WCBO Issue #19

Issue #19

Window Cleaning this spring

02 Contents 06 13 Confessions of a Rainwater Harvester

Dressed for business

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Why Save Water?

Golden Nuggets of Business Tips & Advice

Are You a Social Window Cleaner?

MythBusting with Perry

19 Text for info!

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-Chris

It's going to be a game changer!

Free, free, free!

I like it here.

-Thad

-Amy

-Sophia

Funny Thad Eckhoff.

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-Benita

It's going to have everything and more!

-Stephanie Aka Mr. Strip Washer

-Alex

So you want me to put his head on Mt. Rushmore?

Networking- Why bother?

-Gina

-Jessica

Did you see the boss in the hallway?

-Gary M.

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Editor's letter Most of North America endured a very brutal winter this year but fortunately spring is here!

April, May and June are the best months to be a window cleaning business owner. There isn’t much to say this month other than get out there and make that money while the sun is shining.

I urge all window cleaners to take a look back at page 14 from Issue #7 of WCBO magazine. We give insider tips on supply and demand pricing. This is the time of year you can command the absolute best prices for your service. If you don’t have the back issue, it's available to download free of charge on our website.

And of course a very special thanks to our good friend Lee Burbidge for providing the content for this months issue.

Be sure to check out his website: windowcleaningmagazine.co.uk Here is to a profitable spring!

Window Cleaning Business Owner back issues are a rare commodity and hard to find - Unless you look online or go to the back of our warehouse that is. Visit: windowcleaningbusinessownermagazine.com to catch up. Window Cleaning Business Owner Magazine is bimonthly. To advertise or complain call 1-862-2660677 or email chris@windowcleaningresource.com Subscriptions are free, just find our website and get your name on the list. 20,000 copies printed each issue.

of magaU.k. window zine

Burbidge cleaning

Lee

A huge Thanksto Lee!

a huge thanks to lee burbidge of window cleaning magazine!

Window Cleaning Business Owner Magazine owes a big thanks to Lee Burbidge of Window Cleaning Magazine. The articles in this issue are some of the best articles from his very own U.K. magazine.

Be sure to check out his website: windowcleaningmagazine.co.uk

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Confessions of a rainwater harvester

By Robert Hatt

My name is Bob and I have been a window cleaner for the last 4 years. I got into water fed pole window cleaning about 3 years ago and I have to admit that I did not use it extensively as I preferred to do traditional window cleaning where possible.

There are 3 main reasons why I didn’t rely too heavily on wfp. Firstly, I am very quick and efficient at using traditional equipment. Secondly, I never found using a pole to be very effective mainly due to not having the correct techniques. However, I am now proficient at using a wfp after watching many tutorial videos on YouTube. Thirdly, I found it hard to contend with the idea of filling up my tank with mains water as it is very time consuming and it is very wasteful and I do not like watching my water and profits literally go down the drain.

I am always looking for a new piece of equipment, technique or time saving idea for my business. I have made my job into a kind of hobby. I literally love doing my job and not many people can say that. I have many hobbies and interests in my life ranging from weight training, doing DJ work, RC Cars, studying history and politics and now I have added window cleaning to my list.

One day when it was raining hard (we have had a lot of rain since they introduced a hose pipe ban) I finished work early and got home, going straight into my garage to do my daily workout.

I noticed that my garage roof was leaking, so I shoved an old

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spare and rather dirty bucket under the drips to collect the rainwater. The next day it was still raining, so the first thing I did after breakfast was to have another session in the garage gym so that when the rain stopped later on in the day I could work much later instead of coming home at 2-3pm like I usually do. The bucket I had left to collect the rainwater had nearly filled up. As I was going to tip it away I had an idea to test how clean the water really was. So, I got my TDS reader and what I found astonished me. The water that came off my garage roof into the dirty cement bucket actually read 18 on the TDS meter. I was expecting it to be in the 400 ranges at least as my tap water reads 350 on the meter. I was ignorant to the fact that rainwater is de-ionised in the atmosphere, I should had listened more closely to my science teacher at school!

So, I got thinking again while I was training. I do my best thinking when I am lifting weights, it clears my mind of all the fluff in there. After I finished my workout, I got on the Internet to read up more about collecting rainwater and how I could use it for window cleaning.

I found several window cleaning forums and websites and read the contents. I found only two window cleaners that use this method of rainwater for their business and I got several ideas from them but was generally confused. I then asked Lee Burbidge if he has any articles about rainwater in his previous magazines as I was a new subscriber to the mag and I did not know how long the magazine had been running for. He emailed me back saying no he hadn’t and that he has been thinking about harvesting rainwater himself to test out the idea. He asked me if I was going to go ahead with this experiment then could I write an article for his magazine and I agreed.

I was completely unaware how I was going to not only collect the water but also to make sure the water I collected was as clean as possible. I spoke to 2 different people and they both had different ways of filtering their water. One bloke has a metal roof that he collects his water from into a huge industrial 1000L tank and he told me that if I don’t have a metal roof then I am wasting my time. I have tiles and asbestos on my roof and I didn’t want an ugly huge white tank in my garden.

