Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: gary evans on December 01, 2007, 05:34:04 am
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Does anybody else work like this, or am i mad, like i keep getting told.
This will be my 20th day on the trot, with an average of 10 hours per day. Weds this week did 14, started at 4am finished at 6pm.
Doing a lot of paperwork, temders, qoutes, running the business, preparing for big job, daily tickets & booking jobs, & on top of that working one of the vans some of the time.
I do addiional cleaning work where short, carpet cleaning & window cleaning. Also pressue washing & anything else people require, i do all the unusual etc,
Trying to expand the business at moment, so a lot to do, was offered a part time worker in office, but thought i didnt have time to train her through all our stuff, Mistake.
Got to go starting at 6.
Gary
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well as no-one else is about at the mo i will be the 1st to congratulate you on your efforts. I hope you don't forget to put aside some time to spend all that hard earned cash.
Good luck.
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Gary,
Your body, and your wife/partner will tell you if it's too much.
Anyone who is wanting to grow their business needs to put in the hours. This is the time of year when everyone, customers new and old, wants and expects you to drop everything for them!
The question is are you still enjoying it! If the answer is yes then everything is fine, once you start losing the enjoyment factor, that's when things start getting more strenuous.
When I was just starting out on my own I worked every hour god sent to get the business established and to keep people happy. However now we have 10 staff, a good reputation and although I can't just close the front door and switch off at 5pm, I can make time for myself, my wife, daughter and family.
Other than essential contract cleaning and call-outs, we are closing down on the 22nd Dec and not reopening until 2nd Jan.
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Ian's point is key to the whole thing. As long as you are enjoying it.
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you need to take a day off some time to refuel or you will burn yourself out.
Ian
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good on ya fella, your a real man ;D
i would work everyday if i could, but i have the kids friday sat and sunday whilst my wife works.
in a year ill be able to start working fridays when littlist one goes to school, wah hey
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Go for it Gary,
I started 18 years ago and done the same thing, to me it paid off, busted my arm over 2 weeks ago i wont work properly until the new year, but i turned over more in November than i did in October, December i hope to help out on a few jobs, all my hard work paid, hope it does for you.
Barry
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Does anybody else work like this, or am i mad, like i keep getting told.
Gary
who keeps telling you that?
You are not mad, you are trying to build a secure future for you and yours, nothing wrong with that...
Nothing is for free in this life and if you want to have a successful business you have to put hard graft and long hours in from time to time to do so. You have xmas coming up in 3 weeks, so make sure you have a break then and re-charge your batteries. For next year why not work out a timetable, say 12 hour days mon - thurs and a four hour day friday and weekends ONLY if necessary.......what's that old saying.....practise what you preach Helen....done the timetable :D :D
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Hi Gary
They say that success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration and that's what you have to be prepared for. However, there comes a point when taking the odd day off and doing nothing doesn't actually have the impact you thought it would!
Regards
Mike
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Theres more to life than work and chasing the pound note
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Theres more to life than work and chasing the pound note
Too right,life`s too short to be working all the time, i know a lot of miserable wealthy people that don`t have a social life and also a lot of people that scrape by but are really happy, ;)
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try 3 months plus on the trot be like that all the way upto 20th dec
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Theres more to life than work and chasing the pound note
It's not often I disagree with Gordon, but this is one. If you are a driven personality with a desperate need to succeed then this effort level is the norm. Yes it leads to divorce and heart attacks but you are never going to know if you could have made it unless you try.
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Theres more to life than work and chasing the pound note
It's not often I disagree with Gordon, but this is one. If you are a driven personality with a desperate need to succeed then this effort level is the norm. Yes it leads to divorce and heart attacks but you are never going to know if you could have made it unless you try.
i somehow knew you would be impressed by this thread
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You think I live half a life bereft of many small but satisfying things, so what.
Most of the people posting on this are seeing themselves either now or at some stage in their lives.
Yes i'm impressed, and also a little envious of gary. He's living life at full bore, full of frenetic energy, and most likely will end up minted.
