[Davo]

This is my first post, Ive been following the forum for a couple of months now. Im 45, an  ex Painter and Decorator and not afraid of hard work working off ladders etc etc.

My Question Is This;

With the experience and knowledge gained over the many years you've been in the window cleaning trade, what things, with hindsight, would you do differently in building up your successful business. Id like to know the negatives which held your business back and also the positive changes you made which made a significant difference to your business.

Thankyou gentlemen.

Mark

[windowwashers]

This is my first post, Ive been following the forum for a couple of months now. Im 45, an  ex Painter and Decorator and not afraid of hard work working off ladders etc etc.

My Question Is This;

With the experience and knowledge gained over the many years you've been in the window cleaning trade, what things, with hindsight, would you do differently in building up your successful business. Id like to know the negatives which held your business back and also the positive changes you made which made a significant difference to your business.

Thankyou gentlemen.

Mark

My first one that i learnt very quickly is not listen to other window cleaners when they try and get you to drop your price to theirs.
second do not let a customer dictate to you, i did this at the start.

[williamx]

Not to price to low just to get the job.

[Paul Coleman]

This is my first post, Ive been following the forum for a couple of months now. Im 45, an  ex Painter and Decorator and not afraid of hard work working off ladders etc etc.

My Question Is This;

With the experience and knowledge gained over the many years you've been in the window cleaning trade, what things, with hindsight, would you do differently in building up your successful business. Id like to know the negatives which held your business back and also the positive changes you made which made a significant difference to your business.

Thankyou gentlemen.

Mark

First of all, I would have started by building it part-time while employed instead of waiting until I was unemployed and redundant.  That way I would have started from a point of not being desperate and being able to charge proper prices.  Secondly, I would not have allowed my customers to mess me around like I did early on.  Third, I would have bought my van from the start instead of waiting for my old car to pack up.  Also, had it been possible, I would have started with WFP pretty much straight away.  As I started in 1991 that wasn't a realistic option though.  The same applies to keeping computerised records over paper records.
Another big one is that I would not have done doorstep money collecting at all.  If someone had insisted that I collect, I would have ditched them as soon as their account was up to date.
Of course, I didn't have the internet to turn to until 1996 and even then it was very focussed on America for a few years until us Brits started catching on to how it could work.

[clean]

Hi Mark,
so what`s wrong with painting and decorating?

[Davo]

Hi Mark,
so what`s wrong with painting and decorating?

Hello clean...its a young mans game, I left it at 40 to pursue a career in sales. But I long to be back to being my own boss, and window cleaning , like decorating isnt glamourous, but I think can give me  a good living if done properly.

[Feen]

Davo, Like Williamx said, don't price too low just to get the job. Go wfp from the start. Ditch awkward customers asap. Good luck, my friend.

[Majestic]

The main thing is to get your pricing right , dont price to low just to get work.Know what you want to earn per hour.
Tell all customers that you dont collect you would like payment when you have finished, by either cash, if they are in ( or left somewhere in there garden ) cheque, or paypal if you have it.

[Pole2pole]

And certainly put it out of your mind, that you no longer paint and decorate. The last thing you need after a momentary loss of concentration, is to realise you've just spent the last 20 minutes painting someone's windows. That would be a very bad thing 

[Captain Scarlet]

uniforms
good leaflets
wfp
nice van
sign writting
good poles
good pricing
etc etc

[Jeff Brimble]

Stay off the ladders, go waterfed. Meantime leaflet hard and follow up with a knock 2 days later and ask each custy for 2 referals. Best of luck 

[Sir Squeaky]

Ladder-fearing poofs. :

I'd price stuff better from the start.
But then all those years ago I was happy with those prices.

Maybe I should have set the timescale of price increases from the start.

[Jeff Brimble]

Aye but would you go back to ladders and make more than you are now ?

[Davo]

Thankyou for the advice offered. I know that price is the key factor in building a profitable business, I dont want to be a busy fool but one thing that concerns me is that there must be a happy medium as regards pricing.Ive seen posts on here from cleaners who charge at the top end ( some pricing so well they get replies of dissbelief from other cleaners).

If I price at my money, and only pick up one or two jobs in an area wont that mean Im constantly moving from job to job( area to area)

This seems to offset the benefit of pricing higher, afterall I dont get paid for travelling. Was thinking about pricing at arround £40/ hr which should give me £55 ish when Ive gotten upto speed with the cleaning bit.

However if the area Im canvassing has historically been paying other cleaners a £20 hr rate Im going to struggle my b****x  off to get enough work to earn a living

Rates must vary from area to area and be directly related to how many w/c 'rs there are covering an area. Would you look at offering a service to customers with built in added value?

eg, Include a bi annual soffit and facia clean included in your 6 weekly clean price??..

Thanks gents ( not sure if Im asking too many questions in too short a time)

Mark

[Davo]

Ive started a new thread with the above question......Dont want any trouble with those moderator folk.

[Sir Squeaky]

Aye but would you go back to ladders and make more than you are now ?

No, because it's more tiring and I wouldn't make more.
Not because they scare me. :

In fact although I make more money per day, I actually make less per month because of how many jobs I've lost because of it.

[pjulk]

If i had to start again i would pay a canvassing company to canvass up a whole round of bungalows.
No ladders well may a small pointer.
And no WFP.

And get them on the envelope straight away and price pretty high.


Paul

[neil100]

If anone is selling wfp work in your area, Buy IT of them.

Aim for £30.00 min per hour.

Canvass, Canvass, Canvass.

Nel

[NWH]

People will come round to the way of WFP.

[mark dew]

I would charged alot more from the beginning. I burnt my bridges with a couple of what would have been good accounts to me now, if i had charged a proper price. The trouble was i priced sash windows as normal (upto 3 floors) and rounded price down.