£100 an hour

« **on:** December 17, 2007, 09:58:32 pm »

everyone doing it?

I'm not talking an 8hr day earning £800. I'm talking pulling into the drive to driving away 1hr and earning £100 or 80minutes and earning £120.

I'm not posting this too brag but I do it often and I'm still doing a excellent clean which the customer is truly happy with.

within the hour I'd be doing a through lounge & kitchen.

please don't start preaching 'I would spend an hour vaccing before even starting' that's fine as long as you're earning an extra £100 for that hour.

and please all those aiming to make £35 an hour, don't comment I ain't interested in what you've got to say.

Mike
ps I don't want comments from those make £200 an hour either, cos you're lieing basterd

« **Reply #1 on:** December 17, 2007, 10:02:54 pm »

I often do some big jobs that equate to £100+ an hour .............. if only i could do a few more.

« **Reply #2 on:** December 17, 2007, 10:10:37 pm »

Chris big jobs are easy

I do a few nurseries & nursing homes that always, easily top the ton

its the normal domestics that I'm on about

Mke

« **Reply #3 on:** December 17, 2007, 10:15:43 pm »

Quote from: mike_halliday on December 17, 2007, 09:58:32 pm

I'm not posting this too brag

Why are you saying it then? Sorry but i couldn't see a point to your post, have i missed something?

« **Reply #4 on:** December 17, 2007, 10:18:13 pm »

Unless it's upholstery Yes I regularly get £100 an hour, never less than £80, percieved value for upholstery is different to the customer but I usually talk them into a carpet at the same time to up the hourly rate again.

Shaun

PS Mike she's doing good but not into this cold water clean though, ...very much 'Thanks Again'!

« **Reply #5 on:** December 17, 2007, 10:19:36 pm »

Glenda, I'm trying to stimulate lively conversation, the purpose of these forums

Mike

ps but to be truly honest I nicked the subject off the American ICS forum they are talking about earning $100 an hour which I though was a bit low

« **Reply #6 on:** December 17, 2007, 10:20:57 pm »

Glenda I think it's called checking the water, sometimes it's getting ready for a price rise or seeing if out technique is slowing but not really an ego thing because knowone knows if A, you really are doing it B, what your expenditure is as you may need to get £100 an hour.

Shaun

« **Reply #7 on:** December 17, 2007, 10:59:46 pm »

Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity!!

« **Reply #8 on:** December 17, 2007, 11:17:48 pm »

I think its all relative.

For arguements sake if your spending £10k a year on similar advertising to £1k your phone will ring more. So therefore you have to convert less enquiries to jobs, quote higher and make more money for your time.

However as we all know if your spending £10k rather than £1k your overheads are already so much higher the average price ticket has to be considerably more just to cover expenses.

Its swings and roundabouts really.

I have taken £100 an hour a few times in my relatively short carpet cleaning career but dont think I've ever earnt £100 an hour.

All the best,
Jason.

« **Reply #9 on:** December 18, 2007, 12:20:29 am »

New England manager is earning 6.5 bigs one a year.

48 working weeks, five days a week in a year at 10 hours a day = 2400working hours.

6,500,000 by 2400hrs =£2,708 per hour. And he doesnt have a tournement untill 2010.

And when we do the odd £100 an hour we feel like big fish. More like tiddlers in a giant f£$%ing ocean.

« **Reply #10 on:** December 18, 2007, 06:25:01 am »

Well.
what I do know is Mike regularly earns £100 per hr , as I have worked along side of him, and I must admit ,only on odd occasions had I acheived this prior to me getting my t/m .

I did acheive £1,400 in 1 day not to long ago using encap ,admitadly starting at 8am and finishing at 9pm , but since using t/m I have noticed better hourly rates , aiming to generate £300 per steady day.

I,m not bragging either,

just meerly stating some facts

Today, 1 job equating to £560 should be home by 4 pm

Geoff

« **Reply #11 on:** December 18, 2007, 06:31:33 am »

Mike, I meant the big ones are +......... getting into your realms of lying....... most jobs i do now are equating to a ton per hour!! This mornings job is 289 and i know i will be there under 3 hours :

............ tomorrows is around 5 hours work and was 520 last time i did it.
I only have 3 commercial clients so i was basing my claim on domestic averages. .................. people mock me for being home by lunchtime.......i am lazy, not greedy

One commercial recently ( 3 monthly job ) ............ 6 hrs saturday and 7 hrs sunday ......... someone ahead with vacuum and me with my trusty Charly pads ................. job = 2727.00 ............ if i could do one a month then i would be laughing

Talking to someone recently who works at a certain trust and the CC they use is on a contract..........regularly does 3 hours a day plus odd call for emergency and is a 56k a year deal :

« **Reply #12 on:** December 18, 2007, 07:26:16 am »

Hi Guys

I don't manage 100/ hour on most domestics using a porty but I'm not too far off.

