[colley614]

The first thing I would do mate is get your business plan out sit down and have a good read through it. Get yourself in that frame of mind that you were in when you first started out and you said to yourself "yeah I can make a well better business than that fella from down the road." Then get your cash-flow forecast in front of you and see where your spending money where you shouldn't. Do a swot analysis of yourself and your business and see what you can change. If you haven't done these already that's where I'd start.

[Ian101]

Simple question ...... What do you think you should do ?

[richywilts]

done some figures today and we are down to

634 customers
value approx £67000 (going off rough £12 average house price)
715 more customers required to keep both vans fully booked with domestic work
i have gave a date of april 1st 2012 to get 715 new customers
average a week 65 between 4 people

these figures are without taking any new commercial work into play which we will be pushing massively

iv sat down with chris today and touched on what needs to be done going more in depth tomorrow,me and chris are willing to work hard for the challenge i do not however think i have support of the window cleaners!!!!! im going to take back some of the admin work to free up time for chris to cold call and make appointments.

we are waiting on a big amount of commercial work in april for a building company to begin and have a meeting with a lady from iss towards end of week regarding sub contracting so fingers crossed poop can begin to get sorted

[Catherine10]

Good news Rich, pushing forward one thing at a time.

[colley614]

Good luck with that mate. Keep in mind what I said to you though about subbing as I over commited and it cost me dear.

Good luck mate

[Sean Dyer]

done some figures today and we are down to

634 customers
value approx £67000 (going off rough £12 average house price)
715 more customers required to keep both vans fully booked with domestic work
i have gave a date of april 1st 2012 to get 715 new customers
average a week 65 between 4 people

these figures are without taking any new commercial work into play which we will be pushing massively

iv sat down with chris today and touched on what needs to be done going more in depth tomorrow,me and chris are willing to work hard for the challenge i do not however think i have support of the window cleaners!!!!! im going to take back some of the admin work to free up time for chris to cold call and make appointments.

we are waiting on a big amount of commercial work in april for a building company to begin and have a meeting with a lady from iss towards end of week regarding sub contracting so fingers crossed poop can begin to get sorted

if you have 67k a year at 12 average you really dont need 4 guys and a sales person and yourself. You could be turning that amount over with you and one guy. Or just one van with 2 guys. Dont bank on commercial you havent got yet it might never materialise and your back to square one. Either work in with your best lad. Or if you still want to get off tools then Keep your two best guys in one van. And you start to build up van 2 to employment level. But Theres No way 67k is giving you all a wage. With No over heads tax ni or vat taken into account its a little over 11k each. Not much fun for anyone.

[Pope vader]

what wages are you paying richy

[andyatkinson]

Im not being funny Richy, but how much admin work is there? It cant be that much, I think your sales guy is making excuses "admin" instead of focussing on the job in hand and getting busy, and you are making excuses saying that you will take it back to free his time up, if your situation is as dire and depressing as it sounds, get out on the tools all day every day, even if theres no work for you to do, finish the work that bit quicker and then you and the lads all get out canvassing and leafletting together. Drop this "admin" mentality and graft and do your admin in evenings and weekends until your out of this pickle.
All the best.

[CLEANCARE WC]

if you only have £67k pa I would immediately get rid of 2 people if not 3

[andyatkinson]

agreed

[richywilts]

yep i fully agree with what everyone is saying to be fair im holding out this week to see if theyre is an improvement in the staff and see if theyre motivated or not, if not then im seriously considering going it alone, or reducing staff by one or two people, those numbers do not include commercial we do each month either as im not sure what them figures are.

basically we took on a new round system called round pro and it is very tedious and a lot of faffing round compared to window cleaner pro which we are going to go back to cut time doing admin and end of day etc, iv spoke to chris today and he reckons he does 3 hours collecting over phone a day which i think is bullsh*t coz that shud be bringing in200-300 a day

[Sean Dyer]

yep i fully agree with what everyone is saying to be fair im holding out this week to see if theyre is an improvement in the staff and see if theyre motivated or not, if not then im seriously considering going it alone, or reducing staff by one or two people, those numbers do not include commercial we do each month either as im not sure what them figures are.

basically we took on a new round system called round pro and it is very tedious and a lot of faffing round compared to window cleaner pro which we are going to go back to cut time doing admin and end of day etc, iv spoke to chris today and he reckons he does 3 hours collecting over phone a day which i think is bullsh*t coz that shud be bringing in200-300 a day

Take control of your business back back richy and drop him or at least relegate him to sales

And you need to cut staff by two minimum , and then you can pay your best 2 guys to go out in one van and do the roughly 1400 -1500 a week that you still have

This will pay you and them

And give you loads of free time to canvass and push your work

If not this mess will continue , hope you dont mind me saying...

Good luck

[andyatkinson]

Richy, i dont think you have the luxury of time, they have not done you any favours (except chris once or twice it sounds) you cant financially tread water for ever, cut back and WORK yourself on the tools with 1 guy, admin evening and weekends, and NO sales person, grow consistently and properly until you can afford all that, but dont delay your decision

[Pope vader]

having just read a few of your post richy,  i think that you want to be the CEO and sit in a office all day and have people working for you, but the way you are going you wil be bankquprt within 12 months, as you seem to want to keep all the staff on, to do all the work, why you and the admin guy play office,  

if you keep the staff on then YOU and ADMIN GUY  get out knocking every day,  and then when they have no work get them out knocking

you remind me of a wc down here,  he is not a wc he is an entrepreneur,  every time you see him, he has a other brilliant idea to make millions, but wont put the work in, he use to employ lads to be wc  give them 30 custy and tell them to build a round for him and  get 33% of what they made,  they all left and took his custys,

[andyM]

At the end of the day Richy as things currently stand you are overstaffed and must of been for quite some time.
Listen to your head and not your heart.

[Dave Willis]

You've got the perfect job right in front of you. You and a mate - one van. No admin spongers just the two of you cleaning windows you could be taking 50k for yourself out of that turnover. ARE YOU NUTS?
It's all there in front of your eyes - never need to canvass either.

[andyatkinson]

50 K richy. 50 K

[andyatkinson]

no vat no stress no hassle 50 k

[Frankybadboy]

value approx £67000 -4 people=16,750each simple maths it dont add up,for all the stress you are in.


£67000 is roughly 2 blokes in 1 van and that aint working hard.

[wfp master]

sounds like you have to much on your plate. time ti change.