[johnny bravo]

a window cleaning company up here in middlesbrough  has taken to canvassing at Roadsides and Main route Roundabouts in town at Peak times.
Teesside window cleaning   
they have a chap dressed up at what looks like spongebob squarepants,     waving a cars    showing his sign asking if you need a window cleaner.       advertising there details.
jobs here and there, miles apart.       not for me.   

[Spruce]

He was on here at one time.

I take my hat off to him as he seems to have 2 vans on the road now judging by his web page. He started with a Citroen Berlingo a few years back. I honestly didn't hold out much hope that he would make it in window cleaning. I wasn't the only one.

We did a training course together and I don't think he arrived on time once - usually about 2 hours late. He was on here into the small hours of the morning posting, so no wonder he couldn't get up in time. 

He is a rather unconventional window cleaner. He lives just down the road from Halfords garage on the Skippers Lane Industrial Estate. There are usually advertising guys dressed in costumes on the corner diagonally opposite B & Q. So I'm guessing he got the idea from them.

I have no idea if he got his NVQ in window cleaning, but if he didn't he obviously didn't need it.

According to him he  has a lot of work in Ingleby Barracks. He also covers Redcar but I've never seen a van there. He had a round in Billingham but sold that. He realised back then that a compact round was important, especially on Teesside.

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[johnny bravo]

ive seen him up stainton but cleaning only 1 house.                  this type of canvassing will send you miles for 1 job,     hed be better sending the lad canvassing  in designated areas for work .     if you have 2 vans on the go you will need the work coming in to pay for them to be on the road  and fuelled up.   

[Spruce]

ive seen him up stainton but cleaning only 1 house.                  this type of canvassing will send you miles for 1 job,     hed be better sending the lad canvassing  in designated areas for work .     if you have 2 vans on the go you will need the work coming in to pay for them to be on the road  and fuelled up.

I agree that this type of advertising will not get a window cleaner a compact round.

Targeting a specific area and repeat canvassing is the way to do that.

However,  IMO that's easy for us to say as we are white people. This chap isn't and race prejudice is still a real issue in this area, even although he talks with a Teesside accent.

So he will be 'forced' to  try different marketing techniques that don't make sense to us as the accepted race.

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[johnny bravo]

its not mr H is it

[Soupy]

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

at 5 pounds a house you need them close as you can up there ,my friend gets her 4 bed house on inglby cleaning up there 6pounds wfp 

[Rob clarke]

at 5 pounds a house you need them close as you can up there ,my friend gets her 4 bed house on inglby cleaning up there 6pounds wfp 

Don't know how people make a living at those prices   

[Spruce]

its not mr H is it

Yes it is.

[Spruce]

at 5 pounds a house you need them close as you can up there ,my friend gets her 4 bed house on inglby cleaning up there 6pounds wfp 

Don't know how people make a living at those prices   

Unfortunately Rob, that's what we are up against in Teesside. Ingle Barwick isn't a 'poor' estate. It's a new estate which has really grown in the past 15 - 20 years with modern housing.


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[Shrek]

I know someone who does £6 houses , him and a lad . They get through 10 houses an hour, that's why people charge that little , I think it's ridiculous, but for him the figures add up - pays his worker £10 an hour , for him it's happy days. For his customers, it's not as he's rushing through them and isn't bothered about quality

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

at 5 pounds a house you need them close as you can up there ,my friend gets her 4 bed house on inglby cleaning up there 6pounds wfp 

Don't know how people make a living at those prices   

Unfortunately Rob, that's what we are up against in Teesside. Ingle Barwick isn't a 'poor' estate. It's a new estate which has really grown in the past 15 - 20 years with modern housing.


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tell me about it !  its a shame the place as gone like that I can remember cleaning carpets on  when there were  only about 200 houses in total 

[Rob clarke]

at 5 pounds a house you need them close as you can up there ,my friend gets her 4 bed house on inglby cleaning up there 6pounds wfp 

Don't know how people make a living at those prices   

Unfortunately Rob, that's what we are up against in Teesside. Ingle Barwick isn't a 'poor' estate. It's a new estate which has really grown in the past 15 - 20 years with modern housing.


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My uncle used to clean on a new estate in inglbey a few years ago he didn't get a lot of houses as he was charging £10 and £15 for houses

[Stoots]

In poor priced areas you have to play the long game. Here in west yorks i regularly get quotes turned down because they are giys doing houses for as little as 4 quid.

But i have managed to keep a £12 average even though building the round is a painfully slow process, i get more quotes turned down than accepted by about 3:1

[johnny bravo]

its the same up here with taxis,      jobs from as little as £2.30 around town,    drivers get peed off,   everyone is touting for bussiness.
some will use the cheaper competition 
£6 houses can take 5 minutes if all togeather thats even better.   £200 days work.        not to be scoffed at.       bettr to have it than not have it.      you can still get higher priced jobs in between these to make it beneficial.   

[Rob clarke]

its the same up here with taxis,      jobs from as little as £2.30 around town,    drivers get peed off,   everyone is touting for bussiness.
some will use the cheaper competition 
£6 houses can take 5 minutes if all togeather thats even better.   £200 days work.        not to be scoffed at.       bettr to have it than not have it.      you can still get higher priced jobs in between these to make it beneficial.

Fair comment I charge £7 on an estate where the price should be £10 but I have got about 70 houses so it works out ok.

[Rob clarke]

I wouldn't price houses like that now tho.

[Spruce]

at 5 pounds a house you need them close as you can up there ,my friend gets her 4 bed house on inglby cleaning up there 6pounds wfp 

Don't know how people make a living at those prices   

Unfortunately Rob, that's what we are up against in Teesside. Ingle Barwick isn't a 'poor' estate. It's a new estate which has really grown in the past 15 - 20 years with modern housing.


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tell me about it !  its a shame the place as gone like that I can remember cleaning carpets on  when there were  only about 200 houses in total 

Hi Susan,

I never realised you were up our neck of the woods. 

[Spruce]

its the same up here with taxis,      jobs from as little as £2.30 around town,    drivers get peed off,   everyone is touting for bussiness.
some will use the cheaper competition 
£6 houses can take 5 minutes if all togeather thats even better.   £200 days work.        not to be scoffed at.       bettr to have it than not have it.      you can still get higher priced jobs in between these to make it beneficial.

We used to refer to it as the supermarket mentality. Sell one for a good profit or sell lots for less profit per each but earn more overall.

Now this is fine if you are young, fit and healthy.  You can earn a good days income by being able to churn them out. 
But when you aren't physically able to do this then it becomes much more difficult to survive.

From the way I understand it, Carpet cleaning is well prostituted in this area. One of our neighbours did well cleaning carpets many years ago but stopped doing it when competition forced pricing down. Susan Dean will probably concur because I think they are clean carpets.

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[dave f]

you know when it comes to pricing jobs  e t c ive been ridiculed about how cheap I am just gose to show that it aint only me .charge what you want not what any one else thinks it should be. thing is its dog eat dog. imo since the rise of wfp its become more harder to get good paying jobs imo.  the more people that change over from trad to wfp then find out how easy it is plus more time on there hands to go and look for more work so compact work becomes harder to find unless you are willing to splash out large wads of cash. could I be wrong