Has anyone changed form 4 and 8 weekly to 6 weekly only ?

[ksp]

Ime not criticising what you are doing but just feel you could be maximising  more profit , there is no right or wrong if you are happy with the price that’s fine , we all have some under priced work for what ever reason , maybe  the work we do gets a lot dirtier as we are on the coast ?? We disown jobs in London 8 times a year and they are always filthy when we do them . I like the 4-8 weekly routeen as less customers are needed  and that’s what most want , we are doing some 8 weekly stuff this  afternoon and it’s running a week late so 9 weeks they are that bad you can hardly see through them and have green algi  growing on the frames , if we did them12 weekly they would look like they had never been cleaned ????

Yeah I’m very lucky in that respect. There’s not a huge amount of difference on this property. It may take 5 minutes longer just as I make sure to give it an extra long rinse but nothing like the issues you have. The jobs I have which are pain, tree sap, building sites, busy roads etc I always charge more. 

 

[Davy G]

If i do 6 and 12 i will have exactly the same problem i have now, nothing will have changed. I just want one frequency

I would still do some 12 weekly, provided the price is substantially more than at the standard of 6 weekly. It's a handy bit of extra money when you're already there. It's not that difficult to schedule.

We don't organise work by A to Z. We organise by proximity to other customers, to minimise our travel time and to increase our visual dwell time in each road. This increases the chances of a walk-up enquiry. All I would do in your case to synchronise 6s and 12s is carry the 12s forward in the diary with the 6s and make a note on the times the 12s aren't yet due, 'number 7 (12w) is next time,' for instance. By carrying them forward with the 6s you are less likely to miss them when they are due.

I wouldn't make 12 weekly my standard though. As others have said "Too many customers would be needed and too much time between receiving payments".

Good luck, whatever you decide. ?

 

[Iron Giant]

Not quite right, big fella. If you only add £2 you will still be up. Because, and this is the important bit I keep stressing. You will have freed up one space in every three for another let's say £12 job. You are not trying to get the same income per annum from each of your existing customers. They will in fact pay less per year. You're bringing in new paying customers so will earn a lot more per annum with the same amount of work done and the same number of visits overall.

As I said before. Run it by a decent accountant.

You know me, I look at it very simply and simple maths would see me lose money per annum yes my costs would reduce less GoCardless payments etc, so it my balance up a bit but not by that much of that I'm certain

Also I don't want anymore customers and I am not interested in saving them money or me losing any, if I wanted to increase my profit and do less work I'd put all my prices up and drop some jobs 

 

[Ash87]

Im sick to death of constantly resheduling my rounds every week, its becoming a nightmare having 4 and 8 weekly. I cant keep up, im 3 weeks behind and everyday im pulling jobs aroud in cleaner planner trying to put things in order. Then i miss jobs out and have to either skip them or go out of my way to mop them up

Im seriously considering changing to just 6 weekly, no 12s either!

I would like to just have 6 weekly, all in a perfect order form A-Z

Im not really worried about the 4 weeklys, im always behind anyway so doubt they will raise an eyebrow. I think the problem will be convincing a lot of the 8 weeklys, i know for a fact some will object but then again i could just dump the ones who dont but dont want to lose dozens of them....

Should i tell them, to be honest im thinking just start doing them 6 weekly and wait till they say something...

I was in the exact same boat, I actually still had more 4 weekly than 8 but think i losing so much time tryimg to catch up on the 8'si lost money on 4 weeklies, I changed everything to 6 weeks with no one batting an eyelid , I decided to only offer 12 weeks at my own discretion and as it stands I have 1 job  which was already a 12 anyway . I agree with @Pjj 12 isn't worth it unless it's priced accordingly - i also find when I quote im more confident its more direct to say " I clean all my customers 6 weekly I include all the frames and your doors for £xxx " as opposed to scoping out when  they want you to come and giving them a price for each frequency.  

Also I can be abit unorganised (lazy) and it helped me keep my rounds in order . 

