[lee_dewing]

look through my diary the other day and worked out my ave earnings £399.50p a week.

wondered where i'm going wrong.
i can't start till 9.30am as of mr mum duties but i think i work pretty hard, i chat to the odd custy, but at the end of the day custy's are usually to busy to talk and so am i.

I'm wfp for 2 yrs been on my own 3yrs + 2yrs for someone else, built all my work from scratch and keep refineing.

I am now charging £15 for semis , and £15-£20 for detached trying to dump front only's.

any advice
it takes me 5 weeks to get round.
thanks lee

[gerard mcmanus]

how many customers, I am trad and can take over £100 per day. Also whats your average basket spend and how many days are you working, hours per day also?

gerard 


Just reading your other post about doing frames then windows, this could be a factor as well, how many other w/c's do that. Also I admire you going above and beyond your compeditors like that but if that is taking up allot of your time you may want to concider stopping and just doing the glass WFP.

Gerard 

[Clive McDonald]

I was going to ask, have you got george, and then I saw I use internet at the library, so the answer to that question would be no.

This is the reason your av 400pw.Your problem is organising your work. I have just bought a 9" comp from dell a mini 9 for £279 for my son. This with george on it would transform your life. (you will need a printer to print out your work).

Trust me this is your main problem.

[Sir Squeaky]

If that's an average, then that's not bad at all.

You start a bit later, take time to chat and charge decent prices.

Yes a good week should make you more than £400, but a poor week of weather or illness will see a hell of a lot less.

If everything is taken into account and you still average £400 a week I would complain too much.
I'm sure there's a large amount of people on here doing less.

[LSB]

dont dump your front onlys !!!   

[suds window service]

not the worst living in the world for a 6 hour day

[Ian_Giles]

Doesn't sound as if you are doing too badly, if that is a true average that you will maintain throughout 12 months then you are turning over 20k....that is a good 3k more than an awful lot of window cleaners I assure you...

As to where (or even if) you are going wrong; well an average 3 bed semi, done WFP - including frames & doors - should take you no more than 15 minutes. Now a lot of trad window cleaners can do it in that time, but with WFP you should be able to average that kind of time easily, and at £15 per semi you are getting good prices therefore over the course of a day there should be many days when your turnover far exceeds £100.

I guess it really depends exactly what you mean by your weekly average.

With the prices you are charging you should be able to work at a rate of '£1.00 per minute worked' quite comfortably...now that doesn't mean you are going to go along and earn £60 an hour! And you may well be working at those kind of speeds, but if your worked out averages are done accurately then it also takes into account down time when you are not able to work...

I guess you need to give out a fair bit more info for us to see if you are actually doing anything wrong at all!

Ian

[Bobs Window Cleaning]

Averagin  £400 a week this time of year is good money in anyones eyes.

With all the poope weather we keep getting, i bet most earnings are around £400-£450.

BUT...............£15 for a semi, bloody hell. Wish  I could get that


Bob

[lee_dewing]

thanks guys.
gerard, i always aim for £100 min.
but most times hit £120 a day. basket spend does that mean what i spend on equipment? if so i reckon £10 a week covers perishables i.e filters resin, poles.

regarding other post i do thorough job glass frames but future cleans i only go over frames if visible dirty(sorry did you or discount mention this).

Discount, thanks for tip on george keep thinking of getting, trouble is i've only got rooom for a laptop (i live in  tiny starter home). price of laptops has come down considerabley, also you don't have to have a printer so i been told you can use palm and hot sync em together, no paper.

Don't mean so sound arrogant discount, but i think i pretty well organised or am i not seeing the full picture?

Squeaky, your properly right i'm  not doing to bad, but compared to what others say on here i'm the poor cousin.
hate to say it but do you think some on here aren't entirely honest
thanks all lee

[Sir Squeaky]

Squeaky, your properly right i'm  not doing to bad, but compared to what others say on here i'm the poor cousin.
hate to say it but do you think some on here aren't entirely honest
thanks all lee

We're little more than tadpoles mate.
They're all doing thousands...

[lee_dewing]

gerard, i forgot to say about 230 customers, takes me about 5 weeks to get around.

Ian & bod.

I must clarify i am now charging £15 for semis as it dosen't matter if i do them or not, still a bit of room for maybe 2-3 days work.
suppose £12 is ave for semis and £7-£7.50 fronts. I hate front only jobs and only do if in the road with other jobs(the backs don't get that dirty brigade).
maybe i'm in danger of being arrogant.

also i think i have definately under charged in the past.
I start 9.30am mon-wed till 5pm thurs fri 8.45am-ish till 5pm sometimes i work saturdays on ave 1 a month, but will have to increase this due to mr mum,  pre-school duties.

I hate losing time to the weather(as everyone does i know).

I think it takes me on ave 20 mins to do 3 bed semi as i use trolley system, thinking of getting microbore on steel reel and leave trolley on board as much as poss. still do do a few windows and doors downstairs trad.

hope that helps clarify things a bit more.

