Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Crystal-clear on May 31, 2019, 08:46:18 am
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Would you up your prices if you haven't for 10 years but you're still able to make the appropriate daily target? I'm thinking perhaps I was "well priced" back then and now normally priced.
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its up to you....its your business...i would say yes put them up....or otherwise before you know it another 10 years will go past and your work will be underpriced......
dont forget its not just tax,insurances,expenses you have to pay for but obviously no holiday pay,sick pay etc AND saving money for when your older(pensions or nest egg/life savings etc)
most fair minded customers will understand prices must go up eventually.......
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ive raised some of my jobs 4 times in the last 10 years by the way........
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its up to you....its your business...i would say yes put them up....or otherwise before you know it another 10 years will go past and your work will be underpriced......
dont forget its not just tax,insurances,expenses you have to pay for but obviously no holiday pay,sick pay etc AND saving money for when your older(pensions or nest egg/life savings etc)
most fair minded customers will understand prices must go up eventually.......
Certainly.. I've been keeping an eye on pretty much the day rate and profit not the years that prices haven't gone up. My logic was if you could still hit the appropriate target technically you don't need to raise the prices.
Everything's currently in line I have a feeling back then I was pricing above average..
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Inflation has risen by nearly 20% in the past 10 years, I would certainly put your prices up; that means you were 20% better off 10 years ago than you are now or you're working a lot harder and longer than you were then to cover this 20%.
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its up to you....its your business...i would say yes put them up....or otherwise before you know it another 10 years will go past and your work will be underpriced......
dont forget its not just tax,insurances,expenses you have to pay for but obviously no holiday pay,sick pay etc AND saving money for when your older(pensions or nest egg/life savings etc)
most fair minded customers will understand prices must go up eventually.......
Certainly.. I've been keeping an eye on pretty much the day rate and profit not the years that prices haven't gone up. My logic was if you could still hit the appropriate target technically you don't need to raise the prices.
Everything's currently in line I have a feeling back then I was pricing above average..
have you been constantly making more money every year over the last 10 years?without working harder?
i have.......im earning over £25k MORE a year than i was 10 years ago,i was just about getting by on around £18k a year on the ladders back in 2009........now its £43k-£45k......
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The problem is all the newbies quoting low prices. So you may still be more expensive than some others without increasing your prices.
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theres a few windys i know who have never raised their prices for many years and are working for peanuts....i mean ridiculously low prices like £4-50 for a 4 bedroom house! ::)roll.........their usually skint too........
their excuse EVERY TIME for not raising prices is theirs too much competition....... ::)roll
its the same attitude i had for many years,it also kept me pretty much broke and just about keeping my head above water.....
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theres a few windys i know who have never raised their prices for many years and are working for peanuts....i mean ridiculously low prices like £4-50 for a 4 bedroom house! ::)roll.........their usually skint too........
their excuse EVERY TIME for not raising prices is theirs too much competition....... ::)roll
its the same attitude i had for many years,it also kept me pretty much broke and just about keeping my head above water.....
Tell me about it. It's a trap quite a lot can get into..
Doesn't apply though because the profit and the daily rate is appropriate to even pay vat on today.
I think I've answered my own question. What probably happened over the years is it's become more competitive and I've had to keep the prices the same rather than increase them a bit I guess. Today I think in about 2 years I will do a price review. But there's no need really because everything seems inline still
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The problem only becomes apparent when you do need to adjust the price, as you've accustomed the customers to said price for ten years.
I had this problem a while back, as I had sections of rounds which had the same price for X yrs, ut combined with all the other higher/newer prices the days rates were still good. However when the time came to increase the prices, they didn't like a £2 - £5 pound increase and I lost the odd customers. Yet no doubt, like yourself and others, I'd doesn't matter too much as I already had replaced/gained new work to compensate this, so it ends up a win/win anyway
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Yes makes sense. Was just curious also to know if anyone else was in a similar situation where you haven't up your prices in a very long time but you actually making the appropriate daily target or profit for today's standards in our industry.
