[wcs.]

.

[ftp]

Ummm what does he live on in the meantime?

[macmac]

Ummm what does he live on in the meantime?

Roast upon rungs & fried horse shoes!

[cozy]

That's 2 eggs a week, sorry, couldn't resist : So to get 2 custies a week over a year, what sort of houses in what sort of area does the guy need to  canvass at 35 quid a shot?

[ftp]

£35 house means nothing. It's the hourly rate that is everything. No point in having all high priced jobs if your hourly rate is crap due to the travelling time. You could make as much or more money from £8.00 houses in a day.
I have several £40+ jobs but they don't make me any more money by the end of the day 'cos they take longer to do than four compact £10 houses.

[cozy]

On a window at that price I know what you are trying to get across here, just a little optimistic. 4 new custies  a week at a tenner is a very good result, or what would you say?

[BORBRYCE]

Don’t think the real issue is work. The trick is to get ahead of the “rat race”. If you’re going to be pre-occupied with work all the time, you might forget why.

I think there’s plenty; you shouldn’t even have to worry about it for a day. If you can get 1 customer at £35 then you can get 100 customers at £35.

No rush, Give yourself a whole year to do it 8 new customers a month, by the end of the year you will probably have the 100.

So many people on here picking up a dozen new jobs a week, take it easy.

The guy is right, if you know where to look, have no inhibitions and have the gift of the gab......it definately can be done and done easily. Simple as.

The guy is right, if you know where to look, have no inhabitions

[Window Washers]

£35 house means nothing. It's the hourly rate that is everything. No point in having all high priced jobs if your hourly rate is crap due to the travelling time. You could make as much or more money from £8.00 houses in a day.
I have several £40+ jobs but they don't make me any more money by the end of the day 'cos they take longer to do than four compact £10 houses.

you priced it wrong then ftp

[lcwalker]

Ive just been printing flyers to distrabute next week i have done it before with the window cleaning but have had other work but, this time im going to deliver alot more.But the problem is before i delivered to 2 fairly big village estates and got 2 calls one didn't get back to me when i quoted and the other was a 1 off nightmare conservatory she even had the cheek to say when i was doing the job that no other window cleaner wanted the job in all i delivered about 200 leaflets there must be another w/c about there. But i delivered before that less than 40 and got 3 good jobs and i know theres a w/c around there, so it's just the luck of the draw i guess.

[cozy]

Leaflets work, knocking is just more effective IMO.

[Murdie window cleaning]

If I come upon houses in my neck of the woods that I can charge £35 for then I'll be sure to aproach them, but in the mean time I'll carry on canvesing the local housing estates and try and establish myself.

One day I may be in a position where I can drop a couple of my lower paying jobs to take on larger paying jobs, but just now I'll take small jobs, large jobs and any that fall inbetween.

[BORBRYCE]

Go onto Google earth, type in South Lanarkshire and then see the millionaires rural landscape. Its true. Many a household here can be worked on for lots and lots of dosh.
It just takes bottle and a nice sign written van and Ewans heading post is not so far fetched.

[cozy]

Yeah Ronnie, but Ewan is in the west midlands lol.  I know what he is saying but, it's a little optimistic.

[peter holley]

Yeah Ronnie, but Ewan is in the west midlands lol.  I know what he is saying but, it's a little optimistic.

no...your missing the point...it can be done,,, but it will take time..a long time! what ewan is saying is that is his long term goal! anduntill then he will do the lesser jobs

[cozy]

Yeah. But no 2 a week.

[pingu]

Some very good points there Ewan...also some absolutes that will not work for everyone....good to hear others views.

Cheers
Dave.

[leapstallbuildings]

If you think having a round of about 100 jobs averaging £35, servicing about 5-7 customers a day or 25 a week is possible, your half way there already. It’s just a matter of time     (that will differ slightly with different people)

If you think you it’s not possible or you can’t get your head around it, don’t waste your time trying, (until you can) 

There is absolutely no need for an independent window cleaner (sole trader) to have more than 200 customers on his books; it just means he’s got his pricing and how he operates his round wrong.  (Fact so bother arguing) Because your to busy cleaning hundreds & hundreds of customers relentlessly. 

You have a choice, keep cleaning windows day in, day out etc (because you do love your customers) or do that and build “your ideal round” for you (your family, your future, your retirement, your home, and any other reasons) That’s where the real work needs to be done, not getting yet another (pointless) customer (yawn). That increases your work load, but does very little to the profit margin, absolutely the wrong reasons to even think about taking someone on. (You’re not even there yet as a sole trader)   

IMO 

I regard my round as fairly full with about 245 customers and some subbying on top.  You're right though - I could tailor it more towards larger properties and reduce the customer numbers.  As things stand, I would think 300 plus the subbying or maybe 340 - 350 without it would be very full.
However, larger properties can have their own drawbacks - mainly concerning access.  I try to not get too involved in work that must be pre-arranged.  I have eased off on that a bit in more recent times but having to pre-arrange work means taking an educated guess at how much work will be carried out in a day.  If I overestimate it means letting someone down.  If I underestimate I haven't used the day to its full potential.  Therefore, I feel that the best way around this (for me) is to either do very little work like this OR to underestimate and to have some smaller filler jobs (no pre-arranging required) that can be tacked onto the end of a day.
So far, I have chosen to have very few jobs that need pre-arranging.

[ftp]

£35 house means nothing. It's the hourly rate that is everything. No point in having all high priced jobs if your hourly rate is crap due to the travelling time. You could make as much or more money from £8.00 houses in a day.
I have several £40+ jobs but they don't make me any more money by the end of the day 'cos they take longer to do than four compact £10 houses.

you priced it wrong then ftp

Quite possibly I have but it still works out at around £30 an hour. I seem to remember you saying that you priced every job the same once. Even pouring scorn on those who added a rich tax on a large job. Have you changed your tune now are you stinging the wealthy?
So, unless you overprice the larger jobs you will still be cleaning the same number of windows per day as your more run of the mill work.

Have to say, I love cleaning the bigger properties out in the sticks purely for the scenery etc. - makes a very nice day. However, my most profitable work is a large block of flats that earns me the same in two hours as many earn in a day.

[Londoner]

Round here there are loads of £35+ houses but I learned a long time ago that I prefer doing the lower priced houses.

[Murdie window cleaning]

If we work on the princaple of we want to earn £xxper hour should it matter the value of the indavidule property ?

What if you lose one of your £35 houses, surely there harder to replace than a 2 bedroom terrace as there are fewer of the big propertys to target. I would have thought a good mix of propertys would be the trick.