[Sanity]

Just thought I would let ya knopw.

I start my round tomorrow (Im a noobie) and went canvassing today for 2 hours.  Got 24 monthly jobs!  Enough to pay me a wage this week!!

I am sooooo relieved.  Being able to get a wage each week was the BIG worry for me.

And yes, I did charge about 5.00  to 7.50

So to any new starters to window cleaning, keep your chin up.  there IS work out there, and much more than you think!!

[Scrimble]

if there is loads of work out there as your saying why are you charging very cheap prices?

[SonOfFormby]

Im starting tomorrow too....GOOD LUCK TO YOU.

Lee

[Sanity]

if there is loads of work out there as your saying why are you charging very cheap prices?

I know my prices are cheap, but I don't really mind too much.  After the first clean they are 20 minute jobs which equates to approx £15 per hour earnings.  The houses are close together and they are small council houses.  If the volume of work at these prices gets to the point where the amount of effort involved is more than the price I am charging, will put the prices up by a quid or two.  I am hoping to build up not just a 'round' but a reputation for good work over the next few months, that way the round will hopefully blossom.

Not a bad start I thought for my first ever attempt at being my own boss...

I will be charging more for the private estate accross the main road...

SonOfFornby, Thank you.  I wish you the best of luck too

[Pole2pole]

Good luck both of you. Lets hope you both see alot more "interesting" things than i ever did 

[ronnie paton]

Well done its good going getting 24 jobs on your first time and yes the prices are low but you wont get much more from council estates im affraid.

You may find getting paid sometimes very difficult as well , h=just my opinion though.

[mark dew]

We all seem to say about cheap prices when starting but i did the same as you when i started. I ended up resenting some jobs but needed the income.
The prices get better the longer you clean so it's all good in the end.
It must come with the territory. 
good luck to you both

[supernova77]

I know my prices are cheap, but I don't really mind too much.  After the first clean they are 20 minute jobs which equates to approx £15 per hour earnings.

£15 per hour? So when you've paid for your insurance, tax, petrol, lunch etc... how much will you have left?

Remember that you are running a business... Try not to be too cheap in order to get the work, as someone has already said you'll end up resenting it which means you might not last long in this trade as motivation is a big factor.

Hope it all goes well anyway mate

Andy

[john tomkins]

Just thought I would let ya knopw.

I start my round tomorrow (Im a noobie) and went canvassing today for 2 hours.  Got 24 monthly jobs!  Enough to pay me a wage this week!!

Well being the cynic that I am....
24 divided by 2 hours = 1 customer every 5 minutes :
Thats knocking on the door , pricing up the work, recording it in the book, chit chatting to your new customer.
Even if you knocked on 24 doors and they all said yes, that's still some going.

Well best of luck to you anyway.

[Ian_Giles]

Good luck to you, but get your prices up!!
And it doesn't equate to £15 an hour either, simple math would seem to indicate it does I know, but you have to look at the larger picture...
Anyway, going into that is too long a post!

Try to aim for about a £1.00 per window and you won't go too far wrong, but also set yourself a minimum price.
At £5.00 you are really down in the cheap seats, £8.00 minimum is reasonable.

got to dash, work is beckoning!

But you will also find that these small accounts will not take you 20 minutes a clean either, if they are small houses you will find they'll take you more like 10 minutes once you get up to speed, though that takes time and a lot of effort to get that quick, but also...don't expect to do more than an average of 3 per hour!
time spent chatting to customers, travel between accounts and so on accounts for a fair amount of time over the course of a day.

Ian

[Cleaner Windows]

I agree with ian there, I would aim at £1 per window approx, personally I charge 50p for one of those little square windows like the ones for the toilet £1 for bedroom size sash size, £1.50 for the 3 or 4 pane big uns and about the same for patio doors.

If you really did get 24 monthly jobs in 2 hours, then that is good going m8, hopefully it will happen again like that next time you go canvassing

Good luck

[Sanity]

Just thought I would let ya knopw.

I start my round tomorrow (Im a noobie) and went canvassing today for 2 hours.  Got 24 monthly jobs!  Enough to pay me a wage this week!!

Well being the cynic that I am....
24 divided by 2 hours = 1 customer every 5 minutes :
Thats knocking on the door , pricing up the work, recording it in the book, chit chatting to your new customer.
Even if you knocked on 24 doors and they all said yes, that's still some going.

Well best of luck to you anyway.

To be fair, about 12 of them were my neighbors from my cul-de-sac so they said yes without much schpeel, and the others were simple 'it costs x y or z rather than a pricing up as such.  But it is council estate work, and all within 10 mins walkin from my home address, so petrol costs etc are minimal.

And the £15 per hour will be gross.  Net will be maybe £10 per hour.  Still more than I have earned before, and I was a Student nurse!! (except maybe for overtime shifts nursing...)

My prices ARE very cheap, but as I stated I will be raising them.  My main concern is paying my mortgage at the moment.  As long as I do this I am a happy camper.  Once I get settled and can take a moment to look around and evaluate the situation will I be able to alter my pricing, my areas, my workload in general.

Thanx for the encouragement though, I hope this works out.

[trevor perry]

£5 to £7.50 an house isnt to bad if they are close together, when you first start you might only achieve 2 to the hour but when your speed picks up it is easy to knock out 4 average properties per hour so that will make your hourly rate between £20 and £30 . wel done i hope things work out for you