Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: BRETT on February 19, 2009, 07:42:29 pm
-
went out collecting tonight out of 18 houses 6 of them no one was home,thinking of leaving a sae for those that are out,how many of you get problems with these eg i havent got a cheque book or you never recieve the cheque.was thinking of writing on the payment slip"please send cheque within 7 days in the sae provided thank you".what do you guys do?
-
i dont collect any money at all, never have done from the time i started. i always leave a sae and 99.9% of customers pay fine, some a bit faster than others. if they havent got a cheque book you goulkd phone the night before and ask them to leave the money out for you.
-
Brett,
Many guys on here will say, 'I don't collect, I'm far too important to go knocking on doors for payment'!
However, I'm not one of them...
But I do use some common-sense. For my rural areas, I'll clean and leave a SAE with payment instructions (these houses are normally larger and the customers are good at posting cheques fairly promptly), but for two estate area I clean in I'll collect on a Saturday morning; and if they're not in I leave a SAE with said payment instructions (they need to know who to write the cheque out don't they?).
My collections amount to two-Saturday mornings out of about four or five weeks; and it stops me stressing about the bills.
-
hi brett i,ve just started leaving sae and its seems to be working ok ,like the idea about"please forward payment within 7 days"anyone else write this on the slip and do you find it promtps them to send the cheque sooner?
-
We always leave SAE. Takes up to a month to get your money in, but 99% does come in. If cash flow is vital suggest you do like Tosh until your finances can stand a one month drag factor.
-
What Christies said.
As for Tosh's comment about being too important to collect - I don't think that is the prime motivator for not collecting for most of us; it's just that it is an unnecessary use of time.
-
As for Tosh's comment about being too important to collect - I don't think that is the prime motivator for not collecting for most of us; it's just that it is an unnecessary use of time.
But is it?
I know a local window cleaner whose went back to collecting because he was tired of stressing about his cash flow!
-
It's an unnecessary use of time to window cleaners who are not "hand-to-mouth" in their financial situation. It has nothing to do with them feeling "too important" to do it.
I mean we're window cleaners! If we're "too important" to collect money then surely we'd be "too important" to clean windows! ;D
-
If we're "too important" to collect money then surely we'd be "too important" to clean windows! ;D
Not according to some of the posts I've read here!
-
OK Tosh.
-
Ask your custies to leave your money in a hiding place like in an envolope in porch, or under a brick round back, I have some that leave money in their recycling bins. But most send me a cheque.
-
went out collecting tonight out of 18 houses 6 of them no one was home,thinking of leaving a sae for those that are out,how many of you get problems with these eg i havent got a cheque book or you never recieve the cheque.was thinking of writing on the payment slip"please send cheque within 7 days in the sae provided thank you".what do you guys do?
I dont collect, they either pay bank transfer, cheque, postal order or get charged late payment fee for not paying, I do give the options ;)
-
Like Tosh, some I collect and some I don't. I have some estates where I make the money because all the work is really compact, I wouldn't clean them for the price I charge if they weren't. These are the same estates where I have lost work in the past, because I have let them owe for 2 or 3 cleans, hitting them for £18 hurts. If I didn't collect I would lose more, the work would become less compact and less economically viable to service. It's no good asking them to send cheques if they don't have a cheque book, and on some starter home estates this is the case.
I can do 4 houses an hour all day on one estate, so it's too good an estate to walk away from, I spend 6 working days there.
We must all run our businesses as we see fit, you can't generalise, it's horses for courses.
-
It took me 2 years to get 'almost' all of my customers to post a cheque if not in. It was a headache and cash flow was tight sometimes. But i persevered and only collected if i had a direct debit i needed to pay.
In this time i have stopped doing a couple of customers and have been dumped by others when they received a letter giving 7 days to pay or i'm going legal with it. At their expense.
I have had 1 dumped customer come back 10 months later cos she asked nicely and my feelings when i dumped her were now in the past. She was also 1 of 5 houses in a row of 8 i clean, so it made business sense to take her back after she'd been sin-binned. She also made me laugh. :)
I still have a handful that hold out for a while, but on the whole i now get paid by cheque before the next clean.
I don't leave a stamp or envelope, just a slip saying windows cleaned, please post £, to me. ;D
About 6 months ago i added 'please pay within 7 days', to the slip and i have noticed that the majority now pay by then.
It has taken me 3 years (since i went wfp) to get the payments pretty much sorted. It has been hard and stressful, i have offended a few along the way with regard to paying me, but it is worth not collecting in my opinion.
The positive for doing this was that i work in the countryside and i reduced my fuel costs by around £50 a month.
Oh and also that feeling of contentment when i get home, take the shoes off and have the 1st cup of tea since i left for work that morning. :P
It is a good move getting customers to post payment. I found new customers took to it straight away, the others who were used to me coming back to collect were a much harder nut to crack.
Stressful, but worth it in the end.
-
i ring my customers night before and they leave money in an agreed place. only have to collect of the same few every month and not owed anything.
-
I am far too important...to my family to waste time driving around collecting money, only been in the game 2,5 years but have never left my house to go out and collect...it's a waste of time and resources...after each clean I leave the customer with a card with my details on and of course my bank details and they simply transfer the money...
Yes of course you will always get late payers but all in all...the money flows in. I do understand that some collect to maintain customer contact but my impression from most people is that after the 1st visit which we always see the customer face to face...the custy could'nt care less if they saw us ever again.
Cheers
Dave.