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Living the dream/ Phase 1 - The first crossroads

Checkin and more lessons from the weekend:

-had a great talk with a guy who does advertising for businesses going over my Facebook ads and leaflet designs
-Completed two jobs on Sunday: pleased with my pricing/time taken on these types of cleans
-Ran into more problems with the elements: even if I'm covered up with Sunblock on and hydrated I'm still feeling woozy by the end of the day and still getting a bit burnt! Which I really want to avoid. Worked out the sun's reflecting off the glass and basically cooking me on longer jobs.

I want to avoid this so will investigate indoor services and see what is in demand. I also want to learn some skills such as plastering/carpentry as I now appreciate the value of these is way higher when self employed and running a service bis.

This week:
Van! By the end of the week i will have found one.
Workout
Eat healthy

I landed one but hopefully two more jobs from passers by on Sunday. So im booking them in for next Saturday
 
End of the Nottingham saga:

I've had a very successful few weekends and have been able to get more window cleaning work than I can physically get done around my job. Paying for my flat plus the coaching program that I did last year means that despite all the work its just gonna take ages to reach my planned escape velocity. But I have a business and am equipped to offer all the services I need to really succeed in this.

I've got a problem with my car so its very fragile right now and wont pass its MOT at the end of Jun, this setback would take ages to recover from in my current situation. Add to this signs of burnout when I work more than two weekends in a row and I realised I cant push it any more without quitting my job.

With this in mind I'm moving back to my parent's for a few months so I can really go all-in with my business, dominate my local area, scale and take on employees to help out once I have a good customer base.

The last thing that I really cared about here was M. I decided to tell her my decision on saturday eve. I've really enjoyed dating her and learnt a lot about what I want in future. As I got to know her more my biggest fear was that I was wasting her time by being part of my rotation/ not committing to anything with her when she could be pursuing something more substantive. Especially now that I decided I was leaving. I feel like its almost a male version of hypergamy to put your dreams before any woman but as I've solved the getting laid part of my life my only wish is to spend as much of my time here doing the things that I want and make me happy and that will come before anything dating related.
I was relieved to find out she had been seeing someone else who has offered her the relationship she has been looking for and happy that she had been looking after her own interests.
Also really interesting to be the guy who's there for sex vs the boyfriend type and it amuses me when she assumes I must be living some sort of non-stop fuckfest.
Gonna stay in contact and we still both enjoy talking about my business adventures.

I've had an awesome time here. Gone from 2 to 12 lays, saw 4 girls at once, made some amazing memories and started and equipped a promising business that I really enjoy.

I think the next chapter is going to be a lot of fun.

I have one month before my move-out date so will find some productive stuff to do in that time.
 
Big change of direction. My mum's partner was an absolute legend and offered to give me some money towards my business.
He owns his own company so its cool to see him get hyped up with my window cleaning.
I've now got three months worth of money saved up so I'm gonna stay here and race to 300 customers, aiming for 100 per month.
I hand in my notice on Tuesday after the Bank Holiday then I can finally go all-in.
 
My last day at work tomorrow!

From then on my plan/system will look something like this:

Wake up
Do some gratitude and affirmations
Workout
Cold shower, coffee
Door to door 10:00-14:00
Lunch
Door to door 16:00-18:30
Visualise in the evenings

In the evenings I'll probably play guitar or do something social.

Each house number is recorded with either:
-Yes
-No - target later with leaflets
-Not in - come back another day/weekends
-No canvassing sign - target later with leaflets
-No canvassing and no leaflets - off limits
 
Checkin:
2 hrs door to door done. 3 new monthly customers, 3 for every other month and two one-off deep cleans with extras (one gutters, one conservatory roof) Stacked Monday with jobs and starting to book for Tues.
I'm aiming to get minimum 3 new people a day so very happy with this for two hours work.

Tomorrow I'll finish the road and move onto the side roads.
I booked one of the jobs for Saturday so I'll try and pick up the houses that didn't answer.

