[Paul Coleman]

I've been doing 6 weekly for quite a few years now.  I found that cleaning every month was attracting a lot of the "not today thanks" customers and also had a lot of rather insistent requests for every other month which I didn't really want to do.  I was overloaded with work (I admit I should have dropped a fair bit of this but didn't know the score so much then) so I went around saing to everyone (including the bi-monthlies) thatI intended to call 6 weekly in future.  Most of the bi-monthlies went for that - the ones that didn't, ceased to be my customers.  It saved me the hassle of having lots of work on different cycles and trying to remember if I did them the previous time or not (I didn't have a computer then so kept records by hand).
It did backfire on me a couple of years or so back because I lost a lot of work when I was longterm sick.  I do get between 1 and 2 weeks off during each 6 weekly cycle now but, apart from a few jobs, most of my work is OK to very good.  I have chosen to rebuild my business slowly this time.  I turn more work away these days due to poor access or because they try to beat my price down.  As soon as they try that, I'm not interested.  Once I fill those gaps, I will be having a major cull.  North Sussex will resemble "killing fields"   

[Moderator David@stives]

I get the max money out of my customers from the beginning i dont need to extend the time to get more .I charge them that much they would not pay more.

My customers want regular clean windows 6 weeks is way too long for my customers.

If you get rid of your excess work this will help to feed new window cleaners and your dead wood will keep them busy instead of poaching your cream customers.

I have just give away 6 jobs to a local shiner, here 2 things happened , firstly it keeps him sweet and if he approached one of my jobs and found out it was mine chances are he would back off, secondly these were bad jobs for me and they will help to keep him occupied whilst i am cleaning my lucrative work.

If we all keep stuffing as many jobs under our belts as possible and extending the cleaning time we wont get anywhere.

Sit down with pen and paper and do the maths , extending your round from 4 weeks to 6 weeks = a 33% loss in income ,

So as someone was saying 20% increase in price then 50 % reduction in frequency to me that means i have to find 50% more customersto cover the loss, i know what route i am taking.

If your customers say not this month thanks drop them let the wolves have them, It is your round you set the frequency if the customers dont agree let them find someone else

[Fast 1 *]

It does seem strange sometimes.Some people are really fussy and want a regular 4 week wash,while others dont particually care.Sometimes,because you are cleaning on the four week cycle,some people make you feel as though you are a hinderance because the windows are reasonabally clean.I can see why some do every 5 or 6 weeks,because it feels like your service will be valued more which does obviously improve customer relations.But i can also see the more business like theory of every 4 weeks.My work is done every 4 weeks,but as said,it attracts the "not this month" brigade.

[Moderator David@stives]

My round used to be monthly and because i forseen an 8 % gain in income i switched .

Monthly you get 12 cleans a year
4 weekly you get 13
6 weekly you get 8.66

sayin each customer was £10

you would get  £120  £130 or £86.60 accordingly per customer per year amplify that over say 300 customers

you would get accordingly £36'000,  £39'000  or £25'980 

even if you put your 6 weeklys up by 20 % which was suggested earlier you still would have only £31'176 

I reckon if i could get 20 % by going six weekly i certainly could get it on 4 as well , a customer will pay x amount regardless of frequency

Dave

[mark dew]

My round used to be monthly and because i forseen an 8 % gain in income i switched .

Monthly you get 12 cleans a year
4 weekly you get 13
6 weekly you get 8.66

sayin each customer was £10

you would get  £120  £130 or £86.60 accordingly per customer per year amplify that over say 300 customers

you would get accordingly £36'000,  £39'000  or £25'980 

even if you put your 6 weeklys up by 20 % which was suggested earlier you still would have only £31'176 

I reckon if i could get 20 % by going six weekly i certainly could get it on 4 as well , a customer will pay x amount regardless of frequency

Dave

that's very interesting dave.
There's no arguing with those figures. 6 weekly need a 50% increase.

[Moderator David@stives]

50 % increase needed in either price rise or 450  customers required instead of 300 to achieve the same income

[simbo]

money, money money, its not the be and end all. surely it depends on  how much you need and if you have employee's or not, i get plenty of 500-600 pound weeks working less than the 40 hours we would all normally do and sometimes a lot more so why flog ourselves silly we might as well go back to 9-5. We all know how well you can do at this with the right groundwork over time if you are any good you will have 400 customers prob more so why worry
simbo

[crystal.clear]

sorry but that doesnt work out dave i understand what your saying but you think if you clean say 20 house's a day, over 4 weeks you will clean 400 houses but over 6 weeks you will clean 600. i work every day non stop. i never run out of work and i come round every six weeks.

[Paul Coleman]

50 % increase needed in either price rise or 450  customers required instead of 300 to achieve the same income

When I originally switched to 6 weekly officially, I was often doing it 6 weekly anyway because I had more work than I could handle in a monthly rota.  Therefore I didn't need to get more customers and it didn't affect my income because I was already working flat out.  In fact it slightly improved my income because I was no longer wasting my time turning up at a place and getting that "not today" garbage .My problem back then was pricing too cheaply and having trouble saying "no".  Looking back, I should have done a cull way back then.  The cull should have taken the form of big price increases and saying no the the bi-monthly requests as the customers would have done the culling for me.  I find it hard to believe what I used to accept as a standard hourly rate - even up to 18 months ago.
There are two reasons that I don't have a full workload right now.
1) Losing a lot of work when I was ill.
2) WFP.  It's taken me quite a while but in the last few weeks I've been on a roll with the pole (that rhymes  ) .  I have been astounded at how fast I can get through most of my work when I apply myself properly.
If I was still working trad, I would probably have pretty much a full 6 weekly workload but with WFP, I can do what I was doing in a reasonable 6 weeks over a 4 week period.  AND, I'm pricing much higher now too.
In a years time, it is my goal to have doubled what I was earning a year ago. Double my money in two years is my goal.  I may not achieve that but all the signs are that even if I don't, I won't be too far off.

[Paul Coleman]

money, money money, its not the be and end all. surely it depends on  how much you need and if you have employee's or not, i get plenty of 500-600 pound weeks working less than the 40 hours we would all normally do and sometimes a lot more so why flog ourselves silly we might as well go back to 9-5. We all know how well you can do at this with the right groundwork over time if you are any good you will have 400 customers prob more so why worry
simbo

I agree with you totally about not making money too important Simbo.  My philosophy of life is more about happiness, freedom, and leisure pursuits.  Unfortunately I made some bad choices in life that proved very expensive and I also got into a lot more debt through ill health some time back.  This means that I have to shelve my laid back attitude to life and work a lot more than I would like to in order to repay my debts.  It's a drag but at least I'm facing up to it now.

[Moderator David@stives]

I dont have problems at all with not today thank you, and if I did they would be just struck off, you may live in a particular bad area but its not all like that.

Dave

[Paul Coleman]

I dont have problems at all with not today thank you, and if I did they would be just struck off, you may live in a particular bad area but its not all like that.

Dave

I've got a lot stricter about this too in recent times David.  If they ask me why, I just tell them straight.  I tell them that working that way is unviable for me and I can no longer afford to carry any unviable work.
Of course there are times when it's reasonable to not have windows cleaned.  Sometimes the windows may be part way through being painted or they may be getting replaced very soon or very dirty/dusty building work is going on.  I'm not so harsh that I cannot be reasonable about it but I do request that people let me know in advance if possible so that I do not waste my time going there in the first place.