Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: bad trippy on March 05, 2009, 01:56:37 pm
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Been out canvassing for a few hours yesterday and today and a lot of people have had leaflets put through their doors advertising £5 cleans not FROM £5 JUST £5 ON WFP. Total idiots, some of these houses i would have priced at £10 to £12. How the hell can you have a price on your leaflets? I mean how long is a piece of string? Total idiots i say
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i can anser the sring qestion if you like to nowe the anser ;D ;D ;D
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They wont last for long mate, fly by window cleaners.
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they might be flyby but these people are putting these sort of prices into peoples heads it wont be long until people only accept there windows done for a fiver.
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they might be flyby but these people are putting these sort of prices into peoples heads it wont be long until people only accept there windows done for a fiver.
They certainly put it in my flipping head today grrrrrrr
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I mean how long is a piece of string?
...From the middle to the end, twice ;D
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yes but i wos going to say twice as long as harf , wot a lovely cat in the sun,
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advertising £5 cleans not FROM £5 JUST £5
I'll do it for £4 ;D
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They wont last for long mate, fly by window cleaners.
most of my work is £5 per house per fortnight (Average 3 bed semi NO conservatory)and i only use WFP system
I CAN assure you i am not fly by night after spending over £2k to kit my van out after using a DIY system for the past year and its sign writen as well
round where i am from people dont want to and cannot afford to pay and with the credit crunch people dont have as much money
I have spoke to a few Long standing cleaners that i come across when im cleaning and like me they say its hard to get more than £8 per house round here ......
Each to there own i say
I can sleep at night knowing i am doing a good job and that my customers are happy
yes there will be some people buying a ladder and a shammy and starting to window clean while the sun shines ...thats there problem..
in the current climate would you rather clean 5 houses at £5 per fortnight or clean 0 houses at £10 per fortnight
ill await the slating i will get for this post but please dont all people who clean windows for £5 as idiots!!
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eclipse its all to do with areas i get allsorts £5 to whatever
the trick is to have a good mix.
no good doing an entire army camp making loads and it shuts down
i lost a few farms when the foot and mouth broke never got them back
would be nice to live in london with all them yupies to take to the cleaners
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but you cant clean 5 semi on your own in a hour surely.
im quick amd i dont think i could.
if you cleaned it once a month for 10 you would be going once earning more and lets be honest they dont need cleaning twice a month
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Don't do houses but, £5 a house wfp, standard semi, probably get the whole street at them prices, so could do 4 an hour, still turns £160 a day CASH!
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ive got a mate hes been window cleaning 25 years,he can do 10 council houses in an hour 4.50 a house off ladders,he does them properly as well 45 an hour
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Someone who has come from a min wage job to start up w/c, will be well chuffed if he can do even just 2 £5 houses an hour.
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Don't do houses but, £5 a house wfp, standard semi, probably get the whole street at them prices, so could do 4 an hour, still turns £160 a day CASH!
4 an hour yeah, for 8 hours 5 days a week NO, and what about bad weather! No chance of catching up unless you work 9-10 hours, or do 5 an hour :) Its possible but if you can push for more then do! Ive worked in areas at £5 a house, and couldnt get any more than that, so i sold up and changed area, id rather drive 20 miles and have easier work, but if your happy then who am i to say :)
And i have £5 houses, but not 3 bed semis, much smaller!
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so i'm going from trad to WFP soon how much difference in charging should it be the average price in my area is £5.50 trad style
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so i'm going from trad to WFP soon how much difference in charging should it be the average price in my area is £5.50 trad style
Why any different??? same price i think, unless you can sell pvc wash with window cleaning if you dont already do that!
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true.
cheers
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ive got a mate hes been window cleaning 25 years,he can do 10 council houses in an hour 4.50 a house off ladders,he does them properly as well 45 an hour
At that rate, your mate would give Terry Turbo Burrows (The World's Fastest Window Cleaner) a run for his money
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I do four bedroom houses 5.50.
Above and conservatories 8.00.
Been window cleaning 7 years and WFP 7 months, have large customer base and lose very little yet have a lot of new custom.
A lot of window cleaners got greedy during the 00's charging what they wanted.
