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THE LATEST NEWS FOR WINDOW CLEANERS<br />

Trade Show<br />

Special<br />

<strong>Magazine</strong><br />

Brought to you by the Window Cleaning Page<br />

Find us On<br />

Facebook


Thank you<br />

May I take this opportunity to thank you All for ateneding the<br />

trade show<br />

Published and produced<br />

By WCP<br />

Links to<br />

Web sites<br />

Watch there<br />

video<br />

Link with them<br />

on face book


Photos


Trade Show<br />

As a lot of you that follow the<br />

WCP on face book<br />

May have realised that this<br />

year was the first ever<br />

WCP trade show on the 17 th<br />

of May we have been<br />

There all day talking to every<br />

body.


Sean Kelly<br />

Firefighter / Window Cleaner / Family Man<br />

Which came first fire fighter<br />

or window cleaning?<br />

I was a fire fighter<br />

before I was a<br />

window cleaner<br />

been a fire fighter<br />

for 6 and a1/2<br />

years.<br />

Could you tell us why you<br />

chose window cleaning?<br />

I lost my job as an auxiliary nurse and as<br />

my partner was pregnant, needed a<br />

good income as she got made redundant<br />

not long before, I thought I've always<br />

fancied being a window cleaner so I'll<br />

give it a go, within 2days I was up and<br />

running in my little red seat Ibiza, and<br />

god was it tough! But I wouldn't of<br />

changed it<br />

How do you manage if you<br />

get called out?<br />

we have an online<br />

booking system, if I<br />

know I'm going to<br />

be out of the station<br />

area I book off on<br />

my phone. If I'm<br />

working in my<br />

station area I leave<br />

myself available, if<br />

my pager goes off<br />

whilst working I<br />

chuck everything in<br />

my van and drive to<br />

the station we only<br />

have 4 minutes<br />

to get in and the<br />

time goes quick!!<br />

What window cleaning<br />

training have you done ?<br />

I taught myself to window clean and had<br />

help From a few other people I had met<br />

on how to window clean. I also have rope<br />

access window cleaning is a bit hit and<br />

miss there's not much down my way so<br />

generally have to travel, but I don't mind I<br />

enjoy it.<br />

Rope access training<br />

what's involved ?<br />

You have to<br />

attend an irata<br />

course which is 5<br />

days long, which<br />

gives you a level<br />

1 you need to<br />

them do a<br />

minimum of a<br />

year and have a<br />

thousand hours<br />

on the ropes<br />

before you<br />

progress to level<br />

2 and the same<br />

again for level 3,<br />

it's not a course<br />

specifically for<br />

window cleaners<br />

it's designed how<br />

to use ropes.<br />

Is there much work for rope<br />

access?<br />

I find one<br />

minute there<br />

is loads the<br />

next there is<br />

none.


What type of work do you<br />

carry out commercial or<br />

residential?<br />

I have a good<br />

mixture off both, I've<br />

got one large<br />

contract on a<br />

caravan site that's on<br />

Going work, other<br />

than that I've not got<br />

any huge commercial<br />

Just pubs, shops,<br />

bars etc. it's regular<br />

so can't complain.<br />

ADVERTS<br />

SPACE<br />

What system have you got<br />

in your van?<br />

I've just got a normal baffled tank, with<br />

a purpose built frame which was put<br />

together and installed by lee Martin,<br />

I've got a flo jet pump on it,<br />

What makes of equipment<br />

do you use?<br />

Pole wise I have the<br />

22ft facelift Phoenix<br />

which is my every day<br />

pole, I have a old<br />

gardiner slx 35ft<br />

A original ionics 35ft<br />

pole And a old 30ft<br />

streamline which I use<br />

for cleaning off gutters,<br />

Is there much work around<br />

your area ?<br />

Yea there's quite a bit of work round my<br />

area, there's quite a few window cleaners<br />

too. But I help other window cleaners out<br />

too; I've got a bit of work that is subbed<br />

to me so I travel for them. It's regular<br />

work though so I don't mind


Advert<br />

The Story of Whizz-Bizz How the company was formed<br />

The story is a story of rags to riches, blood, sweat, tears and<br />

sheer determination. Many obstacles were put in my way and<br />

many people said it can’t be done. I think the true beginnings<br />

stem from when I was a shy 16 year old. I responded to an<br />

advert in a local free newspaper, a small box advert saying<br />

are you young gifted and broke? , it was coming up to Xmas<br />

and when I rang to enquire about the job they was very vague<br />

About the position. So I raided my dads very limited tie rack put on my best shirt and<br />

