Many customers like to know who is behind the business. Here we will describe our company history, our philosophy, and our staff.

AMERICAN WINDOW CLEANER™ #98 6
Photos courtesy Phil Alexander
AWC Interviews Phil Alexander
Inventive & Resourceful, Phil Enjoys His Business
by Richard Fabry, publisher, American Window Cleaner Magazine, Point Richmond, CA
AWC: How did you get into window
cleaning?
Phil: It was in 1967 working in a car
wash in Detroit, Michigan that I washed
my first window. As the car traveled
though the car wash I would get inside
and wash the front window, working 12
hours a day on weekends for $1.25 an
hour.
I also worked with my father at a
Coney Island and with him I learned the
value of hard work. The stack of dirty
trays that had to be washed were as high
as me. That might not be so high for
some of you, but at 16 they seemed high
to me.
Later that summer in downtown
Detroit, I learned the important lesson,
Jimi Hendrix live concerts were out of
this world. It was the golden age of rock
and roll and I was right in the middle of
Motown and loving every minute of it.
After my hippie days, I found that I
was really looking for something that
would give me a better life. I found a
love of the Bible and a new career in
window cleaning at the same time. After
my baptism in 1970 a “brother” offered
me an opportunity to work with
him and there started my introduction
to this great business. I have been window
cleaning for 33 years and if you
count the car wash, you could add another
two years.
AWC: What kind of window cleaning
did you do back then?
Phil: After graduation in 1971 I started
to subcontract cleaning 11 Kentucky
Fried Chickens for $2 a store, three
times a week from C Clean Window
Cleaning in Detroit, MI. We did mostly
route work and some homes.
You would just finish a job in the
middle of winter, and a car would come
by and splash dirty snow and water
right back on the window. You did have
job security back then.
I wound up doing the route and bid
work on the side until I had enough to
break off and start my own business.
Back then in 1972 I was making around
$4 an hour subcontracting three days a
week and lived at home.
Then I moved to Tennessee where I
started over again. The only supplier in
the area was Detroit Sponge. We
thought we were in window cleaning
paradise because there was a whole wall
of just window cleaning supplies. Back
then, you used only a five-gallon bucket
and a camel- or horse-hair brush along
with a small wooden pole. With a
handful of TSP and your leather
chamois you could handle almost any
window. This all would fit in the back
seat of my 1969 VW bug. By the time I
started to have my own route of banks
and Lum’s restaurants we were up to
$7 an hour in 1973.
AWC: How did you end up in Tennessee?
Phil: In 1973 a friend of mine, Ron Polish
and I went to visit Tennessee in the
middle of a Michigan winter. When we
got there it was 60° and there was sunshine,
so we both moved down south.
AWC: How did you start a new
route?
Phil: We bid all the banks in Cookeville,
TN. We made around $250 a day that
we would split. We just finished cleaning
the same bank which is now Union
Planters, and it was over 30 years ago
that I cleaned it for the first time. We
get $975 now and are able to clean the
whole job in four hours with six people:
www.unionplanters.com.
But Oak Ridge was mine to keep,
and after my wife, Diana, and I were
married in 1975, we moved there. (Notice
the poles in the picture of my VW).
I also would carry a 32-foot ladder on
the VW. Diana, at first worked with me
but over the years she felt better if I did
the window cleaning by myself. (It might
have been the standing on a window
jack out a fourth-floor school window
doing construction cleaning. Window
jacks were like a small diving broad that
clamped on the wall).
Back then we would ladder most
jobs and using a 32-foot ladder was not
a problem when you are in your 20s.
Now at 50, I try hard to work smarter.
We now use the pure water pole for most
of the work we used to do with ladders.
Left:
Phil Alexander
Right:
Phil Alexander
with his reverse
osmosis (RO) and
deionized (DI)
waterfed pole
system
JULY/AUGUST 2003 7
Phil does window & chemical cleaning jobs at theMercedes dealership.
Diana’s father started to work with me
in 1978, and nine months later we
doubled the business and he was able
to start his own. We were better apart
than together, but he did teach a me lot
about running a business more efficiency.