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It's all very well cleaning houses dirt cheap until you have to fall back on reserve funds for when you are unable to work, holidays, bank holidays, illness, extreme weather, unforseen costs (i.e. van involved in an accident or equipment stolen). If you can't afford to put aside for emegencies then you are too close to the margins on price and will just run yourself into the ground becoming the busy fool and go out of business or lose interest and motivation needed to stay in this job long term.
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I think everyone has got to realize that there are a lot of people out there who have no work at all, and window cleaning especially residential is a low cost way of earning a few quid. To call these people idiots is a bit strong, if it means putting food on the table and paying the mortgage, then they are far from idiots. These prices will continue to appear in these times. How many of us on here started window cleaning ' til something solid comes along' I know I did.
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so i'm going from trad to WFP soon how much difference in charging should it be the average price in my area is £5.50 trad style
Why any different??? same price i think, unless you can sell pvc wash with window cleaning if you dont already do that!
Thank god for that! a sensible answer
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I find I am pretty much in line with the window cleaners in my area, got a customer one dropped, and was cheaper than him, went to another street to give another qoute, customer fell out with the last cleaner, same one as my last qoute and I was about £3 dearer than him. Go figure.
I have various jobs of various prices, I have about 50 odd under £6, granted small flats but still, if you get by and you are happy with what you have earned at the end of the month then no one can say thats silly. Even if you only do £70 a day six days a week for on a four weekly rota, thats nearly 22k a year if you dont take any holidays or sicks days.
We all know we can have a spell where we earn £30/£40 in the on hour but its not maintainable and if you earn £15 an hour and spend half that on expenses which wont happen, your still making a good bit more than someone employeed at minimum wage.
Ok, so heres the thing. We are all moaning because all these £5 window cleaners are taking up the business, and everyone wants that price regardless of the size of there home, and yes it does have a negitive effect on the growth of the industry but still, you can make money of this craze. If as many of them quit as you think, then buy them out and grow not moan.
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I think everyone has got to realize that there are a lot of people out there who have no work at all, and window cleaning especially residential is a low cost way of earning a few quid. To call these people idiots is a bit strong, if it means putting food on the table and paying the mortgage, then they are far from idiots. These prices will continue to appear in these times. How many of us on here started window cleaning ' til something solid comes along' I know I did.
couldnt agree more at least these ones are getting off their backsides and trying to earn a living instead of sitting back and moaning, yes it will drive down prices but i would rather prices drop than these ones stop at home and our taxes go up to keep them, if your willing to work hard and get stuck in a good wage can be made even at low prices.
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I do a load of flats in Plymouth and charge £6. I caneasily knock out 8 in an hour as they are all in one area, no driving, or very little between blocks, good payers, good hourly rate. I'm not a new window cleaner having been in the job since 1991 BUT I am sensible enough to realise that, as a few other sensible folk have stated, not everyone has or wants to spend ten quid to have their windows cleaned.
Charge what you like by all means but don't complain when someone nicks your customers by charging what is still a reasonable price.
I earn a good living, take the wife and kids abroad a couple of times a year, belong to a posh gym, maintain the wife's soft top car aswel as my van and WFP and have no financial worries ........
My point?
I charge a reasonable price, almost always get new jobs quoted for, have a wide range of private and commercial work and I'm most certainly not an idiot!!!!
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They wont last for long mate, fly by window cleaners.
most of my work is £5 per house per fortnight (Average 3 bed semi NO conservatory)and i only use WFP system
I CAN assure you i am not fly by night after spending over £2k to kit my van out after using a DIY system for the past year and its sign writen as well
round where i am from people dont want to and cannot afford to pay and with the credit crunch people dont have as much money
I have spoke to a few Long standing cleaners that i come across when im cleaning and like me they say its hard to get more than £8 per house round here ......
Each to there own i say
I can sleep at night knowing i am doing a good job and that my customers are happy
yes there will be some people buying a ladder and a shammy and starting to window clean while the sun shines ...thats there problem..
in the current climate would you rather clean 5 houses at £5 per fortnight or clean 0 houses at £10 per fortnight
ill await the slating i will get for this post but please dont all people who clean windows for £5 as idiots!!
no slating here ,a lot of my work under a fiver and i make a good living ;D
at last good posts that prove that just because someone is cheap doesnt make them cowboys, i think over the coming months a lot of the high pricers are going to lose a serious amount of work but this can depend upon where they are in the country as some wealthier areas dont seem to be affected yet and enjoy paying more.
