All eggs in one basket?

[HWCS]

You don't sound like a *** and it's a fair question. So I probably have in total now about 280 customers. But I work by myself and the houses in my village are pretty big and can get really big. So yeh I may say I charge £10 for a normal semi but alot of my houses here are 5 bed detached with conservatory's that take me on my own 30--40 mins and I charge accordingly. So I actually tend to sit at around a comfortable 10 jobs a day. Also these houses are what I refer to as back breakers ?, I have to bend like a circus act to reach some windows . So the chance of doing 20-25 houses a day just isn't possible. Also I do gutter cleaning and Conny roofs on a Saturday morning and booked up for next 6 weeks so I'm honestly not really needing as much work as I've got. Look at today for example I'll be lucky to get 3 houses done today, really really windy and throwing it down. And now I have to catch them back up again with just a  single person . 

Ahhh thats fair then. ??

 

[Iron Giant]

I had to do some dormer windows that were added to a first storey today - they were high up towards the apex of the roof.  I put two extensions on my SLX27 to reach them and it was a killer of a job because it was at that precise moment the wind picked up and the blooming brush was all over the place spraying water everywhere!  

I persevered and managed to get the windows rinsed thoroughly as did the neighbouring house ?  Rest of the day was fine using the SLX18.  Got some skylights tomorrow to do on a farm house but will gauge the weather tomorrow but I will likely miss a couple jobs but I'm not writing the whole day off.

With jobs with veluxs I will just miss the veluxs if I feel it's better to do so, if the wind is unpredictable I won't risk injury or damaging my pole, custys are totally fine with this and I just discount the price of the clean. 

 

[TWC]

I suppose if your near the coast then 4 weekly is needed. I’m as far from any coast as you can get and 95% of my round is 8 weekly. I give two quotes, a 4 weekly or an 8 weekly which is at least 20% higher. Most opt for 8 weekly but in reality it probably takes me 5% longer to clean them so get a better hourly rate. 
It allows me to have lots more customers and I personally don’t enjoy 4 weekly as feel like I’m there all the time. 

 

[dazmond]

Im confused, why sell work after 10 months? Youve sold 70ish customers, you have 200 in your town/village and your wanting to sell more work thats not in your town/village.

Why?

You work a 4weekly rota, if you did 20/25 houses a day on a 4wkly working mon-fri you could comfortably do 400-500 customers per 4wkly you only have 1/2 your capacity in your town/village so im confused as to why your selling customers on already and if im honest im confused how you can sell customers on in under a year of having them.

I genuinely dont wanna sound like im being a kn0b but i just dont get it, maybe im missing some detail.

I agree....it all sounds very strange for someone that's still a newbie...

 

[HWCS]

I suppose if your near the coast then 4 weekly is needed. I’m as far from any coast as you can get and 95% of my round is 8 weekly. I give two quotes, a 4 weekly or an 8 weekly which is at least 20% higher. Most opt for 8 weekly but in reality it probably takes me 5% longer to clean them so get a better hourly rate. 
It allows me to have lots more customers and I personally don’t enjoy 4 weekly as feel like I’m there all the time. 

My only 4 weekers are literally as close to thw sea as you can get without drying your socks.

I did have a few 8weekly days but have juat told them all its now 6weekly only.

Only had 1 moan about it but juat dropped her price from £15 per clean to £12 so still £6 up on them a year.

 

[wezza13]

With jobs with veluxs I will just miss the veluxs if I feel it's better to do so, if the wind is unpredictable I won't risk injury or damaging my pole, custys are totally fine with this and I just discount the price of the clean. 

Same. I just tell them that I wouldn't want to risk damaging their roof/tiles. They're happy when when you put it in that perspective.

 

[Iron Giant]

Same. I just tell them that I wouldn't want to risk damaging their roof/tiles. They're happy when when you put it in that perspective.

It's not there roof I'm bothered about, it's me trying to maintain control over the pole at 35ft when a strong gust of wind comes and pushes my pole across the roof or when I am extending collapsing the pole which would be the most risky point of loosing control and pole getting pushed from vertical to almost horizontal

 

[wezza13]

It's not there roof I'm bothered about, it's me trying to maintain control over the pole at 35ft when a strong gust of wind comes and pushes my pole across the roof or when I am extending collapsing the pole which would be the most risky point of loosing control and pole getting pushed from vertical to almost horizontal

Me too but I make it look like (in their eyes) it's their roof I'm concerned about.

I couldn't give a f**k about their roof and am just bothered about my pole ?

 

[Bongofish]

I agree....it all sounds very strange for someone that's still a newbie...

How does it sound strange??? I maybe a newbie but I do a good job and business has quickly grown? ?

