I started in 1985 still going now, going from charging £2 per council house at the time to now where I had to go from my house to a customer 8miles away I told the woman it will be £25 for 6 windows in her flat, she was happy to pay that. There’s no point being a busy fool as the saying goes. Your set up is great and worth every penny you charge 👍 From an old boy not in retirement Yet! 😂😂
Great video Dan, thank you. I don't service new customers who tell me what their last cleaner charged them when they contact me. As you say...red flag !
Good to see the more mundane bits like reeling hose in and out and getting your brush - I know that might seem boring but good to see how others do it. There are a good few people who think the value in window cleaning is just a couple of quid. My mum's old window cleaner used to charge £8 for a post war 4 bed semi - then again he 'lived' above the pub, ate and drank in the pub and still worked off ladders!! She couldn't believe that if I were to clean her windows it would be more like £28.
Nice to see some regular content I have had people in the past who have been paying £8 and requesting a quote to see if they can get it cheaper !! Absolutely madness, they must think we do it for beer money ! People don’t realise that it’s a business that still has overheads if done legitimately..
I had one exactly the same the other day, "youve been recommended by my neighbour my old window cleaner has retired" told her what i charged her neighbour (which is cheap anyway) never heard a thing back😂 gotta love um ❤
Good points in video mate. I spent 20+ years cleaning traditional and had many houses around £8 mark. (Not all) Switched to wfp this year and increased all my price's by least £5. Not had one complaint. Any new houses are minimum of £22. Once explain windows sills frames and doors included no one says no
I’ve had a few red flag moments this week from a lady “Do you work weekends ??” “If the price is right you can come regularly” That told me access was obviously a pain or they didn’t want to leave a gate unlocked and they wanted to pay peanuts! I have learnt the hard way with enquiries like this !
Sorry forgot to add we get this with pricing gardening work penny pinches everywhere we have our running costs £25-£35 an hour per man or set price per job Personally set price is better Anyway I had someone say £25 was a rip off so I gave her a breakdown on our running costs I said we’ve got Public liability Van tax Van Insurrance Diesel for the van Petrol and stroke oil Chains for chainsaw Strimmer cord Cost of the machinery and parts/servicing Battery’s for machines as they don’t last forever There’s loads more mate there’s more to running a business the public see Then we’ve got to add labour charge in order to pay our house hold bills too I know how hard you work mate my uncles been window cleaning for 40 odd years
Good to see you back mate. On your own the best way no hassle or pressure like myself. As for pricing spot on with the old brigade who retire and then the customer has to pay the going rate but they have had it good for many years
Great video, just a quick question about your hot water setup, do you have to charge your van up often with the plug ours always seems to be dead and have to do it all the time
reminds me of a company I used to work for they never put prices up for 15 years . We was doing £15-£20 houses for £6 . I did a massive bungalow once which also had velux’s the woman came out with £10 and I was thinking in my head is that it but she stood there just staring at me , she wanted £4 change I couldn’t believe it 😂 Another woman I put her house up 50p and she went mental saying it’s a massive price increase even though her house had never been upped it was still way cheaper than it should of been
Plenty of experiences just like that. Someone asked me on the phone, not too long ago. "it won't cost more than £7 will it?". She asked. When I told her my minimum is £12 she hung up on me. 😂 We just put an estimate calc on our website, which will hopefully weed out customers with unreasonable expectations on price.
Could you do a video on horror stories or embarrassing stories or if your thinking of expanding again.. I'm a gas engineer and really enjoy your videos..
Im with you on charging what the job is worth, but the house value means nothing, My last house in Newcastle, I paid 60K in 2003 or 2004, My neighbours paid 3K for it brand new 30 year earlier, we sold ours in 2008 for 130K. I left the UK in 2008, an when I go back to visit every 3 or 4 year, the prices shock me at how much thing are now. Anyway im subscribed
One of the first thing I ask when I do a quote is if they’ve ever had a window cleaner. Often prompts the old ‘yeah we had one but he disappeared’. Sometimes I just tell them there and then that he’s probably disappeared because it wasn’t priced high enough, i.e, I’ll be more expensive than him.
Have a minimum price boy's. £8 Here, where i am. whether it's 1 window or not, & I'm just about to raise it to £10 minimum it's important. To have a minimum price. I want to get paid for what i do. It should apply 2 us all.
Do you need a specific hose on the reel for hot water windows cleaning as i could imagine the hoses becoming verry soft and easily kincked? Also how much does it cost to run the hotbox bud? Cheers
Unfortunately you can’t buy an insulated 8mm hose pipe for window cleaning. The hose does go a little soft but doesn’t kink any more than usual. Hard to say how much it cost but I reckon about £5 per day maybe.
