First paying customers.

[Davy G]

There are only 2 things in the world I am scared of and always keep the right side of, HMRC and her indoors ?

Hat's off to you mate. Er indoors sorts HMRC. But I have no chance of keeping on the right side of her. I'm always skating on the edge at the very least. ??

 

[Davy G]

Hey Bongofish,

You sound just like me in April 2019, ive no idea what Pontefract is like as never been there, no idea how much 'competition' youve got.

My advice would be simple dont give up your day job yet, youll need more than just facebook to get yourself established, get onto vistaprint and get yourself 5000 leaflets, and get flyering for an hour each evening youll be suprised how many you can get out quickly.

Have a word with your bosses and tell them you need to go part time from the end of the month, 3 days a week, that gives you 2 days plus weekends to clean windows, when theres more windows than free days thats when you need to jack in.

A binman on £10 p/h is crazy round my area binmen get paid nearer £15 p/h and the driver is on nearly £20 p/h.

No idea what van you have but 10x 25ltr barrels wont go as far as you think.

Personally id ditch the idea of trading bottoms as it will hold you up and once your established youll have to convince/explain why your now wfping the bottoms 'start as you mean to go on'

Like others said its easy to fall into the trap of being busy because your cheap, my bottom line for a house is £10 thats mid terraces 2 windows 2 doors bottom and 4 windows top.

You WILL underprice jobs and kick yourself i know i have, i hit a brand new estate really eary on in my journey into windying its a 15 job day and every house bar 3 are underpriced by £3-7, i have kept the prices there rather than boost them as it was my inexperience rather than the customers but come jan 2021 ill habe had them 18months and will put them all up £2.

Your CLX may struggle with dorma windows on 3 storeys but should get the normal top windows.

Make your £8 houses a tenner if they moan and say last windy was £6 just politely say "ahhh im sorry i cant get down to there, i always give my best price, if you change your mind ferl free to give me a shout"

I dont have all the answers but if you read my thread 'upto 50 customers' ive kinda blogged my journey and thetes some awesome advice ftom guys on this forum.

Good luck mate

You're thread "Up To 50 Customers", is very well worth a read for anyone. Especially someone starting out. We can see your thinking changing as you built your business over the first year and gained confidence. It certainly reminds me a lot of my first year, six years ago.

Fair play, you said you'd keep us updated and you have.

Good on you, glad it's going well for you. . ??

 

[HWCS]

You're thread "Up To 50 Customers", is very well worth a read for anyone. Especially someone starting out. We can see your thinking changing as you built your business over the first year and gained confidence. It certainly reminds me a lot of my first year, six years ago.

Fair play, you said you'd keep us updated and you have.

Good on you, glad it's going well for you. . ??

Cheers Davey its a great forum and advice on here is genuinely priceless, cant believe in just over a year in im giving advice. #mindblown

 

[Iron Giant]

Apsonwould anyone think it was a worth investment to get a slx 25 pole as we have alot of 3 storey houses round here. Dont want to be spending anymore really but also dont want to be missing out because on one of the big estates 1 min away from house 2/3 are 3 storey+ houses. 

It will really depend on the houses most of my modern town houses I can easily do with a 22ft pole and I am 5ft tall some others I need a an extension on to take it to a 27ft and then an extra extension again on some other bigger 4-5 bed houses to take it to a 32ft pole with some dormers and veluxs on the back of the house but even than I just about manage but that's the same on some smaller ones as those velux windows can be set further back than you think.

 

[Dave B]

It will really depend on the houses most of my modern town houses I can easily do with a 22ft pole and I am 5ft tall some others I need a an extension on to take it to a 27ft and then an extra extension again on some other bigger 4-5 bed houses to take it to a 32ft pole with some dormers and veluxs on the back of the house but even than I just about manage but that's the same on some smaller ones as those velux windows can be set further back than you think.

Papa smurf calls him stumpy?

Put your prices up a couple quid each quote until you find the sweet spot where you get about 70% of your quotes.

Then you'll be bang on with pricing.

Don't try to get every job you quote.

You have to be able to walk away like it's water off a ducks back .. you will be surprised how many get back to you later and change their mind and take you on.

 

[Bongofish]

Ok so I'm 5 houses in now for paying customers and a couple of things I need to ask?

