Serving Grand Rapids
and nearby areas
"Happy Window Cleaning provides the best views"
CAREER
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. - 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 NKJV
We need the following (click desired position for details):
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Dryer Machine and Vent Cleaning
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Gutter Cleaning
Harvest Sharing
Based on the Parable of the Sower
(Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:4-15)
Likened to a productivity bonus given to the employees whenever there is sufficient profit (we have an open book policy that allows all employees to inspect and participate in discussions about our financial decisions. (our books) This is for instruction purposes only.
Happy Window Cleaning's values are character, excellence, and, community impact.
Scott Britton is a water specialist/engineer by trade and he got into the cleaning industry because he wants to share knowledge and help others find Jesus Christ, peace, and a measure of financial sufficiency for their families. The point is to help others to become independent from the world, not to give them a place to hide out from personal growth. Scott isn't looking to employ people so much as to help foster ownership (stewardship in Christian terms). The company is set up to constantly grow and create opportunities for others within the company and as franchisees. With 24 months of good productivity and few callbacks along with great reports from customers, an employee is eligible to put in for a territory of his or her own if he so desires. There are also opportunities to receive training to do other jobs within the company. We do our best to meet people where they are and help them to improve their lives. Of course, Scott also has a family that he is responsible for and the business also employs his wife in its administration. Those contexts are not mutually exclusive. We do our best to make decisions that create opportunities for everyone. It takes a whole team to do that well.
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We believe that success begins with character. People who can be trusted keep their word and do what they say they will do. Excellence on the other hand in any trade is something that occurs when we learn what to do and what not to do in any given circumstance. We expect that people will want to do better today than they did yesterday. This continuous improvement in the trade that Scott has mastered and where there are standard operating procedures (Our Happytude Series) is simply a matter of willingness to follow instructions, both verbal and written.
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Mature men and women do what must be done without making excuses for themselves. The third company value, community impact, is meant in a positive context and it is what happens when the first two values are observed. Someone with character pursuing excellence in their work has a positive impact on their community. It is that simple.
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Whether or not a profit-sharing distribution happens in any given year depends on team performance as much as it does individual productivity. Sales and Profitability goals set for the season must be met and/or exceeded for distribution to occur. Overall good productivity may still result in a year or more without distribution.
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Earning sufficient profit for a large distribution is not easily accomplished. It takes a focused team to do it. Not all retained earnings can be distributed. We have growth goals that must be funded and we need to replace assets that are worn, often prematurely from neglectful use. If you think about it, window cleaning companies in Michigan have huge seasonal shifts of revenue, (deep valleys while our peak earnings occur over just a few months each year). yet fixed liabilities like rent, insurance, and advertising must continue throughout the slow periods.
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Profit sharing has happened only for three of the eight years that we have been in business. Furthermore, those were years when Scott Britton, Noah Olson, and Juan Cavasos were working ten and twelve hours a day and on Saturdays too. This is why we set bit sales goals, to shoot for a decent surplus. Again it takes a team to make that happen.
Window Cleaning and
Pressure Washing
Have Seasonal Fluctuations
Again, keep in mind that what we have is a quasi-seasonal business with large peaks and valleys. We have five months December, January, February, and March, where we are always in the red before we even begin to make money. Some years we have deficit months in April and August as well. That means that we have five months to seven where we must spend more than we have coming in each month to stay afloat. Therefore, we cannot pay ourselves everything that is left over after the season ends in December. Learning the numbers, that is learning financial literacy, for example, the difference between the gross percent margin and the bottom line is the whole point of an open book profit sharing business model. It is a model that attempts to inspire and develop businesspeople, people who take ownership of their jobs, intrapreneurs and help build a company with input, ideas, and knowledge. as well as entrepreneurs, people who are awarded their own franchises under the brand Happy Window Cleaning. We are willing to teach those who are willing to learn.
"You can walk a horse to water
but you cannot make him drink".
"The teacher will appear when the student is ready."
There must be retained earnings to cover shortfalls during those slower periods. Also, There must be reserve funds to cover the replacement of assets and for emergencies. We cannot distribute an entire surplus in any given year. We can distribute only a portion of a surplus and that distribution, if at all, will occur in February (it goes into your 401K profit-sharing account).
UPDATE 2020. We now use a Profit Sharing 401K, where 1,000 hours of work in the calendar year are required to participate in the program. This is administered by a third party called PAI and the program is called Ascensus.
