What to do with too much work?

[mike007]

Yeh I think your right and I'm going to add £2 onto every quote . The problem I have is in 8 months I've become known in my town for being the window cleaner. My town is a local town but with ALOT of houses , probably about 5,000 and all within a 5 min drive from home. And this is where 95% of my work comes from as I don't see a need to even reach out to other local villages. I hate to give away work that's on my doorstep but I am getting to a comfortable 180 customers a month and then 1 off jobs aswell. I'm not greedy and don't want to be making 4k a month....I'm happy to pull in £500-600 a week and have a good balance. But it's seriously hard tontrun down work that's 1 min drive from door step. ??

Actually you are complaining of being in a position a LOT on here would like to be in (lol)

 

[RWCleaning]

Interesting thread, there’s only so much refining you can do I think, putting £25 houses up to £28 in the grand scheme of things won’t make a huge difference, and you can only put prices up like that once every 3 years imo. And there’s so many cleaners around these days you may not ever get a full condensed round in just 4 square miles or so.

This thread has got me thinking. As by April next year all of my work will be 6 weekly (With a few 12s) as I’ve bought a few small rounds over the years and added to them which were all 8 weekly, but my own work I had picked up myself & built already was 6 weekly. So up until now I’ve always had a weird mix of 6 & 8 weekly. But I’ve put a good 35 jobs to 6 weekly this autumn, got another 45 to do in the spring. By May I will be very full, maybe even too full & falling behind with all the ‘extras’. Will be 280ish regular 6 weekly jobs at an average price of £23, a few 12 weeklys, and a handful of people who don’t want a regular slot but get me in once a year to clean everything which I price quite well and enjoy doing. Plus anything I pick up between now and then as well. There’s a couple of jobs I’m going to let go over Xmas in return.
I’ve already agreed to sell a tiny 8 weekly round (a days worth) to a local cleaner I get on with. But I’m thinking about a part time employee end of next year.
At what point do you decide to take on the first employee? How busy were you? Has anyone taken anyone on then changed their mind?
 

 

[JEM]

View attachment 22550

I've got the Citroen Nemo, same van. I'm only using 8 25lt containers at the moment. Would be great to see your install if i ever go down the fitted tank route? 

It's great reading these thread it does keep me motivated, I'm only 4 weeks into starting out but it's been really slow the last couple of weeks. I've been doing a mail drop but i guess people have other things on their mind so close to xmas. I've only got 10 customers after about 1200 flyer drop.

 

[High-tower]

I've only got 10 customers after about 1200 flyer drop.

Don’t be disappointed with that. That’s a great return, especially at this time of the year. Keep the momentum up and you’ll be flying home the spring ?

 

[Bongofish]

Don’t be disappointed with that. That’s a great return, especially at this time of the year. Keep the momentum up and you’ll be flying home the spring ?

I honestly don't thing flyer dropping is the way to go. I've dropped about 500 and got about 7 customers. The local Facebook groups have got me the other 163. 

 

[ched999uk]

I honestly don't thing flyer dropping is the way to go. I've dropped about 500 and got about 7 customers. The local Facebook groups have got me the other 163. 

WOW 163 from Faceb0ll0x !! Are they very spread out or nice and compact? Are they decent custys or budget ones? I would say 7 out of 500 is good as it should be nice and compact work?

 

[Chris34]

I honestly don't thing flyer dropping is the way to go. I've dropped about 500 and got about 7 customers. The local Facebook groups have got me the other 163. 

Dropping 500 leaflets only takes a max 6 hours, and that's if they're all big houses, so that's a really good investment.  The thing with leaflets is you can target the roads you want to work on.  Facebook can come from anywhere really and the targeted ads I found were very hit and miss.  A mixture of both is probably the best approach but 7 regulars from 500 is really good.  Imagine doing 2000 and getting 28 customers, nobody would complain about that sort of return.

 

[Bongofish]

WOW 163 from Faceb0ll0x !! Are they very spread out or nice and compact? Are they decent custys or budget ones? I would say 7 out of 500 is good as it should be nice and compact work?

About 100 of them are in a 2 mile radius of my house and the other 63 are all I'm a 5 mile radius. It's really hard for me to see posts of people struggling because I stopped advertising about 2 months ago and I get atleast 10 enquirys a week without doing anything now. ?. I also get alot of reccomendations which I'm happy about as only going for ,7 months. 

I'm also turning down work now if it's over 5 mile from my house. 

 

[ched999uk]

About 100 of them are in a 2 mile radius of my house and the other 63 are all I'm a 5 mile radius. It's really hard for me to see posts of people struggling because I stopped advertising about 2 months ago and I get atleast 10 enquirys a week without doing anything now. ?. I also get alot of reccomendations which I'm happy about as only going for ,7 months. 

That's great, well done. Did you use the local chat or the buy sell type groups? I assume you create a business page and joined groups as the business? Did you pay for any Facebook adverts or just post on groups?

Cheers

 

[Bongofish]

That's great, well done. Did you use the local chat or the buy sell type groups? I assume you create a business page and joined groups as the business? Did you pay for any Facebook adverts or just post on groups?

Cheers

Created business page, joined local groups and advertised that way. For the first 6 weeks I paid £10 a week to Facebook advertising in my local areas and that probably got me a total of 20 customers for £60 total so was worth it for me. But after the 6 weeks I soon realised that things were going to naturally flow in anyway so there was no need to pay for anymore advertising. 

 

[JEM]

Created business page, joined local groups and advertised that way. For the first 6 weeks I paid £10 a week to Facebook advertising in my local areas and that probably got me a total of 20 customers for £60 total so was worth it for me. But after the 6 weeks I soon realised that things were going to naturally flow in anyway so there was no need to pay for anymore advertising. 

