Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: geefree on November 07, 2008, 09:02:08 pm
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Been knocked back a couple of times lately when quoting for a con roof....
my minimum charge is £30... for a small not so dirty roof ...(bits of green but not bad)
then i go up to however long i think it will take.
whats your min . charge?
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I think the problem is most owners don't realise how long they can take,
I've quoted as low as £20 and been turned away.
the last one I did was for £50 it took me 4 hours and I don't intend to do any more.
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i used to hate doing them ... i used to really do them as though my life depended on them... now i can do a nice £50 on in 1 and a half hours...
i used to concentrate too much on the parts unseen... now i dont.
but i still get good recommendations. ;)
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I would be interested to know also... the difference in prices in other parts of the country.. ... and of course different parts of yorkshire. :)
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We've had these discussions before and if you mentioned £30 you would have been laughed off the forum. Those guys seem to have gone quiet lately is there a recession or something?
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£45 min dont go mad on the fidly bits but evertone still seems happy did one for 125 other day
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err depends how big it is really! If its a one off I wouldn't even consider even the smallest roof for less than £50, its just not worth my while, if its a regular job and I clean the house as well then I will price accordingly, normally works out at £1 a minute. ;)
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depends on size, glass or plastic roof, how dirty, if they want gutters cleared out, and if they want finials done, and working space around the conservatory
anything from £10 upwards for a 2*2 metre, if done reg, but otherwise at least £20+
But it needs to be prices accordingly..as you can earn far more doing just windows in the same time.. Some people are just too tight to get anything done properly (or just cant afford it)..
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£45, remember charge how long it would take with ladders
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i hate doing them myself, stopped advertising them on my fliers, now only offer it to regular custies on my site, £15 minimum, the greener the roof is the higher the price lol. im from kent, south east, would love to charge £50 minimum but as was said on this thread, it scares custies off cos they have no idea how much work it is compared to just doing windows.
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There is no minimum.
Every job is different.
I've done ones for £5 and ones for £30.
Lets face it, unless you're useless it's never more than 20-30 mins work.
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ha ha im from uo north and i regular get£ 50 + for con roof cant remember many turn me down
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oooh .. great... :D....rubbish too...
squeaks.... you cant say no minimum.... thats like saying you will clean a terraced house for less than £1.50 if you can do it quick.
take a bottom line... stick with it.... and anything above is a bonus.... meaning an hourly rate...... i would not do a "clean " con roof for a fiver... even if it took 5 mins...
you will never earn any money with your outlook squeaky....
you always complain that you have no work or not enough money..
i am not suprised really.... its time you took this seriously and priced your work in accordance with what you regard as a decent standard, instead of complaining you are not doing well, ..... or pulling others down,
seek out the work which pays better, perhaps drop the ones that dont.. eventually...
charge the going rates for facias, abd gutters and con roofs....
and maybe you will have a better paying round.... :)
oh... can i say one more thing without sounding offensive....?
you sound like a cowbow... and i know you are not!!
but with your prices.. is it any wonder people cancel guys ,who are doing a top job and trying to run a business ............and go to the boys who are happy to live just above the threshhold.
because quite honestly .. lately that is how you are coming across.... sorry but its true...
and you moan, and gripe to the guys who are successfull and positive...
take a leaf from them rather than put them down squeaks... no offence. but its true mate.
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I charge minimum price of £40.
It doesnt matter how clean it is it will allways take a minimum of 1 hour taking into account setting up doing the job.
I bought a set of conservatory ladders and they make all the differance to the quality of the finish that can be achieved.
Just looking back at my records and the most i have ever charged for a conservatory (they called it an oragery ::)) was £225...but that was a bugger to do.
I know some wc's hate doing anything other than windows but i have found full cleans (ie gutters,fascias,soffits etc) to be very lucrative and over the years have built up a customer base just for this type of cleaning.
