[Knocker]

Brother - (Younger better looking brother!)

[windows_chepstow]

Hi Guys

Just been reading this thread, Although it may sound like myself and Dave are having it large, please remember that when David says we charge minimum of £80.00 + Vat (2 men for 1 hour) this does not mean that each one of our operatives generates 320.00 + Vat per day (8 hrs x 40.00). Each operative will work on average 6 hours during a normal day, when you make deductions for overheads such as Travel, insurance, holiday, sickness, uniform, Employers NI, marketing, administration, management, etc. plus Red Ken charging 8.00 per vehicle and Westminster Council charging 5.00 + per hour for parking there is a not a great deal left over for champagne and luxury holidays! (although we try our best)

Paul,

Thanks for putting it into some sort of perspective, but I'm surprised you're not over-run with Eastern Europeans doing the same job(ish (for differing standards)) for cheaper.

A neighbor of mine works in one of those 'employment agencies' in town and tells me that the Eastern Europeans she deals with have an excellent, almost old fashioned work ethic.

They're not daft either.

I spent six months in Kosovo only a few years back and one of my jobs was doing a weekly pay parade for the LEC's (Locally Employed Civillians) and some of these guys (and girls) worked extremely hard in often difficult and challenging conditions; for a pitance by our standards.

They were really tough too; even by Geordie standards.  One lunchtime, while smoking and lying in the sun, because I said I've boxed, one local challenged me to a bare-knuckle fist-fight for fun.  He was deadly serious too.  Just something to pass the time by.

I declined as I've enough missing teeth already, and he would've knocked 'seven bells' out of me; probably.  There's a huge difference between a ten-ounce boxing-glove and a bare-knuckle.

Anyway, I'm surprised some enterprising Kosovans haven't taken over.

[D woods]

Hi Tosh
Over the last 25 years working in London we Have seen a never ending stream
of overseas visitors from all over the world comming to London to look for work, but only a few South Americans have ever started their own cleaning companies and this was office cleaning not window cleaning. So I dont think we have anything to wory about.

[windows_chepstow]

Hi Tosh
Over the last 25 years working in London we Have seen a never ending stream
of overseas visitors from all over the world comming to London to look for work, but only a few South Americans have ever started their own cleaning companies and this was office cleaning not window cleaning. So I dont think we have anything to wory about.

I've had a look at your web-site and you obviously run a very impressive company and since you don't clean residential properties; those with a distinct language barrier will have problems trying to break into the London commercial window cleaning arena.

But are the Eastern Europeans (and I'm not being racist - remember I'm foriegn born myself) having any affect on the London residential scene?

[D woods]

Hi Tosh
what the East Europeon's have gone into in a big way, is car washing they take over a piece of unsed land and wash cars at £5 a time.

This is big business for them , we also run a janitorial business and we used to
sell car valeting supplies , they would come into the shop with huge amounts of cash on them . While people are ok with them cleaning their cars i dont know if they would let them clean at their home.

[windows_chepstow]

Hi Tosh
what the East Europeon's have gone into in a big way, is car washing they take over a piece of unsed land and wash cars at £5 a time....

This is big business for them ,

That actually rings some bells.  In Bosnia, after a trip up-country, instead of washing down our vehicles ourselves, we'd go to the local 'car valeting' service and three or four Bosnians would get stuck in and clean the five inches of mud from the land-rover's exterior.

So what I'm saying is that 'car valletting or washing' is an indigenous industry in Eastern Europe, where-as window Cleaning isn't.  Definately not.

I'm surprised they haven't caught on yet though.

[gsw]

with everyone talking £80 per hour I would imagine there will be a kosovan cleaning windows in every town in the UK in the very near future!! they do love a cash business....... as for people trusting them to clean their houses, money talks as always and we all know of customers who have been dropped who would love to have their 3 bed semi cleaned for £5.00!! regardless of who is doing the job.

[windows_chepstow]

with everyone talking £80 per hour

Not me!

[Moderator David@stives]

If you read back it was stated £40 hr  which is £80 minimum charge just allowing for 1 hour work based on 2 working.

If you want a plumber in  london i think you would pay at least £80 for 1 staff turn out charge.

