[Bushboy]

Hi everybody ,
Been doing windows for 6 months now , can any one tell me what sort of
Fall in turnover you normally see over the winter period with bad weather etc .

I know last year , start of this year was bad . Just wondered what reality was .

Also do you find where the nights come in quicker , we have less time & have put
The work back over the winter & catch up I'm the summer .

Any advice , pearls of  wisdom greatly appreciated .

Cheers

[Daniel12]

Depends on how many days u got

[Stephen Dwyer]

We just carry on as normal.  Occasionally we may get the odd customer who cancels us for the whole winter and tells us to come back in the spring but that kind of thing is very rare.  Other than that we just carry on as best we can in pretty much all weather as normal. 

A few problems do arise such as the water freezing and that kind of thing but it doesn't effect things a much as you would think.  There will be some days you can't work (when there is a lot of snow) but the weather only usually gets that bad for a total of say two weeks or so over the course of the winter. 

[Bushboy]

Cheers stephen   
On your turnover do you find you make ends meat over the winter period ,
Summer has been great , but unsure what to expect ŵith my monthly turnover
Come the winter , do you loose say 25 % over the 4 winter months as a rule of thumb , on say a normal winter , as these recent winters have been pretty unusual &
Not the norm ,
Cheers

[steve rix]

We drop by about 7.5% during Jan and feb, Not really an isue

[Stephen Dwyer]

Cheers stephen   
On your turnover do you find you make ends meat over the winter period ,
Summer has been great , but unsure what to expect ŵith my monthly turnover
Come the winter , do you loose say 25 % over the 4 winter months as a rule of thumb , on say a normal winter , as these recent winters have been pretty unusual &
Not the norm ,
Cheers

Sorry for the late reply.  I would say that we struggle a little bit more in terms of turnover in the winter but probably not by as much as 25%.  There will be 2 or maybe 3 weeks or so where neither me or my business partner can pay ourselves the full amount of wages that we normally receive but for the most part things aren't too bad.  Like you say we have had some nasty winters as of late and I hear that we are due another this year but the only time when it is a really big problem is if there is a lot of snow on the ground and that doesn't normally happen for more than a week or two, maybe three weeks at most each winter. 

[Bushboy]

Cheers Stephen 
That's reassuring , do you use a hot water system in the winter or just make good what you've got ,

[simbo]

last year stayed very cold, hardly broke above freezing for weeks and nearly finished me i do know. Last few winters have been dreadful, just be as prepared as possible and try to put money away to see you through.
paul

[Bushboy]

simbo
How far behind did you get coming out of Xmas last year ,
Cheers

[simbo]

i had nearly 5 weeks hardly touching a window as stayed below freezing most of the time but i also take off nearly 2 weeks at christmas.
paul

[Stephen Dwyer]

Cheers Stephen 
That's reassuring , do you use a hot water system in the winter or just make good what you've got ,

We mainly use a trolley wfp system and sometimes in very cold weather it won't work or there may be a danger of the water freezing in the hose but we have a ladder as well so we use that when/where we have to.  We don't use hot water in the pole but we do often use it in the coldest parts of winter in the bucket just for the traditional work.  Sometimes the water will still freeze on the windows though.  I have heard that mixing screen wash into the water can help although I have yet to try that myself. 

[simbo]

If its that cold just forget it, people will only think you are more stupid than they probably already do just being a "windowcleaner" i mean just work hard when you can and keep at least a month of money as float in bank and then its not so bad!!!

[Bushboy]

Cheers guys