:)
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i know anyone can price what they like but i did one the other day for 25 quid and it took me 45 minutes to do . over the road someone had done one for a lady , similar size took the same time and he charged her 85 quid. sorry but i think that is a rip off. its not like its an emergency call out or something.
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Maybe...but they still paid it and for every one that he does you have to do more than three...know what side i would rather be on. :)
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i charge at least £20 for a slightly green one, and more if they are worse obviously, i charged £40 for one once thinking it may take an hour...it took me all day was not impressed and they didnt tip me ???
oh well live and learn, i too hate doing them cause i never price them right
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Maybe...but they still paid it and for every one that he does you have to do more than three...know what side i would rather be on. :)
yes but she will not be paying it again , as i will be doing it and any recommendations and referrals.
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oooh .. great... :D....rubbish too...
squeaks.... you cant say no minimum.... thats like saying you will clean a terraced house for less than £1.50 if you can do it quick.
take a bottom line... stick with it.... and anything above is a bonus.... meaning an hourly rate...... i would not do a "clean " con roof for a fiver... even if it took 5 mins...
you will never earn any money with your outlook squeaky....
you always complain that you have no work or not enough money..
i am not suprised really.... its time you took this seriously and priced your work in accordance with what you regard as a decent standard, instead of complaining you are not doing well, ..... or pulling others down,
seek out the work which pays better, perhaps drop the ones that dont.. eventually...
charge the going rates for facias, abd gutters and con roofs....
and maybe you will have a better paying round.... :)
oh... can i say one more thing without sounding offensive....?
you sound like a cowbow... and i know you are not!!
but with your prices.. is it any wonder people cancel guys ,who are doing a top job and trying to run a business ............and go to the boys who are happy to live just above the threshhold.
because quite honestly .. lately that is how you are coming across.... sorry but its true...
and you moan, and gripe to the guys who are successfull and positive...
take a leaf from them rather than put them down squeaks... no offence. but its true mate.
I've had a record week thankyou very much.
I'm fine for money.
I constantly replace old work with new.
I charge more than the previous window cleaner at least 90% of the time.
Any more incorrect "facts" about me?
You can't rip people off in the current financial climate.
If people are paying £15 for their 20 minutes window clean, how can you justify 3 or more times the rate for the roof?
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I charge minimum price of £40.
It doesnt matter how clean it is it will allways take a minimum of 1 hour taking into account setting up doing the job.
I bought a set of conservatory ladders and they make all the differance to the quality of the finish that can be achieved.
Just looking back at my records and the most i have ever charged for a conservatory (they called it an oragery ::)) was £225...but that was a bugger to do.
I know some wc's hate doing anything other than windows but i have found full cleans (ie gutters,fascias,soffits etc) to be very lucrative and over the years have built up a customer base just for this type of cleaning.
:)
Thats what im trying to do, i am recommending they have they them done semi annualy, then i can do two or three in a day and have a good day with it,
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Panel’s only average price is about £100
for cleaning glass???? What? or pvc as well?
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I think this post is turning into another i earn more than you, my dick is bigger than yours post...
What do you earn a day :) ??
It s daft, if you can charge well, well done, if you need the work you will have to price sensible if not, price daft and yo might still get a few, personally i have a lot of spare time as im still building up my round, so £25 an hr for a con clean, pvc clean is fine by me....
when my round is full thats another story, that rate Will double for me to get out of bed to do one offs :)
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Been knocked back a couple of times lately when quoting for a con roof....
my minimum charge is £30... for a small not so dirty roof ...(bits of green but not bad)
then i go up to however long i think it will take.
whats your min . charge?
So all you're really asking is what is our "minimum charge" for an average conservatory roof in an average state of neglect?
Probably £25.
All you boasters with yer £85 and yer £1 + per minute! Huh!
How would you all feel if you got someone in to do a job you thought should cost £100 and the bloke charged you £400 and when you asked why he said, "Well I charge what I can get away with".
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Exactly PJ.
They don't really anyway.
