Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Neil Williams on July 02, 2012, 10:36:02 pm
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Todays stupid price award goes to ******* who are willing to travel 15 miles to do a complete 3 bed property for £84 :( and I presume that includes vat.
Are things really that tough in West Surrey :o
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Quoted a customer over the phone for a two bedded first floor flat, gave my estimate and she said i have been quoted £80 ::)
which was considerably less than my price, at the weekend i did a 25x14 lounge and small hallway again pain in the ar.. it was on a first floor humping stuff up the stairs nowhere to park etc etc, he said that he rung around and was quoted £40 and this guy is a NCCA member in my area, i did it for £85 which i thought was cheap so did he i asked why he had not booked the £40 guy and his "own" words were that was a stupid price.
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James, NCCA just means they have done a course for a day or maybe 2 and passed a simple test and then they are pro,s ::). Ive got car valetors by me now doing carpets,leather and get this hard floors ;D stating the NCCA logo. Come to think of it i think my milk man is NCCA qualified :D
Its just a shame that in thier training the NCCA dont teach them how to charge reasonable prices. Thats why so many of them go out of business in a year, before even they have enough experience under there belt.
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I went to quote a 3 bed house yesterday lunch time ,an indian cpl ,the lady made it clear that she did not want any thing too expensive as the carpets were almost new, well as only 5 mins from me i arranged to meet them . nice cpl ,admitted they had several quotes ranging from £70 to £200 all over the phone . they wanted them doing urgently as they had not moved in ,place was empty 2 box bedrooms plus bedroom small landing and stairs. yes carpets did indeed look like new so i went in with £70 for cleaning there and then ;D I hour later every body happy :)
Geoff.
ps. not my normal pricing but hey didnt have any thing on at that paticuler time .
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£74 for a few hours cleaning would be considered too much by most of the public, when some people are willing to do a FULL DAYS work cleaning for £30-40. I still don't see why people scoff at these 'cheap' prices, a couple of them jobs a day and it's a good wage for a cleaner :)
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Full days work for £30 - £40?
Where might I find these people? I wish to take advantage.
We are talking about the United Kingdon....... in, not 1963... right?
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74 pounds.... I take it he doesnt have advertising budget etc etc... Charge what you like thats my opinion but in my first year i have quickly learned why chem dry etc charge such a high margin
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Todays stupid price award goes to ******* who are willing to travel 15 miles to do a complete 3 bed property for £84 :( and I presume that includes vat.
Are things really that tough in West Surrey :o
£84 X10 jobs = £840. Not bad for 5 days work (30hours) - chems, fuel, Ins, etc etc etc £300. Total £540. Beats workin in a factory for £200 peer week.
Seriously ... some of you guys are getting greedy and want the customer to pay for your lavish out of your means lifestyle.
I would constantly do 10 of these a week, every week... infact I do more.
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can you guarantee £84 average every job and 10 jobs a week for 46 weeks of the year
=24,480 BEFORE tax
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Todays stupid price award goes to ******* who are willing to travel 15 miles to do a complete 3 bed property for £84 :( and I presume that includes vat.
Are things really that tough in West Surrey :o
£84 X10 jobs = £840. Not bad for 5 days work (30hours) - chems, fuel, Ins, etc etc etc £300. Total £540. Beats workin in a factory for £200 peer week.
Seriously ... some of you guys are getting greedy and want the customer to pay for your lavish out of your means lifestyle.
I would constantly do 10 of these a week, every week... infact I do more.
EXACTLY!
The price is always stupid to those who don't agree with it or lose out on the work.......
The same as some say they've gained work as some are too cheap.... this is the other side....someone has maybe gained work by someone else appearing too expensive..
One thing is though the price is never STUPID to those who are charging it... thats why they charge it cos they are happy to take that amount...
Why is everyone on here so up their A£$ses on price and what they and others charge???...
Another thread on here is about someone doing a groupon type thing for £9 per room...so what!.. if thats what he wants to charge and go around maybe doing 5/10 a day and is happy that his call..
too many on here get hooked up and obsessed with whats going with others ...focus on your own set up and operation...