I think it cost about £4-£6 in the 90’s for my window cleaner to do my windows. I was a teen back then. Who’s ever been on toilet taking a dump, only to hear the dreaded sound of window cleaners ladders hit your wall and you hear guy climbing and be like oh shit what do I do😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
It’s really difficult to say how much quicker hot is… when you come across bird mess for example, hot water removes it 10x quicker! First cleans are much quicker. Your regular maintenance clean, there probably isn’t much in it.
@ I live in Cornwall so we’ve been flying (there’s two of us me and my staff member) through about 300-350 windows a day but I feel like sometimes I get stuck on fly mess for ages, didn’t know if hot water could make that 350>400 and eventually pay for itself. It’s about 6k for the streamline one (I have a smart tank 650). Do you think it would likely get that extra house or two done each working day?
My mother in law had her windows cleaned. She lives in a "well to do" area and the cleaner didn't clean the cills or frames so muggings here did it. He then started scrubbing the windows with floor broom or something similar to get the seagull poop off and started to take off the lead strips as well. We put a stop to it and i do it now for nothing. But he charged £3:50 for 8 big windows and a porch area. How can anyone survive on that. Admittedly it was a bucket, sponge/brush and no enthusiasm but £3:50?
The fact that a potential customer has been paying the same price for that length of time tells you everything about the kind of customer they would be. Not worth the hassle even if they did go with you!
@adornwindowcleaning7739 For me, it's a madness cleaning house like this 25-30 min. For me, it's less than 10 minutes, and I can't charge £25-30 for 10 minutes of work.
You shouldn’t be thinking like that my friend. Even if it only takes you 10 minutes and it’s £25, that’s not £25 profit. You have all your business expenses, tax and your personal wage to come out of that. Try not to think like an employee.
@dansmithson I agree, and I would charge this amount if I have to travel to another customer, but if your work is compact and it only takes you 10 minutes to clean someone windows you dont need to chage that much and you still make very decent money after all expenses.
Sometimes I really don't like to go back to my old customers from 5-6 years ago, those days prices were very different and now they expect you work for same, so I prefer that they never call.And yeah I know people who work for same prices for decades, they are afraid to put up the price and loose customers.
Know a few pole fed window cleaners all charge well over the odds greedy oh and tell customers because of health and safety can't use ladders , as a traditional window cleaner can sleep at night knowing do good job and not ripping people off
Its the the good old not what the customer wants to pay for ! Gardening window cleaning the client thinks anyone can do it .not what you prraonally bring .ie trust , professionalism thorough job everytine ,non security threat .in my book thats everything .yet these peole happy to pay fortunes for lip fillers full body waxing , haircut cut and colour .even knocking their mechanic and tree surgeon down .a local gardener can cut that tree cheaper can i supply my own car parts can i supply my own garden plants ! Ive been 14 years mechanic then tree and garden buisness 20 years .ive seen it all the tricks !
@@dansmithson exactly, the problem is they are still running a business from 30 years ago when you could buy a house for £60k and they only had to make 1k a month lol 😂
I didn't have a clue how to price a job when I started. It turns out I'm definitely more expensive than the average in my area, but it's not often my quotes get refused on price so I'll be keeping my prices on the higher end. I'm not just trying to earn a wage, I'm trying to progress my business, that takes money.
Mine was £10 for a 4 bed detached. 10 big windows, 1 front door, 2 large patio doors. I got rid of him, as he loved to come as 7am and wake me up after my night shifts. Thats was two years ago, I get a lot less blown windows now due to bird strikes.. and clean my own windows every now and again.
Not sure if anyone’s messages this. But just out of curiosity, why is it a red flag if someone says they retired? I’ve just started in another type of servicing industry
Oooo Daniel San these people in 700k + houses, think the price should be around the 10 squid mark, fukin hilarious 😂 Old windy retired, yeah, we know what's coming 😊 Great vid and look forward to the next one An old subscriber 😊
It just astounds me how cheap window cleaning prices are in the UK. Here in Australia, us professional window cleaners charge £159,200, 300 for full window clean of a standard house (inside & out).
I started in 1985 still going now, going from charging £2 per council house at the time to now where I had to go from my house to a customer 8miles away I told the woman it will be £25 for 6 windows in her flat, she was happy to pay that. There’s no point being a busy fool as the saying goes. Your set up is great and worth every penny you charge 👍
From an old boy not in retirement Yet! 😂😂
Great video Dan, thank you. I don't service new customers who tell me what their last cleaner charged them when they contact me. As you say...red flag !
