Celebrating 5 Years of Darren Doing That

The whole business, me and a truck in 2020.

Lessons Learned Over 5 Years

I’m going to wax poetic a little about the last half decade.

I never planned to be an entrepreneur, but it turns out I’m just too picky about how things ought to be done to work for anyone else. 5 years ago, as that bloody pandemic set in, I couldn’t imagine idling my way through it, so put an ad on Kijiji and got to it.

I was terrified that work would be hard to come by, so I picked a company name that would prompt folks to ask me what I do, and for a long time my answer was “anything you’ve got.” I’ve always had faith in my ability to figure pretty well anything out, and I spent many late nights watching YouTube videos prepping for a novel job in the morning.

A Lot Has Changed

The Youtube self-educating is for my personal hobby projects now. My pickiness has rubbed off on my 9 full time staff, and we’re delivering only the services we are experts at. And the accolades keep rolling in. I am so very proud

Lessons Learned

What have I learned over 5 years of running this business? The first things I think of are very consumer friendly, perhaps trite. “It’s all about the people” comes to mind, and that’s not untrue. I have found that investing in the right people has been a colossal improvement to the quality of the business, and the chances that I get a night off.

I’ve learned not to pay too much attention to what the competition are doing. It’s prudent to see how things are with others, I’m sure, but I can’t lead with vision, if I’m stuck staring at other’s choices. I feel like the greatest test for what we do is whether I feel good about offering it. I want to pile on immense heaps of value for customers. We wish to make it a total no-brainer for folks to hire us on to work with them. I want encounters with this business to be full of personal relationships.

The things that drove me in the beginning still drive me today:

• The satisfaction of a job well done.
• The warm glowing feeling when a customer sees their completed project and feels fantastic about it.
• Pride in seeing happy staff progressing towards their personal goals.
• Opportunities to make and build things that work.
• The ability to sit at my supper table with my wife and daughter every evening.

Biggest Losses

I loved my Tacoma

This business started with a 2005 Toyota Tacoma. It was a 6-speed stick shift with a skull for a knob. If you know me, you’ll know a skull isn’t entirely in keeping with my personality. A wooden mallard would have suited me better. The greatest impediment to recruiting in the early days was trying to find candidates who could drive a manual transmission. It was like trying to find a customer service rep fluent in morse code.

Boy that truck worked. We’d have it loaded up with over 100 feet of ladder, 400 feet of hose, 4 staff, and hauling a 4800 pound boom lift. It did not even flinch. It was a pool truck with 317 000 kms when I got it, unloved by a whole assortment of staff who burnt through clutches like ice cream on the barbecue. I learned a lot about bondo and paint fighting off rust and keeping the body looking phenomenal. My mechanic may or may not have put a kid through a year of college on it.

But, sadly, I was a little slow to learn to take frame rust seriously. In 2024, at a mere 389 000 kms, the center cross brace behind the engine bay of the ladder frame looked more like an aged dictionary with loose pages then a hunk of steel.

Goodbye Tacoma. I’ll always remember you. Someday I’ll have fancy new trucks I can just undercoat. For now, I’ve embraced the holy trinity of a creeper, a wire brush, and fluid film.

The last photo of Darren and the Tacoma.

Health and Safety Concerns in Early Days

We have a remarkable safety record. Zero lost time claims in five years. In the first year though, that was as much good fortune as good planning. Residential Window and Gutter Cleaning is a cowboy industry. Short duration jobs far from construction sites where OH&S officers roam, means little risk of fines for casual approaches to safety regulations, and the experience I garnered in the companies I worked for previously did little to teach me good habits.

When I reflect on some of the choices regarding work at heights we made in the early days, I’m both embarrassed, and grateful that fortune shone upon us. Nowadays with investments made in boom lifts, extension tools, fall protection training for all staff, and our pursuit of COR certification I can rest easier knowing that we’re doing more every day to ensure every employee goes home healthy at the end of every shift.

Poor Calico Jack

We had a cat. He was an orange tabby (notably not a calico cat), and he had that particular quality sought after in good salespeople: that everyone was his good friend. His favourite spot was riding upon my shoulder during a kitchen party. He was responsible for a great deal of productivity loss as he invaded our morning crew meetings, and attempted to go to work with whichever crew left a van door open and unattended. He was our least useful and most charming team member.

