Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: DASERVICES on September 27, 2006, 04:11:56 pm
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Just had a new customer today who told me her last window cleaner charged
£5.00 for a detached house ??? ( 11 windows ) Now I charge £7.00 but I feel
this is too low as I took over from a fellow w/c who was charging £6.00. In
another area I can get £10 for these type of houses.
Why do other w/c charge such little money, this makes it hard for others trying
to make an average living out of this. Well I did explain that I'm licensed and
insured and did the other w/c show her their license to wish she said No.
Other tradesmen are now earning £30 - £50 an hour which you need to do
when you are self employed eg:- plumbers, carpet cleaners, gardeners etc..
So why is it all other trades seem to have got their pricing in order apart from
w/c. It is like time has stood still in window cleaning and the gap is getting
bigger.
Trying to earn a living is pretty hard but it makes it even harder when other
folks are charging peanuts for cleaning windows. I treat my round as a
business and would like to earn more than £12 an hour, which other w/c
would veiw it the same. We get no sick, holiday pay so the hourly rate
needs to be more than this.
I know in some parts of the country you get good prices but up here in
Scotland people veiw cleaning their windows is a couple of pounds job.
How do we get this trade recognised, is not something the FED should have
done or should look into.
Doug
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hey doug,
Im very new to this game,.. but i have thought that too,
( in yorkshire our prices are similar to yours)
And when i give a reasonable quote for an awkward house, sometimes i get looked at like i am trying to rob them,
one woman asked me to quote her detached house, meant climbing over the garage with ladders in tow to to the back.... bearing in mind she said her last cleaner was £6.... i told her £9... she refused, so i said ok no problem, and that it would take me nearly an hour and then to drive to my next call , not to mention it being a first clean too!.. would put be down to nearly a fiver an hour.... i actually said to her...." i bet you wouldnt do all that for a few quid"... she said no but its your job, your choice,..... my reply was.... thats right , my business my choice... goodbye.
its like we are some deadleg who have a god given right to clean peoples windows for pennies,... work is coming in and i wont budge on my prices and only had 3 knockbacks....
but like you said, if i was fitting a window, or laying a drive, she would get charged the earth... and pay...
so why is this?
gary.
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Its because people like that don't see having their windows cleaned as an "essential" service :(
Andy
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i think deep down they do,
but because its only windows, and they are kept up to regular, its something that does not occur to them,
until one day they realise they have been dumped by looking at the state of their windows and realise its essential that they get a cleaner to sort them out,
then along comes someone who does them for £2.50..
hence the vicious circle,
and on it goes...
If people keep doing them for those prices this will always be the case..
i reckon thats the bottom line.
Gary.
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Guys I live in Yorkshire and my average price is £7.72888888
Im afraid it is a fact that the £2.50 brigade make it hard for us but as I said it IS a fact so you have to accept you will get a lot of knockbacks.
I have said before that it takes time.
Gazza when I had been cleaning the same time as you I had about 7 customers.Yes there were times when I thought it will never take off but by sticking to my guns and not pricing silly eventually it came. ::)
People WILL pay a decent price but you have to drop on the right area.
An example,yesterday I got 2 calls to price jobs up.
One was on Bradford rd (you will know that Gazza).
It is a fairly big house and would have taken about 15 mins with wfp so I quoted her £11.
Oh my gosh I only used to pay £4. ::)
Seeya luv.
Went to price the next one up which is in a very nice cul de sac in Outwood.All typical 3 and 4 bed detached newish builds.
Looked around and gave her price of £8.
Oh my gosh at that price you will get all the close.
After about an hour there we had 9 new cleans (3 weekly) and a total of £70 new work.
There are another 6 houses who wernt in so we left them a leaflet.
My point here is the old lady on Bradford rd thought £11 was way too much,however the people on the cul de sac thought it was a bargain price.(wish id have quoted higher) ::)
Right place right time and all that. ;)
Always target new developments as well.
Gazza did you get the one on Honeysuckle close. ???
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Hi petski,
yes i went to have a look , newish houses,
it had sloping roofs in front of upstairs windows,
cant do them without wfp....oh oh hope that did not re-ignite the debate.. ( which idont get involved in i may add ;D)
thanks for passing it to me though mate. ;)
gary.
