Fish Window Cleaning Company Franchise Birth
Search For A
Franchise For Sale
SELECT FRANCHISE TYPE:

Types of Franchises:

  • Area Development Opportunities
  • Best Franchises for Women
  • Consumer Services
  • Earth Friendly
  • Existing Franchises for Sale
  • Fast Start-Up
  • Fastest Growing
  • Food & Restaurant
  • Home-Based
  • Mobile, Van-Based
  • Retail
  • SBA Approved Franchises
  • Sell to Businesses
  • Top Franchises for Students
  • Under $100,000 Start-Up Investment
  • Under $50,000 Start-Up Investment
Get Started

Article - Founder Story - Fish Window Cleaning

Fish Window Cleaning’s birthday is January 24, 1978; and here’s how it all began . . .

Fish Window Cleaning’s birth took approximately two weeks. It was January 1978, and Mike Merrick had been the Branch Manager of Farm and Home Savings and Loan on South Lindbergh Blvd. in St. Louis, MO, for five years. He started in the downtown location and was a manager in training for two years before that. He wore a suit and tie to work everyday and worked a half day on Saturday.

Mark Stobe cleaned the windows at Farm and Home every four weeks. Stobe told Merrick that he was going to sell his business, which consisted of 100 commercial accounts. Merrick set up a meeting to look at Mark’s Window Cleaning’s books. Merrick was afraid and uncertain to immediately take the plunge and buy the business. His decision was made for him by Mr. George McDonald, President of Farm and Home Savings. On Friday, January 13, Mr. McDonald paid a visit to the branch office, and at 10:00 am asked Merrick to clean out his desk. They were cutting back on payroll.

This was the onset of the labor pains. Merrick contacted Stobe and told him he would have to get a loan to buy his business. Boatmen’s Bank was the bank down the street from Farm and Home Savings, and everyday Merrick took the daily receipts in a blue zipper bank bag to Boatmen’s. He paid a different visit to Boatman’s on January 16, 1978, and talked with David McKay about a loan to buy a window cleaning business. Merrick got the loan and also got his first window cleaning account. Fish Window Cleaning cleaned this location of Boatmen’s Bank for 20 years until NationsBank bought them out.

It seems logical that Mark’s Window Cleaning would have become Mike’s Window Cleaning. However, Merrick and his wife Linda believed the Lord had opened this new "window of opportunity" and decided that the name for the company should be Fish Window Cleaning. Throughout the years, many people have called Merrick "Mr. Fish" assuming that was his last name. Mr. Fish is an appropriate name and embodies the meaning of the famous quotation, "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he will eat for a lifetime."

After the time it took to get the loan to purchase Mark’s Window Cleaning and the one week of personal, hands-on training, Fish Window Cleaning was birthed on January 24, 1978. In January 1998, Fish Window Cleaning Services, Inc. was started and Fish Window Cleaning opened its first franchise in Tampa , Florida in March 1998. After 10 years of franchising, FISH currently has more than 230 franchise territories in 41 states.