It's just internet forum boasting.
Probably on £10 p/h! ;D
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I am finding that charging £5.00 a panel works out a decent price. If it is a one off clean, then you would have to add price for the windows, maybe 50p a panel.
Extra for cleaning out the gutters on the conservatory as well.
So have a basic charge for just the roof panels and then build up the price from that.
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It’s not boasting if you know what you are doing.
Your core business is regular window cleaning; anything else must be charge at a higher rate.
Fact that you don’t understand this just shows how little you know, and how foolish you are for doing work for little or no money.
I seem to recall you've been going about 18 months?
I've managed on the little I know since 1983 running a business, windowcleaning for Royalty since 1990s thanks, sonny ;)
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I seem to recall you've been going about 18 months?
I've managed on the little I know since 1983 running a business, windowcleaning for Royalty since 1990s thanks, sonny ;)
Okay, okay, so you clean the Royal Family and I only clean Limal from Kagagoogoo's house.
Wow.
Don't you hate these show-off posts!
;D
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By the way, I clean a conservatory roof - every other month - for £5 (on top of the £13 I charge for the house and conservatory).
It's a three-bed semi and the back garden by the conservatory roof is on an incline, so I can get level with the conservatory roof.
It only has three-long-panes of glass, and it must take about five-to-seven minutes to pole it; complete doddle to do.
I like the job and what I'm paid.
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Time served doesn’t impress me it’s what you have achieved in the time.
I once sold a little bit of work onto a guy who'd been reading and posting on these forums. His aim was to make £100K within three-years and he gave up quite a decent job to do it.
He didn't even last three-years as a window cleaner and he must've put his young family through some tough times, purely because of the stuff he'd read on this forum.
If you reckon you've got a top business after just two-years of window cleaning; starting from scratch; I won't believe you.
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I seem to recall you've been going about 18 months?
I've managed on the little I know since 1983 running a business, windowcleaning for Royalty since 1990s thanks, sonny ;)
My comments still stand; just because you have been doing this longer is the worst excuse.
Time served doesn’t impress me it’s what you have achieved in the time.
Well I'm not going any further with this, I don't have to prove anything to you.
These are some of the reasons I just don't bother. You enjoy your success cleaning conservatories.
;)
Oh and Tosh, I'm not boasting at all, I can if you want me to, there is plenty I can tell, I just don't see the point. I used to think the purpose of this forum was to help each other, with occasional banter.
I only mentioned the Royalty bit because it's true (I wish I hadn't mentioned it) and because some just have no idea of the experience others have, nor would they recognize it if they saw it. They already know everything.
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Anyway thanks for all the replies. ;D
i just wanted to know if people had a basic charge.... to clean the roof anyway... then took it from there the dirtier it was.... so to speak
there is such a thing as a basic charge. i would think.... as the clean still has to be done... with a similar procedure wether filthy or clean.... so i would have a bottom line i reckon.
.
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Oh and Tosh, I'm not boasting at all,
PJ,
I know you weren't boasting. Crikey; you started window cleaning when I was 13 years old and I'm 40 next year (though you'd never believe it if you saw me).
I was joking - you know I was - I'm sure you're getting grumpier with old age!
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sorry guys but cannot understand all the what price topics, would you give out prices willy nilly over the phone ? ( esp. if you thought it was from a competitor,,)
you might just aswell put your price list on here, and as for the over inflated prices, all they do is encourage more and more starters to come into the trade, willed on by boasts of £500 a day.
daz
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By the way, I clean a conservatory roof - every other month - for £5 (on top of the £13 I charge for the house and conservatory).
It's a three-bed semi and the back garden by the conservatory roof is on an incline, so I can get level with the conservatory roof.
It only has three-long-panes of glass, and it must take about five-to-seven minutes to pole it; complete doddle to do.
I like the job and what I'm paid.
I do one identical mate.
Same price too.
A few minutes extra work.
They're just windows at a different angle.
