Gutter cleaning

hi everyone

I have recently started a gutter cleaning business

I am only getting one job a week when other people are getting a lot more

I have tried advertising in local magazines and aocal free news paper

Any advise would be good on how to get more customers

it all depends on your budget, if cash is tight then a good option is to get out and canvass every day and with a bit of time you will pick up plenty of work. if you can afford a website flyers etc . remember if it early days you have to get your name out there and eventually they will come to you but it can take years to get well established .

it all depends on your budget, if cash is tight then a good option is to get out and canvass every day and with a bit of time you will pick up plenty of work. if you can afford a website flyers etc . remember if it early days you have to get your name out there and eventually they will come to you but it can take years to get well established .

Click to expand...

Cheers

I have a website and don't mind spending some money but want to spend it to get some work in

Maybe Just go knocking doors on houses with **** you can see growing out of the guttering and offer to do it their and then. There will be hundred of properties like that in your area too which will keep you busy for a while.

for start dont worry about how much work others in your area are getting in - they will be lying!

you need to spend ALL your time that isnt spent cleaning getting your name out cos you are new . gumtree,friday ad , viva, facebook,loading up special Springtime deal adverts on them thatll only take you an hour each morning-after that you hit the streets either door knocking or dropping your fliers [ get a streetmap] you need to drop or knock in Every street on that map. no stone left unturned .

price cheaply if necessary to give you much needed street presence . sound your horn on arrival at each new job, you need to be banging your drum so folk in nearby houses see you

When business was slow we used to find houses with minging gutters, knock on the door and it went a little like this.

Customer: Hello?

Me: Hi there, Green window cleaner, just finished doing your neighbors guttering across the road (and point to the most shiny gutters on the road) and I notice yours are in need of some attention, if you like as we're here I can fit you for £xxx and as this is probably going to cause a little mess on your windows I'll include those as well for free (already priced into estimate)

Customer: That's great but I havn't got any cash on me right now.

Me: That's not a problem, I can get them done now and collect from you one evening this week, which days best for you?

Customer: Thursday.

You got to have a bit of nerve and cheek to pull it off but I I got about 7 out of every ten I knocked and most of those are happy repeat customers to this day.

for start dont worry about how much work others in your area are getting in - they will be lying!
price cheaply if necessary

Click to expand...

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO X 100'000'000'000 NO!

BOARS WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

If they want cheap s**t and poor quality, let them go to the latvians or romainians.

Safron! Do not EVER give a cheap price! Only give fair prices - if the job is a 2 hour job and you want to earn £20 per hour that's a £40 job (prices are for example only)

The reasons never to go cheap is if you do it once, they want it every time, so next year when gutter cleaning season is here they wont book you unless you are still cheap. By that point you have spent 12 months working in a cheap environment for poor pay and you are disillusioned and fed up and considering the position of head fries cook at McDonalds.

Lastly if you give a cheap price and they want to haggle a little (everyone loves a haggle) YOU HAVE NO PLACE TO GO. The customer will feel like your not wanting to take care of them as you have left no room to 'knock a bit off' and will most likely say 'I'll think about it and get back to you' (on the 29th of February!)

Boars, you are on my naughty list! /emoticons/tongue.png (BTW Boars, you have no presence on my street so how much for my gutters? /emoticons/biggrin.png)

when i say cheap i dont mean Absolutely ridiculous rock bottom , ie a fiver per side for gutter clear out . i consider cheap but reasonable to be a tenner per side and long as the house is normal you should have twenty notes in your pocket in under an hour .

when you are starting out,getting a toehold whatever way you can is necessary to boost your confidence .

Are you being serious Boars? what do you do for a tenner? I would charge that to go round so they can make me a cup of tea!

When I talk of gutter cleans, we empty all the channels, make sure all downpipes are unblocked, then clean all exterior surfaces including gutter, soffit and fascia.

Our typical charge is from £2 per meter but that can go up depending on size of house, condition of gutters to start with etc.

This one in the picture below was a 2 hour job for me and my lad (4 hours total), minging to start with, Charged £90 to the customer whom was thrilled with the result and tipped us a tenner each so just at the £90 we averaged £22.50 per hour which is still a shed load less than we make doing windows.

I wouldn't go look at gutters if I thought it was £10

Some good posts.

Bottom line is, knock doors...

I've got to start doing this next week.

i only do gutter clearout for a tenner per side . its another tenner if they want the undersides scrubbing . every firm has different markets and every area is different too. this house View attachment 3885 is typical of my market and all im interested in too is this type of home

That's a bit more sensible Boars, thought you were going soft, was going to pay you a tenner per side to come do all the ones I got booked in net week /emoticons/tongue.png

i DO sometimes **** up and give a really low price for no good reason. not with gutters but defo on windows

View attachment 3886 such as a flat on the top floor in this foto at a Tenner [window clean on ladders] . i expect i will try and force it up to 15 , if not what i tend to do is rob peter to pay paul, i.e. the next couple of customers to come along will get given a higher price than they would have , to cover the mistake priced flat

I reckon I should have you come down here Boars, quote me up for my entire round, and I would still be in healthy profit! LMAO

I reckon I should have you come down here Boars, quote me up for my entire round, and I would still be in healthy profit! LMAO

Click to expand...

i noted you got a tenner EACH tip on that double bay job. it seems youre in an affluent area! i get a lot of tips,all shared amongst my workers but they are usually in the region of 50p or 1 quid is a good un! i cant ever remember a tenner tip in living memory!!

got to say, £10 a side clearance sounds mighty cheap with all the issues that could arise... I guess it's easier in a team though and as you say, area and affluence and expectation.

