[Davew]

Started out about five weeks ago part time and I now have over a hundred and ten customers at an average price probably of ten pounds. Work is still coming in steadily as word spreads but unfortunately I have not been doing it long enough to pull all the different areas in together yet. What I want to know is wether you guys make a good living purely on domestics or do you need commercial as well to boost your earnings and give you work for poor weather days?

[Cleaner Windows]

I do o.k with just domestics, havent really done much commercial work so dont even know how to price em lol. i have to pay rent on my round but is still a good earner. cant wait till ive built up my own round tho ive got 32 of my own cutomers so far and havent got much time to canvass, will be putting an ad in the village magazine asap and hope for loads of phonecalls

denis

[Biscute]

Just domestic is fine, nothink wrong with it at all. 110 houses at an average on 10 ponud in 5 weeks is realy good. That meens you are on 1100 a month as it is now wich i wouldnt say is a bad wage.

[lucymulligan]

i charge £6 for a two bed £8 three bed £10 four bed

how does that sound o every one to much to little ?

[Davew]

Ah yes but I'm part time I want to jump to full time pretty soon so want to at the very least double that amount of work.

[Davew]

Lucy it all depends on your area - some will take it but others won't I have some four beds at fifteen pounds others at ten.

[Ian_Giles]

If you have priced your work well then you will do fine on domestic work, you don't need commercial work to make a good living.

I have plenty of drive between work, and they all pay well, most love compact work, but I get bored with that and so I enjoy moving around a lot.

And commercial work is generally harder to get hold of anyway, always stay on the lookout though as they can be very good earners when you do get them...providing you've priced them well of course!

Commercial work may give you the scope to go out and work in just about any weather condition, but if you ensure that you've told your domestic customers that only extreme weather will stop you from calling then you will be ok.
And by extreme, for me personally that means heavy, rain and high winds, light rain, drizzle and so on shouldn't be a problem for you...unless you have that horrible persistant heavy drizzle and high winds combined of course

Ian

Oh, 2 more replys while I was doing my own reply!

What you charge Lucy will depend  on which part of the country you live in, for me, in the Chepstow area of South Wales, although I have a few jobs under £9.00, for the most part my prices on domestic work start there.

If a 2 bed house has georgian or leaded windows, then the price goes up, a 4 bed detached can vary enormously in size, but I'd be highly unlikely to be much under £15.00 for one.

When you have several houses on one estate, should you receive a phone call asking how much? It is easy enough to tell the potential customer that their house is going to be roughly in the region of £XXX because you'll know the houses concerned.
But otherwise always go look at the job first!

When I get a phone call, or get aproached in the street and asked 'how much?'
I tell them my minimum price for any work is (for me) about a tenner, some walk away others say can you come and have a look.
Often you get to the house and it is a total doddle to do, even for your minimum price, and the customer is more than happy to pay too!!

Ian

[Davew]

I've found that I completely underprice on conservatory cleans I totally underestimated the time and effort it takes to scrub a green roof clean from moss. The sides are easy but the roofs are physically demanding my shoulders are still aching from a three hour clean from yesterday!

[groundhog]

Lucy I am also in Hampshire and those prices sound much too low to me, I have a minimum charge of £10 and for an average 4 bed I charge £25, it may take a bit longer to build your round, but its well worth it in the end.

[Davew]

Sister-in-law has her four bed detatched done and conservatory sides done trad for eight pounds!Same window cleaner for years!

[D.Salkeld_Ltd]

This Commercial or Domestic debate?

My Opinion:

Domestics are where the need for US is.  Commercials, we are asking them!
Home owners (Mainly the lady of the house) look at differently - Want thier windows cleaning first, cost afterwards!  Commercials look at the cost first!
Domestics are smaller jobs so if you loose the job it doesn't hurt too bad - However loose a 10 grand commercial contract due to nothing but cheaper quote! and OUCH
However smaller commercials (under £100) can be quite handy.
You can do them early morning
They are often a nice little earner and better rate
If they are local independant businesses and under £50 they will often pay you out of the petty cash
I have about 60 - 40 domestics.  2 hours each morning on commercials- Doctors, Dentists Accountants and Solicitors offices and a few shops.  I also do a few sub contracts for the local contractor (tops WFP, he's trad).  He asked me to do more! but naw, too busy and too many eggs in one basket

David

[Paul Coleman]

Started out about five weeks ago part time and I now have over a hundred and ten customers at an average price probably of ten pounds. Work is still coming in steadily as word spreads but unfortunately I have not been doing it long enough to pull all the different areas in together yet. What I want to know is wether you guys make a good living purely on domestics or do you need commercial as well to boost your earnings and give you work for poor weather days?

I do 90% domestic and do OK with it.  I think the trick is to either have large domestics or compact work.  Some domestics are just a hassle with WFP though.  I feel that WFP is better suited to the more open spaces of larger properties whether domestic or commercial. It's possible to do very well with smaller jobs so long as you have a minimum charge and when pricing, take account of the extra time caused by clutter and other obstructions.

[eddie d]

i think for a one man band ,sort of thing then domestic is king .
can be well paid ,pay much quicker than comercial and generally less hassle .
but if you start employing trhen comercial is easier as no real cash is involved and easier to manage.

[matt]

i have a nice little portfolio of comercail

but to be honest, my domestic is my bread and butter work, its by far the more important, comercail comes and goes with great ease

[Stevie G]

Hi Dave.
 Well done for getting over 110 customers in 5 weeks. How on earth did you get the customers in that space of time? because thats amazing!

Regards,
Lisa

[john tomkins]

Yeah excellent going mate.
Did you canvass them yourself although to be averaging over 3 a day customers, 7 days a week for 5 weeks,  as well as 22 1st cleans a week  all on part time really takes some believing seeing as it took me 6 months and I'm not that many customers in front of you

Give us a clue how you are managing to do so well

[Trevor Knight]

Lucy I am also in Hampshire and those prices sound much too low to me, I have a minimum charge of £10 and for an average 4 bed I charge £25, it may take a bit longer to build your round, but its well worth it in the end.

Totally agree, we have about 60 customers in Marchwood as well as a further 350 in and around Soton, your prices are FAR to low! Our minimum price is £10+ and we get no complaints.

[Davew]

Totally genuine, my wife does ninety nine per cent of the canvassing, the furthest I travel is about four miles away. Most streets are covered by window cleaners but have houses in them that are not cleaned. Some don't like their cleaner for different reasons. Some aren't keen on their religious beliefs. Every day I see other cleaners out and about and can't believe there is enough work to go round but there is. I work shifts so this week I will be on nights I'll be up before eleven and cleaning 'till five if I have the work then back to bed for a couple more hours sleep. I have been working like this solid except Sundays and all first cleans were knackering. Second cleans are coming around now so things are a little more relaxed. I'm nearly fifty but pretty fit but if you don't like working hard then this is not the profession for you. Hope to go full time within a month. If I had to go trad then I wouldn't have done one! I don't know how you guys hump a ladder about all day.

[captain lard]

You will find it becomes a lot easier with the second clean and quicker.

[bluesteve]

Remember ,  you dont know who s reading be careful on how much you say,