So with my business we’ve been doing lots and lots of residential, but haven’t hit up commercial storefronts! Can anyone help out with pricing? What we should be quoting for commercial vs residential? Right now we charge 7$/pane including tracks for homes.
So a single or double hung window you’re getting 14.00? That’s pretty good, goes for around 10.00 with tracks around here. That’s for top and bottom inside and out.
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Commercial window cleaning you won’t get that much per window though, like residential.
I actually need to start posting more videos to be a bit more believable on this forum. I actually have some videos recorded and one of them was about storefronts. In a summary, I talk about “knowing your value” and what you want to charge. You can charge based on the size of glass, I always found it easier to do it as a “How long will this take me?”.
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Yup! So something like this including track and frame is 14$. Do you know how much storefront panes go for?
Right! So say like the storefront of a subway restaurant with like 10 windows, what would you charge?
Okay that’s about right for casements then.
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Depending on size, if you have to take down signs, etc. but for 10 windows I’d be around 30.00 I/O
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Makes sense! Thanks for the info!
30 dollars in and out sounds like a fair price. Depends also how often you are doing it as well.
My video sadly is still uploading because I am uploading on a very slow data hotspot. However, know your worth. Say you want to become worth 40 dollars per hour, you may charge based on per pane but at the very least figure out how long a store may take you to clean. If it takes you 15 minutes, charge 10 dollars, 30 minutes, charge 20 dollars. If it takes you 45 minutes, charge 30, if an hour, charge 40. If you want to trade time in for money, make sure you price your time for no less than your worth.
However, you don’t have to use that example. Maybe you want to be worth 60, or maybe more. If you start to have operations done for you, you may need to charge way more. Maybe you charge 80 dollars per hour, but you have 1 guy you pay 15 dollars per hour. Lets say you also take out 30% tax as well if you are becoming official. So after 1 hour of work, lets say 24 dollars was taken out for 30% tax, then you pay your guy 15 for the hour. So 39 dollars out of 80 leaves you 41 dollars per hour for work you didn’t have to do.
If you want to trade no time for any amount of money, it will take work but you could start making a passive income easily. After you get 41/hr, if you have enough work to justify that, maybe you have 10 guys doing that and 800 dollars worth of work you set up, you start paying them all and tax, now you are making hundreds per hour without doing anything.
Trading time in for money on a linear income needs to be worth it, nothing less. However it can be very limiting after some time, with passive income or trading no time for any amount of money, the sky is the limit.
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What about height? How do you calculate the rate of the same windows same size as ground floor vs 2nd 3rd floor? For example cleaning exterior windows of a school? Example you have the exact same windows regardless of the floor, you charge 3$ per pane on the ground floor, what about the panes on the 2nd floor? Assuming you need a ladder or pole work
I just posted up a video about knowing your worth. However, for something that is higher you could charge more than that 3 per pane if you wish, or you could figure it’s going to take more time to clean effectively and smoothly so you could charge more for that. Never get anything less than what you are worth.
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Awesome! Thanks for the info! Great videos by the way, I was actually watching them as you answered! 
Excellent! I’m glad they had some insight. I will be posting more because it matters to me. I don’t know if it matters to anyone else but I at least want to document what I say. Also how I say things is much more important.
I’m trying to come up with a video series that teaches you how to tackle multiple types of windows and screens. I’m also trying to cover what happens if you have a mistake and a window falls out or things like that. However I need more negative experiences with a window before I can cover those.
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I think it matters and its great! Keep up the hard work! I’ll keep following!
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Hey thanks! I definitely need to come up with a cool intro too. I see everyone has one and I guess I felt left out.
I also find this industry has some of the hardest working people in it and they really care about what they do.
I couldn’t agree more! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen so many people be so passionate about what they do and how much effort they’re willing to put into their business! The great thing is that there’s so much glass for people to clean and so many people are taking on the work as a business or self employed that they rather invest themselves in something they know the work will never die out and that it’s something you can make a lot of money doing! I never thought I’d be cleaning windows until a buddy of mine started and offered me to come along for training and then said, “you should really start your own thing in your area, it would be great and you can be your own boss and manage your own time!” So I did and today I don’t regret it one bit! Just gotta work up the courage to quit my day job (the job that right now is keeping food on my table) and just go out there as hard as I can and build this business to be big, strong, successful and to never look back!
I gave up the postal service after working at it for 15 months while still managing to clean windows and staying at my other job. Its a story for another video. However, consistent action will deliver you results. I understand you can’t leave now, it doesn’t mean you will never leave. But the only real limitations are the ones you put on yourself. When you make almost as much as your job for your business, you can leave. You can always get money back, you can never get back time. However, now you have more time to prioritize towards your business which means your income will increase.