Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: mlscontractcleaner on October 02, 2009, 04:39:01 pm
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Partly as a bit of Fun ( ??? ) and partly as a real effort to get off my bum and do what I've been meaning to do since, well, since January 1st, I am about to embark on a challenge set for me by my dear wife. In the nest 12 full weeks before Christmas I will attempt to pull in an extra 300 new, regular customers to start 2010 off very nicely.
Now, that'll be easy wont it :-\ just 25 new customers a week; I picked the first one up today whilst out working ;D so if I'm out each evening ( except those evenings when Liverpool are playing .................................. obviously ) I only need 5 per night ( ish).
To be honest I'm quite up for the challenge; not quite sure when I'll have time to clean them all mind, but hey ho.
So come on lads and lasses; is our industry too saturated to make this achievable or as a window cleaner of almost 20 years standing will I have the canvassing experience to make this a walk in the park ;)
Your opinions please.
To the other Plymouth lads on here, don't worry, your work is safe, I only take on the high end stuff ;)
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good luck mate hope you can do it
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I shall put a weekly update on here every Sunday evening ;D
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300?..you should start a round building service...
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That's not going to happen Pingu, I only canvass / leaflet drop for my own business; and I don't do that as often as I should :-[
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I should think that would be possible, especially if you go out on a weekend.
keep us informed, and good luck..
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300 customers :o
Thought you meant £`s. I think I could manage that, weather permitting :P.
Posting it on here should give you some extra motivation.
Good luck with it and if Liverpool play like the other night you`d be better off canvassing ::).
Gerry.
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how many do you do now and what's your average price?
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When you break it down to 5 a day then it sounds very possible. That's a good target to set may just have to set myself a target to get myself going. All the best ;)
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Im guessing you must have only a few customers now, because where I live (oxfordshire) that is a fullish round. I have about 300 and work on a 6 weekly basis and to be honest I struggle to keep up with it. I regularly fall behind!
Mind you, September has been great, Got loads of work done due to the dry weather!
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PS: Good luck to you, Good for you being motivated. Keep posting on how you are getting on and we will give you hell of you start to slack!!
Mods...Could you keep this thread at the top of the posts? It would be good as it will motivate others newbies!
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good luck with it
i think you might struggle to get 300 in 3 months
you might get the riff raff work that are messers and dog mess houses, but for 300 good customers, i think you will struggle this time of the year, our current financial climate and i think 25 a week is very good going in the dark nights
but go and prove me wrong ;)
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Cozy says if you get 300 custards by christmas then he's a poofter; on top of that he also said if you manage 300 then he'll put 300 quid in your bank account.
Hows that for an incentive.
Matt
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Matt just mailed me mate and said you'll never manage it. Says you are all pee and wind and he could do double that in half the time.
No, good luck, and take a good torch, you may be working a little bit longer every day :)
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miscontractcleaner
You do not stand any chance at all. This is totally unrealistic and impossible.
Apart from this the grind of canvassing after a days work will prove daunting and too much.And use you mentioned to actually clean that many takes time you don't haveIf you achieve a third of that ,100, i would take my hat off to you.
I can't put customer numbers on like that, or anywhere near, but there are ways if you use your brain, to get new customers.Use the best ideas off the forum, and spend money.
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RO-Sheen, you are very much off the mark buddy. We started up in business in 1991 and run a contract cleaning business taking care of night clubs, a private school and various other smaller places in their day to day cleaning, shampoo plenty of carpets and have plenty of domestic and commercial customers on our window cleaning books.
This is aimed at obviously increasing the window cleaning side to an even higher level and to see if I can canvass what would amount to a small round in the time given.
Slumpbuster, whilst I appreciate your imput and opinion to say something is totally impossible and dismiss it out of hand so easily is very short sighted in my opinion. Maybe it will be hard, maybe there'll be the occasional night when I can't be arsed to go back out after a hard day ( we start work at 5am mornings :'( ) but if it's at all possible I'll do it ........................ and then have to employ another fella to help clean them I guess ;D ;D ;D
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miscontractcleaner
You do not stand any chance at all. This is totally unrealistic and impossible.