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totally agree, i reckon in these tough economic times and recession the five quid brigade will have a better chance of getting through it this than most.
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Well i am very suprised at the return posts so far......
I was VERY hesitant to put my original reply about me being one of the "£5" brigade as i was expecting nothing but diggs and abuse regarding this as i didnt think there were as many in my price range so to speak
in the past on the polls and the "how much" threads people (not all) have said they earn xxxxx amount per day and they wont get out of bed for £xxx amount
perhaps this thread will show that because some people charge low amounts they can still be profesional and like others have said earn a very good living
just because i charge £5 and you charge £15 that dosnt make you 3 times the cleaner i am
I class myself to be a profesional WFP cleaner i wear my uniform and i arrive in my sign written van
and i offer a money back guarantee after 3 cleans and touch wood i havnt had to give a single penny back in the 13 month i added window cleaning to my business my customers are very happy
As long as the rest of the "idiots" as you call them as long as they do it correctly ie insurances NI Liability etc i dont have a problem with them if they were to offer cleans for 50p as long as my round is full im happy ;D
now the summer brigade who still claim benefits now thats another thing in my book....... :-X
As for money to fall back on for emergencies thats no problem either ive just had to fork out £600 to a mercedes dealer for 7 hours labour on my van which is a kick in the teeth but im damn sure that i will go out and get more than that saved up again until something else breaks...
be interesting to see what the original poster has to say on this matter
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this will put the cat amongst the pigeons then........
I CLEAN MY NEIGHBOURS WINDOWS FOR FREE>>> ;D
bless her
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One of the points i was making was on their flyers it said cleans £5 and not from £5, my point is this, how can they charge £5 for a 10 min job but also charge £5 for a job taking double that time? One of the estates i was canvassing today where the £5 birgade had leafleted had 3 large windows at front, 4 yes 4 windows on the side and 4 windows at rear, thats 11 windows most with transom windows all for £5???? I mean no disrespect but this aint Hull Rotherham or Sidiothorpe this is Bristol which has the largest economy in the uk outside of london
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well dropped your self in it there
living in sc-unthorpe myself i take great offense to that comment nothing wrong with any of those places you have mentioned there all around near me
shall i pass you a spade........
also that wasnt the point you were making .. you were making the point that anyone in your mind who is happy to clean windows for a fiver is an "idiot"
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One of the points i was making was on their flyers it said cleans £5 and not from £5, my point is this, how can they charge £5 for a 10 min job but also charge £5 for a job taking double that time? One of the estates i was canvassing today where the £5 birgade had leafleted had 3 large windows at front, 4 yes 4 windows on the side and 4 windows at rear, thats 11 windows most with transom windows all for £5???? I mean no disrespect but this aint Hull Rotherham or Sidiothorpe this is Bristol which has the largest economy in the uk outside of london
that worksout at about 45p a window if he gets enough work to make the round compact then he can definately make a decent wage at those prices, bristol may have a large economy but look in the papers at what wages people are being paid for jobs advertised and i am sure you could make more than alot of them at 45p a window if your round is compact.
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ive got a mate hes been window cleaning 25 years,he can do 10 council houses in an hour 4.50 a house off ladders,he does them properly as well 45 an hour
Wow!, that's more than twice as fast as I can do them WFP
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I denfinately dont think it is wise to charge a set price regardless of size of time spent on a job, and am suprised at the amount of cleaners I have heard doing that :-\
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ive got a mate hes been window cleaning 25 years,he can do 10 council houses in an hour 4.50 a house off ladders,he does them properly as well 45 an hour
Can he leap tall buildings with a single bound?
Is he faster than a speeding bullet?
Is he scared of Kryptonite?
Sorry couldn't resist
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well dropped your self in it there
living in sc-unthorpe myself i take great offense to that comment nothing wrong with any of those places you have mentioned there all around near me
shall i pass you a spade........
also that wasnt the point you were making .. you were making the point that anyone in your mind who is happy to clean windows for a fiver is an "idiot"
Eclipse, i meant no disrecpect to your area what so ever and apoligise if you have taken offence, what i was trying to say its horses for coarses, so ok £10 or £15 per house may not be the norm around your area perhaps but also £5 per clean aint the norm for my area either
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well if that is the case you should make it clearer in the first place
Also sidiothorpe isnt my area it is my home and the place i was born nothing wrong with it apart from the football team
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I have been working on £5.50 houses all week, and have 2 more days to finish the estate. Open plan, highly compact, I can do the fronts of 4 houses without moving my trolley, it's a great little earner.