My mother-in-law did the books
and would count the money to the penny.
No free lunches!
AWC: How did the business grow?
Phil: We actually grew with the banks
and restaurants who were customers.
I still remember my first bank jobs
and how it felt to really get a large job
that would take two days for $300. We
would ladder everything back then, but
even then I was using a sprayer to apply
the water – which we still do after
30 years!
AWC: How did you grow your
business from a one-man operation?
Phil: I put together a five-year business
plan to increase my window cleaning
business. The first year we were able to
double it and the second year increased
it 30% more. I knew I had to make
money by hiring other people and by
doing add-on services and this how I
came to have employees.
For more than 20 years I would only
work three days a week and the other
days involved in my ministry. In over
30 years I have only worked a 40-hour
week for about eight months when I
worked with my father-in-law in 1978.
In 1995 I started a second business, and
when we sold it, we were $166,000 in
debt with me being responsible for over
$75,000 of it on credit cards.
Even though I was receiving $1,400
a month, I knew it would take way too
long to pay it off. It was window cleaning
that pulled me out of that mess along
with a lot of prayer.
We now have three full-timers and
three part-time employees along with
two sub- contractors. I like to bring my
employees to the convention every year
to get the safety training, and we all
have a good time. The women really do
a great job and I feel an all-female
window cleaning crew is something that
should be considered if you do a lot of
homes. But we train them for the highrises
along with the guys, and we find
that they take safety seriously.
AWC: What improvement in equipment
have you seen?
Phil: The waterfed system has made
our job so much easier.
It used to take eight hours with ladders,
now we do the same job in three
hours with no ladders using only poles
inside and a waterfed pole system outside.
One of the greatest improvements
in the window cleaning profession: the
ability to clean four-story buildings from
the ground using water- fed systems.
AWC: You like inventing and modifying
tools. Give us examples of inventions?
Phil: More than 30 years ago I found
out about using a garden sprayer and
have been trying to perfect it ever since.
We find that it speeds up production. I
wanted to come up with a way to copy
the auto assembly line. We found out if
we used a 15-gallon sprayer we can keep
one person spraying and another person
scrubbing. The other two squeegees,
along with one getting drips (five-person
crew) and you have the ability to do
production window cleaning with an
average of $200 an hour. This works well
if the crew chief can do the spraying and
keep the crew busy, or you can limit it
to a three-person crew with one
spraying, one scrubbing, and one
washing. The advantage of this method
is the ability to do large commercial
buildings without getting the crew too
tired before the job is done.
AWC: What other ideas have you
incorporated into your business?
Phil: Tools of the trade:
• Sörbo squeegee with adjustable
Ledger handle
• Sörbo 2 to-5 foot adjustable pole
• Solo garden sprayer 2.5 or 3.5 gallon:
www.northerntool.com
• Luggage cart and small garbage
can
• Used plastic PVC pipe
By putting this all together in a
small luggage carrier, you are able to
have everything you need right in front
of you. It was always a pain to run back
to the car to get something that you
needed. By training your new employees
with this system, they don’t know
When I was 18 years old and
just starting out it, was the freedom
from having to work a 40-
hour week. Now it is having more
time to enjoy the different hobbies
like digital photography, and
video taping, golfing, fishing, and
my ministry. I also built my own
computer system and do beta
testing on different software.
The window cleaning business
should give you more time to do
the things you like.
Newly weds Phil and Diana on their way to Tennessee (1975)
See next page
AMERICAN WINDOW CLEANER™ #98 8
Phil Alexander Interview cont’d
Phil outfitted in a clean suit for work in an eye surgery center facility.
any other way, and it is faster on route
work because you only scrub the middle
of the window where the dirty marks
are. The spray reaches all the other areas
of the window.
This is one system we have been
using for more than 20 years and I feel
it works the best because there are
fewer drips to get, and when you reach
an office you can leave the sprayer in
the hall and just bring in the wand.
AWC: What equipment would you
like to see?
Phil: A small squeegee that will wipe
off the top and side edge of the window
frames at the same time.
I would like to see some type of system
where a small sprayer and pole with
the squeegees hooks onto the ladder. We
do use a small quart sprayer we get for
$10 from Northern Tools and it works
great inside for doing homes.
