2/4/6/8

[scottish cleaning service]

I offered an old couple a monthly clean £12 or Bi-monthly £20 so they went with the latter. Yesterday I did it and the next door neighbour came out and want the same service so I did his 3 times with the amount of dust coming from above the glass. First time a customer has seen the amount of black dust coming down the glass and couldn't believe it. He was happy as Larry when I eventually finished and so was I, must have took 30mins. But here's the thing! in January I will clean both in 20mins or less and get £40 for it and there is a street of 60 semi-detached houses. I'm rapidly falling in love with Bi-monthlies and wish my whole round was made up of them because that's when the money really begins to flow in. I have a dozen now from a score to £30 a clean and wish I had offered the service when I started my business 5 years ago. ?

 

[ched999uk]

I offered an old couple a monthly clean £12 or Bi-monthly £20 so they went with the latter. Yesterday I did it and the next door neighbour came out and want the same service so I did his 3 times with the amount of dust coming from above the glass. First time a customer has seen the amount of black dust coming down the glass and couldn't believe it. He was happy as Larry when I eventually finished and so was I, must have took 30mins. But here's the thing! in January I will clean both in 20mins or less and get £40 for it and there is a street of 60 semi-detached houses. I'm rapidly falling in love with Bi-monthlies and wish my whole round was made up of them because that's when the money really begins to flow in. I have a dozen now from a score to £30 a clean and wish I had offered the service when I started my business 5 years ago. ?

The problem is getting the bi-monthly to balance. i.e. you don't want 1 day to be mega busy and the same day in 4 weeks is quiet. If you can arrange to split the bi monthlies so you have the same number each 4 weeks then you are laughing.

 

[scottish cleaning service]

The problem is getting the bi-monthly to balance. i.e. you don't want 1 day to be mega busy and the same day in 4 weeks is quiet. If you can arrange to split the bi monthlies so you have the same number each 4 weeks then you are laughing.

I have that but trying to remember which ones is confusing. I end up going back into bank account to see when they paid me. ? Another good thing with the bi-monthlies is the time it takes. You don't need to rush so you just take your time and do a great job, everyone a winner. Used to hate them now I prefer them rather than monthlies.

 

[spruce]

There’s a team of 3 windys near me that do 2 weekly trad they are out walking with ladders everyday in all weathers, I got a call few weeks back from a woman that I reckon they dropped for being a bad payer or whatever, asking me if I could take over from them at the same rate of £5 for a 1st floor flat with 6 windows & a balcony door ? just to keep it polite I told her sorry I don’t cover that part of town,

You are fortunate that she wanted the same price?
We have had them ask if we could better the price they had. ?

 

[Deleted member 5762]

@spruce I sometimes think some window cleaners do take the micky with their prices, but some are so low I don't know how they actually make any money at all. I think my prices are probably middle of the road. You are absolutely right though that sometimes when you do a few close together it can be a domino effect if they cancel or mess you about.
@RickyG there's an estate like that near me. A team of 3 window cleaners work together (traditional). They rotate who does the tops, who does the bottoms and who is collecting. It's quite impressive to watch and looks quite a slick operation. They work quick but their prices are quite low so they probably have to fly through work as fast as possible.

 

[Part Timer]

You are fortunate that she wanted the same price?
We have had them ask if we could better the price they had. ?

We did a big pub / hotel fortnightly on the sea front for 8+ years. Covid came along and it changed hands. We didn't do it for a few years and it changed hands again.and my friend knew the new owner.
I asked him to find out what he was being charged and he replied £35, we charged £30. Now for all the southerners £35 for a 50 minute job might be cheap but up here it's workable. When I said that’s ok I then was told that included the internals, another hour, so I declined the offer.

 

[Deleted member 5762]

We did a big pub / hotel fortnightly on the sea front for 8+ years. Covid came along and it changed hands. We didn't do it for a few years and it changed hands again.and my friend knew the new owner.
I asked him to find out what he was being charged and he replied £35, we charged £30. Now for all the southerners £35 for a 50 minute job might be cheap but up here it's workable. When I said that’s ok I then was told that included the internals, another hour, so I declined the offer.

@Part Timer I'm in the south (coast though, not London or a city) and I think that's good money for an external clean - especially if you aren't messing about moving the van from one place to another which I like to factor in. But no way with internals included. I don't mind internals but sometimes they can be a right pain compared to externals. Sounds like the hotel have a bargain price on their hands there.

