Hi Ian, Slightly off topic you said that you have bought some work which is what I am thinking of doing, Did you pay much for it & is it a big round? I have been offered about £13 grands worth per annum for £4 grand. Just want to see what your thoughts are on buying work. 
Hi Terry ... dont like to go into too much financial details on the forum but yup just bought a shed load of customers, a van and a proper 2 man system ... totally wrong time of year which I knew when I was buying it but the oppertunity was way way too good to miss ... helped me jump about 18 months in progress in one go ... dont regret it at all and so far most of the work is as promised (dont like doing houses full of dog crap in gardens) (about half way through so far) the bloke I bought it off dont post on here but been very helpful and totally trustworthy.
If ur in a rush like me then buying work is only way to get ahead fast ... canvassing still the best way but too slow for my needs and plans .... sounds like ur paying about 4 times the monthly income (13000 / 12 = 1083) so thats an ok price in my opinion ..... mine all came to 1 price with van,system work etc but roughly paid about 3 multiples but was a lot of customers however once I bin the ones I dont like or trust or turn out to be slow payers or have have piles of dog poo in the gardens then prob paid more like 3.5 times the income.
its now given me a full round which has a lot of positives apart from the obvious one - income - .... now dont do one offs, dont do customers I dont like and now raised my min price to £12 (unless neighbour is a customer of mine at a lower price) .. now also going to cull all the crap customers in January after me christmas tips... work a lot more compact as work I bought was either in the areas I did already or between the areas I did ... also gave me confidence to quote higher than i used to and last week got 2 new jobs @ £15 / 8weekly and 1 job @ £12 / 4 weekly which are 2 quid more than i used to charge.
Hope my ramblings help
