WindowBossPro Blog — Running a Window Cleaning Business

Pricing a Window Cleaning Business for Profit, Not Just Volume

A full schedule feels like success. But a van that is busy every day at the wrong prices is a van that works hard to stand still. Plenty of window cleaning owners discover this in their second year, when the calendar is packed, the bank account is not, and the slow season arrives with nothing saved. Pricing for profit fixes that, and it starts with knowing your own numbers.

Prices Are a Business Decision

In Switching Window Cleaning Business Software Without Losing a Customer, we suggested reviewing prices while you touch every customer record anyway. Whether you are switching or not, review prices at least once a year. Prices set by habit drift away from costs set by reality.

This article does not give you a number to charge. Markets differ too much from town to town. It gives you a method so the number you choose is one you can defend.

Know What a Day Costs You

Start with a single van-day. Add up what it costs to put that van on the road for one day:

• Labor for everyone in the van, including payroll costs
• Fuel and vehicle costs spread across working days
• Supplies: soap, blades, towels, pads, scrapers
• Insurance, software, phone and other overhead spread across working days
• A fair wage for the owner if the owner is in the van

Then decide the profit you want on top. The result is the minimum each van needs to bill in a day. Every pricing decision after this compares against that number.

Build a Service List

Most window cleaning businesses price from a list of services with per-unit prices. A typical list might include:

• Exterior per window, for example “$6 a window outside”
• Interior add-on per window
• Second-story and third-story add-ons
• Screens, per screen
• Tracks, per window
• Hard-water removal, priced per window or by the job
• Storefront flat rates, such as “$45 a month for a storefront”

Those are example figures only. The point is that every quote is built the same way. In WindowBossPro, estimates are built from your service list, so a 28-window, 2-story, inside-and-outside home with screens gets the same price no matter who does the quote.

Account for Time, Not Just Glass

Two homes with the same window count can take very different amounts of time. One has open access and a flat yard. The other has a steep slope, a locked side gate, a dog and a skylight. Drive time matters too. A customer twenty minutes outside your service area costs you forty minutes of travel before a single pane is clean.

Build those into pricing with clear add-ons or a minimum job charge, and use the access notes on the address so the tech knows what they are walking into. Over time, compare what jobs actually took against what you quoted, and adjust.

The tech app helps here without extra effort. When techs tap Start and Complete on each job, you get a record of how long the work really took. Look at a handful of similar homes each season and you will quickly see whether your per-window price matches reality.

Price Recurring Work With Care

Recurring customers are worth more than one-time customers because you do not have to sell them again. Many owners offer a small reduction for recurring plans. That can be smart, but only if the recurring price still clears your day-rate.

Storefronts on a 14- or 30-day plan are quick, close together and steady. They are worth pricing to keep, because they carry cash flow through the winter. The balance between residential and storefront work is covered in Residential vs Commercial: Finding the Right Mix for a Window Cleaning Business.

Raising Prices

Every business needs to raise prices eventually. Costs go up, and a price set three years ago no longer covers today's fuel and wages. A few practical rules:

• Raise prices on a regular schedule, so it feels routine and not personal.
• Give customers notice before the change, by text or email.
• Start with new customers, then bring existing customers up over time.
• Accept that a few price-shoppers will leave. They are often your least profitable customers.

Two-way texting from the office makes it easy to answer questions personally when someone replies to a price notice.

Make Sure You Bill What You Price

A good price list is worth nothing if the screens and hard water never make it to the invoice. That leak is common enough that it gets its own article: Unbilled Extras: The Screens and Hard Water a Window Cleaning Business Does for Free.

Profit Pays for Growth

Every later step in growing a window cleaning business, from the second van to office help, is paid for by the profit in your prices. Get pricing right and growth funds itself. For the rest of the business side, return to the window cleaning business software page.