Canvassing

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R

Richard BF

  • #1
    Hi guys my first post so be gentle with me :p


    Im 18 and im looking at setting up my second business -canvassing .

    I do a bit of canvassing now and again for a local window cleaner and the canvassing would be based on water fed pole window cleaners ive managed to get a few contacts for window cleaners who would require a canvasser....


    my intention is to have teams of canvassers in the said areas wanted by the window cleaners...

    im due to have a meeting on the 21st with a business advisor but im just wondering if you guys can help me a bit.

    as the canvassers will be working for me what insurance would i need ?
    as its canvassing would it be best to give them a comission based wage or a set hourly wage with a bonus at the end of the month ?- the only problem being if it is an hourly wage and they do not meet the number of customers required PCM I would be out of pocket paying them (one team at the moment would be expected to give me a turnover of £1,400) and that would be a team of five people ...

    any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.
     
    A

    ADS-MARKETING

  • #4
    It might take more than 6 to 12 months to get national.

    I would work on a commission based wage to start with as it is less risk. If you pay them a wage you will have to pay them the standard min wage which I think it around £5.80 an hour, plus holiday pay etc.
     
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    H

    hayesbookkeeping

    Free Member
    Jan 11, 2011
    18
    0
  • #6
    If you want to know how to train the guys in sales let me know i will write you out a training program for you.

    I used to work for cobra group and fully understand door to door the best best is commission only for a set sale price per lead i.e £8 per sale depending on how much you get paid from the client

    hope this helps
     
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    S

    saxondale

  • #14
    kate1 said:
    No, he is employing self employed people he bears no responsibility for them, they are self employed. Your are not liable for self employed people. Its not like a contract of being employed, where you get holiday pay, sick pay etc
    Click to expand...


    afraid thats not true in respect of insurance ............






    /
     
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    truesilver

    truesilver

    Free Member
    Jul 26, 2010
    134
    24
    Bedfordshire
  • #20
    My advice would be to mitigate/lower your risk as much as possible.

    First - be wary of going out and getting a team of 5 straight away. I'd start off with 1 or 2 people in the beginning so you can see if it works with a team of people.

    Bear in mind they won't be as good as you and they won't necessarily get the amount of sales you make.

    Paying them on commission is fine, but you may need to show that they really can make minimum wage on an average day (it'll make it more attractive to the people who are actually good at sales - which is what you want)

    Also, I would suggest getting them to sign something to say they understand they are self employed and liable for their own tax etc. There are lots of people who get collared by the Inland Revenue later on because the employee / contractor says YOU were supposed to be in charge of that. Full contracts are preferable.

    Be wary of areas which ban cold calling / door to door sales. You may not have any in your area, but we do round here.

    Have you thought about identification for the people that work for you? I'm not sure if it's obligatory - but it'll definitely look more professional.

    Hope that helps. Be happy to answer any more questions.

    L
     
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    P

    popunder

  • #23
    Don't forget also that depending on where you're canvassing you may need permission, and possibly a licence, from the town/district council [example]. It's different in every town and costs can vary from £0 to £hundreds. Sorry if you already know this.
     
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    R

    Richard BF

  • #24
    i didnt know that pounder thanks for telling me...


    Hayesbookkeeping - sorry I didn't get your name ! Thanks for your help and advice over the phone today can you send me an email please about the manual ive hopefully got a few tactics now aswell...


    keep up the advice guys i appreciate it !
     
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    S

    saxondale

  • #26
    kate1 said:
    Sax with all due respect you havent backed up with facts about insurance youve just done

    .............................................................


    that dosent really help anyone

    Please provide legislation
    Click to expand...


    as I said IANAL - and I`m not going to trawl through my docs to find it, one of the lawyers will know better than me.
     
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    sarah@opace

    sarah@opace

    Free Member
    Dec 8, 2010
    50
    11
    Birmingham
  • #28
    Hi
    you must be working really hard at the moment and good luck with your project,
    I agree with a couple of the comments about comission based salary for your team, but think nowerdays a standard small basic cost covering amount would be good but then add the commission to bump it up for them, then as an employer i think they will see you as supportive with potential to give them a good income, that way they will do their best yet not be too sales heavy handed, but on the flip side they will be very driven. This approach may also prevent you loosing staff quickly, as there is nothing worse then staff coming and going all the time, and will give you chance to build a reliable and productive team. Just my thoughts on it, taking into account current hard times.
    Sarah
     
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    R

    Richard BF

  • #29
    Shades of blue ...


    my usernames the exact same im in the window cleaning bit mainly ;)


    im thinking now of offering doing a standard £100 pcm and then a bonus for the sales they get again i need to look into all this in more depth.
     
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    S

    SteX13

    Free Member
    Jan 31, 2011
    19
    0
  • #30
    Hi Rich,

    Not sure if you can do £100PCM with a full time job, it would have to be minimum wage plus comms.

    Best way is to start people on a price per house, say 50% of what you get.

