[Smudger]

2 men take 7 hours to complete £500 = 14 hours pay £35 p/h productivity
2 vans take 7hours to complete £700 = 14 hours pay £50 p/h productivity

£15 X 7 is £105 a day or £25k over a 48 week year, I think that outweighs the slightly higher van running costs

Darran

 

[Smudger]

Im £3,000.00 behind

Whats the nett figure you're behind ?

That could mean a number of things, be clearer.

Well for 45 nicker an hour i wanna know, what date did you get rid of your employee (so i can calculate the build up or loss), can this work be done from home, if so does one need to get out of bed ? Just simple stuff like that so i can work it out? 
 Between me and you i';ve been about 30k down a year, and have been for the last 7 years. Thats something i'm looking to rectify in the future though. I've taken a lot of the advice here onboard and am looking to move foreward and rectify this.

Matt stated last four months so somewhere around £3k behind over 16 weeks

Darran

[CleanClear]

2 men take 7 hours to complete £500 = 14 hours pay £35 p/h productivity
2 vans take 7hours to complete £700 = 14 hours pay £50 p/h productivity

£15 X 7 is £105 a day or £25k over a 48 week year, I think that outweighs the slightly higher van running costs

Darran

You need to keep this a bit low key, if JP Morgan or Merril Lynch get onto this we're all gonna be knackered !!

[Rich Wilts]

It was 01st September but the loss in income isn't £3K it's more than that. There was a loss in income over the first 6 weeks, which is the businesses default frequency, of somewhere around £2K. The current state of play is that I'm £3K behind; but over the last 4 months it's totalling £5K or so. Which works out at just over £300 a week. This is inline with the money Darren would earn. 

[CleanClear]

Matt stated last four months so somewhere around £3k behind over 16 weeks

Darran

£187 per week ? There's another whole load of questions !!   

[CleanClear]

It was 01st September but the loss in income isn't £3K it's more than that. There was a loss in income over the first 6 weeks, which is the businesses default frequency, of somewhere around £2K. The current state of play is that I'm £3K behind; but over the last 4 months it's totalling £5K or so. Which works out at just over £300 a week. This is inline with the money Darren would earn.

 

[8weekly]

In my opinion, two man vans struggle to get a really good return.

Just my experience, but two of us in the same van would do £500 a day, but two one man vans with fairly compact work can comfortably do £350 each. Obviously, that's at my pricing. But what's that, a 40% difference?

£700 vs. £500 doesn't tell the full story though.  I don't suppose two smaller vans cost twice as much to run as one larger van, but I'm guessing it must be 175%ish.
As a sidenote, I'm wondering if I should be pricing new work higher.

True, but no van costs £1,000 per week to run which is the difference in t/o.

[Walter Mitty]

A couple of people have brought this up.
Just to clarify, I'm wondering what the difference is financially between running a large van and a smaller one - not trying to insinuate that it's not worth doing.  I've run both over the years at different times - but I only used a smaller before WFP.  I've never used a smaller van for WFP.
As larger vans cost more to run,  I'm guessing that two smaller vans would cost about 175% of a larger van.  Would that be about right?

[SeanK]

In my opinion, two man vans struggle to get a really good return.

Just my experience, but two of us in the same van would do £500 a day, but two one man vans with fairly compact work can comfortably do £350 each. Obviously, that's at my pricing. But what's that, a 40% difference?

£700 vs. £500 doesn't tell the full story though.  I don't suppose two smaller vans cost twice as much to run as one larger van, but I'm guessing it must be 175%ish.
As a sidenote, I'm wondering if I should be pricing new work higher.

True, but no van costs £1,000 per week to run which is the difference in t/o.

I'm I reading this right a £1000 a week to run a van.

[SeanK]

A couple of people have brought this up.
Just to clarify, I'm wondering what the difference is financially between running a large van and a smaller one - not trying to insinuate that it's not worth doing.  I've run both over the years at different times - but I only used a smaller before WFP.  I've never used a smaller van for WFP.
As larger vans cost more to run,  I'm guessing that two smaller vans would cost about 175% of a larger van.  Would that be about right?

There's very little difference Walter infect depending on the van the larger one could work out cheaper as larger vans tend to
work out cheaper to repair and service, try changing the air filter on a new shape Dispatch.
You also wont be pushing the larger van to its limits which tends to happen with smaller.

[8weekly]

In my opinion, two man vans struggle to get a really good return.

Just my experience, but two of us in the same van would do £500 a day, but two one man vans with fairly compact work can comfortably do £350 each. Obviously, that's at my pricing. But what's that, a 40% difference?

£700 vs. £500 doesn't tell the full story though.  I don't suppose two smaller vans cost twice as much to run as one larger van, but I'm guessing it must be 175%ish.
As a sidenote, I'm wondering if I should be pricing new work higher.

True, but no van costs £1,000 per week to run which is the difference in t/o.

I'm I reading this right a £1000 a week to run a van.

