[steve m]

bucket with holes is, you wait till you get staff. Paid holiday, sickness to cover, and thats the good bits. Done it, been there, wont do it again

[gary evans]

Steve, got 5 already, hoping to double in next year.

Gary

[windowwashers]

Theres more to life than work and chasing the pound note

It's not often I disagree with Gordon, but this is one. If you are a driven personality with a desperate need to succeed then this effort level is the norm. Yes it leads to divorce and heart attacks but you are never going to know if you could have made it unless you try.

I have to agree with this, if you dont try you will always wonder, if you try and it does not work then at least you tried, I personally work 7 days a week and alot of hours a day, and have done for months, not good for family life I admit probably not good for my health, but I have to try harder as I want better for my family and kids and me.
you do have to take a few hours time out once a week just to clear your mind or just step back and reflect whats working and whats not.

some posted on here there is more to life than money and many people are rich and unhappy, I am not rich in money sence but do ok, I am 99% of the time a happy person. there is nothing wrong with wanting more this is human nature just some do not have the outlook and some just happy to plod along till they have to retire, hard work can payoff as long as your moving forward, my grandad worked all his life retired and still had to work becuase of money issues, hes now dead (bless him)
my dad works 6 days a week and I worry for him. I am not getting to over 50 with nothing just not an option this is the age I want to retire, or work for fun and not for the money.
I also want my kids to have a better start than I did, as did my dad did for me.


Going into one now so I will say one more thing and stop.

Effort now = rewards later


Ian

[Ian_Giles]

Mmm, effort in work is of course important, but no end of people work incredibly hard in whatever job they have.
I know of one window cleaner who works in and a bout a town called Lydney (for those of you local to the area) and he works 7 days a week, does loads of shops on a Sunday morning (any of you work local to Lydney you should be able to work out who I mean...talks a lot!!!) I guess he may well earn more than I do, but having seen some of his prices, even though he probably works 30% more hours than I do, I doubt it somehow.

The idea is to work smarter, not harder...er...except of course to do so you have to work hard at it!

If you have the wherewithal you will do well, the sky's the limit, but you need man management skills, sharp business acumen and the ability to delegate.

I know of another window cleaner (used to work for me, name of Ollie) and he will slave away in all weathers (well, he would if him and his partner worked in the rain!) He's like a metronome, he just keeps going and going and he is good at his job too, but for all his hard work he will never really get anywhere, which isn't meant as an insult to him, many of us are similar.

On the other forum there was a chap (bristol area) who hadn't been window cleaning that long - I think he was in marketing in some way prior to window cleaning - No idea how he is doing now but I have a feeling he will be doing very well indeed, he'd only been going a few months and he was already employing staff....

For myself?
I'm a 5 day week man, after winding my business down to about 2 and a half days just prior to going WFP, I am now worrying about being able to get around my round on time.
I'm kind of content where I am, I'm almost tempted to push and grow further...almost, but not quite!

Ian

[elite mike]

quote from ian
I know of one window cleaner who works in and a bout a town called Lydney (for those of you local to the area) and he works 7 days a week, does loads of shops on a Sunday morning (any of you work local to Lydney you should be able to work out who I mean...talks a lot!!!) I guess he may well earn more than I do, but having seen some of his prices, even though he probably works 30% more hours than I do, I doubt it somehow.

hi ian i know this guy as well ,and as you know he tends to stretch it a bit ??
also to be seen in the pub a bit.
i was doihg a shop one day ,and he asked me to lend him some rubber & soap to save him going back to the car
whitch i did,  the fpllowing week i went to clean the same shop,and  he had gone and under cut me by a pound a clean ??
nice of him ehh
mike

[steve m]

hi all, back in after work


I said it before and I'll say it again, being self employed to me means woring as little as possible for as much as possible for as little time as possible. You can work all the hours you want, but most people out there working straight days like you was to pay for divorce bills or CSA payments. And they got that way working 20 straight days all the time