 

[ched999uk]

You don't sound like a *** and it's a fair question. So I probably have in total now about 280 customers. But I work by myself and the houses in my village are pretty big and can get really big. So yeh I may say I charge £10 for a normal semi but alot of my houses here are 5 bed detached with conservatory's that take me on my own 30--40 mins and I charge accordingly. So I actually tend to sit at around a comfortable 10 jobs a day. Also these houses are what I refer to as back breakers ?, I have to bend like a circus act to reach some windows . So the chance of doing 20-25 houses a day just isn't possible. Also I do gutter cleaning and Conny roofs on a Saturday morning and booked up for next 6 weeks so I'm honestly not really needing as much work as I've got. Look at today for example I'll be lucky to get 3 houses done today, really really windy and throwing it down. And now I have to catch them back up again with just a  single person . 

That does sound like you have some very good jobs. I do wonder if you should up your prices a bit, certainly on any new quotes. Maybe even keep upping them on new quotes till you only get 70% of them. As you say some of them are 'back breakers' so make sure you charge accordingly. If you have too much work in the outer town then maybe just tell all those custy the price is going up by say 15% and see how many you lose.

 

[dazmond]

That does sound like you have some very good jobs. I do wonder if you should up your prices a bit, certainly on any new quotes. Maybe even keep upping them on new quotes till you only get 70% of them. As you say some of them are 'back breakers' so make sure you charge accordingly. If you have too much work in the outer town then maybe just tell all those custy the price is going up by say 15% and see how many you lose.

i guarantee he s undercharged to get the work in the first place....not one of us had built a good business in less than 12 months of trading...it takes many years to sort wheat from chaff

 

[Bongofish]

i guarantee he s undercharged to get the work in the first place....not one of us had built a good business in less than 12 months of trading...it takes many years to sort wheat from chaff

What are you on about? So it's worked for me in the first year but not for you in yours at the time and that makes it so unbelievable to you . Maybe your first year in business you had a terrible plan.....sounds like it.

 

[dazmond]

How does it sound strange??? I maybe a newbie but I do a good job and business has quickly grown? ?

i dont understand how you can sell work that you ve  cleaned for less than a year?you want to keep most of your jobs ideally and build on it...thats how you build trust,respect and reliability....unless of course you ve vastly underpriced these jobs and they are "grudge" cleans now?(we ve all done it!)...in that case id put the prices up and explain to the customers the truth...you underpriced the job...if you do a good job most customer will accept the new price and you ll enjoy cleaning the jobs again.....

 

[Bongofish]

i dont understand how you can sell work that you ve  cleaned for less than a year?you want to keep most of your jobs ideally and build on it...thats how you build trust,respect and reliability....unless of course you ve vastly underpriced these jobs and they are "grudge" cleans now?(we ve all done it!)...in that case id put the prices up and explain to the customers the truth...you underpriced the job...if you do a good job most customer will accept the new price and you ll enjoy cleaning the jobs again.....

For my first 30 customers may e I undercharged. I now sit in what I call the middle ground. I'm not the cheapest but not the most expensive. And I could have tripple the amount of customers I have now if I kept having to advertise but I stopped that about 6 months ago as work was coming in steady. I would say in the last 2 weeks I've turned down about 15 enquiries because there about 3 miles away. I don't get why you find it so hard to believe? Maybe there's a windy cleaner shortage I don't know but all I do know is I'm telling you the truth and I've just stuck to a basic plan. And shared that plan with you all and newbies. Maybe Facebook wasn't around when you started and it would have grown alot quicker with social media as a form of advertising. ? 

 

[dazmond]

For my first 30 customers may e I undercharged. I now sit in what I call the middle ground. I'm not the cheapest but not the most expensive. And I could have tripple the amount of customers I have now if I kept having to advertise but I stopped that about 6 months ago as work was coming in steady. I would say in the last 2 weeks I've turned down about 15 enquiries because there about 3 miles away. I don't get why you find it so hard to believe? Maybe there's a windy cleaner shortage I don't know but all I do know is I'm telling you the truth and I've just stuck to a basic plan. And shared that plan with you all and newbies. Maybe Facebook wasn't around when you started and it would have grown alot quicker with social media as a form of advertising. ? 

fair play to you.....the main area i work is very competitive because its a very affluent area..i know of at least 25 window cleaning companies working a 3 mile area these days....

i started window cleaning in 1993.....no there was no facebook!and no one had a mobile phone,wfp and most payments were cash or cheque with endless collecting every week!i dont miss them days mate!?

 

[Bongofish]

fair play to you.....the main area i work is very competitive because its a very affluent area..i know of at least 25 window cleaning companies working a 3 mile area these days....

i started window cleaning in 1993.....no there was no facebook!and no one had a mobile phone,wfp and most payments were cash or cheque with endless collecting every week!i dont miss them days mate!?

 I know for an experianced guy like you it may seem impossible what's happened, but honestly I think we've got the nail on the head. With the power of Facebook and all the local Facebook groups now, aswell as having a signed van and uniform (compared to 90% of the others round here with ladders still on there car roof) , people see it on Facebook and it looks good. Also like I said people in my village are very clicky, they prefer to have everyone they ever work with or do work for them from the village. I've probably had 40+ customers cancel there window cleaner and take me on just because I'm from the village, not that there windy was doing a bad job ?

