[gaza]

getting a bit tight getting around in a month thinking of going 6 week cleans but what % would you add from a monthly clean. eg £5 terrace to £6.50 .make me a tidy living each day.

 gaza

[Moderator David@stives]

keep it 4 weekly and weed out the weeker jobs

[KarlJones]

Well colour me purple I can not work this out.
week 1, your flat out
week 2, your flat out
week 3, your flat out
week 4, your flat out
money = flat out x 4

So, you move em all to 6 weekly...
money = flat out x 5.2  (thats if you raise a 5.00 to 6.50)

only solution is to raise them by 50%  each or more.  Excuse me Mr Customer, I am going to be doing your windows less often but still want the same per annum.   I can not see that working.

Now here is something I have just come up with which might make you think about how you want to solve this problem.

Asda, chances are your local shop keeper would love to own Asda.  However it is an absolute monster he can not compete with, his prices are probably higher and Asda is known for its "stack em high sell em cheap".  Every Tom, Dick and Harry thinks that is how Asda makes its money.  However that is not strictly true.  Your local shop keeper is on to a good thing see?  He could, if he wanted, go and work for Asda.  He chooses not to because they could not afford him.  His hourly rate is way way above what Asda pays. That is really how Asda makes its money, paying low and selling a lot (I am sure they pay more than some but they are not on 20 quid per hour)

Likewise for you.  You could style your business on Asda if you wish to pay your staff a fairly low wage.  However I am going to fire a wild guess that you are the only employee of the company.  That means running an Asda style business on your own would mean you reduced your wage bill ie your income.

This is not at all what your after.  Ask yourself what your local shop keeper would do if he was the only wage bill and he was over run with customers.  Would he think "I know, if I offer my customers a better deal for buying in bulk that will solve my problem"?  No, it is far more likely that he would either take on some staff or hike his prices a bit.   If I was him I would hike the prices and if it still carried on growing then I would take on extra staff.

As a window cleaner you might not wish to take on extra staff, but you can certainly hike your prices to reduce your work load or at least make it more worth while rushing about.

 

[Templar]

Jonesy gave food for thought, at a discount too!

What about mix and match. Put your prices up and because this is necessary for you to earn a living, but you feel bad about it, mention going to a six week clean as an alternative. Hopefully they will say no keep it as it is.

Result you earn 30% more, you haven't offended or lost any customers, and you get to keep working your danglies off. There are too may slackers on this site already!

[gaza]

Thanks for the imput lads ,but if I PUT THEM UP there is w/c working for peanuts
were I work , £4  8 windows 2 doors he would love me to price myself out of the market but I need to make a better living .
my new year resolution was to earn min £20 per hr , which in my area is a cracking
good rate. IT gives me chance to get my rounnd back of the customers if you know what I mean.

gaza

[Count Phil]

Most wont even entertain a quote from another w/c. they'll say 'I've got one'. Put your prices up a bit and you'll lose a few, be less rushed and earn more.
I do six weeks because that's how I started and brought a round run like that with enough customers. You can't actually charge loads more. The going rate is the same. You just need more customers. Go five weeks if you want to hang on to all your customers. They wont notice and you have security in numbers. By that I mean that if a few of 200+ customers cancels its nothing. If a few of 100 - 150 customers cancel it hits your pocket.

[gaza]

IVE already asked a few and they said its allright to change them to 6 week cleans
at the increased price thinking along these lines those who dont get rid off as its pulling my earnings power down.getting customers isnt a problem.

 gaza

[pjulk]

Gaza

All new people that ask you to clean there windows quote them a high price like £1 a window.
I think you will be suprised and some will take you up on your offer.
Those who don't well you have not lost anything.

Then as you get more customers with the higher price.
Up the prices of those you don't mind losing or the lower priced jobs.

Keep doing this and im sure within a year or two you will be earning heck of a lot more.

Paul

[gaza]

HI PAUL: £1 a window Iwouldnt have any customers left ,they would all be in hospital with heart attack were in the midlands the area with the lowest wages in England are you going to Brum show this year?

  gaza

[pjulk]

Hi gaza

Im not sure yet.

I may take the wife up on the train.
If so it may only be one of the days.

Paul

[KarlJones]

good heavens.

your maxed out and your worried about competition?  I am now sure this is a side effect of undercharging.   When you undercharge you work your nuts off and just about pay off the bills. 

OK try looking at it like this...
You do not clean windows for a living, you sell your hours. 

Supply and demand.
You do not have the supply to meet the demand, you can increase supply or decrease the demand.  The perfect business is one that just about meets the demand.  Did you hear about the photo shop Jessops this Xmas?  It sold out of expensive digital SLR cameras.  Good news!  No! the share price dropped sharply.  Stock Markets know that although the "best" business is one that just meets the demand the "worst" is one that does not meet it.  They had basically sold them too cheaply,  they had sold out. 

You should never sell out,  you always should hold some stock back.  This isn't BBC2s The Apprentice where you have to get rid of all your stock at stupidly low prices in as short a time as possible to beat the other team, they are building massive growth in short periods of time, follow what they do and your doomed.  You are also falling into the trap of looking at a window cleaner who charges peanuts and treating him as your business model (probably not intentionally).

