A Payment A Day - Part Six!

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Greenbynature wrote: »

Paul - my window cleaner always comes knocking to be paid, I don't think he lets anyone go over a month without being paid. Hope you get it sorted and the !!!!!!s pay up! and I agree with Sarah you always sound so positive, hope 2010 is better for you

I stopped going back to collect years ago. I realised that would mean a slower cashflow but you only have to go through that once as the money coming in increases after the first time around. My furthest work is 20 miles away. I'll be damned if I'm doing an extra 40 mile round trip to collect money when the people may not even be in. In decent summer weather, people go out a lot more. I used to go collecting and only find a few in. Cheques coming through my letter box can be quite plentiful on a good day. I also receive bank transfers. That's in addition to picking up cash and cheques while I'm working. I have no problem with a normally reliable payer whgo slips up sometimes. I do have a problem with persistent pee takers. Every few years I filter them out. Time for a customer cull I think - though I need to replace them first as new work is a little harder to come by these days.

knithappens

£4.20 today

euronorris

I didn't make it to UK. Flight cancelled til tomorrow. Earliest transfer available was for 7.45pm tomorrow so I've booked onto that.

I paid for taxi to and from airport also as buses all f''ked up

tomtombeanie

euronorris wrote: »

I didn't make it to UK. Flight cancelled til tomorrow. Earliest transfer available was for 7.45pm tomorrow so I've booked onto that.

I paid for taxi to and from airport also as buses all f''ked up

bl00dy weather! hope you have a safe and uneventful trip tomorrow - at least you weren't stuck in the tunnel overnight like i've seen on the news :eek::eek::eek::eek:

xxxx ttb

PurpleJellyFish

Evening All,

PaD for the weekend of £20 for me please.

Competed in an Icicle Race today - certainly lived up to its name! Hope everyone is well and keeping warm.

Hopeful1

jo41 wrote: »

Hopeful hows our little mini PADer?
Jo x

He's doing really well. I'm very happy and could spend hours looking at him. My oldest adores him and is so keen to help - apart from the nappies and who can blame him?

I bet your house is busy and full of excitement with your gang?

I was just admiring you sig with a definite feeling of envy. It must be a fab feeling. Are you PaDding to savings now?

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

20p today for me.

I just want temperatures a bit above freezing and the snow to melt awhile.
Current conditions are seriously threatening my finances. It might help if a few more customers actually paid up - load of barstewards.
I'm owed more money by customers than I have ever been at a time of year when my income is stretched.
In the New Year, as soon as I've caught up with my work, I will out doorknocking for more work. I want 100 new customers and will drop the 50 worst payers and messer abouters. So many people seem to forget that the guy who turns up to wash their windows has bills to pay too. Owing £20 or £30 may not seem a big deal to a lot of people but when it's 20 or 30 of them doing it, it makes a big difference to cashflow. I'm currently owed nearly £1900. If I even had half of that in front of me, there wouldn't be a problem right now.

Geez Paul. I hope you manage to claw the owed money back. I worked for my BIL who has his own business. People just don't realise the impact persistent none payment can have on someone who is s/employed. I hope you can find the additional customers in the New Year to enable you to do some 'culling'

angelicmary85

Evening All!

I hosted a kiddies party today...I love having other people to cater for but it's nice to go back to normal!

Paul do you have wee slips that you could pop through the doors when your customers aren't in so people would know when to expect you back? It would be a great start to the New Year if you could claw back even a little of the money you're owed or maybe you could put a note through the door of those who won't pay up saying something like 'I would like to thank you for your continued loyalty over that last x amount of time however your current bill now stands at x amount. Please have the money/cheque/ ready for collection on whichever day?'

Another £2.00 from me pleae Gilli!

Hope you've all had a fab day! x

Paulgonnabedebtfree

angelicmary85 wrote: »

Evening All!

I hosted a kiddies party today...I love having other people to cater for but it's nice to go back to normal!

Paul do you have wee slips that you could pop through the doors when your customers aren't in so people would know when to expect you back? It would be a great start to the New Year if you could claw back even a little of the money you're owed or maybe you could put a note through the door of those who won't pay up saying something like 'I would like to thank you for your continued loyalty over that last x amount of time however your current bill now stands at x amount. Please have the money/cheque/ ready for collection on whichever day?'

Another £2.00 from me pleae Gilli!

Hope you've all had a fab day! x

Scheduling work in that way is not possible for me. Working on window cleaning to an appointment system does not work. It makes no allowance for weather, other work coming in at short notice, being ill etc. Apart from that, at a stroke it would remove what, for me, is the best bit about being self-employed - that bit of personal freedom. If I were to schedule set days, I might as well go and work for an employer - something that I would absolutely hate after so many years of working the way I wish to work.
Apart from about £70, none of the money is in doubt. I will get it. Whether I get it in time to prevent me withdrawing expensive cash on a credit card may be another matter though. That's not really the issue though. For all they know, I may have no access to any credit to cover the shortfall. Indeed, there may well come a time when that actually is the case.

angelicmary85

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

Scheduling work in that way is not possible for me. Working on window cleaning to an appointment system does not work. It makes no allowance for weather, other work coming in at short notice, being ill etc. Apart from that, at a stroke it would remove what, for me, is the best bit about being self-employed - that bit of personal freedom. If I were to schedule set days, I might as well go and work for an employer - something that I would absolutely hate after so many years of working the way I wish to work.
Apart from about £70, none of the money is in doubt. I will get it. Whether I get it in time to prevent me withdrawing expensive cash on a credit card may be another matter though. That's not really the issue though. For all they know, I may have no access to any credit to cover the shortfall. Indeed, there may well come a time when that actually is the case.

I didn't mean for you to do the windows on set days, I just meant that if there was a day that you didn't have very much work on, you could maybe try to get pee takers to pay up by telling them you'd be back on that day to collect...or you post post a note saying 'By the way...I break thumbs'

Paulgonnabedebtfree

angelicmary85 wrote: »

I didn't mean for you to do the windows on set days, I just meant that if there was a day that you didn't have very much work on, you could maybe try to get pee takers to pay up by telling them you'd be back on that day to collect...or you post post a note saying 'By the way...I break thumbs'

Not thumbs. That's for softies.
I do heads

I see what you're saying now.
To be honest, once a customer has messed about regularly, my experience is that they never change. The most viable way is that once a messer has finally coughed up, they get replaced.
Window cleaners have a reputation for being fairly transient. It's a common complaint. However, although there is some truth in that, customers often don't see the part that they play in that. I do make a point of showing loyalty to a decent customer. However, the number of jobs I've walked away from over 18 years could be the basis of two small window cleaning rounds. That's what it can take to fine tune a round into something that makes decent money and is low on the headache factor. I've even not gone back to some customers who owe me money. The time taken getting a tenner out of someone who messes around could be spent earning £20 elsewhere. I regard £10 to free myself from a bad customer as a major bargain. If this sounds disrespectful to customers, please bear in mind that I always treat them with respect until they start treating my business with disrespect. Sometimes I tell them that I won't be returning. Sometimes I don't. It depends on the circumstances and if I sense that they are the sort of person who will want to have an argument about it.[/QUOTE]