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Down here in the West Midlands we find that £10 min gets most jobs but but we lose a few.Our averege price is nearer £15-£18 for a normal smallish 4 bed detatched £15 for 3 bed. We started from nothing in Nov last year and now have 163 custs. We obviously leaflet the posher areas and it seems to be paying.
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I ve never had any problems with the £2.50 brigade. I earnt nearly £584 in a day last week, not something I do regularly but easily make over £200 normally. I think thats probably up there with the best trades out there so I m not complaining.
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I ve never had any problems with the £2.50 brigade. I earnt nearly £584 in a day last week, not something I do regularly but easily make over £200 normally. I think thats probably up there with the best trades out there so I m not complaining.
here we go again
normally 200 quid a day
i speak to abou 6 WC'ers local to me, and not 1 comes close to that
we must all be doing something wrong
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I think you probably are.
Trad, a decent window cleaner should £150.
WPF. you should be getting £200.
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Depends if you're overcharging or just in high priced area. ::)
I'm in an area that's expensive to live in, but average window cleaning prices.
I work hard and I work fast, but I've only done £150 in day about 3 or 4 times ever.
£95-£125 is much more realistic.
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When you say nearly 584 quid, what was it actually?
I nearly earnt 1234 quid today, but alas fell short and accepted a fair days pay for a fair days work.
Giving it large over earnings does no-one any favours, if you can actually earn that money in a day good luck to you, but for everyone's sake keep it to yourself.
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Squeaky isn't that far off the mark, there are many days when I am comfortably over the 150 quid mark, but over the course of 12 months it will work out if I am lucky at about £100 per working day.
what you charge is down to you, if you are going to charge a good price then you have to have the confidence to do so, you have to totally believe in yourself, you have to do a first rate job and you have to be able to do that job very quickly.
If you are new to window cleaning then you have to learn your craft first, it takes time to get up real pace, it takes a while to sort out your pricing and it takes a while to exude the confidence that allows you to say it'll be £10.00 rather than £6.00.
Ian
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I cant see how there could be such a thing as over-charging in our business, the price is set by the area and the customer and the amount of competition, lke every other business you get as much as you can for your service, I do my charity work at the weekends
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this is why we have the 5 quid a house window cleaners
i spoke to 1 today, he was a ok lad, packed in his in his Office job as he heard WC'ers can earn 200 - 250 a day
he started off getting a few VERY WELL PRICED houses, 1 next to a house i do, i charge 8 quid, he got 15 quid for it, now 8 quid is a good price for me, i do ok out of this road, of course after a few weeks he needed to earn something, so his prices came down to 10 quid, then a few months on, he is Grabbing work, going in cheap as he needs to put money in the bank to pay bills
he now has in the same road (not the road im doing, he only has 1 in that road) BUT a road in the same area, he has a house for 15 quid, 9 quid and 6 quid, all the same size houses
he now prices up fairly cheap, as he still needs work, he has been at it 12 months
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The 584 day is a total freak day. Its 10 houses and 3 commercial properties. I dont earn anyway near that on a regular day.
But I do think anyone who has an established round for a couple of years is definately doing something wrong if they dont get £150 trad and £200 Wpf.
I am talking about the South and the South East.
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I am always loathed to jump into these debates but I feel the need to this time as Im confused. ???
We are a partnership and have been established as such for 18 months now.
We both have big commitments with family for a few years to come(picking kids up from school etc) as both our wives work long hours.
Now we dont put ourselves anywhere near the top earning window cleaners.
We dont have enough work as yet to do the complete 3 weekly cycle (we currently have about 11 days out of 15).
We never start before 9am and never finish later than 2pm,we both smoke so there are quite a few breaks in that.
On the days when we do the full 9 till 2 shift which is actually about 3 and half hours work after breaks are taken off we always earn over £250.
We dont price particularly high (average domestic £7.70 ish) as our area wont stand it.(West Yorkshire).
This makes me think that the lads who are working 8 hour shifts are doing something very wrong.
