[jay moley]

Has anyone added other services to their offering beyond the usual add ons like gutter cleaning?

Things like carpet cleaning, oven cleaning, garden maintenance?

Any success? Failures?

[Scottish Cleaning Service]

The only thing I don't take on is oven cleaning and carpet cleaning. I will give a bit of advice, don't take on too much, I did and one can be all over the place. Take on something you like doing e.g say you like cutting hedges then add that to your list. My money spinner seems to be renting out my scaffold but what happens when someone nicks it. Pressure Washing was another money spinner but only seasonal and I find it too messy now so I have gave it a miss and only do it for very loyal customers.
Grass cutting is a nice simple earner if you buy a good cutter like a Honda. Tree trimming is another good earner but you need a professional chipper or you end up with more branches than the police force.
Roof spraying in the summer and scraping the moss off can be a good earner but very hard work I have found.
In the end it all comes down to what you like doing and its not really work, that's what I have found out. I like repairing roofs even in the winter because I have all the gear. I used to like building fences but it has lost its appeal but have a 30 metre one to do in the summer because its round the corner from me. I like to do work near where I stay  and find it saves me a ton of time.
It will be good to hear how you get on.

[Perfect Windows]

Has anyone added other services to their offering beyond the usual add ons like gutter cleaning?

Things like carpet cleaning, oven cleaning, garden maintenance?

Any success? Failures?

If you're a one man band then all that matters is your hourly rate.

There are about 1,600 working hours in a year. So the single thing you can affect is how much you earn for every one of those hours. The thing that seems to be best for us is cleaning the vertical glass on houses so we stick to that. We try not to do Conny roofs or gutters; they're jobs we do to keep customers rather than to earn.

I'm astounded how little gardeners charge for their time given how much demand there is for their services. There's a guy I meet often who's at £15 and hour and is turning down work all the time.

As for carpet cleaning, the people I meet seem to be on close to minimum wage.

And watching someone work for 90 minutes on cleaning an oven at friend's house for £40 was painful.

Vin

[Bungle]

Has anyone added other services to their offering beyond the usual add ons like gutter cleaning?

Things like carpet cleaning, oven cleaning, garden maintenance?

Any success? Failures?

If you're a one man band then all that matters is your hourly rate.

There are about 1,600 working hours in a year. So the single thing you can affect is how much you earn for every one of those hours. The thing that seems to be best for us is cleaning the vertical glass on houses so we stick to that. We try not to do Conny roofs or gutters; they're jobs we do to keep customers rather than to earn.

I'm astounded how little gardeners charge for their time given how much demand there is for their services. There's a guy I meet often who's at £15 and hour and is turning down work all the time.

As for carpet cleaning, the people I meet seem to be on close to minimum wage.

And watching someone work for 90 minutes on cleaning an oven at friend's house for £40 was painful.

Vin

It seems to be the norm with gardeners charging £15 an hour. Why bother? I had a carpet cleaner in, he charged me £210 for 3 rooms and a staircase. Same with oven cleaning, £70+ and they dip most of the oven in a vat in the back of a van. Try booking one in, they're all well busy.

[james peters]

Has anyone added other services to their offering beyond the usual add ons like gutter cleaning?

Things like carpet cleaning, oven cleaning, garden maintenance?

Any success? Failures?

yes... My son worked with me for a year, before he went to university.    so  I  did more add ons
The ones I enjoyed the most was render cleaning.
good money, very satisfying.
All you will need is a back pack / or trolley, and fan spray jets, and of course the chemical

He is now in uni, and so I am super busy , but I still do render cleaning....

[deeege]

At the risk of sounding like Dazmond, I really don’t understand the need to offer extra services. From a swapping time for money standpoint, cleaning windows is rarely beaten on money earned.

Concentrate on building a good local round, with a good mixture of houses and small commercial properties and you’ll never have to worry about adding extra services.

Unless cleaning windows really bores you to tears, then mixing it up could be beneficial.

[dazmond]

Maximising what you can earn with existing equipment is beneficial because your not shelling out on more equipment and a larger van which is both expensive and less practical for parking and ongoing running costs.

Just concentrate on windows,UPVC cleans,conny roofs,solar panels and softwashing if you don't mind splashing sodium chloride around which all can be done with WFP.

You ll end up running around like a headless chicken if you start offering carpet cleaning services and other add ons like gardening unless you plan on employing even then it'll be a nightmare to manage your workload day today and the constant advertising.

It's usually better to concentrate on your core service rather than jack of all trades for peace of mind,regular,reliable work and it's generally less stressful.

[Splash and dash]

All depends what you charge it’s easy to double your days earnings with add on jobs even if you have very good paying window cleaning work , we price them very high don’t need the work but it’s a change from the Windows and satisfying work .

[Stoots]

Ive done car valeting, carpet cleaning, pressure washing,gutter cleaning, fsg and con roofs

A lot of it is going to be area dependant. In yorkshire where i am for some reason people expect most of these services cheap.

Ive given out dozens and dozens of quotes for the above services and its pretty rare i can land jobs that can beat what i can earn on windows.  Of course there are exceptions but generally in my area people wont pay it. I can be cleaning someones windows for £15 in 10 mins and they ask for an fsg quote. I quote say £120 because it will take 2 hours, they say no 9 times out of 10. They think 2 hours for 120 is a rip off but dont compute im doing that on the windows. For example pressure washing 60 quid an hour plus travel, chems, fuel, sand etc can bring the cost of an average driveway up to way way more than they where expecting....The same goes with the other sevcices generally.

