[Mr Sparkle]

Hi guys please tell me about my prices am i to cheap.
I'm from the west midlands area and my prices are as follows:

2 bedroom house  =  £6
3 bedroom             = £8
4 bedroom             = £10
conservatory          = extra £4

I do all my quoting over the phone and use waterfed pole.
Am i to cheap or about right?
Don't think customers will pay anymore around this area.

[seandyer2003]

If you get compact rounds those prices on straight forward houses will be fine, once you travel though you will drop hourly rate alot

[supernova77]

Well, it sounds to cheap to me - But it does all vary depending on where you live.

I have never ever quoted over the phone, and never will... Much better to quote after looking at the house.

Andy

[johns window kleen]

Sounds about right, maybe a bit low.
To me the price Depends more on the amount of glass in the building really, and access,  rather than the number of bedrooms.
Premium charge for previously inaccessible windows, ie, above glass conservatories.

How do you quote by phone, dont you take a look first? I would cos theres many factors involved in accurate pricing, that might not be apparent until you go visit.

I dont think your far out, but then I dont really know West Midlands pricing.

[chris@c.m.s]

Not sure about your pricing but I wouldn't quote over the phone if I were you,
you cant get a good idea of how the property is laid out, if there are any difficult windows, access to rear, possible parking problems, and even the condition of the windows, when you see the job you may not even want it! also its harder for them to reject a good price if your face to face, Unless of course you don't look the part.          

[johns window kleen]

Thinking about it I picked up a job last week, it was for a vicar missionary type who is always abroad {Well they've picked up all those they can save in Norwich already}

Her neighbour gave me the address and said can you do it and I'l pay you. Its a 5 min drive. They only want the tops done and the conservatory.

Something made me stop and tell her get in the van and i will you a price beforhand. Anyways I go into the rear garden, and its a smallholding type place
I go round to the conservatory and a flock of Geese and two massive Roosters start coming at me giving it large.

I walked out casually {yeah right} and asked about these geese and the woman said "there a pest , sometimes they leave you alone, sometimes dont, and just whack the Roosters if you have to, I did yesterday"

I gave a quote well into double figures. The woman said she'l speak to vicar and ring me. Few days later quote accepted.

Cant wait to have a go at this one and see what happens. I dont wanna whack the big chickens, but a good spray and rinse should take care of it.
I hope.

Try quoting that by phone.

[simon knight]

I go round to the conservatory and a flock of Geese and two massive Roosters start coming at me giving it large.

 

 

[EZclean]

£4 for a conservatory   
2quid on the double doors alone.

[Mike 108]

I'd be £2 dearer on each type of house but the same for the conservatory (cheaper if it was only a small one - they're easy - no ladder work). But like others have said - I never quote without looking (too many variables).

Mike

[andyatkinson]

Something made me stop and tell her get in the van

Did you kidnap her? ? ?

[ZaNo]

Thinking about it I picked up a job last week, it was for a vicar missionary type who is always abroad {Well they've picked up all those they can save in Norwich already}

Her neighbour gave me the address and said can you do it and I'l pay you. Its a 5 min drive. They only want the tops done and the conservatory.

Something made me stop and tell her get in the van and i will you a price beforhand. Anyways I go into the rear garden, and its a smallholding type place
I go round to the conservatory and a flock of Geese and two massive Roosters start coming at me giving it large.

I walked out casually {yeah right} and asked about these geese and the woman said "there a pest , sometimes they leave you alone, sometimes dont, and just whack the Roosters if you have to, I did yesterday"

I gave a quote well into double figures. The woman said she'l speak to vicar and ring me. Few days later quote accepted.

Cant wait to have a go at this one and see what happens. I dont wanna whack the big chickens, but a good spray and rinse should take care of it.
I hope.

Try quoting that by phone.

All i can say to that is L to the O to the L - LOL

[gerard mcmanus]

kleen you made me laugh mate, thank you.

You said to be honest about your prices, well I think you are not far of the mark but you are going about pricing the wrong way, go and count the windows, pains etc.

I have one house I went to, and counted nearly 30 windows, and it wasn't a 27 bedroom house. The window at the front was a huge bay window, 20 pains to it. Now the cusotmer over the phone would have told me thats one window, which its is, but not every window should be priced the same, some take more work than others.

Personally I charge by the window, and each window by the pain, and also add in a call out charge. I do one church, which is an absolute pleasure to do, and I do it trad, every single little square pain, but I do enjoy it because, its worth the money I asked for, if I charged that like you do, I would have dropped it after the first clean.

[WISEOWL]

Those are expensive quotes.

Are you all in Hampshire and Surrey?

Pretty soon prices will have to come down as more window cleaners enter the market and customers have less money.

[gerard mcmanus]

Not every person who is unemployed due to the downturn and job cuts is going to turn to window cleaning, and of the ones that do, I would be surprised if more than 10% stick it after the first year.

The ones that fill a round of cheap quotes will soon see they aren’t making enough money to make it worth while, will soon go. I will would also guess that the ones that stay after a year are the ones that charge a reasonable price and get some sort of job satisfaction from it.

[simon knight]

Not every person who is unemployed due to the downturn and job cuts is going to turn to window cleaning, and of the ones that do, I would be surprised if more than 10% stick it after the first year.

After todays poxy weather I'd be surprised if a newbie will stick to it for a week!

[cozy]

I'm confused.com.  I do trad and the last time I read "pricing" by Ian Giles it made alot of sence to me. When I price it's always after seeing the house/building because I use the same system as Ian and some others on here. Now WFP is next to non existant over here, however my point is this:
When I go WFP later this year why would I price differently? If a house takes me 20 minutes and I charge15 quid then why would I charge less if I was using WFP? I thought the point of WFP was to save time and it's safer, why then pass a saving on to the custy?
Am I missing summat? There's no way I can do a conservatory in 4 minutes trad for a couple of quid or a sniff of his wifes bike seat.

I'm there to earn what I can and keep the custy

[Captain Scarlet]

Thats EXTREMELY cheap

[williamx]

Mr Sparkle

I come frm Birmingham but I do have work in West Brom and Wolverhampton, I am also expanding further into Wolverhampton and my prices are igher than yours.

 2 bedroom house  =  £10
3 bedroom             = £10 - £12
4 bedroom             = £12 - £20
conservatory          = a Minimum of £5 (very small one) upto £25

On the 1st clean the price is doubled and if they want it cleaned less often than every 4 weeks, then a surcharge of 50% will apply, any clean longer than 12 weeks is classed as a 1st clean and priced accordingly.

I have no problem asking and getting these rates even on council estates.

[AuRavelling79]

Those are expensive quotes.

Are you all in Hampshire and Surrey?

Pretty soon prices will have to come down as more window cleaners enter the market and customers have less money.

The OP rates would be low here in Bristol but then Sheffield has had worse unemployment since the 70's. Prices won't come down unless we let ourselves become busy fools - and yes some people did make hay while the sun shone and are having to be more realistic now ...

But I repeat, those prices are a bit low IMO.

More importantly +1 for the growing view that you're pricing it up in the wrong way.

[Dean Taberner]

if 2 guys do 7 £6 houses per hr,

and you pay your mate £8 per hr then thats £34 per hr profit.

£34 x 7 = £238 per day.

This only applies if round is compact and you have a big enough round obviously.

£238 per day for a 7hr day certainly isnt cheap.

Also 3 guys doin 10 is £60 per hr - an £8 per hr and £6 per hr man/woman is £44 per hr profit.

£308 per day.

Obviously theres insurance and other employing costs but its certainly not bad money.

Id most probably even do abit myself for that amount

Dean