Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: robert meldrum on December 01, 2010, 07:54:36 am
-
That's to clean all the carpets !
-
Robert
The old saying goes time is money. if you dont have much work then yes. but with no stain removal (spots OK) and no vacing or moving furniture.
When your time is short your prices should again reflect that and be high.
Respect
Ian Harper
-
In no way are my prices expensive, just realistic... But £75 is rather a low price IMO!
-
Tooooooooo low for a 4 bed house
-
Is this a serious question ? ::) ;)
-
I will be a new start up in the new year.
Doing a few courses in january. Whilst i dont have the most powerful machine i will have a decent one.
Offered to do my mothers for free, 4 bed whilst gaining experience, She is not the wealthiest of people and is very penny concious
but is trying to insist on giving me £100 (must say quite large house)lounge ,sep diner,study,3 d/b, 1 single
Paul
-
I cleaned my mate house last month took me 3hrs cost me £5 diesel and 50p chemicals.
he took us out for a meal which cost us £120 for 5 of us.
you can clean 4 bed houses for £75 but to build a business on this price every job has to be a 4 bed house, because single rooms would have to be £15-£20 then the maths won't work
-
if your charging that then do you want some work from us ?
where do u live ?
-
more like £175 and thats too cheap!
-
That's to clean all the carpets !
are you having a laugh? :o
-
That's to clean all the carpets !
Ok,
So are all the downstairs hall & landing laminated? with just a middle runner up the stairs. Are the bathroom (s), ensuite Vinyl or such like. Is there only about 20 odd metres of carpets showing around the furniture (and they don't want furniture moving)....then yes that is a fair price. ;D
-
if someone offered me 3 a day everyday, 6 days a week and didn't want any spots and stains treated, didn't mind the carpet being a bit wetter than normal no furniture to move and didn't want the draft marks worried about. oh and all within 3 miles of me. so thats 2 hours per house. i'd do it.
no advertising, £25 quid a day costs. and that includes a maccies. ;D
£1200 a week profit. thats more than most make on here so yeah why not.
-
Its not that simple D, as you know
-
£75 to clean a 4 bed house is VERY cheap, but if you are not busy and need the work then try and hold out for £100.
The customer will find it hard to get their house cleaned for less than that.
-
if someone offered me 3 a day everyday, 6 days a week and didn't want any spots and stains treated, didn't mind the carpet being a bit wetter than normal no furniture to move and didn't want the draft marks worried about. oh and all within 3 miles of me. so thats 2 hours per house. i'd do it.
no advertising, £25 quid a day costs. and that includes a maccies. ;D
£1200 a week profit. thats more than most make on here so yeah why not.
If only ;D
What only one maccies? ;D
-
I also think it's on the low side and only posted as it's what's being advertised on a web site by what appears to be a network of carpet cleaners around middle England.
I'm not knocking it as they may be a very professional bunch of people and do excellent work and may have higher tickets than the posted price suggests.
They have an excellent website with some interesting claims in it which should get their phones ringing.
-
Get real £75 for a 4 bed house is far too cheap, start doing jobs for that price what you going to charge for a through lounge £15?
Mark
-
Get real £75 for a 4 bed house is far too cheap, start doing jobs for that price what you going to charge for a through lounge £15?
Mark
Maybe the through lounge is the only carpeted area in the 4 bedroomed house ;D
-
Far too cheap :( to do a 4 bed house properly would take me the best part of a day how much is that a room ?
no professional carpet cleaner should be charging such a silly price and if you think, well
its to build up a client base, they will all want it done at this price :'(
-
IT'S NOT ME........................this is a network of operators in South Yorkshire, but they might have a lot more to attract and retain customers than low prices.
Their site is good and they claim to have an interesting product.
-
Me £150 -£200 for a four bed house any takers ;D
-
Robert whats the website address?
-
no professional carpet cleaner should be charging such a silly price and if you think, well
its to build up a client base, they will all want it done at this price :'(
How true.
