[davids3511]

thats is a good question and before Ian sold his 1st franchise, he was no different to where I am at, thats why I have to different prices to buy the franchise, one is £10k and the other is £5k.

and you are right I do not have a proven track record in franchising, but  do have a proven record in starting up a window cleaning business from scratch.

Yeah, but Ian charged about 3k for his first, not 10.

Ians first franchise was £4500 and my cheapest package is £5000 so I am £500 more expensive, I don't think that is too much of a hurdle to over come.

Sorry, I was going by your ebay listing -

Each package is pricedwithout a vechicle at the following rates

£10,000
£13,000
£18,000

No mention of 5k. Also, does the 5k get a full window cleaning round because that is what your 10k seems to offer?

[William McCafferty]

Hi David I have just copied this from my ebay listing

Each package is priced without a vehicle at the following rates and commission rates



1. £10,000



2. £12,000



3. £15,000



With these packages you pay 20% commission on all work completed.



1. £5000



2. £6000



3. £7500



With these packages you pay 22.5% commission on all work completed.

as you can see there are 2 different prices for the franchisees, both come with the same equipmen, customers, turnover figures etc the only difference is the amount of commission they pay.

I may also in the future after I have my 10th franchisee start to offer a package where they don't pay a penny, instead they are paying commission at the rate of 25%.

and with these packages that they are paying a higher percentage, this will only be for the first 5 years after that the rate will drop to the rate that the franchisees who paid the full £10k package price.

I am still chrewing this over in my head, I have mentioned this paln to various people and all have given both positive and negatives comments, but that is still a long away

[William McCafferty]

I know that the ebay listing as well as the others I have are not written in the correct use of the english language, but I am having someone write a english correct version, he is also re writing all my sales leaflets, web sites, etc

he used to work in the newspaper industry for over 20 years

[davids3511]

How does it work with 150 basic and minimum wage? I would be interested in doing htis but wary of hiring some chancer.

How many hours do they have to work for the 150? For every hour they work are you going to be sat in the car? If so that's almost a 2nd full time job? Not picking at you, just trying to understand what you are planning as I am in the same situation.

[William McCafferty]

I know you are not picking on me, by now they would be calling me names I am slightly different to you in that I am soon to have a operation on my foot which will mean I cannot clean windows for at least 6 months maybe more, the surgeon doesn't want me to do anything like window cleaning for 1 year.

Although I had the same operation last year on my other leg, and I went back to work after 2 weeks, I know that I will not be able to do the same this time, but if I had no choise then you never know.

So because of this, I have been planning and making my business work with this in mind.

I have compacted my round into the minimum amount of days that it can be clean in, I have taken on staff and started a new cleaner who also drops leaflets when he is not cleaning.

I now have got to the stage where I have no option but to expand futher, its does not matter whether its a franchisee or more staff.

The main problem when you take this leap forward is the same when you first start off as a sole trader, its the unknown and what is going to happen and will you suceed.

When you put another van on the road, you will take a drop in profits for a while untill you get more customers, this now creates another problem in how to get more customers.

So to address some of these issues, I have built a round that can be cleaned in 4 days, I employ my staff on a salary instead of an hourly rate, so they get the same amount of money whether they work 3 days a week or 5, but I do have a bonus in place on all work done over a certain figure over the month.

So by doing this I have built my business upto 4 days a week, I can then add more work into the next 2 days until they are full, I will then look for another member of staff and they will clean for the 2 days until I build them upto a 4 day week.etc

The other option to employing more staff is franchising, this is an ideal way forward, I can release some work from my round which eases the pressure off my employees and the money from the franchise can be used to gain even more work.

Unlike Ian who make over £5k profit from every franchise package he sells I will not make a penny, instead all of the money they pay me will be used for equipment and marketing to get more business.

This will be the same with all my franchisees.

With regard to the canvassers, these are all young people from the age of 18 to 24 and they come under the wage incentive scheme that the goverment pay for, it is the same as the apprenticeship scheme.

Because they are classed as an apprentice, for the 1st year you can pay the just £100 per week, but I think this is unfair, so i have set mine at £150 plus commssion.

and before the attackers start with using people, this job comes with prospects, I will be able to teach them all about sales, not just door knocking, they will even have the option to be a cleaner and owning their own Free franchise after a few years.

The scheme works well and off course you will get the chancers who want everything but don't want to pay for it, this is why I am spending all day tuesday interviewing, there will also be 1 weeks try out without pay, before I decide on the right person or persons for the job.

I always beleive that you have to pay for quality and if I can get quality staff, then I am willing to pay the maximum to keep them.