Times are tough out there.... maybe you big job ticket guys are just starting to feel the pinch of being able to charge whatever in the past... hopefully maybe you aren,t ... but what is clear a hell of a lot of people are looking to cut their cloth accordingly and when they do want work doing they are going to shop around a bit more maybe than they have done in the past for the deal thats right for them...
Anyways ive earned my £84 for the day for my 1.5 hours work i'm off to the gym! ;D lol
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it does not matter what budget he has.... His outgoings will be the same whether or not he took the £74 profit for doing the job.
So therefore he is £74 better off for taking the job, than not taking the job.
this is correct, if he's sat on his bum at home then he might as well do it.
but you can't use ths as an example to workout his yearly salery, how many of our jobs are full houses? what about all the single rooms he cleans, these wont be £74 and they still take the same amount of travel & set up times as the big jobs
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Then he might have to do 4 smaller jobs a day somedays to earn the same amount.
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Hi Guys
I have always said carpet cleaning is a true market with no regulations to distort it.
Why we all should charge the same rate, we have different costs, skills, experience and targets, I for one want nice people who pay well, others have other priorities.
It's worth noting that none of the cheap boys ever last but there are always willing replacements. It comes from not working out the true cost and looking at takings as wages.
Cheers
Doug
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Supply and demand sets prices if you are getting few calls and not booking many jobs in you drop your price, even if you have marketed yourself well over the years and things slow considerably and the bills are due then you have to make ends meet but don't get stuck in the same vien when the market picks up you do need to increase accordingly.
Shaun
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Food for Thought !!!! ;)
Do we all shop at Marks & Spencers ? or do we shop at Tesco's ? ;D
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I actually agree with nearly all of you guys, one bird in hand is worth more than 10 in the sky. also if the person is pleased with £84 pound cash in hand why not, and probably topped up by benefit.
However, other persons value themselve and they will rather save that energy for a bigger pound.
I also agree we should not charge the same as our needs are differents, some have mouths to feed, loan to pay, mistress, holiday and go own and therefore whatever they chanrge they must have already focus on their needs, hopefully.
For the customer they should be aware, most of the time they get what they pay for.
regards rat race
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The trouble with the argument that if you are sat on your bum at home you might as well do a job for next to nothing may have some merit. However you shouldn't be in that position in the first place and you should be rethinking your marketing, unless you like doing low paid sporadic jobs for the foreseeable future.
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I’m a Sainsbury man at the moment diesel is the cheapest a round here, but on an average 16 mile trip = £4.08 round trip whopping £8.16. keep forgetting petrol cost or is it less set up time ;D ;)
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But £70 pounds for a few hours work isn't low pay. I think a few people here are just work shy, expecting professionals wages for pulling a wand back and forth ::)
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But £70 pounds for a few hours work isn't low pay. I think a few people here are just work shy, expecting professionals wages for pulling a wand back and forth ::)
To a very small degree you have a point, the point being you can't compare being a paid employee at McDonalds to be a self employed business owner.... zero overheads on the one whilst huge on the other. How many of McD's workers spent £35k on getting their job? The one I started this topic with runs a TM so we're not talking about a 2nd hand £300 twin vacuum electric machine and must spend a fortune on staying top of Adwords... but it's his business his choice.
Now on the other hand this afternoon I quoted a more 'upmarket' place. All the carpets £200 (£2/sqm) only to find out afterwards CD had been around too and quoted over £500 :o
So I'm not 'work shy' etc etc but probably middle of the road with pricing which suits me fine but I never fail to be amazed by the extremes within this industry of what some want/are happy to earn.
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We are in a 'make hay while the sun shines' business. But when it isn't shining you do what you can to make ends meet.
There are lots of ways of giving a reduced price to customers with them still being aware that you normally charge a lot more. 'we normally charge £160 for this work, but we have a had a cancellation and so if you'll have it done on Thursday, we will do it for £84.' Beats the hell out of sitting at home wondering where your next job is coming from too.
Simon
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Or my favourite 'I normally charge £100, but if you're paying cash and don't want an invoicem I can do it for £60'
Joke, honest...
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I think a lot of people are work shy .... of marketing properly.