 

[Part Timer]

@Part Timer I'm in the south (coast though, not London or a city) and I think that's good money for an external clean - especially if you aren't messing about moving the van from one place to another which I like to factor in. But no way with internals included. I don't mind internals but sometimes they can be a right pain compared to externals. Sounds like the hotel have a bargain price on their hands there.

It's 4 floors and a fully extended 35' pole. Don't know where you are on the south coast but we do a job in Portsmouth and Horsham and earn far better numbers down there

 

[Deleted member 5762]

It's 4 floors and a fully extended 35' pole. Don't know where you are on the south coast but we do a job in Portsmouth and Horsham and earn far better numbers down there

@Part Timer Ooof - 4 floors ?. I thought maybe 2 floors. I charge more for 3 storey houses even if they are the same amount of windows as a two storey, purely because I find them a little bit more awkward sometimes, as well as needing to put extensions on the pole - but I don't do any higher. I've only ever done a few shop fronts but other than that have no experience of commercial work (it's just me, so I think properties any bigger would probably be better with a bigger company - or maybe 2 partners working together at least). Do you mind me asking how many lads you have working for you? I have a friend who runs a window cleaning business with about 5 blokes working for him and he loves it - but the man management looks far too stressful for me lol.

 

[Iron Giant]

there was the cleaner in Nunthorpe cleaning 4 bed detached houses for £6.

We really are banging our heads against the proverbial brick wall in the North East with what some people are charging these days, I lost a job in the last few weeks it was a 4-bed detached well actually formerly a 3-bed with a converted integral garage with a big window put in the front and patio doors at the back there is someone going around an estate charging £10 every 4 weeks or £15 every 8 weeks I have no idea how people can be charging such low prices,

There is even a firm that drives down from Newcastle and has been doing so for a few years now and their prices are lower than mine, I think I picked up one of their jobs after the customer wasn't happy, the tops of the frames were visibly dirty and the front door hadn't been touched at all, but this is repeated time and time again with other cleaners as well, all these houses have been built across the last 10 years and they weren't cheap to buy,

This either shows that we have home owners who no longer care if a job is done to a good standard because it's cheap or that despite many of them being young professionals they see us at the bottom of the pile and not worth paying a 2023 price and more like a 2003 price

 

[spruce]

This either shows that we have home owners who no longer care if a job is done to a good standard because it's cheap or that despite many of them being young professionals they see us at the bottom of the pile and not worth paying a 2023 price and more like a 2003 price

This trad cleaner I mentioned in Nunthorpe was charging £6 for a 2 bedroom bungalow with a large conservatory.
The widowed owner is the sister of a house we cleaned back then, so I would bump into her every now and again.

She would always complain about how poor the job was by her window cleaner. I suggested she is speak to him and tell him to do a better job and she would pay him £8 or £10.
I thought she was going to have a heart attack at the suggestion.

A few years later the conversation came up again. I asked if she had given him more money to do a better job. "No, why would I do that?" was the answer.

But she gets herself a brand new car every 3 years. Last time I saw her car it was an Audi A2. Admittedly she had come down from an Audi A3. Personalised number plate as well.

We are servants and are treated as such by people who believe they are upper class. In her mind, she is upper class.

I'm not throwing stones here because we have to admit that we were guilty of similar when employing African domestic workers in central and southern Africa. Looking back, we could have done much better.

Our local job centre in Guisborough was telling guys to become window cleaners. Target every bungalow in the area and under cut their existing window cleaner. Outlay to start is negligible and their existing window cleaner can afford to lose the jobs. Work 24 hours a week and claim family credits to top your earnings up.
All they had to do initially was to provide a record of the hours they worked and a list of their customers and their total earning for the week.
Once they became part of the system then they didn't need to provide for those checks again on a regular basis.

I personally try to keep my prices low when pensioners and single mothers are involved who I see are living on a tight budget. But I also try to keep up with my competition for those who can afford it.

Someone once put up a quotation formula on one of the forums. When I applied that formula to houses on the Wilton Bank estate where we live, I would need to be charging £17.50 for the houses we clean. I would say that formula is fair. My price is £11.00 now. A house we recently took on had a window cleaner charging £12 which he put up to £15. The home owner thought he was ripping him off at that price and cancelled.

Pricing changes from area to area, but if we price above the perceived value in our customer's eyes, then we either won't get the job or we won't keep it for very long.