Apart from this the grind of canvassing after a days work will prove daunting and too much.And use you mentioned to actually clean that many takes time you don't haveIf you achieve a third of that ,100, i would take my hat off to you.
I can't put customer numbers on like that, or anywhere near, but there are ways if you use your brain, to get new customers.Use the best ideas off the forum, and spend money.
I average about 5 each time i go out for an hour or two but keeping that up every day for 3 months wouldnt be easy!!
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If you get over a hundred you will have proved me wrong. I will follow your progress and don't want you to fail just because i say it can't be done.
Most people (i surmise) have problems building a round. 1 to 30 custies okay, but as you grow to say 100 there is less and less time to chase new ones. Once you hit 200, the time to find the last 100 will not exist.
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If you get over a hundred you will have proved me wrong. I will follow your progress and don't want you to fail just because i say it can't be done.
Most people (i surmise) have problems building a round. 1 to 30 custies okay, but as you grow to say 100 there is less and less time to chase new ones. Once you hit 200, the time to find the last 100 will not exist.
This is true, but he almost knows that i think as he said, "dont know when i will do new cleans" And i have done a few recently - they take forever!!
Go for it though aim for 300 and if you do 100 so what its still a crap load more money each year at just £10 each monthly you are 12000 better off next year
Dont be put off by anyone on here !!
GO FOR IT i
I am on a big push myself we can compare, and have a competition
Will keep me going too
Put up value of work canvassed x number of jobs each week/month?
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An online canvassing competition, I like it :D
No fibs though, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth ;D
May the best man win 8) 8) 8)
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Im out today at 11 am :)
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for a single fella with no commitments I think it may be possible!
but for a hard working man with an existingting buisness, a wife , and young children (my circumtances) it would be unrelistic...
I started this year with a goal of 5 a week... I got off to a good start , but I found it hard to do week in week out... sure. there are weeks when I 10 or more, but to do it conistently whilst also spending quality time with the family its difficult as the evenings nd weekends are the besttie to door knock.
I havn't hit my target of 5 a week, but I have gained at least 100 new ones , and without setting that goal I maybe wouldnt have gained as many ;D ;D ;D
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I have same problem, wife and 8 month old dauhter, but i can do weekends and some days when i catch up with work and friday evening, thats about all i have to play with
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I think you will easily do it simply because December is full of new potential customers who only want their windows cleaned for Xmas , promising they want to be a regular customer , then come January it's.... not this time, blah de blah de blah.
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Oh you sceptical buggar you. After one window clean from us they wont be able to get enough; we're the greatest cleaning firm ever to have be founded, honest, ask my mum ;D
Already started this afternoon, just for a couple of hours covering an area we already clean in and picked up 7 new customers, all but one of them monthly with the odd one being two monthly.
That's the plan initially, to canvass hard in areas we already cover; it's amazing the amount of work we still pick up even after a few years working in any given area. People having a day off work when we're cleaning their neighbour's windows and spotting us, that sort of thing.
Only then will we move onto pastures new and blitz those areas.
I can almost taste the success; think I'll tell the wife to get out and order her new Porsche, then there's the new boat, the trip to Rio; oh it's good being me ::)
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Whatever happens, good luck to the noth of you. Im aiming to have 20 customers by christmas, not in same league but a target all the same
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Good luck if you achieve this.
I think 300 is realistic, on average i pick up 5 new customers a week just from yell and without any canvassing. Last week i picked up 8.
You always pick more up in winter as windows get alot dirtier quicker. So good luck and i hope you achieve your target.
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300 is that all.
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Good luck to you if you have the time, energy and enthusiasm. :)
I would be interested to know of the 300+ you pick up between now and Xmas how many of the new ones remain regular customers up until April next year just purely out of interest.