So, the next day I got my ladder out and took a look in my gutters. They were brand new gutters and I was expecting them to be clean but I found it filled with tile debris and muck. The first thing I decided to do was clean out the gutters. I live in a bungalow, and I have six downpipes from my roof including the garage and shed roof.

I decided early on I needed to collect as much water as possible so I thought I would use all six downpipes. There was no possibility of linking up all the gutters to one or two down pipes as my roof had many pitches to it and the gutters will not go all around the building. The reason I was going to use all the down pipes was SHOPWINDOWCLEANINGRESOURCE.COM

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because the two men I spoke to said that sometimes the rain changes in purity depending on where it comes from and how hard it rains.

The harder the rainfall the purer the water will be. It can read zero on the TDS in some conditions. Light rain, if caught in a container left on your lawn can read up to 15.

You also need to produce more rainwater than you will use as some of the water will be no good and it will need to be drained out. That gave me something to think about. It was not going to be straight forward.

I first needed to think about a simple but effective debris catchment filter to stop leaves and general grit that is collected in gutters going into the tank I would set up. I am a simple man; I like doing things the easiest way. One man I researched filtered his rain water by using a long sewer pipe with a U-bend in and that U-bend is how he filters his water. I do not have enough space to use his way of filtering and so I needed a different method. Then an idea struck me. Tights! Woman’s tights could be a good filter, I heard that the same material is used in aquatic filtration equipment from an old aquatics customer I once had. Just shove it at the very top of the downpipe and it would act as a great simple filter I thought. I asked the wife if she had any tights that I could take a look at. She gave me four pairs and I cut them up right in front of her. She was not amused about it but I said there is a good reason for this. I cut the feet part off and I then took my downpipe gutters apart, fixed in the feet of the tights, and put the gutter back together.

The following day it rained hard. I came home and looked at the gutters from inside the house. I noticed that all the gutters were over flowing. When it had stopped raining I went outside, went up the ladder, and checked over the tights.

They worked so well as a filter that they bunged up completely with sediment and the rain could not drain through it. This idea worked, but it did not work correctly.

I got on the Internet afterwards and started looking for gutter filters undeterred with the tights filter idea. It was not long before I came across a company called Gutter Mate. Gutter Mate are filtration systems for downpipes that are used for diverting water to water butts. Water butts are used to collect water to be used on gardens. I telephoned the company, spoke with a salesperson, and asked him several questions regarding filtering the debris from gutters and why I need the water to be extra clean.

I thought that maybe this would work better as a filter than doing a botched job myself. In the end I purchased the Gutter Mate as well as 6x250 litre butts. The butts were needed but they were a lot more expensive at this company than the 08

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butts at B&Q. But they were more attractive and were a lot narrower than the ones in B&Q and they also held more water. I have two small children and these water butts have a tight fitting lid that covers the top, child safe lids. The delivery for the water butts was going to be free too and I thought that collecting six butts from B&Q was going to be hassle. So that is why I bought the whole lot from the website. I was told I would have to wait six weeks for the butts to be delivered. National shortage of butts since the hose pipe ban they told me.

6-8 weeks passed and I came home one day to find six water butts outside my front door. The following weekend my stepfather and I got to work installing the butts and filters. It took several hours cutting and fitting everything together but we got four butts

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ready to use.

I now had the equivalent of 1000 litres of rainwater I could store. It did not take too long for the butts to start filling up. Immediately I started getting TDS readings from the water butts. The first few days I got a reading of 16-18. That’s great I thought because my RO inside my van reads about 15 before being DI’d.

I was a bit reluctant to put the rainwater in my tank straight from the butts because it was a new thing for me and I felt awkward putting potentially ‘dirty rain water’ in my tank and contaminating it without going through any kind of proper filter. I did not hesitate for long.

After a few days of rain, I kept testing and retesting the quality of the water. Soon I noticed that the rain water was getting higher in readings which was worrying me.

I looked into the butts and I noticed silt at the bottom.

My readings were nearly 30 and I was beginning to think it was not going to work.

The Gutter Mate filters were not working very well. I had by this time spent over £700 on six butts, six filters, extra guttering and downpipes.

The thing that was happening was, if I left the butts alone for a while, the TDS readings went down to around 25. I soon realized that the whole experiment was solely going to be a trial and error thing. If I disturbed the sediment inside the butts it raised the TDS reading. I was not pleased that the water went up to 30 but I still wanted to test it out for work, so I eventually started to fill my tank with a bit of reluctance.

I recently bought a booster pump to increase the water pressure from my mains tap so I could fill my tank faster. It did work but the water waste was just the same and so I quickly stopped using it for the mains water. It wasn’t a waste of money though as I used it to pump the water from the butt that read the lowest on the TDS. I noticed a difference in readings from the butts that collected water from my tiled roof about 27-29 and water from my garage and shed roof, which is asbestos, about 22.

The water I used was now all recyclable rainwater in my van. I also started filling my bucket every day from the butts because I noticed that using rainwater instead of tap water left less streaking on the glass.

After a day’s work the wa-

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ter in the bucket, is a greyish brown colour but the TDS reading in the bucket is still only around 40-50. Makes me think what really is in my tap water when it reads close to 350.

