I don’t know why I’m writing this. Would just like to hear what you all have to say. It drove me nuts. I’m not going to quit by any means, but man this crud makes me feel like I’m undertaking the wrong field trying to start a career. Just got to keep my head down and keep trying. There were four tall, narrow windows, two glass doors and one small window. I had to wash both sides and it took me three and a half hours. I thought I was going to die.
I did the job and they were happy, but I wasn’t. It was a little bar. I can’t see myself making money doing a job like this in future orders.They were very tall, narrow windows and I was using a liquidator channel and it kept leaving water streaks and splotches of water on the window. There was water spots that came from between the panes and scratches on them like crazy, but still. It drove me nuts how I would get one side done and it would look great then I switched sides and saw some marks or how I would move down a few panes then would see marks on the window in question after I got a few panes down. They were tall windows and I was using pole, but the windows kept having window running down from the tops of them after I moved on about two or three panes ahead. I wouldn’t have gone all the way to the top, but the windows hadn’t been cleaned in a long, long time and needed to be completely done. The panes were tinted and tempered, so I didn’t do much with the steel wool or blade. I got permission from owner to scrape a little where the adhesive was on the bottom of a door and it didn’t scratch so I got some tape off, too. There were little paint specks all over the windows I didn’t even try to touch with the blade or steel wool, but man it drove me nuts. I have some microfiber towels I bought - actually a ton of them - that I thought I could use to wipe the windows down. Then I watched one of Luke’s videos where he said “Don’t dry windows with microfiber towels” just in time to not have any good towels at all for a job. I did have a shim, but don’t know where in the world it is. I bought some flour bag cloth from Walmart yesterday and it worked surprisingly well. I like how thin it was too because I used one until I couldn’t any longer, hung it up, then used the other then just switched them out.
The things that got me most about today is that my squeegees seemed like they were malfunctioning (I know it was me, I’m just saying how it felt) and my rags sucked. Would have been nice to have that shim or some surgical towels.
Hang in there, you’re too hard on yourself. Just enjoy making the world a brighter place by cleaner windows! What we think about dictates how we feel and how we feel dictates our actions. Think positive, you will feel positive and that will lead you in the right direction. Your still learning, we all are, enjoy learning, embrace it and things will work out.
Keep your head up. Sounds like a tough job. Have you tried that 3m wall sander? I think it’s less than $10.00 at lowes. It sounds perfect for those tall narrow windows. I use it with steel wool for initial cleans a lot.
I would ditch the liquidator channel man. Especially being brand new. It can be very frustrating at times. If I were you I’d just start with basic straight pulls. Very efficient and delivers great results. You will get faster I promise! There are jobs I think back to that were nightmares ! I can clean jobs now in less than half the time then when I first started. Dont let it get you down. I’d put all my focus into selling new accounts. And make sure your not going under $2.00 per pan in and out on storefronts. Have a minimum too. Ours is $30.00 now.
Techniques,
Just focus on the basics.
Hand tools
Fanning & straight pulls
Pole tools
Straight pulls
Get these 3 down and everything else will fall into place.
The problem is you are learning and asking a lot of questions. This is a great problem to have. Yeah I’m still frustrated with jobs from time to time. My first big storefront was one I never got a call back from, nor would I want a call back. Owners took forever to pay, I had 30+ big panes of glass and a huge entrance to clean and I had to go back a 2nd day and it was 70 minutes from home one way. I didn’t make much at all and the owners did not move anything at all in the antique store. Took 7 hours total to do with a friend. Right now I could go back and do that job maybe in 2 hours.
It’s ok to fill like it takes forever, you care obviously. Don’t ever feel the need to explain a situation to someone if you are doing your job, if you have to explain, they are not your friend. You said the owners were happy, think about the impact you created and how they may tell others about you. Don’t you feel great that the job is done?
People tell me I am calm like water but I’m actually aggressive. People have to give water a direction to move, and it only conforms to what it sits in. It doesn’t grow unless pushed.
I am more like fire. I don’t need a direction to move, it doesn’t discriminate what it burns and catches on, it just takes every opportunity it gets. I just move and catch everything in my path as far as growing. I create success through my mere presence in marketing and through my work. I grow just by learning as much as I can.
When a teacher or mentor you learn from isn’t bettering themselves or stops taking lessons or learning, you should find a new mentor or teacher. The goal is to be better than your your teacher or mentor or even for you be better than your current self right now. I promise you in a year, you will look at this post and you will be laughing at yourself saying “What the heck was I doing?”
Start becoming like fire, grow and push past the experiences you have. You will have to eventually get new stores and houses to work on to keep going or you will die out. This is one of many harsh lessons you will learn. The work itself is not the big problem, it’s keeping the work.
@Jacob, I know what you’re saying about keeping the work. Right now I’ve had three jobs in three days and I know it’s going to dry up. I mean I just know it’s going to dry up. As sure as anything I know I’m not going to get a single other job. I’m serious. This freaks me out. I’ve started businesses before and as a fluke I’ve gotten a rush of business, but then it dies off an I’ve got nothing in it. I want to quit my job and go at thing full bore, but I have to back myself off and keep from that because I know this isn’t going to hold up. Man, that scares the hell out of me.
Welcome to the business. When you make things happen, they will happen. There are people literally out there waiting to hand you their money but you have to be willing and you have to ask. They will give you the money if you just ask, but if you dont ask, even the willing wont know you want their money.
Its not a fluke, you made something work. Try to go back and figure it out. If not, let success follow success.