Good to see the more mundane bits like reeling hose in and out and getting your brush - I know that might seem boring but good to see how others do it. There are a good few people who think the value in window cleaning is just a couple of quid. My mum's old window cleaner used to charge £8 for a post war 4 bed semi - then again he 'lived' above the pub, ate and drank in the pub and still worked off ladders!! She couldn't believe that if I were to clean her windows it would be more like £28.
My first clean today got to the job set up and looked up and pulled my neck sorbt the whole day like a robot 🤣
Not even watched this and liked it 😂 so so so glad you're back bro
Haha thanks Steve👍
Nice to see some regular content
I have had people in the past who have been paying £8 and requesting a quote to see if they can get it cheaper !!
Absolutely madness, they must think we do it for beer money !
People don’t realise that it’s a business that still has overheads if done legitimately..
Asking for cheaper than £8 is madness isn’t it! Luckily these type of customers are few and far between.
I had one exactly the same the other day, "youve been recommended by my neighbour my old window cleaner has retired" told her what i charged her neighbour (which is cheap anyway) never heard a thing back😂 gotta love um ❤
Love your videos pal, random question though. Where did you get your work trousers from please?
Good points in video mate. I spent 20+ years cleaning traditional and had many houses around £8 mark. (Not all) Switched to wfp this year and increased all my price's by least £5. Not had one complaint. Any new houses are minimum of £22. Once explain windows sills frames and doors included no one says no
I’ve had a few red flag moments this week from a lady
“Do you work weekends ??”
“If the price is right you can come regularly”
That told me access was obviously a pain or they didn’t want to leave a gate unlocked and they wanted to pay peanuts! I have learnt the hard way with enquiries like this !
Yeah all comes with experience doesn’t it. They are certainly red flag questions!
Great video mate not easy trying to film and get your jobs done I know first hand lol
Enjoyed this one bud keep up the great work
Sorry forgot to add we get this with pricing gardening work penny pinches everywhere we have our running costs £25-£35 an hour per man or set price per job
Personally set price is better
Anyway I had someone say £25 was a rip off so I gave her a breakdown on our running costs
I said we’ve got
Public liability
Van tax
Van Insurrance
Diesel for the van
Petrol and stroke oil
Chains for chainsaw
Strimmer cord
Cost of the machinery and parts/servicing
Battery’s for machines as they don’t last forever
There’s loads more mate there’s more to running a business the public see
Then we’ve got to add labour charge in order to pay our house hold bills too
I know how hard you work mate my uncles been window cleaning for 40 odd years
Good to see you back mate. On your own the best way no hassle or pressure like myself. As for pricing spot on with the old brigade who retire and then the customer has to pay the going rate but they have had it good for many years
Thanks Michael👍
Great video Dan, looking forward to meeting you next weekend 💪🏼
Thanks mate! Looking forward to Sunday 👍
Hi.
Do you leave your hot water system on all day, or do you turn it on at each job ?
Always excited to watch your stuff!
Thanks Jed👍
If you're too busy, you're too cheap. Great vid, keep it up!
Very true👍
Better to stay busy than not enough work to pay the bills surely?
Great vid. The music was spot on for the slow mo shots. 15 jobs. Nice!!!!
Thanks Pete👍
Another great video. Look forward to the next one. I loved your old content.
Thanks man, appreciate it👍
@@dansmithsonI meant to ask, what did you film this video on?
Great video, just a quick question about your hot water setup, do you have to charge your van up often with the plug ours always seems to be dead and have to do it all the time
Show use more of the hot water system.
Do you use all day & what temp do you have the water at ?
Thanks
Great vid Dan!
Thanks man
Keep the videos coming Dan 😊
stuck in the 80s with many prices too
reminds me of a company I used to work for they never put prices up for 15 years . We was doing £15-£20 houses for £6 . I did a massive bungalow once which also had velux’s the woman came out with £10 and I was thinking in my head is that it but she stood there just staring at me , she wanted £4 change I couldn’t believe it 😂
Another woman I put her house up 50p and she went mental saying it’s a massive price increase even though her house had never been upped it was still way cheaper than it should of been
Blimey! Imagine kicking off over 50p😆
@ Yh my hairdressers go up £1 every year . But she’s crying over 50p in 15 years 😂
Nice video Dan! I’m up north and there is still quite a lot of 8 quid jobs which is slowing changing but annoying 🤣
Yeah I suppose it depends where you are in the country. It’s a shame it’s not just a universal thing that the prices go up.
£40 per hour? Not bad for a cleaner bro.
