Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: jay105 on May 23, 2008, 10:04:19 pm
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Hey guys new to this sitejust wanted to know what is the ideal size of a round that one person can manage and what is the average size of round for most window cleaners out there
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I currently have 220 mostly big 3 bed semi. I recon I can do 300 in a month.
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as long as the price is good that is good enough mate
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size is not everything it is the money you earn that means alot, what you need, I need and what others need is very different .
dont look for size look at money we can all be busy fools if we want, money makes the world go round can pay fuel costs >:(
Ian
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320 customers in a 8 week period (40 per week) will see me living and working happy....This is based upon my 'average' houses and prices....still a way to go but onwards and upwards.
Dave.
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488 active customers at the moment. 3 on hold. Cleaned 4 weekly.
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488 active customers at the moment. 3 on hold. Cleaned 4 weekly.
You must be raking it in :o lol
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Thanks guys now i know what to aim for only got 120 customers only been cleaning for 6 weeks.
another quick question what would you say was your average house price say a semi 3 windows at front 4 at back and two onside?? can you tell i am just starting out
Cheers
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Thanks guys now i know what to aim for only got 120 customers only been cleaning for 6 weeks.
another quick question what would you say was your average house price say a semi 3 windows at front 4 at back and two onside?? can you tell i am just starting out
Cheers
I am in the north west and I would be charging £10.00 - £11.00 for that size. Others on here will say you should be charging Ronaldos weekly wage but if I asked any more than that I would be laughed at. Where you are in the country has alot to do with what you can charge.
120 is really good for 6 weeks work. Well done!
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488 active customers at the moment. 3 on hold. Cleaned 4 weekly.
Do you employ anybody to get through that many or is it all on your own. If on your own I think I need to be looking at revising my 300 target.
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I have just started full time and have about 150 customers, most 4 weekly, but some 8 weekly. Doing about 40 a week leaves me with time to counter any weather issues. I aim to add another 50 or so over the next few months.
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Sorry gusy another question how much do you guys ad on for conservitories??
I Have been putting on £2.00 extra But seems to cheap what do you think??
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I have about 350 done over a period of 5-6 weeks my average semi price is £5-6 which is too cheap I know,once the fuel increases again in the autumn I'll be increasing the prices. Can't do it now as still on the sick and if I put prices up after keeping custies waiting for 6weeks its taking the p*** rather.
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a semi of that size would be £10.00 minimum, but then look at the type of area. If its a council estate that would be high, if its a private estate full of beemas put another fiver on
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Depends on the size of the conservatory. Small conservatory about £2-3, but a larger one about £5.
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488 active customers at the moment. 3 on hold. Cleaned 4 weekly.
You must be raking it in :o lol
Complete opposite if you ask me,i would rather do a third of that and earn the same if not more.A busy fool comes to mind again,as said it`s not how many you do it`s what you end up with at the end of the week that counts everytime.
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Established window cleaners can earn £45 – 65 ph.
I don't disbelieve you, but I think these figures are incredibly high. I reckon most window cleaners will be earning a lot less.
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Depends on the size of the conservatory. Small conservatory about £2-3, but a larger one about £5.
you got to be kidding us
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Mike, I am not talking about the whole house, or complete conservatory clean, just the conservatory windows.
I have one conservatory that takes me about 5 minutes. I have another that takes me about double that and they are priced on the £2 - £5 basis. It works out quite well for me.
BTW, I am not talking about conservatories that would look at home in Kew Gardens, just your average conservatory on your modern house. ;D
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hi glad it works for you :D
its just that a lot of cons have more glass than the houses,
so i charge accordingly :D :D
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Established window cleaners can earn £45 – 65 ph.
I don't disbelieve you, but I think these figures are incredibly high. I reckon most window cleaners will be earning a lot less.
It is up to you what you believe, but if you can’t comprehend this you will never earn it.
I agree with you most window cleaners will earn a lot less. But that does not change the fact you can earn that much.
I have a few jobs that pay that much, I need to change the rest of my round so they all earn me the most for my time.
This is the real challenge with window cleaning and will take time.
If you do reach this level after holiday, sick, expenses and tax etc net pay would be around £800 per week.
This would be a very good pay, doesn’t make you rich and you would have to maintain this for some years to get ahead.
Ewan :)
I`ve always also said that this is the real challenge,the idea is not to go out and get as much work as you can it`s to get the best paying and best quality,anyone can either buy work or canvas like mad in order to get work.It does take time to sift out the rubbish stuff,firstly you have to have lots of work i agree with that but creaming off the good work and having a round where every job counts is the art to it,why do 4-5 jobs when 1 job is more profitable.
