[Jay Le Huray]

last week I picked up several new jobs and one of them was a really nice old couple, after doing their windows they invited us in for a cup of tea, whilst chatting in the kitchen she told me her old window cleaner had packed in due to an operation on his knee and can no longer climb ladders.

she then passed me one of his cards with his phone number on so out of courtesy I call him to tell him i'm taking the couple on.

we then end up chatting on the phone for about 30 mins and he tells me that he now only does bungalows so would I be interested in covering his remaining houses, I ask him how much he wants to sell them for and he replies that I can have them for nothing as they would only go to waste.

today we met up and he drives me around his local area (very compact) and highlights 97 house for me to call on, he then says this will get you started and there are loads more if you want them
 
it goes without saying that I will be following up his leads however there is one slight dilemma..... he has been doing them for 20 years as a trad cleaner and I only do wfp so converting them over to wfp maybe a problem, however the first couple were fine with it so who knows

I did say to him that once ive seen what I gain from it I will pay him a fair price but he's insistent that I can have them all free of charge

[Jakey boy]

That's brilliant Mate !

Explain the wfp system and ask all the customers for feedback after you've done it, then rectify any complaints asap, should be fine!

Anyway do some trad you lazy git 

[duncan h]

YOU JAMMY 24307509509587320452039785039750432572039570

[dazmond]

thats very good of him.its a start for you mate.

never look a gift horse in the mouth!


..........BUT be prepared for some LOW PRICES if he s an old geezer thats been doing them for years trad.dont be afraid to double the prices if their very low.

i remember picking up a load of houses off an old guy that was ill over 20 years ago now.i aggressively targeted the area as i needed the work.he was charging 70p for some properties(bungalows).i just said itll be £1-50!

they agreed they were too low and as he was a miserable bugger were delighted to have a young lad clean them(i was 21 at the time).

i built up a fair size round in this area over the next 10 years then sold it on.

good luck!

[Don Kee]

Just canvass the area's fresh mate, making sure to definitley speak to the ones you know he used to do (bare in mind other windies will have picked some up...you did!)

Depending on how much you pick up, chuck him a drink through his letter box with a note saying thanks!

[Mick Kent]

This has happened to me a few times. In fact just last month i got given just over 50 customers by a young lad who has moved onto other things.
Some window cleaners just want there customers looked after by a reliable cleaner.

[robbo333]

If you get a reasonable amount of work from him then make sure you bung him some money. It's a Karma thing! 

[chris turner]

This has happened to me a few times. In fact just last month i got given just over 50 customers by a young lad who has moved onto other things.
Some window cleaners just want there customers looked after by a reliable cleaner.

This^^^^
I'm currently buying a round, 145 customers, roughly £2800 of work, I'm paying £2800 for it so only 1x  the value.
The guys not interested in making a mint from the work, just wanted someone like minded to look after his customers.

[Jay Le Huray]

my other problem being ....... how much more can I really take on as im already doing mon-fri plus the occasional satutday

[deeege]

I got started a similar way. Old guy was finishing up and wanted someone to look after his 60 odd customers. Happily gave him £500 as a thank you after the first clean. We still clean them to this day.

[Jay Le Huray]

I got started a similar way. Old guy was finishing up and wanted someone to look after his 60 odd customers. Happily gave him £500 as a thank you after the first clean. We still clean them to this day.

misunderstanding here..... ive not just started in this biz.... being doing for more years than I care to remember

[Joey Eastwood]

This has happened to me a few times. In fact just last month i got given just over 50 customers by a young lad who has moved onto other things.
Some window cleaners just want there customers looked after by a reliable cleaner.

This^^^^
I'm currently buying a round, 145 customers, roughly £2800 of work, I'm paying £2800 for it so only 1x  the value.
The guys not interested in making a mint from the work, just wanted someone like minded to look after his customers.

average of £20 a house?? and if your already working full time how can you squeeze in an extra 3g of work?? BS

[deeege]

I got started a similar way. Old guy was finishing up and wanted someone to look after his 60 odd customers. Happily gave him £500 as a thank you after the first clean. We still clean them to this day.

misunderstanding here..... ive not just started in this biz.... being doing for more years than I care to remember

Good for you. Out of interest if you are well established how will you fit in an extra 90 customers? I know I couldn't without extra staff or change of frequency.

