Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Small but perfectley formed on July 22, 2009, 10:17:35 pm
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what is the average price you charge or would charge for terraced houses done fortnightly with 3 upstair windows and 4 downstairs .( compact round )
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£6
Monthly it would be £8
I charge £1 per window and 50p for front door and back door.
£1.50 for patio doors and french doors.
so for fortnightly i would just knock a couple of pound off.
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£6.50
:-* :-*
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Dean :P
lol
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Never ever charge anything less than £10!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Depends on the area, but i'd agree somewhere between £6 - £8
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minimum £10 for fortnightly ;D. i wish
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£14 but if there are several togeather in the road £12.
My friend has a house exactly like you describe, its in one of the roads opposite Watford football ground. His next door neighbour pays £35.
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minimum £10 for fortnightly ;D. i wish
Hahaha, i wish i lived in minimum ten pound land lol
I dont understand it ! I dont like to talk about earnings because it upsets people but on £4-6 (mainly £4) houses yesterday i averaged over £30 am hr for 4 hours... thats some people day wage in a morning ...
I couldnt get a tenner for them if i tried but they are small . very low, and extremely compact - yes they are due a price rise, but still im happy with that
its not a good post - its unrealistic
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A minimum £10 is a good general rule which I generally adhere to but it isn't an inflexible rule.
e.g.
Lots of compact small houses together. (few van moves)
Flats in OAP complexes.
Fronts only.
Fortnightly
But ... if it's a local authority semi size then nowadays that minimum is about right and even more so if the job requires a van move and hose reel in and out all for itself.
Mind you I have sections of compact old stuff at £7.50/£8.50 for which I would now charge £10-£12 and which still pays over £30 ph over a day.
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a £10 minimum charge can't apply to everything.
I do a few streets where I charge £7-8 pound a house for 3 beds. Becaude I have a lot of houses next to each other I can whip through them. Sometimes it is better to price a quid lower and 'monopolize' the area.
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Minimum price for me now is £14, no point charging less.
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I think it all depends on the area you work i work se london and i try to keep at £12 min with all new customers now. I still have a lot at £8 and £10 from existing work from years ago where i slowly put up each year.
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if i tried to charge £10 minimum i would have no customers because you would easily be undercut.
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So if a bungalow has 5 windows and at the end of the street I was cleaning, I should charge 10 quid? I thought this thread was "Average price" by the way ;D
Let's go over to "Egg on window" next, that's a good one ;D ;D ;D
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This is a ridiculous post you cant stick rigidly to a rule like that sensibly can you??
In compact areas where people arent carrying there wages home in a wheel barrow its not good business sense to say im sorry its £10 minimum, when you could have the whole street for £8 each?? small houses arent gonna take long!! You could easily do 5-6 in a row, i a m not saying dont charge more when they are not compact, my minimum for 3 beds up is around a tenner but i dont stick to it if it means losing a job....
The round i referred to earlier is very low houses with only a few windows back and front which are easy to clean wood/pvc windows, take a few mins each, with more compacting it could easily be some of my best work i wish i could insist on ten pound a house but it aint gonna happen, i do them fortnightly as well , and there is no window cleaner gonna get them off me, i monpolized the whole estate, and regualarly still pick up 2-3 houses per clean and lose very few :) If i went round insisting on ten pound a house i may get a few but not for long, and would soon be undercut
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£2.50 or £3 if they had a sports car in the drive ;D
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£4 whatever the frecency
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£4 whatever the frecency
;D ;D
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Quote- Seandyer2003
“This is a ridiculous post you cant stick rigidly to a rule like that sensibly can you??”
Yes you can, that’s normal practice.
I dont think it is normal practice mate, some of you do it, alot dont, so why is it "normal practice"??
Its about being reasonable and pricing what is right for the circumstances in view of the location of the job, the size, the competition etc etc,
The point i was contending was not that you shouldnt have a minimum but that groundhog says never charge less than £10 - if you get away with that and are happy to turn down work good onyou but i pointed out in my posts - i make a good living on some work that is much less
I dont underprice any work, in fact 90% of it priced very well now as i keep bringing in new and have shed some rubbish and am slowly getting prices from old work up, but im not such a window cleaning snob that i will turn down anything under ten pound... as compact houses reasonably priced will bring in good money, and keep the work from competition, and has done in my case for many years, i started that round when i first picked up a squeegee, and now i have a day a week there, only one house on there is a tenner and every week i have a well paid easy day - suits me...
