[MJH]

I have been leafleting, door knocking, and e-mailing buisnesses for the past two months to bump up my commercial side of buisness with out much success!!
i have picked up a couple of jobs but nothing to write home about, has anyone got any tips on getting commercial because in the main its quite tied up in my area.
Thanks Matt

[Richy L]

ive have spent hours canvassing businesses. I think most of it is tied up, yes, but there is some out there to be had. i think it is best to consentrate on domestic customer though. they are usually far more reliable than comercial customers.

[MJH]

Thanks mate, i do have plenty of domestics but i want to cover these rainy periods as i don't do houses in the rain!

[Richy L]

why not try to get some gutter cleans, fascia cleans. You can do those in the rain. in fact they are easier to do in the rain as the dirt is softened up for you.


richy

[archercleaningserv]

can i ask why you dont clean houses in the rain  

if it rained for 30 days non stop what would you do ? 

it doesnt matter to me if its raining,snowing, sunny , whatever. The only time i call it a day is if there are thunderstorms with terrentail rain & gales.

The fact is i dont enjoy it but have bills & outgoings that i prefer to get sorted & dont enjoy playing catch-up !

If any of my customers ever say "leave them today its raining" then i DO NOT clean them again , simple as that.

It has worked for me over the years.

The only time i ever leave a house because of rain is if they are my bigger houses £60 plus & then i will go and clean the normal day to day houses , but thats just me 

[Ian_Giles]

commercial work is out there, but you have to look hard to find it.
As often or not, when they have found a reliable window cleaner they will stick with him, I've found them far more reliable as customers than domestics.

Keep your eye open in and around your local town, there are always new businesses renting offices and so on, the trick is to catch them early.

Other offices, every now and again you'll see the signs up showing offices for rent, keep your eye on them, eventually someone will move in.

check out the various offices and so on around you and see what state their windows are in, you'll be able to tell which ones are having their windows cleaned, call on those that aren't.
It isn't easy to collect laods of commercial work...takes years really.

Ian

[billozz]

The only time i ever leave a house because of rain is if they are my bigger houses £60 plus & then i will go and clean the normal day to day houses , but thats just me 

can i ask why you leave the bigger houses when its raining and do the smaller ones

[Richy L]

i guess its just to make sure they are happy!

If you lose a £8 customer, its one of those things. lose a £60+ customer, and thats just plain annoying!

[archercleaningserv]

The reason i would leave my £60 plus houses if it was raining is simply because most of them have georgian windows or lead on them.

The one that has lead down a massive tall & long window i do by hand with laddermitts on the ladder to protect frame, as for the rest of the house i waterfed pole it.

When i got the job the lady said she would prefer it done by hand as her previous wc used wfp & wasnt good , so i tried the most difficult window using wfp (ionics pro 5) & it came up a treat , therefore i have gradually done almost all the house wfp.

I am not too bothered what they think about me cleaning in the rain , as i explain i am removing the surface dirt EXACTLY as they would when they put there windscreen wipers on in the car.

[MJH]

i do generally do domestics in the rain just not when its bouncing down i think its a waste of time then! i am looking for more commercial jobs just to give my buisness that extra boost!

[gary evans]

leeksons hit the nail on the head, we did a £450 per month clean & lost it to mangement company that use someone else to do everything.

Not an easy loss to bear

Gary

[KJG]

A lot of commercial work is picked up via office cleaning. Try contacting firms like Premier and Mclellen etc. You will need to be a proper business though.

I think cold calling/door knocking for commercial, bar small stuff - shop fronts etc, is a no no.

Getting a website may help a bit too.

[Helen]

The rules we made for ourselves when we started commercial work, was to market only those that we liked the look of, only take on what we wanted to take on, once we had been invited to quote, make sure that they would meet our terms and not theirs only and if they mess around with payments for the first 3 cleans get rid. We call our lot the "elite" commercialites and we are primarily domestic, which is our bread & butter business and commercial is one of the extra bonuses we have. Be aware too that some companies work on yearly budgets and that they have already signed and sealed contracts by March, doesn't mean to say they won't change, but worth finding out so that you can approach in good time next year!

[D woods]

Commercial is crap, leave it all for me.