Keeping a long story shortish, had a couple of jobs passed on to us, by a local guy who now can't keep the appts!!!!! he had priced over the phone, got no details whatsoever except it's a lounge and hsl!!!!! on both jobs. . All I can say is the guy doesn't want to make profit on his work! I have called the custies and explained what has happened and we have agreed to Quote (properly) and then it's down to the custies what they want to do. One of them has already said "well I don't want to pay much more than this, so how much will yours be" I explained it again to her that the price already given was a guess as he had no idea of what he was coming to and only on that second explanation did she seem to start to understand. Now that I have some flimsy details of the jobs, I have worked out that matey boy likes to work at something like £15 p/h. Oh by the way he has an employee who does the cc'ing as well so his wages have to come out aswell as normal overheads.
I know for a fact that he only had these 2 jobs booked for the rest of this week so how is this side of his business surviving? £100 ish over 2 jobs (both lounges and hsl) and one 10 miles out of town so 20 mile round trip for that one!) and that includes vat so £85.11 nett. to pay 2 days wages and overheads ::) ::)
-
Thats sounds cheap to clean and maybe they are trying to build up a set up but wont be around too long at that price.
Is there a link robert for the site?
-
Mike / Clinton
www.thecarpetcarenetwork.co.uk
-
sounds like an upsell if ever i seen one.
pay what you like. yeah right in other words, get what you pay for.
-
Theres a few guys in the yellow pages advertising £20 a lounge and £40 a suite.
How they make money I dont know but then maybe they they are happy earning £200 a week after expenses.
Most customers arent thick and will not go with these crazy prices.
Mark
-
This guy is a member on this forum: http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?action=profile;u=17350 on here yesterday.
As Mark says, it could be that they are earning 'beer money' or just have no overheads whatsoever. God knows what the quality of the clean is like!
Mark.
p.s. yep, too cheap - does the same as Enterprise cleaning?
-
I'd do the whole house, clean the oven and power wash the drive for £75
As long as I could use the power washer for all 3 jobs ;)
-
Thanks robert..
-
Your right mark its the same person..
-
You tell us the price you want to pay
This reminds me of the sandwich shop that had a sign ANY FILLING YOU WANT WE HAVENT GOT WE WILL GIVE YOU £10
I asked for elephants balls on brown the guy told me they had run out of bread ;D
-
£75 + £90 for dedorising £165 for a 4 bed house
-
so where does it say £75 for a 4 bed?
-
Derek
I don't understand the concept tell me more ........................
-
am only guessing bob but i presume its as simple as £8.99 for 2 rooms.
pay what you like will get you in the door then its up to the techy to upsell while putting down the job for that price. but like i said i'm only guessing.
something like "oh you want to pay £40 for the whole house, well i can do that but i couldn't use any chems or wouldn't turn a profit, if you had the chems and by the way, heres the difference between the 2 cleans,it would only cost an extra £?? and then we could get that stain out for xx" and so on and so forth
i'm sure monty can explain it alot better seeing as its his or his bosses angle. looks like a franchise of sorts,
anyway, where does it say £75 for a 4 bedder?
-
I've had a good gander through the entire site Derek and on the surface comes across as legit' there are a fair number of companies listed and everything seems to be pretty well covered re' charges which are low, but not totally unrealistic if you follow the " customer for life " and upselling concept, you could quickly build a faithful client base .
They list all charges clearly and appear to have put together a pretty good marketing programme based on " affordabilty "
Don't think it's a franchise, more like a group of people who know each other and have similar views on products, charges, etc.
I'm sure someone will come on as they appear to have nothing to be ashamed of or afraid of, other than being accused of being too cheap by some.
-
There are four bedroom houses and four bedroom houses. I can say hand on heart I have done one this year for £85 and I did one this week for £200 and frequently do them for £300+. It means nothing.
-
I agree with wynne, I see modern 4 bed house that are smaller than Victorian 3 bed terraced houses and i would clean the modern house a lot quicker and with less hassle. the fact that it has 4 bedrooms is misleading
-
It's worded in an unusual way, referring to " average " prices paid by recent customers, but the strange one that really needs clarifying ( to distance them from baiters ) is the statement that customers can tell them how much they want to pay.
As I type it occurs to me that this may be a roundabout way of saying ................We offer different prices according to how many tasks you want carried out !!!!!!
-
That one where people are asked what they want to pay is another crafty one which most people won't do because they are worried someone may get one over.
