[Sanity]

Hi,

First post here, so be gentle. 

I have just decided to start a round in Leicester.  However, I am a little apprehensive as to how many customers I am going to need to make about £10 per hour (or more).

I charge £5 (I do the estates) and after 150 leaflets and a bit of chat have gotten 9 customers (not too bad for an hour or so canvassing...)

Now, I was thinking of a monthly round.  Is this a reasonable frequency?

If so, this would mean I need 320 customers per month...  Are my sums correct?  (assuming 16 jobs per day, 4 weeks to a month,  1/2 hour per job at £5 per job...)  This would give me an income of £1600 per month...  Seems a LOT of customers...


Is this a normal sized round?  What size would one consider 'normal'



I tried looking in the faq, but did not see these questions...

Thanx for your help in advance...

[Sir Squeaky]

We don't tknow what area you're in, so can't really comment.

£5 per house is cheap unless it's in some manky estate up north though.
I'd aim a few quid higher than that, you'll still get them.

Also you'll need less houses to acheive your target.

[Dean Aspects]

You might think £10ph is good money now but after trying to do 300+ houses per month you will realise that it is hard work aim for £30 ph if you can

Dean

[tacky]

i agree with squeaky clean .put ur prices up a bit .or 6 months down the road u be thinking sh..t what am i doing these houses so cheap .n its a bit awkward to increase ur prices so soon .dont worry iv done it myself .

[Nathanael Jones]

Seriously,.... Double your price,.... RIGHT NOW!!!

I charge €20 for the average 3 bed semi,.... and WFP I'd do 3 and hour in my sleep.

But that's if they are all in a row. You have to count travelling time,.. time between houses,.. unpacking your gear and packing it away again,.. it all adds up. 16 houses a day with ladders is possible,.. but very hard work if you'll only be seeing £80 out of it.
You might think that £160 a day is excessive (If you doubled your prices) but you have to consider the days you'll miss form illness, rain, when its too windy for ladders etc etc.

Don't undersell yourself,.. you're offering a valuable service, and ppl will be happy to pay.

[mark dew]

I charge €20 for the average 3 bed semi,.... and WFP I'd do 3 and hour in my sleep.

Is that a typo or do you charge 20 euros for a 3 bed semi? I read it as £20 at 1st.
This would be £13.50 which is still a very good price, but a bit misleading.
If it was £20 i doubt he'd pick up much work.

Sanity, after 6 months you'll be earning that tenner off a ladder in 1/2 an hour or so now you've found this forum.

[Nathanael Jones]

20 euro's!!
I have a €10 minimum charge now too.
Where I am, most window cleaners charge €15-€18 for the houses I charge €20 for,.. but I'm still never short of work. Do a good job,.. include the frames and cills, and be reliable and professional,.. and the work will come looking for you!

[Sanity]

Thanx for the replies.

Although I agree, £5 per house is a bit cheap (but this does not include extras such as conservatories (spelling?), 3rd floor houses etc...), I am hoping that this will get me more customers quickly.  and, as has been said I may end up getting the £10 per hour target in 1/2 an hour once I am able to build up speed and confidence.

I will be looking at raising the price by £1 / £2 once I have the amount of customers I need to bring in a wage.  I then assume I will lose a certain percentage.

[Sir Squeaky]

I will be looking at raising the price by £1 / £2 once I have the amount of customers I need to bring in a wage.  I then assume I will lose a certain percentage.

Nearly all of them I'd imagine.

Price them higher from the start!
I promise you'll get just as many.

[SparklingWC]

i priced low from the start a a couple of months ago.i wish i hadnt though, at the time i thought i was being fair - but now realise i was just pricing too low. now i have some work but its earning me probably less than half of what it should be if i'd priced higher.
and as iv only been cleaning a short while i cant really put the prices up yet.
another thing i didnt do before but am doing now, is add 25% for the first clean and an extra 50% on that if its a on off. get people to agree to a minimum of 6 cleans or something so that they dont say "yes i'll have it done monthly" ..."dont come back next month i'll ring you wheni want them done".
these are all things i didnt do when starting up - but do from now on because i learnt my lesson from my mistakes

[Sanity]

Ok, sounds like a plan..

So If I price myself around the £7 mark?  You see, I just want reach my target amount of income relatively quickly.  I am between jobs at the moment and...well, you know how it is.

I suppose if my prices were higher, I would not need as many customers to earn a wage...

[Sir Squeaky]

That's more like it.
An extra £2 per house will soon mount up.

Don't let anyone on here tell you it should be £10+.
£7 is an fine price for a new starter, but not silly money.
You can't afford to be greedy this early.

If you need the work you don't want to price yourself out.

[jampot]

TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU SQUEAKY. WHEN YOU FIRST START OFF YOU DONT WANA OVER CHARGE. IF ITS ON A HOUSING ESTATE I WOULD SAY AROUND £7/8 MARK. HAS YOU BUILD YOUR ROUND UP YOUR PRICES CAN BE ALTERD.

[Nathanael Jones]

If you go for £8, you'll find a lot of the custys giving you £10 and saying to keep the change! 

[Sanity]

Hehehe, I hadn't thought of that

[Nathanael Jones]

I personally stick to round figures. €10, €15, €20 etc etc. Carrying all that money can be hard work,.. but its a lot lighter if there are no coins!