Price increases is it wise?

[scottish cleaning service]

Lost one today but it was pretty difficult to clean so I'm fairly happy with it. Noticing the ones I have lost have young families with one car when they used to have two. Lucky I don't have all my eggs in one basket and have plenty of add-ons to work on. Picked up one when I drove in, the guy just moved in and seen my van so One out and one in which is round the corner from me. That's when a good sign written van pays off big time.

 

[adamangler]

im in the process of putting all mine up. I put most of them up last year as well haha. Bit worried but im rammed out with work and theres no where else really to go but put prices up. Starting with the ones i hate the most.

 

[Iron Giant]

This is exactly it at the minute the cost of living is being rammed home to us but in reality it hasn't even fully kicked in yet.My gas and electric is out of tariff and went up to £280 a month.

Like said most don't have heating on and working from home in some form will be coming to an end or people will be part expected to return so will notice the fuel cost more.

Most on here are mainly domestic and if you have a full round losing the odd £15 job here and there will have little impact.This will effect the low earners most and those just starting out and growth will be really slow for these.

I'm full commercial and have lost two jobs already one I'd had for over 10 years.I have been speaking to two friends who have much bigger commercial window cleaning companies and both have been knocked for payment over the last couple of months so things are already starting to bite.

Factor that in with the fact that the average PAYE worker won't see a pay rise anything near inflation meaning most people are going to feel a squeeze at some point all points to a rough end of year/next year.

I am almost 100% domestic apart from 3 jobs and even the highest price job of these doesn't exceed £30, I agree with you on the losing the odd job here and there it won't really impact me as I have a bit too much work so can take a bit of hit maybe even those doing well will take more of hit if they are doing quite a lot of add on's those could dry up when people become a tad more cautious

 

[scottish cleaning service]

Lost another one due to house move but it was off the beaten track so happy again.

 

[Pjj]

I am almost 100% domestic apart from 3 jobs and even the highest price job of these doesn't exceed £30, I agree with you on the losing the odd job here and there it won't really impact me as I have a bit too much work so can take a bit of hit maybe even those doing well will take more of hit if they are doing quite a lot of add on's those could dry up when people become a tad more cautious

I have found enquiries have slowed down a lot both for window cleaning and add ons , we are booked till the end of September with current work , ime more than happy to slow down a bit ,so far lost 3 domestic jobs due to ones cutting back .

 

[scottish cleaning service]

I have found enquiries have slowed down a lot both for window cleaning and add ons , we are booked till the end of September with current work , ime more than happy to slow down a bit ,so far lost 3 domestic jobs due to ones cutting back .

Yes, I have noticed a slow down but its good to get the rest of the work done. Folk are getting more quotes rather than just taking the first one.

 

[Chris34]

I have found enquiries have slowed down a lot both for window cleaning and add ons , we are booked till the end of September with current work , ime more than happy to slow down a bit ,so far lost 3 domestic jobs due to ones cutting back .

I think the ones cutting back now are just getting their finances in order ready for the big price increases, they're the organised ones. The unorganised masses will get hit like a tonne of bricks landing on them next winter and that's when we will see the poorer customers cancelling in their droves.

One good thing though, energy prices will be around £600 to £800 per month next winter for the average 5 family household (that's being careful with their energy consumption), so when they look at making cutbacks, well a £25 per month window clean cutback will be like a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things. I actually think we'll be well placed to earn a lot more money, because you could increase the price by £5 and £5 will seem like nothing in the grand scheme of things, but £5 for us multiplied by 100's represents a very nice increase in profit.

Personally I think any increases should be done in £5 increments given the rise in inflation.

 

[Pjj]

I think the ones cutting back now are just getting their finances in order ready for the big price increases, they're the organised ones. The unorganised masses will get hit like a tonne of bricks landing on them next winter and that's when we will see the poorer customers cancelling in their droves.

One good thing though, energy prices will be around £600 to £800 per month next winter for the average 5 family household (that's being careful with their energy consumption), so when they look at making cutbacks, well a £25 per month window clean cutback will be like a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things. I actually think we'll be well placed to earn a lot more money, because you could increase the price by £5 and £5 will seem like nothing in the grand scheme of things, but £5 for us multiplied by 100's represents a very nice increase in profit.

Personally I think any increases should be done in £5 increments given the rise in inflation.

