Let There Be Light

Jeremiah Olsen, a 23-year-old entrepreneur, calls his business, "Let there be Light," his love child. The Provo-based window cleaning and Christmas lights installation company is the first of many businesses Olsen plans to start. He and his partners, Lance and Ryan Wight, want to learn as much as they can from running the company, and apply those lessons to their future ventures. “I’ll know I’ll be making a lot of mistakes with my first company,” he said. For instance, undercutting the competition helped the company gain market share, but also hurt its profit margins and ability to expand, he said.
“The profit margins for window cleaning aren’t very big. if we undercut other companies to win a customer, the margins become so small that the account becomes barely profitable,” Olsen said. “As owners, we know the costs associated so we know how low we can go when we undercut our competition in the lighting business. But it’s hard to train competent sales staff, some of whom undersold their accounts. Without good sales people, we can’t expand.” But he said he has learned a lot from dealing with different companies, how to negotiate better prices, what types of services customers want, and what they’re willing to pay per month for certain services.
While Christmas lights and decoration installations account for 70 percent of his company’s revenue, Olsen struggles with generating steady cash-flow during the off-holiday season. For tips on managing cash flow, he turned to Peter Robinson, Morris Professor of Entrepreneurship at Utah Valley University’s Woodbury School of Business.

• The story

Olsen and his partners were selling pest control services for EcoSure in Provo when the idea for their business began. “Lance and Ryan had worked for a Christmas lights installation company in Ogden, and they thought it would be a great way to bring in income during winter,” Olsen said. Founded in 2008, let there be Light began installing holiday lights and decorations in residential areas — primarily for homes that are more than 2,700 square feet — and then later, commercial buildings. It also sells holiday lights for wholesalers like Sprinkler World in Orem. Last year, the company added window cleaning and other handyman services, which now account for 30 percent of its revenues. The company, which is now looking at adding pest control, power spraying and other services, has two offices in Provo and Ogden. It has a total of 250 customers including 200 in Utah County and the rest in Ogden and the Salt Lake area.

• The advice

Develop a whole home service package for your customers, and sell it as a time saver, Robinson said. For say $100 a month, you can provide services every quarter like installing holiday lights, window cleaning, gutter cleaning, pressure washing, pest control, tree pruning, adding water softener salts, changing furnace filters and batteries in smoke detectors, and lawn fertilizing services. These services can be customized and priced accordingly. “You’re basically providing services that home owners don’t want to do themselves either because they have no time or they don’t want to, or forget about doing,” he said. “It’s value-added with very minimal costs.” Depending on the services you provide, you may want to set up a multi-year contract with clients who just want you to install their Christmas lights and decorations, Robinson said. “If you’re doing the whole home concept, you can do a yearly or a two year contract, because toward the second year, you may see costs going up enough that you would want to renegotiate the following year.”
Developing alliances or partnerships with pest control and lawncare service companies and outsourcing work to them could help bring in additional revenue for the company. “What you’re good at is sales, and if that’s what you do best, subcontract everything else. You just make the sale, get the companies to guarantee their work, and get 10 percent to 20 percent off the contract,” he said. “You still want to be providing some value-added services because you want to be able to maintain personal contact with your customers, and be able to assess their needs and up-sell them.” Developing an advisory board or a group of three to five business mentors and meeting with them on a quarterly basis to tap their expertise could also help Olsen’s business, Robinson said.” You can bring up problems you have, ask for suggestions on services you can offer and build the business with the customer in mind,” he said.



The Business: Let there Be Light
The Players: Jeremiah Olsen, 23, co-owner, manages accounts acquisition and accounting; Lance Wight, 23, and Ryan Wight, 23, co-owners are both responsible for account acquisition and management.
The Service: Installs Christmas lights and decorations, provides window cleaning services to homes and businesses.
Bottom Line: Annual revenues of $40,000 a year
Contact: 801-870-0166

The Challenge: How to generate steady income throughout the year especially during the off-Christmas holiday season? How to provide more value-added services and improve profitability?