This is just my opinion from my experience in my area. Others may not agree and that's fine. I'm not saying I'm right either.

A neighbour came up to me yesterday afternoon while I was working on my van. "Our window cleaner has advised he had packed in as the weather has been bad this year for window cleaning (it has) and customers weren't paying him. Please can you give me and my neighbour across the road a quote."

I don't know what he was charging her or her neighbour, but I will probably find out shortly.

 

[Part Timer]

@Part Timer Ooof - 4 floors ?. I thought maybe 2 floors. I charge more for 3 storey houses even if they are the same amount of windows as a two storey, purely because I find them a little bit more awkward sometimes, as well as needing to put extensions on the pole - but I don't do any higher. I've only ever done a few shop fronts but other than that have no experience of commercial work (it's just me, so I think properties any bigger would probably be better with a bigger company - or maybe 2 partners working together at least). Do you mind me asking how many lads you have working for you? I have a friend who runs a window cleaning business with about 5 blokes working for him and he loves it - but the man management looks far too stressful for me lol.

Only myself and my son

 

[Iron Giant]

A neighbour came up to me yesterday afternoon while I was working on my van. "Our window cleaner has advised he had packed in as the weather has been bad this year for window cleaning (it has) and customers weren't paying him. Please can you give me and my neighbour across the road a quote."

I didn't hear sirens from across the Cleveland Hills so I assume they never had a heart attack when you quoted them

 

[spruce]

I didn't hear sirens from across the Cleveland Hills so I assume they never had a heart attack when you quoted them

Haven't done it yet. The second one has an extension being built. I will leave that until it is completed, and the builders have gone. That way, I hope I will not be left to clean their mess from the windows.

 

[Iron Giant]

I sometimes think some window cleaners do take the micky with their prices, but some are so low I don't know how they actually make any money at all. I think my prices are probably middle of the road.

Ultimately, we need to push the prices, for far too long prices were low and we were bottom of the pile, as business owners this should never be the case we should all be making a really good amount of money granted we aren't doing a skilled job like a builder but how many builders do you see that aren't well off there profits are way above ours and they are financially far better off than us I know different lads that have done well for themselves and have multiple rented houses,

Now I know we can't expect to be earning what skilled trades do, but as someone said on here a good while ago "We should be thriving not surviving" I have had people as in customers and other business owners think I was and am taking the mick with my prices but the customers were used to low prices and pigeoned holed me with others who weren't offering the same service as myself and the business owners were or are no better, I had another cleaner last year comment on one of my Facebook posts that I boosted saying "I was ripping people with my prices"

I don't want to be middle of the road and nor should any of us we should be top of tree because we aren't just window cleaners we are business owners and as such we should be far better off financially to provide for our families.

 

[Deleted member 5762]

Ultimately, we need to push the prices, for far too long prices were low and we were bottom of the pile, as business owners this should never be the case we should all be making a really good amount of money granted we aren't doing a skilled job like a builder but how many builders do you see that aren't well off there profits are way above ours and they are financially far better off than us I know different lads that have done well for themselves and have multiple rented houses,

Now I know we can't expect to be earning what skilled trades do, but as someone said on here a good while ago "We should be thriving not surviving" I have had people as in customers and other business owners think I was and am taking the mick with my prices but the customers were used to low prices and pigeoned holed me with others who weren't offering the same service as myself and the business owners were or are no better, I had another cleaner last year comment on one of my Facebook posts that I boosted saying "I was ripping people with my prices"

I don't want to be middle of the road and nor should any of us we should be top of tree because we aren't just window cleaners we are business owners and as such we should be far better off financially to provide for our families.

Yes I agree you should have to be earning a bit more overall than an employed person.

I don't know what other window cleaners in my area charge as I can't remember the last time I saw anybody advertise their prices, apart from one company a few towns over and they are known to be on the pricey side - but they have very high overheads and normally concentrate on much bigger properties and commercial jobs than I do.

If I do a quote I normally get one of two reactions - either "ok, yes that's fine, when are you available?", or "ooh, that's more than I thought" followed by alot of umming and aahing.

The latter I assume because people still view a window cleaner as a fella walking up and down an estate with a ladder on his shoulder earning a few quid cash in hand.

Luckily nowadays when you turn up with half decent equipment I think most people realise it's a proper business.

 

[Iron Giant]

Yes I agree you should have to be earning a bit more overall than an employed person.

