I have been cleaning windows now for a few years but have only been working by myself for 6 months, business is great. However I have one problem when I first started I had no clue how to quote jobs and ended up underquoting a few jobs before quickly learning. But I now have many perhaps 10 customers at least who want their windows cleaned for as 35 to 70 percent of what I would charge. Today I told one customer his store which takes 20 min to clean plus 10ish travel and set up would be going from 15 to 23 dollars. However he was rather upset, before he then tried to negotiate another price and giving me the “last guy charged this” treatment. I do a quality job and try to avoid any undercutting etc, rather I compete on quality
How does everyone else handle this, as I’m sure it happens to everyone?
Ideally, you should be honest and let them know you under bid the job and need to increase the price to your normal rate for the next cleaning. However, you have to be willing to lose the work if they are not ok with the new price. I would say it all depends on how much you need the work. If you just started 6 months ago then you may want to raise prices at a slower rate to avoid losing jobs that you can’t replace with others.
Thanks for the advice I will be sure to be honest with him about the bid when I see him for his “final” clean as I would not like to get a bad reputation for such a trivial issue.
Also incase you were wondering why I increased it so suddenly is because he also wants me to do more work than what we originally agreed on, keeping me from other jobs; this particular customer has slowly become one of my most frustrating jobs.
It is shop front. with seven windows of which it was originally agreed that the outside and 5 inside windows be cleaned as two have a fridge infront of them. It is not particularly hard to move and I offered to clean it evrey couple of months as it won’t get dirty from finger prints, however he now expects me to do it every visitwhen it is not even nessecery
So you are raising your price 63¢ per window. As a business he should understand the cost of doing business and quality doesn’t cost peanuts. You are in business to make money - so is he I am sure. Who does this for a hobby? Gas, oil, upkeep of vehicle and equipment, insurance, your time, eating healthy - all costs money. Set your prices competitively but also that makes a living for you.
Make a deal, keep a deal…until you have performed well enough and know your customer well enough to get the increase, especially if they are paying cash. Show up every time you are scheduled to be there, do the work the best you can every time and raise your price a dollar or so every few months to bring it up. Don’t go for the big increase all at once unless you are willing to walk away.
Think about this, if you were buying from a supplier, let’s pick on Chris and Alex, and you were paying $XX.00 for squeegee rubber. Then you place an order and get an email saying they wanted 25% more for those rubbers before they would ship them…how would you feel? What would you do? Think about any issues from how You, The Customer, would feel if the same deal were presented to you.
If you feel a moral obligation to honor your price, then you should honor it. Bottom line is you need to be able to look yourself in the mirror, because if you can’t trust whose looking back at you then your customers certainly won’t either.
On the other hand, business is business. Consider how much of your time and energy you’ve already exhausted just complaining about the situation on this forum. Sounds to me like wasted opportunity you could spend doing something more productive. SqueegeeNinja may be right…let 'em go, and sooner is better. It’s like dating someone and right away you know it isn’t going to work. Every minute you spend investing yourself in that person is being wasted, and as long as you’re with them your not with someone else more suitable to your needs.
And remember when you bid you’re bidding for the future of your business, not just for today. Sure you’re a one-man-show today, but where do you want to be 5, 10, 15 years from now. If you can’t afford to service a customer while you’re “self” employed, how will you ever afford to hire help? Growing a business entails overhead. Your green and probably don’t have much in the way of operating costs but eventually you’ll need good profits margins in order to afford things likes Work Comp, health insurance, performance bonuses for your crew, company vehicles, etc. Right now bidding jobs higher than what your current survival needs are might feel like you’re swindling your customers, but the sooner you start “acting” like a big company the sooner you’ll become one.
Just my two cents. It’s only worth what you paid for it.
Have an honest upfront one sided conversation. This is the price going forward, period, if he would like you to be his window cleaner. When he brings up the last mythical character who did his windows and shined his shoes and did his dry cleaning for less than what you charge before the increase you’re asking for remember one thing, everyone is a liar.
This is a business. A client who adds work and expects to not pay for that extra work is a client no one needs.
I have found that GOOD clients understand and are not to concerned about price increases. Stick to quility work and a good company image and you will be ok.
