[geefree]

Hi again,

Is it too soon to be getting into commercial work?.. i feel i could give quotes or drop on industrial estates and such, when i am out building my round,

Am i too much of a newbie for this yet?

What is the best way to approach this,

also who do i ask for on the reception desk etc.

and how do you price each pane up etc,

i understand the prices are different for each area,

anyone from west yorkshire? ..

so many questions lol, i feel better now i have offloaded another few :

Gary.

[marc al]

  Gary

     I should concentrate on getting the domestics for the time being, commercial is very competitive and can be a total pain where you don't need pain.

     Most commercial jobs will come along of there own accord, and some are very lucrative, but in my opinion alot of it can be hard to make good money on with no loyalty from the customer either.

    No doubt some of the commercial cleaners will be along soon to give the other side of the story, but that is my opinion.

   Happy Business Building

    Marc

[Easyclean Windows]

Hi Gary how are you welcome aboard.

Everyone has different ideas on how to go regarding residential or commercial but it is entirely upto you which you do as long as you can do the job dosent matter which you start building up first.

However as marc has said commercial is very very competative and hard groundwork has to be done , and sometimes you can be waiting weeks if not months before you get the go ahead to start cleaning their windows.Also the bigger the commercial client the longer waiting times they give you or your invoices some of my commercial clients take 2 if not 3 months to pay so you have to have a good cash flow.

Residential however have a lot of good points as you will most likey get paid the same time as you have cleaned ther windows or a few days later by cheque in post.

Once you get to stage where you are cleaning 15 - 20 a day then you have a good cash flow theirs nothing worse than having the feeling of needing to pay your bills each month and the "big commercial cheque" hasnt arrived the day they said it would.

You will find you need to ask for the facilities manager for window cleaning then they have to approve your quote against their budget then 3,4,5 months later they tell you thanks but no thanks and you will feel deflated for sure.

But dont let that put you off do what you thinks best for you i have a good mixture of houses,pubs,appartments,and a lot more.

You will pick work up and then let it go when a bigger one comes along nothing wrong with that you also running a business as well as cleaning windows.

Remember you can also do other cleaning jobs....gutter cleaning ,fascia and sofit cleaning,conservatory cleaning,cladding cleaning etc etc just make sure you have the correct insurance and equipment to be able to do these add ons.

Some times you also need a little luck you could be in the right place at the right time and pick up a great cleaning job.

[ccwc1988]

Knock yourself out gazza theres plenty out there. ...as with what EasyClean say IF you have a Terms of Contract Stating you have to have payment on a 30 day term otherwise Interest will be added...there won't be a problem...Download this sample from another member, it's very good.

http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=24783.0

[geefree]

Thanks lads .
your a great help and i appreciate it,

are shops ok and easy to get, are are they poorly paid, i.e. 1 pane of glass etc...

did inside and out of house today and gained £5 tip for job well done yippee!

[windows_chepstow]

Gazza,

Not long after Wor Lass and I first started; maybe a year into window cleaning at most; we ended up with the Hilton Hotel Newport, after we jumped through a few hoops.

Getting the job was easy; we had our business in the Local Pages, Yellow Pages and Local Resident's Handbook.  Someone after a quote can't tell if we're 'thickies' or not.

Anyway, it turned out to by our worst nightmare; it was grossly underpriced and we didn't get a single payment for six months; despite spending around one-to-two-days per week there.

Our problems were:

I really wanted this account; just so I could 'show off' a bit; vanity.

I was extremely inexperienced; so didn't know how to price; what was required or what the score was.  I thought I could make this up with hard work and being 'smart'.  Obviously I was wrong!

We did a top job on every window; no matter where it was.

We didn't have WFP.

The hotel room windows were huge; for the 1st floor work it took two ladder climbs to clean each one, one climb to clean the top part of the window with your ladder placed above the window.  Another to clean the bottom part with your ladder on the sill.  I didn't realise this when I did my quote (Doh!).

Obviously WFP would do these great.

It was such a big job, when I looked down a section of the Hilton, it was like looking down a long street of terraced houses; but each window being two ladder climbs each.  Even the ground floor windows required an A-Frame; they were about seven foot tall and each window had about six partitions.

Then there was the swimming pool area; that was hot and sweaty work, and the gym was just a wall of one-foot square panells of glass; that required cleaning on both sides.

We stuck with it.  We justified keeping it, saying, 'it's a great job in the rain; loads of inside work'.

We also had a nice free lunch in a nice canteen.

But in actual fact it was a nightmare, and after six months, I received my outstanding payment and wrote a letter to the manager saying, 'sorry mate; I'm a Geordie/stupid/underpriced etc; not comming anymore!'

The thing is, we weren't the cheapest quote either.

I've learnt from this mistake though.

Gazza, I'd stick to residential or small-scale commercial for the time being, if I were you; for the time being.

[david68]

Gazza i priced up me first commercial.

They want a Method of statment, Risk report,

But then they are not all like that.

So go for it, You can only learn by what you find......

Dave

[geefree]

thanks all of you again

[geefree]

Tosh,

that must have been a bloody nightmare period, thanks for that story,

we can all learn here by each others mistakes.

i will make lots and lots no doubt about that,

but i will share them as you have done.

cheers Tosh.

[petski2]

Off topic I know? :
Gazza,just had a call from number 6 Honeysuckle Close,wants windows cleaning and maybe facias etc.
Her regular cleaner has just stopped coming.
Its round corner from me (Alverthorpe) but I told her I dont clean windows so close to home.
Said I would pass her onto you so get yourself up there young man.
Obviously if her cleaner has done a bunk there should be more work going.
Let me know what happens.

[geefree]

cheers pete  .. on me way.