I'm performing an experiment that will interest you!

Hi all

I thought i would let you in on an experiment im going to be doing when i get my round started. firstly this wont be for a good few weeks as i have other business commitments going on, but i thought id take the time to share this with you an hopefully get some good measurable stats.

Just to give you a background to the experiment, i have nearly completed my van self build and will be operating the fully kitted one reel transit custom very soon.

I have no prior window cleaning experience and this will not be my only income. I have not advertised anywhere yet and have only told friends and family about my new venture.

Now the experiment bit...........

I am in the very very fortunate position that i have access to free advertising in a local monthly magazine. In the two towns it is distributed it has a circulation of 10,000 and goes into every letterbox in the towns.

The publication is an a4 magazine and is well recieved and used locally by trades, news etc.

I will be placing a full colour, full page advert in the magazine each month from the start of my round building and will be my one and only source of advertising for the first 3-6 months.

now i cant do anything about betty coming upto me in the street and asking for a quote but i am intrigued as to how quickly/slowly the round will gather customers.

What does everyone think or does anyone have any preditctions or guesses how many customers ill have at the end of the first 3 months.

Bit of a whacky idea but i guess im just curious as to how good persistant local advertising is.

send your answers on the back of a postcard ?

When you started talking about an experiment and then a van i was having images of a converted ice cream van with two WFP brushes on the front instead of plastic whippys LOL.

When I first started, I advertsed in the local free magazine it boasted a circulation of 34,000, it was simply a local traders mag, I only took out 1/4 page adverts owing to cost but was nearly always the only window cleaner to advertise, I reckoned that I got one regular customer per publication over the Six months it ran,and it had acost of around £150 for Three adverts,so barely cost effective but it got me out there and working, would I do it again? In hindsight probably not.

To answer your question I would think out of a 10,000 circulation if you got one sticker job every two months(you maybe get a few one offs), I would consider that a fair rate, if your inundated with windies round your way you may not even get that return.

Ive advertised in one of these. Similarly, it went out to about 10,000. I only had the smaller size ad they do, £37.50 each issue. I got a few regulars out of it, and so I guess it has payed for itself, and some. Funny enough was gonna phone them today to re-advertise but was side tracked watching old prog about big cats (puma etc) living in the wild in the uk. Will do it tomorrow. Yeh i'd say its worth a punt.

Funny you say about big cats in the wild.. a few years back me and the missus was walking the old railway line from Hythe in Kent. Got down to Hythe, stoipped at the ice cream place on the sea front for an hour or so, then headed back. It was late evening and getting dark pretty darn quick in them woods. I had this really uneasy feeling we were being watched by something - said that to the missus and that we needed to pick up the pace without looking back behind us.. - i had this really bad feeling that if we did, we'd see something that would make us run

Couple of days later on one of the local groups someone posted that they saw a big black cat in those same woods while walking the dog. We've not been back since.

Tango said:

Funny you say about big cats in the wild.. a few years back me and the missus was walking the old railway line from Hythe in Kent. Got down to Hythe, stoipped at the ice cream place on the sea front for an hour or so, then headed back. It was late evening and getting dark pretty darn quick in them woods. I had this really uneasy feeling we were being watched by something - said that to the missus and that we needed to pick up the pace without looking back behind us.. - i had this really bad feeling that if we did, we'd see something that would make us run

Couple of days later on one of the local groups someone posted that they saw a big black cat in those same woods while walking the dog. We've not been back since.

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quite believe it. Sightings are more common than people think. At risk of ridicule, I will admit that ive seen one. used to live in this village, and had to slog it home in the early hours along country lanes. Was just about light, 4am in the summer, and I look up this other lane, and its strolling down towards me. I froze on the spot, as it was obvious what it was. it stopped and stared at me too. Well, there were a couple of cottages nearby, and I planned on if it ran at me, to dive headfirst through the cottage window and get cut rather than eaten.. It just ambled calmly a few more paces, and then up the bank in a bound. Thing is, about that time there were other sightings within 6 or so miles of there. Certain of the farmers round the area know they are for real. they wont normally go for a human and would stay clear. got abundant food and cover in the uk.

Let them be I say, but you know the farmer would shoot them if poss and say little about it.

Tango said:

When you started talking about an experiment and then a van i was having images of a converted ice cream van with two WFP brushes on the front instead of plastic whippys LOL.

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ill go halves on the mister whippy idea ?

Philip Hardy said:

When I first started, I advertsed in the local free magazine it boasted a circulation of 34,000, it was simply a local traders mag, I only took out 1/4 page adverts owing to cost but was nearly always the only window cleaner to advertise, I reckoned that I got one regular customer per publication over the Six months it ran,and it had acost of around £150 for Three adverts,so barely cost effective but it got me out there and working, would I do it again? In hindsight probably not.

To answer your question I would think out of a 10,000 circulation if you got one sticker job every two months(you maybe get a few one offs), I would consider that a fair rate, if your inundated with windies round your way you may not even get that return.

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you guess has been noted, good luck...lol. we have windies but im forever seeing on fb in the local group asking for a window cleaner, now like ive said i havent put the name out there yet but i do know there is around 1000 homes been/being built too so i guess i have a fair to middling chance

ks789 said:

Ive advertised in one of these. Similarly, it went out to about 10,000. I only had the smaller size ad they do, £37.50 each issue. I got a few regulars out of it, and so I guess it has payed for itself, and some. Funny enough was gonna phone them today to re-advertise but was side tracked watching old prog about big cats (puma etc) living in the wild in the uk. Will do it tomorrow. Yeh i'd say its worth a punt.

