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Smurf

  • Posts: 8538
Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #20 on: August 02, 2016, 03:04:00 pm »
Back on topic so I thought I would like to mention customer expectation.

Customer expectation also has an impact on pricing too as some expect far too much for the price they want to pay.
Likewise if they are not prepared to pay a decent amount then some will do a half arse job too.

I come across this quite often when speaking to potentials when they have had guys in on the cheap in the past and then go on to say they did not do a very good job. I wonder why?  ::)roll




Stoots

  • Posts: 6356
Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #21 on: August 02, 2016, 04:06:46 pm »
I think surf has it spot on. It's hard to no where you are price wise when one thinks your expensive and another cheap.

I did 2 quotes thins week. The first one 15 quid for a bungalow. Very reasonable was his reply. Quite surprised as I thought it was expensive lol

Today gets asked for a 4 bed detached. I do a few in the estate and there all 12 quid which I feel Is cheap anyway.  Husband want chuffed with that price reckons it should be half. Then he got in his brand new bmw and buggered off.

 ???

The only customer I have where I don't agree a price is a guy who owns a million plus property  he always just texts me and says next time your here can you do my gutters and just post an invoice.

I've done half a dozen jobs now for him and never had any questions asked over the price.

Leeds

  • Posts: 181
Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #22 on: August 02, 2016, 04:22:27 pm »
Decide what you want to earn a year, divide that by 12 months, then by 4 weeks, then by how many hours a day you work. Now how much of that hour will this house take you? Great, there you have your price.

£1 a minute is working alright for now.

Shrek

  • Posts: 3931
Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #23 on: August 02, 2016, 04:58:22 pm »
Decide what you want to earn a year, divide that by 12 months, then by 4 weeks, then by how many hours a day you work. Now how much of that hour will this house take you? Great, there you have your price.

£1 a minute is working alright for now.

Great advice!

Spruce

  • Posts: 8646
Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #24 on: August 02, 2016, 05:24:43 pm »
Same as above. Never do any additional jobs asked for, without first comfirming the price.

I love the older customers who say,
 "If i give you a couple of quid extra, could you just..........."
Their faces when you explain that this is a business and those extra jobs cost.........

However your own appearance and professionalism plays a huge part in pricing. If you (cant believe people employ them) as ive seen,  are a window cleaner eho wear faded baggy tracky bottoms n t shirt, carry a plastic shopping bag full of scrims, no pouches n have scrims tucked in your trackies, then you cant expect to get paid a whole lot can you? (I just cant believe people employ them to look thru their property)
Com on you know the sort of shiners im refering too

 ;D

The moment I hear the word 'just' a big warning flashes up infront of me. It means they want something done for very little money.

-
Success is 1% inspiration, 98% perspiration and 2% attention to detail!

The older I get, the better I was ;)

Smurf

  • Posts: 8538
Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #25 on: August 02, 2016, 05:27:54 pm »
Decide what you want to earn a year, divide that by 12 months, then by 4 weeks, then by how many hours a day you work. Now how much of that hour will this house take you? Great, there you have your price.

£1 a minute is working alright for now.

Great advice!

What if yer slow like me and don't like that four letter word called "work" ?  ;D

SeanK

Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #26 on: August 02, 2016, 05:32:35 pm »
Decide what you want to earn a year, divide that by 12 months, then by 4 weeks, then by how many hours a day you work. Now how much of that hour will this house take you? Great, there you have your price.

£1 a minute is working alright for now.

Great advice!

Not really, work out what you want to earn a year and then work out how many hours you want to work a year and go from
there.
X amount a year may look like a good wage, but if your working 40 hours a week 50 weeks a year to achieve it then it might not look so good.

Shrek

  • Posts: 3931
Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #27 on: August 02, 2016, 05:55:35 pm »
Decide what you want to earn a year, divide that by 12 months, then by 4 weeks, then by how many hours a day you work. Now how much of that hour will this house take you? Great, there you have your price.

£1 a minute is working alright for now.

Great advice!

Not really, work out what you want to earn a year and then work out how many hours you want to work a year and go from
there.
X amount a year may look like a good wage, but if your working 40 hours a week 50 weeks a year to achieve it then it might not look so good.

Even better advice, cheers Sean

Smurf

  • Posts: 8538
Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #28 on: August 02, 2016, 06:16:47 pm »
Interesting point as I think people tend to get carried away with the hourly rate malarkey and factor their prices around that instead of charging what each job is really worth.

