[dmlservices]

you can earn £10 an hour cleaning trad,set of ladders and rest of kit to start £200 then after that bottle of fairy and new rubber each week, i agree you couldnt run a wfp system at that rate,but someone coming off minium wage would be chuffed and we should  laugh at people who try to work instead of dole dossing
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dont forget unseen expenses , days of through illness , rain , snow, low temperatures,holiday pay , and even if trad , there will be car running expenses , fuel repairs, insurance the list goes on.

suddenly £10 per hour doesn't seem a lot then .

daz

[Paul Coleman]

How can you earn £10 an hour and be self employed it aint happening Stan,the overheads i have that wouldn`t even pay my morgage and i`m not being funny.You can earn £10 an hour doing most things these days,if you think i`m being a snob that`s your opinion but £10 an hour is not good.

NWH may offend some people with his attitude, but he is realistic about taking on work too cheap. £10ph is a waste of time if you are running a business with overheads and a job that is weather permitting in the customers eyes.. £10ph and you'll be either struggling to make it all pay or be the most ridiculous busy fool in the long run when you take into account bad payers, being ripped off, not this time ('cause it might rain), etc, etc.
I knew a cleaning company who were charging £10ph about 6years ago. They didn't last 6months. they folded with all the running costs of employing, sickness pay, holidays. Get real, £10ph in business....you might as well be in a dead end job on minimum wage with all the benefits tied in with PAYE.

Amazingly, I do still have tiny bits of work where I end up turning over about  £20 an hour (at a plod).  These will be the first jobs that I let go of when the time is right for me to do so.  As for £10 an hour (remember we are referring to turnover rather than pay), the economy would have to be very very bleak before I would entertain such a thing.  I wouldn't say never because there is no way of knowing for certain just how bad this economy could become, but it would have to be seriously desperate before I would even contemplate such work.

[peter holley]

wc were on £10/hr in the eighties when i left school... be realistic, we cant go back in time!
40 hrs at £10 = £400
include overheads, tax, holidays,(although you wouldnt be able to afford one) sickness, etc.
you would be on more like £250 a week.

it doesnt even cover my mortgage

[Sir Squeaky]

Yes, but I don't know any window cleaners who work anything like a 40hr week, so more like £300 a week on £10 p/h.

I do a lot more per hour, but I'm not rolling in money, and I'm in a very cheap rent too.
If I had a £600p/m rent (which I may do soon) then I'd have to do even more.

[jaykie]

They shouldnt of even given a quote as the company had a cleaner, a mate of mine was poling the front of a house the other day and a w/c put a leaflet throught the door he was working on.

Why do Window Cleaners think they are immune to market forces?
Every other industry has competition, every other industry has to remain competative to survive.
That means either on price or quality.
To expect no other firm will provide a quote for work we currently do is unreasonable.
Unless you have a cast iron contract for a set term you have to expect that other firms, larger or smaller, will offer their own services.
They have every right to.

For too long, too many Cleaners have had it all their own way, too much work, no competition therefore quote what they like.
I think that in this economy, only those who offer a good service for a reasonable price will survive.

I dont agree in patches, I agree on good competition, the main part i was refering too was the fact he was actually working on the house when a leaflet was put through the door, this is total disrespectful why not miss that one out and continue the road. Dont tell me if you where working on a house and someone knocked on the door you where working on and said to custy "are you happy with your w/c" what would you do if they said actually know im not, the person leaflet dropping may aswel of just done that,