[Dave Willis]

What's the minimum hourly rate you'd be prepared to work for? I have the chance to quote for a commercial job - I've seen the previous price which equates to an easy £30 an hour. Customer is looking to reduce costs so basically I'd have to undercut if I wanted the job. Undecided at the moment so might give it a miss. Just wondered where you would draw the line on price?

[jonboywalton75]

Commercial at less than £30 an hour wouldn't be for me!!!

[PoleKing]

Lot of what ifs Dave.
80', not on your nelly.
2 storey, £300 per day no stress, no collecting etc etc-might be worth a go.

[Rich1969]

Price cutting or undercutting is not the only answer.

Are there any other ways you can reduce the cost to the client without you having to take a hit on the hourly rate. e.g. less frequent cleans (charged at the same price), extras that can be stripped out of the job making it quicker (thus cheaper but at same hrly rate), maybe only doing any awkward to reach windows every other clean, be honest with the client, this is not a case of reducing quality to be cheaper, I'm sure you will be able to think of others.

Just as a thought, and this may not be applicable in your case, but is a good pricing strategy that may prove useful in the future, if your faced with a price competition scenario. Consider "packaging pricing" e.g. quote the window clean service with say upvc deep clean, or a carpet clean or gutter clean etc. so you quote the client one price for a number of services which "hides" the price of the individual elements, its much easier to maintain a decent margin when doing this. I appreciate this may not be feasible in all cases but hopefully an idea worth some thought and that might be useful some day.

anyway I'm probably giving away a bit more than I should for free...  

[♠Winp®oClean♠]

What's the minimum hourly rate you'd be prepared to work for? I have the chance to quote for a commercial job - I've seen the previous price which equates to an easy £30 an hour. Customer is looking to reduce costs so basically I'd have to undercut if I wanted the job. Undecided at the moment so might give it a miss. Just wondered where you would draw the line on price?

I'd work for £30 an hour on commercial provided it wasn't anything hideous- no problem!

What is the job? I had a similar scenario earlier this year with a posh country hotel. There was a budget issue & the previous guy did all insides + all outsides every time, taking two full days. I went in with a "maintenance" proposal where all the main & public rooms get done every time in side + out then everything else on rotation with what time is left. I go for one day every month & it's a doddle! I charge them a good day rate & the manager is thrilled. I'm not there cleaning windows that don't actually need cleaning every time & all the main windows are always clean.

[SeanK]

Depends on what your normal hourly rate is and if you need this work.
If your making more doing different work and have a fairly full work load then leave it.
If you need the extra work and cash then do it.
An hour at 20 quid is better than an hour earning nothing.

[Dave Willis]

Hmm it's a strange set up to be honest the previous cleaner has given precise times to clean certain areas and so has laid his hourly rate bare for all to see. The manager can see the obvious £30 an hour pricing plan and is probably gobsmacked at the rate. I can clean the outsides at my price and still return a healthy profit without anyone knowing my true hourly rate.
The timed areas are the insides ... could price it at £25 an hour and earn good money on a wet day or I could sub it out to a small cleaning company who charge around £15 an hour.

[PoleKing]

Hmm it's a strange set up to be honest the previous cleaner has given precise times to clean certain areas and so has laid his hourly rate bare for all to see. The manager can see the obvious £30 an hour pricing plan and is probably gobsmacked at the rate. I can clean the outsides at my price and still return a healthy profit without anyone knowing my true hourly rate.
The timed areas are the insides ... could price it at £25 an hour and earn good money on a wet day or I could sub it out to a small cleaning company who charge around £15 an hour.

Dont sub it.

[Rich1969]

I agree don't sub it, save it for a rainy day

[Bob Stones]

We couldnt do it for £30 a hour, it would need to be another 50 % on top of that price

[Paul Coleman]

I think my lowest commercial works out around £27 an hour (it's overdue an increase).  However, it really is low maintenance.  About one and a half miles from home and it's all paid by one single cheque that I always receive within 3 days of invoicing.  BACS would be better but can't have everything.  It's 4 cleans a year so 16 hours a year.  Not ideal but I can put up with a small hit on price is everything else is OK.

