[nathankaye]

As title thread says, a bit of a "rant!"

Prices n price increases. I hope people will start to learn how to price up work with a business head on and not that of customers as its driving prices down. All this talk of market saturated and others with cheap work..bla bka bla rubbish. As its driving prices down.
Im in south yorkshire, good old sunny doncaster and we have our hits with oit closures and recession etc etc but you can still charge accordingly.

Ive recently taken over two friends rounds. One migrated onto wfp and i helped him on these rounds for 14yrs before ive now taken over. The other, was trad.
My friend on trad thinks im expensive because i do a quick job in comparison to trad. Which yes we all know wfp is quicker but that doesnt mean we//you should be cheaper. That mentality is really annoying me today, hence the rant.
Weve paid alot of money for this equipment and alot of work sorting fhe water out etc etc to make it quicker at the brush end because its a "BUSINESS!!!"

So the work ive taken over that ive also been cleaning for 15yrs, ive recently told them or posted flyers telling them of some price increases. Because it was my friends first round from leaving school at 16yrs and now hes 40. Prices have gone up maybe twice in all that time. So ive put prices up by min of 5. This area is an expensive area to live and part of it is nicknamed snobs hill. People who live there have chains of businesses etc etc.
Yet their prices are lower than my not so expensive areas to live. And just round corner is a council estate where a £10min charge i have. Yet snobs hill are only a couple of quid more expensive. So you can see how poor these prices are.

Ive had 2 so far cancel because of a 5quid increase taking some from 9 to 14 or some from 13 fo 18. Which is nore than fair!!

This is the point:  the longer you keep poor prices or the longer you are too scared to put prices up. The longer the customer thinks this is the going rate and long term you will shoot yourself in the foot because they will not be used to price increases and will end the work. So your not doing yourself any favours as my friend hasnt for me now that i have to adjust prices.

[Shrek]

Your doing the right thing Nathan, My dad used to have a window cleaner who charged him £5 for 13 years and never put it up. Every April I will be increasing the new jobs by £1 and increasing older work to the new rates or drop them . My ultimate goal is to have a small round with high prices

[Smurf]

Putting jobs up by a fiver in one year tends to have that effect on custards that are tight or are struggling money wise..

[nathankaye]

For instance this house im just cleaning, the front has four windows and the back you can see.
Its in a little village thats been hit with pit closures and the like but this house is £15.
The snobby tight peoples houses are twice if not 3 times the size and are paying roughly the same if not less.
But explaining that logic to them doesnt work or the fact that some are paying less than what i charge a cleaning a dingy community hut in the same area for.
It drives me mad how some people charge silly silly prices.  Arrrrrhhhh

[Dry Clean]

Calm down Nathan and stop worrying what others are changing, plus how is a sold trader cleaning windows as long as you have been cleaning windows and also power washing able to take on two extra rounds ?

[Smurf]

For instance this house im just cleaning, the front has four windows and the back you can see.
Its in a little village thats been hit with pit closures and the like but this house is £15.
The snobby tight peoples houses are twice if not 3 times the size and are paying roughly the same if not less.
But explaining that logic to them doesnt work or the fact that some are paying less than what i charge a cleaning a dingy community hut in the same area for.
It drives me mad how some people charge silly silly prices.  Arrrrrhhhh

To make you fell better I charge  a  min of £65 for an end of tenancy one-off exterior window  clean, 65 min for a gutter check & clear, 65 for a fsg clean, 600 min for a render clean, 250 min for a driveway clean etc. That's the main reason why I chose not to have a large window  cleaning round. Not only that I would hate having to just clean glass all day long and have no spare time for anything else more profitable..

[Cookie]

This reminds me of some canvassing I did a couple of years or so ago. I quoted £12 for a small bungalow with a small conservatory at the back and a UPVC porch  (I'd walked through the house to look at the conservatory at the back). The lady I quoted for thought this was extortionate and she literally chased me out of the house explaining that she knew more about window cleaning pricing than I did!

She'd recently moved into the area from Gloucestershire where she'd obviously had a window cleaner charging her an absolute pittance.

I think customers can get into the habit of timing how long you take to clean the windows and work out an hourly rate. What they don't realise is that this has to cover van, equipment, holidays, sick pay, bank holidays, days when you can't get out because of torrential rain etc..  etc... Also, even when you factor in your hourly rate I don't think it's unreasonable to add an element of 'profit' - after all this what we're in business for....

[Dry Clean]

For instance this house im just cleaning, the front has four windows and the back you can see.
Its in a little village thats been hit with pit closures and the like but this house is £15.
The snobby tight peoples houses are twice if not 3 times the size and are paying roughly the same if not less.
But explaining that logic to them doesnt work or the fact that some are paying less than what i charge a cleaning a dingy community hut in the same area for.
It drives me mad how some people charge silly silly prices.  Arrrrrhhhh

To make you fell better I charge  a  min of £65 for an end of tenancy one-off exterior window  clean, 65 min for a gutter check & clear, 65 for a fsg clean, 600 min for a render clean, 250 min for a driveway clean.. That's the main reason why I chose not to have a large window  cleaning round.

I bet Nathans cheap silly prices aren't driving you mad.

