The Window Cleaning Marsh Dynasty Advances

Donnie Marsh, owner of New View Window Cleaning, poses for a portrait on the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga campus Monday morning. Marsh is currently a business student at the university. Click to enlarge.

UTC student learns from father, starts own business: If you don't recognize this young chap - think podcast king! This is the son of Don Marsh, a former Gainesville Mayor runner & one of the most prolific window cleaning video makers out there. Don has been making videos for window cleaners who are new to the trade for quite a few years now. See here. Donnie also made the music for his fathers podcasts.

• Name: New View Window Cleaning

• Location: Chattanooga

• Contact information: Owner Donnie Marsh, 352-672-3532

• Products/services: Window cleaning and pressure washing for business and residential customers

• Age: Marsh has 20 years of experience cleaning windows with his father's business in Gainesville, Fla., but started New View when he moved to Chattanooga in December.

• Family history: Marsh has cleaned windows for nearly all his life. When he was a child, his father would take him to work so the two could spend time together.

• Getting started: Marsh came to Chattanooga to pursue a master's degree in business at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. "I moved here never wanting to clean another window," he said. But window washing offers a steady income, and Marsh soon found himself starting his own business. "I'm really enjoying it. When I said I never wanted to clean windows again, I didn't even consider the possibility of owning my own business."

• Future goals: Marsh plans to apply his studies to running the business. He hopes to continue to grow it past graduation, one day possibly franchising. "I will never sell. I want to keep doing this," he said.

• Target market: Small commercial customers don't pay as well as residential jobs, but home work is seasonal, hitting mostly during pollen season and right before the holidays. Marsh hopes to split his time between the two types of clients to keep business steady and sheltered from economic factors outside his control.

• Biggest hurdle: Networking to find customers. "I didn't really have any connections," Marsh said. "It didn't really matter how good I was if nobody knew who I was." So Marsh joined the local chapter of business networking group BNI. Now he pulls about 75 percent of his business from people he met through the group.

• Biggest reward: Owning his own business. Marsh said he wouldn't trade anything for the ability to set his own rates and schedule, allowing him to spend time with his friends and family. "There are so many positives," he said. "If it is possible for you to work for yourself and survive doing it, you should."

Just some of Dons videos, click to travel.

Unlucky Window Cleaner Don Misses Mayoral Position By 42 Votes

The two-term city commissioner has officially won the election over challenger Don Marsh by 42 votes. Craig Lowe waited to celebrate. Not until the Gainesville canvassing board signed off on the results and the chairman announced the election was done did Lowe unwind. His supporters cheered, and he smiled.

At the other end of the room, Don Marsh's team looked on. After a recount Friday at the Alachua County Elections Operations Center, the numbers in the mayoral runoff election were unchanged: 6,110 votes for Lowe, 6,068 votes for Marsh. Lowe, 52, a two-term city commissioner, said afterward he was glad the election was over. The campaign stretched on for four weeks after going to a runoff and quickly turned ugly after Election Day.

On April 1, Marsh wrote a blog post titled "Craig Lowe Plays Dirty," and on Tuesday, Lowe said Marsh ran the "dirtiest campaign in the history of Gainesville," each accusing the other of playing off Lowe's homosexuality. But after the recount, Richard Sheppard, Marsh's campaign manager, shook Lowe's hand and congratulated him, calling him "Mr. Mayor." Lowe said he had a good conversation with Sheppard and that it was time to move on.

"Now that the election's over, we'll all need to go home and be neighbors and work together to make Gainesville a better community," he said. Because Lowe's margin of victory Tuesday was less than 0.5 percent, there was a mandatory machine recount. The canvassing board, which oversees city elections, watched as poll workers ran more than 12,000 ballots back through the machines. If the margin had dipped below 0.25 percent, there would have been a hand recount. But that didn't happen. And now that the recount is complete, Marsh, who didn't observe the proceedings, has 10 days to file an appeal in state circuit court. It doesn't appear that will happen.

Marsh, who runs his own window-cleaning operation and has never held political office, said, "I'm moving on. I've got other things to do." While he said he didn't plan to call Lowe, Marsh said he would like to be seated next to Lowe at City Hall next year, when he plans to run for a spot on the City Commission. He said he is gunning for either Lauren Poe's District 2 seat or Thomas Hawkins' at-large seat. "I still believe these issues are still going to be the same next year," he said, referring to high utility rates and other issues he brought up in the campaign. "We had a message, and we had something that resonated."

Getting our lives back: Right now I am getting ready to get back to work and our normal lives. To my supporters, I say this: I am not giving up. The political process is a continuing story. As long as we have a high cost of living heaped upon us by our local government, it should be resisted. Our city commission may learn nothing from our campaign and keep raising our utility rates in the future, and increasing the size of government, and this must be addressed again in next year’s election. There are 3 seats to contest, and we must have like minded people challenging them.

