[Ian101]

OK going to be honest - not that Im a lying git anyways but more like going to be honest with myself.

At stage now where round is full and takes 20 to 21 days to get thru with a part time helper some days.

But in all honesty I have houses that are a little underpriced mainly early jobs and early jobs with connies only talking a handfull eg 4 bed detached with big connie on nice estate in middle of 6 others I do currently at £12 but should be more like £18 to £20 plus quite a few at £10 that need to be £12 / £14. plus a few jobs that are out on theyre own and travelling time takes up any income ... again early jobs. .. also jobs with tricky access prob getting a big increase to cover hassle and time or dropped all together ................. think we all have jobs like this but determined to make my round a perfect round ... I rekon its at about 75% of being perfect at moment.

Want to be able to print off my george sheet every day and not think mmm that 1 too cheap and putting off price rise.

Along with general price increase of  £1 I rekon its worth another £300 a month at least ... assuming I dont loose any of course  

People say times are hard out theyre but were not exactly a massive bill are we ?

You only got to take a look at the expensive bottles of wine in the recycling bins or the retail outlet carparks near to me ..  in Chester we have the Greyhound retail park and every weekend its packed solid with cars .. lots of new houses getting build which are selling ... so perhaps things not all bad out there ?

Another idea im going to introduce is a payment option when taking on all new customers eg if job is £14 then £1 extra for payment by cheque which will cover stamp, envelope and bank charge for processing cheque .. u book a holiday or tickets and booking fees are always charged.

Going to write some carefully worded letters and start it next week - will let u all know how it goes  

[Total shine cleaning services]

Go for it, I'm not far behind doing what your doing, nothing worse than an underpriced job as you will start to resent doing them.

Graham

[bobplum]

will you also give us a list of the customers who say "how much?""stick it up your a**e" so i can introduce myself
actually i know what you mean i am sitting down next week and doing exactly the same except mine will go up 10 pence as i am scared of rejection

[Ian101]

10p wow so your job average will be what about £5.10 after the increase then 

anyways u be too busy with all them shops u doing 

[concept]

Go for it, I'm not far behind doing what your doing, nothing worse than an underpriced job as you will start to resent doing them.

Graham

Sell your work to us instead

[Ian101]

Go for it, I'm not far behind doing what your doing, nothing worse than an underpriced job as you will start to resent doing them.

Graham

ive put it off and put it off but just about to start employing full time so want to have everythin dead right before I employ plus if I loose a load will take me a month or so to build back up.

[dazmond]

i review my round every year in january and earmark ones im going to put up ian.been doing this for a few years now.then i dont bother with letters i tell them face to face or phone them up over feb-march will new price kicking in in april.

i put around 150 customers prices up 50p/£1/£1-50/£2/£5 this year.even put one up from £52 to £60!!only lost 2 customers which were underpriced and expected me to clean for next to nothing.

i also had 3 customers that went to every other month but im still up on earnings!!


i went years with no prise rises which in hindsight was a big mistake!!i didnt have the confidence and was fearful of losing loads of customers but if your doing a good job and not taking the pee with prices you ll lose less than a handful!!

best wishes


dazmond

[richard jagger]

It will be better if increases are based on a percentage than £1, 50p,2quid.Its so easy to go up 1 pound every year but that pound is worth less every year. ONE NEEDS TO INCREASE 5% every year just to meet inflation in your costs. THEN ONE NEEDS GROWTH  of 3-5% or else you could sit with a shrinking business. If you don`t agree with this I have no problem but please let me why.I would like to understand were each is coming from. 
Its easy to say crap but if you views have any value then try to shear with the forum. 

