[Pat Purcell]

This is not a knock on anybody who does just a legimitate question as to how you can do it. I dont live or workin the UK so maybe i just dont understand the situation but i just cant see how it could be done, You need to have insurance , equipment , a vehicle,just to do the job you also need to be prepared foer bad weather days when you dont work or work very little, you need to be planning for the future ,kids ,retirement , illness etc, Even if your the fastest w/c in the area and you work every hour you can its got to be difficult just to make ends meet and then you have to go and collect the money as i cant imagine any body spending 60p on a stamp to send you 3 quid

[carl stanton]

i know what you mean! but i do a few for £3 soke old ladies bungalows but like i said a few takes less than 10 mins! not great but not bad for my area and there all together. and they do send payment in the post! as i dont collect!! noooo way

[brett walker]

There is an old bloke that cleans windows not far away from where i live hes been doing it for years and he charges 1.50 per house.  These types of houses i wouldnt do for less than a fiver they are quite easy but 1.50 come on but hes happy with that.   One things for sure he never looses any customers when he finally retires his customers will get a shock when the prices shoot up.

Brett

[captain lard]

I have about 60 semis at £3 and am getting some terraced houses at £3.The semis are my own street and 4 adjoining streets so when I started all I need was a ladder,insurance and sone basic trad kit.Learnt what to do on these and if I motor can manage 3 in an hour so can make £9 an hour which is better than minimum wage.The terraced are ok too cos after the first clean I can bang out about 6 an hour,however I only have about 10 terraced houses but that will increase in a bit of time.
I am going to increase the price of the semis in the spring.Have other better paid jobs now and have a roof rack on the car now and insurance for business use,initially I had wanted to charge more then £3 for the semis but my wife reckoned I wouldnt get £4 or £5.The price for a clean is low up here so I have to be realistic in pricing.
I am studying toward a degree however as a mature student so I get a student loan/grant and my window cleaning fits around that and family life and supplements our income.I am going to push hard in the spring to expand and see how good of a round/monthly earnings I can get to.My course will complete in May 2008 so I can give it a go.However if my window cleaning was my sole source of income at the moment it couldnt support us but it might in a year so will keep at it.My student finance gives me the chance to get a degree and develop the WC which is canny.

[petski2]

60p for a stamp.

[Pat Purcell]

sorry Petski that was just a wild guess on the price of a stamp,just figured that everything else was so wildly expensive over there stamps probably were too

[window pain]

I have about 60 semis at £3 and am getting some terraced houses at £3.The semis are my own street and 4 adjoining streets so when I started all I need was a ladder,insurance and sone basic trad kit.Learnt what to do on these and if I motor can manage 3 in an hour so can make £9 an hour which is better than minimum wage.The terraced are ok too cos after the first clean I can bang out about 6 an hour,however I only have about 10 terraced houses but that will increase in a bit of time.
I am going to increase the price of the semis in the spring.Have other better paid jobs now and have a roof rack on the car now and insurance for business use,initially I had wanted to charge more then £3 for the semis but my wife reckoned I wouldnt get £4 or £5.The price for a clean is low up here so I have to be realistic in pricing.
I am studying toward a degree however as a mature student so I get a student loan/grant and my window cleaning fits around that and family life and supplements our income.I am going to push hard in the spring to expand and see how good of a round/monthly earnings I can get to.My course will complete in May 2008 so I can give it a go.However if my window cleaning was my sole source of income at the moment it couldnt support us but it might in a year so will keep at it.My student finance gives me the chance to get a degree and develop the WC which is canny.

hi captain lard i have read that you are a mature student i am thinking of becoming a student my self, i am 51 am i to old to get a grant or loan.   thanks window pain

[tartan cleaning]

I have about 60 semis at £3 and am getting some terraced houses at £3.The semis are my own street and 4 adjoining streets so when I started all I need was a ladder,insurance and sone basic trad kit.Learnt what to do on these and if I motor can manage 3 in an hour so can make £9 an hour which is better than minimum wage.The terraced are ok too cos after the first clean I can bang out about 6 an hour,however I only have about 10 terraced houses but that will increase in a bit of time.
I am going to increase the price of the semis in the spring.Have other better paid jobs now and have a roof rack on the car now and insurance for business use,initially I had wanted to charge more then £3 for the semis but my wife reckoned I wouldnt get £4 or £5.The price for a clean is low up here so I have to be realistic in pricing.



I am studying toward a degree however as a mature student so I get a student loan/grant and my window cleaning fits around that and family life and supplements our income.I am going to push hard in the spring to expand and see how good of a round/monthly earnings I can get to.My course will complete in May 2008 so I can give it a go.However if my window cleaning was my sole source of income at the moment it couldnt support us but it might in a year so will keep at it.My student finance gives me the chance to get a degree and develop the WC which is canny.















Where are you located?

[captain lard]

window pain - there might be ane age limit to funding but think its higher than 51 years old though it might be mid fifties,you could do a net search using Student Loans or contact your Council as loans/grants are administered through County and Borough Councils usually.The loan is about 4 to 5 grand and there is some maintenance grant and help with fees,its means tested though so if you are married or living with someone their income might reduce your entitlement.This type of award is for full time degrees and foundation degree type qualifications,but my schedule means that I am in university for 6 one hour lectures every week from now till mid December plus some intermittent seminars,one to three some weeks for an hour each.You are expected to do about 30 hours work outside of that reading books and stuff to get a background knowledge of the subjects and write essays etc.

I am in County Durham tartan cleaning.

[DASERVICES]

  Pat,

  One main reason I found when starting window cleaning was a lot of window
  cleaners started pricing jobs at 50p per window etc.. Hence the reason why
  you get some guys who charge £3.50 for a house.

