[cozy]

Think you've scored there Tosh

[leapstallbuildings]

Well done to Ian! I wish you a long and happy retirement. I hope you and your family are well and healthy as in my view there is nothing more valuable.

My father had a comfy "middle class" "middle management" * accountant's job. He came from the poorest of backgrounds with his father (shell-shocked, heavy drinking WW1 trenches veteran) unable to afford the rent on a two bed terrace and having to move into a riverside hovel with oil lamps and occasional flooding. He (Dad) came out of the forces, went to night school, qualified as an accountant and retired from his *mc, mm, accountant's job at 62 and was dead at 65 ... ho hum.

My father in law was an indentured printer, left the print and worked on shifts in a chemical factory and retired on disability at 62, got his comfy works pension at 65 and was dead at 66. See a pattern here?

Unlucky things happen but in their cases I beleive their incredibly stressful lives (for different reasons) hastened their demise.

So when I was able to sell up my shares from a struggling office equipment business I was restricted by covenant as to what I could do and did a bit of selling and a bit of window cleaning. The rest is history and if a custy asks (usually quizzically rather than snobbily) why I went window cleaning I give them the long or short version of the above story. Basically a stress free "steady" income, with no boss other than myself or my circumstances.

But above all I have been blessed with general good health (so far) for me and my family. It is partly luck but after conscientiously deciding to reduce stress in my working and religious life I have improved immeasurably. (What I don't tell custies is that the shaping of my religious background also had a lot to do with my career path - leapstall will understand - and when I bought into it hook line and sinker with every fibre of my being in my teens and twenties, well looking back that was pretty stressful too!  )

Well that was cathartic on a rainy morn, but it's passed over so off to work! 

Understood totally Malc (Gold).  Although it is probably unintended, a lot of pressure can be brought to bear.  It's perfectly possible to keep good standards without allowing more zealous ones to hint that whatever one does it's never quite enough.  Indeed, I feel that for many (possibly yourself included) it's easier to maintain those standards without the pressure.  It's been good for me to read some of your posts Malc as it has helped to start shifting some old stereotypical thinking of mine.  Without going into details, I have an idea that you will understand a bit about where I'm coming from.

[Tosh]

Let me fix that for you:

tosh whos the bloke in your pic??he looks sexy

 

[leapstallbuildings]

wow how can you get all that from window cleaning.all i got is a room in my dads house and i struggle to pay rent to him.i have a big round at 300 a week hopeing to get 500 if canvassers do work for me i do have a nice car though my focus rs but even that i didnt get through windowcleaning.oh well i dont like people who think they are the big i am anyway.i have had that all my life with bullys about my weight and hair.so what if your good looking,rich have a big house,sexy lovely girlfriend to hold each night,its all good if you dont brag and put down others that dont.im not saying you are doing that just seems pointless you telling the world how great your doing from cleaning windows.

I really think you've got Ian wrong here W C Best.  I've met him several times.  He's one of those really decent, genuine, helpful guys and the world would be a better place if there were more like him.  I know, it's easy to misunderstand the tone of someone's post when you only have the written word to go on.

[JRDEasiReach]

I couldn't care less if someone I don't know looks down on me for being a window cleaner. The people that matter in my life, my family and friends are realy supportive of what I'm doing(well at least to my face).
Once my rounds built and I'm earning a decent living, who cares what others think

I know for a fact certain people even members of my own family are scoffing behind my back that i am a window cleaner now, oh but i long for the day when i can pay the bills etc, at home and the business and still have money left over and all for working half the hours they work in the week.  Thank God for this forum as each any every one of us drive each other on to succeed.  I feel like giving up the odd time but i know if i stick at it i will get there in the end, just takes time to get my name out there.  People now im sure are starting to see im regular so maybe word will spread more now.

[ronnie paton]

sean not got one yet pal why do yo need the use of one?

[Ian Lancaster]

Ian

surely you will still have to be involved in some capacity to keep the franchise ticking over ?

Of course

But I will still have loads of free time to do whatever I want without worrying about earning the next crust.

I wouldn't want to give up altogether, you hear so many horror stories about people who do just that and within a few months they're dead

I reckon Lise and I will spend maybe 8 or 10 hours a week keeping things 'ticking over' which is just about right, not exactly overdoing it, but still with our fingers on the pulse.

Lise's mum is 86, and her mum's boyfriend is 88 and still runs his own industrial door business - he reckons it's that which keeps him going.

