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johnny bravo

  • Posts: 2699
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #60 on: November 17, 2019, 10:55:22 am »
Theres so many new houses being built now I have to stop canvassing them,  its like a drug,   you want the Yes answer from them.  just to know you have got them.

Honestly though   some on here say £15 / £30 a house.      Would you Pay that to your Window Cleaner if you had one , if you didn't do it as a job.        Some must think people shxt money.    most are paying high morgages, both have to work,    .
This is why Online payments  are better than collecting.     They don't hand you Cash so it is easier.

NWH

  • Posts: 16952
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #61 on: November 17, 2019, 11:07:09 am »
Then go after customers that S£££T money that’s what I’ve always done,who can you pick the phone up to and say I want you to come round my house and do a job for me for under £30.
You’ve got to get to the place of work and you should have all the other expenses that go with running a business no matter how small,if someone enquires about a job and its not worth my while or they don’t S£££T cash I move on to someone that does,if you don’t ask you don’t get in this life.

johnny bravo

  • Posts: 2699
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #62 on: November 17, 2019, 11:39:56 am »
I must be one of those one off decent guys,   who is glad of the position im in,     3 /4 holidays abroad a year, buying my council house  , no other debt,   money in the bank,   pocket never empty. above all happy decent customers every week.      Not over charged,    honest and reliable.   I offer a fair priced window cleaning service.
If you are happy with your income  ,  and out of debt   just go with it,  no need to change.  This day and age toooo many people are  being laid off or  busineses closing down.   

I appreciate what I have now.    Still building my workload up.    as I suppose a lot of us are on this site.

This is not a job now to be embarresed about when people ask what do you do.     as it used to be.
WFP has now taken us to the next level. of decent earners .

jk999

  • Posts: 2089
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #63 on: November 17, 2019, 11:48:01 am »
Right this is getting annoying i dont clean £8 houses i said thats what you get in Yorkshire, i have been in this game 36 years so had enough time to adapt my round so nk if your still working full days then lol 😁i only work four days a week and only half days at that and before everyone pitches in an says why dont you only work 2 days its because i like to get out off the house ,👍😁so good look guys in busting your butt for the next twenty years to catch up NK

KS Cleaning

  • Posts: 3955
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #64 on: November 17, 2019, 12:15:48 pm »
I didn't say i got £8 an house i have been lucky with my work i do a good job and never lost a customer yet unless they move out of area or pass away ,i have been fortunate to build my round with good prices without taking the p@#$ out of the customers, i would rather have regular 3 to 4 week cleans than stupid 6 weekly plus

This is the attitude i refer to.  That if people dare charge more than them and gain the work, others think they are taking the p@#$ out of the customer  ::)roll

On the last point, if I have two separate customers on an 8 wkly basis and charge £35 ( which I have) and i clean one in one month and the second the month after. In two months thats £70 for 2 cleans.
Or
I could have two customers on a 4 wkly basis, say £15 per clean. In two months, that equals four cleans and £60.

Which one is more stupid a set up?
Sorry Nathan, the example you have given isn’t really a direct comparison tho is it?  For all we know the £35 houses could take an hour each,  the £15 houses could take 15 mins each. So to answer your question...with the info you’ve given I don’t have a clue which is the more stupid set up!

Perhaps true, but would you charge only £35 for a house that takes an hour to clean.  I know i wouldnt!

(Added text)
I also spelt it out in that manner as once not too long ago on a facebook group + messenger, some did not see the point nor the difference of 8 weekly work compared to 4 weekly work.  The example I mentioned here, helped some to grasp the concept. Some felt there was no difference in cleaning one 4 weekly house over 8 weeks, to that of one 8 wkly clean and they are better off on 4 wkly instead.  Yet explaining in month one you clean mr smith at say £35 and month 2 you clean mr brown @ £35 a clean. Then thats £70 over two months.   Now compare that to cleaning mrs smiths at £20 per clean in month one and then month two. Which gives a total of £40 over the same time period!!

 ;D ;D perhaps this explanation makes more sense than trying to complicate it with time management!
Are you saying you get £35 for a house on 8 weekly, and the same style of house is £20 on 4 weekly?

FFS!   If i said a house for £10 or £15 someone on here would moan that their 4 weekly average clean is more.  So i went with an average price of a 4 weekly clean at £20 and people still moan.

