Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: CLEANEAST CARPETS on January 28, 2006, 06:54:39 pm
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Cleaned a lounge/diner on friday, 26.5sq/m.
It took 2hours 30minutes from arrival to departure.
Cost was £92.75 but due to 10% seniors discount collected cheque for £83.48.
Job was from a recommendation, and customer was very pleased with results ;D
We do an outstanding clean everytime due our quest to strive for excellence.
We follow the exact cleaning critera as taught to us by Paul Pearce on the IICRC training course,and our professionalism follows through to our on-site survey of every job,and our results of 90% acceptance,a good percentage being at time of survey,added to our now growing repeat and referal business,indicates that with less than a year in this industry it is quite possible we do provide the best value carpet cleaning in the country :o :o :o ;D ;D ;D
If not against the old hands but surely against the newbies
Barbara and Adam Gill
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dont think so ;D ;D
geoff
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less than £30 /hr ::) ::)
you can tell you've only been in business a year, come back and see us in 10 yrs when you come to your senses and a you're earning triple that
Mike
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Barbara and Adam,
Don't be so modest!! Have confidence in your abilities ;D ;D
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While you are attempting to 'do it right' and follow the advice of Paul Pearce who is a very knowledgable and excellent trainer, through whom I also became IICRC registered - since allowed to lapse - you are still a novice in this industry.
Nothing wrong with your attitude, it's positive and at the stage of your business and experience, or lack of it, your charges are about right, in my opinion.
You are most defininately not the best, there are several of us, or so we think.
You should continue to follow the guidelines, but experiment with systems and products, go to open days and keep an open mind.
Good Luck
robert m
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Pauls excelent training may have been passed onto the pair of you but you have certainly not picked up his modesty.
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:-[
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Barbara and Adam,
Well done. if your giving a good honest service and making money that you are happy with then that's what counts. ;D
Arthur
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Barbara/Adam,
A VERY bold statement to make, ::) especially for having so little experience and knowledge of how good or bad your peers are performing and what they are charging! I would perhaps allow you to make this statement within your own catchment area, but not nationally! ::)
Actually if you are charging £3.50/m that is not necessarily best value, it's actually very much towards the top end of the price scale!
Cleaning a carpet well and getting a reasonable return for it is not a difficult task, it's when you encounter the problem stains and how you deal with them that makes a good cleaner.
You do not yet have anywhere near enough experience to have been subjected to anything like enough problems to declare yourself the BEST VALUE CARPET CLEANER IN THE COUNTRY.
I have been doing this for 3 years, work 5-6 days a week, have a very good customer repeat/referral database, have never had a complaint and still encounter new problems that I have never seen before......and I charge less than you!!
So I must be better value than you!.....but probably still not the BEST!
I would suggest you continue what you are doing to the best of your ability and refrain from making anymore glib statements that you are unable to substantaite and that only end up alienating you from your peers.
ps: Were both of you doing this? If so, then 5 manhours to clean a small carpet is horrendously long, even 2.5hrs is excessive, and your hourly rate is down to £16/hour gross, hardly anything to brag about!
I'm off to clean a control room now, Sunday morning, 4 hours work for two of us every two months, £800........good value?? I like to think so! ;D ;D
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barb and adam, u are a credit to carpet cleaners all over the world, hail the new gods !!! i drop before your feet to kiss them, i and others are not worthy of beening in your presence HAIL THE NEW GODS OF THE CARPET FIBURE !!!
YOURS HUMBLEY GARY
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Well said Lionheart. no offence to barbara and alan but you are right it takes experience to be good at anything. adam jankowski who trained me, very passionate at what he does very experienced still admits to not knowing everything and comes accross problems now and again who knows what the next job will bring!!
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Babara and Adam ,
Congratulationson Becoming The Best Cleaners on the Planet,
I was in the process of establishing an outpost in Suffolk, daughter moved from the Halliday Wrightson terriortory to Eye but I can see I will have to abandoned those plans ;D ;D ;D
Glad things are now going well
Ian
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Morning,
Thanks for all of your comments ;D ;D
Try this- Never mind if the customer isn't happy,
If we're not happy,there is no charge.