  I started this route when I first started window cleaning but soon changed it
  as I knew the pricing structure was wrong when you start taking into
  consideration expenses etc..

  My overheads per house worked out at £2.08 each clean so relaistically pricing
  a house at 50p per window is not profitable if it is a small house. You also
  have to consider the obstacles you come accross like locked gates which
  you have to add a charge.

  Now I just calculate how long it should take me to do the house and then add
  a risk factor ( extra £1 - £2 ) in case I have calculated it wrong. My new work
  in the past year I am making good money, my old work which I priced as per
  window is now not profitable work.

  My biggest worry is that I would loose my high priced work to someone who
  came in at a lower price. But what I have learnt know if you provide a good
  service your customer will rearly leave you as they put reliability and trust
  before price.

  Window cleaning is a business, hence you need to treat it as that then you
  start making money.

  Doug
  

[captain lard]

Been thinking about the original question and have to admit that if my window cleaning was my sole source of income and you take my student funding out of the equation,I could not support my family on my current amount of work and pricing .

But the money I currently make supplements our loans/grants and I realised very recently that I actually have a great opportunity to learn the art,learn how to price competitively and create a viable and rewarding business by combining the degree and WC work so I am really lucky to have a period where I can develop the WC and work toward a degree.

[Pat Purcell]

D. A. services ,that is exactly what I do , when we started we priced per window now i just look at the whole job and figure a price from there, if its going to be most of the day then i just charge for the day Window cleaning is quite a bit different over here because of exterior storm windows which necessitate opening all the windows and taking the storms out from inside so we do all sides of the glass on every job, we often charge $25-30 a window for these . On the newer houses which would have windows much like those you have in the UK its more like $8-12 per window in and out. i would equate your residential rounds to our storefront rounds in that we do  them quite often(1/week or 1/2weeks) and we charge about $3 per pane just exterior, For here those are relatively high prices but we rarely lose customers as they want somebody trustworthy who does a good job,My question about 3 quid a house was from the perspective that all you do to get a customer and then to keep them as a customer not to mention actually doing the job it would seem to me not to be worth the effort

[captain lard]

My question about 3 quid a house was from the perspective that all you do to get a customer and then to keep them as a customer not to mention actually doing the job it would seem to me not to be worth the effort

Very valid point,during the summer I realised £3 a house was not a price that allows you to earn a decent wage bearing in mind what you try to offer,my plan is to increase these £3 jobs in the Spring and again 1 year later and to keep working toward getting more houses at better prices as from now and see if I can develop a worthwhile income from it.If I can get more better priced houses the existing £3 customers will have to either pay more to get kept on or get dropped.
If you are a cowboy looking for a bit of beer money a couple of quid is fine but as someone trying to offer a reliable and professional service you need to price the job taking into consideration a number of factors and this is what I hope to develop while being able to justify what customers might see as an excessive price compared to what they might have been used to paying - but I get the impression that they are used to paying low prices where I am,wether this is because we have a lot of cowboys making folk think a clean is only a £3 job-or less I dont know.
I leafleted a street in the summer which was without a cleaner I was told,I was going to charge £4 a house (semis with 7 windows),later found out there was a cleaner who was charging only £3 but the thing was the lady telling me reckoned £3 was over the top!! I think I am good value as I am honest,insured,reliable,regular,clean the frames and try to do a good job but even with all that sometimes wonder if someone would want me or some scally doing them for £2 now and then.I know a lad who has a detached house with leaded windows,a proper WC quoted him £15 which I thought was very reasonable but he wouldnt have it and a couple of young lads come round and do them for £7-50 every few weeks,or they were,keep meaning to ask if they are still coming.

[Pj]

We've got off on the wrong foot somewhere Mr Lard, (I'm not comfortable with captain), I don't know why really, 'misunderstanding is the incubator of strife'.

Anyway, I've just been reading this thread with interest, you are a canny lad!

For what it's worth, if I was you I'd set my price and stick to it.  Some will go with you, some won't.  You live in a tough area.  A friend of mine moved to Glasgow from down south and started w/c about 5 or 6 years ago, he set his hourly rate and stuck with it.  Some kicked him off the door, others went with him, he's moved back down south now, but he did fine.

There is still a north/south divide.  I live east!  Inbetween

[Pat Purcell]

captain, i have read a lot of your posts since i started on this forum and I can see that you value your service at more than the 3 quid your charging which i believe is half the battle, if you truly believe that you are worth more then eventually your potential customers will see that, its hard to change peoples mind as to what things are worth especially when others are doing it for less. I have found that when faced with this its not a bad idea (as a last resort to get the customer)to offer a discount of what you believe is the correct price for the house, If you think that a house should be a fiver and there is no way the customer is going to go for it say ok.I will service the house for the first 6mths for 4 quid a 20% discount but every time you leave a bill put the real price and deduct the 20%, In six months time just put the real price and go from there. you will have already proved your reliability and the standard of your service and the price increase will be built in plus when they tell their friends and neighbours they may tell them  about the 20% getting to know you discount(or whatever you want to call it)people like to think they are getting a deal, like i said i only do this for a job that i really want to get and only if you can tell that there is no way the customer will initiall pay your regular price, I hope this is good advice as i do not know the british market but it works for me. just read PJs reply and he may be right whatever works for you

[captain lard]

PJ , I think we had an exchange of views a couple of weeks ago -I thought I was making a joke and you read the post as an aggressive rant which was fair enough cos as you later said posts can be misinterpreted easily and I think we just misunderstood what each other was getting at but no worries mate there wasnt any hard feelings on my part.
 
Thanks for the advice though and same to you as well Pat,much appreciated.Will have a think.