[Jonny jones]

hi i did a builders clean today , i quoted £288 for me and another to do two days work,, it was only a stair case and a little room coming off it,  i cleaned and wax polished to banisters and stairs, . then today they wanted me to do a little part of a wooden floor, clean and wax it.,  it only took my 7hrs to do and i printed the invoice earlier but i felt bad so i only charged them £200

did i do wrong or was that expensive anyway


best regards jonathan jones

let castle take the hassle


 

[Jan K]

Up  to you m8, if you felt you had done a job well done for the £200, then not only will you have been paid a nice little earner but you will also have gained a reputation for being honest..........more important imo . Also would you have felt better if you had charge the full £288 or not? 

[Jonny jones]

hi jen,  i felt because i only worked one day out of the 2 days quoted, i couldnt really charge them full price, and as you said that if its honest i could get more work from these people, as they are a main contractor for the national trust in the north west and wales.

how much would have charged and if you did it sooner would you have reduced the cost

thanx jonny


let castle take the hassle

[martin19842]

hi there

if you quote an amount of money for a job, and then deliver the service to the standard required, but within in an iproved time, then that is your benefit.

the client has accepted the price, which they have considered and accepted to be of a reanable price for the work.

i will always say to the client, that  " the work will take about x time to complete, but we may complete the job within that time"

how you resource the work and complete the work is down to you.

the problem that you have with reducing the pricing, expecially to a main contractor, is that they are more likely to try a neg the price down in the future.

we have built ur reputation on delivering a quality service, at a price.  and we will continue to do that.

regards

martin

[Liahona]

As Martin has said you have shot yourself in the foot.  Your next job of 288 will also have to be done for 200.  You have suggested to the builder that 288 was too much, which of course is nonsense, nevertheless you have worthed yourself to be 200 for the work done.  If it took twice as long I am sure he wouldnt have paid you 576.

Best, Dave.

[keith b]

I understand where castlefloor is coming from, but never reduce the amount you quoted for a job just because you got it done quicker than you first thought.

As others have said, you will now have to lower your prices for other jobs in the future.

Getting good cleaners/refurbishers is not easy, and organisations like the National Trust would prefer to pay more for someone reliable/trustworthy and proficient, rather than cheaper because some of there premises are heritage properties they need special care.

Also, there may have been occasions when your co worker could not have turned up on the job for some reason, and you needed to get someone quick to cover them, that extra £88 could have been used to entice someone else to cover them.

[window pain]

What would you have done if you had underestimated your price, you couldn't go back to the contractor and ask for more money could you?

[Jan K]

I don't see why Castle cant charge £288 for his next similar job, after all each job is quoted on its own merits isnt it?

[J. Deans]

Have I got this right?

2 people 1 day.
+ 1 person another 7 hours.

3 days work for £200!
£8.67 per hour before costs.

Hope you have all your insurances and pay your taxes etc., because I couldn't work for that!

[Liahona]

Jan, I understand your point but and this is only an example, if the next job was the same or very similar then the price would accordingly need to be similar.  Else why would one day it be 200 and the next almost 50% more?

J. Deans, I didnt even mention the amounts charged for the services rendered.  Each to their own as has been often posted about but for the 200 for the services I would rather have walked my dog.

  My "helper" gets in a day what was worked hard for, over two days.

My last comment and hopefully it will help Castle Floorcare.  I do a large amount of work for The National Trust and The National Heritage Society and they often pay well over the odds for good reliable company's and or individuals.  This being the case the person giving you the work believe me is well compensated for what he does.  I am sure too he would pass on the suggestion of 288 and not the 200 you charged in the end.  If you are happy at 200 for what you did then thats fine, if it was me I would double or maybe even triple and quadruple your charges.  Believe me you will still get the work at way more than you are charging for.

Best, Dave.

[J. Deans]

True Jan, each job has it's own merits and should be priced accordingly.
But Liahona has a point.

The price quoted for the hours worked is what matters.
Castle would have to now justify a large increase in price for almost any 'manual' work that took a similar lenth of time (not counting material requirements and additional costs of course - this is where 'merit' comes into play most)

When I say "a large increase in price" I mean, to come into line with what another cleaning firm may have charged.

Again, I agree with Liahona, we may have charged 3x that amount - but it is difficult to say without a survey - but just going by the hours worked!

[Jonny jones]

thanks for all who commented, i invoiced £288 in the end, because as most of you said they were happy at the price regardless of how long it took,

i quoted the price on the basis

£6 per hr x 1 person, 16hrs
and £12 per hr for myself 16 hrs
 but we did it in 1 day so im the winner there

thanx everybody. 

how much do others charge give me a clue please then i can get a better idea when i do quoting next time

thanx jonny

let castle take the hassle

[martin19842]

hi there

£6 per hour , what are you paying your chap.  you can only be on pennies per hour profit?

youve got to be looking at a bog standard person, charging out at between £150 - £225 per day.

and then technical labour at say £250- £325 per day.

add materials labour etc.

the charging rate being what the customer is paying.

to give you an idea

we did a job on friday evening. 3 men, on site for 5 hours, therefore 15 labour hours, standard cleaning after building works. invoice value £700 plus VAT

sunday evening 2 men total of 10 labour hours £500 again standard cleaning after building work.

regards

martin

[Liahona]

At last, someone else who charges what should be.  Best, Dave.

[J. Deans]

We pay our staff £7.30 p/hour.

We charge the client £15 p/cleaner hour.

But we don't charge by the hour. We estimate the total amount of cleaning hours the job will take, then times that by 15 and quote for the whole job.
If we complete the job within the time (and we usually do) we gain and the client is happy.

[Art]

to give you an idea

we did a job on friday evening. 3 men, on site for 5 hours, therefore 15 labour hours, standard cleaning after building works. invoice value £700 plus VAT

sunday evening 2 men total of 10 labour hours £500 again standard cleaning after building work.

regards

martin

Martin,

I agree you can at times get away with charging like that, but only occasionally.

To be competitive and win work there's no way you would get anything, going in with hourly rates like that.

Sorry to jump in, but anyone that's new and reads what you've stated are going to be miles out.

Arthur

[clean team]

i would just say it was a typo on the invoice and try and get the full amount back so no hassle next time.i try and work off £300 a day for two people.after paying your worker you you should get about £220 for your self.dont forget to treat it like a buisness not just a wage 

[martin19842]

hi there

Art

we are competitive, we are providing a good service, work unsociable hours, and deliver to tight deadlines

£150 a day as a charging rate is nothing excessive.

most of our work now is charged as a per job rate, and not by hours,

justify your charge, and sell up, to prvide a service that the client needs.

there are too many people charging bottom end rates.

i'm in business, to provide a standard of living for myself and family, and to provide quality services to clients.

i dont profess to be the cheapest in the country and i never will be.

regards

martin

[J. Deans]

Art.

How can you say that?

Martin if perfectly right!

Anyone that undercharges is demeaning our business!

Just because we are 'mere' cleaners - does not mean that we cannot charge a fair rate - for the skills that we have!

And it is a very skilled job!

[Art]

Hi martin & J. Deans,

 I think you misunderstood me.

£150 a day is the least i charge for a day and sometimes more. The part of the post i was refering to was the :
we did a job on friday evening. 3 men, on site for 5 hours, therefore 15 labour hours, standard cleaning after building works. invoice value £700 plus VAT

sunday evening 2 men total of 10 labour hours £500 again standard cleaning after building work.

What i meant was for a  newbie that would possibly be confusing .

15 man hours for £700 isn't every day pricing.