 

[windowsurfer]

I dont do much 4 weekly, round mainly made up off 6 n 8 weekly, two 10weekly, a few 3 monthly, a few 6 monthly. Personally 6 weekly is just right for cleaning. 8 weekly charged a bit more, so prefer them overall. 4 weekly does my head in, as really don't want to go to same jobs every month.

 

[Iron Giant]

I was in the exact same boat, I actually still had more 4 weekly than 8 but think i losing so much time tryimg to catch up on the 8'si lost money on 4 weeklies, I changed everything to 6 weeks with no one batting an eyelid , I decided to only offer 12 weeks at my own discretion and as it stands I have 1 job  which was already a 12 anyway . I agree with @Pjj 12 isn't worth it unless it's priced accordingly - i also find when I quote im more confident its more direct to say " I clean all my customers 6 weekly I include all the frames and your doors for £xxx " as opposed to scoping out when  they want you to come and giving them a price for each frequency.  

Also I can be abit unorganised (lazy) and it helped me keep my rounds in order . 

Question is how did they take the price hike? 

The fear factor for me is saying I am going to call fewer times a year and your windows will be going up by £2 or more depending on the job. Obviously there are variations with jobs location and size of job, 

I am going to ask my accountant to go through figures over the next week as I am guessing he will have to go right through my accounts as managing over 400 jobs on 4 weekly is a bit of push at times along with other jobs on different frequencies. 

 

[Cleanco]

Don’t know why people get so hung up on frequency. As long as you plan your runs efficiently and price accordingly to that frequency there shouldn’t be a problem. We do 2,4,6,8 weekly and also the odd quarterly and annual commercial contracts and always aim to earn roughly the same no matter what we are doing although the commercials are a tad more lucrative. I suppose it helps when all your work is concentrated into specific areas. If your work is all scattered about even with the best prices your always gonna be chasing your tail. 

 

[Will Eves]

Question is how did they take the price hike? 

The fear factor for me is saying I am going to call fewer times a year and your windows will be going up by £2 or more depending on the job. Obviously there are variations with jobs location and size of job, 

I am going to ask my accountant to go through figures over the next week as I am guessing he will have to go right through my accounts as managing over 400 jobs on 4 weekly is a bit of push at times along with other jobs on different frequencies. 

I think it’s a pretty good plan if you’re wanting to slow down a little. I’m thinking of doing something similar in the future. Rather than change to 6 weekly though I’d just go from 4 to 5 weekly and increase the price by 25%. If it’s explained to the customer properly I can’t see any problems (apart from the usual suspects that love to moan). It wouldn’t cost them more but it is a tiny compromise in the service. I’d push it by saying something like “rather than putting my prices up this year I’m doing this”. I’d need a blanket price increase first then plan this further down the line. It would give a lot more flexibility to take on more work or just have more time off/ slow down a bit depending what you want. 
I’m with you though I don’t like to put my prices up in such a big jump so it would definitely be worth wording it correctly and making sure the custy knows they’re paying the same weekly/annually overall. 

 

[Davy G]

Question is how did they take the price hike? 

The fear factor for me is saying I am going to call fewer times a year and your windows will be going up by £2 or more depending on the job. Obviously there are variations with jobs location and size of job, 

I am going to ask my accountant to go through figures over the next week as I am guessing he will have to go right through my accounts as managing over 400 jobs on 4 weekly is a bit of push at times along with other jobs on different frequencies. 

Get your accountant to read my reasoning as well as your figures though, please. Once again, no more jobs done weekly or annually. But at least an extra couple of quid on each job done. Only you know how many jobs you do in a day. Rightly so, that's no one's business but your own.