Window Cleaning News

Window Cleaning Father and daughter killed in waterfall named: A father and this three-year-old daughter killed when they fell 50 feetdown a steep embankment and into a river were found in each other’s arms. James Gallacher and his little girl Sorraya were yesterday named as the pair who died in the tragic accident near Nantcol waterfall in Llanbedr, Harlech. Mr Gallacher, aged 35, and Sorraya, from Partington in Manchester, were on a camping holiday with his girlfriend, his sister Ellen and her boyfriend Jon Finch and their four-year-old son, at Shell Island, Mochras. Yesterday Mr Finch’s devastated sister Zena described what happened. She said: “They had all had a great day playing on the beach and were on their way to the shop to get some beers for when they got back to the camp site. “They saw the sign for the nature trail and thought they would have a look. They were following the path. Sorraya was picked up by her dad when he just slipped. “One minute he was there and the next he was gone.”
Ms Finch said her brother scrambled down the slope to the river but could not find the pair as the water was too deep. Two helicopters were scrambled and divers searched the river before the bodies were found under a rockshelf in a pool at the bottom of the waterfall around two hours later. Ms Finch said: “It was all really sudden. He banged his head and went under a rock. And when the rescuers found them, she was still in his arms.” She angrily dismissed speculation that window-cleaner Mr Gallacher had been larking around on the path above the river moments before the tragedy. “He would never have put his daughter in danger,” she said. “He was a strong swimmer and he was familiar with the outdoors. He had two children with him and he was not messing about. He would never have done that.” Yesterday a message of sympathy for the family came from Margaret Woodhouse, director of education and early years services at Trafford Council, Manchester. She said: “We have been notified of the tragic deaths of Soraya and her father in Wales and our sincere condolences and sympathy go to all their family and friends at this most tragic time in their lives.”
North West Wales coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones opened and adjourned an inquest into the deaths. Local divers Richard Workman, 30, and James Hordley, 21, who are cousins, assisted police and recovered the bodies. Mr Workman, who manages the Shell Island campsite, said: “I can’t imagine what the mother is going through.” A joint investigation into the inciden between police, Gwynedd council and the Health and Safety Executive was continuing last night.

Service supplier wins new contract to clean Argos stores: Interserve, the services, maintenance and building group, has announced that it has added to its portfolio of national retail support services contracts by signing a multi-million pound deal with leading high street retailer, Argos. The contract involves store cleaning, window cleaning, high level cleaning and warehouse cleaning at Argos’s 745 stores across the UK. Interserve states that it will transfer approximately 1500 staff under TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings, Protection of Employment) following Argos’s decision to outsource its cleaning requirements to one supplier. This approach is intended to save the retailer money whilst improving service quality. Interserve reports that it will be working with Argos to improve the quality, sustainability and customer experience throughout the store estate.
Tony Sanders, Interserve commercial managing director, said: 'The retail sector is perhaps more competitive than ever and we are delighted to have secured Argos as one of our key accounts under a full national portfolio. 'We are also pleased to now become the preferred supplier for cleaning and associated services across the Home Retail Group. We now manage around 50 million square feet of retail space as our retail team and capability goes from strength to strength.' Will Jary, operational support manager at Argos said: 'We were impressed by Interserve’s proposal which demonstrates its great attention to both cost and service quality. Interserve has great experience in TUPE transfers and sustainability which also makes it a natural choice for this contract.' Interserve has highlighted its commitment to staff training and development through the creation of a cleaning apprenticeship in partnership with Asset Skills, the Sector Skills Council for facilities management and cleaning.

