[ftp]

Finally it's happened - I can't take any more, i can't keep up and i'm knackered!
So today the phone rings a couple of times and i've just had to say no. Maybe I should say yes and dump some of my bad paying regulars and keep the cream.

[paul beckett]

I WOULD JUST GET RID OF CRAP OR LOW PAYING JOBS FOR THESE GOOD PAYING WORK ITS JUST BUISNESS I SUPPOSE.

OR BEFORE YOU DO THAT ASK ORIGINAL CUSTYS TO UP THE PRICE,IF THEY DONT LIKE IT DROP THEM.

KIND REGARDS
PAUL

[cozy]

I WOULD JUST GET RID OF CRAP OR LOW PAYING JOBS FOR THESE GOOD PAYING WORK ITS JUST BUISNESS I SUPPOSE.

OR BEFORE YOU DO THAT ASK ORIGINAL CUSTYS TO UP THE PRICE,IF THEY DONT LIKE IT DROP THEM.

KIND REGARDS
PAUL

I think he's right FTP, time to trim the herd

[bad trippy]

Finally it's happened - I can't take any more, i can't keep up and i'm knackered!
So today the phone rings a couple of times and i've just had to say no. Maybe I should say yes and dump some of my bad paying regulars and keep the cream.

ftp dont turn it down please, im still building my round so could you please pass it on, be a drink in it for you mate

[simon knight]

I WOULD JUST GET RID OF CRAP OR LOW PAYING JOBS FOR THESE GOOD PAYING WORK ITS JUST BUISNESS I SUPPOSE.

OR BEFORE YOU DO THAT ASK ORIGINAL CUSTYS TO UP THE PRICE,IF THEY DONT LIKE IT DROP THEM.

KIND REGARDS
PAUL

I think he's right FTP, time to trim the herd

Absolutely right. Consider your window cleaning business like a shrub you plant in the garden.  As it grows you prune away the dead bits or the bits that spoil the shape until in the end you have a beautiful shrub that's perfect in every way. Also the gentle pruning encourages new growth.

Sorry  

[pingu]

Thats a really good analogy...better than my herd...

Dave.

[NWH]

Never ever refuse to just have a look unless you know exatly where it is,from small acorns oak trees grow and all that.

[windowswashed]

Never ever refuse to just have a look unless you know exatly where it is,from small acorns oak trees grow and all that.

Absolutely agree, never refuse new work if better than old work.

[mr D]

I WOULD JUST GET RID OF CRAP OR LOW PAYING JOBS FOR THESE GOOD PAYING WORK ITS JUST BUISNESS I SUPPOSE.

OR BEFORE YOU DO THAT ASK ORIGINAL CUSTYS TO UP THE PRICE,IF THEY DONT LIKE IT DROP THEM.

KIND REGARDS
PAUL

I think he's right FTP, time to trim the herd

Absolutely right. Consider your window cleaning business like a shrub you plant in the garden.  As it grows you prune away the dead bits or the bits that spoil the shape until in the end you have a beautiful shrub that's perfect in every way. Also the gentle pruning encourages new growth.

Sorry  

Simon thats the best I've heard.
but i find it very hard to do. i'm too much of a big softy

[martinsadie]

never turn work away ,if too much sell a bit on 

[matt]

if its not in my immediate area i turn it down

you get to a point where you are at 100%, you can bin customers for newer better paid jobs, BUT what happens when them better paid jobs dont want it done ( money tight etc etc ) you have lost work, where your old stuff you have done for a long time would have still be having it done

sometimes, its easy to not take the risk

[Neil271052]

Exactly right.

If it's not within 2 mile radius I don't want to know.

It's easy to drop old stuff for new but new may just mess you about.

[geefree]

I never turn any work away, but i built my round through leaflets within a 10 mile radius..... so i suppose it will be a long time before its really compact.... but i like it this way... i do large groups of big houses in lots of areas, then move on the next day.

i wouldnt want to work in one little area all month.

and besides , when its all built up (all areas)

i will round each area off , and either sell parts or set someone on.

[Clive McDonald]

No, much as you liked the idea of trimming a bush, and culling the herd this is wrong.

The correct analogy is one of gear changes on a car.The revs and the speedo rise and at the correct point you depress the clutch and change gear. If you go too fast the revs will climb, too slow and the car will judder as you make the change.

You do not depress the brake (dump work).

