[dazmond]

you wont have any fires to put out if you dont smoke in the motor spongebob!!!

[dazmond]

thanks for the link perfect windows.i think ill order a copy!!


best wishes


dazmond

[spongebob]

you wont have any fires to put out if you dont smoke in the motor spongebob!!!

I knew that was coming when I typed it.

I wouldn't buy it or read if I was you Daz. You seem to have the balance just right. It might just play with your head.
andy

[Sean Dyer]

I have started reading it today

I think it is bang on the money but, i am not really out to get massive with window cleaning, just want to refine my work and stay small... Im happy having time with the family etc i can live on what window cleaning provides working mon-fri with a bit of help...

But if i was out to be massive i'd definitely take on board everything in it

[Sean Dyer]

The e myth is the title of a book and i think it must have been written especially for us.Published in 95 and a bestseller ever since it addresses people who start a business and then get trapped by it. Trapped by having to work harder and harder and harder.

Trapped by not really haviing a business at all but merely a well paid job.


I'm in this trap and pretty fed up.I know a few of you have read it because it's been mentioned before on here.But if you haven't read it you can still have a view.

I'm coming up to four years in and all i do is work and work and work.If i carry on for another four is that all i have to look forward to?

I can't tell you what the book suggests as a solution because i am only half way through, but i do know that a few of you have found a way through, and i also know that many are in the same boat as me, and a few treat the job as a hobby.

So, thoughts please.It's okay to be as critical of me as you like- i can take it

I don't think anyone else has mentioned this so here goes.
Many a tradesman/woman has been promoted to the manager/supervisor and feels great. All their hard work has been rewarded and they have made it. For a while they are happy with a bit more money for the family and kids so they live up to the new wage and all is good. Sometime along the way they become miserable in the job, their home life etc..
I have many friends in this position who hate the constant form filling, personnel issues...you get the idea.  They are no longer doing what they enjoyed in the first place, ie. the trade they enjoyed. As an example my father is a carpenter at 68 years old from the age of 15 and still enjoys it. He wouldn't want to employ. he has worked hard and is well off. He knew that was what he wanted to do and never changed.
My point is if you become the boss and don't work , will you enjoy the money any more. You have swapped the trade that you probably enjoyed if the money worries were taken away  for a different set of duties all together.
I think for some the better answer is to remain "on the tools" and find someone to run your day to day operation and develop your business for you. Almost become an employee and go home with a wage each week. By default the self employed version of the promoted manager at the start of this post is the tradesperson  who went self employed, became too successful for his own good and now can't fit in the work around new quotes, invoicing, paperwork etc. Just because you are a good plumber, cleaner, sparky it doesn't follow you will run a good business but the jump to employing doesn't mean you have to be at the helm. In fact if you're not you are probably in a better position to ensure that the work and money are still being earnt while keeping an eye on the progress of your new employee.
If you are flat out meeting people, quoting, smoking around in the motor doing "stuff" the work can easily fall apart without your control and you end up putting out fires and pacifying old customers.
andy

I think the point missed like you say is that some people can run a business as a technician and do most of the work and be happy, its all about what you want in life!

The book points out that you shouldn't restrict your business growth by what you want etc, but some people took on window cleaning for exactly that reason, to restrict working hours to a certain amount for reasons to do with health, family , religion whatever, but then i suppose we/they are the ones it doesnt apply to!!

[richard jagger]

Slumpy its time for a new challenges to the next step, Mate
You are a bright fellow but need new challenges to keep you happy. I think you need to plan your challenges for a longer time so you never get board.But bee careful not to drop your successes to move to a new challenges, make them part of the bigger goal,
Now get out there and find something to keep you busy.

[Perfect Windows]

Slumpy its time for a new challenges to the next step, Mate
You are a bright fellow but need new challenges to keep you happy. I think you need to plan your challenges for a longer time so you never get board.But bee careful not to drop your successes to move to a new challenges, make them part of the bigger goal,
Now get out there and find something to keep you busy.

No, Slumpy doesn't need new challenges, if you ask me.  It's the last thing he needs.  He's too busy telling everyone that everything he does is better than them.  That's fine as long as you are better than everyone else. Then to come on here and say that all is not well in the engine room is slightly odd... I think he needs to get his current business working.

