Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: James Styles on April 03, 2020, 08:33:39 pm
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Do you guys have, roughly, just out of interest lol I have about 110, about 30% on 4 weekly & 70% every 8 weeks, 60% of my round are messers though.
I’m determined once this virus passes to make my round a lot better.
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Around 400 at the moment should be more but can go chasing work at the moment to replace winter drop outs
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514 as of today
I expect that to drop over the next few months but i probably have 50 more than i really need, im usually behind schedule.
about 65% 4 weekly to 35% 8 weekly
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Do you guys have, roughly, just out of interest lol I have about 110, about 30% on 4 weekly & 70% every 8 weeks, 60% of my round are messers though.
I’m determined once this virus passes to make my round a lot better.
66 residential 4 weekly
Earlier this year before Covid 19 hit I dropped 10 ladder jobs and 5 messers, really bad payers that needed chasing time and time again. Also dropped 3 elderly who I felt were suffering from dementia and did not know the value of money in case I was ever blamed for money missing.
Loads of window cleaners around here and I live in a village so also go to surrounding villages.
I had some commercial work which was about 30% of my income but that has stopped.
Last year I did a few FSG and Conservatory roofs, none this year so far.
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Do you guys have, roughly, just out of interest lol I have about 110, about 30% on 4 weekly & 70% every 8 weeks, 60% of my round are messers though.
I’m determined once this virus passes to make my round a lot better.
James,
If you can, try and focus on quality not quantity...
Try and get higher priced more lucrative work.
It might take a bit longer to build up but its well worth it in the end.
Andy :)
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About 100 residential, mostly monthly. ‘Hand picked’ with good prices, as I don’t rely on domestic work. I choose the cream of the crop.
And a big big chunk of commercial. Ranging from huge energy company head office's, to car show rooms, apartment blocks and right down to pubs, small businesses and estate agents.
This is why I’ve been affected by the lockdown, a lot of my commercial has been paused.
Hey ho!
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102 domestics (4 and 8 weekly) ranging from £12 to £180
22 commercial jobs ranging from £40 to £900
Also do a couple of once a year commercial jobs at £1500, £800, £650 and average around £450 month in one offs.
Quality not quantity with my work, although I was going to have a big push on domestics this spring, looking to add another 50 or so to the round.
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102 domestics (4 and 8 weekly) ranging from £12 to £180
22 commercial jobs ranging from £40 to £900
Also do a couple of once a year commercial jobs at £1500, £800, £650 and average around £450 month in one offs.
Quality not quantity with my work, although I was going to have a big push on domestics this spring, looking to add another 50 or so to the round.
Deegee we are almost identical in our work. I also have a couple of those once a year giant cleans. All the exterior. One is £1350 and one is £2250.
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102 domestics (4 and 8 weekly) ranging from £12 to £180
22 commercial jobs ranging from £40 to £900
Also do a couple of once a year commercial jobs at £1500, £800, £650 and average around £450 month in one offs.
Quality not quantity with my work, although I was going to have a big push on domestics this spring, looking to add another 50 or so to the round.
deeege,
Will you still try and push for more domestics, or not at the moment because of the Coronavirus situation?
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102 domestics (4 and 8 weekly) ranging from £12 to £180
22 commercial jobs ranging from £40 to £900
Also do a couple of once a year commercial jobs at £1500, £800, £650 and average around £450 month in one offs.
Quality not quantity with my work, although I was going to have a big push on domestics this spring, looking to add another 50 or so to the round.
Deegee we are almost identical in our work. I also have a couple of those once a year giant cleans. All the exterior. One is £1350 and one is £2250.
I posted at the same time as you, i also thought how similar our work was. 👍
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102 domestics (4 and 8 weekly) ranging from £12 to £180
22 commercial jobs ranging from £40 to £900
Also do a couple of once a year commercial jobs at £1500, £800, £650 and average around £450 month in one offs.
Quality not quantity with my work, although I was going to have a big push on domestics this spring, looking to add another 50 or so to the round.
deeege,
Will you still try and push for more domestics, or not at the moment because of the Coronavirus situation?
Suppose it depends. If we return to anything like normality anytime before July then I’ll still have a push, if not I’ll wait until next spring.
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Dont get too hung up on these types of figures and stop comparing to others. Many on here have been doing this for many years James.
