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Hitting targets every day?

JOE40

New member
Messages
10
Location
Buntingford Herts
I try to hit between 200 to 250 if I'm working on my own or around the 400 mark if there is two of us but trying to do this every day seems almost impossible for me. Does anyone eles struggle to hit a good wage every day? I seem to run out of energy and enthusiasm come Thursday/Friday not sure if it's my age as I'm 40 now . 

 
I never use to hit any where near that either I think a average day for me when I started out with a ladder on my car was 70-100 quid. Keep building it up, uping prices when you get more customers on board and it will come.

 
The obvious would be to increase prices to help you achieve a better wage, I am 44 years old and in all honesty and I can do flat out 2-3 days at most at best, those that say they are going at flat out all day every day I have my doubts, achievable targets are what you need to hit and various factors will help you hit these 

 
Or instead of comparing it that way, think of the bulk of those other jobs out there that pay minimum wage. Even if you just got £60 for a mornings or couple hours easy going work, you would have the whole afternoon for leisure or whatever, but the slave jobbers would still have to be bored off their boobies grafting till 5! Ah, this is the life ?

 
I’m not so much of a day rate person, more hourly rate person. In the last 6 months I’ve really tried to get up to £30ph Minimum.

Mixture of speeding up & a few price rises. 90% of my jobs/rounds allow me to hit that now. 

Because some days I’ll do 8:45-5:00, but some days I’ll only do 10:30-3 lol. But as long as I don’t take the Mick I’ll always earn enough over the course of a month. 

But once you have a couple years experience under your belt & reasonable prices, on a 8hr day most do between £180-£250 depending on where you are & if you’ve learned a quicker technique etc 

 
I'd love to be hitting that a week lol but I've just started up on my own after working for a window cleaning company the last 20 years. I've been going about 7 weeks and not doing to bad well I think I'm not doing to bad anyway, Ive got about £1000 of work at the mo just through door knocking and a fb business page and got a few nice fascia cleaning jobs on next week so fingers crossed I'll get there !!

 
Obviously it depends how much work you have but being self employed the absolute minimum you need to earn is £30 per hour , or you are better off stacking shelves in Tesco , it’s not difficult to achieve that , I think most window cleaners under sell themselves, you have to consider the fact that you have to cover holiday pay , sickness , days when it’s wet or icy , running expenses , running your own business is totally different to being an employee, this is Evan more important when you are employing ones as well or you will soon go bust 

 
This always ends up being a controversial topic, makes some on here really irate. Everyones opinion is different and in response to the OP I would say that you just need to earn what you want to earn. It's easy  to pick yourself up when you're tired and go again when you have kids to feed and rent to pay, if £500 a month covers your bills then you need to find a different purpose to keep you going. I've spoken to lads that say 1 van can bring £650 a day with a large tank and 2 men, I also know a local lad who makes £50 and then keeps going till he's bored. On a Wednesday he cleans the local pub and shop in a village near me, chats for a few hours and then goes home happy.

Unlike working for a large company there is no set formula to it. It isn't 40 hours a week with a full induction programme, 5 weeks holiday a year and bank holidays off... It's whatever you want it to be.

 
I need to hit a fair bit to cover everything with two kids mortgage ect .I've got the work to to do more each week  but lose steam come Thursday Friday . The answer is send someone out in another Van but i do worry about the standard of work ect that will be carried out when they are left alone. 

 
This always ends up being a controversial topic, makes some on here really irate. Everyones opinion is different and in response to the OP I would say that you just need to earn what you want to earn. It's easy  to pick yourself up when you're tired and go again when you have kids to feed and rent to pay, if £500 a month covers your bills then you need to find a different purpose to keep you going. I've spoken to lads that say 1 van can bring £650 a day with a large tank and 2 men, I also know a local lad who makes £50 and then keeps going till he's bored. On a Wednesday he cleans the local pub and shop in a village near me, chats for a few hours and then goes home happy.

Unlike working for a large company there is no set formula to it. It isn't 40 hours a week with a full induction programme, 5 weeks holiday a year and bank holidays off... It's whatever you want it to be.
Yeah think that's a really good point, I find myself that it's difficult to get up and do it when there's no purpose of it, when there's no kids to have to provide for etc.

Do you think that purpose should always be like a set target or what?

 
Yeah think that's a really good point, I find myself that it's difficult to get up and do it when there's no purpose of it, when there's no kids to have to provide for etc.

Do you think that purpose should always be like a set target or what?