[Joey Eastwood]

I got started a similar way. Old guy was finishing up and wanted someone to look after his 60 odd customers. Happily gave him £500 as a thank you after the first clean. We still clean them to this day.

misunderstanding here..... ive not just started in this biz.... being doing for more years than I care to remember

Good for you. Out of interest if you are well established how will you fit in an extra 90 customers? I know I couldn't without extra staff or change of frequency.

yeah he said earlier he will probably struggle to fit them all in lol

[deeege]

It's time to employ or dump his dross then.

[Joey Eastwood]

im still waiting for the reply about the 2800 work for 2800 lol

[chris turner]

This has happened to me a few times. In fact just last month i got given just over 50 customers by a young lad who has moved onto other things.
Some window cleaners just want there customers looked after by a reliable cleaner.

This^^^^
I'm currently buying a round, 145 customers, roughly £2800 of work, I'm paying £2800 for it so only 1x  the value.
The guys not interested in making a mint from the work, just wanted someone like minded to look after his customers.

average of £20 a house?? and if your already working full time how can you squeeze in an extra 3g of work?? BS

Replacing work. I do 2 days a week doing build cleans on sites, 3 days a week residential customers. Once iv bought this work it will be 5 days a week residential.
Other option was to continue the build cleans as well and employee someone, but sick of the sight of building sites and being up to my knees in mud.

[chris turner]

Il be advertising the builders cleans work soon. It's not mine so I can't sell it. It's all subcontract price work for another company that covers all the cleaning and mastic on sites.
They"ll be gutted I'm leaving, covered all there window cleaning for the last 2 years. I'm hoping to find someone on here to "takeover" the work within the next few weeks just to soften the blow for them.

[Jay Le Huray]

This has happened to me a few times. In fact just last month i got given just over 50 customers by a young lad who has moved onto other things.
Some window cleaners just want there customers looked after by a reliable cleaner.

This^^^^
I'm currently buying a round, 145 customers, roughly £2800 of work, I'm paying £2800 for it so only 1x  the value.
The guys not interested in making a mint from the work, just wanted someone like minded to look after his customers.

average of £20 a house?? and if your already working full time how can you squeeze in an extra 3g of work?? BS

that's my point I really don't think im able to take on 9o plus more customers without getting another van on the road
im not sure I wanna go down that route

it goes without saying that some may have already found another cleaner, others may not want to change over to wfp and im sure some will not accept my prices, so that would wittle them down some what

[Walter Mitty]

This has happened to me a few times. In fact just last month i got given just over 50 customers by a young lad who has moved onto other things.
Some window cleaners just want there customers looked after by a reliable cleaner.

This^^^^
I'm currently buying a round, 145 customers, roughly £2800 of work, I'm paying £2800 for it so only 1x  the value.
The guys not interested in making a mint from the work, just wanted someone like minded to look after his customers.

average of £20 a house?? and if your already working full time how can you squeeze in an extra 3g of work?? BS

that's my point I really don't think im able to take on 9o plus more customers without getting another van on the road
im not sure I wanna go down that route

it goes without saying that some may have already found another cleaner, others may not want to change over to wfp and im sure some will not accept my prices, so that would wittle them down some what

It sounds like you are already expecting some to drop out.  IME the intial dropout rate from the other guy's former customers will be rather higher than you would normally expect.  Some people may have been thinking about stopping the service for a while and the change of cleaner will trigger them acting on those thoughts.  The switch to WFP will cause some dropout too.  Additionally, it's possible that he may have been more tolerant than you of messers/bad access etc. so you may be turfing some out yourself.  This could take up to four or five cleans to fully settle down.  That's been my experience anyway.