[William McCafferty]

I normally always get paid on the 1st clean mainly because I like the customer to be in so they see how I clean and what I do.

After that if they forget or are not in then I don't worry too much, I will leave it untill the next clean, I normally give them a £30 credit limit, unless they state that they are good for the money, then I only go to 3 cleans before I start to chase payment.

What you can do is phone them and say that someone has paid into your bank but they haven't given a reference to who they are, and you have worked it down to them or another customer and you are just checking out who has paid, this way you are reminding them without pressure.

[magic moments]

She saw how I cleaned as I was stopped whilst cleaning another house so I explained I'm sure she will pay ,just don't like how they say they will pay on a day then don't ,then don't reply to a text.

[A & J Owen Window Cleaning]

I normally always get paid on the 1st clean mainly because I like the customer to be in so they see how I clean and what I do.

After that if they forget or are not in then I don't worry too much, I will leave it untill the next clean, I normally give them a £30 credit limit, unless they state that they are good for the money, then I only go to 3 cleans before I start to chase payment.

What you can do is phone them and say that someone has paid into your bank but they haven't given a reference to who they are, and you have worked it down to them or another customer and you are just checking out who has paid, this way you are reminding them without pressure.

I try to do this on the first text ie make it look like you are assuming they are going to pay rather than accusing them of not paying. If they ignore this then they get a not so polite text about 5/7 days later, if still nothing usually (but not always) you've got a problem and it's likely they are trying to get out of paying. We had one who I knew was a messer and who we had decided just to dump for none payment so I decided to just send one more text saying 4th reminder as a shot to nothing. He paid and said he was cancelling. I text back to say he'd already been removed from our round for being a persistent bad payer.

[spongebob]

Mr Magic Moments.
You need to relax a bit. You sound so desperate for money that it must come across that way to the customer. you have to build a relationship with them. You will find that some want to pay you you the minute you start and others will always be late or never in etc but will pay in the end.
If you have enough work to ditch them go ahead but sounds like you havent.  If you turn up and do the second clean she now owes you double. Make sure she is home when you do the 2nd clean. You might find she is the sort that always pays everyone late , not just you.
Put a value on your own time and don't waste it going back repeatedly for money or chasing her to let her know its not hit your bank yet.
Spend the time canvassing instead.
I dont know how long you have been self employed at this, but you need to view the money side as a business and not take late payment so personally. If you cannot do this you will soon start to hate your job and the customers. Unfortunately its a fact that you will never be on top of your debtors list. The only cure is to work at getting more business through the books from new customers and although the percentage that pay you on time will remain the same you will get more cashflow.
When you have enough customers you can DUMP HER AND GET TWO MORE!

[magic moments]

Suppose it may come across desperate but I wouldn't contact a tradesman have some work done then  not pay and not say when I will pay,I would pay as agreed ,its not the fact of non payment just feel its a micky take to tell me il pay then simply don't.

[dazmond]

i picked up a new house last year and she said "can i pay online" i said fine no probs.gave her my bank details and she said "ill pay it straight away"(£10).

2 months later she still hadnt paid after 3-4 visits (when i was round near her area).eventually she paid with no text or phone call.dumped her.

then i bumped into her while i was cleaning a commercial over the road from hers she then started to apologise for paying late saying "im hopeless with paying bills!"i just said "sorry love im too busy to fit you in"

some people will take the pee.if they are late paying for a first clean i dump them straight away.they are ALWAYS messers in my experience.

most customers do not take the pee and some  pay me 2 cleans next time.

i clean twice without payment then not at all until i see a picture of the queen.

im defo finding that paying online is causing more customers to delay payment.when i clean some of these customers properties and their in its almost they use the "ill pay online straight away" excuse to put off payment.ive got 2 customers im gonna dump when outstanding bill paid.


my debt list has got bigger and bigger over the years due to better priced work,new work etc but 99% of the time i get my money.

once you are ahead of yourself youll find that youll get roughly the same amount of money in every month as you ve earned give or take a few quid with a debt of at least £300-£400 outstanding at anyone time.(well my round anyway!)


most customers of mine are good solid payers and pay on the day of clean or collecting on a fri/mon esp on cheaper estate work so good cashflow.then i have a steady drip of SAE dropping on my door mat  and bank transfers into my account from other work.


as ive already said if they are very late paying for a first clean then dump straight away when they cough up as they will mess you about again!!trust me ive been iin this game many years!!

[spongebob]

I agree with what you say Dazmond , but Magic moments hasn't got a full round yet. He can not simply dump them them at this point. I have customers on the heating side try and owe me money in the thousands for weeks. I have come to understand that every one is different in their approach to payment of bills.  Some want to pay me thousands before I start and others are weeks late. I prefer nothing until I have finished then in full within a couple of days. Unfortunately this doesn't happen all the time but there are still some that expect to pay me in 3 weeks when there pay cheque goes in.
Magic, I think you will have to suck it up for now. You will be cleaning a cesspit of a house with crap everywhere inside and out and the windows all misted up. You will think to yourself why are they bothering. They might pay you three months in arrears but never cancel you on the doorstep like some of the posh clean houses. Then you will find that scenario has flipped round in the next street. not everyone will think and act like you and to build a round quickly you will have to adapt. Not forgetting just when you suss out the wife and how/when she pays, the husband will be home instead and he is different again. To build a good round you could be dealing with 300 houses or up to 600 people. Good luck

[magic moments]

Thanks for advice some good points made.

