[nathankaye]

8weekly, yes I have a couple of part time vans and a couple that have 2 operators in them. I supply all our franchisees with there work, none have ever delivered a leaflet or knocked on a door. They do however pick up work on a daily basis (as a group) from been recognised and how they work.
Here is 'MY' secret/reason why I will add 3 vans in this year without massive spending on advertising/marketing :-

Our average time for a first clean on a standard, normal sized 3 bedroom property is around an hour (some local cleaners take around 20 mins on a first clean of this size (I supply water to some of them and gently discover there working practices during conversations when they are filling up.), add a conservatory and its 2 hours, we dont charge double for a first clean and I actively encourage doing far more for a customer than is expected, especially on a first clean.

Thats it, the secret's out.
P.S. I dont charge a franchise fee. 


 

An hour for a 3 bed? No wonder you need so many vans. We take about 8/10 minutes on a modern 3 bed.

That is some serious overkill and can indeed work against you.
I did a first clean last year on a farm house and it took about 30 mins because i was talking to the owner and having a coffee.
He was telling me that the previous cleaner took less than ten minutes to clean the house (a couple of years before).  I told him it was taking longer because its a first clean and preparation to make further cleans easier and the next clean would in deed be 10 minutes or shorter.
Sure enough the 2nd clean took ten minutes and i again explained why as he was a carpenter. I said its like him using power tools over traditional tools which he grasped. Yet the third visit he cancelled as he didnt like it being cleaned innten minutes compared to the first clean. Even though he couldnt fault the clean.
So taking an over kill in your first clean cant seriously help you in the long run, but surely if your not charging appropriately for your time, it has to be costing you as well.

[David Kent @ KentKleen]

Seriously, examine what I have just said about the first cleans.
Imagine the impact in a quiet little cul-de-sac, picture the scene,  a curtain twitches, maybe a neighbour who's window cleaner is spending 7 to 10 mins to clean there property, they see a window cleaner actually taking his time, what!!!!! even wiping sills upvc cleaner and a CLOTH! Whats he doing now? That little bit of fascia board above the door that was ever so dirty, 'our window cleaner doesnt do that' the on looking neighbour shouts to her husband.

On a serious note :- Imagine painstakingly delivering this type of service day in day out for the last 9 years and expecting the same across all your vans! These vans are seen day in day out in the same 5 mile area.

I am looking very long term with my business, Im building locally, will my 3 boys or daughter want to run the business in the future and go regional? Who knows.
I have happy, work when they want (as long as the work is cleaned on time and up to standard) franchisees, earning what THEY want to earn.
The comment about the vans pulling in work on a daily basis. This is from walk up's and neighbours not leafletting. door knocking, facebooking etc etc.
Im not trying to be clever AT ALL. I very rarely share information on here or elsewhere. (I used to years ago but got laughed down and at most of the time)   
I respect peoples opinions and have great respect for all window cleaners, especially those growing larger businesses, the effort and resolve to do this is BIG.
Remember there are always 2 ways to skin a cat. (sorry any cat lovers)   



 

[David Kent @ KentKleen]

8weekly, yes I have a couple of part time vans and a couple that have 2 operators in them. I supply all our franchisees with there work, none have ever delivered a leaflet or knocked on a door. They do however pick up work on a daily basis (as a group) from been recognised and how they work.
Here is 'MY' secret/reason why I will add 3 vans in this year without massive spending on advertising/marketing :-

Our average time for a first clean on a standard, normal sized 3 bedroom property is around an hour (some local cleaners take around 20 mins on a first clean of this size (I supply water to some of them and gently discover there working practices during conversations when they are filling up.), add a conservatory and its 2 hours, we dont charge double for a first clean and I actively encourage doing far more for a customer than is expected, especially on a first clean.

Thats it, the secret's out.
P.S. I dont charge a franchise fee. 


 

An hour for a 3 bed? No wonder you need so many vans. We take about 8/10 minutes on a modern 3 bed.

