Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Matt - aquatec on October 05, 2015, 08:36:50 pm
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Hi all,
I've never sold any work before but due to a re-focus I am looking to sell off a chunk of my regular 'bread and butter' work, regular £15 per 4 weekly properties that are all wfp.
My question is what is the going rate and how does a deal usually get structured, payments etc?
cheers
Matt
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I've always wondered how can someone sell good faith as after all that’s all it is. Customers decide who they want to employ to clean their windows not the other way around surely?
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Any retail business is valued on 'good faith' after all any customer chooses where to shop !!! advantage is we have a track record with them and almost a virtuual type of unofficial contract... you come every 4 weeks and clean my windows even if Im not in or around and I will pay you X.
Its really that simple !!! basic business. :-)
So any answers to my question?
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Surely the rate is what someone will pay ?
I'm very local to your work and maybe interested.
Rob.
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It's always difficult to say without knowing how well priced the work is and how good the access is. For me, a list of work where having to text in advance, has a much lower value than a list of "turn up and clean". For others, that may be less of an issue.
Twice before I've bought work, and both times I felt either very disappointed or mildly disappointed - but I'm probably fussier about what I take on than most.
I suppose if the work is reasonably priced with reasonable customers and only a smattering of pre-notifying, it might be worth anything from 2x monthly value to 5x.
If you are offering to accompany on the buyer's first cleans to supply a personal intro, maybe you could squeeze more out of it. It also depends how well established it is because some will likely drop out in the first few cleans.
So, it's really hard to say. Much depends how you dress it up and what, if any, guarantees you are prepared to offer.
A buyer will likely be aware that if someone is only selling part of his round, he's unlikely to be selling his best work.
EDIT: The first time I bought some work, it ended up at about 4.5 times monthly. This was paid up front but I did get a personal intro. With exceptions, the pricing was decent. There were access issues at many properties though and in the longer term, I let go of much of the work as some of them needed to be in for me to clean. Some cancelled. Two of them ripped me off for the money. I ended up keeping the best 5 out of 23 jobs in the longer term. They are decent jobs though. Knowing what I now know, the £2k I paid would only be about £500. The second time I bought work cost me much less but generally is priced lower. Access is mostly OK. For this work, I worked it twice with the seller getting the money, and now it's mine. A couple dropped out and I'm likely to drop a small amount too. Although it's mostly OKish for pricing, several need a big increase. I anticipate losing them. In all, it started at around £600 per 6-weekly clean but will probably be around £400 by the time the dust settles. Those figures aren't exact but it works out at around 2.7x monthly clean and I didn't have to lay out any money.
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I would also imagine customer retention is down to if the new window cleaner face fits and all too as if a person don't like you for whatever reason they will not want you to do the work. I'am aware that some people can get the hump when someone else turns up at their door expecting just to continue cleaning their windows after they have taken over (brought the work) from another cleaner.
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Whats the hourly rate that you earn when you clean these properties Matt?
How well behaved are the customers and what method have you got in place to take payment?
Is there much opportunity for extra work, gutter cleans or conservatory cleans once a year perhaps?
How long have you been cleaning for them?
What method do you use to clean?
Im not interested in the work, but if you answer these questions someone might focus more on the work than the thinking behind how credible 'good faith' is.
Good faith is good faith IMO actually, there's plenty of cleaners who've expanded their businesses as a result of good faith. I would imagine most cleaners on here have purchased work at some time or another. I have. Its how I started in the first place.
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Also is the work spreed apart or very close together (compact) must also have a bearing on what you might get surely?
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All about the hourly rate for me. You could have a load of compact crap paying jobs, as opposed to a handful of very well paid scattered jobs.
I think if you can gross over £1k a week, every week you're out earning (Monday-Friday) you should have no trouble getting over 5x for it.
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In this business your never going to get what it's really worth TBH 5 times the monthly take might be the norm for many but some businesses including mine take years to build and get a good name. You could employ a canvasser a generate loads of work but would it be decent work probably not if people are honest. A round that earns you more than most do jobs will in a week in a couple of days is a totally different kettle of fish and on some threads regarding the price for rounds sometimes gets confused. Look at how much people pay for an ionic thermopure package near on 30k with a van,you could pay that and drive away without a single house to clean for it. Why do these people part with that kind of money for that and then argue a round can't be worth 50-60-70k when they can be earning fantastic money from day 1
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a wile back i brought a small lump of very compact wrk to roads very close to eachother £140 wrth of wrk it was all done trad be for i got the lot never lost a custmer i only payed him £70 he showed me the wrk with a quick intro i payed him after i cleaned the wrk lol very trusting guy ! but if i was to sell wrk ide price it at 3 times what there wrth and ide wana b payed up rite ide give them a quick intro as well with the custmer
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In this business your never going to get what it's really worth TBH 5 times the monthly take might be the norm for many but some businesses including mine take years to build and get a good name. You could employ a canvasser a generate loads of work but would it be decent work probably not if people are honest. A round that earns you more than most do jobs will in a week in a couple of days is a totally different kettle of fish and on some threads regarding the price for rounds sometimes gets confused. Look at how much people pay for an ionic thermopure package near on 30k with a van,you could pay that and drive away without a single house to clean for it. Why do these people part with that kind of money for that and then argue a round can't be worth 50-60-70k when they can be earning fantastic money from day 1
I suppose a lot of it is about image and marketing. A shiny new van with system can be presented, gleaming all the way down to its silvery wheel trims. It's not so easy to present a round in similar terms as it's a little more abstract. Sweat and hard graft can be presented as twenty pound notes and the things those notes can buy, but you can never get away from the hard graft element no matter how it's dressed.
The van and system are the lipstick. The work is the pig that wears it :) .
I don't believe it should be that way either, but that's the world in which we live.
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I think you can market to much to the point people won't approach you cos you look to expensive or more expensive than the bloke with the bucket and ladder. I have had people in the past say I bet it costs more for you to clean our windows and I've said why and they've said it looks like you've got more to run and maintain.
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Whats the hourly rate that you earn when you clean these properties Matt?
Hourly rate ranges from £40-£60 dependening on how fast you are prepared to work
How well behaved are the customers and what method have you got in place to take payment?
Most are either cash on the day if they are in or via bank transfer, very rarely do they go over 30 days.
Is there much opportunity for extra work, gutter cleans or conservatory cleans once a year perhaps?
Plenty of scope as we always push this type of work
How long have you been cleaning for them?
most came to me pretty much at the beginning so 4 years.
What method do you use to clean?
WFP
Im not interested in the work, but if you answer these questions someone might focus more on the work than the thinking behind how credible 'good faith' is.
Good faith is good faith IMO actually, there's plenty of cleaners who've expanded their businesses as a result of good faith. I would imagine most cleaners on here have purchased work at some time or another. I have. Its how I started in the first place.
Hopefully all questions answered.... I am only selling due to re-focus on our core customer profile.