Can't triple the price for that.::)
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i think you,ve gone off the thread a bit . my point was some of you would steal off yer granny for an extra bit instead of charging a reasonable amount. you should be locksmiths or something.
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By the way, I clean a conservatory roof - every other month - for £5 (on top of the £13 I charge for the house and conservatory).
It's a three-bed semi and the back garden by the conservatory roof is on an incline, so I can get level with the conservatory roof.
It only has three-long-panes of glass, and it must take about five-to-seven minutes to pole it; complete doddle to do.
I like the job and what I'm paid.
I do one identical mate.
Same price too.
A few minutes extra work.
They're just windows at a different angle.
Can't triple the price for that.::)
Yes it can be that cheap to do a conservatory roof, but not if its a one off clean thats all covered in green.. you cant really quote for a conservatory roof until you have weighed up all the variables just like windows..
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Sorry, but I fail to see how any conservatory roof can take more than half hour.
Even a green one.
You're doing something wrong. ???
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Sorry, but I fail to see how any conservatory roof can take more than half hour.
Even a green one.
You're doing something wrong. ???
What you talking about.
I did one yesterday 8 panels,so not small but certainly not large,and they were full of algea and caked on birds mess and moss.Now i would love to see anyone do that in half an hour.It took nearly 1.5 hours with the guttering and frames....if you can do that roof in half an hour then i am afraid YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG.
Oh yes and i charged £75 for this and was totally peed off that i didn't charge more as i could have probably got it. :-\
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Sorry, but I fail to see how any conservatory roof can take more than half hour.
Even a green one.
You're doing something wrong. ???
Surely that depends on size and how dirty it is!! I've seen some that would take a couple of days to clean properly!! ;)
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I seem to recall you've been going about 18 months?
I've managed on the little I know since 1983 running a business, windowcleaning for Royalty since 1990s thanks, sonny ;)
Okay, okay, so you clean the Royal Family and I only clean Limal from Kagagoogoo's house.
Wow.
Don't you hate these show-off posts!
;D
That's mad you should say that Tosh. I was only on Kagagoogoo's webwite the other day, when i saw a posting from Limahl to Queen Lizzy The Second,herself. Anyways all he kept bragging about was he gets this guy called "Tosh" to do his windows. Mad or what? ? ? ;D
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You're like a bunch of bickering old Banshees
No wonder people don't trust window cleaners i reckon if thepublic read some of this lot they would think you don't have a clue or you are just plain greedy opportunists
I charge minimum £10 and I live in the SE.
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You're like a bunch of bickering old Banshees
No wonder people don't trust window cleaners i reckon if thepublic read some of this lot they would think you don't have a clue or you are just plain greedy opportunists
I charge minimum £10 and I live in the SE.
thank god i am not on my own . they make programs ABOUT ROUGUE TRADERS LIKE SOME OF YOU LOT.
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I think you have all missed the most important point. To me it depends a lot on the customer, many of my regulars like their conservatory roofs done a couple of times a year and to me its just an add on.
I have got it all down to a fine art now so I can do them in no time. I'm not going to charge them an arm and a leg.
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As i said , i have a minimum of 30 quid... quoted one yesterday morning... very small, slightly dirty.... no one home so i dropped the quote through the letter box..
later in the day i recieved a voice mail as my phone was off earlier....
The lady said .. thanks for your quote.. go ahead when you can..., but i do think its a little cheap, she said... anyway if you go ahead , i will make it right with you.... :o
so if i did not have a minimum charge... that con roof would probably have been cheaper in real terms.... as some of you are saying a fiver and tenner etc....
its a service....! some customers would not dream of tackling such a dirty hard to reach job , such as cleaning a conservatory roof....
like other services, people pay to have jobs done that they acnt... or dont want to do themselves...
There is more to it than saying its ripping a customer off....
i paid £40 to have a gas pipe cut, and stop ended, by a corgi registered plumber...
i could have done it ... he was in and out in ten minutes
and i was happy to pay it.
i know its different from a safety aspect.
but we provide a service, customers know that. and most are prepared to pay , rather than do it themselved.
