[SonOfFormby]

As some of you already know from my previous posts,I am starting my W/C career tomorrow,I dont know much about pricing,obviously,but comparing a few prices to my friend,they seem a little low.So my question is,when, and if to put them up, ie. straight away,wait til new year, or the new tax year? Did I mention,none of them have been cleaned with WFP,and I intend to do them all this way. 

Any input greatly appreciated.

Lee

[Pole2pole]

Put them up as and when you feel the job is underpriced mate. The first year is one massive learning curve. It was for me. Desperate to fill up the books, charging pittance. Don't undervalue yourself. Cos once you've got a book full of badly paid work, your stuck with it til (a) you put another quid or two on it straight away(which they aint gonna like) or (b) you hold out for a couple of years, beating yourself up over every house you clean for the forseeable. Good luck tomorrow fella.
Dino

[Feen]

Dino, Did you write the reply for me?? Couldn't have put it better. I have a change in my work in that my partner is leaving and I am dropping some customers. We have been round them all explaining. I have put up the price on some that were some of our first customers and were too cheap. I haven't lost one. Most said OK fine and the rest said I don't blame you etc. i.e. even they thought it was too cheap. I didn't like doing it and wish we had charged higher at the start. As Dino said "Don't undervalue yourself". Don't forget that we offer a service. If they don't want to pay, then let them find someone cheap or do it themselves. They don't want to go up ladders and don't have wfp equipment.

[Pole2pole]

Hi Feen. No i aint a psychic bud, just learnt from experience. To this day, most of my crap paid work stems from my first couple of years. One day, they'll all be history  but i still clear £150 for 3-4 hours work so i'd be mad to just drop it just yet. Saying that, if i was still trad it'd be £100 for the same amount of time.

[SonOfFormby]

Dino, Did you write the reply for me?? Couldn't have put it better. I have a change in my work in that my partner is leaving and I am dropping some customers. We have been round them all explaining. I have put up the price on some that were some of our first customers and were too cheap. I haven't lost one. Most said OK fine and the rest said I don't blame you etc. i.e. even they thought it was too cheap. I didn't like doing it and wish we had charged higher at the start. As Dino said "Don't undervalue yourself". Don't forget that we offer a service. If they don't want to pay, then let them find someone cheap or do it themselves. They don't want to go up ladders and don't have wfp equipment.

So do I risk upsetting them straight away,or gain their trust 1st,because its like you say,they haven't had a pay increase in quite a while,so you think most or all will just wear it.When the seller took me round only 2 customers asked 'same price' and one even expected the price to go up!!

Lee

[Feen]

Lee, My advice would be, don't be silly. Silly could mean too cheap or too dear. Easy to say I know. Aim higher than you think. Do a good job. Things will fall into place. Above all be reliable. When I started people came running (literally) because they had been let down. I've lost 2 customers since then and I knew they were trouble from the start. Nothing was ever going to be good enough.

[Sanity]

I have gone the opposite way, Feen.  I am charging cheap (5 - 7.50) per job in order to get the business and demonstrate what a good job I do, then maybe in 6 months, when they have seen the difference in the windows I will put my prices up by a couple of quid.  I am hoping that they won't mind too much because of the good job I will do.

But by then I will have more experience and more customers, so losing a few won't be such a burden.

[mark coates]

if you said this was the first time the windows were going to be cleaned using wfp just make sure you do a really good job, clean all the filth off the frames, show the customers the end result and put the prices up. do it early! i bought a round and cleaned it using wfp, put the prices up straight away and everyone was happy, the few i didnt put up and only got around to doing later on were not as pleased, they had got used to the frames being clean and seemed to be of the impression that they had always been clean so didnt really want to pay anymore

[tonyoliver]

20 years in the game i promise you dont go in too cheap

i bust a gut every day now as i charge what i charged 20 yrs ago no increases ever
jobs which were good now pain me to do
 3 story old peoples home 46.00 ect

rock bottom was 3mth ago i worked 7 days and still didnt have enough money for the kid shoes

i cried
i found this site by accident and have slowly increased my value little by little now clear much more money
but still some times get told someone else is cheaper i now say go on then take em do me a favour,
 but strangely they call you back .
some crustys will try to haggle but confidence is what you need its what i was lacking yes even after all those years but the guys here restored me to my former self and am now surgeing ahead thank you all and learn from my pain..

[Londoner]

Lee, even if you think your prices are a bit low stick with it at the moment because you are going to have a lot on your plate right now. Then when things settle down a bit you can start worrying about the prices. Concentrate on the job for the time being.

[Paul Coleman]

20 years in the game i promise you dont go in too cheap

i bust a gut every day now as i charge what i charged 20 yrs ago no increases ever
jobs which were good now pain me to do
 3 story old peoples home 46.00 ect

rock bottom was 3mth ago i worked 7 days and still didnt have enough money for the kid shoes

i cried
i found this site by accident and have slowly increased my value little by little now clear much more money
but still some times get told someone else is cheaper i now say go on then take em do me a favour,
 but strangely they call you back .
some crustys will try to haggle but confidence is what you need its what i was lacking yes even after all those years but the guys here restored me to my former self and am now surgeing ahead thank you all and learn from my pain..

My round started to get like you describe - in fact a few bits are still like that.  Like you, finding this forum opened my eyes.  Also, switching to WFP has been a major turning point as well.  I haven't achieved my targets but I still increased my turnover 30% this year and it will probably be a similar rise next year.

[windowwashers]

Haggle with a customer= never. You are the boos not them, always be nice how ever much they annoy you as the customer is the person that keeps you in business. Go through your round 3 times and see what prices are like then, make notes then add £1 if really under priced add what is needed a low paid customer will put you in a bad frame of mind and window cleaning can be hard enough sometimes.