Fast Track
This story appears in the April 1999 issue of Business Start-Ups magazine. Subscribe »
Name and age: Philip Bregstone, 39
Company name and description: Dr. Glass Window Washing provides "boutique-scale, high-end" window cleaning and maintenance.
Based: Boulder, Colorado
Founded: 1978
1998 sales: $150,000
1999 projections: $180,000
Part-time project: Bregstone spends eight months teaching music, playing in a band and spending quality time with his wife and two sons; for the other four months of the year, he moves the family to Washington, DC, where he started his company, and does the bulk of his business there.
Family ties: Bregstone believes people shouldn't work their lives away at their families' expense, so he created Business-in-a-Box, a set of videos, manuals and software on how to start a residential window-washing business.
He can see clearly now: Says Bregstone, "I recognize the balance in my life is something everyone would like. Instead of feeling a bit shameful that I haven't achieved something considered `professional,' I feel proud that I have a good business and am helping people change their lives."