Big D.
Good luck mate. Me and my partner have not long started up a w/c round. Not doing too bad at the moment. Try not to underprice work, we did at the beginning but quickly realised this and upped the prices and still get work. There seems to be a misconception about window cleaners (particularly residential) as people who can live on thin air. We won't do a job for less than a tenner now. Only the other day we priced a job at £28 a large 3 bedroom house with extension and a conservatory lots of glass and the woman said we were too dear and her last window cleaner only charged £12.00, I said what happened to him and she said "Oh! I haven't seen him since May" " have you ever thought that might be why then" I politely said. Poor bloke was probably killing himself trying to make a living and jacked it in. Like you we're offering a professional service always do frames and doors as part of the quote. We've had a few knock backs but we don't let it play on our conscience that we were too dear otherwise you'll be flogging yourself to death doing cheap jobs. Nearly all our customers pay on the day, if they're not in they leave the money out, in the porch, under the frog at the back, under the gas bottle, got one who leaves it under the elephants foot, quite funny really. We only let two cleans go by without payment then we ask for a cheque to be sent or for them to ring and arrange collection and if they don't ring we'll them just before they're next due. We don't do a third clean without payment. We bought our gear first and found Soap National really good and not that expensive, delivery normally next day. We've still got loads of canvassing to do and when we've canvassed our areas we go back and leaflet drop, a bit like painting the forth bridge. Don't give up.
Hope this helps
Steve
