Rog has now made the change, and it is not just in his method of work either, his outlook has also changed.
He has now become more ambitious.
For a few months he is going to be earning not much more than before, but he is also going to be less tired at the end of the day, and as the weeks pass he will pick up more work.
Even without having his new van signed (he won't be able to afford it for a while) he is going to stand out and that alone will draw in more work.
He is an experienced trad window cleaner, he understands how to price things up, even if he only prices things up as he did before he is going to make more money, in particular on georgian and leaded work, suddenly these are no longer the kind of jobs you dread, or avoid pricing up.
Certain accounts he will be able to increase straight away, houses with conservatories for instance - he'll be able to do those impossible to clean windows over the top, and he can also offer to clean ALL of the conservatory (not the roof though) wash the UPVC down from the gutters to the sill.
This one is a real clincher, Rog has shown me a pic of a before and after clean he did on a conservatory, and he can now see for himself the staggering difference in finish.
There is hardly a day goes by where I don't get enquiries for work now, the same thing will slowly but surely begin to happen for Roger.
I'll agree with macmac that the van he is getting is larger than he needs for his CURRENT setup, but it is not much more expensive than a smaller van would be, and it gives him the capacity to 'Go Large'
He can't see it at the moment, but at some point he will want to increase the size of his tank for instance...
And don't forget, a big reason Rog has come over to the 'dark side' is because working trad has screwed up his shoulder.
I know Tony isn't a believer in using the superlite for the run of the mill work, but I have been using nothing else for the last two months and find it fantastic, Rog also needs to work as 'light' as he can due to his shoulder (and his back too), he hasn't got the full size superlite remember, and that was reflected in the cost.
As the Shiner has pointed out, he also has myself and Tosh to fall back on for hands on help or advice, and of course this forum for more general help.
As for his customers cancelling in droves..not likely, quite possibly he will lose a couple here and there, but he will also pick up more than he loses, and that's without any canvassing at all.
Squeaks mentioned above about an office where I now clean it in an hour and a half as against 3 hours (actually it was Rog that cleaned it in 3 hours, not me, on this particular one he was a good hour quicker than me, and most would take 5 hours to clean it too)
Well, after cleaning it WFP for the last 3 years, this week I found another little wrinkle or two that has let me shave a good ten minutes off the time taken.
To be honest, this is more because of the superlite, but I'm still kicking myself for the fact it's taken 3 years for it to dawn on me that I could change things slightly and make life even easier for myself.....actually, the superlite has also shaved off time purely becuase it is lighter and more rigid, thereby allowing me to work continuously without the need to rest.
As the saying goes, 'there is more than one way to skin a cat'
To use trendy speak, you have to 'think outside the box' Aproaching work as you would with a ladder isn't the way to do it.
Darren72 (why 72 by the way?) mentions about access problems.
He has a trolley system, but access makes it slower than trad, totally understandable too, kinda depends on the trolley system, but having a hose reel at the front with...say...30 or 40 metres of microbore fitted, might possibly have given him the scope to have done this work more efficiently with WFP.
A job I did today for instance, normally over an hours work, but I worked it differently today and saved myself over 20 minutes, been doing this one for over a year now too.
You have to keep thinking and being prepared to change what you do, sometimes the impossible becomes possible with only the smallest of changes...
Ian