Is that not what makes the world go round? small businesss?
imagine everyone doing everything for themselves.?
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You're like a bunch of bickering old Banshees
No wonder people don't trust window cleaners i reckon if thepublic read some of this lot they would think you don't have a clue or you are just plain greedy opportunists
I charge minimum £10 and I live in the SE.
thank god i am not on my own . they make programs ABOUT ROUGUE TRADERS LIKE SOME OF YOU LOT.
Not entirely true fella. Rogue traders p*ss in attics,fleece ol gals for a grand or two and still not lose a moments sleep. Charge £500 for an hours work or invent work when it's not entirely, if at all needed. To have a discussion about what is the correct or incorrect price to quote on a job(when we all know the answer has too many variables to be right or wrong) is purely to educate ourselves as to what isn't shooting ourselves in the foot.Don't even begin to throw us into the same category as "that" scum on the tv mate.
Thank you x
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Wow things have sure got more aggressive on here since I was last on :o
Anyhow we treat it like this..
Simply price up like any other job and work out how long it will take!
If its a one off price it up as such,if they want it doing every month or so be sensible and maybe half the price as it wont be too dirty on consecutive cleans.
Anyhow our minimum is £40 and we convert around 90% of our quotes into jobs.
That in itself tells me we quote too low :(
Pete
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Just friendly banter among colleagues ;)
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Just friendly banter among colleagues ;)
More like ignorance, if I find out that someone is getting paid a better price for the service he is providing than I am then my reaction is, how is he able to get that price, what is he doing better or differently than me, and what can I do to be able to achieve a better price. Why slag others off or accuse them of ripping people off because they command a better price for their services? We should learn from one another and not try to turn everything into a slanging match!!
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Because , everyone has an opinion which they would like to stress.... if we were all sat around a table, these things would all still be said to each other...
and i think we are learning,
even if things get a little heated. then fair enough.
its all personal opinions, and thats what a forum is about...
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Because , everyone has an opinion which they would like to stress.... if we were all sat around a table, these things would all still be said to each other...
and i think we are learning,
even if things get a little heated. then fair enough.
its all personal opinions, and thats what a forum is about...
Gazza I do agree with you, and thats what I'm giving, my personal opinion. I just think that far too many people on here are much too quick to criticise, and slag off others, especially those that are doing well. This forum has lost a lot of very good members through this type of ignorance. I know that it gets too much for me sometimes and I just have to walk away from the forum for a while, which is a shame because there are a lot of good people on here. :)
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if you can sleep at night charging £85 for 40 minutes domestic cleaning then thats ok.
commercial work does warrant a higher pay but does this ring true for a domestic . and i did see the work and it was nothing special.
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if you can sleep at night charging £85 for 40 minutes domestic cleaning then thats ok.
commercial work does warrant a higher pay but does this ring true for a domestic . and i did see the work and it was nothing special.
You are obviously not capable of getting higher prices than you do (for whatever reason) otherwise like any person running a business you would.
Yes you need to give value so that you can have repeat work,but you are also talking about prices for cleaning a job that the normal domestic customer just will not tackle.
When i started wc i set out with the idea that i would not be like other wc's in my area.They were to cheap for the service that they were providing imo,and it was noticable not only in the way they turned up at jobs but also the way in which they did the jobs.
Their mistake in underpricing was that they did a cruddy job,now this will obviously happen where a wc has a round full of customers that are underpriced....we have all seen it.
Their is no differance in pricing a conservatory job correctly and to the level at which you personally would be happy to do that job for.
Whether you charge £20 or £100 is down to your own personal targets,you would not be ripping the customer off in either circumstance because the customer has the opportunity to decline your price when you quote the job.
To compare wc's who obviously earn more than you on these type of jobs as rogue traders sound like total ignorance and jelousy on your part.
