[Mr. S]

S*** BLUESTEVE THATS HEAVY FOR THIS TIME A NIGHT

[P®oPole™]

I have Commercial work not much but a couple of beauty's, and I tell you now its not all its cracked up to be, it depens what you call good commercial some people call bog standard shops, commercial.

small to medium commercial jobs are more lucrative, to me anyway. I never work commercial for less than my minimum day rate wether it takes me 3 hours or 8 but I tell you now depending on what type of the country your in and what properties you do domestic can be even more lucrative. Dont ask me figures but I could shock you, I have been there done it, and in some cases made more on domestic work, more than what most earn in a week.

Just look at the likes of Roy Harding and alike, if the domestic boys have got it so wrong, I wouldnt complain if I had work like them!!!

thats all im going to say, I dont want to get dragged into this row

You must have alot of contracts to keep you going purley commercial, must of took you years to build up a commercial round, am I right?

Pro

[pjulk]

I have about 60% domestic and 40% commercial.

I did plan a few years ago just to stick with domestics as you get paid the same day in a lot of cases if not within a week or so.

But i keep getting commercial jobs to do and its great money and work in all weathers but the cash flow is a bit slow.
I have one that takes 3 months to pay me.
But it pays well thats why im doing it.

I am currently in the process of taking another round over 80% domestic and 20% commercial.

So i will be splitting all my work up shortly to keep the commercial seperate and have a seperate van for that.

Mixing domestic and commercial on the same round i have found can be a bit of a pain and a bit of juggling at times but you can make it work.

Domestics if you price them right can pay as well as commercial and you can work in all weathers if you get all inside work for rainy days.

Paul

[S_RICHARDSON]

I don't know if it's already been said but the thing with domestic is that if lose a customer you may not lose sleep over it but if you lose a large commercial job then it will take a large ammount of money out of your wages. At least with domestic you've got lot's of little rounds with customers than one commercial with one customer.

So i'd rather the two commercial and domestic and not just commercial!!

[Paul Coleman]

when it rains you cant work
when the winter arrives your 'loyal' customers tell you to wait till spring
do one bad window and they moan moan moan
collecting cash at night/weekends
your limited as to what you can charge, and so you are limited as to what you could earn
you have to compete against the dole squad


hmmmm i think im right

wise up you domesti boys to the bright shiny commercial world

I would like more commercial work but I find that a mix is better.  Domestic for cashflow and commercial for larger jobs.  I am gradually ditching the "not today" brigade and the "not when it's raining" people and replacing them with custies who are OK with this.  If it's raining hard, I usually choose not to work anyway.
Oh yes.  I haven't had a "wait till Spring" for a very long time now.  I find that's pretty rare anyway.

[Paul Coleman]

Right fellow "domestic boys"... Lets all go commercial and provide more competition for macleod!

macleod - Why on earth are you trying to suggest we all go commercial, surely its not in your best "serious business" interests to do that?  :

Personally I have a mixture of domestic and commercial (more domestic at the moment). The thing I like about domestic is that you are not tied down to certain days and certain times etc...

Andy

He's trying to con us    .  He only does domestic really and he's trying to get rid of us.

[Paul Coleman]

Tell me why you 'ARE THE REAL QUALITY ' Mc nugget!!!

He's got the biggest brush.

[Paul Coleman]

sorry river these rules at the moment are not for sharing (its macleod by the way) but maybe in a later post.

i used to share how i would win work on this forum a few months/year ago but noone believed me (same people who didnt believe in WFP either) so its best to keep it to myself for now.

andy, i read and re-read your reply. doesnt make sense does it laddie? so lets forget you typed it.

anyway, the point is this... you know i am right and more importantly i know im right. 

Don't tell me.  You're about to publish a book on how to get commercial work and it's going on sale a £50 a time 

[geefree]

just like trad versus wfp.... residential versus commercial.......

its called cleaning windows ;

and we all do the same thing.... :

[Sir Squeaky]

I'd rather do all commercial, but you get what you're given don't you?

I've been asked to do about 10 shops and pubs, but that's it.
All the others are taken.
You could ask at every shop and office from top to bottom of town, and I doubt you'd get one.

You can't choose to do commercial.
It's just what's available at the time.

[Pj]

You must have alot of contracts to keep you going purley commercial, must of took you years to build up a commercial round, am I right?