£5 rise on a £25 job is a big rise but on a £60 job it’s not to bad time will tell how all this pans out I think it’s a difficult one to try and predict , all I will say is all the recessions we have had up to date have had no effect on my business at all but I think this time things might be a bit different.

 

[Chris34]

£5 rise on a £25 job is a big rise but on a £60 job it’s not to bad time will tell how all this pans out I think it’s a difficult one to try and predict , all I will say is all the recessions we have had up to date have had no effect on my business at all but I think this time things might be a bit different.

I have a feeling that there will still be demand but it will be from the higher income households. I think the higher income households will have more money as their wages will rise with inflation, probably be higher than inflation because they are either in good well paid well looked after jobs, or they themselves are self employed and they've adjusted their own rates to fight off the effects of inflation and are able to afford everything as normal.

The lower income households who are in jobs that wages don't rise quickly to cover inflation will be badly affected. It's these who will cancel.

I'm not going to cater for the lower incomes, if they can't afford it then it's always going to be hard work keeping them. I'm just going to press on and ignore the pessimists and just look at how many quotes I get yes' to. I'll keep increasing the price to cover myself and so long as the business is growing then that's all I and anyone else with a business can really gauge if they've got it right. The moment the business is shrinking is the time to evaluate it and decide whether to try a different plan.

 

[Iron Giant]

I have found enquiries have slowed down a lot both for window cleaning and add ons , we are booked till the end of September with current work , ime more than happy to slow down a bit ,so far lost 3 domestic jobs due to ones cutting back .

It's bound to happen as the ones who will see the increases coming maybe after an email from their energy company but also some people with kids as the 6 weeks holidays for some will mean an expensive time feeding and entertaining the kids plus owning a house with maintenance and in some cases new boilers etc,
Most of my jobs are new builds built in the last 10-20 years no maintenance or new kitchens etc this I believe will have a better outlook for me as these jobs are customers have good jobs and a decent income these are the ones that will ride out the storm far easier, lots more people these days with a lot more money I lose count of the number of new cars I see around these days

 

[Cghwindowcleaning]

I have a feeling that there will still be demand but it will be from the higher income households. I think the higher income households will have more money as their wages will rise with inflation, probably be higher than inflation because they are either in good well paid well looked after jobs, or they themselves are self employed and they've adjusted their own rates to fight off the effects of inflation and are able to afford everything as normal.

The lower income households who are in jobs that wages don't rise quickly to cover inflation will be badly affected. It's these who will cancel.

I'm not going to cater for the lower incomes, if they can't afford it then it's always going to be hard work keeping them. I'm just going to press on and ignore the pessimists and just look at how many quotes I get yes' to. I'll keep increasing the price to cover myself and so long as the business is growing then that's all I and anyone else with a business can really gauge if they've got it right. The moment the business is shrinking is the time to evaluate it and decide whether to try a different plan.

Most PAYE wages won't rise with inflation there will be hardly any who got a 10% rise or any where near that this year in the private sector or even public.
The same goes for the self employed the forecast for inflation was not 10% at the start of this year.

I put the price up on some jobs in January this year for the start of April contracts.That increase was not 10% and these jobs are now in contract so can't be changed.

Just because certain customers have money doesn't mean their going to through it away.No ones not replaceable.

 

[Iron Giant]

Most PAYE wages won't rise with inflation there will be hardly any who got a 10% rise or any where near that this year in the private sector or even public.
The same goes for the self employed the forecast for inflation was not 10% at the start of this year.

I put the price up on some jobs in January this year for the start of April contracts.That increase was not 10% and these jobs are now in contract so can't be changed.

Just because certain customers have money doesn't mean their going to through it away.No ones not replaceable.

Totally agree who is going to give their employee's 10% pay increase, you can't give it to those in higher positions and not give it to the rest of the workforce no business right now could afford to do that at all and if union got involved there would be an outcry,

everything is going up and I think the self-employed in certain trades may see a drop in work as when some materials in the building trade have increased by as much as 50% that's a significant increase across the board.

 

[Part Timer]

Most PAYE wages won't rise with inflation there will be hardly any who got a 10% rise or any where near that this year in the private sector or even public.
The same goes for the self employed the forecast for inflation was not 10% at the start of this year.

I put the price up on some jobs in January this year for the start of April contracts.That increase was not 10% and these jobs are now in contract so can't be changed.

Just because certain customers have money doesn't mean their going to through it away.No ones not replaceable.