You see, my view is that everything I'm doing is unlikely to be the best way.  What are the chances that I'm doing it better than every other window cleaner and every other businessman in the UK?  Zero.  So, I read almost every thread on here (apart from the ones about weather/miserable git at number 5, etc.).  I've learned an astounding amount and I'm constantly learning.  I try what I read (I was rinsing brush on today to see how it goes, for instance).  I also try to spread about a little of what I've learned.  Again, Slumpy disapproves of that.  He's of the opinion that we should keep our knowledge to ourselves.

So, we have someone not willing to accept that his way of working may not be the best, who also thinks that information is something to be hoarded rather than shared (look through his posts and see when he's given away any concrete details about how he works).

So, bluntly, no book is going to fix Slumpy's problems. I recommended it to him before I'd realised what sort of person I was dealing with.

I think it's a real shame, as the book contains some rather startling stuff in it that could transform his life but I solemnly predict that if Slumpy is still coming in here in twelve months, his refrain will be exactly the same as this year.  I'll be glad (genuinely) if I'm wrong but this is one of the few things in the world that I'm pretty pessimistic about.

Vin

[Perfect Windows]

I don't think anyone else has mentioned this so here goes.
Many a tradesman/woman has been promoted to the manager/supervisor and feels great. All their hard work has been rewarded and they have made it. For a while they are happy with a bit more money for the family and kids so they live up to the new wage and all is good. Sometime along the way they become miserable in the job, their home life etc..
I have many friends in this position who hate the constant form filling, personnel issues...you get the idea.  They are no longer doing what they enjoyed in the first place, ie. the trade they enjoyed. As an example my father is a carpenter at 68 years old from the age of 15 and still enjoys it. He wouldn't want to employ. he has worked hard and is well off. He knew that was what he wanted to do and never changed.
My point is if you become the boss and don't work , will you enjoy the money any more. You have swapped the trade that you probably enjoyed if the money worries were taken away  for a different set of duties all together.
I think for some the better answer is to remain "on the tools" and find someone to run your day to day operation and develop your business for you. Almost become an employee and go home with a wage each week. By default the self employed version of the promoted manager at the start of this post is the tradesperson  who went self employed, became too successful for his own good and now can't fit in the work around new quotes, invoicing, paperwork etc. Just because you are a good plumber, cleaner, sparky it doesn't follow you will run a good business but the jump to employing doesn't mean you have to be at the helm. In fact if you're not you are probably in a better position to ensure that the work and money are still being earnt while keeping an eye on the progress of your new employee.
If you are flat out meeting people, quoting, smoking around in the motor doing "stuff" the work can easily fall apart without your control and you end up putting out fires and pacifying old customers.
andy

Spongebob: Brilliant post!

Not sure what angle you're coming to this from (i.e. whether you've read the book) but this is exactly the problem the book addresses.  How can a technician spend time doing what they love rather than ending up running the business instead?

Vin

[TomCrowther]

I think the comment about Slumps not offering advice or helping others is wrong. He has offered me good advice before. What he doesn't do, is respond to posts that are from someone who clearly has not spent any time reading through previous posts e.g. "what's the best way to clean windows".
I got the book yesterday and will start reading it tonight.

[Clive McDonald]

If you ever tell anybody what a great film the blues brothers is, and they are doubtful, it's because so many films afterward copied the style and the humour.I have those days too .This book, the emyth, is fifteen years old and many other books have since filleted the ideas and re-presented them as their own.

The different perpectives given on this thread have been food for thought and i wouldn't disagree with any of them.I think my problem is fairly typical and representative.I wanted to expand and took someone on, we ran out of work very quickly, and i got more work.Because i wanted to keep two people busy i didn't fuss much over the quality.If an £8 terrace 8wk that i had to drive to get to the rear rang up i'd take it.My helper left, i got someone else, they left, and finally a third left.

Then i was stuck trying to keep up on my own.