I don't know what other window cleaners in my area charge as I can't remember the last time I saw anybody advertise their prices, apart from one company a few towns over and they are known to be on the pricey side - but they have very high overheads and normally concentrate on much bigger properties and commercial jobs than I do.

If I do a quote I normally get one of two reactions - either "ok, yes that's fine, when are you available?", or "ooh, that's more than I thought" followed by alot of umming and aahing.

The latter I assume because people still view a window cleaner as a fella walking up and down an estate with a ladder on his shoulder earning a few quid cash in hand.

Luckily nowadays when you turn up with half decent equipment I think most people realise it's a proper business.

Apologies, I meant to reply the other day.

You should be earning a good bit more than an employed person to cover for time off, expenses etc,

I thought you covered a decent area down Staffordshire or am I getting you mixed up with someone else?

My thinking is that the vast majority of people should have a different view of us these days things have changed massively even in my small town which was a former pit village, I remember 15 years ago when I switched to a trolley I got some funny looks and one fella even asked if I spraying weedkiller for the council

A decent setup a signed van and a uniform should be the order of the day these days, I started wearing a uniform about 20 years ago and again got some funny looks as we always wore plain clothes previously but when you go out and look different and do a top job then you should be able to set your prices higher,

I knew what others charged roughly in my area as we were all charging about the same and no one ever really pushed prices that much but I started putting prices up more often than others and in the village where I grew up every time I put prices up I lost jobs which over more than 10 years I ended up with just a handful which I dropped, I discovered a forum about 15-16 years ago then wfp plus all the sharing of prices even though some lads where 100's of miles from me I knew I could keep on pushing my prices up and keep pushing my business and myself, you'll get there but it does take time hopefully you'll get there faster than I did.

 

[Deleted member 5762]

Apologies, I meant to reply the other day.

You should be earning a good bit more than an employed person to cover for time off, expenses etc,

I thought you covered a decent area down Staffordshire or am I getting you mixed up with someone else?

My thinking is that the vast majority of people should have a different view of us these days things have changed massively even in my small town which was a former pit village, I remember 15 years ago when I switched to a trolley I got some funny looks and one fella even asked if I spraying weedkiller for the council

A decent setup a signed van and a uniform should be the order of the day these days, I started wearing a uniform about 20 years ago and again got some funny looks as we always wore plain clothes previously but when you go out and look different and do a top job then you should be able to set your prices higher,

I knew what others charged roughly in my area as we were all charging about the same and no one ever really pushed prices that much but I started putting prices up more often than others and in the village where I grew up every time I put prices up I lost jobs which over more than 10 years I ended up with just a handful which I dropped, I discovered a forum about 15-16 years ago then wfp plus all the sharing of prices even though some lads where 100's of miles from me I knew I could keep on pushing my prices up and keep pushing my business and myself, you'll get there but it does take time hopefully you'll get there faster than I did.

@Iron Giant no worries. No I'm not Staffordshire, I'm on edge of Hampshire and Dorset.

I totally agree. When I started it was because I was looking after my Nan who was unwell with cancer, and I needed something flexible so I could take her to appointments and hospital etc (there was nobody else to look after her as my Mum was an only child and she died quite a long time ago). So my wife and I looked after my Nan, and I did a little bit of traditional window cleaning as I already had my own unger stuff.

My aim was to try and make about the same sort of money I would have with a part time job, but I quickly realised that I could make a reasonable bit more money (more than an office or factory job for example, including factoring in that you get paid holidays etc in employment) by working for myself. I then went on to a backpack and pole for the tops and traditional on the bottoms, then more pole work, then getting a gutter vacuum, got a couple of embroidered polo shirts and a jacket etc.

When my Nan died my wife started working with me too, and we now work together most of the time - apart from a little bit of the school holidays, or if one of the kids is off school poorly or anything.

It's not for everyone to be working together, but we generally get on ok (most of the time lol). Most work is in between school hours generally, so we have a much better work/life balance than quite a lot of the mums and dads we know.

I still now get the odd comment "don't you go up a ladder and do them the proper way?", or some people "my old window cleaner only charged me £7.50, but he hasn't been for months". I stay polite and either just smile or just politely reiterate what the price is.

I know what you mean about types of villages and communities. I have a number of jobs that are park homes on a little retirement estate. When I switched them to pole work nobody batted an eyelid apart from one (who was a bit of a know-all anyway). They said "no thanks, I'll get someone with a squeegee". That must be 2 or 3 years ago and they still haven't got a new window cleaner.