Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Craig 72 on March 09, 2009, 06:07:31 pm
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Had my first two cleans this morning after quoting both £20 on saturday.One was a smallish bungalow which the customer wanted me to do all round including the insides.I honestly thought it would take me 90 minutes tops coming down to an hour or so after my speed got up a bit.£20 for an hours work sounded decent to me considering I'm new to the game.I got there at 9 sharp and didn't leave til gone half 11!The inside cleaning really slows things down.Then I bounced on to a place a couple of miles away and although things went smoother it's much harder work than I anticipated.Gonna persevere of course but I have a new found appreciation of just how hard this work can be!
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Go get a real job
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I was the same with my first customer too mate, its gets easier. As much as you practice on your own windows, its also about getting use to all the different types of windows.
A few tips:-
wear shoe covers inside, especially on cream carpets
if the window turns in, put ur bucket under the window, or take a towel with you.
Internal ladders are needed some times, I had to use my external ladders inside a converted church.
I like to be very curtious inside people's homes and always ask to do things first like, go in a room with a closed door, I think it puts people at ease, especial old dears in on there own, so be a gentle man basically.
Common sense, but none the less hopefully useful tips.
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Feel for you mate... I tell ya... my first day, was a blistering Saturday afternoon back in 2006, took me 5 hours to make £19.........!!
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All been there - it's a classic newbie mistake underestimating time taken and so underpricing too.
One of my first jobs was a four bed detatched with conservatory including the roof, first clean too - i charged £15 and it took me all Saturday morning. :o ::) ::) ::)
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Go get a real job
I vote this the most unhelpful post of the year (so far)!
LWC, you sound like a proper 'self abuser'!
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Go get a real job
Yeah,fantastic advice,cheers.
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It doesn't sound like you underpriced (depends on size of the bungalow, it's just every one is slow to begin with. Give it a year and you'll be able to do the same job in a quarter of the time tops.
Simon.
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i did 10 first cleans today about 6 of them never cleaned in 20years lol, hard days graft but still the sun was out 8)
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A tiny percentage of my accounts from when I first started are extremely well priced.
But that was because I really didn't want to do them; they looked such a challenge; but with experience, time, and practice they're actually not bad at all.
WFP made most of the difference mind.
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Hi Craig,
We've all been there mate.
I remember my first day and thinking "what have i done" i started on a close of 8 houses thinking that would take 3 or 4 hours tops, in fact i done only 5 all day earning a lousy £20. i can know do the whole close in 1 1/2 to 2 hrs.
You'll soon be up to speed.
John
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You'll soon be up to speed.
John
It may take a few years though.
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I was the same with my first customer too mate, its gets easier. As much as you practice on your own windows, its also about getting use to all the different types of windows.
A few tips:-
wear shoe covers inside, especially on cream carpets
I just kick my shoes off. Mind you if you've got smelly old plates of meat I suppose that could be a no-no ;D
Don't worry Craig you'll defo get that bungalow down to 45mns in time.
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Go get a real job
I vote this the most unhelpful post of the year (so far)!
LWC, you sound like a proper 'self abuser'!
Dear me only avin a larf...oh yeh i forgot, not allowed to do that here
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Go get a real job
I vote this the most unhelpful post of the year (so far)!
LWC, you sound like a proper 'self abuser'!
Always good to put a smiley on the end to differentiate you from the really strange bods. ;D
Dear me only avin a larf...oh yeh i forgot, not allowed to do that here
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Dear me only avin a larf...oh yeh i forgot, not allowed to do that here
Dear me, yes; course you can use humour; but make it funny; unless you really do want to sound dry and sarcastic; which is sometimes fair enough!
But remember, communication on an internet forum doesn't have the nuances that face-to-face communication has, so 'Get a real job' without any smile can insinuate that the poster you're referring to isn't 'man enough' to clean windows; he can't hack it', or 'isn't tough enough'.
So he should go back to being 'an employed monkey'.
That's what I read your post to mean.
Sorry; but the original poster though the same; so I don't think it's me being a 'Geordie' (stoopid (apologies to those Geordies who aren't stoopid)).
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Must be my dry sene of humour.
