[Pod]

Hi Folks,
Any on here from east of Ireland ?
Window cleaning culture is so much different that Uk in particularly the domestic set up ...certainly no 'patches' in Ireland & it so ready for someone to make good on the domestic.....why do so many try & get away from it  Is a pride...everyone wants to do commercial it seems (even in Uk) sometimes  I feel it's viewed as kind of not made it if still 'only' doing domestic ? What's your views guys ??

[SeanK]

Welcome to the forum Pod, cant say Iv experienced that as there are plenty in my area looking to do both, its all
about money at the end of the day so maybe that's the problem not enough for domestic in your area.

[Walter Mitty]

Generally, though not always, residential can require a greater degree of micro-management - especialy until you build it up and feel more comfortable declining certain types of work.

[Pod]

Generally, though not always, residential can require a greater degree of micro-management - especialy until you build it up and feel more comfortable declining certain types of work.

Thanks Seank.....
hi walter,yes i agree but i feel also sometimes residential work will really show if you are good or not! you dont tend to get away with it like sometimes on commercial.....but with residential its so much less stress i feel,as you very rare lose the 'contract' and  can feel more in control of business.Yes commercial work can be very profitable, however dont you feel you can always be only 1 clean away from the 'sorry but...' chat.

Which is best 40% commercial/60% domestic or 80/20%  ??

[Johnny B]

I am in the South West of Ireland, County Kerry to be precise. I moved here from the UK in July 2011 and started up again from scratch, and almost immediately noticed the difference in the attitude towards window cleaning.

My aim was to build up a solely residential run, which is what I did in England (no shops except the odd village post office). I had the impression that most window cleaners in my new locality were more interested in shops rather than residential. That suited me perfectly as I believed there would be little if any competition for residentials.

As it turned out initially, there were one or two other residential window cleaners, but we weren't really competing, as there are enough houses to keep several of us going. One of them, who I used to see regularly, has since packed up and gone back to England, and I very rarely see any other guys doing residential now.

My major concern was actually the attitude of residential customers towards window cleaning. At the beginning, most only wanted a one-off or very infrequent clean, leading me to conclude that this is why Irish window cleaners look for shops rather than houses. I have however, persisted in my quest to build up a residential run. Since my inauspicious start in the summer of 2011, I have built my run up to some 450 residential customers of varying frequencies according to their individual requirements, but when  added together earn me a reasonable living. I have some weekly shops and businesses too (around a dozen) which I got through recommendations.

Best wishes to the OP, and welcome to the forum.

John

[Smurf]

I am in the South West of Ireland, County Kerry to be precise. I moved here from the UK in July 2011 and started up again from scratch, and almost immediately noticed the difference in the attitude towards window cleaning.

My aim was to build up a solely residential run, which is what I did in England (no shops except the odd village post office). I had the impression that most window cleaners in my new locality were more interested in shops rather than residential. That suited me perfectly as I believed there would be little if any competition for residentials.

As it turned out initially, there were one or two other residential window cleaners, but we weren't really competing, as there are enough houses to keep several of us going. One of them, who I used to see regularly, has since packed up and gone back to England, and I very rarely see any other guys doing residential now.

My major concern was actually the attitude of residential customers towards window cleaning. At the beginning, most only wanted a one-off or very infrequent clean, leading me to conclude that this is why Irish window cleaners look for shops rather than houses. I have however, persisted in my quest to build up a residential run. Since my inauspicious start in the summer of 2011, I have built my run up to some 450 residential customers of varying frequencies according to their individual requirements, but when  added together earn me a reasonable living. I have some weekly shops and businesses too (around a dozen) which I got through recommendations.

Best wishes to the OP, and welcome to the forum.

John

Nice post