[fishman]

Just bought a fortnightly round, nice estate,all work together, about 100 houses only trouble is they are 3 bed  decent sized and priced at £3.50some have conservatorys,i have picked up new work and put them on £4.00 still too cheap i know but neighbours talk and all that.
I am thinking of making it monthly at £5.00 because i work trad and its damned hard work at these prices (who said trad was easy?)
WHAT WOULD YOU DO!

[WavieDavie]

This might sound a wee bit obvious, but didn't you see the run and get prices before you bought it?

How much did you pay? If you think you can bring half up to the price you want and lose the others, will it still be worth it?

[brett walker]

Hi Fishman

there are a few factors one being your location and how many ladder climbs do you have to do, but 4 quid is way too cheap.  I would tell the customer that they are way under priced and will be cleaning them once a month but as it stands at the moment you are cleaning them fortnightly which is roughly 7 quid per month for them to pay.  If it was me i would tell them i would be doing them once a month and charging them 8 quid at least sorry to be so blunt but it better to loose some customers and get better prices.

Also this way you would only have to collect once a month instead of twice, i can appreciate there are lots of things to weigh up- other window cleaners in your area etc

I think you will get some good replies on this one

regards

Brett.

[fishman]

Cheers Brett, i think you might be right there are only one or two other shiners in the immediate area, i paid 1200 for the work i think i should show some balls and go for it price wise.
it is located in South Manchester the houses are in the 150.000 bracket and everyone works or are retired, the other shiners are beer money merchants and clean for pennies.

[jeff1]

Go once a month and double your price, the ones who say no thank you, will probably end up coming back anyway, but those price's are way to cheap, if you keep them at that price, you won't be making yourself a decent living, you will have to work twice as hard, and sorry to say I don't think you would be in business long.
you will soon build up a good round with a good reputation with good work on your side. so do it now! good luck to you.

[petski2]

I think I must be missing something here.
Did he lie to you about the prices before you paid for it?
Or did you know what the prices were and still paid for it?
The question then has to be why did you pay for it when you knew it was so underpriced?
Sorry to sound patronising but im a little confused. :