Job size management is important if we want the 500 a day money, I have steadily discouraged single room/1 rug jobs which allowing for travel etc might be lucky to make 50/hour.

Cheers

Doug

« **Reply #13 on:** December 18, 2007, 08:21:42 am »

Like Doug I don't always manage £100 an hour on domestic work.More like £50-£60 on domestic but on commercial can easily hit the £100 an hour but not always.

Typical examlpe Thursday night travelled 60 miles to commercial job to be told they did not want it done.So 120 mile round trip billed them £189 but spent total of 3 hours travelling.Yet cleaned office carpets last week using d/f £180 was there just over an hour.

« **Reply #14 on:** December 18, 2007, 08:39:12 am »

I appreciate that its all about profit but the higher your hourly rate the better your chance of earning a better income.

I was only joking about comments from the £35 hr earners, I know a good living can be earned from lower rates when you've got the workload.

At the moment I'm working as a 2 man team so nearly every job is over the £100hr but normally any job over 1 room tips the ton unless I chose it not to (eg; a particularly attractive customer who insist I have a coffee or tea

or an elderly customer who wants to show me pictures of the grandchildren

)

My biggest profit earner is a H/S/L , T/L & kitchen job.

Mike

« **Reply #15 on:** December 18, 2007, 09:05:06 am »

The more I read the more I think the key to earnings is speed. It's all very well charging a hefty £/SqM but if you take an age you are no better off.

I'm sure I must be faffing around somewhere in my method. Large 3 bed house, all wool carpets EMPTY I did yesterday.

Granted I had to clean out and extract the double garage which was a mess, but the whole job took 6 hours and I charged £230, and that included protector downstairs.

In need to speed up!

« **Reply #16 on:** December 18, 2007, 09:47:35 am »

If Mike is using a two man team that equals £50 per hour although Mike has larger share.

We are also aware that the main advatage of a truckmount is speed

However a Good truckmount costs unless you have one made of sticky plaster and rubber bands

Has high depreciation costs etc 20K van 20k truckmount

Depreciation 10K a year plus 5k a year maintence and repairs extra insurance

So im not beating myself up just swearing at this mornings canceled job.

« **Reply #17 on:** December 18, 2007, 09:57:10 am »

So you only want comments from people who agree with you. Ok, yes I agree,

« **Reply #18 on:** December 18, 2007, 12:45:44 pm »

Just poped home for lunch to check my BT phone book ad as the plonkers messed it up.

Ian

Your figures are way way off. 10k a year dep. and £5k running costs. Who told you that a portable supplier

I'll work something out for you later.

Mark

« **Reply #19 on:** December 18, 2007, 01:45:12 pm »

Max'' what are you agreeing to ??

Ian you're right about the 2 man team but it doesn't double the speed its more about making things easy, I chat with the customer qualify want needs to be done and my helper sets up, I earn enough extra to pay his wage but its about having a easier day.

we are not talking about running cost or profitability we are talking about earnings per hr.

« **Reply #20 on:** December 18, 2007, 04:32:13 pm »

I manage £60-£70 an hour and work around 20 hours a week cleaning and 10 hours a week on leaflet dropping, 30 hours in total, i only work Mon-Fri. I spend around £75 a week on advertising. All my equipment and van are paid for.
I could spend more on advertising and work 40 hours a week but i dont need to!

« **Reply #21 on:** December 18, 2007, 04:35:35 pm »

You can dress the figures how you like. The GROSS NETT profit of the average 1 Van established carpet cleaner is a national average of 18K-25K, turnover can be as high as 60K but nett results will always be 18-25K. Saturation point is hit within about 7 years and you always earn the same as a one man band.

On the other hand an established 1 Van Roofing company at saturation point will have 215-250K turnover resulting in a 85K-120K profit.