I am convinced that on an 8 hour shift we could easily do £400 taking into account tiring towards end of shift.
Roll on the days when the youngest leaves school and the oldest passes her driving test (should be early next year). ;D
I stand here willing to be shot down as my calculations are only supposition because as I say we only average 4 to 5 hours a day.
Obviously there must be more factors that affect earnings between the 5th hour and the 8th. :-\
By the way we are very lucky as our round is very compact and the furthest we travel is about 2 mile.
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In answer to the original question:-
No it's not.
Different people at different levels in different trades charge different rates.
Plasterers - varied in quotes to do work in my house ranging from £80 "on the weekend" to £150.
General building work - £100-£120 per day
Electrical £12 - £15 per hour.
Plumbing - £15 per hour for a professional - £10 an hour for a general odd-job man.
Some work is for the job - like sanding my floor for £200. Two blokes arrived at 9am and finished at 1.30 pm. Good for them.
Window cleaners are the same:-
Summertime shiners supplementing their dole are often happy to add £50 a day to their benefits - but so are legit semi-retired guys supplementing their pensions and getting out from under their wife's feet.
Professional w/c's feeding their family, paying a mortgage and thinking of the future will plan their work and work their plan and earn far more.
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im afraid you are way off these with elecricians and plimbers hourly rate these days.. wish we could get one at £12 per hour.... thats in the north!
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I priced up a new house next to a customer of mine , talked her out of a " one off " into 2 monthly , but before i could start she wanted to know when her next clean would be , i replied 8 weeks give or take a day due to staff and weather ( nov ) , she said well dont bother then if you that inflexible and wont gaurantee a day and time !!
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in my few weeks experience lloyd, :D... those are the type of people we dont want,... that was my point on an earlier post regarding door knocking.... the way some of them look , as if to say, well beg and keep your prices down and i may let you clean them....!!... but other forms of advertising may be slower.... but they NEED a window cleaner when they ring.
gary.
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I think you probably are.
Trad, a decent window cleaner should £150.
WPF. you should be getting £200.
where do you work archie millionaires row
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Another big issue I find is some people have little respect or faith for window
cleaners due to bad experiences.
Just had a phone call today from a lady who began with " sorry I have no
faith in window cleaners due to bad experiences but had your card through the
door etc..."
I explained to her I was registered an insured with local council and would
be willing to give her a demo with WFP.
When I went round to inspect the windows I have never seen so many scratch
marks which was caused by the previous window cleaner. He gave her loads
of abuse which knocked the confidence from her. I used to speak to this lad
but now do not as he has fallen into bad company, even me trying to give him
good advice on his issues did not work. She told me of other experiences she
has had, fortunatley this was dealt by the Police.
I think the w/c trade like any other trade has guys who have no respect
for customers which gives a bad reflection on us good guys that do a good
job. This makes it difficult when pricing jobs as peolpe sometimes link
your work to the standard they may have had in the past.
Well hopefully I've restored some faith with her, she was well impressed with
the standard of WFP comapared to the guy who did Trad ( but this was due
to his method )
And this time did not feel sorry for her like I normally do and quoted high,
got the job ;D
Cheers
Doug
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In answer to the original question:-
No it's not.
Different people at different levels in different trades charge different rates.
Plasterers - varied in quotes to do work in my house ranging from £80 "on the weekend" to £150.
General building work - £100-£120 per day my mate is a roofer when he gets called out to put on a roof tile for example, he charges 40 quid just to put his ladder up to see what is needed, after that its 30 quid per hour plus materials
Electrical £12 - £15 per hour.
Plumbing - £15 per hour for a professional - £10 an hour for a general odd-job man.
Some work is for the job - like sanding my floor for £200. Two blokes arrived at 9am and finished at 1.30 pm. Good for them.
Window cleaners are the same:-
Summertime shiners supplementing their dole are often happy to add £50 a day to their benefits - but so are legit semi-retired guys supplementing their pensions and getting out from under their wife's feet.
Professional w/c's feeding their family, paying a mortgage and thinking of the future will plan their work and work their plan and earn far more.
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didnt get last post ???
