[frames to panes]

I've been going for just over a year now earning an ok living. However today i ran out of work and the rest of the week looks poor. So lets go canvassing! Me and the wife armed with leaflets and cards hit the streets and came back with....... one job. Whilst we canvassed we saw three large waterfed van units, a fully logo'd trad van and another. The big vans i have not seen before but have probably always been there.
 What i'm trying to say is don't spend your hard earned cash or redundancy money without building a round first or testing the market. Claims on here of "stacks of work out there - help yourselves lads" is total wotsits in my area.
 Be warned it's not a free for all, an endless goldmine!

[Central Window Cleaners]

Hi, what area are you from DJW?

[cvdewsbury]

invest in yourself djw purchase an additional round it will help fill up your work schedule you can then canvass up the round further and pick up the customers that had fallen out with the previous cleaner etc..

[MJH]

I've been going for just over a year now earning an ok living. However today i ran out of work and the rest of the week looks poor. So lets go canvassing! Me and the wife armed with leaflets and cards hit the streets and came back with....... one job. Whilst we canvassed we saw three large waterfed van units, a fully logo'd trad van and another. The big vans i have not seen before but have probably always been there.
 What i'm trying to say is don't spend your hard earned cash or redundancy money without building a round first or testing the market. Claims on here of "stacks of work out there - help yourselves lads" is total wotsits in my area.
 Be warned it's not a free for all, an endless goldmine!

thats doom and gloom, it might be the case in your area, i turn down domestic work almost daily theres always plenty of houses available! Commercial can be a bit more challenging!!

[rugby]

i dont go looking for work these days,but as im out working i used to be asked at least a few times a week by people if i can take them on and clean their windows,but i realy do think people are starting to feel the pinch as i havnt been asked to take anyone on for weeks and weeks.

i think djw is right,maybe their used to be stacks of work out their,but im not sure thats the case anymore, i think its becoming much harder to find. and with more and more wfp vans on the go  ( i have never seen so many new window cleaners about)  it can only get harder to find good work.

of course things will differ greatly in different areas of the country,and work will be easier to find in some areas than others,but i think anyone just starting up could find things a little tougher than they expect it to be

[Helen]

I've been going for just over a year now earning an ok living. However today i ran out of work and the rest of the week looks poor. So lets go canvassing! Me and the wife armed with leaflets and cards hit the streets and came back with....... one job. Whilst we canvassed we saw three large waterfed van units, a fully logo'd trad van and another. The big vans i have not seen before but have probably always been there.
 What i'm trying to say is don't spend your hard earned cash or redundancy money without building a round first or testing the market. Claims on here of "stacks of work out there - help yourselves lads" is total wotsits in my area.
 Be warned it's not a free for all, an endless goldmine!

not doom and gloom, but common sense. we have peaks and troughs of new custies and so far this year the number of enquiries has been lower than before. Feb is normally a bumper month for new custies and so far we have picked up only 8 this month.
There is work out there, but you have to search harder for it now than you did 5 years ago

[JSMC]

sorry to hear that mate. hope everything works out ok for ye. can ye not get some normal work ina factory backshif tor something to help you through. this will be my plan if things get tight when i am stuck for work. I will temp doing shift work and cram my wc work in early on if i can.

what about home deliviries for extra cash from the local indians/keba shops? good money my mates make doing this

[steve m]

I think more and more redundancies = more and more window cleaners = less and less work for every one else

[frames to panes]

Don't worry i'm doing ok (small mortgage and the wifes got a part time job)  it's just that every few weeks i get this quiet couple of weeks. A year ago it seemed very easy to pick up a hundred customers - i couldn't believe it. Now it seems much much harder, a combination of money problems and stiff competition i think. There are some filthy houses about so it seems people may have cut back on a cleaner. I found an estate today with endless filthy gutters but clean windows? So maybe they are covered by one cleaner who stings them for gutter cleans. I'm going to probe about tomorrow and see.

ps. had i have been thirty years younger then i would have to look for other employment to survive with the kind of mortgages banded about today.

[Sir Squeaky]

Very similar story around here mate.
I don't get much either.

[supernova77]

Claims on here of "stacks of work out there - help yourselves lads" is total wotsits in my area.

There is stacks of work out there!

Just because you got 1 job from a days canvassing doesn't mean there isn't more work. You will find you'll get some phone calls from the leaflets left today at houses with no one in.

Maybe travel a bit further and pick some work up in other areas?

Andy

[Feen]

DJW, Don't take this the wrong way, but what did you expect? As someone said phone calls may follow and you posted your message just after 3pm. People are at work. Give them time. Good luck

[[GQC] Tim]

Almost 20 window cleaners in this direct area. Took me ages to build up my round. At almost £1500 a month now, 1,5 years doing it. But I could have done a lot better, I haven't canvassed for atleast 8 months. Too much going on in my life. Difficult sometimes.

[darren73]

keep the faith,i hadnt picked up work for ages and was getting fed up canvassing but today i touched for £125 of regular work-your right about more windowcleaners though they are popping up everywhere,some of them are giving wfp a bad name as they are leaving run marks everywhere

[Wayne Thomas]

You should try in Torquay during the summer. There's so many dole brigade come out of the woodwork, it's unreal. I pick up most of my new jobs there before spring and start of winter when they're all hibernating and from referals. Thank goodness I spread my wings further afield.

[Londoner]

Everything is getting harder, its not just window cleaning. The old problem still exists, when things go slack elsewhere they all turn to window cleaning to tide them over.

I've picked up two customers in recent times that have sacked their old WFP window cleaners because they were incompetent. I have taken them over still doing WFP and they are OK about it ( so far).
 WFP in the wrong hands is cr4p. 

[frames to panes]

Could be some areas are easier than others, we have a huge influx of eastern europeans here, and the prospect of one or two major industries going under. There's only so many windows for the cleaners at the end of the day. Like i said i'm alright but jobs are definately harder to get this year. Two of the big units were working a village that supposedly didn't have a cleaner. I reckon there could be six vans in my area and around half a dozen trolley boys, maybe another dozen trad probably more.

[Ian Rushmore]

You all go on about taking on more customers whAT ABOUT DROPPING THEM?

(sorry caps lock was on)



I take on about four a week new ones, but drop/get dropped by one or two so I am always in credit. More windows out there than I can clean right now.

Wimps way out is to say theres not enough work available when there obviously is.

[Rogue Trader]

Where are you DJW?

[TennetClean]

I do not understand this post.

Feb is always a bumper month for new custies?  running out of work?

When I started I built my round up from scratch and did not stop canvassing until I had enough work.  After that I stopped canvassing, and changed to refining.  Occasionally I'd lose a customer, which I would replace.  Sometimes I would drop a low paying one in favour of a good one.

I do not understand why you would need a steady stream of new customers?  Once you've got them, as long as your reliable, why do you need to worry about other window cleaners?

Surely after a whole year you should have a full round by now?