[Ricky M]

Joe was £20 when I took over but I really dont have a min as such
YET
BUT

[Mike Halliday]

If I'm driving from  A to D and I pass B no matter what my outgoing are (or how much I need to make) if I stop at B the money i make will be total profit ( apart from the pennies of chemical and a quids worth of fuel) so why stick to my minimum.

if I'm travelling from A to D and drive 20miles to Z then I charge a minimum charge.

...................................................................................................................................................

If i put an advert in the local paper that cost me £100 and I only get 1 job worth £120  how is this job different from me doing a job for £20? this theory blows the argument for a minimum charge out of the window

[Aquakleen Restoration Services]

John Kelly

John I think it was you who told me about a marketing meeting (possibly in York or thereabouts) that recommended a min charge of £95. I could definitely see you loosing business charging such a sum but might be a good idea to lower it when your less busy perhaps???

[Shaun_Ashmore]

All charges are based on supply and demand, if you get customers that will pay £95, that means that they love your work and nobody else will do or that you are getting too many calls so they can take it or leave it or that you have little or no competition. Small amount of calls and no takers and no dinner on the table means that £20 looks good.

Shaun

[John Kelly]

Mike, that is where monitoring your advertising expenditure comes in. That would obviously be uneconomic advertising unless it was over a long term and worked out over the term.
You could go on and on over this. All I was trying to point out was if you are going to have a minimum charge make it meaningful.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Is meaningful affordable to your customers? however I do my sums and even with a decent database and regular incoming calls but I feel confident (don't know for sure) that I would slow my calls significantly with a min £95 job ticket.

In the USA cleaners do have these higher min charges but IMO I think carpet cleaning is far more frequent in the average home albeit that they have to travel further as the cities are bigger and fuller with traffic.

Shaun

[Mike Halliday]

a minimum charge must be the minimum amount you can charge for it to be economical viable to do that job or is it how much money you can make for a specific amount of time.

if I had every single hour of my working day booked with work and on average I earned £65/hr then any job I attend must pay this amount....... because why spend an an hour attending a small job for £40 if while attending this job I could have been attending a job that earned £65/hr (hope this make sense)

but if I'm only working 70% of my working day and a small job can be done as an addition rather instead of a higher paying job then it makes sense to do it, even though I'm earning less  per hour.

 minimum charges are what ever you feel comfortable with, I could do a job for £10 without being out of pocket but I wouldn't.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

Minimum charge is a basic cover the costs plus a bit of profit, say 40.

Then add what ypu really like to earn and how concerned you are with working every minute.

There are lots of other things which can be done with spare work time, such as marketing, web sites etc.

I have an economic min of 60 but do not do many jobs under a hundred as there are ways of increasing the amount or dare I say, discouraging the potential customer.

Cheers

Doug

[Karl Wildey]

And then it also depends on your clients. If you went into a multi-million poud property and quoted £20 for a stain removal, you probablt will not get the job, where as if it was  a council estate, you probably would.
I suppose you min chargemust depend on your client market

[tony harrison]

Well after reading down the comments above it sounds that not many of you have a minimum callout.

Joe I remember when our minimum call out was as low as £15.00 but then again that was 30 years ago

Regards Tony

[Ralph Smith]

That is high!
Mine is £45, for regular customers would remove small stains free of charge.

[spindle]

my minimum charge is £50..........

i find that it is enough to slowwwww the price shoppers!!

thinking of going to £60......as all costs are rising.......

That is high!
Mine is £45, for regular customers would remove small stains free of charge.

do u make any money.........would never spot clean for free.......all my clients would tell me to spot clen the whole house!!!!

[Steve Weatherley]

It all depends on how busy I am. If I'm busy it's £50 but if not then I will  do a small job for as little as £35

[Jim Gibbard]

I think it's all about 2 words: Flexibility and Adaptability.  If you are flexible in your outlook and can adapt to different situations you can cover all bases without losing out through lost potential customers.  Some people may be willing to pay £95 to have their bathroom carpet cleaned, but I would imagine the "Pareto Principle" ( 80-20 ) rule would cover this situation with 20% going for it and 80% not going for it. 

If you do not get in, you have no chance to impress, no chance to develop a long term and profitable relationship with your new customer.  Plus the recommendations that would follow.  Anyhow!! in my case, mimimum charges come into play in only about1 in 10 enquiries. 

Perhaps we should ask ourselves: If we were not carpet cleaners, how much would we be willing to pay for a callout?