[cleanability]

Ok I been having a moan about people being fully booked weeks ahead and on eg £70 an hour. Which I still find hard to believe. And here's the reason why.
      I have been trading ( sole trader run from home) about 9 years. I'd say and without blowing my own trumpet that I'm one of the best carpet & upholstery cleaners in my area. I get nothing but praise from so many people. I bend over backwards for customers. I'm careful, thorough, thoughtful and a good honest genuine nice guy. Would never rip anyone off. I often turn work away if I think a clean would not make much difference. And I get referrals for doing that cos I'm honest. I'm not the cheapest and I'm not the dearest. I have ads in the Yellow Pages ( quarter page) and Thompson ( the only carpet cleaner in the section with a bigger box advert). I deliver leaflets when I can. I send out reminder cards every month. I give out calenders every xmas with my company on them. I have leaflets in plastic dispensers dotted around my area. I give out business cards like confetti. Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. I am never ever ever fully booked up a week ahead let alone months ahead. I end up with a full week most weeks but I have never got to the stage where I am too busy to accept bookings for the current week. I'd say that I have literally maybe 1 or 2 bookings beyond the following week.
So that is why I think newbies should be weary of thinking £70-£80 an hour and booked up until xmas is probable, and in my opinion actually possible.
The only thing I can think is that it all depends which area you live in. I work in the Welsh valleys and if I tried to charge £70 for cleaning a 12 x 10 room which would take an hour then I just as well stop trading coz I'd get no bookings.
Any thoughts  would be appreciated.
P.S   have spoken to several other C & U cleaners around the country who visit this sight and they are as gob smacked as me with some of the claims on here.

Thanx  Chris

[cleaning co]

i know what u are trying to say chris, and yes u are spot on

[gmccleaning]

afternoon chris,   im in stranraer s/w scotland and like yourself take alot of pride with my business and the customer,i know if i was to quote some of the prices here the customer would laugh at me,

i know im not the cheapest or the dearest,just last week some one phoned me asked about cleaning ,give them my price(after i went to the house and looked at the job),they told me what other cleaning company quoted(over the phone) i was dearer still got the job,when i had finish got tip aswell.

just wish i could earn £70 p/h,in my dreams

only booked up the now because i talked customers into waiting to the school holidays were finished(not worth cleaning with kids runing about house).

             George                    GMC cleaning

[cleanability]

Thanks chaps. Good to know its not just me then !

Thanx
Chris

[John Kelly]

Chris, as a supplier as well as a contractor I obviously get to know a lot of cleaners both local and around the country.
I also deal with a few of the franchises such as Chem Dry.
Locally, we are based in Newcastle, there are cleaners who do a suite and carpet for 30 quid. We also have companies with a few vans on the road who charge anything from 120-250 for a suite, obviously this includes vat.
As I have said before there are 2 types of carpet cleaners. Those who are happy being self employed making a reasonable living and those with a good business head who want to reap the benefits of having multi van outfits but are also willing to take the extra burdens this brings.
My advice would be to not worry what people on here say about what they are earning. Look after your own business and it will look after you.
If someones earning a thousand pounds a day, good luck to them, but is doesn't make one jot of difference to me or you.

[terrymaloy]

Can the guys on this site who are booked 2 weeks or more in advance and earning big bucks PLEASE LET US INTO YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY
It must be lack of competitition / area
Like Chris, I seem to be doing all the right things, but would certainly welcome more enquiries.

"Red Carpet" you said last week you were just about fully booked for August...approx earnings £4 grand (AUG)and you've been going less than a year !!!!
If there is any truth in this bold statement, please tell us where we're going wrong.

ps ...I'm in Tyneside ( predominently working class and would show me the door if I quoted £70 for one hours work to clean their living room carpet)

Terry

[John Kelly]

Terry there are people doing it on your doorstep. Also about time you popped in to see me

[cleanability]

Hey Terry that "Red Carpet" claim stuck in my mind too !!!!!!!!!!

