[stevegunn]

When will these guys learn local one to me has just gone bust.Charging £10 a carpet, £20 suite & £25 carpet/suite.I spoke to him a few months ago ref his pricing but he was happy making £50 a day.

I only know he has packed in because he uses an 0800 number and have had a number of his customers on asking for their half price carpet clean,apparently he cleaned their carpets in September for £10 and told them he would do it for half price in January. :   

[scott.]

Did he escape from somewhere?

[Mike Halliday]

that's not a bad idea if your charging a decent price, half price 3 months later especially to create work in January.

my Y/P ad says free re-clean in 6 months (ask for details) they pay for the clean & protect and I'll clean the traffic areas for free 6 months later.

but if you're only charging a tenner, then maybe not : : :

Mike

[stevegunn]

Fiver for the re-clean

[Adrian Makel]

had a leaflet put through my door the other week 2 carpets for £15.phoned the number to check it out as phone number was local to me,and was told i could have my whole house done for £45.was tempted to get it booked in. for that price i reckon he must be cleaning carpets with fairy liquid.not to worry doubt he will last long

[AquaMagic]

We tried the half price within 6 months reclean offer but didnt get anywhere with it, by far the best responce we have had is Free Lounge Carpet Clean with every suite (with limitations) and a little put on the price of the suite 

Dene

[Helen]

It's not so much Spash and Dash as Bait and Switch. I scanned a piece of paper that arrived the other day £9 for 12x12 living room etc.
If I knew how to put it on here I would.
Was tempted to call them in to see what happens for £9 but didn't want to spend another 3 hours putting it right myself (well hubby) 

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

had a leaflet put through my door the other week 2 carpets for £15.phoned the number to check it out as phone number was local to me,and was told i could have my whole house done for £45.was tempted to get it booked in. for that price i reckon he must be cleaning carpets with fairy liquid.not to worry doubt he will last long

thats all we charge mate and were still here over 20 years later 

[gwrightson]

so 1st clean, your still here 20 yrs later    
so you started when you were 13 , you keep cleaning full houses for £45 and you wont be here in another 20yrs   you will have knackered yourself up

Geoff

[paul wright]

same here

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

so 1st clean, your still here 20 yrs later    
so you started when you were 13 , you keep cleaning full houses for £45 and you wont be here in another 20yrs   you will have knackered yourself up

Geoff

i took over the buiss when my dad past on a few years ago ,  is it a man thing saying i earn this, i earn that ! some people are more then happy to make 70-90 pounds day i dont see why we get knocked all the time !

maybe we should all post up pics of our houses next ? along with copys of the deeds as well then we will see whos the daddy ! and why people have to charge what they do 

im lucky have no debt what so ever after buying 7 houses to rent out years ago then selling them at the top to the market makeing me a few quid  so i dont have to charge what the rest do ! not that i would have a change to charge that here where i am

does this mean im a bad cleaner ? cos im not working to pay for debt ? maybe people should just try and be more frindly to each other and stop trying to rip people cause there not makeing as much as them !

ive been in too  a good few houses after the so called top men have been there and chager top dollor  , and have done a far better job and charged a lot less !

[Neil Grainger]

Horses for course for me, Place in the market for all.

1st how long does it take to clean a house for £45?

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

Horses for course for me, Place in the market for all.

1st how long does it take to clean a house for £45?

it take as long as it takes mate 4 hours  or  ten hours it doent matter as long as the jobs right

[Barry Livingstone]

1st clean.

if you are happy working for LESS than £10.00 per hour then fine but you are just dragging a good business down to the gutters.

you are not a business man, i bet you claim alsorts.....................

[carpetguy]

Ist Clean

are you taking the proverbial, or are you really working for well below the minimum wage. I can't believe anyone with a shred of relf respect or intelligence would value themselves so lowly.

IF YOU ARE REALLY WORKING FOR THESE RATES IN A BUSINESS THAT'S BEEN AROUND FOR 20 YEARS
SOMETHING IS WRONG.

All of the people I've ever met with this mentality have ended up crippled with arthritis and physically wrecked by the time they were in their early forties.

