Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: dazmond on January 13, 2025, 06:21:42 pm
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Usual for me.....
Less working days and prices rises in April
I might actually start actively seeking work nearer to my new home and dropping some work further away....
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Yea, buy a whole load of new gear and get going.
Got a new website, currently in the making, www.gibsonspropertyservices.ca
Hoping to be speaking to two or three suppliers this week about new gear. Probably going to be spending about £10k.
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I think you need to change your signature from ‘price higher/work harder’ Daz. ‘Price higher/work less’ would be more appropriate.
For me my goals this year are to continue with price rises, drop any residential work that isn’t hitting a certain £ per hour, and get better at marketing to increase the commercial work enquiries.
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I think you need to change your signature from ‘price higher/work harder’ Daz. ‘Price higher/work less’ would be more appropriate.
For me my goals this year are to continue with price rises, drop any residential work that isn’t hitting a certain £ per hour, and get better at marketing to increase the commercial work enquiries.
My signature is staying!😀👍
Price higher/work harder means on the days I actually work to maximise earnings.✔️
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Yea, buy a whole load of new gear and get going.
Got a new website, currently in the making, www.gibsonspropertyservices.ca
Hoping to be speaking to two or three suppliers this week about new gear. Probably going to be spending about £10k.
Are you going to employ or try and do the work yourself Matt?
How's your recovery going?
Best wishes for your new business and life in Canada.
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Cheers.
Na, I won’t be employing now. Not in it for that. I intend to do 3 or 4 easy days a week and enjoy life out here at the same time.
Shoulder still playing up, it’s an exceedingly slow recovery. Snails pace. Plate tectonics move faster than my shoulders recovery. I can get by but am also hoping some movement work wise will encourage it. It’s been over 6 months now….
Going to the docs soon as wanting to get it x-rayed again to check it’s just frozen shoulder and nothing else.
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Cheers.
Na, I won’t be employing now. Not in it for that. I intend to do 3 or 4 easy days a week and enjoy life out here at the same time.
Shoulder still playing up, it’s an exceedingly slow recovery. Snails pace. Plate tectonics move faster than my shoulders recovery. I can get by but am also hoping some movement work wise will encourage it. It’s been over 6 months now….
Going to the docs soon as wanting to get it x-rayed again to check it’s just frozen shoulder and nothing else.
I suppose starting from scratch again means you ll build up jobs slowly and hopefully you ll get fitter and more physically able as the months and years go on with physio,rest and a good diet.
How old are you Matt?I think your only a couple of years older than me?(I'm 53)....
Hopefully you've got a few good,healthy years left in you yet.
All the best
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Usual for me.....
Less working days and prices rises in April
I might actually start actively seeking work nearer to my new home and dropping some work further away....
Did you sell the flat?
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He never owned it! It was council. Cheap rent.
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He never owned it! It was council. Cheap rent.
Ahh right. Does he live with his new wife and kids now then?
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Cheers.
Na, I won’t be employing now. Not in it for that. I intend to do 3 or 4 easy days a week and enjoy life out here at the same time.
Shoulder still playing up, it’s an exceedingly slow recovery. Snails pace. Plate tectonics move faster than my shoulders recovery. I can get by but am also hoping some movement work wise will encourage it. It’s been over 6 months now….
Going to the docs soon as wanting to get it x-rayed again to check it’s just frozen shoulder and nothing else.
I suppose starting from scratch again means you ll build up jobs slowly and hopefully you ll get fitter and more physically able as the months and years go on with physio,rest and a good diet.
How old are you Matt?I think your only a couple of years older than me?(I'm 53)....
Hopefully you've got a few good,healthy years left in you yet.
All the best
Yea, I dont expect to be fully snowed under with work from the word go, however I am talking to a housing association this week about pressure washing, window cleaning and gutter cleaning on a collection of 22 houses.
Windows is usually once or twice a year, so the options we have in the UK for that dont exist over here. Im hoping to make up most of my work from pressure washing and to be honest I quite fancy the thought of grass cutting, especially as the summers here are clear blue sky for 4 or 5 months continuously.
I've just spoken to the local pressure washing supplier here and ordered a pressure washer.
(http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1736805430_ggg.jpg)
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He never owned it! It was council. Cheap rent.
Ahh right. Does he live with his new wife and kids now then?
No kids but yes I'll be moving into my missus 4 bed house by the end of March.🙂👍
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Similar thoughts to you daz.
I've been doing this 11 years now and been moaning I don't like it for half of those...
Big changes in mind for this year. I've downgraded to a smaller cheaper van which will save on fuel and insurance costs as well as being a lot easier to park etc.