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Hi all thanks for the comments.
Very busy at moment as trying to expand business.
Looking at other avenues & ventures, for advancement.
Currently I do: Book jobs
Some of the invoiceing
All the qoutes
All the tenders
Carpet cleaning
Pressure washing
Window cleaning
& Any general duties of running a business.
Looking to take somebody on soon in office to release me to do more work on vans, have joined BNI which was spoke about previously & have 2 new ventures in pipeline when i have more time.
There is a lot of work out there, i actually set father-in-law up a while ago, gave him some work & helped him get about 60 customers, he came in part-time for us, but now he has 200 customers & all is going well, so any newbies it can be done with effort.
Today is sunday, had full rest & looking forward to busy week, definately off next weekend as going away.
Gary
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Hi all thanks for the comments.
Very busy at moment as trying to expand business.
Looking at other avenues & ventures, for advancement.
Currently I do: Book jobs
Some of the invoiceing
All the qoutes
All the tenders
Carpet cleaning
Pressure washing
Window cleaning
& Any general duties of running a business.
Looking to take somebody on soon in office to release me to do more work on vans, have joined BNI which was spoke about previously & have 2 new ventures in pipeline when i have more time.
There is a lot of work out there, i actually set father-in-law up a while ago, gave him some work & helped him get about 60 customers, he came in part-time for us, but now he has 200 customers & all is going well, so any newbies it can be done with effort.
Today is sunday, had full rest & looking forward to busy week, definately off next weekend as going away.
Gary
Sounds like me when i first started out had to have my fngers in all the pies now its just window cleaning
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Working 7 day weeks?
There is an awful lot more to life than work...I work for a living, I don't live to work.
To be successful you need to learn to delegate, you simply cannot do it all yourself.
Don't get me wrong, if it is required that I have to work on a weekend I'll do so, but that is a very, very rare thing indeed.
During the week, whilst at work I'll often work far more hours than most window cleaners too.
I would say that most will start somewhere between 8am and 9am and be back home again somewhere between 3pm and 4pm.
My day often starts somewhere between 6am and 7am and I'll work till 5pm and beyond.
So I do work hard, but I now also earn very good money too.
Building a business and making it grow beyond that of a sole trader of course takes more effort, but work is like a drug, and you can get dragged into doing more and more hours.
To grow you just have to learn to delegate, there are only so many hours in the day, and one man can only do so much.
I think that Gary should now be one of his business's overheads.
Currently I do: Book jobs
Some of the invoiceing
All the qoutes
All the tenders
Carpet cleaning
Pressure washing
Window cleaning
& Any general duties of running a business.
Carpet cleaning, pressure washing and window cleaning should be done by employees, that should free up considerable time for you to run the business, and if the office side of things is also swallowing up your time, then get yourself a secretary, even if only part time to ease your workload.
you can then concentrate on building and running your business.
You need balance in life and work, and as said, work can be addictive, and most addicts end out with ruined health, be it drugs, booze, gambling or work, overdo them and they will wreak havoc!
Ian
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Gary
When I first started I was the same as you. Early morning cleans, full days window cleaning, running another business and working all the hours god sends. Three things happen:
1: you'll end up in bed ill for a couple of days after a while (I know I was there)
2: you end up getting bored of what you do cos it will start to lead your life( yep, I was there)
3: you might even get a life threatening disease like cancer
that makes you look at the way you lead your whole life(three guesses !!!!)
The moral of the story is - you might get that super dooper business up and running, and it might earn you that million you want so bad, but whats the point if you havent got a life to enjoy it with
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Yeh no probs, taking it all in, but this short term for definate. I have a lady setup for office, just need time to deal with it for her. I ahve another van on order to increase t/0. And i am currently tendering for a lot of window cleaning, that is what i would prefer more of. But there are opportunities for cleaning contracts aswell also to increase workload.
I should of set up properly earlier, have had difficult year, damaged knees skiing, had break-in & also trying to expand to cover turnover which is like a bucket with holes in it, never enough time to sit down & go through stuff to correct it.