By your manner, I suspect you are taking the p**s...........I certainly hope so.

when I was in my 20's an older man man asked me a very pointed question. What he said to me, was  " Do you understand the meaning of being a busy fool "

He was correct in his observation of me, as I was working long hours for too little, when I could have worked less hours for a little more and had a far better quality of life.

People who buy services from the cheapest supplier, have no respect for the individual, who they probably regard as a fool, to be taken advantage off.............

[Ian Gourlay]

Ist Clean,

First of all congratulations looks like you and your family have invested wisely and used the income generated to enable you to do so. It must have taken a lot of hard work.

What has always puzzled me about low prices is how you get a return on your advertising.

Leaflet distribution is not cheap. etc

[jasonl]

I ran Chem dry franchises for 13 years in Teesside, where 1st clean is based, 12 years ago i bought 4 terraced houses for 3 grand each, they were wrecks, everything is cheap there, and at £45 he is not the cheapest.
He could easy do £200 a day at his prices, there are 70% rented houses in Middlesbrough, still 30% unemployment on many of the huge estates, and vast amounts of poverty. Many of the people have very low expectatons and achievement of life generally and could not care less except to think they have had thier carpets cleaned well.
In this context, i think most people will see that 1st clean has a viable and sustainable business plan.

In the outlying villages of Teesside there are also plenty of people willing and sensible enough to pay good money for a good service( and a few people with no concept of quality, who want cheap all the time).
Good luck to first, he has a niche and is happy there.

[nevil]

Ist clean has a right to charge that if he wants to. I believe there is plenty of work for everyone. I find it odd that people on here will slag off what he is doing just because it doesn't conform to their way of thinking. Get the blinkers off. Or  maybe people are charging so much that this really is a threat to you.

His approach differs from mine but I have the greatest respect for him as he will only do well through working bloody hard.

[paul wright]

 well some good and bad replys,  some very shallow replys, if the guy wants to clean for a tenner an hour and he is happy so what, talk about stereo typing, dosnt mean he is a bum or on the dole, and must say a lot who charge 100 hour only do few hours aday and must get bored watching daytime tel , perhaps he likes being out most of the day  working and meeti ng people

[AquaMagic]

I think 1st clean must be in the privilaged position to NOT have to advetise if they can afford to work for less than a tenner an hour NET, after fuel chemicals, tax, consumables, spares & repairs etc there cannot be a lot left, however if 1st clean has been running for 20 years maybee they have a large enough client base and very little wasted money spent on new chemicals, systems and advertising methods.

Ive nothing against people charing whatever they are comfortable, but i also believe that you should charge what YOU think you are worth, as a 20 year old business 1sy clean sureley you think you are worth more than that?

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

i guess im lucly that i only need to stick the smallest on adds in the local rag which is 35 pounds aweek    thats all the advertising i do and ive never drop leaflets for years due to haveing a big cust base built up for years 

what people need to think about is how rich are the people you are cleaning for and most in teeside are lucky if there takeing home 200 pounds aweek and if you trying to keep your family on that you have no chanse of paying someone over a 100 pounds to clean a suite that half of the familys income

guss im lucky that my four vans come cheap due to hubby repairing bumped or stolen vans that why i never have more then 1200 pounds in van that are less then 4 years old with him doing the the repair work on them free its anthor bill i havnt got

i still have a very good liveng and my five staff work hard and well , i look at it this way while the dear boys are walking around pushing bits of paper in too people doors where most get binned all of my exels are working flat out    still makeing money my dad use to say" if the vans not moveing its makeing northing"

as for saying im wiinding people up im not i charge what i like and do the best job i and my staff can do useing extracta and po chem stuff ive seen lots of these so called dear lads come and try and give it large saying" the cheaper the job and poorer of job you get "well were still here and its a great feeling going round there houses with a pocket full of cash to buy there gear cos there skint

maybe beeing a woman im not as greedy as some of the men on here ? why have one big hit with a job when you can go back year after year and get the rest of there family to clean for aswell ?

[Dave_Lee]

Simple facts are, you cant perform a 'Professional' job for £45 a full house of carpets. A quick wizz around the open areas is about the best you could do. You cant run and maintain 'Professional' equipment on that sort of price not to mention carrying an assortment of effective 'Professional' solutions. 
Dave.