I honestly do not live in an affluent area Boars, however I do have customers that do. Not Me.

A friend once said to me, 'buildings don't **** in elevators' and I live by those words today.

When we do a leaflet drop, it is a carpet bombing exercise, we stick an ad on Gumtree and get a few students in for a day and blitz an are, every letter box without exception.

However when I get the calls to go quote, I take a good look at all I can, do they take pride in their lawn, do they keep their car washed and shiny? are they polite? If if I can get a peak inside, is the home clean? If so I can do business here.

If the answers are front lawn is a mud bog, car is covered in bird sh**e and algae, they are reasonably short in conversation, and there is a weeks worth of dishes in the sink, well then I walk away, as after all it they aren't really bothered about those things they are only getting our service on a whim and sooner rather than later it will be a pain in the **** to collect my money!

Your round will only ever be as good as you are discerning whilst building. -- Never just jump at a job to say you got another customer today cause by next month you will be ****** off about having to go do that pikies house! Just MHO

Can I just say that area / affluence should have f**k all to do with prices! The only time it should come into effect is when you are trying to fleece a Bentley driving toff!

The work time and everything else involved is exactly the same on a council estate than it is at the mannor born, so why do yourself out of pocket?

Plumbers and Sparkys do not say 'it's all right darling, you live in a council gaff so I'll do ya for half price' do they? Doubt it.

i get what you are saying green. what is your target market?

my target market is the low end[well high in the case of that pesky 2nd floor flat ], workshy fakin disability are a good bet , the huge council estates are where its at for me . of course i have some flippin big mansions on the round elsewhere ,[they found me not the other way round] and these are a bit of a nuisance as altho good money , id rather hover on the estates . main reason is ,apart from the banter ,its physically easier to bang out small homes all nearby than bang out bigger houses with a bit of travellin

£90 is cheap in my book for a 3 sider gutter clear & plastics clean

Are you being serious Boars? what do you do for a tenner? I would charge that to go round so they can make me a cup of tea!
When I talk of gutter cleans, we empty all the channels, make sure all downpipes are unblocked, then clean all exterior surfaces including gutter, soffit and fascia.

Our typical charge is from £2 per meter but that can go up depending on size of house, condition of gutters to start with etc.

This one in the picture below was a 2 hour job for me and my lad (4 hours total), minging to start with, Charged £90 to the customer whom was thrilled with the result and tipped us a tenner each so just at the £90 we averaged £22.50 per hour which is still a shed load less than we make doing windows.

I wouldn't go look at gutters if I thought it was £10

Click to expand...

I have the Clifton Estate as part of my round Boars, when first built this was the largest social housing project in the world, 12'000 homes in total originally.

We do a lot of 3 bed semi council houses here, but they are all working class folks, I can not and I actually WILL NOT tolerate fakers on benefits.

Fakers on benefits are why my taxes are do effing high!

I am no snob mate but the way I look at it is if they are dossers on benefits they got time to clean their own windows. Here's the math.

Window cleaning for benefit customer =£10.00

Tax paid by me on £10 =£2.00

Government gives all the money I pay them to these scrounging ********, so in effect out of every five jobs I do on benefit houses one is getting paid for BY ME!!

Pardon my french but FUC* THAT! I am not spending 20% of my day so some arsehole can sit home in front of 60 inch tv with xbox and fags and complain about how he cant make ends meet on benefits.!!

I goto end the discussion there Boars as you touched on a point the really F***S me off!

Some years back, I had 3 slices of bread in the kitchen LITERALLY, had sold anything of value to pay bills and put food on table, went to social and said 'I need a little help' Well I am a MIDDLE AGED, WHITE, ROMAN CATHOLIC, HETEROSEXUAL, ENGLISH SPEAKING, MALE WITHOUT A DRINK / DRUG PROBLEM THAT DOES NOT SMOKE that has paid NI and taxes in this country for 25 years, so you know what benefits I am 'ENTITLED TO'??

Have a guess??

That's right FU*K ALL!

I started this round with a ladder borrowed from my neighbor and some basic tools borrowed off another windy mate.

Now just 2 years later if I take on another employee and increase my business by just £1500 per year the government, instead of rewarding me by saying 'hey you got another lad off the the welfare system have a bit more tax relief, will penalize me to the tune of £16'000 in additional taxes called VAT.

So I ask where is the incentive to do FU*K all for yourself in this hole we call England