That is some serious overkill and can indeed work against you.
I did a first clean last year on a farm house and it took about 30 mins because i was talking to the owner and having a coffee.
He was telling me that the previous cleaner took less than ten minutes to clean the house (a couple of years before).  I told him it was taking longer because its a first clean and preparation to make further cleans easier and the next clean would in deed be 10 minutes or shorter.
Sure enough the 2nd clean took ten minutes and i again explained why as he was a carpenter. I said its like him using power tools over traditional tools which he grasped. Yet the third visit he cancelled as he didnt like it being cleaned innten minutes compared to the first clean. Even though he couldnt fault the clean.
So taking an over kill in your first clean cant seriously help you in the long run, but surely if your not charging appropriately for your time, it has to be costing you as well.

Its a case of short term pain for long term gain. (Believe me Nathan, doing more than is expected will NEVER end up costing you.)

[Lee Pryor]

Ok so your not going to tell us then.

Lets say your vans need less customers than mine. I would need 1650 to fill 3 vans.

Lets then say you would only need 1000

so your telling me that walk ups and curtain twitchers and going the extra mile in small area will add 1000 houses, plus replace the years losses toping up your existing round.

I really hate telling people on here that their talking rubbish because ive had a lot of that when im telling the truth, but this just isnt possible.

[dazmond]

each to their own but im very "splash and dash" these days even with my larger jobs.if you blink you d not know id been! (until you looked at the windows of course!)

even my cheap compact estate work i fly through my work.... im getting upwards of £50 an hour on some stretches.....great stuff....

first cleans i usually charge higher prices.......it could be 25%/50%/100% more depending how dirty they are and i will spend extra time cleaning them but not excessively so.....

this is where a high flow/xtreme poles,electric reels and hot water come into their own (and being very organised too)

[John Mart]

8weekly, yes I have a couple of part time vans and a couple that have 2 operators in them. I supply all our franchisees with there work, none have ever delivered a leaflet or knocked on a door. They do however pick up work on a daily basis (as a group) from been recognised and how they work.
Here is 'MY' secret/reason why I will add 3 vans in this year without massive spending on advertising/marketing :-

Our average time for a first clean on a standard, normal sized 3 bedroom property is around an hour (some local cleaners take around 20 mins on a first clean of this size (I supply water to some of them and gently discover there working practices during conversations when they are filling up.), add a conservatory and its 2 hours, we dont charge double for a first clean and I actively encourage doing far more for a customer than is expected, especially on a first clean.

Thats it, the secret's out.
P.S. I dont charge a franchise fee. 


 

An hour for a 3 bed? No wonder you need so many vans. We take about 8/10 minutes on a modern 3 bed.

That is some serious overkill and can indeed work against you.
I did a first clean last year on a farm house and it took about 30 mins because i was talking to the owner and having a coffee.
He was telling me that the previous cleaner took less than ten minutes to clean the house (a couple of years before).  I told him it was taking longer because its a first clean and preparation to make further cleans easier and the next clean would in deed be 10 minutes or shorter.
Sure enough the 2nd clean took ten minutes and i again explained why as he was a carpenter. I said its like him using power tools over traditional tools which he grasped. Yet the third visit he cancelled as he didnt like it being cleaned innten minutes compared to the first clean. Even though he couldnt fault the clean.
So taking an over kill in your first clean cant seriously help you in the long run, but surely if your not charging appropriately for your time, it has to be costing you as well.

Its a case of short term pain for long term gain. (Believe me Nathan, doing more than is expected will NEVER end up costing you.)

Sorry, I misread. An hour on the first clean. Not every clean. It’d have to be gopping to take an hour on a 3 bed for me.

[David Kent @ KentKleen]

Ok so your not going to tell us then.

Lets say your vans need less customers than mine. I would need 1650 to fill 3 vans.

Lets then say you would only need 1000

so your telling me that walk ups and curtain twitchers and going the extra mile in small area will add 1000 houses, plus replace the years losses toping up your existing round.

I really hate telling people on here that their talking rubbish because ive had a lot of that when im telling the truth, but this just isnt possible.