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its up to you....its your business...i would say yes put them up....or otherwise before you know it another 10 years will go past and your work will be underpriced......
dont forget its not just tax,insurances,expenses you have to pay for but obviously no holiday pay,sick pay etc AND saving money for when your older(pensions or nest egg/life savings etc)
most fair minded customers will understand prices must go up eventually.......
Certainly.. I've been keeping an eye on pretty much the day rate and profit not the years that prices haven't gone up. My logic was if you could still hit the appropriate target technically you don't need to raise the prices.
Everything's currently in line I have a feeling back then I was pricing above average..
have you been constantly making more money every year over the last 10 years?without working harder?
i have.......im earning over £25k MORE a year than i was 10 years ago,i was just about getting by on around £18k a year on the ladders back in 2009........now its £43k-£45k......
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Really? You never mentioned it before :o
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I regularly have increases , around every 2 years stick it up £1.
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I put my prices up from time to time. Not annually but 2/4 years.
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Yes makes sense. Was just curious also to know if anyone else was in a similar situation where you haven't up your prices in a very long time but you actually making the appropriate daily target or profit for today's standards in our industry.
what is the going rate for daily earnings for window cleaners in 2019?............£200?/£300/£400?ive no idea........
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its up to you....its your business...i would say yes put them up....or otherwise before you know it another 10 years will go past and your work will be underpriced......
dont forget its not just tax,insurances,expenses you have to pay for but obviously no holiday pay,sick pay etc AND saving money for when your older(pensions or nest egg/life savings etc)
most fair minded customers will understand prices must go up eventually.......
Certainly.. I've been keeping an eye on pretty much the day rate and profit not the years that prices haven't gone up. My logic was if you could still hit the appropriate target technically you don't need to raise the prices.
Everything's currently in line I have a feeling back then I was pricing above average..
have you been constantly making more money every year over the last 10 years?without working harder?
i have.......im earning over £25k MORE a year than i was 10 years ago,i was just about getting by on around £18k a year on the ladders back in 2009........now its £43k-£45k......
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Really? You never mentioned it before :o
When you add up his 2019 expenses and 20% inflation he's actually worse off. (http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/1559323718_grin.gif)
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The risk is without regular increases you take on more work to earn more, this costs time, to buy you the same
Inflation means to keep the same standard of living, you have to put prices up or do more work
I then run round trying to fit them all in giving the impression I don’t care or have time for a chat.
I also hated to constant push to get them all done
In 18 years my round has always been fluid a small % have been with me all that time.
Put your prices up, replace any losses and don’t worry about what others are doing
Tony
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I had a large round like this, price hadn't moved for 11 years. I put them all up and lost 2 or 1 i think.
They're due another price increase next year.
What i have found though is that customers pass away and move etc. So I may have been cleaning a well priced house/under priced house for the old owners but with the new people it's priced correctly or had a slight increase.
Working very well for me
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I'm sure I read on here a few years ago someone would never put there prices up but if they got new work/customer they would price higher than the long standing customer in an identical house.
If you were cleaning a house ten years ago - you were either trad or new to WFP - you were probably slower, had less compact round etc.. Naturally over a few years you speed up - get better equipment - more compact rounds. thats why you would feel you are still making good money - in reality your losing out twice - cleaning more houses in a day and now clearly undercharging for the work - just think what you could afford had you increased your prices every 2 years ? plus all those new customers paying better prices
Darran
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According to this calculator £1 in 2009 is now £1.27 today. So you round has devalued by 27%.
http://inflation.iamkate.com/
That's an eye opener.
We started window cleaning in 2003. Our prices should have gone up by 50% just standing still. Would I be able to get £12 for a house I charged £7.50 for in 2004? Especially when we raised the prices from £4.50 to £6.50 a few cleans after we purchased the round, then to £7.50 the following year.