N= no (will leaflet later)
Y= yes
?= gave them my details
R= return
L= leaflet later as they had a no canvassing sign
 
Got a half day for my last day at work!
Just got back so for today:

-Have lunch
-Workout
-Affirmations
-door to door 16:00-18:30

I want to use a pure water system for Mondays cleans and see how it goes and how far I get before I run out of water so I'll try to pick up 4 × 25L containers and a small spray bottle for cleaning chemicals.

Let's go! I'm finally free to go all-out!
 
Checkin:
-Had a great workout
-Traffic was crazy, something to bear in mind for the future, I didn't get to my door to door spot till almost 5! Got an hour done but a lot of people said they already had a window cleaner, I saw two vans belonging to a window cleaning company too. Pretty encouraging that I've been able to pick up a fair few jobs in this area despite a bigger company operating here.
-Drove to pick up my ladder for tomorrow's job
-Tomorrow I will test the pure water system for rhe first time. I can carry enough for about 6 houses in my car and when I run out I'll just switch to traditional.

Door knocking:
I started forming a narrative that as it was a Friday evening and a lot if people had a cleaner I'm this area it would be better to return another day. In future I'll just push on for the alloted time.

-Leaflets, I'm gonna make some window cleaning leaflets and get about 5000 printed off - this only costs £80

Saw M when I was picking up my ladders - she's still cool with me leaving them there. Was nice to see her and tell her what I'm up to. I thought 'damn I was hitting that' haha.
 
Got my ass kicked today!

-First the pure water isn't available in my city! Only the next one over, there are stations to fill up with it all over except Nottingham
-On my job today my backpack that I use to pump water and cleaning solution had the fuse blow again - something must be wrong with the charger for it to blow a fuse every time I charge it.
I resheduled the parts of the job thag i needed the backpack for and the customer was cool about it

Solutions:
- Get my own pure water kit so I can filter it myself - its expensive and puts me on thin ice (money-wise) but it's just so much quicker using this system.

Good news is I picked up two new customers today - one from a referral and another was passing by as I was cleaning.

I also did my first repeat clean today for another customer who is very pleased with the work I do.
 
Ali said:
Something must be wrong with the charger for it to blow a fuse every time I charge it.
Click to expand...
Is the fuse that’s blowing the fuse in the plug (what you plug into the wall)?

Also - does the fuse blow when you first plug it in to start charging, or when it’s already been charging for a while?
 
Antonio44 said:
Is the fuse that’s blowing the fuse in the plug (what you plug into the wall)?

Also - does the fuse blow when you first plug it in to start charging, or when it’s already been charging for a while?
Click to expand...

The fuse in the battery for the chemical pump. It uses a trickle charger so I plug it in and leave it for several hours, I'm nit sure when the fuse actually blows but my guess is a some point each time I plug it in to charge it as that's the last time it happened. Its never blown when it's in use.
 
Had a challenging day today but learnt a lot!
-my first clean if the day eneded up being monsterous! So much grime. I decided to try using the water fed pile and I'm happy with how it performs on the frames and sills (I still have to do the windows by hand)
- this job took so long I missed the one next door. One cancelled but she was a very old woman and not all there. Then I did two more including a conservatory roof clean. So I cleaned 3/6 houses today and it took me aaages.

Can't wait for the pure water system to arrive 😆

Had a good workout, diet wasn't good but neither very bad.

I worked on my leaflet for a bit but think I want to go a5 landscape now to fit the before and after photos in easier.
 
Completed my door to door for today, managed 3hrs 30mins but only got 1 job.
Gave my details to about 10 people and three people invited me into their house to give them a quote.
Everyone seemed quite friendly and had some good interactions.
Found out there's about 3 cleaners already operating in the area, including a dude who carries an old school wooden ladder around and only charges £10 a month. Some people were offerering cleans every 2 weeks as well which is something I haven't heard of untill now. A lot of people said they were with wooden ladder guy and that he's not taking on any more people as he's got as much business as he wants.

Tomorrow after my clean I the morning I'm gonna go door to door for about 6 hrs in a different area and see what I can get.