Losses are very rare, as you can imagine.
I have never said this is the only way we use, I have merely mentioned 'my' secret for attracting with ease (1000 cutomers is bang on by the way) window cleaning customers in a very compact area.
Here's my 2018 marketing.
Leaflet's delivered 10,000 (repeat delivering in areas at certain times of day and during certain weather conditions to maximise results)
Door knocking total hours for the year, 56
Facebook adverts £100 a month give or take.

Results:- similar to what Im looking to achieve this year, both in customers and vans.
Drop off rate:- tiny.
 
   
 

[Stoots]

I find it all very odd what I hear from others that's why I just draw my own conclusions.

If I was to rely on walkups my round would dissapear eventually.

I probably get 1 walk up a month. If that

[dazmond]

I find it all very odd what I hear from others that's why I just draw my own conclusions.

If I was to rely on walkups my round would dissapear eventually.

I probably get 1 walk up a month. If that

virtually all my new work ive picked up over the last 10 years has been through walk ups and recommendations.when your well established with a lot of work in an area your round becomes self sustaining with no effort required in actively seeking new jobs....

[chris turner]

I grew my round entirely from walk ups and recommendations. Well apart from the very start, that was a couple of months of canvassing and marketing, from then I just concentrated on doing the best job possible ( especially on first cleans ) then the round quickly grew itself. Once I reached about 100 customers it just took off, this was without a website or any form of marketing.
The best customers are the ones that come to you, eager from all the good things they've heard.
Once I reached 400 customers I put my prices up by quite a bit, ditched any rubbish work and then set up a website to bring in a slow trickle of work.
My total spend on advertising is exactly £16.99 a month ( website ), from that and recommendations I average 10 - 15 enquiries a week, even more during spring summer. In fact during August September last year I was receiving 4-5 enquiries a day from doing absolutely nothing my self.

From my own experience I can clearly imagine how @kentkleen could build by 1000 customers, when you multiply the amount of vans he has to mine.
It's not rocket science, get new customers and keep those customers. If you have 12 - 13 vans out everday being seen in a local area, that have an excellent reputation for workmanship and customer retention, then you always be inundated with enquiries.
It's a slower process of building but far cheaper and also produces far more reliable customers.

[John Mart]

I grew my round entirely from walk ups and recommendations. Well apart from the very start, that was a couple of months of canvassing and marketing, from then I just concentrated on doing the best job possible ( especially on first cleans ) then the round quickly grew itself. Once I reached about 100 customers it just took off, this was without a website or any form of marketing.
The best customers are the ones that come to you, eager from all the good things they've heard.
Once I reached 400 customers I put my prices up by quite a bit, ditched any rubbish work and then set up a website to bring in a slow trickle of work.
My total spend on advertising is exactly £16.99 a month ( website ), from that and recommendations I average 10 - 15 enquiries a week, even more during spring summer. In fact during August September last year I was receiving 4-5 enquiries a day from doing absolutely nothing my self.

From my own experience I can clearly imagine how @kentkleen could build by 1000 customers, when you multiply the amount of vans he has to mine.
It's not rocket science, get new customers and keep those customers. If you have 12 - 13 vans out everday being seen in a local area, that have an excellent reputation for workmanship and customer retention, then you always be inundated with enquiries.
It's a slower process of building but far cheaper and also produces far more reliable customers.

How many of the 10-15 become customers? I reckon 90% of mine do at the prices I quote (average £25). So you must be adding around 600 customers a year. How many vans have you got?

[Stoots]

That really is fantastic if that how it happened.

I've invested thousands to grow my round.

Walk ups a reccomemds maybe 20 a year max. Website only maybe 10 a year max.

My business never "took off" on its own it's constant investment. Even now to replace drop off and non payers etc it's constant investment.

I just put it down to area. There's no other logical explanation.

[Stoots]

I grew my round entirely from walk ups and recommendations. Well apart from the very start, that was a couple of months of canvassing and marketing, from then I just concentrated on doing the best job possible ( especially on first cleans ) then the round quickly grew itself. Once I reached about 100 customers it just took off, this was without a website or any form of marketing.
The best customers are the ones that come to you, eager from all the good things they've heard.
Once I reached 400 customers I put my prices up by quite a bit, ditched any rubbish work and then set up a website to bring in a slow trickle of work.
My total spend on advertising is exactly £16.99 a month ( website ), from that and recommendations I average 10 - 15 enquiries a week, even more during spring summer. In fact during August September last year I was receiving 4-5 enquiries a day from doing absolutely nothing my self.

