[jay moley]

I really need to do it but was thinking of holding off until next year when Covid might have blown over a bit.

Is Jan a bad month to do it as people think their windows don't need cleaning so much in the winter?

Thoughts?

[Stoots]

I would put them up sometime from April to September, spring and summer generally people are in a better mood lol

I was planning on putting half of mine up this year, but with covid thats on hold till next spring.

Not a good time right now i dont think

[Tristan R Clean]

The only problem with this is that most things that we pay for equipment for work, vehicles, food that we eat increase in price.
Meaning that you will actually take reduction in wage.

T

[Ched]

Might be better to do it now before mass redundancies. You will probably lose a few but you will probably be better off. Maybe just try increasing a few and see how it goes.
I always thought Jan was a bad time to increase prices as people are paying for Christmas.

[H2GoKent]

Always do mine in April or May, helps me know how long it's been since I put them up as some people will always say 'you only put them up a couple of months ago'

If you don't increase your prices every year you're losing out to inflation.
If inflation was 2% that would mean for every £10,000 that you earn that money will be worth the equivalent of £200 less every year and of course that compounds.
Do it every year, you will lose a job here or there, but if you don't increase prices you're doing the same work for less money

[Richard iSparkle]

i've raised prices this time of year before and had nothing bad come of it. in fact the opposite. once i have gotten over the worry about raising prices, its always been fantastic getting the extra hundreds of £s for the same old work

If its time for a price rise just go for it.

 because of civid people have a positive attitude to small business maybe and want to do their bit for the economy

[Smudger]

Personally price rise every year is too often,  if you have an 8 weekly that is only 6 cleans before the price goes up

As mentioned inflation is around 2% - so are you really going to up a £10 clean by 20p ?

Best to do 50p and hold that for 2 years

We do price increase in March

Darran

[Shrek]

I did a load last month , no issues. Mass redundancies... really? There is usually around 1.5 million unemployed people in the uk. This is possibly going to go up to 2.3 million , now then , do you really think the whole 800,000 extra unemployed are going to be ALL in your town?
There is around 49000 towns in the uk , that equates to about 17 more unemployed people per town.

Put your prices up . 👍

[NWH]

Me personally I’d wait a bit.

[dazmond]

I put 3/4 of my round up in march/April this year  just as the lockdown was announced...most a quid or two..some a fiver.......it works out an extra few grand a year...

Personally I think raising prices every year is ridiculous...its far too often......every 2 or 3 years is fine......or even 5 years.....

I never put prices up 50p....its always a quid or two....

[NBwcs]

Got to go with your own gut feeling on this as you'll get loads of differing advice all of which is probably right in it's own way. I was like Dazmond, in the middle of putting them up when lockdown started so paused it. I've now informed the remainder it's going up and in about 2 and half weeks will have finished cleaning everyone at the new price. I only lost one custy (so far) and found most were half expecting it as everythings going up. So relieved I did but my personal gut feeling is that I've done it just in time. If you start informing customers now then we're into october/November before your cleaning at the new price, not a great time for wc even without covid about. Clocks will have gone back, weather should be worse, Xmas round the corner, etc Throw covid into the mix, and anyone furloughed who's on a monthly contract who's about to be finished will be getting their notice in about a weeks time, another 4 weeks and those on a weekly notice wi get theirs all whilst  your telling them the price is going up at a time of year when traditionally having your windows cleaned isn't at the forefront of people's priorities Personally I think you've left it too late but the flip side of that is for all we know, things could be even worse in April when alot of windys put their prices up. You could end up with prices on hold for a long time. It's a tricky one, there's rights and wrongs with both, go with your gut.

[NWH]

Every year I agree Daz is far to often but you’ll get people with bigger overheads will have to due to consumables increasing etc,it’s a difficult industry to put prices up every unless they are commercial they almost expect it to rise.

[Jonny 87]

Some of my work hasn’t been increased in a decade. 

[Dry Clean]

I did a load last month , no issues. Mass redundancies... really? There is usually around 1.5 million unemployed people in the uk. This is possibly going to go up to 2.3 million , now then , do you really think the whole 800,000 extra unemployed are going to be ALL in your town?
There is around 49000 towns in the uk , that equates to about 17 more unemployed people per town.

Put your prices up . 👍

Shrek there are around 3 million people unemployed in the UK at this moment time and a further 9 million who are still on furlough many of which wont have a job to go back to, add to that all the school leavers and so on who will be looking for jobs that no longer exist, economists talking on the news yesterday said we are heading for a depression of biblical proportions, the mass redundancies have yet to come.

[Shrek]

I did a load last month , no issues. Mass redundancies... really? There is usually around 1.5 million unemployed people in the uk. This is possibly going to go up to 2.3 million , now then , do you really think the whole 800,000 extra unemployed are going to be ALL in your town?
There is around 49000 towns in the uk , that equates to about 17 more unemployed people per town.

Put your prices up . 👍

Shrek there are around 3 million people unemployed in the UK at this moment time and a further 9 million who are still on furlough many of which wont have a job to go back to, add to that all the school leavers and so on who will be looking for jobs that no longer exist, economists talking on the news yesterday said we are heading for a depression of biblical proportions, the mass redundancies have yet to come.

