It is an absolute guarantee that nobody where you are will pay that if you don’t price it that way. Does anybody in your town drive a Lincoln, Mercedes or Porsche? Do you have a Starbucks there or do all of the coffee drinkers go to the convenience store? People WILL pay more for things that they find to be more valuable than other ordinary options. It is your job to make your value obvious to them. You need to stop saying “Not around here”.
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Absolute mathematical truth in this statement!
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Alright, well let me put it this way: there are people here who would pay that. There are some people who drive those nice cars and aren’t just borrowing them with their credit cards. There will be some no matter where you are. But I love in an area with 2000 people, and a majority of them would not pay that price. A majority of them already hesitate about paying what I charge, especially the older women, which is supposed to be a prime market, is it not? So I’m not saying people wouldn’t pay, but being the expensive guy in this town, especially when I’m both young and still inexperienced, I do not think it would be wise to bump up my prices. Yes I offer better service than the other guy, I’m nicer, kinder, and I actually call people back, which he apparently sucks at, but I have to make sure that when I raise my prices it is justified, because in a small area like this, just one or two clients that say that I’m “overpriced” and I’d have a hard time getting a call! At the current rate that I’m getting business and my financial situation I can not yet afford to start jacking up my prices other than here or there where I’m giving services away. I want to aim for the $60 an hour area, and I’m pretty much there already. So my point isn’t really that I can never charge that much or that no one here would pay it, but it certainly isn’t the main market price here and I’m not ready to charge that yet, so it’s not a never ever, it’s a not right now. I will start trying to find that 70-80% close rate people talk about when I can afford to turn away work. 
…That one will get you every time…until it doesn’t anymore.
Window cleaning charges really do depend on the area you live in. There is a strong difference in the cost of living in various places in the U.S. and therefore expected prices for services. Example: Doctor’s visit cost, no insurance here (southern Utah) $90 (what I paid to meet with a doctor in August 2017). Larger city $150 to $300. Average cost to rent a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home in southern Utah $1300 vs $4000 in Boston, MA. I could go on and on.
Window cleaning costs will vary by area. What someone pays in a larger city on either coast will probably be much higher than a small city in the midwest. But the cost of living will be lower in the midwest. So it is all relative.
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exactly! I rent an apartment in town for 550. 600 square feet. My brother lives in an apartment in Oregon that is half the size and costs him 5 times as much. Like I said, I may be able to up my prices a little further on down the road, but I like where they are at now, apart from a few adjustments and tweaking here and there.
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Your first problem is you are pandering to 2000 people with a competitor in the market. The likelihood of you doing this full time in such a small market AND being able to earn a decent living is slim.
IF you are happy with 60 bucks an hour, then who can tell you otherwise? BUT are you able to GET your rate at even 20 hours a week consistently? I have never believed in the phrase “there is enough glass for everyone”. Only a small portion of the community will actually PAY for window cleaning, no matter how you price it (unless you do it for free or nearly free).
A business has expenses, besides the need for profits, and the desire to expand. That all costs a lot of money. The lower one charges, the less likely you are able to accomplish that. If you become known as the guy who does everything cheap, you aren’t likely to break free from that view. People will only value your services where you built the value.
Again, it’s your business, do what you want. But the guys here are telling you what you need to do to see more success.
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Well, I have about 500 dollars a month worth of commercial clients, but I have a couple that I already have nailed down and a couple others that I am 90% certain I will nail down in the next week or so that will bring it up to about 800+ a month. That is enough for me to pay my rent and bills, and I’m steadily building that up and am also expanding to other nearby towns. I have no intention of being “the cheap guy”, and I do not believe I am. I have one competitor in town, but he does not have a good reputation and I have heard from my clients that he simply has poor customer service. So even though I do agree that there is not “enough glass for everyone” (even though he told me so and said that he wants us to not step on each other’s toes) I do believe that I have a better service than he does, and I have been getting steady calls and requests over the last two days. So I may raise my prices slightly in some ways, I believe that for right now in my current market and at my current skill level, my prices are pretty accurate. I want to listen to these guys, and maybe I really am just not seeing clearly, but I also can not just snap around immediately and start charging 3 times as much without thinking through it first. I respect everyone on here, they have so much experience. I am simply hesitant to charge so much.
I think a $100 minimum should be good enough for any customer to handle especially if they are inquiring for services. Some people offer 11 windows monthly to customers which I am doing now for $66 any 11 windows they like just the basic 2 pane. I think is a great idea. The company I started provides many services so that I will always have a variety of work of some sort. I would quote them with all the services and keep it in the customers profile then all you have to do is pull it up and bam $$$.