AWC: What did you learn from your
first IWCA convention?
Phil: That there were so many companies
making so much more money than
myself by using employees. I usually
would just give the extra work away
causing my own competition.
After that convention, instead of
hiring my subcontractor as an employee,
I foolishly let him go after all that training
in Nashville. He went on to start
his own business and has done very well
at it. It is so much better to train new
help as employees with noncompete
agreements. Also, never train them how
to bid or even have them meet the one
who pays you, if possible. You don’t want
to cause your own competition if you can
help it. If I were to get 10% for all the
window cleaners I have trained over my
30 years, I would have a nice retirement
package by now. Yes, do train others to
clean windows, but have agreements in
writing before they ever learn anything
from you.
Also when I saw the pure water-fed
systems at my first convention in
Nashville, TN, they were truly amazing
to me. I wanted one, but I felt at the
time that the cost was too high. Now I
wish that I had just bought one. I went
to the Yellow Pages and called all the
water companies to see if they could
make me a portable waterfed system.
My first was a converted home reverse
osmosis (RO) 125-gallon-a-day system
in two 40-gallon tanks that were
installed in my ’93 Ford AeroStar van.
AWC: How did that work?
Phil: It was powered only by the
pressure of the water from the faucet
and even after I doubled the system, it
was not enough water in the time I
needed it (100 gallons in 24 hours time).
AWC: What did you do?
Phil: I started to search the internet
under “water,” “pure water,” and “reverse
osmosis.” We found an electric unit that
was small and could produce 500 gallons
a day: www.wateranywhere.com/Item/
AA%2D22521TP.htm.
It has worked well at the shop but
not at the job site because a lack of
sufficient water pressure would cause
the motor to burn out. That is why I
cherish each issue of AWC and the trade
show. After reading about and talking
to the different manufacturers about the
different systems. I found the one that
works on the job for us was the 900
gallon a day RO unit from Pure Rinse
with the attached DI unit:
www.purerinse.com/anywhere/
This took care of the low water
pressure problem and we had enough
water for two poles. We used the 500-
Make Big $$ Pressure Washing
Great Add-On for Window Cleaners
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1-800-433-2113 817-625-4213
www.dcs1.com
Delco Cleaning Systems
2513 Warfield St., Ft. Worth, TX 76106
JULY/AUGUST 2003 9
See next page
Fitch Enterprises
(800) 323-1277
Fax: (712) 323-0819
Local: (712) 323-9630
The Innovator, not the Imitator
Ladder V-tops
12” & 16” sizes available
Suction Cups
MID-SIZE ROLLER
“Mule” & “Horse”
available
gallon a day electric unit in the shop to
produce the water at night so the van is
filled before the day begins. We used an
electric timer and a water meter that
turns off both the water and RO unit
either after so much water goes though
or so many hours which we set on the
timer. Both these units require little
maintenance if your water pressure is
high enough.
You might have to use a 40 psi
limiter value on the unit if the water
pressure is too high – over 75 psi. It is
important to keep the pressure below
40 psi if you only are using a DI tank
and normal water pressure, or the DI
will not work as well. The key to these
units is having a tank to fill up so you
can keep enough water going for the
jobs. We just use rented DI tanks, but I
feel the best results are when you use
the reverse osmosis units to bring the
water down to zero total dissolved solids
(TDS).
The DI will give it the finish to
produce the best results and the DI
tanks will last much longer depending
on the local condition of your water. If
your TDS is in the high 500-800 range,
you will find it harder to use this kind
of system. Our water from the tap is 70-
100, which is not very bad at all. If you
just rent a DI unit from a water
company and use what poles you have,
at least you can be safer then climbing
ladders! Yes, we use this system on all
our homes, too.
AWC: What other kinds window
cleaning jobs have you done?
Phil: I could write a book about the
different window cleaning jobs, but here
is a list of the most interesting jobs we
have done:
• Bird-control on a six-floor
building. We did this bank and put the
plastic spikes in double rows, but you
need to use the cleaner and the glue they
provide because we tried using other
brands and they do not work as well.
