[karygate]

two things. you have to clean a lot of houses quickly to cover their big mortgages and no matter how many w/c i see i still see twice as many window fitters and plumbers.

[peter holley]

two things. you have to clean a lot of houses quickly to cover their big mortgages and no matter how many w/c i see i still see twice as many window fitters and plumbers.

i have a big mortgage.....i dont get your point?

[windowswashed]

Compact rounds keep the price down, but would you still clean them at a cheaper price if you start losing several?

[Ian_Giles]

It is all very well either builders being short of work or people having been made redundant starting up window cleaning, but they still have to get the work!
That isn't an easy thing to do...it becomes self limiting.
For those of us who have already built up and established rounds, we are unlikely to lose more than a handful of accounts, especially if the work we have done is good, and the price isn't excessive.
Most people don't want to swap and chop just to save a pound, they also realise when the price they are charged is in fact reasonable. If they are paying £15 and someone comes along and says they will do it for a tenner, unless £15 is way high for the work they are going to know it is probably just some fly-by-night window cleaner who isn't going to last more than a couple of months.

It's much harder to build a round in times of recession!! And if there are new window cleaners around every corner, there will be far to little work to go around and sustain them all!!
It becomes self limiting in the end and if you are well established then you are far better set to withstand the recession than someone starting out.

And as for Matt and the 25 quid price V his 10 quid price;

Well I'm with Matt on this one, maybe he could have gone from 10 quid to £12.50 but an average semi is only going to take him 10 or 15 minutes to clean, and 25 or 30 quid falls well into the category of over priced and greedy (in most area's of the country anyway)
And the customer is also going to be well aware some window cleaner who knocks out their house in ten minutes and then knocks on the door asking for £30 is ripping her off.

We all want to make good money, but it is no good just charging extortionate prices to do it. You make money by working smart, if you are a one man outfit then you hone your skills so that you are as quick and efficient as it is possible to be.
If you have what it takes then you will build your business, employ others and so on and so forth.

In times of plenty you might get away with sky high prices, but when the bad times come, then you are the window cleaner who is going to lose out to those very builders who are starting up!

Whereas matt, charging a tenner a house will still be earning bloody good money and won't be losing more than a handful of accounts to new starters....

Ian

[Dave Turley]

I know I wouldn't ke to be starting up at the moment. I put about 700 good  leaflets out at the start of december to detatched properties  and have had one call (got the job). still getting about 3 a week from advertising/recommendations  etc. (i don't think that's too bad considering recession/time of year.

[BORBRYCE]

Hi all, first time poster on this particular forum. Im a builder, joiner by trade, done a tiling course 2 years ago as well, loads and I mean loads of work until August this year (2008). Drummer and guitarist in cover bands as well, also since 1989 been a self employed window cleaner, went wfp 3 yrs ago now. Read loads about the "crunch" on various forums of all types. The post by Ian -Giles really does sum up the situation perfectly for all sensible inteligent window cleaners (yup.......there are some out there). My wee point is this, read his thread, and if you or your buisness plan doesnt totally agree with his point of view, considering this economic instability, well then I  think your up crak kreek without a paddle. Things will get a helluva lot tougher no matter where you live and work in the UK. Price is absoulutely everything (forget quallity of work...... we are only cleaners), what we do can be done by almost anyone with health on their side.
Happy new year to all and all the best for 2009 .........And good luck..... we may all need it.

[Londoner]

I was cleaning a house a couple of weeks ago in a road where I do about a quarter of the houses. When the owner paid me she said that the lady opposite in no 93 wanted me to knock.

So when I went there and knocked I quoted her £14 which is what I charge the other houses in the street although that price is a bit old now. It could do with putting up to £16.

OK she said after I had told her £14 , my present window cleaner charges £15 so you've got the job. She was prepared to dump her old WC for £1.

