Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Stoots on October 08, 2020, 11:54:10 am
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Does anyone else shy away from big detached solo properties?
Ive quoted 3 this week, all stand alone, electric gates.
All 3 must be owned by millionaires.
Quoted very reasonable prices for all 3 and not got any of them. Too expensive. We are only talking £25/£30 quid here, half an hour jobs, maybe 40 mins first clean.
One ive just quoted asked if that included the conny roof ??? Yeh sure why not...
All 3 were a pain to get in had to set a time and day for access.
I much prefer £12 semis, 10mins and gone no hassle.
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Does anyone else shy away from big detached solo properties?
Ive quoted 3 this week, all stand alone, electric gates.
All 3 must be owned by millionaires.
Quoted very reasonable prices for all 3 and not got any of them. Too expensive. We are only talking £25/£30 quid here, half an hour jobs, maybe 40 mins first clean.
One ive just quoted asked if that included the conny roof ??? Yeh sure why not...
All 3 were a pain to get in had to set a time and day for access.
I much prefer £12 semis, 10mins and gone no hassle.
i know what you are saying. i love 3 bed semis. so easy and quick.
i think the answer is like most things just charge more than you are doing for the detached ones. factor in the hassle factor and the extra time they take and dont take the bullsh*t off them if they want you to drop your price, or they want to piggyback extras into the deal
unless your getting extra cash that makes you feel its worthwhile, it aint worth doing
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Does anyone else shy away from big detached solo properties?
Ive quoted 3 this week, all stand alone, electric gates.
All 3 must be owned by millionaires.
Quoted very reasonable prices for all 3 and not got any of them. Too expensive. We are only talking £25/£30 quid here, half an hour jobs, maybe 40 mins first clean.
One ive just quoted asked if that included the conny roof ??? Yeh sure why not...
All 3 were a pain to get in had to set a time and day for access.
I much prefer £12 semis, 10mins and gone no hassle.
Perhaps that gypo pickup you use put them off ??? ;D ;D ;D
seriously - you could have been to cheap
Darran
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I've lost more than one because I don't charge VAT.
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99% of my houses are stand alone but they are not anything like the prices you have said,5-6 of them would be a very good days work.
At the beginning of this year I sacked off the only 2 semis I did but they both formed 1 house if you know what I mean,takes years to get a route of stand alone houses constant wheat and chaff if they were priced correct the text prior to coming is more than worth the effort.
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What would you rather do clean 30-35 houses a week or 30-35 houses a day that’s what I asked myself years ago,you can either run for you’re money or walk for it.
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Just lost 5 £45 Stand alone houses to a newbie window cleaner who undercut my price by £15 per house .i been cleaning these for over 10 years
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Must just be Yorkshire folk, tight gets.
I kid you not ive just been to yet another quote, detached house....granted not a big one, there was only about 10 windows, 15 mins work. .....But the last guy only charged £6 AND he did it by hand!
As you can guess i didnt get that one either!
well what a utterly poope day :D im going home to kick the cat.
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We only do larger houses as our philosophy is charge high. If you get it great, if you don't that's fine. We are a well established company with a very good rep so this does effect the price and we always use the same pricing system. Having larger houses means a lot less driving, which is lost time making money.
I am fortunate to clean in a very affluent area, but sometimes the driving can, like today when the schedule goe to pot due to the rain make us change plans to gutter work
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Does anyone else shy away from big detached solo properties?
Ive quoted 3 this week, all stand alone, electric gates.
All 3 must be owned by millionaires.
Quoted very reasonable prices for all 3 and not got any of them. Too expensive. We are only talking £25/£30 quid here, half an hour jobs, maybe 40 mins first clean.
One ive just quoted asked if that included the conny roof ??? Yeh sure why not...
All 3 were a pain to get in had to set a time and day for access.
I much prefer £12 semis, 10mins and gone no hassle.
I guess that's how the moneyed classes get and keep their money ::)roll
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i always insist on the gate code too. we won't take the job on if they dont give us it. someone said that on hear and i copied it.
our businesses have to work on our terms, not the customers...
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Yep, I hate big properties.
I even had one who said her electric gates could be operated by her mobile.
So If I phone her when I arrive she can open them.
And then call her when I leave to close them.
I said, what if you are in a meeting and can't be disturbed?