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Heres a scenario for you, 2 neighbours same house small 2 bed, one wants all doing so you say ok ten pound, next door says just fronts you say " sorry my minimum is ten pound" whats gonna happen there when they chat ?? someones gonna feel ripped off!!
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Spot on Sean, that's what I meant when I gave the example of a bungalow.
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Any of you get to a quote..then with all the experiance you have...just blurt out a stupidly low price which you know is low the very moment the last sylable leaves your lips...
Did that for a house last saturday..I knew in my head that is was worth 22,50 and then 18 came out of my mouth.....
Cheers
Dave.
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Quote: seandyer2003
“I dont think it is normal practice mate, some of you do it, alot dont, so why is it "normal practice"??”
seandyer2003 to make sure you have a reasonable or even some profit from each customer/job.
Quote: seandyer2003
“Heres a scenario for you, 2 neighbours same house small 2 bed, one wants all doing so you say ok ten pound, next door says just fronts you say " sorry my minimum is ten pound" whats gonna happen there when they chat ?? someones gonna feel ripped off!!”
Stick with your minimum of £10 and offer to clean back & front, if she only wants the front done that’s her choice, don’t let customers make you drop your price. In this scenario of yours, doing the front only and I assume you will charge £5 will be detrimental to your business.
What if its out of necessity rather than choice as no access etc etc?? Still gonna fall out with you over it when she finds out next door pays same !!
I thought that would be your reply though
if you truly get away with that and arent worried about customer satisfaction then go for it...
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Front only is not the same as whole house price. Front only is £8 whole house £14, bungalows £10.
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A minimum £10 is a good general rule which I generally adhere to but it isn't an inflexible rule.
e.g.
Lots of compact small houses together. (few van moves)
Flats in OAP complexes.
Fronts only.
Fortnightly
But ... if it's a local authority semi size then nowadays that minimum is about right and even more so if the job requires a van move and hose reel in and out all for itself.
Mind you I have sections of compact old stuff at £7.50/£8.50 for which I would now charge £10-£12 and which still pays over £30 ph over a day.
Just thought I'd re-post this as it is the most sensible answer on this thread! ;D
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A minimum £10 is a good general rule which I generally adhere to but it isn't an inflexible rule.
e.g.
Lots of compact small houses together. (few van moves)
Flats in OAP complexes.
Fronts only.
Fortnightly
But ... if it's a local authority semi size then nowadays that minimum is about right and even more so if the job requires a van move and hose reel in and out all for itself.
Mind you I have sections of compact old stuff at £7.50/£8.50 for which I would now charge £10-£12 and which still pays over £30 ph over a day.
Just thought I'd re-post this as it is the most sensible answer on this thread! ;D
it is malc:)
just some people insist on conyinuing with drivel that makes no sense, than talking about reality lol
I agree with malc :)
So really it isnt a "normal practice", as many occasions you cant enforce it :)
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A minimum £10 is a good general rule which I generally adhere to but it isn't an inflexible rule.
e.g.
Lots of compact small houses together. (few van moves)
Flats in OAP complexes.
Fronts only.
Fortnightly
thats was malcs actual post bud :)
Read everything - not just what you wanna hear...
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I do have a few customers as low as £10, but in general I don't take on any new work for less than £25.
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What's minimum price got to do with average price??
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As I understand it, not forgeting, my level of understanding is low, as I am only a cap doffing zink bucket tax paying little sideline 20 custies sort of bloke, the average price was the point of the thread, what would be the average price.
In my low level of understanding etc, I see minimum price has been used and banded about by a certain snobbery, well in one case at least.
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If I tried to have a minimum charge as high as some on here I'd have no customers ::) ::) ::)
I live in Plymouth and some of the areas I clean in, areas that some window cleaners would no doubt turn their noses up at, are not the most wealthy in the world and I'd get no where trying to charge £14. BUT, 99% of the people living in these areas are just normal families wanting clean windows. They're very compact and as most of them live in flats I can park the van up and stay there for perhaps four hours before having to move again. Charging £6 per flat gives me a very good day's takings as it's easy enough to clean 8 of there flats in an hour without killing yourself.
I have big, expensive accounts but to be honest I can earn more on my council estates than I can ever earn on these big houses.
And I get paid quicker because they're usually home all day ;D ;D ;D
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Im fed up with all these min £10 boys, if they wanna charge that then thats up to them, greedy sods. My min is only £9.99, i think this is reasonable ;D ;D ;D
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The point in having a minimum is less transactions per buck.