Me and Templar see eye to eye on the fact that this should be a business and not a job, I think we differ slightly due to personal circumstances in that he will build a big concern and I will build a smaller one.  But I am sure we will both get what we want because we both know what we want. 

You want 20 quid per hour, yet you are competing with a guy who does not.  Why?

[matt]

i moved from 4 to 6 weeks about 2 years ago ( might even be close to 3 now )

the difference in the dirty windows is NOTHING, you still need to do the motion ( so to speak )

Im now stacked out at 6 weeks, i put them up a quid each house thinking a few would go, nothing happened, still stacked out, its a nice postion to be in though, so cannot complain

[gaza]

excellently put , a great circumnavigation of what isnt happenning ,Im not that cheap
just got odd patches now were theres not much money,haveing lost half my work to a undercutting w/c last year the old timers on here will remember the postings nearly 500 replies if Iremember right.Im still sufferring shell shock,it really knocks the stuffing out of you. I learnt a lesson from this dont spend what you havent earned on the belief that you will earn enough to live on cus you hittingthe groung running,I HOPE KNOWONE ON HERE HAS TO SUFFER WHAT I WENT THROUGH , mind you if it carries on as it is at the moment [weather ]so of you might be as desrerate as I was except when it calms down you will still have a buiss to go to Ididnt.

 Im not getting any younger £4.50 is all you get for terraced houses in this area,my w/c has been cleaning for 26 yrs and only charges 4 squid for them. so Im pushing the boat out at £6 .50 every 6 weeks. when you tell them a£5.00 job is now £6.50  you should have seen the look of their face.

 eg £5 .00 job x 3 months clean =£15.00p
2 x £6.50 cleans =13.00p saving them £2.00p

say you only do 3 an hr youve earned £15
at £6.50 x 3  £19.50p

not rushing about anymore

 gaza [by the way can do more than 3 an hr] terraced that is

[dai]

Gazza, I know where your coming from mate, I have loads of £5 jobs, but they are all next door to each other. I won't do stand alone jobs for under £12.
I've got 2 £15 jobs next to each other. They are a mile from the bulk of my work.
By the time I travel there, set up and do them, I am no better off. I would easily have knocked out 7 of the £5 jobs. It's what you have earned at the end of the day that counts. It's no good slapping on a £10 minimum charge, if it means you earn less in a day. The £4 guys are a pain in the butt, we have to remain competitive in our own areas though. People talk, and if ones getting their house cleaned for £4 and you are charging £7 for the same size house, they think they are being ripped off. Dai

[Templar]

I often suffer from being a bit of a know all, but primarily I have come on this forum to learn. I will take a look at your old post thread where you lost all the work.

Prices up, confidence back, this time next year we'll all be millionaires!

[KarlJones]

this thread?
http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=9001.0

Sorry gaza.  I was under the impression that you had capped out and too many customers from the first post on this thread.  Now I see that the problem is not caused by having too many customers but having them spread out here and there.

In that case yes, without doubt 6 weeks makes sense to me, not only do you get to bump your hourly rate but you also get to concentrate on compacting a bit. 

[Templar]

I've now read your poaching thread, good lord what an epic. So much I didn't know, CRB, your professional footballing past, WFP pioneering.

I really thought I was on the brink of making an absolute fortune, now I shall have to think again. If I may hazard an opinoin, I think you were unlucky that your work seems to have been deliberatly targeted, and some of the advice given was very good indeed.

I was impressed that despite problems you allways found time to help people (like Brett).

[gaza]

Im still in debt to those good people Imay have done a sadham jobby thing.
never been so down then. people dont realised how one minute they are okay
and when they wake up they could possibly be out of work. [knicked by another undercutting w/c ]who lasted 2 months.all that upset for a low life maggott.
 I thought everything was  going tickety boo,see why Im treading carefully with this pay rise.
there was someone else on here who opened his mouth as to what site work I WAS DOING and guess what I didnt get the next site that come up.
You know who you are doing the work you know what youve done.now I left you to
do the 1st clean of the site , watch your work dissapear. spies and friends on that site. how much do you pay your lads ? to drive that big white van ? Ive some free time on most sats to go and canvass for free cleans does your lads  work for nothing ?

  gaza

[gaza]

THE PRICE PLAN IS GOING TICATY BOO : DID A SITE JOBTHIS MORNING then to the bank ,then to work for a couple of hrs , I worked at a fair crack  , talking to a few customers along the way about my proposed pay increase and how to save them money. guess what when I WORKED OUT HOW MUCH i had made in those two hrs
it amounted to £52 .00p or £26 per hr phew ,MIND YOU THIS WOULD BE AT THE NEW RATE, BUT WOULDNT BE ABLE TO KEEP IT UP AT THAT SPEED ALL DAY.

 NOT ONE COMPLAINT ABOUT PUTTING IT UP/ MOST THOUGHT IT WAS A GREAT IDEA
LESS COLLECTING FOR ME as well only collecting 2 times instead of 3.

GAZA

[spotless2000]

Next step on the business plan - No collecting?

Steve