[LWC Ltd]

At least they have somne kind of contract in place. Doesnt mean going to change at the end - just gets renewed. Doubt those domestic rounds have any kind of contract in place.

I do think rounds will go up in value the more people start window cleaning and work becomes harder to find.

[Wayne Thomas]

I think it's riskier now to buy work whilst we are on the verge of a recession, people are being laid off from work and customers are starting to tighten their purse strings given the worldwide economic situation.  Plenty of desperate people wanting to sell anything & everything. Good time to be a buyer. Bad time to be a seller.

[NWH]

Rising gas and electric bills dosen`t effect everyone,there`s a hell of a lot of people out there that are already retired under 50-60 and have money to burn.The main lot of people that are effected are the credit card crazy gang that live off credit from month to month,i don`t target these kind of people for that reason.It`s not the current climate that will effect your business it`s the kind of customers you have on your books,some will see no change to there business at all from all this hype.

[Wayne Thomas]

Rising gas and electric bills dosen`t effect everyone,there`s a hell of a lot of people out there that are already retired under 50-60 and have money to burn.The main lot of people that are effected are the credit card crazy gang that live off credit from month to month,i don`t target these kind of people for that reason.It`s not the current climate that will effect your business it`s the kind of customers you have on your books,some will see no change to there business at all from all this hype.

I totally agree with you NWH, I live in East Devon which is below the national average for wages. I have lost 161 customers since January of this year which I have replaced. I have a wide variety of domestic and commercial work and a very varied mixture of properties that I clean from shops, pubs, hotels, churches, factories. houses, flats, holiday homes, all sorts really. I clean some of the most expensive, some of the poorest, and a mixture of in betweens. I have young, middle aged working people and pensioners. My safest work without a doubt is my commercial work, not domestic customers apart from affluent areas. Been caught out in the past from doing too much work for any one particular housing association who pulled the plug on me, so have learnt my lesson from that experience. I want to stay recession proof but it's not as easy as it sounds. Location plays a big part as well IMO.

[windowwashers]

uk wealth

90% of wealth is owned by 10% of the population.

Time for a revolution?

I thought it was 95%, times change I guess

[NWH]

Rising gas and electric bills dosen`t effect everyone,there`s a hell of a lot of people out there that are already retired under 50-60 and have money to burn.The main lot of people that are effected are the credit card crazy gang that live off credit from month to month,i don`t target these kind of people for that reason.It`s not the current climate that will effect your business it`s the kind of customers you have on your books,some will see no change to there business at all from all this hype.

I totally agree with you NWH, I live in East Devon which is below the national average for wages. I have lost 161 customers since January of this year which I have replaced. I have a wide variety of domestic and commercial work and a very varied mixture of properties that I clean from shops, pubs, hotels, churches, factories. houses, flats, holiday homes, all sorts really. I clean some of the most expensive, some of the poorest, and a mixture of in betweens. I have young, middle aged working people and pensioners. My safest work without a doubt is my commercial work, not domestic customers apart from affluent areas. Been caught out in the past from doing too much work for any one particular housing association who pulled the plug on me, so have learnt my lesson from that experience. I want to stay recession proof but it's not as easy as it sounds. Location plays a big part as well IMO.

Lost 161 customers,my god.

[Simon_King]

Rising gas and electric bills dosen`t effect everyone,there`s a hell of a lot of people out there that are already retired under 50-60 and have money to burn.The main lot of people that are effected are the credit card crazy gang that live off credit from month to month,i don`t target these kind of people for that reason.It`s not the current climate that will effect your business it`s the kind of customers you have on your books,some will see no change to there business at all from all this hype.

I take your point but how do you know who lives off credit and who doesnt? Short of asking to see bank statements I cannot see how you can be so sure.
People in debt often hide it pretty well.

[windowwashers]

Rising gas and electric bills dosen`t effect everyone,there`s a hell of a lot of people out there that are already retired under 50-60 and have money to burn.The main lot of people that are effected are the credit card crazy gang that live off credit from month to month,i don`t target these kind of people for that reason.It`s not the current climate that will effect your business it`s the kind of customers you have on your books,some will see no change to there business at all from all this hype.