Chris

[Ian Gourlay]

Chris,

I agree with you in pointing out that Carpet Cleaning is difficult.  I do not know if it was you but someone said recently that they thought there was a conspiracy by equipment suppliers to make us think high earnings are easy


That to succeed all you have to do is put out loads of leaflets etc.

Again I read that Terry Burrows the world champion window cleaner is not having much luck with adverts and I believe leaflets in his attempt to switch from windows to carpets.

I read most posts and I can not remember seeing anyone booked up to Nov or even Oct.

I do know that some cleaners do make £70 an hour, They have usually found a Niche Market.


One young cleaner who is earning a reasonable amount has really gone for it and put into practice the information available on this site.

The question is can he keep up the pace of working 6.5 days a week, or will he have to find other methods to do the tasks he is doing himself.

[Mike Halliday]

I did 2 jobs a today

1) a suite and 2rugs for £140 took me 2 hours 30mins

2nd) a full 2 bed house  £160 took me an 1hr 20minns

so I  'worked' 3hrs 50mins made £75 an hour

I work as a 2 man team so paid out £30 in wages so still made £68ish an hour this is typical for me.

but this is £68 per hours 'worked' not 8 hours a day,  I don't work more than 4- 5 hours a day .

mt travel time between jobs is never over 15mins.

I'm booked up this week and a job each day for next week.

it would be better if we systematised our quoted earnings so we are quoting on the same playing field. I'm basing my  time on how long  I am actually at the house.

HOW MUCH WOULD EVERYONE EXPECT EARN IF THEY WORKED FOR ONE SOLID HOUR AT A CUSTOMERS HOUSE? if its only £40 then you are too cheep, if its £160  I would say its too expensive.

Mike

[Neil Grainger]

Gents

this is possible but depends on the area you are in, I live on the Surrey Hampshire Berkshire Borders where the average salaries are very high, a 3 bed Teraced house costs a minimum of £200,000.

People do pay these prices and will pay them anwhere if you sell it to them, Their is a guy based in braford that charges £10 a meter and gets it, so area is not so important.

I clean for about 4-5 hrs a day because thats enough for me but will always try to get between £70 and £100 for doing this. I also have to do my own marketing, paper work and everything else that goes with running your own business so you could add another 3 hrs onto that every day. Thats why I try and always get £70 to 100 an hour cleaning because it needs to be that high to offset for the hours you put in not cleaning.

Ford charge £75 an hour for labour on servicing your cars, The guys doing that work are spotty 18 year olds with an NVQ in Vechicle Mechanics being supervised by a master Tech. Why do you think that you cant charge these prices if the likes of these companies are doing the same or worse. Hairdressers cutting mens hair 0n a saturday can get through 6 -7 people an hr charging from £8.50 per customer working for 8 hrs a day, thats £ 400-500 a day so why dont you think you can charge the same if not more.

Put it against other types of business  and you will see that you can charge higher prices.

You are not selling to you.

[Phil Marlor]

Got to a job today @ 10.00am , a few carpets from a reg customer, left at about 3.00 with a cheque for £280.00. so that was £56.00 per hour, however this lady talks to me all day, and could have done the job by about 1.00pm if I was left to get on.

Did a quote on the way home for £620.00, this will be a 2 day job.

Yesterday I did a quick job in an empty flat, 2 bed, Lounge, hall £95.00, took me just over an hour.

You need a TM to earn £70.00 ph.

Booked up all this week and next week with some booked in for Sept. Honest!!

Obviously this isn't the case all the time.

Working in the Welsh valleys must restrict your earnings a bit!

Phil

ps I dont do any marketing, so dont ask me how its done, however most of my work now is regular customers or recomendations.

[HolmansUKLTD]

IM BOOKED UNTIL SEPTEMBER 14TH (commercial & Domestic)

 

NIck

[Neil Grainger]

Only 8 Days booked in advance but do have the odd job booked for Sept.

Hows it going Nick

[HolmansUKLTD]

Good Neil, its taken 4 and a bit years but im flying down here in London plenty of work!!

