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My Canvassing Journey - £0 - ££££

jgw226

Member
Messages
57
So last week I left my previous business behind and today was the first proper day trying to get my first customer. I decided to canvas a local new build housing estate. I knocked doors from 10-2 and managed to get £57 worth of 4 weekly cleans which I didn't think was too bad for my first day out!! Left leaflets in the houses where there was no response. Planning another day there tomorrow as I have barely covered 25% of the site. Would be great to get £200 by the end of this week!! First cleans are all booked in for next Monday!

 
Nice one, hope your success continues just have to keep plugging away and you will get there in the end.

 
Nice one, hope your success continues just have to keep plugging away and you will get there in the end.
Thanks Den! It sure will be a long road but getting the first couple of customers has given me the boost to keep going out and finding them!

 
Personally I have had loads of great advise from this forum, but one very basic piece was do a good job and everyone will recommend you, worked wonders for me only ever leaflet dropped never canvassed most of my work is from Facebook and recommendation, seems your first cleans are on a new site be extra thorough with your cleaning and rinse well hopefully all the new people will see you and you will get some walk ups and recommendations the rest will follow.

 
Door knocking is definitely the way to find work fast. But its never as fast as you would like. As previously mentioned. Just keep at it. My best advice would be to take every 'no' as one less you have to get through until you fill your diary with work.

 
best of luck to you pal .

my advice is when your canvassing any graft do straught away dont wait have your gear ready and knock them out

they could change there mind.

dont worry about the work it will come if you really want it.

but get that graft done straught away

 
best of luck to you pal .my advice is when your canvassing any graft do straught away dont wait have your gear ready and knock them out

they could change there mind.

dont worry about the work it will come if you really want it.

but get that graft done straught away
Thanks for the advice Duncs, hadn't really thought about that! I think I'll try doing that from now on so they can't change their mind. I'm thinking I'll say I'll be there first thing tomorrow morning.

 
Another day on the same site and canvassed from 1-4:30 today. Managed to speak to a few people after the school pickup so got a higher % of answers today. Managed to get roughly £65 worth of 4 weekly cleans so another worthwhile day!

However, one customer asked me if I could clean them every 2 weeks? Is this normal? What would you say/do?

 
Another day on the same site and canvassed from 1-4:30 today. Managed to speak to a few people after the school pickup so got a higher % of answers today. Managed to get roughly £65 worth of 4 weekly cleans so another worthwhile day!
However, one customer asked me if I could clean them every 2 weeks? Is this normal? What would you say/do?
Just say no. I mean say you clean all houses on that area/estate on Monday then in two weeks your he going back for the one house unless you get enough work for 2 days and do them 2 weeks apart. But I would just set my at all out from the start with the ground rules. I.e it's 4 or 8 weekly and you MUST pay online. No exceptions no ifs or buts decide what you want and stick to it

 
I do one 2 weekly, its for a friend and on route between jobs really isn't a problem for me nice easy job, buts saying that I wouldn't normally do two weekly unless you are On the same estate twice in 4 weeks equally apart.

 
I would love the luxury of turning down 2 weekly but I'm in the early stages of making this work. At the moment my rounds involve lots of driving round but as I get more work I will group it together more efficiently. If she wants it every 2 weeks and your doing nothing else, take the money! Must say tho I've had a few say they want 2 weekly and I give them my speech about my water being much better than the cowboys using fairy liquid - [emoji2] & I don't leave the glass sticky like those boys ;-) My windows stay much cleaner for longer don't ya know! See how it is in 2 weeks and see if you would prefer it 4 weekly. Most of them say they are amazed how clean they have stayed and 4 weekly would be fine!

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If you don't want to do two weekly but want the house you could ask them to fit in with your frequency and leave contact details (should they want an extra done prior to next clean)

Gives you an element of flexibility as to when fitting in any infrequent cleans and shows your willingness, and they can see if your time scale fits too.