Every day it rained, the butts were getting more silt and sediment on the bottom and I was only on my second week of switching to rainwater. Then I came up with a similar idea to the tights but instead using socks over the downpipe. The socks this time were placed further down the pipe just above the Gutter Mate filter so over flowing water in the gutters would not be so much of a problem.

I found four odd socks out of my draw and put them on each of the down pipes.

After a few days, I noticed the socks were full of sediment but the Gutter Mate filters were very clean. So, the socks were now the main filter and the Gutter Mate was just working as a diverter to the butts. Every few days I took the socks off and emptied the sediment and put them back on the pipe. It was very easy and just takes a few seconds to do. I decided to empty all the rainwater out of the butts that I collected the first couple of weeks that had all the silt in, washed out the insides of them and then put them back together.

That night there was a terrific storm and the water I collected the following morning filled the butts half way. When I looked inside them they all appeared squeaky clean. I took some readings and the water was down to 16. I then thought that I had cracked it and from now on it would be plain sailing.

I have been rainwater harvesting since May and I have solely relied on the water from my butts both for my van tank and buckets I use every day. I am pleased in knowing that now my water bill will be lower than the usual £250 - £300 every quarter.

Gutter Mate are supposed to be able to shut off the flow that goes into the butts when they are full, but they do not do that. So when it’s been raining for a while, and the butts fill up completely, I discovered an overflow problem. I decided to only use four down pipes instead of the intended six and use two or more overflow butts. So what this meant was when the first butt had filled a pipe at the top of the butt would then flow into a second butt.

The water that then went into the second butt was in fact much cleaner than the first butt. It is very similar to the U-bend idea filter. The water is filtered furthermore from the first butt. You still get slight sediment at the bottom of the first butt but when the water trickles into the second or third butt, none of the sediment is carried over as it sinks to the bottom of the first catchment butt.

That brought down the readings even further and now I am getting readings between 11-20. This is roughly the same quality as my RO makes. Also, as well as using a sock on the down pipe, I put tights over the socks to increase the filtration even further to help stop the first butt from getting any sediment inside. I am currently using seven butts in total and I never run out of water. I use the first butts of water (down pipe butts) for my buckets and I use the cleaner linked butts for my water fed poles and I have not touched my mains water since May.

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I could not have imagined that I would have completely changed from using mains water to just rain water in a matter of five months. If I had never had tested the rainwater in a dirty old bucket in my garage and the hose pipe ban putting the frighteners on me I would probably never had embarked on this project. If it was not for the long delay on delivery I would be even more knowledgeable about using and filtering the rainwater.

Every day is a school day, I am still learning new things about this project, and I feel that the investment I made in harvesting the rainwater from my property was a job worth doing. Other than equipment, FTE insurances and fuel for the van, using water is the other big expense for a window cleaner. Now I get all my water free and if I collect it in the right way, it is very clean too.

So far, the weather has been rather wet and I have an abundance of rainwater, whether or not I will always hold enough rainwater in dryer periods, I will only know when that time comes. I am looking to add further butts to my collection just to be on the safe side.

For some reason in three years of water fed pole window cleaning, I have only changed my resin once because my RO was doing such a good job. The resin I have is old and I still have not changed my DI since using rainwater and all I do to get the rain water down to zero is pass the water through the DI and then to my pole.

So simple! As I have learned so much from watching YouTube videos from guys like the Australian ‘window cleaner bloke’, (and errrr that’s about it!!!) and ‘wagga’ (job done!) over the years about window cleaning techniques I thought it should be my time to contribute and inform other window cleaners about my experiences in collecting and using rainwater for their work. I found the whole process of trial and error very interesting, using some basic filters made from socks, and tights to keep the water clean. The whole process was so enjoyable.

Her indoors (the wife) has new tights, I found a use for my odd socks and I have free water every day. My tank takes 15 minutes to fill up straight from the butts instead of the 4-5 hours. All that water waste, what was I thinking? Now I make more money as I have less expenses. What more could a window cleaner want?

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Dressed for business By simon sherwood

FTE

It won't make you work any faster, it won't make your work any easier or lighter, and it’s not like the latest in carbon pole technology or the latest newfangled squeegee. But it will turn you from an amateur into a pro. What are we talking about? Uniforms.

Years ago the local window cleaner would come around with ladders in one arm, bucket in the other and a scrim hanging over his shoulder. He would be wearing something like old ripped jeans, a dirty T-shirt with some sort of irrelevant logo printed on it and in the winter a body warmer similar to the one that Michael J Fox wore in Back to the Future, but with the stuffing coming out from various rips. The only way to tell a pro was by watching him work.

Today though is a very different world,

competition in window cleaning is fierce.

There are far more window cleaners in the UK today than just a few years ago. Water fed poles have arrived and this means that almost anybody with a little bit of gumption can now start their own business, even if they're scared of heights.

So how do you get a cut above the competition then, one word UNIFORM. We are confronted with uniforms in almost every service or industry that we come into contact with. It is the way that we recognize the staff from the punters. A uniform instantly tells you that this person should know what he's doing. It also often says that he's part of something bigger. Yes, a uniform can make a small one-man band look like a goodsized company.

But is it really worth the money?

