So, you have decided that you want to get your windows cleaned by a professional.
How much does professional window cleaning cost? How much should professional window cleaning cost?
You have made some calls and have had a couple of local guys (or gals!) give you some quotes.
One or two businesses have given you an exceptional price and a couple of the others have been quite a bit higher than you would expect... After all it’s just window cleaning, so why so expensive?
Well, it all comes down to what kind of service you are looking for and the standard that you are willing accept. I don’t want to talk badly about how anyone else runs their business but generally there are two classes of operators out there:
“Cash only” Off the Grid Operators
These guys operate “cash in hand”, are not insured and are not a registered business for tax purposes. They generally (but not always) use budget equipment. They have no, or very little overhead and don’t pay tax, so they can offer a very, very low price.
You may get an exceptionally low price with one of these guys and in some limited cases their service may be top notch, but ultimately you are taking a gamble as these guys have a lot less to lose if they give you a subpar service.
If you are unhappy with the level of service they provide, there is a chance they may not fix the problem or refund your money, or worse still, if they damage your property you may have to pay for the repairs out of your own pocket (Ouch!).
Generally, they will have very little web presence, so if you are unhappy with the service they have provided, you may have little recourse or ability to warn others off.
Operators that may fall into this class might be retirees/pensioners looking for a bit of extra cash, semi-employed people looking to make some cash on the side or someone looking to make some extra “beer” money.
Legitimate Business Operators
Registered Businesses pay tax, are (hopefully) Public Liability Insured and if they have employees, pay Workers Compensation Insurance. Some Business Overheads may include:
· Website Design, Domain Registration, Domain Hosting
· Graphic Design
· Print Advertisement Costs
· Online Marketing Costs
· Equipment costs and depreciation
· Consumable Costs
· Uniform
· Work Vehicle finance, fuel, and depreciation
· Accounting Costs
· Superannuation
· Wages
· Training
· Re-invest in the business.
Many legitimate businesses will have a Service Guarantee that gives you piece of mind if there is something you are not happy with, and they have much, much more to lose if a remedy can’t be found.
Small business is powered by word of mouth, and in the information age word will get around fast if your business does have an unhappy customer.
Apart from Tax Obligations, Insurance and Overheads there is also a lot more that may need to be considered before your Legitimate Window Cleaning Professional puts squeegee to glass.
Many Window Cleaning Businesses are sole owner operators and take on many of the duties and responsibilities that a larger business would have other staff complete.
Unpaid work that goes on behind the scenes might include:
· Canvassing businesses for shopfront and commercial work
· Maintaining a website, Search Engine Optimisation, and social media
· Researching new cleaning methods and equipment
· Stocktake
· Attending residential quotes
· Dropping of flyers in letterboxes (great exercise!)
· Online Marketing
· Chasing leads
· Scheduling and Office Administration
· Writing Blogs (like this one 😉)
· Travel
And, much more! As you can see there is a lot that goes into a “price” for a window cleaning job.
Some customers may divide the job total by the time their Window Cleaner spends on the job and come up with an hourly figure. But it is important to remember that, that figure is not very indicative of what your Window Cleaner may really make.
You may (or may not) work a 38hr week which you are paid a salary or an hourly wage. A window cleaner may only work 25-30hrs per week on the tools and might spend the rest of their time (including weekends) on the unpaid part of their business. The truth is, for a legitimate business to thrive they must charge accordingly to survive, or go bust.
I will give the following breakdown for you to consider; let’s say some jobs have been booked that will cost $100 Incl. GST and will take 1.5hrs to complete:
$100 minus GST (10%) and Income Tax (let’s say 32.5%) is: $60.75.
Let’s say annual business overheads are a conservative 15k. This equates to $12,500 per month, $312 per week, $62.50 per working day.
For this example, let’s just say on this day, there were 4 jobs worked, priced at $100 each all taking 1.5hrs to complete.
So, the total of hours for this day worked on the tools equals: 6hrs
And the total net income from those 4 jobs was: $243
Minus overheads from net income: $181
Minus Superannuation 10.5% (If you pay yourself or have staff): $161.99.
So, on this particular day (not a great one!) this would equate to $26.99 per hour net income. If you deduct the unpaid labour, let’s say 1.5hrs to bring it up to a full day, based on the above figures this would bring it down to $135 Net for the day.
After all of the above is deducted this would amount to (drum roll please):
$22.50 Net per hour. For the sake of comparison to an hourly wage, this would be $29.81 Gross per hour.
This is indeed hypothetical and I’m no accountant by any stretch of the imagination, but the numbers do add up quickly! And to boot, window cleaning is quite a physically taxing activity (I should have added remedial massage to the overhead list!) and takes acquired skill, economy of movement and finesse to do well.
There has been a lot of information provided here and if you have made it this far, I hope you have gained some insight on how much Professional Window Cleaning costs. Please keep this in mind when chasing up those quotes!
If you would like to get an Online Estimate for one of our services for your own home or business, head over to our Pricing Page https://www.roninwindowcleaning.com.au/pricing or get in contact with us https://www.roninwindowcleaning.com.au/contact for an in person quote 😊
Shine on you crazy diamonds,
Luke
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