[colley614]

Hi Guys,

Haven't been on for a while as I changed over to sky and they have messed my phoneline up. I'm in a library now and need a question answered and know you guys would hold the answer in a way, shape or form.

What it is in a nutshell is that I have built up a steady round now but am finding it hard to expand anymore. I have a good round of shops in my local area and would like to expand the round a bit but am just about earning enough to live on paying bills and such, so I went out and canvassed the whole area over last week and found it will take a lot longer to build my shops up than I thought. I have just spoken to a local cleaning company who were really impressed will my services and attitude towards the trade and am looking to pick up work from them in the next few weeks. But they really have it in their minds that they want somebody who is waterfed and I just can't afford to invest the wage Into expanding if it doesn't pay off.

So My question basically is what would you recommend I do if I borrowed money and invested. Would it be to buy a round of shops ( if so where is the best place to find some for sale) or invest in waterfed and go for subbing?

[a-r window cleanin]

I was in the same type of situation.
I bought a cheap(ish) waterfed pole system and within a few weeks was so much quicker I had a spare week out of every 6 so I canvassed everyday I had free and now my round has increased by about 30% and it still only takes me as long as it used to do.

[colley614]

Cool, I've made a meeting tonight with my businees advisor and I want to come to some sort of decission tonight about my future.

I was doing a lot of residential work a few months ago but found I was getting undercut a lot by people. For example I did a half hour house and charged £8.00 (price the old window cleaner charged) but then when I went back they had given the job to a guy that charged £3.50)

[jeff1]

Then stick with it Dude, at those prices they won't be in business long, you can't make a living.

once they realise this they will go back on the dole and you can push your prices up.

[colley614]

I have had a few weeks away from my houses ( people on their holidays and stuff) and my time advertising has quadrupled in turn my commercial work has doubled and I was thinking of going purely commercial as were I am everyone wants to be a window cleaner but there is only a few commercial and/or water fed companies around and most stick to regional work and there are non that stay local so maybe i could crack that bit of the market?

[jeff1]

market your Local trading estates, and if you go water fed you will fly through them, but be advised don't dump your domestic market, there more loyal than any business.

[colley614]

Thanks Jeff, I have kept my loyal residential customers but am thinning the people I have to go back to 2-3 times to collect. Over all its working but I just need to bump my income a little.

I hate asking questions on here because I feel the answers are so obvious but when its my livelihood at stake I feel its best just to get opinions.

[jeff1]

Never be affraid to ask questions, I learnt more and more by doing just that the forums like  this beat any business advisers.

[a-r window cleanin]

I only have 2 commercial accounts I feel I can earn a very decent daily rate with domestic only.
I average 16 houses a day and have a min charge of £10 no matter what.
Yes I loose customers to cheaper wc's but they always end up calling me when they have gone in when summer is over.

[macmac]

If you go for a wfp system & are a bit short of cash you could think about getting a credit card with a 0% introduction rate for 12 months, even transfere the balance after 11 months to another 0% card if not paid up by that time.
This is what i did when i needed to spend 900 quid on a pole, i just pay 100 per month with no interest.


tony

[Rogue Trader]

Cool, I've made a meeting tonight with my businees advisor and I want to come to some sort of decission tonight about my future.

I was doing a lot of residential work a few months ago but found I was getting undercut a lot by people. For example I did a half hour house and charged £8.00 (price the old window cleaner charged) but then when I went back they had given the job to a guy that charged £3.50)

where are you in the uk?

[colley614]

On the Wirral Matey

[Ian_Giles]

Buying a round of shops isn't likely to happen, or if you should be able to find such a thing local to yourself you are going to be damn lucky!
Shops are not the be all and end all, and they are notoriously difficult to get, almost all shops will have a window cleaner, they are the most difficult of accounts get.

I know, most of my work is commercial and a great deal of it is shops, it's taken me the best part of 25 years to get there too.
If I put all the work together it would amount to about 25 hours a week.

If you are lucky enough to happen upon someone who has a round of commercial work to sell, be prepared to pay top dollar for it.

There is no reason on earth why you can't make top money doing residential work, some of my best accounts are residential.

Ignore the £3.50 brigade, they come, they go, you mentioned doing an £8.00 house in half an hour (and losing it to a £3.50 merchant) you didn't say how large the house was, so I may be doing you a disservice, but for me at least an £8.00 house would be a very small semi or a smallish bungalow (10 windows) and would take less than 10 minutes to actually clean (WFP)

you say you are in the Wirral, presumably things will be much tighter there than in many other parts of the country, but try to aim at getting as close to a £1.00 a window as you can get.

If you are going to invest in WFP, and if a lot of your work is commercial, a little back pack isn't going to be sufficient, but it would be a cheap way of introducing yourself to WFP and when needs must you could upgrade to either a trailer mount or van mount system, and a back pack will always be useful.

Price work as if you are doing it trad, and with WFP and you will do well, you'll cover your costs comfortably, start pricing cheaper just because you are faster and all you'll do is either stand still or earn less...WFP IS MORE EXPENSIVE TO INVEST IN AND TO MAINTAIN. Don't fall into the trap of dropping your prices just because you are cheaper!!!!

Best of luck in expanding your business

Ian

[SherwoodCleaningSe]

Go for wfp if you can guarantee that you'll be able to sub for some one else.  Canvas the estates that you end up working on making sure that you don't steal any of the cleaning company's  customers.  And canvas up some domestic that you couldn't do with trad methods, like town houses and difficult to reach windows.

If you can be one of the first wfp in the area you are in  a very good position to be in.

Simon.

[NWH]

I love WFP to bits trust me,but in my opinion it`s no quicker on shops unless your talking the big stuff.On your general shops it`s quicker to get the blade and pointer out.