Hey everybody. I’ve been checking out the forum for a little while now, and I’ve learned alot. I’ve been cleaning windows for about a year and a half, and I’m starting my own business. I know how to bid. What I want some advice on is getting my first jobs.
Should I start bidding low, just to get some footing, and then raise prices, or should I start out pricing right where I want to be?
I don’t want to be the lowballer around here (like there aren’t enough already), and I don’t want to get stuck in underbid jobs, but I’m gonna need to make sure I am at least breaking even with my old pay through the winter.
Personally I would never low-ball. You get caught in that price timelock & if you try & raise, you loose out to the next low-baller. Work smart, not hard.
Look at what your local mechanic charges per hour divide by 29, there’s a good starting point for a per pane price in and out including screens (basic tract home and screens are no more than 40% of total window pane count)
A lowballer is just one who is not charging for the cost of operation (administration, marketing, accounting, taxes and business profit) only the cost of service (operations and labor) and will usually be half of the mechanic’s hourly rate most of the time.
hope that provides an end of the line reference for you
I’ve already got a good handle on what I should be charging in the long run, my question was really just about starting, like getting my first couple of routes…just making sure the bills are paid. Again, I appreciate the help.
I am in the same boat as you. I know the work and know the business (8 years cleaning) but it can be a little scary putting your self out there. These guys have it right. If you wanna get the bills paid then start by charging a price that you could see doing the work for even when you are busy. You want to grow a business, not just get the work, so it would do you no good to charge only enough to get by and then next year lose all your customers and have to start over cause you need to raise your rates huge to be more in line with what you feel you are worth.
Be confident, neat in appearance and show them why you are the best man for the job and the price won’t be an issue.
end of line meaning when one starts with the end in mind (what pricing will allow a business to run in balanced way) one can just work backwards from there and figure out the rest of the details - goal per man hour on job, goal in dollars per day etc.
Well I suppose that could be the case with storm windows etc. Works well for housing tract homes. Just take the number of windows you find to be consistent and substitute it in
A mechanic’s labor rate is a service rate, and very easily accessible. In my area it’s around $100 per hour at the car dealerships.
It doesn’t have to be the maximum rate, but a very good MINIMUM per man hour rate to work from and build on. WFP will put it thru the roof in some jobs, right?
In window cleaning all we have is service, no heaters, a/c units and other parts like a heating and air guy might have to sell in addition to his service
By keeping an eye on the car dealerships hourly rate and the consumer price index on inflation this has helped my business immensely over the years and many others have told me they dial in to this as a minimum also and that’s it’s been very effective for them and that’s why I recommend it.
Working backward from overhead alone may not take into account everything. Many times just operations will get counted, leaving out administration, accounting, finance, marketing. Or the other side of the coin, overhead may be too high and a one person operation needs to charge $500 per job hour when realy the answer is more employees or cut the overhead because overhead is too high.
Why not just do the work for free? Man I’m glad I’m not in Ohio. Seems more cleaners on this board from Ohio then any other place. Either that state has the cleanest windows in the world or everyone there wants to clean windows.