Cleanup is messy and we do not promote
this service. One job was a white stucco
building, and I found this spray paint
that matched and painted the plastic
spikes to match – you hardly noticed
them.
• Cleaning elevator glass. This
is fun but dangerous work and in many
areas you need special licenses and
permits. We have a six-floor bank
elevator we do once a year. The right
way is to have the elevator service
person run it while you clean the
windows.
• Caulking six-floor buildings.
If you just have to caulk a leak without
taking off the old caulking, this is some
of the best money you can make. You
want to use a dark color if you can and
avoid using clear because it will not last
as long. Cutting out the old caulking
takes a lot more time but sometimes this
is the only way to do it right.
• Pressure washing 100-yearold
buildings. The difficulty is lead
paint, which has its own problems
because you need to find where you can
get rid of it. You have to avoid the storm
drains, and you might have to contain
the whole area in plastic.
• Cleaning glass in a medical
building dressed in a clean suit.
They give you this paper white suit and
hat, mask along with boots. You get a
lot of funny looks, but I have some great
painter suits if I ever need them (see
photo on opposite page).
• High-rise cleaning in 125-
year-old historic buildings. No tiebacks
and difficult jumps. This is
another area we try to stay away from.
• 16,000-square-foot home. The
first time required a removal of paint
from every inch of window but the
second time we hoped to make back your
money. It was a time-consuming job but
if we do it again it should be much easier
and there are other large homes nearby
that we will bid on soon.
• Window restoration. We do this
on low-rises for $2,600 twice a year. We
also were able to restore windows with
Winsol 550 and recaulk all the windows
for $12,000. The previous window
cleaner used an acid wash each time.
Then he came back after we had been
doing the job for four years and rebid
the job for only $600.
What were we going to do? It took
two men to do the outside and the two
women to do the inside for a total of 64
hours, and he was going to do it all in
two days with two workers! I don’t care
that he said he has been in business
since 1959. He told the building
manager that they would bring a
moving rig and tie off to the vent pipes!
I told the manager that this was unsafe
and an OSHA violation. They agreed but
still wanted me to drop the price to
$1,800 and include the dusting of the
blinds. We agreed because we worked
too hard to bring the building around,
and what my crew said is we could do
the job with three of us hanging and four
inside and get it done in one day! What
a great crew!
If we could get rid of the low-price,
unsafe window cleaner, we would all be
better off. Perhaps we need to spend the
money to send the I-14 to all the
companies that supply liability
insurance, and they would not issue it
to any who do not comply with this new
regulation. My other customer had the
I-14 and when I mentioned an engineer
certifying the way we would tie back
AMERICAN WINDOW CLEANER™ #98 10
Jordan and Chelsea Kreager (just married), Daniel Orr, Justin Kreager, Anna Hooven.
Phil Alexander Interview cont’d
Winsol
pick up from
issue #97
page 35
b & w
“Crystal
Clear”
they just cancelled the job.
This was OK because $1,000 for 11
floors (50 drops) was too low anyhow. We
have to be able to walk away from
unsafe jobs or the I-14 will have a less
effect than it could. We also need to have
OSHA work with us when we find
unsafe window cleaners without any
backlash. Maybe a toll-free line would
help or the IWCA could help in some
way: any ideas from any of you might
help us. P.S.: We did the job in one day
with seven people and still made our
$1,800.
As you can see, we all have difficult
times with unprofessional window
cleaners. This aspect of window
cleaning is not fun.
This is where the IWCA and the
IWCCI will do a lot to help stop the
unsafe window cleaners from both low
pricing and unsafe employee safety
practices.
I would like to see, a new flyer that
would only cost 50¢ each. We could put
the highlights of the I-14 and state the
importance of hiring only IWCA members.
This might go along way in educating
our customers in a very reasonable
way.
When I was 18 years old and just
starting out, it was the freedom from
having to work a 40-hour week. Now it
is having more time to enjoy the different
hobbies, like digital photography,
and video taping, golfing, fishing, and
my ministry. I also built my own computer
system and do beta testing on different
software.
The window cleaning business
should give you more time to do the
things you like.