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i recon it defo can be done if you put your mind to it and find the right areas to keep it as compact as possible, the only prob i find when i canvass up for myself is how hard it is to keep it all compact. Too many wc out there now. Put all your effort in and rewards will follow
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it would be easy to sign up 300 if your cheap! i would set a traget of overall price as a target then you'll have more quality work but less customers. its not quantity its quality
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RO-Sheen, you are very much off the mark buddy. We started up in business in 1991 and run a contract cleaning business taking care of night clubs, a private school and various other smaller places in their day to day cleaning, shampoo plenty of carpets and have plenty of domestic and commercial customers on our window cleaning books.
This is aimed at obviously increasing the window cleaning side to an even higher level and to see if I can canvass what would amount to a small round in the time given.
Slumpbuster, whilst I appreciate your imput and opinion to say something is totally impossible and dismiss it out of hand so easily is very short sighted in my opinion. Maybe it will be hard, maybe there'll be the occasional night when I can't be arsed to go back out after a hard day ( we start work at 5am mornings :'( ) but if it's at all possible I'll do it ........................ and then have to employ another fella to help clean them I guess ;D ;D ;D
Good for you dude, I (wrongly) presumed you were a one man band and didnt think you may be a well established outfit. 300 is well possible for you with the backing of employees to do the extra workload.
I agree with your comment to Slumpbusters. Nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it. Even if you only get 100 customers it is still 100 more than you would have had. It was a very negative comment from slumpbusters. Go for it dude
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I will give that a try lol
I am starting up in Essex, I am also having 25,000 leaflets dropped in a 2 week period.
Would that be classed as cheating lol
Matt
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To the other Plymouth lads on here, don't worry, your work is safe, I only take on the high end stuff ;)
Good luck and I hope you get them, BUT,
If you do get anything smaller you don't want give me a shout (well if you don't ask you don't get ;D ;D)
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it would be easy to sign up 300 if your cheap! i would set a traget of overall price as a target then you'll have more quality work but less customers. its not quantity its quality
Im trying to get my residential rounds upto a certain figure per week, then im happy, im then concentrating on filling my other 2 days per week with commercial and growing it from there, i want to be full with resis by xmas, and then next year refine them a bit for better work :)
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Good luck! The works out there, its a numbers game.
Mart
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I shall put a weekly update on here every Sunday evening ;D
So what's the scores on the doors then :D
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lol
ive just been looking for this thread ive picked up mainly commercials and one offs, excluding them though on residential =
3 jobs to a total of £53.00 per month :(
i was cheating i had an interview with a canvasser for today but they let me down so its back to knocking myself
will be out at weekend and next week a few days
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I've been having problems with my leaflets, I'm hoping that its all sorted out and that I get them within the next week.
I am having letterbox deliver them for me, 15,000 per week for 2 weeks.
Just hope I will be able to cope with response.
Matt
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Has the challenge been aborted ? Or have you got an update :D
were all dying to know ;D
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He was going to give weekly, if not daily updates on his progress.
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He was going to give weekly, if not daily updates on his progress.
Who was?
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RO-Sheen, you are very much off the mark buddy. We started up in business in 1991 and run a contract cleaning business taking care of night clubs, a private school and various other smaller places in their day to day cleaning, shampoo plenty of carpets and have plenty of domestic and commercial customers on our window cleaning books.
This is aimed at obviously increasing the window cleaning side to an even higher level and to see if I can canvass what would amount to a small round in the time given.
good luck to u mate im goimng to do the same put if i get 100 i be very happy keet at it marty
Slumpbuster, whilst I appreciate your imput and opinion to say something is totally impossible and dismiss it out of hand so easily is very short sighted in my opinion. Maybe it will be hard, maybe there'll be the occasional night when I can't be arsed to go back out after a hard day ( we start work at 5am mornings :'( ) but if it's at all possible I'll do it ........................ and then have to employ another fella to help clean them I guess ;D ;D ;D
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it will be a nice try best time to knock doors is in feb time custies are finking of xmas now keep us updated mate
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my canvasser has just been round , he picked up 25 new jobs this week , average price £18.50 , happy days regards alan
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Who is your canvasser? Is it a cpmpany or privately ermployed? If the latter can I ask what his pay scheme is, commision only, hourly ?
