[benny donnelly]

Do many of you offer additional services such as power washing/carpet cleaning etc?

I know some you will say you are busy enough with the windows but they can be a very profitable add on and it get you off the glass for a day, plus if you up sell on your current customer it cost you zero for that extra business.

I have been offering power washing and carpet cleaning as add ons to existing customers and I didnt think I would be as busy with them, I now leave Fridays free and book in all the power wash and carpet jobs in them, it fairly break the week and is a nice additional to the cash flow over the weekend.

A couple of my elderly customers have even asked did I know of any house cleaners of which I did get a family friend a part time job which was good as I didnt fancy that work, and was also asked did I know anyone to do garden maintenance and this is what im thinking I could use as an other add on, like everything else once you buy the gear your costs are minimal really.

There is 2 of us so these add on jobs are a piece of cake but were do I stop! Do any of the rest of you do anything similar? I am looking for a new van and before I get it signed I want to know whether I put the add ons on it or just the window cleaning, I dont want to appear as a jack of all trades and master of none if you get me and the list of services will dictate the size of the van.

When I started I never even thought about add ons I was just focused on building the round and I have a big turnover and profit figures I am still working to achieve and I will eventually so golden question is to you more established, experienced window cleaning veterans should I stick solely on windows or offer a variety of services?

 

[dazmond]

i personally only offer regular window cleaning which is my main source of income and the add on jobs that can be cleaned with the same equipment.fascias,soffits,cladding,conny roof cleaning and now solar panels.

but if you want to add pressure washing and carpet cleaning then go for it mate but id rather just stick with the above and do it well.


best wishes


dazmond

[HampshireWindowCleaning]

Offering add ons is a good way to boost your income, we know what we're going to earn from our regular rounds and it's nice to know there's that bit of regular money coming in to pay the bills but I'm starting to realise that extras like fascia and gutter cleans and doing conservatory roofs are very nice earners and give me a nice bit of spending money at the end of the month. I've thought about pressure washing and carpet cleaning but I can't really justify the outlay for all the extra equipment when I'm busy enough with what I've got, I'm sure you can make some decent money though from these add ons.

[Diamond standard ltd]

If they have money in there pockets mate don't let them get away with out handing over

[PoleKing]

Offering add ons is a good way to boost your income, we know what we're going to earn from our regular rounds and it's nice to know there's that bit of regular money coming in to pay the bills but I'm starting to realise that extras like fascia and gutter cleans and doing conservatory roofs are very nice earners and give me a nice bit of spending money at the end of the month. I've thought about pressure washing and carpet cleaning but I can't really justify the outlay for all the extra equipment when I'm busy enough with what I've got, I'm sure you can make some decent money though from these add ons.

I got a cheap Chinese pressure washer from eBay 4 years ago to wash my cars and van.
You'd be amazed at the money you can make from such a small outlay!
People seem to think its expensive cause its petrol but it was £130 delivered.
I priced up the first job and it paid for it in half a day.
I don't offer it but if I'm asked I'll do it.

[Total shine cleaning services]

hi mate, we do add ons, pressure washing, solar panels, gutter vac, con roofs and soffits, upvc etc, we concentrate a lot on upselling and it really pays for us, we advertise our services on the vans.

Graham

[Perfect Windows]

It depends.

As a sole trader, the limit on your business is the number of hours you work in a year.  Taking that the next step, the limit on your annual profit is how much profit you can make each and every hour.

I offered gutter vacuuming for a while.  It seemd to be the thing to do and there looked to be loads of money in it.  However, as I got moving on it, I noticed that my hourly rate on gutter clearing was lower than my rate for washing windows.  The price on the jobs was big, but the hourly rate simply didn't work out.  That's fine when your round's not full but once I was full, I dropped it.

It's easy to look at an add-on and see the money.  The only thing that matters is your hourly profit rate.

If you're employing, the maths is less simple but it's still compelling.

Put it this way, I don't even like that fact that we have to do conservatory roofs as they reduce our hourly rate.  

So, in short, if an add-on will increase your hourly profit, do it.  In fact, if an add-on will do that it should become the core of your business...

Vin

[G O Cleaning]

Must say I am surprised more window cleaners don't do conservatory cleaning, not just quick washes but full valet. Outlay would be minimal platform etc compared to other add ons such as carpet cleaning p washing.
Key point is to charge accordingly, we currently get more enquiries than we can deal with from min advertising

[Ian101]

Pressure washing and conny roofs conny valets but only if a lot more than hourly window rates - quote high and if get job then great if not then no problem - simple mathmatics

[benny donnelly]

Hourly rate is always in my mind as I employ 1 other person and on top the day in day out costs of keeping the business going and of course my own drawings.

The additional jobs I have been doing as I say I book them all in for a friday so each friday we are flat out from 9 till 6 or 7 or even 8 sometimes, like yesterday 5 carpet cleans and 2 power washing jobs and my usual hourly rate was easily doubled, I think these add on jobs will slow down when the summer comes to an end but im happy to do them and when they slow down get stuck back into building the round bigger 

[richard jagger]

I do a few extra services.My latest is doing better than I thought. Garage door repairs its not easy but few seam to offer this service and its a good earner.

[benny donnelly]

I do a few extra services.My latest is doing better than I thought. Garage door repairs its not easy but few seam to offer this service and its a good earner.