I totally agree with you NWH, I live in East Devon which is below the national average for wages. I have lost 161 customers since January of this year which I have replaced. I have a wide variety of domestic and commercial work and a very varied mixture of properties that I clean from shops, pubs, hotels, churches, factories. houses, flats, holiday homes, all sorts really. I clean some of the most expensive, some of the poorest, and a mixture of in betweens. I have young, middle aged working people and pensioners. My safest work without a doubt is my commercial work, not domestic customers apart from affluent areas. Been caught out in the past from doing too much work for any one particular housing association who pulled the plug on me, so have learnt my lesson from that experience. I want to stay recession proof but it's not as easy as it sounds. Location plays a big part as well IMO.

thats harsh but that at the same time is not domestic IMO thats commecial cleaning for a company, if you lost 161 domestic houses in that time you must ever by fat to expensive or very poor at your job, I am not pointing to any of them when I say this so please do not take offense.

Ian

Ian

[NWH]

Rising gas and electric bills dosen`t effect everyone,there`s a hell of a lot of people out there that are already retired under 50-60 and have money to burn.The main lot of people that are effected are the credit card crazy gang that live off credit from month to month,i don`t target these kind of people for that reason.It`s not the current climate that will effect your business it`s the kind of customers you have on your books,some will see no change to there business at all from all this hype.

I take your point but how do you know who lives off credit and who doesnt? Short of asking to see bank statements I cannot see how you can be so sure.
People in debt often hide it pretty well.

There`s people who try and look like they`ve got money and there`s people who just have,i go for the latter of the two.If they write you out a cheque from a coutts bank i wouldn`t worry about losing them as a customer they won`t let you bank with them unless you have at least 10k in the bank,i try to make sure lots of my customers bank with them if you know what i mean.

[Simon_King]

You must clean (move) in better circles than me !

[NWH]

I`m no better than anyone else on here,i just try and go for the cream these days.They call me the cat,or is it the girl thingy lol.

[windowwashers]

Rising gas and electric bills dosen`t effect everyone,there`s a hell of a lot of people out there that are already retired under 50-60 and have money to burn.The main lot of people that are effected are the credit card crazy gang that live off credit from month to month,i don`t target these kind of people for that reason.It`s not the current climate that will effect your business it`s the kind of customers you have on your books,some will see no change to there business at all from all this hype.

I take your point but how do you know who lives off credit and who doesnt? Short of asking to see bank statements I cannot see how you can be so sure.
People in debt often hide it pretty well.

There`s people who try and look like they`ve got money and there`s people who just have,i go for the latter of the two.If they write you out a cheque from a coutts bank i wouldn`t worry about losing them as a customer they won`t let you bank with them unless you have at least 10k in the bank,i try to make sure lots of my customers bank with them if you know what i mean.

coutts some times these can be the worst customers NWH as the houses are very hign in value in cleaning terms most of the time, I have had a few problems with big accounts we have we do clean some very nice houses in Cambridge. I think you will find to have a coutts account you have to have a lot more than 10k in the bank unless they have downgraded themselves.


Ian

[NWH]

Rising gas and electric bills dosen`t effect everyone,there`s a hell of a lot of people out there that are already retired under 50-60 and have money to burn.The main lot of people that are effected are the credit card crazy gang that live off credit from month to month,i don`t target these kind of people for that reason.It`s not the current climate that will effect your business it`s the kind of customers you have on your books,some will see no change to there business at all from all this hype.

I take your point but how do you know who lives off credit and who doesnt? Short of asking to see bank statements I cannot see how you can be so sure.
People in debt often hide it pretty well.

