Well I had my first breakfast meeting this morning, it started with me being introduced to all the other members present followed by a cooked breakfast.
After breakfast each person in turn discusses what there business is about for 1 minute and explain to the others what kind of leads you are after, in my case I stated that I have so much domestic work (but would be prepared to take on more) I am really after more commercial work.
Each member then hands out referrals to the other members that they have gained for them in the past week and I was very impressed as to how many were handed out, I myself received 3 at my first meeting one of which was shop front cleaning for Staples on a monthly basis I called in to the store on my way home and got the contract there and then. The job is worth £35-00 for 10 mins work on the fronts, times this by 12 = £420 per year so by just that 1 referral I have covered the joining fee (£400) should I proceed to join up.
I also have the other 2 referrals which I need to follow up, on top of this, one of the members ask me if I would be prepared to travel as far away as Basingstoke (about 30 miles from me) I replied “only if the job was worth the drive” to which he replied
“I have to see a guy this week who runs an industrial unit and has 2 others besides and is looking for someone like you” so next week could be even better.
A couple of things I noted:
it was very informal
everyone was friendly and willing to help each other
1 guy turned up very scruffily dressed as he was a tree surgeon/gardener and he told me that since joining he has had 75 referrals all of which has landed him good jobs
another guy told me that he was a member of another chapter before moving and they had a window cleaner in their group, after a while he gained so much work from it that he stopped going to the meetings because he could not take anymore work on.
we all know that as window cleaners one part of the market place which is the hardest to get into is industrial, so as the saying goes
“it not what you know…….. it’s who you know”