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Whats your happy place

HWCS

Well-known member
Messages
1,130
Location
North Norfolk
Reading a few posts lately and seeing the money some ppl charge madevme gulp for air!!

I aim for £20/25 p/hr.

But just read a thread and ppl are charging £160 for a 2hr job! I know as a trad my overheads are very low but are the WFP guys overheads really that justifiable?

Whats your hrly aim?

 
More than £25 an hour ?, as a wfp cleaner my overheads are over 10k a per annum and have been higher, but it's not just about that when pricing jobs there are lot more factors and in this day and age I want to get to the end of a working week and have made and more than enough money to warrant been self-employed for over 19 years covering my expenses tax etc and having a decent wedge to run my house and save for my retirement. 

backtracking to your other post about been only a window cleaner ain't rocket science view of a member of the public, they simply don't get what's in a quote/price and are oblivious to our overheads and no work means no pay it passes them by that we don't get 28 days + paid holidays a year.

When I read the title at first my reply was going to be gardening and walking the dog 

 
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Fair reply IronGiant, i guess im learning all the time, just coming from a min wage job at £8.21 an hr £20/25 seems loads to me  and my household.

Ill hopefuly be lol'ing this time next year at the times when i made ONLY £20/25 ph

 
I was in a £9/hr job when I started. I was very happy when I was earning £14/hr when I was tradding. 

Now however, I’m just on the glass. Using WFP out the back of my Kuga and aim and usually exceed £35/hr. I’m still building my round, just over half way to where I need to be. But I still earn more than my £9/hr job so I’m happy either way! Oh and I get 2 extra days off per week as well as much shorter hours!

 
Generally the higher you aim the higher you earn i’ve found. If you set your rates at 30 an hour you'll struggle to hit it when you factor in roadworks, traffic, work not being compact, unexpected parking problems etc. set your rates at 40 an hour and you may just clear 30/35 or 40. If you want to earn guaranteed 40+ per hour then maybe price up based on £50 per hour.

youre not simply “on a salary” with a guaranteed monthly income where you get paid regardless of whether you’re working, on holiday, sick, at a funeral or wedding etc. If you are not on a job you're not earning anything its that simple. No company pension either. Office bods dont have to contend with snow & ice or gale force winds or reduced daylight hours. 

That £160 for a 2 hour job is actually a four hour job. An hour taken to drive there and quote, if not done there and then, another hour loading necessary equipment on to the van, driving there and setting up, 2 hours doing it for some on here more for me because i always take longer ? 

Either way you look at it a safe allocation is half a day. You're not realistically gonna book anything else in to that time knowing that jobs happening. 

Same goes with a 6 or 7 hour job, you start at 8 you're done by 3, if you think you can get away with it, charge for the whole day, both you and i know you're not gonna be doing anything else after it, tanks to fill next day to set up for equipment swaps, no energy left if you skipped lunch. Work smart when you can. 

 
Reading a few posts lately and seeing the money some ppl charge madevme gulp for air!!

I aim for £20/25 p/hr.

But just read a thread and ppl are charging £160 for a 2hr job! I know as a trad my overheads are very low but are the WFP guys overheads really that justifiable?

Whats your hrly aim?
Ultimately my aim is to get as much as possible. However being realistic with the nature of window cleaning where I live, an awful lot of trad cleaners still charging low prices, I achieve £25 an hour doing residential work. I do get £30+ doing commercial work up here.  Where I make really good rates, £40+ an hour, is commercial work in the Cambridge area. This becomes £50+ on gutter cleaning.

 
First point is I don't need to 'justify' anything.  Price is the price and if the customer does not like it they don't have to accept. 

Customers aren't really paying for window cleaning these days they are paying foe service, regular, reliable, quality, professional and so on and the clean windows just happen to be a bi-product of all of that. 

Even when trad we would turn £40+ per hour but the secret is not making £40 per hour 2 hours a day, it's making £40 per hour 8 hours a day 5 days a week. 

Let's use @Iron Giant as an example, say he charges the same as me... £15 for a 3 bed semi, he puts in his head phones, works at a  leisurely pace and has a chat with customers when he knocks on to collect perhaps even a cup of tea.  So he's doing 2 jobs per hour totalling £30 per hour

Our guys on the other hand are trained not to stand still. To crack them out at a brisk steady pace and do at least 3 per hour making £45. 

So there you have it, our lads take 50% more per hour but we all charge exactly the same price. 

If you have come from a min wage £250 per week job and you want to take home £500 per week for your family reality is you need to take at least £700 so you have £500 per week left after taxes insurances etc etc. 