As Zig Ziglar says, “Failure is an event, not a person”. We are not failures for having tried to hold an incumbent accountable. We will build on the support we have and make them listen to us next year. I thank you for having supported me in this effort, and I hope you will do so again. We came so close. Next time, I believe we will achieve a different result.

Don is famed for his window cleaning tips on You-Tube here.

Don Marsh the Window Cleaner: "Transparency Through Technology"

Don Marsh: Transparency through technology - Running for mayor in the bluest city in this part of the state, Don Marsh is the reddest of the five Gainesville mayoral contenders. The other day, Marsh, 51, with his blue eyes, blue T-shirt and blue jeans talked about his first rodeo as the red guy - his run for Alachua County commissioner in 2002. Marsh, a Republican, received 33.67 percent of the vote in a loss to Cynthia Chestnut, a Democrat. "It made me more understanding of public officials," he said, "though I still reserve the right to roundly criticize them."

In the early 1980s, Marsh and his wife, Cindi, moved from Clearwater to Gainesville for work. But soon afterward the job was pulled out from under him, he said. "I'm a high school graduate in a college town," he said. So with no degree, he felt he had to create a job for himself. And he did. He started a window cleaning business by one day buying a squeegee, and now, nearly three decades later, he's still washing windows. "I never thought that an education was something on paper," he said. "It's something that's in your head."

In 2004, he started a Web site, Alachua Voter Guide, as a melding of his interests in both the Internet and local politics "I wanted people to know what was going on," he explained. During his campaign, he has employed Facebook, Twitter and his blog to get his message across. As mayor, Marsh said he would use the electronic media to offer "unvarnished truth" and "real transparency" to the public. Marsh, a supporter of the Tea Party movement, said his main issue, if elected, would be lowering utility bills.

Gainesville Regional Utilities "is fundamental to our economic ecosystem here, and if we screw that up, we put ourselves in a hole that we can hardly get out of," he said. In the campaign, Marsh has raised the second-least amount of money among the five candidates, but he said he is confident going into the election Tuesday. "I'm not a quitter. I started my business with next to nothing," he said, adding that "on Election Day they count the votes, not the money."

Questions for the candidates - The Sun asked each candidate the same four questions, asking them to keep their answers to 50 words or less...

How would you handle the city's projected budget deficit of roughly $7 million?
Stop ambitious road-narrowing projects, cancel One-Stop center, sell or lease Ironwood Golf Course, eliminate the office of Communications and Marketing, staff reductions for non-essentials, move to open source software licenses, hold more review board meetings online, collect rent on more cell towers.

What would you do to alleviate the city's issue of homelessness?
It is time to cultivate a good relationship with our houses of worship. These are the people who are most willing to help them for free, and we need a healthy working relationship with them.

What would your top priority be in office?
Reduce the transfer rate from GRU and stop hiding our taxes there. Then, lobbying state and federal authorities to lift the moratorium on coal power plants. We will use alternative fuels when we can afford them.

Why are you the best person for the position?
I want all the right things -- fire and police protection, affordable standard of living, job opportunities in a positive business environment. And I am willing to drag every project out into the light and let the citizens see it so we can either own it or reject it.

Base Jumping, Phones & Politics - Window Cleaners Adventures

Aussie daredevil makes BASE jumping history: A young Aussie thrill-seeker has made BASE jumping history with a breathtaking launch off a rope swing in the Blue Mountains. The 26-year-old man has even captured his amazing feat on camera: using a 30m rope, known as the 'Death Swing', to launch himself off a mountain cliff top and perform a graceful double-backflip before opening his parachute just 150m from the ground. The young Sydney resident, who goes by the adopted name Lucky Chance, said he had prepared for the jump for nearly a year and was thrilled with his success. "I grew up in the Blue Mountains and I knew this spot was awesome," Mr Chance told ninemsn. "To be able to swing out and just let go … there's nothing like it."
But Mr Chance said taking the jump was not as smooth as it seemed on camera. "On the day of the video it was atrocious conditions, really windy … I hit the ground pretty hard and thrashed my hands and ankles." Mr Chance, who changed his name while working for a circus, performed the stunt one day last month after hiking 5km to the jumping point through a trail. The 'Death Swing' is a rope swing attached to a peak at a secret location in the NSW Blue Mountains National Park. Most daredevils who ride the swing use a harness to keep them secured to the rope; Mr Chance is the first person to ever let go.

