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Hourly Rate

ECLM
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£20 an hour is fine for me.work 6-7 hours a day gives me £600 a week at a nice steady pace which gives me a decent living & won't make me a millionaire but gives me a decent life. To many people worry how much they can earn rather then do a good job. I know someone who all he goes on about is how quick he's gone round & how much he's earnt. How he keeps customers I don't know. I worked with him one day as he needed a hand on some houses with footing the ladder. I loved it. Didn't have to detail or wipe frames & he'd done is money's worth by 11.30. He was round so quick & he's still going now & is still busy. His windows are fine but marks down the side & his frames are filthy but there yer go. He'd hate coming out with me lol.

 
You can tell who is trad and WFP in here lol.
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yes, you really can, but i dont think wfp changes an hourly rate from 15-30 into 50-100, unless your overcharging your customers for exactly the same quality of work
 
yes, you really can, but i dont think wfp changes an hourly rate from 15-30 into 50-100, unless your overcharging your customers for exactly the same quality of work
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Here’s a scenario – if you have commercial job that straight forwards to do, no obstacle other than staff parking right in the front of the building; it has a wall of glass like a lot of modern building on the front of the building, ground floor & first floor. If it take a trad cleaner up to 2 hours to cleans and a wfp cleaner up to 30 minutes.

Both work to an hourly rate of £45 per hour: the wfp cleaner charges the customer £30 the trad cleaner charges the customer £60

Is the wfp cleaner overcharging the customer?

Richard

 
The time it takes a trad guy to clean a 2nd story window I bet I could probably do two or three windows 2nd story windows. That's even if he would dare go up and clean em.

So work it out? I could clean more big town houses than a trad guy. It really is not hard to work out?

Fed up of people saying WFP guys overcharge. And tbh I really don't care lol. It's make me

Proper lmao.

Trad 12 years WFP 3 years.

I think I know what I'm talking about.

 
Indeed Damo as I've already pionted to that in a round about way in my previous post.

Simple answer is to try and earn as much as you can.

My advice would be:

1. Pricing - look firstly at what your pricing structure is and how it can be improved.

2. Organise - look at your round to see how you can organise it better to save on travel time and other expenses incurred.

3. Worrking Methods - Not least look at how you work and fine tune your methods/tools you use so you can work more productively but at the same time doesn't impact on the quality of you work you do. Also more importantly doesn’t jeopardise your own safety by trying to take short cuts.

Just to clarify chaps as I did not mention directly as thought it would be obvious to most but you would choose which working method would be most suited to the job be it trad or wfp. :Image3:

The time it takes a trad guy to clean a 2nd story window I bet I could probably do two or three windows 2nd story windows. That's even if he would dare go up and clean em.

So work it out? I could clean more big town houses than a trad guy. It really is not hard to work out?

Fed up of people saying WFP guys overcharge. And tbh I really don't care lol. It's make me

Proper lmao.

Trad 12 years WFP 3 years.

I think I know what I'm talking about.
Click to expand...
 
The time it takes a trad guy to clean a 2nd story window I bet I could probably do two or three windows 2nd story windows. That's even if he would dare go up and clean em.

So work it out? I could clean more big town houses than a trad guy. It really is not hard to work out?

Fed up of people saying WFP guys overcharge. And tbh I really don't care lol. It's make me

Proper lmao.

Trad 12 years WFP 3 years.

I think I know what I'm talking about.
Click to expand...
Exactly Damo; offering the customer a more competitive price through equipment, by that I mean, the latest wfp equipment. Raises the window cleaner’s hourly rate and at the same time give the customer a better price or a saving compared to the competitions quote.

Richard

 
so your all saying you charge the same per house than a trad guy, its just that you can clean more per hour right? funny how every wfp cleaner i know and that my customers have had previously charges considerably more, ie, for a house i charge £8(10min terrace) all the wfp cleaners in my area would charge £12.

and even if you did charge the same, how many more straight forward everyday houses could you clean per hour, an extra 2 maybe, i average 3 houses per hour as it is so i think you'd be hard pushed to do more than 5, which wouldnt put you on £100 an hour would it?

the OP asks what is an AVERAGE hourly rate he can expect to earn, yes you might have the odd job where you average £100 an hour over 4 hours work, but nobody averages £100 on an average day of an average week.