Understand if you dont want to answer, but was thinking of a canvasser myself.
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ive been thinking of a canverser for ages now and still unsure because i dont know if your only allowed to pay commision,but dont quote me
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my canvasser has just been round , he picked up 25 new jobs this week , average price £18.50 , happy days regards alan
I wish i could find a guy like yours alan
i have pulled so many sales man and give them a job offer, none taken it up no matter how much they could earn]
It does my head in
Its really holding me back i think, i can only really canvass weekends and its not enough
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Has anybody heard how mls is going on picking up these new custies or has he disappeared?
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I bet he's doing that well he hasn't got time to talk to us guys anymore!
I've picked about 31 new customers in the last month. Maybe a couple more. ;D
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I've not vanished, I've been busy.
Things are going just fine thank you. With a mixture of door to door canvassing and badgering every shop, pub, etc I pass with dirty windows I've picked up:
The Mortgage Shop
Hoppys Sports Shop
Noah's Ark Childcare Centres ( there's four of them, but in fairness I had thre already so didn't need to canvass the fourth )
The Complex Pub
Wow ( a small shop )
41 domestic customers ranging from small 3 bed houses to even smaller 1 bed flats ;)
A surprising amount of carpet cleaning work ( but I've not counted them as they're usually one off's.
So, not too bad. The domestic work is like a lot of our other domestic work, small and very, very compact; three moves of the van a day compact, all on the same estate. Individually they're not worth a lot, £6/7 each but when you consider that it's easy enough to be cleaning 6/8 per hour, all day, by myself, they're definately worth having on the books.
The challenge goes on and I'll try to be on here updating more regularly ;D
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nice one pal, im nowhere near you i dont think?
quoting a huge golf club, leiusure facility, hotel all in one this week though and should have a good chance of getting it, so im happy !
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Their should be a thread called, the boasters, look what I have got thread. ;D
Only joking guys
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I've not vanished, I've been busy.
Things are going just fine thank you. With a mixture of door to door canvassing and badgering every shop, pub, etc I pass with dirty windows I've picked up:
The Mortgage Shop
Hoppys Sports Shop
Noah's Ark Childcare Centres ( there's four of them, but in fairness I had thre already so didn't need to canvass the fourth )
The Complex Pub
Wow ( a small shop )
41 domestic customers ranging from small 3 bed houses to even smaller 1 bed flats ;)
A surprising amount of carpet cleaning work ( but I've not counted them as they're usually one off's.
So, not too bad. The domestic work is like a lot of our other domestic work, small and very, very compact; three moves of the van a day compact, all on the same estate. Individually they're not worth a lot, £6/7 each but when you consider that it's easy enough to be cleaning 6/8 per hour, all day, by myself, they're definately worth having on the books.
The challenge goes on and I'll try to be on here updating more regularly ;D
i coulldbeat that but i dont want to boast lol
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Well?
How did you get on with your self set challenge? :)
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It wasnt initially mine but i said i would give him a bit of competition,
to be honest i probably losy big time i havent got much canvassing done at all, my goal for the new year is £75 of new residential work every week, and around £150 a month commercial i have someone part time on the phones for me so it is possible as one job could easily cover a few months worth
and the residential is easily done in a couple of evenings
by the end of 2010 it should see my nicely approaching vat limit leaving me a few choices for 2011, whether to go over it or take some diferent avenues....
be interesting to know how mlscontractor got on and any of you who have a goal for 2010 stick it on here and keep everyone up dated, might aid motivation???
have a nice day everyone