[dave_carroll]

this topic rears its ugly head again, was asked to give a quote for a large 3 story house, went & looked round and gave a quote of £18.'' OOOH  you're expensive she said i've had a quote for £9 off a bloke out of town & my present one charges £9 as well, although i havn't seen him for 2 months''. i say ''i wouldn't turn up for £9 either, have the other two got insurance?''. obviously she didn't know. anyway did the job today, both of us very pleased with the out come.
 moral of the story :- wear company tee shirt
                                  be polite (if possible)
                                  mention insurance
                                  STICK TO YOUR PRICE

               dave (swamps)        

[choice.clean]

hear hear i think too many window cleaners underprice themselves. if you want to stay in this business you have to squeeze the customer barclays say that most people go out of business because they undercharge i think its better to get told to go than undercharge. like you i normally say "and where is the cleaner now" they can,t answer that one and i am building myself up i tell them i am a professional not an uninsured part timer

my moto "one thing failure can,t cope with is persistancy"

[Londoner]

I agree absolutely but I wish i could say its always so easy. I find pricing the hardest thing to do sometimes.

Its easy to say I'm going to be hard faced about it. (and I really really mean it). Then you hear yourself saying "Oh go on then, I'll do it for twelve"

As you walk away you think "How did that happen?"

When you get round the corner you find a convenient wall and bang your head on it a few times.
Thats pricing.

[Clean-A-Windows]

What are realistic prices to charge? I was going to work on 50 pence per window or is that to high? 10% extra for leaded or hard to reach windows.
         Comments please
                Pete

[pjulk]

What are realistic prices to charge? I was going to work on 50 pence per window or is that to high? 10% extra for leaded or hard to reach windows.

Thats to cheap i charge £1 per window but i do wipe the frames and sill over.
If its leaded or gorgian or hard to reach i will charge more.

Paul

[geoffreyspecht]

ive cleaned windows for long time ive never used that method to price jobs just work out how long it would take me  to do the job ,mind u charging £1 per window is a good way of pricing domestic work

[martin19842]

ive just quoted and won a job, brand new house therefore no problems with the glass, 8 1st floor windows, 14 ground floor, including the doors, and then there are 8 glass roof panes 3ftx2ft on the ground floor, similar to a conservatory

external weekly internal fortnightly,  £26 per visit.

regards

martin

[pjulk]

Had one today ring me back after i gave her a quote of £30 last week
She has 17 georgian type windows and conservatory same type of windows.
She told me i had to use a small fluffy thing (She must mean applicator) and squeegie as that is what the last window cleaner used.
I told her you can't get 4 inch applicators, she said you can my last window cleaner used to use one.
She then said, I am not paying £30 as my last window cleaner used to charge me £10.
I then said how come's you don't have him now though.
She then said because he had to much work he had to pack this area in.
I told her i would do it for £30 that's my price.
She said she will still only pay £10. So i said i think it is just waisting both of our times talking you know my price and i stick to my prices. She then goes on my windows are no georgian they are older than that my house is over 100 years old.
So i said ok good luck finding a window cleaner and had to put the phone down as she was still ranting on.

Paul

[martin19842]

Paul,

customers hey!!!  life would be so much easier without them. obviously the pitfall of not earning any money plays a significant factor in that.

the other question is that if the other bloke hasnt been back and charged £10, then why didnt he expand his business by employing.

one reason could be that it wasnt profitable.  

and lets be honest, one of the easiest reasons in the world is to say that they are too busy.  people find it more difficult to be honest and say that cant do it for that price.

i price for the job, the customer then decides, i would say that your customer may comeback and accept in the fullness of time.

regards

martin

[pjulk]

Totally agree martin

I also price for the job and let the customers decide.
I don't get all my jobs i quote for but i say i do get 80% of them so i can't be to far out on my pricing.
I have had a few who have not accepted my quote and a week or two later called me to go and do them for the agreed price.

Paul

[martin19842]

well i think you should give yourself a pat on the back to achieve 80%.

if i could achieve that then the money would be rolling in, well thats the theory.

regards

martin

[billozz]

the easiest way to price a job is to work out how long it will take and how much you want to earn per hr and do the sums.
we time all our houses otut this way and it means we earn a consistent rate per hour.

[PowerClene]

I went on a very expensive marketing course. The room was full of business owners. Some of them quite large businesses.

The speaker did a little survey with us all.

He asked everyone to stand and told everyone to sit down who was only converting 1 in 5 customers. Some sat down.

He asked all of those to sit who converted 1 in four. More sat down.

So it went on. In the end, there were about half a dozen of us still standing who were converting a fantastic 1 in 2 (50%).

The speaker congratulated us for grossly undercharging!

The moral of the story. If you have more customers than you can handle, increase your prices. Then increase them again.

Eventually you will have a very healthy income with a round of customers who focus on quality, not price.

Regards,

Paul

[martin19842]

but isnt there another way to look at this, if you have a good conversion ration, then my reactin would be to expand the business, by bringing in more staff etc.

reasoning behind this.

100 customers paying 20 = 2000

20 customers paying 100 = 2000


if you were working to the first ie 100 clieints, and you loose 2 then you have lost 40 turnover, so now you need to replace them and at that level not to difficult to do.

however if you were operating in the second arena 20 customers, and you loose two of them then you have lost 200 turnover, and replacing those clients paying that level for a service often proves more difficult.

therefore

more customers, more turnover and ultimately more profit.

there is also the saying " those that can do it, and those that cant provide the training for it"

regards

martin