Happy place? £1500 per week clear but remember my income comes from franchise royalties and sub contractor fees. 

Real happy place? Anywhere thay numbs the drudgery of the day to day. 

 
Reading a few posts lately and seeing the money some ppl charge madevme gulp for air!!

I aim for £20/25 p/hr.

But just read a thread and ppl are charging £160 for a 2hr job! I know as a trad my overheads are very low but are the WFP guys overheads really that justifiable?

Whats your hrly aim?
I aim for minimum of 30/35, thats wfp but a couple are trad. Often get more than that which is whats needed really. (sometimes is less and this never feels good) before I started, this business advise thing had stated that a minimum of £30 to £35 an hour was needed. bear in mind, this is basic, if a business is to do well enough. That was 2 years ago, so like everything it must have gone up by now.

Obviously its not gonna always be so easy if theres a lot of cut price competition but once you have a customer, if you do a good job they usually keep you.

I do remember, mid  2000s a friend dropped his decorating business as he reckoned he could no longer get £12 an hour because of cheap competition. Best thing we can all do is keep our rates good or it wont be worth it.

 
Reading a few posts lately and seeing the money some ppl charge madevme gulp for air!!

I aim for £20/25 p/hr.

But just read a thread and ppl are charging £160 for a 2hr job! I know as a trad my overheads are very low but are the WFP guys overheads really that justifiable?

Whats your hrly aim?
Don’t believe everything you read on here mate. Willy waving sometimes crops up on here ?

 
Don’t believe everything you read on here mate. Willy waving sometimes crops up on here ?


No willy waving we do it all the time , as green said customers don’t have to accept the price , it also depends on the clients that you have , working on a council estate it’s unlikely to earn that but on multi million pound properties it’s very easy , houses down hear don’t have to be very big to fall into that price bracket 

 
Reading a few posts lately and seeing the money some ppl charge madevme gulp for air!!

I aim for £20/25 p/hr.

But just read a thread and ppl are charging £160 for a 2hr job! I know as a trad my overheads are very low but are the WFP guys overheads really that justifiable?

Whats your hrly aim?
I doubt anyone averages £80 an hour cleaning windows, you can however, from time to time, make these types of numbers with add on services, such as fascia cleaning / gutter clearing 

 
No willy waving we do it all the time , as green said customers don’t have to accept the price , it also depends on the clients that you have , working on a council estate it’s unlikely to earn that but on multi million pound properties it’s very easy , houses down hear don’t have to be very big to fall into that price bracket 


I think you're the exception Paul, but I have my doubts about others. 

 
What you’re happy with is the answer @HWCS

Being content is the best place in life. Not striving after a carrot on a stick. Paying all your bills, enjoying the odd holiday & saving even just a tiny bit is the minimum (in my opinion) but in this job if you work fairly hard and give it time you can go a lot further than that.

On any public forum there will always be a mixture of people: liars, exaggerators, materialistic money grabbing people, normal down to earth people and people too lazy and no self respect to even earn enough to pay there bills sadly. 

Most on here seem fairly normal and honest. So no personal digs at all. 

But as @Incheck says if you aim higher than you plan/get that helps.

But Do whatever YOU want?

Im not the fastest window cleaner, never will be, my stuff is quite well priced in an expensive area of the country. I don’t work really hard, never ever do more than 45hr weeks, often a lot less, and I’m content but long term would like to take on 1 employee to work in the same van in a few years. Because if you can earn more money in the same amount of time with not much more stress/responsibility that’s smart business in my opinion.

Obviously some have gone a lot bigger than that, fair play to them! 

 
As green said the trick is to consistently earn that money 8 hours a day. If i was earning £40 an hour for 9 hours a day for 5 days a week 11 months of the year it would add up to £79200 a year. In my dreams! We only just exceeded 40k as a pair last year. 

Currently growing by around 3 grand a year still umming and aahing about a second van. Long road ahead and decisions to be made but hey ho improvements are improvements any gain is better than a loss

 
What you’re happy with is the answer @HWCS

Being content is the best place in life. Not striving after a carrot on a stick. Paying all your bills, enjoying the odd holiday & saving even just a tiny bit is the minimum (in my opinion) but in this job if you work fairly hard and give it time you can go a lot further than that.

On any public forum there will always be a mixture of people: liars, exaggerators, materialistic money grabbing people, normal down to earth people and people too lazy and no self respect to even earn enough to pay there bills sadly. 

Most on here seem fairly normal and honest. So no personal digs at all. 

But as @Incheck says if you aim higher than you plan/get that helps.

But Do whatever YOU want?

