[ronnie paton]

i clean some propertye the prices are between £8 and £12 a guy come on doing them for £5 in 4 months iv lost 4 houses, that shows price isnty evrything but squeaky has always been over opinionated

[paulscotney]

Too true Ronnie, people want reliability more than anything else.

[birdymiller]

This thread started out slating window cleaners who charge £3 for a house. I am one these so called cowboy window cleaners. I was stating that my business pays me well and is made up of a mixture of priced houses( from £2.50 to £12). I work approx 25 hours a week and after i have paid my lad i am left with around a grand. I havnt sat down and calculated the average price of my houses it was just a rough guess, i find most of the day i am asking for £4. I have rounds where i can earn £300 in a day and rounds where i can £200. So mjh calculate again and dont get so irritated. Paulscotney your min price is a tenner, fantabulous for you i am not worthy

[paulscotney]

don't u mean caravans. Any house is worth £10. Look at the price of diesel for your van.

[MJH]

This thread started out slating window cleaners who charge £3 for a house. I am one these so called cowboy window cleaners. I was stating that my business pays me well and is made up of a mixture of priced houses( from £2.50 to £12). I work approx 25 hours a week and after i have paid my lad i am left with around a grand. I havnt sat down and calculated the average price of my houses it was just a rough guess, i find most of the day i am asking for £4. I have rounds where i can earn £300 in a day and rounds where i can £200. So mjh calculate again and dont get so irritated. Paulscotney your min price is a tenner, fantabulous for you i am not worthy

Thanks Birdymiller too, fair play to you, your eanings are impressive i am not directly irritated by you but if people read these posts that have been in the game for a short time
then no wonder they think they can earn a fast buck!!

[birdymiller]

Shoe boxes, caravans whats next

[sjm]

This thread started out slating window cleaners who charge £3 for a house. I am one these so called cowboy window cleaners. I was stating that my business pays me well and is made up of a mixture of priced houses( from £2.50 to £12). I work approx 25 hours a week and after i have paid my lad i am left with around a grand. I havnt sat down and calculated the average price of my houses it was just a rough guess, i find most of the day i am asking for £4. I have rounds where i can earn £300 in a day and rounds where i can £200. So mjh calculate again and dont get so irritated. Paulscotney your min price is a tenner, fantabulous for you i am not worthy

NEVER EVER QUOTE YOUR EARNINGS ON HERE ! 

[birdymiller]

I post comments that i beleive in, not ones that are made to entice more cowboys. Lets face it, if the money wasnt so good would we all choose to be window cleaners. Why not sjm i was making a point about £3 hou sorry caravans

[kris martin]

why not a lot of people choose to be packers in factorys for minimum wage..

[windowwashers]

Ewan you flatter me

size really isn't everything and as for the amount of learning i have done via trial and error i would not put myself forward as any kind of expert or authority

That said my advice would be to seek opinions from others who have experience consider what they suggest then listen to people you respect and trust whether they know window cleaning or not and then the most important point is   DO WHAT YOU THINK.

If you take others advice and you don't get to where you want to be it is so easy to excuse your lack of success as their fault.

Look at the people who give you advice, consider where they are with their business and if you judge them successful  fine follow their advice, but if you really want to get there trust in the same drive enthusiasm and belief that you have in yourself, that allowed you to take that big step to becoming a window cleaner and make your own mistakes and make your own success.

Nobody ever became famous or successful by following, you become successful by being YOU.

You will win customers by doing a decent job for a fair price and turning up regularly every four months. There is no shortcut, any of us on here that have being doing this for a while know what it takes. Ask Karldaze how hard it was making his mark in Spain, he may make light of it but i know he put in the hard hard graft and thats what we all need to do.

It is not easy, you will lose customers,you will have days when you want to pack it in and this is when YOU and what drives you comes to the fore. Successful people work work and work again even now while i dont do much window cleaning i still start first and finish last at my desk, at the bank the accountant etc etc.I also re-invest the money this week we paid £5k for our radio jingle, this has taken many many meetings over four weeks to get just right, will it work? who knows we will have to wait and see but if it doesn't it is my money spent and i spent it i made the decision . If it works all our staff will benefit if it doesn't it is me who loses out.

That is "success" believing in what you think is right and stepping up and making decisions based on your vision.

Scarey? yes. Lonely? yes. Hard? yes. Would i have it any other way never.

Good Luck to all

Thank you Ewan for giving me an excuse to mount my soapbox

Gordon

Gordon, Top post of the day imo, I could not have put that any better.


Ian

p.s Ewan my comment was nothing to do with a post you made, just on the post I just read of Gordon's

[Glyn H]

Does he work in Croydon he can come and do my house

[Londoner]

And Mine!