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speaking as someone who has been involved in the building trade for 18 years,the benefits of domestic building work do outweigh window cleaning.I have just built a conservatory,and comfortably made £200 a day plus a percentage on materials.To earn that doing the windows,i would have to graft my arse off for hours,or get someone to help me.My windows are well priced,but after doing about £100,i get bored of it.
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The problem with our job is that many people could do it themselves. Chimney sweeps used to be 10 a penny. Not anymore, if you want one now it will set you back £40. The last one I had was gone in 25 mins. I pay up because I can't do the job, so have no option.
In window cleaning there is a price that some people have in their head and their consiounce will not let them pay any more. I don't like cutting the grass, I would pay someone a fiver to do it. Theres no way I would pay £15 though. I'm idle but not that idle if you see what I mean.
Of course with commercial work it's different, it's not coming out of their pocket.
There are windows that some cannot do themselves, or they are just too busy, these people will pay more.
I am afraid that our trade will lag behind others for the reasons given. Dai
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Fast one how did you build that , you not neglecting your round now are you ::)
gary.
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i still like keeping my hand in building.I do actually enjoy it sometimes.I have fallen behind on my windows a bit,though.I do know one thing though,you get alot more respect being a builder.Sad but true.There is more stress in building,but i do like using my brain occasionally with measurements and setting out etc.What i like about the windows is there is nothing to really think about,and its stress free,its just the way people think you are the s*it on the bottom of their shoe that i dont like.My round only brings in £1200 a month,so i combine it with brickwork and plastering etc.Maybe one day i will only do the windows,who knows.Variety is the spice of life.Windows do become boring sometimes.I think deep down i would like some young lad doing it for me while i got the work in
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Fast one,
Thats what i intend to do too,
before sales i was a steelfixer since leaving school,
so i had to think everyday using drawings and schedule sheets, was nice to use my smallish brain :D
but job satisfaction is brill within window cleaning, dont you think?... love it when a first clean is like a new window and the customers face when they see it is worth all of the poop we take....
i know what you mean about being looked down upon,
im afraid im even getting that in my own home now !!
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take up rope acces then you can look down on everybody else ;D
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i do anyway :D
because i think its my little business... all mine and i am proud of that... as i know you all are.
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Other tradesmen are now earning £30 - £50 an hour which you need to do
when you are self employed eg:- plumbers, carpet cleaners, gardeners etc..
Sorry, but i have to disagree with this part of the orignal statement/question.
I'm self employed and quite happy to be earning anything over £10 an hour which is what i was earning whilst working in a factory. So long as my projected annual income outways what i was earning in the past (because i've only been going 11 months now) then i've succeeded as far as i'm concerned.
Yes it would be nice to be earning a regular £30-£50 per hour and i'm sure this isn't too far in the future, but there's no need to get down hearted because i'm merely 'scraping by' on £10 per hour. Some people i know are lucky to be earning £5.50 an hour so i'm more than happy with what i'm getting.
As for the rest of the Question i think it really depends on your area and the employment figures in those areas. If there is high unemployment and you have window cleaners bragging about earning £30-£50 per hour, then every Tom, Dick and Harry is going to buy a ladder and have a go himself. Then when they realise they're not making the fortunes they were expecting the prices come tumbling down to pick up the extra customers.
Lance
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i still like keeping my hand in building.I do actually enjoy it sometimes.I have fallen behind on my windows a bit,though.I do know one thing though,you get alot more respect being a builder.Sad but true.There is more stress in building,but i do like using my brain occasionally with measurements and setting out etc.What i like about the windows is there is nothing to really think about,and its stress free,its just the way people think you are the s*it on the bottom of their shoe that i dont like.My round only brings in £1200 a month,so i combine it with brickwork and plastering etc.Maybe one day i will only do the windows,who knows.Variety is the spice of life.Windows do become boring sometimes.I think deep down i would like some young lad doing it for me while i got the work in
my mate is a roofer when someone rings him to come and fix a roof tile for example, he charges 40 quid to come out and put his ladder up. after that its 30 quid per hour plus materials, but some days it rains so he stays at home and watches telly,nice work if you can get it.