Pro

Hmmmmm,

Mr M'Cloud hasn't been in such a hurry to post a reply to this question!

Rather empty boasts so far....

[Ian_Giles]

Riverside....

Could you post your replies without the use of caps please, I'd have emailed you a polite requeat to do so, but unfortunately your email address is hidden.

It's just that it is considered shouting to type in just caps all the time! 

Now as to the subject matter of the topic!

I've been WFP for 2 and a half years now, prior to that, 99% of my work was commercial, I had just 2 domestic accounts.

After 2 and a half years of WFP my round is now split approximately 50/50 between domestic and commercial.
the domestic work pays extremely well, on Wednesday of this week the weather was bloody awful, but with a combination of both types of work I knocked out £250+ and was finished by 3pm.
And the split was almost exactly 50/50
All of the domestic accounts bar one £9.00 account have paid...I've yet to be paid for the commercial ones...

All the domestic work was done in horrible drizzle and at one point it was chucking it down and at the time I was doing a new domestic account, first time clean for £35 (took 40 minutes - will be 15 minutes quicker on repeat cleans)

Oops, mistake! Was Tuesday not weds :

I also did a £38 leaded house (20 mins) and the woman cam out with £50 thinking it was £48 and not £38

The house next door came out and asked me for a quote as I was leaving, they are having a huge extention done at the moment, but wants me the moment work has finished, this will be a £50+ house (It's one that Squeaky did a while back, lots of balconies)

I have one day on domestics where I have 8 or 9 £8.00 accounts dotted all over town and I am still doing £200 in a day.

That to me is bloody good money.

To be sure, I also have a handful of very, very well priced commercial offices, and my bread and butter work is my shops, but the shops are increasingly holding me back now.
You have to get at them very early in the morning, and collecting them can take as long as cleaning them, plus the prices for cleaning them have hardly changed at all in the last 20 years.
For instance; A shop I was charging £5.00 for 18 years ago is now £6.50.
A house I would have been charging £3.50-£4.00 for is now £12.00.

At the moment I am as happy as a pig in excrement, I've just had another record week, I've topped a target I didn't think I'd reach for some time to come, and thanks to a huge influx of domestic work I don't think it'll be that long before I repeat it either.

I know it really does depend an awful lot on where in the country you live, but I'm charging youngsters on benefits £8.00 for 7 little windows that take me less than 5 minutes to clean and they are not in the least bothered about the price.

The money is out there...all you have to do is find it, and the domestic market is very good around our way anyway.

Oh...and I very rarely go out collecting anymore, just the odd account here and there...

Life is good...Thank you domestics

Ian

[LSB]

I do both commercial and domestic !

domestic on dry days ( and light rain if reqd )

commercial on wet or dry days ,

This works well for me , and keeps me very busy , and keeps customers happy !

If i had to choose one over the other , i think i would choose domestic !

[windows_chepstow]

I'd like to get more commercial work; not huge stuff, but not small shops either.

Ideally jobs that take no more than a day or two to do at the most.

The small amount of commercial work I do, amounts to about 15 percent of my work.

The thing I like about these accounts, particularly my larger ones (which are still quite small; the biggest being a 40 room hotel) is that I only have to deal with one point of contact, rather than lots of different customers.

I get paid quickly too; no messing, no collecting; no fannying about.  It's all priced well too.

Come April, I'm going to do a big push to get more commercial work, but I have some new stuff already in the pipe-line.

I'd rather do all commercial, but you get what you're given don't you?

You can't choose to do commercial.
It's just what's available at the time.

I also disagree with what Squeaky says.  In Geordie-land they say, 'A shy child gets nowt'.  It's got to be a numbers game and persistance pays.

[macleod]

afternnon chaps,

lets kick off with a few answers to your questions:

PJ & Proploe: Youre right i havent been in a hurry to post a reply to this question as I am not logged on 24/7. But I am here now for a few mins.

Next I havent got a book deal, nor will I be selling a book at £50 quid a go...

I have about 30 big customers (i.e. takes a day to clean) and 30 'other'l commercial clients (i.e. the paper shop etc)

Its taken about 12 months (not years) to build up the business, and i am adding to it every month.

As a few of you know I started Jan 1st 2005 and went WFP in April 5th 2005.

