[Lee Burbidge]

Route work - is it really worth it? We interviewed Dave Morris. Do you do shops in your area?

http://www.windowcleaningmagazine.co.uk/blog/route-work-is-it-really-worth-it/

[Dean Taberner]

Shop work is fine if you can get paid for the work that you actually do.

[C o z y]

Haven't read the interview yet, but we only do shops in the town we live in. Average time per shop is 10 to 15 minutes work, price about €1 a minute. Some are weekly, some 2 weekly, and a few monthly. Altogether, they're worth about €300 a month to us, and I see it as easy money. Some time ago, there was a huge mall opened about 30 miles from us and I canvassed about 7 or 8 shops in it, the prices were a lot lower at that time because everyone wanted to get in at the start. I sold that work after about a year though.

It's not just about price here, it's about reliability and quality. That's why most of the firms here don't have to work for low prices.

[Dean Taberner]

Dave is the first person from Salford to have been interviewed without a police caution being read out to them first.

[HampshireWindowCleaning]

I can't believe that guy thinks it's worth driving an hour to do a £6 shop, even if you were to pick up a couple more it seems like a waste of time to me.
I think I'll stick to doing £15 and £20 houses if that's the kind of earnings from cleaning shop fronts

[C o z y]

Dave is the first person from Salford to have been interviewed without a police caution being read out to them first.

 

[Dean Taberner]

I can't believe that guy thinks it's worth driving an hour to do a £6 shop, even if you were to pick up a couple more it seems like a waste of time to me.
I think I'll stick to doing £15 and £20 houses if that's the kind of earnings from cleaning shop fronts

It is possible to make money from shop fronts and I know how to do it, but I can't tell you. Lol.

[sunshine windows]

The old saying '1-2 skip a few, 99-100' springs to mind.

I wouldn't do unsociable hours like that, even if it paid double what I'm earning now.

[Dean Taberner]

The old saying '1-2 skip a few, 99-100' springs to mind.

I wouldn't do unsociable hours like that, even if it paid double what I'm earning now.

You would if you liked windows.

[G Griffin]

'Shop fronts'. That's rhyming slang, innit?

[Llaaww]

I love my shop work, and all the lovely ladies that work in them.... 

[sunshine windows]

Dean, I do really enjoy being out cleaning, but not at 4am every day.

I generally work around 16 hours a week and my colleague 25-30 hours a week.

Quality over quantity has built me a round I'm very happy with.

[Dean Taberner]

Dean, I do really enjoy being out cleaning, but not at 4am every day.

I generally work around 16 hours a week and my colleague 25-30 hours a week.

Quality over quantity has built me a round I'm very happy with.

Sorry mate but you haven't lived until you've arisen to a 3.30am alarm to do a £4 shop 30 miles from home on a 60 day invoice.

[stuart mc]

I found it an interesting read, not sure I agree with all daves points, but I do on most, but yes a 3.30 am start is great, I grew up as a lad and my brother and dad then me were up at that time most days for early morning window cleaning work, so it seems pretty normal to me

[Knocker]

Interesting interview, we used to clean lots shops in Central London many years ago in those days all the shops were cleaned 6 days a week outside, with the insides cleaned on request.

Most of the shops we were cleaning were priced around £40-£50 per week, we used to do a few larger shops and department stores, they were good money as well

[Lee Burbidge]

Wow great mix of responses here. It would appear that there are a few that like doing stores in their local area, some that don't feel they have to do low paid store work in their area and some just don't think its worth it regards travelling an hour to clean a £6.00 store. Davids story is this, he has built up his business to an impressive turn over, not all window cleaners want to do that and in doing so has created a wide portfolio of work. He has seen the potential of cleaning nationals.

So maybe the original question - Is store work worth it? is only worth it for people like David or those wanting to service the local town with may be 10 to 30 shops. This reflects large and small window cleaning companies. Where are the medium sized guys? - what do you think?

At this level - quality and service is paramount for increased business just as it would be for smaller firms or one man bands. However, the thought process may differ when the opportunity to take on a 100 or 200 shops for a national. Despite locations, is the value of the complete contract worth more than the out put. Quality is already taken care of as described earlier. If the answer is YES, then a business will do that type of work to increase its business further.

Of course to start a contract with a 100 or 200 shops you probably are not going to get paid for 60 to 90 days so a front end investment is required. The local guy doing local shops can build his work up over years at none or very little cost to himself.

[robertphil]

wonder why Dave chose to focus on shops rather than the houses

[d s windowcleaning]

shops used to be good for a early morning start but over the years more and more shops started having roller shutters fitted so was unable to start until opening times , I still do local shops and these are good easy work but wouldn't bother going into town now to do any . Take aways are good shops to do if you don't mind starting about 5 pm when most are just opening .

[roundbuilder]

Shops!!! No thanks!

[Moderator David@stives]

Robert

Dave still does houses and cleans anything that has glass, it's just that the shops found Dave rather than the other way around, he cleaned a few, done a good job, got asked to clean a few more, then more, Then other nationals noticed he was cleaning all over the show, so they asked him to clean some shops for them too. In fact he did such a good job, he became the biggest retail window cleaner in the Southwest.