[karygate]

did a small con roof clean,all windows and gutters etc on outside yesterday as an extra for someone.took me 2 hours ,charged 40 quid. i am happy at one man band earning 20 pound an hour when i otherwise would have been at home and know next year she will have me again ,will be easier and no one will want to take the job off me. am i wrong at these prices.

[Blue Frog Systems]

Sounds right to me. That's how I base my one off work at £20 an hour.

If your happy with it, the customer is happy, then its all good

[bobplum]

i always feel if its right for you then carry on
its your busineess
bob

[jonnyald]

sounds spot on  to me .

[Blue Frog Systems]

Keep a record of all one off work you do like cons roofs, fascias ect... Then contact them next year.

[Gleaming windows]

I dont mean to be pedantic or picky, but IMO (and Im only saying my opinion, not wanting to start anything here)

But £20.00 an hour isnt enough. Of course it depends on your own personal circumstances (are you married, kids, single, mortgage, rent bla bla bla). But when you take into consideration travelling time between jobs, lets say you had 3 connies to do like that, with 15 mins travelling time in between each one. You'd earn £60.00 a day, not enough for a self employed person.

When you also take into consideration down time due to weather, down time due to sickness, down time due to holidays, down time due to bank holidays, running costs (vehicle, kit, materials, insurances) £20.00 an hour for the bare minimum you need to add on another £5.00 an hour and thats without earning anything astronomical or outrageous when everything is taken into consideration.


I think the trap a lot of guys fall into, and I did permanently for a few years, and can still kid myself with it sometimes, is that we can think 'Oh £20.00 an hour, with 40 working hours a week, I EARN £800!

Nothing like that is it.

JMO, no offence intended.

Matt

[[GQC] Tim]

If you are traditional, you should be looking at £30 an hour, wfp £50 to £60, depending on how fast you are. That is NOT an average over the course of the day, but the actual work spend at the job from when you start your first window to when you finish. Depending on travel time, your average earning per hour will vary greatly. £150 to £200 a day wfp is a nice figure. You can earn much more with the right work.

[Kwackers]

This is definately rifght. It's extra cash at the end of the day so no worries, i'd price it up next time though. I used to aim to hit £30.00 ph when i cleaned but that was included travelling.

You've got to take into account fuel, replacement of equipment, repairs/mot/tax to van. All of these should be calculated as a monthly, weekly or hourly overhead. Fuels and equipment is easy, but the van is the hardest which is why alot of people lease.

I dont mean to be pedantic or picky, but IMO (and Im only saying my opinion, not wanting to start anything here)

But £20.00 an hour isnt enough. Of course it depends on your own personal circumstances (are you married, kids, single, mortgage, rent bla bla bla). But when you take into consideration travelling time between jobs, lets say you had 3 connies to do like that, with 15 mins travelling time in between each one. You'd earn £60.00 a day, not enough for a self employed person.

When you also take into consideration down time due to weather, down time due to sickness, down time due to holidays, down time due to bank holidays, running costs (vehicle, kit, materials, insurances) £20.00 an hour for the bare minimum you need to add on another £5.00 an hour and thats without earning anything astronomical or outrageous when everything is taken into consideration.


I think the trap a lot of guys fall into, and I did permanently for a few years, and can still kid myself with it sometimes, is that we can think 'Oh £20.00 an hour, with 40 working hours a week, I EARN £800!

Nothing like that is it.

JMO, no offence intended.

Matt

[pingu]

No you're not wrong..you did what what good for you at the time and I bet the customer was pleased also. At the end of the year the only figure which means anything is the net profit you obtained...not every minute worked and at what rate.

We all have well paid work and equally if we were all honest I bet we all have some work that is almost paying the customer to have it done.

Cheers
Dave

[dazmond]

if ur happy with 20pound an hour thats up to u but i have a full round now and i find the extras like conny roofs,gutters,etc a pain in the elbow and back and try and make 40 to 50pound an hour if im goin to do them.

eg.  conny roof,gutter,pvc and windows           80quid       2 hrs

       gutter clean inside and out                        40quid        1 hr etc


most of the time i hit 20pound an hr window cleaning TRAD but sometimes its 40pound an hr but not hr after hour.i think it also depends on where you live.im in manchester and the cost of living is a lot lower than down south for example.im a fast TRAD cleaner .15 yrs now but goin2 try WFP next year after the winter.im sure it will be easier on my knees and i hope ill burn through my work quicker and make them extras easier and quicker.


best wishes to u all[apart fr PCNW]

[ftp]

Charge what you like really - whatever you are happiest with. It's your money at the end of the day. You know the customer - we don't.
But she may spread the word that £20 is your going rate and you will end up being the busy fool around town.
Most of us have done it i would imagine - I did one for £25 including the windows when I started out - dam woman phones me up once a year know for repeat work. I make nothing out of it. No way next time. 

