[adl]

Shaun, listen to Dave Lee, i have only been going for 12 months, untill 4 weeks ago i was doing the job for the same prices as you, but after biting the bullet, being laughed at by my local collegues i put my prices up, now instead of doing a suite for £45 and a loung carpet for £35 and a 3 bed house for £75 i now charge a minimum of £85.00 for a suite and that has to be a maintainance clean only from £3.00 a square meter for carpets and believe me it works, its all down to presentation of the quote and selling yourself, i have gone from a few hundred a week running ragged to over a grand booked in every week just on domestics, i am so confident of that continuing that i have just taken on a full time cc so i can concentrate soley on getting in new business. Listen to what these lads are saying, you can go on all the courses in the world jo polish, or whatever but you will not find a better training course than what the lads on this forum give you and its free!

[safecleanlakes]

Shaun,
You say in your post "unskilled work", sorry but i have to differ with you. There is skill in this work, and i am sure an awful lot of others will agree. I price my work to reflect my skills and training, if a customer wants to pay for that, then fine, if not then thats fine too. Having seen the so called quality of work of people passing themselves of as cc's, as many others have, then you see where the skills come into this game. Its not just about what price you charge, its about what you deliver to the customer.

[Dynafoam]

Shaun,

I have to echo what Mr S/C/lakes has said.

If you think that the work is "unskilled" it makes me wonder about your own skill level.

John.

[Len Gribble]

Shaun is right £120-£150 sounds right for a days work for unskilled person (Shaun) with a Mickey Mouse machine GEORGE spring to mind.  Then again he may be on a wind-up and wish he was on this type on money.

Shaun if you are in my neck of the woods Thursday afternoon I have a 638.5sm job it shouldn’t take you long to earn £275 that way you can have the next day off, by the way it’s empty nothing to move.  Ooh thanks Kevin for passing it my way we’ll split the difference, if Shaun takes up the offer.

Len

[Ken Wainwright]

We may be teetering on the verge of loosing  newbie members with this sarcastic banter. It may be mildly amusing to us experienced and seasoned business men, but it could quite easily alienate people like Shaun who, I gather, is relatively new to our industry. Many of us on these boards have a wealth of cleaning and business skills to pass on to others. So lets be constructive, yes have a wry smile or grin, but not at the expense of new, inexperienced fellow Cleanitup members.

Safe and happy cleaning:)
Ken

[Len Gribble]

Ken

I understand where you are coming from, how ever Shaun already quantified himself as unskilled and implied the all cc in the same category, yes that winds me up I have spent god knows how much on training and equipment that I think best.  Yes I was flippant in my first post the person already quoted so there no going back

Ken surely any new venture one dose there home work? Be it machines (training) joining forums like this (scrolling though) gaining info.

I also have reservations who is posting i.e. newbie’s when they don’t give the profile, who are they? Possibly a duplicate of an existing member under an alias. As I posted under another forum the admin should stop duplicates IP addresses, but I don’t think that will happen!!

Yes these boards have wealth of experience and I would/will be one of the first to assist if possible.

As usual Len on his high horse

Len

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Len I hope you don't live in a block of flats  

Shaun

[Len Gribble]

Shaun

Corrected thanks

Len

[shaun_pearson]

hi guys
im sorry if ive caused offense it was not my intention.
i never said c/c's were unskilled,  i said the job was largely unskilled, pushing a wand does not take much skill and this constitutes a big part of the job. i understand that there is lots to learn about carpet cleaning and there is endless amounts of knowledge on this board alone. your right about charging too little for jobs but as i said for now im happy to earn £500 - £700 a week. in more detail to the question i charge £35 for one average sized room wich takes me no more than an hour,  thats not bad money for the work involved.  for a three piece suite i would charge £60 - £70 which would take 2-3 hours, again good money. my costs currently run about £100 a week all in, leaving me £500-£600 a week for about 30 hours work. there are lots of highly skilled people in this industry and im not here to mock. i believe a lot of the skill is in the management and developement of your business which many of you's are experts and true proffessionals.
in answer to the question of my skill level, im a fully qualified engineer which takes 5 years training with your skills tested regulary and exams to pass, that sounds patronising but im just answering the question.

cheers shaun   (profile updated)

[mark_roberts]

£100 overheads WHAT!!!!!!!!!!

