[Nameless Drudge]

i have just started traditional,door knocking so far is getting customers(only have 19 and not all certain for next time),i am offering every 8 weeks,my worry is to continue growth through the winter i dont see door knocking on dark nights a very good idea  or productive(may be wrong). could any experienced  people out there tell me how they found the winter months for growing a customer base?

[d s windowcleaning]

i built my round up in the winter months & stuck with it . its the collecting you have to do on the dark nights thats worse . get your round built up & dont look back i aint .

[macmac]

I personaly find myself busier in winter, 1. the days are shorter (obvious) 2. windows are generally dirtier quicker.
Go for 4 to 6 weekly cleans, at 8 weeks it's gonna take you forever to build a round up. maybe only offer 8 weeks for bigger jobs, say 30 quid+.
To be honest, winter or summer, it shouldn't make much difference to you building a round, although i wouldn't door-knock in the dark.
Print yourself some leaflets up, posting them in the dark will be ok.
Hope this helps.

tony

[mark dew]

I personaly find myself busier in winter, 1. the days are shorter (obvious) 2. windows are generally dirtier quicker.
Go for 4 to 6 weekly cleans, at 8 weeks it's gonna take you forever to build a round up. maybe only offer 8 weeks for bigger jobs, say 30 quid+.
To be honest, winter or summer, it shouldn't make much difference to you building a round, although i wouldn't door-knock in the dark.
Print yourself some leaflets up, posting them in the dark will be ok.
Hope this helps.

tony

agree with this. Offer shorter timespans between cleans so you'll need less customers. You can always lengthen them later.
I also have found the winters are busier but i do like the idea of winding down come 3:30pm.
I'm into my 4th year now and apart from a run of new customers over the last 3 months i have found each winter the best time by far for new customers.
Maybe there are fewer cleaners about?
I have also picked up what i consider my best quality work and best customers in the winter. It's a good time of year for me.
Roll on winter!!

[Nameless Drudge]

thank you for the above responses,good to hear. i feel i cant impose conditions on new customers and the feedback so far is they are happy as long as i am not too often. anyone out there feel they should have been tougher from the start and would they have got or kept the customer?

[Londoner]

Don't worry too much about the details at the moment just keep canvassing, canvassing, canvassing. Offer 4 or 6 weeks but if they want 8 then OK. Get about 10,000 leaflets printed as cheap as you can and blitz it.

[Pole2pole]

I would word it "I come round once a month" as opposed to every 4 weeks. I think "most" people would expect and accept once a month. And as mentioned above, you'll need a whole lot less custys than 6-8 weeks.
I got a new custy a couple of months back. Just done second clean this week. Picked up the money the day after and the envelope under the doormatt felt a bit thick to contain "only" a cheque. I knew what was in there before i even opened it.(Window cleaners intuition) "Could you please clean our windows every "3" months bla bla bla. Ok, i was expecting "every 2" 
How do these people think we can offer a decent service and earn a living if we cleaned all our customers every 3 months?  :
As most on here will suspect.........I won't be going back. Sod 'em. I hope he's got a Yellow Pages 

[mark dew]

I tell my customers that i work on a 4 week ratio and they can have multiples of 4 weeks. I do have some 6 week work and longer but 4 weeks is the norm for me. It's better to pretend that you are always extremely busy.
Though when i started out i got all sorts of requests that i wouldn't entertain now. Customers seem to sniff out when you are new.

[colley614]

Get yourself a nice little " your windows have been cleaned today" leaflet and on the bottom put always looking for new custom. It worked for me. Also get to a BNI meeting. I got a lot of referrals from my visits and you don't have to stick to one group of BNI you can move round for free. So you can pick up a lot of work and a free breakfast   

[Londoner]

Whats BNI  ?

[windowwashers]

i have just started traditional,door knocking so far is getting customers(only have 19 and not all certain for next time),i am offering every 8 weeks,my worry is to continue growth through the winter i dont see door knocking on dark nights a very good idea  or productive(may be wrong). could any experienced  people out there tell me how they found the winter months for growing a customer base?

Leaflets, a website and knock on doors all work, you will find that you pick up work from recommendation (if you do a good job). why are you quoting 8 weeks for trad window cleaning?

[simbo]

personally i think thebest time to start is winter as you get the real deal customers and not the ones that only want summertime cleans, they do my head in.
simbo

[need a cleaner]

Whats BNI  ?

Business Network International

[Nameless Drudge]

thanks again for your replies,i am sure vince green has it right,canvass,canvass and canvass.