but what worry’s me is what do I say to a £10.00 customer who’s house takes me half an hour to complete if they think £20.00 an hour is over the top ?
Len, you need to take into account that after you've been doing it for a while your hourly rate will increase quite a lot due to just being able to do the job quicker.
A £10 house used to take me approx 1 hour, now takes 25 - 30 minutes traditionally cleaned. That's where your £20 an hour will come in.
Also, you don't want to reveal what your aiming for per hour. It is none of your customers business and very few will ask anyway. If any do they will probably be a pain in the rear at some stage in the future and are better off dropped.
It's all about self-confidence i think. If you think of yourself as a labourer with ladders and scrim you will find it hard to price up work correctly and will always be cheap.
What you are selling is not your time but a finished product.
If you want to be worth what you charge you need to ensure that you do a good job everytime and are regular and trustworthy.
As for comparing your hourly rate against what your customer is earning is like comparing apples and oranges.
You need to consider how long you took when 1st cleaning windows and how long it will take your customer to clean them. And at least you will have probably cleaned them properly.
mark
ps I was on between £3 - £5 and hour for the 1st few weeks until i got up to speed.
I didn't reach £10 p/h consistently for about 5 months.