Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Dean Taberner on September 03, 2009, 10:15:20 pm
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Hi guys,
Do any of you boys on here offer a nationwide service on top off your ongoing business?
The last few months have been crazy for us,
From working all over wales and yorkshire, the midlands, lancs and a great time with J V Prices boys in london its been superb.
weve been in rhos on sea in wales today on a big college and are on the cash work tomorrow,
next week we are cleaning lidls in hull, grimsby, scunny, leeds, chesterfield then off too anglesey, porthmadog, pwhelli, colwyn bay and all down that coast then doing some more uni cleans in sheffield.
Does anybody else do anything as mad as this on top of their domestic work or are we just mad?
Dean
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how you get these dean
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Jaykie
We get them by being available and giving a good service,
The Uk isnt that big, especially on an empty motorway at 4am in the morning.
Dean
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just wondering if cleaning lidls or any other similar business can work out profitable to travel so far between jobs, obviously it must or you wouldn't do it, just seems like it would be cheaper for the individual stores to employ a local cleaner?? but as you say if you offer a good service thats what matters.
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Jaykie
We get them by being available and giving a good service,
The Uk isnt that big, especially on an empty motorway at 4am in the morning.
Dean
Most of us are available we just dont know how to get used :)
How did you get your name out to right people??
Sounds like your doing well thought , at least the recession is still not affecting us cleaners eh!
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im in scunny if you wanna sub it out lol
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Rl
Totally agree,
We clean our lidls fortnightly now, they used to be weekly,
They now have caretakers who try to keep the windows clean,
Theres always someone who will try and do you out of work :( :( :(
Thats why I investested in a petrol jet washer and took on the powerwashing too.
Im sure the caretaker will be "powerwasher trained soon"
But thats the game and it needs to be played,
Dean
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We do some crazy stuff like this to as are customers ask and we do then they keep asking.
Thanks for all the help in London fella, thank the boys and I will send you an invoice soon for the training ha ha ha
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Thanks Charlie,
Happy days,
;D ;D ;D ;D
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dean what days you at shef uni next week am there wed and thurs ru you stoping down or is not so far for you to travel
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Laurie,
Meant to ring you mate, things have been crazy,
Not sure about the days yet but will stay over if you fancy a beer :P :P :P
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same here def will have to have beer if working same day mate
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Ill defo give you a call in the morning laurie,
Got a stress free day tomorrow thank god.
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havent got a free day or stress free day for about the next three weeks
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It is a good thing though mate honestly,
As soon as its over and the invoices are in.......
look for more work ::) ::) ::) ::)
Or drink :P :P :P
Or do both :P ::) :P ::)
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I offer a nationwide service, but in Ireland. The distances arnt as far and I am not as busy as you sound.
If you get any national jobs from retailers I will do the irish side for you ;D
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I think charlie is in a good position to take on the nationals, theres someone from everyneck of the woods here who he could call upon, spken to chalie a few times and met craig personaly and could quite easily work with them.
Chris
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Jaykie
We get them by being available and giving a good service,
The Uk isnt that big, especially on an empty motorway at 4am in the morning.
Dean
End of the day if your willing to travel you expand your market range
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deantaberner if i could drive all over the uk cleaning windows i would, good on you
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Jaykie
empty motorway at 4am in the morning.
Dean
id rather be in bed at that time ;D ;D
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HI ,
I know the guy who "used" to do some of your Lidl stores there. What's the deal there then ?
Didn't get the full details of why he lost the job!
Good earner if you can get it.
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I dont understand how you can make money travelling round the country doing 1 job here and 1 job there ...... 4am on the motorway , £30 job in Birmingham , hours drive another £30 job ...... am i missing something?? ???
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I dont understand how you can make money travelling round the country doing 1 job here and 1 job there ...... 4am on the motorway , £30 job in Birmingham , hours drive another £30 job ...... am i missing something?? ???
there are quite a few lidls in birmingham, not just one. there r 6 in leeds alone, all a few mins drive apart from each other,
also we dont just do lidls, the majority of the work is travelling to one job for the day not from one job to the next,
the lidls are a nice little steady income that provides regular work for us.
dean
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oh ;D
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deantaberner
did you finish the college in burnley, i drove past the other day and the windows still look a real mess, the smears and streaks may have been inside as i didnt look closely.
