Price increases is it wise?

[Poles Apart]

This critical subject seems to get avoided on here, is anyone worried about losing customers I know some who will be in denial, there used to be a poster on here called Onion Man he used to write essay's saying his business was booming during all the recessions and financial crashes.

 

[johnny bravo]

i usually trial a few with a small price increase . most will pay the new amount. then i will add more on the new price gradually so not to loose any . its worked for me. but i dont over price anyway. i still set my goals for so much an hour

 

[Pjj]

We have been gradually increasing our prices since February not lost any yet , but most of our customers are quite well off all new jobs I tend to price high as we don’t need the work so if we get it it’s an added bonus . Without wanting to come across as boasting or what ever we have always been busy and recession and covid haven’t affected us at all in fact we are the buisiest we have ever been since the start of covid have turned down over 500 enquiries as we just cannot do any more , need to get rid of some of the cheaper work to make room .

 

[Iron Giant]

I am not boasting or anything ?? but no, I am gaining work albeit more slowly than usual at this time of year I am confident, most of my customers have been getting brand new motors etc and they are mostly on nice estates and have good jobs,

I am fortunate like @Pjj that I am well established and have more than enough work, I have had the odd losses with people jumping ship for a cheaper price, but they have been replaced with higher priced jobs some of which were dissatisfied with the cheaper cleaners.

 

[Cghwindowcleaning]

If your established and full then you can usually ride these storms out.

I certainly would't want to be a new starter or just getting in to it at the minute.The later end of this year and early next is when people will notice more about costs and I think things will slow then.

 

[Jaygti]

I wouldn’t want to to put a £20 house up to to £25.
But I’d put it up to £21-£22 ok.
If they can’t afford it they’ll dump you at £20 anyway, or go to every other month.

 

[Dave B]

We have been gradually increasing our prices since February not lost any yet , but most of our customers are quite well off all new jobs I tend to price high as we don’t need the work so if we get it it’s an added bonus . Without wanting to come across as boasting or what ever we have always been busy and recession and covid haven’t affected us at all in fact we are the buisiest we have ever been since the start of covid have turned down over 500 enquiries as we just cannot do any more , need to get rid of some of the cheaper work to make room .

I’ve messaged all of my customers with a price rise recently and apart from the odd one it’s been well accepted
End of the day everything else is going up so our service does also just to stay at the same profit with higher fuel prices etc
Any new quotes are where I’m charging a lot higher now though as I can’t cope with how much I have plus softwashing and also my plastering work

 

[moto]

Yes increasing all now, so far, so good.

 

[Chris34]

I'm thinking that inflation is going to rocket but then deflation will follow and when deflation hits is when people will cut out the window cleaning as it will seem very expensive compared to all the other prices dropping.

 

[cleaniac]

Don't over think it, don't make a big deal of it, put the price up and move on.

 

[Pjj]

I'm thinking that inflation is going to rocket but then deflation will follow and when deflation hits is when people will cut out the window cleaning as it will seem very expensive compared to all the other prices dropping.

It would be nice to think prices will drop again at some point, but I doubt they will ever return to there original levels , we do need to try and keep up with our prices or we are in effect taking a pay cut but still having to pay higher prices for our consumables and running costs . As an example before fuel prices went up on average I was putting £55-60 per week in diesel per van now it’s £90-100 per week per van we cannot continue to to absorb this rise without increasing prices to a degree or if we do we are taking a huge pay cut . I have been surprised how many customers have asked if we are putting up our prices , some have Evan increased what they pay voluntarily so they have saved us the job of increasing the price . We generally put up our prices by a small amount every 2-3 years depending on the current price ,

 

[Iron Giant]

I'm thinking that inflation is going to rocket but then deflation will follow and when deflation hits is when people will cut out the window cleaning as it will seem very expensive compared to all the other prices dropping.