Again do it in good areas. One the average you will probably get paid more than your own prices. It's part based on people not wanting to look cheap, yet they would happily ring round for the cheapest price. Isn't that strange!
-
I also think it's on the low side and only posted as it's what's being advertised on a web site by what appears to be a network of carpet cleaners around middle England.
I'm not knocking it as they may be a very professional bunch of people and do excellent work and may have higher tickets than the posted price suggests.
They have an excellent website with some interesting claims in it which should get their phones ringing.
Yes £75 is a fair price, this is what OUR customers pay. Yes our phones do ring, Yes we do get recommendations, Yes we do vacuum and move furniture and Yes we do have happy customers.
Yes we do get bigger tickets
Yes you do the Maths
-
no professional carpet cleaner should be charging such a silly price and if you think, well
its to build up a client base, they will all want it done at this price :'(
How true.
Keeping a long story shortish, had a couple of jobs passed on to us, by a local guy who now can't keep the appts!!!!! he had priced over the phone, got no details whatsoever except it's a lounge and hsl!!!!! on both jobs. . All I can say is the guy doesn't want to make profit on his work! I have called the custies and explained what has happened and we have agreed to Quote (properly) and then it's down to the custies what they want to do. One of them has already said "well I don't want to pay much more than this, so how much will yours be" I explained it again to her that the price already given was a guess as he had no idea of what he was coming to and only on that second explanation did she seem to start to understand. Now that I have some flimsy details of the jobs, I have worked out that matey boy likes to work at something like £15 p/h. Oh by the way he has an employee who does the cc'ing as well so his wages have to come out aswell as normal overheads.
I know for a fact that he only had these 2 jobs booked for the rest of this week so how is this side of his business surviving? £100 ish over 2 jobs (both lounges and hsl) and one 10 miles out of town so 20 mile round trip for that one!) and that includes vat so £85.11 nett. to pay 2 days wages and overheads ::) ::)
This is Definitely not us
-
If you don't mind I would rather you didn't slag off the standard of our cleaning and about how my business operates. As the owner I have 18+ years experience as a professional carpet and upholstery cleaner as well as other business managment qualifications. I am an advisor for other businesses both here in the UK and abroad. My business ethos is little and often providing a service for ALL. This is implemented in all the businesses I advise for and has been proven to be very successful for them and their customers.
-
Fair play to you Monty.
I actually quite like the thinking behind the way you do things. My guess is that you are trying to offer a kind of "carpet cleaning for all" regardless of their ability to pay.
Am I right?
Pricing always seems to lead to a heated debate and this occasion appears to be no different.
-
We dont offer a "carpet cleaning for all" regardless of their ability to pay... We supply a professional service at a price people can afford regardless of their circumstances.
-
Charging by the square metre, this must be about £1 per square metre if you're lucky.
-
We dont offer a "carpet cleaning for all" regardless of their ability to pay... We supply a professional service at a price people can afford regardless of their circumstances.
That's what I meant Monty. It wasn't intended to suggest that you are unprofessional, simply that you don't just go after all the high end jobs so you can charge top dollar like a lot of carpet cleaners seem to.
As I said, I like the idea.
-
We find that the lower to middle end clients are more gratefull and live in the real world. Oh and there is allot more of them.
Thank you for your comments - At least somebody understands
-
We find that the lower to middle end clients are more gratefull and live in the real world. Oh and there is allot more of them
That is exactly the thinking behind my pricing structure.
There are a lot of carpet cleaners in my area who have been established a long time and with most of the business in this game coming through referrals it will be pretty difficult to poach customers from them.
I decided to go with a similar approach to you and try and tempt those who might ordinarily not have their carpets cleaned with affordable prices and not just concentrate on those who have bulging wallets and are stupid enough to pay £100 to have one room cleaned.
-
With respect Guys
you are all saying how cheap it is, so how do you sell your service to your customers. if your face to face Its easier but when your quoting over the phone its harder. This is one reason we have different levels of service
Plus most big jobs are move out from tenants surly your not telling me that you get those high prices on these jobs.
Plus you Tm guys are always going on about how quick you are. I could extract a four bed in under two hours if its empty, no stain removal, or vacing.
My point is that by saying you get high prices you must have to prove value. this works both ways cheap and expensive.