So what does the book say about this.Well, it says that i should work on my business rather than it, and i should approach it as a prototype of a much larger business with scalable processes.And to quote the book directly;

How must my business- as- a- product work in order for it to successfuly attract not only customers but also employees who want to work there?

Where the business is the product, how the business interacts with the customer is more important than what it sells.

[Londoner]

All business books are cloned from Think and Grow Rich published by Napoleon Hill in 1937 IMO. Its still in print and still the best.

What all of them do however is feed on your own internal dissatisfaction which is part of the human condition. Do they really offer solutions or are they just a mirror into which you stare deeply and see what you want to see?

Being dissatisfied with your life is normal but is it healthy? I don't know you Slumpy but I would say by many peoples standards you are already a great sucess in life. why beat youself up?

Acceptance of what is rather than what isn't can be a great personal quality as well

[Perfect Windows]

I think the comment about Slumps not offering advice or helping others is wrong. He has offered me good advice before. What he doesn't do, is respond to posts that are from someone who clearly has not spent any time reading through previous posts e.g. "what's the best way to clean windows".
I got the book yesterday and will start reading it tonight.

Tom,

Looks like your experience differs from mine; I'm just saying it as I found it.

He even criticised me in the past for giving away information. I quote: "You came across to me as a very bright and switched on .Your background in marketing etc makes you an especially good person to know.The only bit i didn't like was your readyness to share info.If possible i like to stay about three years in front of this forum (how they laughed when i told Alex the future was hot and how an demand system would be the norm), but to maintain this there has to be an element of keeping ones gob shut. "

I'm afraid with attitudes like that he's destined to stay in the same place he's currently in for ever.  Which is fine but sad.

Vin

[Clive McDonald]

Time for another one of slump's stories ;

In my other life i deal exclusively with one big wholesaler in Leicester.It's a family business- asian- and the turnover is several million.They needed some stuff off a firm that has risen to become one of the largest suppliers to primark.So this second firm is a bit bigger with a turnover in the tens of millions.Anyway this second firm would not supply.The size of the potential order was quite big but every approach was knocked back. Sick of being given the run around by underlings my supplier phoned the MD and told him who they were, a well established reputable biz with good money to spend.
"yes."Said the MD (also asian- not a racist comment but relevant)"I know quite well who you are.Fifteen years ago, when i was traveling, desperate for orders i came to you.You kept me waiting, you humiliated me.I waited for four hours before leaving without seeing you.All the time you had said i will see you in a minute. I vowed then that i would never supply you."

My friend said he didn't remember the encounter, it may have happened but it wouldn't have been rudness of a deliberate nature.In those days he had always been  busy with customers and they took precedence over reps.

The MD had waited fifteen years for this moment of payback.My friend said he genuinely didn't remember, it would have been unintentional, and if an apology would help he apologised. In the end he was supplied, but relations were business like at best.

Anyway, that said, whatever it is i did, and i think i know, Vin i'm sorry mate.I can remember you vowing never to post on a thread that i was on so at least we are making some progress.

[♠Winp®oClean♠]

In General-

I find the ones in business (any kind) who analyse, analyse & analyse. Read all the books, talk the talk etc. are more often than not the ones who lag behind, never really progressing anywhere. One great idea after another, an ideal, what they would do if they actually thought it would work.

The ones who just get on with it, go out & actually do it are the ones who I see progress.

Just a general observation, not aimed at anyone.

[Clive McDonald]

Yes.On this point the book states the difference between ideas and innovations.

Your fitting of an immersion element is an innovation. Well done, that was excellent. I suppose my inventing the hot system, electric reel, loop tidy, visit cards, and some 3yrs, IF, stuff i can't talk about might count too.

On another subject mac my little boy is off for another final cut lesson at apple tomorrow.I've ordered cs5 student off adobe with after effects.My little boy is a big captain underpants fan(It's a bestselling kids humourous book series) , his idea is to utube his own version -captain thunderpants- (starring himself off course) as a superhero who using adobe effects can fart huge flame throwers.Thats my boy.

[♠Winp®oClean♠]

Yes.On this point the book states the difference between ideas and innovations.

Your fitting of an immersion element is an innovation. Well done, that was excellent. I suppose my inventing the hot system, electric reel, loop tidy, visit cards, and some 3yrs, IF, stuff i can't talk about might count too.

