[Dan marsh]

Hi all as most of you know I've just started up . Me an my partner where thinking off trying out a gold , silver , bronze package i know it's probably been bought up befor but just wanted to see if anyone actually dose it and if it is working for them . We are a 2 man team and have realized we really need to be aiming bigger than the £14 to £20 jobs to make decent money . We will be sending emails to management company's soon as well . Was thinking to offer
Bronze package - windows , facia/soffits , down pipes and gutters cleand .
Prices start from
2bed £££
3bed £££
4bed £££

Silver package -  windows , facia/soffits , down pipes and gutters cleand and cleard .
Prices start from
2bed £££
3bed £££
4bed £££

 Gold package- windows cleand inside and out , facia/soffits down pipes and gutters cleand and cleard .
Prices start from
2bed £££
3bed £££
4bed £££

Conservatorys start from £20

This is just a rough layout and it'll will be spell checked bye my non dyslexic partner so no need to comment on that . Just wonderd what you guys think off this and if any of you have tried it or are doing this . Thanks

[Shrek]

Ime, you can’t really clean 1 without the other. As in , you can’t clean the soffits & fascias without the gutters , down pipes. Would look like half a job cleaning their fascias and leaving their gutters green

[Dry Clean]

Why cant you make decent money on £14 to £20 Jobs ?

[Dane]

I agree you can make good money on these prices, of course some houses you can earn more...

I think your conservatory clean start price is more of a concern mate, would deffo put that up especially as these are more one offs

Good luck on your new venture

[Don Kee]

Why cant you make decent money on £14 to £20 Jobs ?

This ^^^

If you’ve just started up, you have no idea yet as to how many you can both do in a day.
You may think you cant get any faster, trust me you can and you will.

When I first started, I was told £150 - £200 was the bench mark with two guys in a day....these days if I dont hit at least that on my own I’ve had a bad one, so two of us tend to do a little more.
Perceptions and speed change over time, just keep knocking doors to get the work in and keep cleaning it. When you start getting ‘full’ then you’ll start to know your limitations.

(If your ‘£20 for a conservatory’ includes the roof then triple it, £20 is too low)

[nathankaye]

Look down the threads and there is one about charging for a conservatory roof clean. That will give you an idea of prices for conservatory cleans

[Stoots]

If you can't make decent money on £14 - £20 jobs you need to work a bit faster.

The answer will probably be to get him out in his own van. 2 men isn't efficient on small houses as I'm finding out at the minute.

[Shrek]

Are you pricing too low? Is it taking you an hour to clean a £14 house?

[Dan marsh]

Thanks for the comments so far guys . First of all Regarding conservatorys it dose say prices from .  For a small cony that's not that big , not that dirty and not a glass roof I've done it in about an hour so my thinking is like a few has said already I will get quicker . But yes most conservatory I've charged between £30 and £100 . Like i said it's start from prices . The reson I'm thinking about doing this is that over the last 2 days we've done 2 big cleans brining in £410 which took us 7 hours overall so it got me thinking is this the typ off work we should be targeting as a 2 man team new too this an trying to get the money in . An I'm guessing 1 in 3 jobs we would pick up as regular window cleans as well .

Referring to how long it is taking us too clean houses I mean yeah it must be taking us longer than you guys as we've only 4 months expirance  . A 3 bed semi first clean is taken us about 30 mins and we are charging on avarege £17 for this . Then on return we get it done in about 20 to 25 mins .

So is no one actually doing this then ?

[Shrek]

Thanks for the comments so far guys . First of all Regarding conservatorys it dose say prices from .  For a small cony that's not that big , not that dirty and not a glass roof I've done it in about an hour so my thinking is like a few has said already I will get quicker . But yes most conservatory I've charged between £30 and £100 . Like i said it's start from prices . The reson I'm thinking about doing this is that over the last 2 days we've done 2 big cleans brining in £410 which took us 7 hours overall so it got me thinking is this the typ off work we should be targeting as a 2 man team new too this an trying to get the money in . An I'm guessing 1 in 3 jobs we would pick up as regular window cleans as well .