Take that to the bank,it's pure gold ;) ;) ;)
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There's nothing new, just recycled, but you're doing some positive things and as I said already.
You are probably where you ought to be, pricewise, with your limited experience.
BEST WISHES
R M
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Never mind if the customer isn't happy,
If we're not happy,there is no charge.
So if you have a bad week suffering from really bad depression you won't make any money ::) ::)
I often leave a job not happy with the results (because I aim for perfection), but usually the customer is over the moon with the results.
all you are saying is when you arrive at a customers house you expect to do low quality workmanship, so when you do a mediocre job you're happy, so will charge the customer.
a very poor work ethic.
MIke
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What machine are you using? It seems like it takes a little long to set up. You should get a Ninja. Then you coudl have done the above mentioned job in under 1 hour, and made good money. Just some advice from a very inexperianced carpet cleaner!!
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We do an outstanding clean everytime due our quest to strive for excellence.
We follow the exact cleaning critera as taught to us by Paul Pearce on the IICRC training course,and our professionalism follows through to our on-site survey of every job,and our results of 90% acceptance,a good percentage being at time of survey,added to our now growing repeat and referal business,indicates that with less than a year in this industry it is quite possible we do provide one of the best cleaning services
Barbara and Adam Gill
My Question is are you doing a paper Survey , or have you got the lap top presentation.
Also what % of enquiries are you getting to Survey.
Are you sending out letter prior to Survey?
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Hi Guys,
I've lost 11 pounds in the last two weeks and as my carpet cleaning has stayed about the same , my pound for pound performance is increasing ;)
On a serious note a newby will take longer to achieve similar results but as he/she generally has longer, then why not take a bit more time?
Cheers
Doug
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Hello its Lyn Taylor from selfclean, I have just spent the last hour reading some very unprofessional comments, I will make no remarks about the company in question, because they run their business as they think correct for them, there has never been and never will be a set price sq.mt. it depends on who and what wants doing, we have large contracts with 4 Blue chip companies covering the whole of the north. You have to work with your clients, looking after each other. As for domestic`s different matter completely it depends on where, how big, quality of client, if your good at your business you will know what I mean by that remark. Some people have money to burn, others have to watch every penny, so you adjust accordingly. I dont have to advertise or look for the business, am lucky, but that doesn`t make me clever, just in the right place at the right time. And as for anyone getting 3.50 s.m. prove it. Unless your talking about the south, then maybe, but only just. I clean Harvey Nics, the bigger they are the less they want to pay............and they without doubt would not pay 3.50. But please show us the evidence.....................
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Some people have money to burn, others have to watch every penny, so you adjust accordingly.
I agree
And as for anyone getting 3.50 s.m. prove it.
??? ???
Lyn,
Are you not contradicting yourself!!
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I live in Sheffield and charge £3.60 per yard, how can I prove it to you ?
I'm not showing my earnings to you!
Shaun
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Hi all this is barbara the not so thick one!!!! I apologise for my husband who seems to be not able to get his head through the door. I think what he means to say is he is happy with what we get paid and feel we do a good job and the CUSTOMER feels they have got value for money. We basically work in school hours so we can spend more time with our little ones and feel we get good money - although we go together this is not so much for speed as we only have one machine so only one can do it at a time anyway but this is a business venture that we wanted to do together. It is working well for us and he didnt mean to offend people with more experience - he is a little over enthusastic!!! sorry Barbara :-[ :-[ ??? ;) :D
p.s we use ALLTEC ADVANTAGE WITH ROTOVAC.
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£3.50 / sqM is not excessive and reasonable for a quality job - domestic.
Commercial is another story........
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Am sorry guys.but as you say commercial is completely different, and some people who only deal domestic, should NEVER make any sort of judgement on others, but for those of you who are getting £3.50sq mtr good luck hope it lasts, but remember always someone watching..........................behind your back............ I didnt ask to see anyones account, just envious that you are getting that rate.................We clean an average office carpet of 12,500 sq mtrs
at a time.do you think that the clients would pay anything above £1.50sq mtr,I dont think so!!!! :),,,,,,,,,,,Lyn
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but lyn, when you do such large areas the price does not need to be that high.
and who wants to watch a hairy ass carpet cleaners backside?
