[AJCleaningServices]

My business mainly comes from domestic cleaning, that is why I do not mention commercial cleaning charges.

Thank you for your participation, any comments welcome.

Kind regards,
Arthur

[mxg]

Are these figure inclusive or exclusive of vat where applicable ?

Mick

[*Chris Browne]

are these what you charge the customer or what you pay the cleaner?


chris

[MrsMeredith]

I charge the customer £9 per hour for a basic domestic clean and the only person i have to pay at the moment is myself, at least until the business/customer count goes up. 

Tracey.

[AJCleaningServices]

The numbers are what you charge your customer inclusive VAT,
Kind regards,
Arthur

[Tim Downer]

There seems to be quite a range of votes there......but what is interesting is nearly all the votes concentrating on 3 prices!! Quite a difference - £9, £10 and then all the way to £16 getting the vote.
Are all the ones at £9 and £10 per hour from the smaller cleaning companies? And are those who vote for the £16+ per hour from the larger companies??

Be interesting to see

Regards

Tim

[lisa123]

i charge 9 - 10 per hour, and am a small company, people round here say we are expensive!
i couldnt make ends meet if i charged any less.

[MrsMeredith]

Hi Lisa, you know what i get roughly the same responses as you regards to price, some say yes i will pay that no problem,,, others will say ok i'm just getting some quotes!!

I am a very small company at the minute but i only regard it that way as i have 4 regular cleans (domestic) and only have to pay myself.

I agree with lisa about charging less than £9 per hr would not make it pay and be disastrous, there are costs to consider!

Tracey.

[Phoenix]

mine is £9 -£10 plus VAT, size of turnover for domestic work = £150 thousand per year.  Is that small or what???.. the rest of our work is mainly build cleans

[therapist]

I am absolutely astounded that any busines is charging as little as nine pounds, plus vat for a cleaning service and presumably solvent............

In addition to c/c business I have a Domicilery Care business where we are restricted by the Local authority to charging ten pounds twenty five pence, per hour, with carers getting paid six pounds, twenty, plus the cost of training, uniforms, NI and some transport.

We have the additional cost of running an office, with associated, phone, stationery, copiers, etc.

We have a regular 24 care workers and struggle to make a profit.

rob m

[MrsMeredith]

Hi rob m,

What sort of hrly rate do you think we should be charging then? and did you not start off small in your business and then build up your clientele and thus increase hrly rates when 1+ staff are involved??

At the moment I have only achieved the customers i have by being competitive amongst local competition and i'm pretty sure if i charge £10 + per hr for small domestic cleans i will not get any business. I have to get established and known for a good top notch cleaning service before i consider increasing hrly rates.

Tracey.

[*Chris Browne]

i think the lower end are probably smaller companies or one man bad cleaners(been there) and the top end are more than likely companies employing staff. if i charged £9.00 all in, then i would have to pack it in i think


chris

[lisa123]

the way i work it is 9 quid per hour for the first 4 weeks clean and then 10 quid per hour thereafter.
as i always think it is important to try before you commit yourselves. first 4 weeks is a trial period.
even so, people still think they should be paying 5er an hour. i did have one lady who though the cleaner pockets the full £10 per hour. I had to explain that i runa busioness and the cleaner gets around 5.50 per hour, and i do the cleaning i get paid even less. She was a strange picky type of woman. It takes all sorts.
We are never respected are we as cleaners.
My commercial (I have 2 now) are very happy to pay my prices, £9 - £10 per hour per cleaner and they supply all cleaning stuff.
They have even suggested that when the cleaning stuff runs out that we review our prices as they want us to bring in our own chemiclas etc.

[lisa123]

i think chris meant to say one man band up there, 
I have 10 domestic clients and 2 office contracts.
there is myself, my biz partner and i am just recruiting my first permanent cleaner.
So yes we are still small.

[*Chris Browne]

Many thanks!, have to stop picking my nose while im typing


chris

[MrsMeredith]

Lol@chris browne,,,,dirty boy!

Well done lisa for your cleaning/customer achievements!! I want to get to that level but have to be patient (only been going 5 weeks now) and have 4 regular domestic cleans so far. You inspire me!! how long you been set up in business Lisa?

Tracey

[lisa123]

Hiya  ive never been called an inspiration before 

we set up late august 2005, to be honest the only way we have advertisied is the website, a small weekly ad in local paper, and delivered a few hundred leaflets. I do send spec letters out every now and again.
The clients all find me at the moment.

so all in all around 6ish months. for 3 months of that i worked temp full time aswell, and didn't do anything with the biz. (sept - Dec), its all coming together now.

[lisa123]

how far is wheathill (wv16) from you tracy? I notice you are in kiddiminster. that place is a nightmare, i was stuck on a roundabout in kiddy for ages once lol

[MrsMeredith]

Tell me about it Lisa! Kidderminster is a nightmare at times, all roundabouts and uphill/downhill!

Wheathill,,,,,erm,,never heard of it,,is that where you are based Lisa?

[Tim Downer]

If you get yourself established and get known for doing a fantastic job.....and all for £9!! No wonder people start going crazy when you put the price up.

As has been mentioned many a time by other posters.....and i know it is difficult when you first start your business......but you must price up your work as you mean to carry on.

For example, if in say a years time you anticipate all your work being done by teams of cleaners....surely you need to have priced the work up to cover this from day one in anticipation of this increase in workload - then you will not have to tell the customer of such a large price increase.....especially when you work so hard anyway.

I can understand that if a cleaner does a rubbish job.....then the price will stay down. Having said that, if you do a fantastic job, market yourself properly.....then you will find the people that are willing to pay for your work.

Kind regards as always

Tim