[LT carpet cleaning]

We couldnt do it for £30 a hour, it would need to be another 50 % on top of that price

All the usual bs 

[dazmond]

dave i wouldnt personally but thats because i have plenty of good paying work.even my cheap compact estate work(prices £7-£12)brings in £30-£35 an hour.im also picking up more and more larger domestics at £40+ which take around 40 mins to clean.even these are becoming more compact due to years of window cleaning in affluent areas.

most of my work for the next 3 days is commercial and larger domestics earning £40-£45 an hour EVERY hour "on the glass" time.

IMO i only have so many hours i can(or want)to work in any given day/week/month/year so i wouldnt want to drop to less than £30 an hour for any hour worked.i also HATE cleaning insides!!i only relent on a few posh houses here and there.

if your stacked out dave and dont fancy working another few hours in your working month id not even consider it.


regards


dazmond

[AuRavelling79]

If they are flexible "the rainy day work" option might be useful.

Mind you if they want timings for each area I'd be inclined to decline the work. Sounds like a demanding person.

[Tom White]

What's the minimum hourly rate you'd be prepared to work for? I have the chance to quote for a commercial job - I've seen the previous price which equates to an easy £30 an hour. Customer is looking to reduce costs so basically I'd have to undercut if I wanted the job. Undecided at the moment so might give it a miss. Just wondered where you would draw the line on price?

There's always plenty of shortcuts with large commercial work you can take to make the job fit into your minimum hourly rate.

Focus on the high traffic areas and cut corners with the less important areas.

It's not ripping anyone off - it's providing an intelligent service at a cost effective price.

[Ian101]

What's the minimum hourly rate you'd be prepared to work for? I have the chance to quote for a commercial job - I've seen the previous price which equates to an easy £30 an hour. Customer is looking to reduce costs so basically I'd have to undercut if I wanted the job. Undecided at the moment so might give it a miss. Just wondered where you would draw the line on price?

There's always plenty of shortcuts with large commercial work you can take to make the job fit into your minimum hourly rate.

Focus on the high traffic areas and cut corners with the less important areas.

It's not ripping anyone off - it's providing an intelligent service at a cost effective price.

very true 

[♠Winp®oClean♠]

dave i wouldnt personally but thats because i have plenty of good paying work.even my cheap compact estate work(prices £7-£12)brings in £30-£35 an hour.im also picking up more and more larger domestics at £40+ which take around 40 mins to clean.even these are becoming more compact due to years of window cleaning in affluent areas.

most of my work for the next 3 days is commercial and larger domestics earning £40-£45 an hour EVERY hour "on the glass" time.

IMO i only have so many hours i can(or want)to work in any given day/week/month/year so i wouldnt want to drop to less than £30 an hour for any hour worked.i also HATE cleaning insides!!i only relent on a few posh houses here and there.

if your stacked out dave and dont fancy working another few hours in your working month id not even consider it.


regards


dazmond

Two points there Daz.

You already work for £30 per hour, only yours is multiple accounts & constant stop/start (domestic)
Dave isn't suggesting he drop "below" £30, he states a minimum "easily"

So, you wouldn't do a one stop, single payment account doing an £30+ but are already doing domestics at the same rate?

[dazmond]

no winpro!dave is suggesting the commercial customer wants it cheaper than £30 an hour so i wouldnt bother.

[paul13]

What's the minimum hourly rate you'd be prepared to work for? I have the chance to quote for a commercial job - I've seen the previous price which equates to an easy £30 an hour. Customer is looking to reduce costs so basically I'd have to undercut if I wanted the job. Undecided at the moment so might give it a miss. Just wondered where you would draw the line on price?

There's always plenty of shortcuts with large commercial work you can take to make the job fit into your minimum hourly rate.

Focus on the high traffic areas and cut corners with the less important areas.

It's not ripping anyone off - it's providing an intelligent service at a cost effective price.

Totally agree.

After the first clean  its a maintenance clean. Clean is clean

[Scrimble]

who on here actually gets paid by the hour?