[Klean07]

Solar panel cleaning

Caravan cleaning/ mobile or static.

Jet washing.

Every little helps!

[paul alan]

Would just prefer to stick to wfp on domestic, if you build a good round with decent customers I cant see it getting any better.

[Marc Stock]

Not being rude here, so please take this with a pinch of salt.

If you are offering caravan washing, solar panel washing, jet washing as well as window cleaning. You are going to get "every little"; in the sense that you wont have much work that is regular and profitable. I know a guy who does pressure washing, window cleaning, hedge cutting, wall painting, lawn cutting....the list goes on. He is a nice guy, and has customers who are happy to use him, but he doesn't exactly excel at one thing; and always seems to be a bit low on work, so to counteract that he will do extra jobs that people ask him to do that he doesn't already do and add it to the list of things he already "does".

The point i am making here is that you can be too many things to too many people.  In my opinion you should concentrate on one or two things, and really excel at them and work it so it becomes very profitable or you risk losing focus on what it is you are trying to achieve from your business.

So if its caravan cleaning, window cleaning, patio driveway cleaning...whatever it may be try to take the "core" business you want to focus on the most and build on that. You don't want to end up a jack of all trades, and trust me you could if you don't keep your focus in check.

[Plankton]

If you've already got the pole height then I don't see why you wouldn't clean solar panels, the caravans as on the other post folks probably don't want to pay to much and for pressure cleaning it can be good so I wouldn't discourage people from taking it up but you'll need to work like a dog at times and some will regret taking it on. If you've got the gear make it pay.

[Splash & dash]

Not being rude here, so please take this with a pinch of salt.

If you are offering caravan washing, solar panel washing, jet washing as well as window cleaning. You are going to get "every little"; in the sense that you wont have much work that is regular and profitable. I know a guy who does pressure washing, window cleaning, hedge cutting, wall painting, lawn cutting....the list goes on. He is a nice guy, and has customers who are happy to use him, but he doesn't exactly excel at one thing; and always seems to be a bit low on work, so to counteract that he will do extra jobs that people ask him to do that he doesn't already do and add it to the list of things he already "does".

The point i am making here is that you can be too many things to too many people.  In my opinion you should concentrate on one or two things, and really excel at them and work it so it becomes very profitable or you risk losing focus on what it is you are trying to achieve from your business.

So if its caravan cleaning, window cleaning, patio driveway cleaning...whatever it may be try to take the "core" business you want to focus on the most and build on that. You don't want to end up a jack of all trades, and trust me you could if you don't keep your focus in check.

Yes I do agree with what you are saying , but we started off just doing windows then existing customers wa ted gutters emptied and gfs cleaning , then can you wash the drive and house , to prevent someone else getting a foot in the door with existing customers we started doing all this type of work , we are now maximising income from a lot of customers providing a whole package for home and buisness that want a cleaning service from one provider , also we enjoy having a change from just doing windows , but I must admit year on year we are struggling to get through an ever increasing volume of extra work

[Walter Mitty]

I imagine some people want more variety than others in their work life.  There's something to be said for that. 

[Tom-01]

Not being rude here, so please take this with a pinch of salt.

If you are offering caravan washing, solar panel washing, jet washing as well as window cleaning. You are going to get "every little"; in the sense that you wont have much work that is regular and profitable. I know a guy who does pressure washing, window cleaning, hedge cutting, wall painting, lawn cutting....the list goes on. He is a nice guy, and has customers who are happy to use him, but he doesn't exactly excel at one thing; and always seems to be a bit low on work, so to counteract that he will do extra jobs that people ask him to do that he doesn't already do and add it to the list of things he already "does".

The point i am making here is that you can be too many things to too many people.  In my opinion you should concentrate on one or two things, and really excel at them and work it so it becomes very profitable or you risk losing focus on what it is you are trying to achieve from your business.

So if its caravan cleaning, window cleaning, patio driveway cleaning...whatever it may be try to take the "core" business you want to focus on the most and build on that. You don't want to end up a jack of all trades, and trust me you could if you don't keep your focus in check.

Yes I do agree with what you are saying , but we started off just doing windows then existing customers wa ted gutters emptied and gfs cleaning , then can you wash the drive and house , to prevent someone else getting a foot in the door with existing customers we started doing all this type of work , we are now maximising income from a lot of customers providing a whole package for home and buisness that want a cleaning service from one provider , also we enjoy having a change from just doing windows , but I must admit year on year we are struggling to get through an ever increasing volume of extra work

I think if you are a company who employ then yes adding the extra services is a great idea as you have the man power to get it all done. Also you will probably find different ones in the business prefer a different job, i.e. Bruno prefers gutter clearing, Julian prefers pressure washing, Pedro is happy just doing windows all day.

Also the bigger jobs really help with cash flow, and it is great to maximise each customer.

A sole trader should be careful not to add too much though as they do become like the guy Marc knows, does everything but never really that busy and always scratching around for work.

[Johnny B]

Some good points made. I do windows, gutter clears and fsg cleans, nothing else and have plenty of work to keep me going full time and I don't advertise.

There are 2 or 3 local guys who 'specialise' in a whole list of different things and are always not only advertising but clamouring over any scraps of work thrown out there by people wanting these jobs done. They all say they are 'the cheapest' and 'won't be beaten on price' (their words, not mine).

It smacks of desperation and although I may be wrong, they must find it really tough to make a living because of a lack of focus and direction because they spread themselves so thinly.

