[simon spencer]

Ive been window cleaning now for 11 years, 3 years ago I sold alot of my work off, the reason for this was rubbish prices, average hourly rate earned was £10- £15. Now ive built up a decent round were im cleaning an average of £25- £30 per hour. The problem Ive always found is with most jobs I quote for I dont get, the client says Im to expensive. Do you think my hourly rate is to much. I am based in the midlands.

Many thanks

Simon

[supernova77]

I always find that quoting this time of year is difficult. This is because there are lots of startups who charge low (either to get the job, or though lack of experience), and there are also a lot of "beer money" window cleaners around.

In the autum/winter months I would say I get about 90% of jobs that I quote for... This time of year its about 60/65%.

Andy (not Trevor )

[Paul Coleman]

Hi Trevor,
Ive been window cleaning now for 11 years, 3 years ago I sold alot of my work off, the reason for this was rubbish prices, average hourly rate earned was £10- £15. Now ive built up a decent round were im cleaning an average of £25- £30 per hour. The problem Ive always found is with most jobs I quote for I dont get, the client says Im to expensive. Do you think my hourly rate is to much. I am based in the midlands.

Many thanks

Simon

I think your current hourly rate is reasonable.  In fact, I would say that it is possible to go higher on many jobs.  A lot can depend on what area you work in though.  I'm in the southeast so can probably manage to charge more than someone in the northeast for instance.
I assume you quote for the job rather than by the hour?

[simon spencer]

Hi Shiner,
I do quote per job, never by the hour. My quotes are based on cleaning £25- £30 per hour.
The last few months have been the worst. Quoted a porsche showroom the other day, £95 for the ouside every week and the same for the inside every 4 weeks. There was a company willing to do inside & out for £100, I just carnt compete with that. I had 4 cancellations last week based on price, somebody half the price as me. It really p.sses me off.

[windowwashers]

Fly by night window cleaners are the expensive ones, I am cheap in my eyes and we charge about the £30 mark or more sometimes

[Wrekin C S]

I only started up my WFP business last month and I quoted a couple of houses at £25 each and another at £20 some people think im too expensive and some not, but I have had to cut my prices down a bit to get the business built up and my name around, Im not into stealing work because I dont agree with it and wouldn't like it if it was done to me - at the moment im a bit slow with the WFP because still getting used to it and a lot of custies are first cleans - the bigger houses take me about 45mins - 1hr slow I know but I like to do a proper job. The ones I qouted £25 I have now dropped to £20 in the hope that they will pass my name on as they do know a lot of people, Do you think im right in cutting my prices down to get the work in? In the Midlands area also.

Thanks
Andy

[Paul Coleman]

Hi Shiner,
I do quote per job, never by the hour. My quotes are based on cleaning £25- £30 per hour.
The last few months have been the worst. Quoted a porsche showroom the other day, £95 for the ouside every week and the same for the inside every 4 weeks. There was a company willing to do inside & out for £100, I just carnt compete with that. I had 4 cancellations last week based on price, somebody half the price as me. It really p.sses me off.

I'm glad to hear that you do quote by the job rather than by the hour.
It sounds very competitive where you are.  What area do you work in?
Something that needs to be borne in mind is that some of these companies who quote cheap don't necessarily do the job properly.  It can end up with doing a full clean one visit in three and spot cleaning the rest of the time.  I could quote like that too but I would rather quote for a reasonable job.  I suppose another possibility could be your working speed.  If you are quoting per hour (in your head rather than to the customer) and your work speed is lower than average, that could make your quotation higher.  I'm well aware that I'm not exactly the fastest thing on two legs myself and wonder if I have failed to get some jobs because of that.
Personally, I don't have to work for silly money, nor do I have to skimp a job to keep the price down and I hope I never have to.  In the long term, I believe that doing a reasonable job for a decent price will carry you further than quoting low, rushing a job, and letting the quality suffer.  It's just that when you lose jobs to companies charging silly money, it doesn't feel that way.

[groundhog]

It depends how much you can do in an hour I suppose, if you take an hour to do a 2 bed semi at £25 then your expensive, if your taking an hour to clean a 5 bed house at £25 then your cheap, if you see what I mean!
I live in the south, but have priced up for a few people who have moved down here from the midlands, and have never got any of them as they say I'm too expensive, one lived in a four bed house which I priced at £25, the lady said that back in the midlands she had a bigger house and her window cleaner charged £4!!!!

