[DNC]

Hi all,
I have been window cleaning for 6 years now. I bought a round off a fella who was on the dole and doing it for some extra money. I took over and the average hourly rate was £10-£12. All the work is domestic and compact and I thought this was ok. I know this will upset a few people but this is my part time work and when I started the work I only had 20 houses or so, now I have around 80 all on the same estate. I am genuine and pay all my tax, NI and insurance. I am in no way wanting to take any work from anyone else by undercutting them. I have moved onto WFP this year operating from a trailer which I put together myself. I have obviously seen the benefits of this and can expect my hourly rate to be any thing upto £20. Reading some comments on this site I can't help but think I am stiil undercharging. All my houses are modern detatched, some take me 15-20 mins=£5, others take me 30 mins=£8. Is this about right? Or am I too slow?

[NWH]

When you think about it if a house is taking you 15-20 mins WFP doing it trad you would be looking at 40-45 mins + travelling time to next job,you should price all your work up as if you were doing it trad way that way working WFP will earn you more money per hour-day.

[DNC]

Thanks,
All my work is on the same estate. About 75% of those are on the same streets. If I worked a full day before using ladders I would earn £75-£100 per day (max),that was with no breaks at all during an 8-9 hour day. (seriously, no breaks). Now I can do £110 per 7 hours with a 15 min break. I seem to charge for the time it takes me to do it not including anything else.

[NWH]

How long have you been WFP,in time improving your earnings by a 1/3 at least is acheivable when up to speed,i`ll bet your not half as tired either.

[Alex Wingrove]

thats not bad, more than most people will earn in a day, but you can do a bit better,

how many houses is that in one day?

[Kwackers]

When i first started i found a few posts stating things like, try charging 'X', 'Dont charge what others charge etc'

I didnt take this on board for probably the first 2/3 houses, then i tried it, from a £9 house, i charged the same house at £11 or £12, got denied the first time, but after that it was plain sailing.

Lets say you do a minimum of ten houses a day, thats an extra £20-30, £400-600 a month!

I'm a newbie, so dont take anything i say to seriously, but most people should be hitting £130-£150 or beyond, i do that in a fairly underpriced round, but compact, and a well priced round, but spread out, so it can be done in most areas.

Just my 2p worth (although i wouldnt pay for it!)

[NWH]

That`s a good way to look at things,just think how much of a pay rise your giving yourself if you put your houses up by just a pound each.Work it out over the course of a year.

[DNC]

Thanks
I started with a trolley In Jan this year just doing upstairs. Then got my trailer set up in about April. I suppose I can do about 15-20 houses per day. depends whether I decide to go play golf in the afternoon. Seriously, I don't think I could do more than 20 a day.

[Jon-scwindows]

does anyone work 4 weeky rounds on a every week basis?
so they have say x number of customers to do one week, say the 1st of the month
then do the next set scheduled on the 7th or second week of the month, etc all month long so they have work every week and its not just every month - every customer mostly is done every 4 weeks, but every week you have a different set of customers to do that week, and are paid atleast every week, then youd bring in the golden peices.
?

[Kwackers]

4 weekly I started with 'I'll be coming on this date' then it's exactly 4 weeks from that date i come the month after, so it's always the same day, but not date.

This way for a start a 4 weekly is 13 times a year, monthly is 12 weekly.

The other reason is so that most of the customers then have a reminder to leave the back gate open.

[NWH]

The most flexible way to work for the WC i think is on a 6-8 weekly basis,it enables you to build a good round of larger jobs with time to catch up if behind with work or if prefered take time off.Working on a monthly or 4 weekly basis is to frequent for top paying work in my opinion especially on domestic,for top paying domestic they only want to see you 6 - 8 weekly the odd few like monthly but not in the main.

[Alex Wingrove]

i agree with NWH on that one, all mine is 6weekly, and the windows are not that much dirtier, so i get more money for the same amount of work, and can fit more it

only downside is you need 50% more work

[NWH]

4 weekly is far to soon for me,if you want room to expand and develope you work leave it slightly longer between cleans,it enables you to charge more and have more time for larger jobs.If you get a big job come in and all your works 4 weekly if this job is going to take up say a couple of days a week you`ll have to extend that 4 weeks anyway,why be regimented to 4 weeks that comes round in a flash and i bet the 4 weekly customers think that aswell unless there cheap jobs,if i was paying a few quid a time i`d want my window`s cleaned every 4 weeks to.Put the price up that`ll stop em moaning when your not on time.

[simbo]

6-8 weekly and charging a bit more is definately the best, true you do need slightly more houses but works out a lot better paid and you don,t get that "oh is it that time already" and less knockbacks in general
there are some properties that ned to be more regular though ie next to busy road or under trees so you still need to be a bit flexible
simbo

[Kwackers]

Have to say, when i have a full round (2010-2020 ) then i'll be changing to 6 weekly and increasing by a certain amount, although i'm not sure what the right amount is, maybe 15%?

Certainly allows you to earn alot more.

[geoffreyspecht]

dnc your pirces r far to cheap,the english cleaning company charge £5+vat for one window in and out .just take a look on their web sitef

[Helen]

so would we if we covered that area!!!! congestion charges, London traffic to navigate parking costs and restrictions etc etc

[geoffreyspecht]

u can avoid congestion charges,london traffic and parking costs by working nights helen

[tonylee]

i work on a four weely basis but only monday to thursday. i only work fridays for first cleans before the are slotted into the 4 weekly cycle. also any one offs
i am in the midlands and have an average of 12.96 per customer.(total take divided by total customers.)
water fed every four is a bit soon but no one has asked to change yet and its not something i want to volenteer!
have nearly a full book and play golf on the fridays if not doing any first cleans
this seems to work for me
tony