Just brought a DF machine for my commercial contracts, they seem to be expanding all the time!  big money in them but also big headaches

I have lost your number can you email it to me please?

See you soon, i was in Yately last week, stepping into your mannor now

Nick

[Steve Chapman]

took £370 today and worked 6 hours, about £60 an hour,  work being residential homes, good money if you can stand the  wee smell

Booked up until sept 16.

I think it was dave Liahona who said "don't look for people like yourself, but the ones who don't mind shelling out a few bob"  -   It was something like that anyhow

well thats what i've been doing and it makes sense

cheers

steve

P.S. Sorry dave if i've mis quoted

[mark_roberts]

Why worry what others are doing if your happy with what you are doing.

To make £70 an hour ie. from the time you arrive to the time you leave will require you to have a TM, not vacuum and move only the suite.  Agitation is also a big time eater and not always needed since Ive stopped using microplitters so much. 

Last week two of us did £320 in 1h20m.  That is not the norm for me but can be done.

Again cleaning carpet is not a slow process but its moving the furniture, setting up, vacuuming, breaking down etc which eats the time.

Mark

[Mike Halliday]

we move everything the customer asks, vac 70% of jobs and pre-spray, scrub & extract .then on big jobs position a blower.

we use a T/M. we still average the near £70.

a 2 man team is the way to go.

Mike

[colin thomas]

no disrepect meant here but it seems to me that there are a few people around who are cutting corners at the expense of the customer, how would you like it your car went into have a service and they didn't change the oil filter to save time but charged you for it? or used second hand parts to save money, i think it's too easy  to get into the habit of giving the customer second best, just out of interest, if you knew you were being watched by one of those consumer programes, would you work to the same standards?

colin

[stevegunn]

Well here is one to throw in the melting pot.What would you charge for this its a nursing home

2512 sq ft of carpet low profile
21 high back seats

[PaulKing]

Terry there are people doing it on your doorstep. Also about time you popped in to see me

yep me!
p.s
Thanks for the multi solve , it made short work of that problem we had.

[Mike Halliday]

Colin would you like to elaborate? who exactly are you accusing of cutting corners?

 if we are talking about giving the customer second best I could give an example that makes most of you guilty of that,  
Mike

[HolmansUKLTD]

Well here is one to throw in the melting pot.What would you charge for this its a nursing home

2512 sq ft of carpet low profile
21 high back seats

£550

£8 per chair
£1.65 per m2 DF

easy

NIck

[HolmansUKLTD]

Elaborate please Mikey

[stevegunn]

Well here is one to throw in the melting pot.What would you charge for this its a nursing home

2512 sq ft of carpet low profile
21 high back seats

£550

£8 per chair
£1.65 per m2 DF

easy

NIck

Quoted £762 and still got the job.Firstly I asked if they had a figure in mind what they were prepared to pay then based the price on the £800 they told me.Now I could have based it on 8hours at £60 a hour and that would have been far less.

Not all clients will tell you if they have a figure in mind but when they do use it to your advantage.

[Mike Halliday]

Nick I don't want to change the direction of this thread so will be a spoilsport and keep my elaborations to myself

Mike

[The Great One]

Hi

We can all earn £60, 70,80 etc per hour and we have probably all done it.

But...

Can we do it every single day on every single job day in and day out?

I myself have worked for £171.25 per hour on a job but these are few and far between. Got one tomorrow worth £150 for about 2 hours work, another each day this and next week but then nothing booked beyond. Would love to earn this every single day but doubt I will even though I am trying to secure new work and am just starting my advertising campaign.

Also is the £60-80 per hour we are talking about turnover or profit as they are two very different things.

Regards

Martin

[HolmansUKLTD]

Well here is one to throw in the melting pot.What would you charge for this its a nursing home

2512 sq ft of carpet low profile
21 high back seats

£550

£8 per chair
£1.65 per m2 DF

easy

NIck

Quoted £762 and still got the job.Firstly I asked if they had a figure in mind what they were prepared to pay then based the price on the £800 they told me.Now I could have based it on 8hours at £60 a hour and that would have been far less.