1. In struggling abit with traditional, in terms of i use 2 fresh microfiber clothes for 1 house and then there too mucky to use again. I use 1 for wiping the wiping the remaining wetness off the window after blading it and then use the same one for the sills, then use the other as a completely dry microfiber and make sure there is no dirty spots or any streaks left so there crystal clear. But then I move onto the next house and cant use these 2 same cloths because even after a wash in the bucket they leave the windows a bit dirty when they dried with like dirty water spots?

2. In relation to the above it may just be easier to wfp clean everything including the downstairs windows, but my van will only hold about 350 litres and I'm using containers at the moment and the closest spotless water to me is 35 mins away, so when I'm busy dont want to be having to make this trip every day. 

3. With the sills, I just wipe the brush across the top windows but with the downstairs windows I find myself really getting into cleaning them and getting the grey muck off the corners that you really have to use alot of force to get off. This may be a newbie thing but I dont know how far I am meant to be going with these. As alot of houses around my area have 2 patio doors and all of a sudden I've spent 30 mins on 1 small semi detached. I'm trying to get them as lean as possible and then when I walk away and look again theres more bits or another spider web I hadn't seen. I dont know what people expect from a standard window clean for £8?

4. That conservatory hosue got back to.me and they want it doing every 4 weeks for £30. I'm sure I've under priced myself as this is including the roof. Is there any solution that I need to spray on the conservatory roof to start removing the grime as wont be able to get a lot of pressure in the pole to scrub at it?

5. Lastly the lat customer rang and made me aware that his neighbours house gets done for £7 and his mums house in the village gets done for £5 and said hes happy to pay the £8 but hes making me aware that people are going around cheaper than me. I need the customers but if I go down to £6 a house it starts getting pointless ?

 

[HWCS]

Ok so I'm 5 houses in now for paying customers and a couple of things I need to ask?

1. In struggling abit with traditional, in terms of i use 2 fresh microfiber clothes for 1 house and then there too mucky to use again. I use 1 for wiping the wiping the remaining wetness off the window after blading it and then use the same one for the sills, then use the other as a completely dry microfiber and make sure there is no dirty spots or any streaks left so there crystal clear. But then I move onto the next house and cant use these 2 same cloths because even after a wash in the bucket they leave the windows a bit dirty when they dried with like dirty water spots?

2. In relation to the above it may just be easier to wfp clean everything including the downstairs windows, but my van will only hold about 350 litres and I'm using containers at the moment and the closest spotless water to me is 35 mins away, so when I'm busy dont want to be having to make this trip every day. 

3. With the sills, I just wipe the brush across the top windows but with the downstairs windows I find myself really getting into cleaning them and getting the grey muck off the corners that you really have to use alot of force to get off. This may be a newbie thing but I dont know how far I am meant to be going with these. As alot of houses around my area have 2 patio doors and all of a sudden I've spent 30 mins on 1 small semi detached. I'm trying to get them as lean as possible and then when I walk away and look again theres more bits or another spider web I hadn't seen. I dont know what people expect from a standard window clean for £8?

4. That conservatory hosue got back to.me and they want it doing every 4 weeks for £30. I'm sure I've under priced myself as this is including the roof. Is there any solution that I need to spray on the conservatory roof to start removing the grime as wont be able to get a lot of pressure in the pole to scrub at it?

5. Lastly the lat customer rang and made me aware that his neighbours house gets done for £7 and his mums house in the village gets done for £5 and said hes happy to pay the £8 but hes making me aware that people are going around cheaper than me. I need the customers but if I go down to £6 a house it starts getting pointless ?

1: dont dry the glass with micro fibre, if youve bladed it right you wont need to, if theres still bits on glass then youve not mopped it properly. You should get a cpl of scrims for detailing and use the microfibres for frames and sills.

2: what van have you got? 350ltrs will do you alot of houses once youve done first cleans and get onto maintenance cleans, make friends with a local windy and see if theyll sell you pure for roughly 5ppl and get a pure system set ul asap.

3: youll only need to spend the extra time on these houses on the first clean, thats why some people charge first cleans more expensive (personally i dont) but i only spray tfr on minging frames, i dont do the whole scrubbing with pinkstuff, if i did id charge alot more for 1st cleans.

4: conny roofs are not a standard part of window cleaning and shouldnt be in the cleaning price. Conny roofs are 'addons'

5: Their prices are their business,stick to your prices and dont try to compete or eventually youll have people telling you they pay £3 and youll have to charge £2.50. If they wont pay a fair price they are not the customers you want.

