Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: David Rogers on July 17, 2010, 02:18:37 pm
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Hi all,
I have a prospective job to clean all seats, the gangways and some roof upholstery in a fleet of coaches, for a local operator.
There are 10 vehicles, and all are 70 seater coaches, with a narrow gangway and the same size 'strip' of upholstery on the roof.
I really have no idea how much I should charge for this job, especially as it's a friend of a family member.
They want HWE throughout, and I'd accelerate drying using my 3 x driers. I'd probably be doing 2 x coaches per day as they always have two each day that aren't in service. For convenience inside the coaches, I may try doing the job with my Prochem Spot Pro. Either that or my back-up Craftex Maxi, which is nice and narrow for the bus gangway :)
I was thinking of basing the price on £3 per seat, with the gangway and roof part free...... that would therefore mean £210 per coach....
Does this sound feasible? I know there's no right answer, just after some views.
Please bear in mind that this is in the North East, where prices are around 10% lower than in the South. (No can of worms from that comment please!).
Thanks in advance,
David.
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I'd price it according to the time I'd expect to take against the hourly rate I'm happy with. Having said that I never work for family or friends if I can possibly avoid doing so.
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I used to clean the whole Siesta fleet in middlesbrough, charged £250 15 years ago.
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David i would offer to clean 1 coach at x amount on a trial to see how long the job takes you mention you could clean 2 a day what are you happy with on a daily rate?
As far as freinds and family go you stil need to price a fair amount to pay your overheads
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David, why should you give a reduction just because he is a friend of a friend. I have cleaned many 53 seater coaches including the headlinings, I know there is only a narrow strip on yours but you are talking about a 70 seater here.
I would certainly not be able to do a thorough job if I were to do two in a day.
I have always found one coach per day enough if you want to clean it to a good high standard which I would imagine the owner will be expecting from you.
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You could use dry foam for the roof, speeding up cleaning and drying time.
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Thanks for the feedback - very good points. I thought about the time factor for pricing (this is ultimately how I price most jobs, even if I'm talking room of sq.ft terms to the customer) .... but the difficulty is, I actually don't know how long it will take, never having done this type of work. :o
If I normally price up a job that will take me all day, I tend to work along the lines of £200, so perhaps I'll offer to clean the coaches to a high standard on the basis of this daily rate. If I then end up whipping along the seats (they're pretty clean to be fair) and get 3 x coaches done in a day that's good for the owner, conversely if I only get 1 coach done in a day then that#s the time it takes to get a high standard, and no-one's getting fleeced.
He's not so much asking for a discount but I would certainly position it that I am giving a F&F discount (even if I'm not!).
Cheers,
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£200 per day is a very reasonable price for cleaning coaches no matter if you clean only one coach or manage to get around two or even three.
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My god,where in the country are you ?
My day rate is £700 !! And i have got that consistently
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My god,where in the country are you ?
My day rate is £700 !! And i have got that consistently
Good for you - I think that's quite exceptional though, current climate aside!
I have been in business for a relatively short time, so for me it's a balance of 'eager' (not 'under') pricing and building up the word of mouths and reco's by offering great value for the pricing.
In my region (North East) I can not see any feasibly way of earning £700 in a day as a single operator, even if I was working 24 hours!
Your experience is clearly different.
Cheers,
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My god,where in the country are you ?
My day rate is £700 !! And i have got that consistently
Buy some decent pumps/vacs for your machine then Mark ;D
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Hi David,
I do coaches on a regular basis and charge £250 for the seats and carpet only to clean and deodorise. It takes about 2 1/2 - 3 hours bare in mind I use a truckmount and its still hard graft. I can do 2 in a day easy, 3 at a push if I really want to. With a good porty 2 would be a result in a long day.
I've never done a roof. Would be hard work I'd imagine so would stick another £100 on to do that as well ;). P.s. I'm on the South East coast but for this type of work the area shouldnt matter too much.
All the best,
Jason.
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My god,where in the country are you ?
My day rate is £700 !! And i have got that consistently
Good for you - I think that's quite exceptional though, current climate aside!
I have been in business for a relatively short time, so for me it's a balance of 'eager' (not 'under') pricing and building up the word of mouths and reco's by offering great value for the pricing.
In my region (North East) I can not see any feasibly way of earning £700 in a day as a single operator, even if I was working 24 hours!
Your experience is clearly different.
Cheers,
I spent 10 years in Teesside , in Carpet cleaning. There is plenty of money there, as there is in any county. LOADS of doctors, solicitors, footballers, business owners, people working in the chemical and oil business, house prices are relatively low, which means more spare income. The Chemdry franchise I sold in 2003 turns over 500/day min per van now, without insurance work.
