So I just completed my second year and am starting my 3rd year running the business. My work includes about 120 repeat residential and 2 monthly restaurants. Last year I consistently made about $50 an hour( apart from the times I screwed up a bid by under bidding it). I am a one man operation but am always pushing to grow. Is there any noticeable improvements that anybody found to increase their hourly wages as their business grew? (Hope this isn’t too broad of a question)
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Dissolve the bottom. Expand the top.
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I seemed to have hit a plateau when it comes to my hourly wage. Is there any changes that made you say" wow I wish I would have done that since the beginning" kinda things. Things that once you started doing made a notable increase in wages.Mile markers in your businesses growth I guess.
Don’t bid window cleaning hourly. Standardize your pricing per window style. That way, when you get faster and more efficient at your job you get a raise, like everybody else in the world.
And when you hire help, you’ll be able to teach them to quote jobs much easier and with more consistency.
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Caleb, you’re a smart guy. I can tell cause the advice you dispense is usually what I’m already thinking haha.
Pricing per pane or per window is the way to go. Figure out a system that will give you a consistent bidding framework that is commensurate with your targeted hourly wage. Every time you complete a job, record how much time it took you and modify your calculations accordingly until each job is paying you what it should. The faster you get, the more you get paid per hour, cause eventually the window you price at 8 bucks will take you only 1 minute instead of 2.
If you come back for a repeat job and you still can’t hit your target hourly while charging the original bid price, it’s ok to raise the price a bit for next time. Be courteous about it, and if they drop you then don’t sweat it. You should have new jobs coming in all the time and be bidding them higher than your old ones. Dropping old, lower-paying jobs while taking on new, better-paying accounts is what c_wininger means by “expand the top and dissolve the bottom”
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Increase prices year on year unless on a payment plan, and then only every few years. Increase the bottom line jobs more (or drop them) when you pick up better paying ones.
My costs keep going up year on year, so why shouldn’t my prices, even if it’s only a few %
Reduce all of your outgoings where possible. Buy things you really need - not just think you might need. It’s surprising looking back over the past year where you spent money you could have saved.
I charge per pane size, not per hour - but it must still meet my minimum hourly rate (which i keep to myself), and that increases yearly by a few % too!
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As you become more proficient and experienced your hourly rate will naturally go up as your speed increases. Don’t sweat it. Keep track of how much time each job takes. Some windows are just harder to clean than others - landscape obstacles, furniture, yearly accounts, etc. After time you can predict how much time you need and just where your prices need to be in order to reach your goal.
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Agreed , but don’t be afraid to tack on money ( half an hour labor , hour labor ). when you see things that could slow you down … Like extremely dirty Windows, ladder work inside a house , and so on.
For a newbie it’s hard to understand how long something should , or could take so price by the window unit like Caleb says , then experience will start getting you efficient , an the understanding of what could hold you up .
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Besides raising prices, get rid of low wage jobs, and if you do anything with more than one floor, wfp, especially on commercial. I’ve seen my guys be able to consistently produce $100/hour with commercial wfp.
Oh ok that totally makes sense. I’d never heard that term so I wasn’t sure. Thank you for clearing that up. All great advice, really appreciate the feedback. To clear up, I don’t charge by the hour I do a per pane price. But I was finding if I had a $150 dollar job I could usually do it in 3 hours pretty consistently. I’ve been charging $3 per pane but I realized it was a little low for the market and raised it to 3.50 2 weeks ago to see the response I get. Could probably still bump it up to $4 and be safe though
What is the median income of your service area? $3 per pane is $6per double hung window? What about larger windows and French panes?
Median income here is $49,182. $60,000 and 80,000 in the 2 closer cities. To mine. Yes that would be $6 for double hung and I keep it the same for really small panes and large panes so it just averages out through the the house. Then $1 for French panes both sides.
Just purchased a reach it mini a month ago with the 3/4 resin tank. I plan on doing a few friends houses with it to learn before I’m can feel confident with the results. But I feel this will greatly help my productivity on jobs where ladder work is required. I’ve been limited with the rain here to have a day to try it. But I will today being that it’s a sunny day finally
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“Median income” and “targeted neighborhood median income” are different. One averages the whole city, the other covers more well to do neighborhoods - which is where you want to be.
50¢ per side of French pane is cheap. 75¢ per side maintenance clean and $1 per side first clean is more worthy of the time and effort involved to get them clean. Pricing a few doors at a lower rate is fine, but a whole house of cut-ups is brutal.
Yeah I feel I learned that lesson yesterday. Bid a whole house of frenchies yesterday while soliciting at 400( 370 panes with a few sliding doors) and the lady jumped at it. Said " I’ll schedule it right now!" Lesson learned.
So how do I find a target neighborhood median? Just google it or something? And if its let’s say$100,000 as an example what is a acceptable per pane price based off that?
Well, you don’t price your work based on home value any more than you discount your work based on home value. Work is work. The garage you take your car to doesn’t check to see what your bank account is before they quote the job. The guy with $1 million in his bank pays the same as they guy with $100,000 in the bank.
Look for homes that have curb appeal. If they care about the look of their property then they pay for maintenance. You can always tell if someone hires a professional lawn care company, or does the work themselves.
Checkout Zillow for home values. You’re in S.C., right? SC Real Estate - South Carolina Homes For Sale | Zillow
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Sorry, just noticed Idaho. Still, Zillow will give you the areas you are looking for.
That’s sound advice. I did a little of that when picking areas to solicit to. Up scale realtors sites is what I used. Thanks for the help
Spend some time poking around on Melissadata.Com. Lots of good demographic data available there.
