Canvass all year round - my best customers have originated from this time of year as they aren’t summer brigade
My concern for you is the intention to canvass but “something” always crops up - I’m not sure you have the desire to make it work if at this early stage you are happy to canvassing on the back burner
Darran
That's a great point. I think a lot of us have good intentions but something always "crops up".
In the early day I did a bit of canvassing and leafletting but i spent a lot of time thinking about doing it and not much action.
In the end I was honest with myself and realised I just don't want to do it.
So now I just pay others to do what I don't want to do Instead of beating myself up over not following through.
over the years we have had several people go on canvass campaigns only to see them after a week make excuses why they didn't get out to actually do it then they seem to wither and die -
Today I withered, but I didn't die. I have a streaming cold so didn't get out today. It's irritating because I was on a roll. It would be daft damaging my health though. Apart from that, it would leave a bad impression sneezing all over potential customers.
Wrap up well and work tomorrow. Canvass again in a few days. The cold is past its peak.
I don't understand Paul that you need to canvass for new work?.....you 've been going longer than me I think mate(1991 to my 1993).....id thought youd be well established by now....
I've never canvassed for many years now(apart from the odd few houses here and there usually ones I used to clean for the previous owners)....
It's a combination of circumstances that go back some way.
I had a full round (from a ladder) when I switched to WFP in 2005. As you know, WFP goes through the work much faster so I had a round with big gaps in once I got used to it. Instead of canvassing I took on a load of subcontract commercial work for some years. It didn't end well as three of the four (large) sources stopped in quick succession - one of them even done me out of a chunk of money.
At that time, residential work was trickling in much faster than I was losing it so I figured all would be well. In the past couple of years though, a number of long-standing customers have died or moved away and it's left gaps again.
It's also fair to say that I wasn't well for a while; things went wrong in my life (people dying etc.) and it hit me hard. Motivation took a nosedive. A couple of years ago or so I was even offered a bed in a psych place but soldiered on and went for outpatient counselling instead. It helped a lot.
Unfortunately my weight ballooned and I wasn't confident that I could handle a higher workload anyway.
But hey, it could have been worse. At least I didn't pick up a drink or get stoned - it was 32 years recently (I actually forgot my sobriety birthday earlier this month)
.
I've emerged from the other side a far stronger person than I went in. Recently I was told that I'm pre-diabetic. My response has been to lose three and a half stone since the start of June. A couple of years back they also told me that I had a "very minor" issue with a heart valve.
Now that I've shed weight (and there's more to follow), I find that I'm getting through my work far more quickly without suffering unduly. The aches and pains I put down to getting older were there because I was so badly overweight. I feel better than I've felt in years (apart from this streaming cold
) , and feel motivated to earn more money and pay some things off.
It feels as though my life starts here. Now.
I've set myself a stiff earnings target up to August 2020. I may reach it, I may not. But if I come close that will still be some achievement.
A couple of years back I was on the floor. I guess I should be able to handle bereavement better, but I didn't. I accept that now. Time to move on.
The reality of it is that I've never had a completely full round in my own right since a few months after switching to WFP. I've had a full workload when topping it up with subcontracted commercials, but never in my own right.
That is now going to change.