No. Put your glasses on.

[SeanK]

In my opinion, two man vans struggle to get a really good return.

Just my experience, but two of us in the same van would do £500 a day, but two one man vans with fairly compact work can comfortably do £350 each. Obviously, that's at my pricing. But what's that, a 40% difference?

£700 vs. £500 doesn't tell the full story though.  I don't suppose two smaller vans cost twice as much to run as one larger van, but I'm guessing it must be 175%ish.
As a sidenote, I'm wondering if I should be pricing new work higher.

True, but no van costs £1,000 per week to run which is the difference in t/o.

I'm I reading this right a £1000 a week to run a van.

No. Put your glasses on.

Took a while even with glasses cant even use beer as an excuse.

[supernova77]

It's for sale. Probably.

I wouldn't be working alongside someone, certainly not someone who's self-employed.

Matt

Drop me an email if you ever decide to sell any.

Andy 😊

[supernova77]

2 men take 7 hours to complete £500 = 14 hours pay £35 p/h productivity
2 vans take 7hours to complete £700 = 14 hours pay £50 p/h productivity

£15 X 7 is £105 a day or £25k over a 48 week year, I think that outweighs the slightly higher van running costs

Darran

 

But it never works out quite like that does it... Not day in day out.

The more you scale up the more problems you face on a day to day basis.

You should know that by now Smudger 😊

[Mick Kent]

Just sub work out instead of employing. Get self employed guys with own van and tools and pay a percentage 25/30% . Works for me and is the best way to get a good return, no more vans to buy, no more equipment, they sort there tax out and you offset there invoice against your tax bill so everyone is a winner. 

[Mick Kent]

I agree Andy. Not many domestic window cleaners can earn those figures day in and day out unless they have a round built by me  ... all work would need to be on the same few roads and priced overly high risking welcomed underpricing . Those sort of figures are what the dreamers want and may get now and then but certanly not all the time and if they were hit all the time then they certainly wouldnt be putting it on a forum.
I have found the only way to get good figures day in day out is doing well payed commercial work as the jobs simply have to be completed on schedule and weather doesnt play a part in problems which is the main cause of half days and off days which efects takings massivley.

[Walter Mitty]

I agree Andy. Not many domestic window cleaners can earn those figures day in and day out unless they have a round built by me  ... all work would need to be on the same few roads and priced overly high risking welcomed underpricing . Those sort of figures are what the dreamers want and may get now and then but certanly not all the time and if they were hit all the time then they certainly wouldnt be putting it on a forum.
I have found the only way to get good figures day in day out is doing well payed commercial work as the jobs simply have to be completed on schedule and weather doesnt play a part in problems which is the main cause of half days and off days which efects takings massivley.

I am certainly beginning to see the logic in what you are saying.  When I had more larger (by my standards) commercial work, I could hit bigger numbers, but my body suffered more due to the nature of some of the jobs (e.g. some of it was 5 or 6 floors high).  The main problem I had was it being sub-contract.  I could earn well but I ended up being part of someone else's number games.  I once had four good sources for regular work and three of them disappeared in quick succession. One took on a PAYE guy as it was more profitable.  After five years I got a month's warning - and never got paid for the last month.  Two other sources lost their contracts due to increasing their prices, so I lost the jobs too.  If they had been my own jobs, I could have been more flexible about it.  Financially, it hit me hard for over a year as it takes a while to make up work like that from £20 houses.  Lesson learned.  Only allow subcontract work to form less than x% of my work.  I wrongly thought I was safe because the jobs were from different sources.  However, subcontract work was 40% of my turnover at one point a few years ago.
Better to build slower but with my own jobs.

[8weekly]

I agree Andy. Not many domestic window cleaners can earn those figures day in and day out unless they have a round built by me  ... all work would need to be on the same few roads and priced overly high risking welcomed underpricing . Those sort of figures are what the dreamers want and may get now and then but certanly not all the time and if they were hit all the time then they certainly wouldnt be putting it on a forum.
I have found the only way to get good figures day in day out is doing well payed commercial work as the jobs simply have to be completed on schedule and weather doesnt play a part in problems which is the main cause of half days and off days which efects takings massivley.

When you offer a niche fronts only service at £10 you are always going to struggle with domestic work. 

But you are right, to build a business with good pricing does take longer and the turnover of customers is higher than lower priced work so marketing is an ongoing cost, but it's worth it and far more profitable than subbing or franchising.

[CleanClear]

Just sub work out instead of employing. Get self employed guys with own van and tools and pay a percentage 25/30% .

Am i reading this correct Mick. They get 25/30% of what they clean , people will do that ?

[Rich Wilts]

It's for sale. Probably.

I wouldn't be working alongside someone, certainly not someone who's self-employed.

Matt

Drop me an email if you ever decide to sell any.

Andy 😊

Will do. I think Im going to go down the job centre route in the new year, see how that goes. If it doesn't work out it'll be time to sell some.