Working so hard to try and reach 500 customers

[Jamesmarshall]

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 ?

I talk to most of em apart from the downright boring or miserable sods.

It’s an opportunity to offer an extra service in the chat or if they mention something needs doing I can usually relay them onto someone to do the job and make a drink each time. I’ve probably made £300 so far this year middle manning jobs ?

 

[dazmond]

I talk to most of em apart from the downright boring or miserable sods.

It’s an opportunity to offer an extra service in the chat or if they mention something needs doing I can usually relay them onto someone to do the job and make a drink each time. I’ve probably made £300 so far this year middle manning jobs ?

when you ve been doing this job for a few years you ll want to keep your head down,get your work cleaned and head off home as quick as possible!?

 

[Jaygti]

when you ve been doing this job for a few years you ll want to keep your head down,get your work cleaned and head off home as quick as possible!?

Agreed, get stuck in , don’t stop , get home. 
I’d rather spend time with my children in the afternoon , than chat about the weather with a customer. 

 

[Davy G]

Son and I get stuck in. We work hard and we work fast but highly efficiently. We try to make our work as pleasant, fast and profitable as comfortably possible without being slaves to it.

For too many years I worked in jobs where  efficiency and getting on with it was at least to some degree frowned upon by my peers, when work could be made harder and often slower. I did enjoy working with guys that had the same value for camaraderie as I had but to be honest they were rare enough.

Driving artic bulkers, most of the drivers would hang around the yard sucking up to the bosses when finished. I'd do my refuelling and my walk round checks and get off home in my old Landrover.

Utility contractors gangers (team leaders) and often fellow workers who weren't happy unless we were "scorting", ie making hard work of it, sweating and to some degree suffering when we didn't need to to get the work done. I had no problem with sweating when necessary. In fact I used to enjoy getting stuck in, especially to the unavoidable challenge of a tough one, like an all nighter teeing in a new water main to an existing one. But making hard work for the sake of it grated on me.

The worst offenders were usually my own working class peers, to many of whom the concept of loyalty and looking out for each other was alien. Mostly, I got on well with management. They understood that the collective aim was to get the work done safely, properly and quickly (profitably) so we could then move on to the next job. They recognised that's what I was doing. I'd guess that a lot of the good folk on the forum can identify with what I'm saying.

Now; we work fast and freely in our own family business.  We'll spend a bit of time chatting to some of our favourite customers but we're always aware of the time passing and know when to crack on. We've shortened our work days by at least two hours for the same work done by sheer efficiency and tweeking things over time. This equates to mostly less than six hour work days. If we're planning on going away sea kayaking we'll usually squeeze Friday's work into the other days so we can take it off and have a three day weekend.

 

[Jamesmarshall]

when you ve been doing this job for a few years you ll want to keep your head down,get your work cleaned and head off home as quick as possible!?

I’ve been doing it 10 years pal still got nearly all of my original customers 

 Ill give anyone 5minutes
not saying I stand there and waste half hour 

I crack on when im Working don’t you worry about that and if customers aren’t in you can do em a little quicker but I’ll never rush myself any more 

in the winter no one wants to stand there and talk to you either so it ain’t all year round 

 

[dazmond]

i used to work 730am-6pm 5 days a week and 730am-1pm on saturday when i left school on a plant nursery....the days were LONG.....we could of probably got the same work done in 8 hours if some of the other lads pulled their weight a bit more....they didnt like it one bit when i ended up dropping crates off for them to pack plant orders driving the tractors/forklifts around after a year or so because i knew loads more of the latin names for the plants than they did (yet they d been there for years longer than me in some cases)no initiative whatsover.....

I’ve been doing it 10 years pal still got nearly all of my original customers 

 Ill give anyone 5minutes
not saying I stand there and waste half hour 

I crack on when im Working don’t you worry about that and if customers aren’t in you can do em a little quicker but I’ll never rush myself any more 

in the winter no one wants to stand there and talk to you either so it ain’t all year round 

after 28 years you ll want to get home earlier.....?

 

[SRW]

Thanks everyone for the advice and tips means a lot nice to be in contact with people in the same trade ???

 

[dazmond]

We Always talk, the window cleaner is like the postman its expected and put bins out or whatever, its being kind  . Anyone who doesnt or wont is in the wrong job ,I can remember we once had an employee in his 40s ,good cleaner yes , but who wouldnt put out a bin after an old lady asked him and he was got rid of 

i agree a 5 min chat here and there,a bit of banter or helping an old dear with their shopping bags/bins goes a long way,i even spent 20 mins with a customer whos wife just died 2 days earlier the other day...i didnt know what to say so i just listened to him and informed the neighbours to keep an eye on him....i used to spend a lot more time with my customers back in my twenties,id fix gates,do a bit of painting or gardening for them but i didnt have the work i have today

 

[Pjj]

We Always talk, the window cleaner is like the postman its expected and put bins out or whatever, its being kind  . Anyone who doesnt or wont is in the wrong job ,I can remember we once had an employee in his 40s ,good cleaner yes , but who wouldnt put out a bin after an old lady asked him and he was got rid of 

Lol you cannot sack someone for that you would find your self before an industrial tribunal , it’s a nice thing to do to help ones I agree but you cannot sack someone 

 

[Chris34]

i agree a 5 min chat here and there,a bit of banter or helping an old dear with their shopping bags/bins goes a long way,i even spent 20 mins with a customer whos wife just died 2 days earlier the other day...i didnt know what to say so i just listened to him and informed the neighbours to keep an eye on him....i used to spend a lot more time with my customers back in my twenties,id fix gates,do a bit of painting or gardening for them but i didnt have the work i have today

That's probably the only part of the job that is not nice [apart from dog ****].  I've only been going two years but have had two of my customers partners die.  Hard to know what to say but just being quiet and sympathetic is all I do, and being careful with the words I use.  Just saying 'sorry to hear, it's very sad to hear... and I then just let them talk a bit'  

At the point of them telling me their partners died my timetable is thrown out the window, work is work and can wait, I don't look at the time I just spend as long as is needed, it's just a mark of respect for someone's life and respect for the surviving other half.  