Also a few of you that have been on this site back then will remember that I used to post ideas on winning commercial work (Mods can back me up on this), but it was just me giving out ideas with no positive feedback or sharing ideas rather the only replies i had were from the "thats not possible. Your a liar. Or I smell BS" brigade.... the same ones who rubbish WFP typically

so i stopped giving away these ideas and what it was possible to earn.

Anyway back in 2005 i knew that the way forward was WFP and Commercial, and its only now that the argument has been won for WFP... I predict that soon these same people will move into Commercial too.

Domestic is great for you old boys who have a nice tidy profitable round. For all the new boys and young guns how are we supposed to win work when Domestics are all tied up with crazy low low prices, feed a family and pay our taxes?

so i say Commercial IS better than Domestic, in the same way that WFP IS better than ladders...

both have down sides no doubt, but limping along doing both holds back your business.

and i do practice what i preach... one day I wrote a letter to all my Domestic customers outlining that i would have to increase my charges so that i could feed my family and pay my taxes... I did a first class job for second class wages... (talking about on average a £2 increase)

they live in £1million house but want it cleaned for a £5 (okay this is just to underline a point, not an actuall real event)

they didnt want to pay, so i just stopped doing all my Domestics. bang. Cold. end.

as for that myth that Domestic are more loyal than Commercial my foot! the only people who say this only have Domestic.

didnt get many phone call begging me to come back (from the same people who gave me keys to their house to make myself a cuppa when they were out), instead some other mug (or old boy) cleans the windows... but as i say i have to feed the family and pay my taxes.

so back to my statement:

Commercial is better than Domestic.

I am right and you Domestic boys (will eventually) know Im right

 

[windows_chepstow]

Commercial is better than Domestic.

That's not a statement, it's what's called a false premise.

There's just more to it.

Say for example a domestic property cleaned once per month for 50 pounds and takes an hour to do would be far better than a commercial property cleaned at the same frequency, taking the same time to do, but charging 40 quid.

Then other factors come into it.  The domestic customer may pay straight away (or send a cheque) whereas you may have to invoice head-office for the 40 quid commercial job and wait 30 days.

You just can't say Commercial is better than Domestic, because we all know it's not the case in every instance.

Maybe it's your inexperience that's letting you down here!

I like medium-sized commercial work because it's bigger than than most of the residential houses round here, and there's more of it; so it's going to be easier to target.

[Pj]

just like trad versus wfp.... residential versus commercial.......

its called cleaning windows ;

and we all do the same thing.... :

Go on, get in there!

[macleod]

maybe it is my inexperience...

or would that statement be a false premise too?

maybe it is my inexperience that allows me to say that Commercial is better than Domestic

maybe?

hmmmm?

or maybe what i say is right?

hmmmm?

maybe if a statement is said that is true it doesnt matter if youre an old boy or young gun.

if its true its true.

book for sale soon at all good retail outlets £50 +pp  

[Sir Squeaky]

The house next door came out and asked me for a quote as I was leaving, they are having a huge extention done at the moment, but wants me the moment work has finished, this will be a £50+ house (It's one that Squeaky did a while back, lots of balconies)

Er, Excuse me Ian!
Mrs.Davies is still on my books.

Granted, she hasn't rang for a while, but I'm ready to do it at the drop of a hat, and I've always dropped everything to help her out.
She's always been very pleased with my work, and she should contact me if she wants them done.

If you want to start getting like Tosh, then fine...
Two can play that game.

[windows_chepstow]

The house next door came out and asked me for a quote as I was leaving, they are having a huge extention done at the moment, but wants me the moment work has finished, this will be a £50+ house (It's one that Squeaky did a while back, lots of balconies)

Er, Excuse me Ian!
Mrs.Davies is still on my books.

Granted, she hasn't rang for a while, but I'm ready to do it at the drop of a hat, and I've always dropped everything to help her out.
She's always been very pleased with my work, and she should contact me if she wants them done.

If you want to start getting like Tosh, then fine...
Two can play that game.

I love it when this happens!

Here we go...  'The Chepstow Three' at it again.

Poor Squeaky!

But to be honest, who waits for a phone call before you go and clean someones windows?

You have to have something called 'terms and conditions', otherwise they're just going to phone when the windows are covered in 'cack'.

Squeaks, you've some stange working practices!