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Yes mate it got handed over anyway ;) ;) ;) ;)
Nightmare job.
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deantaberner
did you finish the college in burnley, i drove past the other day and the windows still look a real mess, the smears and streaks may have been inside as i didnt look closely.
Also Trevor,
We did the builders clean,
Its been handed over to their main window cleaner now and they have cleaned it since.
Theyre welcome to it 8) 8) 8) 8)
Dean
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it looked a nightmare of a job when i saw you cleaning it, i wasnt having a go at your standard of cleaning on my last post i was just wondering if you had finished it, sorry if it came out wrong
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it looked a nightmare of a job when i saw you cleaning it, i wasnt having a go at your standard of cleaning on my last post i was just wondering if you had finished it, sorry if it came out wrong
It didnt come out wrong at all mate, I knew what you meant.
The windows on the main rd heading towards the bottom by the bridge are about 80ft high,
They wouldnt allow us to use any form of cherry picker because of closing the road off so it was their loss,
Abseiling also wasnt an option,
Dean
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http://www.peterswindowcleaning.vpweb.co.uk/default.html
Dean I have the same style website as you lol
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Peter,
You cant beat vistaprint ;D ;D ;D
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??? if it's more than five miles away I normally turn it down.
But then I don't go for commercial work.
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??? if it's more than five miles away I normally turn it down.
Seriously?
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Seriously.
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Peter,
You cant beat vistaprint ;D ;D ;D
[/quote
lo ;D so easy and simple to set up ;D ;D ;D and their other products ;D
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HI ,
I know the guy who "used" to do some of your Lidl stores there. What's the deal there then ?
Didn't get the full details of why he lost the job!
Good earner if you can get it.
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?
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??? ??? ???
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What are you getting at Dan?
Between myself a guy called laurie and another guy called jamie we have covered every lidl from the furthest point in north wales, all through shropshire, stoke, cheshire, lancs, all of yorkshire, some of cumbria, some of lincolnshire and nearly up to newcastle up until recently on a weekly basis for nearly the last 3 years,
Dont know who you know but if his name isnt jamie or laurie then he hasnt been on any of our stores recently,
Dean
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Are you subbing these from the company you did bolton college for?
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Burnley college?
No Jason im not,
Theyre done through a landscaping company who do all of the.............................landscaping on all of the lidls ;D ;D
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only one we dont cover dean r a few round liverpool ru in sheffeild wed or thursday mate
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Im there again tomorrow mate then weve got to cover our own work,
Tried to call you today but missed your call cus I was messing about with that 60ft pole :o :o
Ill defo call you in the morning around 8ish.
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What are you getting at Dan?
Between myself a guy called laurie and another guy called jamie we have covered every lidl from the furthest point in north wales, all through shropshire, stoke, cheshire, lancs, all of yorkshire, some of cumbria, some of lincolnshire and nearly up to newcastle up until recently on a weekly basis for nearly the last 3 years,
Dont know who you know but if his name isnt jamie or laurie then he hasnt been on any of our stores recently,
Dean
the name Jamie rings a bell I think. Is he still around?
The jobs were subbed out, but then they stopped. I was told one story of why they stopped but I reckon there was another reason, which is what I'm trying to get to. Just me , investigating.
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Earn the same money on your own doorstep if not more i would think,though to some i suppose it sounds almost glamourous to say to others you`ve been halfway round the country to clean a few windows. ::)
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nwh,
it was only a matter of time for a response like this,
well done,
dean
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If it pays and pays well, its worth doing no matter where.
Though i like my own bed, so stopping out wouldnt take my fancy
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A tip
Never limit your business, if the jobs pay do them.
We used to only do work in a £30 mile radius of the office and we got to a point and the business stopped growing, and over the years the compertition started growing in the area, now we cover the whole of the UK and have just started our first project in Dubia and have completed one in Qatar.
