[williamx]

My minimum charge is £10 wfp and this is what all my customers have to pay, but if they want a cleaning method that takes longer than wfp, then the price goes up.

Unlike you all my customers have always been wfp cleans so it is easier for me.

[cozy]

So I've misunderstood then? If you had started trad, they would have cost more?  So you set your pricing by what equipment you use and and how fast you are?

[williamx]

I have set my hourly rates for both domestic and commercial using wfp which is the faster method available at the moment.

If I have to use another method that takes longer, then the price of the job has to reflect this.

I am always looking at increasing my cleaning times but my mimimum charge will not go down.

If I was a trad cleaner then converted to wfp, the prices for both methods would be different.

To get to my hourly rate of £55 on average which a lot of cleaners think is overcharging I take what other service trades are charging and achieving.

For instance, I clean carpets and have done so for the last 30 years, in this trade I earn over £60 per hour on average.

I then looked at plumbers - washing machine -tv repairers and all of the others, they all have an hourly rate in excess of £70 if you take their call out charges into account.

Now whats the difference between a window cleaner and a plumber? in my eyes there is nothing different as we all offer a service.

[cozy]

You've misunderstood what I'm asking mate. We do carpets too. I agree to a point about hourly rates etc. What I don't understand is why charge less than the price a trad guy would take?

If you had a custy come to you from a trad cleaner and he was charging her 15 quid, why would you do it cheaper? If you did, the only person who benefits from the deal is the custy.

Less money for the same job,

[williamx]

I don't charge cheaper than a trad cleaner, where I work most are only charging £6 to £8 per house, mine is £10 and even though I don't do trad anymore if I was to do it then I would charge extra because of the extra work involved, and if I had to use a ladder the price would go up even more.

In the commercial market this is now changing with wfp being priced cheaper than the trad method.

The reason for this is more and more people are starting to use wfp, not only trad guys and girls, but also newbies who are coming into window cleaning in the hundreds, and wfp is perfect for them.

This has now started to bring cheaper prices to wfp work mainly in the commercial sector at the moment but I would not be surprised if some carry this over into the domestic market.

The whole window cleaning industry is under going the biggest change it has seen in its entire history.

No longer will people look at window cleaners, who can't get a proper job.

Window cleaning is now a business that can earn you huge amounts of money.

So as the trade grows and more cleaners come into it, the amount of customers who couldn't before get a window cleaner will now have a choose from quite a few, and price is going to have a factor in who they go with.

 

[james44]

Now whats the difference between a window cleaner and a plumber? in my eyes there is nothing different as we all offer a service

Well time served 5 years i think for a plumber!

Window cleaning is not a trade nor will it ever be!

If you look at some of the posts on here you only need a days training and you`r up and running!

Can a plumber go plumbing after a days training!

[Window Washers]

Now whats the difference between a window cleaner and a plumber? in my eyes there is nothing different as we all offer a service

Well time served 5 years i think for a plumber!

Window cleaning is not a trade nor will it ever be!

If you look at some of the posts on here you only need a days training and you`r up and running!

Can a plumber go plumbing after a days training!

I only clean windows for a laugh, have to say that down the pub next time

[cozy]

Good points Pure, that's what seems to be happening. Glad that I'm here and not in UK. Not trying to wind you up with that comment either. Over here, the com market is flooded with eastern Europeans who are working on square mtr prices that I had in the early 90's. WFP, as you say, makes the prospect of anyone being able to have a crack at this game.

The point made by James44 is also a good point, I don't set my prices on what another tradesman charges. I have a pricing method that is always flexible to fit the job to max earnings with min effort. Time worked can be deceptive. That's why I never take notice of the magical "hourly rates" we get posted on here.

Do you see my points?

[james44]

Window cleaning is a trade,

So how many years have you had to serve to become a window cleaner it is not a trade you go into a pub or anywhere else and tell people you`r a time served window cleaner and you`ll be laughed at!

i know you can`t learn every thing there is to know about window cleaning in a day try telling that to todays newbies

But today all you have to do is learn how to use a wfp, there are lots of new window cleaners about who would not consider doing it if it where still ladders!

[williamx]

Window cleaning as well as carpet cleaning are trades, I have cleaned windows for over 30 years and wfp for the last 7 and I am still learning.

I have never done plumbling in my life apart from fitting wfp systems into vans, yet I reakon I could do it, it might not look pretty but it would work.

The only problem is it would leak more water than the dam in amsterdam did

A plumber or anyone else could clean windows or carpets but if they cleaned a Belguim wilton they would shrink it big time, the same applies to window cleaning using both methods, if they don't know how to do it they will leave spots - streaks and dirt after they have finshed, I know this because I have seen the end results.

[weetot]

Looking at the site,  how much does he/she charge for complications, cos they seem to expect complications!

