[paul alan]

Ask yourself if you want to do loads of work or do you want to earn loads of money? Dont be what I call a busy fool. It doesnt matter how many customers you have or how compact they are. The ONLY thing that matters is the money per day, per week, per month. Focus on that. Dont ever reduce your price to get work. Then you will be working hard for f...k all money each day. A busy fool. 

Think we better have that coffee soon Paul.......

Yeah that's what I'm looking for overall, more profitability


I think your right about that coffee! Soon as I can have this new guy out alone I'll have some free days, sooner the better.

[dazmond]

Compact work can mean cleaning say 8  stand alone large properties in a 2 mile area in my book!

[Lee Pryor]

We start new people on a Monday and have them out alone by the following tue/wed so about 7 working days on average.

[Shrek]

all My work is in about a 5 mile radius too , it’s only a minute or two drive between jobs which is ideal for me .
I don’t actually think you need rows of houses next to each other to earn good money if you price them right and have a minimum charge regardless of size. I won’t take anything on less than £12 , whether it’s a terraced , bungalow or whatever , my minimum is £12. I get turned down from approximately 20% of jobs. Offering different frequencies maximises your profit as not everyone wants to see you every month

[Oliver James]

As Lee says: It is about "Money per day, per week, per month"

Even better is money per hour.

Even better than that is knowing the exact net profit margin on each job.

You will need to time EVERY job to get this figure, and then work out your net margin using an excel spreadsheet.

Yes, it takes time, Yes it takes effort.

But if you do it; it has the potential to transform your business.

What get measured gets managed; and if you know which jobs are making you money, (and exactly how much money they are making you) - then you can do something about the jobs which aren't.

[Spruce]

Canvass and leaflet the area every year.

Also I know this will go against all principles but even offer a cheaper price to get the job..

Compact is king, its what I'm working on

I appreciate you made a disclosure before this of it being "against all principles" but I would caution anyone doing that. The problem is that in our area anyway, people in the street talk.  And for some reason when they start the scrape the bottom of the conversation barrel, they always start to talk about the prices their window cleaners charge.

If you are charging less for a job than their neighbours you are going to cause upset with those of your existing customers.

What I might do is offer a 'special' first clean job applicable on say the third clean.  So example they pay the going rate for the first 2 cleans and get the third free, but even that I believe is a road to nowhere.

[Stoots]

Canvass and leaflet the area every year.

Also I know this will go against all principles but even offer a cheaper price to get the job..

Compact is king, its what I'm working on

I appreciate you made a disclosure before this of it being "against all principles" but I would caution anyone doing that. The problem is that in our area anyway, people in the street talk.  And for some reason when they start the scrape the bottom of the conversation barrel, they always start to talk about the prices their window cleaners charge.

If you are charging less for a job than their neighbours you are going to cause upset with those of your existing customers.

What I might do is offer a 'special' first clean job applicable on say the third clean.  So example they pay the going rate for the first 2 cleans and get the third free, but even that I believe is a road to nowhere.

I think that is dying out somewhat these days, all the neighbours talking I mean.

I clean some new build estates and the prices I have can vary quite a bit, no one seems to talk on these estates, no one seems to know their next door neighbour anymore.

I don't know my neighbours nor have ever some to them, I know some areas that I work In where everyone knows everyone but it's usually the older generation on older estates.

I've never really had that problem to my knowledge.

[dazmond]

i had a customer once that sacked me and  slammed their door in my face because she found out that  i charged them £5 more for their property than the house across the road!(even though they had more windows than the neighbours)

she still doesnt say hello 15 years on when shes walking past(i clean every other 4 bed semi around hers though)

[Oliver James]

Discounting is slippery slope to be on...

These figures are from the book written by legendary entrepreneur and Financial Times columnist Mike Southon:

"1. Cut prices by 10% and you will have to sell 50% more to get to your break even point
2. Raise prices by 10% and you will have to sell 25% fewer to get to your break even point"

Instead of discounting, why don't you think about a way of improving your service so that customers will pay more?

Here are some things that have worked for us.

1. Get a 40ft pole with a goosneck and offer regular or at least annual cleans of the roofline windows.
2. Offer a premium service. as an add on. We charge £2 upwards for doing the ground floor fascias every time.
3. Offer to do the garage door.
4. Include the front door, but charge more for doing it.

Use features and benefits to sell your service.

A feature of your service is that you use soap free technology, so there is no sticky soap residue left on the glass.