Trousers and found myself sitting in an office of Zenith Windows being pushed into a<br />

Commission only door to door job. My parents prior to the interview had very strong<br />

Views in regards to this type of work and warned me prior to going not to take such a job<br />

On if offered. So I went through the interview and at the end declined their offer of door sale<br />

The walk home was long and I felt Id wasted 2 hours of<br />

my time, feeling disappointed I got in, got changed and<br />

forgot about it, 2 days later I got a call from a nice<br />

sounding lady called Hayley asking about that interview<br />

and if I could get into the office that evening they<br />

have a job in their out bound call centre which paid £3 an<br />

hour plus commission,<br />

with the bonus of being paid before Christmas.


I ran around the house like crazy getting ready, Dads tie<br />

in hand and of I went. When I got there I found<br />

everyone seemed a lot older than me and the noise and<br />

buzz was electric. I still remember that first call I made I<br />

was shaking and very nervous and not very good at all.<br />

Looking back I think I kept my job as they was so short<br />

staffed prior to Christmas.<br />

Fast forward 3 months I won a silver award for professionalism in the field of telemarketing,<br />

and then further down the line received a gold award for professionalism in the field of<br />

telemarketing. Before I knew it I was 18 and running the whole call centre, with 40<br />

canvassers under my supervision.<br />

I was then approached by a friend of mine to work in an inbound call centre at a garage;<br />

the money was better and so were the hours so I jumped at it and stayed for quite some<br />

time. The garage had some issues with some advertising they had been placing in the<br />

local papers and the bad publicity followed with the calls now not coming in as frequent<br />

and the commissions took a hit. Time to leave.<br />

I found myself at an upcoming home improvement firm back<br />

on the phone; coincidently a few of the guys from Zenith<br />

were there and knew me from them days. After 3 days I was<br />

made a team leader and after a week they offered me the<br />

manager’s job in Worthing which I took. 2 weeks in and I<br />

turned them around from getting 20 leads a week to 60+ a<br />

week, they liked that, they liked it a lot. I got a call from the<br />

regional manager explaining that the Portsmouth branch<br />

was having the branch manager removed and call centre<br />

manager would be going too, do I want it?. “YES PLEASE”<br />

Very quickly I became the top marketing manager in the company and everything was<br />

going like a dream, and then the unthinkable they’ve gone bust. I’ll always remember<br />

walking home with all my executive toys under my arm thinking I’ll never get a job that<br />

good<br />

I get in doors with a very concerned looking dad; I said “What’s up?” He said “you’ve had<br />

6 calls from double glazing companies today, what’s happened? “ I explained the situation<br />

and got on with ringing the people back. I took the best offer which was Anglian Home<br />

improvements. I contacted all my best canvassers and took them with me. It was brilliant<br />

first week in we pulled £77,000 in business and the pay was better than Id ever had, every<br />

week my team would get certificates, best in volume leads, best in volume sales etc.<br />

A few years in and it was good.<br />

By now Im in my early 20s and wanted to go travelling, having always loved beaches<br />

that’s what I did. I even worked in Spain for a while selling first page listings for Google,<br />

the money wasn’t great and it was very hard so I found myself back in England, desperate<br />

for work I took a job at British gas knocking doors, it really wasn’t my kind of sale so I started<br />

shopping around for something better.


