It seems utterly crazy does it not? that the continued and accelerated melting of the polar sea ice cap could affect your window cleaning business in a huge way (UK).
Due to climate change, Arctic Science claim that we are reaching a tipping point of no return. This could spell bad news to come for your window cleaning business.
How can this affect your business? I hear you say.
There’s no disputing that it has been a very disappointing summer so far in 2012 – with the wettest June for over a century followed up by a very wet start to July. The rain seemed to try it’s hardest and hit us in August too.
In fact, barring a warm and dry spell towards the end of May, the weather has been persistently dull and wet since April – which was also the wettest in records dating back to 1910.
I guarantee, that a lot of you lost money this year due to the consistent rain.
We all know how much our window cleaning business is worth a month and multiplying this by 12 months will give us a figure we all call our income.
Some window cleaners that work as sole traders who heavily rely on that annual figure to pay bills and live will have had some sort of hard time this summer without a doubt.
Our weather here in the UK is complex and determined by many different factors, including the position of the jet stream.
This is the narrow band of fast moving winds that runs from west to east across the Atlantic high up in the atmosphere.
How does the jet stream affect UK weather?
Weather (or low pressure) systems bearing rain and unsettled conditions move across the Atlantic on a regular basis. The jet stream guides these systems, so its position is important for UK weather.
In summer, we would expect the jet stream to be north of the UK – dragging those weather systems away from our shores to give us relatively settled weather.
So far this year it has been to the south of the UK, guiding those systems straight to us. This is the position we’d normally expect the jet stream to be in during winter, when we are more accustomed to these wet conditions.
If the Polar Sea Ice melts past the tipping point, the jet stream will consistently sit in the South off the shores of the UK. This will mean that the wettest summer since 1910 (like the summer we have had) will be every year!
Which means you will loose some of your income every year!!
Know one knows what is going to happen for sure but the Scientists are worried.
Is there anything positive, anything you can do for your window cleaning business if this comes?
Yes – take on ad-on services such as gutter cleaning or solar panel cleaning or drive way pressure washing to substitute the rainy days.
If you are a traditional window cleaner on ladders and do mainly residential, turn to water fed pole window cleaning you can use this to better results in the rain than trad.
And the window cleaners that use water fed pole cleaning, start educating your customers and blow that myth out of the water that windows cannot be cleaned in the rain. Back this up with a rain guarantee.
Sole traders can go one step further and create a new USP for their window cleaning business by becoming ‘green’ via collecting and recycling rainwater for window cleaning purposes.
All said and done, have a plan for everything. I hope this article leaves a pause for thought.
By Lee Burbidge
Statistics from the Met Office www.metoffice.gov.uk