[♠Winp®oClean♠]

Can't knock the guys for charging what they did, we don't know the circumstances or the conversation they had with the customer. They could well of thought she was gonna be a one off, you know, when you get that feeling, they say they're gonna be regular but you get the feeling they're not. Think we've all been stung with that one.

Anyway Simon Knight, I would have done the same to be honest if it suited me & my work, although I might have gone a tad higher on the price.

Infact, just last year I got a job (houshold name, extremely wealthy) The last guy charged just shy of £500 & he was wfp too like me. I quoted £135, it's approx 3 hours work wfp! I never knew the other guys price untill after I quoted mine, but like you, I told the house keeper they'd been shafted!

Needless to say, it's still my job & both me & the customer are happy.

[williamx]

Simon

You said you did 11 terraced houses at £10 a pop, how long did they take you?

2 hours(ish)

You're now gonna say: "So you're earning £55ph Simon"

True, but I'm not stinging one person for £110...there is a big difference!

Yes you are, because it took 2 of them 1 hour which matches your figures of £55 per hour per man.

You also have to work out what you normally do per hour over the whole week.

I also price what my hourly rate currently is so if I am earning £55 per hour and you reckon that this job will take you 1 1/2 hours then I would charge £82.5

[simon knight]

Simon

You said you did 11 terraced houses at £10 a pop, how long did they take you?

2 hours(ish)

You're now gonna say: "So you're earning £55ph Simon"

True, but I'm not stinging one person for £110...there is a big difference!

Yes you are, because it took 2 of them 1 hour which matches your figures of £55 per hour per man.

You also have to work out what you normally do per hour over the whole week.

I also price what my hourly rate currently is so if I am earning £55 per hour and you reckon that this job will take you 1 1/2 hours then I would charge £82.5

Throw the maths around as much as you like but at the end of the day nobody with any sense will pay £110 for their 3 bed semi to be cleaned both sides...would you?

[williamx]

Simon

You said you did 11 terraced houses at £10 a pop, how long did they take you?

2 hours(ish)

You're now gonna say: "So you're earning £55ph Simon"

True, but I'm not stinging one person for £110...there is a big difference!

Yes you are, because it took 2 of them 1 hour which matches your figures of £55 per hour per man.

You also have to work out what you normally do per hour over the whole week.

I also price what my hourly rate currently is so if I am earning £55 per hour and you reckon that this job will take you 1 1/2 hours then I would charge £82.5

Throw the maths around as much as you like but at the end of the day nobody with any sense will pay £110 for their 3 bed semi to be cleaned both sides...would you?

Simon

What I am trying to say, is do not quote lower than what you are already earning.

I have a minimum hourly rate of between £35 and £40, I do not compromise on these figures, if they are not willing to pay what I quote then that is up to them.

I also have quite a few jobs where the hourly rate does reach £100 and above, I am not embarrased by these charges, I do an excellent job and never let them down, they have also been on my books for quite a few years and they have been approached by other cleaners at cheaper prices but they still want me.

[South Coast Cleaning Services]

Simon

You said you did 11 terraced houses at £10 a pop, how long did they take you?

2 hours(ish)

You're now gonna say: "So you're earning £55ph Simon"

True, but I'm not stinging one person for £110...there is a big difference!

Yes you are, because it took 2 of them 1 hour which matches your figures of £55 per hour per man.

You also have to work out what you normally do per hour over the whole week.

I also price what my hourly rate currently is so if I am earning £55 per hour and you reckon that this job will take you 1 1/2 hours then I would charge £82.5

Throw the maths around as much as you like but at the end of the day nobody with any sense will pay £110 for their 3 bed semi to be cleaned both sides...would you?

So what you saying is your new custy doesnt have any sense as she agreed and paid it 

[simon knight]

Simon

You said you did 11 terraced houses at £10 a pop, how long did they take you?

2 hours(ish)

You're now gonna say: "So you're earning £55ph Simon"

True, but I'm not stinging one person for £110...there is a big difference!

