Cut down or take someone one

I’m a bit of a mental struggle with myself at the minute, I’ve around 325 jobs currently which I’m struggling to get round on regular basis instead of 4 and 8 weeks it’s taking me 5-6 and 10-12 weeks, I’ve been toying with the idea of cutting down to around 200-250 jobs to try and make it more manageable by myself and hopefully less mentally straining be after talking to a couple of local window cleaners they said don’t be to hasty in getting rid to quick and regret getting rid of the work and maybe take someone on part time, which I have done before but I wasn’t making much more money than I was on my own so really unsure what to do and currently I’ve lost my motivation for the business which hasn’t helped to my mental struggles and the pressure I put on myself.

just looking for a bit of advice in what to do

thanks

Instead of cutting down your round put the prices up. You may find the extra money each day motivates you. You could use the extra money to save for something you really want and use that to motivate you. If you put them all up £1 you’ll be able to put aside £325 a month extra if you hit target, a tidy sum. Put them up £2 no doubt lose a few more but still more money Less work which it sounds likely want anyway , my ammouts are crude but you get the idea. A option anyway.

Thanks, I’m due to increase most of the round as some haven’t been increase in nearly 8 years

id Mention you’ve not put them up in 8 years and hike them up. If you take into account inflation you are down double digit % to 8 years ago. 

Many a windy gets into a rut on times due to the repetitive nature of the work but being your own boss is worth more than £££ to me after all whateveyou decide to do nobody can stop you unl8ke employment. Whatever you decide, Good luck!

Isn't some of your problem weather related though. We've had a fairly cold and wet 5 months, as @BigFoot said put your prices up and then review how you're doing after a few months of hopefully better weather.

325 jobs shouldn't be a issue to get done on the cleaning cycles you mention unless you have some big jobs and limited compact work.

The question you need to ask yourself are you happy working on your own. All your prices need increasing by a £2 minimum.

County Durham Lad

Part Timer said:

Isn't some of your problem weather related though. We've had a fairly cold and wet 5 months, as [mention=2333]BigFoot[/mention] said put your prices up and then review how you're doing after a few months of hopefully better weather.

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No one should be that far behind though, I average a 4 day week with over a 350 jobs on a 4 weekly cycle, even after the beast from the the east I am all caught up this week, head down and cracking on grafting as hard as possible.

County Durham Lad

Iron Giant said:

No one should be that far behind though, I average a 4 day week with over a 350 jobs on a 4 weekly cycle, even after the beast from the the east I am all caught up this week, head down and cracking on grafting as hard as possible.

County Durham Lad
 

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I agree that 20 average houses a day should be manageable on your own but I don't know how big etc they are. 

Maybe take someone on

I had around 330 customers at new year I increase that to 350 by mid Feb and took on a part time lad 16 hours. I'm now up to 400 custys. With the lad working from my van I wasn't making hardly anything off him  but I bought a cheap second van and got him out on his own. He's is now making me £250 -£300  profit per week after all costs. It's meant that this week we were done for wednesday and it's the first time I've been caught up for 6 month! The only issue now is I need more work for the pair of us.

Around 200 of the jobs are in 1 town with pockets of compact work, and mixture of different size houses, quite a bit I feel under priced and unmotivated to do and don’t enjoy doing as they take longer than the hourly rate I try to achieve, about 40 are in the village I live which most are bigger houses and again some I feel under priced and the rest in other areas upto 30 mins away from my home but most are generally bigger houses

I do get bored working on my own and admittedly I can get quite lazy and unmotivated to do the work very easily, but when I tried employing last year it seemed we wasn’t doing the money I expected and it didn’t seem worth the hassle just for about 30-40 more income a day 

Laugher said:

Around 200 of the jobs are in 1 town with pockets of compact work, and mixture of different size houses, quite a bit I feel under priced and unmotivated to do and don’t enjoy doing as they take longer than the hourly rate I try to achieve, about 40 are in the village I live which most are bigger houses and again some I feel under priced and the rest in other areas upto 30 mins away from my home but most are generally bigger houses

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I think you're comment "under priced and unmotivated" Is your answer. Put them up so it feels better doing them, if you lose them then so be it. 

Laugher said:

Around 200 of the jobs are in 1 town with pockets of compact work, and mixture of different size houses, quite a bit I feel under priced and unmotivated to do and don’t enjoy doing as they take longer than the hourly rate I try to achieve, about 40 are in the village I live which most are bigger houses and again some I feel under priced and the rest in other areas upto 30 mins away from my home but most are generally bigger houses

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Sounds to me like you could do with a relaxing rest so you could mediate on the way forward. I don't think the money is an issue, sounds like too much work. Structure is your answer, lose some of the far away ones which waste time by driving. Invest in anything that will make your job easier.

I’ve dropped a few so far which are further away and some bad payers, but I’ve almost replaced them with work closer already so I haven’t really lowered the workload just less travel time, tbh I’ve been in this situation the last couple of years I’ve just made excuses not to sort it and get a grip of things, but now I’ve had these mental struggles for nearly 6 months and I’ve had enough I just want to make things easier for myself and earn a decent living and not to pressure myself and enjoy my work and the benefits that do come with been set employed

You know how much you currently make, and how much you'd settle for for an easier life. Isn't there a local windie you know that you might be able to take along a few days a week to ease the burden and give you a bit of company, rather than employing someone. 

I'm no Doctor but it sounds like you might have a bit of depression mate.

I would start with the Damo (patent pending) 'traffic light' system. 

All good jobs are Green., all so so jobs (bit too far out, bit underpriced ect) are orange and all bad jobs (dog poo, locked gates every time, slow / bad payers) are red. 

All red jobs just get axed off if you can't see a way to salvage them.  

The orange jobs then get a tweaking to make them green, price rise to match current prices even a price rise to compensate if the distance is a bit more perhaps.  

Green jobs atay as they are. 

Once you worked through that then you have a clear idea of the strength of whats left.  

I favor the employee route as my biggest worry is what happens if I am injured or ill for a few weeks?  That's a massive hit on my financial situation and a massive strain on the family.  At least with an employee someone would still be working through it. 

Also depends how far the jobs are together
I'm still behind from beast from the east
But my jobs ain't all together so probably why

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Thanks guys,

i need to to be a bit more stricter with raising prices and getting rid of work, I hate saying no to people or feel like I'm letting them down. A lot of jobs That are out of town i do have a bit of travelling between jobs I have 1 or 2 a place then 10 mins traveling to the next place