If you are a window cleaner that doesn't have a uniform, how often has a potential customer asked you "Are you a window cleaner?” Even if you have the latest water fed pole extended 50ft into the sky and the most expensive van mounted system parked 10 yards away, the customer will still utter those 5 annoying words, ‘ARE YOU A WINDOW CLEANER?’ You feel like replying with something like, ‘are you blind?’ or ‘I'm not just doing this for the good of my health. What does it look like?’

However, if your wearing a polo shirt or a fleece with your company name

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and phone number emblazoned upon it, you will almost never be asked that question again, unless of course the potential customer is really dippy.

A uniform isn't really as expensive as it may first appear. You may look at the bottom line and think how much for my outfit? I could pop down Primark and get that lot for a fifth of the cost. However, what you get down at Primark will it be the same quality?

Will it last as long and will it have your company name printed on it for all to see? When you factor in the cost of decent clothing that we all need anyway unless you’re a naturist, the cost of printing a garment or embroidery often only works out at a few pound an item.

So what do you get then? You need to order enough items of clothing for yourself or your staff so that you can have clean clothes each day. You don't really want to advertise your company name on a muddy polo shirt if you can help it. Get every one the same color clothing, if you settle on green tops, then get green tops form everyone otherwise it's not a uniform. Get your name or logo and phone number printed on the front and back of your clothing. It's important to get it printed on the back as often a potential customer will walk past you whilst your working and have a good look.

How far should my uniform go?

We tend to just associate uniform with clothing, and although it's true that you want to put your company name on as many items of clothing that 14

your wear to work that you can, hats, fleeces T-shirts etc., your uniform can stretch into other areas of your business. What does your vehicle tell your customers about you? If it’s an old banger splattered with mud and a set of ladders roped on, your customers will instantly make a judgment call as to your being a professional service or not. But even a car can be turned into a pro looking vehicle, just a clean and some mag-mounted signs will do the trick and you won't be breaking the bank. If you have a panelled van just think of all that free advertising space that you are carrying around, for as little as a few hundred quid you can cover your van with your company name, contact details, services offered and motto. You really only need to pick up a couple of regular customers for the signage to pay for itself.

What's your email address or website say about you? simonthewindowcleaner@ yahoo,hotmail,gmail.com although being free also says, not established yet. Website and email address domain names cost as little as £4 a year to own. And once you own a domain name you can have email forwarding, so you can continue to use your Hotmail account and no one ever need know. Even hosting a website need not be expensive nowadays, and many companies offer software that the simplest of simpletons can use.

So next time a potential customer asks you for a quote ask yourself what is it that makes me a professional, is it the gear that I use, the vehicle that I drive or the experience that I have?

Unfortunately in our industry the only thing that really matters is the customers opinion and one of the best ways of changing that is quite simply uniform.

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Why save water?

By Lee Burbidge

Technology has quite literally changed the world, and window cleaning - not considered to be high tech in the past - has been revolutionized.

A Window Cleaner with his ladders over his shoulder is becoming a rare site.

These days you're more likely to see a smart sign-written vehicle carrying purified water and a Cleaner with a pole system finishing domestic and commercial properties in a fraction of the time taken before, and often to a higher standard.

However, there is at least one thing that 'Traditional' Window Cleaners rarely, if ever, have to worry about... running out of water.

Water Fed Pole systems can use a lot of water every day, so WFP users have always looked for ways to eliminate water wastage because conserving water can reduce their costs and increase profitability, but how?

Apart from being environmentally friendly, saving water allows you to do more jobs in a day without running out, and so earn more money. It also reduces metering and water treatment costs and journeys to fill up with water can be minimized, or less water can be carried, saving fuel.

There are existing methods to control the flow of water, but these all have problems.

1. Folding the hose - the cheapest and possibly the most popular method, but it means keeping one hand on the hose, or leaving the water running while extending/collapsing the pole.

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2. Triggers - excellent for saving water, but you have to keep pressure on the switch and have one hand in the same place while cleaning.

There's also the loop of hose which can snag and twist, making it difficult to extend a telescopic pole.

Is it easy to fit?

3. Remote controls - need batteries and have limited range. Flow control isn't always instant.

Is it easy to use?

4. Taps - attaching to the pole means a loop of hose. If not attached, you need to spend time finding the tap along the length of hose and then bend down every time to turn it, which soon becomes too much hassle.

5. Holsters on your waist - you are attached to the hose.

As well as feeling rather restrictive, you can also get the problem of wet trousers and shoes!

An Aqua-dapter® can be fitted to the top of a water fed pole, between the pole and brush, in around 5 minutes. No modifications are needed.

Pull on the hose at the bottom of the pole to switch the flow on or off. When working on ground floor windows it can also be operated by hand at the brush end.

Will it slow me down?

Controlling the flow is instant, and with no lag you can switch the water off between windows or while wiping sills. When water wastage is reduced, flow rate can be increased, and this can mean finishing the job quicker.

6. Some people try to conserve water by turning down their flow rate, but this can also slow down the work rate.

The Aqua-dapter® was specifically designed to overcome these problems.

Developed by a UK window cleaner, it’s strong, light, suitable for hot and cold systems and manufactured to high standards using premiumquality materials. Here are some of the questions that are often asked about the Aqua-dapter®:

Visit: www.shopwindowcleaningresource.com

and search aqua-dapter or give us a call today to learn more about what's new with the aqua-dapter!

