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My first day as a Windy!

ched999uk

Well-known member
Messages
4,673
Location
Lancashire
So first off thanks to everyone for their help over the last 18 months or so.

First ever clean of someone else's house today! It was only a small house 6 windows and 2 doors. It was for someone I sort of knew. 

Had a look round to 'quote' first. The windows weren't bad really. Couple of blown units but she was aware of this. So sprayed a bit of ubix on scrubbed and all good, lots of rinsing. Masses or rubbish in the expansion gaps, took ages to 'jet' out. Overall I spend 50 mins doing the clean.

Customer was very happy, booked in for 6 weeks time. Even received a 20% tip!!!

Then went leaflet dropping. Dropped about 150 leaflets - not many but it's a start. Tomorrow is leafleting in a different area to see if one area is better than another.

Overall everything went as planned. Just back with a nice cuppa now. 

Thanks again everyone.

 
Well done @ched999uk
 The expansion gaps can be a right pain. I recently started using a Supreme Tapertec Dupont Hybrid. It's very good for cleaning them out. Sometimes I invert the pole and brush to get a better line. I give them a good flush with a flow setting of around 64 (my normal setting) while I scrub from side to side but this might be more difficult for you in the early days with your water limitations. Once you get into it and have plenty of water you'll be flying it. ?

 
So first off thanks to everyone for their help over the last 18 months or so.

First ever clean of someone else's house today! It was only a small house 6 windows and 2 doors. It was for someone I sort of knew. 

Had a look round to 'quote' first. The windows weren't bad really. Couple of blown units but she was aware of this. So sprayed a bit of ubix on scrubbed and all good, lots of rinsing. Masses or rubbish in the expansion gaps, took ages to 'jet' out. Overall I spend 50 mins doing the clean.

Customer was very happy, booked in for 6 weeks time. Even received a 20% tip!!!

Then went leaflet dropping. Dropped about 150 leaflets - not many but it's a start. Tomorrow is leafleting in a different area to see if one area is better than another.

Overall everything went as planned. Just back with a nice cuppa now. 

Thanks again everyone.
Well done Ched. Must feel great to finally be out at it after such a long time. 

 
Well done @ched999uk
 The expansion gaps can be a right pain. I recently started using a Supreme Tapertec Dupont Hybrid. It's very good for cleaning them out. Sometimes I invert the pole and brush to get a better line. I give them a good flush with a flow setting of around 64 (my normal setting) while I scrub from side to side but this might be more difficult for you in the early days with your water limitations. Once you get into it and have plenty of water you'll be flying it. ?
Funny enough I am using a Supreme Tapertec Dupont Hybrid as my main brush. I did close one jet off to get an extra blast to clear out the gap on the ground floor. Upstairs ones I just kept blasting till the bits stopped flowing from the cills and scrubbed from side to side. So nice to know I was on right tracks. 

Water wise I took 150 litres for 1 job ? so I did have some spare ? but once I have a few more on same day then water might be more of an issue. Then again hopefully I will be relatively close to home so can top up when necessary. Aiming to try and keep within a couple of miles of home but we will see if that's possible.

 
Funny enough I am using a Supreme Tapertec Dupont Hybrid as my main brush. I did close one jet off to get an extra blast to clear out the gap on the ground floor. Upstairs ones I just kept blasting till the bits stopped flowing from the cills and scrubbed from side to side. So nice to know I was on right tracks. 

Water wise I took 150 litres for 1 job ? so I did have some spare ? but once I have a few more on same day then water might be more of an issue. Then again hopefully I will be relatively close to home so can top up when necessary. Aiming to try and keep within a couple of miles of home but we will see if that's possible.
I'll share one of my top tips for canvassing and leaflet drops

A British army S10 respirator haversack is perfect for leaflets

download.jpeg

 
I'll share one of my top tips for canvassing and leaflet drops

A British army S10 respirator haversack is perfect for leaflets

View attachment 24909
That looks a great size. I have work trousers that have big thigh pockets that take the A6 leaflets we have. I think I can probably fit a good few hundred in there. The rest can be back in the car. Cheers for the tip. they seem quite reasonably priced and should be reasonable quality as well.

