I’m glad you put in the example at the end of your post cause I was feeling real dumb, I give 90 % of my estimates over the phone and I give a price per window, most here are double hung The pane part is where I got confused. Most windows are straight glass and not divided into a lot of panes. So if your saying they do a double hung in/out for 6 bucks that sounds low. Is it possible your maybe not comparing things the same. What I mean is , their price is for straight thermo’s ( which I think is low ) but they bang them hard if they have divided lites, grids to pop out ect.
YES! Someone from Oregon, this is what I was hoping for…so when you say “$8 per window per side for non true divided lite windows” I’m a bit confused, are you talking about just a standard non-french double hung window (here’s an example of what I’m thinking of http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Double_hung_window.jpeg) So basically you’re saying $2 per pane per side is pretty standard for this area (or $4 per pane in and out), right?
As far as how much money I need to make, I’m single with no kids and I live a simple life. I don’t need to make obscene amounts of money (I’d be working a corporate job if that was the case), just enough to be comfortable and be able to travel and snowboard in the winter while putting away some long term savings. Not too much to ask for, right? I’d be happy to get a net profit of $200 - $300 per day, at least at this point in my life when I don’t have many expenses. Does that sound like a realistic expectation for a detail-oriented guy who works slowly charging $2 bucks a pane?
You are like me. I want the edges to be free of spots/smears so I get nose to glass. Its just said we must wait until they become unhappy and want real clean again. Like I said before in past posts. See if employees, subs, or sole proprietor. My money is they are subs and write everything off and pay little to no taxes so most of what they get is profit. Once the IRS pulls the plug on the write off every 1099 under 600, maybe they already did, these folks will cry for a bit more money because they wont be getting a big refund anymore. Prices will go back up. If the government enforces the have to register the business and must have a business account. None of the check made out to the person, rather the business. If made out to Bob, Bob will put in private account All the IRS and state knows is what was reported via W-2 and 1099. If business list expense and don’t show it sent this much to Bob and report it. Bob has no worries. Its all profit to him. Meanwhile we are taxed, employees are taxed, and we have add our little bit to Social Security as well. Yeah it sucks. So to make a bit of profit we charge more on top of the fact we know we do good work. All the client sees is we are ripping them off. That’s my rant.
I would ride it out and stick to my principles.
In the real world most will have to sacrifice a bit of principles to feed the family. So you become the “rip off guy” Guaranteed your customers will talk. If others see quality work they will cry BS. Soon, the other guys will be the rip off guys. They might me mad. That’s not your concern. I’m proud to be the jerk that took the client away from them because I do better work. When they find out you get paid more as well. Icing on the cake. Jerk I can be proud of. New business name. Jack the Jerk- Proud Window Cleaning.
Yes that is a non divided lite window. In your area 8-$10 per window (that price inclides both panes in and out, screen cleaned, and track in and out.) Is on the high side. At that price you should be able to average 400-$500.00 per day. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that because you are being detailed others are not.
Your expectation of how hard you have to work to make what you want might be a little low. Not trying to insult you but even at $7 per window I would be getting $400.00 a day for 8 hrs doing a perfect job. Even more on return jobs. If you have systems for the management side of your business you should be able to come away with at least $300.00 a day net and even higher at $8-10 per window doing a perfect job.
8 would go with $10 per window and give insentives for new customers and try not to drop it below $8 per window. That way you can always have the potential to get $10. But your going to have to deliver the goods. By that I mean going beyond just doing a perfect job. A perfect job is what the customer expects of any company. You will habe to do thinhs that go beyond the expectation of the customer.
Easiest way to get more for your services is:
give more estimates
You have only been in business for 4 months. Business will be slow and so will your service until you get established and your speed picks up. Unless the windows are terribly dirty, stained, and mineral deposits on them you should be able to pretty quickly clean them by scrubbing with a white 3M pad and soapy solution, then run the scrubber over them to get excess solution off then squeegee clean and detail corners and edges. With practice you will get into a rhythm and cruise along. If you don’t have to steel wool or brass wool every window then don’t. Save that for stubborn windows. You can still do as close to a perfect job as possible without over doing things. Keep it simple. Set your prices so that you can live off of it and make a profit. Nobody can fault you for that. Offer a promotional discount from your SET PRICE if need be, but don’t try to chase what all the others are charging - or claim to charge. They want you to go out o business. If you have a lot of competition just be sure to be the best window cleaner you can be. Quality work, confidence, friendly, go the extra mile, every job is just as important as the first; be it mansion or average home. You are selling your service, and word of mouth will boost your following. $4.00 to $5.00 per side of window is a fair start without low-balling or being too high. ($8.00 to $10.00 in/out, glass, frames, tracks, screens and sills). If the front door doesn’t have any glass brush it down and scrub it clean and towel dry anyway. Does your competition do that? Stand out from the rest. A year from now you can raise your prices a little to help with inflation and retain loyal customers. Do what you do and do it well instead of what someone else does.
Bigger companies can rarely offer the level of service that a dedicated solo can provide. At least not in the quality of the window cleaning. They offer customers with large homes more convenient scheduling and faster cleaning times. There is a good reason people like going with a crew - they can always make room in their schedule and get the job done quick.
But there are also a lot of really picky people or people who just don’t care if you take 3 days to clean their windows as long as the windows, frames, sills, ledges, screens - everything looks amazing.
You have to market your strengths (superior quality, trustworthiness)
The big guys will be marketing how convenient and timely they are. Selling packages - which makes sense for them because they can pressure wash the customer’s house, clean and whiten the gutters and clean the windows in 1 day. That is convenient to a lot of people.