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You are probably right Ewan, I won't ever earn that. But I hope your plans work out for you. :)
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Mike, I agree with you. If the conservatories are extremely large then my customers pay handsomely for the work. ;)
It just seems that the average conservatory around here isn't much bigger than a large bay window. ;D
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hi ian
dont put yourself down .
you can earn that and more just think positive :D :D
quote author=Ian W link=topic=55749.msg472947#msg472947 date=1211650840]
You are probably right Ewan, I won't ever earn that. But I hope your plans work out for you. :)
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Thinking positive now Mike. The next new customer is going to be hammered! ;D
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thats the way :D :D
good luck
mike
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Window cleaners price by the job, but to help you price, put yourself on an hourly rate. Established window cleaners can earn £45 – 65 ph.
Where he lives has no bearing on ths then?
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That's rubbish. If you are travelling more it is because the location cannot sustain the high prices. If you have to travel more you have to charge more to make up for the travelling in an area we have already decided cannot sustain high prices.
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And your figures seem way out. If you are only clearing £800.00 a week on £65.00 an hour you need to stop taking those 5 hour lunch breaks.
Using your figures of £45 - £65 and taking a median of £55.00 * by 7 hours days and 20 working day months (most are more) you get £7700. Where is your £4500.00 going. It certainly isn't tax and other general expensesand you would need to be sick alot of the month.
Your figures don't add up so I can't really take your £45 - £65 seriously. I am sure some can manage that but every hour every day? Very few I bet.
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120 at moment takes me about 1 and a half days a week working hard with traditional method so thats about 16 hours a week with nearly all my work being at £6 works out at £12 an hour god i am cheep
But i am glad i am getting customers and work when the round is established then maybe i can put prices up and be pickey but cant afford to at moment
It is easy to be very picky and turn down low cost houses when you have plenty of work.
Thanks for the help and advice guys
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hi jay .
Start putting prices up if you can. £10 min charge and you would be taking £1200 a month thats a good base and then you could happily look for the more lucrative stuff the rest of the week and add 80 more large houses or conservatory cleans. soon be turning over 2k. But if you carry on at £6 jobs you will find lots of work but probably not keep up and work like a dog.
Thats only my opinion though
tom
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Ewan is right, and what he said is true but i admitt the arithmetic is a bit fuzzy,
What I find is that you evovle to this. You do not need daft prices, you just have to be good at what you do and think on your feet a lot.
To start with I earned about £70 a day, and would spend the time not cleaning giving leaflets out. Some days I only had £40 worth of work so how could I earn more. Seeing 200 plus posts on here didn't really gel with my experience, and factor in that wc biz differs slightly to others as your self esteem can and does take a hammering. I have been very successful and am quite the bighead, but even i was humbled at times.
For a long time I thought the target was 30, and i could only hit this for an hour or a morning. But you never really know because you never have enought work. Then you go on holiday and are behind when you come back and need to go like to stink to catch up
This last time by doing new work as it comes I never did catch up, but I've been hittting the lower end of Ewans numbers like a metronome ever since. I haven't got a clue how it happened it snuck up so suddenly, I'm just gratefull.
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hi jay .
Start putting prices up if you can. £10 min charge and you would be taking £1200 a month thats a good base and then you could happily look for the more lucrative stuff the rest of the week and add 80 more large houses or conservatory cleans. soon be turning over 2k. But if you carry on at £6 jobs you will find lots of work but probably not keep up and work like a dog.
Thats only my opinion though
tom
Good advise there Tom,but i would say you should go out and get better paying work aswell.The answer to your problems is not going to be just putting existing prices up you need to get new work and get rid of some of your original work.Some jobs even after putting them up are just not worth keeping i`ve been there,you need to say to yourself how much do i want for every house that i clean not just how much do i want an hour.Once you know this in your head go out and look for houses that are worth this per clean at least,there are some that don`t want anything under £20-25 because with the work they already have if they took it on they would be losing money,by that i mean why do a house for £20 if you have 1 up the road for £40 that will take you the same time.
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My copy of george says 270 and 4000, but a lot are 6 or 8 wks (george values at every job done once),Obviously this does not include the extras and one offs.
I work Saturdays, and would do gutters/cons etc on Sunday morning. Having buikt businesses before I have no pride when it comes to working seven days a week.
I estimate I could cope with 400 customers alone.This would be very stressfull after holidays and we do take a lot.
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at mo i have 168 four weekly cleans ,prices between £10 and £40
will add about 100 more customers then will be happy
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488 active customers at the moment. 3 on hold. Cleaned 4 weekly.
Do you employ anybody to get through that many or is it all on your own. If on your own I think I need to be looking at revising my 300 target.
I have 1 employee. 2 vans on the road now.