So now I have the job until someone knocks and quotes £13. You see, they do exist. Lets just hope there aren't too many of them. I don't have many illusions anymore, as Ronnie says "we are only cleaners".

[groundhog]

Well I'm with Matt on this one, maybe he could have gone from 10 quid to £12.50 but an average semi is only going to take him 10 or 15 minutes to clean, and 25 or 30 quid falls well into the category of over priced and greedy (in most area's of the country anyway)

Ian

Actually Matt said it took him half an hour, not 10-15mins!! What happened to the Ian who used to say he worked out his prices at £1 a minute?  My point is that if people like you and you sell yourself and your services well, you will be able to charge a higher price! If you go in with a high price, you can always lower it if the customer says no, I have done this many times, and if done right the customer feels good because they feel that you are doing them a favour. Many people I speak to are actually feeling better off than before this whole credit crunch thing, for example my own mortgage has gone down by over £500 a month in the last couple of months! Diesel is cheaper, and there are bargains everywhere! The only customers I think you are going to lose are the ones who are made redundant, and you will probably lose these no matter what you charge!! In the last 3 months I have lost just one customer (he was made redundant) and I have continued to gain new customers at a rate of about 2-3 a week, with no advertising, just a handful of leaflets put out every week.

As for being 'just a cleaner' well I would say that not all cleaners are equal! There is a window cleaner in my area who employs 3 blokes and has well over 1000 customers, I reguarly get calls from his customers asking for a price as they are not happy with his work, on average my price is 2.5 times what he charges, ie he charges £10 I charge £25. And I nearly always get the job! I get it because I have been recomended to the customer, because of the way I conduct myself when I price up, and the fact that they know I am going to do an excellent job! 

[simon knight]

 and the fact that they know I am going to do an excellent job! 

My customers just want a fairly competant done for £10. People who want perfection for £25 aren't my sort of customers because competant I am, perfectionist I ain't

[AuRavelling79]

OK chaps Karm doyne! Karm doyne!

This is how I see it....

How many custies have you lost between Jan-June 2008 and July-Dec 2008?

Me? Less than a dozen and I can think of only four that I believe are due to the recession and that was in October/November when everything went "free fall" in bank-land. (The rest was down to me dropping (2) them dying (2) or moving (2/3)

In the same period, with no effort I have picked up about two dozen and when diesel rocketed in July/Aug I even lifted the price of a few underpriced accounts.

Now, I too think things will get tougher next year but I am confident that I will lose only those who lose their jobs and those who get targetted by an underpricing newbie. Knowing the make-up of my round I predict (in an "I'll eat my hat" sort of way ) that I will lose:

5/7 to job loss
4/5 to natural wastage
2 to me dropping
5/6 to new cleaners

and will gain

10/12 recommends

If I average all these at about £12, I lose £240 pcm and gain £120 pcm.

I can live with that, but I won't because by the end of month three if my prediction proves true then I will door knock around my existing custies.

[groundhog]

My customers just want a fairly competant done for £10. People who want perfection for £25 aren't my sort of customers because competant I am, perfectionist I ain't

Doing a perfect job with wfp is easy! why would you settle for anything less? 

[dai]

and the fact that they know I am going to do an excellent job! 

My customers just want a fairly competant done for £10. People who want perfection for £25 aren't my sort of customers because competant I am, perfectionist I ain't

That's me too Simon, If they want a valeting job they can have it, but not for the ten quid they are prepared to pay.

[simon knight]

My customers just want a fairly competant done for £10. People who want perfection for £25 aren't my sort of customers because competant I am, perfectionist I ain't

Doing a perfect job with wfp is easy! why would you settle for anything less? 

I'm trad not wfp. But if it's "easy" doing a perfect job with wfp why are you able to charge 2.5 times what others are charging?

Either you're a master of the wfp technique and give far far superior results than your peers and can thus command 2.5 times the price....or you're just simply overpriced (note here: I've avoided saying rip-off merchant )

So mon ami, are you offering a superior wfp service?...but no you can't be as you've implied that anybody can do that. Or are you merely overcharging?