[AquaMagic]

There is nothing wrong with aiming your pricing at your typical customers, i personally aim at the typically more well off person and charge more than some guys local to me.  With regards to greed, i dont think its a matter of greed really just getting what you think you are worth, for example

In my area im one of only 3 NCCA members- a customer benefit
In my area im one of only 3 or 4 guys that run a truckmount. - a customer benefit
From some of the stories ive heard im posotive that most in my area have no formal training (or choose to ignore it) we do,- a customer benefit.
I know there are a few local guys who are part time and not insured, we are - a customer benefit.
Most local to me dont Pre-Vac or agitate, we do - a customer benefit.

So the way i see it is this, if ive bothered to get training, insurance, joined a trade organisation, invested in expensive machinery if i employ steps within my cleaning process that most ignore, if ive dedicated all my time to carpet cleaning they why should i charge the same or less than people who havent, surely im worth more. 

I think the problem most people have is "why charge less than you have to, unless its all you can get away with", it would appear that you have a working plan in place so if its not broke then why change it, but arent you at least tempted to put up you prices by say 10%, by the sounds of it you do volume so this 10% would make a huge difference to you bottom line.

Dene

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

i here what your saying dene and putting say 10% on top sounds good we have just done this  thats why its now 45 pounds was cheaper i dont think it down to what you think your worth im more then happy with what i charge not realy in to the ncca but if that your thing then thats great .

my working plan works for me i mean its a quict time and ive still got 4 lads out and are now booking two weeks ahead of myself 

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

Simple facts are, you cant perform a 'Professional' job for £45 a full house of carpets. A quick wizz around the open areas is about the best you could do. You cant run and maintain 'Professional' equipment on that sort of price not to mention carrying an assortment of effective 'Professional' solutions. 
Dave.

how do you work this out ? i have more gear then i know what to do with and this comeing year after ive looked into a truck mount ill be haveing one of them and ill pay cash for it no chucky here mate instead of saying stuff like this why not get some figers out to back what your saying up  ??

[Matt Read]

If you do a full professional clean of carpets in a property for £45 then you have to lose out on the job. It must take a min of 3 hours (if its empty) add in staff wages, travel cost's and job cost's what would be the profit for the company ?

I doubt it would cover the paperwork or telephone time , if it did you wouldn't end up with much from it.

Maybe if you were a one man band dealing in cash then you may see some profit.

I can't see the point in running a business this way.

The bit about owning 7 houses ,now thats good business sense ,always be money in property,as for deeds to house's then surely that depends on whats been inherited, how rich family's are etc etc some of us start from scratch others have  a bit to fall back on.

[carpetguy]

When I started in this business, just over 20 years ago, I charged the prices you are quoting for today...................I was one of the cheapest at that time, but virtually everything has increased in cost, a great deal in some cases.

I priced my work, initially, to earn more than the hourly rate I was earning at that time, as a driving instructor, which was about £9 per hour...............20 years ago !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In every service sector, there are people who work for "washers" and others who, believe in quality, which they, and hopefully their clients, will perceive to be professionalism, through training and possibly membership of trade associations / bodies, also, their vehicles will reflect this by their signage and they will also make a big effort to look good and communicate in a pleasant and helpfull manner, etc.

Incidentally, it's my experience and that of many others, that there is more disposable income  in Housing Schemes, than Private  Estates and the people in Local Authority houses are just as likely to use Chem Dry, or BSM, because these are the names they recognise and assume will deliver quality.

[jasonl]

Carpetguy, 13 years, mate as a chem dry,most la prop in teesside cant afford chem dry! and would not know quality if it hit them in the face.

[darrenlee1]

hi
read this post with great intrest, and makes me giggle. if you charge what your worth as some say, why are you intrested in what others charge, let them get on with it.
we market to both sides of the coin under two different names, better end customer willing to pay for there arse licking, and the lower end.
and do you no which is more profitable??
ok little harder graft but come on, get yer back into it keeps yer fit and strong, better than workin darn pit
 darren

[Chris34]

At them prices you are not running a business, you are running a charity.  Sorry 1st but if you hadn't been born with a silver spoon in your mouth then you wouldn't survive on them prices, you would be bust in no time.

