[DaveWilkinson]

How big do you think you could take domestic window cleaning, and how fast could it be done. Just a therotical question.

From what I have seen in this forum most people seem to have 1 or 2 man teams and when there rounds expand and there too busy they sell off the work.

I know alot of comercial cleaning contractors employ more staff but do you think it could be done on domestic side

[reah]

Surely it is down to the individual on how they see their business growing.
Some dream of owning empires some happy to be a one man business.
How quick you grow depends on how much you put in.

I ran a very large high street store one of the big ones as a senior manager and belive me once staff are involved its a nightmare.
I had 250 staff and 9 managers and hated every minute.

Reah

[DaveWilkinson]

Thanks for the reply, lots of reads but not many posts.

I've had a large business and agree staff are a nightmare, i had a plumbing business and had to turn down 2k of work every saturday morning because I couldnt get staff to work on weekends, now that hurts.

Theres also the problem of as soon as you get bigger than a 1 man outfit you actually have to get a very large amount of work tuned over before you make any money for yourself.

If i went out and did a good weeks graft plumbing (14 hour shifts) I could bring home 2k plus per week, if i sub contracted the work out I had to turnover 10k that week and I didnt earn anywhere near what I was when I was out on the tools.

I'm adicted to business building hence the topic

[Rob_Mac]

Dave

I am also addicted to business building and have been fortunate to have built a phenomenal window cleaning round that is expanding and growing beyond belief.

We have secured two contracts (commercial) in the last two weeks that will enable me to be able to create two new ventures through 2007 that will take the business to even greater heights.

I will be investing heavily in 2007 to train our small team in Rope Access and platforms.

I never allowed any one to steal my dreams and now I am living them.

Rob

[Pj]

I have in fact been ruling the world for the last 5 years, making a profit of 25 trillion a month, but, you know what?

I'm miserable

[Kev TWC]

hi dave have you got office finished yet

[DaveWilkinson]

I wish, got most of the stuff up there but needs alot of work, ie walls, floors, ceilings  and some of the stuff is just too big.

[j.v. price ltd]

J.V Price Ltd started 37 years ago doing domestics by Joe Price at the breaking point we had over 25 thousand houses and you learn a very quick lesson that if it is not you doing the work yourself or your not checking up on it all the time you are at the mersy of the lads you have working for you,

They leave and set up by them selves and go to their old round lie to the customers and take work from you or do the job a pound cheaper real silly stuff

I think it could be done just got to get the wright team of guys and then make it work for them to keep them keen.

We work all our domestics as sort of franchises the more jobs they do, the more new jobs they get the more they earn and show them how hard the business side of it is and they relise what a good deal they are getting.....

Good luck with your plans wish you all the succes...

[DaveWilkinson]

Thanks for the reply, I have been on both ends of going your own way, a few lads that worked for me went off on there own, but when I started I did the same, though in my trade we were not taking customers with us or calling on existing customers.

I have always payed well, way more than most of my competitors did, and it mostly worked, the only times it backfired on me was when the lads got lazy because they were earning a very good living and had so much more money for beer.

Thanks for wishing me luck, however it’s a bit premature as it was more a theoretical question, and I don’t have enough experience in the cleaning industry as yet. It’s just I’m not the type of person who could be happy building a business only to the point of keeping myself busy, for me the pleasure is not in earning the money, but the challenge of the development, but of course it has to be profitable.

[Templar]

All the start up books say - look for an industry in a period of change, which we have (H&S, WFP, A willingness of customers to pay by cheque or internet banking).
They also say look for a business that can expand. (cash rich, time poor, everybody has their windows done and no one -hardly anyone- wants to do it themselves).
Other posts have mentioned that this is not seen as a very sexy business, so most of the high flyers wouldn't really consider it, so there would appear that there is a window ( so to speak) of opportunity for someone with organisational skills.Personaly I think branding would also  play a very important part in any well thought out strategy as would be finding some way of locking those ever fickle customers in.
The other poster mentioned a 25,000 breaking point. My guess is that this was not natural but some change at the top of the business. It is phenenomal by any standards though, and the poster certainly knows far more about this subject than I ever will.
 
 

[S_RICHARDSON]

It also depends on your location. In some places a domestic house can be priced cheaply but in other places it can be quite dear because theres not a lot of competition !!

[window pain]

It also depends on your location. In some places a domestic house can be priced cheaply but in other places it can be quite dear because theres not a lot of competition !!

hi you mentioned location, do you think you would get higher prices in say west london than up north? 

[Templar]

I keep watching this topic hoping someone will have another comment to add because i think this is a very interesting subject and has so far been very well disscused.

I suppose though if you've been even halfway successful in this you could be accused of bragging, so i can see why some might have held back.

[DaveWilkinson]

Be interesting to see if one of the big plc companys come into it sometime, dynoclean ect i know there a few franchise companys out in the states have done it and to some extent in the uk but only on a commercial basis. Its just the pure volume of work available in the domestic side that interests me and the fact there isn't a brand name doing it yet, the first brand name domestic window cleaning co uk wide would meet some intersting challanges.

[D woods]

There is a guy called Paul Smith who goes on the other forum. He has launched
a franchise for domestic window cleaning that looks like it is going to be very
successful.

[poleman]

http://www.powerclenefranchising.co.uk/index.html

[DaveWilkinson]

I had noticed this a few months ago and it didnt do anything for me to be honest. It will take a while but once he gets enough coverage then he will be in a good position to take national commercial contracts and use the franchise members to fulfill them but I was thinking more along the lines of 1 company where as a  franchise is in reality a network of smaller companies trading under 1 brand name.

[Templar]

A scary thing would be if a large utility company like Anglia Water took it on, as they do with conservatories, and plumbing, and insuring your boiler etc. They would have access to customer details like address phone etc for phone canvassing using their respectability to gain trust and also able to bill using existing arrangments, but using mugs like us to fullfill the work on price via contracts.

The more I think about it the more I want to get myself a proper foothold because by many peoples standards this is a 'soft' industry with low 'churn' and good margins.

[DaveWilkinson]

Anglia water like just about every other water company offer the plumbing and boiler contracts through a company called homeserve, basisally they get into everything insurance related, they do plumbing,drainage,boliers,furnitue frames,argos products extended guarantees, windscreen replacment etc etc
apart from british gas who offered similar and contracted it to dyno group, and then bought dyno group there is no other real competion for them, if you see a insurance running for plumbing, drainage etc then you bet ya ass its a partner program through homeserve.

And they employ alot of there own people but the majority is sub contracted out at a ok price, its the quantity of work they can put your way that makes it worth working for them.

[j.v. price ltd]

Dave

Drop me an email with some contact details i think we should have a chat.

charlie@jvprice.co.uk