If your busy sure you can and should put your prices up. but if not like me i would do this job with no problem provided it was empty or a highlight clean.
I am very interested in how you get these prices so come on guys lets us know please, I am sure I could do with the extra money.
Respect
Ian Harper
-
no professional carpet cleaner should be charging such a silly price and if you think, well
its to build up a client base, they will all want it done at this price :'(
How true.
Keeping a long story shortish, had a couple of jobs passed on to us, by a local guy who now can't keep the appts!!!!! he had priced over the phone, got no details whatsoever except it's a lounge and hsl!!!!! on both jobs. . All I can say is the guy doesn't want to make profit on his work! I have called the custies and explained what has happened and we have agreed to Quote (properly) and then it's down to the custies what they want to do. One of them has already said "well I don't want to pay much more than this, so how much will yours be" I explained it again to her that the price already given was a guess as he had no idea of what he was coming to and only on that second explanation did she seem to start to understand. Now that I have some flimsy details of the jobs, I have worked out that matey boy likes to work at something like £15 p/h. Oh by the way he has an employee who does the cc'ing as well so his wages have to come out aswell as normal overheads.
I know for a fact that he only had these 2 jobs booked for the rest of this week so how is this side of his business surviving? £100 ish over 2 jobs (both lounges and hsl) and one 10 miles out of town so 20 mile round trip for that one!) and that includes vat so £85.11 nett. to pay 2 days wages and overheads ::) ::)
This is Definitely not us
I know it isn't :)
-
Monty
Well done for coming on and defending your trading style I posted the original comment expecting a reply from someone involved in the network.
From reading your web site I reckon you have a good business model
-
I say good luck to him. I also say best of luck to people who charge 5x that. I really don't care what others are charging, it has ultimately no impact on my business therfore I don't care.
Now, if you are not making as much money as you want, then it's a different story. You are competing against people who are undercutting you and you are 'losing' work and you begrudge those who are able to get work yet are charging way more than you.
Get your own house in order, then other people's pricing is a non issue.
-
If i were losing a lot of work because of my prices i would be concerned but i am not, i think for the service and hard work i put into cleaning carpets and upholstery i am good value if that means i charge more than £75 for a four bedded house so what, i still get referrals from these customers so they must also think i am good value too.
people will pay well for trustworthy professional work,so why undersell it ?
I remember my first few jobs that i priced i modelled my pricing from guys on here doing well, but I rembember when i calculated the price on those first few jobS but i stuck to my guns even though i was thinking thats a lot of money why would they pay me all that it was much more than i earnt in my previous line of work but i got those jobs and got repeat work from those customers, If a customer is happy thats all that counts, all i know is i would rather not rush around earning a crust but take my time to do the very best.
-
Tell us how you make money at this price level. By my calculations based on the following
5 days a week at 5 hours a day. Other 3 hours spent driving or on phone.
£75 to clean a 4 bed regardless of vacing size etc will take around 2-3 hours unless you want an early grave. So thats around £180 a day less £80 a day expenses.
Thats £100 a day less tax, holiday pay, sick pay, pension.
Thats not a good wage for someone self employed. You can and should be doing better.
Mark
-
£80 expense on a 180 day!!!! i dont even spend that much a week!
-
"Other 3 hours spent driving or on phone."
How far do you go between jobs??
If I do 2 or 3 jobs a day I'll still spend less than
an hour in driving.
"So thats around £180 a day less £80 a day expenses."
£80 a day for expenses? How much are fish and chips in your area?
Probably do on average about 20 mile a day for work say 120 mile
a 5 day week, that's less than 3 gallon @ £5.40 ish a gallon.
John
-
Ahhh "The Irish One"
Must be the semtex weighing the van down ;D
BANTER...
-
Tell us how you make money at this price level. By my calculations based on the following
5 days a week at 5 hours a day. Other 3 hours spent driving or on phone.
£75 to clean a 4 bed regardless of vacing size etc will take around 2-3 hours unless you want an early grave. So thats around £180 a day less £80 a day expenses.
Thats £100 a day less tax, holiday pay, sick pay, pension.
Thats not a good wage for someone self employed. You can and should be doing better.
Mark
£80 expenses on a £180 day? You must be doing something wrong!
