Franchising Window Works To Men In Kilts

The fun brand convinced Chris Carrier to sign on with Men in Kilts window washers. Click to enlarge.

Seasonal businesses use branding to keep busy all year long: There’s nothing quite like a man in a kilt in the middle of winter, standing up on a ladder cleaning windows, to get your attention. That is what Chris Carrier is banking on as he leads the Alberta expansion of Men in Kilts, a franchised window and exterior cleaning service brand. The company plans to grow across Canada and the United States. “The instant I saw the brand, I was captivated by it,” he says. “It’s just so memorable. I’ve never seen anything like it.” He spent 20 years building WindowWorks, and when his firm ran into difficulties expanding, he signed on with Vancouver-based Men in Kilts. “We were pretty confident we were making the right decision,” he says.

It’s only been a month, but the Calgary branch already has 39 employees and has retained most of its customers, including its first monthly customer from 20 years ago. There’s just one detail: It may be eye-catching and a fun brand, but colder markets mean some logistics need to be addressed. “We have some really warm socks,” Mr. Carrier jokes. “We want to make sure that our brand stands out, but not at the detriment of our people getting frostbite.” Keeping warm is one of many considerations that are unique to operating an outdoor, seasonal business. The window cleaning business spikes in the spring and fall, so to level business out over the year Mr. Carrier added carpet cleaning and snow removal.

How many services and what types are offered are tweaked according to each market. In Vancouver, for example, gutter cleaning and moss removal is part of the service offering, whereas snow removal is a bigger part of the franchise model in colder markets. The company now operates in Vancouver, Seattle, Fraser Valley, Calgary and soon Edmonton, Victoria and Portland. “You have to have some really clear guidelines and parameters for what you will and won’t do in terms of how you’re going to message that and train your employees to do that without getting too much off base,” says Tressa Wood, chief executive of Men in Kilts. “When you’re up a ladder, you have people asking you to do repairs or a touch-up with paint,” she says. “We have to tell them no, we don’t do painting or repairs. You have to stay focused — so customers are really clear on what we’re doing.”

After all, while it’s a highly memorable brand, it can be difficult to ascertain just what that guy in a kilt is doing up a ladder. However, she has not ruled out adding services down the road, such as lawn care or painting, but under completely separate franchise models with different training systems, startup costs and other system changes. “There’s a million things we could do and once we have that brand and get that initial footprint in the major metros, the opportunities really open up,” Ms. Wood says. “We’ve got to get windows and exteriors rolling first.”

Adapting what is often seen as a seasonal, outdoor business to different markets just comes with the territory. It may seem somewhat complicated to operate a franchise model this way, but Ms. Wood is confident the company is nimble enough to crack any market as it eyes expansion in warmer U.S. markets and colder Canadian ones. “There are tons of opportunities,” she says. “As we build up this huge customer database, we can go back three or four years later and start offering these other services under other lines.”

Mr. Carrier learned through experience what challenges were unique in operating an outdoor cleaning services company, whether it was adding snow removal or carpet cleaning (which isn’t part of the overall franchise model — yet). “As we learned to work with our customers and property managers to meet their needs throughout the year — the hills and valleys are less and less every year,” he says. Staffing is another key consideration. “If you’re having to restock the company with qualified labour every six months because of the seasonality of the business, it is quite challenging,” Mr. Carrier says. “We’ve been able to figure out a model that supports the staff staying with the company with minimal to no layoffs as we’ve grown.”

He also works hard to market all of his services, even in the dead of winter. “Our long Canadian winters make it very dreary because we’re often cooped up in our homes — and it’s so nice to get the windows cleaned in the middle of the winter,” he says. “It just improves the whole view.” Mr. Carrier plans to staff up the Edmonton operation later this summer as the chain continues its expansion across North America. And while long underwear will be needed for the cold months, he doesn’t regret his decision to join the Men in Kilts franchise and he’s confident the business will thrive. “The customers are having fun with the brand and we seem to be growing, so it’s all good,” he says.

More on Men In Kilts here.

"High-Rise" Window Cleaning Company Goes To Pot

Water leak leads to drug bust - Suspected pot found at office: A water leak in a South Forsyth business complex late last week led to the discovery of an apparent marijuana-growing operation. Derrick Eads (pictured), 50, of Sugar Hill was arrested Thursday by the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office and charged with one count each of manufacturing marijuana, possession with the intent to distribute and possession of marijuana more than an ounce. Eads was released Thursday night from the Forsyth County Detention Center after posting $33,330 bond, a jail spokeswoman said.

Authorities were called to Eads’ residential window-cleaning business off Union Hill Road after a maintenance worker discovered several marijuana plants in various stages of growth. Forsyth County Sheriff Ted Paxton said investigators got a search warrant for the suite, where they discovered 151 plants. “We don’t see much evidence of any window works going on in there,” Paxton said. He said authorities also found an expired business license inside the building for Georgia Window Works that reflected a different suite number than the one from which Eads was operating.

He said a neighboring business noticed water leaking into their facility from somewhere else and called a maintenance worker to check it out. The worker tracked the leak back to Eads’ business, where he found the plants and called authorities. The leak, Paxton said, apparently came from a large, plastic, makeshift aquarium that had overflowed. “That’s where the ‘mishap’ occurred,” Paxton said. Authorities found about 50 to 75 goldfish in the container.



From the desk of Derrick Eads, owner Georgia Window Works, Inc.

Several years ago I knew a man by the name of Jim Eggert. Jim owned 7 dry cleaners and out of nowhere, sold 6 and kept the last one as an owner-operator. At the time I was convinced he was doing something he would terribly regret…. but now I understand just how bright he really was. In 1993 we had 1 store. By 1996 we had expanded to operations in Texas and Florida. We had columnists from Entreprenuer and Small Business magazines wanting to do articles on our company, and offers to buy our company from Ohio to Oklahoma. We had it all, or so we thought.

Like most of the things I have learned in my life, I have learned the hard way that being bigger does not automatically mean being better, that emotionally and financially a well managed 1 location business beats multiple locations hands down....and like Jim and his dry cleaners, and to the dismay of our family and friends, as of January 1998 Window Works was once again a local 1 office company. Ironically, my family, our employees and our customers, have never been happier. It has also become apparent that we are now more organized, more efficient and more service oriented than we have ever been. It is a wonderful feeling and I suppose if we had to go through all that we have to get here, so be it.

Jim obviously was much wiser than I gave him credit for. To this day I can still hear him say "...Regardless of the business... if you offer a product or service at a reasonable price. If you don't cheat or lie to your customers. If you do what you told them you would and treat them like something more than a number,.... they will knock your doors down to do business with you..." Somewhere, that should be written in stone. We look forward to servicing you.
Derrick Eads, Owner, Window Works!