Oh she said i'm hardly ever in meetings.
No problem, could you give me the gate code (bearing in mind I also text the day before).
No she said, we've only just met, I don't even know you...
I didn't even bother giving her a price!
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I remember talking to someone once in passing, and them saying "hoo you should go and clean windows in town X, there all big posh houses up there". I thought yea right, u can make better money cleaning fast council type 3 bed semis, big houses dosen't mean big money.
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I hate large properties 🤣 yeah I hate just having to clean a couple of jobs a day stopping for coffee breaks when I like watching a bit of YouTube,large properties with no hassle and well priced are at the end of the yellow brick road.
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I hate large properties 🤣 yeah I hate just having to clean a couple of jobs a day stopping for coffee breaks when I like watching a bit of YouTube and talking absolute bollox on Internet forums, large properties with no hassle and well priced are at the end of the yellow brick road.
Edited for you
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Some are good, some are a waste of time.
I’ve got a £100 a month 6 bed house (not quite a mansion, but might as well be), automatic gates, so no issue accessing. They pay via direct debit every month. It’s amazing!
Just depends on the customer...
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The title should be this is the best work you can hope to get now that all the commercial work you can start at 4-30am and finish by 11 and earn 6-700 quid are gone and to never be seen again.
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And they always have at least one balcony , which can only be accessed by ladder . A few years back I sold most of my high priced jobs because of that . But they were never my best hourly rate . Just got a few large jobs without balconies. Plus the customers that now own a lot of theses houses have changed over the years . And I am not prepared to haggle . Which reminds me . Greene king pubs are wanting to haggle . They can do one as well .
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Which reminds me . Greene king pubs are wanting to haggle . They can do one as well .
I think they are closing 90 pubs temporary and 25 permanent!!!!
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I had two separate ones phone me on Tuesday . Openly asking me to undercut there current cleaner by 25% . One even offered to throw in a breakfast 😂. I wouldn’t eat there anyway , just off junction 40 . Like pigs at a trough .
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I tend to make more money from the semi’s . The large houses I do , have massive flats roofs , balconies and windows that are twice the size of a normal window. By the time Iv faffed about getting round the massive house , my hourly rate has dropped. It’s probably because I didn’t price high enough in the first place .
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Sounds like you need to up your prices in the semis . Then your hourly rate would be better than the large stand alone jobs . Plus no balconies and and large flat roofs . So no ladder work. 👍
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Sounds like you need to up your prices in the semis . Then your hourly rate would be better than the large stand alone jobs . Plus no balconies and and large flat roofs . So no ladder work. 👍
I tend to make more money from the semi’s . The large houses I do , have massive flats roofs , balconies and windows that are twice the size of a normal window. By the time Iv faced about getting round the massive house , my hourly rate has dropped. It’s probably because I didn’t price high enough in the first place .
Ok....
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You can’t physically do top money day after day on semis it gets draining unless you have 4-5 upwards every time you pull up it ain’t happening,easy access big properties is where the gravy is at priced how they should be.
Why would anyone want to drive about park for 1-2 and have to be rushing about for another 1-2,saying there the jobs you want is like trying to make a silk purse out of a pig.
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I think ive found i prefer cleaning for the average joe to be honest :D
The lower classes who have flats and terraced houses down pokey little streets are an access nightmare. The single mums and dole dossers in council accomodation tend to want to skip clean and be bad payers...
The ones who have the biggest houses in town want to pay peanuts and need you to call at exactly 9:50am to open the gates before they walk dexter.
My favourite work is 3 bed semis and small detached, run of the mill houses where you can pull up and park with ease, clear access all round and done in 10 mins. Can knock 20 of these out in a day no sweat, no hassle, no issues.
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You can’t physically do top money day after day on semis it gets draining unless you have 4-5 upwards every time you pull up it ain’t happening,easy access big properties is where the gravy is at priced how they should be.
Why would anyone want to drive about park for 1-2 and have to be rushing about for another 1-2,saying there the jobs you want is like trying to make a silk purse out of a pig.
I think your ideas are skewed by the fact you obviously work in really nice rural southern areas where the price for all services are hiked.
What i am faced with in an ex mining town of the industrial north is a densely populated urban sprawl with 99% of properties being flats, terraced and council houses with semis and small detacheds thrown in.