I aim to beat him

[Ian Lancaster]

wow how can you get all that from window cleaning.all i got is a room in my dads house and i struggle to pay rent to him.i have a big round at 300 a week hopeing to get 500 if canvassers do work for me i do have a nice car though my focus rs but even that i didnt get through windowcleaning.oh well i dont like people who think they are the big i am anyway.i have had that all my life with bullys about my weight and hair.so what if your good looking,rich have a big house,sexy lovely girlfriend to hold each night,its all good if you dont brag and put down others that dont.im not saying you are doing that just seems pointless you telling the world how great your doing from cleaning windows.

"The 1 and only":

I'm not bragging, and I certainly don't intend to put anyone down.  What I've done anyone else can do, and much much more, and all from window cleaning.  Ask Glyn Howard of Omnipole, he built a brilliant window cleaning business long before he started the Omnipole business.  Ask Craig Mawlem of Ionics, he did the very same thing, he was phenominally successful long before he got into manufacturing and selling WFP equipment.

Obviously not everyone achieve millionaire status, but if you have drive and ambition, you can realise all your dreams through this business.  You say you have a 'big round' at 300 a week, I presume that's pounds, not houses?

Perhaps you don't charge enough for your services?  We have a minimum price of £10 per job and we have no shortage of work.

I promise all my franchisees that they will be given as much work as they want, up to £1,000  week if they want it.  Most settle for around the £800-900 mark.  If you want to know how I manage to acquire the work to satisfy them all, ask me - it's no big secret, just hard work.

There are lots and lots of people on here who have achieved this and much more, there's no reason why you shouldn't be one of them.

[cozy]

I know what the franchise concept is Ian, But how do you draw up the contract? Through a solicitor?

[Ian Lancaster]

I know what the franchise concept is Ian, But how do you draw up the contract? Through a solicitor?

I wrote my first one myself by thinking about it for a few years and asking the first couple of franchisees what they wanted me to include in it.  This year I went to a franchise solicitor and got her to formalise it  and iron out all the inconsistencies etc.  It ensures that the agreement is enforceable in law, there was a danger that a judge would have thrown mine out because parts of it weren't acceptable, so the whole thing could have been deemed unacceptable.

My new agreement protects both me and my franchisees in the unlikely event of a dispute.

[cozy]

Cheers Ian, it's a bit different over here with dom work, but still do-able. I like to think I'm pretty good at round building so I'll have a look at the concept for a German market. Thanks again.

[paulben]

Stigma just tell them you are your own boss start and stop when you like and days off without grovelling to boss its about job satisfaction ask them if they get that

[lee_dewing]

happy retirement Ian.

If you ever get  bored why not be a trouble shooter for struggling window cleaning business's,

could you put me on your list
  lee

[cozy]

Good point, why not do that? Hotel inspector made a mint with that.

[dai]

Ian posted an in depth account of his business methods about a year or two ago, I have great admiration for the man.
Most of us will build up a good round over the years, but what happens when we retire?
To pull in a pension of 40k, you would have to have a pot of around 750k to buy the annuity.
Ian found another way of doing it, he thought about it and did his homework.
Good luck to you Ian, you deserve it.

[AuRavelling79]

To leapstall - I think I do understand completely where you're coming from. And I find your posts helpful too.

Oh and Tosh, nice to think someone likes the look of your picture of your wife in your avatar! I'm 99.9% sure he's 'avin' a laff but there is that .1% that so wishes he wasn't!

[Tosh]

To leapstall - I think I do understand completely where you're coming from. And I find your posts helpful too.

Oh and Tosh, nice to think someone likes the look of your picture of your wife in your avatar! I'm 99.9% sure he's 'avin' a laff but there is that .1% that so wishes he wasn't!

Hey, I'm a good looking bloke, and like most of us here, he's only human!

 

[Steve CM]

Where my unit is there is a guy that sells welding equipment. He is 64 and says he wants to retire. He can afford to but is scared of his brain going to sleep!

Now he turns up when he wants. sells a bit here and there and TBH it looks like he is running his business into the ground.

I want to be in a house by the sea and have retired by the time I'm 50

will it happen? we'll see i guess but its something to aim for anyway

[Tosh]

I want to be in a house by the sea and have retired by the time I'm 50

Its funny really, but often when we get the things we want, we're never satisfied.  I'm in exactly the position I wanted to be in when I left the army seven years ago.

I wanted a nice house, a nice missis and to be self employed so no-one could mess me about. I've got all that, and much more, so I am at the plateau that I thought would make me happy seven years ago.

Am I really happy?  To be honest no.  I still want more, but its not things of a material nature I really want, though I wouldn't mind an X-box 360 and a better behaved dog.

[Steve CM]

I want to be in a house by the sea and have retired by the time I'm 50

Its funny really, but often when we get the things we want, we're never satisfied. 

That is normally the case and its happened to me with a few goals i've set