How do you run your business

[desmorse]

Farmer,
you asked what had come out of the meetings 4 months ago ....

just look at my avatar on the left - I think it sums it up nicely

[RED]

desmorse said:

Whilst I understand your frustrations, I've just 2 of my best months for over a year. April totaled £33,034 with an AOV of £542 and May to-date £36,358 with a £577 AOV.
But, Oh goody goody, just so we can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, all the silly price offers are back next week.

As I've said before, I sell on Saturdays and Sundays, and thats when I do most of my business. Weekend just gone I did £2.1k Sat and £3.9k Sun. Previous weekend I did £6.6k. I see customers together and when they're a little more relaxed, I'm able to negotiate and close the deal. I don't have any children at home, just me & Mrs GVM, so taking our "weekend" mid-week suits us. It certainly wouldn't suit everyone.
What I can never understand is advisors who sell weekdays and fit weekends. I do just the opposite, I think I did 1 weekend fit in the whole of last year. Weekday daytime or evenings are fine, maybe only 1 partner there, or both but busy with meals, kids, had-a-bad-day etc, but you can just get on with fitting. If selling, you need their attention.
Don't like service calls booked in to my diary, but as soon as I see one, I close it off as "successful", then ring the customer and do it when convenient to ME! By closing it off on SAM, the time is released allowing leads to put a profitable job in.

I totally agree about costs. I've seen deisel at 100.9 locally, and Hillarys are doing their level best to make our life harder and more costly, but I'll make hay as the sun shines, cos this run won't last much longer.

Good luck to you GVM. I am glad someone is making a living out of this.
I have tried the same method in the past before our children came along, It did not work as well for me going out selling at weekends, most likely due to a difference in people and the standard of living they have.There are 3 types near me.
1/ The unemployed or work shy. These are more prominent in my diary now than ever and always want the cheapest. These dominate my diary now.

2/ Families like myself with children that dont earn a lot but want something better than candy pink blinds so go up to clouds. I get a few of these but not many now.

3/ Elderly people that want the best and can afford it. My diary used to be full of these but now I get very few in comparison to a few years ago.

So apart from number 2 people it makes no difference to me as number 1 and number 3 are at home all day anyway.
I may try it as an experiment but I know what will happen.
I will end up with 1 booked in the morning, one booked in the afternoon and 1 booked late pm with not enough time to do anything else in between.

Red

[greenpesto]

The question is therefore ....

... How many of you out there do the same as 'Grey Van Man'?

Are you having the same sort of success?

Please post your replies ... something has to change because 'We' & 'Sillarys' are going to fall flat on our faces otherwise!!!!!

[RED]

greenpesto said:

The question is therefore ....

... How many of you out there do the same as 'Grey Van Man'?

Are you having the same sort of success?

Please post your replies ... something has to change because 'We' & 'Sillarys' are going to fall flat on our faces otherwise!!!!!

No, nowhere near. In fact what GVM is doing in a week is more than I am doing in a month,

Red

[desmorse]

I do get bad weekends. I've had days where I've been out on several leads and come back with £300-£400, but on balance, I'm more likely to have a really good weekend than week day.

Like Russel, I've managed to get my advertising changed. We have a local company that copies our ad styles, but bigger to try and swamp us out. Other local companies use colour against our black and white, so we've tried colour again. I was a bit shocked to see a really sickly pink ad , and couldn't believe anybody would pick it deliberately, but it don't half stand out! I've got 4 local colleagues, the 2 I speak with regularly and myself have all seen a pick up in business.

With next month's ads leading with 4 for 3, I'm sure I'll be back in the council estates, struggling to sell clouds. What I can never understand about Hillarys is how 1 part of the company wants to move upmarket with awnings and shutters, whilst another part wants to move downmarket with ghetto offers. I just don't think Hillarys have a clear understanding of where they want to be.