 

[NewGuy]

That's probably the only part of the job that is not nice [apart from dog ****].  I've only been going two years but have had two of my customers partners die.  Hard to know what to say but just being quiet and sympathetic is all I do, and being careful with the words I use.  Just saying 'sorry to hear, it's very sad to hear... and I then just let them talk a bit'  

At the point of them telling me their partners died my timetable is thrown out the window, work is work and can wait, I don't look at the time I just spend as long as is needed, it's just a mark of respect for someone's life and respect for the surviving other half.  

Before Christmas I called over to a customer and she was upset as her husband passed away the day before. So we had are chat for 20 minutes. On my second visit after that, I was cleaning her windows and she came out in tears and said she's just got off the phone to her daughter whose son was just discovered by his brother after committing suicide. 

She didn't want to stick around to chat then but she still paid cash, bless her. 

 

[Davy G]

On the subject of effective time management and work efficiency. I've just had a nice cup of tea at home having finished a good four days worth of work (Mon was a Bank Holiday) an hour ago (Noon). We mostly do twenty or thirty houses of mixed sizes a day. That gives us a superb work, life balance. I've done the long, hard hours in the past when I was younger and in the earlier stages of paying a mortgage.

Not showing off, just encouraging those that aren't inundated with work to see the benefits of forward planning and efficiency.

Some with huge job numbers and/or travelling might not be in the same position to finish early. I fully understand that. ?

While I'm here I'll take the opportunity to wish you all a great weekend. Haha! It's the first Friday I thought of it before our Steve (Garwood).??

 

[Davy G]

that wasnt the reason we gave him of course-but "when youve gotta go,youve gotta go " .   That reminds me of my first hubby,when it came to divorce the main reason i put down was "he had refused to mow the lawn one afternoon, 5 yrs prior" this was accepted in the court as "unreasonable behaviour" and reasonable grounds for div  ,and ex didnt deny it.Sounds silly now! -but when you gotta go......

Oops!... Early finish. A nice fine day. My wife is at home. I'm sitting down loafing and drinking tea. The grass is a bit longer than it should be! ... What to do? What to do??

I'm husband number two!?

 

[Dave B]

Oops!... Early finish. A nice fine day. My wife is at home. I'm sitting down loafing and drinking tea. The grass is a bit longer than it should be! ... What to do? What to do??

I'm husband number two!?

I used to be able to do that until I sacked my part time worker a few weeks ago.

Now I'm doing his work and mine?

 

[Davy G]

I used to be able to do that until I sacked my part time worker a few weeks ago.

Now I'm doing his work and mine?

Yeah, not funny, @Dave B
 I hate working on my own. I'd also hate having to employ.

An equal partnership with matching commitment is my preference. Anyone not family would have to put their money where their mouth is to buy into the business and take their chances on their investment if they didn't get stuck in. There's no guarantees in life, health or business prosperity. The prosperity is there to be made. But nothing is handed to us. Every penny is physically worked for.

Good luck with finding a new and better opo, if that's what you decide to do. ?

PS, don't tell anyone but I decided to cut the grass. ??

 

[dazmond]

Oops!... Early finish. A nice fine day. My wife is at home. I'm sitting down loafing and drinking tea. The grass is a bit longer than it should be! ... What to do? What to do??

I'm husband number two!?

get some fake grass....its ace!no more mowing my missus lawn!?...on the other hand my dad died last year so i go and do my mums lawn every 3 or 4 weeks but its only small so no trouble......

 

[Davy G]

get some fake grass....its ace!no more mowing my missus lawn!?...on the other hand my dad died last year so i go and do my mums lawn every 3 or 4 weeks but its only small so no trouble......

Fake grass?...That might save my marriage. I'll consider it. ?

 

[ched999uk]

Fake grass?...That might save my marriage. I'll consider it. ?

Wait till yo use the installation costs. To do it properly you need a sub base etc. A divorce might be cheaper ?

 

[Davy G]

Wait till yo use the installation costs. To do it properly you need a sub base etc. A divorce might be cheaper ?

Yeah, @ched999uk . I'll have to do the costings. ??

 

[Jamesmarshall]

That's probably the only part of the job that is not nice [apart from dog ****].  I've only been going two years but have had two of my customers partners die.  Hard to know what to say but just being quiet and sympathetic is all I do, and being careful with the words I use.  Just saying 'sorry to hear, it's very sad to hear... and I then just let them talk a bit'  

At the point of them telling me their partners died my timetable is thrown out the window, work is work and can wait, I don't look at the time I just spend as long as is needed, it's just a mark of respect for someone's life and respect for the surviving other half.  

Yeah having someone break down on you isn’t fun at all. Sometimes your the only person outside the family so they talk to you differently and get out what they need to say you have to be a heartless b4stard to walk away and say sorry I’ve gotta go windows to do ??

 

[Iron Giant]

Fake grass?...That might save my marriage. I'll consider it. ?

Typically someone doing it properly will need to dig out a few tons of soil and put a decent sub base down and install it properly, I have seen some shoddy jobs over the years badly fitted and weeds growing through after a year, 

I would sooner have a grass lawn and weeds, most of our back lawn is moss with wildflowers growing through, Don't forget to tell your good wife it's No Mow May!! and she needs to think of nature