-
I sat down and calculated my annual expenses then worked out the weekly cost it was very scary :o maybe its less for the more established guys
-
My total weekly costs are £104.00, diesel, chems, van, insurances, advertising, servicing, uniforms.
Mark
-
This is why a lot of guys go bust after the first year, they 'think' they know what their costs are but havn't factored everything in including annuals, insurance, maintenance, TAX etc
-
^^^ but £80 a day!! maybe for u truckmounters, i. But mine is around £95 a week including everything. And thats £40 a week diesel.
-
My entire annual overheads for last year, divided by 52 weeks and then divided by 5, works out at....... £70 a day :)
It all adds up ;)
-
I say good luck to him. I also say best of luck to people who charge 5x that. I really don't care what others are charging, it has ultimately no impact on my business therfore I don't care.
Now, if you are not making as much money as you want, then it's a different story. You are competing against people who are undercutting you and you are 'losing' work and you begrudge those who are able to get work yet are charging way more than you.
Get your own house in order, then other people's pricing is a non issue.
Well said Mr Jones
-
if he is employing and his costs for wages and running costs are £100 a day then he makes £80 a day from each operative as long as his staff are fully trained, polite and do a good job and he monitors standard of work with customers then he will be providing a very good highly competitive service offering a livable salary and making a healthy profit, well done
-
Jim
well done mate a man with real guts
respect
Ian Harper
-
£75 for a 4 bed house, is that a joke?
My tag today h/s/l, computer room £169 :P
I'm glad I'm not working my as* off for £75 ;D
-
I cant believe your overheads are £90 a week. Do you actually work 5 days a week or just two.
My van costs are £60 a week diesel, tax, insurance, repairs etc.
Do you not buy equipment? or advertise?
If I could get them down to £90 Id be rich.
Mark
-
£75 for a 4 bed house, is that a joke?
My tag today h/s/l, computer room £169 :P
I'm glad I'm not working my as* off for £75 ;D
£169 for h/s/l and a computer room ?
Did you manage to keep a straight face when you gave them that ludicrous quote ? :o
-
£75 for a 4 bed house, is that a joke?
My tag today h/s/l, computer room £169 :P
I'm glad I'm not working my as* off for £75 ;D
£169 for h/s/l and a computer room ?
Did you manage to keep a straight face when you gave them that ludicrous quote ? :o
In fact she never battered an eye lid about the price and I price like this all the time. It took 4 hours to complete (because I had a vac problem). How much would you have charged?
-
When are folks going to learn that this debate will go on for a thousand years and neither side will ever see the other side's point of view!!!
Good time to lock it up I think.......
-
One thing that most forget is that you may have paid for your van and equipment but what happens when you buy your next one?
Shall we say a van and set up is £10k, over 4 years you may get £2k back when traded in or sold so you lose £8k that leaves £2k every year to find (over 4 years) so add £40 a week on to your totals.
Shaun
-
One thing that most forget is that you may have paid for your van and equipment but what happens when you buy your next one?
Shall we say a van and set up is £10k, over 4 years you may get £2k back when traded in or sold so you lose £8k that leaves £2k every year to find (over 4 years) so add £40 a week on to your totals.
Shaun
My van and machine was under £5,000. And i didnt even sell my ex machine (which i could of got £600+ for) Got a grand and a ton for my old van. Usualy change the van every three years, looking for a new van in januray. I'll have owned that van for three years in jan.
-
Tell you what helped me shaun i put all the money i was paying y pages and that helped me buy the new van ,that contributed a large portion of the money..
-
I put my money on black and it came out red!
Just my luck and that's why I'm poor and Clinton is rich!
Shaun
-
Rich ;D erm not yet mind ;)
-
Tell you what helped me shaun i put all the money i was paying y pages and that helped me buy the new van ,that contributed a large portion of the money..
Wow, it must have been an over kill advertisement you had?
-
win win
put £1 on red, if it wins put £1 on red, if it loses x by 3, so put £3 on red if it wins put £1 on red, and start procedure again if it loses x by 3, put £9 on red, if it wins put £1 on red and start the procedure again if it loses put £27 on red.
this formula will make you a rich but they usually kick you out after so long.
