So I am in the process of completing my start up. Getting my logo made as we speak. Once I get that I can print my cards and hit the street! I plan on getting some store fronts to get started and make some cash to help fund my resi marketing. So with that I am killing myself over pricing. Where I’m located we have one major cleaning service that has most major corporations locked down. The small mom and pop stores have one guy that does most of the store fronts. He has a monopoly in store fronts as he is the only guy around. I have no idea what he charges or even how to start off bidding. I think I will start at 1.25$ a pane. I hate to do that I case he is getting crazy money from these people. I don’t want to be the bob. I also want some customers, if he is doing work for .50$ pane I obviously won’t get the work. So I have no clue where to start.
Resi jobs I think I will start with,
5$ outside only
7$ outside inside
1$ to remove the screen and put it back
2$ for screen cleaning
3$ for tracks and sills
Or
5$ for heavily soiled tracks and sills
20-30$ storm windows each
Am I crazy? How do you find a market average? I think I will do a 50/50 test. Try 1.25$ store front test in my town and next town over do a 1.50 or 1.75$ price?
The guy that does our town has the monopoly on store fronts but zero marketing anywhere online. Just his truck. Hopefully that helps me get the resi accounts easier.
The pricing is obviously really important, but look for other ways to differentiate yourself from this other guy as well. Ask every business owner you talk to, “Are you having your windows cleaned professionally?”, then if they say yes, follow up with “Are you happy with the service you’re getting?”. Maybe the guy doesn’t show up on time. Maybe he doesn’t offer the option to come during their slow hours. Maybe he smokes while he cleans the windows and it bothers the owner. Don’t just think about offering the same service for cheaper, think about how you can offer different, or better service. That way, you can charge the same or more even and still get their business. Then if you find any trends or deficiencies in his work, you can start leading with that, e.g. “Some window washers show up during the busiest hours, but we offer flexible scheduling to come when it’s most convenient to you.” Hope this helps, best of luck to you!
50/50 test for store front. Don’t worry about the guy. He’s cheap I’m sure, so you have higher prices and make sure with higher prices you have “Quality Service”. One man showes never last. I have plenty of cheap competition that are maid service and or handy man and then window cleaner aprently. They can’t touch my quality work. I only do residential at the moment. I started by charging $5 per pane inside out. For a premium clean including screen cleaning and vacuuming out the tracks. I’m at $6 per pane now and will be making it $7 per pane as of today. If you’re getting at %100 of the prospects that call locked into your price & cleaned that’s a sure sign to bump the price up a little.
I think you may be overthinking it a bit since you are first starting out.
I know we are in the minority but we price both by the hour.
How much do you want to make an hour? In my area store front starts at 30$/hr but most of our clients are double that. (Incidentally $30/hour is our min).
So If you think it will take you 30 min to clean a store front in and out, charge at least $15 for that.
Same concept with residential… our min is $75/hr but generally we are north of $100/hr.
We are making a YT video on this … be sure to subscribe.
I am Curious where your Data is coming from that the Natl, Avg is $1.00 to $2.00
So if there are 50 pieces of glass that converts at $50.00 to $100.00 ? Which is a huge range. $1.00 to $2.00 is not an average. It’s a range …It’s a 100 %
Range !
Please cite your source for National Window Cleaning Average Prices. I have never seen that Data and I am very interested in seeing this.
The sources that I have gathered this information from are other window cleaning business owners nationwide, from the solo operators and franchises owners and research from the forum here.
Price (rate) per side per pane depends on geographical loaction and demographics.
Thank you for all your info I love all the feedback. I am over thinking it. But I am overthinking it because I have no idea where to even start price wise. Youtube videos and this forum is where I got the 1.25$ per 1 side. I have no idea what hourly I want to start at. Obviously 100$ a hour but it is not realistic at this point and I know that so I prob would be happy with 50. My story is I am a career firefighter so I work 10 days a month. I wanted something to do on my off days to make some extra money. I do want to make money and quickly along with build up a decent side company. I got a fellow firefighter that is on my shift to come start learning with me on store fronts. I told him I can not pay him much in the beggining but if we both learn and are decent then we can work side by side and double our work. I will prob give him 25% of the daily earnings for a while to keep him interested. Good idea or a bad idea?
The jobs we have that are cookie cutter three panes per row storefront (below) that are priced at $1.25 per side are the jobs I make $100-125 an hour at by myself.
expect to make about $30 an hour at the beginning and to creep up as you get better. i’m at $100 an hour at those jobs after 3 years.