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I live in Sheffield and charge £3.60 per yard, how can I prove it to you ?
I'm not showing my earnings to you!
Shaun
Shaun,
Do you charge £3.60 per sq yd no matter what size job it is?
I charge a similar price to you, but reduce the price per sq yd on 2 rooms or more.
Cheers
Chris
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Am sorry guys.but as you say commercial is completely different, and some people who only deal domestic, should NEVER make any sort of judgement on others, but for those of you who are getting £3.50sq mtr good luck hope it lasts, but remember always someone watching..........................behind your back............ I didnt ask to see anyones account, just envious that you are getting that rate.................We clean an average office carpet of 12,500 sq mtrs
at a time.do you think that the clients would pay anything above £1.50sq mtr,I dont think so!!!! :),,,,,,,,,,,Lyn
"an average carpet of 12,500 Msq. AT A TIME" :o ??? ::)What do they carpet the roads where you are? That's not average, thats nonsense. I deal with all the common parts in a 20 storey office block in Croydon. The office area's are 500M sq and they're huuuuuge. So you claim that your average office area is 13 of those floors. That would take a two man crew a week.
Care to reconsider your statement? ::)
Er
Alan ;D
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and £15,000 average job, your some girl lyn.
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12,500 Square metres is the size of two and a half football pitches :o
Average office Carpets are pretty big up your way then ::)
Good earner though, that's £18750 a go @ £1.50 sq mtr.
I take it that's for a full 'restoration clean' then!!
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might be worth investing in a road sweeping lorry. lyn
or how about a light aircraft, you know that spray the crops, it could do your prespray. ;)
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has any one seen the JCB factory near Alton 12,500 sqm is about the size of there door mats it's huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge dont ever quote ::) ::) ::)
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I bet I know whos done it. :-X :-X
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its lyns saturday job before she goes for a fry up ;D
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Where has Lyn gone? ???
Is she now flying overhead?
What are the share ratings for Andrex? Reckon Lyn's got a lot of shares, it'd be worthwhile..... dealing with that amount of bull ;D
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Hello now that you have all finished with what can only be describe as complete xxx, yes they are the correct measurements, 12 floors, 14 floors, including all common areas, all the northern "CALL CENTRES" that our business, so, there is no way that we could charge 3.50 at all. We have a team of 10 work on these jobs, we have done these contracts for the last 4 years, so, somehow I think we know what we are doing.............Maybe after reading your comments, some of you should go back to school and learn how to comment on Business in a professional manner, then maybe you may get some of the opportunites that we have be given. ps. even if were do a 6 room house, we would never get 3.50. But as I send previously, if you can get it good luck..........................
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Lyn,
Whilst your opinions are welcome your swearing , now deleted , is not.
There will always be differences of opinion but swearing on a public forum is both rude and unprofessional.
Doug Holloway
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I think , perhaps you should maybe consider who you're 'protecting' from swearing, moderators. Seems to me , that many of you big shots - not referring to moderators - have more than met your match with Lyn Taylor and I commend her for standing her ground and for the business she's doing.
While I disagree with excessive swearing, it's occasionally the only way of getting a point across by many people.
Well done Lyn and I hope you will continue to contribute to this type of forum.
Can't imagine you're easily intimidated and having dealt with people at all levels of society, in business and socially, I have no problem with the odd swear word from ladies.
robert m
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Hi Robert, thank you for your most welcome comments, whilst it is vry unlike me to swear, sometimes thats what you have to do. I stand by all that I have said, and I dont agree with some remarks made on this forum, it has taken me a long time, to get these 4 contracts, but they are now mine, and will remain that why, because am fair and work with my clients, its not always amount how much you can get out of them, its a question of keeping them happy, and knowing that the business is there for you............but once again thank you for you comments.....Lyn
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People will always be jealous, esp in business.
