Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: geefree on August 25, 2010, 10:52:16 pm
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Its a hard one , i need someone, i but i dont trust people, not in todays society,
Most kids are dead balls who only know how to grunt like a caveman,
the older people only want it as a stop gap!...
So how do you get your lads to clean say 20 houses per day when you are on holiday , for instance.?
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i too am looking for some one, had one lad last 5 hour before i sacked him, and any over 20 with kids are better off on the dole unless u pay them 500 a week
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Start by trusting them it's a two way street
If they don't do the job properly, get rid and start again
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I think a gut instinct is a good approach ...
Dave i understand where you are coming from and i know you are an employer,
but i am loathed to to give someone a start.
Her are my reasons: why guys dont respect the job.
1/... Its only window cleaning but i am working, and i will leave as soon as a real job comes along.
2/ " What ? you are working as a window cleaner lol ha hah... (soon the guy will walk as its not cool when your mates take the mick)
3/ can i still sign on?
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people dont respect us, they think we are all numpts who couldnt get a proper job, i got a bro in law whos a spark loads of qualifications, always working, i have a better hourly rate than him i woudl rather be classed as a numpty and have money than some of the people i know who have good jobs and cant afford to do any thing
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Do you know i had a customer who was an electrician, .. he said how much to clean ?i said 12 quid, he said ok but the last one was more and i degrudge paying a window cleaner more than i earn!
i told him that i had a busines to run, and i had a degree in business studies.
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I employ and I have people queing up! work is work, there are 3million people unemployed at the moment, if you want a proper employee then you need to give them a proper job, ie, training,contract,NI and tax paid, proper equipment, proper wage, and targets to work towards with money in their pocket as the goal, make them feel like its a job the same as any other and let them know your the boss and its my way or the highway.
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i know what u r saying lee, there is a lad in our village who i do the windows for and he got finished up from his job a few months ago, and say he has got more cash now on the dole than when he was work, as all his bill have been cut down to not working and he gets rent paid etc, his water bill has gone down from £15 per week to £3, only ele and gas is the same, every thing else has gone down, told me for him to get a job doing 40 hours a week he would need 30 grand a year as he gets 20 g a year now
so unless you want to pay top wack then you have either got to do it cash in hand or employ kids
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Start by trusting them it's a two way street
If they don't do the job properly, get rid and start again
dave you cud start trusting me with then n/wales boots lol ;) ;)
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yes they are queing up, i know that !
all idiots been sent from the dole office.who are doing there duty by turning up and turning down....
believe me , i would never take anyone from the dole/job centre office...
they are there for a reason... and its not work!!!!!
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i got offered a bloke of the dole for free for 4 weeks all i had to do was guarantee him 40 hours a week for the 4 weeks, but the people that are on this have been unemployed for over 6 months or they are trying to get them of the sick and dont really want to work, as i have found
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Like Dave said it's about trust and paying a fair wage,so they don't think you are taking the p.our guy cleans collects the money.he was doing trad before he came to us,I was scared stiff that he would go it alone with our work,yes we make good money out of him
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Some sound like they dont have the proper attitude to be an employer. The problem may start much closer to home.
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Its a hard one , i need someone, i but i dont trust people, not in todays society,
Most kids are dead balls who only know how to grunt like a caveman,
the older people only want it as a stop gap!...
So how do you get your lads to clean say 20 houses per day when you are on holiday , for instance.?
There is a wc local to me with this exact attitude, (i know coz I used to work for him)
He does not trust anyone, i was NEVER allowed to work on my own, even a guy who had been with him 10 years and worked his balls off was not trusted.
The "boss" is still going and is just a one man band. 20 years ago he was THE main wc in this area. by now he could have had a half dozen vans on the road easily, but trust was his big issue so now he just looks at me and scowls and slags me off to anyone who will listen. Jealousy perhaps? who knows.
But one thing is certain, if you want to progress you have no choice but to trust others. I took a young lad on 18 months ago, I gave him a target to hit each day, after 3 weeks he said "that target is rubbish I can beat that" and he does everyday. he set the presedent and my other lads try to keep up. he is only 21.
when I am away he runs the empire, :)
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its hard to find good staff that will do a good job, but if you pay well then you have more of a chance of getting good staff.
always a bonus if you know these people - friends, family ......
can make a good profit.... eg £55 a day wages - they get £200 a day done then after costs its still good.
maybe not work so well on just houses tho.