[cat9921]

Sounds Ok to me if you run a WFP out of a trailer  but if you run a van ( more proffesional then I would say 50 to 100 pounds 

Adders

[[GQC] Tim]

Charge what you like really - whatever you are happiest with. It's your money at the end of the day. You know the customer - we don't.
But she may spread the word that £20 is your going rate and you will end up being the busy fool around town.
Most of us have done it i would imagine - I did one for £25 including the windows when I started out - dam woman phones me up once a year know for repeat work. I make nothing out of it. No way next time. 

Had exactly that with a customer, had to explain it in detail why her neighbors is cheaper because now things are more expensive. In the end she understood. Not that I underpriced it back then, but haven't had the chance yet to put it up.

[LWC]

£20 a hour, on a saturday when you wouldnt usually of worked is bang on mate, extra money, nice one 

[Gleaming windows]

£20 a hour, on a saturday when you wouldnt usually of worked is bang on mate, extra money, nice one 

It was a Friday.

[GWCS]

I dont mean to be pedantic or picky, but IMO (and Im only saying my opinion, not wanting to start anything here)

But £20.00 an hour isnt enough. Of course it depends on your own personal circumstances (are you married, kids, single, mortgage, rent bla bla bla). But when you take into consideration travelling time between jobs, lets say you had 3 connies to do like that, with 15 mins travelling time in between each one. You'd earn £60.00 a day, not enough for a self employed person.

When you also take into consideration down time due to weather, down time due to sickness, down time due to holidays, down time due to bank holidays, running costs (vehicle, kit, materials, insurances) £20.00 an hour for the bare minimum you need to add on another £5.00 an hour and thats without earning anything astronomical or outrageous when everything is taken into consideration.


I think the trap a lot of guys fall into, and I did permanently for a few years, and can still kid myself with it sometimes, is that we can think 'Oh £20.00 an hour, with 40 working hours a week, I EARN £800!

Nothing like that is it.

JMO, no offence intended.

Matt

I agree with Matt its down to personal circumstances...

But as a rule of thumb I earn 30p in every £1 I take. So thats basically 30% of anything i take.

The rest is put aside for the tax bill, the accountant bill, insurances, van up keep and associated costs, equipment upkeep and replacement, advertising, and any other costs im likely to come into contact running a bona fide business.

With regards to ftp's problem, my written quotes are valid for 28 days and verbal valid for 7 and are ever changing what i mean by this is that what i quote one day may not be the same and most probably will be more expensive a few months down the line... that way its easier not having to look back at what i charged previously. The more experienced you get the better you get at estimating how long things will take and so price for.

[sparklebright]

You were right as long as it didn't stop you doing some other work that was worth more.

I took on a load of work a while ago , but realised I was doing this work instead of my more profitable work.
Now my policy is do the most profitable work first. And that can mean stuff that's near other stuff so it's a good rate or work that's the best hourly rate on it's own.

A glaring example was that I was 2 weeks late with 3 large buildings in a row that I do, for about £50 an hour, but up to date with stuff at £20 per hour.
D'oh!

[ftp]

For some strange reason I'm always tempted to do new work straight away and abandon my regular work. Makes no sense really.
I still suffer with a speach impediment which makes me underquote most of the time. I try and say fifty quid but it comes out of my mouth as thirty quid.  :

[EZclean]

For some strange reason I'm always tempted to do new work straight away and abandon my regular work. Makes no sense really.
I still suffer with a speach impediment which makes me underquote most of the time. I try and say fifty quid but it comes out of my mouth as thirty quid.  :

 

thats me in a nutshell

[leapstallbuildings]

did a small con roof clean,all windows and gutters etc on outside yesterday as an extra for someone.took me 2 hours ,charged 40 quid. i am happy at one man band earning 20 pound an hour when i otherwise would have been at home and know next year she will have me again ,will be easier and no one will want to take the job off me. am i wrong at these prices.

Sounds a bit low to me.  I have done jobs for that amount though when I've misjudged the pricing.  I find that the cost of just running a sole trader W/C WFP business is a wage in itself - and would be more if I paid proper amounts for premises.