 
That looks a great size. I have work trousers that have big thigh pockets that take the A6 leaflets we have. I think I can probably fit a good few hundred in there. The rest can be back in the car. Cheers for the tip. they seem quite reasonably priced and should be reasonable quality as well.
Very Good quality and hold a ton of leaflets. Mine has drinks bottle and noted pad

I have another on my webbing (trad kit) with scrapers spare cloths and summer kit like sun block etc.

I have a fair few new ones still wrapped up in the storage container

 
Then went leaflet dropping. Dropped about 150 leaflets - not many but it's a start. Tomorrow is leafleting in a different area to see if one area is better than another.
The key to leaflet dropping is to target an area then judge the early response, if you start to get calls straight away then go back to that area and do more.  If you don't get a call from 150 leaflets, don't write the area off but do go to another area and do 150 to 200.  

Generally when you get several calls from an area then you are best targeting that area more.

150 leaflets a day is good.  That's 750 a week, 3,000 a month, 36,000 a year.  I usually get 1 customer per 200 to 300, that's a regular customer.  The return on them usually works out 1 pound per leaflet delivered, reason being there are a lot of one off big jobs, so one customer can end up being 300 pounds worth of work when they want fascias and conservatory roofs cleaning.

The key is to consistently go out and deliver small amounts.  You can go out and deliver 400 and spend 3 hours and walk probably 10 miles delivering them and feel knackered and feel like a sense of achievement, however if you don't do any the next day then you might as well have taken it easier and done 200 each day and used half the energy to do it.

Also note down the times you are delivering them.  I found mid morning can be good, you get people who are on a day off and on their own, good chance to catch those otherwise busy mothers.

 
The key to leaflet dropping is to target an area then judge the early response, if you start to get calls straight away then go back to that area and do more.  If you don't get a call from 150 leaflets, don't write the area off but do go to another area and do 150 to 200.  

Generally when you get several calls from an area then you are best targeting that area more.

150 leaflets a day is good.  That's 750 a week, 3,000 a month, 36,000 a year.  I usually get 1 customer per 200 to 300, that's a regular customer.  The return on them usually works out 1 pound per leaflet delivered, reason being there are a lot of one off big jobs, so one customer can end up being 300 pounds worth of work when they want fascias and conservatory roofs cleaning.

The key is to consistently go out and deliver small amounts.  You can go out and deliver 400 and spend 3 hours and walk probably 10 miles delivering them and feel knackered and feel like a sense of achievement, however if you don't do any the next day then you might as well have taken it easier and done 200 each day and used half the energy to do it.

Also note down the times you are delivering them.  I found mid morning can be good, you get people who are on a day off and on their own, good chance to catch those otherwise busy mothers.
Thanks very much for that @Chris34 that's great info, very helpful. We are not worried if it's a slow burner as that gives me time to gradually build up muscles and skills. Thanks.

 
Thanks very much for that @Chris34 that's great info, very helpful. We are not worried if it's a slow burner as that gives me time to gradually build up muscles and skills. Thanks.
That's the beauty of it, it's your business so you can build it as fast or as slow as you like.  I've taken my time with mine but priced it all correctly with the goal of working 25 hours per week max and a decent wage.  Think I'll be where I want by the end of this year, so just under 3 years to build a part time business with full time wages.

For me it's about trying to live a more full filled life and working all the time does not allow that.  So charging more and working less is the only way to get that life.  But that's my goal, your goals and everyone else's might be different.

You can make it as much or as little as you want, really is amazing just how good it can be.

In the near future I'm going to try and make it more enjoyable, like playing music while I'm working, getting lighter poles, nice sound system for the van.  

After a while everything just seems to click and it gets better and better but easier.  Like you don't have to try as hard to get the work as you get word of mouth customers.  You then get to a point where you're not desperate for work so you charge high prices all the time and don't care if you don't get them, but when you do get them you get paid more for doing the same work.

It's basically like a slow snowball effect.  

Muscles always ache though, no getting away from that one.

 
Congrats on the first clean Ched, I still remember mine, took me about the same time as you, just a 2 storey 3 bed about the same amount of windows, now i can clean it in about 25 mins which for me is Usain Bolt speed?