It takes a bit of bottle to door knock businesses and risk getting told to fck off. It's easier to settle for wanding for shelf stacker money. It takes self discipline to consistently market, even when your busy, tired and fed up.
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As you seem to be the "Del Boy" of the carpet cleaning world..
I think I believe you, (not the bit about it being a joke).
Now I really want to know who you are!
;D
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That £70 was from the £84 after expenses, ok that's without advert expense but still it's far from shelf stacker money so I still don't see how people can scoff at it and act as though people are stupid to charge, and get out of bed for that amount?? Work 30+ hours a week charging that and it's a very good wage for cleaning.
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That £70 was from the £84 after expenses, ok that's without advert expense but still it's far from shelf stacker money so I still don't see how people can scoff at it and act as though people are stupid to charge, and get out of bed for that amount?? Work 30+ hours a week charging that and it's a very good wage for cleaning.
Well at least somebody else gets it now aswell :)
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70 per day for 23 days, £1610
Probably the varied lifestyles people have on here
For some its good money, for others, it doesn't even touch household expenses, never mind business expense.
Like others have said, its silly to compare charges because we all have different costs of living and working.
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Imagine £1610 after tax! Bob diamond would like that lol
Tbh you price to get the customer the more calls you get the more customers or you can afford to lose some as there's only enough hours in the day if you can talk a good clean then the customer will potentially pay more as you should have added value as well as feeling confident in your ability on the other hand desperation in your voice can put people off its a tough nut to crack but forget the price per job would you rather work 40 hours for £1000 or 40 hours for £2000?
Shaun
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Swings and roundabouts :)
At the end of the day, if you are not confident with the results you produce how can you expect the customer to be pleased.
Happy customers produce more recommendations, hence you cut down on your advertising costs etc etc etc and you can afford to up your prices - its a no brainer really and you get to keep the customer(s)
The other thing that people need to beare in mind is their previous "professional" carpet cleaning experience.
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Trust me, I get it too.
Obviously £10 in the pocket is better than zero, but for too many reasons to list it just doesn't fit with the image portrayed
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Wonder how many jobs a day Paul king puts on one of his vans he starts his pricing at £80, price can be a mind set until you keep getting told 'no'
Shaun
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In my previous job i sat on my bum in a stationary car, listening to the radio most of the time, got paid £13 per hour to do this and my boss was earning anywhere between £35 and £50 per hour for me to do this, and your are suggesting that the service i provide i should feel guilty for expecting £35/60 per hour.
We are not ripping off an old lady by fixing a roof tile and charging £1500 i did a job today a lady had a awful spillage on her beautiful pure wool bedroom carpet managed to get it out eventually and she was delighted she was happy so was i, my hourly rate in no way reflects what profit i make the overheads of running the business are considerable.
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Just out of interest does anyone say to a customer that is 2hrs work and it's £X/hour?
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If I had the guts to say to a client that I charge them £50 per hour I would have got more no's than I wished, however working out hourly rate once the job's done isn't too difficult.
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Just out of interest does anyone say to a customer that is 2hrs work and it's £X/hour?
I tried this many years ago in Chesterfield. I used to charge £25 per hour. Back then I ran a portable (Prochem Steameasy 400) Most appointments were 2 hours and 3 piece suite was 3 hours. I did this for about 6 months and then decided to price up each room seperatly as I could make more money and get more appointments in. This was back in the early 1990's and jobs were easy to get. My main competitor back then was CD and they were charging through the roof so once I sussed out what they were charging I went in just below. I earnt a mint. I wish It was as easy as that now but there is just to many at this game now.
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Although I agree that there is more competition I also think that there wasn't as many advertising streams there was only yellow pages and leaflets and the trusty local rag and they all cost money so many cleaners just didn't advertise or were part time, the good old Internet google in mind saw cheap websites come to the fore front where for little or no outlay a constant advert is born and just think of the cleaners who have found these boards and have gleaned information and started up it's easy if you have half a brain yes competition was less but it could also be said that it's now cheaper to become a carpet cleaner.
Shaun
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It takes self discipline to consistently market, even when your busy, tired and fed up.
One of the best quotes on here to date ;)
although I would say "be self employed" not just "marketing"