 
Thank you all for the advice. I am going to try and get the customer to try every 4 weeks and if they feel they are dirty before then to call me and I'll see what I can do. I'm sure they'll be fine with that!!

 
im in the same boat as you mate... just starting out, cleaned my first customers house on the 20 sept, now have 21 customers some 4 weekly some 8.

you may find the ones you get saying they want 4weekly want to change to 8 weekly after you cleaned the house for the first time....iv found canvassing the hardest part as there are loads of window cleaner coming from all over the place to where i live!! big houses loads of dosh:sad:

keeping track of the customers i started of with google calendar.... but could not get on with it, now im trying osmosis....all the best:D

 
So last week I left my previous business behind and today was the first proper day trying to get my first customer. I decided to canvas a local new build housing estate. I knocked doors from 10-2 and managed to get £57 worth of 4 weekly cleans which I didn't think was too bad for my first day out!! Left leaflets in the houses where there was no response. Planning another day there tomorrow as I have barely covered 25% of the site. Would be great to get £200 by the end of this week!! First cleans are all booked in for next Monday!
Congrats :) personally I have never needed to canvass as I hate it when people knock on my door offering services but saying that if your hard faced enough you could always drop leaflets first with a little "we missed you tonight but will call back" wink wink!.... Then follow up with a door knock a couple of days later. Give folk a chance to be prepared to awnser or not.. But kudos for applying yourself I'm sure you'll get rewarded for the effort :)

 
I would love the luxury of turning down 2 weekly but I'm in the early stages of making this work. At the moment my rounds involve lots of driving round but as I get more work I will group it together more efficiently. If she wants it every 2 weeks and your doing nothing else, take the money! Must say tho I've had a few say they want 2 weekly and I give them my speech about my water being much better than the cowboys using fairy liquid - [emoji2] & I don't leave the glass sticky like those boys ;-) My windows stay much cleaner for longer don't ya know! See how it is in 2 weeks and see if you would prefer it 4 weekly. Most of them say they are amazed how clean they have stayed and 4 weekly would be fine!
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I was just going to say the same thing. Great minds and all that. /emoticons/smile.png

 
im in the same boat as you mate... just starting out, cleaned my first customers house on the 20 sept, now have 21 customers some 4 weekly some 8.you may find the ones you get saying they want 4weekly want to change to 8 weekly after you cleaned the house for the first time....iv found canvassing the hardest part as there are loads of window cleaner coming from all over the place to where i live!! big houses loads of dosh:sad:

keeping track of the customers i started of with google calendar.... but could not get on with it, now im trying osmosis....all the best:D
Thanks Dragbag! I hate canvassing but atm the moment its going to be the only way to get a good basis of customers to start building a regular round. Hopefully, the sign written van and people seeing me out cleaning will encourage some walk ups and then will try some social media. I have signed up to Cleaner Planner to help me keep track of all the customers. You should have a look at it if you already haven't?

 
How's the canvassing going?cracking start there
Hi Chris,

Only just seen this message sorry! Still plugging away doing a few hours canvassing a day after spending the morning on the windows. I've stuck to residential and haven't even looked at any commercial work yet. A friend of a friend was in desperate need of a job so I've taken him out with me the past 2 weeks so it's given me some extra time to canvass.

Just ordered 20,000 leaflets and will be using a tracked leaflet drop company to deliver these over the next few weeks.

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@jgw226 that's good going then,you muse be fairly busy?

Personally I think it's a good idea to start residential and expand from there. Gives you a chance to get yourself known,build skills and build a reputation.

How much is this drop costing then?GPS looks the way to go but there's been a few lately on here that have had good results just by picking the right company too

 
@jgw226 that's good going then,you muse be fairly busy?Personally I think it's a good idea to start residential and expand from there. Gives you a chance to get yourself known,build skills and build a reputation.

How much is this drop costing then?GPS looks the way to go but there's been a few lately on here that have had good results just by picking the right company too
Yes fairly busy at the moment. I took the opinion that all customers must pay via GC when setting up. If they don't like it they don't become a customer! I had read so much on here about people collecting and chasing money. So luckily no time is spent in the evenings chasing late payers which has really been a great help to me! It obviously removes the cash element but hopefully the extras we sell such as pressure washing and gutter clearing will all be cash jobs!

I've had a few prices from different companies and they vary tremendously. Still haven't decided on one yet but looking to finally choose one this week. I'll let you know their final price after I've done some negotiating.

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