I see an advert in the job centre for safe style and I thought that would be O.K I knew the<br />

product and it was familiar territory they gave me a driver and a small team of door<br />

knockers.<br />

This is when I literally fell into window cleaning, I was out with 12 other door knockers and<br />

due to being stuck on a door booking someone for 15 minutes I was separated from the<br />

main bulk of the team they all went right and I went left. I knocked on a guys door and did<br />

my pitch, he looked me up and down and said ” Your really good at this , do you want a job<br />

? “ I said “Maybe, what is it?” He replied “give me your number; I’ll call you next week”. We<br />

exchanged numbers and off I went, a week passed and I got a call from him. “See you on<br />

Friday” He said.<br />

He picked me up in the morning, we drove for what seemed like hours until we got to<br />

South London were he handed me a flyer and then and only then told me what the job<br />

was, “you’re looking for customers for my window cleaner friend, it’s a new way of cleaning<br />

windows called water fed pole, it’s going to be massive” he said.<br />

I took a hand full of flyers and knocked the first door I came too, did my improvised pitch<br />

and would you believe it, the customer absolutely bit my hand off. WOW I thought as I ran<br />

across the road to tell him what happened he was shocked and excited with a joyous<br />

expression he said” That’s brilliant I’ve been doing this 8 years and no one’s ever done<br />

that before” Bit of high fiving and back patting and I’m soon on the 2nd house and a 2nd<br />

booking, 2 in a row. That was it I’m hooked at the end of the evening we did a tally up and I<br />

got £420 on my first night.<br />

I didn’t hear much for a couple of weeks so just carried on working at Safe style, then I got<br />

another call seeing if I wanted to do some more knocking for him. This went on for a while,<br />

quite in frequent, more pocket money than anything at this stage. I took a canvasser friend<br />

of mine on a few jobs and could tell that there was something to this window cleaning<br />

canvassing.<br />

After a pretty heavy night drinking me and my canvassing friend on the Saturday morning<br />

were in my front room we looked in our pockets we had £5 between us and 4 cans of<br />

fosters.<br />

I looked at him and said “this isn’t any good we need to make some money, what we going<br />

to do? “<br />

He replied “let’s buy some phone credit, Ill text out loads of cleaners from Google, see if<br />

we can get some canvassing work for ourselves in Portsmouth”<br />

30-50 texts sent and within minutes I’ve set up 2 meetings with cleaners.<br />

We arranged to meet the guys at a café near to where we lived it was late and they was<br />

just closing, just as well as we didn’t even have enough money to get them a cup of tea or<br />

anything. Being local I knew of quite a nice snooker club that had a quiet area round the<br />

back so we took the cleaners in there. Bit of a chat and they agreed to give us a go.<br />

Fantastic.<br />

We arranged to meet another cleaner at the snooker club the following night and again<br />

they agreed to give us a go. Fantastic.<br />

So me and my canvassing friend set to work on getting the first clients work together and<br />

at the end of the week arranged hand over. This is a defining moment for Whizz-Bizz I’m<br />

sat in front of the cleaner and he says. “Right I want the work it looks good, BUT I’m only<br />

giving you half the money now and the other half after I’ve checked the work.” 0


He seemed nice and genuine so I took a gamble. True to his word he paid up no problem<br />

at all and to this day still uses me from time to time. So 2nd client, me and my canvassing<br />

friend met them in the same snooker club and all seemed satisfactory, again we went out<br />

and did the job and again met them in the snooker club. Strange thing happened he said<br />

“Right I want the work it looks good, BUT I'm only giving you half the money now and the<br />

other half after I've checked the work.” As the first guy was good to his word I agreed. You<br />

know what to this day I never did get hold of that guy to get the rest of my money,<br />

absolutely ripped us off. Unfortunately out of the first<br />

5 guys we did work for, 3 ripped us off. Whizz-Bizz was born and the upfront payment was<br />

instigated, no more getting ripped off. By then my canvassing friend had had enough and<br />

decided to seek employment elsewhere. It was actually my canvassing friend that came up<br />

with the name, and it derives from we go to an area whizz around get the bizz and go<br />

home, the lightning bolt is to represent speed.<br />

4 years on as Whizz-Bizz and it’s been a real experience, I ve travelled most of the country<br />

from Portsmouth to Scotland, Pembrokeshire to Ipswich. I've worked with new start ups,<br />

established teams and family firms. Some amazing cleaners have come into my life and<br />