Not all clients will tell you if they have a figure in mind but when they do use it to your advantage.

NIce one Steve

[carpetclean]

hourly rates should not be in the equation. its not only carpet cleaning that can be misleading on earnings but all self employed trades. as a decorator i can earn some days what seems extortionate   money and it will equate to a silly amount an hour but over the week or the month it averages out and thats  the important figure. it is unfair and misleading to say you earn x amount an hour as newbies reading the posts think it is the norm to earn this 8 hours a day i dare say some do but there will be far more earning much less

[Mike Halliday]

hopefully any newbies will read all the post completely and understand that no one is saying they earn these high figures for 8 hrs a day .

whether the amount is turnover or profit makes no difference because we are talking about an hourly rate, when a man earns £70 but has £60 expensive, makes no difference he still earned/charged £70 for that hour.


Mike

[the red carpet]

I see my names popped up a couple times, so i thought id let you know how im doing

Booked in my last available date for this month today the 31st

And my totals for the month if nobody cancells will be £4456.90, this is broke up of carpets, upholstery, and a little protection
And this is my 11th month in business

My next available day with nothing booked (i only clean 4days a week) in on 13th september, i have afternoon apointments available before that but no mornings.

I have spent £820 on advertising this month

And my prices i would think only work out at about 20p a foot, im not sure as i give set prices for rooms. But not dear compared to what a lot of you are charging anyway.

Even though i am taking decent money im still broke as iv made lots of mistakes along the way, and borrowed quite a bit

I am not happy with what im taking and am taking on a helper, getting a t/m, and increasing my prices in due course

I will add to this thread again tonight or tomorrow when i find my book with my monthly turnover from the start until now

[the red carpet]

Sep 05   £431

Oct 05   £409

Nov 05   £1127

Dec 05    £1058

Jan 06    £1482

Feb 06   £1089

Mar 06   £1507

Apr 06    £1818

May 06    £1855

Jun 06    £2149

Jul 06     £2756

Aug 06    £4456.90 in theory

[jasonl]

Turnover is vanity, net profit is sanity, cash is king, its easy to be a bust fool in this business, I ONLY BOOK TILL 2 PM EACH DAY, BOOKED 2 WEEKS AHEAD, then when people call for a last minute job I can always accommodate.

[Damian]

Somedays i have good days some bad. But i never seem to earn as much as my solicitor who currently charges 200 plus vat every single hour! I do hope she does shorthand and wish to my god that i had paid more attention at school!!  :

[colin thomas]

sorry mike, i wasn't referring to anybody in particular, just generally. i too work with a helper as a team when  the work load dictates it and i'm surprised that a suite and 2 rugs take you so long!!!

colin     

[Mike Halliday]

they were big rugs

[Paul_Ashworth]

Hi red carpet,
You seem to  be doing well for a new business 

How do you manage to spend so much on advertising and what methods do you use ! do you monitor where your leads are coming from ?

Paul

[Buster Ingram]

I would have to look at what work was involved, i.e how many floors it was on coupled with the time of day they wanted it done.
Then I would charge it by an hourly rate. The hourly rate would depend on how many people I had helping me?
So Steve for me to quote you a price on size only my sums would add up like this

x+?=?

Each job of this size can vary a great deal.


Sorry for being little help

Not so clever Dave

[Mike Osbourne]

I seem to be leveling out at £40/hr. Today I did a through, L shapes lounge stairs and landing for £120, but took me 3hrs 10mins from driving up to driving off. I can't seem to do any faster and am not converting quotes that I edge up the price on. I guess everything finds it's own level.

I must admit I've been tempted to skip a pre vacc when it looks OK. Especially when she's been round with the Dyson, my Ninja vac attachement don't seem to make much difference anyway  :.

Biggest time consumer for me is draught marks around skirting.

