Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: matthewpaul on August 20, 2013, 08:32:15 pm
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Hi all i'm new here and would like to know where members are in there business life and where they want to be, and how you got to where you are now and how you did it.
I started Jan 2013 so been going about 7 month i started window cleaning but have now added Contract cleaning to my business i have a 2 van window round and a pretty ok contract cleaning side with about 5 contracts that are done on a daily basis, i employ 4 staff at the min but looking to get more.
I seem to be getting new contraccts on a monthly basis at the min
I have never advertised the only thing i have done is joined a networking group that i have got all my contracts from but im sure it will dry up at one point then i need new ideas to gain more work, what do you guys do.
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WOW, sounds like a fantastic start. Keep doing what you're doing mate, and use the search function at the top of the page to type in Advertising etc. Going to be keeping an eye on you mate!! ;) Keep us up to date. Looks like we could learn a lot here.
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I do feel i have got where i am fast (it was a shock im not the smartest fella lol), however i can also see it drying up the people who i get the work from only know so many people, Then what do i do.
I am lucky enougth to of made the rite choice in Jan spending the last money i had in the world (i couldnt even afford to put fuel in my van my dad gave me £10 to get to my first job) lol joining the group i joined, my wife told me it was a stupid thing to do but hey i didnt listen like usual but i was rite for once.
now i want to learn from people with experiance hence joining this forum.
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2 window cleaning vans running and 4 cleaning staff in 7 months is bloody good going.
I guess you have had to go vat registered already then?
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looks like youre doing well, what was the net work group you go to
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uve done unbelievably well in such a short time
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refuse to believe this... unless you bought a round! if you started from scratch I think you need at least 1-2 years before you even get 2k a month..... nevermind employing people.
correct me if im wrong please
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h20cleaning: Of course you are wrong, if you employ door knockers like I do you end up generating about 10 new customers a day.
If one man wanted to wait around all day for customers than of course it would take that long but some people are prepared to get out there and have a go.
I find it totally amazing that people are very quick to effectively call someone a liar just because they can do things that you can't.
He probably works past 2 o'clock as well, I suppose you don't believe that either.
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refuse to believe this... unless you bought a round! if you started from scratch I think you need at least 1-2 years before you even get 2k a month..... nevermind employing people.
correct me if im wrong please
Noncence, i just built 2k 164 customers in 6 weeks
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1- I am pretty sure I didn't call him a liar, I said I refuse to believe this then went onto say correct me if I am wrong.
2- I am also sure I said, unless he invested money in a round there was no chance
3- how can someone starting from nothing and find money to employ door knockers?
my uncle started with nothing... spent every evening canvassing... then bought bits and bobs... as well as a website and 6 years on he has only JUST employed his 3rd member of staff.
there is no way someone has 4 staff working for him in 6 months, but like I said CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG
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refuse to believe this... unless you bought a round! if you started from scratch I think you need at least 1-2 years before you even get 2k a month..... nevermind employing people.
correct me if im wrong please
Noncence, i just built 2k 164 customers in 6 weeks
are you a brand new business.... if not I should imagine you had all uniforms... vans... leaflets ext and prepared for it! someone starting from nothing has to progress to buy all these thing unless LIKE I SAID '' he funded it to start with''
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is this not spam trying to get people to join a network group? sounds too good to be true
nothing comes easy, probly wrong but just a thought
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I started canvassing my arse off for 8 hours a day 5 days a week no breaks no days off i had just spent my last £600 pound i have 5 children, married and a house to pay for so i had no choice, i put all my eggs in one basket and was crapping my pants so i had no choice but to make money after i had been earning £30,000 per year in the army down to £0.00 but i was'nt going to sign on the dole.
In Jan 2013 I did not have a pot to pi55 in, i was a skint looser.
The group i go to ( its balled the BNI) started to introduce me to pretty big companies for there window cleaning and on of these is one of the biggest pub chains in the UK asked if i would do contract cleaning for them because theres was bad so i said yes not thinking about it and before i know it i had to take on staff to do this, then they offer me more pubs, i do these 7 days a week i have 3 of there pubs now and 2 office cleaning contracts.
The window cleaning is a mix of residential and commercial, all the residential is all self canvassed with help from my brother in law.
I Make a point of getting testimonials from ALL my clients for when i meet new ones it helps so much when you show them you work for big companies.
I'm not the smartest bloke in the town i think i have just LUCKYLY made the rite choices and had a lot of dedication IT CAN BE DONE.
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Had to borrow £10 then weeks later two vans employing 4 people . yeah right lol
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is this not spam trying to get people to join a network group? sounds too good to be true
nothing comes easy, probly wrong but just a thought
Not at all i'm here to get help from people with lots of experiance, i have been lucky but luck doesnt last forever but knowlege does, thats why i want to pick brains of the people who know.
