Tour 29: The Referral That Saved our Window Cleaning Business

A recent trip to my local mall with my daughter reminded me the impact COVID had on my family's window cleaning business.

While the impact of COVID was great, God brought about good from it for both our family business and this blog.

Earl's BBQ

My husband and I purchased our window cleaning business from my brother, in the mid 2010s. At the time, Window Cleaning Plus (W.C.P.) was a commercial route only. My brother did not sell any residential clients as part of W.C.P.

My husband Dave, my son, and my niece were the staff. My only contribution to W.C.P. in the beginning was my bloodline to the former owner, and a suggestion that we adopt a more sophisticated way of tracking paid invoices than a yellow notepad and pen.

However, about two years in, after Dave felt comfortable working in and running our route, I began to visit businesses to ask the owners or managers if they would consider hiring us to clean windows.

I noticed when I visited Earl's BBQ in Moore that there was a TIPS club for business owners. I didn't even know what a TIPS club was, or that business owners met for lunch on a regular basis to pass referrals.

It was at this TIPS club I met Kim from the Moore Chamber, and then was introduced to my dear friend Kathy who belonged to a Business Networking International (B.N.I.) chapter.

In the Major Leagues

During my first visit to Sooner Networking B.N.I., my friend Kathy masterfully walked me around to most of the members, introducing me with ease, and made sure I felt comfortable and educated on how the meeting would go.

Although there was a one year time frame between my first visit and my induction as a member, I knew I would join after the first visit.

Once I was accepted and inducted into the chapter, I felt like I was in the major leagues. They gave me the jersey, now I needed to step up so to speak. Dave and I were so new to business ownership, and I was honored to be surrounded by such giving and established business owners.

The Referral That Saved our Window Cleaning Business

In fact, I attribute the fact that my window cleaning business survived COVID to my acceptance and participation in B.N.I.

When I joined my BNI chapter in 2018, the very first referral I received was from a home builder, who wanted me to clean the windows in his large house. Remember, W.C.P. only served commercial clients. Not wanting to disappoint, I reluctantly put his house on our schedule and asked Dave to please do the best he could to make my fellow BNI member happy.

Dave muddled through the job, called on my brother to help with the higher windows, and was able to deliver a satisfactory result.

It was this first referral that lead us to expand our business to include residential window cleaning. For two years, we expanded and perfected the residential side of W.P.C., largely because of the referrals from BNI and other networking groups we were receiving.

Then, out of nowhere, came March of 2020....

That Weekend in March

Sitting in the cab of our work truck on a Friday afternoon in mid March of 2020, Dave and I were discussing the rest of our jobs that day. Typically, as long as commercial accounts were serviced around the same time of the month each month, the owners/managers weren't picky about what day of the month their window cleaning happened.

A usual conversation on a Friday afternoon between Dave and I would sound something like:

"We have Men's Warehouse and Sketchers left to do. Would you like to do them today or put them off until next week?"

"Let's do Men's Warehouse and wait on Sketchers."

This Friday afternoon in March however was different. Throughout that day, I had been receiving email after email from our commercial clients with the subject line "Discontinue Service."

Due to COVID, national retail chains were shutting down their stores at an alarming rate, and that Friday, the trickle down result of retailers closing meant we were losing accounts, one "Discontinue Service" subject line at a time.

My worried reply to what stores could be put off that day, was, "Dave, if we don't do these jobs today, they won't be here for us next week."

The Emails That Never Came

After that awful Friday in March, Dave and I sat at home all weekend fully expecting the same inbox to start lighting up once again with cancelations from our residential clients. So we waited...and waited...and waited...

Those emails didn't come that weekend. In fact, they didn't come at all.

Residential clients did not cancel their appointments. Our home owners were at home! They were looking out dirty windows, and were in a position to afford window cleaning despite the volatile circumstances of COVID.

Because networking brought Dave and I our first residential cleaning job, we were able to withstand the financial hit of loosing many of our commercial accounts due to COVID, while we served our home owners.

The Heart of Networking is Relationships

I can't emphasize enough how important relationships are when you consider networking. Our story proves it.

We could have easily said no to a website request for residential window cleaning back in 2018. The "easy button" in 2018 would have driven us out of business in 2020.

It's much harder to tell a real human, who you admire and know you will be seeing week after week, that you are too scared to take him on as a client.

I am thankful to God that he put me in a B.N.I. chapter, to learn and grow, and out of that thankfulness has come a desire to help others network with relationships in mind.

And thus, dear readers, this blog was born.

Go network my friend, and remember:

Let relationships drive your networking, knowing that it is those very relationships that will be invaluable to you when the storms of life and business come.

The Networker's Tour Guide, Faithann Basore, and her husband Dave have owned Window Cleaning Plus (WCP) for 9 years. Growing WCP through networking has given Faithann the desire to guide other small business owners through the networking terrain so they can feel comfortable and build long lasting relationships in their business.

Got networking questions? Email me at [email protected].