The Story,
Started a Job at a Golf Club that takes me 2.5 Hrs to do. The owner is a previous acquaintance. [though I don’t know him that well] I charged him 75.00 to do the job. At first I thought I Get down to an hr. 1/2 on my time.
A tad larger than I thought.
WC friends…What’s a guy to do???
LinO:confused:
I’m confused too, are you asking a question or venting? If you’re venting, I feel for ya. For 2.5 hours of work 75 dollars isn’t much, can you go up on the price?
Precisely why I’ve learned to take a hard look at my bids. Those that I screwed up on we ended up still doing for the price and taking it in the shorts. Sure you could always go in and mention it but I would wait a bit personally. If the rapport develops then I talk turkey about it.
I would just talk to him and raise the price, if he complains, have him hire another window cleaner.
There is alot of glass out there to clean, so 1 account is not going to break you.
Business is business.
You can say something about needing to raise the price… if they don’t go with it do the windows at the price you quoted. If he doesn’t want to pay more after that then you are not obligated to clean the windows again.
was that your first time cleaning it? I’m gonna tell ya that most commercial jobs take a bit longer on the first go…
In fact I see the commercial jobs like a math problem. Every store/business has a formula that I use to get it done in the fastest and most efficient time. Of course the first go is gonna be longer because you don’t have a good and efficient formula of doing it. Even the second go can take a little bit longer.
I believe we have all underbid a job or two(and I always miss a window on an estimate) but for me, I stick to my original estimate(even when it hurts) But I would be able to gauge whether or not my time could improve 2nd time around. If I don’t think I can improve (and I have a couple of jobs I can’t make any time on at all but I keep the clients cause they are just 2 nice) then I talk w/ the client and let them know that the job was more involved, took me longer than I thought for the quality I expect, and next time if you have me back I will need 2 raise the price. Hope this is of some help
Art,
Great help. Thanks for the time you [and others] put into legitemizing us "greenhorns"
Much gratitude,
Lino
Micah,
Love the name and the Prophet.
No I not venting [not really anyway], tryin’ to figure out proper ediquette for the “reputable wc”.
Thanks 4 what u do,
LinO
Hey Matt,
Been doing his win 4 about 3mos+. Got it down to 2.5 [maybe rookie vision]
I do like the guy. Pays on time.
Good lookin’ out…LinO
Sorry LinO,
I understand your question now, for some reason I couldn’t put it together the first time I read it…
How many windows does this place have? How are you cleaning it (meaning, do you do straight pulls with a squeegee, fan with a squeegee)? Maybe you could post a picture of the job.
Maybe there’s some tips we could share that may speed the job up for you.
Are you using wfp? Backpack with pure water? 36 or 48 inch channels? All of these tools have cut huge time on my jobs.
Great Idea!
I will take a pic next time around, 10,12 days. Just started “fanning” [I suppose] today. You hit the nail on the head, straight pulls except down below where I practiced fanning [lower L up to upper L, across to up R, down to low R, up to peak of solution and bring dn in fan motion] Is that it?
I’ll show pics nxt time around. By the way, owner gave great compliments. Snail pace but decent work for a rookie.
LinO.
No.
never held or saw one except on paper. would love to try one. are they rentable? LinO
sounds like you bid it not bad, you need to work on speed and technique.
you take 2.5 hours… when it could be done in 60mins by a pro.
with my WFP it would probably take 30mins+…get some pics
Hey LinO,
Check out one of Alex’s videos on fanning:
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You’ll get much quicker over time!
stop being a nice guy…
seriously…
Raise your price or drop him. The problem with the low price is that if he starts giving out referrals because of your great price, then the next thing you know you’ll have all sorts of people calling you up for that same cheap price and they will expect it since you gave it to him.
Who says it’s a cheap price?
I bet Mrs. Squeegee could knock it out in an hour…
Safe bet, Larry!
She’s the best, of course I’m biased.
