Working so hard to try and reach 500 customers

[SRW]

You were on the other day posting about losing a customer on a quality issue, and it's easy doing 23 customers a day once in a blue moon. Doing it day in day out is a different world altogether.

I could post jobs that we do in a day that would make your hair curl but we can't do them all month and deliberately schedule an "easy" week the following one.

There are very experienced people giving you advice, from personal experience not by speaking to other windies. It is up to you if you want to take it or not but I don't see the point on posting on here if you're not going to.

Totally understand where your coming from and thanks for taking the time out to give me advice it is appreciated 

just I’m wanting to make £1000+ a week in the future 

but I’m going take all your advice and try charge and aim for around 350-400 a month 

 

[Dt 20]

That's 16 minutes for each house over an 8 hour day with no break, day in day out in all weathers.  

It's your choice but you don't have to work that hard in this game, your making life hard for yourself.

It is possible and I know it is as I do it. 
 

Get your first cleans right and your maintenance cleans are a stroll in the park! 

 

[Dt 20]

Totally understand where your coming from and thanks for taking the time out to give me advice it is appreciated 

just I’m wanting to make £1000+ a week in the future 

but I’m going take all your advice and try charge and aim for around 350-400 a month 

Definitely achievable. Try and make your round compact say if your doing one on a street nock the whole street after. That’s what we did and we got plenty of work. 
door nocking is your best and fastest  way off getting customers in my opinion. Once you get so meany customers and you do a good job they start to recommend u then it snow balls from there.

Best off luck 

 

[Chris34]

It is possible and I know it is as I do it. 
 

Get your first cleans right and your maintenance cleans are a stroll in the park! 

I'm not saying it's not possible, just that it sounds like hard work to me and very stressful maintaining so many payments and customers.  Each to their own but I know which I prefer.

 

[Jaygti]

Totally understand where your coming from and thanks for taking the time out to give me advice it is appreciated 

just I’m wanting to make £1000+ a week in the future 

but I’m going take all your advice and try charge and aim for around 350-400 a month 

just for reference £1000 a week with 100 customers is an average of £10 per customer. Which sounds a bit cheap depending where you are. 
 

my minimum charge is now £16 and I think my average house price is about £27.
That’s for the south east though and doesn’t include commercial work. 

 

[Pjj]

That's 16 minutes for each house over an 8 hour day with no break, day in day out in all weathers.  

It's your choice but you don't have to work that hard in this game, your making life hard for yourself.

If a 3 bed semi is taking that long to do    You are obviously having a tea break ????

 

[Chris34]

If a 3 bed semi is taking that long to do    You are obviously having a tea break ????

3 bed semis your way must be a lot smaller than 3 bed semi's my way.  Put it this way, if I was to do 4 in an hour I'd be on £100 per hour.  Now I know you probably earn that, but for me it's just a bit too unrealistic.  ?

 

[Pjj]

3 bed semis your way must be a lot smaller than 3 bed semi's my way.  Put it this way, if I was to do 4 in an hour I'd be on £100 per hour.  Now I know you probably earn that, but for me it's just a bit too unrealistic.  ?

Modern 3 bed semis we do 4-6 per hour per man obviously if they have extensions , conservatory’s it’s less per hour , unfortunately we don’t charge £25 per go ???unless it’s got conservatory or extension or vlux  , but we have enough to keep 6 guys going for 14 days a month 8 hours a day and very good money only move the vans a few hundred yards a day 

 

[Iron Giant]

Totally understand where your coming from and thanks for taking the time out to give me advice it is appreciated 

just I’m wanting to make £1000+ a week in the future 

but I’m going take all your advice and try charge and aim for around 350-400 a month 

Clashing out jobs will see you lose custys as you have and that will continue, Spoke to another lad who is gaining a fair amount of work because of another cleaners poor workmanship, watching YouTube vid's of some clashing out jobs saying how fast they are aren't the ones you wanting to be taking advice from, a first clean should take 3 times longer than a regular clean to get the frames up to standard. you've only got 70 jobs so have the time to take and perfect your cleaning methods. perfection first speed later.

There is two lads over your way one who is from down south and they are charging top rates and have been for years. 

 

[RWCleaning]

Very true but I’m just going off the average prices off my work and my person income I am looking for I could quite easy do 25-30 3bed semis a day by Myself I used to be a ground worker so I’m not work shy. 
 

Iv got a van with a 500 ltr tank in and that will get me through a good days work 

Fair enough. What’s a average 3 bed semi on say a 6 weekly basis in your area?

I just worked out that if I did 28 average 3 bed semi’s in my area in a day, I’d turnover over approx £504 in a day. Safe to say I’ve never ever done that. 12/15 a day max would pay enough for me. 

 

[RWCleaning]

Slightly higher prices and slightly less work, best way ?

Say you have 300 customers, and the average price is £20, you could reason to yourself “well maybe they should be £22 on average each, but it’s only £2 not a big deal. I’ll carry on going in £2 less than what I possibly could get them on” 

But if every job is £2 underpriced, on £300 that’s £600 every month (or whatever cycle you have) that you’re doing yourself out on. An extra £600 can be the difference between driving a old banger or brand new van on finance, or using cheap equipment compared to the better equipment, or an extra week or two off a year covered, etc etc.