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I used to live in the North east too ! do you know tees inshore engineering ,near the football ground ? His daughter was the reason i moved up there.
Worked at Santoro`s restaurant in Yarm,then worked at the Dudley arms,in Inglby greenhow,still a pic of me there behind the bar the last time i was in !!
I have only done about a weeks worth of £700 days in the 6 years i have been running ;D But i am coming close to that pretty often now.
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I have only done about a weeks worth of £700 days in the 6 years i have been running ;D But i am coming close to that pretty often now.
Mark what I think you should be saying is that since starting up you have targeted yourself at £700.00 per day. Over 6 years you have had a weeks worth of this target, so this is not a consistent rate. I believe in setting yourself realistic targets that can then be adjusted when necessary. If you do consistantly achieve the £700 per day rate over 10 months would be safe to say it is consistent, then you need to think about selling your services and subbing it out, then you wouldn't have to spend out on so many repairs to van and equipment ;D
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I suppose i average between £400 and £500 per day,so i am not that far off ,but then it can die,so over the year it balances out
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mark
devide your yearly turnover by 250 and you won't be far off your daily average. trust me, it will be no where near 400 to 500.
if it was, you'd be vat registered or in prison for tax evasion ;D
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I suppose i average between £400 and £500 per day,
Could you elaberate? You say 'average.' Against how many days per week is this?
Because....
If you are doing an average of £400 per day (and that btw is nowhere near £700) then say you do that 4 days a week and then do 46 weeks per year you're turning over £73,600 which means you have to be vat registered.
I like to think I'm doing you a favor here because after all your previous problems what you don't want is a tax inspection which results in you getting back charged for vat. It does happen.
As it is Marc your numbers don't add up.
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Mark
If you are taking 2000 a week plus why did you not go out and buy a new machine or pay sombody to put a new pump in instead of putting it in yourself
Jason I always thought Yarmouth was on East Coast to me South East Coast is Margate
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I used to live in the North east too ! do you know tees inshore engineering ,near the football ground ? His daughter was the reason i moved up there.
Worked at Santoro`s restaurant in Yarm,then worked at the Dudley arms,in Inglby greenhow,still a pic of me there behind the bar the last time i was in !!
I have only done about a weeks worth of £700 days in the 6 years i have been running ;D But i am coming close to that pretty often now.
Used to live in Eston ,, then after 5 years made enough to buy a nice house in Great Ayton, was a regular in the Dudley arms , nice food in there, always got a seat in the mezzanine , good for people watching.
Cleaning in all those villages was very lucrative, anyone with any money or sense would live there rather than on Teesside itself .
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Used to live in Gt ayton ! Bradleys Terrace on way out of village,on left,just behind where the garage used to be.
3 jobs Monday,£400 + but all through agency so payment 28 days
Tue day off
Wed 1st job £140,2nd job £116.00
Thur 1st £168,2nd £230
Fri 1st £60 2nd £250
Sat postponed until Monday £140 and £65 so far
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One thing I would say is that it genuinely is not all about money for me. I entered the industry after taking voluntary redundancy as an IT Project Manager earning £80k a year. In my first year as a c&u cleaner I think I earned £11k,..... and it was the best year of my life!
I rarely like more than 2-3 jobs in a day. It's a lifestyle choice. I have a detached home that I love with a very low mortgage (thanks to the redundancy lumper) and basically, if I earn £20k in a year, all my bills are paid, theres food on the table, a cheap hpliday and life is good. Of course, £20k is NOT by business target, I'm just saying that that's my comfort income. I aim to make around £30k a year. This gives me a good lifestyle and the work/life balance that I came into this game to achieve.
I have no desire to earn £700 a day unless of course it could be done be doing 2 x jobs, fairly local about 2-3 hours each ! ;D
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3 jobs Monday,£400 + but all through agency so payment 28 days
Tue day off
Wed 1st job £140,2nd job £116.00
Thur 1st £168,2nd £230
Fri 1st £60 2nd £250
So over a 5 day week that's £1364 averaging £272.80
Over the working days you have booked (4) that's an average of £341
Someway short of the £700
Now if the figures above are the normal for yourself then you won't need to be vat registered BUT if you're going to say this is a 'quiet week' then you will easily fall into the requirement for registering for vat.
So which one is it?
