Does anyone have any interesting or novel add ons they use to stay busy during the snowy months
We generall survive the winter, doing storefront and small commercial work and the odd interior painting job, Burt with the amount of bucket bobs around at the moment and schools of FISH in our area, I can’t see there being much window cleaning work available this year
Attic, garage, and basement clean outs.
thats a sweet idea… how do you charge?
By the hour, usually.
Customers have interpreted this services differently. Most want me to just haul stuff away to the dump or donation center, and organize a bit. Some have wanted me to actually clean their attics or basements, by getting rid of cobwebs, vacuuming, wiping down pipes, sweeping, etc… Whatever pays the bills.
I don’t do this service too often, but it’s nice to do something different once in a while.
I don’t know about nice. But when I start doing different jobs in the winter other than window cleaning it makes me appreciate my window cleaning gigs that much more.
I tried leaf raking one year. Never do that again. In my area too many hispanics drive the price down to near nothing.
Holiday lighting is another area I’m getting into next year. Other than that I’m just relying on Gutter cleaning and commercial window cleaning this year.
I am looking into launching a new add-on this winter. Cleaning office light fixtures. I mean taking out the opaque ceiling panels and florescent bulbs, then cleaning the white reflector, bulbs and panel and putting it back together. The increased light improves morale and efficiency of the office. I will also offer to replace older bulbs with more energy efficient ones that I sell them. I haven’t tried this yet, but I have wanted to try it for years.
Ran into a guy last year that replaced old ceiling tiles in drop ceilings. Just removed the old panels from the grid and replaced with new ones. All he had was a helper a utility knife and a couple of ladders. Only draw back was he said he worked overnights and on weekends so he didn’t disrupt the office.
Some excellent ideas guys, Thanks, keep them coming
Been a while since I chimed in here, but this one got my attention. I’m already multi-service. Besides windows I clean carpets, and restore tile/grout floors. All services drop off dramatically during the winter. This winter I’m trying to add commercial cleaning. I intend to keep this going year round, but I HAVE to find some winter income and commercial cleaning seems like it would moderate the cash flow year round. Plan to serve as many accounts as I can myself during the winter and hire help as needed. Then in the warm season hire and train someone to take the accounts I build this winter. Next winter, leave the established accounts with hired help, expand to new accounts that I service myself, and repeat.
Eric
Hi Eric, nice to see you around.
I was going to email you the other day to ask you what was the name of the forum where you sent me to read about ceiling cleaning, I completely forgot about it and cannot remember.
Most of you know that florescent tube lights have mercury in them so they have to be disposed of correctly, NO dumpsters or big fines may come your way.
I am going to hammer down the storefront/commercial work this winter, as I won’t have much resi going on for sure. I might also do some plowing for a buddy of mine, and other odd jobs to get me through. I’m trying to line up a ton of work thru the holidays now, save my pennies.
Tried that out last year, it could have been alright, but I ended up with a nightmare large job, and now have a ton of lights in my basement. The thing that started freaking me out afterwards was, how long does my liability last on these jobs, if a chunk of ice slices a wire and burns down the house, can it still come back to me. I’ve had a couple of people ask me for it again this year, but I tell them business is too busy for me to do it this year.
If anyone gets into the business, its probably too late in the season, but Village Lighting out of Utah has excellent product and service. If you hang the homeowners lights you may still be liable for anything that goes wrong.
We specialize in Ice Dam removal in the dead of winter, plenty of work and no one wants to climb on roofs, with the proper tools you can stay on the ground most of the time but rope and harness the rest.
I do some sub contract work for a janitorial company in town that brings me alot of window cleaning work in the summer. Its not near as much money as window cleaning, and its in the evening and most of the night, but it leaves my days free to canvas, and work on marketing and get the little bit of window cleaning that i do over the harsh winter here done. the plus side to this is its indoors and warm! 
I purchased a plow for one of my trucks for this year. Were supposed to have a winter like last year, if so thats good news for me. I was completely shut down for about a 2 weeks total last year. Granted we take the week of X-mas off. Have accounts/ Home owners Asc. already lined up for this service since I’ve been telling all my custmers. Few other things we’ve added this year were Dryer Vent cleaning…the word has gotten out and been doing quite a few of them. Apartment complexes, retirement homes, and Dr. offices, they love it, plus you’ll be surprized as to what you find in them…Pulled a birds nest out of one couple weeks ago. Eggs and all, course they were cooked, all i needed was salt.
Were not doing the installation of X-mas lights but we’ll takem down…Besides all this I’ll still have my commercial accounts to do all winter also, so I’ll be in good shape I think…
Next spring were gonig to start screen replacement…have custmers just iching for it…
I think its essential to have some sideline for the winter days when its either too wet or too cold to clean windows. I’ve already lost too many days the past few weeks to heavy rain.
I have 2 sidelines,… website design is one, it doesn’t make enough money to live on (Its extreemley time consuming), but its better than earning nothing and just sitting looking out at the rain.
The other I’ve just started (Got my first contract officially agreed today!) is communal area cleaning. Basically it’s cleaning the lobbys, elevators, hallways & stairwells of office blocks and appartment buildings. There doesn’t seem to be anyone else doing it in my area, so I’m hoping that it’ll turn into a nice little earner. Because its so frequent, twice weekly seems to be the norm, even small contracts actually produce a considerable income boost when you figure their annual worth.