I'm going to use a round figure of ten a day for the sake of this exercise. At £2 = an extra £20 per day = £100 per week and so on. I think you're doing twice that so £40 per day £200 per week. Once customers realise they will actually pay less per year most in my experience are delighted to pay a little more per visit. They don't need to see my ugly mug every 4 weeks. No more work is done per day but you do need more customers. Given a choice of having more customers but no extra jobs to do and an increase in income of hundreds of pounds per week, I know which choice I prefer. It's just a tiny bit of extra work in the diary. Something of nothing. Six weekly is usually quite sufficient to keep their windows up together. There is no point or advantage in going from 4 weekly to 5. It misses the point, of a very large increase in income for NO extra physical work or job visits. The devil is in the detail and 6 is the important detail in this case.

All this is different on the coast. They do need to be cleaned more frequently.

You do need to talk with a GOOD accountant that will read and digest what I'm saying, properly. ??

 

[Tango]

Yes i've changed from 4 / monthly to 6 weekly and above. Reason being is that all the 4 / monthly work I had i kept getting messed about - every 2nd visit being skipped, late payments (then they don't like paying twice in the same month etc). I made the mistake of being keen on 4/monthly and had way too much disappointment from it. 

 

[Ash87]

Question is how did they take the price hike? 

The fear factor for me is saying I am going to call fewer times a year and your windows will be going up by £2 or more depending on the job. Obviously there are variations with jobs location and size of job, 

I am going to ask my accountant to go through figures over the next week as I am guessing he will have to go right through my accounts as managing over 400 jobs on 4 weekly is a bit of push at times along with other jobs on different frequencies. 

I didnt increase my prices at the time , my biggest reason for changing was because my round was constantly out of sync and going back and forth wasn't cost and time effective  

Eg if I had 2 customers next to each other one was a 4 weekly and the other 8 weekly instead of doing both at the same time every other month I was so behind they wouldn't be due at the same time and I'd have to either make two trips or shuffle the round and pull one forward or push one back - which in turn affected another job round the corner - and so on and so forth. 

Are you considering changing frequency too @Iron Giant? If so why are you considering? 

 

[Neil.. Lancashire]

I totally understand what you are saying , but £20 for a 3 monthly  clean. Is just way to cheap  you could be doing a 6 weekly job that will be easier and cleaner and more regular for that money , I feel you are selling yourself short , each to there own  but I feel the customer is taking you for a ride . 

I had a bi monthly customer text me at 730 this morning asking to leave it till next month.

I texted back its not viable for the business 4 cleans per year for a domestic house. 

She texted back saying she didn't realize it had been 2 months and to call as arranged.

she pays £22

 

[adamangler]

I didnt increase my prices at the time , my biggest reason for changing was because my round was constantly out of sync and going back and forth wasn't cost and time effective  

Eg if I had 2 customers next to each other one was a 4 weekly and the other 8 weekly instead of doing both at the same time every other month I was so behind they wouldn't be due at the same time and I'd have to either make two trips or shuffle the round and pull one forward or push one back - which in turn affected another job round the corner - and so on and so forth. 

Are you considering changing frequency too @Iron Giant? If so why are you considering? 

This is exactly the problem the 8s on a road never sync with the 4s. You can re order your round and set  them up perfectly so they do but once you get behind it all goes out of sync. The only way it stays in order is if you work like clockwork which in the real world is almost impossible to achieve if you have a full round. I look at my round which is 2 weeks or so behind, then a week later on cleaner planner im due back in the same area for half a dozen jobs its a nightmare.

 

[Pjj]

This is exactly the problem the 8s on a road never sync with the 4s. You can re order your round and set  them up perfectly so they do but once you get behind it all goes out of sync. The only way it stays in order is if you work like clockwork which in the real world is almost impossible to achieve if you have a full round. I look at my round which is 2 weeks or so behind, then a week later on cleaner planner im due back in the same area for half a dozen jobs its a nightmare.

Don’t  quite understand this .?. If you are in the road every 4 weeks this time you do the 8 weekly , next time you give it a miss then do it the following visit , don’t see what the problem is ?? 

 

[steve garwood]

Roughly 6-7 weeks for me,  No exact dates, that’s just unnecessary pressure.

No 4 or 8 weekly, the rare 12-13 weekly. If I want time off, I have it. Just pick up where I left off and never try to ‘catch up’. ??‍?