[newbroom]

The guys business is London based , theres nothing wrong with his pricing

[cozy]

PURE, I don't see WCing as a trade, just my opinion. They are skills, but you can learn pretty fast how to clean well enough to hold down your own round in a few days. The rest of the skill involed is learned as you go on. In a trade like plumbing, you are useless for the first few months I reckon. I don't think someone would pay you a plumbers rate to do all the plumbing in a new build with only a couple of weeks training, do you.

So that's why WCing isn't seen as a trade. To class your rate based on other trades seems unbalanced. I think that's the point Window Washers is making.

The point I would like to add about charging is, not all WC's start WFP, so looking at my setup, what would you do with my prices when I switched to WFP? Would you drop them 25%?

By the way, I'm not winding you up, just want to know if you see what I'm getting at.

[williamx]

PURE, I don't see WCing as a trade, just my opinion. They are skills, but you can learn pretty fast how to clean well enough to hold down your own round in a few days. The rest of the skill involed is learned as you go on. In a trade like plumbing, you are useless for the first few months I reckon. I don't think someone would pay you a plumbers rate to do all the plumbing in a new build with only a couple of weeks training, do you.

So that's why WCing isn't seen as a trade. To class your rate based on other trades seems unbalanced. I think that's the point Window Washers is making.

The point I would like to add about charging is, not all WC's start WFP, so looking at my setup, what would you do with my prices when I switched to WFP? Would you drop them 25%?

By the way, I'm not winding you up, just want to know if you see what I'm getting at.

I don't set my rates by what other trades charge, but I did ask myself why customers are willing to pay a plumber £50 just to turn and look at the blocked sink or whatever, at least with window cleaners we don't charge just to look, but it does give you a value of you worth.

If a client is willing to pay £50 just so someone can look at the problem why not charge themthe same hourly rate to do the work.

With yourself and your charges, when you transfer from trad  to wfp I would charge the same, but if you still are going to carry on trad cleaning as well I would charge more for this service.

At first I would charge the new customers the new trad rate and with the old customers I would bring it in at the end of the year.

[groundhog]

Who cares if you consider window cleaning to be a trade or not!!! It's a business, and thats all that matters... and some of us do business better than others!! 

[cozy]

I'm surprised at that answer Pure. The reason I think I'd pay a plumber at least 50 quid is because I couldn't do the job myself, even if I wasn't a WC, I reckon I could clean my own windows.I'm not saying that you are pricing high, I'm just surprised you see WCing as important to custies as a plumber when their heating packs up.

I see WCing as a luxury service. Must be really, ALL of the windows in Germany open inwards, so every single one of my custies could clean the bloody things themselves.

[williamx]

Thats where it differs in the uk, we are surposed to be going though the worst financial crisis in history yet customers are not letting their window cleaners go, instead business has never been so good.

[cozy]

That's what happens in a recesion mate. People don't buy that new car or kitchen, so they have small change in their pockets. That's why my parents who had a market stall selling flowers and plants, allways did just as well in a recesion.

We are not talking about wether or not someone is doing well at the moment. We are on about what those guys were charging, then I read the point you made about charging what other tradesmen charge and WFP pricing from a trad round, not how bad the recession is.

I've got your point about pricing after going WFP, however, I wouldn't do that as we intend to use WFP tops and trad the bottoms.

[williamx]

I have worked for quite a few companies in my time and what all of them have in common is the price they charge, which is at the higher end of the compertition.

When I started, I priced at the lower end thinking that I would grow fast and therefore earn more, what I found was that the lower priced customers where unloyal and irregular as well as hard work.

I doubled my prices and charged even more for 1st and one off cleans, I now find that the customers I get are more loyal to me (I know because they have been canvassed by other lower price cleaners) I earn more and my workload has reduced.

In my eyes this ticks all the boxes I am after.

[cozy]

That's how it always goes mate. Exactly how it is with all established dom rounds. I get cheaper guys every now and then who have a crack at my custies. But most of us start cheap, just because we think that's the way to get started. I'm not having a pop at you. The only thing I diagree with about what you are saying is the way you compare window cleaning pricing the same as tradesmen such as plumbers or sparkies.

The krauts see being able to afford a WC as a status symbol. I've got conservatories here that cost hundreds, mind you, that's in and outside and you can't leave a single fly poo on the glass or frames.

My Brit custies are paying average prices of 15 euros on a 3 bed semi, that's nota bad price by any standard when you have 70 of them within an area of 3 or 4 football pitches. So when we go WFP I wont double prices for trad.

Good for you that you are doing well, all the best to you. We aren't tradesmen though, compared to plumbers and sparkies.

Money and earnings though are like sex. Those who tend to tell everyone how much they are getting normally get half of what they claim