So lets take an average price of your own 4 wkly clean house and an average price of yours for an 8 weekly clean and see which is more viable. 
Oh and remember guys its sunday today so dont burden your brains with over thinking this OK.....
   ;D
I’ll make it easy for you Nathan, I charge about 25% more for 8 weekly.................there, that was simple enough eh?...........no need to over think it with Mr Smith, Mr Brown, Mrs Smith, bla bla bla😂

tlwcs

  • Posts: 2088
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #65 on: November 17, 2019, 12:57:32 pm »
Right this is getting annoying i dont clean £8 houses i said thats what you get in Yorkshire, i have been in this game 36 years so had enough time to adapt my round so nk if your still working full days then lol 😁i only work four days a week and only half days at that and before everyone pitches in an says why dont you only work 2 days its because i like to get out off the house ,👍😁so good look guys in busting your butt for the next twenty years to catch up NK

how do you manage that on £8 houses?
😁😁😁

nathankaye

  • Posts: 5366
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #66 on: November 17, 2019, 01:32:17 pm »
NK , it might have been an easier example to include jk999 prices.

Jk999 has 100 custards @ £8 . 12 cleans a year earning them £9600 p/a

NK has 100 custards @ £15 . 6 cleans a year earning them £9000 p/a

NK is doing 50% less work than jk999 but earning nearly as much

If everything that came out of NK's mouth where true he would be the first one man band million quid turnover shiner, the problem with your example is how to find a customer who is prepared to lose 6 cleans to save £6, even if you where to double both amounts it still only a £12 a year saving for the customer.

First, i dont lie mate, theres no need to do so.
2nd,  its not about how much a customer may save by going 8 weekly over 4, its about how much work is involved to earn X amount.

Like most on here, i have days where im ran of my feet and other days where I can take my time.  This is why I dont mind working in the rain to maintain my schedule, because I like what I have now.   The more larger, 8weekly work I have, then the less I need to work and given my wife is ill and I have three young kids to pick up from school n watch etc etc, then this suits me very well.
Yes I waffle on here and yes I say some of my prices but that isnt half of my situation. However ones want to speculate and can do so.

Sure! My example could have been easier but like I said, from conversations on other groups and ones personally direct messaging me, dont seem to grasp it unless its spelt out like that.     
However, your right and those examples would have been enough.

facebook.com/1NKServices
1NKServices.co.uk

nathankaye

  • Posts: 5366
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #67 on: November 17, 2019, 02:13:29 pm »
Right this is getting annoying i dont clean £8 houses i said thats what you get in Yorkshire, i have been in this game 36 years so had enough time to adapt my round so nk if your still working full days then lol 😁i only work four days a week and only half days at that and before everyone pitches in an says why dont you only work 2 days its because i like to get out off the house ,👍😁so good look guys in busting your butt for the next twenty years to catch up NK

Mate, ive been doing this for over 20 yrs.  However the longer in the game doesnt mean that its been done right does it.
I was happy n plodding on for many years and then later I realised I had more potential and started to operate my business as a business and stepped things up a little.  (Sure i was swapping the dross for better work from day one, but again that doesnt mean too much on face value). 
Theres chaps near me, who have been window cleaning for near on 40 yrs and over the years have had numerous of lads working with them. Yet they would be the first to say, that they have just plodded on the same way since day one. (They are nice lads as well, so im not belittling them).
So the longer someone has been in the game is no reflection upon them doing it right, sorry to say.
(Again, not saying you are or are not! Simply stating that if a person has been in a trade for x number of years does not necessarily mean they have done it right business wise or not)

In addition, im not the one saying you charge £8 per house. I also dont care how much you charge. My example didnt touch on your figure but touched on the point how you think 6 or longer durations is silly, when the fact of the matter is, that it isnt and makes sound business sense to do so.
facebook.com/1NKServices
1NKServices.co.uk

AuRavelling79

  • Posts: 25397
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #68 on: November 17, 2019, 04:47:07 pm »
Ladies! Please put the handbags down and step away from the knitting needles.
It's a game of three halves!

johnny bravo

  • Posts: 2699
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #69 on: November 17, 2019, 05:58:06 pm »
Ive recently had customers ask me ,   Can you clean them every 2 months now,   There face when you give them a different price is laughable,      I say if everyone did this  there would be a big gap in my work  especially if they think there will be no difference in Price.

