[DASERVICES]

  Just had a new customer today who told me her last window cleaner charged
  £5.00 for a detached house  ( 11 windows ) Now I charge £7.00 but I feel
  this is too low as I took over from a fellow w/c who was charging £6.00. In
  another area I can get £10 for these type of houses.

  Why do other w/c charge such little money, this makes it hard for others trying
  to make an average living out of this. Well I did explain that I'm licensed and
  insured and did the other w/c show her their license to wish she said No.

  Other tradesmen are now earning £30 - £50 an hour which you need to do
  when you are self employed eg:- plumbers, carpet cleaners, gardeners etc..

  So why is it all other trades seem to have got their pricing in order apart from
  w/c. It is like time has stood still in window cleaning and the gap is getting
  bigger.

  Trying to earn a living is pretty hard but it makes it even harder when other
  folks are charging peanuts for cleaning windows.  I treat my round as a
  business and would like to earn more than £12 an hour, which other w/c
  would veiw it the same. We get no sick, holiday pay so the hourly rate
  needs to be more than this.

  I know in some parts of the country you get good prices but up here in
  Scotland people veiw cleaning their windows is a couple of pounds job.

  How do we get this trade recognised, is not something the FED should have
  done or should look into.

  Doug

[geefree]

hey doug,

Im very new to this game,.. but i have thought that too,

( in yorkshire our prices are similar to yours)

And when i give a reasonable quote for an awkward house, sometimes i get looked at like i am trying to rob them,

one woman asked me to quote her detached house, meant climbing over the garage with ladders in tow to to the back.... bearing in mind she said her last cleaner was £6.... i told her £9... she refused, so i said ok no problem, and that it would take me nearly an hour and then to drive to my next call , not to mention it being a first clean too!.. would put be down to nearly a fiver an hour.... i actually said to her...." i bet you wouldnt do all that for a few quid"... she said no but its your job, your choice,..... my reply was.... thats right , my business my choice... goodbye.

its like we are some deadleg who have a god given right to clean peoples windows for pennies,... work is coming in and i wont budge on my prices and only had 3 knockbacks....

but like you said, if i was fitting a window, or laying a drive, she would get charged the earth... and pay...

so why is this?

gary.

[supernova77]

Its because people like that don't see having their windows cleaned as an "essential" service

Andy

[geefree]

i think deep down they do,

but because its only windows, and they are kept up to regular,  its something that does not occur to them,

until one day they realise they have been dumped by looking at the state of their windows and realise its essential that they get a cleaner to sort them out,

then along comes someone who does them for £2.50..

hence the vicious circle,

and on it goes...

If people keep doing them for those prices this will always be the case..

i reckon thats the bottom line.


Gary.

[petski2]

Guys I live in Yorkshire and my average price is £7.72888888
Im afraid it is a fact that the £2.50 brigade make it hard for us but as I said it IS a fact so you have to accept you will get a lot of knockbacks.
I have said before that it takes time.
Gazza when I had been cleaning the same time as you I had about 7 customers.Yes there were times when I thought it will never take off but by sticking to my guns and not pricing silly eventually it came. :
People WILL pay a decent price but you have to drop on the right area.
An example,yesterday I got 2 calls to price jobs up.
One was on Bradford rd (you will know that Gazza).
It is a fairly big house and would have taken about 15 mins with wfp so I quoted her £11.
Oh my gosh I only used to pay £4. :
Seeya luv.
Went to price the next one up which is in a very nice cul de sac in Outwood.All typical 3 and 4 bed detached newish builds.
Looked around and gave her price of £8.
Oh my gosh at that price you will get all the close.
After about an hour there we had 9 new cleans (3 weekly) and a total of £70 new work.
There are another 6 houses who wernt in so we left them a leaflet.
My point here is the old lady on Bradford rd thought £11 was way too much,however the people on the cul de sac thought it was a bargain price.(wish id have quoted higher) :
Right place right time and all that.
Always target new developments as well.
Gazza did you get the one on Honeysuckle close.

[geefree]

Hi petski,

yes i went to have a look , newish houses,

it had sloping roofs in front of upstairs windows,

cant do them without wfp....oh oh hope that did not re-ignite the debate.. ( which idont get involved in i may add )

thanks for passing it to me though mate.


gary.

[Kinver_Clean]

Down here in the West Midlands we find that £10 min gets most jobs but but we lose a few.Our averege price is nearer £15-£18 for a normal smallish 4 bed detatched £15 for 3 bed. We started from nothing in Nov last year and now have 163 custs. We obviously leaflet the posher areas and it seems to be paying.

[Archy136]

I ve never had any problems with the £2.50 brigade. I earnt nearly £584 in a day last week, not something I do regularly but easily make over £200 normally. I think thats probably up there with the best trades out there so I m not complaining.

[matt]

I ve never had any problems with the £2.50 brigade. I earnt nearly £584 in a day last week, not something I do regularly but easily make over £200 normally. I think thats probably up there with the best trades out there so I m not complaining.

here we go again

normally 200 quid a day

i speak to abou 6 WC'ers local to me, and not 1 comes close to that

we must all be doing something wrong

[Archy136]

I think you probably are.

