[Oakley Windows]

He does indeed have most of the answers and he is also a funny combination. In the first place he's a natural, and in the second it didn't escape my notice that he took a really good mental kicking before his pride made him focus his fight back.

Theory says that in the current climate we should cut costs, go for volume, and offer luzury.His offer Is simple direct and especialy good on luzury.

Who are you talking about here?

[peter holley]

i advertidsed in a local mag a few months ago £50... i had enough calls to pay for the add... and dont forget those jobs will be done every month
 
i agree with ewan help (i cxant believe it) invest now and the money will come later....

[peter holley]

So what do you mean Ewan when you say nothing wrong with 80% increase over 2 years but ridiculous to increase income by 25-30% over 1 year?

no.no..... matt has apln




Read your own post matt, I beginning to think you don’t understand what you have just written.

Business is more standardised than you obviously don’t realise, it’s the people that vary so much. Putting there own personal views on it when they shouldn’t, because business is almost always something outside of them.

Like I have posted before it’s there ego they talk about not business.

Matt I’m not having a go at you.

Ewan what I said was my income in the last 12 months had gone up by 50%, which it has, and Im hoping/expecting and planning it go up by 25-30% in the next 12 months.

Explain your comments please as you have said I dont understand what Im saying.

I don’t know how long you have been window cleaning, but those percentages are big on there own.

Especially with not even having any sort of plan.

no no matt has a plan , and its working , thats why he is hoping that his  plan will continue to work!
if something is working .... stick to it.....goood for you matt!

[Clive McDonald]

he includes cons gutters as standard

[Clive McDonald]

never been afraid to make a fool of myself, and if i don't know i'll ask.

Nathaneal i think you are being a little unkind, by digging at you i helped you a great deal.The website has been a failure and i am trying to address that.

[Oakley Windows]

So what do you mean Ewan when you say nothing wrong with 80% increase over 2 years but ridiculous to increase income by 25-30% over 1 year?

Read your own post matt, I beginning to think you don’t understand what you have just written.

Business is more standardised than you obviously don’t realise, it’s the people that vary so much. Putting there own personal views on it when they shouldn’t, because business is almost always something outside of them.

Like I have posted before it’s there ego they talk about not business.

Matt I’m not having a go at you.

Ewan what I said was my income in the last 12 months had gone up by 50%, which it has, and Im hoping/expecting and planning it go up by 25-30% in the next 12 months.

Explain your comments please as you have said I dont understand what Im saying.

I don’t know how long you have been window cleaning, but those percentages are big on there own.

Especially with not even having any sort of plan.

Ive been window cleaning for over 10 years.

Just because you may or may not understand my working strategy doesnt mean :

a. that it doesnt work

b. that my figures Im quoting are

big

to you one minute and

nothing wrong with that

the next

c. I personally feel you abhore and critiscise those that appear to be a success by keeping their strategy simple because it dispenses with the need to complicate things. You think there is a magic formula (even if you havent found it yet) out there, and hate the thought that anyone with the slightest ounce of common sense and nouce can actually figure it out.

I have got  a plan Ewan, you just cant see it or havent figured it out yet; despite being told it on numerous occasions.

[peter holley]

i advertidsed in a local mag a few months ago £50... i had enough calls to pay for the add... and dont forget those jobs will be done every month
 
i agree with ewan help (i cxant believe it) invest now and the money will come later....

So how many customers do you think you will get from the add?

24 a year.....

[Mike 108]

Matt (Oakley)

I can’t believe that you are still being drawn into ludicrous arguments/discussions with the same silly/mixed up/unable to express themselves properly people who seem to post on here because they’ve nothing better to do with their time.

Ignore them.

This forum is great for exchanging ideas and getting advice but it is being hijacked by people who like ‘listening to their own voice’.

Let’s get back to how it used to be –

A person asks for advice,
Other people offer advice,
The person who asked then considers the advice,
He then ‘takes it or leaves it’.

And if anyone really trusts someone – talk to them directly!!

Mike

[Nathanael Jones]

never been afraid to make a fool of myself, and if i don't know i'll ask.

Nathaneal i think you are being a little unkind, by digging at you i helped you a great deal.The website has been a failure and i am trying to address that.

Not trying to be unkind Clive,.. just thought you were going to address this months ago! You've always been very pro-active on marketing and I think its a shame that such a valuable marketing too has been allowed to lapse,... especially when you're starting threads like this!!
That and I'm a bit bored,.. nowt on tv tonight!

 

[Oakley Windows]

Matt (Oakley)

I can’t believe that you are still being drawn into ludicrous arguments/discussions with the same silly/mixed up/unable to express themselves properly people who seem to post on here because they’ve nothing better to do with their time.

Ignore them.

This forum is great for exchanging ideas and getting advice but it is being hijacked by people who like ‘listening to their own voice’.

Let’s get back to how it used to be –

A person asks for advice,
Other people offer advice,
The person who asked then considers the advice,
He then ‘takes it or leaves it’.

And if anyone really trusts someone – talk to them directly!!

Mike

I will consider your advice : thankyou.

I think you have a point worth considering.

Cheers.

EDIT: I now have a new New Years Resolution 

Thanks Mike

[matt]

That's good info Matt why should I put you down. I must admitt i didn't expect you to be good at this side of things but your thoughts are coherent and make sense.

I will be pinching this idea pretty much as you descirbe it whole.

To labour the point i did jump to the wrong conclusion when you said new work would be by recomendation only.This is probably the little bit of inspiration i needed and extremly clever.Thanks for that.

