[Johnny B]

With Johnny B on this one.

There's a flip side to "good" customers. When they are worth 4K a year, if they cancel half the time, it's still worth 2K. So for some, that's worth the hassle of cancelation. The real down side for me would be, that's a good chunk of work to lose over night if he changes firms.
When I was new to this game, I chased the big jobs like hopitals and schools. You only get the jobs on price, and if they drop you, you've got problems finding like jobs in a short time.
When you have domestics as 90% of your work, this can't happen. Easy to replace a 10 quid job in under a hour.
Dannymack will already know this. He can obviously handle the hassle. Rather you guys than me. I'll stick to cleaning Mrs Smith's windows. I'm nearly ready to go semi retired now anyway.  

Thanks Cozy, you've explained what I meant better than I ever could! 

John

[Marc Stock]

haha

It WOULD have been worth 4k a year, if he stuck with it. To be honest its not going to take long to replace, and like others have said its not worth working for someone who shouts their face off at me down the phone, dont need that hassle, jobs tough enough anyway this time of year.

I did apologise to him, and said sorry if he didnt like what i said, but after all i am running a business here; im not doing it for pocket change. He should know that being a business nowner himself with a ruddy great big 8 bedroom mansion in surrey.

He'd been through 4 window cleaners prev i learned from the staff; and due to his volitile nature im not suprised.  I wanst even looking for extra business anyway, i only went into the store to buy a hat during the last summer and ended up with £4k's worth of business from him (if he had kept on for the year)

More will come, so what. Been doing this for too long to get all worried about these things. Im picking up work all the time so. As long as your polite (which i was to him) , and do a good job the numptys will come and go.

[Steven White]

I think you did exactly the right thing. Communication with customers is key. If you take the trouble to explain to them how it all works and your terms they respond well I have found. They appreciate the opinion and explanation of someone who cleans windows as a profession. I've had to explain many a time why leaving windows wet isn't going to do any harm.

[AuRavelling79]

haha

It WOULD have been worth 4k a year, if he stuck with it. To be honest its not going to take long to replace, and like others have said its not worth working for someone who shouts their face off at me down the phone, dont need that hassle, jobs tough enough anyway this time of year.

I did apologise to him, and said sorry if he didnt like what i said, but after all i am running a business here; im not doing it for pocket change. He should know that being a business nowner himself with a ruddy great big 8 bedroom mansion in surrey.

He'd been through 4 window cleaners prev i learned from the staff; and due to his volitile nature im not suprised.  I wanst even looking for extra business anyway, i only went into the store to buy a hat during the last summer and ended up with £4k's worth of business from him (if he had kept on for the year)

More will come, so what. Been doing this for too long to get all worried about these things. Im picking up work all the time so. As long as your polite (which i was to him) , and do a good job the numptys will come and go.

Hmmmm ... let me think; I can suck up for 4k's worth of work, so let's say £350 a month.

Now for me that is a good day's work and so if I was cancelled more than once and unless for a blisteringly good reason then I'm having a day potentially messed up. It really is more trouble than it is worth.

Yes, I might allow a one off cancellation with notice for good reason but that would be it. I mean, what's the point otherwise - it's just numbers on a spreadsheet, not money in the bank.
  
Johnny B seems to think Cozy was saying the same as him but better; Cozy has a way with words and he was saying no such thing - in fact in that post he advocates quite rightly in my view not having a big egg in your basket - too much of a liability and too much potential for dependence.

Anyone who goes into a shop to buy a hat and then gets awarded a 4K contract should be very careful - the person awarding it screams flakiness and unreliabilty like a 10/6d topper at a tea party.

[PoleKing]

haha

It WOULD have been worth 4k a year, if he stuck with it. To be honest its not going to take long to replace, and like others have said its not worth working for someone who shouts their face off at me down the phone, dont need that hassle, jobs tough enough anyway this time of year.

I did apologise to him, and said sorry if he didnt like what i said, but after all i am running a business here; im not doing it for pocket change. He should know that being a business nowner himself with a ruddy great big 8 bedroom mansion in surrey.

He'd been through 4 window cleaners prev i learned from the staff; and due to his volitile nature im not suprised.  I wanst even looking for extra business anyway, i only went into the store to buy a hat during the last summer and ended up with £4k's worth of business from him (if he had kept on for the year)

More will come, so what. Been doing this for too long to get all worried about these things. Im picking up work all the time so. As long as your polite (which i was to him) , and do a good job the numptys will come and go.

Hmmmm ... let me think; I can suck up for 4k's worth of work, so let's say £350 a month.

Now for me that is a good day's work and so if I was cancelled more than once and unless for a blisteringly good reason then I'm having a day potentially messed up. It really is more trouble than it is worth.

Yes, I might allow a one off cancellation with notice for good reason but that would be it. I mean, what's the point otherwise - it's just numbers on a spreadsheet, not money in the bank.
  
Johnny B seems to think Cozy was saying the same as him but better; Cozy has a way with words and he was saying no such thing - in fact in that post he advocates quite rightly in my view not having a big egg in your basket - too much of a liability and too much potential for dependence.