To be fair to the original poster, he wasn't slagging £5 jobs, just guys promising via leaflet, to do any house for a fiver.
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well if that is the case you should make it clearer in the first place
Also sidiothorpe isnt my area it is my home and the place i was born nothing wrong with it apart from the football team
Mate scunny ran away with the league and we only got 2nd, last season i looked out for your results and really hoped you would avoid relegation
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:othis post is brilliant coz all the newbies will want to charge £5 lol ....goodbye hnewbies lol ;D
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Im a newbie (couple of months) my leaflets state from £5 my average is £8 odd few £9,this week done 3 first cleans for the price of normal clean just to get the custom.The £5 clean is here in my area finding it very hard to get new customers ,if it carrys on will have to join them or pack up or is any body got a window cleaning vacancy in the hinckley ,leicestershire area
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last time i cleaned a house for £5 was twenty years ago
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Im a newbie (couple of months) my leaflets state from £5 my average is £8 odd few £9,this week done 3 first cleans for the price of normal clean just to get the custom.The £5 clean is here in my area finding it very hard to get new customers ,if it carrys on will have to join them or pack up or is any body got a window cleaning vacancy in the hinckley ,leicestershire area
keep plugging away mate its not a sprint but from past experience its worth all the pain in the end, regardless of the credit crunch, one day you will look back and think thank god i stuck with it
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To leaflet houses saying a fiver a house is just so unprofessional and shows total business inexperience or knowledge.
As the original poster said, how on earth can you clean one house with say...10 small windows for a fiver, then go on to the next that has 20 big windows and a large conservatory and still charge a fiver...crazy.
When I started window cleaning some 27 years ago it was - as has been stated by someone else - a means to an end while I waited for the building trade to pick up, much the same as a great many newbies will now be doing...hoping to earn a little cash while waiting for that 'proper job' to come along.
It turned into my means of earning a living for the rest of my life of course, but even though I was starting it up as a means to an end I still did a huge amount of research, especially where price was concerned!
Underpricing is something that just about everyone who starts up in this job falls victim to, but if you don't learn, and learn fast, then you will earn only peanuts, and most will jack the job in way before they have enough work on board to make a decent living.
The average sole trader window cleaner turns over around 17k per year, take out even the most basic costs and you are left with something like 12k, less than half the national average income.
You can earn more working in a warehouse....er...well you could when there was still work in them :-[
And you get holiday pay, sick pay and so on.
So many undervalue their worth, they really do.
I have a few accounts that I charge just a fiver for, got a few where I charge even less too, but they are the exception and not the rule.
I was charging a fiver for an average house 20 years ago, ain't no way I'd want to go back to earning so little!
I'm not worried about newbies starting out and charging so little, I am seeing plenty of of new window cleaners about now, but I am not really worried as there is only so much work to go around, those of us with long established rounds may well lose a few accounts here and there, but if 20 newbies try and start up in my area, just how much work do you really think they are going to pick up? Regardless of how little they might charge.
Any area can only support so many window cleaners.
I clean the houses of some very wealthy people, prices varying from £18.00 up to £200 plus, inexperienced newbies charging pennies are not going to stand a snowballs chance in hell of making a dent in these accounts, these are people that trust me with their key codes to get into their houses (er...not inside the houses themselves of course!)
Those charging a fiver are not idiots, if they have established rounds - as many of those who have replied on this post have - then they have developed their rounds to suit their lifestyles, pay their bills and so on.
Neither are those that are starting out in the job.
They may have watched some experienced window cleaner knocking out the house over the road in what looks like just a few minutes, he makes the job look like a doddle, collects a tenner and goes off to the next house and earns another tenner in just a few minutes...easy money eh?
Maybe he thinks to himself, "I can do that, and I'll do it for half the money, why hell, if I do 3 an hour I'll be earning myself £15 quid an hour!"
So off he goes, buys some ladders, a squeegee a bucket and an applicator from Wilkinsons, does his neighbour's place and a few friends and off he goes!
The reality is very different of course, it takes many months to pick up enough work to earn enough to make a living, it also takes months to be able to do the job quickly enough to knock out 3 houses an hour to a good standard too!!
