[dave f]

do  you get fed up with parts of your round  ie bad payers locked gates .dog shyte gardens e.t.c trying to explain to customers that they owe for 2 cleanes  list gose on as we all know.im fed up some days and others I am ok when I am collecting and seeing the fruits of my hard work.lol

[Spruce]

do  you get fed up with parts of your round  ie bad payers locked gates .dog shyte gardens e.t.c trying to explain to customers that they owe for 2 cleanes  list gose on as we all know.im fed up some days and others I am ok when I am collecting and seeing the fruits of my hard work.lol

Yes 

[Don Kee]

Fed up with the whole thing at the moment...
 

[chris turner]

I get fed up all the time. Window cleaning is a very boring and monotonous job. Same houses, windows, people over and over and over and over .......
You just have to think of the money and simplify your business as much as possible.
Less = more, charge as high as you can possibly get away with and do as little hours on the glass as possible.
Get rid of the messers, awkward jobs, bad payers and when you get home each day try to get everything ready for the next day as quickly as possible so you can switch off from cleaning windows.
I like to be done for the day by 5.30pm including work all organised, van filled, customers text etc. After that point I don't even think about work, don't answer calls from customers or respond to emails.

[andyM]

Bad payers and dog poop infested gardens are not really a problem as have filtered these out.
But it's the monotony of the job and bad weather preventing me from getting out that does my head in.
Although sometimes a bit of  perspective is required, and  the world's a safer place with people like me cleaning windows rather than performing open heart surgery or flying aeroplanes for a living. 

[Cookie]

All jobs have their ups & downs.

I returned to a  customer yesterday to do a first maintenance clean. I cleaned up his windows to a really good standard last time & it took ages - he turned round to me yesterday & explained he was going to to his own windows from now on....

The same afternoon I picked up a new customer - £18 house and she's also asking me to clean the windows on a health & beauty spa that she owns.

It swings it roundabouts.....

[AuRavelling79]

As Chris Turner says - you can do a lot to improve your round.

For me I have improved my round by:

Not collecting.
Charging extra for "first cleans" which mitigates against the "I'll do my own from now on" brigade.
Compacting it.
Dropping less easy to manage customers quickly once I have identified them as such.
Increasing prices from time to time. (I feel I need to be a bit more hard nosed on this but I think too much and as we have had drops in fuel and nil inflation this last year I have held back when really I could go for it in a more organised way.)
Learn from this forum.

I like the idea of getting everything ready for the next day by (say) tea time) as I'm tend to come in, enter everything on George and crash out.

[kempy]

Most jobs are repetitive .
At least you decide what and when you do stuff .
Custies can be brilliant and also problematic .

I cancelled 2 yesterday as they were just moaners and expected everything doing for little .
£10 window clean and eccpected all facia's and garage doors wiped down for £20 all in . 4 bed detached house . Lol .
Smother said back windows were all dirty , so I checked and her insides were dirty . Cleaned one of them and were dirty as hell . She was shocked .  So I said I can do them all for £10 , which is £20 in n out . She said £14 , so I laughed and said find someone else . Always want something for nothing a certain ethnicity .
Anyhow I feel better , always good to clean less houses but for nice persons .
Then a bloke I clean wanted a gutter emptying , gave me £20 , he went out and only took 5 mins to pull the turf out . Persons like this make your day .

[SeanK]

I very rarely do a first clean now as I have more work than I want, but done a really bad first clean this week ( a mate who had
just moved into a new house to them and the windows hadn't been cleaned in decades) the thing is the pleasure in seeing the
transformation gave me a boost that I hadn't had in a while.
What I'm trying to say is job satisfaction can be hard to find at times in this business and I honestly think its something you
need in a job, I think its this that gets to most more than the boredom.
I clean 6 weekly and at times you need to look very closely to even notice the dirt on the glass so its hard to believe that you
have actually achieved something after a days graft.
But I suppose convincing ourselves that its all about the money does help a little.

[dave f]

I think ive picked up a lot of dross from other windys .its a small town where I live its not an opstion to pick and choose were flooded with cleaners as for not collecting ive tested the water  but most of my customers don't want it

[duncan h]

I get balled off. Usually with my hose, having to walk back up a drive to find its catching on a flag. I have to think of it this way. Better than being stuck in a factory. Hourly rate is good. Rain annoys me when I text for gates to be opened, then it Pees it down

[stevon]

you get fed up when you get all your hoses & gear out & the custie says"isnt it a bit damp"

[Ian101]

I went thru a spell about 18 months ago for about 6 months  where I very nearly jacked it all in and went as far as going for interviews for Sales Managers jobs back in the motor trade.

