Neil
Jan is always quiet, last year I did 50% off and had the best Jan ever, worked twice as hard but earned alot of money. If i had not done this then I would not have worked very much I dont think in Jan. I only ever offer this in Jan but will allow bookings for feb, March back to normal.
I have 9 GSCE's A levels and a degree in IT. I bet alot on here have qualifications in something. I started this business because I wanted to do something different from my normal 80 hr weeks I was doing in IT. You cant compare anything we do to other Jobs, Why do people always compare, you are worth what your customers think you are worth.
I always try and sell high and I have picked up a number of contracts this year that have changed my business, Is this because of my cleaning, no its because I Wine and Dined them and sold what I had to offer, If I only charged £40 an hour for the work they would have just thought i was to cheap and looked elsewhere.
Why is getting more than £40 a bad thing, Dentist Charge upwards of £1000 for a Route filling, it takes 3 hrs to do and I imagine cost are peanuts. If you've always been a Window/Carpet Cleaner then I can understand why you think that we are only cleaners but I havent and hate it when people describe us as cleaners.
Cleaning is the end product in a excercise to make money, Marketing Selling and Customers Services, these are more important as this is what brings the money in.
Why drop your prices because you are saving on marketing, the whole point of this is to make money and do a damn good job. Market more and grow the business if thats the case and cherry pick the jobs you want.