Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Frequently Asked Questions & Useful Resources => Topic started by: JWT on October 13, 2003, 03:28:42 pm
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:)Hi Everyone
I have just discovered this bulletin board and read through many of the existing posts. They are great and seems like there are some really genuine and helpful members out there.
I am just starting out after having been made redundant and I need a bit of help with regards the best way to get going.
I responded to 2 ads in my local paper last week. I called the 1st one on the phone and he has 2 rounds for sale..one has 36 customers (all residential) generating £422 p/month and the other has 30 clients bringing in £560 p/m. The seller values the 2 rounds together at just short of £5000 and arrives at this figure by multiplying the monthly income from each round by 5. He says this is "the norm" in this business and that there is plenty of potential to expand each round and therefore feels this is good value for money. Can anyone please let me know if this is "the norm" for valuing the price of a round?
The 2nd ad that I responded to was a company in Essex who have sent me an info pack which I received at the weekend. In a nutshell they Guarantee the following.......income on your round, your round will grow at least 10% in first year, to provide advice & backup etc and that you will be successful.
The example round that they highlight in their info. is £500 p/week income to start at a price of.........£8000!!! You can have finance with them, if you want it, at £50p/w over 2 years if you come up with a £4000 initial deposit.
They state that typical earnings are £150/£180 per day and that you should earn around £20-£25p/h once you are familiar with your round "approx 4-6 months from start up".
It all sounds very interesting to say the least and I haven't spoken to them yet since receiving their info pack.
I would love to hear from anyone who has any thoughts on the above and in particular anyone who may have had dealings with this company in Essex (name withheld) or any others with a similar offer.
I haven't tried any canvassing of my own yet to get a feel for the demand that there might or might not be in my area. This might be the best way to start (certainly the cheapest) but could take me a long long time to build up to the amounts per week being "offered" by others.
I really would value any constructive help, thoughts or advice from you experienced professionals out there.
Thanks in anticipation
Regards
JWT.
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Hi JWT,
Welcome to the forum. :) I would not buy any domestic work as their is loads and loads of work out their. You just need to canvass for it! If the company in Essex is a reputable company i would think they would be pleased for you to put up their web address ??? I would be interested to see it if they have a website.
Good luck to you with your new business
Steve Lowe
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Hi
Forgot to say £20-£25 an hour is very possible but you will need to allow for wet days when you cant work. :'(
Steve Lowe
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serious advice. dont do either of them.my experiance with buying an established round is that as a beginer in the trade, the customers are used to a standard that you need to achieve through practise. yes it will launch you straight into earning, but you will struggle to keep up with the work rate at first. so expect to lose a few.
the other option i would not touch, a few claims you say they make like your round will grow by 10% in the first year. not a big claim, poor show i reckon any round will grow by far more than that without even trying through people seeing you working and asking you to do theirs.
my advice is, look at previous posts for the kit you need to buy, do your own house your families and friends houses, to get the practice. go knocking on doors it works, build a round and make it grow over the next few months within a year you will be doing very well.
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If your thinking of buying an established round you must at least be introduced to to your customers as the new window cleaner taking over the round. If you buy it 'blind' you could find people opting out! I bought a round a couple of years ago and paid what it was worth monthly!! £5000 for those rounds sounds way out! But then I live in Devon! Like the other lads have said canvass your own round, there's millions of windows out there! good luck. :)
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I don't think I'd touch the 2nd ad with a barge pole. I'ts too expensive and also sounds too good to be true.
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Hello mate, listen to what the guy's say on here because it is valuble advice. I was in a termoil with giving in my regular employment and starting window cleaning. I had the encouragement of a friend (who is a window cleaner) and just needed that final push, which i got from this site!! Thanks again guy's!!
As for custom, go out there and get them for yourself. I would not say it is easy, but it ain't hard either. Take this for an example. I canvassed a street of approx 50 houses (knocking that is) and got four takers. today i started the street for the first time and three of the people who turned me away (nicely) approached me and asked if i would do theirs. I think if you show your face in a genuine "non-pushy" way you have won half the battle. Who knows, next week i might get another two people from the same street, who knows?
Good luck matey ;D
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I bet when you go down the road to do the windows you will probably get a few more. ;)
Steve Lowe
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hi im in belfast we pay 3 times the average income,at the minute there is a guy selling 350 customers done fortnightly £3200 per month selling for £6500 which is a little below the average/is their anybody else on the site from belfast >:(
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looks like i got a good deal :)
i paid half the income for the month :)
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Hello Friends,
Thanks for all of your replies and input up to now....its all very helpful and given me food for thought. The prices quoted for the rounds I mentioned earlier seemed a bit high to me at the beginning and you all basically confirm that.
I am definitely going to get some calling cards made up and get out canvassing and find out how that goes.
I'll also get out practising on friends and family's windows.
I will follow up with the company in Essex and get as much free info out of them as possible for my own gain.
Steve Lowe if you give me you email address I will give you the contact details for the company in Essex but as you suspected they don't have a web address.
Thanks to everyone once again ;)
JWT
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Hi Jwt,
Good luck with your canvassing :D My e mail address is stevelowe@lowescleaning.co.uk .
