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Thinking of giving up

Cameronmalson1985

Active member
Messages
119
Location
South Wales
I have worked my butt off trying to get more customers but no matter what I do I can’t get new customers. It’s driving me crazy and I’m seriously thinking of knocking it all on the head as I’m not making much at all. Makes me wonder how people are flatout 

 
If you don’t have enough to keep afloat then you have to make the sensible business decision. This is the time of year where things pick up so if you don’t get any in the next few months your are either in a saturated area or doing something drastically wrong. I built my round up (still not full yet but am more than happy working 3 days) while i had a part time job - all the money I made Window cleaning went straight back into it for equipment, gadgets and flyers. I only advertised in local shop windows and flyers and the work has come - over the years - slow and steady. I don’t know what you have tried or how much you have invested but only you will be able to make the choice going forwards


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If you have a Facebook page and it's new the best thing to so is a competition. FREE UPVC CLEAN TO THE WINNER OF THIS COMPETITION

BELOW ARE THE RULES

rule 1) tag 3 friends in this status

Rule 2) like and share this page

Rule 3) comment below on the status

Now you can share this competition on buy and sell sites, you can start it on a small paid boost and you can ask community pages to share it. Cos of the 3 pal tag rule, watch your organic (that's unpaid for audience) flourish and hopefully a local audience to you too. AND you'll get pms for window cleaning during this as well, possibly other add ons too, and down the line you have started an audience for future posts/comps

As above, if you do not have a Google my biz page-ITS ESSENTIAL. You can optimise this by photos, the new question and answer function (btw you can ask your own questions and answer them, only the answers will show as written "by owner"), reviews with keyword specifics ie Chris done a great job on our driveway in Kirkcaldy, you can write posts on these google business listings (where you add a button/offer) I notice these are seen by many more people than a standard post, and finally make sure you verify the listing.

If you are not using buy and sell sites they are a must in the early days, now you can either just share your page to these groups now or you can write a post on the group's. Join around 20 plus min groups and post on each group twice a week.

Cold calling should be working but here are some tips. Look for houses with dirty windows, always always smile, be charming but not forward, do it 5 evenings a week. I hope some of this is useful, repetition repetition repetition.

Feel free to pm me. Chris

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One thing i’ve learned about self employment is that the phone never rings at the right time. In winter you could be sat around for days waiting for the phone to ring, then when you’re busy it won’t stop ringing lol. It’s still off season. March is a winter month and spring is late this year. Not a leaf on the trees, mowers still in the garage and snow flakes falling as we speak. If you can wait til april it should all start happening then


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Just stick with it, otherwise you may well regret it. Their is folks in crappie jobs working 40hrs a week for minimum wage if you are are working 16hrs a week and making the same as someone doing 40hrs then it ain't that bad. Just keep on at it!!!

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Just stick with it, otherwise you may well regret it. Their is folks in crappie jobs working 40hrs a week for minimum wage if you are are working 16hrs a week and making the same as someone doing 40hrs then it ain't that bad. Just keep on at it!!!

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The difference is though dude, they have pensions, sick pay, 4 weeks paid holiday, paternity leave, compassionate leave. That means a lot even on minimum wage.


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Think of part time job to supplement til you pick up more - I've done gardening / diy etc now dropped - gutter cleaning/ washing fascia etc get you by but make sure you charge properly dont undersell yourself - depends on your circumstances of course


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Don’t know how long you have been going but winter time is never good for picking up work especially if you are only just starting out , I started in November 20 years ago and found it hard to start with , I think you will find over the next 8 weeks things will pick up dramatically, I don’t know what part of the country you are in but down in Cornwall we are stacked out with enquiries leading to new work , have you got a sighn written van this is worth it’s weight in gold if people see you working and doing a good job they will take your number and phone you some are hesitant to walk up to you whilst you are working : the customers you have can you ask if they have friends/ family that need a window cleaner do a good job Ime sure they will recomend you , are you realistic with your prices compared to the competition: Ime not saying under cut others as that’s a mugs game but are you competitive on price ? I know some recomend using face book etc to get the word out there , down hear Facebook enquiries are a waist of time they are all messers and want a cheap one off job usualy , but try different ways of marketing you don’t have to spend a lot to get good results , do you have a web site ? This is a really good way to show off your buisness to the community, hope things improve in the near future Ime sure they will 

 
I bought a round years ago and built up, that's no good to you, but when I bought a van last year and had it signed up I was surprised how many walk ups I got.
Last week I had 3 walk ups and converted 2. I'm not computer savvy but it seems a lot of contributors on here do well out of it.
As said, years ago you bought around out of your local rag, and worked it but now it's a different ball game and you need to take a multi facetted approach as the others have suggested.
Dig in and good luck.