I’ve made some good friends in the process, I’ve knocked thousands of doors and seen<br />

just about everything and I can honestly say I still love what I do, very little surprises me<br />

now.<br />

Many thanks for taking the time to read.<br />

All the best<br />

Mark Nicholson<br />

www.whizzbizzsales.com


Interview<br />

The birth of Window Cleaning Training<br />

How did you get into<br />

window cleaning?<br />

By accident really. I am an ex Tax<br />

Collector by trade but forcibly retired due<br />

to contracting ME. Steve already had an<br />

established window cleaning business<br />

when I met him-. I admit to being totally<br />

under- impressed when I found out what<br />

Steve did for a living- until I saw him run<br />

up a treble ladder and do his thing- it was<br />

like watching a ballet My experience of<br />

office life combined with his skills and<br />

personality lead us to grow the business;<br />

we are a true team in every sense to<br />

where we are now. (Stressed, over<br />

worked, grey, over weight and<br />

permanently skint!) As the industry has<br />

progressed over the years, we have had<br />

to adapt- that’s the bit I love about this jobthe<br />

practical side of the work will not<br />

change- once you learn the technique to<br />

blade or wfp, you are there- it’s the added<br />

extra’s that make the job so diversehealth<br />

and safety, coshh and all the<br />

additional requirements you need for<br />

tenders.<br />

Where are you from ?<br />

I am currently based in Plymouth- I moved<br />

here in 2000. But originally I’m from<br />

Watford in Hertfordshire leaving there aged<br />

17 to move to Cornwall. Steve is from<br />

Plymouth – from the historic Barbican area;<br />

the Mayflower Steps, Union Street and our<br />

ROYAL Marines.<br />

So how was the company<br />

built ?<br />

Window cleaning training Uk Ltd came<br />

about from a conversation we had whilst on<br />

holiday in Egypt last January. it was a cold<br />

day and we were chatting about our future.<br />

Steve has had so many people work with<br />

him over the years who have made<br />

successes of their own business’ from his<br />

training, and we are called upon by other<br />

window cleaners all the time to fix sites or<br />

undertake jobs that they simply can’t do<br />

themselves, that he decided that he would<br />

like to teach window cleaning as a means<br />

to “put back” into the Industry – and a<br />

means to maybe step back a bit and do<br />

something less physical but something that<br />

he enjoys doing.<br />

Last year co-incided with the NEC Cleaning<br />

show so we took a gamble and rented a<br />

pitch next to the window cleaning<br />

competition stand we spent 3 days gauging<br />

the publics reaction and interest to training,<br />

The reaction and interest was good so we<br />

found suitable premises in Plymouth,<br />

applied for a government funded start up<br />

loan through Outset Reach and started the<br />

new business with £15k, no overdraft and a<br />

lot of crossing fingers.<br />

I had visions of being accredited by now<br />

with the FWC and of being an NVQ<br />

Assessor with Plymouth City College;<br />

unfortunately ill health, computer issues<br />

and the fact that the shop has taken up a<br />

lot of my time has meant that I haven’t<br />

been able to move forward with this – we<br />

are however part of the Asset Skills Council<br />

and are registered with the government as<br />

training providers.


