[Ste M]

i get this a lot as well, the way i look at it is i aim to earn £x an hour or a day an if i get that then im happy, personnaly i like this reply when i get it an i have had customers offer me more for the job but i tell them that the price i have given them is the price im charging, i find that this sort of honesty gets me more work. I love the people on here who say they earn £100's a day an charge £50 for a 10 minute bungalow, dont listen to them, just keep going the way you are an it wont be to long before you are hitting really good money each day you go out.

A lot of people keep mentioning £30 odd an hour on here, well if you can hit that for 8 hours a day thats £240 a day, an over 1k a week. I would love to see someone show me proof of that sort of earnings :

I charge £30+ per hour. If you want proof you could get a copy of my latest accounts from companies house.

£30 per hour is not that high especially if you are employing people to clean windows. Every cost that you have quadruples (at least) as soon as you employ.

Insurance: Sole trader: £100 With employees: £2500

Vehicle Insurance: Sole trader: £500 With employees: £6750

Professional fees: Sole trader: £500 With employees: £3000

The list goes on.

Plus there are costs that don't even exist for 1 man bands.

Fees for Contracts of Employment: Some folks pay £600  You can get them here for £150:

http://www.lilihunter.com/cart.htm 

28 Days paid holidays per person per year.

How many of you paid yourself for 28 days holiday last year? Not chuffin many I'll bet.

When you work in the hols that takes it down to £27.50 per hour across the year then there is also VAT to consider. That's you down to £22.25, nearly a third gone before you factor in overheads.

In conclusion £30 per hour. Any less is pointless and you will end up losing money.

well if your a employer id expect you to hit that rate an more, otherwise you wouldnt employ, im on about the one man band who constantly say they hit mega money

[Sunshine/Cleaning]

You would be surprised at how much some people are prepared to pay and how much they value any work done by a tradesman. These are the customers to actively seek out and by the sounds of it you are doing just that. A higher minimum is no bad thing, lets face it if a tradesman turns up to your house for a one-off job they will have a minimum price and most wouldn't bat an eye at £25 for the satellite repair man to fix the dish for his 10 min work. That's the way you should pitch your window cleaning. Esp as you wont have a run of a dozen houses next to each other.
There are also allot who feel it's "like glorified begging" and £4 is the max they will pay! Avoid these like the plague.
I also think that the larger your van the more you can charge!  

the difference between a 'tradesman' and a windy is that most tradesman have 4 years of training behind them, you wouldnt expect a plumber to turn up and then ask him how he learnt his job and he said 'oh i saw someone doing it and then read the net a bit about it and thought i can do that'!!!!

Which is why I feel qualified to comment as I have 20 years experience. It is also why I am happy to classify myself as a tradesman.
If we get it right in our own head we can come across better to the customer.