Areas to improve:
I've cleaned my high vis jacket as it was getting a bit grimey.
A leaflet or a card would be useful - still not convinced it'll get many more people but they're inexpensive and will save me time rather than give out my number endlessly.
 
Got 3hrs of door knocking done this afternoon, landed 4 more jobs and gave my details out to more people.

Had a message come through for a clean from yesterday's door knocking, plus another I picked up this morning I've got 6 new customers today.

It really feels like a numbers game so I'll keep showing up to play it.
 
Ali said:
The fuse in the battery for the chemical pump. It uses a trickle charger so I plug it in and leave it for several hours, I'm nit sure when the fuse actually blows but my guess is a some point each time I plug it in to charge it as that's the last time it happened. Its never blown when it's in use.
Click to expand...


Ah ok, that rules out my easiest fixes. Are you using the original/manufacturer recommended replacement fuses? As there is a fair bit of nuances for fuses, fast blow vs slow, DC vs AC etc, checking the replacement is correct would be first thing I'd look at. Prob getting a bit out of scope of winner within, but post what you replaced it with if you want.
 
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Checkin:
Completed a job this morning, who will become a monthly customer.

Went door to door and got 7 more people which is great.
A lot of the time people say they had a window cleaner but they just stopped turning up at some point.

My cards and flyers should arrive on monday/tuesday next week.

Its looking like its gonna be close wether or not I run out of cash before hitting 200 customers. I can increase the door knocking to 8hrs a day if it comes to it and hopefully the cards an leaflets will make a difference.

Have a good weekend everyone!
 
Antonio44 said:
Ah ok, that rules out my easiest fixes. Are you using the original/manufacturer recommended replacement fuses? As there is a fair bit of nuances for fuses, fast blow vs slow, DC vs AC etc, checking the replacement is correct would be first thing I'd look at. Prob getting a bit out of scope of winner within, but post what you replaced it with if you want.
Click to expand...

I'll check that out, it was working yesterday but not today so im gonna go through all the wiring and see if somethings loose as well.

I'm all here for Winner within electrical advice haha
 
Recapping the week:

I've got to 20 monthly customers now.
If I can hit 80 by the end of the month I'll be in a good spot.
I have a pure water system for cleaning and it's working very well

Things to improve:
Business cards and flyers for when I go door to door - should arrive by Tuesday.

More fuses for the backpack pump! Just gonna get higher amp ones and hope nothing blows up.

Get the healthy diet and workouts back on track.

Got a phone call from a landlord yesterday and went out today to give him a quote. Dudes got a full on mansion with an underground music studio!
Gonna be doing gutters, jet washing and windows on this property on Thurs which will out earn my old job this week. Feels good to also have equipped my business enough to take on big jobs like this.
He got my details from a customer of mine who had told him I do a really good job.
Sais he's got several other properties so im hoping I can get more work on those as well.

Next week:
Monday: 6 cleans, then door to door in the afternoon.
Tues: Door to door all day
Weds: A stacked day of window cleaning
Thurs: A stacked day working on the mansion
Fri: finish off the mansion in the morning
Sat: hammer out more door to door

It's hard to predict how this will progress as the more actual work I get the less time I have to get more leads, but the longer my money will last. Will just improve my services and lead generation over time.
 
Checkin:
A full day of cleaning!
Got some very good results and customers were sending messages saying how good the windows looks.

Got to the second to last clean of the day and found my water purifier has already used up all the resin and needs to be refilled!
Hung around the house for a bit to let the windows dry to make sure there were no streaks.

I've gotta budget this in. I was hoping the resin would last longer but now I'm not sure how cost effective it'll be. There's another method of filtration but I'm not sure how feasible it will be in my flat and is out of my budget for now.
Without a van to transport large quantitis of water it may be an utter ball ache lol.

Switched to the old school cleaning method for the last house and I've gotten better at it but it's still much slower.

I also managed to get slightly burnt today which is crazy as its been overcast all day.

Business cards and leaflets arrived today and look pretty good!
 
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