When you are in third, you may smile benignly at all those in first gear, engines revving like mad and trying franticly to keep up.

It's time to take the L plates off ftp and start a business instead of a job.

[simon knight]

Ok I'm fed up of analogies:

Window cleaning is exactly the same as all businesses.

When you first start out you take on everything that pays pound notes because you have no yard-stick other than what you used to get in your last job or your wretched dole money.

And Mrs Smith could dick you around with her under-priced job by saying "not today" and Mr Jones never pays you or Miss Adams says "can we leave it until Spring?"...and because you have limited customers you have no choice but to say "yes".

But as your round grows and more customers come aboard (and you've learned to price right)  you come around to thinking "Hey! I've actually got a product that people want to buy."

And in the fullness of time you come to the realization that the dead wood customers actually hold you back and you're better rid of them. For a short while it may leave a few voids in your working diary but it will allow you to give a great service to the good customers and room to allow other properly-priced-good-customers onto your books. The dead wood will be serviced by the newcomers...thus preserving the circle of life.

To sum up: Dump the rubbish asap...do you really need Mrs Smith's £60 a year that badly?  Methinks not! 

[cozy]

Good point Slump,only one point to concider is,If a person keeps all his crap jobs too,then would he keep doing 'em for the rest of time? The way you say it, sounds a really good discription of how a business builds though

I would still trim the herd and take the risk that the new work isn't the golden egg, but if I don't look for it I'll never find it. OH MY GOD, I've gone all Ewan!!!!! Help! :

[cozy]

Wish I had posted what Simon posted now, that made more sence I'll go and sulk a bit.

[leapstallbuildings]

Ok I'm fed up of analogies:

Window cleaning is exactly the same as all businesses.

When you first start out you take on everything that pays pound notes because you have no yard-stick other than what you used to get in your last job or your wretched dole money.

And Mrs Smith could dick you around with her under-priced job by saying "not today" and Mr Jones never pays you or Miss Adams says "can we leave it until Spring?"...and because you have limited customers you have no choice but to say "yes".

But as your round grows and more customers come aboard (and you've learned to price right)  you come around to thinking "Hey! I've actually got a product that people want to buy."

And in the fullness of time you come to the realization that the dead wood customers actually hold you back and you're better rid of them. For a short while it may leave a few voids in your working diary but it will allow you to give a great service to the good customers and room to allow other properly-priced-good-customers onto your books. The dead wood will be serviced by the newcomers...thus preserving the circle of life.

To sum up: Dump the rubbish asap...do you really need Mrs Smith's £60 a year that badly?  Methinks not! 

That's a much better analogy.  Think of them as recycling rather than as landfill   

[ftp]

Turned three more away tonight! What's going on? It's peed with rain nearly all day and the phone won't stop. It's an ad i've got in the thompson directory I think because none of them have been exactly golden eggs but more like something you've trodden in.

[dai]

Ok I'm fed up of analogies:

Window cleaning is exactly the same as all businesses.

When you first start out you take on everything that pays pound notes because you have no yard-stick other than what you used to get in your last job or your wretched dole money.

And Mrs Smith could dick you around with her under-priced job by saying "not today" and Mr Jones never pays you or Miss Adams says "can we leave it until Spring?"...and because you have limited customers you have no choice but to say "yes".

But as your round grows and more customers come aboard (and you've learned to price right)  you



come around to thinking "Hey! I've actually got a product that people want to buy."

And in the fullness of time you come to the realization that the dead wood customers actually hold you back and you're better rid of them. For a short while it may leave a few voids in your working diary but it will allow you to give a great service to the good customers and room to allow other properly-priced-good-customers onto your books. The dead wood will be serviced by the newcomers...thus preserving the circle of life.

To sum up: Dump the rubbish asap...do you really need Mrs Smith's £60 a year that badly?  Methinks not! 

Excellent advice Simon, I turned work away in order to stay loyal to old customers, these same customers that dumped me for an undercutting trad guy.
I am taking 5 weeks to get round, if I dumped a weeks work consisting of my underpriced customers,I would actually be better off.
 I held back when the recession loomed, but as I emerge unaffected the cull has started.
Being a softy has cost me dearly over the years, it just doesen't pay.

A well run window cleaning business needs to be continually evolving, from the day you start till the day you retire. taking in better priced work and dumping the dross.
Just like a fat worm, chomp and dump.