Lucy
Without being sexist, I think the main reason that you are not getting more work from door knocking is because you tell the householders that you are the window cleaner.
Even though today's society is supposed to be free from any form of bias to who you are, you will find that this is not the case.
Window cleaning has in the past always been done by men and that is what most house holders have ingrained in their brains. So you could be the best shiner around, but because you are a women, this will put off a lot customers off, until they have tried your services and found that you can do the job, just as good or even better than any man.
The same apples to a lot of customers with regard to wfp cleaning. (because it a new method it can't be any better than my old cleaner with his scrim and bucket of water)
What you need to do is camouflage who is the cleaner, instead of saying on the door that you are the window cleaner say instead that you represent a window cleaner who is looking to expand into their area, then when you turn up to do the job, your workmanship should shine and sell you expertise to your customer.
William I'm sorry dude, but I have to disagree with your statement, most of our customers are the lady of the house, and when I take my boss(wife) out with me, we tend to pick up more work, than I do when I'm on my own, women feel more safer if a woman wc approaches them, than some of us ugly buggers
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Lucy, Tosh, is right were he says about getting your money from MOD customers, I do an estate of them by me, I have had problems in the past were they have asked me to do a final clean, before they move and these are the buggers that try to do a runner, if you do any finals on MOD's get your money up front, if you cant get your money up front and you go ahead with the clean, and you find they have done a runner on you, then your first port of call is the DHE on the estate,
explan what they have done, and I promise you they don't take lightly to it, I had it happen twice to me and ended up getting double my clean price, I had to wait a while but the DHE will sort it for you.
Were about in Hampshire are you? I'm sure there are a few guy's in your area willing to give you help and advice