Just make sure all the jobs pay
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Why dont you just sub the work out. Make yourself £100-150 a day for doing jacksie effectively. You can then go out do £200 a day locally yourself and be rolling in it without having to do your 4am starts and a £75 tank of fuel.
That to me is far better business sense.
I would have thought that would warrant a 'happy days ;) ;) '
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A tip
Never limit your business, if the jobs pay do them.
We used to only do work in a £30 mile radius of the office and we got to a point and the business stopped growing, and over the years the compertition started growing in the area, now we cover the whole of the UK and have just started our first project in Dubia and have completed one in Qatar.
Just make sure all the jobs pay
totally agree mate,
nwh
we are about to start some student accomodation blocks in sheffield,
its took us 1.5hrs to drive up from stoke,
glamorous or what
D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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A tip
Never limit your business, if the jobs pay do them.
We used to only do work in a £30 mile radius of the office and we got to a point and the business stopped growing, and over the years the compertition started growing in the area, now we cover the whole of the UK and have just started our first project in Dubia and have completed one in Qatar.
Just make sure all the jobs pay
thanks for that advice, do you find it easy enough to get staff willing to travel large distances or do you start local lads.
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This type of work suits about 1 in 200 WC`s and is not worth it if you have the work on your doorstep or within 1/2 an hours drive,i`ll stick with what i do it works for me once you get to a certain level in this job you have to choose whether you want-need the hassel of driving miles to earn no more when you add it all up and i`m not just talking money.A bit like some of those on Dragons Den they turnover 250-300k and net about 30-50 lol. ;D ;D ;D
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Dean are the student blocks new build cleaning .Also if you need additional pure i may be able to help you i have an eagle IPC so can make 6+lt per min.
I live in Rotherham next to J 34 M1 near meadowhall shopping centre .If you need additional labour have mate looking for work he is available for jobs in this area my No is 07903817985
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This type of work suits about 1 in 200 WC`s and is not worth it if you have the work on your doorstep or within 1/2 an hours drive,i`ll stick with what i do it works for me once you get to a certain level in this job you have to choose whether you want-need the hassel of driving miles to earn no more when you add it all up and i`m not just talking money.A bit like some of those on Dragons Den they turnover 250-300k and net about 30-50 lol. ;D ;D ;D
NWH
Work hard for your business to start with then your business will work hard for you in the long run,
I got very bored on the domestics, Ive been cleaning houses for the majority of my window cleaning career and the change to commercial is very exciting, even in a recesion,
How many posts have you seen on here about wc's asking each other how to stay motivated? Quite a few.
On the commercial work, especially on a big job theres no time to be bored.
If what you are doing is good for you then crack on and enjoy it.
Dean
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Dean are the student blocks new build cleaning .Also if you need additional pure i may be able to help you i have an eagle IPC so can make 6+lt per min.
I live in Rotherham next to J 34 M1 near meadowhall shopping centre .If you need additional labour have mate looking for work he is available for jobs in this area my No is 07903817985
Jason,
Will do mate,
Are you busy? That machine sounds superb. Was it a dear do?
Dean
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Why dont you just sub the work out. Make yourself £100-150 a day for doing jacksie effectively. You can then go out do £200 a day locally yourself and be rolling in it without having to do your 4am starts and a £75 tank of fuel.
That to me is far better business sense.
I would have thought that would warrant a 'happy days ;) ;) '
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Why dont you just sub the work out. Make yourself £100-150 a day for doing jacksie effectively. You can then go out do £200 a day locally yourself and be rolling in it without having to do your 4am starts and a £75 tank of fuel.
That to me is far better business sense.
I would have thought that would warrant a 'happy days ;) ;) '
There are 3 who work on my books and I do the majority of the lidls alone ;) ;) ;)
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Dean, how long does it take you yo do that college in rhos? I drive past there most days and it's huge.
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We were helping somebody else Dai,
There were 2 people from our 3 there for 2 days plus the other company had 2 people there for 3 days so it is a big place,
We also did that private school in colwyn bay with them the week before Rydal Penrhos, ever heard of it?
That is a massive place.