[spongebob]

Your welcome. How long have you been cleaning. How long have you been self employed and what were you doing before if you dont mind me asking?

[magic moments]

Been doing windows,for 2.5 months,was a police officer for the last 8 years,just wanted a change without to many politics,stress etc

[spongebob]

very different then. You have gone from telling people what to do and having a set of tight rules to adhere to yourself and for others to follow to chaos then.
Custies not paying on time, changing their minds etc.. From your comment about you paying a tradesman on time so why shouldnt others i wonder how some of my customers both heating and cleaning make it through a single day. The majority are fine but I would say 20% carry on like they are still in nappies. God only knows how they cope with the daily routine of bringing up kids, using a gas cooker etc without killing themselves or others.
On some jobs where I am there for a while I feel more like a life coach than their tradesman. they start to pour out all their troubles and ask my advice!
If you can get enough work then dont let each not a very nice person wind you up. Just clean, clean and clean and they will all have to pay you eventually. You may lose some but its money in the bank even if you have to wait for it.
I have lost over £4k of bad debt over the last 2 years but it would be more hassle than its worth going through the courts. I also dont want the mental grief of dealing with the idiots that think I should have done the extra work they had done for free. They will pay in other ways when the time is right. I dont let it bother me in the meantime though as I concentrate on the nice polite customers and friends who are happy to see and pay me.
I do not wish to offend anyone with this comment but I think most customers see us as "only the window cleaner" and as such we are not the highest priority for payment or any other treatment by them. I for one am happiest with this when they think they are so smug and I earn well doing the job with the least responsibility.
Dont let them stress you out.

[pncleaning]

Charge the late payers interest on what they owe!!!! haha

[magic moments]

I think your right its the change of dealing with the public,but I'm going to concentrate on building my customer base,and just clean then when rained off with bad weather can do a little chasing,your right about the just a window cleaner image ....I just think I decided to do this for family time and no shifts etc so in time I will win.

[spongebob]

Good attitude. Keep calm and carry on cleaning!

[Ian101]

I agree with what you say Dazmond , but Magic moments hasn't got a full round yet. He can not simply dump them them at this point.

I gurantee that you will have a better round and a lot quicker by dumping people like this.

Fair enough to what your saying Spongebob but at this moment this customer is just a name on a list and an entry on the debt list.

More than likely they wont pay untill chased .... personally I think this effort is put to better use in finding more customers.

I can give you a list as long as an orangatans arm with people I dumped as I went when building my round.

Its ok to do the crap jobs when building and they shouldnt be dumped until you cant fit them in but ALWAYS dump the poor payers ASAP after u got your money.

I stll have the odd one mess me about normally new customers I have taken on good example of this is a lady who seen me working and asked me to quote on her house, quoted, accepted, cleaned, paid 1st clean there and then, next 2 cleans no payment so went there and collected, tried to fob me off with no cheque book routine but I wasnt having any of it so she found cheque book and it cleared .................. 2 weeks later house empty and up for rent !

As the BFG used to say

Canvass
Clean
Cull

and keep repeating until round is mint  

[H S and Son]

If its as black and white as all that Ian then good luck to you Ian, but it isn't all the time. I've been in this game 14 years, so Im not short of work, in fact Im about 2 weeks behind as it as the moment, maybe more.

I have a customer that is a bad payer. They pay, just never at the ideal time for me. Sometimes they owe me for two visits. As it stands they owe me £30, have done for 5 weeks or so. However, Id be a fool to bin them as to clean the windows on their house the charge is £30 and it takes 15 minutes to do. They live in the same road as me, its hardly inconvenient or involves any travelling. Apart from the payment issue it's an ideal job, the glass sheets lovely, I enjoy cleaning there.

What would you do for a £120 per hour job in this situation?

Not quite as black and white as some like to make out really is it.

[Ian101]

What would you do for a £120 per hour job in this situation?

Not quite as black and white as some like to make out really is it.

I have several big jobs / well paid jobs and yes same rule applies.

The trick is to suss out who is a slow payer and a non payer unless chased.

Whats a definition of a slow payer ... well we would all see that differently I rekon  

[H S and Son]

Ive sussed out that this is a slow payer. Would you still bin them?

[Ian101]

Ive sussed out that this is a slow payer. Would you still bin them?

Matt ... see what your saying but the OP was talking about a person who by my guessing is going to be a real PIA when it comes to paying and thats what I was referring to in my replies.

Yup its a fine line sometimes between non and slow payer and maybe Im wrong but I dont think the price of a job should dicatate how long u r prepared to wait for payment (commercial different perhaps) the job u have decribed is a nice job and only you can really decide what is acceptable wait and what is not.

If your interested in what my policy is then I work on 10 days for normal residential ... is my debt list older than that yup of course it is but not by much and in all honesty very rare nowadays to be owed for a clean when I turn up for the next visit - just my way of doing things 

[Ian101]

reread OP properly .... duh didnt ralise it had only been a few days 

please ignore everything I have posted.

however if it drags on then u can read what i have posted