Its the law of supply and demand. He cleans window at his price, you clean windows at yours.
I could have a set price of £100 a house, wouldn't get many customers but over time I might pick up one or two. Or I could have a set price of £3 and pick up loads and loads.

There was a bloke on the radio yesterday who started Glasses Direct. They sell proper spectacles for £15, same specs in high street optician would be £150. How does he do it? Volume and low overheads.

There is always someone willing to work for less.

Most of you who know me know I am, or was, a London taxi driver. There used to be a lot of good account and contract work in London but it has all been undercut and undercut to the point where you would say its not possible to do it for that price but somebody does it.

Once price cutting starts to get a hold it spreads like wildfire. I know taxi drivers who were doing contract jobs for Harrow Council on a fixed price who got phoned up and told that the price for the job was being cut significantly in mid contract and the choice was take it or leave it.

Market forces dictate price.

[kirky]

Ive still got the odd house for £2.50, quite a few at £3 and id say that my average price is £4. I pick up work all the time and i keep my customers. I earn a grand a week for a 25 hour week all above board with the taxman. These £3 houses are doing me alright. As has been said a million times before the area you work in dictates the price you charge. Over the years(10) i have increased prices and have some great roundsand some great custys.

got to agree birdylad,as we are both from sheffield we know if we started charging some of the prices we see bandied about on here we would loose our bread and butter fortnightly customers,ive got loads of houses a i charge 3 quid for but like you my average is 4-4.50.ok since i went wfp last year ive gradually built up a new batch of custies doing jobs trad workers can't do and they are the ones i'm charging 10's n 15 quids but i'll never let my regulars down or start uping their prices 

everyone to their own and if your making a living wheres the problem

[ronnie paton]

birdy what you sayto me doesnt add up, are you ltd?? because you say your clearing a grand a week plus you pay a wage and your over heads and tax and ins..........all for 25 hours.......and doing £3 houses.mmmmmmmmmmmm

[kirky]

birdy what you sayto me doesnt add up, are you ltd?? because you say your clearing a grand a week plus you pay a wage and your over heads and tax and ins..........all for 25 hours.......and doing £3 houses.mmmmmmmmmmmm

i think you'll find he said "some" of his houses are 3 quid and he didn't say it was "after" tax

[ronnie paton]

think youll find he said he cleared!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! which means after tax!

yes not all £3 but by is comments its obvious its not just to houses @£3 and the rest @£12 kirk

[kirky]

think youll find he said he cleared!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! which means after tax!

yes not all £3 but by is comments its obvious its not just to houses @£3 and the rest @£12 kirk

well that told me didn't it       ron   

[michael papworth]

The guy might only be targetting certain smaller houses in certain roads.

It might actually be a very smart way of getting quite a lot of customers
quite quickly as a basis whilst he builds up a bit of skill and capital.

It would be an absolutley terrific way of starting up a business part-time. Who
cares if the income isn't that great? It's getting valuable experience and getting
paid a little bit to do the learning.

Then, once he's got, say, one full week's work, he can send the same flyer
to a different area advertising £5.

Then do the same and choose another area and distribute the flyer with £7 on it etc.

It might take time, but he could build things up and up.

There might be more than meets the eye at first glance.

[Londoner]

Actually Wally thats a very shrewd insight.

Just been to quote on a larger 3 bed semi, asked what her previous WC was charging. She said £25, I said OK well I will do the same.

I was going to go in at £16!

There is no rhyme or reason to pricing.

[David Slater]

This thread started out slating window cleaners who charge £3 for a house. I am one these so called cowboy window cleaners. I was stating that my business pays me well and is made up of a mixture of priced houses( from £2.50 to £12). I work approx 25 hours a week and after i have paid my lad i am left with around a grand. I havnt sat down and calculated the average price of my houses it was just a rough guess, i find most of the day i am asking for £4. I have rounds where i can earn £300 in a day and rounds where i can £200. So mjh calculate again and dont get so irritated. Paulscotney your min price is a tenner, fantabulous for you i am not worthy

WHOAH there birdy!!

I AM the original poster and starter of this thread.

I never called anybody a cowboy or useless.

I started this topic as a point for discussion, not as a dig or a slight at this man. It was merely something that came to my attention (it was posted through MY door? I phoned and checked and the fella confirmed any house, any size for £3.00

I questioned whether he could actually make money doing this. Nothing more and nothing less.

I was looking for input and thoughts. I DID NOT intend to create some sort of 'war' on the forum as to who is right and who is wrong.

Birdy, please dont take this as a slight on you - May I humbly suggest that 'some' of you guys calm down and work together. You are all window cleaners. Why must everything degenerate into who is 'right' and who is 'wrong'?

You do your profession no favours with this type of carry on.

Now I will sit back and wait for everybody to turn on me  :