Yes you are, because it took 2 of them 1 hour which matches your figures of £55 per hour per man.

You also have to work out what you normally do per hour over the whole week.

I also price what my hourly rate currently is so if I am earning £55 per hour and you reckon that this job will take you 1 1/2 hours then I would charge £82.5

Throw the maths around as much as you like but at the end of the day nobody with any sense will pay £110 for their 3 bed semi to be cleaned both sides...would you?

So what you saying is your new custy doesnt have any sense as she agreed and paid it 

She obviously does have sense because she she sought a second opinion(with me) because she realised/suspected that £110 was a rip-off.

It's a bit like you going to a shop and buying a product for X amount and when you get home thinking "Hm, I'm happy with the product but with hindsight perhaps I've paid through the nose and could have gotten the same product cheaper had I shopped around".

It's all very well trying to maximise ones earnings but we're offering a luxury product which has to be affordable month in month out. Clearly £110 bi-monthly equates to £660pa...this is a 2 week holiday in Spain.

[williamx]

Simon

You said you did 11 terraced houses at £10 a pop, how long did they take you?

2 hours(ish)

You're now gonna say: "So you're earning £55ph Simon"

True, but I'm not stinging one person for £110...there is a big difference!

Yes you are, because it took 2 of them 1 hour which matches your figures of £55 per hour per man.

You also have to work out what you normally do per hour over the whole week.

I also price what my hourly rate currently is so if I am earning £55 per hour and you reckon that this job will take you 1 1/2 hours then I would charge £82.5

Throw the maths around as much as you like but at the end of the day nobody with any sense will pay £110 for their 3 bed semi to be cleaned both sides...would you?

So what you saying is your new custy doesnt have any sense as she agreed and paid it 

She obviously does have sense because she she sought a second opinion(with me) because she realised/suspected that £110 was a rip-off.

It's a bit like you going to a shop and buying a product for X amount and when you get home thinking "Hm, I'm happy with the product but with hindsight perhaps I've paid through the nose and could have gotten the same product cheaper had I shopped around".

It's all very well trying to maximise ones earnings but we're offering a luxury product which has to be affordable month in month out. Clearly £110 bi-monthly equates to £660pa...this is a 2 week holiday in Spain.

I am araid that she is the one who will be going to spain for 2 weeks while you might be able to get a day trip to the sea side.

[simon knight]

Simon

You said you did 11 terraced houses at £10 a pop, how long did they take you?

2 hours(ish)

You're now gonna say: "So you're earning £55ph Simon"

True, but I'm not stinging one person for £110...there is a big difference!

Yes you are, because it took 2 of them 1 hour which matches your figures of £55 per hour per man.

You also have to work out what you normally do per hour over the whole week.

I also price what my hourly rate currently is so if I am earning £55 per hour and you reckon that this job will take you 1 1/2 hours then I would charge £82.5

Throw the maths around as much as you like but at the end of the day nobody with any sense will pay £110 for their 3 bed semi to be cleaned both sides...would you?

So what you saying is your new custy doesnt have any sense as she agreed and paid it 

She obviously does have sense because she she sought a second opinion(with me) because she realised/suspected that £110 was a rip-off.

It's a bit like you going to a shop and buying a product for X amount and when you get home thinking "Hm, I'm happy with the product but with hindsight perhaps I've paid through the nose and could have gotten the same product cheaper had I shopped around".

It's all very well trying to maximise ones earnings but we're offering a luxury product which has to be affordable month in month out. Clearly £110 bi-monthly equates to £660pa...this is a 2 week holiday in Spain.

I am araid that she is the one who will be going to spain for 2 weeks while you might be able to get a day trip to the sea side.