Dean
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And you were only helping someone else,you put your own work on hold to HELP! someone clean it lol. ;D ;D
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You are a clown arent you NWH ;) ;)
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OOOOOOiiiiii if anybody wants any help doing there work for the same price as what i can earn on my own doorstep i`m your man,i`m willing to travel from lands end to john o`groats lol. ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Or even further ;D ;D
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If you think domestics gives you tennis elbow Dean wait until you`ve done a few of those commercial type buidings your doing mate,why do you think your being asked to help Super lite pole or not it`s a license to sell cortisone. :o
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My tennis elbow is pretty bad tonight after using a 60ft facelift in sheffield for most of the day,
Ive got a breather tomorrow doing the east coast lidls though,
Hopefullly if I put a long shift in tomorrow it will cover todays fuel and ill be back earning again by thursday ;) ;) ;) ;)
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I told you so didn`t i,no point in earning double what you`d earn on your normal stuff and having to have a day off cos of the old elbow.Simples when you think about it in it,i bet the bloke that asked you to help got a good suntan today though lol. ;D ;D ;D ;)
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NWH
I prefer to use the word "Help" as to the words "Bail out at a massive cost". I find it less patronising to the people who I "Help" ;D ;D ;D
Dean
Ps Not in the case of JV Price ofcourse though, I just do that because I love the experience of working for Charlies firm with their equipment and set up. I can certainly tell the difference from their set-ups and others.
Dean
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You mean expensive,just think of all those worries that go with it especially in this climate.I`ll bet he sleeps like an insomniac lol. ;D
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NWH,
Get on the nationwide bandwagon,
I reckon you would love it,
google nationwide window cleaners on the uk only filter ;) ;)
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=nationwide+window+cleaners&btnG=Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB
Dean
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Hi Dean,
Or try commercial gutter cleaning in google.com
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=commercial+gutter+cleaning&meta=&aq=f&oq=
We go all over too... ;)
Cheers,
Huw
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huw
very good mate,
good fun isnt it?
dean
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I wouldn't wish to go national when all my own good work is within easy travelling distance allowing me to spend longer in my pit before having to go to work. :) Love my bed and my new missus too much to get out of bed any earlier than necessary. :)
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We were helping somebody else Dai,
There were 2 people from our 3 there for 2 days plus the other company had 2 people there for 3 days so it is a big place,
We also did that private school in colwyn bay with them the week before Rydal Penrhos, ever heard of it?
That is a massive place.
Dean
Yes I know it Dean, That's what sorts the men out from the boys I guess. I would never have the confidence to go for somewhere that big.
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Why though what`s the point,i have all i need within easyish reach why drive miles and miles and risk more chance of being in traffic or a pileup in the soon coming fog on the motorway.The guy`s who are doing must need the work otherwise they must be mad.
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i do it for the money nwh strangely enough ;)
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i do it for the money nwh strangely enough ;)
window is a iwndow , and they are all around us!!! why drive past them all???
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some windows earn u more money than others, night night.
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ive always wonderd how the national companies make it pay when some of there prices ar so low, alot do it by employeeing min wage staff but that generally ends up with poor quality.
sodean how do you make it pay?? this isnot a dig but im intrested.
we do all oer the north west has longhas the job payes enough but wih work in st helens southport liverpool bolton stockport hyde northwich wilmslow widnes burnly blcknurn ect ect we can normally fit a job in with something else!!
so dean how do you make it pay?
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ronnie,
ill tell u tomorrow, im on ciu on my phone and its a pain to type.
basic version is i charge a day rate that after everything is paid out im left with enough money that im happy with.
dean
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ok dean you can email if you like.......thanks
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ronnie,
ill tell u tomorrow, im on ciu on my phone and its a pain to type.
basic version is i charge a day rate that after everything is paid out im left with enough money that im happy with.
dean
Well from reading that, Ronnie you hit the nail on the head when you said that most national companies just use min wage labour. They do it so they can make it pay.
However in all honesty Dean you aren't a national company rather a window cleaner whose round happens to encompass the whole country. These national companies will have higher overheads than you and that is how you are able to compete. This is an interesting policy as the potential is there to earn slightly more than the average window cleaner and if you are charging a day rate then there is no downtime provided that priced your day rate accordingly - you earn from the moment you start the traveling to the job so although you only do say 4 hours you are paid for the full day.