Everyone seems to have their head in the sand regarding interest rates. You're not going to have 10%+ inflation, for an extended period, without interest rates going up to 7-8%. This will have a far bigger impact than heating costs, in my opinion, as they apply all year round and every man and his dog seems to be maxed out with mortgages, car loans etc.
It's ok currently, even with those on variable but this will change soon. It's only around 3.5% to remortgage, on the basis of a decent loan to value and good credit history, for a 2 year fixed rate. I'd be snapping their hands off at this if my current mortgage was due to be renewed or was on a variable rate. Probably even look at a 5 year deal at slightly higher. Inflation, and therefore higher interest rates, will be here for a while yet.

 

[Chris34]

Most PAYE wages won't rise with inflation there will be hardly any who got a 10% rise or any where near that this year in the private sector or even public.
The same goes for the self employed the forecast for inflation was not 10% at the start of this year.

I put the price up on some jobs in January this year for the start of April contracts.That increase was not 10% and these jobs are now in contract so can't be changed.

Just because certain customers have money doesn't mean their going to through it away.No ones not replaceable.

There will be people who have good employers and good businesses who are increasing their rates to cover inflation and above, there will also be people who don't have good employers and good businesses who won't increase their rates to cover inflation. The point I'm making is that those who have got the money and have had their pay increased have got the money to pay us higher money. It's these people that I'm basing my business on. The reason being is that the only cancellations I've had claiming 'hardship' are my lowest earning jobs, like my minimum price ones, who look like they are struggling, so the early indications for me is that this will continue. On the other hand my new customers have come on board at my much higher rate and they appear to be the type who have money as they have newish cars and are / have had recent work done on their houses.

We as window cleaners are lucky in the fact that we can work for the poorest, the middle earners and the richest all without changing our businesses, just the same service but a bigger or smaller house. Yes the rich might not want to throw their money away and might opt for a cheaper cleaner, but for me I'm keeping my high price and putting it up as prices go up as I don't want to end in the poor camp with the masses. There are always winners in a recession, I aim to be on the winning side, not the struggling side and the only way is to have the confidence to charge more in my opinion and just have customers who have the money.

End of the day houses are still be built on mass so the market is still going to be growing for us. There are hundreds being built everywhere, even if it's only the small percentage of the population that can afford them and afford higher rates on services, well that small percentage of people is still a large number that is constantly growing. So even if it's say 10% of the houses, 10% of 1,000 new houses is another 100 customers that need servicing on top of all the others that are already there.

 

[Pjj]

There will be people who have good employers and good businesses who are increasing their rates to cover inflation and above, there will also be people who don't have good employers and good businesses who won't increase their rates to cover inflation. The point I'm making is that those who have got the money and have had their pay increased have got the money to pay us higher money. It's these people that I'm basing my business on. The reason being is that the only cancellations I've had claiming 'hardship' are my lowest earning jobs, like my minimum price ones, who look like they are struggling, so the early indications for me is that this will continue. On the other hand my new customers have come on board at my much higher rate and they appear to be the type who have money as they have newish cars and are / have had recent work done on their houses.

We as window cleaners are lucky in the fact that we can work for the poorest, the middle earners and the richest all without changing our businesses, just the same service but a bigger or smaller house. Yes the rich might not want to throw their money away and might opt for a cheaper cleaner, but for me I'm keeping my high price and putting it up as prices go up as I don't want to end in the poor camp with the masses. There are always winners in a recession, I aim to be on the winning side, not the struggling side and the only way is to have the confidence to charge more in my opinion and just have customers who have the money.

End of the day houses are still be built on mass so the market is still going to be growing for us. There are hundreds being built everywhere, even if it's only the small percentage of the population that can afford them and afford higher rates on services, well that small percentage of people is still a large number that is constantly growing. So even if it's say 10% of the houses, 10% of 1,000 new houses is another 100 customers that need servicing on top of all the others that are already there.

Totally agree with this but when I say it I get shot down in flames ???? ime not interested in getting every job , a while ago I was talking to the owner of one of the largest external cleaning companies in the country he said that he only gets 10% of the jobs he quotes but that’s worth 3.5 million per year to him all done with 10 staff . It got me thinking and now I have started trying the same approach and it does work I am picking up work each week that’s several times my normal price for that type of job , so it can be done , I accept it would be difficult to start up a business with this approach but to refine an existing round it’s working well , just sold off 600 jobs so got a bit of breathing space and will gradually replace with better ones

 

[scottish cleaning service]

Someone will need to act or we won't have a Government in place to sort things out. ?

