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Advice on buying a round

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Maund

Maund

Well-known member
Messages
166
Location
Anglesey
I'm looking at a window cleaning round that consists of 100 customers all 4 weekly, the cost is £6000 and the seller is allowing me to work the round with him before I buy.

This will be my first round I will be purchasing.

I am worried about getting scammed, does this happen? What can I do to help prevent this from happening, is there a contract that I can get the seller to sign to agree that it is now my work.

Any advice will be appreciated, thank you.

 
Difficult one. If you’re selling a round you want as much as you can for it. I’d sell it to a total stranger for 6x, but someone I know probably x3, so would try and sell it privately first. 

If I was selling privately, and got that close to a deal and the buyer suddenly offered 4 or 5 months worth, then I’d probably take the offer. 

Remember, it’s diffiult for him to find someone that’ll take it for that top dollar!! He may call your bluff on it, but I’d be stubborn with it, and see if he comes back with a fairer deal. 

Whats his circumstances??

never heard of anyone being tucked up. 

 
I have heard of people being ripped off before but if your working it first and you know what your doing then I can’t see him being able to hide much.
4/5 cleans is the going rate round here for good monthly work so I’d try and knock him down a bit.
If you present your self well with the customers I can’t see there being an issue with them as they just want a good cleaner regardless of who it is and especially if the old guy is highly regarded with them and he is recommending you. First impressions go along way.



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Redditch windy said:
6 x the monthly worth is way too much in my opinion, if i was buying work the max i would go is 3x if i was starting out and wanted an instant round.
there's no guarantee that the customers would stick with you,you basically buying "good will"

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Click to expand...
3 x cleans is what you pay a canvasser for a pile of names and address with no real guarantees of anything and not knowing the condition of each first clean. 

For decent established work that he is going to work with you and introduce you to customers  first then 6x cleans is perfectly fine. 

I would write a letter simply explaining the change in window cleaners to the customer.   Keep it simple.  Make it sound like its from him.  

'Dear customer as of June 2018 I will no longer be cleaning windows but have arranged for Dave to take over your window cleaning for you. There will be no change to schedule or pricing. Daves contact details are blah blah blah.  

My thanks for your past custom and my best wishes for your future. 

Kind regards. Pikey Window Boy

Hand one to each customer as you work the round. 

Have him write you a receipt for the 6k detailing EXACTLY what its for. 

MOST IMPORTANTLY find out EXACTLY how each customer pays and change them to your payment system on the first clean. 

6 x cleans is perfectly fair for quality well maintained work.  

Good luck.  

 
Green Pro Clean Ltd said:
3 x cleans is what you pay a canvasser for a pile of names and address with no real guarantees of anything and not knowing the condition of each first clean. 

For decent established work that he is going to work with you and introduce you to customers  first then 6x cleans is perfectly fine. 

I would write a letter simply explaining the change in window cleaners to the customer.   Keep it simple.  Make it sound like its from him.  

'Dear customer as of June 2018 I will no longer be cleaning windows but have arranged for Dave to take over your window cleaning for you. There will be no change to schedule or pricing. Daves contact details are blah blah blah.  

My thanks for your past custom and my best wishes for your future. 

Kind regards. Pikey Window Boy

Hand one to each customer as you work the round. 

Have him write you a receipt for the 6k detailing EXACTLY what its for. 

MOST IMPORTANTLY find out EXACTLY how each customer pays and change them to your payment system on the first clean. 

6 x cleans is perfectly fair for quality well maintained work.  

Good luck.  
Click to expand...








Very sound sound advice totaly agree 

 
Can see why you’re  nervous it’s a lot of dollar! I  thought about buying a round and or using canvassers but both are such a huge outlay for what they are. I’m currently using Green Pro Clean Ltd lead generation on a rolling contract and I have no regrets about it. If you want 100 customers on a 4 weekly you could probably get that in 1-2 months, and it’s goinf to cost you half a first clean as opposed to 3-6 cleans. They all want their windows cleaned, they all are delighted when you knock or call and most of mine have taken a few extras such as gutters and such like so really one clean can pay for yours weeks leads. Worth considering before you shell out £6000, but if you have the money then do both! 100 in the bag plus what ever leads get sent your way. 

 
Canvassing, although cheaper doesn't always give you a compact run, however if you buy the round and the work is good at that price and you're in it for the long haul, this could be a good opportunity. You could also get the vendor to walk the round and introduce you personally then you know you won't get scammed.

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6x is fair for good work.

As green pointed out 3x is what you pay a canvasser. Half of that turns out to be shite so ends up being more like 6x anyway.

And as @MWS window cleaning says there are cheaper and better ways to pick up work these days. I wish I had cottoned onto these methods earlier. You could pay for lead generation or if you have half a brain cell figure out how social media and online marketing is done and do it yourself. 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
adamangler said:
6x is fair for good work.

As green pointed out 3x is what you pay a canvasser. Half of that turns out to be shite so ends up being more like 6x anyway.

And as @MWS window cleaning says there are cheaper and better ways to pick up work these days. I wish I had cottoned onto these methods earlier. You could pay for lead generation or if you have half a brain cell figure out how social media and online marketing is done and do it yourself. 
Click to expand...
Or knock on as many doors as you have to every evening after work until you get what you need

You will get some  :1f4a9:  just like with a canvasser but you are not paying someone else for it

 
Redditch windy said:
6k for 1k of work =working for zero for 6 months,who can afford to work for zero for 6 months? theres quicker ways to get 1k of work of month than paying 6k for it!

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Click to expand...


Completely the wrong way to look at money.

If you have 6k sitting in a bank account whats it doing? nothing, making probably 0.2 % interest, its doing nothing.

If you spend 6k on 1k of work what do you have...12k a year turnover

take some more profits then you have 24k py turnover

see the pattern ? money is a tool to make more money, use it.

Dave B said:
Or knock on as many doors as you have to every evening after work until you get what you need

You will get some  :1f4a9:  just like with a canvasser but you are not paying someone else for it
Click to expand...


Fine if you want to exchange your time for money

Id rather exchange money for money, pay someone to canvass, pay someone to clean.

Any fool can flog them self to death cleaning all day and canvassing all night, but its not really smart in the long term.

 
I’m with Adam on this one. Let your money work for you, time is precious. So many times I hear people not wanting to do evening cash collections but then they will spend every hour god sends out knocking doors just to get the work in the first place. Swings and roundabouts.
When I first stated for myself I got a £14000 loan and bought a round worth around £700 per week. I paid around £75 per week to pay the loan off so I was instantly turning a profit.


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