Introduction

[kahoona]

cheers guys that's useful info.

Whizzbiz, i'm based in Bishops Stortford on the Herts/Essex boarder, if you could let me know when/if your planning to be in this area & hopefully we can arrange to meet.

 

[Whizz-Bizz]

Im in Great Dunmow this week, South End next week, In fact come knock with me, Ill train you. Whatever you get I keep, and Ill get the first round.

 

[kahoona]

Hi Whizz thanks for the offer but I'm comfortable with my door to door canvassing skills. I was hoping to find a w/c to spend a day or two with so I can build up some experience "on the tools" and maybe pick some tips first hand.

I could be interested in your services but i think first things first I need to get some time in on the tools and experience in.

 

[cheapncheerful]

i would love to show you but the amount of work i am doing and the speed i go at these days would send you to sleep:zzz:

 

[kahoona]

Hi all just thought I'd post a quick update:

Over the last couple of months I have been occupied on other work, not wcing, this work has about 2 weeks left, & last Saturday I had a spear hour so decided to make a start on my canvassing. I picked up 2 new customers /emoticons/smile.png. I did 4 other quotes but in hind sight was weak at closing those deals, just leaving a card & failing to actually ask the most important question "so shall I book you in on my round?"

Anyway with my 2 new customers added to several of my neighbors who have been asking for a while now I accumulated 9 jobs so decided to take the day off the other work and do a days window cleaning. So yesterday was my first proper full day after quite a few "practice runs half days" on friends and relatives houses. On the whole i think all went okay but there were some big lessons. Every house took twice as long than I expected, I wasted too much time chatting to neighbors and having to go back to van too often to get tools, squeezey bottles, scrims etc. I ended up not finishing until 6.45pm with one house left to do! luckily i know those people well and they were happy for me come back to them in my own time.

So a few valuable lessons

1) avoid getting caught in long conversations with neighbors.

2) Don't be too much of a perfectionist and taking too long (i assume this is classic beginners error).

3) underestimated time taken on a big first clean.

4) be more efficient with foot time, i.e. make sure I don't have to keep going to van every 5 mins.

5) try to use the WFP more as I was a lot quicker with it than trad.

but at least the weather was good /emoticons/smile.png no complaints with my work and I'm looking forward to the next session and improving my speed and skills.

One question to the wfp users, have any of you had issues with front doors letting in water, i'm thinking more the pvc ones that don't seem to have a weather bar at the foot?

 

[cheapncheerful]

yeh great to hear you doing okay kahoona, i have to say i didnt want to do the neighbours for the reasons you say but...if you know thier habits you can be lucky and do them whilst they are out and chat later when you get the money ..

 


.not so bad...i had one who nicely chatted for a good half an hour..i dont do his windows but what can you do.....

 


.i am still underestimating the time....and get really annoyed when i need something from the car...still its all a challenge to beat your clean time next time...good luck and keep us informed.../emoticons/smile.png

 

[kahoona]

Cheers Cnc I must have chatted with one of the neighbours for more time than I took to clean her house and it took me a good half hour to clean it, so what should have been a say 20min job start to finish ended up being over 1 hr! Still all good experience.

 

[macca]

Hi, Kahoona, hope all is going well, your valuable lessons list is what we all encountered when starting off. Point 2 is very valuable in that a GOOD job done is most important and quickness will come, how are you up ladders do you feel safe and confident, also have you experience of using them?

 

[kahoona]

Hi macca I'm quite confident with ladders, I used to be an industrial painter many moons ago and have always kept my handy man odd job hat to hand despite being a desk jockey for 20+ years. I'm by nature risk adverse which helps however even at this early stage I can see that I will be focusing on building a wfp based business.

 

[kahoona]

A few more customers added to the round over that week, thanks to an established window cleaner who is not taking on any more customers and has kindly handed out my cards instead. All in all I'm so impressed with how helpful everyone has been, & so far no negative competition type problems. /emoticons/smile.png

 

[kahoona]

Web site appears to be up a running now, I know its basic but I'm doing it myself until I have earned enuf to hire a pro to do it. This is the first site I have made so any feed back appreciated. I'm trying to work out how to make it appear in search listing now! rgwindowcleaning.co.uk

 

[boarcity]

the first year is a bit like any apprenticeship-you will hav to take a lot of sh/t , but its there to test your mettle . after year 2 it gets a tad easier .

 

[cheapncheerful]

nice enough web site kahoona...i just shoved mine out and will one day get around to changing....one day...sort of guessed what i was doing at least its free.... /emoticons/smile.png

 

[kahoona]

cheers fellas, ill keep plugging away, the round is building slowly but steadily.

 

[Smurf]

Welcome @kahoona sounds like your you're off to a flying start. Well done! :thumbsup:

 

[kahoona]

thanks Smurf, & I have picked up a lot from postings on the safety side of things too.

 

[kahoona]

Got my first enquirer from my web site the other day, a one off clean on a domestic property, but at least it proves my DIY seo is working. /emoticons/smile.png

 

[kahoona]

That one off clean customer is now on 6 weekly maintenance clean happy daz, also I did a short letter following up on some quotes I did while canvassing about 3 - 4 weeks ago and one of those has just called and booked in for Thursday /emoticons/smile.png

 

[kahoona]

just in case it helps anyone here the wording for the quote follow up letter, obviously change the bits to suit your needs.

I printed these on letter headed paper popped in envelope and hand delivered as the properties were only 2 mins drive from where I was working.

Hope someone finds its useful.

----------------------------------------------------

Property address: 20 Example Road, Sample Town.

June ‘14

Dear Sir/Madam,

You may recall during the first week of June I called at your house and provided a quote of £14 for Window Cleaning. I will be in your area during the first week of July and if you would like me to include you on my round please do not hesitate to get in touch, my contact details are below.

I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Kind regards