We were lucky to catch up with Christopher Simmons recently and have shared our conversation below.

Christopher, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

Last time I shared about starting Window Cleaners of Brandon, and my desire to be there for my kids instead of pursuing a traditional fulltime job. I believe there’s a lot of people in similar situations who for whatever reason only want to work 15-25 hours per week, but that doesn’t mean they’re wanting an “entry level” position. The problem with our current job opportunities out there is it’s either 40-60 hours per week where you really need to be fully committed to the job, and let your personal life come 2nd OR you have to settle for a part-time “starter job”. There’s no happy middle it seems like, and that’s the whole idea behind Window Cleaners of Brandon. This business was started as a way for me to work 15-25 hours per week to still be there for my kids after school instead of paying daycare etc… The reason I didn’t simply grab a part-time job is because it’s really rare to find a part-time position that pays really well, and understands that time off matters more than work. This is why the way that I’m scaling up is NOT by hiring fulltime employees as traditional business advice would tell you. I’m targeting the work force that’s caught in the awkward middle. The people who commonly settle for using their own car to deliver groceries, or drive passengers around to make money because that seems to be the only way to have a truly flexible schedule. Amazon has figured this out already, and is giving people the option to deliver on their schedule. It may take a while for other employers to realize there’s a big market of employees who don’t fit into either box they created (overworked vs underpaid). Nobody wants to choose between feeling overworked fulltime or feeling underpaid working part-time. I believe Window Cleaners of Brandon can pay 20% higher than the market average AND allow employees the freedom to choose their part-time schedules because life matters more than work.
So how did go from solo to having two part-time employees? The common problem for the solo owner/operator is the get way too busy, and never have time to actually work on the business. The last two years I’ve taken more than 10 weeks off per year, and have only worked 20-25 hours per week. This allows me plenty of time to build simple systems such as a training manual, employee handbook, training video’s, and learning how to properly onboard etc… So far both employees have enjoyed being treated as humans and not as some widget being used to simply produce money. We have clear goals, but the goals are realistic and the main thing is to keep the environment laid back and enjoyable.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

A lot of cleaning businesses try to do it all. They want to offer 8-9 services and are willing to service almost any area as long as there’s money there. We purposely have narrowed our niche down to just two things. First, we offer window cleaning for businesses and homes. Second, we re-screen window screens as an add on service. That’s it, and we don’t plan to do other stuff anytime soon because we want to master one niche. You can find Window Cleaners of Brandon on all platforms including IG, Facebook, Youtube, Nextdoor, google, and the list goes on. Our mission is to “create experiences that allow the light to shine.” We don’t always announce it but sometimes we give away free cleanings or help someone who’s in need.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The easiest pivot to look at for us was COVID because at that time we were cleaning at the mall, and a bunch of restaurants etc… Of course, almost overnight we lost all of those accounts and had to pivot. The natural thing to do was focus on residential homes which turned out to be the best decision ever for the business! Now residential homes is our “bread and butter” representing 72% of what we currently do.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I wouldn’t say our social media is viral or anything like that, but I guess Instagram has almost 1,100 followers. It’s really just consistently putting out content with hashtaging some keywords, and using music etc… Don’t view social media as a way to “sell”. Just view it as a way to educate, and entertain people. Sales naturally come from getting attention, but when you push products or services non-stop people will unfollow really fast. Add value or entertainment to their lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.windowcleanersofbrandon.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/window_cleaners_of_brandon
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/windowcleaners33511
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@windowcleanersofbrandon