However the one problem I do see is that if you plan to scale it up then suddenly the costs are going to go up and that will leave you with two choices:
(1) continue with what could (after costs) be considered a low day rate and therefore less profit or
(2) increase your day rate to cover the increased costs.
The problem you are left with is that you will have to accept low profit margins (less than average local domestic cleaner - like for like) or run the risks of someone coming along and undercutting.
You could argue that nationwide window cleaning has had it's day - A few people saw the potential and then exploited it for all they could. They knew what could be achieved and did there best gain a monopoly - the trouble was that there was competition who were onto the same thing at the same time. Therefore they tried to price each other out of the market and the age of cut price national contracts were born. The one thing they did manage was to (as a general rule) convince the big national chains that these companies could lower the overheads and therefore contribute to maximising profit.
Of course, this drive to reduce the costs resulted in lower standards being applied but over time these lower standards became accepted (think about this who is going to complain, a manager of a store maybe? WOW!!! the real people who run these chains are the accountants and the directors ie people whose involvement on a national scale will be looking at the spreadsheet costings. True they might see a store local to them that is substandard and pull the company cleaning it up but IMO it is very unlikely that they would realise that they had the same problem on a national scale).
I read your earlier post and googled nationwide window cleaning. I would say that 90% of the companies sub contract at least a part of their work to local opertators in order to obtain nationwide coverage.
This to me is the problem with the day rate system. I can see you making a decent living but as a full blown national business the system is flawed and if you try to scale up you own operations you will be priced out of the market as outlined above.
Of course it all depends on how far you want to take things but if that is the direction you wish to take then you are going to have to think about this and come up with an alternative.
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nice post WCE
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ronnie,
ill tell u tomorrow, im on ciu on my phone and its a pain to type.
basic version is i charge a day rate that after everything is paid out im left with enough money that im happy with.
dean
Well from reading that, Ronnie you hit the nail on the head when you said that most national companies just use min wage labour. They do it so they can make it pay.
However in all honesty Dean you aren't a national company rather a window cleaner whose round happens to encompass the whole country. These national companies will have higher overheads than you and that is how you are able to compete. This is an interesting policy as the potential is there to earn slightly more than the average window cleaner and if you are charging a day rate then there is no downtime provided that priced your day rate accordingly - you earn from the moment you start the traveling to the job so although you only do say 4 hours you are paid for the full day.
However the one problem I do see is that if you plan to scale it up then suddenly the costs are going to go up and that will leave you with two choices:
(1) continue with what could (after costs) be considered a low day rate and therefore less profit or
(2) increase your day rate to cover the increased costs.
The problem you are left with is that you will have to accept low profit margins (less than average local domestic cleaner - like for like) or run the risks of someone coming along and undercutting.
You could argue that nationwide window cleaning has had it's day - A few people saw the potential and then exploited it for all they could. They knew what could be achieved and did there best gain a monopoly - the trouble was that there was competition who were onto the same thing at the same time. Therefore they tried to price each other out of the market and the age of cut price national contracts were born. The one thing they did manage was to (as a general rule) convince the big national chains that these companies could lower the overheads and therefore contribute to maximising profit.
Of course, this drive to reduce the costs resulted in lower standards being applied but over time these lower standards became accepted (think about this who is going to complain, a manager of a store maybe? WOW!!! the real people who run these chains are the accountants and the directors ie people whose involvement on a national scale will be looking at the spreadsheet costings. True they might see a store local to them that is substandard and pull the company cleaning it up but IMO it is very unlikely that they would realise that they had the same problem on a national scale).
I read your earlier post and googled nationwide window cleaning. I would say that 90% of the companies sub contract at least a part of their work to local opertators in order to obtain nationwide coverage.
This to me is the problem with the day rate system. I can see you making a decent living but as a full blown national business the system is flawed and if you try to scale up you own operations you will be priced out of the market as outlined above.
