[Amazin]

They said they can generate £1000 worth of window cleaning work for me for the price of £1890. Is that a reasonable price to charge? Im also bit confused about £1000 worth of window cleaning, is that £1000 per month or is it based on all the customers aquired+prices per house?

Some feedback would be helpful. Thanks

[Smurf]

Don't ask us best ask them surely?

I don't understand why you need to pay out for someone to find you work when is easy enough to find your own.
There is a big difference to gaining 1000 worth of work from say 100 new customers than say 25 too.
Canvassers as a whole pick up leads that are generally rubbish work anyway that you have no control over but will still be expected to pay out for..

[Peter Rayner]

The Price is very good as far as canvassing companies go. The main point not only for yourself but any one else who's thinking of using a canvassing company. They are not the golden goose or a short cut to forming a good regular business as some people think they are if they were no body would ever buy a window cleaning round. Don't get me wrong the good ones do a great job and are a great way to start or boost your round. The main job of any good canvassing company is to get you the agreed amount of work. Lets say £1000 now the good ones will replace any customers that cancel before the first clean. Now this is were a few people don't get the concept. The canvassing company has done there job 100% if your happy with the prices and you first clean all the £1000  worth of work,Now what happens after that is 100% down to you if halve the customers only want a 2 month service and you thought they were all 1 month or halve of them give you the old ill ring you when I wont them doing again joby That's not down to the canvassing company they done what they said they would do give you £1000 worth of work. Hope this helps any one thinking of using a canvassing company.

[Smudger]

Cmon papa surf, that's a very general dismissive post, have you used canvassers ? You are of course correct, work is easily available, but there are many reasons why a canvasser is used, for me it's time I'm currently too busy with other aspects of the biz to then go out in an evening generating more, it's better to get some one else ( at present ) to spend evenings hitting the streets.

In answer to the op's question - that does sound a good price, but it's all in the t's and c's - we pay 2x for each customers 4 or 8 weekly price ( £10 4 weekly clean, we pay the canvasser £20) however if this customer drops out before having a second clean it is replaced with more work to the same value free of charge.
As with any service provider you need to talk over with the canvasser your requirements and prices, we made it clear  that a minimum charge for a property is £7  on a  4x and £10 on 8x  we charge on average a third more for 8x than 4x cleans, we wanted regular work, no one off cleans - no terraced houses and mainly villages where we currently clean.
He goes to areas we specify  and books in work for the day we want to clean them he provides all the details inc. emails phone numbers.

So far the work has been of the standard I got when canvassing, and the drop out rate again has been small maybe 1 in 15

Hope this helps
Darran

[Smurf]

No I've never needed nor wanted to use and outsider myself .

If /when I want to run a canavasing campain I would probably take on a cavasing team inhouse instead.

[Mike #1]

Not wanting to offend you but you ain't been cleaning windows  5 minutes and you're still a novice .

Don't be so keen to part with nearly 2 grand when you're not sure what is been offered and in 6 months  you might find you don't want to be self employed .

After the first 12 months a lot of business/ people don't succeed  .

[SeanK]

I would advise any newbie to get out there are get the work themselves, its an invaluable way of bringing you out of your
shell learning  how to deal with Joe Public  messers rival shiners and so on.
Plus as has already been said it gives you a chance to see if your cut out for this game before spending a lot of money and
maybe being handed a pile of customers without the experience to manage the work.
Plenty of time for canvassers when your experienced earning well and ready to expand without the time to chase the work yourself.

[Smurf]

I would advise any newbie to get out there are get the work themselves, its an invaluable way of bringing you out of your
shell learning  how to deal with Joe Public  messers rival shiners and so on.
Plus as has already been said it gives you a chance to see if your cut out for this game before spending a lot of money and
maybe being handed a pile of customers without the experience to manage the work.
Plenty of time for canvassers when your experienced earning well and ready to expand without the time to chase the work yourself.

+1

[Amazin]

Not wanting to offend you but you ain't been cleaning windows  5 minutes and you're still a novice .