For an example someone would be quite happy with 20 squid in their back pocket to clear out guttering. Then someone else comes along like me that would want to charge say 100 for the same job.

dazmond

  • Posts: 24450
Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #29 on: August 02, 2016, 08:29:19 pm »
I just cleaned a custies gutters soffits and fascias. Didn't agree a price before. Charged her 25 front and back plus her usual £15 for the windows. She seriously thought I was joking when I gave her the bill. She even asked me if I was joking. I actually thought she assumed it would be a lot more and told her I would double it if it made her feel better. She wasn't laughing.

cmon dave you ve been round the block a few times!why the classic newbie mistake?always agree a price first and charge a higher price than £25.no wonder you hate this job at times! ::)roll ;D
price higher/work harder!

Dave Willis

Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #30 on: August 02, 2016, 09:24:21 pm »
no, I hate this job all the time!

Edge Clean

  • Posts: 146
Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #31 on: August 03, 2016, 12:11:52 am »
Interesting point as I think people tend to get carried away with the hourly rate malarkey and factor their prices around that instead of charging what each job is really worth.

For an example someone would be quite happy with 20 squid in their back pocket to clear out guttering. Then someone else comes along like me that would want to charge say 100 for the same job.

Agree...ask a roofer or plumber to do a gutter clean out and you won't get any change out of £100 even up here in Scotland, so yet again window cleaners up here under sell their services.

SeanK

Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #32 on: August 03, 2016, 08:33:56 am »
Interesting point as I think people tend to get carried away with the hourly rate malarkey and factor their prices around that instead of charging what each job is really worth.

For an example someone would be quite happy with 20 squid in their back pocket to clear out guttering. Then someone else comes along like me that would want to charge say 100 for the same job.

Agree...ask a roofer or plumber to do a gutter clean out and you won't get any change out of £100 even up here in Scotland, so yet again window cleaners up here under sell their services.

Yes but a roofer or plumber doesn't  rely on this work for their main earnings, similar to Thomas Sanderson they concentrate
on their main work and if an overpriced conservatory clean comes their way every so often then all the better.
My window cleaning round keeps me busy and paid so I can put a cheeky price in for add on jobs and not care if I get them or not,
if this was my main income then I would have to price with the intention of getting the job or at the least enough of them to
keep me employed.
Doesn't matter what I think a job is worth if the customers don't agree then I'm not making any money.

paulswindows

  • Posts: 34
Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #33 on: August 03, 2016, 10:14:55 am »
Another pricing question;
You are asked to clean a small back to back 4 windows only. Its within your area but in an out of the way place and you are not cleaning any other houses nearby.
Would you;
A Take it on at the normal price in the hope you will get other houses in the location
B Take it on but increase your price. If so by how much?
C Decline it

nathankaye

  • Posts: 5366
Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #34 on: August 03, 2016, 12:36:20 pm »
Another pricing question;
You are asked to clean a small back to back 4 windows only. Its within your area but in an out of the way place and you are not cleaning any other houses nearby.
Would you;
A Take it on at the normal price in the hope you will get other houses in the location
B Take it on but increase your price. If so by how much?
C Decline it

Im fortunate, that i have four rounds which have beeb established for 14/15yrs now. But to answer your question and that of the main question; even when i was traditional cleaning, each house is priced on its own merit!  So i have streets of houses, where i clean virtually all houses on both sides of street. I will have a mixture of prices, old prices, new prices, price due to conservatory and prices if cant be arsed to do them when i was asked. Just because they are all close to each other or very similiar style windows n houses etc, doesnt mean you have to give same price to everyone. The sooner people wise up to pricing the better for our industry.
Its a business and should be treated as such, not a charity! Dont price according to what you would pay if you was the customer!! That is completely the wrong way. So too for wanting to earn a set hrly figure, based on what you want to earn a yr etc. How does that give you any drive??
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8weekly

Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #35 on: August 03, 2016, 01:04:11 pm »
Interesting point as I think people tend to get carried away with the hourly rate malarkey and factor their prices around that instead of charging what each job is really worth.

For an example someone would be quite happy with 20 squid in their back pocket to clear out guttering. Then someone else comes along like me that would want to charge say 100 for the same job.