I hate the admin involved when the lads have returned havind done over 100 cleans, it takes me forever to proccess, then theres the "they wasnt in" " just fronts" "Can you come back tommorrow" " they said they didnt owe" etc etc, then theres the phone calls and the cheques and money dropping through the letter box.
It drives me nuts.
I much prefer when they have been on an all day job, one transaction, one invoice. Heaven
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The point in having a minimum is less transactions per buck.
I hate the admin involved when the lads have returned havind done over 100 cleans, it takes me forever to proccess, then theres the "they wasnt in" " just fronts" "Can you come back tommorrow" " they said they didnt owe" etc etc, then theres the phone calls and the cheques and money dropping through the letter box.
It drives me nuts.
I much prefer when they have been on an all day job, one transaction, one invoice. Heaven
Dave, if you read MLS's answer, then in this case a min price would be damaging. The post was asking "average" price of a semi etc.The size of the operation you run doesn't have much in common with every day WC's.I think there is always someone on these sort of threads that tend to let their "big business flag" hang out.Not you by the way.
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Cozy
Even if it were 20 jobs done by myself there is 20 jobs to drive to, 20 jobs to proccess, 20 payments to proccess and 20 jobs to reschedule.
Each job needs a certain price to cover this admin, if you are ever thinking of expanding you have to take account of these things
Back to the post, we would charge £10 min maybe more
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I know, I have shrunk my biz since about the end of the 90's. I have done all the hospital stuff and done loads of stuff for firms like Opel or Dr Oetker (Large companies here).But if we are talking about a guy with,lets say 200 or so custies, then it's a different story.
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Wish i could charge £10 min :-[ I work off 70p per windie, seems the norm where i am.
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Wish i could charge £10 min :-[ I work off 70p per windie, seems the norm where i am.
Where I live there are many other window cleaners who charge silly prices, ie £8 for a 4 bed detached!!!!!! But that dosn't mean that you have to do the same as they do!! I charge £25 for the average 4 bed detached and I get plenty of them!! Don't copy the FOOLS!!!!!! ;)
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I also have a minimum charge of a tenner...but that is flexible to a certain degree.
Call out a plumber or an electrician and you will have a minimum charge, probably covering up to the first hour, and yes, I know, the circumstances are very different, but it makes life very much easier to have a minimum charge.
If someone comes up to me in the street asking how much I charge, or call up on the phone then I start out telling them there is a minimum charge of a tenner, and that it could also increase depending on how far I have to travel, if they don't want my services then fine.
As Dave has said, you have to cover administration, and even the smallest of jobs requires you to get there, unload, do the job, re-pack your vehicle, invoice or collect...
I don't care if they are all back to back, and fortnightly?? Even then, if all of your round was fortnightly, there are only so many houses you clean per day, so why clean them cheaper because they are fortnightly??
Time taken to clean them isn't sufficiently different from cleaning ever 4 weeks rather than every 2 weeks, I find little difference in 4 weekly to 8 weekly.
So I'd personally rather have higher priced work either monthly or 8 weekly, even if that means needing more customers and more travelling...but then I prefer a spread out round to a compact one...
Average price though?...mmmm.....well my minimum target price is approx a tenner, my average price for domestic work though is over £20.00.
Ian
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That's the point MLSCONTACTCLEANER made earlier to a certain degree.So what would you do in his position ?
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£15.60
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A minimum £10 is a good general rule which I generally adhere to but it isn't an inflexible rule.
e.g.
Lots of compact small houses together. (few van moves)
Flats in OAP complexes.
Fronts only.
Fortnightly
But ... if it's a local authority semi size then nowadays that minimum is about right and even more so if the job requires a van move and hose reel in and out all for itself.
Mind you I have sections of compact old stuff at £7.50/£8.50 for which I would now charge £10-£12 and which still pays over £30 ph over a day.
Just thought I'd re-post this as it is the most sensible answer on this thread! ;D
Sensible post!
Agreeing to having a £10 minimum which you generally adhere to and then giving plenty of examples as to why you charge less than that minimum!
Acknowledging you have compact work that needs to be priced higher by 25-30%.
I read into this post you don’t know or understand the reasons for having a minimum price, and you knowingly continue to clean windows that are under priced.
Still think it’s the most sensible answer?
Pretty much - first the bits in red - I accept I can improve this and will raise it when I feel I will gain more than I lose. To get to a £10 minimum requires less than a 25/30% increase and the £11/12 jobs raise the overall average. I see little point in losing some even if I can gain others at £12 if it means more van moves/time spent. Now let me explain the other examples mentioned in my original post in relation to my round.