[lee_dewing]

thanks ewan.

oh yeh ian bod
i have freedom trolley 10 barrels, ford escot van. if there's any other info needed let us know, probably back on net saturday, need to work hard thurs fri make up for wet weather today.

just rembered working 6 hours ave time you take off travelling about, price at £20 per hour, but been told to price at £30 p/hour as a third of your time is lost  not cleaning windows.
I don't tend to count windows at £1 or £2 a go as 2  houses can be indentical
,same windows, but obstructions i.e plants kids bikes garden furniture, locked gates can alter cleaning time considerablely.

I basically walk round the house and estimate how long job will take, think of the price and try to compare it to any similar jobs on my round.
or say your looking at £15 - £20; give myself a bit of a buffer.

Phew, thanks all  lee

[Clive McDonald]

No you are not getting the full picture.Lots will disagree with me, but this is the reason. It's a big subject and not worth going into unless you are receptive.

[gerard mcmanus]

Hi lee

first thank for your open answers, I know allot of people are a little dubious about putting figure on here, and can understand this.

You have said you work 5 days taking over £100 each day, so I would assume you should be able to generate £500+ per week.

I agree with most people's post on here, you are actually doing quite well, but would say you could do alittle more.

Ok, then 20mins per semi, 2 per hour at £15, 7.5 hours 3 days , then 8.5 two days, thats 34.5 hours taking off an hour lunch each day. So against your £30 per hour thats  £1035 per week, at 13/14 customers per day. So 270 customers per month.

I dont think you will get that but aim high and if you fall alittle short, then at least it was your best effort.

Ok, reading between the lines alittle I sense from the tone of your topic even if it is ok, you are unsure and think yourself you could do more. So here is were I think you could do alittle bit more.

on thur and fri why not start at 8, and could you work to 6 each night.
I would concider using a PC to keep even just a backup of you books, I dont use george I have designed my own database for this but find you wont miss any tricks with a PC system supporting your efforts
Do you think you could do, 13/ 14 per day, and if so aim to increase you books to 270 if you can and I would work saturdays but thats a personal choice you have to make. If you do work sat's you'll only have to do 11 per day at £15, and enjoy a well deserved sunday off.

Also, on the PC point, its absolutely fine not to use one but there is certain advantages that might sway you.

  You can print off your days work incase you miss-place your diary
  You can analyis your data for example;-
  highligh any customers that dont have a next booking date
  Keep recorde of price rises, date, amount, next rise ect
  Date you last changes blades on sqeegee's or resins etc
  Amount of booking you have complete
  list of missed bookings
  List of customer that haven't paid or has outstanding bills
  queery for 4 weekly, 8 week, weekly customers
  Data on which methods you use allowing you to plan ahead, ladders, WFP, extention poles ect.
  You can also use this data to generate reciepts, invoices etc
  as well as mailing list. If you can offer adittional services conservatory cleaning, internal glass doors, mirrors. If you can do more work and get more money off each customer you'll make a good bit more money.

Its worth a thought

hope that helps mate

gerard 

[scrimit2]

gerard, i forgot to say about 230 customers, takes me about 5 weeks to get around.



I must clarify i am now charging £15 for semis as it dosen't matter if i do them or not, still a bit of room for maybe 2-3 days work.
suppose £12 is ave for semis and £7-£7.50 fronts. I hate front only jobs and only do if in the road with other jobs(the backs don't get that dirty brigade).
maybe i'm in danger of being arrogant.

).

I

Just curious when you say average semi, do you mean a house around the size of a council house, with around 10 window and 2 doors?

[NWH]

I`m not trying to start another pointless thread about i earn more than you but it`s makes no difference in how quick you can do a 3 bed semi etc,this job is all about quality work and how much of it you have.The answer to your question is you should be doing far more even with a seriously dodgy week,i`m being honest if i was doing what your quoting i can honestly say i wouldn`t be working for myself,what would be the point.

[monkeyboy950]

i wouldnt frop your front onlys,they might go to someone else for there windows and you could lose windows,doing water fed pole you should be aiming for 150-200 a day,but if your doing a good job and custy happy then stick at it,400 a week aint the worst for a 30 hour week

[seandyer2003]

I`m not trying to start another pointless thread about i earn more than you but it`s makes no difference in how quick you can do a 3 bed semi etc,this job is all about quality work and how much of it you have.The answer to your question is you should be doing far more even with a seriously dodgy week,i`m being honest if i was doing what your quoting i can honestly say i wouldn`t be working for myself,what would be the point.

amen, although minimum wage is 240 etc, thats for no collecting, no overheads etc... 400 when you minus evrything doesnt leave you much better off for all the xtra work!

[NWH]

£13.30 an hour is it worth going self employed,take off expenses he`ll be lucky if he can afford to live.What happens if the van-car goes wrong or another bill crops up,this is what some on here don`t take into account when pricing initially.

[windowwashers]

I`m not trying to start another pointless thread about i earn more than you but it`s makes no difference in how quick you can do a 3 bed semi etc,this job is all about quality work and how much of it you have.The answer to your question is you should be doing far more even with a seriously dodgy week,i`m being honest if i was doing what your quoting i can honestly say i wouldn`t be working for myself,what would be the point.

amen, although minimum wage is 240 etc, thats for no collecting, no overheads etc... 400 when you minus evrything doesnt leave you much better off for all the xtra work!

what extra work hes only doing 6 hours not 8 and idot think his overheads can be anywhere near £160 a week

Wish my overheads were only £160 a week