I don't see how some things will drop so much and it will be the bigger jobs that people put off and I'm talking outside of cleaning as well, a fella I know who does driveways and patios was telling me the other day about one example the materials price for the stone was just over £1,000 it's now over £2,000 he said he will have to let the customer as he quoted the job 6 months ago he said he will fully understand people wanting to cancel or postpone and any cancellations will be quickly filled as his waiting list is always about 6 months long as he works on his own.

By comparison, what we offer and charge for our window cleaning is a drop in the ocean compared to other jobs and trades for homeowners, people will be wiser with grocery shopping and cut back on the extra spending takeaways tv subscriptions etc

 

[Ben_glintandshine]

This critical subject seems to get avoided on here, is anyone worried about losing customers I know some who will be in denial, there used to be a poster on here called Onion Man he used to write essay's saying his business was booming during all the recessions and financial crashes.

I put all prices up by 10% last month and lost 3 customers from 180 customers. They all understand prices have to go up and they expect us to put our prices up

 

[Dave B]

This critical subject seems to get avoided on here, is anyone worried about losing customers I know some who will be in denial, there used to be a poster on here called Onion Man he used to write essay's saying his business was booming during all the recessions and financial crashes.

To be honest 2 recessions and covid never affected me much
Lost a few during lockdowns due to being furloughed and not knowing the security of their employment but most of them came back once they were in a better position anyway
I actually picked up a good amount from walk ups during lockdowns also due to people being home more and constantly having to look at their dirty windows and then seeing me in the street
A couple of quid price rise is not going to lose you your rounds

 

[Chris34]

I don't see how some things will drop so much and it will be the bigger jobs that people put off and I'm talking outside of cleaning as well, a fella I know who does driveways and patios was telling me the other day about one example the materials price for the stone was just over £1,000 it's now over £2,000 he said he will have to let the customer as he quoted the job 6 months ago he said he will fully understand people wanting to cancel or postpone and any cancellations will be quickly filled as his waiting list is always about 6 months long as he works on his own.

By comparison, what we offer and charge for our window cleaning is a drop in the ocean compared to other jobs and trades for homeowners, people will be wiser with grocery shopping and cut back on the extra spending takeaways tv subscriptions etc

I thought that way last year and on the whole increasing the price is the right thing to do right now. The reason that I think we might be heading for deflation though is several factors. Currently inflation isn't being driven by demand, I know there are many many examples of people being fully booked up 6 to 12 months in advance but this isn't an indicator of the whole economy. The whole economy evaluated isn't actually growing by much at all, so the prices rising are artificially rising due to pent up demand caused by the lockdowns and disruption to supplies.

The actual growth of the economy is predicted to be 3.6% this year whilst inflation is predicted to be nearer 10%. That 3.6% is compared to last year when we were still in a lockdown at the start of the year, so it's hardly an achievement to beat last years growth given that large sectors of the economy were shut. This leads me to think that prices could become overpriced very quickly and then when prices start dropping we could hit a recession as businesses struggle to make profits against high costs and reducing demand. This then leads onto the workers that hold onto their money 'just in case', when they hold onto their money then the prices drop further and we could quickly hit deflation.

The bank of England has been way behind with the interest rates, the horse has already bolted, last year everyone knew inflation was rocketing, the Bank of England were the last to take note. They are now reacting to the economy far too late and this could lead to have an over reaction that will then make the problems worse.

Personally I think I'm just going ahead with my planned increases, so a £20 house is going up to £25 and a £15 will go to £20. Some of these are my 3 year customers though so they are overdue a rise. My new work I price at £60 per hour (doesn't mean I earn that), when I first started I priced at £40 per hour.

I'm sort of expecting a tough time in the near future, I think trying to price correctly is extremely difficult. £1k per week 3 years ago would be classed as a good income but £1k per week now could be the equivalent of anywhere from £650 per week to £850 per week 3 years ago.

 

[ched999uk]

The bank of England has been way behind with the interest rates, the horse has already bolted, last year everyone knew inflation was rocketing, the Bank of England were the last to take note. They are now reacting to the economy far too late and this could lead to have an over reaction that will then make the problems worse.