Hope this helps

 

[Bobsonduggnutt]

Youll get the tax bill for 2020/21 then and youll have till Jan 31st 2021 to pay for it, but if you put 22% of each days takings into a seperate account then youll have the money to pay it and youll have a bit left over to treat th wife to a nice meal or weekend away OR yourself to a nice new toy for work ????

Correct me if I'm wrong here but I'm sure you cant write off alot of stuff ie..if you put 22% by every day then come next March you should be able to buy yourself some new gear and what not using the tax money you have put aside and write them off. For instance if you had put by £3000 to pay your tax you would be much better off with £3000 worth of new gear than just giving it straight to the tax man, again I'm not totally clued up on that but it's just a thought.

 

[HWCS]

Correct me if I'm wrong here but I'm sure you cant write off alot of stuff ie..if you put 22% by every day then come next March you should be able to buy yourself some new gear and what not using the tax money you have put aside and write them off. For instance if you had put by £3000 to pay your tax you would be much better off with £3000 worth of new gear than just giving it straight to the tax man, again I'm not totally clued up on that but it's just a thought.

Yes you can right off expenses of equipment youve bought but youll have already paid for that stuff, you still have to pay tax, unless your under the threshold

 

[Bongofish]

1: dont dry the glass with micro fibre, if youve bladed it right you wont need to, if theres still bits on glass then youve not mopped it properly. You should get a cpl of scrims for detailing and use the microfibres for frames and sills.

2: what van have you got? 350ltrs will do you alot of houses once youve done first cleans and get onto maintenance cleans, make friends with a local windy and see if theyll sell you pure for roughly 5ppl and get a pure system set ul asap.

3: youll only need to spend the extra time on these houses on the first clean, thats why some people charge first cleans more expensive (personally i dont) but i only spray tfr on minging frames, i dont do the whole scrubbing with pinkstuff, if i did id charge alot more for 1st cleans.

4: conny roofs are not a standard part of window cleaning and shouldnt be in the cleaning price. Conny roofs are 'addons'

5: Their prices are their business,stick to your prices and dont try to compete or eventually youll have people telling you they pay £3 and youll have to charge £2.50. If they wont pay a fair price they are not the customers you want.

Hope this helps

Thanks this is really helpful!

The conservatory roof is an add on but did not know what to price it as as it actually is a brick conservatory at the back of a house and only had patio doors and a roof. The house without it would be £10. However again I'm not sure if they want all the conservatory roof pvc sparkling white or just a going over with the brush ?

 

[HWCS]

Thanks this is really helpful!

The conservatory roof is an add on but did not know what to price it as as it actually is a brick conservatory at the back of a house and only had patio doors and a roof. The house without it would be £10. However again I'm not sure if they want all the conservatory roof pvc sparkling white or just a going over with the brush ?

Thats an extension not a conservatory ??

Do you have a picture of the conny, is the roof plastic or glass?

Conny/extension roofs youll soon get the feel for. Personally i charge on average £5 per panel (plastic) section (glass) and always include the whites.

Get a garden sprayer and some TFR/UBICK/VIRISOL to help with the frames, sills, whites etc etc

Heres one i did today, could only clean 2 sides and the roof so charged her £45 and it took me 45 minutes

 

[Bongofish]

Thats an extension not a conservatory ??

Do you have a picture of the conny, is the roof plastic or glass?

Conny/extension roofs youll soon get the feel for. Personally i charge on average £5 per panel (plastic) section (glass) and always include the whites.

Get a garden sprayer and some TFR/UBICK/VIRISOL to help with the frames, sills, whites etc etc

Heres one i did today, could only clean 2 sides and the roof so charged her £45 and it took me 45 minutes

View attachment 20861

View attachment 20862

View attachment 20863

This is the extension and roof. Do you literally just use the wfp and pure water or do you spray it all with any kind of solution first to get all the grime loose? And also this is my van. 

 

[HWCS]

This is the extension and roof. Do you literally just use the wfp and pure water or do you spray it all with any kind of solution first to get all the grime loose?

View attachment 20864

Holy sh1t!!!!!! Thats not an extension, thats a roof garden!!!!

Thats a £80/90 roof with the gutter clearing for me.

