6 Secrets to Building a Successful Business

This article is a summary of 6 previous articles from this blog.  You can click on any of the headings to learn a little more detail about any of these subjects.

1. Do What You Love

You have to at least enjoy what you are doing, otherwise what’s the point?  I have off days like everyone else, yet I still love what I do. I find pleasure in giving of my services to people in my community.

I am more then just a window cleaner. I enhance people’s homes, businesses and lives with my services. I love sharing my gifts and talents with others and they notice and want to hire me.

You may not yet be doing something you enjoy. Know that you have the power to change it. You can either learn to enjoy and even love it, or you may wish to transition to a different line of employment. If you know what you love doing and have real courage, you may start to take steps toward becoming an entrepreneur.

You can build a business from scratch doing what you love. I am nothing special and I have done it and my business continues to grow. I’ve been cleaning windows for 10 years now and I still love it. It provides a great income for my family and I love the challenge of growing my business. If I can make a nice income doing what I love, so can you.

2. Always Deliver Exceptional Service

Whether you have your own business or currently work for an employer, you can always give excellent customer service. This is a secret to always having income rolling in and it all relates to a person’s attitude.

When you love what you do, it’s easier to be in a great state. When you maybe aren’t yet doing what you love, or are facing personal challenges, it can be tough to be smiling and joyful while you work.

This is where the rubber meets the road. When you can do your best to set aside your personal stuff and focus on giving your customer the best service you possibly can in that moment, you will not only feel better, your customer will notice. They will likely appreciate your quality service and you will likely feel even better.

When you give good will through excellent service to others, you will get good will back. This has changed my life and business for the better. Every day is an opportunity to be a ray of sunshine in someone’s world whether you work for an employer or for your own business.

3. Have a Website and Create Customers

This is the wave of the future.  Don’t get left behind in old, expensive advertising methods that no longer work.  Having a website for your business should be your number one priority to getting customers for your business.  There are many free options online to starting a website for free.  If you’re new to this, you can visit this article I posted on April 7th for some options to get started.

If you have any experience browsing the internet by clicking and navigating websites, and sending emails, then you can build a website.  Where is a good place to begin?  Wordpress is a great place for a beginner to start creating their own website.

WordPress is a simple and powerful platform for building your website. It’s basically a ready to go website. All you have to do is create a user name and password to get started. You can then log in and begin to customize and add content how ever you like.

There is a wealth of WordPress training videos you can watch for free on mobile apps, YouTube videos, and various websites related to WordPress. If you have a question, google it. You can find your answer online for free. This is a great way to avoid spending thousands having someone else do your website for you.

4. Get the Right Tools

If you are starting a window cleaning business or some other form of service business that requires you to have tools, it’s good to have tools that will be durable and last for years. You may have to buy cheaper tools if you have a limited budget to begin with.

Having cheap tools can be extremely frustrating if they are breaking while you’re on the job. So it’s good to upgrade them as soon as you can afford to. Even when you have higher quality tools, they can still wear out and break.

You may want to get a toolbox where you can keep spare parts just in case something breaks. This has happened to me and nothing is worse than having to stop your work, drive to a store and find parts to fix something that broke while on a job.

A Secret to Increase Your Income

As you earn more money, you want to make a habit of reinvesting a percentage of your income into gradually buying higher quality tools that will last longer and be more pleasant to use on the job. I have found that when I purchase a tool that will help me reach higher windows or some other service I wasn’t able to offer before, I start to get more jobs where I can use this new tool and it opens a whole new area of services I can now do and charge accordingly for. This has greatly increased my yearly income.

5. Always be Learning + Improving

This is not only a key to building a successful business.  This is also the secret to living a satisfying, happy, successful life.  When you begin to develop the habit of being teachable, everything will begin to change for the better in your life and business.

There are many ways you can learn more in your field of expertise. You can read articles posted by people who have built successful businesses in your field of interest. You can watch educational videos online by successful people. You can buy books or rent them from the library. You can purchase and listen to audiobooks. You can attend seminars and events that can help you transform into a more successful person.

Being teachable is the key to success in anything in life. When we are closed off, no positive growth or change will result. When you are open to learning new things and ways of looking at things, (you still have to be discerning to know what is good for you and what is not) you can create real forward momentum in your life and your whole perspective on life can dramatically shift for the better.

6. Set Goals

Goals are so important in playing the game of life and business. When you view life and business as a game, it’s important to know the score. If you have no idea what the score is in a game, it kind of loses the excitement and fun. You want to feel like you are winning.

The key to creating this winning feeling within is to set small goals that lead to a bigger goal. You will likely not reach your big goal in one giant step. You can reach any large goal by making a series of smaller steps toward it.

Setting smaller, incremental goals along the way, can help you can track your progress toward reaching a big goal. I would encourage you to write them down. You might write them in a journal. I would suggest putting them somewhere obvious like a chart on the wall where you will see it everyday. This will drive your goal into your subconscious and you may find yourself nearly effortlessly moving rapidly towards your big goal.

It’s good to abandon any time line in relation to a big goal or dream. Smaller, incremental goals can have time limits placed on them to keep you committed to making forward progress. Having a deadline on a big goal can be extremely disappointing if you don’t reach it in the desired time, so I would advice against this. Use your discretion here since you understand your situation.

I hope this article has inspired you in some way to create a life and business you love. If you have enjoyed it, please hit one of the like buttons and/or share a comment below. As always, thanks for reading.

William R King

William King

William currently lives in the Greater Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada with his wife Natasha and cat Noah. He has been cleaning windows professionally since 2004. William has worked for multiple window cleaning companies as both an employee and a subcontractor until he committed to building his own business in 2012. His business has grown since to provide a very nice income for the family. Natasha manages the office and accounting of the business as it continues to grow. With 28+ years of experience in the cleaning industry, William's intention with this website is to share his experience and knowledge with people who would like to learn how to create their own window / gutter cleaning service business.

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