Small compact houses - this is one estate of a mixture of fronts only and full houses when they are in. They have three windows and a door at the front and the same at the back. For the full house I charge £10. But if due to access issues I cannot do the backs then I charge £6.50 for the front only so therefore am charging over £1 per window on a full house and over £1.50 per window when fronts only.
This estate earns me (depending on whether the backs are done every time) between £200 and £300 and can be done in an agreeable amount of time.
All day and the van moves no more than 400 yards. I believe if I tried to charge the £10 minimum then I would have custies ask to change frequency, phone beforehand or not bother. I feel no need to put that to the test.
Flats in OAP complexes.
I clean 16/20 out of 25 OAP sheltered flats (depending if they've died, gone to hospital etc ;D) with the van in one position. One person collects as much as possible before the day and the stragglers I collect on the day. They have seven windows each including a door and I believe that the circumstances of this situation allow me to charge £7 per flat. It is typically slightly under a mornings work with collections and banter included and I am happy with it.
If I charged £10 then I believe I would lose some or be asked to change the frequency or the caretaker would undercut me.
Fronts only
I've partially covered this above but I have a run of semi's on a main road which get quite mucky from the traffic. I clean the fronts only one month and the backs every other time. I charge £7.50 for the front and £12.50 for the whole house. I accept Ewan I could charge a tenner for the front but as there are three other window cleaners on this stretch charging £5, £7 and £10 for the fronts (I have the lions share (My 12 houses to their 3, 1 and 1 respectively) I feel I could lose some of my custies.
Fortnightly (edited)
Just understandable for those who have large areas like this. You could just do the glass quickly on two in three visits.
I'm not the most ruthless businessman, Ewan and I accept I could tweak here and there and probably will over time ... but thank you for your input I am always willing to learn.
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Are all the window cleaners with high minimum charges in the south of the country because here in the north you would not get £10 for a terraced fortnightly , as to frequency from experience fortnightly cleans take 20-25% less time than monthly so therefore reduced cleaning time = lower cost.
To all the window cleaners with £25 for 4 beds how many of these do you have on any pericular street ?.
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The point is with minimum, is if they wont pay a tenner you dont clean them , you find customers who fit your profile, not the other way around.
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I am I think, well half a one anyway
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The point is with minimum, is if they wont pay a tenner you dont clean them , you find customers who fit your profile, not the other way around.
Exactly!!!!!!!!! :)
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My average prices is about £20 but that figure is a bit weighted by some of my large houses that i do. I have a couple of dozen large country houses some of which take me nearly a day to clean inside and out.
On the subject of minimum price i dont have one ,all my pricing is done to achieve my required hourly turnover rate. i think the cheapest job on my round is £3.00 (2 windows 1 door) No way would customer pay £10 for that . Its next door to bigger job in an area of compact work otherwise i simply wouldnt do it ( or maybe for a tenner :D)
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some sensible people at last, i wish more would admit that actually they dont insist on a minimum for a small job which could be quite profitable even though its not tenner but is compact....
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In Chepstow there are two proper jewellers - neither of which I clean! - my price for the one would be no more than a fiver and the other no more than £4.00 (bear in mind they are both in the middle of a great many other shops I do in town) and that might sound cheap but it would be darn good money for me, a pro-rata rate of over £100 an hour, and that is the crux, even though these prices might sound cheap, when, like myself, you are a window cleaner with an awful lot of shop fronts to do, my pro-rate is above £100 an hour.
the jeweller would be on no more than me!! For the jeweller to pay out £4.00 would equate to little more than a pittance to him it's true, but I would never base my prices on how posh I perceived his business to be...whether charity shop or posh shop my prices are the same.
the above there is a quote from ian giles
Proof that a good wage can be earned from compact work with "cheap" (less than tenner) prices!! PLease dont get me wrong i am not against a minimum charge but i am just not so naive as to think i can get away with always charging that for every transaction no matter how small, or thinking that doing so is always good business sense......
(hope you dont mind me using your wuote ian but it proves my point)
anyway im out of this thread now otherwise it will never end :)
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In Chepstow there are two proper jewellers - neither of which I clean! - my price for the one would be no more than a fiver and the other no more than £4.00 (bear in mind they are both in the middle of a great many other shops I do in town) and that might sound cheap but it would be darn good money for me, a pro-rata rate of over £100 an hour, and that is the crux, even though these prices might sound cheap, when, like myself, you are a window cleaner with an awful lot of shop fronts to do, my pro-rate is above £100 an hour.
the jeweller would be on no more than me!! For the jeweller to pay out £4.00 would equate to little more than a pittance to him it's true, but I would never base my prices on how posh I perceived his business to be...whether charity shop or posh shop my prices are the same.
the above there is a quote from ian giles
Proof that a good wage can be earned from compact work with "cheap" (less than tenner) prices!! PLease dont get me wrong i am not against a minimum charge but i am just not so naive as to think i can get away with always charging that for every transaction no matter how small, or thinking that doing so is always good business sense......