How do you advertise on fb do you just boost a post or do you pay to advertise in the local groups?

 

[Bongofish]

How do you advertise on fb do you just boost a post or do you pay to advertise in the local groups?

I litterally just join the local community groups in my area and the write a post explaining I'm am a local window cleaner who lives in the area and has availability for more customers. I explain everything on that post, so how often it will be, the fact that doors , sills and frames are included in all quotes and also clauses like I work in all weather so theres no surprises. 

I think my record on one of my posts is 24 customers gained from one post. And then I just advertise in all these groups again every 6 weeksish. 

 

[Bongofish]

Can I also say,

It's very important to know how powerful Facebook is. So in my village alone we have a big new build estate with about 500 houses on who have there own Facebook group, and I'm sure this will be the same for all estates this size. They like to talk and help eachother out on the estates. So within 1 village they may be 3 or 4 groups to advertise on. ?.

Using Facebook as my main portal for my business also lets me contact 90% of my customers using the Facebook business page app without having my phone full of numbers and names. Everything (90%) is all on my Facebook business messages. So the night before the clean I just search for there name and then send a generic copy and paste message saying 'Good evening, just to let you know your monthly window clean will take place tommorrow. Have a great evening ?'

 

[NewGuy]

Using FB must depends one your areas and number of competitors.  I have had no joy from FB personally.  Had a few successes from advertising on Google.  

I would love to know how lead generation can work on FB but it's too complicated for me.

 

[JEM]

I litterally just join the local community groups in my area and the write a post explaining I'm am a local window cleaner who lives in the area and has availability for more customers. I explain everything on that post, so how often it will be, the fact that doors , sills and frames are included in all quotes and also clauses like I work in all weather so theres no surprises. 

I think my record on one of my posts is 24 customers gained from one post. And then I just advertise in all these groups again every 6 weeksish. 

That's great that they let you post your advert. I'm searching for groups local that allow that as most don't seem to.

What was the fab ads that you ran or was that actually paying for advertising in other groups.

I'm hoping i can get things moving again with a mixture of mail drops and FB

 

[Bongofish]

That's great that they let you post your advert. I'm searching for groups local that allow that as most don't seem to.

What was the fab ads that you ran or was that actually paying for advertising in other groups.

I'm hoping i can get things moving again with a mixture of mail drops and FB

I've never paid for advertising in any Facebook group nor would I. So if you have a business account it will let you boost one of your posts and let you choose what area and demographic it will advertise in. And that's what I paid £10 a week for. Just boosting a post on my business page to the local area. 

Most community groups I have round my end let advertising happen for services aslong as they don't go advertising every week or whatever. I think if I was trying to sell a hand painted picture of people's dogs for £100 then they may refuse it. But window cleaning that people will actually want, I've never had an issues. 

Just don't spam them with loads of posts. 

Also....and this a big one. Let them know your a local bloke who isn't a big company and who's wanting his local business to succeed. I'm this time especially my town is very much supporting local businesses. 

 

[mike007]

About 100 of them are in a 2 mile radius of my house and the other 63 are all I'm a 5 mile radius. It's really hard for me to see posts of people struggling because I stopped advertising about 2 months ago and I get atleast 10 enquirys a week without doing anything now. ?. I also get alot of reccomendations which I'm happy about as only going for ,7 months. 

I'm also turning down work now if it's over 5 mile from my house. 

That is great, but sometimes it is down to where you are and the amount of competition if any.

 

[mike007]

Can I also say,

It's very important to know how powerful Facebook is. So in my village alone we have a big new build estate with about 500 houses on who have there own Facebook group, and I'm sure this will be the same for all estates this size. They like to talk and help eachother out on the estates. So within 1 village they may be 3 or 4 groups to advertise on. ?.

Using Facebook as my main portal for my business also lets me contact 90% of my customers using the Facebook business page app without having my phone full of numbers and names. Everything (90%) is all on my Facebook business messages. So the night before the clean I just search for there name and then send a generic copy and paste message saying 'Good evening, just to let you know your monthly window clean will take place tommorrow. Have a great evening ?'

I contact customers that I got through Facebook same way, of course my wording is different.

 

[High-tower]

I honestly don't thing flyer dropping is the way to go. I've dropped about 500 and got about 7 customers. The local Facebook groups have got me the other 163. 

Flyers are worth using alongside Facebook, if you pick up a Facebook customer you should flyer the street or at least a few of the neighbours. Not everyone uses Facebook.

using the Facebook community groups isn’t always as successful as some groups won’t allow business advertisements or people outside the village/estate to join. 

 

[JEM]

I've never paid for advertising in any Facebook group nor would I. So if you have a business account it will let you boost one of your posts and let you choose what area and demographic it will advertise in. And that's what I paid £10 a week for. Just boosting a post on my business page to the local area. 

Most community groups I have round my end let advertising happen for services aslong as they don't go advertising every week or whatever. I think if I was trying to sell a hand painted picture of people's dogs for £100 then they may refuse it. But window cleaning that people will actually want, I've never had an issues. 

Just don't spam them with loads of posts. 

Also....and this a big one. Let them know your a local bloke who isn't a big company and who's wanting his local business to succeed. I'm this time especially my town is very much supporting local businesses. 

I've found a local group (4.5k members) that allows posts for local services, even if I just get one customer that's a bonus as its free?

Yep I have a business account so will look into boosting a post within my local area.

Thanks for the tips

 

[Bongofish]

I've found a local group (4.5k members) that allows posts for local services, even if I just get one customer that's a bonus as its free?

Yep I have a business account so will look into boosting a post within my local area.

Thanks for the tips

Let us know how it goes ?