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buts thats ok, saying they do £200 worth of work a day and they make £55, but what stops them from thinking i can do this and earn it my self
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Many that go for the job haven't got the balls to go
and do it for them some may try and many will fail.
Employing is hard but there are good ones but I would
defo stay clear of friends and family, fo a interview see there attiude train them
well and spend plenty of time with them.
The answer to the question is yea if things are done right yes they make profit and can make your life easier.
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buts thats ok saying they do £200 worth of work a day adn tehy make £55, but what stops them from thinking i can do this and earn it my self
Whats stops anyuone thinking this about anything?
Some people don't want to run a business and it's not everyone that can get in really good solid work, which is what you need before you take on staff.
Gazza, if you don't mind me saying, you sound negative about taking someone on and I'm not sure you are ready. If you think more positively then you may just win the lottery of staff ;D
At the end of the day or interview....if you are not happy then don't employ, that's your right.
If you think they will be ok:
Start them on a trial basis, with a trial basis wage and the promise of,if satisfactory after trial basis, you will go on to the standard wage and terms. You'll soon know if they are right or not,.....
Holidays, as an employer you can determine when paid holidays are taken....simple, when you want a holiday, have a "shutdown" period if you don't fully trust what will go on if you are not there.
You get extra done the 2 weeks before and the week after you return.
Profit to be made, if you have calculated all your costings etc correctly then of course you will make a profit money wise, but remember profit is not all about money, it's about not having to work so hard yourself, sleeping at night, a good lifestyle, feeling stress free and so much more. If you don't get stressed now you will do with staff whether they are good, bad or indifferent.
Personally if you have the workload and you want to expand I would say go for it, times are hard for people and there are some really good people out of work, you never know you may just hit the jackpot first time and bag yourself the best worker anyone could find. ;D
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Good employees work for good employers
recruitment is everything, thing what you want not who
consider where to find this person
be ready to offer a real job.
DO NOT EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE EMPLOY FAMILY OR FRIENDS
I dont care how many success stories there are for employing family DO NOT DO IT
you must run a business as a business not as a stop gap or as a favour to a friend it is a job someone wants a job they can build their life and family and hopes upon
imagine you are Tesco or Adidas or Apple or the NHS and research and recruit professionally.
It is what you WANT you need to find not WHO. Do not fit a job to the person you must find the person that fits the job and remeber you dont have to like them you just need to be sure they are the best for the job
You are not doing someone a favour YOU ARE EMPLOYING
Good luck
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Employing is hard but there are good ones but I would
defo stay clear of friends and family,
Again, sometimes this is true sometimes not.
Years ago we employed our son-in-law, was a good worker when he turned up!!!!In the end it all went pear shaped with him, although we had all the patience and understanding in the world (in hindsight probably too much!) the family tie was an awkward obstacle.
Friends, employed one in particular, a friend for over 4 years.Was great, best ever person working for us, yippee at last someone who we can now evolve into our manager and start running things day to day for us while we expand the business.
15 months later...his personal life turned bad on him and we had a text message on a Sunday evening to say I'm not coming back, I'm leaving the country and won't be back!!!! His ex confirmed that he did just that! He must have dumped his phone as we could not contact him at all and haven't heard since and that was 3 years ago.
So again staff are just like the lottery, sometimes you get a tenner, sometimes a little bit more :)
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I'm surprised no one has mentioned franchising yet!
Andy
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its hard to find good staff that will do a good job, but if you pay well then you have more of a chance of getting good staff.
always a bonus if you know these people - friends, family ......
can make a good profit.... eg £55 a day wages - they get £200 a day done then after costs its still good.
maybe not work so well on just houses tho.
Is this guy saying some bod turns over £200 of work a day and he gets given £55 out of that? Whilst the employer takes £145?
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think so,
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No wonder he thinks its hard to find good staff, he'll be pi$$ing in the wind all his life if thats what he expects from them.
Its unbelievable the amount on here that want a mans work out of a boys wage.
I call it exploitation.
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rise and shine, what would you be looking at for what return ie wage v amount of work done
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When I first started out I worked alongside another window cleaner who owned the round, he used to pay his staff 2/3 of turnover. Thats enough to earn you a reasonable wage in this day and age, so after all is said and done that guy will go home with a slightly above average wage and hopefully a far better chance of him coming back to be a reliable, trustworthy and positive member of the business.
