Could my pricing be wrong?

[Danfire]

Cheers, I already advise that 6 weekly is the sweet spot etc but I've been too flexible with intervals and consequently I'm all over the place! 

From now on, I'm just offering 6 weekly and that's what my website will suggest when I get round to updating it. 

In due course, I'll have to approach my existing customers and tell them the news but I may be a little more flexible with them. 

I reckon 8 weeks is good if you're in a very expensive area and people are paying top money for their cleans. I read in some places (particularly up north) people having weekly cleans. Can't see me ever get away with that if the average is £30 a clean.

 

[Pjj]

I reckon 8 weeks is good if you're in a very expensive area and people are paying top money for their cleans. I read in some places (particularly up north) people having weekly cleans. Can't see me ever get away with that if the average is £30 a clean.

Again I think it depends on the area we have some 4 weekly domestic work thats £45 , £60, £80 and £125 per clean per month just beacause that’s a lot of money to us it might not be to the customer whose house is £500,000 to several million and some of theses properties are only small cottages .

 

[cleaniac]

I'll give you my price examples, my min price is £25 but i'll start with my most popular price.

lets start based on a nominal  Monthly price at £30, thats £360 per year. 

Bi-Monthly would be £45, £270 per year, (need another customer of the same type on the alternate month) so this becomes £540 revenue per year for the same labour time over two customers.

Quarterly would be £55, £220 per year, ( need two more customers per year of the same type for each of the 2 other months for that quarter) so this becomes £660 for the same labour time over 3 customers. This is why quarterly is so profitable, and really is the only work that motivates me to carry on with the job, as its no secret I do find this job tedious and boring so it better pay me well! 

You also need to establish  and have clear in your head what your minimum yearly fee per customer needs to be to extract a profit after wages and expenses.

For me, each customer has to provide my business with at least £200 per year revenue in order for me to be able justify doing the work, if the result becomes less than this, its of no benefit to my business at all. This makes pricing easier, for one-off cleans this makes the min price £200. 

As for weekly cleans; the only customer I had weekly was a contract for Total UK Ltd before Gerald Ronson bought the business back from Total. I had something like 50  total garages (by the end) to clean windows for every week, i'd start from central london at 5AM and finish at 11pm in portsmouth, £20 flat rate per garage so Id have a bit fat wedge of cash every week, not bad for a days work, long hours though, but HMRC were asking for a grand a week back payments at the time and with a baby to feed..so I kind of needed the work at the time, it was the only way i could survive. When gerald bought the business back, he sold it off to independent owner operators, and that finished, he was a tough cookie, met him a couple of times he was making everyone run ragged before the deal..

lol no wonder I have had depression..

 

[cleaniac]

That doesn't sound that positive ? To be fair when starting a minimum hourly target rate is as good a benchmark as any. Once established you can then look to achieve better priced work.

How is that NOT positive?

If you have a min price of say £25, and you have a customer that wants you to do one window up and down, and it takes you less than 5 mins to do, i'd say that's very positive.  

 

[Pjj]

I'll give you my price examples, my min price is £25 but i'll start with my most popular price.

lets start based on a nominal  Monthly price at £30, thats £360 per year. 

Bi-Monthly would be £45, £270 per year, (need another customer of the same type on the alternate month) so this becomes £540 revenue per year for the same labour time over two customers.

Quarterly would be £55, £220 per year, ( need two more customers per year of the same type for each of the 2 other months for that quarter) so this becomes £660 for the same labour time over 3 customers. This is why quarterly is so profitable, and really is the only work that motivates me to carry on with the job, as its no secret I do find this job tedious and boring so it better pay me well! 

You also need to establish  and have clear in your head what your minimum yearly fee per customer needs to be to extract a profit after wages and expenses.

For me, each customer has to provide my business with at least £200 per year revenue in order for me to be able justify doing the work, if the result becomes less than this, its of no benefit to my business at all. This makes pricing easier, for one-off cleans this makes the min price £200. 

As for weekly cleans; the only customer I had weekly was a contract for Total UK Ltd before Gerald Ronson bought the business back from Total. I had something like 50  total garages (by the end) to clean windows for every week, i'd start from central london at 5AM and finish at 11pm in portsmouth, £20 flat rate per garage so Id have a bit fat wedge of cash every week, not bad for a days work, long hours though, but HMRC were asking for a grand a week back payments at the time and with a baby to feed..so I kind of needed the work at the time, it was the only way i could survive. When gerald bought the business back, he sold it off to independent owner operators, and that finished, he was a tough cookie, met him a couple of times he was making everyone run ragged before the deal..

lol no wonder I have had depression..