There`s people who try and look like they`ve got money and there`s people who just have,i go for the latter of the two.If they write you out a cheque from a coutts bank i wouldn`t worry about losing them as a customer they won`t let you bank with them unless you have at least 10k in the bank,i try to make sure lots of my customers bank with them if you know what i mean.

coutts some times these can be the worst customers NWH as the houses are very hign in value in cleaning terms most of the time, I have had a few problems with big accounts we have we do clean some very nice houses in Cambridge. I think you will find to have a coutts account you have to have a lot more than 10k in the bank unless they have downgraded themselves.


Ian

It used to be 5k they have just raised it to 10k and that is just for a run of the mill current account,they are the queens bank and 99% of the time deal with big earners.

[windowwashers]

Rising gas and electric bills dosen`t effect everyone,there`s a hell of a lot of people out there that are already retired under 50-60 and have money to burn.The main lot of people that are effected are the credit card crazy gang that live off credit from month to month,i don`t target these kind of people for that reason.It`s not the current climate that will effect your business it`s the kind of customers you have on your books,some will see no change to there business at all from all this hype.

I take your point but how do you know who lives off credit and who doesnt? Short of asking to see bank statements I cannot see how you can be so sure.
People in debt often hide it pretty well.

There`s people who try and look like they`ve got money and there`s people who just have,i go for the latter of the two.If they write you out a cheque from a coutts bank i wouldn`t worry about losing them as a customer they won`t let you bank with them unless you have at least 10k in the bank,i try to make sure lots of my customers bank with them if you know what i mean.

coutts some times these can be the worst customers NWH as the houses are very hign in value in cleaning terms most of the time, I have had a few problems with big accounts we have we do clean some very nice houses in Cambridge. I think you will find to have a coutts account you have to have a lot more than 10k in the bank unless they have downgraded themselves.


Ian

It used to be 5k they have just raised it to 10k and that is just for a run of the mill current account,they are the queens bank and 99% of the time deal with big earners.

is that all it was before  I thought it was a lot more than that a few years back, I guess I was wrong, there cheques do feel very nice though god knows what there charges are, Lloyds cost me hundred's so Coutts business if they do this I guess would be skyhigh

[NWH]

A lot of your customers that bank with them are probobly big borrowers,they deal with a lot of big businesses who need to borrow millions or hundreds of thousands at least.

[windowwashers]

A lot of your customers that bank with them are probobly big borrowers,they deal with a lot of big businesses who need to borrow millions or hundreds of thousands at least.

I know what you mean and I guess mine are the same, as long as I am paid I really donty care if they bank with abbey or coutts make no difference to me and I Gguess thats the same for you m8 

[Wayne Thomas]

Nothing wrong with any of my Coutts account customers. Wish I had more of them

[Wayne Thomas]

I have honestly lost 161 customers this year because they have lost their jobs, decided to put their houses on the market, found a cheaper window cleaner, can't afford to have their windows cleaned anymore, the lists go on.
Initially it started to get me down opening SAE's with a note in them cancelling. After a while I got off my backside and started replacing them but only with quality work as I am not prepared to take a step backwards and start working for peanuts again like all these new dole brigade window cleaners appearing out of the woodwork.
A lot of it is probably my own fault as my social life has been in turmoil (woman troubles) so I've not really been focused like I have in the past and have let my attitude really slip. I always look after my commercial work, my best domestic customers and the rest I've been carefree about.
I need a good kick up the backside because my motivation is low and my head is all over the place and until I can sort out my social life I'm on a spiralling trip downwards. Got to find new ways to motivate myself....any suggestions?

[NWH]

All i can say Wayne is that you`ll look back at your situation at the moment a laugh,all the time you have your health and breath in your body your lucky.In situations like this i always try to look at other peoples situations that are far far worse than mine,it makes you think how lucky you are.Chin up mate you`ve got the best job in world,at least your not in afganistan.

[Wayne Thomas]

Yes, at least I'm not in the army anymore, they're the ones I feel sorry for and their families. I've had to seal someone up in a coffin so they could be put on a plane and passed through customs back to the UK and watched my mates crying like little boys carrying the coffin, very upsetting. I block it all out but I sympathise for the young lads joining today