[nanc1430]

Thank you, your help is greatly appreciated.

[Clough]

Did you get my private message?

[nanc1430]

I'm impressed!
Still looking everything over.
Plants are one of my great hobbies
Will have to keep looking.
You are a pretty busy man.

[Clough]

Yeah, I am... Probably too busy..

And, It's just about time for me to get off here so that I can be able to get up to do my work that is scheduled for the morning.

Would you like for me to give you some ideas in the near future as to how you might word your ads on the Internet, but with keeping within the boundaries of the rules of this site?

If you would like for me to do that, I would be glad to do it. It's part of the reason that I'm on this site!

[nanc1430]

Sounds great to me. Thank you so much for your help.
I will probably be on your sites all night.
I'll let you know more later.
So far it's coming to me that you have all aspects of your work covered and backed up.
There is no way around them.
Great Idea!
Talk soon

[Clough]

Thanks! That's cool! I can even show you how you can advertise for specials around certain times of the year so that you can have people find you by accident and might decide to use your services.

For instance, one time I had a married couple hire me to tune their piano. They had been looking for goats in Iowa. They run an animal rescue operation. Because my ads were on the same site where they were looking for the goats, they decided to get there piano tuned!

Another example would be for Valentine's Day. I run a special around then for my services for whatever. I know how to beat all of the florists in the area in order to find me by accident!

Later...

[nanc1430]

That's great!

I don't have any idea right now as how you might do it but would love to know.

I can give out gift certificates or something around the holidays to have their places cleaned or something on that idea.
I think I am going to do residential cleaning also. I don't want to do it myself, but getting temp help for that wouldn't be too bad.
Paying them less than the going rate for cleaning but paying them a little more than min wage. It won't cost me more than checking on them once in a while. I'll give the employees some slips with " how do you rate my work" to get the customer sign it.
After they get so many good comments, I will give them gratuities or something like that to look forward to. (Just a little incentive) It will also make most of them very aware of their cleaning so they will probably do a good job. It will also tell me what the person thinks of the cleaner doing the work.

So many ideas and not enough knowledge.

I'll learn!

[nanc1430]

Clough
Don't know how long I will be able to be on tonight as the contractor called me today for the job I was bidding on and I start Wednesday.
I really have to hustle tomorrow to get ready for Wednesday morning.
If you have some ideas or thoughts, they would really be appreciated.
I think I know what you were telling me the other night.
I will have to re word my ads and put them out on a lot of free ad space.
Will talk to you later.
Thanks
nanc1430

[Clough]

Hi, nanc1430!

Congratulations on getting the job with the contractor! I don't have very much time right now either because I have to practice my fingers off in order to prepare for a first dress rehearsal for the show which is tomorrow night.

We will be in touch soon, though!

[nanc1430]

Good luck with your's
Talk soon
nanc1430

[nanc1430]

Meant to say thanks for congratulations. I will really work for this one as the parade of homes is coming up and I would like to be part of it.

[nanc1430]

On my custom home cleaning, every window was sprayed with paint. Not overspray, paint.
We were very new at it and didn't know exactly how to handle it.
My help cleaned the windows inside but left the french doors as they were sprayed like someone frosted them.
I later got a hold of the foreman on the job and he said he was going to get the painter to come back and fix them.
The question I have is, are windows all included in the price in Florida or do you charge extra for them? To my knowledge, they are included but was told to charge extra if they are oversprayed a lot.
Also what is adverage for rough clean and final clean? Was told that they usually take 1/2 of the square foot price to do the final clean. The contractors office said they usually pay one rate across the board. Is this usual and does it include inside and outside windows?
Lots of questions but not sure of correct answer as to how to handle this.
Thanks
nanc1430

[Clough]

Hi, nanc1430!

I have waited a number of hours to get back onto this site because of some kind of upgrade that was going on. I am leery of posting things because the format of the site would appear to have changed quite a bit. I really don't care very much for this little rectangle in which to post responses and wish that they would change that back to the way that it was.

In my opinion, you should charge extra for cleaning windows, if it's outside of the cleaning service that was already agreed to in the first place.