[carpetclean]

I seem to be leveling out at £40/hr. Today I did a through, L shapes lounge stairs and landing for £120, but took me 3hrs 10mins from driving up to driving off. I can't seem to do any faster and am not converting quotes that I edge up the price on. I guess everything finds it's own level.

I must admit I've been tempted to skip a pre vacc when it looks OK. Especially when she's been round with the Dyson, my Ninja vac attachement don't seem to make much difference anyway  :.

Biggest time consumer for me is draught marks around skirting.

hi mike have you  tried filter out !? we apply it by putting it on a towel and dabbing off and not direct on to the carpet seems to work twice as fast as the latter.

[cleaning co]

no u dont need a tm to earn £70 hour  as said by someone on here that u do need a tm to earn this

[The Great One]

Hi

It does matter very much turnover V profit.

If you are earning £70 by cost are £60 then you are only earning £10 p/h as the rest is your costs and therefore not yours.

That is a false economy.

Regards

Martin

[Mike Halliday]

martin I think we are thinking on different wavelengths the amount you charge the customer is a constant all over things are variable.

if I charge £70 but only make £10 profit does this make any difference to the customer they still give me £70, and for 1 hour I am taking in £70

 the average hourly rate of £70 is constant it does not fluctuate,  but expenses
between will companies. so we cant bring in the profit v taking equation. because everyone is different.

another way of looking at it is;

 man B earns £45hr and has £5 expenses, so has a profit of £40

Man D earns £70 hr but has expensive of  £40 so only earns £30

So who would you rather be man B or Man D? most people would say man B because he is earning £10 more than man D.


I would rather be man D, because I have the potential to earn up to £70 an hour were Man b will never earn more than £45, this is why the hourly rate charged is more important that the amount of profit within the £70.

Mike

[Fibreclean]

what a load of waffle man a man b man a man 

[calmore]

 I would rather be man D, because I have the potential to earn up to £70 an hour were Man b will never earn more than £45, this is why the hourly rate charged is more important that the amount of profit within the £70.

That always assumes that it is possible for man D to reduce his expenses.

Perhaps he has to spend a lot on marketing in order to bring in sufficient work.

[Neil Grainger]

But if he is good then over time he may not need to spend as much on marketing so costs go down and profits go up.

Cheers

Neil

[Steve Chapman]

What happened to man c

steve

[HolmansUKLTD]

Or man dingo

[Damian]

Or man friday!!??     

[The Great One]

Hi

Mike I see what you are saying....

But...

On an average 5 hour working day Man B's end profit is £200

Man D's profit is £150

x 5 day working week

Man B earns £1000 Profit p/w

Man D earns £750 p/w

x 50 weeks (2 weeks hols)

Man B earns £50,000 p/year

Man D earns £37,500 p/year

I would rather be Man B

Man D takes more per hour but earns less because his expenses are higher, whereas Man B although takes less he earns more

Phew!

Regards

Martin

[Mike Halliday]

that was even more complicated that mine

but I prefer to look at the potential earning of man D

as for man A..B..E..F..G..H ..etc..etc  & man-Friday & man dingo  they are too busy  cleaning carpets & suites for a £5 an hour to read these silly forums

Mike

[Fibreclean]

Jesus.... im lost here 

[PaulKing]

Jesus.... im lost here 

Thats a good idea reach out for OUR LORD!

Not sure he writes a good business plan though!

[PaulKing]

But he can perform miracles on carpets, think it's down to the HOLY water!

[Ian Gourlay]

It also depends on how long it takes you to clean a room.

I think Mike qouted 1.5hrs to clean  two bedroom  furnished house

On thinking about it new builds are not very big.

However it took 3hrs as there were two of them.


What Im trying to say is diffrent cleaners take diffrent times,

[Phil Marlor]

So where do Man J,K,L,M,N come into it?
How much are they earning?

