[Crystal-clear]

Why aren't you targeting commercial?
Picked up a smalish one the other day (recently became VAT reg) so Right now it's Something that really gives me a kick.
As you can be competitive with someone not VAT registered but + VAT to the invoice naturally commercial clients won't be bothered.(all of mine didn't care when I told them vat will be added to the invoice)

Met a chap the other day Who has about 7 vans on the road fully working he said two of them are on domestic And he's not that interested in those 2 but the other 5 vans amazingly are full-time on Commercial... He was really humble down-to-earth and it wasn't bragging but he did want to put it in perspective for me and mentioned his commercial vans are well into a 4 figure sum per day plus VAT!!

So my question is And anyone feel free to comment as well . Like most window cleaning businesses start off domestically they tend to go hardcore into commercial And that's because there's much more profit in it.

The obvious drawback I can see is perhaps waiting around for payments But I've not actually ever had a problem with a commercial job.. But then I don't do too many at all.
 
 Obviously keeping the domestic business solid and growing is totally fine.

But given the potential profits involved. Particularly for a VAT registered business supporting plenty of staff and a good marketing budget I really don't see why  Commercial shouldn't be a priority its much more profitable.

[Lee Pryor]

Now ask me the real question. Which goes something like this.

Dear Lee I recently became vat registered and am struggling to get my head round how to keep my mostly residential business profitable. Currently the only way I can see this is to go commercial from this point. As someone with a large and entirely residential business how do/did you deal with this issue?

[Crystal-clear]

Now ask me the real question. Which goes something like this.

Dear Lee I recently became vat registered and am struggling to get my head round how to keep my mostly residential business profitable. Currently the only way I can see this is to go commercial from this point. As someone with a large and entirely residential business how do/did you deal with this issue?

Heh perhaps a good question Well It certainly does make it a bit less profitable!.
However, I'm doing a good amount of the workload myself Naturally that helps with the expenses in turn the technically dead weight Employee otherwise known as VAT 

I certainly believe what you do works for you Otherwise you wouldn't do it!
I was just curious as to why you never really spoke much about commercial from my experience small scale It's more profitable then domestic.

So there must be a reason you don't push for it we may just learn something from you again !
Cheers.

[Lee Pryor]

My business is residential that was my goal and still is. Vat is just part of the cost of doing business. We offset that with volume and just being bigger. Commercial is a different ball game and involves way more admin and late paying from customers. I'm not interested in it. At a small scale it's easy to do both. I feel at size you choose one or the other. Vat never actually becomes 20% after claim backs and if your overall business model works then it's really not a problem.

Single operators are used to making a very big margin. When you transition to running an actual business in this game or any other the margin falls fast. This is totally normal. We make a solid 20% when not re investing to grow.

[Crystal-clear]

Cheers appreciate that.
Just a guess, but I'm assuming at some point over the last 10 + years. You have ducked and dived a bit into commercial Probably some decently sized ones as well?
And given some of the reasons above you didn't fancy it long term.
I did say previously one of the drawbacks I can imagine is their payment terms. That said I do agree payment terms With every commercial before we go ahead but that's on a small scale
I would probably feel the Wrath of quarterly payouts Or even the dreaded unpaid large invoices if a bigger scale.
End of the day having a £20 non payer wouldn't be a problem but A £600 commercial would be!

[Lee Pryor]

No just residential. We do about 5 commercials. Not big. Just not interested in it