[jasonl]

With no prevac, a full 3 bed house can be extracted in an hour easy, sorry love , them stains are permanent, £45 , £200 a day , easy money, he will not go bust , its a good plan in his market!

[Matt Read]

There is cheap ,reasonable,and expensive, 1st is cheap !.

I dread to think what the quality of living is in this area,if all the plumbers ,sparky's and builders are of the same mindset it must be dangerous to live there !

You do get what you pay for 95 % of the time.

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

At them prices you are not running a business, you are running a charity.  Sorry 1st but if you hadn't been born with a silver sthingy in your mouth then you wouldn't survive on them prices, you would be bust in no time.

if you call getting four old astas max vans with over 200k on each silver spoons  then your right ! two of them went stright to the sales

i started in a counil house and got four old exles with over 15,000 hours on each but they were wll looked after and looked like new ! ok they were free

ive busted myself in half to get where i am to day with no help from nobody apart from the hubby . i havent had it easy and my hubby worked over 18 hours aday for free to get us where we are today , 9 hours cleaning them the rest down the unit doing up bummped cars to keep us a float

as for the standed of liveing here its fine as long as you work hard , why wouldnt you make a liveing at what we charge  ? i do very nicely . and trust me im not going to tell you how to do it but lets just say this when profits need to be watched i drive hard bargins when buying in , this way you save lots of cash like when i went to the suppyers today i got a pallet ! of gear half powered the rest stuff like three boxes of c. gel ect ect ect

a long with the fuel cards i i can save i lot that way as well,  why buy just a few bottles when you can buy loads getting stuff at a very good rate this way makeing the jobs worth doing

as for doing a full house in one hour it takes longer to do a single front room 3-4 hours for a full house thats a 2 up 2 down

ive been looking at a lot of peoples web sites telling people that cheap cleaners are poor so ive told my web man to add a new saying called the CON. this is where people are conning people like window sales man into dear jobs and lerking over them makeing them feel like they have too book the guys that stood in there houses explaining this is how old people get ripped off  and how they need to rip into cheaper cleaners to try and get work cause they havent any

 anybody that pushing bits of paper in to there door should be given a miss cause if they have time to do this they have no regaler customers cause they wont go back cause they have had the eyes took out    (it will be in better enlish then the way ive put it)

whats good for one is good for the other not all cheaper cleaners are poor like what most of you have on your sites why tar us all with the same brush ?  ive looked back in the history of this site and its the same old same old cheap is poor and theres a few good cleaners that come on here that just sit and watch this and say northing !

    that like me saying every dear person is ripping people off !  where not all the same

iam not being funny just putting my point across looking from the other side as it were AND HOPEFULY WE MAY ALL LEARN from what we see on boards like this makeing both sides see how each other work , maybe even giveing our custmors a better service that way ?? 

[jasonl]

Like I said , living in Teesside has ti be seen to be believed, loads of illiterates lol, there are nice areas but mostly low deprived areas, with people who cant type.

[DanielWelford]

I totally agree with 1stclean.

In any market place there will lots of people offering the same service at different levels of specification. You just set yours to suit your marketplace.
e.g Car Sector Mercedes & Daewoo. Both cars different spec, different price bracket.

Me, I am at the lower end, but make a very very nice living. No one could call my service spash and dash or cowboy or whatever derogatory name the cheapies are refered to.

To be honest I would not pay the prices that some of you allegedly charge, so how could I expect my customers to!

Dan

[nevil]

The con,  I like it. 

Do you mind if I use that one 1st clean? 

[nevil]

Price really doesn't tell the whole story. As 1st clean said it's all about working hard.
It's a marketing trick convincing people they have to pay the most to get the best. That way doesn't work for me simply because 80% percent of cleaners seem to go down that route. But they are marketing to less than 20% of the public because most peole can't afford them. I would be happy with a couple of very lucrative jobs a day. But for now I will continue working hard.

[Neil Grainger]

Daniel

The whole point si that you dont sell to people like you. market to the right people and you will be able to charge higher prices.

I would buy at my prices but I am not selling to me.