Not all newbies look on forums such as this one to learn all they can about the job, and even those that do can be blinded by the possibility of the 'potential' earnings that can be generated in this line of work (the reality is about 12k a year income for most) so they often start out in ignorance of what the job entails...but they soon learn! ;D
Ian
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well sade ian
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well answered
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ian how long to type all that
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ian how long to type all that
Quite a while!! :P
I tend to write long winded posts and waffle on for ages I'm afraid :-[
Ian
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i keep them short,its hard work with two fingers ;D ;D
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Did a bit of canvassing today on some ex council houses some terraced some semi 3 beds. When i gave my quote of £7 was told you'll have to beat a £5 if ya want them :o I just dont know how they can be done for that.
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Did a bit of canvassing today on some ex council houses some terraced some semi 3 beds. When i gave my quote of £7 was told you'll have to beat a £5 if ya want them :o I just dont know how they can be done for that.
easily if your not greedy ;D ;D
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Do ya do a lot of £5 houses Stan? Is this reality then, maybe i should lower my expectations.
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i do a lot for less than £5 and make a good living ;D ;D
the secret is getting your work compact,i park up and dont move the car till dinner ;D
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they might be flyby but these people are putting these sort of prices into peoples heads it wont be long until people only accept there windows done for a fiver.
not if you explain things to people, I had the same last night I was twice and a half more expensive, I got the job and got the next doors aswell why, because i ofer a full package to them, I am insured, they are also, i offer more than most others do round my way. If people what to PAY £5 THEY SHOULD OFFER BANANAS AS A TREAT FOR THE WINDOW CLEANER
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i like bananas ;D ;D ;D
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i like bananas ;D ;D ;D
I can tell :P
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ive got a mate hes been window cleaning 25 years,he can do 10 council houses in an hour 4.50 a house off ladders,he does them properly as well 45 an hour
im sorry i think thats utter rubbish...i can if i soap up squeegie down twice..... and nothing else...otherwise its rubbish..
sorry.
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I started nov 2004 charging £5 per council house because I didn't know any better. the price was the same if leaded or if I had to go up and over. I used damp and dry riipped up flannelette bedsheets and did a good job!
when I started I used to go knocking doors until I had 8 customers for the next days work.
I had packed in an easy driving job paying £180 net a week (which i'd been doing as I was fed up with stressful jobs such as salegotiator, transport office scheduler and tool hire sales rep).
so I was making £200 a week cash for that first month. it was the hardest work i've ever done in my life- knocking, first cleans, collecting, knocking.......
but I stuck with it, grew wiser, got a squeegee, got better....
once I had enough work I started charging more for new jobs, weeding out bad custies, awkward houses, refining my round and having price increases.
now I have hot wfp, an 06 toyota hiace, a uniform, no collections (cheque payments) and I can honestly say i'm the most expensive window cleaner I know!
I get away with this because my custies know I do a cracking job every time, don't miss windows etc and they can trust me.
for those same council houses I now charge £12-£15 for new jobs. I still have a few of the easiest original jobs- now at £7. these get done when i've nothing better to do.
so I think it's all a matter of perspective. I charge what I think I can get away with and will be more competitive for easy wfp houses. I get about 40% of the jobs I quote for (i don't want about 40% of the jobs I quote for). the other 20%- well that's life!
my point is.... god this has nearly killed me writing all this...... i'm in a very different position to when I started out. I needed the work and quoted cheap!
I wouldn't have cleaned a massive for a fiver though!
;)
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£5 per house - depends how long the house takes you. If it takes under 10 minutes thats great (£30 an hour) under 15 minutes dont want too many like this (£20 an hour) any houes that takes longer than 20 minutes has go to be better priced than a fiver. Most of the houses that i clean are under ten minute jobs, nice and compact, wfp too slow to use on the majority (cant be stood around waiting for drips to stop, scrubbing birdmuck, getting hose stuck etc) trad is so much quicker on this type of work. I have a house (3 bed semi council) that i do for £2.50 every fortnight, crazy i know its a 5 minute job and she got me alot of other good priced work next to hers 10 years ago and havent had the heart or brains to put it up since. £2.50 for 5 minutes still brings me up to my target per hour though so alls good.
