Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: tony talbot on February 06, 2015, 06:16:22 pm
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Hope you guys could offer some advice, i sold my window cleaning round 8 months ago to start a new venture , it's not working out as i hoped,, i need to start window cleaning round again. I have no intention of going after my old work and fully intend to honer the terms of sale. but as i need to start windows again, what is a respectful distance to start canvasing, i was thinking of leaving 10 houses either side of my old calls is this enough? also has anyone got work for sale in the St.Austell area.
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depends how big the guy is who you sold it to ;)
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If i bought a round off of someone i wouldn't want them setting up again in the same town let alone 10 houses!
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Have a conversation with the fella you sold it to.
It'd be difficult to say a 10 house radius.
Get that house-'oh, can you do my friends, she lives 4 doors down'
It makes it awkward.
Be open, honest and genuine with the guy.
Most people are reasonable.
If he says 'don't want you within 10 miles of the work you sold me then compromise...
I travel for work. I like to be away from where I live.
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it would be awkward indeed!
personally I wouldn't like it if the windy I bought work off was back in the neighbourhood where he used to work !
it would probably cause some conflicts if he was back in town as he would be a very serious competitor being well known around!!
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I would tell him your back cleaning windows and that you will not target any of the customers you sold him. Sod all this staying away from his work nothing wrong doing customers near the work you sold.
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thanks for your views guys, i think because i have to work,i will stick to 10 clear houses between my old work and new canvasing calls, but any calls that crop up closer than 10 houses i will pass on to the chap who bought my round as a goodwill gesture at least for the 2 year exclusion on the terms of sale.
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if im honist if i brout a round off u an then u set up a new round in the same town ide b very unhappy an probly kick ur head in sory to b brutel but thats my view , besyt thing u can do is speak to him an c what he thinks b honist with him u never no he mite b ok with it if u speak to him :)
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my opinion for what it's worth..... you should stay well away from it as you sold it in good faith
if you must again, start in a completely different area
if it were me I would not be to happy to see you cleaning 10 doors away from my jobs that you had sold me
if you had only sold him part of your round with the understanding that you were still doing the remainder that would be a different matter
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if im honist if i brout a round off u an then u set up a new round in the same town ide b very unhappy an probly kick ur head in
That would be a brilliant move.
When you got out of jail there might be some customers left, you never know.
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my opinion for what it's worth..... you should stay well away from it as you sold it in good faith
if you must again, start in a completely different area
if it were me I would not be to happy to see you cleaning 10 doors away from my jobs that you had sold me
if you had only sold him part of your round with the understanding that you were still doing the remainder that would be a different matter
+1
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Lol you would kick my head in.
Maybe you might come unstuck when you attempt that kind of thing and wake up in hospital. What a stupid remark. As for the round you sold. You sold him some customers not the bloody area patches. Just go out and get the work if he don't like tell him you need to earn a living and will not take his customers.
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Lol you would kick my head in.
Maybe you might come unstuck when you attempt that kind of thing and wake up in hospital. What a stupid remark. As for the round you sold. You sold him some customers not the bloody area patches. Just go out and get the work if he don't like tell him you need to earn a living and will not take his customers.
+1
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i think youve opend a can of worms here i would have word see what happens.just play it by ear .one thing for sure he wont be very happy with you.just start from scratch see how it gose. ???
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If the round that you sold covered a 5 mile radius then I'd say leave a 5 mile gap at the closest point between the old round and the new one,.. If I'd bought the round off you I'd expect nothing less.
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I seems to me, the first thing to do would be to speak to him and ask him how it's going. You might find that he's lost some of your old customers, or even given up completely. Alternatively he may have done so well that he has expanded to the extent that he might be prepared to sell you some work back.
By doing this, at least you are doing nothing behind his back that might cause you problems with him if you just turn up and canvass, even if it's not actually your old customers that you are targetting.
Best wishes,
John
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If the round that you sold covered a 5 mile radius then I'd say leave a 5 mile gap at the closest point between the old round and the new one,.. If I'd bought the round off you I'd expect nothing less.