 
You also need to consider that so many window cleaners undersell their services just to gain work which in turn conditions ppl in what they expect to pay to have their windows cleaned.

Be it trad or wfp you use at the end of the day I don't consider being cheap does the window cleaning trade anygood.

 
You also need to consider that so many window cleaners undersell their services just to gain work which in turn conditions ppl in what they expect to pay to have their windows cleaned.

Be it trad or wfp you use at the end of the day I don't consider being cheap does the window cleaning trade anygood.
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I've seen this opinion alot but, I tend to think it's the other way around myself.I have been totally shocked since coming back into this trade after 23 years away, to see how much it's changed. There's window cleaners everywhere now, why is that....because they're all cheap or because they read somewhere that you can spend a couple of hundred quid on a backpack and earn 50 quid an hour and you don't even have to incorperate a risk element into that price anymore like you used to have to in this trade.

Like so many others, I find canvassing a real problem these days, you can hit what you think looks like a quiet area and be lucky to pick up two or three houses out of 100 knocked. I have built up two rounds previously back in the day and, I would really only have to canvas the first week to build a round big enough to be busy most days. This time however, it's been a mare trying to get more than a days work per week. Just the other day, there I was cleaning the tops of a newly canvassed house when all of a sudden, I hear ladders and there appears a window cleaner, right next to me, cleaning the top windows of the neighbours house....that has never ever happened to me before. We acknowledged each other and went about our business which is great but, this just shows the level of competition today and I personally put that down to, over pricing.

I know of three window cleaners in my immediate vicinity...that live near me I mean, not just work near....there's one that lives directly opposite me yet, back in the day, I was the only one I knew. So as I say, what's changed ? is it that we're cheaper that's bringing them out...no. If it's so hard to gain customers through normal methods these days then, why are there more and more starting up every day ?

I watched a video that someone posted a few weeks ago on this forum where some guy was talking about pricing and spinning the 'decide what you want to earn per hour' line, it wasn't long before he had the viewer at £48 per hour!!....decide what you want to earn per hour ???....how about charging the bloody trade standard man ? Why do so many WC's appear to want Doctors wages for lollipopman hours ?

I've only been back in this trade a couple of months and on day 1, I averaged £5.50 per hour, a month later and I was averaging £10 per hour and now, I'm currently around £15 but still, with very little work on. I need to canvas big time now to build those hours because £15 per hour, works out at £600 per week or over 31 grand per year which is, a decent bloody wage for window cleaning in my book. Yes, of course, most of us can't work 40 hours per week in this trade but then most of us get into this trade because of these flexible hours rather than to get rich and own a lovely big house in the country so, if I can hit my target of and average £20 per hour for just two or three days work a week, I will be happy. 350 quid a week for part time work aint bad and that's easily done at 20 quid an hour for just three, 6 hour days.

Mart.

 
Like GM I to am talking to people who I charge a basic £10 for a house & the wfp they had before would charge £15. Plus a wfp may finish first I agreed but within 30 seconds my things are in my van & I'm away. No putting brush away or reeling in 100m of hose which all cuts down your hourly rate. I Spose we're gonna get some super human speed hose reelers on now lol.

 
As explained before customer has a choice to pay the price quoted or not.

It's more expensive to run a WFP business than a trad business.

If the customer doesn't want to pay the price then they not pay it.

Average hourly rate for me is £30 -£40 WFP for the hours I work.

 
I've seen this opinion alot but, I tend to think it's the other way around myself.

I have been totally shocked since coming back into this trade after 23 years away, to see how much it's changed. There's window cleaners everywhere now, why is that....because they're all cheap or because they read somewhere that you can spend a couple of hundred quid on a backpack and earn 50 quid an hour and you don't even have to incorperate a risk element into that price anymore like you used to have to in this trade.