I'm not sure increasing the base rate really works these days. I would say a high proportion of mortgages are fixed rate so it doesn't effect them. Plus savings rates don't really change.
It's one big global mess. I'm not really sure how they are going to reduce inflation, certainly not by taking 5p a litre off fuel when the vat increase is about 9p!

 

[Skxawng]

I've been a little worried as I'm having a pretty major price rise next month. I was supposed to put them up in 2020 but held off with the lockdown. Now it's been 4 - 5 years since my last rise (6 or 7 on one round).
Usually I don't have issues with customers cancelling but the last few months, I've had more cancel than ever, due to cutting costs for the most part.
So I was preparing for a bigger loss of customers than I was expecting but it helps to hear the experiences of others on here that it hasn't been too bad.

 

[Iron Giant]

I thought that way last year and on the whole increasing the price is the right thing to do right now. The reason that I think we might be heading for deflation though is several factors. Currently inflation isn't being driven by demand, I know there are many many examples of people being fully booked up 6 to 12 months in advance but this isn't an indicator of the whole economy. The whole economy evaluated isn't actually growing by much at all, so the prices rising are artificially rising due to pent up demand caused by the lockdowns and disruption to supplies.

The actual growth of the economy is predicted to be 3.6% this year whilst inflation is predicted to be nearer 10%. That 3.6% is compared to last year when we were still in a lockdown at the start of the year, so it's hardly an achievement to beat last years growth given that large sectors of the economy were shut. This leads me to think that prices could become overpriced very quickly and then when prices start dropping we could hit a recession as businesses struggle to make profits against high costs and reducing demand. This then leads onto the workers that hold onto their money 'just in case', when they hold onto their money then the prices drop further and we could quickly hit deflation.

The bank of England has been way behind with the interest rates, the horse has already bolted, last year everyone knew inflation was rocketing, the Bank of England were the last to take note. They are now reacting to the economy far too late and this could lead to have an over reaction that will then make the problems worse.

Personally I think I'm just going ahead with my planned increases, so a £20 house is going up to £25 and a £15 will go to £20. Some of these are my 3 year customers though so they are overdue a rise. My new work I price at £60 per hour (doesn't mean I earn that), when I first started I priced at £40 per hour.

I'm sort of expecting a tough time in the near future, I think trying to price correctly is extremely difficult. £1k per week 3 years ago would be classed as a good income but £1k per week now could be the equivalent of anywhere from £650 per week to £850 per week 3 years ago.

I think some things are way overpriced already, why is it that prices of materials and some foods have doubled in cost, I watched the news the other day and the price of tomatoes to wholesalers had gone from £8 to £14 within 4 weeks, but the Uk's obsession with having stuff all year round we are shipping food from 1000's of miles across the world even stuff coming from Europe can be grown in gas heated greenhouses this is all pure madness to me and no doubt some businesses will either have to change or close up, I think there is a lot of issues with shipping and backlogs at ports or there was, but I'm also inclined to think those in the ivory towers are manipulating things

Most people with half a brain who have a mortgage will if they aren't already get locked into a fixed rate mortgage this will give them security and the ability for some to pay off their mortgages early with overpayments with such low interest rates,

Raising your prices may seem relative to everything going on but £5 price rises are surely going to a big negative hit on jobs a 30% plus increase is high, I'm raising the ones I need to raise that haven't gone up in 2 years by £1-2 others that were raised last year are been left for 3 years then I'm going to bump them up by around £2-3

I raised a job the other week by what the customer told me was 12.5% he said it was out of the question at this time and suggested I think again they live in a 5 detached house which is worth around 350k and they have a brand new 30k plus motor on the drive, I politely explained his price hadn't increased in 2 years etc, 24 hours later he came back to me and proposed a shift to 8 weekly with the price increase I told him the price would increase further due to the change in frequency he finally agreed, all others have been fine with the price increase.

 

[mike007]

I have not raised prices since start of the pandemic with my customer base. And will not this year. New customers that I pick up however I price higher. I am comfortable knowing I have a regular income in these times and am my own boss.