If your happy with what you charge then thats fine but you should not be marketing to you.

[Pureandclean]

Hi 1ST CLEAN,
 To still be in business after 20 years is always worthy of praise, even more so, when you are charging fairly low prices. It means that you do have to drive hard bargains, and keep costs down.
  You know the area that you work in, and quite possibly are well known through your community, how do your customers view you and your business ?
Are they appreciative of your bargain prices, and do they use your services time and again ?

I know when I first started window cleaning, many years ago, I had a sense of providing a service to the whole community, and therefore set my prices at a fairly low level, for years I struggled to keep my head above water, and went out of business once.
I came to the conclusion that I needed to raise my prices, to a level where I could make a decent living, and funnily enough I still do the majority of the people in the area's that I cover.
I applaud you for still being in business, and I applaud you for providing a service to your community, I would challenge you though, to raise your prices somewhat, so that you can remain in business for another 20 years and be able to afford some newer vans.

Blessings,

Graeme

[AquaMagic]

1st clean, i agree that not all of the less expensive cleaners are cowboys, and if you are happy working for a fiver an hour then good luck to you, however by saying that all Expensive carpet cleaners are CON artists you are your self just as prejudiced.  I also dont like the comment about people who deliver leaflets not being anygood, you will have to explain this becuase we deliver leaflets (so do many on here) and i know for a fact that we clean a lot better than most in my area, i know this becuase i have cleaned after a local cc and had the customer gobsmacked, (they certainly didnt think they had been conned, you could tell this by the tip they gave me), if leafleters arent anygood could i ask how you built up your business?, advertising is one of the most expensive costs when starting a new business and i certainly found that leafleting got us started and upto a level where we now advertise in local press, internet and telephone directories, we are by the way a new company  ourselves and have been trading 1year so still find leafleting an essential part of our advertising process without it when we started we would have had to resort to door knocking, is that what you did?

Dene

[carpetguy]

A bit of inconsistency here ............you started off, telling us, that your father started and ran the business for many years and you came into it recently.................rather than busting a gut........you inherited a going concern, with an established customer base.

If you inherited a going concern which had been based on low charges...........it makes no sense that you continued to work in the same way, rather than sieze the opportunity to present a new image.

You don't have to double your prices to do this, just increase, at inlation plus 1, or 2% each year, otherwise, you are really charging LESS each year, which is not even standing still, but going backwards.

[NigelD]

as for doing a full house in one hour it takes longer to do a single front room 3-4 hours for a full house thats a 2 up 2 down

It doesn' add up.
3 hours to do a job, that's being kind. Charge is £45. Out of which you pay the staff £5 per hour, £15 + plus NIC etc.. So on £30 per job or £60 per day you then pay insurance, running costs and pay yourselves.
And would have us believe you make a good living.

No you don't, the check out girl at Tesco makes more without the risk or the worry.

Good post, I'm sure many have smiled.

[Ian Rochester]

Come on Steve, you started this thread, where's your comments?!?!?!

1st Clean are nearly your next door neighbours   

I love reading threads like this   

We all know there is a customer looking for someone at both ends of the market place.

As for us, we sit somewhere in the middle, I still get people saying "I'll get back to you" after I give them the quote and others who say "Is that all!"

It's all down to peoples perception of what the service is worth and regional forces still tend to dominate the divide.

I generally believe that most people who have been in business for a number of years and are established, must be doing an acceptable level of cleaning regardless of their prices.   Let each carry on and sink or swim in their own market place.

[stevegunn]

I started this thread to simply point out that new starters are going to struggle if they follow this route by charging £10 a room.This lad was in business less than 8 months he had more outgoings than he had coming in,he was under the illusion customers would not pay more than £10 a room so he followed that route now he is working for one of the franchises and they don't charge £10 a room.

[AquaMagic]

Another problem i have with this, isnt the minimum wage more than £5.35 per hour, is 1st clean legally paying enough to her staff?, unless she is employing 18-21 year old on min wage of £4.45.  This doesnt leave much profit though after fuel & chemicals & insurance & staff training.

Dene

[D woods]

Do you think 1st clean might be having a wind up?