How long has the training<br />

centre been running<br />

We opened in August 2013 and to-date<br />

have trained 3 people- 2 guys and a<br />

wonderful lady in traditional and water fed<br />

pole cleaning. Three more are booked in<br />

for May.<br />

What training do you provide<br />

Classes we teach are; Traditional<br />

Techniques, Water Fed Pole and Window<br />

cleaning at height with IPAF- I have links to<br />

a large abseiling training provider for<br />

those interested in doing Abseiling. The<br />

courses are built by Steve and Myself And<br />

incorporate Practical and Theory.<br />

Each trainee gets an inch thick folder<br />

containing tips and guides on a whole<br />

range<br />

of topics from ideas on how to advertise<br />

and market themselves, the history of the<br />

water<br />

fed pole, health and safety, how to write a<br />

tender and quotation, to examples of<br />

Coshh, risk and method statements,<br />

manual handling and riddor.<br />

Who is carry out the training ?<br />

Could you please tell us<br />

more about trainers?<br />

At height with IPaf is yet to be done. We are<br />

lucky in Plymouth that we have a IPAF<br />

training centre LTC 87 who also hire out<br />

machines; we are probably one of their best<br />

customers- I have arranged for this<br />

company to teach our trainee’s IPAF and<br />

then allow us to take them at the same site<br />

to teach them the practicalities of window<br />

cleaning at height – totally different to just<br />

driving a bit of kit. We will then back at our<br />

centre, go through<br />

the paperwork side of the training- it is<br />

quite intensive. we are however part of the<br />

Asset Skills Council and are registered with<br />

the government as training providers.<br />

How long are the course and<br />

what are the cost ?<br />

Traditional is a one day course and is<br />

£150 pp<br />

Water Fed Pole is a long day and is<br />

£175 pp<br />

IPAF/ At Height is a two day course and is<br />

£330 pp<br />

to include the IPAF certification<br />

Traditional and Water fed Pole training is all<br />

done on real buildings and includes setting<br />

up a system, managing and cleaning which<br />

is all doe by Steve.<br />

Paper works and the business side of the<br />

training is done by myself<br />

Need photos to finish


Interview<br />

Jorden the man behind OKGO<br />

Prior to becoming a window cleaner I served an<br />

apprenticeship in the passenger lift industry eventually<br />

becoming Technical Manager with responsibilities including<br />

project management and design during which time I had<br />

invented a number tools to assist installation.<br />

At the start of the recession in 2008 I left and started Waterworks<br />

Window Cleaning<br />

We'd focused on commercial<br />

contracts only, until one day we found a<br />

window cleaners book lying at the side of<br />

the road. After looking through the book in<br />

order to try and trace its owner, it became<br />

evident that there is some serious money<br />

to be made in the domestic market. The<br />

book was all traditional worth 80k per<br />

annum and once we'd returned the book<br />

we were surprised to find the whole round<br />

being serviced by one very hard working<br />

man with ladders on his shoulder. In<br />

addition, it made sense to try and spread<br />

our income around since our market was<br />

shrinking<br />

Therefore, in some ways we were<br />

unique. A commercial only window<br />

cleaning company attempting to move into<br />

the domestic market and attempting to<br />

transfer our commercial values.<br />

So how do you effectively apply pure<br />

water to the domestic market which<br />

requires 60+ stops in a single day? (2<br />

man team)<br />

Trolley? External reels and faucets?<br />

sliding rack? Personally my barrier while<br />

working alone was 20 -25 houses, not<br />

because id ran out of energy but because<br />

I was mentally drained and physically<br />

smashed to pieces. Also, how can a<br />

company which is completely straight with<br />

the tax man i.e. PAYE, VAT, Corporation<br />

Tax, accounting fees compete with<br />

traditional cleaners working under the<br />

radar?<br />

OKGO therefore, like all of the best<br />

inventions was born out of necessity. We<br />

needed to be more efficient, we needed<br />

the vans to be secure while working, we<br />

needed to reduce fatigue and injury and<br />

we really wanted to get rid of the<br />

disgusting cloths used to spool the hose<br />

onto the reel (ill say no more on that but if<br />

your cleaning houses you'll know what i'm<br />

getting at)<br />

I became obsessed with it and for months<br />

I was battling with each individual problem<br />

that the concept presented and there<br />

were an unbelievable amount of<br />

unbelievably difficult problems to<br />

overcome even though the finished<br />

product looks simple.<br />

What is OKGO?<br />

Please Watch the video below as Its<br />

difficult to describe, you have to feel it in<br />

real life but here goes!