Cutting windows down to 3 days week. Been looking into other business ideas/ course/degrees etc but not sure where to go want to find something I enjoy rather than just do something else for money. Ideally I would like to eventually reduce the windows down to 2 days a week. Going to try pressure washing again come spring see how that goes enjoyed it last year but wasn't easy finding work at good enough prices.
Going to put prices up next month or so then start looking at dropping work to make 3 days of cream.
I experimented one day last week with working a bit faster, basically very little rinsing, saw someone banging on about it on you tube. Always worked fast but also been an advocate of a good rinse so was hard for me to not get ocd but I cleaned 300 quid of work in 4 hours that day and no complaints. Only used about 300l of water as well. If I clean faster, put prices up and concentrate work nearer home reducing costs etc 3 days might not be far off what I was earning in 4. That's the plan anyhow. Will get rid of any bigger houses with velux etc also eventually want to be able to use an extreme 22 for everything no exceptions.
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Similar thoughts to you daz.
I've been doing this 11 years now and been moaning I don't like it for half of those...
Big changes in mind for this year. I've downgraded to a smaller cheaper van which will save on fuel and insurance costs as well as being a lot easier to park etc.
Cutting windows down to 3 days week. Been looking into other business ideas/ course/degrees etc but not sure where to go want to find something I enjoy rather than just do something else for money. Ideally I would like to eventually reduce the windows down to 2 days a week. Going to try pressure washing again come spring see how that goes enjoyed it last year but wasn't easy finding work at good enough prices.
Going to put prices up next month or so then start looking at dropping work to make 3 days of cream.
I experimented one day last week with working a bit faster, basically very little rinsing, saw someone banging on about it on you tube. Always worked fast but also been an advocate of a good rinse so was hard for me to not get ocd but I cleaned 300 quid of work in 4 hours that day and no complaints. Only used about 300l of water as well. If I clean faster, put prices up and concentrate work nearer home reducing costs etc 3 days might not be far off what I was earning in 4. That's the plan anyhow. Will get rid of any bigger houses with velux etc also eventually want to be able to use an extreme 22 for everything no exceptions.
It's not similar though is it Adam?🤣
How are you gonna start pressure washing again with a much smaller van?
Why would you get rid of bigger houses with velux windows? These are some of my best paying jobs....
You always seem to be in a state of limbo...unsure of what your next move should be...
I'm very content with my current round but still need to tweak here and there to keep it fresh and profitable as the years go on...
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I'm going to reduce my window cleaning customers and try and make it more compacted. Going to do some 6 weekly so I can skip February. Not did a clean this year due to the weather but had an inside job which meant I was still working. Now I have all the new scaffold, I have got more maintenance work coming in and money is good.
Looks like there is still plenty of work out there and not many people willing to do it. I have 4 big jobs already on my books for this year so will be the busiest year by far.
What I do intend to do is charge more and take more rest. At the moment I am building a study for my accountant, with an inbuilt luxury bookcase, money no object. He asked how I can come in and get to work right away with no thinking time? I said, last night I have thought out what I want to do and how I will achieve it. Folk don't realise that builders mind is working all the time to work out the easiest way to do the job.
Another good thing I have done in window cleaning is moving some cleans to bimonthly and charging double so I don't lose money. If the customer isn't happy then I tell them they need to find another cleaner but they are difficult cleans and can't get anyone to clean them so its a win win clean. 😉
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Similar thoughts to you daz.
I've been doing this 11 years now and been moaning I don't like it for half of those...
Big changes in mind for this year. I've downgraded to a smaller cheaper van which will save on fuel and insurance costs as well as being a lot easier to park etc.
Cutting windows down to 3 days week. Been looking into other business ideas/ course/degrees etc but not sure where to go want to find something I enjoy rather than just do something else for money. Ideally I would like to eventually reduce the windows down to 2 days a week. Going to try pressure washing again come spring see how that goes enjoyed it last year but wasn't easy finding work at good enough prices.
Going to put prices up next month or so then start looking at dropping work to make 3 days of cream.
I experimented one day last week with working a bit faster, basically very little rinsing, saw someone banging on about it on you tube. Always worked fast but also been an advocate of a good rinse so was hard for me to not get ocd but I cleaned 300 quid of work in 4 hours that day and no complaints. Only used about 300l of water as well. If I clean faster, put prices up and concentrate work nearer home reducing costs etc 3 days might not be far off what I was earning in 4. That's the plan anyhow. Will get rid of any bigger houses with velux etc also eventually want to be able to use an extreme 22 for everything no exceptions.
It's not similar though is it Adam?🤣
How are you gonna start pressure washing again with a much smaller van?