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

Do you think 1st clean might be having a wind up?

no mate im not just trying to show both sides of the coin

[Dave_Lee]

No need for figures to back up what I said, Fact speak for themselves, you cant do a professional job charging £45 for a full house of carpets. Obviously the meaning of the word 'Professional' is subject to interpretation. I also do Professional carpet fitting (Private work only) at one time I did some fitting for a large carpet store, one of their 'Professonal' fitters fitted a full house including stairs in an unbelievable 40 minutes. That was acceptable to him and his mindset, problem was it wasnt to anyone else concerned and I ended up fitting new carpet throughout which took me, 9 hours. Of course there are CC businesses out there that dont have the 'Professional mind set as regards the actual job and are merely doing the numbers game. The more jobs we can get done in a day the more the turnover, the more the profit. You can have it, its not for me or my customers.
Dave.

[Adrian Makel]

well 1st clean as it was me saying about £45 for a house in the first place i just have to put my point accross.i am based in blaydon,gateshead,not a million miles from you.i would imagine the standard of living here is very simular to your area.my prices are a fair bit higher than yours and i still manage to be out 5-6 days a week.i am finding it really hard to get my head around the fact that you can charge these prices,pay staff,NI,tax,run your vans,buy chemicals and equipment and still claim to be doing VERY NICELY!!!!the figures just don`t add up.
maybe a one man band may be able to scrape a living doing this,but surely not a company with all the overheads you have.
i am not saying you do not have to price your work acording to the area you live in because you clearly do,i just think you are under selling yourself charging the prices you are charging.

[gwrightson]

he is winding you up ,
blatantly obvious, sorry she is winding you up,  and I agree with an earlier reply ...........
......  contradictions, are there to be seen ,
even a refrence to his web man, altering his site to include " the con"  well IHave searched for the web site , No sign of it     , and it certainly is not in the profile , as are every bodys who has a web site.

Perhaps a link might be handy, just so I can have a look

geoff

[Neil Williams]

he is winding you up ,
blatantly obvious, sorry she is winding you up,  and I agree with an earlier reply ...........
......  contradictions, are there to be seen ,

Ditto. The sums just don't don't add up full stop. Either that or the quality doesn't.
Or perhaps 1st Clean are the bait & switch type because staff can't be paid on that rate per house per hour stated.

[Dave_Lee]

Whether it is a wind up or not there are such people out there running business in that manner, Professional outfits they are not. When they state they are female then call someone Mate, its time to worry, or maybe not.
Dave.

[carpetguy]

Interesting comment about the use of the word " mate ", which I detest. It has insincerity about it and immediately puts my defences up.

To some, this will sound, pathetic, or whatever, but, if you can't communicate, or don't make an effort, you are barring yourself from work, before you even see it.

When I see strings of poor grammar or "lazy" spelling mistakes, I assume, rightly, or wrongly, that whoever presents themself in that way, will work in a similar way..............rushed and careless.

This is a marketing  / presentation comment, but it's prompted by the way this person comes accross.

I picture a female " Harold Steptoe "when reading the postings of 1st Clean.

robbie

Have to go, experiencing the busiest January ever............7.30 start for my first job, it was the same yesterday !

[jasonl]

Carpet guy........................... Go to Teesside......... 95%of people act /talk/ are this way. 1ST CLEAN WERE NOT THERE when I was, unles they wre radin under different name.

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

Interesting comment about the use of the word " mate ", which I detest. It has insincerity about it and immediately puts my defences up.

To some, this will sound, pathetic, or whatever, but, if you can't communicate, or don't make an effort, you are barring yourself from work, before you even see it.

When I see strings of poor grammar or "lazy" spelling mistakes, I assume, rightly, or wrongly, that whoever presents themself in that way, will work in a similar way..............rushed and careless.

This is a marketing  / presentation comment, but it's prompted by the way this person comes accross.