Some people are motivated and some arnt the latter generaly work for someone the former are generaly there own boss , I agree with @P4dstar bills to pay is a good motivator and you don’t have to build an empire , just lay them and have a little to cover for unexpected events , but a lot of people arnt able to motivate themselves to do that . We generaly set a target with either volume of work or a figure to achieve each week , generaly its volume of work that has to be done the monetary value is secondary to what has to be done , ie work due , extra jobs that need to be done , I like to set myself a target that by a set time I will have done so many jobs or by the end of the week we will have done so many extra jobs to reduce work backlog 

 
I need to hit a fair bit to cover everything with two kids mortgage ect .I've got the work to to do more each week  but lose steam come Thursday Friday . The answer is send someone out in another Van but i do worry about the standard of work ect that will be carried out when they are left alone. 
Simply a lack of motivation is normal more so been a sole trader, I do lack motivation at times but I will still go out and do a full day regardless but for me, I am usually finished on a Thursday or have a half day on a Friday, This year my wife and I have decided on not having a weeks holiday or longer and to do short breaks or long weekends this may not seem relevant but feeling like you are getting something for the money you earn and having a good work-life balance is also key to maintaining motivation I believe, thankfully we have no kids so things may be a bit different for yourself.   

 
I try to hit between 200 to 250 if I'm working on my own or around the 400 mark if there is two of us but trying to do this every day seems almost impossible for me. Does anyone eles struggle to hit a good wage every day? I seem to run out of energy and enthusiasm come Thursday/Friday not sure if it's my age as I'm 40 now . 


You have to set yourself an achievable target. If its too high it becomes demotivational. What happens if the weather writes off a few days in the week? Or how would you manage when we virtually wrote off 6 weeks in the winter of 2011/12?

If your are feeling this way at 40 then you have to realise that things get harder as you get older. That's not negative speak, its reality. 12 years ago I could knock out 16 to 18 houses a day and have to finish by 3pm in summer because I had run out of water - 375 liters on the trailer and 100 liters in the back of my Suzuki Carry van.

Nowadays I struggle to do 6 houses without feeling exhausted. Sometimes I'm exhausted just filling the van up with water in the morning.

If you carry on the way you are you will reach 'burn-out' and you won't be much good for your family then. So you have to start making changes.

When I worked for Bosch in South Africa and our profit margins took a dive we had a couple of choices. Put up prices, reduce costs or sell more product - or a combination of them. This also applies to all other businesses.

Can I put up prices and still remain competitive? Can I reduce my business running costs? Can I do more work a day to earn more? (This last one you have already answered.)

Can I reduce my outgoings by re-evaluating our current living spend? Do I need the latest mobile phone? Do I need to live in the house I do to keep up with the Joneses? Having more money doesn't usually equate to more happiness but rather the other way around.

We don't have a flash car, its 16 years old; we worked hard to pay off our mortgage and lead a rather simple existance. We haven't had a regular holiday abroad for 10 years. We got away last year so the grandchildren could experience their first aircraft flight.

We don't drink and we don't smoke. We try to make the best use of our resources. My work van is 15 years old and I've had to invest in a new model as this one's life is probably running parallel to my life. Its been the joke of the MOT station every year for a while now - is the van going to outlast me, or me the van?

 
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Yeah think that's a really good point, I find myself that it's difficult to get up and do it when there's no purpose of it, when there's no kids to have to provide for etc.

Do you think that purpose should always be like a set target or what?
I've been shot down on here before for my opinions on running a window cleaning business. I've tried to look over how I word things and see what I can do differently but I just can't see where I go wrong... With this in mind the below is my opinion of how I run my business. I believe I've been relatively successful in the last couple of years and the key things for me were...

  • Built steadily. I had the ability to purchase work several times along the way but never did. If you haven't been a window cleaner and or self employed before then buying a load of work could overwhelm you quite quickly.
  • Keep some money by. You may need £1500 a month for bills but make £3k per month and book a nice foreign holiday or buy a new car. This can wait! I recently moved everyone around to make the round more compact, cost me quite a bit but the fact I didn't spend everything I earned meant I could do it without bankrupting myself
  • If you want to build a successful business not just a window cleaning round then set yourself targets and KPI's and review them. Look at your personal circumstances and plan for that. The OP is struggling to complete a full days work 5 days a week at 40 and as @spruce says that will be even worse at 50. What i'm saying is work out how much you need to live, what you want to earn and make a plan.... Pensions, mortgage etc etc etc

Your purpose is whatever you want it to be but on a basic level it will be to pay the bills. Most people have a much bigger purpose than that and that can keep you going when you want to give up. I have 2 things that keep me going, firstly I want to set a good example to my kids of a hardworking person and secondly to prove my old man wrong, he told me so many times I would amount to nothing haha.

 
I've been shot down on here before for my opinions on running a window cleaning business. I've tried to look over how I word things and see what I can do differently but I just can't see where I go wrong... With this in mind the below is my opinion of how I run my business. I believe I've been relatively successful in the last couple of years and the key things for me were...