Referring to how long it is taking us too clean houses I mean yeah it must be taking us longer than you guys as we've only 4 months expirance  . A 3 bed semi first clean is taken us about 30 mins and we are charging on avarege £17 for this . Then on return we get it done in about 20 to 25 mins .

So is no one actually doing this then ?

Is it taking 2 of you 25 minutes or 1 person ?
If it’s 2 people, then I think you may be underpricing the jobs . Usually a 3 bed semi would take me about 17 minutes

[Johnny B]

I see no reason why you can't earn well on 12-14 quid houses. You will get quicker with experience and self-confidence, so your earnings and hourly rate will rise accordingly.

John

[p1w1]

2 of you taking 20-25 mins for a house that size is not great, you should be aiming that time for one person and possibly being even quicker. I appreciate your not long into it and you will speed up in time so nothing much you can do about that at the moment it just takes time and practise. In all honesty i would be looking at splitting up ( i dont mean business wise) and doing your houses separately.

If your both taking a 50/50 cut of the takings then working together is not going to be as productive and profitable as doing your own houses. This way only really works if your paying someone a wage and even then it's not always the best way to do things, but again this would be something to keep in mind for the near future as i guess at the moment what you need are more customers.

What i would be doing is if your both turning up for 1 house why not just 1 person do the clean while the other goes knocking on doors or sticking a few leaflets out with the neighbours maybe take it in turns so your both perfecting your cleaning methods but also trying to gain new work at the same time (if your working on 3-4 next to each other then you can both do the houses separately.

At the moment your at the hardest part and thats building up a good customer base/round the quicker you get that done the better. Don't take your mindset of this, this is what in the long run will make your round worthwhile focus on the regular repeating customers first as your packages will mainly be 1 offs, and these can be done at weekends or bad weather as sort of extra money (like working overtime).

As far as packages are concerned give it a shot you've nothing to lose while your still building a round, however i would be sticking the min prices up for cons roofs to at least 40-45 bare in mind if you do a cons roof 9 times out of ten you need to clean the guttering and windows as well after (especially if your using virosol etc to clean the roof).

The problem i see with these very low starting prices are you may attract lots of interest but then when you give them a higher price they probably won't bother meaning your just wasting your time quoting (all the customer will have in their head is your minimum price and thats what they will be looking for), with a higher starting price at least you know the customer is still interested at the higher price (it kind of weeds out the people looking for you to do it for next to nothing or for a bargain if that makes sense)

[robbo333]

Dan

I would do a 'QUALITY' leaflet promoting all your services (including the gutter clearing and cladding) with good, clear pictures for EACH SERVICE.
I wouldn't bother about bronze, silver and gold (I think it will just confuse customers).
Whack them out around Glenferness, Talbot Woods, Ferndown, all the biggies and see how you get on.
You could even head down towards Sandbanks if you're feeling 'saucy'.

Also, If you are building a 'round', it is inevitable that you will get all sizes of houses and you will have to learn how to clean them efficiently between the two of you. Obviously, at a later date, you can drop the houses that you don't think are any good, but as you are just starting up, you need everything you can get.

I did a full clean today (including 4 sides of cladding) up in Bearwood.

Give me a bell if you need a hand with your cleaning technique etc.

Robbo

[nathankaye]

Oh dear, you might not like my advice.
But basically i would say stop with your promotions and practice, practice and practice some more because the times you are stating are not great at all and im sorry but im not gonna take it easy because your only four months in.  Technically your charging customers to practice on their windows.
You need to be getting that time down and thats only going to happen with practice.
When I first started trad, i must have cleaned my own house between 5 and ten times within a day. I used to clean the glass bus stop outside my old house several times a week as practice on larger panels and went round my friends houses as well.   When I switched onto wfp, even though I had established work I still practiced on my own house to perfect my technique and on my friends homes.  Thats why i get defensive about my own work.
But this is your business and a business to make money and if your taking on more work trying to get more money but your times are rubbish then your going to make your situation worse and not better. But with practice will come better timeings per clean allowing you to take on more work and then I quarantee you will be making money on houses between £14 - £20 each.