Don't be so keen to part with nearly 2 grand when you're not sure what is been offered and in 6 months  you might find you don't want to be self employed .

After the first 12 months a lot of business/ people don't succeed  .

What make you say that? is there something about window cleaning that makes people want to give up?

I would advise any newbie to get out there are get the work themselves, its an invaluable way of bringing you out of your
shell learning  how to deal with Joe Public  messers rival shiners and so on.

I used to work as a door to door sales man and tbh I'm not a fan. My landlord is a successful window cleaner  and he used canvassing service but he also did it himself. 

But I should be able to recover after the 2 months of window cleaning right?

 

[Shane sharples]

I would advise any newbie to get out there are get the work themselves, its an invaluable way of bringing you out of your
shell learning  how to deal with Joe Public  messers rival shiners and so on.
Plus as has already been said it gives you a chance to see if your cut out for this game before spending a lot of money and
maybe being handed a pile of customers without the experience to manage the work.
Plenty of time for canvassers when your experienced earning well and ready to expand without the time to chase the work yourself.

Totally agree

[Don Kee]

I've used a canvasser, and i know others that have...

They're like any thing, you get good ones and bad ones but on the whole if you're looking to expand I'd definitley use canvassers

I've had good experiance with them, with a low drop rate and good prices.
All upfront with what we both wanted and expected and job was a good'n

As a newbie though (and an ex door to door salesman) you'd be daft not to go out there yourself for the first few months
If you're not working at the moment then its even worse as you should have the time...

£1000 at £10 average is 5 jobs a day....as an ex salesman (if you were any good) you should get that.
Even if it takes you 2 months to get 25 jobs a week, low and behold you've made all the money and you've still got the 1k worth of work...

Even more so when you start up, keep your overheads as low as possible and your earnings as high as possible

[Smurf]

I don't mean to pry into your business too much but it seems odd to me you are considering spending nearly 2k on a canvassing firm but yet you have no real experience cleaning windows by trad , don't have the funds to go wfp nor experience in running a window cleaning business.

The saying "Don't run before you can walk" springs to mind or you might fall flat on your arse literally especially trying to do ladder work...





. 

[Smurf]

This vid might inspire you to get out there and do it yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74hxNOv4yRU

[Amazin]

As a newbie though (and an ex door to door salesman) you'd be daft not to go out there yourself for the first few months
If you're not working at the moment then its even worse as you should have the time...

I'm not why would some people assume that i have nothing to do. I work full time and when I'm not working I will be busy with socialising, going to gym etc. Above all, I don't enjoy doing door to door and I'm not good at it. If I go door to door I would take my much longer and results won't be so great.

[Walter Mitty]

In answer to your original question, paying double the initial clean value is normally considered about right.
As ever, the devil is ion the detail:

What are the jobs like?  Access issues? Need to pre-notify for gate to be left unlocked?  Need to only clean when at home due to no access to back?  The first may be tolerable so long as there aren't many and the second doesn't even count as a job IMO.

Location of work:  Next to busy junctions with yellow lines/traffic lights?  Or only park next to pedestrian crossing? (points on licence for the latter).  Severe parking issues?  Next to railway line and near impossible to clean due to pollution?

The list could go on.  By selecting your own properties to canvass, you can avoid these issues.

[samson]

WhatIi don't understand is if a canvassing company is as good as they claim. then why wouldn't they keep the work they got, and either get some lads to work for them, or rent the work out or franchise it ?
Probably because they have to service the customers, which is a bit harder than just signing people up and running away 

[Don Kee]

 when I'm not working I will be busy with socialising, going to gym etc....

no one assumed you were't working mate, the important word in there was 'IF you're not working'...
and there's many aspects that I dont enjoy, cleaning bloody windows being one, but I would have thought (especially when you start up) you do what you gotta do, to get to where you want to be...


But if  that's you're attitude matey then good luck with building up you're business....
Fair play if you've got the money to throw at it though, I know I didnt when I first started up