Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: supernova77 on December 15, 2008, 10:45:11 am
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On page 17 of the latest cleaning and maintenance magazine there is an article entitled "A step by step guide to buying a water-fed pole system".
One paragraph states the following with regards to earning potential:
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What is the earning potential
for business operators
investing in a water-fed
pole system?
The business opportunity
packages offer cost-effective
start-up costs and the ability
to earn between £80 and
£100 per hour. How quickly
your earning potential is
realised is dependent on the
amount of time individuals
want to invest in the
canvassing of their business.
With Concept 2O, we offer
various training courses
explaining how businesses
should be marketed.
---
However much time you invest in canvassing it would take you years and years (if ever) to build a business earning £80 - £100 an hour!!!
Statements like this just get on my nerves!
Andy
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are you shaw its not true coz i was just about to run out and get a couple lol marc
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Looks like Concept are trying to be too much like Ionics, as long as it helps them sell the systems. I got offered some work a few months ago from a guy that had bought a Pro 5 2 years ago, he was told that he could be earning about £40-£50k in his first year. Now, he probably could if he was out door knocking every night, expanded his areas that he was working ect. But he told me after a few weeks he just didnt like canvassing, it sounded so easy when he was sold his system, but in reality he personally found it very hard. So he spent around £6k on advertising in YP, local papers ect, got a little bit of work from it, but nowhere near enough to cover his business and personal costs. So he decided that he could no longer afford to keep going and was looking to get out!
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Of course its possible to earn this type of money.
But it takes time to build up a decent earning round - like years!
However if your a run of the mill general domestic window cleaner its not possible. If it is, then you must be the only window cleaner available in a 200 mile radius! Resi customers will always use cheaper operators.
For commercial its not that simple (using cheaper operators) as you need to unsure you use approved trained contractors to comply with your H&S requirements and insurance. Therefore you are willing to pay a premium so you dont get fined £££££££ 's should anything happen.
That would never happen in the domestic field.
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i thought that was the average rate of earnings.
at least thats what half the posters on here seem to claim.
;D ;D :P
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However if your a run of the mill general domestic window cleaner its not possible. If it is, then you must be the only window cleaner available in a 200 mile radius! Resi customers will always use cheaper operators.
That would never happen in the domestic field.
It can happen in the domestic field as well as commercial. But its down to the individuals, you have to put alot of time in with any business to get the rewards.
200 mile radius? I prefer my domestic customers to my commercial jobs. The key is what service you offer and how you treat your customers. Its not always down to the prices you charge.
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However if your a run of the mill general domestic window cleaner its not possible. If it is, then you must be the only window cleaner available in a 200 mile radius! Resi customers will always use cheaper operators.
That would never happen in the domestic field.
It can happen in the domestic field as well as commercial. But its down to the individuals, you have to put alot of time in with any business to get the rewards.
200 mile radius? I prefer my domestic customers to my commercial jobs. The key is what service you offer and how you treat your customers. Its not always down to the prices you charge.
Very good point, but for a new "start up" you will generally be competing on price. Until you establish yourself as a service, and get a good reputation for service and customer satisfaction.
This profession is a lot more involved than just cleaning windows and a lot of new start up guys with £££ in their eyes need to realise this, as its not as easy as the article like this suggests.
There is a lot of behind the scenes time and effort involved in marketing and progressing your business.
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Of course its possible to earn this type of money.
But it takes time to build up a decent earning round - like years!
However if your a run of the mill general domestic window cleaner its not possible. If it is, then you must be the only window cleaner available in a 200 mile radius! Resi customers will always use cheaper operators.
For commercial its not that simple (using cheaper operators) as you need to unsure you use approved trained contractors to comply with your H&S requirements and insurance. Therefore you are willing to pay a premium so you dont get fined £££££££ 's should anything happen.
That would never happen in the domestic field.
you must know something i dont , most of my work is commercial and believe me it is very competitive we lost a large job last year due to price alone which only worked out around £15 an hour and yet was still undercut we had the contract for over 6 years and never had a complaint.
maybe it is just location but believe me if you was charging those rates in this area you would not have any work.
i was speaking to one domestic window cleaner on friday who came to look at the pole system, he was doing houses oposite a nursing home i clean the houses he was doing had eleven windows each and i couldnt believe it when he told me he only got £2.50 per house .
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£80 to £100 per hour ?
IS THAT ALL ? :o
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Carl has been cleaning windows for many years and runs several very sucessfull domestic rounds in Wales.
His Company knows what to charge and his staff know how to tackle any job, he wouldnt be on a forum asking how do you use a squeegee or how much for this job after posting a picture of just a large house!
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I'm saying this not to brag, but to illustrate a point:
I have a commercial job that is worth 450 and can be done in a long morning.
(The rest of my work is not to that standard. )
The point is, if you can find one job like that then there are other jobs like that out there. It's just a case of finding them. Once you have only those jobs. Then you are laughin!
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Makes me want to say to these companies....
'Show me 20 guys in the last year who are pulling in £115,200 a year bases on your figures. Thats £80 hour x 6 hrs a day, 5 days week over 48 weeks.
And thats customers who have bought your system'.
I think they would be struggling to find 1 or 2 if any.
That goes for £40 an hour too.
When you take the weather into concideration and with the market forces of today it makes these companies look desperate.
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Maybe £100 per hour is the earning potential of a unit. The concept van could be operating with two reels so two workers. If it's commercial work i would imagine this figure would be achievable for a van.
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The point is, if you can find one job like that then there are other jobs like that out there. It's just a case of finding them. Once you have only those jobs. Then you are laughin!
No you wouldn't be laughing because you would be dead from old age!
Andy
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Problem is FTP that these companies dont tell you these figures are probably for wfp boys who are establishes.
