Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Cleaning Buddy on May 23, 2011, 03:14:35 pm
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Hi. New boy on the block here. I have been trawling through loads of threads on here as I dont want to ask stupid questions that have already been answered. But I do have a slight concern in relation to customer gathering or canvassing.
It would appear a lot of people spend hours leafleting and door knocking and achieve a few customers.
My expectations was to have 10 different locations within a 10 / 15 mile radius of where I live. I was then hoping to hit each area for a day at a time with the hope of getting between 10 - 15 customers in each area - which to me seemed a realistic target. This was so in two weeks time I would have 100 - 150 customers to work with. ( i will only be part time to begin with)
Am I barking at the moon?
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I'd say so.
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I'd say so.
Don't see why, you have to start somewhere.
Your biggest job, op, will be getting your worklist. The cleaning bit is the doddle part.
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Hi. New boy on the block here. I have been trawling through loads of threads on here as I dont want to ask stupid questions that have already been answered. But I do have a slight concern in relation to customer gathering or canvassing.
It would appear a lot of people spend hours leafleting and door knocking and achieve a few customers.
My expectations was to have 10 different locations within a 10 / 15 mile radius of where I live. I was then hoping to hit each area for a day at a time with the hope of getting between 10 - 15 customers in each area - which to me seemed a realistic target. This was so in two weeks time I would have 100 - 150 customers to work with. ( i will only be part time to begin with)
Am I barking at the moon?
Hi mate have you got this van on ebay by any chance its got cleaning buddys on the side off it.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/window-cleaning-van-and-more-/170645358507?pt=UK_HomeGarden_CLV_Cleaning_CA&hash=item27bb4187ab#ht_558wt_1139
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No its not my van. I nicked the name from viewing it though when I joined this forum ;D
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No its not my van. I nicked the name from viewing it though when I joined this forum ;D
ok sorry mate
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I'd say so.
Don't see why, you have to start somewhere.
Your biggest job, op, will be getting your worklist. The cleaning bit is the doddle part.
Agreed, he does have to start somewhere but upto 150 customers in two weeks seems a lot to me. As for the cleaning part is a doddle, if thats the case why do so many people come on here asking for advice on how to clean windows, I've had blokes start with me who were still useless after a couple of months, I think as a newbie, cleaning windows is anything but easy, it takes time to get upto speed and to be able to clean them properly.
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just do what you say your gonna do and lets see in 2 weeks how far you get!!a lot of canvassed customers can be unreliable and messers.some will turn into good customers if you do a good job at a fair price though.only time will tell!
let us all know how you get on! ;) ;D ;D
best wishes
dazmond
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my expectations of the work are not that its a doddle - its just the number of customers. I am in finance at the moment and like everything else its a numbers game - so I worked out that I needed to start with 100 - 150 customers - I then thought 150 customers straight off in one area with competition probably too difficult - hence i then broke the numbes down to what I felt was a managable number - i.e 10 - 15 customers in 10 different locations.
I dont have any experience of knocking on peoples doors - and it does not worry me - If I get rejection then so be it, there is always next door ... or the one after that etc.
What surprised me (and please dont take this the wrong way) was the lack of success of some canvassing on here - "out all day and not 1 new customer" for example
Are people generally knocking during the day or early evenings and weekends? - personally I think early evenings and weekends would be the best time - anyone have any thoughts?
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CB,
Evening and weekends are definitely best.
I think your being a little over optimistic with your numbers though! Lets take an evening for example say 5.30 - 8.00pm how many doors do you believe you will knock on in 2.5 hours?
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I would assume (hope for) between 20 - 30 doors in that time. My patter would be "Hi, I am expanding my window cleaning business and I am enquiring whether you need regular reliable window cleaner" and then take it from there depending on their answer.
I know I am not expanding my business ( but someone had written on one of the threads to say this!)
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I know I am not expanding my business ( but someone had written on one of the threads to say this!)
Hey there nothing wrong with a little exaggeration now and then, when I first started if anyone asked I was relocating my round from a different area and had been cleaning windows for years! ;)
I don't mean to put a dampener on your enthusiasm but do you really think you are going to achieve a 50% conversion rate?
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Hi Buddy, just head down and see you at the end. Who cares what the results are? You will be closer to your goal of 150 than you are today. You seem to have exactly the right attitude, don't see what there is to lose. There is a member on here (Blue Frog) who put about 300 custies into his business within 6 months. He isn't a BS artist and he moved recently to a new area.
You need advice from people who have done something similar to what you are aiming at. The only thing between you and 150 custies is shoe leather.
I've always found that the best results are achieved between 1730 and 1900 in the week and anytime weekends. The trick is to knock when people are home. Sounds obvious, but knocking at 11 in the morning is rubbish. Try it and see how you get on.
Remember, the difference between the guys with a big custy base and the others is how often they canvass and/or leaflet. Like you said, it's a numbers game, that's how even the stupidest guys (Like me) can build a decent size business in this malarky. Some will, some wont, so what, next.