I have taken the time and effort to produce a business that provides me and others a good income,a lot of hard background work goes into getting the work in the first place and for me to go out and quote a conservatory clean at maybe £30 because thats what other wc's might charge is ridiculous....i may as well give up and start cleaning houses for a fiver each.
Each to their own but imo if you want to build a business that you can really call a business (and those that are running one will know what i mean) then you have to work out your costings accordingly to make a decent profit....not just beer money.
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i have a min of £10 and dont think i have charged more than £40
for my regular customers lets face it using wfp th e jobs like money
for old rope i personally dont consider it hard work and the largest one i
have done has only taken me a little over an hour. im happy with my prices
and generally so are my customers.
on one off jobs i do charge double though
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i havebuilt my business off recommendation only and certainly are not one of the beer brigade. i have just decided to build my business on the back of my customers referrals and am doing very well . jealousy has nothing to do with it , i just provide value for money which will mean i may not be rich this year , but i will be here year in year out.
i think it is just best to disagree and i do not want to judge people as a whole either . but if i have seen someones work i hope i am able to comment upon it , as i hope if someone has seen mine they would also.
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...for me to go out and quote a conservatory clean at maybe £30 because thats what other wc's might charge is ridiculous....i may as well give up and start cleaning houses for a fiver each.
Rubbish.
There's a world of difference between £30 for a conservatory and doing houses at a fiver. ::)
You're not going to do 6 houses in the time it takes to do a conservatory.
2 possibly.
I think what you fail to see is that others aren't jealous of some of the prices on here, it's that they realise it's a load of rubbish, said to try and look clever.
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i do the conservatory as part of the service including the roof not as a extra , i charge £10 per month so its £120 per year just to keep there conny clean , takes no more than 20 minutes . if its a one off then i would price more the most ive ever had from a 1 off conny clean was £45 plus a £5 tip a job that took less than a hour .
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if you can sleep at night charging £85 for 40 minutes domestic cleaning then thats ok.
commercial work does warrant a higher pay but does this ring true for a domestic . and i did see the work and it was nothing special.
You are obviously not capable of getting higher prices than you do (for whatever reason) otherwise like any person running a business you would.
Yes you need to give value so that you can have repeat work,but you are also talking about prices for cleaning a job that the normal domestic customer just will not tackle.
When i started wc i set out with the idea that i would not be like other wc's in my area.They were to cheap for the service that they were providing imo,and it was noticable not only in the way they turned up at jobs but also the way in which they did the jobs.
Their mistake in underpricing was that they did a cruddy job,now this will obviously happen where a wc has a round full of customers that are underpriced....we have all seen it.
Their is no differance in pricing a conservatory job correctly and to the level at which you personally would be happy to do that job for.
Whether you charge £20 or £100 is down to your own personal targets,you would not be ripping the customer off in either circumstance because the customer has the opportunity to decline your price when you quote the job.
To compare wc's who obviously earn more than you on these type of jobs as rogue traders sound like total ignorance and jelousy on your part.
I have taken the time and effort to produce a business that provides me and others a good income,a lot of hard background work goes into getting the work in the first place and for me to go out and quote a conservatory clean at maybe £30 because thats what other wc's might charge is ridiculous....i may as well give up and start cleaning houses for a fiver each.
Each to their own but imo if you want to build a business that you can really call a business (and those that are running one will know what i mean) then you have to work out your costings accordingly to make a decent profit....not just beer money.
I'm with Gary - I would not sleep easy if I'd charged £85 for 40 minutes work, even though there are some good points to be picked up from Sageorgeta's reply.
I've been here before - confused about what my future stance should be.
I suppose what is a high price to one person (who doesn't usually charge that much) is only normal to another (who charges that amount all the time).
I'm 'all for' earning more money - but my concience (or is it 'nerve') will only let me go so far. Maybe I just need to toughen up.
Onwards and upwards!
Regards
Mike