I dont count the number of jobs I have, but more on the value of jobs I have. Some days I will only clean say ten houses and Ive made as much money cleaning for a full day etc.
An advantage of working during this is that people are in and rather than saying "we never see a window cleaner 😁" will obviously see loads now and come and ask.
However flip side is, they may be from the "1 off brigade" so its up to you if you want to take them on or not. Yet being in during the day, people will notice their windows more and be wanting them cleaned often.
For me, im running late with isolation n normal family health issues, so for now I am concentrating on just getting back on track. Which I virtually am at the moment unless things change (which currently they tend to do at the moment).
The things is, at the moment there is no certainty on anything. Yesterday I was speaking to a chap, who had a phone call not long before I turned up. Being told the company he works for is now closing down and laying people of. So for now, people may have money for window cleaning but next month might be tight for some. Take a day at a time and stay safe.
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I agree with that a lot of weeks I’ll clean 25 houses,most weeks it can be less
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As of 22nd of march about 4000 - 90% residential.
As of today? Who knows.
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102 domestics (4 and 8 weekly) ranging from £12 to £180
22 commercial jobs ranging from £40 to £900
Also do a couple of once a year commercial jobs at £1500, £800, £650 and average around £450 month in one offs.
Quality not quantity with my work, although I was going to have a big push on domestics this spring, looking to add another 50 or so to the round.
Deegee we are almost identical in our work. I also have a couple of those once a year giant cleans. All the exterior. One is £1350 and one is £2250.
I posted at the same time as you, i also thought how similar our work was. 👍
I love the work I have, I love the balance. But, admittedly it will have a greater effect on us than those with massive residential rounds.
The money per hour earned on commercial is far superior, for example I clean a posh apartment block every 3 months for £519, i clean it from 8am-1pm, done!
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I have 341 at the moment...a mixture of 4,8,6,12 weekly,mostly domestics with around 25 commercial jobs,a church,a regular artwork clean and a few annual/bi annual jobs.....
I personally prefer having mostly domestic jobs on my books then if i lose the odd account here and there it doesn't hurt too much......
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Il let you know how many I have left when I go back to work :D
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102 domestics (4 and 8 weekly) ranging from £12 to £180
22 commercial jobs ranging from £40 to £900
Also do a couple of once a year commercial jobs at £1500, £800, £650 and average around £450 month in one offs.
Quality not quantity with my work, although I was going to have a big push on domestics this spring, looking to add another 50 or so to the round.
Deegee we are almost identical in our work. I also have a couple of those once a year giant cleans. All the exterior. One is £1350 and one is £2250.
I posted at the same time as you, i also thought how similar our work was. 👍
I love the work I have, I love the balance. But, admittedly it will have a greater effect on us than those with massive residential rounds.
The money per hour earned on commercial is far superior, for example I clean a posh apartment block every 3 months for £519, i clean it from 8am-1pm, done!
Completely agree about loving the work/balance. I’ve been cleaning a block of 16 sheltered accomadation apartments for over 6 years now, price is £230 monthly, done in 2 hours and that’s taking my time. If only every day was like that though 😂
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Who likes lots of commercial lol must be mad at the moment or when they get round to going back to work it’ll be on hold at best or it will be when they look into the finances,I do a block of old peoples accommodation it’s been out on hold at the moment due to this Virus.
Tbh as far as commercial goes this is as commercial as I’d want to go anytime soon,obviously commercial work will come up again but I can only see it being more competitive therefore driving prices down yet again.
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I once got offered a 50 grand a year contract, my sister in law worked for a big housing association turned it down and a good job i did as she left a year later couldn't be arsed trying to get the contract every three years thats the problem with big commercial contracts if you get them its not guaranteed where as residential is your bread and butter ,as some say on here once you have a big round you can pic the cream of the crop
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A mate of mine has 3 days a month doing sheltered housing complex . They have paused it , also told him when everything gets back to normal , he will have to reapply . Putting back out to tender . And they y will be cutting costs massively .
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I’ve just signed and got another 1 they won’t run out of money either which is good,if I had big commercial I would make sure I’ve got enough if it poured not just the odd rainy day.
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A mate of mine has 3 days a month doing sheltered housing complex . They have paused it , also told him when everything gets back to normal , he will have to reapply . Putting back out to tender . And they y will be cutting costs massively .