Remember that you are running a business not working in a job. What you earn is not what you take.
Rule of thumb, try and imagine £100 of takings as £10 in your pocket and you wont go wrong. If your business takes £3000 in the week that's about £300 per week in your pocket. Take £5000 per week that's £500 in your pocket, not bad eh!

As carpet cleaners most of you will take about £650 - £750 per week on average!! That is totally unviable commercially and should only be classed as a modest to low income job, not a company or business.

Matt

« **Reply #22 on:** December 18, 2007, 04:53:19 pm »

Matt

I realise a business takes a big chunk of your money, especially if you are heavily investing in equipment and marketing to grow your business. But your figures don't seem to stack up to me.

You reckon there are loads of one man vans turning 60K and only making a 25k profit? That's a hell of a lot of costs.

« **Reply #23 on:** December 18, 2007, 05:10:09 pm »

Matt

Your figures do not compare likle with like.

An established 1 van CC, flat out could easily gross 125K with say, 25 K expenses giving profit of 100k.

Cheers

Doug

« **Reply #24 on:** December 18, 2007, 05:44:13 pm »

Matt,
I agree your sums dont add up to me either

« **Reply #25 on:** December 18, 2007, 05:48:34 pm »

If you don't get a simlar return to Doug's suggested figures, you are not marketing, or managing effectively.

If you feel you are approaching saturation, you simply increase your charges, or expand your workforce.

« **Reply #26 on:** December 18, 2007, 06:01:07 pm »

of courses they don't add up he's posted that before, he's just a wind-up merchant.

« **Reply #27 on:** December 18, 2007, 06:40:59 pm »

defo wind up merchant i mean 10% of turnover y would we all bother(im a window cleaner but reading with intrest).

« **Reply #28 on:** December 18, 2007, 07:11:08 pm »

Do you guys understand what saturation point is? This means your business has reached its full potential. It also means that the demand for your services stops at saturation point.

In other word, everyone knows about you, everybody knows your good, everyone has your number to hand and/or knows where to get it.
If they think carpet cleaning they come to you. That is saturation point, more can be spent on marketing but the calls remain the same.

New company profits accelerate year on year until they reach saturation. Then steadily increase with inflation only.

« **Reply #29 on:** December 18, 2007, 07:39:29 pm »

matt,

How wrong you are!

I agree saturation point is what you are suggesting , but this does not mean to say you cannot expand if you so wish.
you simply broaden your horizons, spread your wings, and go further afield, if, IF this is what you want
but when you think about it, there are always new custys even on your doorstep.

I see mars bars, cola, carling , etc. etc. etc. advertising every day.
I know what they are, I know their name and I know where to get them , so why do they keep advertising?
To keep the buyers informed, to remind them that they are there. so really your theory is out of the window

I think!!

Geoff

« **Reply #30 on:** December 18, 2007, 08:30:40 pm »

More likely the reality is, how much work, money and stress is someone prepared to put into expanding their business.

Yes a lot of people would be happy with 60k turnover driving a little van with a portie and home for tea.

Less will buy a truckmount, diversify, continue to put money back into the business.

Even fewer are prepared to take the risk of duplicating their operation and take on more operators.

The saturation point in reality is the point you say to yourself it's not worth it to do any more.

« **Reply #31 on:** December 18, 2007, 10:17:58 pm »

"Yes a lot of people would be happy with 60k turnover driving a little van with a portie and home for tea.".......... close but i am home for lunch

« **Reply #32 on:** December 18, 2007, 10:20:39 pm »

Put your feet up Chris and watch those wonderful programmes they put on the tele in the afternoon.

« **Reply #33 on:** December 18, 2007, 11:14:58 pm »

Saturation point is when theres no time left in the day or your body gives up in this game.

Mike

Do you still achieve the £100 an hour cleaning suites? I find suites the least profitable thing I clean. If so how do you do it with one man.

Mark

« **Reply #34 on:** December 18, 2007, 11:25:28 pm »

Quote from: mark_roberts on December 18, 2007, 12:45:44 pm

Just poped home for lunch to check my BT phone book ad as the plonkers messed it up.

Ian

Your figures are way way off. 10k a year dep. and £5k running costs. Who told you that a portable supplier

I'll work something out for you later.

Mark

I know just made them up to cut Mikes earning down

Would be interested to know true cost of running a Truxckmount over a 4 year Cycle

Must be a new one

« **Reply #35 on:** December 18, 2007, 11:46:08 pm »

I would say the running costs of a t/m versus productivity is minimal compared to a porty.