Some have asked if I stop in winter,  I says they can stop getting them cleaned but I will not be going back to clean them when they want them cleaning again in Spring time

I says it in my income.   it is a yearly job.

nathankaye

  • Posts: 5366
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #70 on: November 17, 2019, 07:01:31 pm »
Ive recently had customers ask me ,   Can you clean them every 2 months now,   There face when you give them a different price is laughable,      I say if everyone did this  there would be a big gap in my work  especially if they think there will be no difference in Price.

Some have asked if I stop in winter,  I says they can stop getting them cleaned but I will not be going back to clean them when they want them cleaning again in Spring time

I says it in my income.   it is a yearly job.

Absolutely agree.  I have some newer customers who ask what I do in winter. They ask if I leave it or continue. I simply let them know this is my professional business and as such it continues as normal.  That seems to be enough for the vast majority as ive only every had 2 customers who stop for winter and I dont mind doing so (for reasons that are mine).  Thats 2 cusyomers in all the years in working as a window cleaner.

One reason why I now offer 8 weekly cleans is because to be fair, im half waiting for all my 4 weekly to ask for it.  They havent dome so in the 4 yrs since switching over and so Im probably in the clear but im cleaning virtually clean windows. If anything, its dirty window sills im mostly cleaning  ;D.
The areas where I work, i would dare say that by week 7 you begin to notice the windows getting slightly dirty / covered in dust etc
facebook.com/1NKServices
1NKServices.co.uk

Dry Clean

  • Posts: 8859
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #71 on: November 17, 2019, 07:48:16 pm »
Right this is getting annoying i dont clean £8 houses i said thats what you get in Yorkshire, i have been in this game 36 years so had enough time to adapt my round so nk if your still working full days then lol 😁i only work four days a week and only half days at that and before everyone pitches in an says why dont you only work 2 days its because i like to get out off the house ,👍😁so good look guys in busting your butt for the next twenty years to catch up NK

how do you manage that on £8 houses?
😁😁😁

As long as they are compact, handy to clean and not overly big then there's nothing wrong with £8 houses, a small semi in my area can be priced from £8 to £12 but its a lot easier to build a compact round with an £8 price, there's more to making money in this game than the price alone.

jk999

  • Posts: 2089
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #72 on: November 17, 2019, 08:36:59 pm »
Spot on dry clean ,i will put my hand bag down if nk does 😁😁😁

johnny bravo

  • Posts: 2699
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #73 on: November 20, 2019, 11:09:34 pm »
if you are stopping / starting your van to do 1 or 2 houses then yes charge extra, but I park up and do from 5 / 10 houses in one run,    one after the other.     
After the new year I will be printing a letter bringing in a price increase,     around £1 per house, this will bring in an extra 2/£300 a month extra.

Don't like to increase prices as some may hum and arrr.     what the hek.     lots of new work about

nathankaye

  • Posts: 5366
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #74 on: November 21, 2019, 10:46:43 am »
Theres two window cleaners working on the one street.  However one charges between £10 n £15 and the second cleaner charges between £6 - £8.
It turns out that the first cleaner however, cleans more on the street than the latter!

Which would you prefer to be??  This is my point, as its regardless if your in n out of the van a lot or wfp or trad.     For me, if i know another cleaner works the sane street and I definately know his or hers prices are higher. Then I would seriously think about increasing my prices and yet it seems many wouldnt??  I dont understand that.

In the above example, thats me and a fellow shiner and we get on ok with each other, hes a lovely chap. Often pass work between each other and so im not attacking him or jealous b4 the moaning start lol.
He feels I need to charge more due to having higher overhead chargers n equipment.  However, i feel he should still be charging more as hes slower and uses a ladder.  Thats our running debate, as hes come off his ladder and had a bad knee injury due to it, but insists trad is better.
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1NKServices.co.uk

Simon Trapani

  • Posts: 1561
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #75 on: November 21, 2019, 04:59:47 pm »
Ive recently had customers ask me ,   Can you clean them every 2 months now,   There face when you give them a different price is laughable,      I say if everyone did this  there would be a big gap in my work  especially if they think there will be no difference in Price.

Some have asked if I stop in winter,  I says they can stop getting them cleaned but I will not be going back to clean them when they want them cleaning again in Spring time

I says it in my income.   it is a yearly job.

