Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Frequently Asked Questions & Useful Resources => Topic started by: MSTAV on August 27, 2006, 10:36:23 pm
-
on my round i find i earn more doing smaller houses as opposed to bigger houses.i mean 2 small houses can be done in time of 1 big house so im thinking why bother with the big houses.does any1 get what i mean.
-
The size of the house should be taken into account when pricing the job. If it has twice the amount of windows it will cost twice the amount to clean it .
Plus you dont have to do much traveling from house to house
-
i dont see how i could charge double.my 2 bedroom houses are at 7.50 which is a lot id say.my bigger 4 bedroom are priced at 12-15 per house.would you charge more or what
-
Totally agree Morgan,
You can earn a lot more with smaller houses as pro-rata you can charge more.
I clean some very big houses and they are all the same, TIGHT!
Yet I clean an area that we have a huge customer base in that are all 3 bed semis or smaller and it is our best day of the round, hands down!
Another thing to consider is it is far less painful to lose a £10 customer than it is a £120 customer. The only up side is people in these larger houses tend not to move around so much so as long as your work is of a high standard then you should keep them. I have got some houses I have cleaned now for over 12 years.
Best wishes,
Trev
-
hey someone agrees with me.big up the small houses.i can earn over 30 per hour with the small and only 24 with larger so I try turn down as much big as i can.dont get me wrong i do them at the right price just i cant charge double just coz it takes twice as long can I
-
Yes - there is an element of minimum charge you can apply to small properties - e.g. £7.50 or whatever your area will stand.
But you need to write out more chits or collect more seperate accounts.
If they are grouped together they are very good.
But.... sometimes at the lower end of the housing market, especially on local authority estates there is sometimes a less business like mentality and so you may find more "not this time" or "they don't need doing yet" sort of householders which you need to
-
Yes I agree with the point made here too morgan.
I agree with you too Trev ;)
I find the smaller houses pay good, £8 - £10.
The big ones are usually ok too, £75 - £100 +
It's the ones in between who seem to be the tightest £20 + Always moan about the weather, the price, watch me like a hawk etc. I don't like to "pigeon-hole" people, but it does seem to be the ones who 'think' they're something more..that are the pain.
-
cheers guys for that.im gonna keep as i am then
-
Why cant you charge double if it takes you twice as long ???
-
If you do a large mansion/country manor you just won't get the price. They will expect a cheaper price.
Remember, they don't get to live in houses like these by throwing their money away, I wish they did. I have houses that take 3 hours for two guys and I get £120, if they were on small houses they earn £25/£30 per hour each.
The only good thing is once they are on the books they tend to stay with you forever, and they also introduce you to other similar people to themselves.
Happy days,
Trev
-
Would they not pay more if nobody was willing to drop their hrly rate for them or would they just not have them done
-
To be honest, the pricing is pretty much in keeping with the norm.
If you buy 500 leaflets you pay more than someone who buys 10,000 pro-rata, its the same for window cleaning. A house with a lot of windows generally will be discounted down and to be honest the owners are not stupid and will be looking for this.
Like i have said before, you have to look at the benefits this type of work brings, stability (they don't generally move about) It gives you an edge on new business (Name drop that you clean this manor etc....) and the fact that they will recommend you to thier friends, who will also live in reasonable size houses too? Word of mouth is so valuable.
Trev
-
I have fair size customer base that consists of many terraced houses and one area of tiny houses that have only four windows and a door.
These are good days for me; from a financial point of view.
They're concentrated, quick and easy to clean.
However, with more customers you get more problems from them, so it's important to drop your bad customers straight away; politely though. Bad news travels fast around these type of close-knit communities.
Collecting is also a pain; since you're getting your total from many different customers, rather than a lesser amount.
On balance though, I prefer larger accounts since they're easier to get paid from; usually.
-
I have fair size customer base that consists of many terraced houses and one area of tiny houses that have only four windows and a door.
These are good days for me; from a financial point of view.
They're concentrated, quick and easy to clean.