I can do easily twice as much work using a t/m compared to a porty. I have recent experience of this as I am using a hired van with porty at the moment to cover essential jobs while t/m is off the road awaiting van engine replacement.

After using a porty (low powered backup) for a few days now appreciate more than ever the cleaning speed and power of a t/m.

The running and maintenance costs are far higher than running a porty but productivity and quality of job /drying time is much much higher!

All the best,
Jason.

« **Reply #36 on:** December 19, 2007, 07:28:50 am »

Mark;
suite & L/R 2hrs for my 2 man team £140 with the special offer I use. I never just clean a suite, its always comes with a L/R.

there is no such thing as saturation point :

'everyone knows about you, everybody knows your good, everyone has your number to hand and/or knows where to get it. If they think carpet cleaning they come to you.'

I bloody wish!

Mike

« **Reply #37 on:** December 19, 2007, 08:10:25 am »

Reminds me of " Cheers " where everybody knows your name. In the village in which I was born and grew up, virtually everyone knows my name, but I chose to do business elsewhere, as there are more people in towns.
Thoughts of saturation are negative thoughts.
Anyway, if you have a catchment area with 1,000,000 homes, how many could you get round in 25 years if you did 2 per day ? and remember this is just your immediate locality.

Good to see someone posting genuine and realistic times for cleaning, how some can think they are running a successful business while taking 3 hour plus to clean a suite makes me wonder, and I have absolutely no doubt, that a suite cleaned by the Halliday team will be as clean as one done by the those who kid themselves, that taking twce as long, gets it twice as good and that will cost you twice as much ma'am.

« **Reply #38 on:** December 19, 2007, 05:58:13 pm »

Speaking to ovenu cleaner today charges £45 for cleaning oven and he was there from 1.30 till 3.0 customer over the moon with oven there was 2 of them.

I know what I would rather do for my hourly rate

« **Reply #39 on:** December 19, 2007, 08:27:55 pm »

Ive a friend who cleans ovens about that same money. Have no idea how he makes money at that rate.

Ian

Ive had my TM for two years. Only money spent has been servicing ie. oil, filters etc so Id say around £200 would cover that. Petrol is £5 per machine hour which equates to around £100-£150 in value. Depreciation Im not sure about but say 20% a year. Regarding vans even if you run a portable you still need a SWB transit. For a TM a LWB is idea so say the van costs £3000 more than a SWB to buy. Diesel costs will be a bit higher due to the weight. My transit gets 20mpg but Im told transits are hard on the juice.

If your busy and doing say £50k a year plus then a TM is worth looking at. I know when I used the portable it cost me £300 a year or so on vac motors etc.

Hope that makes sence.

Mark

« **Reply #40 on:** December 19, 2007, 08:34:15 pm »

Try to aim for £75p/h but often end up working for a lot less. Commercial often over 100p/h but thats weekends

« **Reply #41 on:** January 05, 2008, 11:02:22 am »

Why would you need a Transit to work with a portable ? That is absolute crap. I and many others, including franchisees, run perfectly well with, little Diahatsu, Suzuki, Vauxhall, Renault, etc, small vans, which have room for two large portables, plus everything else, you need.

C/D have a number of those little vans.

They cost half as much as a Transit to buy and to run and they can access properties which larger vans can't, plus they can be parked in very small spaces.

When I started many years ago, I had a Transit sized van, but soon realised the problems which could easily be overcome, by using a small van.

So, my little Suzuki cost £5400 two years ago, does over 60 mpg, costs £80 a year to service.

« **Reply #42 on:** January 05, 2008, 12:04:27 pm »

Who remembers Cleaning Co. ?

He used to get a lot of stick for having a little van (OK and some of his claims about portie vs truckmount results)

But he successfully ran a portie FROM the van and that was only a susuki sized jobbie.

Takes me 30 mins to set up and pack down, plus all the hassle of filling buckets (sloooow taps, custu washing up etc :

) whereas fill up with a hot water tank in the morning and you are independent and ready to go.

A smallish van allows you to park up probably 10ft away from where you would plonk the portie anyway on most jobs.

If I did this I worked out I'd make an extra 100 a week without a loss in quality of work.

