[TopGlass]

Hi all,

Have been reading topics on here for a few months now, and thought it was about time to post something!

I've been working for myself for about 3 or 4 months and everything started great with regular jobs coming in thick and fast. But I've seem to have hit a brick wall.

I've been canvassing hard but it appears I've suddenly got alot of competition, with people saying, oh I've just got a new w/c and we've had one for a while, he's not brilliant but he's regular!!! It's really starting to bug me!!!!

The other annoying thing is that I'll pick up a few in a street, and then canvass hoping to get a few more, only to be  ???told, oh there's some guy who does the whole estate!!!!

So my real question is -  Is there anyone in the Northampton area who wants to get rid of a few jobs, cause if I carry on like this I won't have anything to live on?

Any help is much appreciated!!

Darren

[Walter Pole]

Darren  Don't give up, there is always more work to gain.  It's just Perseverance so long as your expections are not too high in this initial stage.  Sorry I don't have any work in Northampton to sell you but would advise against EVER buying work..it's there to be had.

[Roy Harding]

Hi Darren

Window cleaning is a funny game, you seem to go through patches of picking up a lot of work, then for no reason you seem to get a slack period.

As for the person that says there is a window cleaner that does the whole eastae, he proberly does a few, call on every house as he proberbly dosnt. Also if they do have a window cleaner, leave a card and say if he lets you down give me a call. And never under cut his price, there is only one winner when you start that the customer.

So stay positive as you will come across clusters of houses that dont have a window cleaner

Roy

[Sir Squeaky]

  Sorry I don't have any work in Northampton to sell you but would advise against EVER buying work..it's there to be had.

Well yes and no.

It's great to do it without any outlay, as buying work isn't cheap, but...

I started out canvassing all the time, and although I got quite a lot in the end,
it was one house here, one house there and lots of moving around.

In the end I came to a deal with a local w/c (Ian Giles by the way) and had work off him which I payed for by giving him 50% turnover on it for a year or so.

This way all my work is in bunches, and it didn't hurt to pay for as I still had my own stuff that I took 100% of turnover.
It's long since payed off and I have a good round.

Maybe something to think about?

Roger.

[Paul Coleman]

Hi all,

Have been reading topics on here for a few months now, and thought it was about time to post something!

I've been working for myself for about 3 or 4 months and everything started great with regular jobs coming in thick and fast. But I've seem to have hit a brick wall.

I've been canvassing hard but it appears I've suddenly got alot of competition, with people saying, oh I've just got a new w/c and we've had one for a while, he's not brilliant but he's regular!!! It's really starting to bug me!!!!

The other annoying thing is that I'll pick up a few in a street, and then canvass hoping to get a few more, only to be  ???told, oh there's some guy who does the whole estate!!!!

So my real question is -  Is there anyone in the Northampton area who wants to get rid of a few jobs, cause if I carry on like this I won't have anything to live on?

Any help is much appreciated!!

Darren

Darren.
I would like to re-inforce what the others said.  It took me ages to get going on a roll and then it just snowballed.  As these other window cleaners gradually dropped out (as many do) the work started piling in.  My guess is that you will pick up work in bits and pieces for the next few months.  As Winter rolls in and some of the others go running home to Mummy, you will pick up more work.  When next Spring comes, the let down customers will see the dirty windows in the sunlight, realise that their Summertime cowboy hasn't been for a few months, and start looking elsewhere.  That's where YOU come in.
I started my round off with Winter looming in the worst recession in living memory (for most people anyway) and if I got it together, so can you.  I was fortunate in that I needed little to live on at a push though.  While I was filling the gaps in my round, I went doing the odd driving job for agencies.  I ended up cleaning the agency's windows  

[windows_chepstow]

Hi Darren,

Roy Harding charges quality prices; and his customer base is mostly rural type areas.

As Roy says (sorry if I miss-quote you, Roy, or give the wrong information or impression), the first place a new window cleaner hits is the estates.  However you can charge much more in the small hamlets as they often find it harder to find a window cleaner.

Why not get a local area map, draw a ten mile radius from where you live and target every small villiage or clump of houses within it.

Remember to charge them far more though.

I'd do the above; but I'm far too busy cleaning houses on estates for far less than what Roy charges!

Also, there's not one single estate that I serve that doesn't have at least 2 to 5 other window cleaners working there, although I 'believe' I have a monopoly in one difficult area that other window cleaners have stayed clear of.  But I do earn well there!

It also took me two years (I've only been going two-and-a-half years) to get to a 'comfortable' position where my books are full and I've got the luxury to drop stuff in favour of better paying work.

Welcome to the forum, Darren, don't be frightened to ask questions no matter how trivial you think they may sound.

[TopGlass]

Thanks guys, you have been most helpful. I not going to give up, I guess I just needed to have a moan to some folk who understand more than most!!

I find it frustrating coming from a commercial background and working for several national companies and being able to use wfp, to working for myself, and loving it, but with no choice but to use ladders!! And then with the aggro of hitting a slack period on top, I guess you just boil over eventually!!!