Bit like saying to trad people go WFP...just a joke
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Whats wrong with self abusing anyway??? ;D ::)
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Must be my dry sene of humour.
Bit like saying to trad people go WFP...just a joke
thats not funny ;D ;D
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Must be my dry sene of humour.
Bit like saying to trad people go WFP...just a joke
thats not funny ;D ;D
No, that's good advice!
;D
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Cheers for the advice folks.Heartening to know a lot of people went through the same thing in the beginning.It's good,in a way,that now I have a yardstick to judge how long new jobs might take.
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Go get a real job
I got the joke as soon as i read it, i think people must have different sense of humours or something, i see no abuse here just pointing out w/c is a real job in a sarcy way 8)
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my ferst huse lader blue over and smashed next doors frunt window , the bung proberley not over priced as your new so in 6 munths come back and tell us wot you think of the price
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look on the bright side for your first day you earned minimum wage, you didnt lose money, it just gets better from now :)
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^Yeah that's a good way to look at it.It's £40 more than I would have earned sitting on my arse.
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i take an old pair of slippers for insides now get on a cold tiled conservatry floor
gets you off to a bad start.
once put black flecks off my socks on a posh carpet not dirty but you could see where id been in
this house and it was the deepest pile youde ever seengod knows how much it costbut
they didnt buy it where i get my carpets never made same mistake
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^Yeah that's a good way to look at it.It's £40 more than I would have earned sitting on my arse.
One of my first eight hour days (twelve years ago admittedly - £38!)
Another up on a flat roof extension and the ladder blew away - no one home so lowered myself onto the water-butt and fell through the lid! ;D ;D ;D
It's a lesson learned Craig and you got paid for the lesson so that's not bad is it?
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^Yeah that's a good way to look at it.It's £40 more than I would have earned sitting on my arse.
One of my first eight hour days (twelve years ago admittedly - £38!)
Another up on a flat roof extension and the ladder blew away - no one home so lowered myself onto the water-butt and fell through the lid! ;D ;D ;D
It's a lesson learned Craig and you got paid for the lesson so that's not bad is it?
Lol!I've had a few 'Frank Spencer' moments myself over the years doing building work.
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Wait 'till you clean the wrong house - that's always such a laugh! :-\
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Wait 'till you clean the wrong house - that's always such a laugh! :-\
Cleaned a house twice once, both time she rang me saying i hadnt cleaned her windows i was like "i have!" she just accepted it. Went the next time and then realised id gone to wrong corner of cul de sac :-[
Well annoying spent ages cleaning down the frames and pvc on the wrong house lol!
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Wait 'till you clean the wrong house - that's always such a laugh! :-\
Been there done that ::)
Had a row of 8 houses, had 4 to do. Did the fronts then went around to do the backs. Got out of "sinc" and cleaned 2 of the neighbours by mistake before I realised what I'd done. ???
What's worse is, I still make mistakes like that :o
DOH!
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Another up on a flat roof extension and the ladder blew away - no one home so lowered myself onto the water-butt and fell through the lid! ;D ;D ;D
;D
Not long after I first started, it was one of those hot/sweaty days; I was tired; not used to all this ladder work, and I put my ladder at a silly angle above a small porch. I'd done this before, but the grass my ladder feet were on was usually soft, but this time it was baked hard.
As I got to the top of the ladder, it slipped on the sun-baked earth and I went crashing down onto the porch; for a milisecond the ladder and myself stopped; then I went crashing to the ground.
My customer was watching all this, with wide-eyes.
I was fine, just scratched and bruised, and I jumped up saying, 'It's okay, I'm a Geordie, I'm a Geordie'!
That was funny.
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did you do much damage tosh?
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still got my very first housing association job, from 1989.
it used to take 2 of us most of the day on ladders.
after a few cleans it was 2 of us 4 hours.
then i done it on my own in 4 hours.
its a wfp job now and i do it in 2 hrs on my own.
when we first started it, it was a proper slog, but as it has turned out it is a well priced little job.
stick with it, at the moment your getting paid to learn. which can't be bad.
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Wait 'till you clean the wrong house - that's always such a laugh! :-\
or when you go to the wrong door looking for money, and think i have no idea who you are when they answer. always carry a business card an ask if they like the work and want you regular ;D