[simonwonder]

healthy competition never hurt anyone
only the professional ones will stay the course . from what i see there is plenty of work to go around
imo  imay be wrong but there are still plenty out there whom do not have a service provider on aregular basis 

[Pat Purcell]

I agree about Franchises being the biggest form of new competition, In my opinion most people who buy into a window cleaning franchise are not window cleaners or to look at that another way most window cleaners would not buy into a franchise. So they get their training and some customers and tons of great ideas and paperwork and off they go.
So bar the new van and signwriting and nice shirts they are novices, with no one to look to for immediate help when things inevitably go wrong.But unlike most newbies they have to make a go of it as they have paid big to get in.
So when their quality of work is not where it should be, and there sales are slacking off they are under more pressure to drop their price to get the work
Also while they may recieve training in the method of window cleaning and possibly the sales aspect it is very difficult for a franchisor to help with pricing as it varies so much from area to area
There are 2 franchises in our area and one is by far and away the cheapest around, sometimes his prices are as little as 25% of ours, he pays his lads peanuts and gets poor quality workers in return, the majority of his work is for national co,s like The gap etc where he survives by large volume por quality  work
The other started out about 2 years ago and was incredibly expensive for a very short time, then i think he went the other way and ended up being too cheap
I think he is either gone out of business or will be gone soon

[mark dew]

Do you think we will have to reduce our prices to keep our standard of living up?

That sounds like a contradiction to me.

As williamx mentions it might be the case if you are commercial and want to keep hold of it. But i think well priced domestic work is different altogether and will eventually become (if it is not already) the cream work.
New window cleaners will most times charge less, but only because of inexperience and while they might be a threat to the odd job here or there they will never be a threat to anyones round if we are reliable and do a good job.
How many of us have picked up work at a much higher price than the customers were used to paying before? I'm sure all of us have, or will eventually.
As long as we keep quoting for the job rather than by the hour we should have nothing to worry about.
Wfp might be easier than working trad but it takes time to build up a round and that is where new wc will always struggle.
For new wc who have bought a round, they will still have to work it and are basically thrown in at the deep end. For example:
"round for sale in ******. Generates £2000 per month. £200 per day possible" blah blah blah. These earnings are most likely impossible for someone with no experience.
There will always be work out there regardless of how many of us there are.
It is a hard job and thankfully not a very glamorous profession to people outside the industry.

[Davew]

Simonwonder how are you doing? you are in the same county as me but bigger city. I see you have lots of competition where you are (you only need to go to yell.com). Not long ago you were looking for work. Have you found there to be plenty of work around for you? Just interested and not having a go.