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so how close are you to being 12.50 from 7.50?
if I look at what I charged in 2010 - first year a £7.50 house is now £9.00 - which I think judging by your calculator I'm a little behind - however back in 2009 it would have taken 20minutes to clean - now it's done between 10 and 15 minutes
Darran
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so how close are you to being 12.50 from 7.50?
if I look at what I charged in 2010 - first year a £7.50 house is now £9.00 - which I think judging by your calculator I'm a little behind - however back in 2009 it would have taken 20minutes to clean - now it's done between 10 and 15 minutes
Darran
This doesn't mean that your guys will be cleaning 4 to 6 houses an hour, even if it was compact work.
Window cleaning prices haven't kept up with inflation in our area either.
As I mentioned in another post, £10 for a 3 bed semi is just above the customer's perceived price for a clean in our area. Quoting £9 still causes a shock factor on a potential customers face. Loftus is not far from us and the perceived price for the same house is £5.
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so how close are you to being 12.50 from 7.50?
if I look at what I charged in 2010 - first year a £7.50 house is now £9.00 - which I think judging by your calculator I'm a little behind - however back in 2009 it would have taken 20minutes to clean - now it's done between 10 and 15 minutes
Darran
This doesn't mean that your guys will be cleaning 4 to 6 houses an hour, even if it was compact work.
Window cleaning prices haven't kept up with inflation in our area either.
As I mentioned in another post, £10 for a 3 bed semi is just above the customer's perceived price for a clean in our area. Quoting £9 still causes a shock factor on a potential customers face. Loftus is not far from us and the perceived price for the same house is £5.
im not saying they ( well not all the time ;D ) do - but over the years work is more compact so less moving per hour and generally with better equipment cleaning times have improved - thats just something to factor in ( I think )
£10 for your average 3 bedder is about the mark here ( 4 weekly ) I can normally get them on 8 weekly at 13 or 14 quid
Darran
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I’ve had a funny thing happen. Just been going through my bank statements and loads of my online customers have been doing their own price rises. Happy days!
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I work in two city's 25 miles apart.
And I can say for certain I can get better prices in one than the other.
Or should I say I get far more quotes accepted at my pricing in one than the other, something like 70% Vs 30% of all quotes given.
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I work in two city's 25 miles apart.
And I can say for certain I can get better prices in one than the other.
Or should I say I get far more quotes accepted at my pricing in one than the other, something like 70% Vs 30% of all quotes given.
Bromsgrove and Sutton?
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I work in two city's 25 miles apart.
And I can say for certain I can get better prices in one than the other.
Or should I say I get far more quotes accepted at my pricing in one than the other, something like 70% Vs 30% of all quotes given.
Bromsgrove and Sutton?
Nope im in Yorkshire
Wakefield and York
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Bet it's not Wakefield that's for sure,
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Would you up your prices if you haven't for 10 years but you're still able to make the appropriate daily target? I'm thinking perhaps I was "well priced" back then and now normally priced.
i dont understand why you wouldnt put your prices up?
you're margins are not the same as they were 10 years ago. a pint of beer costs me about £4.80 nowadays...
you need the profit from the cleans so i would imgine your prices should be raised by about £3 if not raised for 10 years. imagine what a difference that would make to your business, or your own savings or for your kids savings... whatever really. if you have 100 customers that would be £300 extra each month, £3600 a year...
if its the admin job that is putting you off get a but of admin support off a mate who is good at this sort of thing, or their wife, or kid.. thats what i do, just having someone in for a night focusses my mind and if you pay them a bit of cash, you get it all back the month of the price rise so its a no brainer.
also if you were high priced to begin with, you have a bunch of custoemrs who chose you not on the cheapest price, but on your service. to be frank, a lot of them will think you're nuts for not putting your prices up. its the way of the world.
good luck!