[nanc1430]

Is it usual that post construction window cleaning is included in Florida?
I was on a site that said it was but don't know for sure.
It takes up most of our time just doing windows.
Want to do what we are suppose to do but think we should charge a little more.

[Clough]

Hi, nanc1430!

I hope that you're doing well! I need to go call someone before it gets too late, but I will return, if you can still be around.

I think that if you have a written agreement with a customer as to what you are supposed to do for a certain price and something additional is added later to the agreement, that you should charge extra. What I put in my Contracts with Customers is that there is a clause that states basically, that any additional work and subsequent costs are to be mutually agreed to in writing by both the Contractor and the Customer.

Do you have written contracts with your customers? I can't remember if we've already discussed that, but will be reviewing this thread. Have been really busy playing for a show, the preparation for and performance of that has taken up a lot of my time.

Thanks!

[nanc1430]

No contract was written up as this was my first post construction cleaning. I really wanted to get my feet in the door so I knew it was going to be a little extra work the first time.

I bid for this contractor last year but because my insurance wasn't what they required, and I was unable to get the bid.
I really like what I am doing but wanted to know what was expected of me and what was usual.
I know if you let them, they will use you for what ever they can get away with.
The Parade of Homes is coming up soon next month and I really wanted to be included in that.
I think I can get to know a lot of people and really do a great job. It's contacts I need right now.
How would you handle this one?
I will be back on in a few.

Thanks
nanc1430

[Clough]

Hi, nanc1430!

I'm back. In order to protect yourself and avoid any confusion, I really would strongly suggest that you write up a simple contract specifying what you will be doing and for how much. If you do have contracts, especially with your larger customers, you will appear to be more professional, organized and attentive to the needs of your customers.

[nanc1430]

Sounds good.
I do already have one made up but it seemed as if this bid happened so quick that I never went to the office to meet with them or anything. They called me up one day and had me start the next morning. I had a lot to get ready so I never got the chance to go down. I took this job blind but felt good about it. I needed a start and didn't want to turn this down.
I will work on that contract now.
I also have a glass waiver made up and will start using that also.
Thanks for your suggestion.
nanc1430

[Clough]

I know that oftentimes we really need to jump on things and be "Johnny on the Spot" when the opportunities are presented to us as far as making bids and being available right away and doing the jobs. Those sort of things also look good to the potential customers.

If you are presenting a contract to them after the fact of starting the job, I'm sure that they will understand if you explain to them that you knew that they needed the work done right away, wanted to get it done for them, but that you also need for you and they to sign the contract for their benefit so that nothings left to wonder about concerning what needs to be done according to their satisfaction and that both you and they are clear about that.

Just some words that you might use in a verbal explanation to them...

[nanc1430]

Thank you, that sounds good.
I made it a point to go down to the office after I started the job just to meet the lady behind the telephone voice that I was talking to.
She thought that was very nice. Hopefully that will go along way. Most people really don't care as long as the money is coming in.
I don't know if I could do that for this particular job after going down there already but will tell her for the next job that I know I have. They are doing a spec house and will need post cleaning done and then after that weekly until they sell.
I will sure give her a contract for that.
I like to try to be different.
I am trying to run this whole idea and specials as different also.
I think that might be the key to standing out from the crowd.
Give them something that no one bothers to do anymore. (CARE)
I just now expanded to residential and office cleaning. I am going to let my help clean residential as I do not like it myself but know I have to stay up with it.
I am giving the employees a customer survey slip to give to the customer with the employees name on it. I am also putting a stamp on it so all the customer has to do is to put it in the mail box.
After the employees get 10 or so good reports, they will get a gratuity or something like that. If they get one bad one, they start over. I will also tell the employees that I will call the customers at random to make sure they filled it out and not the employees.
Sort of keeping tabs on everyone at the same time. I just think it might work.
What do you think?

Another question if I might ask is on a large residential complex with about 20 bldg. can you ask for partial payment as the job commences to pay your employees or do you have to wait until the whole job is done?
Lot of questions, sorry
Thank you
nanc1430