial job or a huge ass residential job) Clients trying to pay me cash to avoid taxes. and the thing that frustrates me the most in this business…WINTER!!!
:eek:1- Getting calls to bid high rise and not knowing how to do high rise work and having to give them away.
2- The learning about how to run a business- the way I think and having to change it.
3- Seeing successful window cleaning companies and seeing mine…
Cancellations. Customers who forget to yank their screens prior to our arrival. We like to work eight hours a day. Cancellations can throw a wrench in that. This past Monday we had four cancels,:mad: that is a lot for one day. We worked the rest of the week without any cancels.
Getting halfway into something and hitting a snag. Such as with mixing conventional window cleaning and WFP cleaning tools and keeping the van organized for both. I love the equipment I do have, but need more or less things in my van to become as efficient as I really want to be.
Why do you think your image is flawed? 
Houses that are booby trapped. You know the ones…any piece of furniture you touch has one broken leg, all the screen pull tabs are brittle and break, there’s always that one window that won’t open and the back yard is full of Fido’s land mines.
Hey Mark - that’s so true. 
I sometimes think they round-up second hand junk just to get some money back.
My biggest frustration is having to compete with my idiot competitors. They have no clue as to how to bid. They have come in under me up to 40% at times, even when I know mine proposal was rock bottom. What’s worse is my customers falling for their crap and thinking I’ve been ripping them all this time. I know eventually they will see that they’re not really getting a bargain when none of the work gets done properly. I just hope I’m still in business by the time they come to their senses.
I can relate to this for sure. I have already had the old "OH I had this guy come by last week…then pulls out a flyer that was unbelievably cheap…and then ask me “why are you charging so much?”
I take some of the blame in this frustration because I am not doing my marketing job and keeping my customers understanding of how a reliable, detailed, friendly, and hassle - free window cleaner makes up the difference in the low low competitors price.
People asking me if obama has a U.S. birth certificate 
If your still in business beware of the next generation of idiot competitors
finding and keeping good employees