On another subject mac my little boy is off for another final cut lesson at apple tomorrow.I've ordered cs5 student off adobe with after effects.My little boy is a big captain underpants fan(It's a bestselling kids humourous book series) , his idea is to utube his own version -captain thunderpants- (starring himself off course) as a superhero who using adobe effects can fart huge flame throwers.Thats my boy.

Very good Slumps. Once he gets to grips with the software & gets a bit more experience he should consider editing & authoring other peoples video footage for a fee. Slide shows of photos & video clips of peoples treasured memories etc.

I used to do a bit, mainly converting VHS to DVD then authoring it with multi menus & music etc. Or making digital slide shows from peoples wedding photos. Add the right music with subtle transitions & when you can make the hairs stand up on the back of someones neck- you've cracked it!

[Tom White]

What all of them do however is feed on your own internal dissatisfaction which is part of the human condition. Do they really offer solutions or are they just a mirror into which you stare deeply and see what you want to see?

Being dissatisfied with your life is normal but is it healthy? I don't know you Slumpy but I would say by many peoples standards you are already a great sucess in life. why beat youself up?

Acceptance of what is rather than what isn't can be a great personal quality as well

Vince,

It's not often I read a philosophical post on this forum and think, "This guy really knows what he's talking about", but you really do know what you're talking about; or at least what you've typed chimes with me.

What you've typed isn't usually a conclusion that someone comes about by their own intuition, because it's counter-intuitive.  We usually think that if we can get all the 'externals' in our life in a certain way (the right car/house/woman/business/income/holidays/etc), then at that point we'll be happy.  But it doesn't work like that (IMO, and in many other people's opinion too).  As you say, that's part of the human condition.

I'd be interested to know how you know this?  A 12 Step program or some religious or spiritual path?

[Clive McDonald]

He's sort of right about think and grow rich too. Anything the human mind can concieve and believe it can achieve.Being the central message.

It stands up well and is brilliantly well written, hardly dated, and credited with making more millionaires than anything else on the planet.

Compare and contrast with the other well known book how to win friends and influence people by dale carnegie, and this is has become very wooden and corny now.

As to spiiritual beliefs let me guide you tosh, and be your guru,Happyness is coming on this forum and everyone agreeing with you (and 400 a day, and finding the right van).

[Londoner]

Well thank you for those kind words but I'm afraid that its just a product of getting older really rather than some deep inner wisdom.
Much of life is about getting on with what you have got. You only have one skin and have to live in it.

Also you have to tell the difference between reality and aspirational fantasy. So many things, even the crass stuff like X Factor makes us believe there is a world out there beyond the rainbow. If you buy this toothpaste or wear these clothes you will have a better life. Unfortunately life doesn't have a rewind button.

C S Lewis in Alice in Wonderland has Alice get to wonderland by stepping through a mirror. The symbolism of that is very significant. The Wizard of Oz, somewhere over the rainbow. Superman, Batman, Spiderman all had secret identities. Starting to see a pattern emerging?

Look at the nerdy kid who comes home from his failing school to his home on a run down council estate and jumps straight on his X Box and becomes a super hero battling all sorts of enemies, driving fast cars or playing as a footballer against Barcelona or whoever.

Its all escapism but for that you need to have something you want to escape from. Slumpy does it with his books, others I believe (don't want to offend anyone here) do it with religion. Drink, well we know about that.

I am 57 now, one of the blokes I went to school with has posted up on Friends Reunited that he now lives in Thailand with his Thai girlfriend who is 30 years his Junior. Is he fooling anyone?, he's not fooling me and I can't imagine he's fooling her when the lights are off, maybe he's just fooling himself.  

[Ian101]

Not read the book or some of these posts as too busy cleaning windows  

Is this possibly another example of trying to turn what must be one the most simplest businesses in the world into something far more complicated ..... like I say this job / business is not rocket science .... yes it can be improved and this "improvement" will be different things to different people depending what you want from window cleaning.

Wont bore u with my background / knowledge of big business but for me the simplicity of this business IMHO should be left as it is.