Window Cleaning Snippets

Fired up for 40 years: There isn't much Brian Edwards hasn’t done in his four decades with the Fire Service. He has even appeared in one of its fundraising calendars, although he swears he had all his clothes on for the picture. "The picture was where the intro was," he says. The Auckland city area commander was recently honoured for 40 years of service with a surprise morning tea with colleagues. Mr Edwards joined the Fire Service on February 1, 1970 at the city station, although he has moved around other Auckland stations during his career. "I had a feeling it was something to do. I knew even before I left school. My father brought me into the central fire station and I talked to some people." Despite his interest in being a firefighter, he didn’t join up right away. Instead he took up various other jobs like driving a van and washing high-
rise windows, which is where he got his head for heights. "I knew I couldn’t keep doing it forever, I had to do something I wanted to do. It’s always a hard decision to make financially, window cleaning was quite lucrative."

I’m fixing to call myself something else: Well why not? Everyone else is. I’m not quite sure when this renaming of jobs for the sake of political correctness started. The first time I noticed it was when I was in a ritzy restaurant. I couldn’t seem to get waited on so I asked the maitre’ d if he could send a waiter my way. He tossed his head in a snotty manner and told me he would send a “Food Nourishment Consultant” my way immediately. All I wanted was a waiter. It wasn’t long after that when I called a business firm to locate one of their employees. When I asked for the personnel department, I was transferred and a new voice said, “Human Resources Department.”
I knew things were really getting out of hand when I requested a company to send a house painter to give me an estimate. The next day a guy showed up and told me he was a “Color Distribution Technician” and he was there to give me an estimate. All I wanted was a painter. When I told him I was also looking for someone to clean my windows, he told me he would have a “Transparency Enhancement Facilitator” contact me. I told him that wouldn’t be necessary because all I wanted was a window washer.

ServiceLive hooks up homeowners, service providers online: How do you find someone to fix your roof, seal your driveway or set up your Wi-fi network? How do you find work as a dog walker, drywall repairer or window washer? A new Internet-based service, ServiceLive, hopes to become that matchmaker, and with more than 35,000 service providers already signed up, appears to have the magnitude to make a good run at dominating this market. How does this work? Say, for example, I need to have my gutters cleaned. I would log onto ServiceLive, register, then fill out the electronic form with details about what I needed done and when. I could choose to post the job at a flat fee I was willing to pay, or I have the option of asking those whom I choose to include in the auction to name their price. For the gutter job, for example, I would expect to pay around $100.

Director of UK Commercial Cleaning rewarded for 'outstanding vision': An entrepreneur from Tyneside who turned his £300 window cleaning round into a multi-million pound national business was last night named the top young director in the region. Tony Earnshaw, who is expanding his Washington company after winning backing from television “dragon” Duncan Bannatyne, was given the Young Director of the Year Award by the Institute of Directors (IoD).
Mr Earnshaw, 25, started in business at 18 when he bought a burger van and now employs 20 staff at UK Commercial Cleaning (UKCC) and is opening franchises of the business across the UK. His award was made during the first 30 Under 30 event launched by the IoD to highlight the 30 most promising young business people in the North East.
Richard Elphick, IoD North East chairman, said: “Those vying for the IoD North East Young Director of the Year award prove that the region has a depth and breadth of go-ahead young directors involved in a wide variety of roles, all making a crucial contribution to the economic well-being of the North East. “We felt that Tony Earnshaw should be named as the winner as he has demonstrated outstanding vision, drive and business acumen to take his business forward.” Mr Earnshaw exemplifies the resourcefulness and drive of the best young directors. He bought a burger van for £50 and then bought a window cleaning round for £300 and within six months he was turning over £6,000 a month.
He sold that business to launch UKCC and last year his business plan impressed Darlington leisure entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne on the Dragons’ Den television show and got him a £100,000 investment for a 35% stake in the firm. The speaker at last night’s 30 Under 30 dinner at the Radisson Hotel in Durham was former Ratners jewellery store chain boss Gerald Ratner, who hit national headlines after describing some of his own products as “crap” but returned to launch Gerald Online in partnership with Goldsmiths. “If I can come back from where I was in the gutter and build another successful jewellery business then anyone can,” he said. The former market trader said his own story showed you can never predict the future in business.