I will be working most of next week with a chap who has trad window cleaning experience but it will be on my work.
I will pay him somewhere in the region of £10 per hour. Fair days pay for a fair days work. Treat them like human beings. Treat them how you would like to be treated.
I was earning what some of the guys quote on here 15 years ago on the cards.
No wonder they moan they cant get the staff, hey shouldnt be let loose with a bucket let alone think theyre employers.
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Completely agree
Somewhere along the line trust has to come into consideration.
The only way possibly protecting yourself against that, is to offer a long term plan, ie, if we get to this state, Im prepared to give you a percentage in the company - meaning better to work together than against eachother.
My friends a hairdresser, tied into a contract many years ago, that she could not operate within a certain mileage of the shop, if she were to start on her own.
Its just business really, you work for somebody else, and you end up thinking "hang on I can do this myself" it happens in most companies, I ended up going alone because I wasnt going to make 100s of sales calls, for somebody else when I could do it myself. However mine is nationally dominated, as oppose to area.
Common cause where everybody benefits, rather than "I can do this for myself"
Hope that helps
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I could never make staff pay. I found a good man would always think, "hang about I could do this myself and earn more money". If he didn't think this he generally didn't tend to be a "worker". Everyone I had fell into one group or the other.
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When I first started out I worked alongside another window cleaner who owned the round, he used to pay his staff 2/3 of turnover. Thats enough to earn you a reasonable wage in this day and age, so after all is said and done that guy will go home with a slightly above average wage and hopefully a far better chance of him coming back to be a reliable, trustworthy and positive member of the business.
I will be working most of next week with a chap who has trad window cleaning experience but it will be on my work.
I will pay him somewhere in the region of £10 per hour. Fair days pay for a fair days work. Treat them like human beings. Treat them how you would like to be treated.
I was earning what some of the guys quote on here 15 years ago on the cards.
No wonder they moan they cant get the staff, hey shouldnt be let loose with a bucket let alone think theyre employers.
I am at the point now where I am thinking of maybe I shuold take someone on next year as my round is just about full and still getting loads of enquiries (I have a good reputation).
I am just not sure how I go about taking somone on. IE how do you pay them with bad weather etc. Just 60% of turnover they do? And they are classed as self-employed?
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in what context will these people be employed ie on there own van or with you on 2 man van.
as i want to employ someone who will work with me on a 2 man van to basically speed up there work so i can ge tmore done in a day, do i pay a hourly rate or percentage of what is done
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Hi,
No, i am not negative, i am being very positive in the fact it is hard to trust someone, given the pitfalls within this industry,...
I know a guy who employs a few lads w/c.... one of them built a near full round behind his employers back,
in effect , he had 2 wages, and he built it all on his emloyers time, van .. equipment, and water.
Then got sacked.
The alternative is to sit with them as a two man outfit and gain the trust that way before sending them off alone,
Yes, trust will then come in to it.....
so i suppose i have to risk being ripped off to progress?
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Good employees work for good employers
recruitment is everything, thing what you want not who
consider where to find this person
be ready to offer a real job.
DO NOT EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE EMPLOY FAMILY OR FRIENDS
I dont care how many success stories there are for employing family DO NOT DO IT
you must run a business as a business not as a stop gap or as a favour to a friend it is a job someone wants a job they can build their life and family and hopes upon
imagine you are Tesco or Adidas or Apple or the NHS and research and recruit professionally.
It is what you WANT you need to find not WHO. Do not fit a job to the person you must find the person that fits the job and remeber you dont have to like them you just need to be sure they are the best for the job
You are not doing someone a favour YOU ARE EMPLOYING
Good luck
great post that,
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Some people are just speculating what's good and bad. Most problems stem from the employer. I employ family and none family. I have 100 pc staff retention and so far in 5 years of employing I have not had 1 start up on there own. T
They are all totally honest and I Trust all of them,
I don't care one bit about them leaving to start on there own. I pay them well and we are all 1 big happy family.
Like I said it's all down to how you manage your business
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what woudl you suggest is best for me to do dave?
some new or some experienced on more money, pay a hourly rate or % of what we get done