Its a patented frame which raises standard<br />

window cleaning reels (internally<br />

mounted) to a comfortable operating<br />

height while simultaneously extending the<br />

spindle through the van wall, extending<br />

the spooling rod through the van wall,<br />

diverting the hose through the frame and<br />

onto the floor pan and providing a method<br />

to lock the hose.<br />

It comes with a patented 3 point pulley<br />

system design to fit most commercial<br />

vans which means the hose can be<br />

diverted through the floor pan and onto<br />

the any area of the sill seamlessly.<br />

Poles are mounted externally but can be<br />

stowed through a side sliding door or<br />

removed altogether. On our system the<br />

poles are permanently attached to the<br />

hose therefore eliminating hose<br />

connectors which significantly reduces<br />

snags. Snags can seriously damage<br />

mental health ;-) Some people find it<br />

strange but I want to eliminate problems<br />

without exception.<br />

On the final spooling stroke tension is<br />

maintained on the hose with the winding<br />

handle. The spooling rod is then used to<br />

lock the hose tightly therefore pulling poles<br />

tightly in a downward direction against the<br />

van during transit. Together with the brush<br />

hook at the top of the vehicle and the rubber<br />

van protector the system works perfectly.<br />

The system is completely unique in the<br />

world and offers the following benefits:<br />

Van locked<br />

Super efficient deployment and stowing<br />

No hand spooling<br />

No heavy lifting<br />

No repositioning reels (OKGO has<br />

working radius 180 degrees)<br />

Perfectly dry van<br />

No waiting for water to fill hose<br />

Protects your reels so that they last<br />

forever in perfect condition<br />

No bending to wind in reels<br />

No smashing knuckles on the floor<br />

No smashing fingers on hose connectors<br />

No manky cloths (Toxicariosis)<br />

No reels on pedestrian walkway<br />

I simply jump out, lock van, grab pole<br />

without ever touching the hose or opening<br />

any van doors.<br />

The cost of the product will be circa £1000<br />

plus VAT for a single unit and full self<br />

installation package although this has not<br />

been finalised and may vary depending on<br />

tooling. I see it like this... if you're a self<br />

employed engineer cutting 50 lengths of<br />

steel every day with a hacksaw, does it<br />

not make sense to eventually get round to<br />

buying an auto feed band saw at £1000<br />

plus VAT? Your family would thank you at<br />

the very least.<br />

The product rugged... and I mean old<br />

fashioned British rugged. We therefore<br />

are proposing a lifetime guarantee on its<br />

construction for peace of mind.


Interview<br />

PROGUTTER - from invention to production<br />

In September 2011 I started a property<br />

maintenance company after being made<br />

redundant from full time employment.<br />

Shortly after I was given a job of clearing a section of guttering over a conservatory<br />

which ran the full width of the property, the ladder access was limited to one location.<br />

