No, they dont. Everyone wants everything given to them and nobody wants to do the work. Especially in the trades, everybody wants a desk job where they work from home 3 days a week.
Understood. Thats any job though! Being a business owner in any industry ensures these elements in life.
Long time lurker first time poster hereā¦
Firstly, did you actually sign a non compete agreement?
Sounds like your old boss is just being a dick.
Usually a non compete agreement would be utilised if you either sold the business or if you were in high level management. I do know of a window cleaner in neighborhood that got sued here in Australia. He had a thriving business, lots of commercial work, private schools etc, running about 5 crews, he sold the business, the new guy fired all of the staff and employed english and Brazilian backpackers at half the price, needless to say the quality/standard of work fell as you would expect and all the old clients started calling the original owner. I donāt know why, pretty stupid of him to do it, but the original owner re-registered a business in one of his friends names and they took all the jobs back, didnāt take long for the new guy to realise where all his jobs were going, and they ended up in court and it did cost him alot of money. The new owner who hired the backpackers is now down to one crew of himself, I picked up some of their jobs from disgruntled clientsā¦ Very different to.your situation though, the key here isā¦did you knowingly sign anything? As long as you are not actively chasing your previous employers clients I canāt see what the problem is, sounds like youāre looking for your own new jobs.
Hey there, thanks for the post. He claims that I signed a non compete when I accepted employment at his company, (a franchise), where I worked for only 35 total days. I have not solicited any of his clients, but I do plan on soliciting some in the future once this āAgreementā supposedly expires in December of this year. For now im just building my own base elsewhere, although he did underbid me on a big client I was trying to get recently and got him instead (I cant compete with his prices, he charges bottom of the barrel less than $2 a window).
Sounds like heās bullying youā¦ask to.see a copy of non compete clause, sounds like if you did sign a non compete clause you didnāt know what you were signing when you signed it which could make it null and void anyway if it does exist.
Congrats on starting up so fast!
I am new to the industry as well in Michigan. I am focusing primarily on storefronts to hone my skills. I have traditionally been very comfortable with public speaking and such but have noticed that the nerves have gotten to me a bit when pitching businesses in person.
Can you share any tips or possibility your pitch to acquire storefront jobs? Do you ever proactively quote a store front and walk in with the estimate already in hand?
I am searching for my first client and have only pitched like 5 businesses.
Thanks!
No, I donāt / didnāt.
You get better with practice, just keep slugging through.
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Hey man, happy to offer some advice from my three months of experience as a business owner.
There are some stores that I pre-emptively estimate the price and have a number in my head before I talk to anyone, but it goes on a case by case basis. I try to spot stores with very dirty windows first. If I get a store in a lot, ill automatically go into every other store in the lot regardless of the condition of their glass.
Its normal to be nervous. It gets easier as you build. Im only 3 months in and I have a little less than 40 clients (gonna need way more), but its already becoming a little easier to make pitches. Word of mouth is your best friend- do good work and hopefully your clients will help you grow. Good luck. Dont underbid yourself- and dont waste your time on people who want to haggle you for bottom of the barrel pricing.
Thanks for the advice. Iāve started my business as more of side hustle after work and on the occasional weekend.
It has been a challenge to find the right time to canvass store fronts since after work the owners arenāt usually there and/or the place is busy and I donāt wanna disrupt their business.