In and amongst these houses and in small villages in the surrounding countryside are the larger gated properties. The problem is these larger houses still have the same pricing mentality as the smaller houses because its in the same area. Indeed a lot of people who live in these big houses grew up in the city, rich people from down south dont choose to move here, they grew up here and became successfull enough to buy a big house, but still carry the local market rates in their minds from when they lived in a smaller house. They have had window cleaners before from the same area cleaning their houses cheap and they have an idea on what the "going rate" is.
You cant get £60 for a big house in a posh street that backs onto a council estate where some vest wearing fools are charging £5 a house. Its not that simple, window cleaning prices are affected by geographical location.
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100% correct Stootsy and well put
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I think ive found i prefer cleaning for the average joe to be honest :D
The lower classes who have flats and terraced houses down pokey little streets are an access nightmare. The single mums and dole dossers in council accomodation tend to want to skip clean and be bad payers...
The ones who have the biggest houses in town want to pay peanuts and need you to call at exactly 9:50am to open the gates before they walk dexter.
My favourite work is 3 bed semis and small detached, run of the mill houses where you can pull up and park with ease, clear access all round and done in 10 mins. Can knock 20 of these out in a day no sweat, no hassle, no issues.
the trick is to find who your best customers are and then go after those, leaving the ones you dont like as much to other companies
so in your instance thats the average joes.
all said and done I agree with you. 3 bed semis for 2 working people are my fave too.
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You can’t physically do top money day after day on semis it gets draining unless you have 4-5 upwards every time you pull up it ain’t happening,easy access big properties is where the gravy is at priced how they should be.
Why would anyone want to drive about park for 1-2 and have to be rushing about for another 1-2,saying there the jobs you want is like trying to make a silk purse out of a pig.
I have atleast 2 full days work per week that I’m cleaning 30 plus properties, and only move the van 3 or 4 times.
They can be very good earning days, if you price right and have compact work. They are the best earning days for me anyway.
I prefer the smaller jobs too.
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If you are not moving much then that’s different obviously just my preference I wouldn’t want to be cleaning 30 odd houses a day everyday or almost everyday.
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I think ive found i prefer cleaning for the average joe to be honest :D
The lower classes who have flats and terraced houses down pokey little streets are an access nightmare. The single mums and dole dossers in council accomodation tend to want to skip clean and be bad payers...
The ones who have the biggest houses in town want to pay peanuts and need you to call at exactly 9:50am to open the gates before they walk dexter.
My favourite work is 3 bed semis and small detached, run of the mill houses where you can pull up and park with ease, clear access all round and done in 10 mins. Can knock 20 of these out in a day no sweat, no hassle, no issues.
the trick is to find who your best customers are and then go after those, leaving the ones you dont like as much to other companies
so in your instance thats the average joes.
all said and done I agree with you. 3 bed semis for 2 working people are my fave too.
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I think ive found i prefer cleaning for the average joe to be honest :D
Good thing is sometimes the big houses that are underpriced are left to the mugs.
I had a customer the other day that I have done for years. Huge detached house, nice village area. Put the price up a couple of months ago as it hasn’t been increased in years.
They were grumbling about it last visit so when I cleaned it this time I could see the cancellation signs on their face before they spoke.
Sure enough - too much don’t want them doing.
It’s only every other month as it is.
She even had the cheek to expect me to do it 4 times a year for the same price.
It’s some other mugs problem now.
T
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Quoted today four mid to large properties as their window cleaner has become ill.
I told them all I was happy to maintain service and return them to him if he gets well and returns. Until I quoted. 2 @ £25 1 @ £30 and 1@£35. A bit cheap but all together, a couple of hours I’m thinking
He had just increased his price from £14 to£16.
They’re getting other quotes. ffs.
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You can’t physically do top money day after day on semis it gets draining unless you have 4-5 upwards every time you pull up it ain’t happening,easy access big properties is where the gravy is at priced how they should be.
Why would anyone want to drive about park for 1-2 and have to be rushing about for another 1-2,saying there the jobs you want is like trying to make a silk purse out of a pig.
I think your ideas are skewed by the fact you obviously work in really nice rural southern areas where the price for all services are hiked.
What i am faced with in an ex mining town of the industrial north is a densely populated urban sprawl with 99% of properties being flats, terraced and council houses with semis and small detacheds thrown in.