How on earth are your overheads so low?

I spend about £80 a week on my van alone, insurance, tax, diesel, loan, repairs/servicing.

Do you even advertise?

thanks
Mark

[Derek]

Hi Guys

I remember a few years ago a certain Robert Saunders of Alltec fame stated at one of the NCCA Conferences that 'carpet cleaning was not rocket science'  

At the time I took great exception to this remark and commented, in writing (no names), in the NCCA magazine Newslink with my own thoughts.

On reflection Robert (and Shaun) are right! :

It takes very little skill to push a wand which is the physical side of cleaning and incidentally the side which the customer sees...
where the skill comes in is knowing the intricacies of the substrate you are cleaning and deciding which of the  equipment/chemicals/technique you would use to clean efficiently and safely to obtain a satisfactory result.

I reckon its this apparent simplicity that attracts many new people into our industry, suddenly they find out (usually the hard way) that there is another aspect to the job that they may not have considered before... its at this point many of the new people opt out of the business.

Some years ago the survival figure rating quoted for start up businesses in carpet cleaning was four months!

Makes you think doesn't it?

Regards
Derek

[Ian Gourlay]

That is an interesting statistic.  Four months survival for start ups.

I have often wondered if the purpose of this business was for the Supplying companies to sell new machines to Newbies.

Looking at some of the packages I wonder if they go for the Max hit.

Is the market they are serving redundant disolusioned people who perhaps can not raise £20K plus for a Franchise.

If the statistic is correct what happens to all the machines.

If I can be critical of us all if you look at another boards site which has a Marketing section there is rarley new topics.  It is Marketing that insures your company survives.

I accept its all be said before but fresh in put is interesting.


Think I might have gone off topic but Derek said somthing I have been thinking for a long time.

[Derek]

Ian

Take a long look at the work we do...its hard work, often carried out at unsocial hours.

You will notice that there is a dramatic increase in new start-ups when there are redundancies in other industries... this has always been the case.

There have been some potential start-ups who have been on training courses and suddenly realised there is more involved than just simply pushing a wand about and given up there and then.... I have experienced this first hand.

I believe that as professionals we tend to make the job look very easy to the customer and lets really be honest, the cleaning industry is still so often referred to as the 'Mrs Mop' industry.
This is how we are perceived in the wide world whether we like it or not

Regards
Derek

[Len Gribble]

Derek

I think you have hit on the nail again but I will add some do it to on a part time bases to supplement there income.

Ian don’t worry if going off the topic all types of questions/replies are good. Knowledge is power.

Len Mr Mop
(Ex black top (asphalt) /banker done the exams all mean squat in this game been cleaning since 11 and I’m still leaning but I love it)

[Dave Parry]

Ditto Len, I'm still leaning, but its usually on a thursday after a few pints. Also make sure your not on your high horse when leaning.  

[Len Gribble]

Dave

I on my high horse can’t get my legless in the stirrup; Saturday I have a free range can’t wait.

Len

[thecarpetcleaner]

I have been working in Huddersfield for 3 years as a Carpet Cleaner, for a company that charges approx £35 for a 3piece suite, and £15 for a carpet. (There is also competition that is cheaper).

I am considering starting up on my own, but am concerned about quoting the prices you gentlemen seem to achieve, as the competition will be undercutting me considerably.

Your wise words would be greatly received.

Jason.

[John_Flynn]

I dare gamble that if you leave your present employer and go self-employed he will under cut you to close you down.

[thecarpetcleaner]

Thanks John, but I am not sure he can go much lower.

My problem is that obviously the members that are charging considerably more than my employer, are providing a better quality service, but how does one translate that to the customer, as if they see one charging £30, and the other £60, then they will more than likely choose the later...........

[Shaun_Ashmore]

You will have got loads of time when you first start to go and quote jobs face to face that is a big help, then don't knock the competition just go over the best points of your service, ie more dry passes, care taken, turbo drying, personal guarantee, etc

Price over the phone with new customers and they will price compare you with other cleaners how ever good you or they are.

Shaun