 

[landy2]

what goes around comes around

[Frankybadboy]

money,  how much do i earn yawnnnnnnnnnnnn





here we go again

[Dennis Taylor]

money,  how much do i earn yawnnnnnnnnnnnn





here we go again

Yeah heard it all before, especially around Christmas time when many of the millionaires on here were crying poverty due to having 2 weeks off due to the snow.
Me...... i earn £40 a week all in, and i keep the lot 'cause i'm a selfish sonofabitch 
What i earn is between me and my accountant, not for all and sundry to paw over. It does this trade no good what so ever as it only encourages others to move in on us and undrcut our prices.

[StanA]

sounds ok to me, i try and earn £60 phr. i wouldnt call them cowboys just cos there on more than you.

I didn't call them cowboys, in fact I said they did a "fair job".

It's just that clearly to most people £110 for a 3 bed house is the "wrong" money (why else would the woman want a second opiniion?) and it doen't matter if there was "half a man hour to get there" (per StanA) as we all have to accept that it takes time to get from one job to the next.
Proof of the pudding is: They will in future earn nowt from this customer.
                                      I will earn £240 a year.
                                      QED

I disagree.  I don't know how you work your round Simon but I do mine in areas.  It's by doing it this way that I can keep my overheads down a bit.  If a new customer wants an individual appointment (i.e. doing the insides as well) and this pulls me from the area where I'm currently working then I'm afraid they can pay a bit extra for that.  Naturally I won't always do this.  If it looks like it might be a good, solid, regular customer then I may well swallow extra costs for the first clean.  However, if it appears to me that this might be a customer who will want to have a one off or a customer who will often be after special treatment (i.e. increase my costs) then I'm afraid that this has to be passed on.  It's either that or the rest of the customers pay indirectly for this or I earn less.

It was very easy at first to fill my books with customers who wanted me to jump through hoops for minimal reward.  I was often grateful to do it too as it was either that or sit at home.  The challenge came when my books were full.  I had to ask myself whether I wanted to go out and get a better customer who pays a good rate and is happy to fit in with my work schedule or do I continue working for say 70% of the money for someone who p's me about.
IMO empathising with a customer is good and healthy.
Thinking like one is bad for business though.
£55 an hour IMO is only a bit on the high side because it's all from one household.  If they had to defer other work to give her an appointment then it doesn't sound unreasonable.  Personally, unless it was very lucrative, I wouldn't even want a domestic  job where I have to do insides every time or most times.

Imagine you're doing compact work in one town and someone wants you to break off from that to do what might be a one off in another town twenty minutes drive away.  If you have a full schedule, that is going to cost you time (aka money).

[StanA]

Simon

You said you did 11 terraced houses at £10 a pop, how long did they take you?

2 hours(ish)

You're now gonna say: "So you're earning £55ph Simon"

True, but I'm not stinging one person for £110...there is a big difference!

Yes you are, because it took 2 of them 1 hour which matches your figures of £55 per hour per man.

You also have to work out what you normally do per hour over the whole week.

I also price what my hourly rate currently is so if I am earning £55 per hour and you reckon that this job will take you 1 1/2 hours then I would charge £82.5

Throw the maths around as much as you like but at the end of the day nobody with any sense will pay £110 for their 3 bed semi to be cleaned both sides...would you?

So what you saying is your new custy doesnt have any sense as she agreed and paid it 

She obviously does have sense because she she sought a second opinion(with me) because she realised/suspected that £110 was a rip-off.

It's a bit like you going to a shop and buying a product for X amount and when you get home thinking "Hm, I'm happy with the product but with hindsight perhaps I've paid through the nose and could have gotten the same product cheaper had I shopped around".

It's all very well trying to maximise ones earnings but we're offering a luxury product which has to be affordable month in month out. Clearly £110 bi-monthly equates to £660pa...this is a 2 week holiday in Spain.

I am araid that she is the one who will be going to spain for 2 weeks while you might be able to get a day trip to the sea side.

 

Can you bring me back a stick of rock Simon? 

[williamx]

Simon

You said you did 11 terraced houses at £10 a pop, how long did they take you?

2 hours(ish)

You're now gonna say: "So you're earning £55ph Simon"

True, but I'm not stinging one person for £110...there is a big difference!