 

[Iron Giant]

Don’t  quite understand this .?. If you are in the road every 4 weeks this time you do the 8 weekly , next time you give it a miss then do it the following visit , don’t see what the problem is ?? 

I was thinking exactly the same, sounds like two very unorganised people to me. 

 

[Davy G]

This is exactly the problem the 8s on a road never sync with the 4s. You can re order your round and set  them up perfectly so they do but once you get behind it all goes out of sync. The only way it stays in order is if you work like clockwork which in the real world is almost impossible to achieve if you have a full round. I look at my round which is 2 weeks or so behind, then a week later on cleaner planner im due back in the same area for half a dozen jobs its a nightmare.

We work pretty much like clockwork. Every job is in order with its neighbours on the same frequency. If one goes out of sync (work going on, hols etc) it's brought back in sync next time. If its a couple of weeks behind we'll skip it the next time and put it back in line the following time.  Sometimes we'll bring a slightly out of sync job forward a few days or a week. It's so important to not let the round organisation run away with itself. If the whole round is behind for any reason (weather, our hols etc), we simply start back continuing where we left off.

 

[Wolfman]

Do what's best for your business Adam, can't see any of the 4 weekly even mentioning it if you changed to 6,and the 8 weeklies either knock a couple of quid of if there having a moan. 

4 weekly over 48 weeks 12 cleans/year

6 weekly 8 cleans/year

8 weekly 6 cleans/year

So if everything runs perfectly over year the 8s are only having 2 more cleans per year, factor in van probs, weather illness etc may only be one tell that to moaners

 

[Iron Giant]

I think it’s a pretty good plan if you’re wanting to slow down a little. I’m thinking of doing something similar in the future. Rather than change to 6 weekly though I’d just go from 4 to 5 weekly and increase the price by 25%. If it’s explained to the customer properly I can’t see any problems (apart from the usual suspects that love to moan). It wouldn’t cost them more but it is a tiny compromise in the service. I’d push it by saying something like “rather than putting my prices up this year I’m doing this”. I’d need a blanket price increase first then plan this further down the line. It would give a lot more flexibility to take on more work or just have more time off/ slow down a bit depending what you want. 
I’m with you though I don’t like to put my prices up in such a big jump so it would definitely be worth wording it correctly and making sure the custy knows they’re paying the same weekly/annually overall. 

I am 45 I ain't slowing down yet, just wanting to work a little less but earn the same money or more, I deffo need to look at the figures in depth with my accountant who is spot on,

but I would rather do 5 weekly or just once per calendar which would most likely see 10-11 cleans per annum but I would have a few free days a month just to do what I wanted, I'll increase my prices as much as I can over the next few years and phase in frequency changes 

 

[Ash87]

I'm far more organised now but for me that was the crux of it, I had too much other stuff going on away from window cleaning and had commercial work that I was prioritising over my domestic , I ended up taking a fortnight off to mentally re-charge , it gave me that chance to assess where I was going right and wrong,  at the time I was overwhelmed with work, my other business and home life one of the things I identified was that what would work better for me is to be able to stop working on the domestic do a week of commercial and pick up where I left off so one frequency at 6 weeks is ideal for me.  im as busy as I want to be, I have room to manoeuvre if I want more window work but iv got a balance that's healthy for me now , and I'm far more productive and when I'm on rhe road cleaning now 

 

[Will Eves]

I am 45 I ain't slowing down yet, just wanting to work a little less but earn the same money or more, I deffo need to look at the figures in depth with my accountant who is spot on,

but I would rather do 5 weekly or just once per calendar which would most likely see 10-11 cleans per annum but I would have a few free days a month just to do what I wanted, I'll increase my prices as much as I can over the next few years and phase in frequency changes 

Ah sorry I thought you meant you wanted to slow down haha. I’d  be doing it for the same reasons as you. Defo worth thinking about. 
You have definitely planted a seed here like @Davy G lol.