[roundbuilder]

utter madness this thread. why on earth if you have a nice full round going at 4 weekly would you want to lose money and time building up another 50 percent of what you have just to earn the same. who cares if its boring going back so soon..im in this for the easy money repeat monthly work not 6 8 or 12 weekly, no way pedro. i want the repeat 12 times a year not 10 which is loseing out and is plain stupid imo.

[WISEOWL]

80% of my round is three weekly with only half a dozen of those asking for six weekly. The rest are four or five weekly more to do with it being harder work or further away to travel.

However, looking at some of the prices others on this forum charge that sounds alright as most of my prices are nearly half of those that do six and eight weekly cleans!!

[Paul Coleman]

utter madness this thread. why on earth if you have a nice full round going at 4 weekly would you want to lose money and time building up another 50 percent of what you have just to earn the same. who cares if its boring going back so soon..im in this for the easy money repeat monthly work not 6 8 or 12 weekly, no way pedro. i want the repeat 12 times a year not 10 which is loseing out and is plain stupid imo.

Pretty much agree with you.  I only made the switch because I got so stacked out with work, the monthlies became 6 weekly because I couldn't keep up.

[alfynokes]

Over the years my round has gradually changed from a 4 to8 weekly round as the volume of work has increased. There would be no point in halving your income otherwise.

Unfortunately domestic rounds are not as static as they were, people seem to move and rent a lot more nowadays.

[mikecam]

Rounds are usually sold on a multiple of monthly turnover. 6 weeks must therefore devalue the round. If you have too much work sell it or employ someone. 4years ago I started on my own, now employ 6 people looking to take on 1 more soon. (Trad only )

Hows that work mate? I'm crap at maths.

[mlscontractcleaner]

Glad I'm not the only one on here who thinks the original poster is mad

[roundbuilder]

Deluded id say. must be a windup post. who would want to do more for less.

[Scrimble]

I'm not mad or deluded, have you even read the opening post,

i get more on 8 weekly than 4 weekly now, changing to 6 weekly will actually make me more money, selling my round and retiring? i'm 26 not 56 thats not going to happen any time soon,

im not devaluing my round maybe up north where cheap regular window cleaning is the normal where i live times have moved on wfp leaves windows cleaner for longer, longer frequencys are what the customers want and i have no problem charging more, my minimum is £10 for any job and accross my round the average is £14.50

[Spruce]

I started out on monthly with a few going for two monthly.  When I had trouble keeping up eventually, I switched to 6 weekly.  This didn't devalue my round because the monthlies were often 6 weekly by then anyway.  The bimonthlies were OK about it - with a couple of exceptions.  These days I get some asking about 12 weekly.  I do it but at a price.  I was asked why I charge so much more for 12 weekly and simply said that it was a service that I prefer not to provide so I charge extra for it.  I'm OK with much larger jobs being 12 weekly but don't really want more normal sized properties on that frequency.  I also inform them that 6 weekly can often mean 6-8 weekly and 12 weekly can mean 12-16 weekly depending on daylight hours and other things that may go wrong from time to time.

Hi Paul

Nice well balanced comment. I'm in the same position as you and have done the same. I have taken on more work than I could normally cope with a couple of years back as I didn't know how the 'credit crunch' would affect our business. Most of my 4 weekly work drifted into 6 weeks or a bit longer depending on circumstances, as has yours. So I now offer a 6 week or slightly longer cleaning period and a higher price. The downside of this is that customers look at the price per clean and see it as expensive, rather than looking at it in a weekly or annual perspective, which usually saves them money.

There are new trad windy's in the area insisting on 2 weekly cleans who are still finding new customers, so good on them.  But why some commentors on this thread need to call others lunatics or deluded for offering longer intervals between cleans is beyond me. As window cleaners we can't be so dictatorial with our customers, we need to be flexible where possible.

And Stan, while I agree with the sentiments of your comments on round devaluation, you also must consider that those who live in the South will have a higher round value that those of us who live in the North anyway due to pricing. There will always be businesses out there that are worth more than mine, but there will also be those out there that will be worth less than mine. The same will apply to your business.

I believe that we have only just seen the being of financial stresses here and there is much more pain to come. Our economy is driven by internal and external factors. Whilst the internal factors are just manageable at best, the country has little control over the external factors. The Euro and it's future has had and will still have a greater impact on our countries economy than ever before. If Britain pulls out of the EU or the EU collapses due to some of it's member's uncontrollable debt, then our economy will be 'controlled' more by America, and what a mess that's in.