Im intrigued what exactly do you repair? Do you remove dents and repaint or is it the runners from the doors becoming jammed?

[David stewart]

Offering add ons is a good way to boost your income, we know what we're going to earn from our regular rounds and it's nice to know there's that bit of regular money coming in to pay the bills but I'm starting to realise that extras like fascia and gutter cleans and doing conservatory roofs are very nice earners and give me a nice bit of spending money at the end of the month. I've thought about pressure washing and carpet cleaning but I can't really justify the outlay for all the extra equipment when I'm busy enough with what I've got, I'm sure you can make some decent money though from these add ons.

I got a cheap Chinese pressure washer from eBay 4 years ago to wash my cars and van.
You'd be amazed at the money you can make from such a small outlay!
People seem to think its expensive cause its petrol but it was £130 delivered.
I priced up the first job and it paid for it in half a day.
I don't offer it but if I'm asked I'll do it.

Is the same pressure washer stil available on eBay mate? If so could you post up a link? Looking for a petrol one and don't want to break the bank.

[PoleKing]

Offering add ons is a good way to boost your income, we know what we're going to earn from our regular rounds and it's nice to know there's that bit of regular money coming in to pay the bills but I'm starting to realise that extras like fascia and gutter cleans and doing conservatory roofs are very nice earners and give me a nice bit of spending money at the end of the month. I've thought about pressure washing and carpet cleaning but I can't really justify the outlay for all the extra equipment when I'm busy enough with what I've got, I'm sure you can make some decent money though from these add ons.

I got a cheap Chinese pressure washer from eBay 4 years ago to wash my cars and van.
You'd be amazed at the money you can make from such a small outlay!
People seem to think its expensive cause its petrol but it was £130 delivered.
I priced up the first job and it paid for it in half a day.
I don't offer it but if I'm asked I'll do it.

Is the same pressure washer stil available on eBay mate? If so could you post up a link? Looking for a petrol one and don't want to break the bank.

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?sbk=1&nav=SEARCH&itemId=120707929413

Watch all the haters say what a pole of crap it is but it's been great for me.
Only one bit has gone wrong in 4 years and that cost £15 to fix.
It's gone up a bit since I bought mine but still good value for money I think.
The sellers have a bit if negative feedback but couldn't fault them at all

[Richard iSparkle]

It depends.

As a sole trader, the limit on your business is the number of hours you work in a year.  Taking that the next step, the limit on your annual profit is how much profit you can make each and every hour.

I offered gutter vacuuming for a while.  It seemd to be the thing to do and there looked to be loads of money in it.  However, as I got moving on it, I noticed that my hourly rate on gutter clearing was lower than my rate for washing windows.  The price on the jobs was big, but the hourly rate simply didn't work out.  That's fine when your round's not full but once I was full, I dropped it.

It's easy to look at an add-on and see the money.  The only thing that matters is your hourly profit rate.

If you're employing, the maths is less simple but it's still compelling.

Put it this way, I don't even like that fact that we have to do conservatory roofs as they reduce our hourly rate.  

So, in short, if an add-on will increase your hourly profit, do it.  In fact, if an add-on will do that it should become the core of your business...

Vin

Hey Vin,

I like what you're saying and i think to a large extent you are right.

what i do though, is offer these extra services at a rate that makes them attractive for me to do.  as a result our hourly rate on conny roof cleans and gutter clearing is higher than on window cleaning.

on gutter clearing it really needs to be higher as i needed to invest in additional equipment to start the service.

our min price on conny roof cleans is now £90 and gutter clears £70 i think, but we make sure we upsell gutter clears with fascia cleaning so our average price on these jobs is now over £120 per clean.  obviously at these rates we dont  get them all, but when we get one we make some decent money on them.  we get something like 50% of those quoted

[Frankybadboy]

we also offer pressure washing and even broke even with the cost of the machine within a couple of jobs.


we haven't really pushed it either,as we wont to get the jobs done right and learn from it without rushing though jobs.

[David stewart]

Offering add ons is a good way to boost your income, we know what we're going to earn from our regular rounds and it's nice to know there's that bit of regular money coming in to pay the bills but I'm starting to realise that extras like fascia and gutter cleans and doing conservatory roofs are very nice earners and give me a nice bit of spending money at the end of the month. I've thought about pressure washing and carpet cleaning but I can't really justify the outlay for all the extra equipment when I'm busy enough with what I've got, I'm sure you can make some decent money though from these add ons.

I got a cheap Chinese pressure washer from eBay 4 years ago to wash my cars and van.
You'd be amazed at the money you can make from such a small outlay!
People seem to think its expensive cause its petrol but it was £130 delivered.
I priced up the first job and it paid for it in half a day.
I don't offer it but if I'm asked I'll do it.

Is the same pressure washer stil available on eBay mate? If so could you post up a link? Looking for a petrol one and don't want to break the bank.

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?sbk=1&nav=SEARCH&itemId=120707929413

Watch all the haters say what a pole of crap it is but it's been great for me.
Only one bit has gone wrong in 4 years and that cost £15 to fix.
It's gone up a bit since I bought mine but still good value for money I think.
The sellers have a bit if negative feedback but couldn't fault them at all

Cheers mate