We can only wait and see

[hereticus]

Mine works completely differently, but each to their own. I think all of the longer established advisors learned under the old system (before diary booking) exactly what was required in their particular area to suit themselves, their family life, and the demands of their customers.

I haven't done a weekend call (sale or fit) for years, but have never been called with a 'no cover' problem and always manage to accomodate customers in my diary somehow.

I mix sales and fits every day, but my diary has a built in postcode plan so that I cover different areas on different days.
Part of my area is exclusive to me, no other Hillarys advisor and no significant competition, whilst another part of my area is shared with two other Hillarys advisors and has two active competitiors, so you can guess which bit I strive to protect.

In my core area I have a conversion rate of 90% plus, whilst in the shared sector it is more like 70% and lower order values.

I am fortunate in not having the 'ghetto blind' offers in my area (I did have them prior to Christmas and it was soul destroying) so order values remain quite reasonable. Last year my average order value was £ 325.00 and average per blind was £ 106.75, with a BPO of 3.00. Problem is that turnover was only £ 185000 (£ 15000 per month), whereas the previous three years were all around £ 250000, so last year I was down more than ten grand on earnings, due mostly to advertising and diary booking problems.

My problem is not conversion, order values, or silly price offers, but simply lack of leads ! I have one appointment this evening and then nothing at all in my forward diary so I'll be hassling evryone and his dog at Colwick today.

[desmorse]

How do you get an exclusive area? I've had several area managers/FSMs over the years and everyone has insisted on at least 2 people covering each area. I've had as many as 5 at times, which is ridiculous, but never just 1.
What happens if you want a week off? Do customers wait? Or is it a small, rural area?

Like Mike, my postcode coverage is very well planned and specific, covering 2 distinct areas. If local (within 15-20 miles) any code any time, but when further afield, local and distant to start, then distant only, then local and distant on my way home.

[hereticus]

Perhaps my use of the word exclusive is slightly misleading. There is no guarantee of exclusivity and the wrong FSM could screw it up for me very easily, but basically it is a market town and three surrounding villages, all within four miles of my home, which I have covered so diligently over nearly fifteen years that there is no reason to send in other advisors who are all based about 12/15 miles away from me. In reality I guess it probably does happen that if a customer demands a weekend appointment then another advisor comes in rather than phoning me to see if I am available, but it is very rare that I have been aware of anybody else working 'my patch'.

Holidays are not a problem because for the last three years I haven't been able to afford a holiday anyway but, if I do, the nearest Hillarys advisor is actually my brother-in-law so we would work it out - on occassion we have done it by both reducing availability, so that he has my SAM and runs both diaries, covers my sales calls, and then I fit them when I get back. This way I have some business to return to, and Hillarys don't have to worry about holiday arrangements because it is all quite seamless.

[desmorse]

aries9456 said:

I have always compiled my own 'end of the month' figures , this is a spin off from years ago when hillarys had all agents do this and manually return the figures to HO.

To be honest it gives me a better and highly acurate picture of how i am doing on a monthly basis. far better than todays in-acurate self management reports we get from Hillary's.

looking at whats happened for May ( and indeed the last 3 months ) it seems costs are rising due to more sales calls , more fitting calls and more D/O/R and service calls . Fuel costs have risen (99p litre for diesel)

But....overall Earnings remain generally about the same ( slightly down in May tho) , Average number blinds per order 2.68 , Average sale Value per blind £75.70 ( thats bad!) and average order value poor at £202.88. All these figures INCLUDE VAT.

So my point is this ...... I am running around like mad covering all things the 'hillarys way' and its NOT doing me any good!


Is it just me ? Please reply and let me know!

Hillary's are not doing us any favours with the marketing plans they have used over the last 6 month,s and our expences are creeping up all the time .

Think about....

SAM costs.
Fuel.
Communication (phones and fax).
New issues concerning D/O/R costs and the PL Thing!


If there are lots of other agents following the same thoughts - Where are we headed! Help Please!