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I am not suggesting you thought cleaning windows will be a doddle. I wish you the very best with your business. I think you have had some good advice already on this post, evening canvassing for instance would surely be the way to go. It really is a numbers game though so the more you canvass the more you should get.
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It was 289 Cozy - but i'll let you off with 11 ;D
Cleaning buddy... if you want any advise just email me.
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I doubt that you will get those numbers that quickly but the more doors you knock, the more customers you will get. I found day time doorknocking to be a poor return. After about 4 - 4.30 is better up to perhaps 7.30 maybe even 8 when the evenings are light. Four hours is about the maximum really on a week day. If you average one per hour, that's OKish. Two per hour is pretty good going. You will get a lot more messers at first but you usually have to stick with them until you build a larger work base.
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I would assume (hope for) between 20 - 30 doors in that time. My patter would be "Hi, I am expanding my window cleaning business and I am enquiring whether you need regular reliable window cleaner" and then take it from there depending on their answer.
I know I am not expanding my business ( but someone had written on one of the threads to say this!)
that was my line last year when i was just starting out ...... but i prob "borrowed" it from this forum ;D
if u want my opinion 10 areas are too many ... say 5 areas max and do the work in the morning and canvass in the afternoon or visa versa if its raining ... this way anyone u pick up u can clean em next day
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Between 2006 and 2010 I built six rounds turning over about £900 per week each.
Most of these customers were gained through canvassing.
My experience is that on average you need to knock on 30-40 doors to get one customer. It is very optimistic to expect to get 150 customers in the sort of timescales mentioned here.
Forget about numbers of customers - that's not important, the yardstick you should use is value of work per month.
I used to try for £100 worth of new jobs each week, which yields £25 per week over the month for monthly work.
If you need (say) £800 per week that will take 32 weeks to obtain from canvassing alone.
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ive built rounds with canvassing and its no problem picking up 10-15 customers per area, but the problem you will have is people may say anything just to get that 1st clean out the way, window cleaning works cos of the repeat cleans ,
you might get 10-15 customers per day, but after the 2nd clean or 3rd clean you may be only left with 8.
personally i am looking into mass leafleting but i think both work well together.
but dont get stressed you will have cancellations you will find your self doing more leg work over and over again to replace the messers ,
realistically if its just you canvassing alone taking into consideration drop outs it might take you 6 months to have a full serious round. that would be a very good result.
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Hi. New boy on the block here. I have been trawling through loads of threads on here as I dont want to ask stupid questions that have already been answered. But I do have a slight concern in relation to customer gathering or canvassing.
It would appear a lot of people spend hours leafleting and door knocking and achieve a few customers.
My expectations was to have 10 different locations within a 10 / 15 mile radius of where I live. I was then hoping to hit each area for a day at a time with the hope of getting between 10 - 15 customers in each area - which to me seemed a realistic target. This was so in two weeks time I would have 100 - 150 customers to work with. ( i will only be part time to begin with)
Am I barking at the moon?
seems completely unrealistic to me. if you need to hit these figures to be financially secure then i would say your risk is too high. we have never taken on this many customers in 2 weeks, even despite an experienced canvassing team. also, even if you do hit the jackpot it will take you a long time to get the first cleans on all these houses in a fast time. we can do 15 first cleans a day (of small or standard houses, when at full speed, but we started at only 3 first cleans a day. trying to get thru these 1st cleans, and canvas at super fast rates... you need to think again. 150 custies in 2 months of hard canvassing is more realistic for a starter, and that would be a great start!
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Its possible, but things are getting harder and harder as more and more window cleaners are starting up, when I started ten years ago it was easy because there weren't enough window cleaners to go around!! On my own I could pick up 20 or 30 customers in an afternoon of canvassing, but I doubt thats possible today!! Good luck :)
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If you're anywhere near those figures, I'd forget cleaning windows and start your own canvassing business.
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Window cleaning is going to be at saturation point soon due to the web ! If you look at this site over the past few years you will see people taking the trade seriously and adopting a more professional image and doing very well. Companies are springing up all over the place now offering to build you a ready made round for a small fee.
If you want to expand or keep your customer base now you have to be on the ball and be ultra pro ;D
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i read somewhere that --you should not overdo the thinking,but you SHOULD overdo the do
when are you starting? dont delay or juggle figures,or doubts will creep in.
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You sound a pretty switched on bloke and as some have said the cleaning is the easy bit...
150 in that time frame is optimistic but hey no harm in that....but what you need to do is look a little deeper to find out what you really want and need from your business....perhaps running part-time for a periodas you have said will be the best way forward.
Personally I try to make my years money in circa 200 days of actual work...sounds like a lot of time off right?...holidays vech probs, sickness, snow, sub freezing conditions, not todays, late payers etc, etc etc...and this is without the expenses needed to run the actual business which may prove more than you believe right now.
