[Dave Anderson]

Having just read another recent thread here about selling up and also reading about some people feeling so bored about this work and their window cleaning...

How have you coped going through the building stage and then the downer stage ?

Please do not just say...your lucky to be working, get a couple of new jobs...

I am hoping to hear some of your experiences about how you coped with the downers.....

Right now I am so bored of it all and just getting out the door this week has just not happened...I have also been taking days off here and there for the past 8 weeks...obviously my income has been down even though I just make sure I earn enough to pay the bills..

Many thanks
Dave.

[david watts]

just have goals to aim at; remmember greed is good greed is right greed is the yorkshire way

[Paul-pp]

Hi Dave - having worked in a factory for donkeys years - i would say look at the positives -YOU are your own boss, no schoolboy Grads giving you orders & no braindead managers breathing down your neck.
Although winters comming - so is the summer
The grass isnt always greener
regards Paul.

[Bob McKillop]

Buy a new bit of kit..... it always seems to work!

[Dave Willis]

Interesting topic Dave, you are a bit ahead of me - I think you started about six months before me. It's the old motivation thing isn't it? I have a full round, all the work I could wish for, decent money etc yet the last couple of days I only worked half days. I just don't want to be doing it the excitement has gone and it's the same old thing day in day out.
Retail therapy helps, a new pole now and again etc. I really fancy a new van at the moment kidding myself that I would work longer hours with it (as if).
The thought of winter really gets me down.

I think you just need to look at the alternatives to shock you back on course.

[Clive McDonald]

I've followed your career with interest Dave.You used to keep stats on your leaflets ans customers.Your probably more rounded than me with diving etc.

What drives me is ideas.I have a few of my own, some came off the forum and many from business books.In the early days i can remember getting excited about designing the perfect leaflet.Van signage had me going for a while.Getting a system that was the best in the country took a couple of years.

My current buzz is marketing, having a higher purpose, exploiting the secret sauce of my business, and building the perfect business model.

Scrubbing windows everyday is just the bit in between.

[dazmond]

just accept that we all struggle with motivation sometimes.take a holiday or a few days off doing something else.that usually works for me!

im loving it most days as im in my 4 th month of wfp and im getting more done every day!plus ive picked up the odd bigger job here and there.

the freedom,money and sheer joy of not having a boss breathing down your neck is bliss!!

ive been window cleaning for 16 years



dazmond

[Jack Wallace]

Having just read another recent thread here about selling up and also reading about some people feeling so bored about this work and their window cleaning...

How have you coped going through the building stage and then the downer stage ?

Please do not just say...your lucky to be working, get a couple of new jobs...

I am hoping to hear some of your experiences about how you coped with the downers.....

Right now I am so bored of it all and just getting out the door this week has just not happened...I have also been taking days off here and there for the past 8 weeks...obviously my income has been down even though I just make sure I earn enough to pay the bills..

Many thanks
Dave.

I know where you are coming from Dave, I have been in the job about 7 years now but 3 years ago i almost jacked it in, I am glad i never though. I worked through that period untill one day I just seemed to come out of it and think "you know what? this is a damned good job and i can make of it whatever i want" so I got stuck in and and have now doubled my turnover and am loving it again. I put van number 3 on the road this week.

Everyone has times where they feel down, dont feel bad about it, just realise its all normal. wait till it passes (which it will) and see where you want to be then, if you still want to be in the job, go for it!!!

[Richard Neal]

This is a hard job to keep yourself motivated all the time i am like many others on here working on my own for most of the time and for me the motivation is money! i always have a target to reach by 12 pm and again by 3pm ( when i pick my son up from school), every day i try to break my target and since ive gone over to wfp about 3 months ago i do often beat it and then some!
Keep going mate the hardest bit of this job is building your round up, it would be a shame to stop even sell up and then regret it in 6 months, i hope to build mine up enough to employ 1 full time and to be able to take my son on (if he still wants to) when hes 18, this also helps to keep me motivated.

[Dave Anderson]

Thanks guys....

It's been affecting me at work to the extent that I have dropped about 12 customers when really I could just have 'sucked it up' and just let the little 'issue' go...but being a bit down has just been passed onto certain customers and alas they are not customers anymore.

Apart of it I suppose is that to tell the truth the business earns pretty good money but being bored of the whole thing just makes small little issues....massive mountains and I tend to react that way also....so a few of the losses have had a mouthful so to speak..not very professional I know but hey it's now in the past.

I know that considering I live in another country and that my little business has done well I should be jumping from the rooftops shouting it out ...it's just the actual work....in the past I use to be able to zone out but now that is harder to do...how do you 'zone out'?

Cheers
Dave.

[weetot]

I've done this job 27 years now, and it does ya head in at times.

But this is for you mate.    Keep smiling and enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ

[Dave Anderson]

Watching it now...Thanks

[Dave Willis]

Music and radio for me. I think I'd be lost without my ipod

[Jack Wallace]

Dave,
I just read your own signature, wise words mate. Have you forgotten them?

[Rob_Mac]

The Touch of the Masters Hand

Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
thought it scarcely worth his while to waste much time on the old violin,
but held it up with a smile; "What am I bidden, good folks," he cried,
"Who'll start the bidding for me?" "A dollar, a dollar"; then two!" "Only
two? Two dollars, and who'll make it three? Three dollars, once; three
dollars twice; going for three.." But no, from the room, far back, a
gray-haired man came forward and picked up the bow; Then, wiping the dust
from the old violin, and tightening the loose strings, he played a melody
pure and sweet as caroling angel sings.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer, with a voice that was quiet and low,
said; "What am I bid for the old violin?" And he held it up with the bow.
A thousand dollars, and who'll make it two? Two thousand! And who'll make
it three? Three thousand, once, three thousand, twice, and going and
gone," said he. The people cheered, but some of them cried, "We do not
quite understnad what changed its worth." Swift came the reply: "The touch
of a master's hand."

And many a man with life out of tune, and battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin, A
"mess of pottage," a glass of wine; a game - and he travels on. "He is
going" once, and "going twice, He's going and almost gone." But the Master
comes, and the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of a soul
and the change that's wrought by the touch of the Master's hand.

Myra 'Brooks' Welch

You place no value on what you have because it is too familiar. See the value of what you have!!!!

Rob

[Clive McDonald]

Has to be the best post ever.

Set to music and with subo singing that would be some song.I might email cowel about this.

[darren clarke]

have a look at what work you got and how much it is worth

then

1  employ someone to make u get out in morning as u will be paying wages

2   stick it all on ebay and see how little people are prepared to pay for your hard work and u will think stuff ti and keep it,  whilst it is on   go job centre and see how crap the wages are


i am looking at doing 1 when i get back off my hols,  and just had a mate do no 2, he wanted to leave till i think he realised there is nothing out there

[prestige cleaners]

ive been down a bit this year, might be my drug abuse catching up with me?

but sometimes only time is all i need to get out of the low, also an mp3 player and some company helps. i know ive said never employ your wife, but i think i would be lost without her now.

new kit sounds like a good idea, and holidays helps, also some extreme sports does it for me, dh mtbing, motox, trackdays, etc. (without risking life) also a spiritual focus, ie. a belief in god helps, preferably the true one.

[newquay2010]

your right darren i have wacked it on ebay but got 4 days till it ends so gotta decide.

[darren clarke]

told u mate, i think u have let other stuff interfer ur mind and tell u what u should do,   but like a lot of people who become wc  family and lack of support make people decided that wc isnt for them, when all they need is a bit of encouragemnt to get out and knock


a lot of successful people in this business are either single or have someone supporting them,