Funny how every topic ends up in the same dead end street

Aries started this thread asking if everyone was doing badly, or just him.
It ends up complaining about commission rates and how we would all be better off working for anyone other than Hillarys.

No wonder Hillarys write us off as nothing more than a small moaning rabble

[farmer]

desmorse said:

aries9456 said:

I have always compiled my own 'end of the month' figures , this is a spin off from years ago when hillarys had all agents do this and manually return the figures to HO.

To be honest it gives me a better and highly acurate picture of how i am doing on a monthly basis. far better than todays in-acurate self management reports we get from Hillary's.

looking at whats happened for May ( and indeed the last 3 months ) it seems costs are rising due to more sales calls , more fitting calls and more D/O/R and service calls . Fuel costs have risen (99p litre for diesel)

But....overall Earnings remain generally about the same ( slightly down in May tho) , Average number blinds per order 2.68 , Average sale Value per blind £75.70 ( thats bad!) and average order value poor at £202.88. All these figures INCLUDE VAT.

So my point is this ...... I am running around like mad covering all things the 'hillarys way' and its NOT doing me any good!


Is it just me ? Please reply and let me know!

Hillary's are not doing us any favours with the marketing plans they have used over the last 6 month,s and our expences are creeping up all the time .

Think about....

SAM costs.
Fuel.
Communication (phones and fax).
New issues concerning D/O/R costs and the PL Thing!


If there are lots of other agents following the same thoughts - Where are we headed! Help Please!

Funny how every topic ends up in the same dead end street

Aries started this thread asking if everyone was doing badly, or just him.
It ends up complaining about commission rates and how we would all be better off working for anyone other than Hillarys.

No wonder Hillarys write us off as nothing more than a small moaning rabble

You said it . WRITE US OFF.

Well so be it.

dont forget g.v.m, your good run might be coming to an end, and you might feel like us moaners.

How else do we get the message across.... we after all are supposed to be self employed.
when you are truly self employed and your income starts to dwindle, you can do things to alter the situation. All we can do when working with ,yes with, and not for, Hillarys, is work within the restraints they put on us, ie, 3for 99,etc..

Well if they want to write us off then so be it. Perhaps its now time to put words into action.
1stly from Hillarys -isn't 4-5 months long enough, from the countrys No:1? Anything positive happened yet.?

Or is it time for us to Write Hillarys off, and move on ?

Funny how we have no two way communication, its all one way street. Now if I was an EMPLOYEE, then i would accept that, but i am not. we are supposed to work together aren't we.

G.v.m, your sales a very impressive, and good on yer. I only hope they are all faultless and you dont end up running around like a headless chicken, sorting all the d.o.r's.
i used to get a real buzz for selling 10 grand a week, but by the end of fitting them all, I wish i had never bothered because of all the hassle and grief that went with it.

Its getting to the stage now where i personally am just not bothered what happens.
There is surely more to life than doing it the Hillarys way.

Wheres that holiday brochure ?

[blindsfitter]

hereticus said:

Mine works completely differently, but each to their own. I think all of the longer established advisors learned under the old system (before diary booking) exactly what was required in their particular area to suit themselves, their family life, and the demands of their customers.

I haven't done a weekend call (sale or fit) for years, but have never been called with a 'no cover' problem and always manage to accomodate customers in my diary somehow.

I mix sales and fits every day, but my diary has a built in postcode plan so that I cover different areas on different days.
Part of my area is exclusive to me, no other Hillarys advisor and no significant competition, whilst another part of my area is shared with two other Hillarys advisors and has two active competitiors, so you can guess which bit I strive to protect.

In my core area I have a conversion rate of 90% plus, whilst in the shared sector it is more like 70% and lower order values.

I am fortunate in not having the 'ghetto blind' offers in my area (I did have them prior to Christmas and it was soul destroying) so order values remain quite reasonable. Last year my average order value was £ 325.00 and average per blind was £ 106.75, with a BPO of 3.00. Problem is that turnover was only £ 185000 (£ 15000 per month), whereas the previous three years were all around £ 250000, so last year I was down more than ten grand on earnings, due mostly to advertising and diary booking problems.