In and amongst these houses and in small villages in the surrounding countryside are the larger gated properties. The problem is these larger houses still have the same pricing mentality as the smaller houses because its in the same area. Indeed a lot of people who live in these big houses grew up in the city, rich people from down south dont choose to move here, they grew up here and became successfull enough to buy a big house, but still carry the local market rates in their minds from when they lived in a smaller house. They have had window cleaners before from the same area cleaning their houses cheap and they have an idea on what the "going rate" is.
You cant get £60 for a big house in a posh street that backs onto a council estate where some vest wearing fools are charging £5 a house. Its not that simple, window cleaning prices are affected by geographical location.
Try telling that to NWH.......oh wait a minute!
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The bottom line is, if NWH can’t do it, no one can😉
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Quoted today four mid to large properties as their window cleaner has become ill.
I told them all I was happy to maintain service and return them to him if he gets well and returns. Until I quoted. 2 @ £25 1 @ £30 and 1@£35. A bit cheap but all together, a couple of hours I’m thinking
He had just increased his price from £14 to£16.
They’re getting other quotes. ffs.
This is a problem with the old guard - been doing them for years, rarely putting prices up, then the customer only ever expects to pay cheap prices
Darran
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Sorry if I said it can’t be done earning good money cleaning semis all the time I’m sure it can be and no doubt people are doing that,what I am personally saying is I wouldn’t want to be cleaning them every day of the week.
Again me personally I wouldn’t take on any job for the jobs sake what’s the point in that I have a minimum for a house and that’s a minimum price even if it’s a dolls house,people with many employees will charge a lot less than people with less staff it’s a numbers game and they need bigger numbers 25-30 for a 4-5 bed detached is crap money south of the river, if you have many
mouths to feed it’s not looked upon like that it’s another 25-30 on the job sheet.
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Type of jobs and price are looked at in a completely different way if multiple employees are involved I would it’s more about turnover of work not quality of work and price,many business owners have never been within 10 miles of houses and businesses they service as they don’t carry out the work look at it from that point of view you can see why there prices are so low.
The smaller the business the quality of work is essential to the overall number at the end of the month,it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if someone proved to me that 2 men in 1 van with quality work trounced a 3 van business with poor to average work.
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Don't judge a customer by his/her house.
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I agree with that never judge em 6000 a month mortgage Porsche Macan Range Rover 2500 a month PCP payments,the job went they moved out within 6 weeks lol the gardener said well silly sod he had no money 🤣🤣🤣.
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I try not to guess how much someone's mortgage or PCP payments are and whether they can afford to have their windows cleaned or not.
If they agree to the price, I usually just clean them. If they don't agree, I don't ask them to get a cheaper car.
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It's the best thing about having enough customers.
When you've got to the point where you can genuinely pick and choose.
If I'm asked for a quote, have time on the round, I'll think ok-yeah-why not?
If they haggle/moan/think about it, then it's really satisfying to know that I really don't need the business so can confidently say 'bugger off'
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It's the best thing about having enough customers.
When you've got to the point where you can genuinely pick and choose.
If I'm asked for a quote, have time on the round, I'll think ok-yeah-why not?
If they haggle/moan/think about it, then it's really satisfying to know that I really don't need the business so can confidently say 'bugger off'
I had this last week , did a gutter job and the woman was one of these negative/moaning type customers who kept stopping me to whinge about her neighbour. Mid job , she asked me how much for windows, I said we’ll discuss windows after iv finished the gutters.
Was a through the garage type job which I don’t take on , told her at the end that I can’t take her on and it was very satisfying as I remember the days when I used to take everything on!
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I agree with that never judge em 6000 a month mortgage Porsche Macan Range Rover 2500 a month PCP payments,the job went they moved out within 6 weeks lol the gardener said well silly sod he had no money 🤣🤣🤣.
Did the ex- customer divulge this information or are you just second guessing?
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No I was told by someone that knows him but fell out with him.
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They are all at it if you see a Range Rover or similar on the road the chances are they are doing 1000-1250 a month on a PCP,25k down the rest is debt.
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No I was told by someone that knows him but fell out with him.
I try not to let gossip cloud my judgement of customers or potential customers; especially when there's been a falling out.
