Pricing can be so subjective, everyone has a different idea of how it should be done and how much they should charge.
For me it has always been about working out what the average pace a window cleaner works at.
Many years ago when I first started I listened to a very experienced window cleaner, who had moved into other areas, including janitorial supplies.
One of the things he pointed out was with regards to the time it takes a window cleaner to clean an average casement window.
How long?
Well if you take an average casement window to be 3 panes of glass, one narrow opening light, another an opening window pane to the side of the narrow one and the final pane the one under the narrow opening light, about 3 or 4 ft tall and about 5ft wide.
.........90 seconds to clean, including any required detailing.
Think thats slow?
Try it, get the stop watch out and try it for yourself (trad mind!)
It's quicker than you think, and you need to be a fairly accomplished window cleaner to do so...to a high standard mind....
Anyway....You have your average for the average window unit.
By todays standard, where window cleaning is concerned the average turnover for a sole trader window cleaner according to the tax man is around 17k per year. Lop off 5k for overheads, and vehicle depreciation and running costs should be included, plus replacing vehicle about every 5 years (hence 5k) and you are down around 12k for a realistic income....not a great deal.
Once you also allow for setting up and putting away, travelling between accounts and so on, a reasonable target to aim for is about 3 standard semi's an hour.
You are also unlikely to actually spend more than 5 hours a day actually cleaning windows.
And don't forget to allow for holidays -4 or 5 weeks a year - weather affected days - probably 20 or more, not necessarily days off but days where you can't work a full day and those days when you just can't get motivated or other things interrupt your day and you begin to realise why perhaps that the average turnover is only around 17k.
But you know now what the average is, of time taken to clean a window and a house, and of potential turnover.
You can now work out what to price per unit (window) pricing then gets easier, you count up your units, allow for access and you have a consistent method for pricing.
Now you may want to turnover 25k or 35k, but if you want to be competitive and also to remain in business for any length of time then you have to be able to price sensibly.
Charging £20 per standard semi might make you good money (at the average of 3 an hour) but you are going to be at least twice the price of the average window cleaner.
Go in at a fiver and you are going to be half the price of Mr Average...
Neither way is a good way.
You need to compete with Mr Average.
The way you make your money is not to be Mr Average yourself, you don't clean 3 an hour, you aim for 4 or 5.
You become quick AND efficient at what you do.
Charge pennies and you have to go at a hell of a pace all the time and you are never going to make a really good income, and if you are working at the limit of your ability then your standard is going to be poor, you will skip detailing, rub a dry cloth over frosted glass, not bother with sills, take risks on ladders..I know, I've done it!
Why if I just place the ladder in the middle I can get both these windows in one go....all I have to do is dangle my one leg out at 90 degrees as a counter balance!
Running around like a headless chicken and panicking about the recession gets you nowhere...just a lot poorer if you start dropping your prices, and what happens when existing customers hear that you are pricing cheaper than before? Do you drop their prices accordingly just to keep them?
All of the above of course assumes you are trad as against WFP, you are going to be faster with WFP, especially with georgian, leaded and anything over 25ft, but you have far greater setup and running costs to factor in, ergo, your pricing structure needs to be very similar to when you were trad.
Many are constrained by the area in which they live and work, but regardless of where you live, if you are cheaper than everyone else then you are way too cheap!!!!
Ian