Don The Window Cleaner

Having your own small business is a blessing and a curse. It gives you a better income than working at an hourly job, and you have some flexibility.  Sometimes the curse is in the flexibility.

It’s the flexibility that can give you problems in the early stages of getting your business started. You may be struggling with getting enough work, and you start doing some other service to fill the time. If you aren’t careful, you may lose your focus and fail to do any effective marketing in any one area of your business.

Many years ago I branched out into full janitorial work, and hated every minute of it. I hope I never strip and wax another tile floor again. Fortunately, this was a brief detour, and I only wasted about a year struggling with this.

Today, I am at a point where I have a very well established business. In the next few years I will be forming some kind of exit strategy. I was thinking about setting a target of working about 20 hours a week in the future. I don’t really ever want to retire. But I would like to be taking it a bit easier.

But this past year I did something unexpected and ran for Mayor. I have been politically active for the past 10 years, and I never thought I could get elected in this college town, but the recent showing that I gave has changed my mind. I lost by 42 votes, scared the Hell out of the local power structure, and I now find myself gaining support for a future run at a city commission seat. This changes things.

I will be running next March and I expect to win it. It will be hard to do, but I believe the timing is right. It means I will be changing some things. A city commission seat is a part time position, and it doesn’t pay well, so I will  keep my business a few days per week after I am sworn in, in the event that I do win. Up until then I will  be very busy, and I have to figure out what else I will be doing with my other interests.

Another thing that has changed is that the number of people who call me and email me for advice on their window cleaning business prospects has increased. As it goes right now, I don’t have time for that. But, I would like to make time for it if it could be done profitably. So far, it’s just been a good deed. I don’t make enough money off products and advertising for it to be worthwhile. And as long as it’s just the occasional person who wants help, that is no big deal. But the volume of calls has forced me to think about going back to a paid service, at the very least to thin the herd. Otherwise, I cannot afford to talk to everyone who wants what amounts to be the same information over and over again.

So, in the near future I will be creating an email new letter. It will be an annual subscription. When questions are asked, all subscribers will get the answers. Any videos I make will be for subscribers only. I will leave up the old videos on YouTube, although I may clear out all the ones with Squeegeesbymail.com ads because I no longer own that site and I no longer sell equipment. That was not worth it even a little bit.

When I figure out a price point for the newsletter, I will announce that here.

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