[Ian101]

Whizzkid you make a vert good point about shrinkage not thought of it like that so what your saying is if its a 12 quid job 5% is 60p and 3% is 36p so rounded up that's a quid mmmmm not taking mick honest its a valid idea esp om bigger jobs

[g.brookes]

my old boss used to increase the price by 10% every 3 years as averaged out, inflation would be about 3% per year.  that method makes sense to me

[richard jagger]

Customers hardly think of the pence anyway hence super market 2.99 idea.The thing is going up 50p on a 20 quid job gives you less money to spend and each year you have less. Any business or accountant will tell you must have growth and many think its more customer which its is but once your have no more time and your are full you will have no more growth.You will see many business selling with the potential growth projected.
The one I just love is " I don`t need to go up because my round is compact" This is the maddest idea as what you are saying "my customers are getting me cheaper because I worked hard to build a compact round.Profits going to the customer who contributed nothing to the compact round. I would like to see what monument will be build to the windy doing these nutty business ideas.The custies will bitch when you die for letting them down so why give away profits.

[richard jagger]

G |Brooks your boss was right but that would lead to a static business with no growth. In these times of austerity.The bosses are cutting back on staff to maintain growth in there business because they know they cannot increase prices and profit will shrink, stallholders  will more to other investment opportunities. We are still in a good place as are price do not upset the apple cart or so customers think.

[brianbarber]

Underpriced work will morph in to The Grudge Clean!

As soon as it feels wrong-stick the price up !


Mr B

[steve rix]

my old boss used to increase the price by 10% every 3 years as averaged out, inflation would be about 3% per year.  that method makes sense to me

Agree with this but we put our prices up by 10% every two years, Rounded UP to the nearest 50p

[bobby p]

i would keep them on ,to give your new worker something to practice on

[g.brookes]

wizkid what exactly do you mean by 'growth'? i understand to increase your prices to reflect inflation and rise of living costs.  but why should you increase more for growth if you are still providing exactly the same service?  not saying your wrong but not sure what exactly a price increase for growth is?

[richard jagger]

G Brooks. Think of your business as having 3 sides.  You  had the costs t5hat it takes to run your business. You have a salary you earn and if you did not work for your self you would pay someone else.The you have the business which must make a profit.This is called good will and  net profit if the good will or profit does not grow each year you will have nothing to sell to the next owner.This growth is showing your business is getting stronger all the time and worth more.When you are a one man show it might not sound important, but we all want to grow bigger in what we do.WE would like to sell our business on for a lot more money. If a buyer went to a bank for a loan to buy your  business they would not be keen to lend money for a business that has no growth.
If you have no growth you will not have the money to buy new longer poles and all thee other things you will need to expand with out reducing your lifestyle to pay for these things.As your  FAMILY GROWS LARGE YOU WILL NEED GROWTH IN YOUR BUSINESS TO PAY FOR ALL THE NEEDS AND NICE THING IN LIFE.So there many different reasons why your business need growth.I have tried to make it a simple as I can.Hope this of help to you.

[mikecam]

G Brooks. Think of your business as having 3 sides.  You  had the costs t5hat it takes to run your business. You have a salary you earn and if you did not work for your self you would pay someone else.The you have the business which must make a profit.This is called good will and  net profit if the good will or profit does not grow each year you will have nothing to sell to the next owner.This growth is showing your business is getting stronger all the time and worth more.When you are a one man show it might not sound important, but we all want to grow bigger in what we do.WE would like to sell our business on for a lot more money. If a buyer went to a bank for a loan to buy your  business they would not be keen to lend money for a business that has no growth.
If you have no growth you will not have the money to buy new longer poles and all thee other things you will need to expand with out reducing your lifestyle to pay for these things.As your  FAMILY GROWS LARGE YOU WILL NEED GROWTH IN YOUR BUSINESS TO PAY FOR ALL THE NEEDS AND NICE THING IN LIFE.So there many different reasons why your business need growth.I have tried to make it a simple as I can.Hope this of help to you.

Financial wizzardry at its very best !!! Thats the meaning of growth eh? As ya family grows large so you need more growth?

[Nameless Drudge]

Growth!,you`ll not  beat "Dump and get 2 more"

[richard jagger]

Mike cam don`t take things out of context.You are not a tabloid news paper. Growth is what you need to finance these things like family.People like you make me feel I waste my time on this ass hole place.If you cant take the trouble to read all the thread them don`t try making an ass of me.
I have been reading your past posts not exactly genius I have had enough of your TYPE OF TIT.