I picture a female " Harold Steptoe "when reading the postings of 1st Clean.

robbie

Have to go, experiencing the busiest January ever............7.30 start for my first job, it was the same yesterday !

maybe my scholing wasnt  as good as yours but is this a need to have a poke at me    as for the  step toe thing well i do have a big yard and a few sheds and a tractor helps with cutting the felds round the house guess you have the same problem eh

i look at it this way if  each of my vans are out all week and each van makes say a 100 pounds profit after every thing is payed for then ive made 500 pounds just to answer the calls with out liveing the house not bad for northing ? thats with out me going out to clean

    as for we were not there when you were here,  at the time your lefted teeside it wasnt good here was it??   with the c.c. wars going on , im sure if you were here i need not go on

ok my grammer and english is not the best but i am trying to help you see the other side of the coin maybe your not doing as well as you like to think and  is this part of the con  " you must tell people your doing well even if your not" and  sit on here giveing it large and find it easy takeing pot shorts at me. take your blinkers off and learn something here ,

i am just started to add one of two pounds each job and im quite suprised that people have nt said a thing ! 

maybe i was to fightened or stuck in a rut with my eyes closed and ive think ive been kidding myself saying  if i put the prices up they wont book and ive just took in three full house in and charged them 65 -70 each ive never charged that befour !

well carry on boys ill still be here in 20 years time will you ? well i  say 20 years ill be liveing in austra then in my other house i have the dees for  kind of think im doing ok myself 



 

[Chris34]

Well if you've got a house in Austria and are looking to buy a truckmount for cash and have only took on the business recently and are making £500 a week then I put it to you that you have not got the cash through running this business to pay for these items.  I think you are mixing the returns of the good investment houses you bought with your income you are getting from your cc business. 

The one thing where many business owners go wrong is that they become so passionate and attatched to their business that they will not believe their business is failing and going to go bankrupt (unless they have other investments propping it up). 

1st your figures don't add up IMO.  You say all your doing is answering the telephone well it sounds like hard work to me you must be answering close to 200 calls a week and this I expect would be a mixture of complaints, appointments and enquiries.  On top of this your workers must be doing about 75 jobs a week so there is a lot of paperwork to handle there and that would take a while. 

Good luck 1st but if you don't mind I won't be using you as an example of how to run a business.
 

[gwrightson]

1st clean ,
you still have not put a link to your web site,
is their a reason for this? I am interested to take a look

Geoff

[prodry]

1stclean is based in Cleveland an area of serious economic depression. The average wage in most boroughs of the North East is around £350per week well below what someone in the south east or London would earn. Most of this money is probably earned in Newcastle or Sunderland.

Cleveland itself is like something out of a Mad Max film with the ICI paint factory causing birth defects. The best thing about it, apart from the road out is it is one of the cheapest places to buy heroin in the UK. It is only equalled by Hartlepool as probably the worst place in England to live, I am sure any ‘Monkey Hangers’ on here would disagree.

I think first cleans prices are probably right for her area. We have people were we are charging those prices and making a living out of it. Some off them are also probably claiming and or not declaring half of what they earn and driving cabs at night.  Let them get on with it, I have just put the phone down on a lady who wants to have just her 12x12 lounge cleaned and can't afford our £45.00 minimum call out charge and I quoted her £65.00. She is living in a four bedroom detached 80's house in a nice village. I have just done hers neighbours four bedrooms only, for £125.00. Some will pay some wont. Some people wear a £30.00 suit from ASDA to work and some people will pay £30.00 just to have their £500.00 suit dry cleaned. You have to decide whether you are splash and dash, middle of the row or carpet cleaner to the stars and market accordingly.

1stclean you go on about buying and selling houses if you give me your address can I send you £20.00 and could you buy me a couple.

[murky]

£25.00 Ha you've been gazumped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or I'll have a pair for £30.00.

[Mike Halliday]

Hull is officially the crappest town in  the Uk. there was a programme about it on TV it last year.

heroin is dirt cheap, I buy mine wholesale ( I get a 3 for 2 deal)

so don't try and steal our only claim to fame

Mike

[Peter Blackburn]

Carpetguy,    

I don't think it's fair to have a dig at someone regarding there spelling or grammar. What you have got to realise is that this industry is mostly made up of people with limited intelligence, many of whom are dyslexic, that's why they choose a trade that requires only basic knowledge.
There are a lot of very successful businessmen or women that cant even add 2 and 2 together let alone string meaningful sentences together. This doesn't mean they can't communicate effectively and sniff out and obtain lucrative contracts or deals. Take Richard Branson for example, severally dyslexic to the point of having trouble writing his own name!! His he unsuccessful?