  • Built steadily. I had the ability to purchase work several times along the way but never did. If you haven't been a window cleaner and or self employed before then buying a load of work could overwhelm you quite quickly.
  • Keep some money by. You may need £1500 a month for bills but make £3k per month and book a nice foreign holiday or buy a new car. This can wait! I recently moved everyone around to make the round more compact, cost me quite a bit but the fact I didn't spend everything I earned meant I could do it without bankrupting myself
  • If you want to build a successful business not just a window cleaning round then set yourself targets and KPI's and review them. Look at your personal circumstances and plan for that. The OP is struggling to complete a full days work 5 days a week at 40 and as @spruce says that will be even worse at 50. What i'm saying is work out how much you need to live, what you want to earn and make a plan.... Pensions, mortgage etc etc etc

Your purpose is whatever you want it to be but on a basic level it will be to pay the bills. Most people have a much bigger purpose than that and that can keep you going when you want to give up. I have 2 things that keep me going, firstly I want to set a good example to my kids of a hardworking person and secondly to prove my old man wrong, he told me so many times I would amount to nothing haha.
My parents are the same, every idea I have will amount to nothing including window cleaning. Maybe I should stop proving them right and get up and do something ?

 
My parents are the same, every idea I have will amount to nothing including window cleaning. Maybe I should stop proving them right and get up and do something ?
Do it mate. I've been doing it my entire adult life. I became a pub manager for Wetherspoons at the age of 19. Once I outgrew that dream I went into sales, that was the last time he put a dampener on my plans. I got a job in a call centre for Carphone Warehouse, they sold it to me with on target earning of 30-40k. My old man says ''you mark my words, those types of jobs are all lies, no one ever earns that''. I earned £32k in my first year, £40k in my second and £45k in my third... If you want to be successful you can't ignore the thoughts of people like this, you need to use them as fuel for your fire!!

 
You have to set yourself an achievable target. If its too high it becomes demotivational. What happens if the weather writes off a few days in the week? Or how would you manage when we virtually wrote off 6 weeks in the winter of 2011/12?

If your are feeling this way at 40 then you have to realise that things get harder as you get older. That's not negative speak, its reality. 12 years ago I could knock out 16 to 18 houses a day and have to finish by 3pm in summer because I had run out of water - 375 liters on the trailer and 100 liters in the back of my Suzuki Carry van.

Nowadays I struggle to do 6 houses without feeling exhausted. Sometimes I'm exhausted just filling the van up with water in the morning.

If you carry on the way you are you will reach 'burn-out' and you won't be much good for your family then. So you have to start making changes.

When I worked for Bosch in South Africa and our profit margins took a dive we had a couple of choices. Put up prices, reduce costs or sell more product - or a combination of them. This also applies to all other businesses.

Can I put up prices and still remain competitive? Can I reduce my business running costs? Can I do more work a day to earn more? (This last one you have already answered.)

Can I reduce my outgoings by re-evaluating our current living spend? Do I need the latest mobile phone? Do I need to live in the house I do to keep up with the Joneses? Having more money doesn't usually equate to more happiness but rather the other way around.

We don't have a flash car, its 16 years old; we worked hard to pay off our mortgage and lead a rather simple existance. We haven't had a regular holiday abroad for 10 years. We got away last year so the grandchildren could experience their first aircraft flight.

We don't drink and we don't smoke. We try to make the best use of our resources. My work van is 15 years old and I've had to invest in a new model as this one's life is probably running parallel to my life. Its been the joke of the MOT station every year for a while now - is the van going to outlast me, or me the van?
Very reasonable post. Balanced life and work, is the key. 

 
Do it mate. I've been doing it my entire adult life. I became a pub manager for Wetherspoons at the age of 19. Once I outgrew that dream I went into sales, that was the last time he put a dampener on my plans. I got a job in a call centre for Carphone Warehouse, they sold it to me with on target earning of 30-40k. My old man says ''you mark my words, those types of jobs are all lies, no one ever earns that''. I earned £32k in my first year, £40k in my second and £45k in my third... If you want to be successful you can't ignore the thoughts of people like this, you need to use them as fuel for your fire!!
Just got a job at wetherspoons  ? 

The one thing that motivates me is people telling me I can't do something.

 
Very reasonable post. Balanced life and work, is the key. 
I think in the end this is right for almost everyone. No one becomes self employed to work 23 hours a day the rest of their lives.

The 2 main types of people are very different though. Some become self employed and work slowly at their own pace, allowing the business to grow over time with very little stress. Others go for it hell for leather, this way will provide a full round a lot quicker. Neither option is right or wrong but in most circumstances both eventually succumb to the work home life balance.

Just got a job at wetherspoons  ? 

The one thing that motivates me is people telling me I can't do something.
All you gotta do is look at the regulars flitting between the bookies and the pub all day. Every Wetherspoons has them. Usually found lecturing someone on how the country should be run... While wearing a shell suit.... and shoes ??

Can't remember who I robbed that joke from but as a former spoony I found it funnier than I should have. Anyway the point is they are an example of what will happen if you do listen to people who say you can't do something.

 
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