[kevin James]

I reckon Kevin James (the original poster) is going to make a rod for his own back and seriously regret taking on loads of cheap work.

He must be desperate?

Not desperate. Just not greedy. Wfp is so much quicker & what benefit is it to the custies unless there charges are lowered? Most custies see trad as doing a more thorough job.
I'm happy at £200 a day, no debt, no wages to pay, spend £10 week on fuel & I'm protecting myself against reduced incomes

Kevin.

[ftp]

If you've been cleaning for seven years why haven't you got a full round? Or are you saying you have a full round of six weekly customers but by extending the cleans you need to expand even further to take up the shortfall? Then by having such a massive round should you loose for example ten percent of customers due to the credit crunch statistically you will loose a smaller number of your round? Surely within no time you'll be at saturation point?
Does this also open up the debate of wfp cleans lasting longer than trad methods?

[NWH]

Your not competitive or an undercutter your desperate.

[kevin James]

the more houses u do, the more time spent collecting if they are in , and the more time spent on admin and envelopes etc....being cheap doesnt pay in the long run

there is a huge gap between £16 and £6.50...that is not being competitive , its being silly

I spend 3 hours on a Friday night collecting. This is for cash flow & slow payers. The rest comes in cheques.

Whether it was 1000 custies or less, you'd still cope on this sort of time input.
Who is not happy on £1000 a week with no employees?

Kevin.

[peter holley]

Your not competitive or an undercutter your desperate.

no! just silly ...helll make awage , but thats all

[NWH]

It won`t be long before he`s doing those jobs thinking the other bloke was getting double what i was and they were paying it for years,how long do you think it would take to not only get that price back up to the original 1 but a few quid more,i`ll tell you how long a life time.

[kevin James]

Your not competitive or an undercutter your desperate.

This all works cos 95% of my work is within 2 miles of me. So the £6.50 advert covers this area so I'm into consolidating further. This figure should bring in the folks who have never considered a window cleaner. Around a £1 a week?
Kevin

[ftp]

So, a mega compact round makes some sense. Mine is nowhere near compact enough to withstand those prices without working like Billy Wizz. 

[kevin James]

It won`t be long before he`s doing those jobs thinking the other bloke was getting double what i was and they were paying it for years,how long do you think it would take to not only get that price back up to the original 1 but a few quid more,i`ll tell you how long a life time.

I don't worry about individual prices. I'm in & out, aiming for that £200 a day. Nothing else matters, certainly not worrying what should have been. Fix your targets & aim for them. Again is £200 a day with mnimal overheads a busy fool?

Kevin.

[NWH]

Your not competitive or an undercutter your desperate.

This all works cos 95% of my work is within 2 miles of me. So the £6.50 advert covers this area so I'm into consolidating further. This figure should bring in the folks who have never considered a window cleaner. Around a £1 a week?
Kevin

When things pickup your mindset will change believe me i`ve been there when i took some underpriced work up years ago,they end up being your wet day work if there lucky.

[NWH]

It won`t be long before he`s doing those jobs thinking the other bloke was getting double what i was and they were paying it for years,how long do you think it would take to not only get that price back up to the original 1 but a few quid more,i`ll tell you how long a life time.

I don't worry about individual prices. I'm in & out, aiming for that £200 a day. Nothing else matters, certainly not worrying what should have been. Fix your targets & aim for them. Again is £200 a day with mnimal overheads a busy fool?

Kevin.

I don`t know i don`t work for £200 a day lol.

[peter holley]

It won`t be long before he`s doing those jobs thinking the other bloke was getting double what i was and they were paying it for years,how long do you think it would take to not only get that price back up to the original 1 but a few quid more,i`ll tell you how long a life time.

I don't worry about individual prices. I'm in & out, aiming for that £200 a day. Nothing else matters, certainly not worrying what should have been. Fix your targets & aim for them. Again is £200 a day with mnimal overheads a busy fool?

Kevin.

I don`t know i don`t work for £200 a day lol.

lool

[kevin James]

£200 a day - £4 runnng costs. Not good enough? Ok the warranty on the bike runs out in 18 months so the overheads will increase & I'll cross that bridge then.

Things are gonna get real tough out there so imhappy this a gonna keep this show on the road.

Kevin.  

[NWH]

Only joking i know a mans gotta do and all that but i would be less than impressed if it happend to me not that it would,you might aswell put flyers through the doors when the window cleaners there doing them.If your that much cheaper a lot of people wouldn`t take you on cos they`d think you`d be here today and gone tomorrow and WC`s that cheap normally are and that`s a fact we have all had the saying said to us by customers,the last bloke just stopped coming.

[trevor perry]

i have cleaned windows for 27 years and the last seven have seen prices go absolutely stupid, window cleaning isnt a skilled job and even less so now we have wfp, with more people trying out window cleaning then i think kevins prices will soon be the norm [ how many unskilled jobs do you know that can earn £30 an hour]. no one wants prices to fall but it will soon happen it did in the late eighties especially with commercial work.
  if you do a good job and someone undercuts you by a pound then the customer will more than likely stick with what they know but to be offered a reduction from £16 to£6.50 a think most apart from the well off will swap.
  kevin sounds like he has a good work ethic and doesnt worry what others are making,he knows in the real world £200 a day is brilliant and fair play to him.

[kevin James]

Only joking i know a mans gotta do and all that but i would be less than impressed if it happend to me not that it would,you might aswell put flyers through the doors when the window cleaners there doing them.If your that much cheaper a lot of people wouldn`t take you on cos they`d think you`d be here today and gone tomorrow and WC`s that cheap normally are and that`s a fact we have all had the saying said to us by customers,the last bloke just stopped coming.

Point taken! The ad carries  a picture of the quad & this is seen all round this area each week. And I've been active around here for 7 years. The ad's been running for 4 months & now the calls are coming in stronger. People are talking & having such a strong Market identity reinforces your presence. And a very reasonable charge?
Kevin  

[MSTAV]

i think not a bad idea. in 6 months to a year you can put prices up a pound then again 6 months time another pound by which time the cred crunch will hopefully be over and you will be laughing. Thats what id do if was aiming to beat the competition in this climate. Fair play

[NBwcs]

Havnt read the whole thread so forgive me if someones metioned this already.
Advertising a price without seeing the property is a very risky business if you ask me, especially when the price your quoting is on the low side. Presumably, the propertys in your area vary in design,What about access issues, extensions, different size windows,windows above flat roofs,  People arnt going to be too chuffed if you quote one price than start increasing it to allow for these things. Cant help thinking you'll come unstuck in the long run.Nothing worse than doing a house where you know you've made a mistake with the price, you end up resenting doing it.

[windowwashers]

i think not a bad idea. in 6 months to a year you can put prices up a pound then again 6 months time another pound by which time the cred crunch will hopefully be over and you will be laughing. Thats what id do if was aiming to beat the competition in this climate. Fair play

Some Customers moan if you put the price up every 5 years let alone every 6 months

[windowwashers]

that is so true 

you feeling ok Stan, not often you agree with things I say, warming to me are you lol