Stop thinking like an employee. 12 quid an hour might seem like good money to someone in a job. Try raising the bar to what you need to earn. Go and get an accountant and take notes when they open their mouths. Selfemployed doesn't mean you keep the money you take in your hand, you get to keep about 45% if you have a good accountant.
Thanks for the advice that helps lots! deffinetly take your advice and work on that basis. Its sometimes pretty frustrating doing this! weve only been going about a 3 months we have about 150 houses we clean windows at an average of about 8 - 10 pound we bought a round that pays about £4 - £6 (no wonder he sold us his round) but we are literally just trying to make an honest living.
IMO you are trying to run before you can walk. Why not concentrate on window cleaning for the rest of this year, get established and get known. Window cleaning customers are far easier to get than carpet & upholstery cleaning or office cleaning.
Right. These 150 houses that you already have. Next time you clean them, canvass all the houses in the street you don't have and offer to clean them there and then. 1.5 times your rate for a first clean and then back to normal rate on the schedules.
The 150 you already have, canvass them for con roofs, gutters etc and schedule them for when the next window clean is due. You can price "up" for this extra work" and say the window clean is free on that occassion.
As you get more confident when you take on new customers, add £1.00 to the price you would have given.
New customers, let them get used to you (3 months) and canvass them for extras as above.
Next year, see how you are going with the windows and if you really want to go into carpet cleaning, get booked on a good course and get some good equipment. Then you can canvass your 500 plus window cleaning customers with these services. Again plan it the next time the window clean is due.
Once you get confident with pricing the windows you can then think about putting up the 150 you already have. Maybe try £2.00 per house, if they quibble you could drop a £1 and they should be ok with that. Eventually you will weedle out the cheapskates and have quality customers.
This is not going to happen overnight for you, so chin up and keep going. It could take years to get to where you want, but if you want it enough you will do it.
I really don't know what the average hourly rate is in your area, but for starting up if you can do £18.00 to £25.00 per person per hour, that will be a really good basis to build on, remember you are not just earning a living any more, you are running a business and that is a totally different ball game
