[geefree]

Hi again you guys,

Do all you guys with the years of experience behind you remember the days when you started as i am now,?

Do you all recall the scattered customers, making a few quid a day.

Do you also remember thinking how slow you were and wondering if you could ever get past 2 houses per hour?

And do you remember thinking, will my round grow and snowball as it should, making me a decent living,?

Will i be able to block it off? and pass on the outlying calls?

What if i never get more than one customer on one street, because they already have a window cleaner, and have for years,?


  please tell me you all started this way, ( unless you bought a round)..

here i go again too many thoughts. 

cheers

Gary.

[gaza]

BIN THERE DONE THAT

 GAZA

[macc]

Hi Gary.

We have all been there. Keep at it mate cause i would say to you this is the hard bit. you need to get your face known. Always give a quick smile & say hello, it works wonders in the long run.

Macc

[captain lard]

Chin up mate-like you I am starting too and am trying to expand and its just not happening but you have good days and bad.I like to get into a street and get one or two clients cos I know I will gradually get more but it just happens too slowly,this time next year I think I will be laughing but I could do with them now.Prices for existing going up in May as well,but thats between me and you mind so sssshh.

[geefree]

Thanks for you support lads,

it is slow , i get hassle at home as well as support....(if you get what i mean bills etc)... the phone does ring each day but i still think i may be could work harder at it...although i canvass and leaflet drop every day, its not happening quick enough and fairly scattered , not too much ... i hear tales of w/c retiring so i dash around to canvass, work my arse off and nothing! lol... hence my post on here tonight.

[david68]

Gazza thats how i feel at the moment

One house per Street .....Lol

Dave

[geefree]

 its bloody disheartening, .. i hope most guys on here relate to this, or we are doomed !

[david68]

I think most guys here are doing well.
They have more wf vans than we have got customers.

Dave

[geefree]

Hi Dave,

Yes they all seem to be doing well,

i hope we can follow in their footsteps, i do think though without this forum life would be much harder.

What a great way to get w/c issues off your chest knowing you have guys to lean on who know exactly where we are coming from,

Can you imagine talking to your mate about a pane of glass or a set of ladders  and expect him to be interested?  not a chance !

but i even  lay awake at night wondering about where to canvass,

why the glass smeared today more than usual,

why my ladders are going to collapse.. ha ha

 i think i shoul shut up now.


.. gazza

[ronaldo]

Keep plugging away lads you,ll get there, it is hard but the longer your cleaning the more cleans you,ll get, it does take time but eventually you will be making a good living and have yourselves a nice buisness to be proud of.

[captain lard]

This forum is a godsend and god bless my wife,she sits listening to my bleating.
Tomorrow lads,hard work and tomorrow.

[james cairns]

gazz back in 1976 the windows were 50 pence a house and went up every 2 years by 5 pence, it was beer money back then, and you could not keep up with demand

my sister needs a wc any chance doing my aunt so on so on

now a days people have caught on to making a living from wc after the constant
experience of redundabcy etc and want sability in their life, that the market has got tighter and tighter.

I think you need to diversify into other types of work as well like

gutter cleaning, jet washing, exterior decorating infact some guys even do grass cutting, you have the customers now so why not explote other services
this way you can fill in the gaps in your diary, get your windows clean to0day tickets made, and on the ticket basically say why not try one of our other services---- list of services, and the customers will come to you for the other services as well.

hope this helps jinky

[Paul Coleman]

Hi again you guys,

Do all you guys with the years of experience behind you remember the days when you started as i am now,?

Do you all recall the scattered customers, making a few quid a day.

Do you also remember thinking how slow you were and wondering if you could ever get past 2 houses per hour?

And do you remember thinking, will my round grow and snowball as it should, making me a decent living,?

Will i be able to block it off? and pass on the outlying calls?

What if i never get more than one customer on one street, because they already have a window cleaner, and have for years,?


  please tell me you all started this way, ( unless you bought a round)..

here i go again too many thoughts. 

cheers

Gary.

Yes of course.  That's how it nearly always starts.  One of the classic ones for me was a road in Handcross, West Sussex.  There are 35 houses there - all in a circle.  For about 5 years I was doing 2 or 3 of them.  After 6 years, I was doing 17 of them.  I gave away all the work in the village eventually as it was seriously underpriced (my original work).

[Terry_Burrows]

yes long time ago we never did houses : last time we did a house I got 6 months for it go for comercial more money no nagging house wifes
nosey parkers watching your every move,I know you have to ern but
try local papers or go for one  big book add it takes time good luck with it

[Sir Squeaky]

It was like that for me when I started.

One house here.....another one half a mile up the road..... horrible.

I couldn't take it any more after a month, so I bought it instead.

[Pj]

One house streets......I've still got some, and I've been going 20 years.  But others, you gradually get known.  It is a slow process, one estate took me about 6 years, first one then two, after six years I could hardly manage them all.  In the meantime, even on a bad day, ask yourself how long would it take to be paid by a shelf filling job the amount you now get?

[ccwc1988]

Yeah we all been there mate. Keep it up though you will reap your rewards soon enough.. Go on the knocker and tell them you already clean a few of their neighbours. . if asked say Mrs Davis in No.13 or was 17 anyway do you want me.

 There is always sweet talking, this is what i used to say: Do you want a w/c thats good, hard working honest and cheap... they always go for it. Aim for 20 houses a day to start, you will lose half of them within a few months.. and just keep smiling everyone loves a smiler

Good luck mate.

[cybersye]

Hi Gazza, I've been going a year now and while I have a few pockets of well payed customers still a lot of mine is spread out too. Like someone else said always look cheerful, say hello and smile at everyone! it will pay in the long run. It may seem a bit generous of me but I always let new customers know(especially if its a new street) that if they recommend me to anyone and I win a new monthly contract I'll give them 50% off their next bill, its beginning to work for me and the word spreading! what do others think?
Anyways good luck
Simon

[Fast 1 *]

Its not easy.And its hard to stay positive sometimes.There has been a few times when i feel like jacking it all in.As said in previous threads,the longer you stick it out the better.Alot of the time,its being in the right place at the right time.Sign writing your van helps alot aswell.Image is important.At the end of the day,if you look cheap and unprofessional,who is going to let you work around their million pound house?Having a friendly attitude helps.Also,talking to other window cleaners helps.Paul Griffin from this forum put a couple of jobs my way,which,after canvessing,have developed into a few more.If you ever start doubting your decision to be a window cleaner,think back to what you was doing before.Thats what i do.Anyway gazza,good luck and keep your chin up.As a business,im still in the extremely early stages,and still have loads to do.There is money in window cleaning,but it is hard work

[Fast 1 *]

It was like that for me when I started.

One house here.....another one half a mile up the road..... horrible.

I couldn't take it any more after a month, so I bought it instead.

Are you into alan partridge,squeaky?