Anyone who goes into a shop to buy a hat and then gets awarded a 4K contract should be very careful - the person awarding it screams flakiness and unreliabilty like a 10/6d topper at a tea party.

Fair points. But I disagree. A few big eggs does the world of good. IMO.

[rosskesava]

I've lost count how many times I think I've scored a really good job only to get the run around after a good few months or sometimes less.

The last one was a £12 000 000 place. Believe it or not, it only had 5 rooms but to give an idea of size, you could have built a 2 bedroom modern house in the hallway. It was a converted old barn with bits added in an acre of landscaped gardens that was nearly a mile down a windy pot holed single track road. These people were the other side of millionaires. The husband owned a well known company that makes toasters, kettles, coffee machines and the like.

It took two of us a knackering 7 or 8 hour day to do the insides and out and these were all easy to get to windows and no ornaments to work around when doing the insides.

To start with the lady was more than happy. She was so pleased to have her windows clean. After about 6 or 7 cleans, the lady started the 'not tomorrow' routine, then it changed to 'not this month'. I kept asking her if she actually wanted her windows cleaned and she kept saying she did, but 'not this month'. In the end, I just simply asked straight, did she want me to call again and she sort of said no, not really, so I didn't.

I've had exactly the same thing happen with other mega rich people. I don't know why though. They seem fine with everything but after a while, they seem to change their minds and become reticent about window cleaning.

[Marc Stock]

haha

It WOULD have been worth 4k a year, if he stuck with it. To be honest its not going to take long to replace, and like others have said its not worth working for someone who shouts their face off at me down the phone, dont need that hassle, jobs tough enough anyway this time of year.

I did apologise to him, and said sorry if he didnt like what i said, but after all i am running a business here; im not doing it for pocket change. He should know that being a business nowner himself with a ruddy great big 8 bedroom mansion in surrey.

He'd been through 4 window cleaners prev i learned from the staff; and due to his volitile nature im not suprised.  I wanst even looking for extra business anyway, i only went into the store to buy a hat during the last summer and ended up with £4k's worth of business from him (if he had kept on for the year)

More will come, so what. Been doing this for too long to get all worried about these things. Im picking up work all the time so. As long as your polite (which i was to him) , and do a good job the numptys will come and go.

Hmmmm ... let me think; I can suck up for 4k's worth of work, so let's say £350 a month.

Now for me that is a good day's work and so if I was cancelled more than once and unless for a blisteringly good reason then I'm having a day potentially messed up. It really is more trouble than it is worth.

Yes, I might allow a one off cancellation with notice for good reason but that would be it. I mean, what's the point otherwise - it's just numbers on a spreadsheet, not money in the bank.

Absoultely agree there, this was in fact what he got annoyed about, i said that id like to keep to the schedual otherwise i might have to reconsider the whole pricing structure and he didnt like that.

[/quote]

he advocates quite rightly in my view not having a big egg in your basket - too much of a liability and too much potential for dependence.

[/quote]

Yep again, 100% agree. remember back in 2004-2006 when wfp bubble went mental in commercial applications? I had a contract with GEM and started of with a couple of sites, i think over the 3 years we worked for them we must of quoted for about 30 different sites, got a good third of those you know. Back then GEM were looking at getting rid of trad guys hanging off cradles due to the high costs involved with cradle signoff & inspections, they'd be looking at a grand or so before any labour started, and thats not including insurances. Then we'd go in and quote like £600 all in and get the job done in half a day by wfp, saving them thousands. that was the golden days bay then we were doin like insane money for window cleaners...then what happened? everyone jumped on the bandwagon to make easy money in pure water window cleaning and the rate you could charge dropped like a stone due to the saturation in the wfp market By 2008 i remember we had lost a lot of work; so sold the rest off to someone else, turns out he eventually lost it all to cheaper boys on wfp too...bubble...burst....egg in basket....you know the drill. been there.

[/quote]


Anyone who goes into a shop to buy a hat and then gets awarded a 4K contract should be very careful - the person awarding it screams flakiness and unreliabilty like a 10/6d topper at a tea party.
[/quote]

You know those cought up in the moment things? that was one of them..it happens...

[Marc Stock]

I've lost count how many times I think I've scored a really good job only to get the run around after a good few months or sometimes less.

The last one was a £12 000 000 place. Believe it or not, it only had 5 rooms but to give an idea of size, you could have built a 2 bedroom modern house in the hallway. It was a converted old barn with bits added in an acre of landscaped gardens that was nearly a mile down a windy pot holed single track road. These people were the other side of millionaires. The husband owned a well known company that makes toasters, kettles, coffee machines and the like.

It took two of us a knackering 7 or 8 hour day to do the insides and out and these were all easy to get to windows and no ornaments to work around when doing the insides.

To start with the lady was more than happy. She was so pleased to have her windows clean. After about 6 or 7 cleans, the lady started the 'not tomorrow' routine, then it changed to 'not this month'. I kept asking her if she actually wanted her windows cleaned and she kept saying she did, but 'not this month'. In the end, I just simply asked straight, did she want me to call again and she sort of said no, not really, so I didn't.

