[Smudger]

Silly quick or not - 30 minute drive for 2 is30 minutes lost ( 1 or 2 cleans ) you can’t recover time

2 on a house should be quicker but they won’t ll not do double the work of one with travelling involved

Darran

[james peters]

Silly quick or not - 30 minute drive for 2 is30 minutes lost ( 1 or 2 cleans ) you can’t recover time

2 on a house should be quicker but they won’t ll not do double the work of one with travelling involved

Darran

agreed. even on compact work
when my daughter works with me the hourly rate goes up by 50%, but then of course I have to pay her.
so whilst I do benefit slightly, It is no where near double.
however it does help get through more work when I am behind or have add ons to do.
the company is also nice 

[NWH]

I would just be reluctant to put any newbie on my work in a van on their own tbh for quiet a while,maybe it’s different if he’s in a van on his own half a mile away doing a group of houses that you can nip to if there’s any problems it’s a difficult one depends what type of work it is.
Some jobs you can take losing but some hurt if you lose em and especially if it’s down to someone not quiet knowing what they are doing due to inexperience.

[Smudger]

cleaning a window is cleaning a window - your very much a control freak Nigel

Darran

[dazmond]

i just dont understand the guys that are always 2 or 3 weeks  late.....theres an extra 2 or 3 weeks of muck on the windows to clean off...you d be better off to sell some work and get round bang on time IMO .....

im a week late at present and some of my 4 weekly work(thats 5 weekly this time)are filthy.......

[NWH]

Makes hardly any difference Daz and you should know that being a hot water user,I did a new job today they hadn’t been cleaned for years probably 5 or 6 took me about 15 minutes longer than it will do from now on and they were covered in brown stubborn spots that are on every window at the moment due to an increase in spiders.
Over the years I found it better to price higher and go longer between cleans you can charge far more because when you clean them they need it,again as you will know Daz longer frequency between cleans makes no difference with hot water.

[NWH]

Not unusual for me to be 6 weeks late on some jobs unless they’ve specified they want it done on time everytime.

[Pete Thompson]

I would just be reluctant to put any newbie on my work in a van on their own tbh for quiet a while,maybe it’s different if he’s in a van on his own half a mile away doing a group of houses that you can nip to if there’s any problems it’s a difficult one depends what type of work it is.
Some jobs you can take losing but some hurt if you lose em and especially if it’s down to someone not quiet knowing what they are doing due to inexperience.

Fair comment, but I’m not sure what problems there would be? I’ll be cleaning the exact properties with my newbie a couple of times, so they’ll know the sequence and the little quirks each one has.

I had my sister-in-law work with me a couple of weeks ago, a complete novice-never cleaned a window ever. By the end of the 2nd day she had it down. I’d have been happy to let her do those customers again on her own. Squeegeeing is a skill. Waterfed pole is just a method, anyone can learn it.

And if it’s not completely perfect, well it’s window cleaning, nobody will die. The worst that can happen is the odd window isn’t quite up to standard, no big deal.

I’m not worried about customers complaining or losing some. For a start, I’ve made plenty of errors over the years, missing windows when my minds wandered, doing the wrong house, billing for houses that weren’t actually done (and vice versa) etc etc. Nobody has ever complained about it. People just don’t care that much.

I think you have to trust people eventually or else you’ll never be able to grow.

And if the worst case scenario happens and I lose some, I don’t care. Customers are easy to replace, and if losing some is the cost of growth then so be it.

Yes losing big ones can leave a bit of a gap to fill, but most of my larger ones (>£50) are commercial anyway, and they NEVER complain.

[Smudger]

I would just be reluctant to put any newbie on my work in a van on their own tbh for quiet a while,maybe it’s different if he’s in a van on his own half a mile away doing a group of houses that you can nip to if there’s any problems it’s a difficult one depends what type of work it is.
Some jobs you can take losing but some hurt if you lose em and especially if it’s down to someone not quiet knowing what they are doing due to inexperience.

Fair comment, but I’m not sure what problems there would be? I’ll be cleaning the exact properties with my newbie a couple of times, so they’ll know the sequence and the little quirks each one has.

I had my sister-in-law work with me a couple of weeks ago, a complete novice-never cleaned a window ever. By the end of the 2nd day she had it down. I’d have been happy to let her do those customers again on her own. Squeegeeing is a skill. Waterfed pole is just a method, anyone can learn it.

And if it’s not completely perfect, well it’s window cleaning, nobody will die. The worst that can happen is the odd window isn’t quite up to standard, no big deal.

I’m not worried about customers complaining or losing some. For a start, I’ve made plenty of errors over the years, missing windows when my minds wandered, doing the wrong house, billing for houses that weren’t actually done (and vice versa) etc etc. Nobody has ever complained about it. People just don’t care that much.. Thats a bit too blazay for me

I think you have to trust people eventually or else you’ll never be able to grow. True but some will never accept this

And if the worst case scenario happens and I lose some, I don’t care. Customers are easy to replace, and if losing some is the cost of growth then so be it.

Yes losing big ones can leave a bit of a gap to fill, but most of my larger ones (>£50) are commercial anyway, and they NEVER complain.

good post overall - I think you will do well whatever you decide

Darran

[KS Cleaning]

i just dont understand the guys that are always 2 or 3 weeks  late.....theres an extra 2 or 3 weeks of muck on the windows to clean off...you d be better off to sell some work and get round bang on time IMO .....

im a week late at present and some of my 4 weekly work(thats 5 weekly this time)are filthy.......

I agree and it’s exactly what I do. Absolutely no point having too much work unless in the near future you are planning on employing or changing frequency. Other than that it makes more sense to cash in on any excess work.

[NWH]

You say it’s a method and it is I agree but I’ve seen some working when I’ve been out and about for years making it look a lot more difficult than it is,whoever you get they need to clean to your method as it’s tried and tested by you it’s easy to just think I can’t be bothered to keep checking their work but you need to.

[Stoots]

i just dont understand the guys that are always 2 or 3 weeks  late.....theres an extra 2 or 3 weeks of muck on the windows to clean off...you d be better off to sell some work and get round bang on time IMO .....

im a week late at present and some of my 4 weekly work(thats 5 weekly this time)are filthy.......

It's easily done. Have a weeks holiday you are a week behind. If you are full you will never catch up so any more down days and you get further and further behind.

That and it's hard to say no to new work so before you know it you have  400 , 500, 600 customers and towing your ballacks off.

[dazmond]

i just dont understand the guys that are always 2 or 3 weeks  late.....theres an extra 2 or 3 weeks of muck on the windows to clean off...you d be better off to sell some work and get round bang on time IMO .....

im a week late at present and some of my 4 weekly work(thats 5 weekly this time)are filthy.......

It's easily done. Have a weeks holiday you are a week behind. If you are full you will never catch up so any more down days and you get further and further behind.

That and it's hard to say no to new work so before you know it you have  400 , 500, 600 customers and towing your ballacks off.

i dont advertise(apart from my sign written van)so i only get a trickle of enquires all year round....most i dont  take on.....

i only have time off at xmas and maybe 2 holidays abroad most years so im bang on time most of the year

[NWH]

If you have too much work it allows you to put prices up on a regular basis without the worry of losing work,it also allows you to go longer between cleans to fit in maybe better more lucrative jobs Daz.

[NWH]

I would say to all those that get really peed off with this job go longer between cleans ok it’s still the same work but it doesn’t seem like you were there a couple of weeks ago.