Nervous about charging too much?

First I'd like to wish you a belated thanksgiving. I hope you had a fine day with family, food, and football. It's a day to wear big britches and roll around the house like a great big 'ole butterball. 

I received an email recently from a new window cleaner thinking he made a mistake on his pricing. One common theme among new window cleaners is that they're usually nervous about presenting an estimate that is too high (at least in their mind). The email and my response are below.

Hi Steve:
 
How's it going. Hope your thanksgiving was a fine one.
 
Well I've done my first houses and they turned out to be good. However, there is one small problem. I think I cheated myself by charging too low. While I was doing the estimate for this one house I was afraid to charge $5-$6 so I only charged $4 per window and $1.50 per screen. They had some sliding doors that were like french windows but I only charged $4 per door. While I was punching in the numbers it totaled to $186. I was telling myself these people are not going to pay $186 to have their windows cleaned and I almost lowered the price but I stuck to my guns and presented them with the estimate.

Luckily they immediately asked when I could do their windows so I ended doing their house for $186. It took me 6.5 hours to finish the job. I guess they were satisfied with my job because they paid me $250. I then thought to myself that's the price I should have charged. After finishing that house I went to this other house that only wanted some balcony windows done and I did those for $100 and it only took me 2.5 hours to do those, it was quite an easy job. Can you see the problem here? I only charged $86 more for the house that was more difficult and had me sweating more while the house with the balconies was a fairly easy job.
 
I have some estimates to do this weekend and I think they are going to be some pretty big houses. I'm feeling maybe in the $300-$400 range maybe even more. Now I really want to get these jobs because I know they'll be worth my time, however I don't want to leave the job feeling I should have charged more. Can you please give me any advice on why I should not hesitate to charge what I should charge as a professional window cleaner and clear any doubt in my mind?
 
Anyways, you have a fine day and I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks.
 
Marvin

My Response:

Hi Marvin:

Good morning. Hope you had a fine thanksgiving also. 

As far as you situation with "charging too low", this is something that I wouldn't spend any time worrying about.  For a couple of reasons.  Yes…you want to make a profit from the very first job obviously, but you're not going to be at maximum speed yet.  It does take time to get the window cleaning techniques learned where you can do it in your sleep.  Plus after a few houses, you'll know exactly what to do from the moment you pull up to the house 'til the moment you leave.  No wasted steps or "do overs" causing you to lose time.  So being "smooth" will help you in your hourly pay.

The 2nd reason why you shouldn't worry about occasionally charging to little is something you talked about in your email.  It always averages out. It really does.  Sometimes you might do a job where you make $35 an hour.  There might be some obstacles in your way, some extra heavy paint overspray, some tougher windows to access, etc etc.  But then you run into the other type of window cleaning job-super easy, no obstacles, bam, bam, done.  Your hourly pay for these jobs might be $60 or $70 an hour.  I've made as much as $100 an hour on some jobs.  But then I remember other jobs where the houses were older, they had these crank type windows, lots of junk on the windows, etc.  So it all evens out over time into a nice average of $45 to $50 per hour.

I think in your situation though, part of the problem was simply speed.  If you were maybe a dozen jobs or more into your business, then this 6.5 hours may have been 5.  I do think however that you did under charge a bit.  But I fully understand the need for this.  Especially when someone is brand new to the business.  It's a complete mindset that you need to adopt as far as feeling comfortable presenting an estimate that is higher than you want to present.  I had those same exact feelings when I first started.  Most new window cleaners probably do. It takes time to get comfortable with it.

As a side note, if you go too low on your pricing, prospects may wonder why you're low.  They might hire another window cleaner because you're too low, so be aware of that.  A higher price doesn't necessarily equate to higher value, but if you present yourself well, you'll convince the prospect that your higher price will equate to the best window cleaning job possible.

Another negative to going too low is that you'll more than likely be stuck on that price year in and year out. It's hard to charge someone one price and then 6 months later raise the pricing on 'em.  I know a window cleaner who charged a customer way too little recently and he had to end up "firing" his customer because he couldn't afford to do it at that price every time.

Anyway…to finish up, just go into the upcoming estimates this weekend charging $5 a window and $1 a screen.  If the total estimate comes up to let's say $236 as an example, then perhaps lower it to $229 or $219.  I normally advocate going higher with a bump-up to $249 or $259, but I understand the need to capture as many jobs as possible since you're new to the business.  Being able to consistently "bump-up" your pricing depends on how booked your schedule is.  Once it starts getting filled up, then you can start bumping up your estimates a bit. 

Lastly, keep in the back of your mind that you will not get every job you present an estimate to.  So if someone says "no" at the door or if they don't respond to your follow up calls, that's ok. They might go with another window cleaner for any number of reasons.  It could be due to price or it could be for something else.  But who really cares?  Just continue to market your business consistently and you will get a stream of phone calls from prospects in which a large percentage will say "yes". 

Remember to use the estimate package though. This will allow you to be a little higher priced and still close the majority of your prospects you present estimates to. I can't stress this enough. Homeowners will pay you $20, $30, or more than a competitor if your service is presented properly. 

Hope this helps.  Have a great day.

Regards,

Steve