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488 active customers at the moment. 3 on hold. Cleaned 4 weekly.
You must be raking it in :o lol
Complete opposite if you ask me,i would rather do a third of that and earn the same if not more.A busy fool comes to mind again,as said it`s not how many you do it`s what you end up with at the end of the week that counts everytime.
A busy fool? I'm no fool when it comes to business.
I'm not bragging in anyway, the guy asked how many customers so I've answered honestly. I've not once mentioned how much I'm earning and don't intend to.
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Too tight
488 active customers at the moment. 3 on hold. Cleaned 4 weekly.
You must be raking it in :o lol
Complete opposite if you ask me,i would rather do a third of that and earn the same if not more.A busy fool comes to mind again,as said it`s not how many you do it`s what you end up with at the end of the week that counts everytime.
A busy fool? I'm no fool when it comes to business.
I'm not bragging in anyway, the guy asked how many customers so I've answered honestly. I've not once mentioned how much I'm earning and don't intend to.
Too right ! you are just round the corner from ;D
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me !
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Where do you clean Jonah?
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Davids 3511, depends what travelling means to you. I would think all areas can in some way sustain high prices. But they may be fewer customers and more competition so you may need to expand your area.
How many large buildings do you travel past to get to one of your customers!
My figures are accurate I have not gone into great detail because it’s only pertinent to me. So you only have the hourly rate to work from. £800 a week is £41,600 a year net.
Ultimately you will have to do it yourself, based on your business Not on anybody else. If you have an accountant, speak to them.
Just a question for me to keep moving forward. You can’t do that if you don’t understand expenses you are never going to understand pricing and never know what your true profit could be.
This is business not window cleaning and that is always going to be the differencing facture between window cleaners.
Ewan :)
Hi Ewan
Perhaps I am concentrating on the numbers because I have a history in accountancy (qualified as an accounts technician with two years spent training as a certified public accountant before I realized I didn't want to be an accountant) so I do understand expenses, profit and loss and running a business. Your figures of £45 - £65 don’t add up because based on this years working days (253) less say a week sick and two weeks holidays you are looking at 232 working days at about 7 hours workable each day. Instead of £41600 you should be looking at £89320. Where is the other £47720 or do you only work 3 hours a day? Only work 5 hours a day and you are still looking at over £70k.
The point I am trying to make is that yes, it is possible to have SOME hours/days with this type of earning potential but to transfer that over to every hour/every day is not what I believe you guys are doing. I suspect SOME of your hours are like this and it clouds your vision of the rest of your work. Maybe I am wrong, I hope so because I would love to be able to earn that type of dosh doing something comparatively stress free and easy
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Ewan is right, and what he said is true but i admitt the arithmetic is a bit fuzzy,
What I find is that you evovle to this. You do not need daft prices, you just have to be good at what you do and think on your feet a lot.
To start with I earned about £70 a day, and would spend the time not cleaning giving leaflets out. Some days I only had £40 worth of work so how could I earn more. Seeing 200 plus posts on here didn't really gel with my experience, and factor in that wc biz differs slightly to others as your self esteem can and does take a hammering. I have been very successful and am quite the bighead, but even i was humbled at times.
For a long time I thought the target was 30, and i could only hit this for an hour or a morning. But you never really know because you never have enought work. Then you go on holiday and are behind when you come back and need to go like to stink to catch up
This last time by doing new work as it comes I never did catch up, but I've been hittting the lower end of Ewans numbers like a metronome ever since. I haven't got a clue how it happened it snuck up so suddenly, I'm just gratefull.
Discount
Honestly I don't want to come over as though I am having a pop at you and Ewan but would like to get to grips with this earning thing. You say you are earning at the lower end of Ewan's figures. If I take that at £40.00 per hour, and take your full £4k as monthly, you need to work 5 hours a day 5 days a week to do that. If that is the case, why are you working Saturdays and Sundays too? Surely you should have a spare 10 hours a week to any extra jobs?
The figures simply do not add up which is why I suspect some of your hours/days are like this but not all or not even nearly all. Like I already said I hope I am wrong but the figures you guys quote do not withstand scrutiny.
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488 active customers at the moment. 3 on hold. Cleaned 4 weekly.
Do you employ anybody to get through that many or is it all on your own. If on your own I think I need to be looking at revising my 300 target.
I have 1 employee. 2 vans on the road now.
Does your employee come anywhere close to doing a much as you do in a month?
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Where do you clean Jonah?
Huddersfield chris ;D
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Where do you clean Jonah?
Huddersfield
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488 active customers at the moment. 3 on hold. Cleaned 4 weekly.
Do you employ anybody to get through that many or is it all on your own. If on your own I think I need to be looking at revising my 300 target.
I have 1 employee. 2 vans on the road now.