This is why i dont bother with commercial, they are cut throat, with domestic at least you can develop a bit of loyality
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This is why i dont bother with commercial, they are cut throat, with domestic at least you can develop a bit of loyality
You can with commercial jobs too. It just all depends.
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It depends,
Not one of my commercial is on ‘contract’ it’s all through estate management companies or private companies. I’ve never ever lost a commercial job. They just keep rolling on. You also end up getting a good reputation with them, and a good relationship, which almost always equals repeat business.
I did once have a council contract, I lost it after 3 years. That’s the only contract job I’ve ever had.
I wouldn’t want lots of contracted jobs. But what I have at the moment is just rolling repeat work, with no losses.
So it does really depend what type of commercial you do...
I would say that you really can make a very very good wage out of commercial, I love it.
Still, totally except that a good residential round is also great in many ways 👍🏼
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This is why i dont bother with commercial, they are cut throat, with domestic at least you can develop a bit of loyality
You can with commercial jobs too. It just all depends.
I’ve had this too the only way you can develop any loyalty whatsoever is if you know the person that owns the company,I’ve also been lucky enough at the moment to have this.
If I didn’t have this relationship with him I would have lost the contract 2-3 weeks ago we had a chat and he agreed people need to try and push on afterwards and spend money,if people don’t start spending money we will all be in trouble this money people have been given from the government is not only so help keep a roof over your head it’s so you can pay bills and keep spending.
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Most of my commercial is also stuff that just rolls along. People say that it’s cut throat blah blah that just isn’t the case.
Cleaning the externals on a 80 person office who’s business is pharmaceutical or nuclear industry related, once a month for £180, it just isn’t cutthroat. I’m never going to be replaced by someone who will do the work for £50 less, it doesn’t happen. This type of work makes up a good percentage of my income and I love it.
National retail work may be cutthroat but don’t assume that all commercial work is the same.
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I clean an undertakers, and the chapel of rest, along with the separate high st shop
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I've never really come across any commercial work. Done a handful in the past and they were enough to put me off. Wanting a cheap price and expectations far too high. Take weeks or months to pay as well.
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I've never really come across any commercial work. Done a handful in the past and they were enough to put me off. Wanting a cheap price and expectations far too high. Take weeks or months to pay as well.
You’ve had bad experiences Adam, which is a shame.
Put it this way, when I get an email/phone call from a new commercial ‘client’ wanting a quote for said building, my face lights up like a 9000w led bulb.
It’s just so well paying.
I’ve the same experience as Deegee, no cut throat issues, not even once.
I guess things like chain restaurants etc, that’s possibly more cut throat...
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150 domestic jobs
10 commercial jobs
One office cleaning contract.
All priced well
That’s enough for me and to date haven’t lost any yet.
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I've never really come across any commercial work. Done a handful in the past and they were enough to put me off. Wanting a cheap price and expectations far too high. Take weeks or months to pay as well.
You’ve had bad experiences Adam, which is a shame.
Put it this way, when I get an email/phone call from a new commercial ‘client’ wanting a quote for said building, my face lights up like a 9000w led bulb.
It’s just so well paying.
I’ve the same experience as Deegee, no cut throat issues, not even once.
I guess things like chain restaurants etc, that’s possibly more cut throat...
Ineed Commercial work is very profitable you can also top the invoice up with VAT you just need to make sure you are clear with your payment terms.
Send the quotation off with a net payment of 10 days from work completion. Put it in writing and ask them to respond.
In regard to how many customers it's more about monthly gross income
having a few Commercials that are big and 200 houses could add up more then adequate for a single user on the other hand 400 to 500 good regular customers average prices should be enough to keep you busy.
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Give or take I have around 180-185 customers. This does include a few bad ones close to being dropped though plus a handful whom I only do every 12 weeks or 2 or 3 times a year when they contact me. It's pretty much all residential as I only have 2 commercial jobs (bingo hall and a small hair salon).
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In approximately 17 years in the job I have never counted them. I have never known how many customers I have had from the start to this day. Quantity isn't the important factor for me.
To quote a klond ike legend, and a very successful one at that "it's not about how much gold you get out of the ground, but only how much of that gold YOU get to keep"
That's pretty much sums it up.👍££
Don't get fixated on less relevant matters.
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Same as that Peavey I’ve never known how many customers I’ve had still don’t I’ve never bothered to count them up,at the end of the day like you say the amount of customers you have is irrelevant.
