God at work
By: Alicia Dahl
Tags: Photography, Window Washing, Bethel University, Godatwork, Christianity

Wax on wax off

Matt Herringshaw believes in acting out his faith by doing excellent work. He connects his faith to his window washing company by striving for more than earning money.

“The monotony of cleaning a window is brutal when you’re doing it all day every day,” said Herringshaw, owner of Clear Cut Window Cleaning.

Herringshaw began his window washing career by going door to door searching for customers as a 15-year-old. His parents were pastors at the time, which gave him a network of customers, so he emailed all their friends.

“I always was interested in wanting to start my own little thing,” he said.

Herringshaw kept cleaning windows during a few summers while he was in college at Bethel University where he completed his undergraduate in business. For a summer, he used his window business to hire a few at-risk, inner-city youth from a nonprofit that his friend started. He decided to pursue the business, and continued after college.

In the last year, Herringshaw was more hands off with window cleaning itself. His brother joined him full-time with the company, and they hire part-time employees in the summer.

“I viewed my business as, sort of a means to another end where it would fund other things that I wanted to do,” Herringshaw said. “I didn’t view myself as someone that wants to come to a Starbucks once a week and clean their windows.”

His brother Michael has challenged him to run the business without putting finances at the forefront. The vision should be about serving, loving and helping others to grow in their leadership skills.

“We’re called as followers of Jesus to just do whatever we do with excellence,” Matt said.

As a business, Clear Cut Window Cleaning has an opportunity to interact with customers in their homes.

“It’s super simple, you just love the person in front of you, and cool things happen.” — Matt Herringshaw

When cleaning windows at a woman’s house, Herringshaw felt led to pray for feelings of loneliness in the house to leave. Then he found out that the woman’s husband had died and she was struggling with loneliness.

It’s not a business tactic or a quest for a good tip, but it’s taking the opportunity “to come in with the love of Jesus and confuse them with how much you care for them,” Herringshaw said.

More often than not, Herringshaw and his employees end up chatting or praying with customers at the end of a job.

“It’s super simple, you just love the person in front of you, and cool things happen,” Herringshaw said.

The company cleans elderly living facilities too. Herringshaw tells his summer employees to take elderly people up on coffee conversations during the day on paid-time. The conversations open up opportunities for prayer.

“I think we had a running count at one point of how many elderly women ended up crying in these college-aged guys’ arms,” he said.

The team of people Herringshaw hires has become a focus for him. He aims to have a tight-knit community of men and women that work for the company.

Herringshaw sees his business as a training ground to teach people two things: “How do you love the person really well in front of you and how do you be really excellent at your job even when it’s boring — even when it’s redundant,” he said.

Employees who learn those skills can take them anywhere.

“You can do anything really well if you can be a really good window cleaner,” he said.