You need a hose reel that you can plug onto their outside tap and attatch your wfp to, wet all the whites and then spray a tfr/water mix onto all the whites, give it 5 mins to soak in then scrub it with your wfp/brush then rinse it all off with thier tap water then give it a wash with pure.

 

[Bongofish]

Holy sh1t!!!!!! Thats not an extension, thats a roof garden!!!!

Thats a £80/90 roof with the gutter clearing for me.

You need a hose reel that you can plug onto their outside tap and attatch your wfp to, wet all the whites and then spray a tfr/water mix onto all the whites, give it 5 mins to soak in then scrub it with your wfp/brush then rinse it all off with thier tap water then give it a wash with pure.

I genuinely dont know if they have an outside tap they just asked if I could do there house and there  conservatory too. I just thought what the heck, will probably take me 15 mins to do all the windows and then an hour or maybe a bit more to do the roof. Now your scaring me ???

 

[Bongofish]

Holy sh1t!!!!!! Thats not an extension, thats a roof garden!!!!

Thats a £80/90 roof with the gutter clearing for me.

You need a hose reel that you can plug onto their outside tap and attatch your wfp to, wet all the whites and then spray a tfr/water mix onto all the whites, give it 5 mins to soak in then scrub it with your wfp/brush then rinse it all off with thier tap water then give it a wash with pure.

I'm thinking it maybe worth getting a garden pressure sprayer and then some mix so when I go I can use the garden/weed sprayer to cover the roof with the grime cleaner mix and then just purify and brush it all clean? All of this means i wont actually make 1p from the first time i do it as it's about £30 for all this, but should come in useful again? 

 

[HWCS]

I'm thinking it maybe worth getting a garden pressure sprayer and then some mix so when I go I can use the garden/weed sprayer to cover the roof with the grime cleaner mix and then just purify and brush it all clean? All of this means i wont actually make 1p from the first time i do it as it's about £30 for all this, but should come in useful again? 

Welcome to the learning curve ??

 

[Bongofish]

Welcome to the learning curve ??

So thinking garden sprayer and 5l of rhino PVC cleaner concentrate....will be about £45 for all this but should last me a while. Does this sound like It would work ok. Spray all the roof with this stuff and then brush it down? Thanks for the help Matey 

 

[Davy G]

Welcome to the learning curve ??

Jeez, ain't that the truth. I reckon all been there. ??

 

[Pjj]

I'm thinking it maybe worth getting a garden pressure sprayer and then some mix so when I go I can use the garden/weed sprayer to cover the roof with the grime cleaner mix and then just purify and brush it all clean? All of this means i wont actually make 1p from the first time i do it as it's about £30 for all this, but should come in useful again? 

Unfortunately life is a learning curve , not sure how many windows there are on the whole property but it looks like a £20-25 house to me , roof looks quite big and sloping back towards the house so will be fiddley we would charge £100 for the roof alone + the windows , and yes we do get jobs at that price ,not all I admit but a reasonable % of them , you will learn from your mistakes, I dint believe the prices that the guy has said he paid before that looks like a big house tk me fir that money no matter where it is , we di council/ housing association houses for £12 upwards that are much smaller than the one in your pictures , I don’t know your area but I cannot believe prices are that low . 

 

[HWCS]

So thinking garden sprayer and 5l of rhino PVC cleaner concentrate....will be about £45 for all this but should last me a while. Does this sound like It would work ok. Spray all the roof with this stuff and then brush it down? Thanks for the help Matey 

Never heard of it to be fair mate, i use TFR-CC £50 for 5ltrs

pretty sure most people on the forum all use something different.

Just get TFR from any car shop until established then find a product that suits you and your comfy and confident using.

 

[HWCS]

Unfortunately life is a learning curve , not sure how many windows there are on the whole property but it looks like a £20-25 house to me , roof looks quite big and sloping back towards the house so will be fiddley we would charge £100 for the roof alone + the windows , and yes we do get jobs at that price ,not all I admit but a reasonable % of them , you will learn from your mistakes, I dint believe the prices that the guy has said he paid before that looks like a big house tk me fir that money no matter where it is , we di council/ housing association houses for £12 upwards that are much smaller than the one in your pictures , I don’t know your area but I cannot believe prices are that low . 

The student becomes the master ????????? judging by the lead flushing id say that roof slopes from wall down which will make it easier