Phil

[Dave_Lee]

The average amount you earn per hour depends on how much you charge AND how quick you do the job. If you charge an average amount and are super fast then £70 per hour is possible. If your charges are high and your work rate is, say, normal then £70 per hour is possible. If you are cheap, then to earn £70 per hour, you are going to have to work super fast ro achieve it.
Of course it would make sense to charge relatively higher prices if you pay particular attention ro detail rather than finishing the job in a fast time. It is up to the individual to decide which way to go.
I once watched a high priced cleaner get over £100 per hour on a domestic job, and was less than impressed with the result and methods. I would have been substantially cheaper, significantly slower, and the result would have been massively better.
My marketing costs, this year to date have been £320.
Pay attention to detail, take the time required to do the job properly without rushing, do an excellent overall job and not just on the more noticeable areas, and charge a fair rate, and your marketing costs will be sustantailly reduced.
Dave.

[Vernon Purcell]

Chris do you ask your clients for 70 ponds an hour.
Can you clean a thru loung or loung dining room in 1 hours
Let me know if u do or do not

[supernova77]

I think it was dave Liahona who said "don't look for people like yourself, but the ones who don't mind shelling out a few bob"  -   It was something like that anyhow

Thats the saying I work to in the window cleaning world... Look for customers who have lots £££ and you can earn £££ 

Andy

[carpetclean]

still here vernon !??? i hear you was going to America

[craigp]

i think vernon hit the nail on the head, you only got a charge £50 for a through lounge, do it in 40 mins and thats a rate of 70 an hour (roughly)

why on earth is that unbelievable.

you got be slow and charging very little if you cant.

[calmore]

...think it's down to the HOLY water!

Now there's an interesting marketing idea!

[Mike Osbourne]

i think vernon hit the nail on the head, you only got a charge £50 for a through lounge, do it in 40 mins and thats a rate of 70 an hour (roughly)

why on earth is that unbelievable.

you got be slow and charging very little if you cant.

I presume we are talking truckmount here.

For me it's 20 min setup, 10 min pre vac, prespary & Agi 15min, 20 min extraction/ set pile and 15 min pack up. nd that's if it's straightforward.

 

[Mr Dvae]

I can't believe it myself but over the last 3 months every hour my truckmount has run averages about £90.00 obviously this doesn't count the setup/ messing about time

Regards Dave

[the red carpet]

Paul_Ashworth, Sorry i just saw your question

The £800 is divided between

£240 yellow pages
£140 leaflets
£320 leaflet delivery
£100 website listings (pay per click)

I do this every month, and send out a reminder card to old customers every couple months as well
Will also be trying the local newspaper soon, and some direct mail for commercial

[craigp]

just shows how we are all different, my total advertising spend this month;
£150 ish

[The Great One]

Hi

What responses are you getting on that £150?

Y/P want me to spend £3200 to be in 3 different catagories

carpet & Upholstery

Cleaning & Maintenance

Office Cleaning

Are any of you guys in these catagories and hows your response?

Regards

Martin

[Liahona]

Bloody hell, what a post. For my pennies worth......... Listen to what John and I

think it was Mike in what they have said. It doesnt really matter what anyone

 else is doing as each have different ways of doing things and as the man a and

 b scenario, profits will vary per person just as much as the initial price. I think if

you arent earning twice what you need so to speak you would need to change

something. Be it what you charge or what you do. Most of you know what I

charge for what I do but then I work as little as poss which has gone to 3 or 4

days a month. In my world I could never be booked up more than 5 or 6 days a

 month if I was extremely lucky. I take my hat of to those who find one or two

jobs a day or more. My theory has always been though to work less for a whole

 lot more and it has thankfully worked for me very well. I havent ever spent a

penny on advertising andsometimes struggle why anyone would advertise in

any form. Your ability to talk will always get you work. My suggestion would be

 to talk to the right people to get the work you want. Damn site easier than all

 these bits of note paper that we call fliers. Anyway, Best, Dave.

[John Kelly]

Dave (Liahona) has used his brains and cottoned on to a highly lucrative niche market. Everybody doesn't live in semis.