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ive got a mate hes been window cleaning 25 years,he can do 10 council houses in an hour 4.50 a house off ladders,he does them properly as well 45 an hour
im sorry i think thats utter rubbish...i can if i soap up squeegie down twice..... and nothing else...otherwise its rubbish..
sorry.
i used to be able to do 12 houses in an hour from ladders they where 3 blocks of four on the fronts each house on tops had two windows but could be reached in one climb, bottoms again two windows and front door, on the backs there where 2 climbs 1 bathroom and a bedroom downstairs there was a kitchen window and a set of patio doors, so if the houses are similar then i think it is perfectly possible.
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I was looking on ebay a couple of days ago and there is a chap selling his round
He has 270 customers and its done on a fourtnighly basis.
I think he said he makes £1600 a month
So thats no even £3 a house.
How can people live on this.
I was charging more than that in the 80's
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I was looking on ebay a couple of days ago and there is a chap selling his round
He has 270 customers and its done on a fourtnighly basis.
I think he said he makes £1600 a month
So thats no even £3 a house.
How can people live on this.
I was charging more than that in the 80's
thats £400 a week and if done trad then very little overheads, its not a fortune but better than most get for working in a factory or another unskilled job.
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i used to be able to do 12 houses in an hour from ladders they where 3 blocks of four on the fronts each house on tops had two windows but could be reached in one climb, bottoms again two windows and front door, on the backs there where 2 climbs 1 bathroom and a bedroom downstairs there was a kitchen window and a set of patio doors, so if the houses are similar then i think it is perfectly possible.
12 houses an hour equals one house every-six-minutes.
Each house you say has 8 windows; at least that's what I make out what you say.
So you're saying you can clean 8 windows per house, collect; or leave a note; maybe have a chat with a customer, then move on and do the next house; completing all TWELVE houses in an hour.
No way. Maybe in your dreams. Or are these the proverbial doll's houses?
I reckon sticking your 'chit' through six letter boxes would take at least five minutes, leaving you less than five minutes per house.
::)
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I can trad 9 window houses in 6 minutes, theyve got to be done this quick as i only get £3.50 ::). No time for chit chat, knock whilst your cleaning and ticket in whilst you do front door.
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Perhaps the finish is "not of the best quality?" Frames? Detailing? Every fortnight - are certain windows missed?
If he did a speedy gonzalez to prove a point he might just do it - once - but every hour? No way hoze'!
It's like the old steam trains - exceptionally they'd top 100mph, but day in and day out they'd average about 50!
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I can trad 9 window houses in 6 minutes, theyve got to be done this quick as i only get £3.50 ::). No time for chit chat, knock whilst your cleaning and ticket in whilst you do front door.
How many houses like this do you do in an average week birdyM?
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Right, when I first started I used to get up before I went to bed. Eat a handfull of hot gravel for breakfast. Go do a 15 hour shift, cleaning 43 houses an hour, then when I got home my father used to pull my fingernails out with a swiss army knife
Those were the days...........
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A local window cleaner to me once met a used car salesman who reckoned he could clean 80 houses per day when he was a window cleaner.
So if you can do 12 houses per hour, and work for seven hours, that's 84 houses per day; breaking the World Waffling Record of the used car salesman's number.
;D
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Ive got a mixture of rounds council and private prices range from £2.50 to £17 some good and some bad. For £3.50 they dont get their frames done, they are fortnightly, dont detail no need and dont miss any windows. All of my rounds have at least doubled in value since i bought them through reccomendations and quality work. Dont count how many houses just the amount of money at the end of the day. Just want to make the point that £5 a house is good if the house doesnt take too long. All of these guys that say dolls houses, wouldnt bother for a fiver and so on wind me up ::)
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Birdy,
I'm no high-flying window cleaner, but I know what's possible and what's not for one person.
Even with WFP and a compact easy access area, five houses per hour is pushing it, and there's no way you'll sustain that level of work hour-after-hour, day-after-day.
Do you remember UBA1? He was some supremely fit boxing/marshal arts (I can't remember which exactly) bloke, and he used to claim he could knock out five houses an hour; and he received a lot of suspicion about that claim.
So from that we've evolved to twelve houses per hour!
::)
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I can do a 10 window house (including 2 doors) in 5 minutes and this is how I do it:-
0 - 1 minute Open gate knock door and clean it awaiting an answer, if custy not in write chit and put thru'.