From my own experience I can clearly imagine how @kentkleen could build by 1000 customers, when you multiply the amount of vans he has to mine.
It's not rocket science, get new customers and keep those customers. If you have 12 - 13 vans out everday being seen in a local area, that have an excellent reputation for workmanship and customer retention, then you always be inundated with enquiries.
It's a slower process of building but far cheaper and also produces far more reliable customers.

How many of the 10-15 become customers? I reckon 90% of mine do at the prices I quote (average £25). So you must be adding around 600 customers a year. How many vans have you got?

That's good I convert about 30-50 % of quotes

[John Mart]

I grew my round entirely from walk ups and recommendations. Well apart from the very start, that was a couple of months of canvassing and marketing, from then I just concentrated on doing the best job possible ( especially on first cleans ) then the round quickly grew itself. Once I reached about 100 customers it just took off, this was without a website or any form of marketing.
The best customers are the ones that come to you, eager from all the good things they've heard.
Once I reached 400 customers I put my prices up by quite a bit, ditched any rubbish work and then set up a website to bring in a slow trickle of work.
My total spend on advertising is exactly £16.99 a month ( website ), from that and recommendations I average 10 - 15 enquiries a week, even more during spring summer. In fact during August September last year I was receiving 4-5 enquiries a day from doing absolutely nothing my self.

From my own experience I can clearly imagine how @kentkleen could build by 1000 customers, when you multiply the amount of vans he has to mine.
It's not rocket science, get new customers and keep those customers. If you have 12 - 13 vans out everday being seen in a local area, that have an excellent reputation for workmanship and customer retention, then you always be inundated with enquiries.
It's a slower process of building but far cheaper and also produces far more reliable customers.

How many of the 10-15 become customers? I reckon 90% of mine do at the prices I quote (average £25). So you must be adding around 600 customers a year. How many vans have you got?

That's good I convert about 30-50 % of quotes

I think it depends where they come from. 95% are leaflets. Web leads are lower because they phone around for the cheapest.

[dazmond]

That really is fantastic if that how it happened.

I've invested thousands to grow my round.

Walk ups a reccomemds maybe 20 a year max. Website only maybe 10 a year max.

My business never "took off" on its own it's constant investment. Even now to replace drop off and non payers etc it's constant investment.

I just put it down to area. There's no other logical explanation.

give it time adam.......if your doing a good,reliable job and have a smart clean sign written van itll become self sustaining unless of course you want to grow bigger and employ staff......

[Stoots]

I grew my round entirely from walk ups and recommendations. Well apart from the very start, that was a couple of months of canvassing and marketing, from then I just concentrated on doing the best job possible ( especially on first cleans ) then the round quickly grew itself. Once I reached about 100 customers it just took off, this was without a website or any form of marketing.
The best customers are the ones that come to you, eager from all the good things they've heard.
Once I reached 400 customers I put my prices up by quite a bit, ditched any rubbish work and then set up a website to bring in a slow trickle of work.
My total spend on advertising is exactly £16.99 a month ( website ), from that and recommendations I average 10 - 15 enquiries a week, even more during spring summer. In fact during August September last year I was receiving 4-5 enquiries a day from doing absolutely nothing my self.

From my own experience I can clearly imagine how @kentkleen could build by 1000 customers, when you multiply the amount of vans he has to mine.
It's not rocket science, get new customers and keep those customers. If you have 12 - 13 vans out everday being seen in a local area, that have an excellent reputation for workmanship and customer retention, then you always be inundated with enquiries.
It's a slower process of building but far cheaper and also produces far more reliable customers.

How many of the 10-15 become customers? I reckon 90% of mine do at the prices I quote (average £25). So you must be adding around 600 customers a year. How many vans have you got?