Yes you are, because it took 2 of them 1 hour which matches your figures of £55 per hour per man.

You also have to work out what you normally do per hour over the whole week.

I also price what my hourly rate currently is so if I am earning £55 per hour and you reckon that this job will take you 1 1/2 hours then I would charge £82.5

Throw the maths around as much as you like but at the end of the day nobody with any sense will pay £110 for their 3 bed semi to be cleaned both sides...would you?

So what you saying is your new custy doesnt have any sense as she agreed and paid it 

She obviously does have sense because she she sought a second opinion(with me) because she realised/suspected that £110 was a rip-off.

It's a bit like you going to a shop and buying a product for X amount and when you get home thinking "Hm, I'm happy with the product but with hindsight perhaps I've paid through the nose and could have gotten the same product cheaper had I shopped around".

It's all very well trying to maximise ones earnings but we're offering a luxury product which has to be affordable month in month out. Clearly £110 bi-monthly equates to £660pa...this is a 2 week holiday in Spain.

I am araid that she is the one who will be going to spain for 2 weeks while you might be able to get a day trip to the sea side.

 

Can you bring me back a stick of rock Simon? 

I am sorry, but Simon does not earn enough for luxuries, you will have to buy your own rock.

[Cheap Skate]

When someone knocks on her door and offers to do it for £30.00 she will soon sack you.
You work in Putney where the average house must be £500,000 and are earning £55.00 an hour doing 2 up 2 downs
And you are happy coz you got a job that you estimate will earn you £26.00 an hour  doing a semi in and out
Is that good business? NO

[simon knight]

Simon

You said you did 11 terraced houses at £10 a pop, how long did they take you?

2 hours(ish)

You're now gonna say: "So you're earning £55ph Simon"

True, but I'm not stinging one person for £110...there is a big difference!

Yes you are, because it took 2 of them 1 hour which matches your figures of £55 per hour per man.

You also have to work out what you normally do per hour over the whole week.

I also price what my hourly rate currently is so if I am earning £55 per hour and you reckon that this job will take you 1 1/2 hours then I would charge £82.5

Throw the maths around as much as you like but at the end of the day nobody with any sense will pay £110 for their 3 bed semi to be cleaned both sides...would you?

So what you saying is your new custy doesnt have any sense as she agreed and paid it 

She obviously does have sense because she she sought a second opinion(with me) because she realised/suspected that £110 was a rip-off.

It's a bit like you going to a shop and buying a product for X amount and when you get home thinking "Hm, I'm happy with the product but with hindsight perhaps I've paid through the nose and could have gotten the same product cheaper had I shopped around".

It's all very well trying to maximise ones earnings but we're offering a luxury product which has to be affordable month in month out. Clearly £110 bi-monthly equates to £660pa...this is a 2 week holiday in Spain.

I am araid that she is the one who will be going to spain for 2 weeks while you might be able to get a day trip to the sea side.

 

Can you bring me back a stick of rock Simon? 

I am sorry, but Simon does not earn enough for luxuries, you will have to buy your own rock.

Call me old fashioned but I don't  think £26.66ph is all that dreadful...enough for a stick of rock and probably a plate of whelks as well. 

[jonnyald]

i wouldnt have the front to charge what those guys were- but i spose if theyv got the front ,every now and then somebody takes the bait and maybe only need to work a few houses 

[Ian_Giles]

£26.66 per hour might sound a great income if you are an employee, but it sucks if you are self employed.

Your wages and your business turnover are two very different things.

If at the end of your financial year and after completing your accounts the income you draw off your business turnover is £55,452.80 per year then WOW! fantastic income.

for a 3 bed house the price does sound excessive, but also the time taken too.

For instance; WFP outside = 20 minutes absolute max for one person.
Inside trad = 40 min max for one person, depends of course on how awkward the insides are, ie, furnishings, carpets, window sills full of ornaments and whatnot.