[Smurf]

For instance this house im just cleaning, the front has four windows and the back you can see.
Its in a little village thats been hit with pit closures and the like but this house is £15.
The snobby tight peoples houses are twice if not 3 times the size and are paying roughly the same if not less.
But explaining that logic to them doesnt work or the fact that some are paying less than what i charge a cleaning a dingy community hut in the same area for.
It drives me mad how some people charge silly silly prices.  Arrrrrhhhh

To make you fell better I charge  a  min of £65 for an end of tenancy one-off exterior window  clean, 65 min for a gutter check & clear, 65min for a fsg clean, 600 min for a render clean, 250 min for a driveway clean.. That's the main reason why I chose not to have a large window  cleaning round.

I bet Nathans cheap silly prices aren't driving you mad.

I better not mention the prices I charge for regular window cleaning work as that would really p him off. lol
Anyhow I'm in the position that I can pick & choose what work I take on unlike some.

[Dry Clean]

Its not just window cleaners, I had a painter and decorator doing work in my house a while back who done a first class job
for around £30 an hour, if I was now after a window cleaner I would be shocked if he was looking £20 for a 15min clean and it
would certainly drive me to shop around.
I think property management is the future, looking after the whole property, gardens, windows, gutters, fascia's drives and so on
where you can put it a decent yearly price for the lot which doesn't focus on one thing.

[Smurf]

That is why I went down the one-off route as can charge a lot more for less work.

[nathankaye]

Like i said, i dont call this work as its a doddle now. More so with hot water and electric reel. Hiw can i fit 2 more rounds in,  very easily, as what might take 2 days trad can get done in one day on wfp.
Also to stop any boredom yep i do exterior cleaning; gutters fascia conny roof cleans and soft washing or pressure washing.
But not falling behind on work because its raining certainly helps now.

Ps, im not overly worried what others charge, that isnt the point of this rant or thread. Its about collectively driving prices up and not down as alot seem to want to do and give every excuse possible for doing so that makes me mad

[nathankaye]

Ive made my mistakes in pricing over the many years and ive learnt from it. Its only been in last couple or so years that i can say i run a business now. Whereas before it was more like a charity at the silly prices i had. But ive learnt and adapted and now i run a business and efficiently. Thats why i can fit it all in and feel that i can a have a say to perhaps give a little advice or encouragement after taking that learning curve

[jk999]

You might think your customers are happy about price increase but your wrong this is to the ones that do it every year .a mate of mine keeps putting his prices up but one of his customers have told me that she isn't happy about it and the next increase he's down the road and it's not just her it's most of the customers in the same area

[Shrek]

You might think your customers are happy about price increase but your wrong this is to the ones that do it every year .a mate of mine keeps putting his prices up but one of his customers have told me that she isn't happy about it and the next increase he's down the road and it's not just her it's most of the customers in the same area

Why do you speak to all of your mates customers? Bit weird

[Dry Clean]

The guys a busy fool who's knocking out 35 properties a day or 45 now that he's using hot, he hasn't even got time to keep his hoses clear of the properties he doesn't clean, price well take your time and do a job that warrants the price, that way you will never need to worry about anybody undercutting your price.

[nathankaye]

The guys a busy fool who's knocking out 35 properties a day or 45 now that he's using hot, he hasn't even got time to keep his hoses clear of the properties he doesn't clean, price well take your time and do a job that warrants the price, that way you will never need to worry about anybody undercutting your price.

If you pay attention to my other comments on other threads dry clean rather than spend your time criticising. You will know that with hot im not doing any more in a day but finishing quite early instead.
Oh and i take my time with a good breakfast in a morning and enjoy my coffee breaks during the day and taking it easy or even a toby's calvery 😁
I dont worry about being undercut because its not always about the cost.  I have built trust n more with my customers and that counts sometimes more than someone undercutting by a couple of quid.
The ones that do go, so be it. I simply replace....its not hard to do buddy. Think on another thread someone has recommend to Daz, whos turning away alot of work per day to simply replace rubbish work or low paid jobs with newer higher price jobs. Recycle your work........
Whats the saying now........
" its nothing personal, its business 😂😂"

[nathankaye]

A quote from my web site,  so people who contact me via web page will at least know the price will be £10 or higher.
Another section from my facebook page;



And the work still comes in. So i really dont understand why people feel the need to run prices down inorder to get work.
(Yet some my feel my prices are low, depending which areas you clean obviously)

[Dry Clean]

I suggest you take a look at the website of  Vin from Perfect Windows it will soon bring you back down to earth and
less inclined to lecture others on how to price.

[nathankaye]

I suggest you take a look at the website of  Vin from Perfect Windows it will soon bring you back down to earth and
less inclined to lecture others on how to price.

Again there you go.
My thread is to encourage ones to periodically put prices up so customers are aware of at least the going rates of window cleaners. To get a good price because it can be done even when the market is saturated or in poorer economical towns/villages.  I even acknowledge different pricing structures depending where you are, as in southampton  in vins case that you point out. I would however dry clean point out somebody else's  prices who isnt 180 odd miles away from where im based.

As in my last quote " its business not personal"   why do you seem to take this personal Dry clean