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Do you guys have, roughly, just out of interest lol I have about 110, about 30% on 4 weekly & 70% every 8 weeks, 60% of my round are messers though.
I’m determined once this virus passes to make my round a lot better.
The number of customers isn’t the important thing you could have a 1000 customers at a £1 per job or you could have a 1000 at £50 per job I know which I would want .
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As of 22nd of march about 4000 - 90% residential.
As of today? Who knows.
Do you text them all, the night before?
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As of 22nd of march about 4000 - 90% residential.
As of today? Who knows.
Do you text them all, the night before?
No. Only the ones that request it.
When we eventually get back to work I'll be texting everybody that I have numbers for.
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I’m carrying on as normal now only texting customers I usually would do anyway,not had 1 try to as people say skip a clean because of this.
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In approximately 17 years in the job I have never counted them. I have never known how many customers I have had from the start to this day. Quantity isn't the important factor for me.
To quote a klond ike legend, and a very successful one at that "it's not about how much gold you get out of the ground, but only how much of that gold YOU get to keep"
That's pretty much sums it up.👍££
Don't get fixated on less relevant matters.
how can you NOT know how many jobs you ve got on your books?,average job price,etc?it doesnt make sense.....also dont you know when you last put the price up of every single job on your round? ::)roll
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It’s easy enough to work out your average price you are just taking an average of how many jobs you do a week and dividing that by what you normally take,give or take if you do similar money most weeks.
The amount of houses-jobs is irrelevant it’s all about the prices per jobs,bigger the price less jobs to do for the same money you are doing having to knock out more work.
You can have and many will agree that you can have maybe 4-5 jobs and earn the same as a guy cleaning 40-50 jobs,and that’s domestics.
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In approximately 17 years in the job I have never counted them. I have never known how many customers I have had from the start to this day. Quantity isn't the important factor for me.
To quote a klond ike legend, and a very successful one at that "it's not about how much gold you get out of the ground, but only how much of that gold YOU get to keep"
That's pretty much sums it up.👍££
Don't get fixated on less relevant matters.
how can you NOT know how many jobs you ve got on your books?,average job price,etc?it doesnt make sense.....also dont you know when you last put the price up of every single job on your round? ::)roll
I haven’t got a clue how many customers we have. Why does it matter?
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I don’t know the exact amount Daz, I’m old school and don’t use any software at all.
It’s all on my iPhone in the ‘notes’ app.
Before that it was on paper in a diary!
I have no idea the exact amount, but as said in earlier post, around 100 domestics. With several commercial jobs which is the bulk of my income.
I think because my domestic round is relatively small, I haven’t been too bothered with figures or numbers. 8)
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I still use a diary 📔 I like to do what work I fancy within reason.
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I no every single customer why wouldn’t. You no how many customers
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I can remember talking to a guy about 5 years ago . He’d only been cleaning a couple of years . Worked with his cousin . He said I’ve got 7 rounds now . And we’re off to look at another one next week . And asked me how many I had . I replied I had 1 . He couldn’t believe it . Said you’ve been doing it years , and only got 1 round . Donut 🍩
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Makes me chuckle yeah m8 I’ve got 3 rounds 2 blokes out on the road blah blah blah,add up what they are turning over a month no more than a good single round with top notch work done by 1 bloke.
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In approximately 17 years in the job I have never counted them. I have never known how many customers I have had from the start to this day. Quantity isn't the important factor for me.
To quote a klond ike legend, and a very successful one at that "it's not about how much gold you get out of the ground, but only how much of that gold YOU get to keep"
That's pretty much sums it up.👍££
Don't get fixated on less relevant matters.
how can you NOT know how many jobs you ve got on your books?,average job price,etc?it doesnt make sense.....also dont you know when you last put the price up of every single job on your round? ::)roll
Because I've never counted them. Simple.
I know the price of every job I do because it's written on my worksheets. I know the price of 99%, if not 100% in my head anyway. I also know when and by how much plus who I have increased prices for. So, I still know everything else (obviously) bar the total amount customers that I have.
Which begs the question- what doesn't make sense to you?😁
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Not got a clue how many customers I have, all I know is it’s too many!
I could fire up cleaner planner and have a look I suppose, maybe work out my average price, how many I do a day etc etc. Can’t be arsed though, got better things to do.
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I like to see my round in its entirety.......jobs,prices,turnover,etc..its very easy to do with round software....