Once your full, then start the refining, put prices up AND quote higher. Now I’m completely full and even too busy on some weeks, I’ve been quoting high on quotes now. I did 4 quotes on Thursday after work, normally I’d aim to get 3 out of 4. I decided to go high. I got 1 out of 4. But I’m happy, I didn’t NEED the work, but happy that I picked up a very nicely priced job. One of them said no as I was £15 more than the previous cleaner!!! (But he was too cheap Imo) 

But anyway keep up the good progress @SRW ! ?

 

[Jamesmarshall]

If a 3 bed semi is taking that long to do    You are obviously having a tea break ????

This.

could prob do them in 5 minutes if you went for it . Price them as they’re going to take you 30mins and do them in 20 is how I do them now. Half hour job is 3/4 hourly rate. Then you can take your time and either gain the extra time or have a couple of minutes checking your phone or anything you fancy either side of every job .

Your day at work will be a lot more enjoyable like this I have found 

 

[Pjj]

This.

could prob do them in 5 minutes if you went for it . Price them as they’re going to take you 30mins and do them in 20 is how I do them now. Half hour job is 3/4 hourly rate. Then you can take your time and either gain the extra time or have a couple of minutes checking your phone or anything you fancy either side of every job .

Your day at work will be a lot more enjoyable like this I have found 

I agree if a sole trader but when employing it’s all about maximum profit per hour worked per man so things need to be timed far more accurately 10 muinits per house is a huge difference we clean between 32-50 houses per day per man ( depending what they are ) if I allowed 10 muinits for each house extra that would drastically reduce the number of house cleans per day costing hundreds of pounds per week  .

 

[Jamesmarshall]

I time every job always mate . If I go a different way around house or park different I can see if it’s quicker also. I’ve always timed everything even travel time all areas. I’m just saying I now over compensate when quoting to allow extra time and I take a few mins to take my time and not rush cause I know I’ve got spare. My average hourly rate is always higher than it should be because of this which is a small win in it self every day

I time ‘blocks’ of work to compare rates and time between jobs Also nerdishly ?

 

[Jamesmarshall]

I agree if a sole trader but when employing it’s all about maximum profit per hour worked per man so things need to be timed far more accurately 10 muinits per house is a huge difference we clean between 32-50 houses per day per man ( depending what they are ) if I allowed 10 muinits for each house extra that would drastically reduce the number of house cleans per day costing hundreds of pounds per week  .

You must have some super compact work aswell to be doing that day in and out. I have days where I do 10-12 large houses 5mins ish apart but earn way more than doing the smaller ones 

 

[HWCS]

Ok ive had a read through this thread and there seems to be alot of conflicting ooinions, your work is your work.

Personally i think 500 on 6weekly is doable on your own, but on a 4weekly then no.

Ive gone past 500 now and once i hit 400ish i started to feel like i needed somebody to help so ive now got a casual, and once i get to 650 im pretty sure ill stop taking on customers, but i change my mind between growing and freezing on a weekly basis lol

A massive factor in this has to be how compact your work is how local it is and the same with pricing, if its more compact im sure you can charge a little less. I know im cheaper in my home town than a window cleaner that travels 12 miles to get here hence i have alot more customers than he does here.

Like many others have said its about balance, if your happy to do 25/30 houses a day every day in the summer and you achieve that then i believe it will bite you on the a55 in the winter.

On my 25-35 day houses i make sure i have a shorter day the following day so a day and a halfs work in the summer can be spread over 2 days in the winter if needs be.

 

[dazmond]

some days i clean 25-30 houses a day but its compact estate work.(house after house after house)...all cleaned in 5 hours  then off home,no problem...

other days it could be 7 large properties in the same time frame.....

 

[Iron Giant]

Ok ive had a read through this thread and there seems to be alot of conflicting ooinions, your work is your work.

I'm pleased you know your onions ?

 

[dazmond]

some days i clean 25-30 houses a day but its compact estate work.(house after house after house)...all cleaned in 5 hours  then off home,no problem...

other days it could be 7 large properties in the same time frame.....

whats the roll eyes for karen?its perfectly achievable with the right work,years of experience and being organised with good equipment.....i cleaned 29 houses yesterday,some are fronts only though,27 to clean today.....i have over 90 jobs on the estate im cleaning this week...

ill work 930am-330pm with 30 mins for lunch and 30 mins for coffee breaks and probably the odd 5 min chat with a customer so 5 hours(give or take a few mins here and there) actually cleaning glass...

ive been cleaning this work for many years

 

[Chris34]

whats the roll eyes for karen?its perfectly achievable with the right work,years of experience and being organised with good equipment.....i cleaned 29 houses yesterday,some are fronts only though,27 to clean today.....i have over 90 jobs on the estate im cleaning this week...

ill work 930am-330pm with 30 mins for lunch and 30 mins for coffee breaks and probably the odd 5 min chat with a customer so 5 hours(give or take a few mins here and there) actually cleaning glass...

ive been cleaning this work for many years

I've been basing my business model on your working pattern as it sounded good to me.  However I included the tea breaks in my working hours.  It's no wonder I found it hard going trying to hit your targets ? so 5 hours for me working day includes the 20 minute tea break with cakes and all the other brews ? probably only do 3 hours on the glass [joking, although it's probably not too far off] , tea breaks and a natter are what slows me down ?

 

[Cghwindowcleaning]

A lot of people on these forums determine success or how well someone is doing by the number of customers or staff and vans they have.

Look at how much you turn over for the hours you work and concentrate on the profit left.

A guy with 200 customers could be achieving more profit than a guy with 500 or 600.Look at your price per job and what your bottom line is to service that job.