Agree...ask a roofer or plumber to do a gutter clean out and you won't get any change out of £100 even up here in Scotland, so yet again window cleaners up here under sell their services.
Agreed:

http://quotationcheck.com/average-cost-clear-roof-gutters/

Should add - Window cleaner £25.

We've recently started clearing gutters and charge £3 per metre which is still way under what a roofer would charge,

Smurf

  • Posts: 8538
Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #36 on: August 03, 2016, 01:33:33 pm »
The main issues I can see with window cleaners offering this service to regular window cleaning customers is their customers are price conditioned already with low pricing to get their windows cleaned.

Some if not most will kick off if say you charge a tenner to do there windows then want say 6 to 10 times that amount for just checking & clearing their gutters & blocked downspouts. In their minds you already have a ladder and they think it's an easy, quick job for you so why should they pay more than they want to get it done.

Unfortunatly this is how a lot of people think. That is why window cleaners tend to undercharge to keep their regular customers sweet. Then the penny drops after they have done one or two they realise and say to themselves  "hang on for a lot less hassle I can make more money on glass in the same amout of time  so in future I will just say " Sorry no I don't do gutters" they can find someone else.

Now that is where the likes of a true professional like me is called in and for a very odd reason all of a sudden they are willing to pay a lot more. It must be my boyish good looks, charm or something  ;D ;D

p.s I use "True professional" term very loosly as I'm a cowboy at hart. Yehaa!  :D
   

nathankaye

  • Posts: 5366
Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #37 on: August 03, 2016, 02:36:46 pm »
Over the yrs, when i have lost the odd customer to someone else who has come into the area and undercut me. I used to get really cross n woe be tired if they were on street at same time as me, or strong words would get exchanged  :P
But over yrs ive come to wave goodbye at such penny pinching custies and have come to pity the window cleaner working for pittance because they are too scared of rejection or whatever, to earn a descent days work.
So i pity the window cleaners who havent the motivation or guts to think outside the box and push themselves past the bare minimum of charging because of being limited by their mind set.
A bit harsh i know, but i look back over the many yrs of doing this and first couole of yrs i was in that mind set and didnt listen. I soon wised up, but wasted some yrs working more like a charity than a business man.
The amount of threads on here about pricing is unbelievable.
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SeanK

Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #38 on: August 03, 2016, 02:53:56 pm »
Over the yrs, when i have lost the odd customer to someone else who has come into the area and undercut me. I used to get really cross n woe be tired if they were on street at same time as me, or strong words would get exchanged  :P
But over yrs ive come to wave goodbye at such penny pinching custies and have come to pity the window cleaner working for pittance because they are too scared of rejection or whatever, to earn a descent days work.
So i pity the window cleaners who havent the motivation or guts to think outside the box and push themselves past the bare minimum of charging because of being limited by their mind set.
A bit harsh i know, but i look back over the many yrs of doing this and first couole of yrs i was in that mind set and didnt listen. I soon wised up, but wasted some yrs working more like a charity than a business man.
The amount of threads on here about pricing is unbelievable.

Nathan its only a few pricing threads back where some on here accused you of being a working for a pittance shiner, we could fill
a hundred pages on why some can get x and others cant and still not get to the truth, but one things for certain there's nobody
out there who sticks this game for any amount of time if working for a pittance.
I don't mind these pricing threads because even though 90% of what's posted is bull there's always some good advice
amongst it.

nathankaye

  • Posts: 5366
Re: The question of pricing
« Reply #39 on: August 03, 2016, 03:51:57 pm »
Sure, shiners in different catchment areas can charge higher prices n yes some said to me the same. I take it on the chin. But if they stepped into my areas or me theres, we will see how can charge what prices. But this thread isnt about that, nor my point.
Its about prices within a catchment area, by different shiners who have a huge difference in price. Ie, some on the different threads have said that they would be embarassed to ask such high prices. The reason being is that they have mind set of the customer not a business mind set offering a great service. That is the point of what this thread is. To stop being scared of asking the higher price thinking that the customer will die of an heart attack or laugh you out the area.

But sure, there is much to learn for different ones thru this forum. Ive learnt to up the anti as well. But were all full grown fellers on here and sometimes soft soft approach doesnt help. But nothing too harsh is ever said where it cant just be taken on chin (unless your name is lee?? Sorry lee))
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