John

[Smudger]

Good posts here nicely balanced opinions

Darran

[p1w1]

I found with me being a one man band so to speak was that yes you can make more say gutter cleaning but i was beginning to realise that i would have to go out and do a quote (say somewhere 10 mins away) do the quote, quick chat with customer etc and then if you dont get the job you've wasted time that could have been made cleaning windows especially during the shorter days .
So if you start taking into account the time it takes going out quoting etc with the time it takes to clear them then i wasn't really that much better off overall. That and some issues with my back is what made me decide to just focus on what i do best (cleaning and getting new customers for windows). Obviously if its customers you already clean windows for then its different but for me personally i'm full to the brim with window cleaning and just began to hate doing all add ons and all they were doing was pushing back windows i could be cleaning instead and its less hassle.
If you employ then its different as your employee will still be making you money while your out quoting  and it helps keep the work coming in to give them and for others i can see why they like a bit of variety in the working day.
Each to there own i suppose.

[Splash & dash]

I found with me being a one man band so to speak was that yes you can make more say gutter cleaning but i was beginning to realise that i would have to go out and do a quote (say somewhere 10 mins away) do the quote, quick chat with customer etc and then if you dont get the job you've wasted time that could have been made cleaning windows especially during the shorter days .
So if you start taking into account the time it takes going out quoting etc with the time it takes to clear them then i wasn't really that much better off overall. That and some issues with my back is what made me decide to just focus on what i do best (cleaning and getting new customers for windows). Obviously if its customers you already clean windows for then its different but for me personally i'm full to the brim with window cleaning and just began to hate doing all add ons and all they were doing was pushing back windows i could be cleaning instead and its less hassle.
If you employ then its different as your employee will still be making you money while your out quoting  and it helps keep the work coming in to give them and for others i can see why they like a bit of variety in the working day.
Each to there own i suppose.

The way we get around this is to get the potential customer to txt or email photos saves a visit and if there is any doubt about any issues I price it as worst case scenario so it’s a win win really, we do very well with add on jobs and it’s. A nice change from windows keeps us all intrested and keen to go to work

[Don Kee]

Rained all day today, and I mean hammered it down; so we did a couple of Gutter & Fascia cleans I’d ‘saved’ up for when the weather was going to be iffy.

Didn’t do as much as we’d normally do as I only had a couple ‘saved’ but meant that we still go out and earn and chap who works for me got a days earning in without having to ‘make it up’.

Work for me...

[dazmond]

thats the beauty of working for yourself......you can do what you want...

 i cant be arsed anymore with anything else apart from solar panels,f/s/g and conny roofs...

[Plankton]

With regards to quoting, I actually do quite well using maps for gutters and roofs. I quoted a roof at 1500 and upon acceptance done a visit (bit of a drive) and was within £2.00! some times the gutters take longer than you think and the vacs aren't always suitable. It's windows that are a nuisance quoting.

[Plankton]

thats the beauty of working for yourself......you can do what you want...

 i cant be arsed anymore with anything else apart from solar panels,f/s/g and conny roofs...

Do you do fsg and connys for others or just your regular custards?

[dazmond]

thats the beauty of working for yourself......you can do what you want...

 i cant be arsed anymore with anything else apart from solar panels,f/s/g and conny roofs...

Do you do fsg and connys for others or just your regular custards?

mostly for regular customers mate but i will do a one off for a non window cleaning customer for a higher price if i can fit them in from time to time.....

[Plankton]

I was getting he haw off my window rounds, only had two gutters and a pw job in around three years from one area and not very much elsewhere. Best thing I done was get rid of it all as it was holding me back, although you'll see me posting end of year when it looks like I'm getting quite! But then all it takes is for the big jobs to come back and I'm hard at it. I'll cover Glasgow for gutters and for pw I'll go anywhere, if it's big enough it wouldn't faze me travelling a couple of hundred miles.
I can see how it suits people only doing wfp but the only thing I envy is the kitted out vans with everything in it's place!

[Klean07]

Not being rude here, so please take this with a pinch of salt.

If you are offering caravan washing, solar panel washing, jet washing as well as window cleaning. You are going to get "every little"; in the sense that you wont have much work that is regular and profitable. I know a guy who does pressure washing, window cleaning, hedge cutting, wall painting, lawn cutting....the list goes on. He is a nice guy, and has customers who are happy to use him, but he doesn't exactly excel at one thing; and always seems to be a bit low on work, so to counteract that he will do extra jobs that people ask him to do that he doesn't already do and add it to the list of things he already "does".

The point i am making here is that you can be too many things to too many people.  In my opinion you should concentrate on one or two things, and really excel at them and work it so it becomes very profitable or you risk losing focus on what it is you are trying to achieve from your business.

So if its caravan cleaning, window cleaning, patio driveway cleaning...whatever it may be try to take the "core" business you want to focus on the most and build on that. You don't want to end up a jack of all trades, and trust me you could if you don't keep your focus in check.

I take your point but all that I wanted to address here was to inform my customers that the system that I use to clean their windows with is also suitable to clean their caravan/solar panels etc! Window cleaning is my main income it always will be but the more work that I get from one customer per visit with these other add on's is going to save a lot of time and earn more money!

[Slacky]

I’m just branching out in to pressure washing. First job tomorrow.

[Frankybadboy]

I’m just branching out in to pressure washing. First job tomorrow.

what machine you using ?