After asking a friend who<br />

is a professional window<br />

cleaner and searching the<br />

internet and shops I was<br />

unable to find a gutter<br />

cleaning tool that would<br />

make the job possible. I<br />

decided to improvise and<br />

make my own tool that<br />

helped me do the job.<br />

After I took on more<br />

similar jobs the tool<br />

evolved into different<br />

shapes for different gutter<br />

styles.<br />

At first the tool was being<br />

attached to the telescopic<br />

pole with nuts and bolts to<br />

keep it in place. To make<br />

the usage of the tool even<br />

easier I designed a tool<br />

including a universal<br />

thread enabling the tool to<br />

be screwed directly onto<br />

most standard telescopic<br />

poles.<br />

My friend (the<br />

professional window<br />

cleaner) was very<br />

impressed and soon<br />

asked me to make him the<br />

same tools to make his<br />

gutter cleaning jobs<br />

easier. I was often<br />

stopped and asked by<br />

window cleaners and the<br />

public about the tool I was<br />

using, the tools seemed to<br />

be of great interest.<br />

It took many months of<br />

trying different shapes<br />

with different makes of<br />

guttering and finding out<br />

what worked the best. I<br />

found trying to cater for<br />

every gutter/tile<br />

installation was very<br />

hard as this varies so<br />

much. My main goal<br />

was for the tool to fit<br />

under roof tiles, miss the<br />

gutter securing clips, fit<br />

perfectly into each style<br />

of guttering and to<br />

create a tool that can be<br />

fitted for left or right<br />

hand application<br />

enabling to clear many<br />

meters of gutter from<br />

one ladder position.<br />

Once I was happy with<br />

the 4 shapes I started<br />

selling PRO-G1<br />

attachments.<br />

For an easy storage<br />

solution for the<br />

professional market I<br />

produced a hard<br />

wearing box set with<br />

foam inserts.<br />

PRO-G1 was selling very<br />

well and the feedback we<br />

had from our customers<br />

was absolutely amazing.<br />

Thanks to the people who<br />

supported me and bought<br />

PRO-G1 attachments I<br />

saw there was a need for<br />

a simple tool that would<br />

help with cleaning gutters.<br />

My next goal was to make<br />

the tools stronger and<br />

more durable so I set to<br />

work on the PRO-G2<br />

range which had an<br />

additional aluminium plate<br />

on one side and an<br />

aluminium thread giving<br />

the tool that extra<br />

strength.


The PRO-G2 range sold so well, I decided to create our own website. The aim after<br />

that was to give customers the full information and support on our products. Due to<br />

the support of our great customers who purchased PRO-G2, these were soon sold<br />

out.<br />

After the success of PRO-G2 I had a new range professionally designed. The aim<br />

was for a new, stronger, lighter, more durable and even better range then our previous<br />

2 ranges. Once we were happy with the designs we tested repeatedly for the strength<br />

and durability of the tools making sure this range will be our best yet.<br />

In October 2013 we were very proud to present to the market the Professional range<br />

tools. They have been a great success so far. We get amazing feedback from our<br />

professional customers and from homeowners alike.<br />

Window cleaner Richard franklin who is cycling from Bristol<br />

to the show approx. 70 miles Must Be Mad<br />

My bike cost £2700<br />

plus the extra, Which<br />

I have four bike for<br />

different things,<br />

I cycles roughly 150+<br />

miles a week, also<br />

run 3 times a week<br />

and swim 2-3 times a<br />

week<br />

Should take between<br />

3 and 4 hours steady<br />

riding with a coffee<br />

and cake stop a must<br />

to all cyclist .<br />

been cleaning<br />

Windows for<br />

8years and I am a<br />

very young 45 lol<br />

we started a local cycle back in May and<br />

have over 140members it called salt and<br />

sham cycle club


Interview<br />

Aquafed<br />

I started Aquafed<br />

in 2010 it started<br />

as a window<br />

cleaning, Gutter<br />

cleaning, and<br />

pressure washing<br />

company.<br />

I started selling the gutter<br />

vacuum systems in 2011<br />

on a<br />

small scale alongside the<br />

window cleaning round, the<br />

sales of the systems<br />

progressed and in march<br />

2012 I sold my round and<br />

moved to Norfolk so rather<br />

than start up a new round<br />

from scratch I decided to<br />

concentrate on the gutter<br />

cleaning and pressure<br />

washing side of the<br />

business along with the<br />

online sales, as time went<br />

on I slowly started to do<br />

less and less of the<br />

cleaning side and focus my<br />

time on the sales instead,<br />

now I do very few gutter<br />

cleans and even less<br />

pressure washing but i still<br />

like to do a few to keep my<br />

hand in the trade.<br />

What I did before Aquafed<br />

Prior to this I was a site manager for Skanska in<br />

there civil engineering department overseeing a<br />

number of construction sites my main work was<br />

London underground as I worked my through all<br />

of there in house qualifications to a high position<br />

unfortunately working your way up in an<br />

environment where the qualifications are only<br />

valid for the one employer (ie London<br />

underground) has its down side as I found out as<br />

when there was redundancy’s the qualifications I<br />

held are only valid for works on the underground<br />

and all had expiry dates.<br />

During my time as a site manager I oversaw<br />

some very high profile works including the 7/7<br />

bombings, I was assisting the police with removal<br />

of body parts and evidence from the tunnel at<br />

Edgware road station, also setting up the ground<br />

works for the crane to lift the carriage from the<br />

tracks, erecting hording to keep the press out,<br />

New this year<br />

I am going to be bringing out an internal cleaning<br />

kit this year that will be used with the gutter<br />

cleaning poles the kit will have various tools for all<br />

your internal cleaning, I have it made and it has<br />

been on trial in walkers crisps and have received<br />

some great feedback.