Good advice.
I get enough stick from windys I havnt sold a round to.
Stay well clear. Phone the guy and ask him how far away. He may say hes got enough and your welcome.
I would also break your legs...no, get some one else to do it. Harder to trace. Dark alley and all that. Its a poop trick to do.
Business is business, but there is a fine line between that and danger
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Part of the problem is i only sold 90 calls to the bloke, most of the calls were in a 3 mile radious,fair enough avoid that area , but what about where i sold 1 call in a whole estate of hundreds of houses to keep a five mile radious would put half of Cornwall out of bounds. i appreciate this is a tricky problem. but threats of violence don't really help, all i'm after is a reasonable approach to this problem. i can't be the first to be in this situation .have any of you faced the same situation? and if so how was it resolved
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Half of cornwall 5 mile radius? Do what you want to do. If you were making a living off 90 houses then it wont be difficult to achieve that this time of year.
I say what a mug buying customers in the first place.
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thanks for your views guys, i think because i have to work,i will stick to 10 clear houses between my old work and new canvasing calls, but any calls that crop up closer than 10 houses i will pass on to the chap who bought my round as a goodwill gesture at least for the 2 year exclusion on the terms of sale.
Surely this is the relevant bit? What were the terms of this 'exclusion'?
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you could always work for him ;D
seriously though you could both join up and expand the work?
tony
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The terms of sale were not to canvas the calls sold for 2 years. i have no intention of doing so that work is gone...
the point i'm trying to make is apart from the compact areas of the round i sold which is easy to work around. how much room around the isolated calls should i allow out of respect for the chap who bought the round. it can't be right that he's entitled to a whole street or estate because he has one or 2 purchased calls there.
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be decent and start afresh in a diffrent town
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hi tony
honestly i think the best person to ask would be the chap you sold the work to, just explain that your returning to window cleaning but you have no wish to encroach on your sold work
it maybe that he isnt looking to expand in which case as long as you dont take on any of your old customers he may be happy
it maybe that he would be happy for you to work wherever you like as long as your not in sight of your old customers
at the end of the day you can work where you like, but out of respect talk to him and come to an amicable compromise
tony
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What code are you guys honoring ?
You sold him customers, you leave them customers alone, thats it
Unless you specifically signed something say you were going to leave all business in the area to him you have no reason to not work next door let alone leaving 5 miles...
If you feel you cant that is your opinion and thats great , but there are no unwritten rules its all b******s from window cleaners who are scared of competition
I live and now work in an area where there are so many VERY territorial window cleaners and its made me go the other way now
and as for the threats of physical violence ! haha , ive had so many now i just laugh , no one has ever confronted me , and not because im hard or big , its just because most of the time the people who talk like that cannot back it up.
If someone was gonna do something like that they really wouldnt go around broadcasting it .
Just tell the guy your back in business but you will leave the customers you sold alone , thats all you have to do
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Talk to him, He can`t have every street in your area. Tell him you will not canvass any streets where you sold him customers.
Threats of violence are an absolute no no. I`ve had one idiot tell me his mate cleaned the windows in this area and I`d get my arse kicked. I gave him my business card with my home address wrote on the back and said anytime him and his mate wanted to come round. 18 months and haven`t had visit yet. People who talk of it never do it.
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I had an experience years ago not long after I started on my own, where my wife was asked by a family friend who used to have her windows cleaned by a mutual friend, actually the guy who originally started me off in window cleaning by teaching me and for a few months, employing me. She wanted me to clean her windows instead of him, as apparently, the quality of his work had deteriorated.
Now I had promised my windy friend that I would not canvass 'his' area. He was quite protective of his 'patch', but as I wasn't canvassing, reasoned to myself that I wasn't breaking my word. I went ahead and cleaned her windows, then her neighbours came out of the woodwork to ask me to clean theirs as well. Following the same principle, I obliged.
One day my windy friend drove along the street and saw me cleaning one of his erstwhile customers' houses. He was livid. I told him that they approached me, not the other way round, but it didn't placate him. For months he kept bringing it up, until eventually he packed up cleaning windows for a different venture.
