From Windowmow to JD Window Cleaning to
Chippenham Window Cleaner
I started officially window cleaning in 2008 around Newark and Nottingham under the business name of Windowmow, I never made a website and my vehicle had no signage, so you will find no branding or images on google.
I purchased a window cleaning round from a man named Roy for what he called tick, which was one months worth of the round, me and my business partner at the time (Jo) got to work and at the age of 18 I was suddenly a Business Owner, and the youngest in Newark at the time according to HSBC in Newark in 2008.
At the time we were providing a traditional window cleaning service only, nothing else, we did think of trying gutter cleaning of maybe bin cleaning but it never happened.
I then had to move so I sold the business to my business partner at the time (Jo) and moved on, Jo now runs a successful business cleaning service in Newark.
I then moved into Chippenham, I was still living with my parents at the time and now I was jobless and had no way of restarting a window cleaning business on my own, however I bumped into an ex sales rep called Cris Balton, my parents knew him from a long time ago, I saw a glint in his eye so without thinking I went up to him and said "do you have a job?" he replied "actually I do, do you have any experience in window cleaning?" to which I replied "yes" he then responded "would you like to go into business with me, I need help starting a new round" and so thus started a 30/70 split with my new business partner, at the time I was single and cris was married with 3 Kids.
We started canvassing and in 6 months we had £3000 a month worth of work, mostly due to Cris Skills in canvassing.
Things were going well however while window cleaning traditionally I got injured, I got RSI in my right hand, so Cris and I decided to invest in water fed pole equipment.
I had no money to but such gear so Cris and my father funded the gear and in about a week we were suddenly a water fed pole window cleaning business and started eyeing up the title of Biggest window cleaning company in Chippenham.
Cris and I were decided to first test our new systems out on our own houses first to get some practice, and we were both shocked at how effective the window cleaning system was and excited to get out there and use it for the benefit of our customers, which we did with great success.
However Cris realised that the way he was paying me was in a grey area when it came to tax law, so he asked me to split from the partnership, which I did and walked away with 30 percent of his round.
Cris now has stopped window cleaning completely and runs Wiltshire Maintenance. His company serves a lot of the Wiltshire area.
After I split from Cris I started the company JD Window Cleaning, and leased a window cleaning round off Jon Harker, my wife later purchased the round off him for me for £1000 its around this time I started designing a website for my window cleaning business, after messing about in vista print I decided to purchase the domain name Chippenham Window Cleaner.co.uk. At the same time I took ownership of chippenhamwindowcleaner@gmail.com and chippenhamguttercleaner@gmail.com just in case.
At this time my vehicle was a red Vauxhal combo.
If you use the way back machine and type in Chippenham window cleaner.co.uk, you might find my first websites, I had no logo and very few assets and the designs were awful but, it was a start.
After window cleaning for a while in my combo, I started another partnership with a friend named max, while with him, my combo broke down. With his help and advice we bought a ford transit which Chippenham Window Cleaner still owns as of April 2024, this partnership didn't last long either but his help was appreciated and he now lives in N Ireland.
After this my late grandmother died, leaving me an inheritance, which I used to buy a fully upgraded window cleaning system and a gutter vac system, its also around this time that I had a logo professionally designed by a Brilliant artist called Joel Hodgson (he wont be pleased that I'm calling him out..... ah well) and designed my first modern looking website with Wix.
Then I partnered up with my dear Wife who has spent thousands bailing out the business numerous times and has always helped with decisions, you may also see her out working with me from time to time.
And that is so far a abbreviated history and crazy story of Chippenham Window Cleaner.