Part-timers are ruining me.

The honest truth for me isn't that I get upset with the part timer trying to earn some money.
I'm really upset with that regular customer who's been hiring me to clean their house for 6 years in a row. And I haven't raised the price in all those years. And I'm cleaning it for about .10 per foot. And doing one heck of a job.
And some fellow rolls up offering to clean it for 60 dollars and they jump on it.

But one things for sure, there people will be callilng next time. Cause the quicky jobs never include the 'hard to do' stuff.

My biggest beef is with the home owner, and obviously, it's tuff to turn a fellow down when he stops by offering to do it for a third the usual price.

I'm just saying.
 
Don't worry about the "Partimers". Heck before I started my business in 96 for a few years I did a couple of houses with my friends cold water PW.

My guess is that most fulltimers started as partimers in this business and they didn't know what the heck they were doing either. Most of those partimers won't be around in a couple of years and some will become the next wave of fulltimers.

I hate it to when I lose a customer to these guys because I have now my customer list for 15 yrs with some repeats many times. But back in the day in the "School of Hard Knocks" I probably took some of the "Fulltimers" jobs away as is whats happening today.

Its business and it will never change. Educate your customer and do your own due dilligence with your business such as marketing etc. and forget those guys.....They come and go like a revolving door..
 
Christopher said:
It happens to all of us, has been happening for many years all around the country.

You have to adapt, educate the customer or look for better customers.

There will always be someone with a lower price, you have to sell around that issue if you can or find customers that want quality work at reasonable prices.
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100% agree. You just need to stay ahead of them.. In the window cleaning biz in our area we have a 100 new companies come and go each year... They can never weather it..
 
ToolePressureWash said:
The honest truth for me isn't that I get upset with the part timer trying to earn some money.
I'm really upset with that regular customer who's been hiring me to clean their house for 6 years in a row. And I haven't raised the price in all those years. And I'm cleaning it for about .10 per foot. And doing one heck of a job.
And some fellow rolls up offering to clean it for 60 dollars and they jump on it.

But one things for sure, there people will be callilng next time. Cause the quicky jobs never include the 'hard to do' stuff.

My biggest beef is with the home owner, and obviously, it's tuff to turn a fellow down when he stops by offering to do it for a third the usual price.

I'm just saying.
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I hear ya. Back in 99-2002 I had 17 Bestbuy stores that I did monthly for $175 a clip. I did these by myself. It would take me 2-3 nights to do them. On average they took 1-2 hrs. I maintained them so they were pretty cleaned before I got there. So what happens. Suddenly My Prop. Manager company takes them from me and gives them to another company for $90/clip. I can have them If I do it for that price. I said no way and they hire the new company. End result the new company sucked and my prop. manage company proceeds to lose all 500 bestbuy stores they maintained. Today they still have never got those stores back but me..I don't burn bridges. I've been doing other work for this prop. manag. company now for 12 years and I still have a monthly account from them.

Everybody somewhere gets burned in this business. Ride the storm and come out smarter and suck it up at times and don't worry about the "Other Guy". You'll never last if you let those "Other" guys get at ya.

Some of these "Other guys" are huge. Fleetwash is one of them.
 
Mike V said:
If we stop worrying about the "other guy" and focus on our own businesses......I bet the energy expended would be more beneficial.
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Good Call Mike!!!

Look guys, these people are not your Competition. Yes they may take a few bucks from you, but I have found you will recoup this loss + more.

These guys will always be a factor, live with it, step up your game.
 
al9226 said:
Make a note of the people that have it done by the others, then market to them in a year. You'll see that you'll get most of them back.
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No doubt that's true, I beat this know. I no longer want to even loose that year.
 
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