Even if you take 2 people running from one unit you would still be pushing to fetch £80 hour consistently day in day out.
Anyway, where do they get there figures from......Oh of course, some of the earning comments on this forum!!!!! ;D
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No, i believe it's genuine. I looked into buying a Concept set up a couple of years ago. Part of the package was that they would take you to Wales to show you just how much a van could earn you. I would think it very likely that someone over there has a two man set up and every house in a road or estate to demonstrate it's potential. Of course a new start can't hope to have that top end cream round but plenty of wide eyed newbies would easily overlook that whilst trying to count the earnings potential.
I nearly fell for it for about five minutes before realising the chances of getting that perfect round would be years away.
It's part of their sales pitch to show you it's potential. Same as Omnipole do - yes some people can hit those figures but very very few will achieve it, after all it's not down to the product on it's own but more importantly the buisiness.
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Like you say it can be done and that`s all there going by to be honest,if you were to get every school office block nursing home you quoted for you would easily reach those figures but as you know it aint gonna happen regardless of what system you have and sales patter.A really good round takes years to build it can`t be done overnight unless you have 100k + to buy an established business.
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Hang on, when I phoned them this time last year and discussed one of their systems they were claiming a rate of £50 an hour. Now it's £80 to a hundred.
It sounds to me as though they just want to sell more systems.
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The bloke operating it makes the money not the machine,the only thing i would say though is that hot is far better and quicker.
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They are hardly going to say that earnings are up to £5 an hour now are they?
Why are people surprised that companies use good figures to show the potential of their product.
Key word that .............Potential. it doesnt claim that they will make £80 an for every hour they work.
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you would think that their staff would all set up if they could just go out and get that sort of money ::)
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It`s no different to any other business marketing is the key and mugs to find is the answer for them,they must have found plenty of people in the past that beleived them so they will continue to try.There not lying when they say what you can earn but from scratch from day 1 no chance.
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Resi customers will always use cheaper operators.
Not true!! ;)
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I have been following this post with great interest and I would like to thank you all for your comments, but I would just like to clear a few things up a bit if I may.
Firstly, I am sorry that manufacturers’ claims make people so annoyed but I do understand that if a manufacturer makes a claim regarding earning potentials then they should be able to substantiate that claim.
So far there have been references to two figures £50 per hour and £80 per hour. We have quoted both figures in various marketing we have carried out and both are correct. The figure of £50 per hour is if you have staff working for you and £80 per hour is if you are an owner operator. Staff left alone will rarely work as hard as you. of course, because of our payment methods our staff are unaware of our income or expenses.
These are the figures we consistently achieve on our own rounds. Agreed some are now over 16 years old, but our residential income increases by around £500 per month in new work and these figures also apply to our new work. we are not cheap by any means but we do present a very good image backed up by a service that people appreciate. Take a look at our window cleaning website to see the difference. www.concept2o.com
However, the aim of Concept 2o™ as a company is not to sell equipment once. We would like people to come back again and again and recommend us at every opportunity. Many of our customers are now operating more than 1 vehicle and the average growth of an owner operated business is one new van every year. It is in our best interests to help our customers and provide them with the information that we have gained from our combined 30+ experience and our multi-vehicle operations. We have 5 residential vehicles so far and counting.
Now I am not going to tell you that all you have to do is buy a Concept 2o™ system and sit back and watch the money roll in. That would be a lie. There is more to it than that and that’s common sense. Purchasing the equipment is step one. If that’s all you do, you end up like the afore mentioned gentleman who ended up selling his equipment because he did not have the knowledge to use it to his advantage. You need both, the best equipment you can afford and the knowledge to use it. Much like a racing driver having a poor car or a racing car with a poor driver, both are required if you want to win races.
If you have any doubt as to why we are so successful at our window cleaning operations and how we can train motivated purchasers to achieve the same results as us, read a few of my own personal blog postings. They will provide you with some idea of what is required if you want to grow your business. But before you do, I’d like to warn you that what I say will be neither popular or generally accepted among the average window cleaning fraternity, but then again, we are not average window cleaners and it does work…
www.clearviewplus.blogspot.com
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On page 17 of the latest cleaning and maintenance magazine there is an article entitled "A step by step guide to buying a water-fed pole system".
One paragraph states the following with regards to earning potential:
---
What is the earning potential
for business operators
investing in a water-fed
pole system?
The business opportunity
packages offer cost-effective
start-up costs and the ability
to earn between £80 and
£100 per hour. How quickly
your earning potential is
realised is dependent on the
amount of time individuals
want to invest in the
canvassing of their business.
With Concept 2O, we offer
various training courses
explaining how businesses
should be marketed.
---
However much time you invest in canvassing it would take you years and years (if ever) to build a business earning £80 - £100 an hour!!!
Statements like this just get on my nerves!
Andy
Although it can be possible to get that type of rate on the odd job, to trumpet that as the norm is probably not realistic.
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I'm saying this not to brag, but to illustrate a point:
I have a commercial job that is worth 450 and can be done in a long morning.
(The rest of my work is not to that standard. )
The point is, if you can find one job like that then there are other jobs like that out there. It's just a case of finding them. Once you have only those jobs. Then you are laughin!
Sure thing. I have one that is just over a ton and I did it in 70 minutes last time. but (a BIG but) 1) I wouldn't be able to sustain that pace over any more than 3 hours (2) I use a very light telescopic pole that costs about £400 or so if I used a heavier pole I don't think I could manage that pace. (3) I have found that such work is few and far between but it is still possible to do OK at much lower rates if you don't mind graft.
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I make a hundred pound an hour, got this great counterfeit money makin' machine on e-bay.
Think about what your going to say next, as I'm kidding ............Laters