[david mark]

I have 2 employees may move forward to getting a 3nd one next year .we run 1man per van
Average  gross income per van is £185. Per day each employee is this to low they start at 8.30 finish at 4 .
They Don't seem to pick any new work up even tho they get the first clean money , how do you deal with this with your staff

[Smudger]

If I can put my 2 pennith in that’s not enough time you take out wages and costs we run at 40 to 45 p/h per man on regular window cleaning

Although they do pick up work windows and other cleaning don’t rely on it - that’s your role now to bring in work

Darran

[Lee Pryor]

Thats not how you spell my name lol

The question is this enough each day is very hard to answer. It depends on your other expenses and what you pay your staff. You tell me. Do you make a profit? Are you vat reg and if not will you still make a profit on those numbers when you are ect.  My opinion of that number is that it is not enough by far for daily turnover. Break down your expenses for me.

As for picking up new work, my guys dont do much of this either, on the other hand all I actually want them to do is clean all day, I sort out getting new work.

[david mark]

Thanks for prompt reply I'm based in Blackpool so price per hour are much less than down south for 3 bed semi is £10.00 to £12.00 . This I feel is the problem they work a 7 hour day I pay them £80 .I'm not vat reg as just under the freshhold both vans are paid for fuel bill £60.00 Per van per month other expenses are equipment van servicing advertising accountancy fees is £20.00 Per day

[Jonny 87]

If you went out on your own could you do more than the £185 per day?

That’s an indicator that your staff might be not working as hard as they should. If you can go out and comfortably do £300 on your own, then they are definitely slacking.

On the other hand, if you go out and do a full long hard slog of a day for £250, then £185 for an employee is not far off.

An employee is never going to put the effort in that the owner would.

At £10-£12 for a three bed semi, surely they could do 3 of those in an hour? It sounds like they are doing far less than that.

Is your work compact or spread out too, that has a big impact.

[Johnny B]

I have 2 employees may move forward to getting a 3nd one next year .we run 1man per van
Average  gross income per van is £185. Per day each employee is this to low they start at 8.30 finish at 4 .
They Don't seem to pick any new work up even tho they get the first clean money , how do you deal with this with your staff

Before you took them on as employees, did you tell them what you expected from them, ie how many houses/turnover/hours worked/ procuring new customers etc?

I won't ask what you pay them, but what incentives do they have for doing more if your expectations are higher? Are they actually doing what you have asked them to do? It may be that they are doing everything they believe you have asked them, so before pulling them in for questioning, question yourself first as to how you communicated your requirements of them to them.

John

[cleaniac]

Lee clearly being the one to ask on these matters, but even i will tell you that £180 per day per van isnt enough.

If you are averaging £12 per house you are getting through 15 cleans a day, thats just a bit below average but id say comfortable in terms of workload for your employees.

You need to be charging around £18 per house on average to at least get you above £250 per day per van, but even that isn't particularly amazing.

Do you have min charge? You will find if you enforce a min charge of £15 your earnings will rocket.

[Smudger]

Don’t think it’s the price - it’s a time problem - they/you to be doing 3.5 to 4 houses per hour every hour so 7 hours for that amount of work currently being done needs to be completed in 5 hours max then get more work or the other 2 hours.

You won’t make it work when vat cuts in 11% year one then 20% after that so every single pound through a the books becomes 80p before you start regardless of profit etc.... look at your figures with 20% off and see how that works ?

You said you pay £80 a day what about ni and pensions etc all extras on top of your £80

Darran

[david mark]

Not sure if there are window cleaners from my area on this forum would be interested to see what they charge .
 Blackpool has a lot of window cleaners so competion has kept prices low .My prices are higher than most in the area £5 front and £10.00 for a small semi most charge £4 front £8.00 if I put in a 8 hour day I can make £275 but I'm 58 years old so not able to do this day in day out we do have a lot of well price properties from £15 up to £55.00 which is shared out when I employed 6 years ago they were expected to do £200 Per day but this figure has not been reach every day most of our work is compact so £30.00 Per hour should be reached but it's not I have had several meetings with them to reach the £200 Per day they do it for a few weeks then start falling back £185

[Smudger]

Then make it clear to your staff it’s not acceptable - if you can do 275 then a target of 240 to 250 every day should be made ( certainly an average at the end of the week ) That’s why you employ and set targets

I hear this all the time about too many windy’s - poor area etc...   Yarmouth and Norfolk are not flush by a long way - just look and canvass for better stuff - it’s there drop all those b&bs who have vast properties but only pay a pittance and for 10 months of the year

If staff can’t cut it - let em go

Darran

[Stoots]

Thanks for prompt reply I'm based in Blackpool so price per hour are much less than down south for 3 bed semi is £10.00 to £12.00 . This I feel is the problem they work a 7 hour day I pay them £80 .I'm not vat reg as just under the freshhold both vans are paid for fuel bill £60.00 Per van per month other expenses are equipment van servicing advertising accountancy fees is £20.00 Per day

They are not doing enough work.