Just to add the networking i go to all seperate franchises all over the world so if you joined one in say Birmingham that wouldnt benifit my group.
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Had to borrow £10 then weeks later two vans employing 4 people . yeah right lol
2 weeks later NO dont be so stupid it takes longer than that for people to pay you.
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Didn't say 2 weeks. stupid
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Had to borrow £10 then weeks later two vans employing 4 people . yeah right lol
2 weeks later NO dont be so stupid it takes longer than that for people to pay you.
Also i wish it was 2 weeks then my parents wouldnt of had to pay for my house for 3 month
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Who says you need leaflets and t shirts. I pay all my doorknockers after the first clean. They are not window cleaning canvassers who charge 2x what ever they get. They are people looking for work and have experience in knocking on doors. They get paid around £7 an hour and only need to sign up a couple of people an hour for everyone to be happy.
Businesses can be grown quite easily with little money.
He also said he spent his money on buying kit, and was down to his last little bit to actually get going.
I have employed one cleaner 3 days a week, and he now has someone he is training up as we are getting more business. My cleaner gets paid on percentage of work he completes so I have no cost at all to pay him for his work.
Once a break even point is reached, the door knockers can be paid out of the next clean without needing to dip into your own pocket anymore.
I bet all the people who are saying it cant be done have never employed any one or even if they did they don't anymore. As I said in my previous post, just cause you can't do it doesn't mean others cant.
So much for a new forum user to come on here and he has to justify why he is growing quickly and trying to have a go.
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Had to borrow £10 then weeks later two vans employing 4 people . yeah right lol
2 weeks later NO dont be so stupid it takes longer than that for people to pay you.
sorry i didnt read it corectly, but stupid im not, if you thinks i talking crap well just dont read the post, I'm sorry if your business is'nt doing as well as you planned but no need to put others down and call them stupid, im only here to talk to decent people and people like you ruin it for others who want to gain knowlege from other decent members
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So for the first 3 months you wasn't earning enough to pay for you house BUT after another 3 months you could and also employ 4 people.? ???
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Had to borrow £10 then weeks later two vans employing 4 people . yeah right lol
2 weeks later NO dont be so stupid it takes longer than that for people to pay you.
sorry i didnt read it corectly, but stupid im not, if you thinks i talking crap well just dont read the post, I'm sorry if your business is'nt doing as well as you planned but no need to put others down and call them stupid, im only here to talk to decent people and people like you ruin it for others who want to gain knowlege from other decent members
you called me stupid but that's ok is it
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So for the first 3 months you wasn't earning enough to pay for you house BUT after another 3 months you could and also employ 4 people.? ???
i didnt say i was loaded or making a fortune, my cleaners probally make more than me but i make enougth to get by and the jobs i have get done to a high standard i didnt choose to do it myself to make a fortune then take somebody on, so you are telling me i cant get 5 contracts and a window cleaning round in 7 month WHY NOT
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Had to borrow £10 then weeks later two vans employing 4 people . yeah right lol
2 weeks later NO dont be so stupid it takes longer than that for people to pay you.
sorry i didnt read it corectly, but stupid im not, if you thinks i talking crap well just dont read the post, I'm sorry if your business is'nt doing as well as you planned but no need to put others down and call them stupid, im only here to talk to decent people and people like you ruin it for others who want to gain knowlege from other decent members
you called me stupid but that's ok is it
very aggressive,i said dont be stupid, listen mate just pi55 off to another post i want to hear from decent members dont ruin whats supposed to be a good forum.
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Perhaps the people Matthew employs are paid monthly and he can then pay their wages out of the income they have generated in that month.
Can you consider looking out side the box before suggesting that things can't be done. Plenty of people have to rob Peter to pay Paul when starting up a new business. Like when he said he got the contract before staff. How do you know what terms the work is that he ash got. Are you suggesting that every commercial job takes ages to pay??
The pub I do pays me there and then.
He also does part residential work from the canvassing he did and they all pay on the spot, or close enough to. Maybe he used that money to pay the other cleaners?
There are lots of ways he can make it work, so why don't you spend a couple of minutes any positive information you may have for him rather doubting it all so quickly?
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It is possible to get contracts and a window cleaning round in less than 7 months, it's the 4 people bit thats 5 wages a week I find hard to believe . Are they full time or just 4-5 hours a week each.