Like so many others, I find canvassing a real problem these days, you can hit what you think looks like a quiet area and be lucky to pick up two or three houses out of 100 knocked. I have built up two rounds previously back in the day and, I would really only have to canvas the first week to build a round big enough to be busy most days. This time however, it's been a mare trying to get more than a days work per week. Just the other day, there I was cleaning the tops of a newly canvassed house when all of a sudden, I hear ladders and there appears a window cleaner, right next to me, cleaning the top windows of the neighbours house....that has never ever happened to me before. We acknowledged each other and went about our business which is great but, this just shows the level of competition today and I personally put that down to, over pricing.

I know of three window cleaners in my immediate vicinity...that live near me I mean, not just work near....there's one that lives directly opposite me yet, back in the day, I was the only one I knew. So as I say, what's changed ? is it that we're cheaper that's bringing them out...no. If it's so hard to gain customers through normal methods these days then, why are there more and more starting up every day ?

I watched a video that someone posted a few weeks ago on this forum where some guy was talking about pricing and spinning the 'decide what you want to earn per hour' line, it wasn't long before he had the viewer at £48 per hour!!....decide what you want to earn per hour ???....how about charging the bloody trade standard man ? Why do so many WC's appear to want Doctors wages for lollipopman hours ?

I've only been back in this trade a couple of months and on day 1, I averaged £5.50 per hour, a month later and I was averaging £10 per hour and now, I'm currently around £15 but still, with very little work on. I need to canvas big time now to build those hours because £15 per hour, works out at £600 per week or over 31 grand per year which is, a decent bloody wage for window cleaning in my book. Yes, of course, most of us can't work 40 hours per week in this trade but then most of us get into this trade because of these flexible hours rather than to get rich and own a lovely big house in the country so, if I can hit my target of and average £20 per hour for just two or three days work a week, I will be happy. 350 quid a week for part time work aint bad and that's easily done at 20 quid an hour for just three, 6 hour days.

Mart.
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What is the “Trade Standard” based upon; Individual sole trader or a small firm with commercial premises and 2 or 3 window cleaning staff?

Window cleaners shouldn’t really argue against each other on price, especially when it’s about increasing your money! Who argues against that!!! Customers needs to be educated, they can’t expect a window cleaner to travel to there premises, then do the work and then only get paid just a few pounds. Window cleaning is affordable, if the frequency of cleans is reduced – window cleaners shouldn’t reduce the price – it is one of the things you have 100% control of, you can’t control the price of diesel!

Richard

 
Like GM I to am talking to people who I charge a basic £10 for a house & the wfp they had before would charge £15. Plus a wfp may finish first I agreed but within 30 seconds my things are in my van & I'm away. No putting brush away or reeling in 100m of hose which all cuts down your hourly rate. I Spose we're gonna get some super human speed hose reelers on now lol.
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Trolley / backpack
 
As explained before customer has a choice to pay the price quoted or not.

It's more expensive to run a WFP business than a trad business.

If the customer doesn't want to pay the price then they not pay it.

Average hourly rate for me is £30 -£40 WFP for the hours I work.
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Does the include aaspect of you business... doing books, filling tank, collecting etc

 
so your all saying you charge the same per house than a trad guy, its just that you can clean more per hour right? funny how every wfp cleaner i know and that my customers have had previously charges considerably more, ie, for a house i charge £8(10min terrace) all the wfp cleaners in my area would charge £12.

and even if you did charge the same, how many more straight forward everyday houses could you clean per hour, an extra 2 maybe, i average 3 houses per hour as it is so i think you'd be hard pushed to do more than 5, which wouldnt put you on £100 an hour would it?

the OP asks what is an AVERAGE hourly rate he can expect to earn, yes you might have the odd job where you average £100 an hour over 4 hours work, but nobody averages £100 on an average day of an average week.
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If your doing a terrace for £8 in 10mins that's £48 per hour.. Your example of the wfp guy @ £12 does 2 more an hour than you which would be 8 houses and would equal £96.. I'm sure he could squeeze in a front for £4 to top that up to £100 per hour..

Or did you mean you do 3 of these 10min terraces an hour? If so what are you doing for the other half an hour?

 

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