[Wrekin C S]

Sure is difficult to price around here - I was pricing at £1 per window but that seems too much to most - £25 quid for 25 windows - I have tried to cut em down to £20 etc - £15 to £12.50 and so on to try n get the work in.

[simon spencer]

I charge the same, £1 per window. Im not slow either.
 Over the years Ive employed at least 20 experienced window cleaners from other companys and to be fair most of them are not as quick as me.
It seems to me that there is a lot of window cleaners setting up in the area at the moment, hence it being very competitive.
Quoted a job the other day, just the fronts & sides (building work going off at the back), on the ground there was a porch way 3 sides to it, 1 bay window, 2 small windows down the side, on the 1st floor there was 1 bay window & a small window. Quoted £8.00, lady said no chance I paid £6.00 for the whole house. How can you compete with that, you carnt, well I carnt.

[gary999]

im in the birmingham area i would of quoted £6_£8 dont
think that is expensive 99 times out of a hundred i get the work

i think you should stick to your guns.

[martindrz400]

u should be getting £30-40 per hour

[macmac]

I quoted a job at 55 quid, she nearly dropped down dead!!!!
Then she said- "my last w/c only took 15 quid"
So i asked where was he then?
she said "he just stopped coming"
"That's why" i said, laughed at her , "not to worry" & walked away. :

some ya win, some ya don't.

[rah]

I quoted a job at 55 quid, she nearly dropped down dead!!!!
Then she said- "my last w/c only took 15 quid"
So i asked where was he then?
she said "he just stopped coming"
"That's why" i said, laughed at her , "not to worry" & walked away. :

some ya win, some ya don't.

Experienced that myself, almost rang the ambulance for them ,  end of the day a customer who drops you for price isn't a customer worth having, their loyalty is to the purse/wallet and don't appreciate what we put up with to do a job we enjoy.



I'm worth what I'm worth and stick to it.

Rob.

[williamx]

I charge the same, £1 per window. Im not slow either.
 Over the years Ive employed at least 20 experienced window cleaners from other companys and to be fair most of them are not as quick as me.
It seems to me that there is a lot of window cleaners setting up in the area at the moment, hence it being very competitive.
Quoted a job the other day, just the fronts & sides (building work going off at the back), on the ground there was a porch way 3 sides to it, 1 bay window, 2 small windows down the side, on the 1st floor there was 1 bay window & a small window. Quoted £8.00, lady said no chance I paid £6.00 for the whole house. How can you compete with that, you carnt, well I carnt.

Your price seems spot on.  I would have charged £15.00 for 1st clean and the £7.00 per clean, if she wanted the back done, then it would have been £25.00 1st clean and £10.00 there after.

[eddie d]

you may be at the high end of pricing .but if your still pulling in jobs dont worry about it .if you dont have enough wk then think again

[windowwashers]

People do pay for a quality service, when people say about price straight away I say I cost more than most window cleaners (and say I am reliable as I price my work so I will never let you down) I had a phone call 5 mins ago and a lady asked if she could get on our rounds, I said yes no problem what was you paying before she said £10, my reply was it will be £12.50 to £15 I understand this is more than you used to pay but I will not let you down, her reply to that was "I would pay £20 if i new you you would always come back (missed that one lol) a good price for a good job

[simon knight]

I think that given the job/risks involved...esp for trad...£25ph is about right.

But assuming an 8 hr day I suspect that few of us who charge £25ph come home 5 days a week with £200 in their pockets...although reading various posts I understand that £2000 per week is, for some, a rightly earned figure.

Truth-be-known window cleaning came as a saviour for most people as few people left school thinking: "I'm becoming a w/c..."

...in fact w/c was a way most people who couldn't/wouldn't be employed elsewhere found a way to stay solvent and pay their bills...and here I include myself!!!

But I'm becoming heartily sick of people asking/stating how much their largely unskilled efforts are worth...just be humbly grateful that you have a means of putting bread on the table for the time being.

And believe me when your scummy clients find their mortgage repayments double when their fixed-term comes to an end you'll be the first "luxury" to be canned!

Sorry guys but I feel that some of you over-estimate/value your importance/skills.

 

[Sir Squeaky]

And believe me when your scummy clients find their mortgage repayments double when their fixed-term comes to an end you'll be the first "luxury" to be canned!

Sorry guys but I feel that some of you over-estimate/value your importance/skills.

Spot on.

Window cleaners are always the first thing people cut out.

[groundhog]

Simon you obviously have a very low opinion of yourself, your fellow window cleaners and your customers!!