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Golden Nuggets

of business tips and advice

By Lee Burbidge

Create a killer business with this tip on focus.

How much of your ‘work’ time do you spend running your business?

How much of your ‘work’ time do you spend on strategic work?

Most small business owners spend 100% on running their business and 0% on strategic work. So what’s the difference?

Running your business: Quoting, putting out flyers, paying bills, collecting money, window cleaning, training staff, and I am sure you can think of a lot more!

Strategic work: Creating a marketing plan, analyzing marketing results, improving the staff training system, developing a plan, implementing better payment methods for clients, improving your marketing material, and working on the vision of your company and spreading this to your staff.

Running your business will keep your business where it is. Growth will be as fast or as slow as it is right now.

Strategic work will separate you from every other small business owner and lead you to being an actual business owner, as opposed to just being self employed.

The difference is in what you spend your time on, not how much time you ‘work’. Get focused on things that will actually grow your business.

Grow your business and increase profits without finding new customers!

What a sweeping statement – I know!

Many of us focus on finding new customers. After all, your business always needs topping up, or if you plan to expand profits you need to get the profits from somewhere.

The easiest way to increase profits is by raising your prices. Der! That is a no-brainer I hear you say, but actually you would be surprised how many fear the idea of increasing SHOPWINDOWCLEANINGRESOURCE.COM

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prices. The fear is that the customers will fall away in droves when in actual fact they are more likely to turn around and say “about time”. Honestly, no one will complain!

So don’t put off increasing prices and don’t let year on year inflation eat away at your profits!

Other ways to increase your profits without getting new customers is to increase the frequency of cleans. Moving from cleaning windows once every calendar month to every 4 weeks will make a hell of a difference to your annual turnover.

Another way of increasing profits is through add on jobs. These can range from gutter clearing to conni roof cleans and UPVc cleans, to name but a few. This golden nugget is more for the newbies. I don’t want to teach the veterans how to suck eggs!

Who is sucking your window cleaning business dry?

I was thinking back to the early days of my window cleaning business. I remember one of the biggest drains on my business finances was…….me!

If the business made £20,000 (or $) profit, then I made £20,000. If the business made £80,000 profit, then I made £80,000. The more the business grew, the more my ‘luxurious’ lifestyle grew. So it didn’t matter if I was making £20,000 or £200,000, I sucked every last penny out of the business and spent it on me.

What I should have been doing was setting a low budget for my ‘wage’. That’s right, a wage! Don’t drain every penny out of your business. Set an amount that will be the same each week that you will pay yourself. Everything extra will stay in the business.

This helps in many ways. Firstly, have you ever noticed how hard it is to set a personal budget with a small business? This is because your income changes from week to week.

By setting the amount and then reviewing it every 2-12 months, you’ll be able to know what your income will be each week.

Some weeks you will have a down week in the business, but that’s ok because the business will have enough funds from the good weeks to be able to pay you.

Secondly, by not draining your business of every penny, you’ll be able to build a profit into your business. You can then use this profit to test marketing ideas, invest in new equipment, and employ more staff. Whatever it is, you’ll have a surplus to be able to pay for things, and when those unexpected bills come in, the business will be able to pay for them without you having to take it out of your personal income.

Just make sure that when you set your wage you don’t increase it every time you get more business. Keep your wage the same and let the business take the profits.

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Areyou a social window cleaner?

By IanWicks

What are the benefits?

60% of window cleaners that took part didn’t have any social media presence at all, more shocking was only 11.5% were thinking about it and only 11.9% were utilizing YouTube which is a massive traffic source and amazingly good for Search Engine optimization. Could this be because 50% of the window cleaners think social media is purely to speak to friends and post about what they had to eat that day?

This is somewhat true in a lot of cases but at the same time real businesses are being recommended, the viral aspect is very much alive.

The benefits to social media marketing:

The benefits include:

It's inexpensive to set up, it’s virtually free of ongoing costs, unless you choose to pay for more in-depth adverts and more elaborate videos. You could also pay someone to manage it or purchase software so you don’t have to.

• Over a billion people using it daily • Helps to grow your online exposure • Good for search engine optimisation • Easy measurable tracking • Creates brand loyalty • Link building

It’s effective and it's in line with how more and more potential customers seek out services. Like it or hate it, social media is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

If you’re dismissing it, you could near enough guarantee that your competition will not be. If you're looking to ramp up business you need to consider social media. With the facts I’m about to reveal, you really would be mad not to, at very least look into this phenomenon that’s growing daily!

The list goes on and on….

Firstly, what is Social Media?

Social Media is a term used to describe an assortment of online platforms, applications and technologies that allow people to socially interact with one another online. Examples of some social media sites available that are very widely known are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

A poll result from 104 window cleaners carried out in December 2012, revealed the following about social media:

A question for you: Are you using the many social media marketing outlets for your window cleaning company, are you being a social window cleaner?

If not, you're missing out on a very effective and inexpensive option for spreading the word about your business just about everyone will have heard of social media around the globe and with over 1 billion people using Facebook worldwide, around 500 million twitter users and 4

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billion YouTube video views daily it is without question that social media is not going away anytime soon.