Plenty of experiences just like that. Someone asked me on the phone, not too long ago.
"it won't cost more than £7 will it?". She asked.
When I told her my minimum is £12 she hung up on me. 😂
We just put an estimate calc on our website, which will hopefully weed out customers with unreasonable expectations on price.
Great video, Dan looking 👌 like always
Thanks Shaun 👍
Could you do a video on horror stories or embarrassing stories or if your thinking of expanding again..
I'm a gas engineer and really enjoy your videos..
Thanks man. I was actually thinking of doing a video like that👍
Tails of the window cleaner, I have a few from guys jerking off or people having affairs. You name it i’ve seen it 22years cleaning windows.
Im with you on charging what the job is worth, but the house value means nothing, My last house in Newcastle, I paid 60K in 2003 or 2004, My neighbours paid 3K for it brand new 30 year earlier, we sold ours in 2008 for 130K. I left the UK in 2008, an when I go back to visit every 3 or 4 year, the prices shock me at how much thing are now.
Anyway im subscribed
Have you ever tried the tubeless kit? It’s great would never go back to all that extra hose mess in the van.
Yeah I’ve been meaning to try one of those!
One of the first thing I ask when I do a quote is if they’ve ever had a window cleaner. Often prompts the old ‘yeah we had one but he disappeared’. Sometimes I just tell them there and then that he’s probably disappeared because it wasn’t priced high enough, i.e, I’ll be more expensive than him.
Yeah that’s a classic that one!
😂 love that one.
It can also mean they might not be a great customer, ie gate closed or bad payer
Have a minimum price boy's. £8 Here, where i am. whether it's 1 window or not, & I'm just about to raise it to £10 minimum it's important. To have a minimum price. I want to get paid for what i do. It should apply 2 us all.
100% correct 👍
How many houses do you do per day?
@woodsmic are they 1 bed ? 2 bed ? 3 bed ? 4 bed ? 5 bed ?
You do realise a 5 bed takes longer than a 1 bed right ? 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
Do you ever get customers who haggle the price and what do you do?
Do you need a specific hose on the reel for hot water windows cleaning as i could imagine the hoses becoming verry soft and easily kincked? Also how much does it cost to run the hotbox bud? Cheers
Unfortunately you can’t buy an insulated 8mm hose pipe for window cleaning. The hose does go a little soft but doesn’t kink any more than usual. Hard to say how much it cost but I reckon about £5 per day maybe.
I think it cost about £4-£6 in the 90’s for my window cleaner to do my windows. I was a teen back then.
Who’s ever been on toilet taking a dump, only to hear the dreaded sound of window cleaners ladders hit your wall and you hear guy climbing and be like oh shit what do I do😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
😆😆😆
Once got up to a bedroom to glimpse a lad having a ham shank. The look on his face, he almost fell out the door 😂
I do like the helly work polo dan , have you moved away from the scruffs gear these days
How much faster is hot water compared to cold? Really thinking about dropping the high price in a attempt to get things done quicker.
It’s really difficult to say how much quicker hot is… when you come across bird mess for example, hot water removes it 10x quicker! First cleans are much quicker. Your regular maintenance clean, there probably isn’t much in it.
@ I live in Cornwall so we’ve been flying (there’s two of us me and my staff member) through about 300-350 windows a day but I feel like sometimes I get stuck on fly mess for ages, didn’t know if hot water could make that 350>400 and eventually pay for itself. It’s about 6k for the streamline one (I have a smart tank 650).
Do you think it would likely get that extra house or two done each working day?
Would love to ask these customers if they would do it for £8 after van costs insurances equipment taxes......
great video was you going to do a video on gutter vac gear do you use hot water all day
I have that video in the pipeline my man
Brilliant video mate. Had the wrap been removed in order for you to reduce the amount of enquiries coming in?
My mother in law had her windows cleaned. She lives in a "well to do" area and the cleaner didn't clean the cills or frames so muggings here did it. He then started scrubbing the windows with floor broom or something similar to get the seagull poop off and started to take off the lead strips as well. We put a stop to it and i do it now for nothing. But he charged £3:50 for 8 big windows and a porch area. How can anyone survive on that. Admittedly it was a bucket, sponge/brush and no enthusiasm but £3:50?
How much does 600 litres of pure water cost?
Great video.. You definitely look like Tom Cruise ! In Europe those 8 $ jobs would be 10 to 20 times more in price !.. scandalous some customers....
Maybe I should apply to be Tom Cruise stunt double 😆 What’s your advantage price over where you are?
The fact that a potential customer has been paying the same price for that length of time tells you everything about the kind of customer they would be. Not worth the hassle even if they did go with you!