I've had exactly the same thing happen with other mega rich people. I don't know why though. They seem fine with everything but after a while, they seem to change their minds and become reticent about window cleaning.

I thinks its jealousy. They work out how much your making and; the origional, 'ahh give the scrubber a job' attidtude changes when they realise that your making money out of them and doing quite nicley thanks very much.

[LT carpet cleaning]

I've lost count how many times I think I've scored a really good job only to get the run around after a good few months or sometimes less.

The last one was a £12 000 000 place. Believe it or not, it only had 5 rooms but to give an idea of size, you could have built a 2 bedroom modern house in the hallway. It was a converted old barn with bits added in an acre of landscaped gardens that was nearly a mile down a windy pot holed single track road. These people were the other side of millionaires. The husband owned a well known company that makes toasters, kettles, coffee machines and the like.

It took two of us a knackering 7 or 8 hour day to do the insides and out and these were all easy to get to windows and no ornaments to work around when doing the insides.

To start with the lady was more than happy. She was so pleased to have her windows clean. After about 6 or 7 cleans, the lady started the 'not tomorrow' routine, then it changed to 'not this month'. I kept asking her if she actually wanted her windows cleaned and she kept saying she did, but 'not this month'. In the end, I just simply asked straight, did she want me to call again and she sort of said no, not really, so I didn't.

I've had exactly the same thing happen with other mega rich people. I don't know why though. They seem fine with everything but after a while, they seem to change their minds and become reticent about window cleaning.

I thinks its jealousy. They work out how much your making and; the origional, 'ahh give the scrubber a job' attidtude changes when they realise that your making money out of them and doing quite nicley thanks very much.

Yep complete jealousy. They live in a 12 million house, but jealous of the window cleaner. I see where your coming from 

[Paul Coleman]

With Johnny B on this one.

There's a flip side to "good" customers. When they are worth 4K a year, if they cancel half the time, it's still worth 2K. So for some, that's worth the hassle of cancelation. The real down side for me would be, that's a good chunk of work to lose over night if he changes firms.
When I was new to this game, I chased the big jobs like hopitals and schools. You only get the jobs on price, and if they drop you, you've got problems finding like jobs in a short time.
When you have domestics as 90% of your work, this can't happen. Easy to replace a 10 quid job in under a hour.
Dannymack will already know this. He can obviously handle the hassle. Rather you guys than me. I'll stick to cleaning Mrs Smith's windows. I'm nearly ready to go semi retired now anyway.  

Of course, they can actually cost you money too.  Because the job is due, you may not have other work lined up to fill that slot if they cancel at short notice.  OK, so usually you can move on to the next due jobs.  But what if some of them require pre-notification that you haven't given because you thought you were going to be working for the short notice canceller?

[AuRavelling79]

>Pole King

I said one big egg in your basket. If you have several then you aren't likely to lose them all in one go.

It's known as Marks and Spencer syndrome.

Let's say my Mrs. makes/sources a nice little item and buys/makes a hundred and sell them to shops and it goes well and she makes a pin money job out of it.

Then it picks up and she shows it to some big boys and M&S say yes please but we want ten thousand a month.

So Mrs. tools up, I give up work, we borrow against the house, employ, work long hours -  we buy a little unit and off we go. A year later, two years later M&S either want to pay half or drop you all together.

Bye bye unit, job, car and the house which secured the borrowing ...

A few good eggs is fine; one biggun - a liability.

[PoleKing]

>Pole King

I said one big egg in your basket. If you have several then you aren't likely to lose them all in one go.

It's known as Marks and Spencer syndrome.

Let's say my Mrs. makes/sources a nice little item and buys/makes a hundred and sell them to shops and it goes well and she makes a pin money job out of it.

Then it picks up and she shows it to some big boys and M&S say yes please but we want ten thousand a month.

So Mrs. tools up, I give up work, we borrow against the house, employ, work long hours -  we buy a little unit and off we go. A year later, two years later M&S either want to pay half or drop you all together.

Bye bye unit, job, car and the house which secured the borrowing ...

A few good eggs is fine; one biggun - a liability.

I get what you mean but I still stand by one big egg can be good too.
Depends on how work is erm...worked.

I pay myself a set ammount each month. Regardless of how much I've earned that month.
If a bigun comes in, great! The money builds up in the business acct.
if they dump/get dumped, it's irritating but has no immediate effect on my life.
Pretty soon, the work lost will be made up.
I appreciate this isn't a blanket way of working but it works for me.

[Crystal-clear]

I'm normally totally with the regular people but with 4 grand/year potential I would just do the one off so charge more then try and choose a more realistic frequency , maybe 4 monthly or at best 2 monthly if he went on about the weather I would just keep the price higher then it would have been on the regular I find these sort of people need a reason to have it more often the they feel, so charge £8k first clean then £4 second clean don't want it in 4 months not a problem that will be £8k next time lol
A bit different to my £20 houses to £40 next time but still same principles!

[AuRavelling79]

>Pole King

Yep! That last post makes a lot of sense.

[robbo333]

Some customers are like clouds.
Once they are gone it's a beautiful day.