I am in Leeds, similar pricing in average £10-12 a semi.

I can do an average of £250 a day 9-3 some days 200 some days up towards 300.
Obviously I don't prat about and work flat out but in 7 hours they should be able to do £250 I would think.

185 turnover, minus 80 wages and all other costs you can't be making more than 400 a week each man.

Pointless imo, you'd earn more solo

[Shrek]

Maybe spend a week with each employee and watch what’s going on. If they don’t want to work then find someone who does . Sounds like your staff couldn’t really care as long as they’re earning their £80 a day regardless of turnover?

[S.A.J]

Going through the same thing with my staff at the moment 

1 worked 8 hours on Friday and done £130 + VAT!!

[david mark]

I have gone through over 20 staff in the past 6 years some have been better than others these 2 are the best I've had to date but it's frustrating me that I no they can do more money per day but they are not willing to do I

[Shrek]

I’m not sure what you told them when they 1st started but if you told them that they work 7.5 hrs a day and get £80 then they are thinking why should they work harder?
if you had said to them from day 1 that they have to do X amount per day and that’s what the £80 is based on , then it may be a different story now

[John Mart]

Thanks for prompt reply I'm based in Blackpool so price per hour are much less than down south for 3 bed semi is £10.00 to £12.00 . This I feel is the problem they work a 7 hour day I pay them £80 .I'm not vat reg as just under the freshhold both vans are paid for fuel bill £60.00 Per van per month other expenses are equipment van servicing advertising accountancy fees is £20.00 Per day

Everyone says it’s less money up north but there’s a guy on Facebook called Adam Pauley that moved up to Darlington I think from Oxford and he took his Oxford pricing with him and he’s doing brilliantly. There ought to be more disposable income as housing is so much cheaper. I think it just needs some balls.

[Shrek]

Thanks for prompt reply I'm based in Blackpool so price per hour are much less than down south for 3 bed semi is £10.00 to £12.00 . This I feel is the problem they work a 7 hour day I pay them £80 .I'm not vat reg as just under the freshhold both vans are paid for fuel bill £60.00 Per van per month other expenses are equipment van servicing advertising accountancy fees is £20.00 Per day

Everyone says it’s less money up north but there’s a guy on Facebook called Adam Pauley that moved up to Darlington I think from Oxford and he took his Oxford pricing with him and he’s doing brilliantly. There ought to be more disposable income as housing is so much cheaper. I think it just needs some balls.

This is what Iv said in the past , the housing is so cheap but yet the minimum wage is exactly the same all over the country bar London. Royal Mail , Tesco, Asda etc pay the same wage regardless of whether it’s ex mining or whatever so more disposable income

[John Mart]

Going through the same thing with my staff at the moment 

1 worked 8 hours on Friday and done £130 + VAT!!

OMG! I give a day sheet and I determine what’s on it by the amount of money I want. Normally it’s about £400 inc VAT although because we’re 8 weeks on from a heavy holiday week, this week has been a bit light and I’ve had to drag a few jobs forward.

Basically there’s no way the above could happen because they don’t come back until it’s all done. Usually by 4pm. Start at 9. Perhaps look at doing it that way instead of hourly?

[Lee Pryor]

What I do is pay the cleaners the minimum wage. everything they earn each day above that is a percentage of the worksheet, so the more they do the more they earn. Then we pay a bonus at the end of the month if they have met a turnover target for that month. The target is currently £6250.00 soon to be moving up to £6500.

That means they are always pushing to do more as they will earn more and have a monthly goal to reach.

On top of that we have a strike system in place that means if they too many stikes in a month they start loosing their bonus. Strikes are things like late, calling in sick on the day and so on, anything I dont want to see ect.

Bottom line, if my guys do less they get paid less.

My highest earner last month turned over £8500! His gross pay was £2850 which is the yearly equivilent of almost £35K a year.

[Smudger]

Going through the same thing with my staff at the moment 

1 worked 8 hours on Friday and done £130 + VAT!!

Ouch!

Sometimes you get a bad day - that’s understandable and it’s usually on brick cleaning or graffiti removal not windows
But repeatedly low they need to go!

Darran