ABM Industries Inc. (ABM) is our insider buying stock of the week. ABM Industries Incorporated, through its subsidiaries, provides janitorial, parking, security, and engineering services for commercial, industrial, institutional, and retail facilities primarily in the United States. It operates in four segments: Janitorial, Parking, Security, and Engineering. The Janitorial segment provides floor cleaning and finishing, window washing, furniture polishing, and carpet cleaning and dusting, as well as other building cleaning services for customers in various facilities, including commercial office buildings, industrial facilities, financial institutions, retail stores, shopping centers, warehouses, airport terminals, health facilities and educational institutions, stadiums and arenas, and government buildings.

Saturn Apartments By Hisae Iwaoka (Rated ‘T’ for teens). A touching, character-rich vision of an intriguing new world. Far in the future, humankind has evacuated the Earth in order to preserve it. Humans now reside in a gigantic structure that forms a ring around the Earth, thirty-five kilometers up in the sky. The society of the ring is highly stratified: the higher the floor, the greater the status. Mitsu, the lowly son of a window washer, has just graduated junior high. When his father disappears and is assumed dead, Mitsu must take on his father’s occupation. As he struggles with the transition to working life, Mitsu’s job treats him to an outsider’s view into the various living-room dioramas of the Saturn Apartments.

A Tarentum man is accused of running over another man with an SUV and then trying to flee police early Saturday. The injured man, Robert R. Michel, 42, of Brackenridge Avenue, Brackenridge, was in critical condition uesterday in Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh. Police said Albert Davalos, 38, of West Seventh Avenue, Tarentum, is facing attempted homicide and a host of other charges. He was in the Allegheny County Jail yesterday in lieu of $250,000 bond. Police said the men argued inside Michel's bar, the Argonne Inn on Argonne Drive, before the confrontation happened outside. Davalos, who police said is a self-employed window washer, was arrested after a short but spectacular chase.
Harrison Police Chief Mike Klein said an officer arriving at about 1:05 a.m. saw an SUV speeding away from the bar. The officer gave chase about 40 yards up Argonne Drive to a sharp bend and then down a hill onto the short, narrow and winding Vermont Street. Along the way, the Ford Explorer that Davalos was driving was disabled after careening into a guardrail on the left side of the road. The SUV hit with enough force to break off a wheel at the axle, police said. The chase ended a short distance away along Mile Lock Lane, which intersects Vermont Street. Klein said Davalos was arrested without further incident. Allegheny County Police also are investigating. In addition to attempted homicide, Davalos is charged with drunken driving, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and fleeing or attempting to elude police, said Assistant County Police Superintendent James Morton.

Denver window washer Roger Schlenger stopped buying health insurance five years ago. His salary just couldn't keep up with rising cost of insurance. "Something had to go," he said Monday. "Whether it was my transportation, paying my insurance, food in my belly or not having roof over my head," he added. Schlenger is one of those hoping that Congress will move on a health care overhaul. His comments to 7NEWS came as President Barack Obama pushed back hard against Republican critics. "We can't afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care," Obama said after meeting with doctors, nurses and other health care workers at Children's National Medical Center. "Not this time. Not now. There are too many lives and livelihoods at stake."

Ogden to forgo clean windows: It’s a dirty job, but at least for now, no one has to do it. The city will forgo window washing over the next year at the Municipal Building, reduce newspaper subscriptions and undertake other cost-saving measures to cope with a $2.2 million reduction in its general fund budget. The general fund has been reduced from about $51.1 million in fiscal 2009 to $49.9 million in the city’s fiscal 2010 budget largely because of a decrease in sales tax revenues, projected to reach only about $12.4 million. "There may be a continual slide in the economy (in fiscal 2010 that began July 10)," said John Arrington, the city’s finance manager. The city budgeted to receive about $15.2 million in sales tax this year but will likely get only about $12.7 million, he said. As a result, the city is implementing various money-saving strategies, said Mark Johnson, the municipality’s management services director. "We are being as frugal as we can in every area," he said. For example, the city will discontinue window-washing services at the Municipal Building for the next year, which should save about $1,500 to $2,000, Johnson said. The task may resume when the economy improves. "I don’t think we can go forever without washing windows," Johnson said.