His complete lack of risk aversion spelled his end in 2023 when he ate most of a spool of thread. The whole crew was devastated by his passing. Our now operations manager commissioned a tribute that will always be displayed in a place of pride in our shop.

Biggest Wins

Providing Staff Benefits

When polling our staff in the first couple years what they wanted most as Darren Does That grew, the leading request was extended health and dental benefits. In September of 2022 we signed with BP Group Solutions to join the Chambers of Commerce Group Health Benefits Plan. From an immediate cash flow perspective it was likely a little premature to take on the additional expense, but we managed to bear it. The happiness of our staff was certainly a reward, and I was stunned by the level of quality in resumes I’ve received when recruiting ever since.

Maisie’s Magical Christmas House

In 2022 we were approached by local businessman Jerry Dolnychuk for an ambitious project. He has long been the man behind Maisie’s Magical Christmas House, Edmonton’s most decorated Christmas home display and an ambitious fundraiser for SCARS Animal Rescue. The property at 97 Street and 144 Avenue has long been a treasure of the North side and is lit from October through Christmas every year.

He has long had an incredible display in his yard, but he wanted to take it vertical and sought to light up several trees, some over 75 feet tall, in his front yard. We went head to head with some seriously experienced competition to win the contract, and our transparency, creativity, and attention to detail won Jerry over to working with us. Over the following two years we installed over 9 Kilometers (wow!) of super bright commercial grade lighting on the property.

Winning our First Consumer’s Choice Award

Our first win of the Northern Alberta Consumer’s Choice Award: I did not see it coming. I’d been approached many times before by websites with “best of” lists, with promotional offers to pay for a placement. The more I spend, the higher I’m ranked, yay! Awards and rankings can be a terribly dishonest business.

And then one day, in my mailbox I got a nice chunk of stationary saying Consumer’s Choice Awards figures Darren Does That is the best window cleaning company around. I’d seen the CCA crest on other businesses around the city; I didn’t really know what it was. The first thing I did was punch “Consumer’s Choice Awards Scam” into my search bar.

I hadn’t submitted my company name for the award, and it turns out, a company cannot submit themselves for the award. They use their own metrics, primarily consumer feedback, to select the best. And yes, if I want to put that sweet awards logo on my trucks I have to pony up a little cash, but the award is not contingent on spending. It’s a real thing, unlike the many pay-to-win awards and best of lists around.

I had a bit of a hard time accepting my humble efforts could garner legitimate attention, but now, I couldn’t be prouder to be your three time winner of the Consumer Choice Award for window cleaning. We’re not the flashiest marketers or best connected people around. We keep our focus on being excellent to our customers, and it works.

Direction for the Next 5 Years

Full Time Year Round

Every year I can keep more staff longer. We still go down to a skeleton crew for January and February though. I’d love to see seasonal layoffs become a thing of the past. I want everyone who works here to have absolute confidence they can plan for a year round pay cheque.

Commercial Space

You can’t beat my commute. I have an 8 second leisurely stroll from my back door to our shop. There’s much to recommend it, but we’re bursting at the seams here, and it’s getting harder all the time to cram our growing business into 700 square feet under a 7′ high ceiling. Bless my neighbours for their patience with my small fleet clogging up the area. I’d like to see us in a professional space that isn’t mixed in with my personal hobbies in the next couple years. I dream of the day we can bring a work truck inside without first stripping the ladder rack off it and letting air out of the tires.

COR Certification

We’ve had an exceptional safety record so far. I tell all my staff, over and over again, that raising a fuss when they feel iffy about doing something in this job is the least I expect of them. I warn everyone that seeing them sweating on a ladder pushing beyond their comfort zone is what will actually endanger their employment. Our safety culture has served us well, and is a great jumping off point for ambitiously pursuing a professional approach to safety far exceeding the average expectations of a window cleaning company.

Conclusions

I don’t know if I’d have ever tried this entrepreneurial project had I not been forced into it. There have been plenty of long days, stressed and sleepless nights, and moments that have me turning the air blue with language my mother would abhor. But if there is one thing I cannot abide, it is boredom, and running this business has rarely been that. There are plenty more risks and challenges to come. More and more I’ve the confidence to believe I have what it takes, and have attracted a team I can likewise believe in.

I offer a heartfelt thanks to all my customers both new and who’ve been with me since the very early months.