One interview was for Hyundai dealer  where they took great delight in telling me they (2 owners and the dealership general manger) nearly didn't call me for an interview as they thought I was a joke becoming a window cleaner  at end of interview they apologised for early comments and said I was going to be called back for a second interview ... didn't get job as blew second interview when basically told them that their general manger was a c0ck and knew nowt about running a garage.

Another interview was for a large busy Ford garage for new and used sales manger with a basic of £20K and bonus of £15K which was ok for a job back into trade I had left 4 years earlier then told me I would also be doing the Finance Managers job as well ... cue visions of 70 hours weeks ... no weekends off .. massive targets .. crap wages .... etc etc - stood up and left interview after telling them they were expecting too much for too little pay.

What im trying to say is whilst this job is crap sometimes due to weather / poor customers / non payers / getting scammed on one offs / monotony / lots of other things ...... there is other far worse things you could be doing.

My outlook is simple .... change the things you can and don't let the thing you cant change effect you or your head.

for example : decide if you gonna work in rain or not and just make that decision and do it - buy the gortex and work or stay at home and watch telly ... your choice

poor customers - bin them NOW ,,,, you could even go canvassing in the rain if you have decided you don't want to work in the rain.

non payers ... simples collect your money AND NEVER EVER CLEAN THEM AGAIN !!!! easy peasy yet some on here clean 2 or even 3 times why WTF reason would you do this ?? stop it now and go find some proper customers

one off scammers ... charge more on all first cleans

monotony - take a few days off - some may say they cant afford to ... I would say you cant afford not too when you need a break.

all of the above is just my opinion and some people may not agree but you know what I cant control that so Im not going to worry about that .... like not worrying about the weather 

[samson]

One of the best tips I have tried is to do the worst ( in your mind ) work at the beginning of the week, and get it out of the way.
Also do all of the above, especially improving the prices, and getting rid of the complainers, and slow payers, and replace with decent people who want a decent job.
There is so much good quality work out there, and you just have to get out there and sell yourself.
Also diversifying can be good too, we provide gutter cleaning and pressure washing and I love it !!!     We are planning to drop the window cleaning next year as we get more money and satisfaction from non window leaning work 

[Ian101]

more of my ramblings ... on a roll now 

sometimes as business evolves and grows you need to change things or at least think about how u do things

for me this last month I have stopped
gutter cleans
conny roofs
upvc cleans
taking on any bi monthly customers

I have started
 chasing more commercial works ... going kinda ok at the moment
toyed with idea of employing ... again
had an idea of offering 3 monthly cleans at high prices - just a though but mulling it over - may come to nothing ?? ?? ??
employ or franchise ... ??
and about 30 other things to do with my window cleaning job (not business as it stops if I stop)

[SeanK]

I think ive picked up a lot of dross from other windys .its a small town where I live its not an opstion to pick and choose were flooded with cleaners as for not collecting ive tested the water  but most of my customers don't want it

It should get better Dave, I'm in the same boat as yourself with collecting, I use a stamped addressed envelope and add the price
to the clean that might be an option for you.

[Positivity]

Sometimes, but then I think of previous jobs:
Standing in front of a lathe for 8 hours a day with the noise,  grease and dust.
Filleting 20 ton of mackerel in sub zero temperatures, working whenever there was a catch, sometimes from 6 in the morning until finished around midnight!
Waiting on and dealing with the ignorant demanding public.
Bar work and dealing with the drunks and the staff!
Wood machining with the screaming saw blades and the dust everywhere.
Welding and the fumes and the grinding.
Sales rep. driving around like a maniac meeting targets all the time.
I.T. and the BS from management and back stabbing office politics.
There are MUCH worse ways of making a living, the hours are flexible, money not bad, own boss, work pretty much when you like.

[kempy]

True

[Matt.]

We all get fed up once in a while, just take yesterday for me, worst day of the year. 

Today is a new day and the show must go on but some very good posts there

[robbo333]

I  tell you what... When I just turn up and clean,  with an unlocked gate and money waiting... It's like a breath of fresh air!