Interview<br />

I started window cleaning when if was 15 and still in<br />

school as a weekend job with my next door neighbour.<br />

He had a small local window cleaning round we used to<br />

just walk around with our ladders knocking on doors<br />

and doing job's that were booked in on a Saturday &<br />

Sunday.. This got me hocked straight away as I loved<br />

being out and about meeting new people / customers<br />

and loved working out in the sun ( When it was out).<br />

When i left school my sister got me a job with a<br />

cleaning company she worked for and that<br />

covered all types of cleaning job's from windows<br />

to office cleaning floor stripping and so on... I<br />

worked there for 3 years and built up a good<br />

friendship with the window cleaner there too.. I<br />

then got asked by him when he left there if I would<br />

join him in the new company he had just joined<br />

doing builders cleans.<br />

LEE Martin Blade Right<br />

Mainly windows on newly built<br />

housing estates and huge work<br />

units which I really enjoyed as we<br />

covered everything from dead<br />

weighting, abseiling and cherry<br />

picking work on the bigger buildings<br />

and so on.. I really enjoyed it as<br />

every day was different and we<br />

never knew what we would come<br />

across until we were on site...<br />

I then took a couple of years out as i got<br />

a job working for a drain cleaning<br />

company ( surely for the money as it<br />

was a well paid job) Still cleaning thou<br />

and loved the work the only thing that<br />

did me in was the hours as after the first<br />

couple of months I ended up working 65<br />

to 80 hour weeks and was on call every<br />

weekend as i became a rig manger so<br />

was down to me to get all the jetting<br />

jobs book in and sorted out.. It just<br />

became to much.. then while out playing<br />

pool one night i bumped in to the guy I<br />

was working with in my first cleaning job<br />

and he started to tell me all about the<br />

new window cleaning company he was<br />

working for so on the off chance i ask<br />

him if there was any jobs going and a<br />

week later i got a call asking if i wanted<br />

a interview with his new boss and that<br />

he had put in a good word for me as<br />

worked we me in the past.. I had to<br />

work my magic in the interview thou as<br />

the new boss wanted to pay me<br />

peanuts and as i was in such a highly<br />

paid job it was a hard diction to make<br />

but after some talking we came to a<br />

arrangement and the job was mine..<br />

That was me a happy man as was working<br />

Monday to Friday only and back to doing<br />

normal window cleaning this went on for a fair<br />

few months and everything was good.. The<br />

boss of the company wanted to expand and<br />

set him self a mission to triple the size of his<br />

window cleaning business and started buying<br />

out other peoples rounds and business, new<br />

vans all kitted out, radio advertising the lot and<br />

went mad at it.. He brought a window cleaning<br />

business called Pioneer Window Cleaning that<br />

came with everything also including two lad's<br />

that had worked the round for a few years..<br />

They were on minimum wag as was getting<br />

paid peanuts compared to me and my work<br />

partner.. Then boom we got called in the the<br />

office on a Friday. We knew something was up<br />

as it was written all over his face.. He then<br />

started to inform us that he had gone to big too<br />

quickly and needed to cut down on work and<br />

wages as he had spent out far to much money<br />

too quickly then the penny dropped he was<br />

letting me and my work partner go as he could<br />

not afford to pay us what we wanted as the<br />

other two lads that came with pioneer were<br />

getting paid half the price then what we were..<br />

As you can probably tell this didnt go down to<br />

well with us as we had been there from the<br />

start and helped him grow from hardly nothing

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