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i do know that a consistent ad always in a publication has a subliminal effect when a person sees something so often that when they are in need of that thing, the ad springs to mind. on a side note, any small publication would be willing to double your ad in one edition if the extra half was editorial about you and your services, so when you speak to them ask them" if you signed for 3 months would they be prepared to double your space for a part editorial/advatorial ?

ks789 said:

quite believe it. Sightings are more common than people think. At risk of ridicule, I will admit that ive seen one. used to live in this village, and had to slog it home in the early hours along country lanes. Was just about light, 4am in the summer, and I look up this other lane, and its strolling down towards me. I froze on the spot, as it was obvious what it was. it stopped and stared at me too.

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Also happened to me once. I lived in a village in sussex as a teenager, went out the front to call the cat one night (about 1am) and looked out at the main road when i heard a weird sounding growl. Noticed two sets of cats eyes looking directly at my torch (used to get very foggy there) and they weren't the height of a normal cat. When one of them took a couple of steps towards me i just scurried back inside and closed the door lol. 

I don't think anyone will ridicule you, i think most of the population has now accepted we have large cats in the wild.

When i was a kid there was a local shopkeeper i knew and was friendly with. One day he told us how he'd been up to Folkestone in the night a while back to the cash n carry. On his way down the narrow roads (pre channel tunnel when roads were improved) he came across two jaguars in the road. He was in a little morris van with wooden panels in the middle of nowhere at 4am and chances of help were non existent. He said he'd never been so scared and they just looked at him like a meal and weren't scared. He did the only thing he could think of and hit reverse to make a hasty escape. That was back in the 80s before it became a common tale of woe /.attention seeking story. 

I tend to stay away from woodlands to be honest. I don't like them, never have, never will. Too many hiding places for sinister people / big cats / stray rabies infested dogs (or other zombies) and not enough help in case of emergency. Only time I'd feel safe in woodlands is if i had 2-3 large dogs.

Tango said:

Also happened to me once. I lived in a village in sussex as a teenager, went out the front to call the cat one night (about 1am) and looked out at the main road when i heard a weird sounding growl. Noticed two sets of cats eyes looking directly at my torch (used to get very foggy there) and they weren't the height of a normal cat. When one of them took a couple of steps towards me i just scurried back inside and closed the door lol. 

I don't think anyone will ridicule you, i think most of the population has now accepted we have large cats in the wild.

When i was a kid there was a local shopkeeper i knew and was friendly with. One day he told us how he'd been up to Folkestone in the night a while back to the cash n carry. On his way down the narrow roads (pre channel tunnel when roads were improved) he came across two jaguars in the road. He was in a little morris van with wooden panels in the middle of nowhere at 4am and chances of help were non existent. He said he'd never been so scared and they just looked at him like a meal and weren't scared. He did the only thing he could think of and hit reverse to make a hasty escape. That was back in the 80s before it became a common tale of woe /.attention seeking story. 

I tend to stay away from woodlands to be honest. I don't like them, never have, never will. Too many hiding places for sinister people / big cats / stray rabies infested dogs (or other zombies) and not enough help in case of emergency. Only time I'd feel safe in woodlands is if i had 2-3 large dogs.

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 Yes Im convinced. i know what i saw back then. There are some good documentaries on this, on utube, and some of the footage is undeniable to be fair. even some was taken by a policeman, who was convinced of what it was. The thing is, with the black leopards/pumas, panthers, get muddled, they must be breeding. I find it fascinating, but yep, can be quite a shock.

Tango said:

Also happened to me once. I lived in a village in sussex as a teenager, went out the front to call the cat one night (about 1am) and looked out at the main road when i heard a weird sounding growl. Noticed two sets of cats eyes looking directly at my torch (used to get very foggy there) and they weren't the height of a normal cat. When one of them took a couple of steps towards me i just scurried back inside and closed the door lol. 

I don't think anyone will ridicule you, i think most of the population has now accepted we have large cats in the wild.

When i was a kid there was a local shopkeeper i knew and was friendly with. One day he told us how he'd been up to Folkestone in the night a while back to the cash n carry. On his way down the narrow roads (pre channel tunnel when roads were improved) he came across two jaguars in the road. He was in a little morris van with wooden panels in the middle of nowhere at 4am and chances of help were non existent. He said he'd never been so scared and they just looked at him like a meal and weren't scared. He did the only thing he could think of and hit reverse to make a hasty escape. That was back in the 80s before it became a common tale of woe /.attention seeking story. 

I tend to stay away from woodlands to be honest. I don't like them, never have, never will. Too many hiding places for sinister people / big cats / stray rabies infested dogs (or other zombies) and not enough help in case of emergency. Only time I'd feel safe in woodlands is if i had 2-3 large dogs.

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My brother lives near new Romney, not that far from Folkestone.

Him and his wife are adamant they  saw a ‘black panther’ whilst out driving.

I bloody hope not, I’m down there in September for Folkestone Skabour!

By the way, did you know strictly speaking, there isn’t such a cat as a ‘black panther’?

They are jaguars with a different skin. Very rare, and their real name is the ‘melenistic Jaguar’. 

Think of me as the ginger David Attenborough ?

I'll put money on their claim that they saw one. I've heard several people in the area say about them. 

I'd definitely believe them.