 

[Chris34]

Totally agree with this but when I say it I get shot down in flames ???? ime not interested in getting every job , a while ago I was talking to the owner of one of the largest external cleaning companies in the country he said that he only gets 10% of the jobs he quotes but that’s worth 3.5 million per year to him all done with 10 staff . It got me thinking and now I have started trying the same approach and it does work I am picking up work each week that’s several times my normal price for that type of job , so it can be done , I accept it would be difficult to start up a business with this approach but to refine an existing round it’s working well , just sold off 600 jobs so got a bit of breathing space and will gradually replace with better ones

It's just a different business model, there will always be people who pay a premium price for a somewhat guaranteed quality service. I don't know why others on here get so upset about it, it's like it's a sin to charge higher than the average price and then talk about it on here, I don't get it, it's just a different approach to pricing.

People have a perception that higher price means better quality, better service, if your price is a lot higher it means you stand out more and people are more likely to think there must be a difference in the work being done. So the price alone can make you look like your offering a much better service.

That guy you met must charge incredibly high, that's £300k per year for each employee. Same thing though, if he's got a reputation for getting it right and getting a top quality job done then it's like a snowball effect, he could charge whatever he wants to a certain point.

 

[scottish cleaning service]

I had an old neighbour who had a cleaning company and he was doing great. He had an NHS contract and other blue chip companies contracts. These type of contracts need reliability and they know it will get done right, I think that's where the money is.

 

[Iron Giant]

Everyone seems to have their head in the sand regarding interest rates. You're not going to have 10%+ inflation, for an extended period, without interest rates going up to 7-8%. This will have a far bigger impact than heating costs, in my opinion, as they apply all year round and every man and his dog seems to be maxed out with mortgages, car loans etc.
It's ok currently, even with those on variable but this will change soon. It's only around 3.5% to remortgage, on the basis of a decent loan to value and good credit history, for a 2 year fixed rate. I'd be snapping their hands off at this if my current mortgage was due to be renewed or was on a variable rate. Probably even look at a 5 year deal at slightly higher. Inflation, and therefore higher interest rates, will be here for a while yet.

I think I mentioned interest rates about 4 pages ago, yes interest rates are definitely going to go up but by how much and how soon, Rishi Sunak has resigned so I reckon something is going to come out, just pleased we have a fixed rate for the next 4 years with an interest rate below 2% and our mortgage will be paid off within that time

 

[Cghwindowcleaning]

Totally agree with this but when I say it I get shot down in flames ???? ime not interested in getting every job , a while ago I was talking to the owner of one of the largest external cleaning companies in the country he said that he only gets 10% of the jobs he quotes but that’s worth 3.5 million per year to him all done with 10 staff . It got me thinking and now I have started trying the same approach and it does work I am picking up work each week that’s several times my normal price for that type of job , so it can be done , I accept it would be difficult to start up a business with this approach but to refine an existing round it’s working well , just sold off 600 jobs so got a bit of breathing space and will gradually replace with better ones

No disrespect but you probably get shot down because of some of thee ludicrous comments you make on here.

You often tell us how you're not the cheapest in your area and now your telling us your pricing jobs several times your normal rate and still getting new work weekly at that price.

Last time I was on Cornwall it was nothing like the Monaco you describe with people desperate to through money at window cleaners.

Any one in business knows that if you get every quote you price you're to cheap but to have 90% turn you down is mad and any business would question their quoting and pricing strategy especially for a growing business like mentioned.

 

[Jaygti]

No disrespect but you probably get shot down because of some of thee ludicrous comments you make on here.

You often tell us how you're not the cheapest in your area and now your telling us your pricing jobs several times your normal rate and still getting new work weekly at that price.

Last time I was on Cornwall it was nothing like the Monaco you describe with people desperate to through money at window cleaners.

Any one in business knows that if you get every quote you price you're to cheap but to have 90% turn you down is mad and any business would question their quoting and pricing strategy especially for a growing business like mentioned.

Yes but it depends what your trying to achieve.
If you have plenty of work then quoting very high rates makes perfect sense.
As far as I can tell Pjj has far too much , so it would be foolish to be too competitive on price.
If your starting out , or trying to grow, then you’ll need to to be reasonably competitive in your area, without going too low.