I think the advice about cocerntrating on your own business is a good one, yes there does seem to be alot more cleaners about these days but it doesn't bother me because we provide a high quality service and charge what we think we are worth.
If somebody doesn't want to pay the prices we charge, we don't barter, we just leave them a card and let them find somebody else at half the price just to find out that the phrase 'you get what you pay for' does usually apply. Quite often those customers will come back to us and wish they didn't bother with the other guy in the first place!
A couple of times over the past 12 months I have had customers tell me that they have had other Wc's canvasing for work (which i have no problem with as people are entitled to earn a living), but they ask how much we charge them and they will either try to get the job for a quid less or try and slash the price by 50%......... and they never manage to get the job!
The reason why, because we are reliable, charge reasonable but healthy price's and provide a very good service with a smile.
So all in all we don't worry about the newbies because they generally don't last, mainly because they have to work a lot harder for there money and end up comprimising on quality because they are charging half the price of what they could and are struggling to cover there overheads.
Charge right, do the job right, the rest will follow!