1 - 2 minutes, go round back, look about and if no one watching check for bird's muck and if none evident ignore upstairs back 2 and run scrim along base of downstairs window and door. Wipe downstairs cills.
2 - 3 minutes, check upstairs front 2 and side upstairs and if no one watching ignore. Downstairs 2 do the scrim trick.
3 - 4 minutes. Do kitchen window properly. Head for the gate.
You now have 1 spare minute which you can use on the next house you find someone in or a nosey neighbour watching you and have to take 6 mins.
This method is only allowed Oop North, in the Welsh valleys boyo or the Gorbals in Glasgow. ;D ;D ;D
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Thanks for being honest-dis. :-[
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Birdy,
I'm no high-flying window cleaner, but I know what's possible and what's not for one person.
Even with WFP and a compact easy access area, five houses per hour is pushing it, and there's no way you'll sustain that level of work hour-after-hour, day-after-day.
Do you remember UBA1? He was some supremely fit boxing/marshal arts (I can't remember which exactly) bloke, and he used to claim he could knock out five houses an hour; and he received a lot of suspicion about that claim.
So from that we've evolved to twelve houses per hour!
::)
go on then tosh i will bite ;D its a fact i could and am confident i could still do 12 in an hour and lads i have worked with have witnessed it but there again you ex army type think if you cant do it then its impossible. i consider myself very fit and in a competition of endurance lifting which involves putting a 20kg weight in each hand above your head from waist height as many times as you can without stopping i beat 5 young marines all at once all packing in as they got tired i was still going . They where all in their prime i was fourty at the time you if lucky would manage 40 reps i have done 400.
At the end of the day i know what i can do and it is pointless arguing about it on a forum but if anyone wants to set up a challenge and put some worthwhile money on it then bring it on.
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What have i got to gain saying that i can clean a house in 6 minutes, im not going to win anything, why would i make this up. Im just being honest about my round and £5 houses are great if they can be done in under 10 mins. malc i think you clean in my area, do you drive a silver volvo?
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I was looking on ebay a couple of days ago and there is a chap selling his round
He has 270 customers and its done on a fourtnighly basis.
I think he said he makes £1600 a month
So thats no even £3 a house.
How can people live on this.
I was charging more than that in the 80's
thats £400 a week and if done trad then very little overheads, its not a fortune but better than most get for working in a factory or another unskilled job.
I'm sorry to be picky but that might be £400 a week before, stoppages, downtime, holiday,sickness weather, vehicle costs, and the rest, it is considerably less after...
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I was looking on ebay a couple of days ago and there is a chap selling his round
He has 270 customers and its done on a fourtnighly basis.
I think he said he makes £1600 a month
So thats no even £3 a house.
How can people live on this.
I was charging more than that in the 80's
thats £400 a week and if done trad then very little overheads, its not a fortune but better than most get for working in a factory or another unskilled job.
I'm sorry to be picky but that might be £400 a week before, stoppages, downtime, holiday,sickness weather, vehicle costs, and the rest, it is considerably less after...
so most people run a car anyway,and sick pay isnt much,with 4 week holiday and 2 week sick would still beat minium wage
But who wants to be a window cleaner for a bit over the minimum wage? I could get a local government job and have a pension and six weeks hols, full sick pay etc, at that rate.
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Times must be getting hard for builders and gardeners. Yesterday I had two builders and one gardener fishing about wfp off me. Don't wish to have more competition in my area I work so sold them all the bad points of wfp naturally. Be surprised if I see them working for themselves in a few months time lol.
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What you pay is what you get!
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I was looking on ebay a couple of days ago and there is a chap selling his round
He has 270 customers and its done on a fourtnighly basis.
I think he said he makes £1600 a month
So thats no even £3 a house.
How can people live on this.
I was charging more than that in the 80's
thats £400 a week and if done trad then very little overheads, its not a fortune but better than most get for working in a factory or another unskilled job.
I'm sorry to be picky but that might be £400 a week before, stoppages, downtime, holiday,sickness weather, vehicle costs, and the rest, it is considerably less after...
so most people run a car anyway,and sick pay isnt much,with 4 week holiday and 2 week sick would still beat minium wage
But who wants to be a window cleaner for a bit over the minimum wage? I could get a local government job and have a pension and six weeks hols, full sick pay etc, at that rate.
you might be able to but most people cant
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What you pay is what you get!
Or how much you pay depends on how much you want to be ripped off