    I read all of your other thread, your target of 20 sales a month? You would have to pay £40 per sale to the canvasser to make it meet NMW

    I think they could gain around 100 houses a month per canvasser (5 a day)

    If they knocked 200 doors a day, 1,000 a week, 4,000 a month they would only need a 2.5% response to hit their target, this is easily achievable.

    Maybe a canvasser knocks 300 doors a day? Maybe the response is higher???

    Some people only want front of house done so say 50% of people want front, 50% both.

    If your WC charged £6 per front, £10 for both your comms x 2 is £12 and £20.

    You would get £1,600 per canvasser hitting 100 houses target and getting 50/50 for front and both.

    You could easily pay them half what you get and they would be getting £800 a month MINIMUM!

    (sorry if I sound like a maths lesson, just trying to make things more understandable, lol)

    Not sure why there was so much hate in your other thread, its a great idea and it could work. Only problem is you need to stay small for a while, you and 1-2 other people going out from 10-7 sat, sun, tues, weds, thurs.

    I really like your idea about the WC pays you first clean than the remainder within 90 days.

    Makes sense so they can 1. Afford to pay you. 2. Prove its a genuine lead.

    Does anyone know what a large round is for a WC? I would say they could possibly clean 3 an hour, 30 a day, 600 a month. So most WC's will only need this service for a month or 2 maybe even 3 to build up their round.

    Regards,

    Ste ;)
     
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    R

    Richard BF

  • #31
    thanks for the reply steve ...

    But i know what im doing and where to take it ,its set at a min of 20 for a reason as its easily achieveable - its commison only NOT min wage as whats to say they dont go sit in the cafe for two hours when theyre ment to be canvassing... hence costing me money and me theoretically aying them to sit on their arse all day ?


    the target of 20 -goes off one new customer a night mon-fri easily achieves 20 , and imo it makes the canvasser more determineed to succeed and smash the 20 target as if they get 50 customers in a month then theyve made £500 ;)


    Your post seems a bit contradicting and makes it sound like ive not thought it through and dont know what im doing .... I wouldnt dream of employing anyone doing something ive not done or wont do , i dont know what WC youve done it for but if i could turn over 100 customers a month for a window cleaner - theyd be daft to turn my work away as its an extra £££ a month theyd just get another van on the road with someone else .

    Good thing is tho i know ill NEVER be out of work ;)
     
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    S

    SteX13

    Free Member
    Jan 31, 2011
    19
    0
  • #32
    Hi Rich,

    Trying to reply to your post and PM here :)

    I am not suggesting to pay minimum wage as yes they could just sit and do nothing, but you can't pay them £100 plus commission, it would have to be min wage plus commission or commission only was what I meant.

    I understand its set to be easily achievable but stupid, imagine hiring someone who averages £4-£5 per house (after your cut) and you set a target of 20 a month, nobody would want to work for you earning £80-£100 a month. Set target at say 150 would be 7.5 a day which I think is more than possible.

    Sorry to sound as if I was undermining you, was just trying to help. I personally have not done any work for a WC.

    You have done it yes, but not enough. Not a full day, 5 days a week for a good month.

    You need to know what is achievable so you know your staff can earn NMW, you need to know the actual figure to set as a target, 20? Obviously you haven't though it through enough?

    About the leaflets, lol I didn't mean to put my hand right in, I use one hand to open front of the letter box and finger or 2 for the inside part of the letter box and kinda feed it through, did not hear (had mp3 player) or see and it could have been a lot worse than it was so I count myself lucky.

    Not a nice experience so guys, be careful when posting flyers.

    With your leaflets, how many people responded? Were they high quality, full colour etc? Or printed from home?

    Ste

    ;)
     
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    R

    Richard BF

  • #33
    my wages more than comply with NMW when they sign people up...

    IF me going out and taking £260 in a week doesnt compy to NMW then fook me im doing something wrong :D

    I dont really want to disclose the wages on a public forum but were not talking £3/5 per clean...
     
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    J

    JTSystems

    Free Member
    Apr 15, 2006
    151
    24
    Hertfordshire
  • #38
    Fair play to you been 18 and trying to manage window cleaning rounds - its one business I avoided as always thought there was an unwritten rule about window cleaning "areas" truth is there isn't. however be careful as people do get offended if your trying to pinch their clients!

    I don't know how many people would be interested in working for you based on trying to sell window cleaning to people but if there are people interested then go for it.

    Offer them commission only and allow them to take the full price of the first window clean and £1 there after for each person they sign up.

    So long as they are "contracted in" by you and say they sign up 100 people over 12 months who all have their windows cleaned on a saturday then that person would earn £100 that day without having to work.

    A sales persons dream is to have recurring commissions and also helps them fight for that business.

    £1 a go doesn't sound a lot but when they build up 50 or 60 customers getting up that day would be worth it just for that and they may even earn a little more by catching sales that day.
     
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