AWC: Name an add-on business
you’d especially recommend?
Phil: A service that has great potential
for profit is chemical cleaning. A little
soap and bleach solution with 10 gallons
of water to one gallon of bleach. We
were able to charge $2,000 for the
chemical cleaning and $850 for the window
cleaning. It took 10 hours with
seven people. We could have cleaned it
faster with another pressure washer to
put on the solution and rinse it off.
If you were to use a pickup truck
with a 100-gallon tank and small Honda
pressure pump, you could go three to
four floors from the ground. Remember
to close off the doorways or you might
be buying a new outfit for someone. Also
check with the EPA for your water collection,
and never have any water run
off into the storm drains. You can average
$750 a day with two workers, which
is a better return than most window
cleaning. Check this out at the IWCA
show in Dallas 2004 with the power
washer association that will be with us.
AWC: How do you look for new business?
Phil: One way is call the janitor businesses
and offer to clean the glass they
cannot reach. We have over the years
added a lot of new work once the janitor
companies have moved on. One bank
changed the janitor but gave us all their
branches four times a year. They like
workers they can trust and it is work
we do during the day.
AWC: How do you promote your
company?
Phil: We advertise in all the real Yel-
About the Cover
Created by Rose Barber.
The image represents a modern day
stained glass window featuring two
muses of inspiration. The women were
drawn out by hand and painted in
Photoshop. A photograph of a squeegee
was then incorporated into the image.
Rose can be contacted at
rose_barber3@hotmail.com or
510-839-9911.
JULY/AUGUST 2003 11
See next page
Window cleaning should give you
more time to achieve the higher
things in life like, God, family, and
friends. I once read a story that
said what you remember in life is
not the great people you read or
hear about but the people who
make a difference in your life, your
first-grade teacher or coach, or the
guy that first taught you how to
clean windows!
low Pages and the Yellow Book, and by
having a web site.
AWC: How do you manage to get
whole shopping centers?
Phil: Companies that manage whole
shopping centers and commercial offices
are also a great thing to go after. A third
of our yearly work comes from this
source. This is also one of the ways to
grow a business in a short time, why bid
one job at time when you can service the
whole shopping center once a month?
Your price usually is lower, but you
make up for it by less driving and invoicing.
AWC: How important are customer
relationships?
Phil: They mean everything because it
is next to impossible to live down a bad
reputation. A good relationship with a
facilities manager will always be to your
benefit when the competition comes calling
with a lower price.
AWC: How do you use the internet?
Phil: We have a web site:
www.wedewwindows.com. We have included
pictures of some of the jobs we
do.
On the internet at
www.servicemagic.com/servlet/
HomeServlet is also a way to get work.
It cost $99 a year and $9 for every referral
you accept.
So far we have received four jobs,
which have paid for the advertisement.
We will start to e-mail our invoices as
soon as the vendors agree. QuickBooks
are set up to do this.
AWC: What about e-mail?
Phil: We are starting to get more communication
this way; our e-mail is:
wedewwindows@netscape.net. We put
in “dew” windows because we spray the
water on, so the play on words helps
people remember us more.
AWC: After 30 years in window
cleaning what are you plans?
Phil: We do have a system in place that
lets us leave for a week to ten days, and
all the work gets done. Some of our vendors
we have serviced for over 25 years.
If anyone out there would like to live in
the green hills of TN, make me an offer
and I might just really retire. We will
sell our Knoxville monthly route this
summer.
We have changed our name to We
‘Dew’ Windows, Inc., and started a new
C. Corp. This way we can add a medical
saving plan which helps us to deduct
though the corporation most of our
medical bills. I was able to do most of
this online. Most states give you the
ability to download the forms to incorporate
and change you name along with
transferring you forms like Federal Tax
www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/
0,,id=99336,00.html. My
Corporation.com 1-888-692-6771 also
Anna and Chelsea with Sörbo Samuelsson and Giulio Guizzi at the IWCA Atlanta convention.
AMERICAN WINDOW CLEANER™ #98 12
Phil Alexander Interview cont’d
500 gallons a day electric unit reverse osmosis (RO) unit with deionization (DI) tank, too.
will help you to file all the forms very
reasonably.