But if you are earning £60.00 an hour doing little terraced properties, what on earth is the point of taking on a house that will actually cause your income to drop?!

Pricing per hour on individual properties is not a good way of going about it, for one thing, as you get faster at a job you end out doing more work in that hour, ergo if you start out that way from the beginning your relative income for work done will keep dropping as your speed increases!!

You are not being paid for how long a job takes you, if I did that I have some shop fronts that I'd only have to charge 50p for!
Some window cleaners will be 2 or 3 times faster (or slower!) that other window cleaners, does this mean that its perfectly ok for the slow window cleaner to charge 3 times more than the fast one??

And if you are a London window cleaner your rate will also need to be higher due to the higher cost of living there.

Window cleaning is a manual job, just about any grunt can do it, but it is also a business and a great many just do not have a clue as to how to run a business, they look at one job (for instance) where they earn £30 for an hours work and then convince themselves they are on a rate close to 60k a year.
When they see someone claiming to have work earning them £60.00 (or more) an hour they shout out that they are rip off merchants...though that £60 per hour will not mean they are earning £60 an hour 40 hours a week, 52 weeks of the year.
Far from it, I have plenty of work at those kind of apparent rates, but my ACTUAL income from my business is a fraction of that.

Ian

[williamx]

Well said Ian and I agree with everything that you said, its about time that window cleaners start to look at their trade as a business not as a job.

[trevor perry]

£26.66 per hour might sound a great income if you are an employee, but it sucks if you are self employed.

Your wages and your business turnover are two very different things.

If at the end of your financial year and after completing your accounts the income you draw off your business turnover is £55,452.80 per year then WOW! fantastic income.

for a 3 bed house the price does sound excessive, but also the time taken too.

For instance; WFP outside = 20 minutes absolute max for one person.
Inside trad = 40 min max for one person, depends of course on how awkward the insides are, ie, furnishings, carpets, window sills full of ornaments and whatnot.

But if you are earning £60.00 an hour doing little terraced properties, what on earth is the point of taking on a house that will actually cause your income to drop?!

Pricing per hour on individual properties is not a good way of going about it, for one thing, as you get faster at a job you end out doing more work in that hour, ergo if you start out that way from the beginning your relative income for work done will keep dropping as your speed increases!!

You are not being paid for how long a job takes you, if I did that I have some shop fronts that I'd only have to charge 50p for!
Some window cleaners will be 2 or 3 times faster (or slower!) that other window cleaners, does this mean that its perfectly ok for the slow window cleaner to charge 3 times more than the fast one??

And if you are a London window cleaner your rate will also need to be higher due to the higher cost of living there.

Window cleaning is a manual job, just about any grunt can do it, but it is also a business and a great many just do not have a clue as to how to run a business, they look at one job (for instance) where they earn £30 for an hours work and then convince themselves they are on a rate close to 60k a year.
When they see someone claiming to have work earning them £60.00 (or more) an hour they shout out that they are rip off merchants...though that £60 per hour will not mean they are earning £60 an hour 40 hours a week, 52 weeks of the year.
Far from it, I have plenty of work at those kind of apparent rates, but my ACTUAL income from my business is a fraction of that.

Ian

i have to disagree with some of what you say ian £26 an hour is a decent rate you only have to look at some other cleaning tasks to recognize window cleaning is very well paid in comparison, i have work that is priced at well below £26 an hour and yet make a very good profit margin from it i have other work priced well above £26 an hour and i also have some work priced at about £12 an hour and still manage to turn a profit from it so i keep this work on as it keeps my men in employment to cover the better priced jobs if i was a one man band i couldnt make some of these jobs worthwhile but it is all a numbers game some really large companies can work at profit margins of just 3% and still make large amounts but for the average firm this wouldnt be worthwhile, there are lots of debates on here about prices but everyones situation is different so there is no set price structure apart from what each individual is willing to work for and then it is up to the customer to decide which service to take i think simon was right to take the job as he can obviouly make the job pay for him.