Looking forward to the run up to xmas, we,ve got loads on & hopefully pick-up some new work.
Gary.
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bucket with holes is, you wait till you get staff. Paid holiday, sickness to cover, and thats the good bits. Done it, been there, wont do it again
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Steve, got 5 already, hoping to double in next year.
Gary
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Theres more to life than work and chasing the pound note
It's not often I disagree with Gordon, but this is one. If you are a driven personality with a desperate need to succeed then this effort level is the norm. Yes it leads to divorce and heart attacks but you are never going to know if you could have made it unless you try.
I have to agree with this, if you dont try you will always wonder, if you try and it does not work then at least you tried, I personally work 7 days a week and alot of hours a day, and have done for months, not good for family life I admit probably not good for my health, but I have to try harder as I want better for my family and kids and me.
you do have to take a few hours time out once a week just to clear your mind or just step back and reflect whats working and whats not.
some posted on here there is more to life than money and many people are rich and unhappy, I am not rich in money sence but do ok, I am 99% of the time a happy person. there is nothing wrong with wanting more this is human nature just some do not have the outlook and some just happy to plod along till they have to retire, hard work can payoff as long as your moving forward, my grandad worked all his life retired and still had to work becuase of money issues, hes now dead (bless him)
my dad works 6 days a week and I worry for him. I am not getting to over 50 with nothing just not an option this is the age I want to retire, or work for fun and not for the money.
I also want my kids to have a better start than I did, as did my dad did for me.
Going into one now so I will say one more thing and stop.
Effort now = rewards later
Ian
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Mmm, effort in work is of course important, but no end of people work incredibly hard in whatever job they have.
I know of one window cleaner who works in and a bout a town called Lydney (for those of you local to the area) and he works 7 days a week, does loads of shops on a Sunday morning (any of you work local to Lydney you should be able to work out who I mean...talks a lot!!!) I guess he may well earn more than I do, but having seen some of his prices, even though he probably works 30% more hours than I do, I doubt it somehow.
The idea is to work smarter, not harder...er...except of course to do so you have to work hard at it! ???
If you have the wherewithal you will do well, the sky's the limit, but you need man management skills, sharp business acumen and the ability to delegate.
I know of another window cleaner (used to work for me, name of Ollie) and he will slave away in all weathers (well, he would if him and his partner worked in the rain!) He's like a metronome, he just keeps going and going and he is good at his job too, but for all his hard work he will never really get anywhere, which isn't meant as an insult to him, many of us are similar.
On the other forum there was a chap (bristol area) who hadn't been window cleaning that long - I think he was in marketing in some way prior to window cleaning - No idea how he is doing now but I have a feeling he will be doing very well indeed, he'd only been going a few months and he was already employing staff....
For myself?
I'm a 5 day week man, after winding my business down to about 2 and a half days just prior to going WFP, I am now worrying about being able to get around my round on time.
I'm kind of content where I am, I'm almost tempted to push and grow further...almost, but not quite! ;)
Ian
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quote from ian
I know of one window cleaner who works in and a bout a town called Lydney (for those of you local to the area) and he works 7 days a week, does loads of shops on a Sunday morning (any of you work local to Lydney you should be able to work out who I mean...talks a lot!!!) I guess he may well earn more than I do, but having seen some of his prices, even though he probably works 30% more hours than I do, I doubt it somehow.
hi ian i know this guy as well ,and as you know he tends to stretch it a bit ??
also to be seen in the pub a bit.
i was doihg a shop one day ,and he asked me to lend him some rubber & soap to save him going back to the car
whitch i did, the fpllowing week i went to clean the same shop,and he had gone and under cut me by a pound a clean ??
nice of him ehh
mike
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hi all, back in after work
I said it before and I'll say it again, being self employed to me means woring as little as possible for as much as possible for as little time as possible. You can work all the hours you want, but most people out there working straight days like you was to pay for divorce bills or CSA payments. And they got that way working 20 straight days all the time