[Dan marsh]

Thanks for the comments so far guys . First of all Regarding conservatorys it dose say prices from .  For a small cony that's not that big , not that dirty and not a glass roof I've done it in about an hour so my thinking is like a few has said already I will get quicker . But yes most conservatory I've charged between £30 and £100 . Like i said it's start from prices . The reson I'm thinking about doing this is that over the last 2 days we've done 2 big cleans brining in £410 which took us 7 hours overall so it got me thinking is this the typ off work we should be targeting as a 2 man team new too this an trying to get the money in . An I'm guessing 1 in 3 jobs we would pick up as regular window cleans as well .

Referring to how long it is taking us too clean houses I mean yeah it must be taking us longer than you guys as we've only 4 months expirance  . A 3 bed semi first clean is taken us about 30 mins and we are charging on avarege £17 for this . Then on return we get it done in about 20 to 25 mins .

So is no one actually doing this then ?

Is it taking 2 of you 25 minutes or 1 person ?
If it’s 2 people, then I think you may be underpricing the jobs . Usually a 3 bed semi would take me about 17 minutes

Well it takes us about 5 to 7 mins  unpacking an packing  up an about 10 to 15 mins to clean . I'm sure we will get quicker eventually.  It's just there are a lot of window cleaners  around my area but a 20 to 30 mins drive away there are a lot of big house's  with not so many window cleaners around . That's why I thought this idea might work .

[p1w1]

Dan..what flow rate do you use to do regular cleans, one of the biggest reasons IMO that slows you down is having a low flow rate and trying to conserve/save water maybe thats something to look at to start with.
Also i know we're only talking minutes but your unpacking and putting away seems to long as well, it may be only minutes here and there but they all add up at the end of the day/week.

[nathankaye]

Thanks for the comments so far guys . First of all Regarding conservatorys it dose say prices from .  For a small cony that's not that big , not that dirty and not a glass roof I've done it in about an hour so my thinking is like a few has said already I will get quicker . But yes most conservatory I've charged between £30 and £100 . Like i said it's start from prices . The reson I'm thinking about doing this is that over the last 2 days we've done 2 big cleans brining in £410 which took us 7 hours overall so it got me thinking is this the typ off work we should be targeting as a 2 man team new too this an trying to get the money in . An I'm guessing 1 in 3 jobs we would pick up as regular window cleans as well .

Referring to how long it is taking us too clean houses I mean yeah it must be taking us longer than you guys as we've only 4 months expirance  . A 3 bed semi first clean is taken us about 30 mins and we are charging on avarege £17 for this . Then on return we get it done in about 20 to 25 mins .

So is no one actually doing this then ?

Is it taking 2 of you 25 minutes or 1 person ?
If it’s 2 people, then I think you may be underpricing the jobs . Usually a 3 bed semi would take me about 17 minutes

Well it takes us about 5 to 7 mins  unpacking an packing  up an about 10 to 15 mins to clean . I'm sure we will get quicker eventually.  It's just there are a lot of window cleaners  around my area but a 20 to 30 mins drive away there are a lot of big house's  with not so many window cleaners around . That's why I thought this idea might work .

End of the day its upto you guys.  Most of us on here have learnt from our own experiences overthe years and theres something said for that.
But there certainly isnt anything wrong with travelling to better work.
Whats your set up for it taking so long?  Sorry i cant remember what you decided on, was it one van mount and the other on trolley?

[Dan marsh]

P1w1 , robbo 333 , Johnny b and nathankaye thank you lots off good advice.  Splitting to 2 vans won't work for as no money left in the pot for a second van unfortunately  .

[CleanClear]

We will be sending emails to management company's soon as well .

 

[Shrek]

Up your flow and try cleaning faster