Absolutely agree.  I have some newer customers who ask what I do in winter. They ask if I leave it or continue. I simply let them know this is my professional business and as such it continues as normal.  That seems to be enough for the vast majority as ive only every had 2 customers who stop for winter and I dont mind doing so (for reasons that are mine).  Thats 2 cusyomers in all the years in working as a window cleaner.

One reason why I now offer 8 weekly cleans is because to be fair, im half waiting for all my 4 weekly to ask for it.  They havent dome so in the 4 yrs since switching over and so Im probably in the clear but im cleaning virtually clean windows. If anything, its dirty window sills im mostly cleaning  ;D.
The areas where I work, i would dare say that by week 7 you begin to notice the windows getting slightly dirty / covered in dust etc


That's why I've always gone 6 & 12 weekly Nathan. Who wants their windows cleaned every 4 weeks? They need to get a life unless they're getting them cleaned for a pittance.

dazmond

  • Posts: 23968
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #76 on: November 21, 2019, 06:02:07 pm »
Ive recently had customers ask me ,   Can you clean them every 2 months now,   There face when you give them a different price is laughable,      I say if everyone did this  there would be a big gap in my work  especially if they think there will be no difference in Price.

Some have asked if I stop in winter,  I says they can stop getting them cleaned but I will not be going back to clean them when they want them cleaning again in Spring time

I says it in my income.   it is a yearly job.



Absolutely agree.  I have some newer customers who ask what I do in winter. They ask if I leave it or continue. I simply let them know this is my professional business and as such it continues as normal.  That seems to be enough for the vast majority as ive only every had 2 customers who stop for winter and I dont mind doing so (for reasons that are mine).  Thats 2 cusyomers in all the years in working as a window cleaner.

One reason why I now offer 8 weekly cleans is because to be fair, im half waiting for all my 4 weekly to ask for it.  They havent dome so in the 4 yrs since switching over and so Im probably in the clear but im cleaning virtually clean windows. If anything, its dirty window sills im mostly cleaning  ;D.
The areas where I work, i would dare say that by week 7 you begin to notice the windows getting slightly dirty / covered in dust etc


That's why I've always gone 6 & 12 weekly Nathan. Who wants their windows cleaned every 4 weeks? They need to get a life unless they're getting them cleaned for a pittance.

it just depends...i have lots of 4 weekly cleans...... most are  fairly dirty after 4 weeks due to being semi rural/backing onto farmers fields/loads of large trees around......some are cheap yes and others are paying over £20 per clean each month......

at one time most smaller domestic jobs were cleaned on a fortnightly basis 15 years ago.....
price higher/work harder!

nathankaye

  • Posts: 5366
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #77 on: November 21, 2019, 06:59:02 pm »
My trad work was all 4 weekly and so when i switched to wfp, they simply stayed 4 weekly.
My 4 weekly prices are between £10 - 25
Whereas my 8 weekly are £30 - £70

I have quoted way above that for some lovely large mansion style houses but they look horrified when ive handed them the quote.  One recently said it was too much (£100 on a longer duration) as the previous cleaner only charged £30.   Then I looked horrified right back at her 😂😂
facebook.com/1NKServices
1NKServices.co.uk

NWH

  • Posts: 16952
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #78 on: November 21, 2019, 07:53:38 pm »
if You go longer between cleans you’ll do better imo,I do a handful that are monthly but they are 40-50 quiders that take 15-20 minutes.
I prefer to clean windows when they need cleaning they don’t mind paying when they can see you’ve been lol.
When I first started years ago I was cleaning on a monthly basis I was running round like a mad person to not only get it all done but to earn half decent money,I’d rather clean 6-8 houses a day with 6-8 tea breaks and still catch the end of loose women lol

johnny bravo

  • Posts: 2699
Re: Poached my customers with very low prices
« Reply #79 on: November 21, 2019, 09:11:28 pm »
when you have been cleaning customers at a  price for a few years they  seem gobsmacked that you are putting a price increase on there bill.
they become too use to a price.        if you can replace them that's ok,    if you have a lot of work that's ok to loose a few.         do not just put a big price increase because someone says you should be charging this.    if you are making over £150 / £200 a day for 6 hrs all depending what part of the country you are in.     north east  that's decent income   for a window cleaner.  you are still making more than some trades men
Lots of Competition up here.