Don’t charge too much, charge enough.
Try upping your prices 15% more for the rest of this year.
After Jan. 1, 2019, raise your prices another 3%.
15% on top of the $320 job is $48 more for $368.
3% more the next year on top of that same $368 is $11 for $379.
Deliver excellent service. You can do it. 
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800 in income is only 528 in net gains. You have 272 bucks in taxes (33% tax or there abouts for those self employed). Keep in mind, if you don’t play nice with the IRS, they can burn you real good. Not saying you are doing anything underhanded, but some people try to sneak by the IRS.
So if you are holding back taxes out of that income, you aren’t really making 800 a month. That’s all I’m getting at.
I understand your concerns, and I agree the price of the service fluctuates across the country. You have to decide what your price is. I think though, people are concerned that you are under pricing yourself, and I believe rightly so.
Some people think that a service provider should do work for 1970’s prices. Some know that things aren’t cheap anymore. I realize what a dollar buys today, is MUCH less than what it bought 50 years ago. I don’t work for someone unless it profits me, just as I won’t expect someone to do work for me, unless it profits them.
I can’t tell you what your value is, you have to do that. Only you can sell your value. If you don’t believe you have the value, you’ll never sell it. I run into people too, that balk at my prices. We all do. But I don’t let it get me down or lower my prices. I just move on to the next opportunity.
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@Garry and @anon82274079, thanks for the vote of confidence! Yeah, I guess I didn’t really think about taxes… I definitely do them, but I made so little last year my taxes were only (I say only) $400. I really need to do the math and make sure I’m being as sustainable as I need to be.
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Whatever you can’t write off, is considered income. So, if you make 800 a month times 12 months, that’s 9600 in income. If taxes are about 33% for your self employed income, that’s 3264 dollars you’ll be cutting a check to the IRS for taxes.
You’ll only be “profiting” about 6k a year.
Even those numbers don’t take into account all the expenses you’ll have. You could work part time at McDonalds and make better money than that with no risks.
I know those numbers are a VERY narrow view of your business and miss a lot of things. It’s just something to think about, even if you looked at your business very simplistically. Taxes eat profits, just like other expenses.
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Get with a good tax guy/gal to help you through. He/she will show you what you can claim and what you can’t. There is so much that you need to learn to run your own business, and so many mistakes will keep you in the poor house.
I assume even in your small town there are successful businesses; be one of them.
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There is definitely a variation in what each market will bear.
Still, when you think about it there really is no “going rate” for luxury services and good service on top of that.
The right price is what your customer is willing to pay coupled with you being satisfied that you priced it well for yourself.
People are very often held captive to preconceived ideas of their own or supposed authorities on a matter. A real nice lady years ago wanted so badly for me to clean their gutters. I priced it at $175. She called me to apologize that a friend told her it should only be $100, so she would have to pass.
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Great reply Tony!
Ike don’t be afraid to price, get out of the workers mind set,l. You run a service business that people want to have done for them People hate doing windows for one reason or another that’s why they contact you.
Make a living… Don’t be afraid, it won’t hurt!
Give great service and the phone will ring!
PS … raise that min to at least $125 for residential.
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@ibprofen98 Ike, here is another perspective on pricing and compensation for the 3 entities involved in your business: the technicians in the field, the office/business manager and the owner.
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The technician should get around 30% of the gross of the jobs. If the owner is the technician he is probably worth 35-40% due to higher quality, no supervisory overhead, and most significantly the owner/technician is ACTIVELY seeking upsells, repeats and referrals.
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Office/business manager. Whoever wears this hat is investing labor in non-billable hours: AR/AP/payroll, ordering supplies & equipment, maintaining equipment, marketing, bidding, scheduling, networking, fielding complaints, etc. The owners’ hours invested in this role can be valued at an hourly rate, a salaried rate or as a percentage of gross. Lots of variation here but there does need to be compensation valuation.
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Owner. The owner should get compensated (aka profit) at 5-10% of gross for his investment and acceptance of risk. Less than 5% and his investment capital is better spent elsewhere. More than 10% and savvy competition will probably be moving in. Of course this profit to the owner comes after all expenses are paid, including labor costs and taxes.
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Also people will be happy to pay the lowest amount that they can get away with. If you fail and go out of business, they will just take advantage of low pricing over the next one.
Charge what you are worth and be worth what you charge.
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There is no reason that you should not be charging even the low end of the national average for window cleaning.
Zillow; Waterown, S.D.
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