 

[Chris34]

I think some things are way overpriced already, why is it that prices of materials and some foods have doubled in cost, I watched the news the other day and the price of tomatoes to wholesalers had gone from £8 to £14 within 4 weeks, but the Uk's obsession with having stuff all year round we are shipping food from 1000's of miles across the world even stuff coming from Europe can be grown in gas heated greenhouses this is all pure madness to me and no doubt some businesses will either have to change or close up, I think there is a lot of issues with shipping and backlogs at ports or there was, but I'm also inclined to think those in the ivory towers are manipulating things

Most people with half a brain who have a mortgage will if they aren't already get locked into a fixed rate mortgage this will give them security and the ability for some to pay off their mortgages early with overpayments with such low interest rates,

Raising your prices may seem relative to everything going on but £5 price rises are surely going to a big negative hit on jobs a 30% plus increase is high, I'm raising the ones I need to raise that haven't gone up in 2 years by £1-2 others that were raised last year are been left for 3 years then I'm going to bump them up by around £2-3

I raised a job the other week by what the customer told me was 12.5% he said it was out of the question at this time and suggested I think again they live in a 5 detached house which is worth around 350k and they have a brand new 30k plus motor on the drive, I politely explained his price hadn't increased in 2 years etc, 24 hours later he came back to me and proposed a shift to 8 weekly with the price increase I told him the price would increase further due to the change in frequency he finally agreed, all others have been fine with the price increase.

I think some things are overpriced but some things are under priced. I've just bought a new 22 inch pc monitor because my last 17 inch one broke. It was £115 delivered. It's HDMI and was not the cheapest either but to me that seems very cheap when you look at the price of other goods.

Regarding setting my own prices, I'm just sticking with my plan and not really looking too much at the inflation. If I don't increase my prices significantly then the new prices of goods and services come the end of this year, well if those prices don't come down then it will be me who is out of pocket with low prices.

To look at it a different way, if I raise my prices I get more money so I will be able to afford the prices rising on goods and services, the people selling those goods and services get more money because of the likes of me who can afford the new prices and because they are getting more money they can afford window cleaners charging my prices.

So I think prices might drop but I'm increasing my prices just because it makes business sense and if the prices don't drop then I won't be out of pocket.

I don't want to end up being the 'mr cheap' window cleaner, working as fast as I can with gritted teeth trying to get a good hourly rate by working too hard and lowering my standards. So I'll carefully select which houses to raise the prices and just try and be prepared for customers who think it's too much.

I think my fall back plan (if it gets bad) will be monthly direct debits on a set date of their choice and put them on once every 2 months. So a £25 house will become a £30 house with a once every 2 month clean and a direct debit of £15 going out on a set date of their choice. Once they're set up that £15 will seem like peanuts compared to all the other costs going out but it will keep the money I need to be on the high side.

 

[kevinc250]

It would be nice to think prices will drop again at some point, but I doubt they will ever return to there original levels , we do need to try and keep up with our prices or we are in effect taking a pay cut but still having to pay higher prices for our consumables and running costs . As an example before fuel prices went up on average I was putting £55-60 per week in diesel per van now it’s £90-100 per week per van we cannot continue to to absorb this rise without increasing prices to a degree or if we do we are taking a huge pay cut . I have been surprised how many customers have asked if we are putting up our prices , some have Evan increased what they pay voluntarily so they have saved us the job of increasing the price . We generally put up our prices by a small amount every 2-3 years depending on the current price ,

with those increases in fuel costs, bearing in mind your staff are doing roughly the same milage per day, per week,so thats a constant, i think your staff are popping a bit of fuel into a jerry can each time they fill up fuel hasn't gone up by 40% in the last few months but your bills seem to have.
i only know this because i used to do the same when i worked for a company, filled up three times a week and always topped the jerry can up or filled it up, they questioned the fuel increase but the van needs a service doesn't it? hence the fuel increase-that and everyone else in the company did the same thing helped