[recs]

I have so much domestic work that i am struggling to get round. currently doing monthly cleans every 2 months plus. need some advice a to what to do ?
shall i sell some off ?
shall i take on staff ?
I am starting to turn work down , which I hate doing !
all my prices are good and have built up a good reputation in relatively short space of time.
Anyone been in the same position ?? what did you do / how did it go ??
I am essex based and considering selling part of my round??

[gibbouk]

a good cull of customers is always needed. look at you  round. do you have some that are too cheap, too far away. to big a pain to do. bad payers. if so replace them with better ones. careful about selling off customers close to your area of work. you are basicly telling the person who buys them how much you charge and giving them a foot in the door. if you drop them they are going to get picked up by someone else so you might as well earn some extra by selling them

[Duke]

as suggested...you may need to grow....how about taking on a lad or lass to train up ? You can even hire them the equipment if necessary (that's what we do for new starters) until they get on their feet...just make them sign a disclaimer to state that they wont canvass your turf or try to go it alone taking your established customers.....

[karlosdaze]

Up the price. The ones you loose will cover the costs of the others. Some of them might even want to stretch to 3 months - ask 'em! Then you have free time & more money.
If you are not using GG3/GG4, this will keep the windows cleaner for longer, put the price up for this service.

[windows_chepstow]

Jammy Git,

I agree with Karlos:

    Have a cull.

    Put your prices up.

    Do less work for more money.

Sounds like a good business plan to me.

[wrighty]

I will second that.

taking on staff can be a nightmare so be careful

Craig

[WavieDavie]

It's one of those "swings and roundabouts" situations, isn't it?

There's me and two lads, but we don't get through the work in a third of the time that one man would do it in. Our working time per job is probably a third, but our travelling time between jobs is still the same as one man would do it in, but multiplied by three of course.

I look on having staff as my insurance policy:- if I was working as a one-man band, I wouldn't be earning if I was off ill or away on holiday. It's easier, and cheaper, to have the lads work on a bit longer if we're catching up after bad weather, or covering for someone who's off.

Sorry for my ramblings recs,
Think it through - you'll make a profit out of anyone who's working for you, or you wouldn't be employing them, so it's worthwhile having an extra pair of hands for the work available.

For instance:-
Your working rate is say £20 per hour. The rate you pay employees is say £7. You now work less hours until you bring in more business, but for every hour you now work with an employee, you make £33 instead of £20. Is there a problem here?

What's the point in selling off jobs that you've worked hard to get - you'll be lucky to get two months' turnover, and less than that on residential

[wrighty]

Davie,

You are right but finding staff that are good is the problem.

Your reputation is at stake here so thy need to be right.

Do you agree?

Craig

[WavieDavie]

Yes, you're not wrong on that one Craig.

There's just no telling what you'll get. I don't follow up references before taking someone on - you can tell what they'll be like as soon as you put the tools in their hand. Anyone else had a new bloke - who's told you just how marvellous he is -  get a nosebleed on the third rung up?

I can go for ages with the same two guys, then one man has to leave for whatever reason. You can get someone else quite quickly and he settles in to your way of working - OR - the other guy gets unsettled and also wants to leave, you go through L O A D S of new folk until you get a decent team back together again. Sometimes you're better off with folk who gel, rather than two ace window cleaners, because you can then bring them into your way of working rather than getting rid of established window cleaner's bad habits.

Someone mentioned that they only take on workers, not window cleaners - I might do that the next time I need someone new.

[karlosdaze]

I think it was Glyn, old farm hands I seem to remember.

[gaza]

i took someone on ,he earned him self a good wage ,drank all weekend couldnt get up monday morning,so now hes staying in bed all day and not drinking cus hes no job.im looking to take someone on part time whose a family man so he can claim family working tax as well,till he proves himself,ive built up a working relationship with him ,found a little more work,then take him on full time.my idea is to canvass 4 more work let him keep what he earns on 1st clean,pays me 40% of what he earns next clean and so on
at least you dont lose money messing about with 1st cleaning,good eh?

[Central]

Take on someone and carry on biulding the round, then take on some one else etc, that way you make more money.  Never cull a round, it makes no business sense whatsover

[Craig Wilson]

What I do is take on someone who's never cleaned windows before & train them up on my way of cleaning the windows. Whilst they are training I pay a fiver an hour (It's amazing how quickly they learn  )
Afterwards I give them their own round, ask them to do at the very least, 20 houses per day and take a third of their earnings.
I only employ older guys who need to pay the bills. Another thing I do is employ people who are working continental shifts (4 on 4 off) and are looking for additional income on their days off. This helps to clear up any backlog of work due to rain ect.

[billozz]

some help with staff please guys....how long do you think it should take someone who has never cleaned windows...to get to a point where they are making money for you.
we have taken on a guy and we are paying him £5 p/h   but we are not sure how long it should be before he starts to make us money.
should we increase his money at this point, if so by how much