Being flexible may mean the difference between work and no work IMHO.

Spruce

[roundbuilder]

I'm not mad or deluded, have you even read the opening post,

i get more on 8 weekly than 4 weekly now, changing to 6 weekly will actually make me more money, selling my round and retiring? i'm 26 not 56 thats not going to happen any time soon,

im not devaluing my round maybe up north where cheap regular window cleaning is the normal where i live times have moved on wfp leaves windows cleaner for longer, longer frequencys are what the customers want and i have no problem charging more, my minimum is £10 for any job and accross my round the average is £14.50

no defo not if yours are mainly 8weekly then 6 weekly is defo the  best move but at the end of the day you cant beat regular monthly repeat work. i charge top dollar for all my work so its neither here nor there if 4 or 8 weekly. I try target it all at 4 weekly so less customers needed so an easier round to maintain.  happy days. fair play though averaging 14.50 a custie

[mikecam]

your round is your nest egg for when you retire,for example if you have £3000 a month at 5x you can sell for £15000,if you switch it to 6 weekly , you only have £2000 a month so can only sell for £10000, so you are losing £5000 and devalueing your round by 33%

The point you are missing Stan is some of us are not doing less work by moving to 6 weekly, we are taking on more work and that enables us to do it. I still clean the same amount each month. It just gives you a larger customer base.

[A & J Owen Window Cleaning]

Our really good lucrative customers are 3/4 weeks (at their request). Most others we say 4/6 weeks dependent on weather etc, we are not then limiting ourselves to either time frame. A few are 8 weeks. We've really got tough on messers the last few weeks though because although I also agree that some windows (but not all) aren't that dirty after 4 weeks if they agree to that time frame at outset they can't expect to just move the goal posts when it suits them and expect exactly the same price each time. 
As well as the liar/idiot on my other thread we had one who asked us to leave it this month for the second month running and he was told that he can contact us when he wants them doing but the price would be higher - he was fine with this. They are leaded windows and he loathes water fed pole so it really is hard work cleaning them if left for longer than a month. The customer gets what he wants but understands he has to pay for it because he's still saving on his yearly cost.
We also never give an exact time frame or a particular day because one of the advantages of this job is flexibility, if you have to be exactly on 4 weeks or 6 weeks you lose that.

[SPE]

changed from 4 weekly to 6 a couple of years ago and glad I did. Did'nt feel I was crazy or deluded in any way for this. I can take a few days off here and there, sit at home and relax in the warm and dry when its raining or snowing, plan for holidays with zero stress of trying to catch up or have the time to take on those bigger one off cleans. AND I no longer have the "can I go every other month ?", "you again already" or "they're still clean" comments. We are in a service industry and not a hugely important one to a lot of domestic customers. If you can keep a round at 4 weekly then fair play but I think most customers would prefer a longer duration given the choice. I have customers who have come to me over other cleaners because some others have insisted on 4 weekly or nothing, so thers the proof
Good luck and hope it works for you 

[SPE]

changed from 4 weekly to 6 a couple of years ago and glad I did. Did'nt feel I was crazy or deluded in any way for this. I can take a few days off here and there, sit at home and relax in the warm and dry when its raining or snowing, plan for holidays with zero stress of trying to catch up or have the time to take on those bigger one off cleans. AND I no longer have the "can I go every other month ?", "you again already" or "they're still clean" comments. We are in a service industry and not a hugely important one to a lot of domestic customers. If you can keep a round at 4 weekly then fair play but I think most customers would prefer a longer duration given the choice. I have customers who have come to me over other cleaners because some others have insisted on 4 weekly or nothing, so theres the proof
Good luck and hope it works for you 

[lee_dewing]

SPE
I agree with you totally, started 4 weeks, then drifted to 5 weeks.

Picking up some some nice big house's now, and tell em, takes 5 weeks, but can be 6.

Every time i get to my customers, they say i was expecting to see you.

Rather than "oh no, it can't be that time again!"

I do have the the odd one saying your late.

But i'm much happier now and i'm getting a lot more high end residential houses, which i really enjoy doing, rather than the conveyor belt front's.

Still have this type work but, i think wfp really work's well on the bigger houses, bigger time savings

[Perfect Windows]

Just inder 50% (used to be 33%) of my customers are now twelve-weekly (my cycle is six-weekly), so there's demand out there for fewer cleans a year.

I charge them a 50% premium, so I love them.