Im not the fastest window cleaner, never will be, my stuff is quite well priced in an expensive area of the country. I don’t work really hard, never ever do more than 45hr weeks, often a lot less, and I’m content but long term would like to take on 1 employee to work in the same van in a few years. Because if you can earn more money in the same amount of time with not much more stress/responsibility that’s smart business in my opinion.

Obviously some have gone a lot bigger than that, fair play to them! 
Same be with me a lot of people on here say how fast they work and i often think to myself bloomin hell im slow, and i know im slow, but it doesnt bother me. I often think im too thorough and double check results too much and over allocate time to jobs because i always anticipate mishaps or awkwardness and cant stand being rushed. We lose a lot of money because of me over anticipating. So many times we finish far too early and i think damn, if only i “timed that to a tee”

theres a lot i still need to master, some things i just cant seem to master, but im happy enough. The accountants happy, we live very modestly but have a good buffer in the business to cover a new van, equipment and future investment. 

 
Same be with me a lot of people on here say how fast they work and i often think to myself bloomin hell im slow, and i know im slow, but it doesnt bother me. I often think im too thorough and double check results too much and over allocate time to jobs because i always anticipate mishaps or awkwardness and cant stand being rushed. We lose a lot of money because of me over anticipating. So many times we finish far too early and i think damn, if only i “timed that to a tee”

theres a lot i still need to master, some things i just cant seem to master, but im happy enough. The accountants happy, we live very modestly but have a good buffer in the business to cover a new van, equipment and future investment. 
I know i shouldnt, but if I know I aint gonna get a £15 job done in 20 minutes or under, I tend to go like the clappers and not be so thorough. Bad, yes, i know. One time, an Indian lady just kept adding more and more 'And can you just.... And this..And etc. I said that wil cost extra etc, but I couldnt keep up with her add ons. In the end, exasperated, I just said i didnt have time  :banghead3:

 
First point is I don't need to 'justify' anything.  Price is the price and if the customer does not like it they don't have to accept. 

Customers aren't really paying for window cleaning these days they are paying foe service, regular, reliable, quality, professional and so on and the clean windows just happen to be a bi-product of all of that. 

Even when trad we would turn £40+ per hour but the secret is not making £40 per hour 2 hours a day, it's making £40 per hour 8 hours a day 5 days a week. 

Let's use @Iron Giant as an example, say he charges the same as me... £15 for a 3 bed semi, he puts in his head phones, works at a  leisurely pace and has a chat with customers when he knocks on to collect perhaps even a cup of tea.  So he's doing 2 jobs per hour totalling £30 per hour

Our guys on the other hand are trained not to stand still. To crack them out at a brisk steady pace and do at least 3 per hour making £45. 

So there you have it, our lads take 50% more per hour but we all charge exactly the same price. 

If you have come from a min wage £250 per week job and you want to take home £500 per week for your family reality is you need to take at least £700 so you have £500 per week left after taxes insurances etc etc. 

Happy place? £1500 per week clear but remember my income comes from franchise royalties and sub contractor fees. 

Real happy place? Anywhere thay numbs the drudgery of the day to day. 
As a self-classified social recluse, I can talk for 15 minutes easily with some clients, one of mine is top fella at 93 years old and as bright as a button we always have a good natter and a laugh and he always thanks me for taking the time to stop and chat, GoCardless clients are great no one in to talk to me so I get loads more done makes up for all my talking  ?

 
I think you're the exception Paul, but I have my doubts about others. 




If you don’t try you don’t get I think it was green pro some time ago said we are our own worst enemies by pricing too cheap , we are flat out with work all the time I don’t need anymore so when gutter vaccing, softwashing,pressurewashing, gfs quoting I go in high as I don’t care if we get the job or not , surprisingly we get  the vast majority of the jobs I Price so what green pro said is true I think we under value the service we provide , to us it’s easy as we have the kit and knowledge to do the job but to the customer how can they clean there gutters out , or clean dormers two floors up etc they cannot do it and tk them we are doing a specialist job and that costs . Ime quite sure most on hear could charge and earn far more than £25 an hour it’s a mental thing adjust your mind set and depending what work you are doing it’s not hard on extra jobs it earn £60-100 per hour , that’s nor boasting or Willy waving Ime just saying it’s achievable without to much trouble , again maybe where you live could affect pricing to a certain degree but we have done work at these prices all over the country over the years 

 
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I target myself a weekly goal of £800. I find an hourly goal sometimes stresses me out if I'm stuck in traffic on a rubbish job. Moving forward though I'd like to aim for £1000 a week so £200 a day consistently even through winter. We shall see, always good to have a target to aim for

 
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