That's good I convert about 30-50 % of quotes

I think it depends where they come from. 95% are leaflets. Web leads are lower because they phone around for the cheapest.

That's a good point.

All my leads come from online.

Tried leaflets in the past and they do get a better conversion rate but the cost per lead is much higher.

[Stoots]

That really is fantastic if that how it happened.

I've invested thousands to grow my round.

Walk ups a reccomemds maybe 20 a year max. Website only maybe 10 a year max.

My business never "took off" on its own it's constant investment. Even now to replace drop off and non payers etc it's constant investment.

I just put it down to area. There's no other logical explanation.

give it time adam.......if your doing a good,reliable job and have a smart clean sign written van itll become self sustaining unless of course you want to grow bigger and employ staff......

Well I've been going 4 years now daz have always had sign written vans, uniformed etc and it's not happened yet. Not that I'm bothered really it is what it is.

[John Mart]

That really is fantastic if that how it happened.

I've invested thousands to grow my round.

Walk ups a reccomemds maybe 20 a year max. Website only maybe 10 a year max.

My business never "took off" on its own it's constant investment. Even now to replace drop off and non payers etc it's constant investment.

I just put it down to area. There's no other logical explanation.

give it time adam.......if your doing a good,reliable job and have a smart clean sign written van itll become self sustaining unless of course you want to grow bigger and employ staff......

Well I've been going 4 years now daz have always had sign written vans, uniformed etc and it's not happened yet. Not that I'm bothered really it is what it is.

Whenever I see a new one and have a chat I tell them to just do a good job and your reputation will spread and you’ll be inundated within a few months. Obviously it’s bollix.

[chris turner]

I grew my round entirely from walk ups and recommendations. Well apart from the very start, that was a couple of months of canvassing and marketing, from then I just concentrated on doing the best job possible ( especially on first cleans ) then the round quickly grew itself. Once I reached about 100 customers it just took off, this was without a website or any form of marketing.
The best customers are the ones that come to you, eager from all the good things they've heard.
Once I reached 400 customers I put my prices up by quite a bit, ditched any rubbish work and then set up a website to bring in a slow trickle of work.
My total spend on advertising is exactly £16.99 a month ( website ), from that and recommendations I average 10 - 15 enquiries a week, even more during spring summer. In fact during August September last year I was receiving 4-5 enquiries a day from doing absolutely nothing my self.

From my own experience I can clearly imagine how @kentkleen could build by 1000 customers, when you multiply the amount of vans he has to mine.
It's not rocket science, get new customers and keep those customers. If you have 12 - 13 vans out everday being seen in a local area, that have an excellent reputation for workmanship and customer retention, then you always be inundated with enquiries.
It's a slower process of building but far cheaper and also produces far more reliable customers.

How many of the 10-15 become customers? I reckon 90% of mine do at the prices I quote (average £25). So you must be adding around 600 customers a year. How many vans have you got?

Nope I add around 30 - 40 customers a year.
Most enquiries are ignored as I'm not looking to expand, I only take on if it's better then anything I already have.
For example in december, which I would normally consider a quieter month for enquiries, I took on 3 new jobs, a £35 house, £50 and £70 house, all regulars. They will replace lower priced jobs.

Not looking to expand or employ, just always improve on what I already have, which is another form of growth.

[chris turner]

That really is fantastic if that how it happened.

I've invested thousands to grow my round.

Walk ups a reccomemds maybe 20 a year max. Website only maybe 10 a year max.

My business never "took off" on its own it's constant investment. Even now to replace drop off and non payers etc it's constant investment.

I just put it down to area. There's no other logical explanation.

give it time adam.......if your doing a good,reliable job and have a smart clean sign written van itll become self sustaining unless of course you want to grow bigger and employ staff......

Well I've been going 4 years now daz have always had sign written vans, uniformed etc and it's not happened yet. Not that I'm bothered really it is what it is.

That's strange. I actually took the sign writing off my van during the summer as I got sick of walk ups. I had more work then I could handle and dreaded the curtain twitches whilst I was working in a street.

I always wear logo'd uniform but in my case a sign written van is no longer necessary.