Redundant after 40 years

[Jellylegline]

T

I agree with you. After almost 3 years I still feel a little awkward giving some quotes. The car port I did on Friday, in my head I had decided to quote £100 for it, but £60 came out of my mouth!
That said if you need the income and are gaining experience then get what you can. I aim to win 75 to 80% of my quotes. If I'm winning less then my price may be a little high, if I win all then I'm too cheap.
From the images it looks like you did a decent job, so have confidence in what you are doing.
If you speak confidently and explain you clean glass, frames, sills, doors every x weeks, text the night before etc then you should be fine. As they say fake it till you make it - confidence wise anyway

Thanks, that's great advice.

 

[Part Timer]

Yes I know what you mean, but as I get more work and more experience I'll feel more confident with the financial side of it , especially with quotes as this is the side of the business I'm going to struggle with... I feel like I'm asking for work and not providing a service.. ... Yes I know it sounds bad but after 42y years in a factory I'm a bit institutionalised... Hard work is the easy bit

This was never meant as a criticism, just advice. If you aim to make a minimum of £30 an hour in your early days then once you have learnt your craft you will be doubling that rate, where you live.
Unfortunately hard working people, with a genuine work ethos, have been told for 40 years if you don't have a degree you can't earn decent money. This isn't true, but you will only get out, of this type of work, what you put in.
Anyone brave enough to go out in the big bad world of the self employed will always get my respect and support

 

[DansClearView]

I've just passed the 12 month mark in my business. Started out with barrels from a VW Touran whilst working full time in another job.
That worked fine for 7 months until the folks decided to help me out with a Berlingo (being 39 I didn't want to go cap in hand to the parents but they insisted). Van system helped me step up massively. I was on the verge of being fully self-employed before it came along but having the van has given me a lot more confidence.
I fluctuate between £30 & £60 an hour - some work is quite spread out around town but I'm happy with that for the moment. Don't mind driving, breaks up the day and gives the arms a rest.
Still do a few jobs and think why the hell didn't I charge more for this, still shifting the mindset from customer (no-one will pay that!) to a service provider putting a value on his service.

 

[spruce]

This is my opinion.

When you start off, you shouldn't be too greedy with pricing. You need all the good business you can get to begin with. Obviously, you don't want customers who mess you around, and those who do need to be dropped from your customer base asap.

In the early days, if we did well under price a job, which we did, we found that explaining the reasons to our new customer allowed us to increase the price after the first or second clean. If it has been underpriced by a small margin, then we don't let it 'rattle our cage.' We can adjust the price when we have a price increase.

When you price a job and the customer accepts, you don't know exactly what a customer is thinking at that moment. Maybe the price you quoted is the maximum or above the maximum he would consider paying you for the job according to his perception. Once you have done the job for a while and gained his trust, then it becomes easier to talk to him about a price adjustment.

 

[Armistead Cleaning]

Not in a one way street you can’t I tried a flat tank and due to the terrain ware I work once the tank was half empty you couldn’t use the rest of the water on most jobs

Yes that's true, I did think of that exception when I posted my reply

 

[Peter J]

This was never meant as a criticism, just advice. If you aim to make a minimum of £30 an hour in your early days then once you have learnt your craft you will be doubling that rate, where you live.
Unfortunately hard working people, with a genuine work ethos, have been told for 40 years if you don't have a degree you can't earn decent money. This isn't true, but you will only get out, of this type of work, what you put in.
Anyone brave enough to go out in the big bad world of the self employed will always get my respect and support

I’ve got a degree and so far it hasn’t earned me a penny

 

[steve garwood]

I’ve got a degree and so far it hasn’t earned me a penny

Know what you’re saying. I have a city and guilds in bakery and am very disappointed it hasn’t helped in my window cleaning career

 

[spruce]

Know what you’re saying. I have a city and guilds in bakery and am very disappointed it hasn’t helped in my window cleaning career

Glad you aren't 'cooking the books' then.

 

[Power Clean External Serv]

Hello everyone,I'm Martin, I've just been made redundant, and as I've helped a friend in the past few years window cleaning , I'm trying to set up a window cleaning pure water business. I've got a few regular customers working from a Gardiner back pack system and I've got a reverse osmosis system. My question is I've just brought a Peugeot Partner 2012 plate. I'm looking to hopefully put 400L flat baffle tank set up with 2 leisure batteries, controller, pump 100m reel.......Any advice on this setup would be well appreciated, especially regarding the baffle tank.
Cheers Martin

Where are you based Martin?

 

[Jellylegline]

I've just passed the 12 month mark in my business. Started out with barrels from a VW Touran whilst working full time in another job.
That worked fine for 7 months until the folks decided to help me out with a Berlingo (being 39 I didn't want to go cap in hand to the parents but they insisted). Van system helped me step up massively. I was on the verge of being fully self-employed before it came along but having the van has given me a lot more confidence.
I fluctuate between £30 & £60 an hour - some work is quite spread out around town but I'm happy with that for the moment. Don't mind driving, breaks up the day and gives the arms a rest.
Still do a few jobs and think why the hell didn't I charge more for this, still shifting the mindset from customer (no-one will pay that!) to a service provider putting a value on his service.

That's exactly how I feel Dan, I feel like I'm asking for work not providing a service.

 

[Jellylegline]

Where are you based Martin?

Where are you based Martin?

Leicester mate.