What do they expect!?

[Jake]

You have to think that in different parts of the country prices to buy other things are really different as well. In Gateshead you could buy a 3 bed house for about £70K but down south where I live you'd be lucky to buy a garden shed for that (no offence intended).
Even so the country has a minimum wage and at £3 per house by the time you pay insurance etc you'd be doing well to end up with minimum wage. My min charge is £10 per house and I'd defend that as a fair price to anyone who asked.

Same here, this last 12 months my minimum price has been £10, regardless of how small

 

[Diwrnach]

£10 is my usual minimum charge, though I do have a couple of really small houses with like 5 windows each next door to each other who are friends and I do those at £8 each, also have a couple of really small old dears bungalows I also charge £8 for.

 

[paul fenwick]

costs in this job are low as I just do trad,car paid for insurance just over £200 a year with business use added free, Churchill,ladders and tools are cheap to start up.leaflets £27 for 2000 and only my own free time to post,liability insurance is not expensive,even adding the other expenses in its not expensive to start off unlike my last job driving a taxi,cost over £1000 every 4 weeks just to go to work(£335 car payment,£500 month office rent,£120 month insurance then diesel on top)and as I am now 48 and officially turning into an old fart, also only doing job part time as I am slowing my work life down and enjoy what's left of life before the grim reaper comes knocking.so even taking this into account after reading what you all think maybe I will pack it in.thanks

 

[adamangler]

Paul i think if thats th ebest prices you can get you really need to do something else or make a major change. struggling to get £5 houses you would be better off employed on minimum wage and not have all the stress surely.

Im up north (not as north as you im in Leeds/Wakefield) but still there are a lot of working class areas where the windows have been cleaned in the past by trad guys for a fiver, theres LOADS of windys round here and im at the top end price wise. Luckily i have better areas locally that i have found better prices in. My minimum was a tenner ive dropped below to 8 quid on about 3-4 houses as they are either really local or next to an existing one. My average is currently £11.80, its not great but its not bad either and once my round is full i will be putting prices up losing a few and adding new ones. In order to get a decent average you have to be prepared to stick to your prices, im convinced my round would be twice the size if i had dropped lower but i wont do it i know what i want to earn ive put far too much time, money, sweat and stress into my business to get paid such lowly amounts.

I would either go further affield to canvass more affluent areas or add more services to your business. Seems youre going no where fast at those prices mate.

 

[Jimroot]

Paul, could only do the good payers and do another job part time too. One decent day of windows would feel good, two or three for peanuts would feel a hassle

 

[Danfire]

I had a minimum £10 charge policy until today....working one of my nicer roads (average house price 500k) where I've got most of the road sewn up and saw a total Milf with her teenage son...I thinks "I'm gonna give her a good canvassing when I've finished the round"....when I knock hubbie opens the door and says he just wants the front cleaning as he does the back himself....wouldn't normally bother but for £6 and a good leer at his beloved I can make an exception....probably try to talk her into letting me do her rear elevation while I'm there.

 

[MrBump]

I was going to say the same thing as said above by adamangler and others... Either change your area to somewhere where you can charge enough to make it worthwhile, try to do more commercial or add on other jobs, else at the end of the year minus all the expenses and worry of getting work, surely it would be easier and better pay to stack shelves? Fingers crossed it all works out for you. Get a map, draw a line around where you know the prices are done too cheaply, then canvass outside that area and keep moving outwards until you are able to sign people people up for more. Good luck :thumbsup:

I read somewhere of someone going to london for a week and sleeping in the van and earning more than a months worth of work up north, maybe on here? Might be worth considering. Or, less often take a bit longer, over time times can change but at least the price will be up.

 

[Dave B]

Back to my stubborn determination again..if you look hard enough and are determined enough you will find the customers you want rather than the ones you feel you should take for the sake of having work

 

[cheapncheerful]

but....pure maybe cheaper up there..lower tds tap...

no feckin traffic...

I was thinking today about prices but in reality I want to do them more often...

but can I ...I dont know ...ya have to go with the flow sometimes..

its a constant battle...and paul I do feel for you but dont give up...just crack on..

dont count the money just think well its another load of work done time to move to the next lot...and good luck..

/emoticons/biggrin.png

 

[MrBump]

Thats true, pure may be a bit cheaper up north. Maybe if it was glass only, no frames and sills you could do them alot quicker, I find they take the longest. Could offer a glass only for cheaper price and frames and sills too for double. Best of luck!

 

[Kennygggkent]

I think the problem is with the Windy, why is he going to a custy every two weeks? When I clean my four week custys there's really not much dirt to clean. 6 weeks is a good rotation, if I was going to a custy every two weeks for £2 something I would be there about 2 mins.

 

[MrBump]

Exactly, if he did it every 4 weeks instead it would be £5.20 and every 6 weeks would be £7.80 and suddenly the prices are becoming a little bit more respectable and yet the customer is paying the same amount and the windy could clean more houses!

 

[adamangler]

lets say he can do 100 houses a week flat out

that means he earns 260 per week or just over a grand 4 weekly

400 houses for 1040 a month! lol

compare that to if u had a reasonable £10 per house average you could clean half the amount of homes per month and earn twice as much brass.

surely no one does them for 2.60 lol thats beyond insane