Steve Lowe
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i would be wary of buying a window round because you end up with someone elses prices and their ways- its what customers get used to. i bought one from a bloke who used to do it part time and although it seemed cheap (250 per fortnight for 800 pounds) at the time it turned out to be a nightmare.the houses turned out to be harder work than they looked when i viewed them( i know my fault) and the prices too low. i did put prices up but it was difficult because of what they had been paying for years. i also found myself listening to them praising their previous w.cl. all day long and telling what jobs he would do for no extra charge. i got rid and so did the bloke who took over from me. im sure its not all bad but be careful when buying.
y
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i was fairly lucky, the guy i had it off, while being too cheap on a few (but i put them up straight away and lost only 3) as he is retiring, he doesnt do them avery often, sometimes every 2 months :(, and also miss's window he doesnt fancy, so i have heard how bad he was :)
its all good, as i now look good :o ;D :o
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is their anybody else on the site from belfast >:(
yes Me ;D
Ian
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looks to me that you have had a lot of valiable feed back from this topic as for myself i hav'nt bought a round (mind you I'm not saying I wouldn't if 1 came up in my area for the right price I can always take on some more work, by the way that's in Southampton if anybody is selling) personally I prefer the old door knocking method myself as it only costs you your time and no £££££££ secondly you name your price and chose what and where you wanna work for example when I canvas I walk straight past houses with the Georgian style lead windows (can't stand them) if at a later date the owner approaches me asking to be a customer I can name my own HIGH PRICE!
Good luck and go for it.
Jay Grafters
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look at
http://www.window-cleaning.biz/buy.htm
for prices being asked for rounds
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Generally I canvassed up my own stuff but when I went completely full time I bought a days work (monthly) from SimonB over 3 years ago (pre-his website) and it's still one of the better parts of my round.
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All we do (did) was to put flyers 10 houses each side of the one we were doing everytime we did a house. Over a 4 month period we doubled our business.
Personally, I would not pay for a round as one can be got for price of leaflets and leg work.
Cheers
Ross
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I started just over a month ago with a bought round of residential blocks and although there are certain things i would have different if i had got the work, the initial guaranteed income was needed and in time i will change it more to my liking.
Since then I've got £400 per month on top for light canvassing and there is a guy posting on another site his progress over the month just canvassing, i believe he is now on about £2000 3 weeks in! So it all depends on wether you have the time to build it up yourself.
Anyway whatever you do I wish you all the best and it seems you cant go far wrong with forums like this to for valuable advice. :)
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:)Hi Everyone
The 2nd ad that I responded to was a company in Essex who have sent me an info pack
JWT.
I know the above post was placed a long time ago now, but from the description, this company is still going. It was seeing an advert for this got me into thinking about cleaning for a living. I have spent most of this morning, and will probably be most of this afternoon aswell, reading this forum!
Is sent off for the information, received the info pack, was very impressed, as I thought that the money spent on that round could be reclaimed easily within the year. I phoned up for some more info, which was duly given to me. I was told that I would be under no obligation to purchase anything until I was sure that I wanted to proceed, which meant that I could go out on a round and get a taster for the work with an established cleaner, whom would be able to show me the potential for earning. Although I was impressed buy the info, and help offered, there was one major problem in that the rounds that were on offer were about 30 mins drive away at least. This put me off as I know that there is work, virtually on my doorstep.
The rounds, as previously described, were on a sliding scale of £1600 for £100 p/w of work, therefore a £600 p/w round was priced @ £9600 :o! This round would typically consist of 200-300 houses depending on size obviously. When I actually sat down and thought about it, I realised that if I started up on my own that I could, with a bit of hard graft, build a round that could quite easily surpass that WITHOUT the outlay of 10 grand, therefore ending up better off in the long run!
I haven't started anything yet, but am thinking about still going out with the cleaner to see how it acheived a maybe even learn a few tricks ;D
Unless there is any window cleaners in the Ely, Cambridgeshire area, that could help me out and receive some free labour in return!! ;) Also does anyone have a rough figure, for a startup cost, I know it can't be that high, but am currently unemployed :'( so will be borrowing, or at least using the old plastic to get me started. I know what would be great, if anyone has the time, a list of the essentials to own, and any tips on the best products would be great.
I greatly appreciate any help!
Cheers guys!
Simon
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you can get a cheap ladder from b&q £50-00 however they are nowhere near as good as double pointers (that i use)available from www.scrimcity.co.uk where you will also be able to get all your other bits including bucket-applicator -squegee etc. getting it right 1st time will save you money in the long run.
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Them b&q ladders are shi44y.they nearly cost me my life,they collapsed after only months of using them,they are only for diy jobs around the house.They collapsed on the forth run and bent in half,leaving me to fall 16ft head first into a yorkshire stone wall,I only survived because I landed on my head,I would never say to anyone buy them from b/q they just aint up to the job,a good price for ladders is around £120,safer and less wind resistant cus them from b/q are so light they blow away.SO BE WARNED I WISH I HAD A WARNING BY SOMEONE WHEN I WAS SETTING UP
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Don't worry Gaza, no short cuts for me!
Have decided after much debate to go for a trade triple 3.5m, for £138 with free delivery from http://www.midlandladders.net :D thought that sounded like a bargain. Just been building my shopping list of all the things to get. I think I'll start a new thread soon showing what I've done so far and what I plan to do on my quest for financial freedom ;D and if anybody feels like it you can throw in some advice or words of wisdom along the way.
Simon