I think my problem is that I do set the goal posts to far, but if you want to reach your dreams you've got to have targets!!!

One of the good things that I've learnt from this forum, is that my pricing seems to be about on target. I was afraid I was to expensive, but most of my jobs are from £10 upwards, which I'm quite pleased about!!!

Darren

[Ian_Giles]

I've little to add to what has been said, except perhaps that it isn't always a bad thing to buy a business.
Roger bought most of my domestic customers off me, for him the advantage was that he knew exactly what he was buying as he had been doing most of them for a couple of years because he had been working or me. So he also knew he wasn't being sold short.
He had a few cr*ppy accounts in there too, but he's dropped those in favour of better ones as and when he needed to.
Another bonus, apart from having your work clustered together in 'clumps' is that you pick up a lot of new work simply by being in these places as you are working.

The dificulty in buying work is that you really do not know how good or bad the accounts are!!

Regards,

Ian

[easycleanwindows]

It has taken me 2 years to get to the stage where i no longer do small residential houses but the larger houses and commercial clients.Ok so i invested 40k when i started and was able to get van,wfp,etc etc but the hard part was getting the customers.I have dropped alot to be able to take on the bigger properties but thats how business goes.I dropped 200 leaflets when i first started and havent put any out since all my work has come from word of mouth.I work in the sun,rain and bad weather no such thing as a seasonal window cleaner.I have now got to the stage where i am getting another wfp and vehicle as i can no longer do all the work myself and i have no ladder work at all.I never sell work i give it to another window cleaner who wfp dosent appeal to and have so far given away 1,300 per month on small houses.I dont go out on a weekend anymore and the only time i do is to do a clean on £100 or over and only taking 1-2 hours of my time.A good apperance also helps ,mnfmw&gc,and 5,000000 of liability.Keep going the work is out there.

[matt]

The dificulty in buying work is that you really do not know how good or bad the accounts are!!

Regards,

Ian

unless you find a window cleaner who will let you work the round once (thus earning half the money)

i have paid for most of my work, i only pay 1X the clean total

i am well happy and now looking at taking a lad on for a day or so a week

[rosskesava]

Hi

I read in a posting above somewhere about canvasing small hamletts and charging more.

In the upper class areas around here that are out the way in leafy lanes of idillic England that is always in that forgotten field somewhere..................

We have leaflets just for them. It is classy printing with proper wording and in colour on 5 sheet card.

Basically it states that we charge more and we are expensive but we do a quality job. The customer knows before they phone that the qoute will not be "cheap" taking into consideration their property.

So far by spending some time on the odd rainy days we have picked up 6 jobs which between them are worth £410 a month.

So I think leafleting classy out the way area's is well worth it even though it's time consuming for a few replies.

Cheers

[Thecleanerservice]

Mr Rosskesava
you have my respect man.

I enquired about your vehicle, you showed me a picture.
Respect because like most on this forum, you share what you know freely and I am surprised at how generous you guys are with your knowledge and experience.  makes me want to be too.

So Topglass keep it up mate, if you've got wfp experience you're doing better than me, and I've been going for 18 years!  But lika all the others before best advice I can give is "When the going gets tough, the tough get going".
Let's face it even if all you earn in a day is £40.00.....the only way is up.
You will survive by simply keeping at it.
Enough motivation..
Leaflet drops to start with..pick your own type of properties, follow up with a visit...keep going back till you find someone in, often the ones you can't get in are the ones that need a windowcleaner..because they haven't got time and want clean windows.  husband and wife both work so they can afford a windowcleaner.
I haven't canvassed for at least 8 - 10 years! Not boasting, just kept going.
Pj

[Marc's on the Glass, LLC]

True that.

Darren, follow ups are very effective...at least, they are in the commercial world for me.

Thing is, even though many folks you talk to might be interested, or really want your service, they won't call you back (usually).  Then you follow up and they say:  Yeah!!! I was hoping to see you again.  Can you still do my windows?  This happens a lot to me.

Also, have something professional and organized to leave with those who will let you, because sometimes they do call you.  Just today a District Manager called me from an initial visit of 2 months ago.  She has 8 facilities in the metro area I work in.  If I bid it right (which I will), then I stand a chance to get the other 15 that another D-Manager operates!

This will happen to you.  And what an adrenaline rush!!!

Follow up... Get signs out there when working... Use good quality leaflets

[simbo]

darren
 where abouts are you in northants. I have not been going long either and am finding the same thing as you,i too was getting a better responce a few months back until the weather got better and every week i think will i be able to earn enough this week "but so far always have"leaflets doing terrible at the moment.
decided yesterday to re leaflet an area that i had done before and had 3 calls within 30 mins, never had one in this area before nice priced work, all three could not remember getting a leaflet before ,but all been looking for a window cleaner for ages
strange but thats the way it goes. I already find that i am picking up around 2 customers a week without doing anything so just think this is going to grow on its own anyway
good luck just keep at it
paul   @"top2Toe"