A Co' Window Cleaning Internet Address

They use a .co domain name, and to make it clear to readers that it’s .co and not .com, they put an / through an “m” next to it.

Check out what this company did with its .Co domain name - (It’s not .com). By Andrew Allemann: -Every once in a while I see a .co domain name around town. One of my favorites is mow.co, which is used by a local lawn mowing service. I was flipping through the Angie’s List magazine last night and saw an ad for a local window washing company. Something about the domain name looked funny.

I’ve never seen that before. They use a .co domain name, and to make it clear to readers that it’s .co and not .com, they put an / through an “m” next to it.

http://www.go.co/

.co is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Colombia. It is administered by .CO Internet S.A.S. As of July 10, 2010, there are no registration restrictions on second-level .co domains; any individual or entity in the world can register a .co domain.

.co has become increasingly popular among tech innovators, entrepreneurs and startups in Silicon Valley and worldwide, including AngelList, 500 Startups, VINE, Jelly, Brit + co among others. The .co domain is also used by many big brand innovators for social and mobile media, such as Twitter (t.co), Google Inc. (g.co), Amazon.com (a.co), American Express (amex.co) and Starbucks (sbux.co). .co domain names are available for registration globally through accredited registrars.

Internet Daredevil Window Cleaner Fined

This daredevil window cleaner is captured on film balancing on a ledge without a safety harness on the third floor of a building in Bath.

Internet star window cleaner who balanced on third floor ledge is fined £2,000 for breaking health and safety rules: A window cleaner who became a YouTube hit when he was filmed balancing on a third-floor ledge with no safety harness has been ordered to pay £2,000 for health and safety breaches. First reported here.

Fearless Wayne Mallon was caught on camera as he calmly climbed out of a top-floor window to carry out his work 40ft above the pavement. Passers-by watched in horror as he stepped onto the outside of a stone balustrade before walking around the building. A later clip showed him doing the same thing on the level below, but this time walking along the top of the narrow windows – again without any kind of safety equipment.

Self-employed Mallon, who works for Terry Mallon and Sons Cleaning Services, pleaded guilty to three health and safety charges at Bath Magistrates Court in Somerset. The 40-year-old was fined £400 for each of the offences and ordered to pay £800 in costs, as well as a £15 victim surcharge, bringing the total to £2,015.

Risky: Footage showed Wayne Mallon balancing precariously on a ledge without a safety harness as he climbed across the building - 40ft up - to clean its windows.

Mallon, of Whiteway, Bath, took to the windowsills above the Loch Fyne restaurant in Bath in September last year. It was filmed by a passing pedestrian and went viral on YouTube, attracting nearly 90,000 views to date. But the clip came to the attention of the health and safety team at Bath and North East Somerset Council, which brought charges against Mallon and Loch Fyne.

The restaurant chain faces six breaches of health and safety regulations, which will be dealt with this Friday. A spokesman from B&NES Council said: “The council, in common with the window cleaning industry, takes these issues seriously because of the dangers to the public and workers.

“Whilst working in this manner, Mr Mallon was putting not only his own safety at risk but also that of members of the public who were passing on the busy pavement below. “The council hopes that the fine and court costs of £2,000 incurred by Mr Mallon will deter businesses from putting themselves, other workers and members of the public at risk.”

He added: “Falls from height remain the most common cause of workplace fatality. “The council wishes to remind all businesses carrying out these activities that they must, for their own and other’s safety, familiarise themselves with legal requirements which in this case would have assured Mr Mallon’s safety.” 

 

Bath hotel fined over unsafe window cleaner: A restaurant and hotel firm has been fined £15,000 after a window cleaner was filmed balancing precariously on a ledge outside one of its buildings. Loch Fyne admitted one breach of health and safety law and was also ordered to pay costs of £3,023. Self-employed window cleaner Wayne Mallon was fined £2,000 on Monday. He was seen climbing along the ledges of the third floor of the Milsoms Hotel building - owned by Loch Fyne - in Bath without ladders or safety equipment. Mallon, of Whiteway, Bath, who works for Terry Mallon and Sons Cleaning Services, pleaded guilty to three health and safety charges at Bath Magistrates' Court

The footage went viral when it was posted on YouTube in September last year and has attracted more than 90,000 views to date. It came to the attention of the health and safety team at Bath and North East Somerset Council (Banes), which brought charges against Mallon and Loch Fyne, which has its roots on the west coast of Scotland. The film was shown to magistrates and Loch Fyne admitted allowing a contractor to work at height in an unsafe manner. 

Robin Wood, representing Banes, told the court that the firm had a duty of care to contractors. "If a suitable risk assessment had been carried out, Mr Mallon would not have endangered himself or others below in the way he did," he said. "There were a number of documents in place to make sure a risk assessment was possible but they were not being used and had not been checked by the company for more than eight years. "We have no evidence that this happened on more than one occasion, except he seemed to know what he was doing."

He added: "The video has been seen by more than 89,000 people on YouTube. It has also appeared in national newspapers and on television. "Window cleaners from around Europe have commented on YouTube. The industry itself is aware of this, and in some ways, they will take note of what has happened in this instance."

