[steve k]

I put an ad in our local free newspaper and had numerous replies, some of which were individual houses where the owner didn`t use the local cleaner...these I declined. Some calls have led to 5-10 houses in street which is great. Anyway...I had a text on my mobile which offered me 150 houses a week, 30 a day for £150 a week!!!!
I had to call this person back to check if he had quoted the correct figures.
"yes, that`s right" this clown says to me.
"you want me to clean 30 houses a day for £1.00 a house?"
"it`s only 10am till 2pm" he carries on
" 30 houses in 4 hours..are you serious?"
"well, I do 50 a day" he insisted
At this point, I let him know that my minimum price is £6.00 a house and I have a virtually full round and would not get out of bed for that type of hard labour/ridiculous price at which point he laughed and hung up.
I have set a price benchmark at £6 a house and believe me, in Liverpool that is some price which I would never have entertained quoting if it hadn`t been for the advice on this forum.
I am up to 3 semis an hour at a comfortable pace with a quality clean.
I have had very few knockbacks due to my price.
I also clean area which is very affluent and I had one customer who responded to my card telling me her present window cleaner was very unreliable and would I give her a quote for a monthly inside and out. £20 for outside and £30 for inside which included all internal doors and mirrors!! She went a bit pale but agreed. As this was a premium customer, I phoned her the day before each clean, confirming my arrival time and was the consummate pro for several months.
She rang me the other day to say her son would now be doing them...which I knew meant she had got the other cleaner back who qoutes £10 per house on this estate where I quote £20-£25. I seen him and asked him if he was doing this house and he said yes. The woman had told him I hadn`t been turning up. I asked how much he was getting. £12 for outside and £10 for inside...big saving for the woman but big underpricing for the cleaner...I told him he is working twice the amount I am for the same money and his reply was "well, I`m happy with it"
He is a great guy who has been in the game 20 years and actually put me onto an estate where he no longer had time to clean. £3 a semi he did it for...I get down there and quote £6 a semi...not one refusal and over a 100 customers with plenty of scope for more.
There are cleaners doing houses for £2 a house up here...drove past a couple the other day...no tools just a blackened peice of scrim which the cleaner spat onto as he "cleaned?" the upstairs window!!
By the way, my mate from the posh estate who has been at it 20 years has just let slip to me he is getting fed up and considering gardening so I hope to be monopolising the big houses soon at £25 a go.

[jsm]

By the way, my mate from the posh estate who has been at it 20 years has just let slip to me he is getting fed up and considering gardening so I hope to be monopolising the big houses soon at £25 a go.

Good info steve , as I have just sold my work in Essex and just bought a house in Wrexham and plan to rip it up with my new WFP around Chester/wirrall on the big money stuff - Its good to know the score as I don't put the keys in the car for less than a £10 so hopfully all the crap work will be left to the ones that want it !!



when i bought the house the guy said some guys come over from Liverpool and clean windows the way just like you said  ;Dl  i have already got the whole street and i don't move into the 27th may lol

I had a chat with a local window cleaner who i have never seen before  only this week , he told me he does 20-30 of these houses a day for £5 - we do half that for £10 , who's the idiot  .

john malone

[gaza]

These w/c? are an insult to our profession,thats why a licence will do no harm. I would quite happy pay 75 squid + a year for it ,as long as the local paper put a story about it every year Im sure the council can arrange that,they seem to wangle a 1000 sqid fine if you leave your whellie bin out side your door to long, on the front page.It would stop the [hard working fireman in our area twilighting cash in hand in our area working for peanuts] I would agree to show the council my tax returns to prove that Im a bonefide window cleaner,and also like taxi drivers wear a licence badge at all times.This Im sure would tidy up our tarnished image

[dustycorner]

With you all the way on that Gaza, Sooner our profession is made a little more difficult to get into eg the bloke who wakes up one morning and says to himself

"i've got a bucket and a ladder i think i be a window cleaner today"

Cheers Mark.

[dave0123]

Hi

what part of liverpool are u from steve im from the wirral and cover that area my prices are around the same 3 bed semi about £6 to £8. 150 houses at £1.00 £30 a day lol :| is he having a joke or is he serious?? thats got to be a joke?

[steve k]

it`s a funny old world up here!! I`m in South Liverpool for the guy who asked.
As things are going quite well, I thought I may be able to take someone on to help me... a friend recommended his brother who duly rang me up, knew all the window cleaning lingo, ex.merchant seaman..cleaned windows on the ship 30 feet up, loves the great outdoors etc. I explained that I would expect him to go self employed as I am, I would assist him in obtaining insurance and filling in tax return as well as paying £7 per hour rising to £10 per hour as his productivity increased.
"Great he says, I`ll ring Sunday to arrange a pick up"
Sunday...no call...I ring him twice, the second time his wife answers:
"is that Steve?"
"yes"
" sorry but he`s had second thoughts..he thinks he`s better off on the dole"

Now I know he wouldn`t have been rich initially, but he would certainly have been off the dole and earning a lot more than the £50 odd pounds I think you get these days. He would also have had the potential to increase his earnings substantially as he got quicker and we built the round up.

I actually have no problems working on my own..radio 1 on the personal stereo keeps me company..but I believe if you want to make a living wage, not an existence wage, at some point you need to take someone on, give them X amount of houses to do while you do your houses, pay them a percentage of what you are getting for the houses, you profit from the remainder and all your hard work in buiding and maintaining the round begins to pay off.

I`ve just bought a WFP system with a view to cornering what appears to be a quite lucrative and apparently untapped area of the window cleaning market in Merseyside...I can tell you, there are not many pro cleaners in this neck of the woods...the ones that are professional have concentrated on WFP commercial work in the city centre.

Anyway, summer is on the way and I can tell you this forum has motivated me on so many occasions to get out there, that I am indebted and can only thank you fellas for all the good advice.

[Jeff Brimble]

Hi JSM I clean 20 miles south of Wrexam if I can be of help pls ask. There are a few pole operators about !