 

[ched999uk]

 I know for an experianced guy like you it may seem impossible what's happened, but honestly I think we've got the nail on the head. With the power of Facebook and all the local Facebook groups now, aswell as having a signed van and uniform (compared to 90% of the others round here with ladders still on there car roof) , people see it on Facebook and it looks good. Also like I said people in my village are very clicky, they prefer to have everyone they ever work with or do work for them from the village. I've probably had 40+ customers cancel there window cleaner and take me on just because I'm from the village, not that there windy was doing a bad job ?

Sounds like you have hit a rare gold mine. I think you are doing exceptionally well, in most areas it takes quite a lot longer to build then you have. Well done. In normal areas when people build very quickly it's because they are pricing themselves too low just so they get some work at the beginning. Again in normal areas once people have a decent income they start 'compacting' their work i.e. maximising the amount they can earn by doing the minimum of driving (driving time doesn't pay) plus getting rid of jobs they don't like or are difficult or are late payers, skip cleans etc.

Bottom line is you know your business best but try and maximise income for lower hours. You work to live not live to work!

It's great to hear a success story from someone starting up as it's an inspiration. Well done.

 

[danzlfc]

Ive just been in a similar situation in the sense that things had grown too much recently, I think covid has certainly made it easier for our businesses to grow so far. So for me personally I have two workers now which means I get through a lot more work, i time all my work and any jobs that I’m not earning x per hour have either been put up to what I want or dropped. When you time your jobs it may surprise you, some of my work that I though was good money was actually quite bad. I think once your maxed out you should definitely be charging a premium because of the demand of your services, so i was you I wouldn’t be staying in the middle ground for price anymore. I’d also consider hiring some help, It’s an easy job to teach you just need a bit of work ethic, I pay any workers well but still earn plenty more from the work they do than I pay. The alternative if you don’t want to employ is switch to 6 weekly, this kills two birds with one stone - you put your prices up to a more premium level but can also get through more customers because they are cleaned less frequently. 
 

I think if your working 7 days something has to give, when covid eases if like most people you want to go on holidays etc you don’t want to be coming back stressed out about your work being behind and people ringing you, part of being self employed is being able to work on your own terms and enjoy life a bit more in my opinion ?

 

[dazmond]

Ive just been in a similar situation in the sense that things had grown too much recently, I think covid has certainly made it easier for our businesses to grow so far. So for me personally I have two workers now which means I get through a lot more work, i time all my work and any jobs that I’m not earning x per hour have either been put up to what I want or dropped. When you time your jobs it may surprise you, some of my work that I though was good money was actually quite bad. I think once your maxed out you should definitely be charging a premium because of the demand of your services, so i was you I wouldn’t be staying in the middle ground for price anymore. I’d also consider hiring some help, It’s an easy job to teach you just need a bit of work ethic, I pay any workers well but still earn plenty more from the work they do than I pay. The alternative if you don’t want to employ is switch to 6 weekly, this kills two birds with one stone - you put your prices up to a more premium level but can also get through more customers because they are cleaned less frequently. 
 

I think if your working 7 days something has to give, when covid eases if like most people you want to go on holidays etc you don’t want to be coming back stressed out about your work being behind and people ringing you, part of being self employed is being able to work on your own terms and enjoy life a bit more in my opinion ?

What he needs to do is start working in the rain and most bad weather to stay on schedule and give him time to relax on days off....buy some decent wet weather gear and crack on....

I'll be on the glass for 9am and finished for 230pm then weekend off...best earning week I've had this year this week!??

 

[Iron Giant]

What he needs to do is start working in the rain and most bad weather to stay on schedule and give him time to relax on days off....buy some decent wet weather gear and crack on....

I'll be on the glass for 9am and finished for 230pm then weekend off...best earning week I've had this year this week!??

Agreed, he is not working in the rain as and when he should and if some people don't want their windows done in the rain then he should do the add ons on rainy days. 

I think from memory @Bongofish is starting and finishing as and when he wants, which to a point is fine, but if you are behind schedule then just working an extra hour each day will make a positive impact,

I have no issue working a Saturday if needed like this week I have got behind with the weather and some personal stuff,  but I will work today, but I couldn't do it every week as over time I would become demoralised and loose my motivation and drive. 

 

[mike007]

As I'm so in experianced in business running I wouldn't even know where to begin sun contracting. People have said to me why don't you take on someone with you, but it just feels complicated to me in terms of wages and tax and employment rights. It may not be but feel it's simpler to keep it just me. 

In regards to burning myself you are right in a way. This is a very hard one. I work 7 days a week now but for much shorter hours than I worked before as a lorry driver. I do less weekly hours now then I did then....but I can't remember the last day I got up and put a pair of jeans on rather than my work trousers. 

Its still BY FAR the best job I've had but definetly feeling pressure alot more than 4 months ago when I kept everyone in check and to time .

Getting up in a morning and having little or no work on for the week is pressure.