[jeff1]

On the first time you meet these kind of customers you can just tell what the outcome will be in the end,she`s giving you greive on the price and you aint even cleaned a window yet.

That is so true, you can usually tell within the first few minutes of meeting them, what type of customer they will be.

[dai]

If you normally work 8 hours a day, you have to charge more than half what you would earn in that day. four hours continual graft is a lot of work. Your not travelling between jobs are you?
I would have gone for the £20 an hour, but there again, I don't need the work. Dai

[NWH]

Price per job,price per hour and you`ll lose out especially on these types of jobs.I keep saying it,you can clean loads and loads of window`s in an hour.

[edd]

matt she`ll be saying you scratched all the windows next then you wont get sod all
like what happened to us the other week take this from me 24 years cleaning DONT do it

[pjulk]

You are to cheap i would have wanted at least £20 per hour but on large jobs i always tend to quote about £30 an hour as they often take longer than you think especially if they have not been done for a while.

Paul

[brett walker]

I would phone the customer up and tell them you are very sorry but you have taken advice off fellow window cleaners and your previous was incorrect the price now will be 20 pound per hour

charge whatever you like mate, if he thinks its that easy tell him to do it himself

regards

Brett

[Paul Coleman]

Too cheap.  NEVER quote the customer on a per window or per hour basis.  The only times I made those mistakes (early on) it blew up in my face.  I even had one custie going around before my clean selecting which windows she wanted me to do (the difficult ones of course).

[macmac]

you're not too expensive no, i would never dream of quoting an hourly price though. this is what realy upsets some people, " 25 QUID AN HOUR , HE'S ONLY A F**KING WINDOW CLEANER
Unless they are self-employed themselves, the chances are most of your customers are on half that & many less.
I know it's not rocket science for them to work out your hourly rate if they want to but generaly, giving them a price for the job or an hourly rate will have two very different responses.

tony

[NWH]

Mac we agree so much these days it`s like we are long lost twin brothers.

[macmac]

Mac we agree so much these days it`s like we are long lost twin brothers.

could be the calm before the storm 

[LWC]

well i hve never charged by the hour before and the lady asked me what i charge per hour, and as i was walking around i thought id give an hourly rate a go just to see how it goes

ah well, ill keep you posted lol 

my question has been answered, im not expensive and actually quite cheap so he can shaaaat up

[LSB]

no your not expensive !
i charge more than you and im not expensive !
for the reasons that you and the others have given i dont do builders cleans etc anymore ,
however monday i did a builders clean ( first in many years ) family friend of a customer , possibility of a regular job , did a good job , last night they phoned and moaned ( not complained ) just generally about price and clean ! 

[Neil271052]

Never quote an hourly rate.

Just tot up how long you think the job will take (it often takes longer!) multiply by the rate you want and then just tell the customer the price for the job

[Tosh]

been to a house today and the windows were the worst i have seen, puty cement paint, pretty much anything you can think on there. inside and out, bad both sides

now i always give them a price for a job like this and always end up outta pocket. so i said i charge £15 a hour. which is less than i normally earn (i.e. £20) and said it would take around 4 hours

the lady was happy with that, and her husband rang and they had a small row over the phone and she said he thinks your very expensive

and i just said its going to be such a hard job...

im not expensive...am i???

When it comes to window cleaning, it can be tough-physically demanding work.

I've worked for Royal Mail at £5.50 per hour sorting mail bags and done security work for £7.00 per hour.

But I like to earn far more per hour cleaning windows, and that would be more than £15 an hour.

Why?

Because far more effort - and a certain amount of planning - is spent cleaning windows, especially minging dirty ones, than what is spent humping mail bags or sitting on your arse on a building site looking out for Chavs trying to vandalise stuff.

Then you've got to take into consideration holiday pay, sick pay, and Alistair Darling's cut (I think he's the new tax man).

Then what about those periods you can't work due to the weather?

My advice would be to never ever tell a customer an hourly charge; give them a quote for the job and charge high for a 'high calorie job'.

If you tell them your hourly rate; they probably will compare it to their own; and they won't be happy with the comparison, probably, but they won't understand the difference between being employed and self-employed; or the restrictions on our earnings.