I guess we all look at our business in different ways we only offer 4-8 weekly domestic big commercial we will do at any frequency the customer wants and the price is adjusted accordingly, but we wouldn’t take on quarterly work domestic and so far have only been asked for it a handful of times , we do however do some quarterly gutter vaccing jobs and fire exit path cleaning , but not windows . 

 

[NewGuy]

I reckon 8 weeks is good if you're in a very expensive area and people are paying top money for their cleans. I read in some places (particularly up north) people having weekly cleans. Can't see me ever get away with that if the average is £30 a clean.

The girl at the flat I quoted on yesterday wanted her windows cleaned every fortnight (some want to see more quite often ?).

 

[Part Timer]

How is that NOT positive?

If you have a min price of say £25, and you have a customer that wants you to do one window up and down, and it takes you less than 5 mins to do, i'd say that's very positive.  

The first part was great, the second part read, to me anyway, as if he is satisfied with his minimum. Apologies if I misread your first upbeat reply ?

The girl at the flat I quoted on yesterday wanted her windows cleaned every fortnight (some want to see more quite often ?).

We have, had, a couple of fortnightly houses but they were near to 2 pubs we did fortnightly and are seafront properties.

 

[NewGuy]

The first part was great, the second part read, to me anyway, as if he is satisfied with his minimum. Apologies if I misread your first upbeat reply ?

We have, had, a couple of fortnightly houses but they were near to 2 pubs we did fortnightly and are seafront properties.

Appreciate there are some circumstances where it makes sense. 

I'm never going to make a successful cleaner because I simply hate cleaning very clean windows ?

 

[swc1]

I'm never going to make a successful cleaner because I simply hate cleaning very clean windows ?

That view will change, after you have plenty work.

 

[spruce]

@Ian Docksey. Its not easy to make a finite decision on how you will price and schedule your round when you are new to window cleaning.

Sometimes you are between the proverbial Devil and the Deep Blue Sea as you need a good income but getting customers is a slow process and takes time. Many of your new enquiries come from customers other cleaners have dropped. Unfortunately customers never seem to learn that the problem for a windie stopping coming is usually down to them.

We always try to get an idea of what the perceived price is of a window clean in a particular area. There are areas we won't look at because that percieved price is too low. We usually advise that you should aim for an acceptance rate of 40% of your quotes. If you want to grow your round quicker then price so you get 60% of your quotes. If you get none of the quotes you give then your prices are too high. If you get all of them then your prices are too low.

When you have a full round then pricing high is easy because it doen't matter if they reject your price.

As @Part Timerhas stated before, he has areas in Sunderland where the perceived price for a window clean for a 3 bed semi is £5. We have the same on Teesside. The further east we go the lower the price. Loftus is a typical £5 for a 3 bed semi as it is in Sunderland.

Even in a more upmarket area we had a trad cleaner pricing a 4 bed detached house for £6. Many of his customers complained that he didn't do a very good job. One in particular wanted me to clean wfp for the same price. I told her to increase your payment to him to £8 or £9 and ask him to do a better job. She nearly had a heart attack. 4 years later she was still paying him £6 and still complaining about the job he did as she was parking her brand new Audi in her double garage. Then he fell off his ladders and will never work again.

Now she is paying me £12 to do the job.

 

[harunh]

@Ian Docksey. Its not easy to make a finite decision on how you will price and schedule your round when you are new to window cleaning.

Sometimes you are between the proverbial Devil and the Deep Blue Sea as you need a good income but getting customers is a slow process and takes time. Many of your new enquiries come from customers other cleaners have dropped. Unfortunately customers never seem to learn that the problem for a windie stopping coming is usually down to them.

We always try to get an idea of what the perceived price is of a window clean in a particular area. There are areas we won't look at because that percieved price is too low. We usually advise that you should aim for an acceptance rate of 40% of your quotes. If you want to grow your round quicker then price so you get 60% of your quotes. If you get none of the quotes you give then your prices are too high. If you get all of them then your prices are too low.

When you have a full round then pricing high is easy because it doen't matter if they reject your price.

As @Part Timerhas stated before, he has areas in Sunderland where the perceived price for a window clean for a 3 bed semi is £5. We have the same on Teesside. The further east we go the lower the price. Loftus is a typical £5 for a 3 bed semi as it is in Sunderland.