He also believes he is the first Australian to ever perform a rope swing-to-BASE jump. "It was just amazing to watch," Mr Caple told ninemsn. "Lucky's been doing crazy things for a long time but this is probably one of the craziest." Mr Chance, who also is an expert rock climber, began BASE jumping four years ago during a trip to Europe. "I haven't been doing it very long but I know it's what I want to do," he said. "It gives me a purpose in life." Although Mr Chance admits park rangers might not have been happy with his latest jump — he said he believes he has done nothing wrong. "Taking into account my ability, and the safety precautions I took, it was safe," he said. "I wasn't doing anything wrong and I wasn't hurting anybody."
A NSW Blue Mountains National Park spokesman told ninemsn the use of the 'Death Swing' was "not an approved activity within the park at all". "The 'Death Swing' is an activity that is more dangerous and less controlled than either climbing or abseiling and requires specific permission to be carried out," the spokesman said. "People who are doing this activity are placing themselves at risk as well as emergency personnel who have to retrieve them when something goes wrong." The spokesman also said other high risk pursuits such as base jumping, hang gliding and bungee jumping are not permitted in the park due to "the great potential for personal injury". But for Mr Chance, who works as a window cleaner in Sydney's CBD, his latest feat is only the beginning. "I want to keep pushing the limits … I want to do a quadruple backflip next time." More lucky window cleaning videos here.

Cellphone stop led to drunk-driving charge: KITCHENER — An OPP officer must have forgotten about the three-month grace period for drivers using hand-held cellphones last November. The officer stopped Gerry Koolen’s pickup truck on Highway 85 in Kitchener the afternoon of Nov. 25. He wasn’t speeding or driving erratically, Kitchener’s Ontario Court heard Wednesday. Koolen was talking on a hand-held cellphone. The officer charged him under the new law that had gone into effect barely a month earlier, on Oct. 29.
Most traffic officers were observing a three-month grace period and simply issuing warnings at that time. Police throughout Ontario only began enforcing the law on Monday. The OPP officer also charged Koolen with driving with more than the legally allowable amount of alcohol in his blood. He noted a boozy odour on Koolen’s breath after speaking to him, court heard. Koolen admitted to drinking three beers and failed a roadside test. Prosecutor Mark Poland withdrew the cellphone charge. He said it was the first he’d seen. Koolen pleaded guilty to the drunk-driving charge and was fined $1,200.
His lawyer, Darwin Witmer, said outside court police probably laid the cellphone charge to justify stopping him. He would have faced a $125 ticket plus a $30 surcharge if convicted. More concerning to Koolen was the 18-month driving prohibition imposed by the judge. He owns a window-cleaning business that employs nine staff. He has clients across the province and has been forced to get staff to drive him to job sites, Witmer said. Koolen, 46, was convicted of impaired driving in 1991 and had what Justice Michael Epstein called “an atrocious’’ Highway Traffic Act record. It includes convictions for speeding and failing to remain at the scene of an accident. “I realize I did wrong,’’ Koolen told the judge. “I need my licence. I apologize. It won’t happen again.’’

A local political action committee asked candidates running for Gainesville mayor and the City Commission District 4 seat questions about how they would increase the quality of life in east Gainesville for the city's black population before voting to endorse one candidate in each race. The 10 candidates - five each in the mayor's race and for the District 4 seat - took part in a candidate's forum hosted Monday night by the African American Coalition for Political Action, which is made up of members of the African American Accountability Alliance of Alachua County, or 4As. The city election will take place March 16. Early voting will be held March 8-13.
More than 50 people attended the forum at the Alachua County Health Department, which ended with the group endorsing two political veterans - current District 4 city Commissioner Craig Lowe for mayor and former Alachua County Commissioner Penny Wheat in the District 4 City Commission race. All of the candidates each gave two-minute opening statements before having 90 seconds to respond to questions concerning the black community. One of the questions asked mayoral candidates was to identify three critical needs in the black community and their plans to address them. Don Marsh (pictured left), who has owned a local window cleaning business for 29 years, said the top three critical needs to him are more job opportunities, clean air and clean water.

Don the Window Cleaner Visits the Guru

Don the window cleaner of pod-cast fame, also featured in other blogs on this channel has re-hashed his website called "Don the window cleaner" & will now be giving out information & advice besides carrying on his pod-casts. His forum is still active & feel free to sign up

Don is a website designer, blogger, photographer, local political analyst, and also has over 60,000 hours in the WINDOW CLEANING BUSINESS since 1981! He started out absolutley broke, on food stamps, unable to pay the rent, and wrote a bad check for a squeegee to start his business in Gainesville in Florida during a recession! If you Join now, then go to the downloads page and get the 12-page White Paper on getting started with route sales. This will get you started in the business, and you can start laying the foundation for your business tomorrow! Or today, if you are reading this early enough in the morning!

After that, stay up to date with advertising methods, downloadable templates for sales letters, fax proposals, software tutorials, personal videos from Don, and responses from the latest email and voicemails. This site is your web magazine that carries materials specifically made for the self-employed window cleaner. Click on Don's picture to take you to his new website. This pod-cast, Don tells us how he visited Knoxville, Tennessee for a little advice.

Here is Don working away on a bitterly cold morning...