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Wish it was like that all the time Neil !! No that was a good week,next week is looking good also though,needs to carry on like this,and i am a long way off being vat reg
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So a little exageration Mark
As a matter of interest...............I was reading some stat's yesterday, and the highest average earners in the UK are, as you'd expect in the South East, but surprisingly, that region is only 10% higher than Scotland. The lowest by some considerable margin is Wales.
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Anyone remember the infamous Harry Enfield character.... LOADSAMONEY! He should have been a carpet cleaner if some of these figures are to be believed. ;D
The best day I've done has been £500 and that was a single commercial job in a call centre. (single operator as always, 9.5 hour day). I just cannot see anyone on their own consistantly claiming their daily rate is £700..... but each to their own.
Thanks for the suggestions and comments re: the cleaning of the coaches, I've prepared a quotation based on £220 per vehicle and I will 2 coaches per day (even if it means a 10 hour day). As I have 10 x coaches to do, this work is worth £2,200 and will be done in 5 days. That's a week I'll be very happy with financially although I'm under no illusion it'll be hard graft!
Cheers
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David
Amtech UK used to supply a ceiling tile cleaner and a cleaner for office type dividers that MIGHT be suitable for the roofs
Also, as Gary mentioned, using a dry foam can be a lot quicker when you know how..................
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david bit of topic bt looked at your site see you are wool safe approved is it worth it or not
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I know the £100 an hour guys will po ho me
I clean coaches take 3hrs I can do two a day
Are you worth £500 a day
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david bit of topic bt looked at your site see you are wool safe approved is it worth it or not
Hi Richard, my WS certification came with my HOST training. If you get trained by a major Woolsafe Certified training body, you'll usually get the certification after the training. I couldn't say whether it's worth it as a seperate investment / endorsement. I wouldn't of thought so, on it's own. But it does look quite good on a website / flyers etc.
Regards,
David
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Think they do the woolsafe aprove for the texatherm system if i remember rightly ???
Nice one ian the 100 pound an hour guys ;D
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Yes, most of the dry and VLM equipment makers have Woolsafe Approval. Host, Envirodri, Dry Fusion and Thermadry do, and quite possibly Texa as well.
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Thats it david did forget as i had mine years ago..old age yaay ;D
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Well I've made a visit again to this site to be wound up again. It can very misleading for newbies to hear various claims from some of the clowns on here. Here we are, this somes it up. This from the same chap on the same post. First " My god,where in the country are you ?
My day rate is £700 !! And i have got that consistently" then a little later its changed to " I have only done about a weeks worth of £700 days in the 6 years i have been running". My advice to anyone visiting this site is to at least take a sack load salt with everything said or better still believe nobody.
Chris
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;D
You just get used to it.
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wound up ;D
don't worry, be happy, woooooooo wooo wooo woooo wooo wooooo wwooo wo woo woooowaaawoooooooooo ;D
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from what i can remember i have never earned £700 in one day from carpet cleaning, I don't think I've even hit £600....... and i like to think I run a successful business.
if I hit £250-£300 I class it as a great day, but were some on here do earn the odd £700 in a day my earnings are very consistent throughout the year so I would guess it put me on Parr with the big daily earners
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Same here Mike. £300 is a great day for me.
Chris
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It's how you earn the figure too, not just the figure itself :)
I don't want to bleed from the ears, on my own, working a huge job that should really have been done by 2-3 people, to get the sort of money that 2-3 would realistically earn.
There's a big work/life balance in it for me. I get immense satisfaction earning £180 in a day that comes from 2 x relatively easy £90 quid jobs that took me a total 4 or 5 hours.
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Yep I'm with you Dave. Couldnt agree more.
Chris
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Like has been said some things have to be taken with a big pinch of salt.
I have carpets as an add on only to other stuff, 3 - 4 jobs a week does me and I'm happy at £300 - £400 pw and fit jobs in when I can do them. If I could get a day rate of £700 every day cleaning carpets and upholstery I would give up everything else I do and not have the great joy of employing others ;D
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Well I've made a visit again to this site to be wound up again. It can very misleading for newbies to hear various claims from some of the clowns on here. Here we are, this somes it up. This from the same chap on the same post. First " My god,where in the country are you ?
My day rate is £700 !! And i have got that consistently" then a little later its changed to " I have only done about a weeks worth of £700 days in the 6 years i have been running". My advice to anyone visiting this site is to at least take a sack load salt with everything said or better still believe nobody.
Chris
My head was done in for years not only by this Forum but letters from Fastrack etc
I was completley disatisfied
Now I have learnt to be happy with what I got but strive for a bit more :'( :'( :'( :'(