The benefit to your customer is that the finish will last 4-10 weeks, depending on aspect; so the windows can be cleaned less often, giving the customer significant annual savings on their window cleaning bill.

A feature of your service is that while SOME window cleaners ONLY do the glass, YOU can include the glass AND the sills AND the frames.

The benefit of your service is that the customer will have a beautiful crystal clear glass AND frames AND sills, (and not just the glass only being cleaned).

Because you are cleaning the sills AND frames, with a reliable service every x weeks, they will always have a home that looks fantastic and this regular cleaning will also prevent their lovely valuable white windows turning grey over time.

[dazmond]

back on topic...obviously if you condense your work into one area its better than driving about half the day to get to your jobs....

[paul alan]

Discounting is slippery slope to be on...

These figures are from the book written by legendary entrepreneur and Financial Times columnist Mike Southon:

"1. Cut prices by 10% and you will have to sell 50% more to get to your break even point
2. Raise prices by 10% and you will have to sell 25% fewer to get to your break even point"

Instead of discounting, why don't you think about a way of improving your service so that customers will pay more?

Here are some things that have worked for us.

1. Get a 40ft pole with a goosneck and offer regular or at least annual cleans of the roofline windows.
2. Offer a premium service. as an add on. We charge £2 upwards for doing the ground floor fascias every time.
3. Offer to do the garage door.
4. Include the front door, but charge more for doing it.

Use features and benefits to sell your service.

A feature of your service is that you use soap free technology, so there is no sticky soap residue left on the glass.

The benefit to your customer is that the finish will last 4-10 weeks, depending on aspect; so the windows can be cleaned less often, giving the customer significant annual savings on their window cleaning bill.

A feature of your service is that while SOME window cleaners ONLY do the glass, YOU can include the glass AND the sills AND the frames.

The benefit of your service is that the customer will have a beautiful crystal clear glass AND frames AND sills, (and not just the glass only being cleaned).

Because you are cleaning the sills AND frames, with a reliable service every x weeks, they will always have a home that looks fantastic and this regular cleaning will also prevent their lovely valuable white windows turning grey over time.

Some great points there, thanks Oliver!

We do offer garage doors and always clean front doors and back as standard.

Some frames will discolour over time regardless of cleaning, dur to uv rays.

You have bought up some really good selling points there though that I can use, so thankyou.

I would really like to know about this 7 step procedure though, I have invested in a franchise and will be doing that as soon as the business is ready for it. I am working on systemising everything and documenting that, this procedure your talking about would be a huge help. I can imagine you may not want to discuss on here, is there some way we could talk?

[paul alan]

back on topic...obviously if you condense you work into one area its better than driving about half the day to get to your jobs....

I find its better money in general, but can be tedious. All my work is within 5 miles of home, but Im thinking it would all be better on the same estate, super condensed.

[dazmond]

back on topic...obviously if you condense you work into one area its better than driving about half the day to get to your jobs....

I find its better money in general, but can be tedious. All my work is within 5 miles of home, but Im thinking it would all be better on the same estate, super condensed.

i have 2 estates where i clean nearly every house(mainly small 3 and 4 bedders)......93 on one and 70+ on the other....i also have lots of other pockets of work within 2 miles of these estates,mainly 4  and 5 bedders and large stand alones where i move my van after every job but the hourly rate is high due to pricing the larger jobs well......

over the last 5 years ive picked up lots more stand alone properties on longer frequencies in the same area so its great.....a good mixture of work.....

[Go]

Compact for me is spending the day in one village. Much better priced than town work too.

[Walter Mitty]

Compact has pros and cons.  Messers are more likely to try taking advantage because they know you will be in that area again, whereas a standalone is easier to drop.

[dazmond]

Compact has pros and cons.  Messers are more likely to try taking advantage because they know you will be in that area again, whereas a standalone is easier to drop.

why?

on my compact estate stuff i still dump the messers regardless.....theres a few now that i dont clean....i tell them the reason too if they try and get me to clean theirs again....

[Walter Mitty]

Compact has pros and cons.  Messers are more likely to try taking advantage because they know you will be in that area again, whereas a standalone is easier to drop.

why?

on my compact estate stuff i still dump the messers regardless.....theres a few now that i dont clean....i tell them the reason too if they try and get me to clean theirs again....

That's how I do it too these days.  It took me a while to grow a pair.  It wasn't always like that though.