However, with more customers you get more problems from them, so it's important to drop your bad customers straight away; politely though. Bad news travels fast around these type of close-knit communities.
Collecting is also a pain; since you're getting your total from many different customers, rather than a lesser amount.
On balance though, I prefer larger accounts since they're easier to get paid from; usually.
You've highlighted one of the reasons I prefer larger accounts Tosh. If you have a lot of small, compact accounts, there is usually going to be one awkward customer who you don't want to work for. It becomes difficult to drop them in such a situation. So you either have to put up with their c**p, or give up a number of jobs. I would rather the work be a bit more scattered and charge well. Less chance of losing them to an undercutter that way too.
-
I only started building up my round in January of this year... At first I canvassed housing estates that consisted of small 2 or 3 bedroom houses, the problem was that I would only pick up a couple of houses per estate as many estates were already well covered by other window cleaners... So it wasn't worth while having a couple of £10 houses per estate in lots of estates.
Now I target £20+ houses, this way it doesn't matter as much if you have to travel a little more in your working day.
Andy
-
If you want to earn £40 per hour, then charge as such.If 3 smaller houses take one hour and 1 larger house takes an hour, so be it! Remember it is your time as well as work being paid for. That is time getting to the job and back. With those larger accounts, remember the add on work, ie insides, gutters soffits etc, that is when you can start to slightly discount your work rates, the more work in one place the better for your overheads! We have a good mixture of small thru to large and if you work it right, each can make you as much as the other! Look at the bigger picture sometimes, not just what is directly in front of you.
One guy that used to work for us, used to look at the workload each day and if there was more than 10 hits, he was defeated! No matter that those 10 +hits could earn him £70+ in 6 hours (nice hourly rate!), but if there was only 5 hits earning him £65 in 6 hours he was ok ??? ???
-
£70+ in 6 hours (nice hourly rate!)
:o
£70 for 6 hours window cleaning = a good hourly rate - You're having a laugh!
-
£70+ in 6 hours (nice hourly rate!)
:o
£70 for 6 hours window cleaning = a good hourly rate - You're having a laugh!
As an employee I guess?
-
as i said, working for us, so yes an employee/staff ;) better hourly rate than most cosy little office jobs round here. In fact better hourly rate for EMPLOYED window cleaners in this area. As an employee £70+ for 6 hours is fat better than the £40 per day paid by some round here! ;)
-
god 70 pound for 6 hours.what area are yopu talking bout helen.well i guess if working for someone thats good.ever thought bout canvassing your own round up?
-
Hi Morgan,
Unless I have read this post wrong the figure Helen quotes is what she is paying her staff?
So in reality for an employee to earn £70 for 6 hours work isn't that bad at all.
Best wishes,
Trev
-
lol oh yea i see.sorry helen.please 4give me ill buy u a diamond ring
-
i wish i could earn £70 for 8 hours at the moment ???
-
You will be earning heck of a lot more than that for 8 hours once you have a full round.
But for an employed window cleaner thats pretty good money.
Paul
-
cheers paul for that, you have lifted my spirits, i hope so ,, i know prices are lower up here but am still optimistic, i have to be , no turning back now, full steam ahead. ;)
-
cheers paul for that, you have lifted my spirits, i hope so ,, i know prices are lower up here but am still optimistic, i have to be , no turning back now, full steam ahead. ;)
Once you have got yourself on a roll, look for your daily turnover to have three numbers before the decimal point. Once you really get sorted, the first one of those numbers needn't be a "1" on the occasional, much better days - though if you are in a less prosperous area, that last bit may prove tricky.
When I first started in 1991, a window cleaner I met on my rounds told me that he made £100 most days. I looked at him as if he had just got out of a spaceship from Mars.
I don't like discussing income details on here as I feel that is quite a personal thing but a three figure daily turnover is quite possible once you get going. I do less than that at times but that's when I'm feeling lazy or maybe in the shorter, colder days of Winter when motivation is in short supply.