[The Jester of Wibbly]

Putting work aside, I think there will be world celebration when it's all over

[Shrek]

So glad I didn’t sign up for a lease van! I will definitely pay in full for any large purchases in the future!

Why will you pay in full it’s better to keep any money you have at hand in case you may need it.

Because if there ever is another pandemic, I won’t have to work just to pay my lease 
If you take now into consideration- no one wants cash , so cash isn’t king at this moment in time

[Shrek]

So glad I didn’t sign up for a lease van! I will definitely pay in full for any large purchases in the future!

why?its only a problem if you cant afford the monthly payments........

Well put it this way daz , I’m certainly not worried about not working. My business bills running in the background are about £100 a month. I would be crapping myself if I had 2 vehicles on lease though with 1k going out before I can feed myself!

[NWH]

So glad I didn’t sign up for a lease van! I will definitely pay in full for any large purchases in the future!

Why will you pay in full it’s better to keep any money you have at hand in case you may need it.

Because if there ever is another pandemic, I won’t have to work just to pay my lease 
If you take now into consideration- no one wants cash , so cash isn’t king at this moment in time

Cash or money in the bank is always King at the moment especially read this forum watch the news it’s all about what people going to do because of money,all self employed people worried about what the chancellor had to say.
If you’ve got enough in the bank or wherever to see you through you have far less to worry about at this time,if you’ve got say 20k and you lump it all out on a van in 1 go and you did it a month ago,what’s better 300 a month going out or having a massive dent gone into your cash.

[jay moley]

Replacing the two idiots that work for me.

Getting rid of the bad customers/jobs and replacing with some advertising.

[NWH]

The bad customers will get rid of thereselves.

[DrewHastings]

Currently, just doing a bit of SEO work on the websites, but we're sitting on first page for most of our keywords. We've stopped any work that's not in an empty property, for the time being.

But we're looking everywhere just at the moment  Reason being, some people won't make it through to the other end (business wise). That's for the small and medium, self-employed and little LTDs. I have a feeling, there are going to be some amazing bargains for those with cash in the bank in the coming months.
It will either be people going under, and liquidating, or other deciding to go full time PAYE somewhere else.  I think it won't be long before some people need to liquidate their kit, or sell the business, as they won't be able to carry on without doing so.

A bit morbid maybe, but it's the reality. I can see a big drop in the number of self-employed coming in the next year as well. I may be wrong, but either way, I'll ever have a bigger business on the other side, or my cash will still be in the bank, and we can use it elsewhere 

[Shrek]

So glad I didn’t sign up for a lease van! I will definitely pay in full for any large purchases in the future!

Why will you pay in full it’s better to keep any money you have at hand in case you may need it.

Because if there ever is another pandemic, I won’t have to work just to pay my lease 
If you take now into consideration- no one wants cash , so cash isn’t king at this moment in time

Cash or money in the bank is always King at the moment especially read this forum watch the news it’s all about what people going to do because of money,all self employed people worried about what the chancellor had to say.
If you’ve got enough in the bank or wherever to see you through you have far less to worry about at this time,if you’ve got say 20k and you lump it all out on a van in 1 go and you did it a month ago,what’s better 300 a month going out or having a massive dent gone into your cash.

I would never spend 20k on a van , I spent 3k on my van 3 years ago 

[G Griffin]

The bad customers will get rid of thereselves.

Suicide?

[TomCrowther]

I think it’s going to go the other way just like at the start of the last recession. Thousands upon thousands of new start up companies determined to be masters of their own destiny.

[dazmond]

So glad I didn’t sign up for a lease van! I will definitely pay in full for any large purchases in the future!

each to their own but my rental is £215(inclu VAT) a month which is 1 average days earnings  for me...easily affordable......id rather keep my hard earned savings in the bank than blow a big chunk on a van all in one go.....

[lee_dewing]

as above
Has this pandemic prompted you  to look at your business, and made you want to make any changes, or add new ideas to make thing run better, or increase your revenue?

I have not worked since last Monday, but the 2 weeks working before I finished I was looking at my customers , and trying to see how many I may loose as things start to get worse.
I was quite pleased, that I Realised that for the most part, my customers are retired or financially stable and unlikely to be affected by 6 months off work.
I do expect to have a few jobs put on hold … restaurant, cricket club, rugby club etc.

so when I start back I want to do a good leafletting stint in search for more of the retired type of customers. not only are these types financially stable , but they always pay promptly.

The other thing I am going to do is upsell more gutter and fascia jobs, to try and compensate for any losses I may have had. this will help as I rebuild my customer base.
 worrying times for everyone , so lets hear what positives you guys are hoping to get out of a bad situation

Exactly this 👍

I’ve still been working,

In the last two weeks I’ve had 1 cancelled, maybe resuming later this year.