My regret is that I didn't speak to him first. Had I done so, I am sure the situation could have been resolved in an amicable way.
John
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if im honist if i brout a round off u an then u set up a new round in the same town ide b very unhappy an probly kick ur head in
That would be a brilliant move.
When you got out of jail there might be some customers left, you never know.
not if he where a glarver and does it in the dark ::)roll
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You definitely have to talk to him and sound him out. Be honest about your situation and see what he comes up with, you may be surprised.
I think in all fairness that when he bought the round he was also considering about the opportunity to expand it. If you start working in the same town then you have reduced his opportunity, which I personally think is unfair. However, just give him a ring.
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I would talk to the other guy,if he's is any good at the job he will have nothing to worry about.Unless you are going to undercut him to get work ,but thats rarely works i find.There have a window cleaner on this site thats always door knocking my work undercutting the work but all he's ever got is my dross.
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The terms of sale were not to canvas the calls sold for 2 years. i have no intention of doing so that work is gone...
the point i'm trying to make is apart from the compact areas of the round i sold which is easy to work around. how much room around the isolated calls should i allow out of respect for the chap who bought the round. it can't be right that he's entitled to a whole street or estate because he has one or 2 purchased calls there.
Then stick to those terms. You didn't undertake not to canvass other work in the area so by the agreement you had with him you are perfectly entitled to canvass any properties you know were not on the list you sold him. What was the point of specifying terms if they weren't supposed to be binding on you both?
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Seems simple to me, you sold him a batch of customers not an area.
Just dont canvass those customers you sold, anything else is fair game surely
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Well if that was me I would arrange to meet up with him and explain tings int worked out like you thought and you have to return to wat you know, its just respectful, then you have to try building a income again, there is always room, no on can stop you earning a. Living for your family and if its genuine there shouldnt be a issue, but then there are those who do it constantly building rounds then selling them and starting up again, if yours is a one time deal an you aint got a history for it, then there shouldn't be a problem, just chat to him its that simple
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Come on man, just buy a round somewhere else and bite the bullet :'(
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So phil image having minimal funds after loosing them in previous adventure so buying around elsewhere might not be a option, imagine he worked and cleaned old round for 25years then tried something different, but it didnt work out, sometimes things aint so clear cut or black and white, there is some responsible replys but there is some numb ones too, so on here who knows the full story and circumstances, mmm not many I bet, the question was for advise but its clear some people have different ideas but thats a public forum and you never know what response you will get,
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Come on man, just buy a round somewhere else and bite the bullet :'(
spot on
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go round break his legs, tell him your the main man in town and tell the custies youll do theyre full house for £2 OR speak to him in person and explain the situation and just assure him your not going to take the work you sold him however it doesnt mean you cant work next door and agree with him that even if the old custies seen you out working and asked if youd redo theyres that you'd say no and tell him about them then he can sort any issues they may have?
i would try and find work not right next door though if possible but theres no reason you couldnt if its not taking work away from him!
i dont think he'll be happy at the end of the day if he's just paid you for a round then your back out near him, put yourself in his shoes and think how we would feel? but at the end of the day you need to do whats right for you but think about your rep, i get on with everybody, ive just passed 3 decent reliable jobs on to a local lad as theyre right on his doorstep as hes a nice lad, ive given advice to a guy today who came looking at my hot system. i love chatting to other windies and dont understand the need for bitchyness!!!
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thank you all for your advice and comments, i am going to canvas in areas futher afield avoiding my sold calls as much as i can. I will give an update as to how i get on in the near future
regards tony
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What's the point in asking advice if you're not going to listen to it?
It's obvious the right thing to do Is speak to the guy , the majority of people have said that also and it's just COMMON SENSE AND DECENCY.
If you're going to disregard the advice people give you what's the point in asking for it?
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You sold him 90 houses, that must give you loads of scope to build business elsewhere, just go for different estate's, or go for industrial work.