I did build my round with leaflets alone but from this 0.5% hit rate is about right...and putting out say 20k would be a good start.
Get yourself some maps and note down everything you do...the yes & no's, not in's and with leafleting repeat, repeat and repeat again.
This is a no fail business...as someone here once said....get 1 customer clean it, get another customer clean it...repeat, repeat.......I think many on here will have built their round and honed it over 4+ years then again some have built rounds much quicker.
All in all...round building is like cow farming...milk them until they stop producing then cull them as required...treat them nice but don't give them names and invite them into your house for tea!
Or you could buy a full/part established round?
Cheers and good luck...keep us posted...
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You sound a pretty switched on bloke and as some have said the cleaning is the easy bit...
150 in that time frame is optimistic but hey no harm in that....but what you need to do is look a little deeper to find out what you really want and need from your business....perhaps running part-time for a periodas you have said will be the best way forward.
Personally I try to make my years money in circa 200 days of actual work...sounds like a lot of time off right?...holidays vech probs, sickness, snow, sub freezing conditions, not todays, late payers etc, etc etc...and this is without the expenses needed to run the actual business which may prove more than you believe right now.
I did build my round with leaflets alone but from this 0.5% hit rate is about right...and putting out say 20k would be a good start.
Get yourself some maps and note down everything you do...the yes & no's, not in's and with leafleting repeat, repeat and repeat again.
This is a no fail business...as someone here once said....get 1 customer clean it, get another customer clean it...repeat, repeat.......I think many on here will have built their round and honed it over 4+ years then again some have built rounds much quicker.
All in all...round building is like cow farming...milk them until they stop producing then cull them as required...treat them nice but don't give them names and invite them into your house for tea!
Or you could buy a full/part established round?
Cheers and good luck...keep us posted...
Excellent post.
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Wow. Some good honest advice. Thank you so much to all those who have commented.
I have just had a leaflet designed and just ordered 5000 from the printer. So I should have them hopefully by the middle of next week. I take all the comments about not doing 10 areas etc - but for where I live (smack in the middle between Bedford & Milton Keynes) there are lots of areas I could target which are easily within a 10 mile radius.
My wife thinks I should just concentrate on MK as there are huge housing estates popping up all over the place. I hope to go canvassing on Saturday - just to test the water.
The only decision I am dithering on is should I buy all the equipment I need first - or see what the results of canvassing are?. Quite rightly my wife does not want me to spend £3k on equipment and then not use it.
How did all you others start?
By the way please dont suggest I start trad - I dont do ladders .... Honestly
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Which village are you in Cleaning buddy ?
Stewartby ? Marston Moretaine ?
cant really add to the good advice already given here, other than to say that canvassing is by far the best and quickest way to build quickly - i managed around 200 in just over 5 weeks - but if you have a full/pt time job it will be very hard to canvass and then clean and do your other job.
i think 10 areas are fine - i am in a village location so each day is a different village - it works well but you have to keep organised and shuffle custy's to keep things compact and save on mileage and time.
good luck
Darran
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All in all...round building is like cow farming...milk them until they stop producing then cull them as required...treat them nice but don't give them names and invite them into your house for tea!
I like that Dave, if its not copyrighted I'll adopt that phrase ;D
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I'm part time and still am after 1 year and I know its held me back from having a better round.I'm at a stage where I can't canvass because I get too far behind
If you are going to do it m8 go for it full on with 100 percent commitment.you can do it and if you have the drive 150 could be possible in 2 weeks.
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>> Al S ... I think I stole some it anyhows ;D
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Wow. Some good honest advice. Thank you so much to all those who have commented.
I have just had a leaflet designed and just ordered 5000 from the printer. So I should have them hopefully by the middle of next week. I take all the comments about not doing 10 areas etc - but for where I live (smack in the middle between Bedford & Milton Keynes) there are lots of areas I could target which are easily within a 10 mile radius.
My wife thinks I should just concentrate on MK as there are huge housing estates popping up all over the place. I hope to go canvassing on Saturday - just to test the water.
The only decision I am dithering on is should I buy all the equipment I need first - or see what the results of canvassing are?. Quite rightly my wife does not want me to spend £3k on equipment and then not use it.
How did all you others start?
By the way please dont suggest I start trad - I dont do ladders .... Honestly
From 5,000 leaflets, the normal return would be 25 - 60 customers. Follow them up a few days later with doorknocking and it will be much higher.
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The only decision I am dithering on is should I buy all the equipment I need first - or see what the results of canvassing are?. Quite rightly my wife does not want me to spend £3k on equipment and then not use it.
How did all you others start?
I bought a basic wfp set up before I even had my first customer. That way I was able to clean the houses as I gained them. I had done door to door canvassing before, so I knew I'd get the customers, it's just a matter of knocking on enough doors. If you're determined enough to make a successful business it will happen.