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I don't normally mind but a couple of weeks ago we were asked to quote the biggest house I've ever had to quote inside and out it was like a massive church in acres of grounds. The insides didn't look straight forward but just for the outsides I would have quoted around £120. The owner said that the last guy took just over an hour trad with his employee. Don't think I'm going to bother wasting my time quoting this one.
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I really dont understand why some of you cant get reasonable, fair prices for larger stand alone properties......I have a mixture of days.....
Sometimes I'm cleaning 5 -10 properties a day...others I'm cleaning smaller compact work(25+ jobs)...
All in 5-6 hours a day....money earned is similar but usually the 5 -10 properties is higher by £30 or £40 per day....
I find most of my wealthier customers absolutely fine once they know how I operate with courtesy texts,online payments on an agreed frequency......
Let them know from the start you dont clean inside windows,or balcony windows that require a ladder,etc if you want to make the job as less hassle as possible......
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No I was told by someone that knows him but fell out with him.
And you believe someone where a grudge exists?
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No I was told by someone that knows him but fell out with him.
And you believe someone where a grudge exists?
With half the rubbish NWH spouts on here, it wouldn’t surprise me if the “customer” didn’t actually exist.
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I’ve many that live that life that can easily afford it £100-150 quid is ashtray money to some people with serious cash.
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For someone to be paying 80-100k on a mortgage a year in certain areas down south is not uncommon at all,get with it the window cleaning money for some people is loose change.
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I have a few very large detached house's, that pay very well, most have driveways surrounding the house,
so i park at the rear of the house, and move the van gradually around to the front as i finish sections, easier
access, hotter water due to to minimum hose unreeled, because they are big house's, they have to be priced
higher, when i started out a few years ago, i used to under price these bigger house's to secure getting them,
it was a stupid strategy, and i just ended up being a Busy Fool working for peanuts, you live & learn.
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Price well.
If they dont take offer move on.
Simple...
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I had a large house that I did only once. I quoted it at £210 every 4 weeks. She told me that her 2 full time handy men would take all day to clean the windows. After 3 hours I was finished and she paid me. Later that night I get an email cancelling my services. The reason was that my hourly rate was too high :o So basically she was probably paying the same amount out to have her windows cleaned but when a professional comes in and has the tools to do the job efficiently it p1ssed her off. I always liken it to someone turning up to dig your drive up. Use a shovel and take all day or use a JCB and do the job in an hour, you’ll end up paying the same! It’s the same with crane hire firms. Do they charge £40 an hour to use their expensive machinery? Nope.
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You get the odd 1 with that attitude but it’s rare the vast majority of the work like this is recommendation so if you charge their friend 100 if they have a similar house they expect the same sort of price.
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Always let my customers know I am coming. Min charge is now up to £25 and try to work to £70-£75 an hour while working. Run a team of 3 so you halve that revenue to £30-£35 a hour profit - tax and that leaves not as much as I would like for pension, new equipment, health insurance. Big houses are great. Fed up in my local down of newbies coming into the market and charging cheap prices. Selling value and a higher price is part and parcel of running a business. Prices continue to fall as numpties continiue to compete on price and not value. Washing windows at 35-70 foot with hot water is amazing and prices should reflect that. Big houses. Send a quote, reference what else you have done. Let them know you are insured. Sell benefit of frames being cleaned. I set out not wanting monthly cleans. charge more for bi, even more for quarterly, just need more customers. My friend is a millionaire is OZ cleaning windows, does the big city jobs. His advice was always charge as much as you can before they tell you to f*** off! That of course has to be balanced with a bloody good service.
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Jack you have the right idea once it’s built and you are full you’ll get called an egomaniac like someone else on here 🤣🤣,couldn’t have put it all better myself m8 keep going.
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Jack you have the right idea once it’s built and you are full you’ll get called an egomaniac like someone else on here 🤣🤣,couldn’t have put it all better myself m8 keep going.
There’s a difference between jack and you the forum egomaniac.
He doesn’t have to shout about it all day, every day.
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Yeah yeah bit different when Someone basically says the same as someone else and gets a different response it’s called bullying lol,if I was as weak as P**s and bowed down to you I’d ask for you to be banned 😂😂.
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And your request would be ignored.
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Yeah sums it up really.
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It does. Because your request would be stupid.