Good on you and watch your swearing because we were all sooo offended ;)
Mark
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Lyn, are you a contract commercial cleaner who does carpets as an add-on or is all your work just carpet cleaning?
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hi lyn, we are just having a bit of fun with you, dont take it to seriously,
i cant understand why you dont believe 3.50 sqm, some charge 5.00!!!
it seems this irritated you because your not getting it, you missed the point again, demestic / commerial your refereing to commercial you cant compare,
you d be a millionaire if you got those prices for the areas you refere too!
for those sizes you do well to get more than a 1 pound sqm.
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Seems that no matter what you say, some people just won't believe you.
I find it easy to understand the explanation from Lyn, who has no need to be jealous of anyone in the domestic sector
r m
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If one person mentions price im going to scream ;) ::)
but give me a chance to moan, just phoned a pub I quoted, friends of mine ish so done them a good price
183 sqm = £219.60p
heard nothing from them so rang, there having the usual bloke do it @
£150 plus he does the office and ground floor to the house on the side of pub :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o
how can he do it, hes just bought a new van and got a newish TM ??? ??? ???
+++++++++ good on you Lyn stand by your guns
James
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well james i would hav given them about same price as u and iam very cheap compared to others so i would hav thought i would would hav got it 100% and bin gutted like u, but to do the other stuff as well for just £150 is ultra cheap but look at it this way he still do it in day and earn £150 if he can get this 5 days week he can aford new van and machine on £750 week i know i could but i still be gutted mate !!!
gary
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At least I know he has to work sunday night for that ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
might go and have a pint and wait for him to start then open his waste tank while working :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o
No dont get me wrong id never do that ;) id turn of his machine and go home with the key ;D ;D lol
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lol now thats not nice lol, talking about pubs my mate was telling me this afternoon about his missus moaning about him going in the pub, so i told him a little story about an irish geezer who used to drink in my local, this bloke used to go in every night, well one friday night he comes in with this women ,who id never seen before any hows it turns out its his wife ,and he stands next to me at the bar with his missus and says to her what would u like to drink? she replys i hav what u hav ,so he gets her half of the black stuff , my god she says "thats disgustiing" to this the irish bloke replys "AND U THOUGHT I WAS XXXXING ENJOYING MYSELF IN HERE !!!", ;D never laughed so much in my life
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;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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I just quoted a commercial job which was 3400sq, mtrs at £1.50 sq. mtr. Which came to £5100. I spent 4 hours planning the job and preparing a professional presentation.
I received a letter a few days later thanking me for the hard work that I had put into it ......... but we have received a more competitive quote of £2000!!!!!!!!!!!!
Could'nt you just spit.
On the other hand I have just quoted an empty 4 bed house which has 80% wool twist throughout and not a mark on it for £225.00. It should take two of us about 3 1/2 hours!!
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Chris I don't discount unless I feel it necessary.
Shaun
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Chris I don't discount unless I feel it necessary.
Shaun
to pay the bills !!
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So, what is being learned from this experience?
Should you re- consider the ' professional ' approach, when quoting, or save time and frustration, by simply;- turning up on time
looking tidy, rather than trying to look like a ' business man '
measuring accurately and noting stains etc
giving a quote before leaving the premises
When a facilities manager, or business owner wants a service carried out, they will always consider, cost to be a major factor.
What many small c/c's do, is tend to treat such jobs as a bonus rather than an opportunity to saise their profile.
If you consider the return on all work, equally, obviously allowing for extra machine cleaning, special purchases, etc, your pricing migh bocome more attractive to prospective clients.
Best wishes
rob m
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And dont forget the costs of running a crop sprayer! They can get sky high ;D
From the £5 a metre co. (or £6 if there's a stain protection package ;D or £30 M sq. for oriental rugs.