Of course it all depends on how far you want to take things but if that is the direction you wish to take then you are going to have to think about this and come up with an alternative.
I would prefer 1% of a lot than 100% of a little, Can you explain the bit about his cost having to increase if he scales up WCE, I dont think as a % of turnover that his overheads will necessarily go up, managed poorly it could certainly but it doestn't have to.
I would think that subbing all work from one or two big clients would be a potential disaster but so long as you build your own client base as well it can be a decent business plan particularly if the get out strategy involves selling to one of the National companies.
What is the difference between a national window cleaning company and a window cleaner who cleans nationwide?
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Ronnie
Will deliver,
Theres no special formula it is nowt more than getting the price right,
Just preping my little man for the vale beating bury tomorrow,
and taking my little girl to bed,
Dean
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ronnie,
ill tell u tomorrow, im on ciu on my phone and its a pain to type.
basic version is i charge a day rate that after everything is paid out im left with enough money that im happy with.
dean
Well from reading that, Ronnie you hit the nail on the head when you said that most national companies just use min wage labour. They do it so they can make it pay.
However in all honesty Dean you aren't a national company rather a window cleaner whose round happens to encompass the whole country. These national companies will have higher overheads than you and that is how you are able to compete. This is an interesting policy as the potential is there to earn slightly more than the average window cleaner and if you are charging a day rate then there is no downtime provided that priced your day rate accordingly - you earn from the moment you start the traveling to the job so although you only do say 4 hours you are paid for the full day.
However the one problem I do see is that if you plan to scale it up then suddenly the costs are going to go up and that will leave you with two choices:
(1) continue with what could (after costs) be considered a low day rate and therefore less profit or
(2) increase your day rate to cover the increased costs.
The problem you are left with is that you will have to accept low profit margins (less than average local domestic cleaner - like for like) or run the risks of someone coming along and undercutting.
You could argue that nationwide window cleaning has had it's day - A few people saw the potential and then exploited it for all they could. They knew what could be achieved and did there best gain a monopoly - the trouble was that there was competition who were onto the same thing at the same time. Therefore they tried to price each other out of the market and the age of cut price national contracts were born. The one thing they did manage was to (as a general rule) convince the big national chains that these companies could lower the overheads and therefore contribute to maximising profit.
Of course, this drive to reduce the costs resulted in lower standards being applied but over time these lower standards became accepted (think about this who is going to complain, a manager of a store maybe? WOW!!! the real people who run these chains are the accountants and the directors ie people whose involvement on a national scale will be looking at the spreadsheet costings. True they might see a store local to them that is substandard and pull the company cleaning it up but IMO it is very unlikely that they would realise that they had the same problem on a national scale).
I read your earlier post and googled nationwide window cleaning. I would say that 90% of the companies sub contract at least a part of their work to local opertators in order to obtain nationwide coverage.
This to me is the problem with the day rate system. I can see you making a decent living but as a full blown national business the system is flawed and if you try to scale up you own operations you will be priced out of the market as outlined above.
Of course it all depends on how far you want to take things but if that is the direction you wish to take then you are going to have to think about this and come up with an alternative.
WCE
I arent a national company and unless I have a load of luck I never will be,
Please read my first post on this ever so crazy thread,
Dean
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Nationwide window cleaning is back on track,
Been to birmingham mon and tues,
Leeds, wakefield, warrington, cheshire oaks, chester and wrexham wednesday,
Stoke on Trent today,
Anglesey tomorrow,
London with J V Prices lads mon, tues and wed next week,
And in Ipswich from mid jan for a week on a university builders clean.
All I need to do now is find a way to make it pay ;D ;D ;D (only joking ;) )
Has anybody else caught the travelling bug since this thread last surfaced?
Dean
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No Dean I havent.
I go out my house, travel for 1.5 minutes to work, travel 1.5 minutes back 4-5 hours later with a couple done ;)
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Good on you Matt,
It isnt that simple in Stoke unfortunatley,
Do you enjoy it or is it just a job to you mate?
Dean
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I love my job Dean.
Nothing better.
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Youve provoked me into another thread Matt ;) ;)
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;D ;D
I shall wait and watch.