[geoffreyspecht]

and i only get 75 pence dam im doing somthing wrong

[dai]

I live in the real world. Lost a customer today because I put the price up from£4.50 to £5.00. Are there no pensioners on fixed incomes where some of you guys live?
Good luck to you £40 per hour guys, wish I could get it. There's only so much some people will pay for the job. They are not mean, but have to be carefull with only their old age pension to live on. Dai

[Moderator David@stives]

Location Location Location

 

[rosskesava]

Lost a customer today because I put the price up from£4.50 to £5.00. Are there no pensioners on fixed incomes where some of you guys live?

Hi Dai

There's pensioners everywhere. Couldn't you find areas or streets that are a bit more affluent and canvass or leaflet those places every month for a while?

This may sound horrible but we used to do a lot of low priced jobs and we got to know the owners quite well but in the end, we got rid of them purely because of the money.

Also, I don't think there's many one man band window cleaners earning £40 ph.

Cheers

[windows_chepstow]

I live in the real world. Lost a customer today because I put the price up from£4.50 to £5.00. Are there no pensioners on fixed incomes where some of you guys live?
Good luck to you £40 per hour guys, wish I could get it. There's only so much some people will pay for the job. They are not mean, but have to be carefull with only their old age pension to live on. Dai

I've some jobs that I do for my aged customers; ones that I'd like to drop; and have tried too, to.  But they've phoned me, asking when I'm due next and I've taken them back on-board.

I only keep them, knowing they'll die shortly, within the next year or so; maybe, and I won't have stressed them into looking for a new window cleaner.

A couple of these I still use ladders for, because I don't want to frighten them with my WFP.

I might sound callous; but I still clean their windows.

[mark dew]

....... as for people trusting them to clean their houses, money talks as always and we all know of customers who have been dropped who would love to have their 3 bed semi cleaned for £5.00!! regardless of who is doing the job.

I think those are the customers we drop or avoid taking on in the 1st place. They're welcome to them.
This is still essentially a trust business and as xenophobic as it sounds, most people won't feel comfortable with a foreigner at their windows each month. End of!

Whoever is the 1st foreign window cleaning company to take the plunge will have a mountain to climb. And if they do succeed it will be down to honesty, hard work and lots of perseverence.

Fortunately (for me) whatever happens in london will take 10 years or more to reach
north suffolk. So will have some time to prepare

[steve k]

I don`t know if anyone watched a programme on TV last night about how the chinese community cope in England.
It was pretty upsetting to see how mothers and fathers had left their children in China to come to England in order to earn money to send back home.
The Chinese are hard working, family orientated people and the cross section of people shown on the programme were really struggling...they were getting paid peanuts working long, unsociable hours and sending coins and notes back to their families while they lived in rundown bedsits in the UK.
Now, the majority of these people are as intelligent as the majority of us and have been part of our communities for many years but how many have realised the potential in window cleaning? Not many!!

Look at all the threads on here about canvassing and the difficulties we have building a round. It would be many times more difficult to do so with a sketchy grasp of the language and an even sketchier grasp of the techniques and methods used in window cleaning in this WFP age.

Any of my customers who dropped me for a couple of pounds...good riddance to dead wood I say.

[chris@c.m.s]

I'm taking quite a lot of work from a chinese window cleaner at the moment not intentionally but i`ve flyered an  estate nearby and it seems he has got to greedy with his prices, none of the customers told me about having another cleaner either, knowing my luck i'll get confronted by a jackey chan wannabe soon  :

[williamx]

What is the ceiling before VAT has to be charged Dave???

http://www.barraccount.co.uk/framesstafford/services/vatfaq.htm#1

[texas girl]

For residential work over here I charge at least $10 per window for in and out; (different market though).

I have been a little more selective because I do not need to work for less than what I think is fair and current.

But it has not alway's been that way, so the key word here is "MARKET". What is the current market; what are fair rates for the job type/ usual charge/location. Demand.

I have paid my dues; over 20 years in this business. I can run my business on the phone in many instances now. I have 7 workers;  now my work is a different type of labor.

 I do not beleive in shortchanging ourselves for the work we do.

But it is a supply/demand issue. Many people will hire and pay what is required for good service; not always the cheapest cost. Depends on market for that area.

You have to eat; but never undercharge too much.

Hugs,

Texas Girl   

[windows_chepstow]

I'm taking quite a lot of work from a chinese window cleaner at the moment not intentionally

Remember the film the 'Wanderers'?

Don't Flip with the Wongs!

You'll be getting sold at Sainsburys the next day at 45p per slice.