Had one on a detached house i was charging £25.00. Texted me to say they had found a cheaper window cleaner charging £12.00😂😂😂
How long does it take you to clean detached house for £25????
Probably take 30 mins approx
@adornwindowcleaning7739 For me, it's a madness cleaning house like this 25-30 min. For me, it's less than 10 minutes, and I can't charge £25-30 for 10 minutes of work.
You shouldn’t be thinking like that my friend. Even if it only takes you 10 minutes and it’s £25, that’s not £25 profit. You have all your business expenses, tax and your personal wage to come out of that. Try not to think like an employee.
@dansmithson I agree, and I would charge this amount if I have to travel to another customer, but if your work is compact and it only takes you 10 minutes to clean someone windows you dont need to chage that much and you still make very decent money after all expenses.
Sometimes I really don't like to go back to my old customers from 5-6 years ago, those days prices were very different and now they expect you work for same, so I prefer that they never call.And yeah I know people who work for same prices for decades, they are afraid to put up the price and loose customers.
Yeah that certainly can be an issue when they haven’t used your services for a while!
New follower where can I see the old videos?
They are all gone my friend. Welcome to my new channel though 👍
You should say you have charge “x-amount” to fund your tattoo adiction 😅
Dan do you heat your water with those leisure batteries?
Yes and also it runs off the diesel
@dansmithson diesel from your fuel tank Dan ?
Or it's own independent tank ?
I think prices deffo depend on were in the country you live
Certainly does
Know a few pole fed window cleaners all charge well over the odds greedy oh and tell customers because of health and safety can't use ladders , as a traditional window cleaner can sleep at night knowing do good job and not ripping people off
Lunch will cost you around 8 quid 😂 sack that. Know your worth boys come on.
£8 ? Wow 😮 it’s like they live in the dark ages
😆👍
Mind set: £15 minimum charge odd exception using discretion maybe some will say more?
Yeah some people are at £15 minimum and I know some people at £30 minimum.
You don't get rich giving your money away!!! Surprised they didn't barter with you 👍🤣😂🤣
😆👍
What’s in your protein flapjacks? Sounds good
My wife makes them for me. They are Steal Cut Oats, Butter and some protein powder 👌
£8.50 all day long!
😆
Its the the good old not what the customer wants to pay for ! Gardening window cleaning the client thinks anyone can do it .not what you prraonally bring .ie trust , professionalism thorough job everytine ,non security threat .in my book thats everything .yet these peole happy to pay fortunes for lip fillers full body waxing , haircut cut and colour .even knocking their mechanic and tree surgeon down .a local gardener can cut that tree cheaper can i supply my own car parts can i supply my own garden plants ! Ive been 14 years mechanic then tree and garden buisness 20 years .ive seen it all the tricks !
Less than minimum wage lol 😂 talk about race to the bottom! Same in building trade!
Madness how low some people value themselves!
@@dansmithson exactly, the problem is they are still running a business from 30 years ago when you could buy a house for £60k and they only had to make 1k a month lol 😂
I didn't have a clue how to price a job when I started. It turns out I'm definitely more expensive than the average in my area, but it's not often my quotes get refused on price so I'll be keeping my prices on the higher end. I'm not just trying to earn a wage, I'm trying to progress my business, that takes money.
£8 is shocking but so is £28 I can't charge anywhere near that up north 😂
Yeah I suppose it depends where you are in the country
Mine was £10 for a 4 bed detached. 10 big windows, 1 front door, 2 large patio doors. I got rid of him, as he loved to come as 7am and wake me up after my night shifts. Thats was two years ago, I get a lot less blown windows now due to bird strikes.. and clean my own windows every now and again.
Not sure if anyone’s messages this. But just out of curiosity, why is it a red flag if someone says they retired?
I’ve just started in another type of servicing industry
Oooo Daniel San
these people in 700k + houses, think the price should be around the 10 squid mark, fukin hilarious 😂
Old windy retired, yeah, we know what's coming 😊
Great vid and look forward to the next one
An old subscriber 😊
It does make me laugh! The old window cleaner has retired has got to be the biggest red flag 🚩
Or they just don't let themselves be taken advantage of becasue they have a nice house?
could you be my dad?
It just astounds me how cheap window cleaning prices are in the UK. Here in Australia, us professional window cleaners charge £159,200, 300 for full window clean of a standard house (inside & out).
What you on about you can buy a house for that?
@@monkeyboy4995 He obviously meant to put £150, 200, 300..
@@monkeyboy4995How often do you clean the windows on a house in Australia?