Another skip this month but said contact next month to reevaluate.

So 2 lost customers 🤔

But 1 new customer to do Monday
Looks like regular monthly

Same again was a walk up
On Wednesday not in the bag but intuition tells me should get

Another one, old timer wants me but won’t go until June or July as family have told him to stay in

I worry obviously how many customers I will lose and how fast.

So as said by OP can up sell upvc fascia gutter cleans
Connie roofs

Never been excited by these add ons
But beggars can’t be choosers

already have the setup to do it,
And if it plugs financial holes in my round so be it.

Still considering sky vac Atom
So would cover window cleaning, gutter fascia cleaning and gutter clearing

Also thinking of pushing the 2 monthly service more
Aim to get 30 - 50 % an hour more £

And just the little things
Make sure plenty of spares
Make equipment, working day, organised work schedule more efficient

I’m good with this but I know I could be better

I’ve got lazy following up enquiries,
I think that can happen being self employed

Will see what the future holds
Lot of things out of our control, to feel scared, uneasy about

But being self employed we have the
Choices to make our own decisions for or businesses anyway

Unlike a lot of the employed, who’s  main objective is to make the boss richer

That was always my experience of being employed
And a couple of redundancies 👍

Stay safe and well all 🦠🤺

[Shrek]

So glad I didn’t sign up for a lease van! I will definitely pay in full for any large purchases in the future!

each to their own but my rental is £215(inclu VAT) a month which is 1 average days earnings  for me...easily affordable......id rather keep my hard earned savings in the bank than blow a big chunk on a van all in one go.....

£21500 over 5 years is on average £4300 a year ( regardless of how you divide it up with your deposit). Over 5 years daz that’s what you’ll pay and then you still don’t own it.  I bought my van for 3k 3 years ago

[dazmond]

I will own it after 5 yrs mate....I'm gonna sell it to my missus then buy it back....itll have 15k on the clock by then with many more years of life left in it..👍

[Shrek]

I will own it after 5 yrs mate....I'm gonna sell it to my missus then buy it back....itll have 15k on the clock by then with many more years of life left in it..👍

I understand it’s a new van but it doesn’t cost you £215 a month mate

[swanson]

£215 a month does sound really cheap.

[dazmond]

I will own it after 5 yrs mate....I'm gonna sell it to my missus then buy it back....itll have 15k on the clock by then with many more years of life left in it..👍

I understand it’s a new van but it doesn’t cost you £215 a month mate

yes it does!why would i make it up?its a 5 year business finance lease.....at the end of the contract i sell it to my girlfriend for £7k and pay the balloon then buy it back off my girlfriend then i own it...yes it will have cost me over £20k overall but it will  do me for at least another 5 years...

[Don Kee]

£215 a month does sound really cheap.

Does it?

For a van on lease, I was thinking the opposite!

I’ve got a custom limited 155bhp (16plate, Euro 5) on HP for £315 p/m.
Had it from new.

Factor in I’m paying £100 per month extra over 5 years, that means I’ll of paid an extra £6k of monthly payments.

Daz reckons his balloon will be 7k, so by the end of the 5 year period he’ll have actually paid £1k more for a smaller van , with less payload and probably less power.

Doesn’t see that cheap anymore eh?

[CleanClear]

I will own it after 5 yrs mate....I'm gonna sell it to my missus then buy it back....itll have 15k on the clock by then with many more years of life left in it..👍

I understand it’s a new van but it doesn’t cost you £215 a month mate

yes it does!why would i make it up?its a 5 year business finance lease.....at the end of the contract i sell it to my girlfriend for £7k and pay the balloon then buy it back off my girlfriend then i own it...yes it will have cost me over £20k overall but it will  do me for at least another 5 years...

Actually it won't. You'll of saved tax payments by leasing it, so its cost you nothing in that way. Pay tax or buy/lease a new van with it ? Its a no brainer what you done, smart move.

[AuRavelling79]

As this is morphing into a van discussion I'll tell you about mine.

For £15,800 I bought a brand new Hyundai van in March 2012. I was going to take out a two year bank loan but the manager said why don't you just have an annual overdraft (cheaper, even including the new arrangement fee of £300 every year for old rope) and pay it off over two years. It came with a 5 year warranty. I paid it off after one year and didn't have to pay for another year's arrangement fee.

It is now just over 8 years old and is on 48,500 miles. I know things can go south really quickly with vehicles but my current intention is for this van to see me out as I will go increasingly part time over the next five years.

At some point - assuming I survive in reasonable health I might employ someone to take over the round and on the basis that they cost 2K a month gross it should leave me with 1,500 a month to oversee it and be off the tools. If I then add my state pension I'll get 2.3K a month plus another small income stream and anything Mrs Gold gets providing she doesn't kick me out, leave me or die.