Yea the $22 to $28 isn’t a very good number. My route doesn’t make quite what my residentials make, but its still near the $60 hr. Atleast when i’m doing it, i talk to all my customers. My route employee finishes in record time every time. He’s not much of a talker.
Talking, even briefly to customers helps build relationships, and gives more security to your jobs.
Mike, please tell me some more about your route. how long you been at it, and how much biz you have?
I’ve been at it for 5 years, I own a franchise of window cleaning in Toronto. I don’t do it full time because I do some volunter work. But I work 2 1/2 days, which is fine with me.
I have all commercial route so I’m in a unique position. I would in the future consider getting some residential.
I make usually about $60/hour. And it’s generally a good quality route with customers who aren’t struggling. Do you want any more info?
Yea, i would like to trade/share some ideas on the whole route biz. Like your pitch when you go in. The things you have learned that work best for you.
I have kinda evolved into staying outside as much as possible. Most storefronts, once the insides have been done stay clean for months. Therefore i can give them a price based on just the outsides, with what i call an inside touch-up. So a job thats usually $30 in/out $16 outs, i can charge $20/$22 with an inside touchup, and guarantee them their glass will be just as clean as if we were cleaning in/out everytime. Its worked very well for me. Something i came up with to compete with some of the lower priced wc’s in my area. Example if they were paying their old window cleaner $24 for the same $30 job, its not profitable for me to beat that price doing in/out. But doing my inside Touch-up (only doing the finger printed or greasy head part of window) i can now charge more than the outside price, and hardly spend anytime at all on the insides. Everyones happy. As far as they’re concerned I am maintaining the glass the same as the old guy, but charging a couple bucks less. I still strongly suggest to EVERY one of my customers that the insides be done every 3 or 6 months. Theres a lot more to it, but i don’t want to put everyone to sleep.
I’ll pm you if you like, if anyone else want some info they can let me know.
I have kinda evolved into staying outside as much as possible. Most storefronts, once the insides have been done stay clean for months. Therefore i can give them a price based on just the outsides, with what i call an inside touch-up. So a job thats usually $30 in/out $16 outs, i can charge $20/$22 with an inside touchup, and guarantee them their glass will be just as clean as if we were cleaning in/out everytime. Its worked very well for me. Something i came up with to compete with some of the lower priced wc’s in my area. Example if they were paying their old window cleaner $24 for the same $30 job, its not profitable for me to beat that price doing in/out. But doing my inside Touch-up (only doing the finger printed or greasy head part of window) i can now charge more than the outside price, and hardly spend anytime at all on the insides. Everyones happy. As far as they’re concerned I am maintaining the glass the same as the old guy, but charging a couple bucks less. I still strongly suggest to EVERY one of my customers that the insides be done every 3 or 6 months. Theres a lot more to it, but i don’t want to put everyone to sleep.
I understand your reasoning for the inside touchup, and it makes sense. Currently I don’t use the same system, because at the moment my pricing is based on a per clean basis, not a monthly basis. I might use more monthly pricing in the future.
I price inside stuff at $1.50 a window, I seem to price out some customers that way, which is fine, inside work can be a pane in the neck. And I still do their outside window cleaning. Others have me do it, and then that way I don’t lose money cleaning inside, since it takes longer.
It is always profitable to be aware of other storefronts near your current accounts, if a new one opens or if you see some that may be getting neglected. You make better money the more storefronts per location.
Exactly. Getting storefront accounts is like playing monoply. Of course make sure you aren’t competing and getting storefront just by charging low prices. Charge a good (i.e. higher pricing), do a good job, be reliable, have good quality, and you are on your way to developing a profitable, dense route.
hello everyone. this being my first posting, i want to thank everyone for all the free info.
i’ve been cleaning store fronts for the last three years in southeast kentucky. at last i have enuff clients to say i can make a living at it and i’ve yet to work a 40 hour week. nowhere near it. this year i raised by prices on 30 of my clients to 2.00 to 2.50 per pane on all my bi-weekly to bi-monthly clients. i was charging 1.25 to 1.50 for any and all. this is a large increase in pricing i think, but i only lost one client. iused to have a 5.00 min. which i rasied to 10.00 last year on new accounts. to make a long story short it seems everytime i have went to higher rates the more work i got.
I don’t know how you can make out with those prices. I do commercial route work as my mainstay. My minimum stop is $35 and I am raising that. If the stop is going to take a half hour or more the price goes up from there.
We are professionals. Running businesses. I pay taxes and insurance, etc… I am in business to make a profit and expect to be paid like other professionals. I am soon to be adding employees and expect to pay them at least $18-24 per hour. If I shoot for less I will not be able to get the people that will treat my customer right. Ask and you shall receive.
Yeah - James, the idea is that you weed out the riff-raff for sure, and end up with only juicy stuff. It takes a bit longer, but you end up with a supercharged end-product.
Gotta stay focused and relentlessly refuse prospective jobs that aren’t willing to pay your prices.
I am curious why you decided that since you work alone that it was better not to do residential. Please explain, as I work alone and am starting to get into residential.