Like i said though its area, i know some people do £500 plus a day on these services i just cant get those prices.

A good cream window cleaning round is hard to beat but its obviously really boring.

Theres nothing wrong in adding other services but if its just money that motivates you then put the effort into getting more window cleaning customers.

That said i setup pressure washing last year and i enjoyed it more than anything else ive done in the cleaning segment, took lots of pics and vids and although i didnt earn anymore than i could have done on the glass it was nice change to running about in and out of the van all day.

Next year ive made a plan to do 3 days window cleaning, keeping my favourite jobs, slowly dropping off those i dont like, still advertise for it but at higher prices, do a price rise across the board and try to make it as easy as possible. Then i will make a big push for the pressure washing to see if its something that i can morph into. But its not really for the money its just for a change and a challenge. 

[KS Cleaning]

Exactly what Stoots says. There is no way people will pay the hourly rate that I achieve cleaning windows for add-ons.
That is why smaller properties combined with the work being compact is better here, the hourly rate goes largely unnoticed.

[Scottish Cleaning Service]

Another money spinner I have noticed is gutter clearing with a 240v Industrial Vac. I only use the customers power so don't carry my generator no more. The best thing about it I have found is when you book them in. I book them in when I'm cleaning their windows because I'm there anyway. Using the vac can demand a hire premium I have found and they are happy to pay it. Good way to get into commercial stuff as well because they need a receipt for their building insurance, so I was told by a customer.

[jay moley]

Thanks for all the replies, I agree with what has been said.

My main thought was that you have hundreds of customers that already trust you and would be more likely to pay for another service if you offered it.

Best to keep it simple.

Merry Christmas.

[Scottish Cleaning Service]

Thanks for all the replies, I agree with what has been said.

My main thought was that you have hundreds of customers that already trust you and would be more likely to pay for another service if you offered it.

Best to keep it simple.

What I have found is the simple reason is because they see YOU every month so they can wait till you do their windows. That's the reason I like receiving cash because I have face to face contact.
Give you one example, I have 2 cleans in a posh tenement. One pays cash and the other pays with bank transfer. One who pays cash I have done add-ons for them but the bank transfer I have never seem her since day one and I have cleaned her windows for 3 years. When you meet face to face one builds a bond with them. 😉

Merry Christmas.

[Bungle]

Thanks for all the replies, I agree with what has been said.

My main thought was that you have hundreds of customers that already trust you and would be more likely to pay for another service if you offered it.

Best to keep it simple.

What I have found is the simple reason is because they see YOU every month so they can wait till you do their windows. That's the reason I like receiving cash because I have face to face contact.
Give you one example, I have 2 cleans in a posh tenement. One pays cash and the other pays with bank transfer. One who pays cash I have done add-ons for them but the bank transfer I have never seem her since day one and I have cleaned her windows for 3 years. When you meet face to face one builds a bond with them. 😉

Merry Christmas.

I wish you'd use the quote function properly. Bloody nightmare reading your posts.

[KS Cleaning]

Thanks for all the replies, I agree with what has been said.

My main thought was that you have hundreds of customers that already trust you and would be more likely to pay for another service if you offered it.

Best to keep it simple.

What I have found is the simple reason is because they see YOU every month so they can wait till you do their windows. That's the reason I like receiving cash because I have face to face contact.
Give you one example, I have 2 cleans in a posh tenement. One pays cash and the other pays with bank transfer. One who pays cash I have done add-ons for them but the bank transfer I have never seem her since day one and I have cleaned her windows for 3 years. When you meet face to face one builds a bond with them. 😉

Merry Christmas.

C’mon Scottish, tell the truth why you like cash customers…….it’s because it goes straight in the hipper and HMRC is none the wiser😁

[Scottish Cleaning Service]

Thanks for all the replies, I agree with what has been said.

My main thought was that you have hundreds of customers that already trust you and would be more likely to pay for another service if you offered it.

Best to keep it simple.

What I have found is the simple reason is because they see YOU every month so they can wait till you do their windows. That's the reason I like receiving cash because I have face to face contact.
Give you one example, I have 2 cleans in a posh tenement. One pays cash and the other pays with bank transfer. One who pays cash I have done add-ons for them but the bank transfer I have never seem her since day one and I have cleaned her windows for 3 years. When you meet face to face one builds a bond with them. 😉

Merry Christmas.

C’mon Scottish, tell the truth why you like cash customers…….it’s because it goes straight in the hipper and HMRC is none the wiser😁

I have a wicked stepmother who reports me to the taxman every year so that's probably the reason I spend my money on equipment and I pay more tax than I need to. My father was very rich and I remembered the day he took 20p out his pocket to pay for a stamp from the hotel's petty cash which stored the stamps, I couldn't believe it and its stuck in my brain ever since.
In the end it makes sense because the more money you give out the more comes back to you. I'm away to clean the churches windows today before mass and hopefully plenty of parishioners will see me. 😇😉😇

[richard connett]

Has anybody had any experience of chimney sweeping? The guy that does ours is a fireman but manages to be in and out of my house having done two chimney flues in 30mins max. £90 thanks very much ! Almost as much as I charge per hour

[Splash and dash]

Has anybody had any experience of chimney sweeping? The guy that does ours is a fireman but manages to be in and out of my house having done two chimney flues in 30mins max. £90 thanks very much ! Almost as much as I charge per hour

That’s pretty much the going rate , if you have a stove and have that serviced at the same time it is usually considerably more than that , fire bricks , baffles re rope doors etc is around £150 alone