-
What we do works, we all earn a good living, our entire business wants for nothing, our customers are very happy. Our advice is: Find what works for you and your customers and stick to it
-
Yep it all about setting your stall out and seeing what works for you..
-
Hi Guys
Sometimes we forget that carpet cleaning is unregulated and therefore acts as a true market.
I would not clean a 4 bed house for 75 and would not want to be in that sector of the market as it would not suit the quality I work to.
However there will be those like Monty who wish to and that is there perogative!
Cheers
Doug
-
Well said young man. It's often stated by posters on here that only THEY know how to run a business and make claims of excessive charges and high overheads while there are many others who do actually treat carpet cleaning as a FULL TIME business, put in the hours, charge reasonably, but profitably and are still in business 10 - 15 - 25 years later.
One of the most successful carpet cleaning business owners to visit this site was criticised and judged to be running a rubbish business when in reality was running a multivan operation that had not only provided a good income but had enabled the owners to become property owners on a large scale.
I know of others who've done the same based on working FULL TIME and offering value for money to their customers.
If a small business has excessively high overheads the business owner needs to learn to reduce the overhead / control their costs / re consider their methods of working. The majority of people who are successful in this industry DO NOT feel the need to purchase larger and more expensive vans or equipment than they need to do the job. Neither would an efficiently run National or Multinational company.
Success comes from having a constantly full order book which is more likely to result from offering VALUE FOR MONEY in a good and effective marketing plan and by retaining a high percentage of customers who buy your services.
Some people DO make a large initial investment but are still successful without resorting to overcharging their customers but the successful ones who do so are not afraid of HARD WORK not just physically but constantly looking at better ways of doing things, that is, being more efficient with their equipment, improving their marketing, being more efficient with the use of time, looking at new markets for their services.
Being the best at generating and retaining profits is being a successful businessman/woman.
-
I have to say that I like Monty's approach personally. He's doing something a little different and it works for him.
There is no right or wrong way of doing things. Each to their own I say.
-
Why charge 75 when you can easily get 200? ???
If you think 75 is enough then at least charge 150 and give the other 75 to charity ;)
-
To earn a good living you have to either be fastidious and charge £200 or be able to obtain a good job and charge £75, many of us are programmed into cleaning one way, I would love to be shown how to clean in different ways to keep the quality but speed the job up, that doesn't make me a saint but it could make me more profitable and knowledgable.
Shaun
-
Why charge 75 when you can easily get 200? ???
If you think 75 is enough then at least charge 150 and give the other 75 to charity ;)
The fact is that some people simply won't pay £200 to have a 4 bedroom house cleaned.
It's great if you can afford to turn away a 4 bed house, but not everyone can. I wouldn't personally clean a 4 bed house for £75, but if it works for Monty and he is making a living then good luck to him.
Given the frankly outrageous prices some carpet cleaners charge it's nice to see someone offering a bargain for a change.
-
If black comes up 4 or more times,then stick it on red,then go to the next table and do it again.takes a while but you can win loads. 8)
-
My mum lives in Leicester and she paid 200 squid for lounge/dine stairs/hall. :o
-
Carpetworx
What was the company called?
Cheers
Steve
-
My mum lives in Leicester and she paid 200 squid for lounge/dine stairs/hall. :o
That could be considered cheap.
She could have fallen for the 2 for £8.99 and paid £300.
-
She can't remember.
-
Thats a high charge she paid mate with the work..
-
Round these parts we would string them up if someone tried that here. Damn hoodlems!
-
I can understand the model
But I find it hard to believe it is possible to do three 4 bed houses a day vacuum and move beds etc.
But obviously I would not last long in this easy jet type operastion ;D ;D
I did have an argument with a local estate agent last week he was not prepared to pay my low price and wanted it for £75 so guess I have lost him No more waiting two months for my money ;D ;D ;D
-
Bad marketing if she can't remember the name of the company IMO.
Shaun
-
She's old.
-
How on earth can you say thats a high price she paid. She may live in a mansion!!
MArk
-
Just booked a 2 bed for Thursday,it`s a repeat booking £350,it`s a converted bungalow,with an upstairs,and it`s pretty huge,got stairs and small landing today,but that is it,not really had anywhere near as much work on this time round,was rushed off my feet last crimbo