Trad, a decent window cleaner should £150.

WPF. you should be getting £200.

[Sir Squeaky]

Depends if you're overcharging or just in high priced area. :
I'm in an area that's expensive to live in, but average window cleaning prices.

I work hard and I work fast, but I've only done £150 in day about 3 or 4 times ever.

£95-£125 is much more realistic.

[marc al]

  When you say nearly 584 quid, what was it actually?

  I nearly earnt 1234 quid today, but alas fell short and accepted a fair days pay for a fair days work.

   Giving it large over earnings does no-one any favours, if you can actually earn that money in a day good luck to you, but for everyone's sake keep it to yourself.

[Ian_Giles]

Squeaky isn't that far off the mark, there are many days when I am comfortably over the 150 quid mark, but over the course of 12 months it will work out if I am lucky at about £100 per working day.

what you charge is down to you, if you are going to charge a good price then you have to have the confidence to do so, you have to totally believe in yourself, you have to do a first rate job and you have to be able to do that job very quickly.

If you are new to window cleaning then you have to learn your craft first, it takes time to get up real pace, it takes a while to sort out your pricing and it takes a while to exude the confidence that allows you to say it'll be £10.00 rather than £6.00.

Ian

[Pat Purcell]

I cant see how there could be such a thing as over-charging in our business, the price is set by the area and the customer and the amount of competition, lke every other business you get as much as you can for your service, I do my charity work at the weekends

[matt]

this is why we have the 5 quid a house window cleaners

i spoke to 1 today, he was a ok lad, packed in his in his Office job as he heard WC'ers can earn 200 - 250 a day

he started off getting a few VERY WELL PRICED houses, 1 next to a house i do, i charge 8 quid, he got 15 quid for it, now 8 quid is a good price for me, i do ok out of this road, of course after a few weeks he needed to earn something, so his prices came down to 10 quid, then a few months on, he is Grabbing work, going in cheap as he needs to put money in the bank to pay bills

he now has in the same road (not the road im doing, he only has 1 in that road) BUT a road in the same area, he has a house for 15 quid, 9 quid and 6 quid, all the same size houses

he now prices up fairly cheap, as he still needs work, he has been at it 12 months

[Archy136]

The 584 day is a total freak day. Its 10 houses and 3 commercial properties. I dont earn anyway near that on a regular day.

But I do think anyone who has an established round for a couple of years is definately doing something wrong if they dont get £150 trad and £200 Wpf.

I am talking about the South and the South East.

[petski2]

I am always loathed to jump into these debates but I feel the need to this time as Im confused.
We are a partnership and have been established as such for 18 months now.
We both have big commitments with family for a few years to come(picking kids up from school etc) as both our wives work long hours.
Now we dont put ourselves anywhere near the top earning window cleaners.
We dont have enough work as yet to do the complete 3 weekly cycle (we currently have about 11 days out of 15).
We never start before 9am and never finish later than 2pm,we both smoke so there are quite a few breaks in that.
On the days when we do the full 9 till 2 shift which is actually about 3 and half hours work after breaks are taken off we always earn over £250.
We dont price particularly high (average domestic £7.70 ish) as our area wont stand it.(West Yorkshire).
This makes me think that the lads who are working 8 hour shifts are doing something very wrong.
I am convinced that on an 8 hour shift we could easily do £400 taking into account tiring towards end of shift.
Roll on the days when the youngest leaves school and the oldest passes her driving test (should be early next year).
I stand here willing to be shot down as my calculations are only supposition because as I say we only average 4 to 5 hours a day.
Obviously there must be more factors that affect earnings between the 5th hour and the 8th. 
By the way we are very lucky as our round is very compact and the furthest we travel is about 2 mile.

[AuRavelling79]

In answer to the original question:-

No it's not.

Different people at different levels in different trades charge different rates.

Plasterers - varied in quotes to do work in my house ranging from £80 "on the weekend" to £150.

General building work - £100-£120 per day

Electrical £12 - £15 per hour.

Plumbing - £15 per hour for a professional - £10 an hour for a general odd-job man.

Some work is for the job - like sanding my floor for £200. Two blokes arrived at 9am and finished at 1.30 pm. Good for them.

Window cleaners are the same:-

Summertime shiners supplementing their dole are often happy to add £50 a day to their benefits - but so are legit semi-retired guys supplementing their pensions and getting out from under their wife's feet.

Professional w/c's feeding their family, paying a mortgage and thinking of the future will plan their work and work their plan and earn far more.

[geefree]

im afraid you are way off these with elecricians and plimbers hourly rate  these days.. wish we could get one at £12 per hour.... thats in the north!

[LSB]

I priced up a new house next to a customer of mine , talked her out of  a " one off " into 2 monthly , but before i could start she wanted to know when her next clean would be , i replied 8 weeks give or take a day due to staff and weather ( nov ) , she said well dont bother then if you that inflexible and wont gaurantee a day and time !!