If it's the former then yes you deserved the premium over other window cleaners in your area.

But if it's the latter then good luck to you, but please don't make some kind of virtue out of it!

[craig b]

sorry for this groundhog but i think you our full of crap...
you seem to be ripping people of...if you tell the truth about your prices.
maybe you do them every 8 weeks or more..and thats why you charge so much.
you dont wear uniform... your probably not insured..god knows what your vans like..
you use a harris pole....you put clips on u tube...again you dont look very profesional or  value  for money..

if your telling the truth...you will feel the pressure over the next few years.
but i dont think you would come this forum a tell us you were losing customers because people would jump on you back..... may be you just like leading people up the garden path...

[groundhog]

sorry for this groundhog but i think you our full of crap...
you seem to be ripping people of...if you tell the truth about your prices.
maybe you do them every 8 weeks or more..and thats why you charge so much.
you dont wear uniform... your probably not insured..god knows what your vans like..
you use a harris pole....you put clips on u tube...again you dont look very profesional or  value  for money..

if your telling the truth...you will feel the pressure over the next few years.
but i dont think you would come this forum a tell us you were losing customers because people would jump on you back..... may be you just like leading people up the garden path...

Well I really don't know why I have bothered coming back to the forum, with replies like this I don't think I will be wasting anymore of my valuable time here! Goodbye 

[dai]

My customers just want a fairly competant done for £10. People who want perfection for £25 aren't my sort of customers because competant I am, perfectionist I ain't

Doing a perfect job with wfp is easy! why would you settle for anything less? 

I have read on past posts that some cleaners even do the guttering on cons as standard, fine if customers are prepared to pay for the extra work, It's the same when it comes to changing brushes to do the top sills.
I think what Simon is getting at is that many customers want the job done as cheaply as possible, certainly true with most of mine, so be it, they get whatever they want to pay for.

Groundhog, don't be daft, your posts are valued, and I thought you had a thicker skin than that.

[craig b]

groundhog i wasnt being nasty...i was just telling it as see and read...
if you tell the truth,,then maybe you will have to think hard how you take your business forward.(maybe iam to cheap) i have areas and streets on my round so its compact
maybe thats why iam affordable..
example ..i under cut a window cleaner.semi detached bungalow with small canservatory
he charged £14.00 ..i charged £8.
i have 10 propertys in this culd-a-sac of 15..he had one
when he was dropped he said i couldnt do as good a job for that price.
he only did one side of the conservatory he didnt do frames and the sils wear green.
it took me approx 15mins no more

people will under cut because they can it doesnt mean they do a crap job.
 it will happen to you...

[NWH]

sorry for this groundhog but i think you our full of crap...
you seem to be ripping people of...if you tell the truth about your prices.
maybe you do them every 8 weeks or more..and thats why you charge so much.
you dont wear uniform... your probably not insured..god knows what your vans like..
you use a harris pole....you put clips on u tube...again you dont look very profesional or  value  for money..

if your telling the truth...you will feel the pressure over the next few years.
but i dont think you would come this forum a tell us you were losing customers because people would jump on you back..... may be you just like leading people up the garden path...

Well I really don't know why I have bothered coming back to the forum, with replies like this I don't think I will be wasting anymore of my valuable time here! Goodbye 

Groundhog you just have to ignore it mate,you can`t tell some on here it`s like banging your head against a brick wall if they can`t do it numptyody can attitude.

[craig b]

topic recession.....
times getting harder and tuffer...
if you have inflated prices you can be under cut and will lose work..
if you can get away with ripping people of fair play ..
horses for courses i suppose...

[Oakley Windows]

Im sure Groundhog can take it, he dishes it out, therefore of course he can take it 

Wouldnt worry, if he meant it he would have deleted his account.