To understand why social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are so effective, you must consider the role that these outlets play when it comes to modern society. Virtually everyone has a Twitter account and Facebook account and millions have a YouTube account; in fact, many have more than one. It is quite usual for one person to have an account for business and one for personal use.

With the popularity of mobile devices such as iPhones, smartphones and tablets these have made it even easier to stay connected to these social media outlets.

For this reason alone they will continue to grow and business will adapt to new media.

Social media outlets serve a very important role when it comes to marketing: a "follow," “like," “Share” or “retweet.” For example social media outlets offer social “proof” about the quality of a company's services or products; it's a subtle recommendation for your company.

Like many businesses, window cleaning companies thrive on word-of-mouth recommendations. It can be difficult to find a window washer that's reliable, trustworthy and affordably priced. So many potential clients ask others -- friends, colleagues and family -- for recommendations. In short, social media serves as a way to offer these recommendations in a very subtle manner -- a manner that resonates with clients who aren't persuaded by traditional marketing techniques. Studies have revealed that people are many times more likely to hire a company that a colleague, 20

friend or family member has hired!

Plus, once you have a new client, a new follower or a new "like," it's easy to build a relationship via social media. It can be as easy as offering information, such as tips and tricks, or a coupon code, discount or offer that's exclusively available to your social media followers.

What's more, it costs virtually nothing to maintain a social media marketing campaign, so it's a viable option for everyone, even new, small companies that don't have an advertising or marketing budget.

Here are some up to date statistics on advertising: Sourced Dec 2012 from http://www. nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reportsdownloads/ 2012/global-trust-in-advertising-andbrand-messages.html You will see at the very top 92% of people trust recommendations over anything else now. The fact that social media would play a part in this is indisputable, as millions of people daily chat about all kinds of things, and it is therefore reasonable to assume that window cleaning could be one of them. If they needed one, would you not think this would be asked about on Facebook and/or Twitter?

Would you agree, with most marketing you need to step into the customers shoes? What is interesting is a group of window cleaners were asked “what would you like to know about social media?”

Not one of them asked about Twitter, none asked about YouTube. Here are some

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of the questions that were asked with an answer to each.

1. Do you recommend a personal Facebook account or a business 'page' linked to your personal account?

For Business use, a Business page it is always going to look more professional.

It can also be branded to your company, including the Facebook vanity URL (website address) facebook.com/yourbusinessname. It also keeps within their terms of service.

To explain why: Personal accounts on Facebook tend to be just that: “personal.”

Telling people how much beer you drank at the weekend and how sick you are feeling the next day is not really the best image to portray for any business. This is all well and good if your target audience is your friends, but does not come across as well to others, such as potential clients.

TIP: After creating your business page, add a family member or someone close to you as an “admin” to your page. This is just in case your personal account gets hacked or suspended. ‘Be aware this can happen.’ If you lose your page and haven’t done this, 9/10 you have lost it forever.

2. Is it worth paying for Facebook ads, or better to target local groups yourself for free?

Facebook ads can be laser targeted to the customers that you are looking for. This search can be defined in terms of age, location and more. There is a lot of data that can be looked at.

Facebook have perfected this approach to make it a great asset for advertisers,

so this is always going to be the one that will show the most consistent measurable results. BUT targeting local groups is a very good way to get your company known. A mistake that many people make when trying to market their business on social media is they try and offer/sell their service straight away. This is not good!

This is classed in most people’s eyes as “spamming” more often than not. It is totally disregarded, meaning that not only are you wasting your time doing this, you are also damaging your company’s image.

Being helpful in some way is always going to be better as you need to get the viewers to know, like and trust you. Interaction is a good thing, just always make sure you are logged in on your company page and not your personal profile. The reason for this is that each comment made will link back to your business Facebook page.

Facebook paid adverts can substantially increase your brand awareness, yet in a subtle way. They can also be very costly if you get it wrong, so learning about this before you go out and spend your money is strongly advised. Running multiple ads will help you test the demographic that you are targeting, be this a certain age group, location keyword etc.

3. What is the most effective way to get real "likes" on a Facebook page from people who are genuine potential customers - not friends/family/forum members?

Targeted paid adverts, and group commenting whilst logged in as your page is always beneficial if done correctly.

Competitions can also be a good way to get your page to go viral and can be highly effective. Give away something of real value (not just 10% off ), make it

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irresistible. One example of an irresistible offer might be: “Win a 42” wide screen TV for getting a free window cleaning quotation.” This would work well as a Tweet and a YouTube video to drive traffic.

Put yourself in the potential clients’ shoes: “Would you get a quote for window cleaning if you could win a TV?” Get them to do something for this, make a comment, “like” the page and share it on their wall (or other peoples’) and fill in the quote form with their details.

Having an irresistible offer for the viewer will increase the genuine “likes” and will, if done correctly, get you more contact.

Having an opt-in form on your page will also allow you to interact and have an automated sales funnel if you wanted.

Just getting a “like” is only part of Facebook marketing.

An example of how Facebook could benefit your window cleaning business: In this example we will have Lady A and Lady B (Lady B is your customer) Lady A is in need of a window cleaner, her friend Lady B has “liked” your business page already. You have made a status update on your business page, which shows in Lady B’s newsfeed. Lady A sees this and asks her friend about your company.