 
That's the beauty of it, it's your business so you can build it as fast or as slow as you like.  I've taken my time with mine but priced it all correctly with the goal of working 25 hours per week max and a decent wage.  Think I'll be where I want by the end of this year, so just under 3 years to build a part time business with full time wages.

For me it's about trying to live a more full filled life and working all the time does not allow that.  So charging more and working less is the only way to get that life.  But that's my goal, your goals and everyone else's might be different.

You can make it as much or as little as you want, really is amazing just how good it can be.

In the near future I'm going to try and make it more enjoyable, like playing music while I'm working, getting lighter poles, nice sound system for the van.  

After a while everything just seems to click and it gets better and better but easier.  Like you don't have to try as hard to get the work as you get word of mouth customers.  You then get to a point where you're not desperate for work so you charge high prices all the time and don't care if you don't get them, but when you do get them you get paid more for doing the same work.

It's basically like a slow snowball effect.  

Muscles always ache though, no getting away from that one.
lighter poles will stop the muscles aching mate....im at 50k a year now working part time hours and loving it.....this job is easy these days mate compared to my trad days in the 90s/00s(went wfp in 2010).....

the refining never stops EVER.....good luck 

 
Well done Ched glad you finally got the ball rolling I’m sure you will do well @sprucegot me into using a muck off cleaning tool for bicycles brilliant for the sills grooves and also spider webs in the hard to reach frame. 

 It’s a great time of year to start before you know it You will be overrun with work. 
 

just wanted to add best way to get lots of new clients is to shave your head ?

 
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Funny enough I am using a Supreme Tapertec Dupont Hybrid as my main brush. I did close one jet off to get an extra blast to clear out the gap on the ground floor. Upstairs ones I just kept blasting till the bits stopped flowing from the cills and scrubbed from side to side. So nice to know I was on right tracks. 

Water wise I took 150 litres for 1 job ? so I did have some spare ? but once I have a few more on same day then water might be more of an issue. Then again hopefully I will be relatively close to home so can top up when necessary. Aiming to try and keep within a couple of miles of home but we will see if that's possible.
To begin with you could see rather large pieces of muck from the gap 'washing' off the upstairs sills. When the bits aren't as many, I tend to cheat and wrap a towel around the brush head and 'wipe' the sill with that.

 
An update after my first week as a windy.

First thanks everyone for all their help.

So started Monday with a customer - acquaintance. That went well, all nice and clean customer happy, paid cash plus tip! Then we stated leaflet dropping. Over the 5 days dropped about 600 so not masses but a start. Had 1 customer email saying they had 12 windows but I said I would come and quote, turns out they had 17 windows and doors! Good job I went to quote, they were happy with price ?Did the job there and then and a day later she paid double the invoice! I guess it was for next clean? Did 2 quotes during leaflet dropping i.e. within 20 mins call and txt. Quoted  both, 1 accepted other 'my old windy only charged £X and you want £4 more!!!! ? so 1 new custy, did job next day and paid with in a couple of hrs. More leaflets on Friday and 3 quotes as people outside their houses, 1 I was too expensive, 1 accepted but later cancelled as husband will do them long story ?, third accepted quote. 

So today I went out to canvas houses I leafletted on Monday. Not many people in but quoted 2, both accepted. 

I am quite pleased with that for first week. So now have 6 customers - hopefully regular. Only cleaned 3 so far, 3 booked Monday.

I know everyone says leaflets don't work and I would agree that they don't generate a huge amount of customers. They are easy to do though. It does appear that if you get to speak to people (at a distance) then they mainly convert to customers. 

Next week I think we will canvas the houses we leafletted last week and see if we can convert more. Maybe try just cold calling without leafletting first. 

Anyone know any good ways to track which houses you have spoken to to try and maximise number of customers in an area, so you can try and speak to all people?

I have really enjoyed the houses I have cleaned so far. Quite satisfying to see the nice clean frames and glass. Although 1 of the cleans was on old flaky painted windows, I did pre warn custy of the state of them and was very careful with flocked brush to be as gentle on frames as possible but it didi take a fair bit of rinsing to get the flaked paint off the glass! I am using a fair bit of water but I expected that on first cleans, plus lack of experience and making 100% sure I did a good job.

Looking forward to next week.

Once again thanks everyone. 

 
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