[Ian101]

Hi ... hope someone can give me a little info please.

Is £15 an hour about right to charge on a normal domestic clean.

Location is North West ... Wirral.

Trying to help my wife with a business plan and just thinking about when we need to employ additional staff.

Thanks !

[dianegreenwood]

Hi Ian

If you want to make a decent profit and have room in your profit margin for contingencies then £15 is the way to go on domestic especially if you're in a fairly affluent area.  Total cost per hour when you have staff can be from £10.50 to £11.50 per hour depending on how much you pay, mileage allowances, etc.

Cheers

Diane

www.freshlymaid.co.uk

[Joe H]

If you can get £15 then that would be very good.

When taking on staff you do need to cost in the "extas".
Every one is entitled to holiday pay - even part timers.  28 days a year or pro rata for part timers.

If they hit the National Insurance threshold then you the employer will have to contribute as well. And sick pay if they hit that criteria.

Taking on staff has lots of potential problems that can prove costly in many ways. Think seriously about it.

[Adam P]

i can't beleive it still when people say £14 per hour, i know it has to be done but i struggle a lot when it comes to regular cleans, we get a decent amount of quotes now for domestic work and haven't had a new customer in a long time, and even have well paid people saying we were expensive at £12 per hour!

i've asked before but would anyone care to do a few quotes on our website for domestic cleans and see how close the prices are to theirs? we currently have it at £14 per hour i beleive so if you devide the total price in the middle by 14 you get a rough idea on time we put for the house you put in. i feel we are perhaps putting each room too long which is why our prices are high?

for instance, 1 bedroom house with a spare room only requiring light cleaning, 1 bathroom, seperate dining room and lounge and stairs etc, plus 6 shirts ironing per week takes us 3 hours. so charging at £14 that's £42, but they wanted £27 and would only go to £30 per week at a strech. this is very typical making it very hard to get regulars.

[Nick Head]

Green Clean

I think £12 to £15 per hour is possible - but just a thought your internet sites states "Cleans from £9" perhaps that is where your problem is? The customer's persception is that perhaps that is your standard hourly rate, hence the £27 for 3 hours. It is always hard to talk the price up if the customer has a figure already in their head.

Just a thought - I could be wrong

Nick

[dianegreenwood]

Hi guys

We charge £15 per hour and I've signed 23 new clients this year so far so it is possible. 

Re how long it takes (this is once you are at maintenance by the way as the first few times you can't do them this quickly):

  Bathroom (20 mins)
  WCs (10 mins)
  Kitchen (40 mins)
  Living Rooms, Bedrooms, etc (20 mins)
  Shirts - 5 mins each maximum

So I'd probably suggest 2.5 hours for that particular client = £37.50 per week.

I agree with Nick though, I think the 'from £9 per hour' on your website is misleading.

I tell most people the price over the phone so I don't waste time going to people who think you can make a profit at £10 per hour.  Let them hire privately at that price, find out what a pain in the butt it is when they don't turn up or steal things and they'll soon realise that £15 per hour is a sensible rate.

If they really can't afford any more than £30 per week, then they can book 2 hours but you make it clear that you won't be able to do everything every week.

Hope that helps

Diane

www.freshlymaid.co.uk

[Adam P]

that most certainly has helped diana and everyone else. you're most probably right the £9 is mis leading as they will assume it's for that service. i also think perhaps the description of a few of the services pages needs to be as they don't explain enough about our service i think and focus on needless stuff. i'll get right to that tomorrow me thinks as this is a big issue for us.

thanks all for pointing it out.

p.s. 5 mins max a shirt i'm far too slow with them thats for sure, how spotless are you with them? i feel with one client i have made it worse on myself as i had time to spend extra and have a perfectly ironed shirt, and now the most probably come to expect it. i'm shocked on your timing as i find the kitchen is typically less and bathroom more, though of course this is just a rough idea.

many thanks again, let's hope i can finally get this problem sorted.

[dianegreenwood]

5 minutes a shirt is because we use our own irons = I buy these from Tesco at £40 to £50 each.  You just have to be careful to 'desteam' them every time as we have bad limescale and they can spit out mucky water!

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.203-1467.aspx  You can't buy them online but can usually pick them up in stores still.

Trust me if you've never used a steam generator iron you'll love them!

My mum was in the navy and taught me to iron a shirt - collar, cuffs, sleeves, front, back, front, yoke.  Sorted!

Hope that helps

Diane

www.freshlymaid.co.uk

[suffolkclean]

I agree with Diane - greenclean for a LIGHT clean sounds like your either doing more than a light clean or just taking a bit too long, I agree with Diane on the times2. Think you need to speed up a bit or not do so much if you want to do it at their required price.

[Homes2Clean]

I found that it is important to have face to face contact with a client when quoting for a clean. 

1.   it allows them to meet you
2.   it shows you care about your business
3.   you can answer all the questions they want
4.   you can see for yourself  how much cleaning is involved.
5.   8-10 clients will sign up

I charge my clients between £35 and £45 per house we stay until we are finished which is between 1 and 2 hours for a team of two. 

I recently did a survey with my clients and they all agreed that they prefer to pay more knowing that they are getting a top to bottom clean than have someone come in for two hours and may not finish the job.

Hannah

[Adam P]

I recently did a survey with my clients and they all agreed that they prefer to pay more knowing that they are getting a top to bottom clean than have someone come in for two hours and may not finish the job.

Hannah

don't you think that your customers are a little biased though hence why they chose you rather then pay little money?

[derek west]

I found that it is important to have face to face contact with a client when quoting for a clean. 

1.   it allows them to meet you
2.   it shows you care about your business
3.   you can answer all the questions they want
4.   you can see for yourself  how much cleaning is involved.
5.   8-10 clients will sign up

I charge my clients between £35 and £45 per house we stay until we are finished which is between 1 and 2 hours for a team of two. 

I recently did a survey with my clients and they all agreed that they prefer to pay more knowing that they are getting a top to bottom clean than have someone come in for two hours and may not finish the job.

Hannah

doesn't that work out at £11.25 per hour? or is my naivity on this subject interfering with my maths. just being nosey thats all.

[Adam P]

perhaps the £11.25 is worst case, and it made up from charging £14 p/h another day etc.