I use the crop sprayer followed by road sweeper and Lear jet exhaust for drying purposes ( can sometimes leave 'jet' marks in natural fibres though ;D
For really heavily soiled commercial carpet my favourite pile lifting method is a combine harvester! Cant see how you'd get that up 14 floors though ;D
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Alan
try the clean and green gas conversion on your Lear jet, it illiminates all the "jet marks" from natural fibres ;D ;D ;D
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lol ;D
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well said, Lyn Taylor. Although I charge a pound a square foot in most cases and I am happy to prove it, thats close to 11 pounds a square meter i think. i am old school and dont work in metric......
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£264 to clean a 18x12ft room !! lol u wanna get your adding machine out again lol
gary
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Gary Liahona is right :o :o :o :o
1 sqm = 10.8 sqf = £10.80 sqm
guess whos not joining the club ;D ;D ;D ;D
but good on you Liahona, if your charging that much ::) what discounts "value for money" deals do you run if any ???
James
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Actually Gary it is 253:80 with the Vat. Maybe it is your machine not working.
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Makes my £4.30 sqm seem positively cheap. :(
Liahona, any tips welcome. ;)
Regards
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Martin, feel free to e-mail me...... kleenrte@tiscali.co.uk........ would be happy to go through how and what i charge for. We shoot ourselves in the foot by charging low prices, if we all charged a pound a foot no customer would argue that it was expensive. Then we would be judged on how we do things not what we are doing, cheers mate, Dave.
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Cheers Dave. Will try and e-mail you sometime over the weekend. ;)
Regards.
Martin
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lol so u are telling me that u would charge and get (typical 3 bed house)
living room 12x18 ft= £250
dining room 12x12ft=£160
bedroom 12x12ft x3= £480
hall stairs landing=£250
toilet 3x6ft=£30
bathroom 6x12ft=£80
total= £1250 !!! LMFCO ;D U ARE AWAY WITH THE LITTLE FAIRYS AT BOTTOM OF YOUR GARDEN ,STILL LMFCO ;D QUICK WATCH OUT DUCK!!! ITS A FLYING PIG !! LMFCO REALLY BAD ;D
NEVER HEARD SO MUCH BXXXXIT IN MY LIFE
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Dave
Where are you based and what is your client base? I know a guy in Bradford charges £10 a sq m but he only deals with high end people.
Neil
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Gary,
You make me die. :D :D
btw, what does LMFCO mean?? :-\
Regards
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Gary,
I see, ;) thought it was somthing like that. Tried e-mailing you back but it wouldn't go, don't know whether it's your or my end!
Regards.
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OK there is a trick in here somewhere, because no one, particularly wealthy people would pay this for a CARPET CLEANING service, unless, of course, it's for 4, or 5 cleans over a set period of time, with added value
r m
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the trick is to giv the little fairy 20 pounds to go and price the job up whilst the flying pig is hitting the custy round back head with wet kipper !!! ;)
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I thought this was a site where we as cleaners could learn different ideas about what it is that we do. However it would appear I was mistaken......... Indeed there is a cleaner in Bradford who also charges approx. a pound per square foot and constantly gets it as you would say......... What is so difficult in charging a pound a foot. Maybe you should look at what it is that you do when in a house. Maybe it is I do more for my monies charged but then I have more time I can spend in the house because I am charging more....... To those who ridicule my posts, maybe you cant charge what I do so maybe you should change what it is that you do........ To those who know me know what I charge and that I get it on every job. To the question of my clientelle, yes it is very high end and to the contary of what has been written they will pay what the value of the carpet stipulates to be charged. In fact I am sure that those who mock me charge more as a percentage to the carpet they are working on than I do....... For an example and of course I have no idea what type of carpets you work on....... If you are cleaning a carpet that is worth say £40 a yard and charge 50p a foot then that will be a certain percentage (I am not oing to work it out)..... I work on carpets upwards of £150 a yard and in some cases £450 a yard..... as i charge between £1 and £1:50 a foot then it is you that is over priced, however you want to put it or have it put I charge what I do and dont have any problems..... I am not here to mock although would have great fun in doing so......... Accordingly if you want to e-mail me then feel free to do so and I will gladly go through what I do and why I get what I do...... A cleaner I know who was charging 45p per foot now charges 75p to his and her same customers and they "get" it all the time. By the time you protect it at say 50p a foot that would be £1:25....... I spent a day with them and now I know when they cover for me and I them they are doing a job worth a pound a foot. ....It is not difficult to charge a pound if thats what you are worth to do the job. Lastly to the person who priced a ficticious house, no I wouldnt charge that much, after it goes over a thousand pounds I pay the Vat in other words after a thousand I discount 17.5 %., still I would imagine I am worth more than you..... I do a lot for the money I charge but have the time to do it in. My suggestion is that you do more for the customer in more time for more money and you wont have to rush to the next job. I clean only one house a day unless of course it is a big house and it takes more days to do it in...... kleenrte@hotmail.com or kleenrte@tiscali.co.uk are the addresses you can e-mail me at........ Again if we all charged a pound a foot then we wouldnt be having these discussions, but then of course you have to do a job worth a pound a foot, I do.
