Also what a lot won’t realise is the overheads a business like pjj’s takes. He’s vat registered plus if payin his lads nearly a grand a week like he says then them doing £400 a day on there own aint gonna be leaving much of a profit margin meaning he has to charge very high rates in order for his business to work whereas a sole trader on his own could charge half them prices and still make a good wage at the end of the week.
Now why would you immediately assume it was directed at you?
Just assumed it was aimed at me if ime wrong then I apologise
50k a year employed window cleaners on Paye .They must be some of the best paid window cleaners in the country
Staff are paid between £125-150 per day on domestic and around £200 a day on commercial plus bonus and extra money when working away from home .
Until Mrs Smith talks to Mrs Jones and realises she is paying around £50 more for a similar property
Why would I want to look at his accounts?
So you’re jumping to conclusions as well assuming I was talking about him?
I was assuming that any figures/tunrnovers disclosed would’ve been inclusive of vat.
2 workers @ £400 each I think he meant.
On this thread he says he priced the job at &125 after the first clean it will take 1 man one hour.
Yes on some jobs it’s considerably more than that , BUT it’s not that rate 8 hours a day 5 days a week, domestic on estate houses it’s more like £60 - 75 per hour per man .The £125 for a domestic job taking one hour is good money and we have a few in this range and a fair bit higher but again it’s not 8 hours a day 5 days a week , Commercial yes very good hourly rate but bear in mind we are travelling up to 300 miles from home doing jobs from Cornwall to London then driving home again , so it needs to be good money or it’s not worth doing when you look at the expenses.
I see both sides. But here’s a thing: if you price high, get the work, then your new customer starts chatting to neighbours or friends and find out the discrepancy… big trouble. Even your regular priced work might take a hit as current customers start to wonder if they too are being overcharged. The price-high method only works in my opinion if it’s not near your current work contracts.
Last statement makes you think! Pretty sure 30-40% of mine are now underpriced. When you’ve had a round for 25 years, same customers, you tend to justify not hiking the costs every year just to make sure they stay loyal. That’s probably not a good business model though, I admit.I have a good few that I under priced that need to go up a decent amount this year but I do have a few that I was a little cheeky with. I have an app I wrote that guides me on pricing to try and stop me 'guestimating' prices but even then I still manually tweak prices up or down a little - more up nowadays. I don't think I have priced 2 identical houses differently so even if they do chat I should be fine.
I do try and be as consistent as possible with pricing but it's not just about the size and number of windows it's access, parking, and the plant pot tax
I do a job on a very small newish development of 7 bungalows - I think they where the first to move in, the next door but 1 neighbour called and asked for a quote as her neighbour gave her my number. I quoted at £22 I think, and she asked why it was more than her neighbour! I was using my app and I could say to her that it was because she had 2 extra velux windows - she was fine and accepted the quote but I was glad I could easily justify the extra charge - I don't like awkward situations.
I do wonder sometimes if the 'cheeky' prices are where they should be and I have more that are under priced than I think!
Never had any issues in 25 years , most of our work like this no two properties are the same so it’s virtually impossible for customers to say mine is the same as mrs x as they are all different so prices will varie . We do have estate work ware houses are the same and some are dearer than others due to access issues with shrubs , pools , flowerbeds conservatory’s very close to fences etc , on the odd occasions they have said anything about there price is more than next door we just explain the reason why and they are ok with it .