Does your employee come anywhere close to doing a much as you do in a month?
I clean more than he does.
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Where do you clean Jonah?
Huddersfield
You trad or WFP Jonah? Commercial or Domestic?
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Where do you clean Jonah?
Huddersfield
You trad or WFP Jonah? Commercial or Domestic?
I am trad at the moment chris , but going over to the dark side (wfp) soon ;D Have a few shops , but mainly domestic .
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If you want to come out and learn a bit with me for a day or two you're welcome. Most of my work is in Mirfield so only over the hill.
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If you want to come out and learn a bit with me for a day or two you're welcome. Most of my work is in Mirfield so only over the hill.
Thanks I will take you you up and that ;D used to clean the little chef there many years ago ! Got a free english too lol . My email is - sjmclean@blueyonder.co.uk .
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Davids 3511, I was part AAT qualified long time ago but, done the training just so I could understand figures better.
You are just number crunching and not looking at anything else, hence your figures are a lot larger than mine.
All due respect I don’t think you can understand running a business just based on accountancy. As for running any business being stress free and easy, it’s a myth. If that is the case you don’t have a business.
Another way you could better understand if you are ltd and were to employ somebody part time or full time. What would be the going wage for a window cleaner in that capacity? Now consider there on cost your business expenses your margin then your tax.
If you’re self employed what should be your wage?
Ewan :)
Hi Ewan
You should not make assumptions. I own two other Ltd companies that have nothing to do with cleaning of any sort.
Compared to those, running a window cleaning business is a breeze but I don't have any employees, which I suspect makes a big difference.
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well here is my view on this after reading these post, its not a competition, as far as i see it as long as i earn a bob or two do a honest days work, an have plenty of time to spend with my family I'm happy, there is a cream of the crop but it can take many years to get there an a little luck on the way. i rather change my round into few houses work less but still earn the same, I'm not greedy i just value quality time with my kids an Mrs, Ive been there an done the opposite and worked all hours as a shiner, an worked all weekends on the doors i did this for 14 years and all work and no play made me a grumpy git, theses days i just got my window cleaning and good quality family time and still earn the same if not more than i did back then and happy for it. each to there own but i find some of your views are putting to much pressure on the new guys come into wfp, they think they can be at the top in a year when it has taken some of us many years to reach where we are.
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hey jonah,
i got work in rastrick not too from you, you got any spare work for sale before you goto dark side.
cheers
shaun
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hey jonah,
i got work in rastrick not too from you, you got any spare work for sale before you goto dark side.
cheers
shaun
Sorry mate I havnt , all I have done for the past few months , is advertise, leaflet drop , and canvass ;D If I here of anything I will let you know shaun ;)
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I have about 600 customers.10 of those are commercial the rest domestic.
It would be too much on my own, but I have help 2 days a week from my mate who has his own wfp van that he bought from my son.
In the fine dry weather you think you dont have enough work but in the bad weather you think I have too much.
I work on a 4 week cycle.But 30 % of my customers are on an 8 week cycle.
I start at 8 am and finnish at 5pm with 40 mins for lunch.
I have set my work up that I have 2 very busy weeks and 2 quiter weeks. On my shortest week I can finnish my weeks work by Tuesday night but only if my freind does 2 hard days with me and the weather is dry. It would be 4 days on my own. I have only finnished by Tuesday night once in the last 10 years.
I have just been in Valencia,Spain last week visting my son where he works.I did 3 weeks work in 2 weeks. So a paid holiday. This is easier to do if you have less work.
You should not be to concerend about how many customers you have. Its your average weekly wage that should concern you. If you have fewer customers it allows you more time to get extra jobs done like Facias and Gutter cleaning and the like.
I would rather have 4 customers in semis to clean that take 15 mins each rather then 1 customer that takes an hour. I know I need 40 semis for 10 hours work compared to 10 big houses for the same time.If you lose 2 semi customers it does not feel to bad but to lose 2 big one hour customers is hard to take.
Just enjoy the challenge of growing your round. when your round is full sell your worst bits off and replace them with better work. A good round takes years of work but it can take a lifetime to keep improveing the work.
Neil
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i have about 1300 customers, work 3 days a week (2 of us) tue, wed and thurs, work is based on a 2 week cycle for 50% and 4 week cycle for the other 50 % about 20% of the work is commercial... and at the moment just converting it all to wfp and loving not climbing the ladder.....
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hey neil quick question on your buisy week how mainy houses do you clean in a day??
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did ya say1300 customers god how long did it take to build that up ??
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11 years but was lucky we bought are first round at a fraction of what it was worth, and i mean a fraction... the guy we bought it off was a cowboy and diddnt realise what he had...numpty.