[tws]

  about 2 months ago i was going to purchase a round in bolton lanc/s consisting of about 140 custies from a windy who was retiring the round was taking nearly £500 a month all custies cleaned every 2wks at £1 to £1.50 per clean for 6 x windows each.
 i was paying £3000 for it and was going to change the price after 3 cleans to £3 per clean, but it never happened as i was kept on at work another couple of weeks and he sold to another local bloke.

now fast forward 6 weeks later none of these houses have been cleaned yet,im out of work and phoned the new owner to ask if he wanted to sell the round he,s not touched yet, he said he wants £8000 for it nothing less and he,s sent all custies a letter informing them there will be no price increase and there windows will now be cleaned every week i am perplexed [if thats a word] and no its not a wind up all figures quoted are accurate some people on here know iv been trying to buy work in bolton for some time sorry this is long winded but i think background info helps.
he says all custies are happy with the changes he,s had no complaints and is picking up more work every day all lies as i know the round not been touched why lie ?
 needless to say i wont be purchasing but a number of people have asked if i would clean there windows what would you do.im tempted to canvass the whole area but as its now his patch im sure violence would be the result if i did any suggestions.     

[Paul Coleman]

"taking nearly £500 a month all custies cleaned every 2wks at £1 to £1.50 per clean for 6 x windows each.
 i was paying £3000 for it "


16p - 25p a window frame?  I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.
IMO it's not worth the money.  I wouldn't want to work for that even if I had not paid for it.

[actualcleaning]

Sorry TWS...but this is the year 2010.
If you want to go into business as a wc then first start by looking at how to run a business,and i will tell you that at those prices you wont be running a business.
Go and canvas the area yourself,AT PROPER PRICES,ok you may not get all of them as they are used to paying prices from the prehistoric era,but you will pick up some who want a regular and reliable wc.
Be fair with your prices....by fair i dont mean to your customers i mean to your business.

[Londoner]

The idea of buying a round is rubbish IMO espescially at those sort of prices. Round here you can't even give a round away. I have known people who want to retire and have asked other window cleaners to take over their rounds and they haven't wanted to.

If I was you I would get out on the knocker and canvas up a round for yourself  ASAP because if you don't somebody else will. And if you get into bother with the other window cleaners go straight to the police and make a formal complaint immediately. That will nip anything in the bud because it will show them you mean business.

Nobody "owns" a round or a street or a patch. Thats just rubbish. If I were you I would take charge of the situation for yourself. Fortune favours the brave. Mind you if it were me I would be charging a lot more than the figures you are quoting.

Some wide boy has bought a list of names for £3K and wants to sell it for £8k and it only takes £500 a month?? £1.50 a house?  Cloud cuckoo land

[chopsie]

who would want their windows cleaning every week !!

[Pristine Clean]

The idea of buying a round is rubbish IMO espescially at those sort of prices. Round here you can't even give a round away. I have known people who want to retire and have asked other window cleaners to take over their rounds and they haven't wanted to.

If I was you I would get out on the knocker and canvas up a round for yourself  ASAP because if you don't somebody else will. And if you get into bother with the other window cleaners go straight to the police and make a formal complaint immediately. That will nip anything in the bud because it will show them you mean business.

Nobody "owns" a round or a street or a patch. Thats just rubbish. If I were you I would take charge of the situation for yourself. Fortune favours the brave. Mind you if it were me I would be charging a lot more than the figures you are quoting.

Some wide boy has bought a list of names for £3K and wants to sell it for £8k and it only takes £500 a month?? £1.50 a house?  Cloud cuckoo land

Very well said, totally in agreement. Its good to see someone who is down to earth for a change. Never thought I would find anyone like that on here,

Dave

[dazmond]

its up to you to go and get the business!canvass/canvass/canvass!

i had one guy threaten me years ago!he turned up with his wife to clean the windows i was cleaning.when he realised im a bit of a nutter he dully got back in his old car and sped off at speed never to be seen again!!

i was only in my early twenties at the time and a fat old bloke like him was not going to stop me canvassing his round!

he was doing it for beer money and i knew his son who really suffered at his hands when he was a kid.total scumbag so i didnt mind taking/canvassing his work.


this guy MUST be on the fiddle if he s only charging the extremely low prices you say he is.

£1-50 for a house?what a joke!

[Jack Wallace]

I have bought loads of work in the past, some better than others but no way would I touch that work.

no matter where in the country you are those prices are rubbish, to cover costs you would have no choice but increase by a fair amount and then you end up losing to many.

I estimate to lose about 10% of work I buy as an average, but I have got it down to about 5% with practice,
However buying work where the customers have been messed around like that and then inflicting and large increase I would expect upto 25% losses.

If I were to buy that work (which I would not) I would pay no more that £250 and hope I managed to hang onto a few decent jobs.

Get some flyers and canvass, and as said before, if you are threatened go straight to the police.

[ianharper]

Tws

two ways to get business, one buy it or just market in the area and take the work for free and at you price. its hard but its business.

respect

ian harper

[tws]

thanks for reply s i cant argue with you previous guy was charging 75p per house until very recently and cleaned this round for over 20yrs glass only traditional and would clean over 40 houses a day :.
i think his idea was price low keep other cleaners off these prices were very low even in for north west of england    

[toronto]

The only way you could charge £1 per house would be on big long terraces of 2 up 2 down and do fronts only wfp and you would need almost every house in the streets

[chopsie]

thanks for reply s i cant argue with you previous guy was charging 75p per house until very recently and cleaned this round for over 20yrs glass only traditional and would clean over 40 houses a day :.
i think his idea was price low keep other cleaners off these prices were very low even in for north west of england    

75p per house  40 houses a day =£30  what a bloody retard, He can come and work for me and i will pay him double that if he does 40 houses a day, I will just sit back and count the rest 

[Ian101]

Im just about to buy some work not massive about 25 houses all compact and all terraced .. paying 3x cleans for it ... using it as a foot into the area as im finding when people see neighbours being cleaned then i can pick more up work from the neighbours .. normally just canvass for my work but thought I would try buying some for a change to see what happens ....

TWS I think you have had a lucky escape just canvass the area no one can stop you and if you get threatened as Vince said go to police pronto !

[tws]

I
[TWS I think you have had a lucky escape just canvass the area no one can stop you and if you get threatened as Vince said go to police pronto !]

i know what your saying but believe me its not worth the hassle i would get in this area, there's no way i can explain this on here without sounding racist which im not so i,ll leave it at that.