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An employee is not required to recruit another person to be an apprentice to participate in harvest sharing
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Individual merits are addressed by our incentive pay program. Incentive pay is the base pay paid to those who show exceptional productivity in a given period. This is part of the reason that our Administrator Cherie spends so many hours entering, calculating, publishing, and posting the DATA. Incentive pay works in conjunction with our open-book policy so that employees can monitor their performance and increase their pay by working both hard and smart.
HERE IS HOW IT WORKS
The program is open to designated Crew Leaders only. The Crew leader adds up five pay periods and divides the total dollars per man/hour by 5. This quotient is his or her average productivity. It is the Crew Leader's Responsibility to do this math and to present his findings to his Manager who (If callbacks are within range) in turn will submit a request for incentive pay to ownership.
NOTE: The minimum for the company to remain solvent and to keep someone employed is $55.00 per/man-hour.
Other factors affect this number including surprise costs and the numbers stated are approximations.
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$90 man hour/hour will earn him $25.00
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$80 man/hour will earn him $24.00
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$70 man/hour is $23.00
{Any leader who has taken paid redos from failure to perform duties to expectations (including a walk-through and inspection of the workmanship from the entire crew) is ineligible for incentive pay}. Excessive undeclared/unpaid callbacks are also a serious problem and cannot be rewarded with incentive pay since we will be losing customers with such carelessness.
A good window cleaner can go years without a callback or redo.
Callbacks dilute productivity. There must be no more than two callbacks for a given crew in a single year. The fact is that Technicians who understand and practice great customer service go several years without a single complaint feeding back to the administration.
While someone may keep his or her job (depending on the particular circumstances) with a callback here and there, callbacks strongly indicate that we are not maintaining excellence with our customers, and very likely we are having to repurchase prospects to fill our schedule which in turn lowers our profitability considerably since our customer acquisition cost with recent inflation is now about $80 per customer. Losing repeat customers therefore is extremely expensive to our team and profitability so that is not the ticket to getting a share of whatever tiny profits we might have. While some customers may be easy to please, many are not, but as a Christian Company, we must aim to please even the most difficult-to-please customers. No Crew leaders with callbacks within a given 5 pay periods whereby average productivity is calculated are eligible for incentive pay.
If in the next and/or any subsequent pay periods the employee's average productivity drops, he/she will revert to his base pay and his incentive pay will be revoked. When average productivity again rises he or she may resubmit for incentive pay. There will be no notification for this change. The numbers themselves are published as sufficient notification! That is what open books are and our administration has enough work, maintaining that structure without having to nursemaid staff. Forgive the lack of better words to express the sentiment.
Harvest pay is a productivity bonus. It is an incentive given to employees so that they may have some cash during the off-season (or slow season, i.e. winter). We want to reward employees whenever possible since we all contribute to our company’s success with our hard work.
WHAT
The focus of a productivity-based excess profit incentive system is to reward the employee based on the work performed over and above the minimum productivity standards and profitability goals established by management, as opposed to a bonus given based on entitlement.
Every company has several obligations: to generate enough cash flow to meet the company’s daily cash requirements for the entire year. For example, insurance, and van payments (as well as many other expenses) continue over the winter when revenues are scarce. Therefore frugality dictates that we must have cash reserves in peak season to cover valleys in the slow season. What is more, a portion of retained earnings is earmarked for purpose-driven items including sharing profit with the majority and minority shareholders as good stewardship and prudence would reasonably follow commiserate with the risk involved in the business practice, to invest in future growth, to allow the owner(s) to maintain a fair quality of life, and assure all employees a fair wage, a path to advancement and safe work environment.
WHO
All employees regardless of designation or status are eligible to receive Harvest Pay.
Exception: Those who have been working in the company for less than one thousand hours (1,000).
WHEN
It is given before the year ends (winter, to be specific), and it will depend on whether there are profits to be divided among employees. We have an open book policy and every employee is encouraged to learn the numbers.
HOW
Two conditions for awarding Harvest Pay:
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Our company should have exceeded its annual financial goals.
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Management must approve the bonuses.
An employee’s Harvest Pay will depend on his performance:
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Positive reviews after we surveyed a customer
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Exceeding goals, either financial or nonfinancial
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We are performing additional duties from what is expected.
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Serving as a good example of professional behavior to other employees (e.g. teamwork, ethics, leadership.)