But you can’t replicate that and shouldn’t try to market that way. There are plenty of people who aren’t satisfied by the level of quality with some of these bigger guys or don’t like the rapid turnaround of employees, meaning they never know who they’re going to get at their house, to warrant an investigation into your services.
It’s just that there is less of these discerning customers who want to have the best (you) so you need to try harder to find them.
That’s where your website and seo comes in. If people can find you easily and you post your prices, you can then filter out the people who don’t want to pay a higher price. You wont even have to talk to them on the phone because they see your prices and run.
That’s ok. Filtering out 60% of the people is still ok. There are a lot more window cleaning customers out there than you may realize at first.
Once the people with $ and taste for the best find you, they will pass your name around to their friends and family. Which is cool because your process of getting customers will be less random. You’ll notice that you may start getting a certain type of customer. Well you’re a certain type of window cleaner… it just starts clicking like that I find if you effectively market who you are.
Don’t apologize for your prices. There are people out there who can easily afford your price because they get paid top dollar for what they do.
Usually getting your windows costs as much as a grocery run. An $800 job used to seem big to me. Then I realized those same people will spend $800 on dinner with their friends at a nice restaurant.
That restaurant doesn’t just sell food. They sell ambiance.
I view my job as being a bartender with a squeegee. Mr. Bates on Downton Abbey. If people want to talk,I’ll listen. If they want silent craftsmanship, that’s what I’ll provide. Discretion, a relaxed efficiency. People will pay for that.
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Great Post AGAIN…
and not to mention, they will call you next year when they find out those other guys are no longer in business 
Exactly!
Awesome post man, thanks for the clarification. I really am willing to take the extra time to do a quality job, but not for less than $2 a pane. I have had customers in the past remark on how much better of a job I do than any of the previous guys they’ve had. And yes, I do think that my personality, character and trustworthiness are worth the extra bit of cash. I’m educated and I come from a good family with good ethics, and I think people can pick up on this and are put at ease by it. I’m not trying to become a millionaire, my goal to build a business where I can make a solid living during the spring, summer and fall, and then spend the winter traveling and exploring the world (I’m going to South America this winter). I’m going to do an estimate here in about an hour and a half, and I’ll go for $2 a pane and see what kind of response I get.
And yes, it definitely sounds like I need to get a website up and running soon.
Thanks a lot for getting back to me. So it sounds like in the past I’ve been overcharging a bit at $12 a window (for this area) so I need to decrease my pricing a bit, increase my speed and efficiency, and still keep my quality right where it’s at. Oh and by the way, i say i’ve been in business for 4 moths but by that i just mean for here in this location, I’ve got a total of maybe 9 or 10 months of solid experience (over the span of about a year and a half)…still need to work on the efficiency though.
So to get $400 a day at the price of $8 a window, it sounds like I should try to get to where i’m able to do 2 full size two story houses a day (right now it takes all day to do just one)
Never lower your prices because of competition. (i think i said that before…)
Find out WHAT they are not doing ANYTHING and you do it. whatever its being friendly, smelling clean, customer walk through ect.
Charge what you feel you are worth, and market to those who can afford you.
pax
Don’t just do a estimate at that price, Do 50 estimates at that price before you come to any conclusions. Don’t forget you want to build up a customer base on the prices that are going to keep you in business, And make you motivated to go to work every day. Btw most of us are not going to be millionaires. don’t let any competition dictate what your going to charge for a job, And don’t feel like your ripping people off your not holding a gun to there head an making them use your services. If they say your prices are much higher then the other guy just say I have a different business than them.
Good thread! keep it going. Everyone has been giving great responses!
So just got back from the job i bid $2 a pane on and i gotta say, it is hard doing that much work for that price knowing how much I would have gotten for it in the past, and it was a little tougher to stay motivated to do a good job. i tried to be quick about this one, but it still ended up taking me 8 hours to do. Maybe I’m just destined to be a ‘one house a day’ kind of window cleaner…it’s a bit frustrating but whatever. I’m just the kind of guy who is geared much more toward taking my time to do detailed, high quality work rather than high speed, as quick as possible, ‘eh, good enough’ work.
I’ll add that I pretty much never like to use my pole (instead opting to get up on the ladder to do detailed work) but today I tried using it to ‘save time’ but all did was slow me down because i had to re-do each window a million times because I kept getting tons of streaks and puddles. I don’t know how anyone is able to do a satisfactory job with a pole in a timely fashion. So frustrating. Ok, I’ll stop ranting now.
Hope everyone had a good day
Some jobs are just like that Stephen. They don’t all go fast, smooth, and as timely as we would like - NO MATTER WHAT you may read on here. Pole work is a learned technique. Keep working it and one day all of the sudden it will snap into place as one of your tools. I prefer nose to glass too, but have learned to use the pole as well.
Make sure you have good rubber on your squeegee. Replace it if need be. Wrap a dry huck or micro fiber to the end of your pole and detail your edges and corners. It gets better.
So how many windows did you do in that 8 hours?
Pole work is tuff at first it just takes some time to learn the technique.
[U][B]Breaking news: [/B][/U]
‘Bucket Bob’ just bought insurance!
- he’s officially changed his name to ‘One Man Show.’
Why do so many assume that anyone who runs things different is inferior?
I bring four to most houses… and my QC is [B]FIERCE![/B]
That’s why I don’t let anyone see how I clean Glass…
