Well put Ross,
Having the balls to put your price up is sometimes all it takes. I have often found that the hardest thing of all to do, particularly if they are accounts you have had for years.
Taking over jobs from others and putting up the prices I can manage
Though sometimes the look of shock on their faces puts me in fear that they are going to keel over
On occasions over the years I have picked up handfuls of houses where their old window cleaner had done the usual disappearing act, these customers couldn't seem to understand that the reason they had gone was the fact that they were charging so little for the work they were doing.
Then they are further shocked when you knock on the door to collect the money after 15 minutes, the other window cleaner took twice as long, have we missed any windows?
I even had the odd one huff, "Twice as much and twice as fast, wish I was a window cleaner."
Fortunately people soon realise they are actually getting a better job done and pleased to see you every month.
People will watch an experienced window cleaner in action, perhaps they watch him clean their own house, or maybe its the parents house, it looks so easy, 15 minutes work, £7.50, wow! They are earning 30 quid an hour
I could do that, its easy money.
Their mindset may be that they would be happy with 15 quid an hour, after all, thats £600 a week!! (standard 40 hour week) Way way more than they are taking home, and everybody knows that self employed people pay barely any tax.
So off they go and start to pick up work, they only charge half what you are charging.
Then they start to wonder how it is possible to clean a house in under an hour let alone under 20 minutes, and how the hell do I use this squeegee, it looked so easy when I watched that window cleaner.
They get quicker, but at the end of the week they are not even making £200 let alone £600, then along comes the winter, it isn't fun anymore and they have to spend hours every week collecting money.
disillusioned, they jack it in and get a "proper" job.
Window cleaning isn't easy, it takes graft and effort, it is a very physical job, lugging ladders around and climbing them all day takes it out of you. £7.50 in 15 minutes sounds good, but it doesn't equate to £1200 per week, you won't do 4 an hour for 40 hours, you won't actually work 40 hours, you have to travel between accounts, they won't always be next door to one another and there are myriad other things that combine together to cut your income down.
Not every account is £7.50, I was of course generalising, but many of you will be charging around that figure for a standard 3 bed semi, and it will only take you approx 15 minutes to clean that house, now in a standard 8 hour day you would think that would give you a possible £240 for a days work
Uh uh, if you can whack out £150 you will have done very well indeed, you will also be shattered too
And if you can do that 5 days a week, 52 weeks of the year, then you are a better man than me
mind how you go
Ian