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Hi guys,
Prices will vary and make for a challenging discussion , however insults will not be tolerated .
Cheers
Doug
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if I insulted anyone then my apologies. Wasnt my intentions. My intentions are that we should all charge more for our services and I am happy to explain what and how I do what. Cheers and sorry again if it needs to be said.
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Liahona,
Thanks for that .
What is your name?
I do agree that we should all try to get higher prices , as this allows more time to do a really good job and more money to invest in better equuipment.
Cheers
Doug
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Barbara and Adam,
Oh dear! Theres nothing like a bit of ego is there. Unfortunately self praise is no praise. When you get deserved respect from other experienced pro's, then you can feel your ego is justified, saying you must be the best newbie around, isnt saying much at all, is it.
Dave.
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Doug, sorry mate I thought you knew, it is Dave, called a variety of things but Dave will do for now, cheers.
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OK Dave, following your long posting I retract my comments and if you're getting that kind of payment, you are clearly doing something right.
best wishes
rob m
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Rob, thankyou for the reply.......we suppose sometimes that we have a lot of monies put into our equipment and charge accordingly.....ie not always I know but most truck mount techs charge more than the portable ones. (not always so no need to say otherwise)..... I have almost 40 thousand pounds invested in my set up just with that alone wouldnt it be fair I charge more........ I have many differences I am sure in how I do things, for one I take sometimes 2 hours or so just to set up maybe a 1000 square foot of carpet. Just to set up 3 or 4 air movers, maybe even a dehu and wrap yes wrap all the hoses take a considerable time. Then to return the next day to pick it all up again (not on all jobs)......... you see my point, hope this helps why I charge what i charge, cheers, Dave.
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Gary (Essex no1 cleaner), You really are short sighted! In the service industry (domestic) there are and always will be a massive difference in cost for the same service. Liahona is correct. A client who buys a carpet for £100 sq yard is not going to have a splash and dash £40 clean!!! They want the secruity that the carpet cleaner will look after there investment, and they are prepared to pay for it. The new breed of carpet cleaner are more turned on to this through market research and charge for it.
I suggest that you calm down with your flying pigs statements and try to believe that other people in the same industry as you charge more and make more money per clean. I know (6 personally) who chargeup to £1.00 per sq foot and get the jobs regulary.
I myself charge such prices ( my market is to the top 5% earners) and have been fully booked up . I also do just one job per day. last week 5 jobs and I earned 4 figures...no flying pigs, no boll**ks.
I just wanted to put the record straight as I find your posts annoying when you disbelieve what other cleaners can and will continue to earn.
Just think about..A painter can come into your house and charge you £200 the next £400 for the same job and people with money will always, 95% go with the more expensive because they go the extra yard to look after there home whilst painting it...it's the same with carpet cleaning.
Well done Liahona.
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Markrouse, cheersmate couldnt have put it better myself....... In closing I wont mention names but a mechanic working on a small car gets what he gets....... a mechanic working on an elite car gets what he gets, considerably more..... i wonder why after all he is just a mechanic the same as the first one..... ooooohhhhhhhhh maybe he charges more because of what he works on, no different in carpet cleaning, cheers, Dave.