« **Reply #43 on:** January 05, 2008, 12:15:20 pm »

My beloved Peugeot Expert fits into same space as my Focus ............ parking bays, multi storeys etc.
Every square foot of floor and wall space is used though .......... thinking bigger may help more than it hinders $:-\$

« **Reply #44 on:** January 05, 2008, 02:06:13 pm »

The Expert is the route I'll be taking.

I've heard they aren't overly reliable, but they are excellent value and exactly the right compromise in terms of size for kit a residential access.

« **Reply #45 on:** January 05, 2008, 02:26:57 pm »

I find they get through Disc Breaks and clutches quickly,

« **Reply #46 on:** January 05, 2008, 02:49:13 pm »

I have the Citroen Dispatch (same van as the Expert) still on original clutch after 86,000 miles, and carried a Truck Mount with 300Ltr water tanks Reels etc for 75,000 of those miles. Still original clutch and rear breaks, though is on the 3rd set of front disc brakes. I would say ideal van for porty set up, but a bit small for TM.
Dave.

« **Reply #47 on:** January 05, 2008, 03:40:58 pm »

Got mine on eBay at 18 months old ............. now 4 years old and never let me down ........... still only 38k on clock

Sails though MOT and only needed wiper blades this time :

Did have new brake shoes on its first MOT and not that expensive, even from Warwick Wright

« **Reply #48 on:** January 05, 2008, 03:57:11 pm »

Mike ,
Brag as much as you want mate but their is no way on gods green earth can you be doing a good Job. So a 3 piece suite & Livingroom carpet. Realistically I am sure some will agree, vac, prespray, spotting dwel time start to finish abt 2 and 1/2 hrs to do properly thats both sides cushions frames inside & out inc. the back, prespray & clean the carpet.

So you get 250:00 for 2 & 1/2 hrs you got to be in the 40% tax bracket and VAT registered.

P.S. Mile you don't want to now what I make an hr you would be sick.

Cheers Jim

« **Reply #49 on:** January 05, 2008, 04:00:48 pm »

Do remember that PSA (Peugeot-Citroen group) consistantly make the best diesel engines for motor vehicles.
I have not heared of any bad reports re clutches nor brakes, so bit confuesed on that comment.

Do have problem with heater fan at the moment. Working one day then zilch, nowt. I have checked the fuses - OK. Its a bit cold to do without but need the van on the road as well.

« **Reply #50 on:** January 05, 2008, 04:08:45 pm »

jim your right, on the example you give I could never earn £100 an hr but I've already said that , you need to read all the posts not just jump in at the end.

I'm basing my figures really on carpet cleaning, suite cleaning will always be lower.

I bet I would be sick if you said what you earned an hour but I'm just a lowly carpet cleaner, your Ireland No1 carpet cleaning entrepreneur

Mike

« **Reply #51 on:** January 05, 2008, 04:18:06 pm »

Mike,
You no the funny thing I don't actually clean that much carpet now. The type of work I do has changed. Probably being a bit petty with my post, I can see it possible on large commercials a 100 an hr. I now the guys over here i.e the decent carpet guys are struggling a bit. I don't even think its the the cheap boys doing the damage its that s£&" brown on your side of the pond doing the damage nearly aiding & abetting another full blown recession.

Jim

« **Reply #52 on:** January 05, 2008, 04:33:36 pm »

Quote from: Mike Osbourne on January 05, 2008, 12:04:27 pm

Who remembers Cleaning Co. ?

He used to get a lot of stick for having a little van (OK and some of his claims about portie vs truckmount results)

But he successfully ran a portie FROM the van and that was only a susuki sized jobbie.

Takes me 30 mins to set up and pack down, plus all the hassle of filling buckets (sloooow taps, custu washing up etc : ) whereas fill up with a hot water tank in the morning and you are independent and ready to go.

A smallish van allows you to park up probably 10ft away from where you would plonk the portie anyway on most jobs.

If I did this I worked out I'd make an extra 100 a week without a loss in quality of work.

cleaning co is still alive n kicking with his little van setup and allways earns £100 plus hour

« **Reply #53 on:** January 05, 2008, 04:52:32 pm »

Hope Gary is still about, used to enjoy his posts. Thought he sold up and moved abroad.
He did talk sense.

PSG, please don't blame us for Gordon Brown, we didn't vote for him either. Wish we lived in a democracy $:-\$

« **Reply #54 on:** January 05, 2008, 04:53:19 pm »

Paul.

We knew it was you but you are in Essex not Norfolk