There are a few Carpet cleaners on this forum who have very large profitable business, two of them don't know how and when to use capital letters, I have observed one of them who never uses capitals. But they know more about the industry and its secrets that most of us put together.
Well almost, I know the secret of this game now.

Peter

[paul wright]

and his parents were very rich :

[Peter Blackburn]

and his parents were very rich :

And could spell!

[paul wright]

lol 

[AquaMagic]

1st Clean, interesting post, if you are adding 1 or 2 pounds to every job and doing say 75 jobs a week , thats £150 extra for no extra effort, now imagine if you added a fiver to every job thats nearly doubled your profit and i dont think people will moan at paying £50 instead of £45, maybee now you can see why its worth getting as much as your can for your work. And why so many of us take the option to Work less for more rathet than work more for less, the really sucessfull C.C's are the ones who can work More for More if you catch my meaning.

Dene

[carpetguy]

I was not having a go, simply stating that ...............reading what's been posted, the use of language, is how we communicate with clients, whether written or spoken.

Don't have a clue about the assertion that I was once in Teeside, never have been and it's about 250 miles away fromme.

I don't agree with the deprived area concept, either...........on my doorstep, is one of the most deprived areas in the UK, but we get regular work from there charging the same rates as elsewhere and as a matter of interest, there are more, latest technology TV's, computers, etc, in this area and everyone wears the very latest and expensive clothing and footwear.

What has come out of this, is the fact that 1st Clean has gained more confidence in herself and taken the plunge, raising prices and experienced no resistence.

Also, there has been a surprising amount of empathy shown, by a number of posters, something that's been lacking recently.

I honestly felt there was a wind up and responded accordingly !

In 20 years time I certainly won't be here, as I'll be over 80, but when I had just one guy working for me, I was getting £250 from him each week, and that was at low prices.

[Ian Gourlay]

Peter Dyslexic people do not lack intelligence.

Einstein  was dyslexic.

Susan Hampshire is , Michael Heseltine owned a publishing empire.  Richard Branson owns lots,

[Steve Weatherley]

IstClean - try putting your prices up for one month. See what happens and if it fails then go back to your usual prices. Could it be possible that you might attract a slightly better class of clientelle by charging more - i.e filtering out the crappy jobs.
Good luck.

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

IstClean - try putting your prices up for one month. See what happens and if it fails then go back to your usual prices. Could it be possible that you might attract a slightly better class of clientelle by charging more - i.e filtering out the crappy jobs.
Good luck.

well its been nearly a week and have nt had any comments from the custsy yet , they have all booked in to get the jobs done . mind i havent gone over board just one or two pounds here and there and 10 pounds on the bigger jobs , ill be seeing how things go for a month like what you have said and take it from there 

[ianharper]

1st clean

best ting i ever did was over night change my prices from £25 hr to £50 thanks to paul moss

respect

Ian Harper

[AquaMagic]

1stclean, keep going untill you notice price resistance, ie more saying no than yes, this is a good indicator of your price ceiling, its upto you then what you do, you could look at "selling" your company better when you reach that point to raise that price ceiling.

Dene

[Barry Livingstone]

its ok every one saying put your prices up.
but they have to keep the call volume up also.

Its ok getting 75 calls a week on splash n dash advertised prices but i bet the call volume goes a way down when the put the prices up, abd will they be able to keep those customers, or will it be the ones that get them cleaned every 3 to 4 years?
1st has done well due to the fact people clean there carpet more cos they cant replace them. Now if the price goes up............get in the wooden floor.......cheap lam.......wood.............

i have a guy in fife cheap as chips but busy already put 2 long term cleaners out the game..........and another has put his prices down to match the clown..........

And we have a lot of little ex mining towns with lots on the dole.......

but saying that we also have 4 chem drys........lol..................

never mind spring is nearly here.............

[scott.]

Do people have carpets up north   oh dear...not being funny, but I think the only carpet owners in the UK are down south ....but seem to be homeowners...council home owners appear to have bare floorboards in my experience....I blame the government!