[Sunshine/Cleaning]

What would you say were your worst headach's when you started up. Things you wish you had had some direction on?

Mine would be

1, Correct pricing. I started during the end of the last resession and priced to get numbers.
2, How to run a business. I didn't realise that not all the money I collected was mine, 1st Tax bill was a shock.
3, Motivation. So what's new!

[pingu]

Not really thinking about each job and the best way to clean it...

[gary999]

pricing jobs incorrectly then finding it took three times as long
to do

[simon knight]

Definately correct pricing. What I didn't realise was that if you price a house wrong then OK you can live with it...but when next door wants you to do hers as well you naturally have to price the same...and same for the house 2 along...etc

In the end you do half the street for the wrong money :

[pingu]

LOL got one of those....all are about 10 quid short...

[Clive McDonald]

I like this topic sunshine, it makes a cheerful change. in typical clueless startup fashion you've promised  us ten but only given us three examples. I like it that you didn't know about paying tax.

I found starting hard and came on to this forum.The biz prospered but i became addicted to the forum, so i would list forum addiction as one of my start up headaches.

[ftp]

Yep pricing pricing pricing.
Not knowing how to deal with the not today brigade.
Not having enough work to dump people.
Not realising the running costs involved in wfp.
Not being able to compact a round.
Not realising that national insurance wasn't as cheap as it first seemed.

Even in my third year i always underestimate the time and cost of most jobs especially conservatory cleans.

[Clive McDonald]

you need to work more as a team ftp. I can't invent everything so sometimes i have to listen to the advice of others. It doesn't really matter where an idea comes from.

[Sunshine/Cleaning]

I like this topic sunshine, it makes a cheerful change. in typical clueless startup fashion you've promised  us ten but only given us three examples. I like it that you didn't know about paying tax.

I found starting hard and came on to this forum.The biz prospered but i became addicted to the forum, so i would list forum addiction as one of my start up headaches.

Well I wouldn't want to dominate the conversation now would I. 

Maybe getting sidetracked by non productive things would be a good one to add, esp for slumpbuster!

I didn't even fill in a tax return the first year, they knew I was Self Employed and therefore sent an estimated bill for £3k, I nearly poo'd myself. I went to the CAB and they worked the figures out for me, final bill £200.

[NWH]

When i started on my own my man told me i would have no Tax to pay for the first 18 months but that dosen`t mean it`s free,when your first bill comes it will be enough for almost 2 Tax bills and this is what a lot of startups don`t realise.The advise i would give to a newbie that intends to stick at it would be that everytime you pay money into the bank transfer some into a seperate account for your Tax and don`t even think about it until the bill comes,stick away about 20-25% of what you pay in then you`ll have easily enough for your Tax + you`ll end up saving some,it`s an easy habit to get into doing everytime you bank and it will save you having to worry about Tax bills.

[Nathanael Jones]

Biggest headache? Working with my father in law starting out,... HUGE mistake. He's been a cleaner for 16 years so I assumed he knew what he was doing,.. took me 18 months to realise he'd under priced the majority of the work and actually dropped some of the best paying stuff in favour of his old school chums!!
NEVER work with family!!

[Clive McDonald]

Saw your pic nathan you look a big friendly guy. You are getting very good at websites.

[d s windowcleaning]

biggest headache for me was going from trad to wfp , i ended up so far behind on my round but i got there in the end only problem is that im now addicted to paracetamol 

[Nathanael Jones]

Saw your pic nathan you look a big friendly guy. You are getting very good at websites.

LOL,.. friendly most of the time,....

Like your new website BTW,.. very well laid out!