At the dinner, held at the Raddison SAS hotel, in Durham City, the IoD North- East named Tony Earnshaw, 25, as the winner of its inaugural 30 under 30 Young Director of the Year award. Mr Earnshaw, who won the backing of Duncan Bannatyne on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den, developed a window cleaning round in Washington, Wearside, into UK Commercial Cleaning Services (UKCC), a £1.5m turnover business, employing 20 people, which is to be franchised across the UK.
Richard Elphick, IoD North-East chairman, said: “Those vying for the IoD North-East Young Director of the Year award prove that the region has a depth and breadth of go-ahead young directors involved in a wide variety of roles, all making a crucial contribution to the economic well-being of the North-East.”

A pscyhiatric nurse said to have sexually abused a schoolgirl told her mother he was having an affair with the child when she was 13, a court has heard. The mother told Bristol Crown Court she took her child to the police and Paul Isaac was cautioned for his behaviour. She said, however, Isaac continued to see the child and the youngster later revealed he raped her. It is claimed churchgoing Isaac forced himself on the youngster on several occasions from when she was aged 14. Isaac, 42 of Deering Close, Lawrence Weston, denies five charges of raping the youngster. He also denies indecently assaulting her, but has pleaded guilty to a charge of indecency with a child. The court heard that when police interviewed the girl she told them Isaac had touched her sexually several times. Isaac was given a caution, lost his nursing job and took up window cleaning.

Although the government is forecasting that Grand Bahama's economy will perform better this year, Minister of State for Finance Zhivargo Laing advised residents yesterday that the gains enjoyed will be modest and it is up to them to adjust their mindsets to take advantage of the potential opportunities available and create economic prospects for themselves. "In terms of a multiplier effect, such construction activity could translate further into between $30 and $45 million in economic activity for Grand Bahama's economy," he said. "My estimate is that there is more than $3 million in home services activities – window cleaning, landscaping, small repairs, et cetera – annually in Grand Bahama, untapped at this time and that is a very conservative figure."

Replacement Windows and Siding Have New EPA Requirements: The new EPA rules for Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting go into effect. Replacement windows and siding fall under the new rules. The new rules are meant to protect young children and pregnant women from lead poisoning from lead based paints. A large list of training, certification and work practice requirements are called for by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Lead-Based Paint Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Program. The RRP Program takes effect in April 2010. By then, renovation firms must receive EPA certification to disturb lead paint as part of their work in pre-1978 housing and child-occupied facilities. All of these jobs must be supervised by certified renovators; individuals who have completed an EPA-accredited, training course. Plus, other crew members on such job sites must be trained and equipped to follow the RRP Program’s lead-safe work practices while performing their work. This EPA program is a federal regulatory program affecting renovation firms and individual workers who disturb lead base painted surfaces.
Renovation is broadly defined as any activity that disturbs painted surfaces and includes most repair, remodeling and maintenance activities, including window replacement and siding replacement. Under EPA’s RRP Program, both construction firms and individual workers who perform (or direct other workers to perform) renovations must be certified by EPA by April 2010. In addition, all crew members must be trained on the lead-safe work practices that they must use when performing their work. The certified renovator is required to ensure that the renovation is performed in accordance with the work practice standards of the RRP Program, among other things. These requirements pertain to warning signs and work area containment, the restriction or prohibition of certain practices, waste handling, cleaning and post-renovation cleaning verification.

Through Time Trader, individuals and families donate an hour of their time and talent, and in return, they receive a Time Dollar that they can use to buy an hour of another individual's or family's time and talent. Individuals offer services (talents) that include landscaping, cooking lessons and dog walking. In return, they purchase services that include Spanish tutoring, clarinet lessons and carpet cleaning. Once your paperwork is complete and approved, you will be invited to enter the Time Trader Web site, create an online member profile as well as your service offers (things you can help others with) and service requests (things you'd like others to help you with). You can also view other members' service offers (interior design, menu planning, mending) and service requests (window washing, photo scanning, dance instructor). Then it's time to start trading.

I can't give more: By Miriam Stoppard.
Dear Miriam,
My daughter's husband is self-employed as a window cleaner. Because of the recession he's lost half his clients. He used to be a bus driver but gave up because he didn't like the long hours, heavy traffic and bad drivers. They're very tight for money and I've been helping them out but I only had a small amount in savings and it's virtually all gone. My daughter wants her husband to go back on the buses or get another job to give them a regular income but he won't listen and give up the business. They have two little girls and I worry about them going short of food and warmth. What can I do? Muriel.

Dear Muriel,
Pride won't pay the bills but criticising him won't help either. He probably already feels bad enough. Your daughter should be sensitive and start by acknowledging how hard he's worked to set up his business. She can then suggest he also takes a salaried job temporarily until he can win new customers. Meanwhile, he should run off leaflets and put them through letter boxes. Your local Citizens Advice Bureau can tell you if the family is eligible for any benefits like Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit.