Selling work advice

I have 2 days id like to sell.

A mate is going f/t shift work 4on 4 off in his job, hes a total grafter and wants to fill 2 days of his 4off with work.

He lives in a little village about 12 miles from me, and 2 miles from the furthest place i work, i have 2 days work there 50 customer yielding £750 (avg £15 per job) 6weekly, 80% bank transfer and 20% cash, everybody pays within 7/10 days (most within 2/3 days), the furthest 2 jobs apart are 3miles. All work is WFP

Ive built up these 2 days over the last 2.5yrs, the location is quite a big town but competatively priced window cleaning as there are a few windys in the area.

He is my best mate and i want to help him get a foot on the ladder (no pun intended), i know he cant afford to buy the 2 days outright, so im thinking of letting him have the 2 days, a back pack, an slx18, and to supply him with water, and to pay me monthly @ £150 a month for XX amount of months.

I know ive only been going 2.5yrs but the 2 days im considering 'selling' i can easily afford to let go as im picking up a tremendous amount of work on my own doorstep, and tbf its 2 days i could fill by splitting 2 of my local heavily loaded days down and topping up with more local work.

i think he would do the work in 3x 4/5hr days with a backpack or 2x 5hr days with a 400/500ltr system.

There is scope for him to pick up further work in the area, and his village, so he should be able to grow nicely avging £15 per job.

My questions

How much is it worth?

Do i have to run the £150pcm through my books? 

Should i take a monthly cut for XX amount of months or should i not? (i trust him implicitaly)

How do i approach the 50 customers about 'selling them on'? 

It’s worth £541 per month , so 4-6 times this, so £2k-£3K approximately for the work alone. 

Don’t tell your customers that your “selling “ them on. 
Tell them that your really busy, and don’t want to let them down, so your friend is taking over. Or some other story like that.

 
 If he does the work with you a couple of time first, that will help too, as they will be familiar with him already. 
 

Does this sound daft?

After posting this last night and going to sleep i had a dream, i got a little van which im planning on doing anyway for ADD ONS & adding roof cleaning.

In that dream i just took him on as casual labour but let him have the van for them 2 days to cover that work and put him on the add ons, and paid him a day rate.

Does that sound more sensible than selling?

HWCS said:

Does that sound more sensible than selling?

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You will be responsible if he doesn't show up or does a bad job.

scottish cleaning service said:

You will be responsible if he doesn't show up or does a bad job.

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Yeah i know that but im gonne be responsible for anybody that i employ and if im gonna grow as im planning thats always going to be a risk who ever i get working under my name.

I have seen work selling for silly money just recently, 10x+! so really it's up to you to decide what you'd be happy taking, 3-5x is the more usual going rate.

As your friend will be paying in instalments I would continue running the work yourself, scheduling invoicing etc, and send him to do it for you, either with his own kit or supplying the van. Then you take your cut and pay him the rest. Once its repaid and the customers are familiar and happy with him he can start invoicing them himself. That way he should get maximum retention, and you get your money for it without risking losing the work if he finds its too much to manage ontop of his shifts or whatever.

HWCS said:

Yeah i know that but im gonne be responsible for anybody that i employ and if im gonna grow as im planning thats always going to be a risk who ever i get working under my name.

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Why does everyone need to grow? You can make a better stronger business by focusing on better equipment to make you more efficient and then be happy when you have enough. I did a conny & gutter clear for £220 and it took 4hrs. The woman was over the moon and it didn't matter that it took 4hrs because I had all the equipment in place. That's the path I'm going down, the only thing I used was her electricity and now I'm buying a power station to take with me so I don't need to use the customer's main supply. Today I'm going to see my sign writing guy to get my van re-signed with "reach & wash" logos and a complete revamp like conservatory cleaning on it and dropping the solar panel cleaning where I only received one job. Every year I notice new things happening like gutter clearing expanding and solar panel cleaning is dead. I believe no one bothers about solar panel cleaning because they can't really see them and don't believe they are getting value for money. 

scottish cleaning service said:

Why does everyone need to grow? You can make a better stronger business by focusing on better equipment to make you more efficient and then be happy when you have enough. I did a conny & gutter clear for £220 and it took 4hrs. The woman was over the moon and it didn't matter that it took 4hrs because I had all the equipment in place. That's the path I'm going down, the only thing I used was her electricity and now I'm buying a power station to take with me so I don't need to use the customer's main supply. Today I'm going to see my sign writing guy to get my van re-signed with "reach & wash" logos and a complete revamp like conservatory cleaning on it and dropping the solar panel cleaning where I only received one job. Every year I notice new things happening like gutter clearing expanding and solar panel cleaning is dead. I believe no one bothers about solar panel cleaning because they can't really see them and don't believe they are getting value for money. 

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I do have the right equipment to do all my jobs, i want to grow because i wqnt to retire at 60 (now 46) i wqnt to slow down at 55 and have 2/3 people running the vans, and at 60 id like to have a business thats reputable enough and profitable enough to sell for a nice sum, to give me a good balance that will just be topped up by pensions, and it seems daft to stay just myself and the lad that works for me when im still picking up regular customers and im at the point where we are losing ADD ONS because we cant book them in for atleast 10 weeks

HWCS said:

I do have the right equipment to do all my jobs, i want to grow because i wqnt to retire at 60 (now 46) i wqnt to slow down at 55 and have 2/3 people running the vans, and at 60 id like to have a business thats reputable enough and profitable enough to sell for a nice sum, to give me a good balance that will just be topped up by pensions, and it seems daft to stay just myself and the lad that works for me when im still picking up regular customers and im at the point where we are losing ADD ONS because we cant book them in for atleast 10 weeks

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The choice  is yours sell some off or employ both will work , you know my situation , we are booking work now as add ons for November / December some are happy to wait others cancel but we can only do what we can do I now have 4 guys that Ime subcontracting some work to as well as 5 full time workers and still cannot get on top of the volume of work . I only employ people I know most are ex emergency services ones that I have worked with for years , if you get the  right ones it will work well but only time will tell I took all my guys on a 3 month trial during that time they or I could say this isn’t going to work and they could walk away , but they have all fitted in very well and we have a good working relationship it’s not a boss and employee ,but rather a group of friends working for one common goal , it’s very rare that I have to say you will do xyz , I did go through quite a few youngsters between 18-25 couldn’t get out of bed in the mornings , always in there phones , or excuses why they couldn’t or haddent done something , but since changing the age and type of persons I employ haven’t had any issues in the last 7-8 years . 

HWCS said:

Does this sound daft?

After posting this last night and going to sleep i had a dream, i got a little van which im planning on doing anyway for ADD ONS & adding roof cleaning.

In that dream i just took him on as casual labour but let him have the van for them 2 days to cover that work and put him on the add ons, and paid him a day rate.

Does that sound more sensible than selling?

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If you are paying for employers liability insurance, van insurance, fuel, water, kit repairs and replenishments then from my personal (recent) experience it doesn’t work. I was around £450 a month down before the money was earnt - that was with a guy on 25hours a week. If he’s covering all the business ‘expenses’ and repairs then yes,  crack on and take your cut - even if he is a good mate he will soon see the money in it and resent your cut though (o would anyway!!). It’s a tough one. For some it works, for me - I’d rather stay on my own and keep refining my work.