Why would you get rid of bigger houses with velux windows? These are some of my best paying jobs....
You always seem to be in a state of limbo...unsure of what your next move should be...
I'm very content with my current round but still need to tweak here and there to keep it fresh and profitable as the years go on...
You said putting prices up, working less days and working closer to home.
I plan to do the same so it is similar in that respect.
I earn more money faster and easier or simple small houses. Stuff with veluxs and big stretches over connys etc are more physically demanding and less enjoyable so why wouldn't I aim to do work i prefer
As for pressure washing it will fit on my van ive tried it or I can trailer mount all my gear. We shall see I might just end up selling it all and forget about it come summer who knows. I didn't want to keep a big van around just for pressure washing when I do very little of it and not certain if it's something that will become more frequent.
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6000 customers and 1.1 million turnover by the end of 2025
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6000 customers and 1.1 million turnover by the end of 2025
What're you at now? If so don't mind me asking.
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I have to much work...
In december I started putting prices up more or less across the board.
thus far I have put up about 170 customers and lost 3
of course my goal is always to make more money , but my main focus realy is to make life easier both physicaly and mentaly.
I believe the mental aspect very important...... I expect we all have those jobs that for some reason, we dont like doing them.
whether it be awqward windows , plant pots , cars parked , steps, or slow payers
fortunately I dont have many, but the few I have are going....
it feels so nice not to have them draining me mentaly on the days they are due
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I have to much work...
In december I started putting prices up more or less across the board.
thus far I have put up about 170 customers and lost 3
of course my goal is always to make more money , but my main focus realy is to make life easier both physicaly and mentaly.
I believe the mental aspect very important...... I expect we all have those jobs that for some reason, we dont like doing them.
whether it be awqward windows , plant pots , cars parked , steps, or slow payers
fortunately I dont have many, but the few I have are going....
it feels so nice not to have them draining me mentaly on the days they are due
So how many days/hours do you window clean in a typical week?
The great thing about too much work is you can be bolder with price rises.
I put prices up in April at the start of the new tax year. I feel this is the best time to do it.
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I have to much work...
In december I started putting prices up more or less across the board.
thus far I have put up about 170 customers and lost 3
of course my goal is always to make more money , but my main focus realy is to make life easier both physicaly and mentaly.
I believe the mental aspect very important...... I expect we all have those jobs that for some reason, we dont like doing them.
whether it be awqward windows , plant pots , cars parked , steps, or slow payers
fortunately I dont have many, but the few I have are going....
it feels so nice not to have them draining me mentaly on the days they are due
So how many days/hours do you window clean in a typical week?
The great thing about too much work is you can be bolder with price rises.
I put prices up in April at the start of the new tax year. I feel this is the best time to do it.
Do you still put them up every 3 years (think I recall you saying its every 3 like me) or are they more frequent now?
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I have to much work...
In december I started putting prices up more or less across the board.
thus far I have put up about 170 customers and lost 3
of course my goal is always to make more money , but my main focus realy is to make life easier both physicaly and mentaly.
I believe the mental aspect very important...... I expect we all have those jobs that for some reason, we dont like doing them.
whether it be awqward windows , plant pots , cars parked , steps, or slow payers
fortunately I dont have many, but the few I have are going....
it feels so nice not to have them draining me mentaly on the days they are due
So how many days/hours do you window clean in a typical week?
The great thing about too much work is you can be bolder with price rises.
I put prices up in April at the start of the new tax year. I feel this is the best time to do it.
I keep it at around 25 hours a week , so maybe 4 six hour days or 5 five hour days . I sometimes do a bit more but rarely more than 30 hours.
occasionally I will work a saturday morning if I have a render clean, or if my partner is working a saturday.
my brain works better when I work little but often .....I find I am more productive.
but each to their own
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to add to my goals , and this will greatly improve my working life ...
I have also changed my diet.... I am overweight.
but rather than say I am on a diet , I am changing my diet.
I am not focusing on my weight , just changing what I eat .... the latter should change over time hopefully.
so ... adding fruit .... in the day its fruit and maybe some eggs .
cutting down on alcohol ... my downfall.
more veg .
getting to bed early .
small steps bit by bit
i find with diets .... as soon as i go on a diet .... my brain starts thinking about food .... ;D
so I dont call it a diet to decieve my brain ::)roll
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6000 customers and 1.1 million turnover by the end of 2025
What're you at now? If so don't mind me asking.
5k 900k
Hat’s off to you sir, that’s good going👍🏻
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What're you at now? If so don't mind me asking.
Hat’s off to you sir, that’s good going👍🏻
Appreciated
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Retire.
Handing business over to my son. Still be involved but step back.
Vin