[AuRavelling79]

Over the last few years I have successfully raised my prices every other year on my work until this year when with the fuel prices dropping and recession hitting I did not feel it was wise to do.

Now, Ewan has made me think and I am wondering what would be the effect if I were to bite the bullet and raise some more of my custies to a £10 minimum?

I am thinking of my more compact areas particularly.

[Moderator David@stives]

I reckon you will come out of it with more money and less customers.

[martinsadie]

I reckon you will come out of it with more money and less customers.

agreed and another cleaner on your round

[concept]

I reckon you will come out of it with more money and less customers.

working smarter, not harder.

[Moderator David@stives]

Dont worry about other window cleaners, there are over 28 million proprties in the UK, anyone can  find 2-300 properties at the prices you want.

My Ideal scenario is to have less than 100  customers, currently i have about 600 and about 20 of that 600 of them pay me 80 % of my turnover.

[birdymiller]

As stan says by putting up your prices and loosing some, may be all your customers to another cheaper cleaner. Look at the wider picture by gaining a couple of quid a house you could end up loosing alot. Once you let more competition into to the market the prices will fall, keep a monoploy and look after your customers and gradually raise them. Put them up when we are not going through the worst reccession for many years. All this talk of being busy fools and this is how i run my business so if they dont like it they can lump it, makes no sense. Be satisfied that you have enough work, earn good money and can adapt your business to carry on running in a reccession.

[luther1]

Have i read that wrong Dave,so why don't you drop 580 customers and only lose 20% off your income?

[Small but perfectley formed]

Hi Birdymiller you are from Rotherham ? what areas you clean

[trevor perry]

Have i read that wrong Dave,so why don't you drop 580 customers and only lose 20% off your income?

obviously the twenty customers that make up 80% of daves work are big accounts and therefore would be a major blow if he lost them, by keeping the 580 lower paying jobs he would always have something to fall back on and keep a wage coming in for himself, as his business grows more i am sure he may sell some of these smaller accounts on as they can become a bit of an hastle,

[Moderator David@stives]

Yes , what Trevor said.

Also as I grow i take on more staff It is good work to put new staff on, also it is hard letting go. maybe one day.

Another thing, 20 % takes up about half my time the other 80% takes up the other half.

One good marketing lesson would be to get rid of half the staff and get rid of the 80 %, but i feel an obligation to my staff hence why we keep it.

In fact just checking through my figures it is more like 70/30

If I went solo again, I would sack all my houses and just keep the 20 customers, plus some smaller commercial accounts.

[luther1]

I see,didn't realise that there was staff involved!I did my mental arithmatic on the presumption that you were solo.

[geefree]

Has anyone had a major negative response after putting most of the prices up on their rounds?... e.g...losing lots of customers.

I am printing a flyer to post with my "your windows have been cleaned today" card....... and putting the prices up on all houses which i believe are slightly underpriced.

[ftp]

but there is a limit to every job. You can't put your prices up every six months just because you've got plenty of work. There has to be a ceiling, a line where customers will tell you to go forth and multiply. Some of these business ideas are rather flawed at times.

[leapstallbuildings]

I had a customer ask me to reduce the price recently due to deflation.  I started to reel off the reasons that I wouldn't do it and he started laughing.  He's a decent guy and was just pulling my leg because I haven't increased the price for 4 years.  He then said he was going to pay an extra £1 a clean from next time because he wanted to make sure I kept calling.

[birdymiller]

Hi Birdymiller you are from Rotherham ? what areas you clean

Mainly aston, but have rounds in whiston, ravenfield, killamarsh and beighton.

[Clive McDonald]

Is this one of your personality tests Malc? I think we all pass.(behaved as expected)

What i find, in relation to the question and the eighty twenty rule etc, is that all businesses come to ressemble ourselves, large expansive thinkers have better businesses than timid worrying types. A couple ot times ftp has said he is not a businessman and then done a passable analysis and suggested a good strategy- that's all there is to it.Of course you can be wrong, but providing you think and don't behave at random that is business even if you go bust.

The answer to your question on a cost benefit analysis is that it is marginal. In other words it's not going to make much difference either way.To make a difference you need to be more radical.

[ftp]

The only ones I have raised so far have been the few that I'd be happy to lose. I haven't increased my prices in well over two years since I started, the reason being that up to a couple of months ago I felt I was still building my customer base, I was already earning a good wage and felt there was no need to increase. Now I have so much work I tend to overprice new jobs because I can afford not to do them. As long as I'm earning plenty I don't feel the need to put pries up. A business guide would say i'm doing it all wrong and should increase my prices every six months.
Maybe I've got so much work because my prices are reasonable, I don't know.
A fair price for a fair days work and all that.

Malc, if you raise the lowest jobs surely they become overpriced compared to the next level?
Say you raise a flat from £6 to £10 then it may be in the realms of a three bed semi - bit unfair?

[Clive McDonald]

My other business is selling socks on the market. The prices i charge are the same or lower than when i started twenty years ago.There tend to be price points, my favourite being £5, other people like £2.99. So for example i sell a pack of twelve sport socks for £5 and people are happier with this than if it was £4.50. I tend to use price points in window cleaning too, such as £10.

The prices we buy the stuff in at have gone down, although this has begun to change in the last year or so.There is no business manual that tells you to put your prices up beyond what the market will bear.

There are three variables, price, volume and value. (possibly compactness has a bearing too).Expansion is the key, either buy better kit (ftp has invested in gutters), or get help.Everything else is a dead end.

[Clive McDonald]

You never know with malc, the one thing he does is read people well, so it crossed my mind that he wanted to start me and ewan off again, to see how much nonsence we'd talk.

My tanks doing well by the way.

[ftp]

Slump, you are right about the gutters i seem to have found a niche market in gutter cleaning rather by accident. There seems to be a fair amount of work about in my area where customers want the full works. They want their house cleaned from top to bottom - all the whites as one customer requested. I don't advertise the service other than a 'gutter cleaning' magnet on the bonnet of my van. It's a good add on, the only downside is that it's hard work and pretty time consuming.
I would ask about in your area to see what the competition are charging - you would be suprised i'm sure.
My pricing isn't settled yet I'm still probing and trying to find a level that's consistant. some are happy to pay two guys on ladders £150 for three hours work. Windowcleaners tend to shun the service because it disrupts their round.