Jobs will be created from the company’s that have strived through the pandemic. Internet based companies will continue to grow for starters , supermarkets etc . Business’s that have shut will create openings for new business. When index shut , Argos went huge. When toys r us shut , smyths went huge. One of my customers worked for greggs for 20 years , she was sacked at the beginning of lockdown. A new bakery has opened and is taking over the leases of the old greggs shops , my customer has just been taken on there. It’s not all doom and gloom

[Shrek]

Even if unemployment goes upto 9 million , that is around 184 people per town in the uk. In my town alone , there is over 30,000 people.

[H2GoKent]

Personally price rise every year is too often,  if you have an 8 weekly that is only 6 cleans before the price goes up

As mentioned inflation is around 2% - so are you really going to up a £10 clean by 20p ?

Best to do 50p and hold that for 2 years

We do price increase in March

Darran

I agree that for 8 weekly cleans once a year is too often, but for everything else every year is good.

So if you were to put up prices every other year you would need to put them by 4 or 5% I guess it depends on your customer type as well I don't have many smaller jobs but for the £10 jobs put them up by a pound! Why not?

Only 20% of people are said to buy only on price, the other 80% consider other factors like the service they get, relationship with the supplier etc, I would say I don't want that 20%
I want to earn more each year for the same amount of effort or even for less effort if I can, put a value on your time.
If you don't want to end up a busy fool put your prices up, you'll lose some customers but you'll earn about the same or more than last year, been doing this for the last 17 years, it works fine for me.

[H2GoKent]

Some of my work hasn’t been increased in a decade. 

In that case you're doing those jobs for about 20% less than you were at the start.
I know you'll be doing them quicker though, so that helps

[NWH]

Really is that right has inflation increased by 20% over the last 10 years then ??

[Gringo]

On inflation calculator £10 in 2010 is £12.91 in 2020  so 29.1% inflation

[Gringo]

So those who haven't raised prices in 10 years you could be earning nearly 30% more per year if you had, scarey eh!!!

[NWH]

Lol no I wouldn’t say that was always the case tbh it’s weird how some customers think they’ll pay you £95 for ages but as soon as it gets to 3 figures they all of a sudden look at it differently,other cleaners have said to me since I stuck it up a fiver that jobs gone from 6 weeks to 12.

[Richard iSparkle]

So those who haven't raised prices in 10 years you could be earning nearly 30% more per year if you had, scarey eh!!!

but worse than that even because costs have gone up... so profit margins will be even more drastically hit

and then you can find yourself in a bind where if you want to exit... the work isn't worth a lot because its low profit

[H2GoKent]

Lol no I wouldn’t say that was always the case tbh it’s weird how some customers think they’ll pay you £95 for ages but as soon as it gets to 3 figures they all of a sudden look at it differently,other cleaners have said to me since I stuck it up a fiver that jobs gone from 6 weeks to 12.

I've had something like that happen, it's a bit like the 99p thing in shops, where £9.99 seems a lot less than £10.00 not sure what if anything you can do, lay the ground a month or two in advance maybe?

[tlwcs]

I had one who wouldn’t let the increase go above £20. (It had been £18 for 8years.)He said that was his magic figure.
I told him he needed to increase his magic figure.
He wouldn’t, I never went back!
I learnt little and often

[NWH]

Lol no I wouldn’t say that was always the case tbh it’s weird how some customers think they’ll pay you £95 for ages but as soon as it gets to 3 figures they all of a sudden look at it differently,other cleaners have said to me since I stuck it up a fiver that jobs gone from 6 weeks to 12.

I've had something like that happen, it's a bit like the 99p thing in shops, where £9.99 seems a lot less than £10.00 not sure what if anything you can do, lay the ground a month or two in advance maybe?

Yeah it’s true it happens that’s why when people say you need to put prices up regularly yes I agree you do but like most things in this job and life in general you need to use you’re loaf from time to time,£5 is nothing but when you stick it on the end of £95 it puts a different perspective on it.
For years they pay 95 but just 5 could lose a job or keep a job,what difference does £5 make if you can earn the 95 in an hour or so.
If we are talking about raising prices on a more regular basis I would only do that if I had small paying jobs that’s where you can get left behind on not putting them up,100+ jobs that are done in little time you ain’t ever gonna lose much on them by leaving them the same for even 5 years or so.

[G Griffin]

I did a load last month , no issues. Mass redundancies... really? There is usually around 1.5 million unemployed people in the uk. This is possibly going to go up to 2.3 million , now then , do you really think the whole 800,000 extra unemployed are going to be ALL in your town?
There is around 49000 towns in the uk , that equates to about 17 more unemployed people per town.

Put your prices up . 👍

Shrek there are around 3 million people unemployed in the UK at this moment time and a further 9 million who are still on furlough many of which wont have a job to go back to, add to that all the school leavers and so on who will be looking for jobs that no longer exist, economists talking on the news yesterday said we are heading for a depression of biblical proportions, the mass redundancies have yet to come.