FTP and P Holey, i agree but my work is very spread out. Matt's reply gives me a chance to address this. Ewan, yes I do but some of it has been wrong, that's why I am re examining.(to confound newbs 350 with a george of over five)

to be honest clive, i wasnt expecting a put down from you  , i was expecting a " shows how much you know about marketing , you simple dont understand it " reply from ewan, he does seem to like that phrase " you simple dont understand it ", have you noticed

i know my marketing isnt straight from alastair campbell's school, but its simple and its worked well for me, i looked at the work i had bought from the guy who retired and i decided that if i was to maximize the full earning potential of the round, i needed to fill in the gaps, i did 

[matt]

Matt (Oakley)

I can’t believe that you are still being drawn into ludicrous arguments/discussions with the same silly/mixed up/unable to express themselves properly people who seem to post on here because they’ve nothing better to do with their time.

Ignore them.

This forum is great for exchanging ideas and getting advice but it is being hijacked by people who like ‘listening to their own voice’.

Let’s get back to how it used to be –

A person asks for advice,
Other people offer advice,
The person who asked then considers the advice,
He then ‘takes it or leaves it’.

And if anyone really trusts someone – talk to them directly!!

Mike

I will consider your advice : thankyou.

I think you have a point worth considering.

Cheers.

EDIT: I now have a new New Years Resolution 

Thanks Mike

i try to do this aswell , but when i see idiotic posts that are just wrong, i have to reply, even to some of the riddle politician posts

[matt]

people ask for advice

people give advice

person who asked for advice, reads the advise given from the people who have given it, then they decide on what advise to use

its a discussion forum

you simple dont understand it do you  : : :

[Niall McAllister]

I have a simple plan at the momment.

 Head down and batter on the work will speak for itself.
so far, so good.
Niall

[pingu]

Getting back to Marketing...I think a plan evolves rather than is set in stone.

Sometimes getting someone else to do your marketing i.e yellow pages, 3rd party door knockers, leafleters is the best way forward ...but on the flip side it can be expensive and the end result may not justify the cost.

Personally leaflets have worked and worked well...when I first started my Dutch was not well enough to door knock and as such I have relied on leaflets....

But in order to guage whether 'your' plan is working you need to know exactly down to the hour/penny what income is being generated/lost.

Whether your a newb like myself in the 1st couple of years or a seasoned swamp dog...marketing is key...

I think some dislike the word 'Marketing' as it does sound like the type of things bigger companies do...but Marketing is down to the small things like shining your boots before work and smiling at your customers.

Marketing is king....

Oh...be nice to each other

Dave.

[simonwonder]

if someone showed you a way to do things differently to increase your profit and you could do this thing everyday and always have great returns for your money and effort it has got to be good .
no good just increasing turnover if it costs you most of the increase to get this increase .
if you increase turnover by 20k pa  but to do that it costs you 15kpa youve only gained 5 kpa
if you can increase by 10kpa and it only costs you 1.5kpa you have a larger profit having spent less.
you cant spend turnover , you can spend profit 

[matt]

Yes I do understand that some think because they have been doing the job for years they won’t entertain the fact that any doing the job for a brief time might be able to contribute something.

Hate to say this under these circumstances but I’m doing better than some who have been at this game a lot longer than me.

I’m not bragging or trying to insult, it just might true, but I can’t help it if that doesn’t sit well with some.

I found this all very (relatively) easy because I have been in business before, but I’m not so arrogant because I know there’s still a lot to do.

To here people post about something I know and understand to be wrong, I will comment.

But in all your time its never occured to you that someone whos been doing this longer than you might have more to offer in experience than you.

You do yourself or this forum no favours, you cause ill-feeling, aggravation, discontentment, and for the sole purpose of god knows what, but its egotistical, arrogant and self-obsessed.

However, you say others on here are arrogant. I have to say that I dont think Ive ever met someone as arrogant, cocky and so self-important as yourself. Its not surprising youre doing better than some on here, theres plenty of idiot window-cleaners out there. But I'd say from what Ive read about you in your posts that your achievements in businesss are no better than average/mediocre. No reason to shout about or make out your better than others.

My suggestion to you you sad little man (because like it or not, that is what you are) you sit back, shut up, and absorb what is said on here; learn from it, take it away, put it into practice and shut up some more. Because at this rate your making lots of enemies.

thats advise he will simply not understand 

[Clive McDonald]

What about setting a budget, or reveiwing last years budget? I'm surpirised bawc didn't think this might be a part of any plan.
Mine is something like.
website hosting £50
directory 3 times £100
Parish mag £54 times four
other parish mag £10 times four
10,000 leaflets £160

I make that about £700 and some things worked better than others.

[ftp]

Crikey Discount, that's a lot of money for a sole trader. Maybe i've just been lucky. I've never spent on leaflets - just a few single colour ones rattled off my printer in the first few weeks. I did stretch to £30 for an ad in one of those Thompson Local type books. And i had to spend £5 for a domain name (gave the lad some beer money to build a website) that's it really. A few buisiness cards £12. I'm getting close to full capacity now and work is still coming in.
How many jobs do you think 10,000 leaflets brought in? (i posted about a local cleaner getting one job not far from me).
Note, i'm not having a go at you.

[Rob.Hall]

When I was looking at leflet dropping years ago in another field, the ratio was 1-3 persons to every 10,000 leflets dropped.

This was the norm then for most industries.

I think window cleaning does differ though.

Personally my customers are my best marketing tool. Second is face to face contact. More people want windows cleaned when they can see who is at the end of the flier. they judge you on the spot and if happy will take you on.