It would be fun to design window
cleaning equipment or do some type of
consulting work.
AWC: Random thoughts?
Phil: Window cleaning has been a challenging
business and I have no regrets. If
you are just starting out, don’t try to do it
all alone but rather subcontract or hire
employees, because without having them
you only have a job, not a business.
If you’re in a large business take
time with your family and kids. The
business can live without you a day or
even a week or two. Make window
cleaning work for you not you for window
cleaning.
Also going every year to the IWCA
convention no matter where it is, is a
way to keep abreast of what is happing
in the industry nationwide.
The speakers have been great and
Paul West has bought us to a new level.
Garry Jalowka of Mr. Window & Company,
Lake Elsinore, California, is going
to carry on that tradition
AWC: Did you find fulfillment in
window cleaning?
Phil: My answer is no, but I did find a
good way to make a living that would
give me more time for the more
important things. Yes, my faith in my
God is important and my pioneer
ministry has brought me untold
blessings. My service days are the
highlight of my week, but I have to
admit it is hard for me not to talk about
window cleaning.
When you go off your first jump of
the day and your heart rate jumps
several beats, you really know you’re
alive. Over the years, perhaps my
influence on 50 different people to start
window cleaning businesses could be
considered crazy. But if it has helped
some to find more time for God and their
families, then it was all worth it.
AWC: What do you feel about the
past 30 years in window cleaning?
Phil: I feel AWC and the IWCA have
done a great job in education for the
small one-man window cleaning
company. I feel they have helped me to
expand my business in a much more
professional way. With the IWCCI, large
companies and small ones will have a
training program they can promote
among their employees and customers.
AWC: What are some of the tricks
of the trade?
Phil: If you don’t mind bartering, you
can trade for just about anything you
want.
We barter at the country club for
two rounds of golf and at another golf
course we get four rounds with a golf
cart. Some of the better restaurants will
give you the 50% employee discount for
food while you work there. You can
barter for your accountants and lawyers
by doing their homes, but according to
the IRS, this does count as income (fair
market value) so we do count the
wholesale value of these services as
income.
AWC: After 35 years of window
cleaning, what insights can you
give?
Phil: Get someone to help you as soon
as possible, and train them to do the
work when you are not there. This will
give you the most work when you are
JULY/AUGUST 2003 13
How to Advertise for Free
by Phil Alexander, We Dew Windows, Oak Ridge, TN
Bosun chair cleaning at the Y-12 Credit Union.
not there. This will give you the most freedom and help you
work on your business and not in it. If I understood this
concept 30 years ago, I would be now on a houseboat fishing
somewhere like Aruba! The sooner you trust someone to do
the work, the sooner you will start having a business and not
a job. You take care of the money or at least always keep an
eye on it, but let someone do everything else.
Window cleaning should give you more time to achieve
the higher things in life, like family, and God and friends. I
once read a story that said what you remember in life is not
the great people you read or hear about but the people who
made a difference in your life, your first-grade teacher or coach,
or the guy who first taught you how to clean windows! I feel
we should try to be that person who makes a difference in
someone’s life! Window cleaning has given me that kind of
time to help others and for that I will ever be grateful to the
business that has given me so much.
AWC: Thanks, Phil.
• Let others advertise for you by calling all the janitors
in your local Yellow Pages and offering to subcontract
their window cleaning.
• Submit news releases about your business.
• Offer 10% to other companies to refer you: glass
and painter contractors, maintenance, home builders and
real estate companies.
• Call the facilities manager in each large building you
are interested in and acquire a working relationship
so they will refer you to others in their field.
• Join the IWCA and the local Chamber of Commerce
(we trade for one window cleaning to pay for our yearly
membership).
• Go to any local business meeting to promote yourself
and your company.
• Hand out bid sheets and cards to the clientele in
your accounts.
• Offer 10% or more off to every call from one of your
ads or referrals.
• Offer your customers personal discounts if they will
refer you to others.
• Use e-mail and websites to advertise your business.
• Write articles for the American Window Cleaner™
and give them to your clients.