You need to check your figures. Again.
There were 3 million unemployed in the '80's!

[Shrek]

I did a load last month , no issues. Mass redundancies... really? There is usually around 1.5 million unemployed people in the uk. This is possibly going to go up to 2.3 million , now then , do you really think the whole 800,000 extra unemployed are going to be ALL in your town?
There is around 49000 towns in the uk , that equates to about 17 more unemployed people per town.

Put your prices up . 👍

Shrek there are around 3 million people unemployed in the UK at this moment time and a further 9 million who are still on furlough many of which wont have a job to go back to, add to that all the school leavers and so on who will be looking for jobs that no longer exist, economists talking on the news yesterday said we are heading for a depression of biblical proportions, the mass redundancies have yet to come.

You need to check your figures. Again.
There were 3 million unemployed in the '80's!

Upto August, the unemployment figure rose to 2.7 million in the uk.

[G Griffin]

So Dry Clean does need to check his figures? Again.

[Dry Clean]

I did a load last month , no issues. Mass redundancies... really? There is usually around 1.5 million unemployed people in the uk. This is possibly going to go up to 2.3 million , now then , do you really think the whole 800,000 extra unemployed are going to be ALL in your town?
There is around 49000 towns in the uk , that equates to about 17 more unemployed people per town.

Put your prices up . 👍

Shrek there are around 3 million people unemployed in the UK at this moment time and a further 9 million who are still on furlough many of which wont have a job to go back to, add to that all the school leavers and so on who will be looking for jobs that no longer exist, economists talking on the news yesterday said we are heading for a depression of biblical proportions, the mass redundancies have yet to come.

You need to check your figures. Again.
There were 3 million unemployed in the '80's!

Shrek this was cut from part of a BBC report, feel free to check it out.


How many people are unemployed?
The most widely used measure is the unemployment rate. It counts how many people want a job and are able to work, but can't find one.

The most recent unemployment rate - for May to July - is 4.1%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

That's a slight increase from the previous figure of 3.9%, but still close to the lowest it has ever been.

However, this number is always based on surveys taken in previous months and is not right up to date.

Another more current measure of unemployment suggests that the real picture might be worse. The claimant count measures how many people are claiming benefits for being out of work, or on very low incomes.

Between March, when the lockdown began, and August, the number of people claiming these benefits rose 120% to 2.7 million.

[Dry Clean]

So Dry Clean does need to check his figures? Again.

In case you guys on this part of the forum don't understand this reply, I made a fool of this idiot on the mad section and he's chomping at the bit to get his own back.😁
Not to worry I wont let his petty nonsense posts ruin the debates on this part of the forum so this will be my last reply to them on the window cleaning section.

[G Griffin]

So Dry Clean does need to check his figures? Again.

In case you guys on this part of the forum don't understand this reply, I made a fool of this idiot on the mad section and he's chomping at the bit to get his own back.😁
Not to worry I wont let his petty nonsense posts ruin the debates on this part of the forum so this will be my last reply to them on the window cleaning section.

You were 10% out with your figure. How is that nonsense?
I'm just correcting your figure like I did when you were way out with the fall in GDP during the banking crisis. You admitted that I was right then, maybe you should just do so again.

[Shrek]

I did a load last month , no issues. Mass redundancies... really? There is usually around 1.5 million unemployed people in the uk. This is possibly going to go up to 2.3 million , now then , do you really think the whole 800,000 extra unemployed are going to be ALL in your town?
There is around 49000 towns in the uk , that equates to about 17 more unemployed people per town.

Put your prices up . 👍

Shrek there are around 3 million people unemployed in the UK at this moment time and a further 9 million who are still on furlough many of which wont have a job to go back to, add to that all the school leavers and so on who will be looking for jobs that no longer exist, economists talking on the news yesterday said we are heading for a depression of biblical proportions, the mass redundancies have yet to come.

Jobs will be created from the company’s that have strived through the pandemic. Internet based companies will continue to grow for starters , supermarkets etc . Business’s that have shut will create openings for new business. When index shut , Argos went huge. When toys r us shut , smyths went huge. One of my customers worked for greggs for 20 years , she was sacked at the beginning of lockdown. A new bakery has opened and is taking over the leases of the old greggs shops , my customer has just been taken on there. It’s not all doom and gloom

Aldi’s profits surge 49% this year , they’re going to be opening an extra 100 stores by then end of next year...... you see , I know my stuff 

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8780381/amp/Aldi-UK-Plan-open-100-new-UK-stores-creating-4-000-jobs-profits-surge-49-year.html

[AuRavelling79]

Well the domestic portion of my round which was about 75% of my round is now about 90% (as two significant commercial jobs are still on hold) has grown well in lockdown.

Also 90% of my domestic customers are on pensions and so are little affected by joblosses.

I almost dread anymore commercial coming back as I have more than enough work to do. Perhaps a nice big increase will trim the herd and keep me on the same money.

Tempting if I can look'em in the eye and smile while I do it! 🤣