[seandyer2003]

Heres a scenario for you, 2 neighbours same house small 2 bed, one wants all doing so you say ok ten pound, next door says just fronts you say " sorry my minimum is ten pound" whats gonna happen there when they chat ?? someones gonna feel ripped off!!

[cozy]

Spot on Sean, that's what I meant when I gave the example of a bungalow.

[pingu]

Any of you get to a quote..then with all the experiance you have...just blurt out a stupidly low price which you know is low the very moment the last sylable leaves your lips...

Did that for a house last saturday..I knew in my head that is was worth 22,50 and then 18 came out of my mouth.....

Cheers
Dave.

[seandyer2003]

Quote: seandyer2003

“I dont think it is normal practice mate, some of you do it, alot dont, so why is it "normal practice"??”

seandyer2003 to make sure you have a reasonable or even some profit from each customer/job.




Quote: seandyer2003

“Heres a scenario for you, 2 neighbours same house small 2 bed, one wants all doing so you say ok ten pound, next door says just fronts you say " sorry my minimum is ten pound" whats gonna happen there when they chat ?? someones gonna feel ripped off!!”



Stick with your minimum of £10 and offer to clean back & front, if she only wants the front done that’s her choice, don’t let customers make you drop your price. In this scenario of yours, doing the front only and I assume you will charge £5 will be detrimental to your business.

What if its out of necessity rather than choice as no access etc etc?? Still gonna fall out with you over it when she finds out next door pays same !!

I thought that would be your reply though
if you truly get away with that and arent worried about customer satisfaction then go for it...

[Londoner]

Front only is not the same as whole house price. Front only is £8 whole house £14, bungalows £10.

[AuRavelling79]

A minimum £10 is a good general rule which I generally adhere to but it isn't an inflexible rule.

e.g.

Lots of compact small houses together. (few van moves)
Flats in OAP complexes.
Fronts only.
Fortnightly

But ... if it's a local authority semi size then nowadays that minimum is about right and even more so if the job requires a van move and hose reel in and out all for itself.

Mind you I have sections of compact old stuff at £7.50/£8.50 for which I would now charge £10-£12 and which still pays over £30 ph over a day.

Just thought I'd re-post this as it is the most sensible answer on this thread!

[seandyer2003]

A minimum £10 is a good general rule which I generally adhere to but it isn't an inflexible rule.

e.g.

Lots of compact small houses together. (few van moves)
Flats in OAP complexes.
Fronts only.
Fortnightly

But ... if it's a local authority semi size then nowadays that minimum is about right and even more so if the job requires a van move and hose reel in and out all for itself.

Mind you I have sections of compact old stuff at £7.50/£8.50 for which I would now charge £10-£12 and which still pays over £30 ph over a day.

Just thought I'd re-post this as it is the most sensible answer on this thread!

it is malc:)

just some people insist on conyinuing with drivel that makes no sense, than talking about reality lol

I agree with malc

So really it isnt a "normal practice", as many occasions you cant enforce it

[seandyer2003]

A minimum £10 is a good general rule which I generally adhere to but it isn't an inflexible rule.

e.g.

Lots of compact small houses together. (few van moves)
Flats in OAP complexes.
Fronts only.
Fortnightly

thats was malcs actual post bud

Read everything - not just what you wanna hear...

[groundhog]

I do have a few customers as low as £10, but in general I don't take on any new work for less than £25.

[cozy]

What's minimum price got to do with average price??

[cozy]

As I understand it, not forgeting, my level of understanding is low, as I am only a cap doffing zink bucket tax paying little sideline 20 custies sort of bloke, the average price was the point of the thread, what would be the average price.

In my low level of understanding etc, I see minimum price has been used and banded about by a certain snobbery, well in one case at least.

