[deeege]

Towards the end of last year there was a thread on here about targets for the upcoming year which went quite well. I posted the following:-

Keep growing at a steady and sustainable rate. (Done, increase in turnover by ~£12k)

Have a 2nd van on the road by May at the latest. (Done in October)

Re organise my domestic work and manage it better. (Done, dropped £480 month of domestics that were slow payers or not in my target area)

My main 3 targets for 2015 are:-

- Upgrade the Vivaro with a new despatch.
- Get set up on cleaner planner
- drop any dross to stay under Vat threshold and review at company year end (September)

So how has your 2014 been and what targets are you setting for 2015?

[Window Lickers]

Deege, who did your website?

[deeege]

Have a guess.

[Window Lickers]

Cool 

Figured as much. Looks good.

[deeege]

Thanks mate, new pics needed but v happy with it.

[dazmond]

good stuff danny and i wish you all the best for 2015.its good to have goals.

i had a 5 year target thats nearly over now and ive over achieved and very happy with my current position.

cleaner planner is great danny.ive been using it a month now.

ive not really got any targets set for next year yet as ive reached a very comfortable level in my window cleaning business.i have the best poles,hot water,round software,500L tank,van sign written etc.good work ethic.

ill just keep refining my work as usual and never take my work/customers for granted.its took me 5 years to earn an extra £17,000-£18,000 a year on top of my previous earnings but im happy with that.

there comes a point where i have to keep the work/life balance right and i think ive got that at the moment.ill only take more work on if it suits my round/hourly rate but as we all know some customers come and go so its a constant sifting out process over the years

all the best

[Ian101]

Don't think I had any real concrete plans for 2014 so kinda meandered thru the year and what would be would be ... perhaps not very dynamic but foots been pretty hard on gas since starting in 2010 so felt like a rest and just doing the day in day out stuff .... one thing that has happened is my round has shrunk by about 30% (on purpose) so had time to do more profitable conny cleans, gutters and plastics so earnings pretty much same but for less hours worked  

Any customers Ive taken on have been at a much higher price than what my normal pricing - example 3 bed semi detached bungalow normally £12 monthly got one other day at £15 monthly ... took about 20 minutes with it being first clean so should be done in about 10 minutes from now on.

Only took work on that's in my compact areas and have disposed of all the non compact stuff unless its big stuff over £50

What will 2015 bring ?? ... well 2014 took it easier so rearing to go for 2015

Biggest aim is to get thru my entire round in the first 10 to 12 days.

Pressure washing will be my biggest growth area but only interested in the larger houses ... wont be doing any granny's  patios for £70 kinda jobs ... will have min charge of £120 but aiming to do one big job a day at circa £300 to £400. ... more than possible as Ive done it in the past.

Will spend every Saturday canvassing if not pressure washing (no proper canvassing done since May 2012 !!) ... will canvass for windows and pressure washing ... easy to spot dirty drives   .... again windows must be in my compact area if gonna take em on as regular.

Will actively look for commercial work (currently about 15% of my round) that can be done early hours before residential customers.

Buy a Peugeot Bipper / Citroen Nemo (must have air con and elec windows  ) in December next year after a 2 week holiday in late November to Canaries.

Price increase on some jobs (about 20% of current round) and again price new stuff very high - take view of not bothered if it comes my way or not.

Installing a 3000 litre rainwater harvesting system as fed up paying out for water bill when I can get it for free.


So busy year ahead .............. oh and buy an 18 extreme  

[deeege]

Nice one Ian. What's the bipper going to be for? Won't be big enough for main window cleaning and pressure washing van will it?

[Ian101]

Nice one Ian. What's the bipper going to be for? Won't be big enough for main window cleaning and pressure washing van will it?

yup one man window cleaning as only 25cm shorter in back to my current combo but new tank will be a little slimmer so will all fit in even without slimmer tank ... more powerful more torque more mpg more width in back so ideal 1 man van IMHO .... will be a trailer mounted pressure washer with bowser when I swap to bipper as can pull 1000kg with braked trailer which all proper pressure washer trailer sets ups are

[Ian101]

oh and just found out can be chipped from 74 bhp to 94bhp 

[deeege]

What size tank in the bipper/nemo mate?

I've just put a 450 litre in a berlingo (850 payload) and I reckon that's maxed out, and it's the second van aswell.

[richywilts]

im looking forward to 2015 business has been neglected last couple of years, im putting prices up in january hopefully have new van in spring ive not decided what i want to do just yet where to go with the business i do miss trying to grow etc and although i enjoy window cleaning it doesnt give me the buzz im after i dont really want to do it day in day out im going to look into my options over xmas

[dannymack]

Targets ? Who works in targets. I just do what I gotta do earn my wage pay my bills when I get more work cool if you don't them who cares, as long as the wages and all the bills are paid couldn't care less about targets

[Stoots]

My goal is to get out of my part time job and go full time self employed. Aiming for 200 monthly custies by end of year from current 30-40 ish. Ideally a better van. If I can achieve that along with a few personal goals i will be very happy

[Stoots]

Targets ? Who works in targets. I just do what I gotta do earn my wage pay my bills when I get more work cool if you don't them who cares, as long as the wages and all the bills are paid couldn't care less about targets

Thats a mentality that I used to have. Soon get bored of living average. Without challeng or growth life gets boring.

[deeege]

Targets ? Who works in targets. I just do what I gotta do earn my wage pay my bills when I get more work cool if you don't them who cares, as long as the wages and all the bills are paid couldn't care less about targets

Thats a mentality that I used to have. Soon get bored of living average. Without challeng or growth life gets boring.

Completely agree Adam. If you are not growing you are shrinking. I know which I wanna be doing.

[AuRavelling79]

Well, Dan the Man and I went our separate ways on November 1st.

He wanted to work for himself and I wanted to work less days so in September we thrashed out a deal (remember he is my son-in-law) where he has rented 2K of monthly work off of me, bought my Doblo with a pump reel and tank still fitted and gone self employed.

We handed over the work during October.

So he is happy as I charge him a low percentage for the work and he "buys" water off me for a fixed price and he can use my guttervac and generator; my Mrs also advises him on his tax and accounts too.

I pass him all conny and gutter work (which I hate) which tops him up and of course he can canvass where he likes (except we agreed not in "my" area - nor me in "his" - which is relatively small and compact.)

I no longer have to pay for his insurance, employer's liability insurance, van insurance etc, holidays etc and he can earn what he likes!

I have kept the better work (of course) and he has been given a leg up to get started.

So six weeks in and everyone is happy. I'm sure something will go wrong!

[deeege]

That sounds like a decent compromise Gold, especially for DTM.  Is he getting a better deal because he's family?

I'm guessing you are mainly domestic? I have a similar set up which is mainly commercial and worked between two and splitting it is actually impossible. 😁

[marc]

after finding my first franchise towards the end of 2014 and only just getting my gutter vac set up , for 2015 my aim will be 2 more franchises and to develope the add ons such as gutter and cony roofs and drive cleaning and to also refine my other business which I have x2 and to sort the work life balance out as I have a nine month old daughter so I'm wanting to spend a lot more time at home watching her grow up marc

[deeege]

after finding my first franchise towards the end of 2014 and only just getting my gutter vac set up , for 2015 my aim will be 2 more franchises and to develope the add ons such as gutter and cony roofs and drive cleaning and to also refine my other business which I have x2 and to sort the work life balance out as I have a nine month old daughter so I'm wanting to spend a lot more time at home watching her grow up marc

Good luck with that Marc. I have s 5 year old and a newborn so know what you mean. They are the reason we put the hours in, right?!?