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Look hundreds or thousands of people have started a round from nothing to being full, all of us will have experienced different levels of difficulty.

If it not making you want to quit then its not worth doing, weve all had days when we want to jack it in, its not easy mate but its possible.

Dust yourself off then go again tomorrow.

 
Don't give up after all your hard work. If you are struggling financially then take a part time job on. Something that is flexible hours, like taxi driving. If not that then even a job doing nights will allow you to service your current customers. 

Quitting is horrible because you will always think what if. Let us know where you are and someone local might be able to help you on your way. 

 
if you have enough time to ponder quitting then you are not putting enough in to succeeding.

If you want to quit go ahead and do it, but you don't really. That why you posted this thread, you want some encouragement.

Well here's some encouragement for you, I started my round with a bucket a ladder a fear of heights and no clue how to clean a window. I didn't let it stop me, and neither should you let things stop you.

If your not gaining custom its because you haven't worked out how yet, that doesn't mean you never will !

Perseverance mate, is the key. Never stop trying and you will always reach your goal, that's how its done.

 
aye, you have got to grind it out till May. Your best option for new work would be looking at the house builders. There must be a new estate being built somewhere near you. If so, then get down there every week chapping doors and posting flyers because it will need a reliable windy cleaner. 

 
Ok this is how I progressed........For 20 years I was happy to earn enough to pay the bills and get a bit of spending money but I got to a situation where my customer numbers were reducing, what was happening essentially was I was losing more customers than gaining due to people moving or passing on or whatever and the days of people stopping you in the street in mass numbers was long gone.

I was working from an estate car with no sign writing now and again I would leaflet or knock doors I was posting thousands of leaflets with no phone calls and with door knocking was picking up time wasters.I had to make a decision do I pack it in and get a job working for others or if I'm going to carry on with this I need to do things differently, problem was I wasn't very good with computers either?

So I took a reality check and decided to go for it, first thing I needed to do was change the vehicle I am backpack only to this day I bought a Berlingo and got it sign written. After bad experiences with canvassing and leaflets I wanted people to metaphorically speaking 'knock my door' but I had to put myself out there. I was cold called from a website company so I got a web site they were rubbish I had little contact with them and got no work so I got Gav on here to sort me out and host one for me (that was a good move). 

I then needed to go further so I made my own Facebook page I took photos of my work and kept the page updated with posts, I even joined Community groups and advertised I started getting good reviews I have never paid for 'boost' ads. I took out a free ad with Yell think I got one call in a year then one day they phoned me asking if I was interested in taking out a paid ad I was sceptical but I eventually decided to give it a go as my general attitude now was to go for it big time so the way it works with Yell is you pay for target areas in your location I chose 6 districts and took out a £35 a month 12 month subscription it was the best thing I ever did don't let anyone tell you it doesn't work it's how you use it and how good you are at promoting yourself. I have just renewed my subscription and have increased it to a £50 per month ad I added 2 more districts last week and got a job from doing this last week the customer only wanted a one off clean but he came out of his flat and said we did a great job and he wanted a regular clean I asked him how he got my number he said Yell he liked our reviews and he liked the way I described my Business ( take note of that it's a big thing! ) If anyone tells us we've done a great job we ask them if they will leave a review he said no problem it was up on my profile the same day along wit all the others. I am top of the list in some districts and on the pages I'm not I'm 2, 3 or 4 even in position 3 or 4 I get calls because the guys above me have no reviews. With the Yell Business app you can text the 'leave a review' link to your customers it even texts a polite me message asking your customers to do it don't push your customers in to it just ask the ones who tell you you've done a good job they are highly likely to send that review be in no doubt this gets you work.

I have my Facebook page linked to my website which is linked to my Yell add the customer can access all my media outlets from just visiting one.

There is no magic wand you'll only get back what you put in to it I spend hours every week at home promoting my Business I don't knock doors and I don't canvass, I don't know what you have in your armoury but do a first class job, get feed back from customers, if it's positive feed back ask them if they'll leave reviews somewhere, whether that be Yell, a Website or Google then you can ask them to sign up for Go Cardless.

The last and maybe the most important thing if you haven't got it is to have a round organiser I have Aworka it helps me keep things in order I can call or message my customers from the phone app I retain a lot of customers because we keep in touch with them and we are reliable good luck to you.             

 

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