[mlscontractcleaner]

If I tried to have a minimum charge as high as some on here I'd have no customers : : :

I live in Plymouth and some of the areas I clean in, areas that some window cleaners would no doubt turn their noses up at, are not the most wealthy in the world and I'd get no where trying to charge £14. BUT, 99% of the people living in these areas are just normal families wanting clean windows. They're very compact and as most of them live in flats I can park the van up and stay there for perhaps four hours before having to move again. Charging £6 per flat gives me a very good day's takings as it's easy enough to clean 8 of there flats in an hour without killing yourself.

I have big, expensive accounts but to be honest I can earn more on my council estates than I can ever earn on these big houses.

And I get paid quicker because they're usually home all day

[bad trippy]

Im fed up with all these min £10 boys, if they wanna charge that then thats up to them, greedy sods. My min is only £9.99, i think this is reasonable

[Moderator David@stives]

The point in having a minimum is less transactions per buck.

I hate the admin involved when the lads have returned havind done over 100 cleans, it takes me forever to proccess, then theres the "they wasnt in"   " just fronts"    "Can you come back tommorrow"  " they said they didnt owe"  etc etc, then theres the phone calls and the cheques and money dropping through the letter box.

It drives me nuts.

I much prefer when they have been on an all day job, one transaction, one invoice. Heaven

[cozy]

The point in having a minimum is less transactions per buck.

I hate the admin involved when the lads have returned havind done over 100 cleans, it takes me forever to proccess, then theres the "they wasnt in"   " just fronts"    "Can you come back tommorrow"  " they said they didnt owe"  etc etc, then theres the phone calls and the cheques and money dropping through the letter box.

It drives me nuts.

I much prefer when they have been on an all day job, one transaction, one invoice. Heaven

Dave, if you read MLS's answer, then in this case a min price would be damaging. The post was asking "average" price of a semi etc.The size of the operation you run doesn't have much in common with every day WC's.I think there is always someone on these sort of threads that tend to let their "big business flag" hang out.Not you by the way.

[Moderator David@stives]

Cozy

Even if it were 20 jobs done by myself there is 20 jobs to drive to, 20 jobs to proccess, 20 payments to proccess and 20 jobs to reschedule.

Each job needs a certain price to cover this admin, if you are ever thinking of expanding you have to take account of these things


Back to the post, we would charge £10 min maybe more

[cozy]

I know, I have shrunk my biz since about the end of the 90's. I have done all the hospital stuff and done loads of stuff for firms like Opel or Dr Oetker (Large companies here).But if we are talking about a guy with,lets say 200 or so custies, then it's a different story.

[SteveAllan]

Wish i could charge £10 min I work off 70p per windie, seems the norm where i am.

[groundhog]

Wish i could charge £10 min I work off 70p per windie, seems the norm where i am.

Where I live there are many other window cleaners who charge silly prices, ie £8 for a 4 bed detached!!!!!! But that dosn't mean that you have to do the same as they do!! I charge £25 for the average 4 bed detached and I get plenty of them!! Don't copy the FOOLS!!!!!!

[Ian_Giles]

I also have a minimum charge of a tenner...but that is flexible to a certain degree.

Call out a plumber or an electrician and you will have a minimum charge, probably covering up to the first hour, and yes, I know, the circumstances are very different, but it makes life very much easier to have a minimum charge.

If someone comes up to me in the street asking how much I charge, or call up on the phone then I start out telling them there is a minimum charge of a tenner, and that it could also increase depending on how far I have to travel, if they don't want my services then fine.
As Dave has said, you have to cover administration, and even the smallest of jobs requires you to get there, unload, do the job, re-pack your vehicle, invoice or collect...
I don't care if they are all back to back, and fortnightly?? Even then, if all of your round was fortnightly, there are only so many houses you clean per day, so why clean them cheaper because they are fortnightly??
Time taken to clean them isn't sufficiently different from cleaning ever 4 weeks rather than every 2 weeks, I find little difference in 4 weekly to 8 weekly.
So I'd personally rather have higher priced work either monthly or 8 weekly, even if that means needing more customers and more travelling...but then I prefer a spread out round to a compact one...

Average price though?...mmmm.....well my minimum target price is approx a tenner, my average price for domestic work though is over £20.00.

Ian