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Advice needed - local windy gives away his business for free...

So I went to meet him today. Got invited inside, his wife made us a nice cup of tea and we had a chat.Turns out he has been doing only part time window cleaning for the last 10 years and his customers are not 300 as he previously stated but around 150 and about half of them are only twice a year.. and most of them are not on any sort of file or book but he knows where they live and he is gonna introduce me to them.

Still good and he is a nice chap and he was just looking for someone serious to keep his ex customers happy.

So he is giving it away to me and I told him that I will pay him 10% of whatever I am earning from his customers for a year on 3 monthly basis cash. He was very happy about that.

So am I.
I'd tell him to do one! He told you 300 custys 8 weekly so now he better get out there knocking and give you wht he said!

(Yes I am kidding)

See issue resolved - you know what you're getting. He's happy with a thank you 10%

Deal done.

Dont sound like a 'proper round' at all but may be some nice salvage to be had from it.

 
I had a similar experience a couple of years ago: The man had had a fall and broken his shoulder, told all his customers he would be back when it healed, then he had to have an op to correct the healed bone so decided he'd had enough and told all his customers he wasn't coming back. I picked up his leaflet saying he was packing it in from someone who phoned me for a quote. Went to see him and got his list of customers - very low prices and all trad. He was prepared to give it to me for nothing as he hadn't worked it for close on six months but I told him I would write to every customer, explain he had passed their details to me and offer to come and quote our price if they wanted. I agreed I would pay him £5 for every customer I converted. Bearing in mind he hadn't expected to get anything, was just going to let it all go and also I had to increase his prices by up to 100% to make it worth my while, I thought that was fair.

It was just before Christmas and I managed to retain about 30% of his work which gave him an unexpected (and very welcome) Christmas bonus.

 
Hi All ,

Im new in this forum and coming as a new to the business . Just a quick question is it better to start window cleaning buiyng off someone round or try to build your own from scratch ? what is safer ?

 
@Sebster better starting your own. If you have money and want it to work A it will and B use said money to buy good kit to start with instead of buying work

An example. There is a guy local to me selling 40 4.50 houses for 650 quid!! I ran a paid advert on FB and must have about 25 to 30 houses off it now...paid advert is 50 quid. That was an amazing return by any standard and one thats surprised me, but even five off that advert is better than buying prices.

Furthermore if you are new to window cleaning it'll give you time to build skill and speed rather than jumping into the deep end (buying work), that let's assume may bring the odd challenge to a newby, be done at a certain pace to get around it etc.

Check the advertising business section for lots of info on how to get work.

You'll make it if you want to. Make it your life for a year; ya won't regret it

 
@Sebster better starting your own. If you have money and want it to work A it will and B use said money to buy good kit to start with instead of buying work
An example. There is a guy local to me selling 40 4.50 houses for 650 quid!! I ran a paid advert on FB and must have about 25 to 30 houses off it now...paid advert is 50 quid. That was an amazing return by any standard and one thats surprised me, but even five off that advert is better than buying prices.

Furthermore if you are new to window cleaning it'll give you time to build skill and speed rather than jumping into the deep end (buying work), that let's assume may bring the odd challenge to a newby, be done at a certain pace to get around it etc.

Check the advertising business section for lots of info on how to get work.

You'll make it if you want to. Make it your life for a year; ya won't regret it
4.50 houses Chris33 ? What type of houses are they? It seems really cheap to me. My cheapest houses are 2 bed terraced and I charge 10€ (thats about 8.5 pounds) for 8 weekly cleans and only because I have 6 of them in a row and easy access.

 
Chris 33 ,

Thank u /emoticons/wink.png but if I would like tp buy quite a big round worth approx L5500+ what would be important to check ?

I ask many questions but perhaps somethink what would be the most important ?

Ps. I done it traditional window cleaning 15 years ago for nearly two years move to construction and I run buisness for 11 years now got enough which make me think to come back to window cleaning which is less stresfull and I got huge regret I left 15 years ago as today I would run more then one round /emoticons/wink.png But this is life so full of energy ready for new adventure /emoticons/wink.png

Any of canvassing company worth it to use ???

Regarding equipment I got list below would you provide with some advise ?

1x 25ft Aluminium Brodex pole

1x 29ft Aluminium Brodex pole

1x 25ft Fibreglass Ionics pole

1 x 23ft Fibreglass pole

1 x 45ft Aluminium Brodex pole

All poles come with brushes.

2x 100 metre hose rails. 1 is portable, the other is fixed into the van.

1x step ladder

1x A frame ladder

1 x window cleaning ladder to include clamps for securing onto the top of the van

1x 600 litre baffled water tank fitted into the van

1x 1000 litre baffled water tank for water production

2x resin bottles in van

2x pumps with remote control

2x batteries

1x Merlin Reverse Osmosis water purifying system

2 x Unger belts

Several items of uniform in a size medium if wanted

2x 25litre bags of resin

Thanks /emoticons/wink.png,

Sebster

 
@Sebster that's some list lol

I'd personally use carbon fibre poles..I had an aluminium poleg and used for cladding cleans. Heavy as hell. Check out gardners slx range and the slightly cheaper clx range.

The first question I'd ask is why are you selling? Does it seem legit?

Do you have accounts to show this regularity of custom? How many are online and what's the proof?

Do you have contact numbers for all? There's a start mate

 
Chris33

Thanks a lot /emoticons/wink.png I did ask that questions but thank you. So far first meeting was good I put my interest .

Next week will be with owner for the week to see his customers and work around .

Thanks a lot again and definitelly will be in touch /emoticons/wink.png

BTW which area are you operating ?

 
I'm central Scotland @Sebster and you mate?

If he's got you out meeting them individually that's gotta be a real good sign. He's making the effort of what must be a fair few houses to chap.

 
Hi Chris33 ,

Sorry for not straight away reply .

Yes we agreed for door to door introduction plus sending letters .

I am based in Guildford , Surrey but will thinking about relocation to Southampton ony 50 minutes away /emoticons/wink.png

How long are yopu in to the window cleaning buisness ?

 
Sounds good is Southampton a more profitable area?

I'm almost a year in I think,or maybe it is a year now mate...since actually getting going.

 
not sure if better or not but sounds like a good area to work and good buisness to take over /emoticons/wink.png

are you enjopuing ur work so far ?

 
When I'm on top of things yes mate lol

About 30 houses to go and I'm back to start of week 1 though, and I'm rejigging it a lot then. Culling a lot and will focus on close and better paid work.

Constant change, can't wait to get into a groove with the windows a bit more. Been a mad busy year.

 
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