Vin

[Paul Coleman]

I started out on monthly with a few going for two monthly.  When I had trouble keeping up eventually, I switched to 6 weekly.  This didn't devalue my round because the monthlies were often 6 weekly by then anyway.  The bimonthlies were OK about it - with a couple of exceptions.  These days I get some asking about 12 weekly.  I do it but at a price.  I was asked why I charge so much more for 12 weekly and simply said that it was a service that I prefer not to provide so I charge extra for it.  I'm OK with much larger jobs being 12 weekly but don't really want more normal sized properties on that frequency.  I also inform them that 6 weekly can often mean 6-8 weekly and 12 weekly can mean 12-16 weekly depending on daylight hours and other things that may go wrong from time to time.

Hi Paul

Nice well balanced comment. I'm in the same position as you and have done the same. I have taken on more work than I could normally cope with a couple of years back as I didn't know how the 'credit crunch' would affect our business. Most of my 4 weekly work drifted into 6 weeks or a bit longer depending on circumstances, as has yours. So I now offer a 6 week or slightly longer cleaning period and a higher price. The downside of this is that customers look at the price per clean and see it as expensive, rather than looking at it in a weekly or annual perspective, which usually saves them money.

There are new trad windy's in the area insisting on 2 weekly cleans who are still finding new customers, so good on them.  But why some commentors on this thread need to call others lunatics or deluded for offering longer intervals between cleans is beyond me. As window cleaners we can't be so dictatorial with our customers, we need to be flexible where possible.

And Stan, while I agree with the sentiments of your comments on round devaluation, you also must consider that those who live in the South will have a higher round value that those of us who live in the North anyway due to pricing. There will always be businesses out there that are worth more than mine, but there will also be those out there that will be worth less than mine. The same will apply to your business.

I believe that we have only just seen the being of financial stresses here and there is much more pain to come. Our economy is driven by internal and external factors. Whilst the internal factors are just manageable at best, the country has little control over the external factors. The Euro and it's future has had and will still have a greater impact on our countries economy than ever before. If Britain pulls out of the EU or the EU collapses due to some of it's member's uncontrollable debt, then our economy will be 'controlled' more by America, and what a mess that's in.

Being flexible may mean the difference between work and no work IMHO.

Spruce

Flexibility is good but I do avoid going to places between the main visits.  6 or 12 weekly, OK.  But I won't mix 8 weekly in with that.  Maybe someone whose work is much closer to home would get away with it but it's not for me.  Even as things stand I sometimes break sequence for commercial jobs but they are usually large enough to justify a visit of their own.
I should be finishing a job today that has spanned four part weekends.  It's been a 'mare. Also, it's a 55 mile round trip each visit so I've not visited unless I can get in a minimum of half a day at a time.

[Perfect Windows]

Flexibility is good but I do avoid going to places between the main visits.  6 or 12 weekly, OK.  But I won't mix 8 weekly in with that.  Maybe someone whose work is much closer to home would get away with it but it's not for me.  Even as things stand I sometimes break sequence for commercial jobs but they are usually large enough to justify a visit of their own.

This bit's crucial.  If you're going to offer half frequency cleans, then you need to be sure it is half frequency.  Think about it for ten seconds and you'll see that you can't mix four and sis or six and eight (etc, etc) without messing up your round.  If a job is big enough to take a day (but not big enough ever to slip into part of a second day) then you can fit it in at will, but this is an area you need to be firm on.

Vin

[Alex Allen]

as stated in the subject thinking of changing my entire round of 4/8 weekly residentials all to 6 weekly,

reason being i dont like 4 weekly its too often, out of my last 25 new custys all have choosen 8 weekly over 4 and it seems that i now have more custys on 8 weekly than 4. i've worked it out i would actually make more money per month if everyone was on 6 weekly which has shocked me as before i thought i would lose money if i changed from 4/8 to 6

i've asked a few of my custys if they would be ok if i was to change and they said 6 weekly would be fine, i also dont like driving to an area and missing out a few houses because there not due for another 4 weeks, i think it will save me time and diesel if everyone was on the same frequency.

not sure if all my custys would accept the change though as i wouldnt like to start losing them if i do decide to change frequencys

you've done your homework and its makes financial sense
the customers you're not sure about! you wont know what they want to do
untill you have spoken to them
customers that still don't want to change, should be replaced at your own pace

[mlscontractcleaner]

Well we'll be sticking to 4 weekly intervals; we didn't start up a business twenty years ago to take time off and relax we did it to make money and have a good life style, which we've done. As for the " 4 weeks is too soon " comment; I've never heard such rubbish; daily isn't too soon if you're getting paid