Need advice. My business is crashing hard.

I have been where you are.. Meaning I had to go out, talk to people and get hired for one thing or another. It's work and takes a certain amount of intestinal fortitude, but it's doable.

IIf you do enough door to door canvassing, you can survive and then thrive. If you shortchange it, the business won't survive.

The choice, as always, is yours.

Ron

Here's the transcript:
http://www.hardtofindseminars.com/Tr...ow_Washing.pdf

Don't let the buggers get you down...online or offline

Yeah I should have planned it better. I kinda just jumped right into it when I lost my regular job.

I've been trying to figure out what I could do differently that would make me stand out. So far, nothing good had come to mind.

I started June 29. Seen a few customers. But nothing solid.

From my own experience. When I was around 8 years old, the guy who ran the little neighborhood grocery store offered me a job sweeping the floor. I told the barber about it, and he had me come in on Saturdays, his busy day and sweep the floor.

Some years ago, my grandfather lost his job in the auto industry and was hired in at a machine shop, with the primary task to sweep the floor of metal shavings, filings and the like.

So, based on my own experience I would have to say "Yes", people are hired to sweep the floor. Something easy enough that even an 8 year old could do it.

Keep smilin'

Ron

Nice. If I had such skills, I would market them to get customers. But unfortunately I don't.
I used to say that if I were the Hulk, I'd get a job doing demolition.

You've already decided to quit the window washing business, so just keep this in mind for your next venture.

"Working for dirt cheap" may have been one of your mistakes. It smells of desperation.

I don't cut my own lawn, haven't for about 12 years. Been through several lawn services.

> The first saw me as an ATM, and would cut the grass if he needed money whether the grass needed to be cut or not.

> He was followed by the guy who approached me and offered to undercut the other guys price by 60%. He lasted a little while, then got discouraged by working for dirt cheap and flaked out on me without notice.

> There was the guy who wanted a monthly contract with a set fee whether he cut the grass or not, because he needed a set amount to meet his income goals.

> There were others, but now I have a real pro. He's not the cheapest, by far, actually one of the highest. But he's reliable, thorough, and professional. Heck, his guy came to the door this week and told me he didn't want to touch the lawn because it didn't need it and he didn't want to charge for something we didn't need. Think a lowball bid is going to dislodge him?

The people who told you to contact fast food restaurants for window washing? Listen to them with a grain of salt. Most fast food franchises have an employee (usually titled "maintenance man" or similar) whose first job in the morning is to wash the windows, inside and out. You'd do better approaching diners that don't hire the job in-house.

Look for people who can hire you multiple times. One thing people failed to mention was doing cleanup at new home construction. The builder often subcontracts the final cleanup before the final inspection. Things like washing the windows, wiping down the counters, polishing the light fixtures, checking the lot for scraps of lumber and other scraps, etc.

Whatever your new venture is, don't try to compete on price. Spend the time and learn the value of your service. The informational interview technique mentioned earlier is an excellent one.

Finally, have a realistic time frame. Trying something for a couple of weeks or months by simply trying to do more of what isn't yet working will kill your desire faster than almost anything.

When someone says they already have someone, your job is to position yourself as #2 in line. As someone said, #1 is eventually going to mess up (see my lawn service story above), retire or go out of business.

One way to do this is to ask them if they mind if you touch base from time to time, and could they give you their email address. Many will.

Once you have this, start sending them tidbits that will benefit/interest them. For example, if you approached a building contractor, and you saw them mentioned on the news, email them a link to the story with a simple FYI. An article about local home sales? Same thing.

Keep doing this over time, and you will get calls and referrals. Go to the Kindle store and pick up a copy of "Endless Referrals" by Bob Burg. He outlines a whole system for generating referral business.

Good luck to you.

The OP posted this a month ago.