My problem is not conversion, order values, or silly price offers, but simply lack of leads ! I have one appointment this evening and then nothing at all in my forward diary so I'll be hassling evryone and his dog at Colwick today.

Nice of you, Hereticus, to let us in on your figures.
Even in the Thames Valley honeypot where costings are even dearer, its "almost" perversely pleasant to see you are having it as relatively difficult as the rest of us who deal with the unwashed peasantry north of Watford.
Grey Van Man as well, you are in a honeypot, and equally great figures that I would die for but also you find it a bit uphill!!

Control of ones area is the key--I have to put up with sharing or bridging over 2 big hitters areas, and act as relief if either is ill or off or wants a day down the pub.
On top of that I am now contending with a trainee who was given my no. by the FSM ( without asking me!) and I am being harrassed for DeLuxe Top fixings and 35mm venetian bracket bolts which we all carry as spares, but HO never give spares to trainees for these bits, so out of kindness I help.
But when I drop them off to the trainee , as he was a mile away at the time(!!),I find he is fitting conservatory sides in a former customers of mine!!! AND THE SWINE IS NOT CONSERVATORY TRAINED AND CANT' DO ROOFS!!SO WHY DID HE GET THE LEAD.

So, as we leave I ask him if the roof is "to do" and the reply....

" Nah,mate, I've got a deal with another blinds co for roofs and this one would have been £1740 with Hillarys with 20% off. I will be able to do it for £1100 and make myself £440, against the £255 I would get from Hillarys for their crappy pleated product""??.

Thats the last time he'll get any help. But out of loyalty I won't rat on him to the d**k of an FSM. Instead I admire the lads spirit of running two Blind Companies side-by-side -- He admits to getting leads from both. The other Company couldn't care less...

He told me who they are, and maybe I'll investigate!!!

Self-employed is just that , self-employed, look after ones self..

Life is too short and too volatile to entrust ones family finances to Hillarys exclusively

Blindsfitter

[JoY]

In answer to the last post.

Hillarys seem to have made us all think like that now....

They show us no loyalty...so we don't give any either.

[greenpesto]

Blindsfitter!

I think you are totally correct on this issue!!!!

We have to be more entrepreneurial these days in order to survive.

Hillarys won't like it one bit, but if they won't communicate with us & give some sort of lea way then we must look after ourselves any way we can.

I too am looking at other suppliers for blinds as my income is taking a knock once again & I've lost confidence in much of the products & the reliability of Hillarys to deliver the goods or service to me.

Yesterday alone, I was informed of missed blinds on my delivery due to be fitted today & a total of 7 orders that can't be done due to sudden discontinued/suspended fabrics or a refusal to make the blind as I've requested.

I would like to try keeping the Hillarys sales separate from my own leads so that I can't be accused of 'double dealing'.

Not easy, ... but I'll try!!!!

[reginald]

How do I run my business? I,ll tell you how , I have now after 27 years working for sillarys,started a new business, nothing to do with blinds, and as this business picks up sillarys can go to hell because I cant take any more of their sh*te. They have more spin than a bloody gyroscope, I for one dont trust ANY of them

[blindsfitter]

reginald said:

How do I run my business? I,ll tell you how , I have now after 27 years working for sillarys,started a new business, nothing to do with blinds, and as this business picks up sillarys can go to hell because I cant take any more of their sh*te. They have more spin than a bloody gyroscope, I for one dont trust ANY of them

I have actually got our old mate "Nonails" with me this afternoon, and he has been barred from this forum (as he has left us!) and he can empathise with you, mate.
Nonails says " Hi! " to all former colleagues and notices even fewer of you posting"

His message to you all is

" Will the last moaner please leave the lights on as he leaves--we would hate to see Hillarys not getting a bill from the Lecky board, long after the factory closes"--strange irony in there somewhere.??

Blindsfitter