(hope you dont mind me using your wuote ian but it proves my point)
anyway im out of this thread now otherwise it will never end :)
Post of the week, Spot on
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So am I correct in thinking that unless a potential customer has a house/shop big enough to warrant a £10 fee (minimum) you'd leave it alone ??? ??? ???
If this is the case it would seem that you're missing out on an awful lot of potentially good custom.
Personally I take the opinion that if someone wants me to clean their windows, providing they pay on time and don't mess me around I'm happy to do it. If it's a £10 house then fine; if it's a front with two windows and a door; obviously not a £10 customer, that's fine too.
If every business took your stance we'd have security guards on the doors of Asda making sure everyone was spending a set minimum amount before letting them in; and I don't fancy paying a tenner for the Sun and a packet of cheese and onion crisps ;)
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my minium price is £1 ;D ;D
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"You may not have set a minimum price but it does exist the difference is only some set there own minimum price"
it exists in your head mate
More philosophical window cleaning garbage
is ewan the yoda of shining, i bet he has a light sabre shaped wfp lol
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Ewans Elite Cleaning company. "most jobs too small". Commercial and domestic Call Ewan for that ripped off feeling.
Egg on glass? Call us now - prices from £35.00 a window (plus travelling time, petrol, lunch and a beer call out etc).
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No - like - "your posts"
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There is no question about expense ewan, read your own posts in the thread
i said your ideas on minimum price were in your head - where did epenses come from??
NO one mentioned them lol
And no i am not going to feed the troll anymore, get back under your bridge troll :)
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There is such a thing as minimum effort. By that I mean it takes the same time to drive to the job, park, set up, pack up, ring the doorbell, collect the money etc. This is irrespective of whether its the biggest job on your books or the smallest.
I have minimum prices but they are for my guidance in pricing up jobs. Since I make my own rules I can if I wish break them.
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In Chepstow there are two proper jewellers - neither of which I clean! - my price for the one would be no more than a fiver and the other no more than £4.00 (bear in mind they are both in the middle of a great many other shops I do in town) and that might sound cheap but it would be darn good money for me, a pro-rata rate of over £100 an hour, and that is the crux, even though these prices might sound cheap, when, like myself, you are a window cleaner with an awful lot of shop fronts to do, my pro-rate is above £100 an hour.
the jeweller would be on no more than me!! For the jeweller to pay out £4.00 would equate to little more than a pittance to him it's true, but I would never base my prices on how posh I perceived his business to be...whether charity shop or posh shop my prices are the same.
the above there is a quote from ian giles
Proof that a good wage can be earned from compact work with "cheap" (less than tenner) prices!! PLease dont get me wrong i am not against a minimum charge but i am just not so naive as to think i can get away with always charging that for every transaction no matter how small, or thinking that doing so is always good business sense......
(hope you dont mind me using your wuote ian but it proves my point)
anyway im out of this thread now otherwise it will never end :)
I don't mind you using the quote, but you are taking it out of context.
In the quote of mine that you used I was talking about shop fronts, a very different ball game where pricing is concerned....
Many are too cheap, and they remain that way because of very intense competition...almost impossible to get into because the prices are so cheap, but still very sought after, the problem being that you need a great many of them for them to then become worthwhile...
Residential is very different, and for those I most certainly DO have a minimum (if slightly flexible) price.
Ian
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So is there an argument that minimum price has to be rated against daily rate?
I infer from this that:-
For example if I can reach a good daily rate off of compact work (shops or very small compact properties) then that negates the need for a minimum rate of £10 (in my case) - but I might put in a minimum rate of say £5/£7 for an area with these special circumstances.
If I were to put in a £10 minimum in these compact areas I might find gaps appearing, or even worse new w/c's appearing and me having to move my van more inbetween jobs.
Therefore I will take on board some of the advice herein this thread and:-
1) Raise all my prices where I think it advantageous to raise the average.
2) Apply a minimum for new business of a type of property e.g.
Absolute minimums:-
I choose not to do shops as I have no wish to be "tied" over short periods.
£6 for house fronts, aiming for £8
£10 local authority semi's, aiming for £12
£20 detached 30's style houses aiming for £25