Lady B replies and posts a link on Lady A’s wall, which links to your page. Now not only have all of Lady B’s friends seen this, now Lady A’s friends can see it too! If Lady A then “likes” your page, each time you make a status update this is visible on not only Lady A’s Newsfeed, but also Lady B’s.

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All of the friends of Lady A & B then see it too. Can you see how powerful this can be?

So what’s this Twitter thing about and what are the real benefits?

Some of the benefits include: • Direct traffic to your website • Brand awareness • Engaging with potential clients • Informing of updates to website or other social media • Network with like-minded people • Social interaction Twitter is a micro blogging platform.

Twitter messages, commonly known as ‘Tweets’ are made up of up to 140 characters. This is much like a Text message SMS. This is a feature that makes Twitter different from many.

You can send a message to a single user, or to a group of users or you can or connect directly with people you have followed (and have followed you) by sending little Tweets like “I’ll be cleaning windows in Cambridge this week, tell your friends if they need us.” This lets people know what you’re doing and can be re-tweeted to others.

In Twitter, there is great flexibility when it comes to choosing what to make public and what not. You can send a message to a certain friend without other people seeing the message; you can also share some information with a section of friends which is great for client only messages and updates. Your general profile can be made public or private and if you don’t want your twitter ID to be available to

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anyone, then you can set it this way.

Benefits of YouTube include:

Where Twitter stands out, is the information you publish is limited to about 25 words (140 characters). These posts are called Tweets. Twitter is a great platform for directing people to your website or Facebook business page. It also helps you be seen and keeps your brand visible.

• Visual interaction with potential clients • Ability to connect with other social media • Videos embedding option • Search engine optimisation • Massive traffic source

A common issue is that people may have long company names which lead to long website addresses. No need to worry if you need to shorten a website address as you can do this so to cut down on characters. This can be achieved by going to a url shortening site such as: http://bit. ly. This site is free and can also be used for measuring the traffic to your site.

You Tube YouTube is a very effective marketing option, why I hear you say; because millions of people use it! I think that’s a very good reason to. It can be associated with a bit more expense than Facebook and Twitter since you'll need to create a promotional video of some degree (unless you or one of your staff has strong amateur filmmaker skills then it’s free!) But these promotional videos can serve to improve your website's rankings and they tend to be very attention-grabbing, so you'll have a strong presence in the online search arena. Gone are the days of looking through the yellow pages, It's all about online searches today!

If you’re not on it you cannot be found, pretty straight forward. Most people have mobile phones that have a video recording function built in, so making a quick short video is no longer an issue like it used to be.

Some Useful facts Did you know that YouTube has over 800 million unique users visit each month, 4 billion hours of video are watched each month and 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.

Something else interesting is 500 years of YouTube video are watched every day on Facebook, and over 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter each minute making these three Social Media outlets very powerful indeed.

One more good thing about YouTube is that 100 million people take a social action on YouTube (likes, shares, comments, etc.) every week.

Are you now starting to see the power of YouTube and why your company could benefit?

Next, let’s talk about video and the way it is shaping the way people interact, as this right now is one of the most effective marketing tools we have at our disposal.

With each video there are ways to enhance their use to you. YouTube ranking and Search engine ranking are just two of them, YouTube videos work very well on Google. One way to optimize your video is the title and description of the video,

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get this right and it will not only increase your views it can also increase your search engine positioning. There are many more advanced ways to optimise YouTube video too.

Are you Kidding Me, I’m not going in a video, I will look stupid This is quite possibly why only 11.9% within the poll use YouTube at the moment.

The thing is, video can come in many different forms, there are the ones where people are not camera shy and speak and record themselves, and others just shot from a mobile phone showing something of interest. There are videos that are made with slideshows or PowerPoint presentations, and others are done with a series of pictures. There are many different ways to produce a video that can suit anyone of us.

You don’t have to go on film and embarrass yourself (unless you want too). Shooting a video can be done from a mobile phone, it can be as simple as cleaning someone’s windows whilst explaining what you’re doing and then simply uploading it straight to YouTube (depending on the mobile phone you have).

Another option is having a professionally made promotion video created. There are many places for this to be done with varying costs attached. All videos on YouTube that you create can be embedded on your own website and can be shared in a host of other places.

Free Tool: If you want to make your own video head over to http://www.techsmith. com/jing.html Just remember you will be showing it to the world so be mindful of what you record.

You may notice that traffic keeps being in24

cluded throughout this article, the reason for this is because traffic is the lifeblood of any online marketing. All traffic can be aimed at your website or wherever you choose to direct it. From experience, it is good practice to funnel people to your own online property, namely your website, which will then enable others to interact with people via social media.

Always aim to get your visitors details because you are then able to market to them in the future…

The beauty of these social media outlets, is that they can all be linked together. This not only cuts down on your time spent working, it also allows you to reach more people with your online marketing with less effort, after all time is Money…

Hopefully you now have a better understanding of social media and are interested in learning more.

If you would like to discover how to set up your own social media correctly and learn more about it, click below for a full featured guide, which will show you how to set yourself up on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. There are also some tips on how to enhance your efforts even if you’re already set up and some more free tools and resources to use.

This is Free of charge to Window Cleaning Magazine readers.