Even in a more upmarket area we had a trad cleaner pricing a 4 bed detached house for £6. Many of his customers complained that he didn't do a very good job. One in particular wanted me to clean wfp for the same price. I told her to increase your payment to him to £8 or £9 and ask him to do a better job. She nearly had a heart attack. 4 years later she was still paying him £6 and still complaining about the job he did as she was parking her brand new Audi in her double garage. Then he fell off his ladders and will never work again.

Now she is paying me £12 to do the job.

U clean windows in Loftus? Liverton Mines? I bet its hard to get money from there lol

My dad used to have a shop on the colditts estate for 12 years until they knocked all the estate down

Never have i seen so many bag heads and inbreds in my life lmaooo

I miss being a kid in my dads shop eatin all the sweets ? lol a few nice people up Loftus though.. but a lot of scruffy ***** aswel lol

 

[Part Timer]

As @Part Timerhas stated before, he has areas in Sunderland where the perceived price for a window clean for a 3 bed semi is £5. We have the same on Teesside. The further east we go the lower the price. Loftus is a typical £5 for a 3 bed semi as

I priced this up yesterday, he was looking for a reliable window cleaner as his other one hadn't been since Christmas. He was charging £5 for a fortnightly wash. 

 

[Pjj]

I priced this up yesterday, he was looking for a reliable window cleaner as his other one hadn't been since Christmas. He was charging £5 for a fortnightly wash. 

View attachment 23445

Lol ide want £20 for that at least , more if there is a conservatory on the back ???? £5 lol no wonder he stopped coming , what did you charge him and did he accept it it or have a heart attack ??????

 

[cleaniac]

I priced this up yesterday, he was looking for a reliable window cleaner as his other one hadn't been since Christmas. He was charging £5 for a fortnightly wash. 

View attachment 23445

Down my way that's a £65 job; no joking. 

It might also be a good idea to remove the address tag from the picture. 

Actually had another look at it, more like £50, to hell with it though tell her Ill do it for £65

 

[Pjj]

Down my way that's a £65 job

It’s only the house on the right mark not both ???

 

[cleaniac]

Appreciate there are some circumstances where it makes sense. 

I'm never going to make a successful cleaner because I simply hate cleaning very clean windows ?

Well, once you've been doing it for 20 years trust me you'll be sick and tired of the job.....NOPE...STAY POSITIVE!!! 

Its the best job in the bleedin world! 

 

[cleaniac]

It’s only the house on the right mark not both ???

Now how funny would that be..

Neighbour 1: "Oh my window cleaner, he charges us like £90 for our house so expensive!"

Neighbour 2:" Me and my neighbour next door have been having them done for nothing, ill get you his number"

 

[NewGuy]

Well, once you've been doing it for 20 years trust me you'll be sick and tired of the job.....NOPE...STAY POSITIVE!!! 

Its the best job in the bleedin world! 

Not sure I like this positivity ?

 

[spruce]

I priced this up yesterday, he was looking for a reliable window cleaner as his other one hadn't been since Christmas. He was charging £5 for a fortnightly wash. 

View attachment 23445

It wouldn't surprise me if he was looking for a more competitive price. ?

 

[Part Timer]

It might also be a good idea to remove the address tag from the picture. 

It's not actually the address, the house is only a 3 bed semi with a large extension  and the extension only has 2 windows on it so as he nearly collapsed when I said £12, he regained a bit of his colour when I said once a month, I'm not sure I'll get it. It's a 5 or 6 minute job for the 2 of us and up here a £1 a minute, for the 2 of us, is about all you can get on residential work.

 

[spruce]

Appreciate there are some circumstances where it makes sense. 

I'm never going to make a successful cleaner because I simply hate cleaning very clean windows ?

I simply hate cleaning very clean windows.

We had an old customer many years ago who has now passed away.

On one visit I causally remarked that her windows weren't dirty this time after I cleaned them.

She looked at me the only way old people can and replied, " Young man," ( that was a lie because I wasn't young even back then,) "I pay you to keep my windows clean, not clean then when they are dirty."

I was so impressed with that answer I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it. I've used it many times since on customers who open the door when I arrive and ask me to leave it this time as the windows are still clean.

I found out that comment helps to get rid of messers. "Well if that's your attitude then don't bother coming again. I'll find someone else who is more accommodating."

"Thank you for your custom and have a nice day."

Then a couple of months later my phone rings. " Hello, I'm looking for a window cleaner and a friend recommended you. I had a window cleaner who wasn't very nice and I got rid of him. I didn't like him at all. How much do you charge to clean windows?" 

"What's your address and I will call when I'm in the area and price them up."

" I'm sorry ma'am. But I'm the not very nice window cleaner you got rid of."

I never did find out who her friend was who recommended me.