Speaking outside court, a Loch Fyne spokesman said the company took health and safety "extremely seriously" and expected the same from its contractors. "We accept today's decision and are grateful this isolated incident in Bath was brought to our attention. "As a result we have put tighter measures in place to prevent anything similar happening again, including stricter procedures for our restaurant manager to follow when using external contractors."

Loch Fyne, which employs 1,234 staff at 42 restaurants and four hotels, said it was the first time it had ever appeared in court. Speaking outside his home, Mallon said he was "very health and safety conscious". He added that only three of the hotel's 28 windows could be reached using "reach and wipe" equipment.

Homage To The Entrepreneur Window Cleaners.

Be very conscientious about doing an excellent job. Your dedication will help you better acquire business customers on a regular basis.

 Never have Entrepreneurs been so sexy. Young people everywhere who have tried working for someone else, realize the freedom & energy from being your own boss empowers your destiny. Put as much in as you get out! Window cleaners in general look for internet resources on a daily basis for peer reviews on products, trends & applications to take their businesses to the next level. Window cleaning hasn't stood still since the advent of the water-fed pole & other cleaning related work. Homage to the window cleaning forums & a special "hat tip" to Window Cleaning Resource in the USA, having just surpassed a six thousand (6000) membership, congratulations.

You need self-employed people around you or to converse with, for several very good reasons. First, employed people will struggle to understand you. If you have a bad day, you need someone to say “Yep, I know what you mean, that happpens to me too. It’ll be OK” rather than “Don’t worry, you can always go out and get a job”. I don’t have anything against employed people, by the way. It’s just that it’s a different way of thinking and you need at least a few people around you that think like you do.

Second, your perception of ‘normal’ comes from the people around you. If you’re the only self employed person you know, you’ll feel like a risk-taker who has recklessly leapt off the career ladder into a working wilderness. If you have a circle of self-employed people to interact with, you’ll (OK maybe eventually) feel like it’s an alternative career choice that has loads more possibilities for interesting and rewarding work. After all, it’s working out for them so why shouldn’t it work for you? If you have been in business for over five years, well done...

The U.S. Small Business Administration has seen lots of small businesses come and, unfortunately, go. According to the SBA, over 50% of small businesses fail in the first five years. The following are reasons for small business failure:

1. Lack of experience
2. Insufficient capital (money)
3. Poor location

4. Poor inventory management

5. Over-investment in fixed assets
6. Poor credit arrangements
7. Personal use of business funds
8. Unexpected growth
 

Gustav Berle adds two more reasons in The Do It Yourself Business Book:
 

9. Competition
10. Low sales

In his inauguration speech, President Obama paid homage to entrepreneurs. The path to greatness, he rhapsodized, has been paved by "the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things--some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom."

Almost three years later, it's clear he was spot on. Entrepreneurship has been one of the precious few bright spots in a terribly gloomy economy, and this new generation of entrepreneurs, both intentional and accidental, has taken it upon themselves to keep things chugging along. At the same time, starting a business gained serious cool cred.

Consider American Express' slick ad campaign featuring Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard; foursquare's founders as models in glossy Gap mag ads; and the cults of celebrity surrounding "the Zuck" and the late Steve Jobs. Even A-list stars like Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga added headlines to their clip files from startup-centric blogs like TechCrunch and Mashable.

"Entrepreneurship has become sexy in a lot of ways," says Clay Newbill, executive producer of ABC's Shark Tank, which features people pitching their dreams to a panel of deep-pocketed investors, including Mark Cuban.

Entrepreneurship has never been more practical, either. According to the Kauffman Foundation, 565,000 new businesses were created in 2010--the most in 15 years--as many new 'treps were forced into it by the downturn. "Young people know that there's a high likelihood they'll have to make it on their own," says Thomas Knapp, associate director at the University of Southern California's Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. USC has seen a 13.2 percent year-over-year increase in students taking entrepreneurship courses at the school.

An International Window Cleaning Directory - Free

www.windowcleanerdirectory.co.uk receives an overhaul: Window Cleaning Resources are pleased to announce that the No.1 ranking WINDOW CLEANER DIRECTORY has now been given an impressive overhaul.

You can now edit your listing  upload your logo, include other add on services and encourage your customers to give you a high rating and positive review. We’ve made lots of improvements to the user experience, making it as easy as possible for potential customers to find you.

Look up ‘window cleaners’ or ‘window cleaning’   in Google.co.uk and you will see that www.windowcleanerdirectory.co.uk is ranked very highly. We have now dedicated an entire web page to your listing giving you a much more detailed profile. Listing your business along with a link to your website remains completely free and will help drive traffic to your own site and likely boost its search engine rankings thanks to the links from the directory.

By popular request we have also included a category for International listings! Many window cleaners have already expressed thanks for the work they have received through the directory and we are confident that it will continue to be a valuable asset to your marketing efforts.

The overhaul of the directory is just the first step in a major overhaul planned and well underway behind the scenes for the Window Cleaning Resources sites which have proved to be a highly popular destination for window cleaners surfing the web in search of the best deals from suppliers, new products, tips and advice and window cleaning rounds for sale. (Watch this space!)

We encourage you to claim and update your listing  as soon as possible to benefit fully from this free service provided by Window Cleaning Resources.