Get your free copy today by heading over to socialwindowcleaner.com/wcm Look forward to seeing you on social media soon.

All contents of this article are: Copyright 2013, protected by international copyright law. All rights reserved. Socialwindowcleaner.com products referenced herein are copyright or registered. Other trademarks/logos are the property of their respective owners. This article is for informational use only. For any material that is downloaded, this Copyright and Trademark Notice must be included.

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Mythbusting

with Perry

What have we been primed to believe and never challenge? Life is so busy and there are so many more important things to do than challenge everything that is presented.

This is the plan - I will present a topic each column that is potentially a window cleaning myth. I will then present some ideas and arguments that support the topic (as I try to BUST it).

In many cases, I am no better informed than you ... but I will take the time to think how YOU can be the true MYTH BUSTER. I will propose the sides of the story that I consider are relevant. WCM will run a blog for those that want to add another aspect, share their experiment, or declare their persuasion.

MYTH: You Need TDS 000 for a Spot-Free Results with Water Fed Window Cleaning.

Most people in the Water Fed Industry will demand that we all believe that TDS 000 is necessary for spot-free window cleaning and, if not, then it must at least be less than TDS010.

To bust this myth, we need to understand what is TDS and what is a spot.

TDS is a measurement of the total dissolved ‘solids’ in water. It is measured with a TDS meter that actually runs a small charge across two terminals. Because pure water does not conduct electricity, we know the measurement for Pure Water is TDS 000.

The more solids in the water, the more the

water becomes conductive, and therefore, the higher the reading on the meter.

A ‘spot’ is the total sum of solids that were once dissolved in water, but are left behind on the glass surface by the evaporation of that water.

By the way, a ‘streak’ is a vertical rivulet of dirt water, that usually runs down on dry glass, causing it to dry more quickly, leaving a long line of solids rather than a set of circles.

Many customers do not want their windows cleaned when it rains because they have seen how dirty their car looks after rain.

What actually happens when it rains on a car is explained by understanding that there was a thin and very even layer of dirt particles on the car. This thin layer of dirt particles was agitated by the impact of the rain, and re-arranged into circle shapes by the evaporating rain. Pure Water and Rain do not (normally) leave spots.

So ... when is water spot-free ( as compared to ‘pure’ )?

Well ... you are the Myth Buster and there is not one answer. It depends on what is in your local water that might leave a visible spot. If your water is loaded with bright white calcium (from travelling through lime aquafers), then spot-free in your area may well be the infamous TDS 010. However, if you do not have loads of calcium in your water, you may find that the Spot-Free condition occurs as high

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as TDS 080. In Sydney in 2010, we were achieving Spot-Free at TDS 060 and below.

Why would I do the experiment?

You can potentially save hundreds of dollars ( or pounds) a year from ‘over-purifying’ water. In so many cases, RO units are delivering Spot-Free water with no real need for DI units and DI systems are being used to purify past the ‘Spot-Free’ threshold with no benefit.

How to build the kit to test spot-free TDS. If you have an RO system, the first thing to do is disconnect your DI Tank and then test the RO OUT TDS. What ever it is, use this water to perform the Test Below. If this leaves a spot-free result, or a commercially acceptable result, you can consider this information.

If you have a tank / housing of DI Resin, all you need is one Garden Hose Y adaptor with a ball valve on each branch of the Y (we will call this ‘Y (1)’ ), and another Garden Hose Y Adaptor ( no need for ball valves ) ( we will call this one ‘Y(2)’ ).

Arrange your hoses like this : • Tap to Branch A of Ball Valve Y (1) • Branch B of Ball Valve Y (1) to the DI Tank • Branch C of the Ball Valve Y (1) to BYPASS around the DI Tank Inlet direct to Branch C of Y (2) • DI Tank Outlet to Branch B of Y(2) • Branch A of Y (2) to Water Fed Brush You now have the ability to ‘dilute’ your TDS 000 pure water from your DI Tank by ‘re-mixing’ it with Tap Water before you use it to clean windows.

Now: Open and Close the Ball Valves in Y1

26

to change the TDS at the Water Fed Brush.

If you close the BYPASS and open the DI Tank, you have TDS000 If you close the DI Tank and open the BYPASS, you have the TDS of your local tap water.

Adjusting the balance will change the TDS OUT, and give you the chance to ‘set’ the TDS OUT for the experiment.

How to test spot-free TDS in your area.

The first setting should be TDS 050.

Now ... go clean your windows the way you normally do, ensuring a thorough rinse method ( chase the water down the glass to the base ) and wait till it dries.

Examine for spots.

Change the TDS OUT up and down accordingly to determine these two points: • The TDS OUT reading at which spot-free occurs • The SPOT that you can see at a TDS reading of 2 x spot-free.

This will give you two important numbers: a) The point at which you get EXACTLY the same result as TDS 000 for your customers (and therefore the cost of purifying to TDS 000 is wasting money) b) A reading that may be commercially viable for commercial cleaning (and therefore the cost of purifying your water beyond this may be a waste of money).

If you are performing this experiment, and you want to give feedback, please do so in the WCM Blog ... it will be very interesting indeed. Remember to try and understand WHAT is in your local water (especially Calcium).

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