[Roy Harding]

I will now put my prices up, now it is a new year.

Is anybody else putting up there prices?

Roy

[Sarah Sarill]

Hiya Roy,

We run a Wheelie Bin cleaning service as well as ther  w/c and wrote to all out database of customers at the begining of December to let them know it would happen from Jan 1st.

We anticiated some cancellations as out prices are now middle of the road as oposed to the cheapest.

Guess what ?

We have not had one so far and without doing any extra work or incurring any additional costs we have increased  our takings by 16% overnight.

We plan to do the same on the windows in April. as a lot of our w/c customers are also bin customers and I dont think that would go down well.

Plan a 50p a clean increase so would appreciate any feedback you get when you increase yours.  maybe we could squeeze out £1 per clean.

Anyway my opinion is that if you increase by say 10% you can afford to loose 10% of your customerbase and not loose a penny, along with doing less work !

Sarah
 

[matt]

some of mine havent gone up in 2 years, this new year they are going up by 50p sometimes 1 quid

[jon adams]

hi all
       try to put ur prices up each year, ignore the moaners, but be flexible if it pays well dont lose them but tell them you will hold ur price for another year, dont let in another wc on a good estate. dont bother with 50p it has to be a quid or more if price is over £15. DONT worry if u lose a couple of tight fisted ones. Remember people have never had it so easy and the wc is their smallest bill. Stick to your guns if you want a decent living.
I target david wilson homes as they are awash with money.

[steve k]

Minimum £1 increase. I am also writing to every customer on a particular run where I have to do a fair bit of climbing over fences etc to tell them that I am no longer prepared to climb and risk damaging their property or my health. If they are in and can allow me access to the rear, I will clean whole house windows for price + £1.00 for this years increase...if I cannot access rear, I will do front only for 75% of charge.
I have already told quite a few of them verbally pre-christmas and they were okay so fingers crossed.
I am also increasing from £5 to £7 a number of 2nd/3rd floor flats I clean which I find are pretty physically demanding using WFP. You could not (should not) do them with a ladder so I think they should be okay with the increase. The previous cleaner did them off ladders for £3.00!! and that was only about 8 months ago so I had to be a bit shy when increasing the prices when I moved in.
New year...new pricing!!
I`m a bit fortunate that I am in a position to take them or leave them but if they accept, they will move into my good earners bracket.

[s.hughes]

I dont increase prices every year but when I do I let them know in October what the price will be for the coming year which will obviously start in January.I do it this way so that I dont feel quilty in putting prices up just after a Christmas tip.

Steve

[neil100]

I have found on my round of Domestic customers, That nearly all my customers ask me if the price as changed at the begining of a new year. So it is an excellent time to put your prices up.

I put prices up an average of 10%, rounding the price increase to a £ or 50p. No in between figure like 30p or 70p. I put my prices up every 2 years so inflation wise it averages out at 5% a year.Thats fair for the customer and for myself. The only problem being as I am getting older I am getting slower so I found that I am actually loseing money in a way. 20 yrs ago I was so much faster even though my prices were lower. For example I could do 5 detached houses at £4.00 a go 20 yrs ago. In 2005 I could only average 3 an hour at £6.50, So in a way my wage is no better off.


I told all my customers from September I was switching to wfp and when I started useing the new system prices were going up 20%. But I would hold the price for 3 yrs. I start wfp the 3rd of Jan. I have lost about 5 customers so far totalling £38.00. I expect to lose a few more. But on the positive side I have  taken on new better paying customers that total £210.00.

By April I should be up to speed with wfp, I intended to earn the same amount I have earned this year but in less time, say 10 months. I will then take a 6 week holiyday in winter from xmas to Feb.

You have to put your prices up or your income erodes over time. I had 23 yrs on the trot of increased earnings year on year in w/c.

If you dont ever put your prices up then the customer never expects them to go up.Mett a w/c on holiday who had never put is prices up for 14 yrs. SAD.

Nel.
I was hopeing to lose a few more customers to

[preston powerblast]

The round that I have took over, the prices havent seen an incease in eight years.
But I am changing over to the wfp so I have decided to put them all up by £1 at the end of January and they still will not be over priced as my new ones in the same area are double the price.

[thewindowcleaner1]

starting 1st Jan I inform all that prices are increasing (the established customers expect it now)
The problem this year is that the increase will be taken up by increased Gas / Electric, Insurance, fuel and all the other every day things, so if you stand back and look at the increase in your income all you are really doing is keeping pace with inflation...

The good part is that a lot of those under priced jobs come into line or you loose them and replace them with better priced work..

ALL THE BEST FOR THE NEW YEAR TO ALL ON THIS FORUM

From Alan and Family(my negative cash flow dept)

[Ian_Giles]

Funny thing though isn't it with some prices, mm?

A great many of my accounts are shops, I've got one that is £1.50, and has been for years
But this account is 3 panes of glass, and a frosted pane on the door, takes one minute to clean (ok, maybe 2 )
This particular account is the cheapest on my round, the minimum for any other shop is £2.50.
These prices hardly change, there is no way these could have year on year price increases.
An absolute swine for any new window cleaner to break into shops, but when you have dozens of them, tiny though the prices are they are gold dust.

So price increases can be a real problem with some work.
The bigger ones can stand an increase, but they vary as to what time of the year they get put up, kindaa depends when I pick them up.
If I get a new office, or pub in November (or house come to that) I can hardly slap a quid on it a few weeks later.

For me, prices go up in dribs and drabs throughout the year, with some of the commercial ones, well, they get held back if I think they are struggling to get by and business is slow for them, you just have to have your finger on the pulse of business in your local shops.

Several of my domestic accounts will be going up, but not all of them, some are just too new!

But the premise of regular increases is right! Even if you put out a note telling them you are deferring your increase for the time being (not that I've been bright enough to do this myself ) at least they will be expecting it when you do eventually put up your prices.

Ian

[Ken]

Put most prices up in September, however a few blocks of work didn't get put up. They didn't tip over the holiday period so they will be definitely be going up next time!

[gaza]

I DO SOME WORK FOR OAP FOR PEANUTS AND THE MONKEYS NEVER TIPPED ME
INCREASE IS DUE UP TO NORMAL RATE NO MORE MR NICE GUY.IF THEY CARNT PAY
THEY AVENT GOT A W/C COME A FEW MONTHS TIME.

 GAZZA

[rosskesava]

Mr nice moderator man Ian Giles is 100% spot on with that post.

There's nothing I can add to that.

Cheers

[thewindowcleaner1]

But the premise of regular increases is right! Even if you put out a note telling them you are deferring your increase for the time being (not that I've been bright enough to do this myself ) at least they will be expecting it when you do eventually put up your prices.

Just what I do with new customers (started in last 6 months)gets them into the habbit. (but in reality they are already paying 2006 prices as they were priced that way)plus they feel pleased that they are not having a price increase this time,I would add though if I price a job up and they snatch my hand of(and I think damn I should have charged more)I always add when closing that there is a price increase due around """"" (it seems to work for me)

I agree about small bussiness's and tend to increase thier prices in line with inflation they understand that and except it as part of the fun of running thier own show.

[Ben Walker]

thewindowcleaner1 - I like your logo, looks like a poster from a 1930's musical. 

ben