firstly my friend, i would never say something like that to you...wether you were upset by it or not...i try to not say such things to anyone...i like to be friendly...secondly, im not getting hissy...i was respectfully saying that you were rude to me, and can get over the same point in a far more diplomatic way, which helps healthy debate...and not slinging deratory remarks
....the OP is starting up in sussex......not leeds....so i can advise quite a bit about the work situation round here...i dont know what its like in leeds...so i wouldnt ever comment.
as far as i can see....and from what both new, and existing customers confirm....there is a high demand for low price work around the particular area of sussex that we cover
the problem is three fold
either the contractor has to work fast and sloppy to make it pay.....or he/she packs in, as they cant earn enough to cover the bills
the third problem is one that grates on me...there are guys working for £4= a house round my way....i cant compete with this purely because i pay tax, VAT, public liability & personal accident/life insurance...add that to the cost of running several vans and it wont add up....now i can get a job in macdonalds and earn more than that, with 4 weeks holiday and sick pay included!!!!
these window cleaners are most probably signing on and dont pay any of the above...either that or they have another job...so window cleaning is cah, non taxed pocket money
yes there is a demand for these services....but the customer soon realises that its money wasted!!!
the problem is...once they get used to paying that...they wont pay much more
ever heard prospective customers in 5 bed houses saying "oh...that much? my last window cleaner charged me£10="?
we are losing work to these types every week...the work rarely comes back and it sickens me
Oh Gawd, another cleaner complaining about losing customers because their competition is too cheap. My heart bleeds. I compete against people charging £3 for a terrace. I charge a minimum £12 for the same and I have work coming out of my ears and a phone ringing itself off the hook. I have lost half a dozen customers in the past year. Whether you like me or not is irrelevant. Those are facts.
So, we have a situation where Im charging 4x my competition and Im not losing customers. Thats why I consider the number of competitors as irrelevant and why I accused you of talking tripe.
If you cant react to competition sell up and get another job.
And stop whining about my calling it "tripe". Its just a word.