[John Gregory]

Isn't earning £200 better than sitting at home doing nothing. I mean how much would that job cost you to do £20 tops so you could clear £180 for a days work, is there something wrong with that?  If your run of your feet you dont need to do jobs like that fair enough, but if your building your business and need the sale you would be daft imo to refuse it.
Col

Point taken Colin you might be right  where do you draw the line thou . how low do you go

John

[daysdeepclean]

Isn't earning £200 better than sitting at home doing nothing. I mean how much would that job cost you to do £20 tops so you could clear £180 for a days work, is there something wrong with that?  If your run of your feet you dont need to do jobs like that fair enough, but if your building your business and need the sale you would be daft imo to refuse it.
Col

That job would take a good days work at least for me, I'd have to get a child minder in, a bucket boy and a KFC bargain bucket to feed us all at the end of the day..... I wouldn't even break even and to be honest, I'd take as many short cuts as I could which would inevitably produce a pretty crap job!

This could be detrimental to an up and coming business!  

Col

[clinton]

John

No probs mate and am sure you could offer your d fusion on most of these offices

Its a great selling point and you could go in a bit cheaper for a one man band.

Think the other t mount might be two or three guys doing it

[Paul_Ashworth]

Colin,
Dont you think you should fill your profile in

Not everybody wants to work for Nothing, by the time you take your expenses out youve you've worked hard for very little and but charging such low rates you spoil it for everybody.

John
I would find spend your time looking for customers that will pay your going rate and not worry to much about this one, if they going in cheap they must be desperate, not have any sales skills and probably do a below average job and hopefully be bust in six months time, Who was you up against ??

Paul

[John Gregory]

Clinton the offices belong to a busy transport company and where pretty hammered in places , not sure if bonneting it would get a decent result , In saying that it would of been a good opportunity to find out     Like Derek said chin up eh

John

[clinton]

John

Yes would have been a good chance to see what it does and it can mate

Just would have given you a feel of the d fusion and what sort of job it could do and least if it didnt you had your t mount to use.

[Mike Osbourne]

Colin of course they would jump at the chance. I would, but it's not £200 in your pocket is it?

I would do what Paul just said. Forget this job, find a better client who will pay half decent, you can do a good job and hopefully they will get you back time and time again.

[Paul_Ashworth]

Colin,
Were is the return on your 30 - 40 - 50k investment  

How do you work out £20.00 costs ?? Tax, insurance, surveyed the job, waited 30 days for your money, invoiced, training, fuel, advertising at say 7K per year , sick pay, holiday pay.

Your average teacher earns min 25k per year 3 months holidays with an index linked pension, and doesnt have Bank and accountant to pay at the end of the year. I bet your profit margin at year end is crap.

Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity

[Shaun_Ashmore]

£200 is very low what are they expecting for that? If they do an excellent job for it then the cleaning industry IS in recession but I personally think NOT!

If you hang on to every quote you get and wonder why you didn't get it then you will do yourself in! start looking for other customers, I forget the ones I don't get as it is their loss and I just keep on moving.

Shaun

[Paul_Ashworth]

John,
Words of a wise man (Shaun) If you listen to him you will be sucessfull.

Just ignore what colin has said to you he hasnt even got the decency to fill his profile in, he is a carpet cleaner not a businessman.

Regards

[spindle]

i must have my pricing all wrong..............i get every job i quote in person

but surely £200 even if he took 4 hrs cant be bad £50 ph.......less expenses.........about the same  the last time i checked solicitors charge £50-75ph........they also have expenses(rent/bills/secretary/etc) but they manage to make a living at it.
 better £50 ph than £0 sitting at home doing nothing, at  least the van is working advertising your business to potential customers

as for recession what recession......january has been getting busier!

[Mike Osbourne]

Would take me a fair bit longer than that mate.

[derek west]

take me a lot longer than 4 hours too.
derek

[spindle]

how long then guys??........
 

[carpetworx]

Shaun's comments do make sense, but so does collin's. If the recession is as bad as they say in England
it's better to make some turn over than none, and 260m2 should only take 2-3 hours. The cleaners should of already vacuumed,so there's 1 hour saved.But generally speaking the job should be worth 390.00. As shaun says put your quote in and see what happens.Good luck.

[Joe H]

On site cleaners will probably be vaccing with a Henry (cylinder) which is fine but really does need a pre vac with an upright especially if rotary being used in parts but even with HWE.

Dont forget when putting hours to this £200 job, it just wasnt the floor area of 260sqmet but also 2 flights of stairs.

John rang me yesterday afternoon with the details and asked me what would I charge. Just working on brief information I said £375 for the carpets (260sqm) plus £50 for each staircase - bearing in mind thre will be more then the standard 13 treads in a house (probably 15 or 17) and they are usually wider then a house.

So £475 for probably 6-7 hours work inc set up/close down but exc travel.

[derek west]

i feel sorry for someone thats been going for 20 years and still has to cut his prices to get work, i couldn't see shaun cutting his prices, he's built up a reputable business based on high quality, everybody knows him and keeps coming back for more, regardless of price, he's booked up because of quality, not cos he's cheap, you have permission to shoot me if in 20 years, i'm in the same BOAT as colin.
derek

[JandS]

"Lads, my point was a very simple one, if  your diary is is always full and you don't need the work then you can afford to turn your nose up at a job like this without it affecting your business"

Derek
Read the first bit.

£200 for a days work is fine by me

"How do you work out £20.00 costs ?? Tax, insurance, surveyed the job, waited 30 days for your money, invoiced, training, fuel, advertising at say 7K per year , sick pay, holiday pay"

Paul
Every self employed tradesman has these costs
My father has been a self employed builder for 51 years and he's well off and he'd bite your hand off for £200 a day.
My brother has taken on a lot of his work now and he likes to be getting £140 to £160 a day.
These people have the same overheads and they manage adequately.
If you don't want it don't do it but don't moan when someone else prices it and gets it

John

[derek west]

sales don't mean nothing if theres no profit in them.

where do you draw the line simon, oops i mean colin.
when does it end,
so i go for the job, to get it i say £180, clinton decides he too wants the job so says £160, joes not busy so says £140.
should i go back and offer £120, i mean your saying it only costs £20 to do the job so i'm making £100 for a days work. oh! ang on, clintons just come back with an offer of £100.
where does it end simon, oops i mean colin.
i'm the newbie so you tell me, where do you draw the line, is a tenner better than sitting at home.
and while i'm here, what if my regular clients found out i was doing cheapo jobs on the side, think they'd be happy?
your advice might be good in the short term but as far as i'm concerned, its no way to build a reputable business.
derek

[clinton]

Derek

 

Helo simon