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It is possible to get contracts and a window cleaning round in less than 7 months, it's the 4 people bit thats 5 wages a week I find hard to believe . Are they full time or just 4-5 hours a week each.
all part time the window cleaners work 12 full days per month and cleaner work 6 days a week less than 5 hours per day if they were all full time i would be paying thousands a month in wages im afraid i dont have that money afetr costs
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Tomorrow I have 4 door knockers going out, one window cleaner and the fella he is training to clean 20 houses, me and another fella going out to clean 99 wheelie bins.
I have 214 window cleaning customers, and 942 bin cleaning customers.
I start 8 weeks ago, not 8 months.
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Ok fair play, just on a wind up tonight.
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I make £0 money each week as I need to put it all back in to pay people and upgrade my stuff as I go.
But after another 8 weeks I reckon I will have 500 window customers and 1600 bins a month. I might sit down for a day off then.
Once I hit that I might be able to buy some food too, as I might be making a bit....
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god i need a canvasser, well done if youve worked from nothing
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The big I am, bla bla. Heard it all before.
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is this not spam trying to get people to join a network group? sounds too good to be true
nothing comes easy, probly wrong but just a thought
Totally agree.
Come on guys wake up and smell the coffee before some poor sod gets taken for £600.
Cant believe that some of the so called successful windows cleaners have fallen for this
makes you wonder are some of these guys really window cleaners?
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Thank god people have agreed with me... Its simply impossible to achieve this without
Fianancial backing
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Relax a bit here lads. I understand that doubt creeps in with these numbers. See my first comment. I work a lot of military housing over here, and there are a couple of guys who work in the same areas as we do. I canvass by leafleting and follow up knocking within 3 to 5 days of dropping leaflets. This gets a really good result. My competition go around sticking self printed little notes "We are in the area cleaning windows tomorrow. Houses cost €15. Please tick box and leave your initials if you want them cleaned."
They seem to get a hit rate every month of about one in twenty. In the same areas, I canvass every 2 years when new people are posted into the areas. I get a thirty percent hit rate.
So same potential customers, but totally different results. Some people are good at putting things together, some not so good. Some guys hate knocking, others enjoy it.
I've not seen the OP contradict himself. I think he may have explained things a bit too simply, but it sounds possible to me.
I'll excuse myself from being naive, by explaining that all my Brit custies live in compact estates and in uniform housing, so whole areas can be worked for a set standard price.
Another point that needs making is, I remember an old Amway tape once, it said: "if you keep fleas in a jar with a lid on it, they quickly learn not to jump higher than the lid, so as to avoid hitting their heads on the lid. When the lid is removed, they still only jump to the learned height.
Some of us need to take the lid off our jar."
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Amway tapes were good - let's all be diamonds
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Amway tapes were good - let's all be diamonds
;D Glad somebody remembers them lol. I found the books still help me. Threw the tapes away about 10 years ago!! They were good sometimes.
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Does seem strange to join this forum to tell us how well his done, after a few days as a member.
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I met this guy while we were on holiday in Scotland - only 20 yrs old. Been going just on two years, got three vans and three employees - work all over the north coast of Scotland (this hotel was out in the wilds - nearest town about 15 miles away).
Not quite in the same league as matthewpaul but still well on the way to his first million - some people just seem to have that Midas touch :)
Those legs showing at the bottom of the door are mine, by the way ;D
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1377096607_085 - Copy.JPG)
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I met this guy while we were on holiday in Scotland - only 20 yrs old. Been going just on two years, got three vans and three employees - work all over the north coast of Scotland (this hotel was out in the wilds - nearest town about 15 miles away).
Not quite in the same league as matthewpaul but still well on the way to his first million - some people just seem to have that Midas touch :)
Those legs showing at the bottom of the door are mine, by the way
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1377096607_085 - Copy.JPG)
if he in the white tshirt is 20 years old... then he has had a hard paper round;)
hahaha
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Fair play to you fella.
Don't worry about the negative comments here (I'm sure you're not anyway)
Some people can't handle another's success.
The B2B meetings weren't for me but they must work for some-obviously.
Crack on bud. If you need anything doing round my manor give me a shout.
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if he in the white tshirt is 20 years old... then he has had a hard paper round;)
hahaha
Not the best picture my wife has ever taken, but it was in shadow and from quite a distance off - cropped it to make the signage readable. He is nowhere near as old as this picture suggests - my apologies if ever he comes on here and sees it.
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Amway - brings back memories! Shame the reality did not live upto the dream ::)roll
I have no idea if the OP has done all this or not, if he has that's absolutely brilliant and a superb achievement
If not then he's just a sad individual with no life at all
Hopefully it's the former
Darran
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Matthew,
I've read your first post and then skipped to page 3,
If any posts in between say otherwise then just ignore themn
You've done superbly well for yourself mate and keep it up,
Dean.
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Thankyou Dean. I always knew you liked me ;D