Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: jon777 on February 20, 2007, 11:42:24 am
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Wow price really seems to be an area of huge debte in our industry.
My view for what its worth is this
Price really is'nt such a big issue for alot of clients the right people will pay you well for good service. -you only have to ask :)
The biggest problem i found when I upped my prices was convincing myself that I deserved to earn more.
I started my business for a reason - i want a very good standard of living and charging £80/£90 for a sofa and £50 for a lounge was'nt giving me the income I wanted.
I mayed the decision that a business should pay what I want it to pay me or I'd do something else.
Lets face it Its a dirty horrible job. I for one am not prepared to clean the crap out of everyone elses carpets for peanuts.
I also dont think theres such a big issue with north and south - I genuinley know people who charge the same as me and they live in the north.
I charge .79 per sq ft for cleaning and 1.11 for cleani and protect, i wouldnt do it for any less.
Its not unusal for people to go with us after having a qoute for half our price. People pay for service, Quote to low and alot of people will ask whats wrong with it!!!!
I would recommend the fasttrack course if your prepared to make changes - its no good going in with the attidude of trying to slate it before you try it. Personally I have implemented the basics of what it teaches and they work very well. I dont like all the strategies but then hey if you only use a handful of ideas it will pay.
So most importantly all I'd say to everyone is up your prices and all us cleaners will work less and earn more ;) just provide good honest service with it!
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I dont know if its a good or a bad thing that half the people including myself who post in the daytime are either fastrack members or using some of there systems ???
In the last 4-5 months of last year i was working all day everyday with 2-3 weeks work booked up in the diary, since the begining of this year i have stopped quoting over the phone and started doing a laptop audit also sending out the consumer guides before the quote, and have upped my prices to 48p clean 61p clean and protect.
trouble is im now siting hear with no work ::) im just hoping its largley due to the time of year ???
I only have 3 jobs booked in at the minute and i usually have about 15-20
on the plus side though the three jobs i have got are worth just under a grand and as my old average ticket was £100 i guess its equivelent to having 10 jobs booked in
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no work in the last 6 days.
one call today asked how much to clean a , 3 piece 45.00 i qouted as i needed the work, customer replied your to expensive, i will try elswhere
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red
i am posting during the day coz i am waiting to go to work...my f/t job that is
i do cc with the time i have available after work........i need a guarenteed income
to pay for things like bills,mortgage
on the other hand if i put more effort into cc i may do even better than with a fulltime job......but untill the cc(money)over takes convincingly the f/t job i will do both!!
some days i do cc then go to regular job..........needs must!!!!!
i am not by any means struggling but i want to live without money worries.
i am happy this way at the moment
i think that people are still paying 4 xmas
does everyone have a set price per sqft/sqmr?
i charge by the size of the room.....i dont measure it up.........sure i am losing some here and there.......but its swings and roundabouts! lose some here gain some there!!
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I can honestly say that we are ticking over nicely for the time of year, we have 1 full and 1 part time employee and myself. But as you other guys have stated it is quite we are in leeds and this week i have only had 1 ring in the rest of the work i have sourced by contacting old customers and regular contracts.
I was wondering why the phone wasnt ringing that much and to now thta its the same for most is reasuring.
As for price, it becomes an issue when you arent getting the enquiries. It is better to be ticking over and generating customers than sat at home looking at an empty diary.
Now is the time to market your business with promotions and speial offers to build your customer base, then next year when you are quite pick the phone up and contact the customers you did this time last year and give them the incentive to book you again by dngaling another carrot i.e 3 carpets cleaned for price of two in feb, half price stain guard etc.
It works ive been doing it for 16 years.
John
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Half term is what I put it down to.
Been doing 'bungalow' special offer and traipsing round older folk areas. Even got so desperate offered demo stain spotting armed with a bottle of ms and a couple of towels. Have booked a good job on the back of this.
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done my days work for today,
no havnt finished yet, got to go do some rooms in a retierment home 7.30 tonight,
ticking over nicely, but not booked up by any means, jobs are coming in on a daily basis ,but i wont reduce my prices, and i do dont do special offers :)
if they want me they pay, :D
Hunts , you state in your post
"dirty horrible job" well i actually quite enjoy it, and if i didnt i wouldnt be doing it
Geoff
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I've been complaining to any one that will listen that this is the most terrible year and I've ever had :'( :'( but I've looked at my past years dairies and its not teen that bad. I think I was spoiled by a amazing Jan & Feb in 2005 which was a fully booked 5- 6 days a week for both months.
been working half weeks since beginning of Jan but this still earns me a decent wage but I've had to cut back on the personal spending, but I think its now picking up I have 3 days for next week and its only Tuesday.
but to get to the point ;) I put up my prices in January by £10 on suites and the same for carpets so I don't need to be busy to be comfortable, if i was, I'd be in deep doggie-do-do now :)
Mike
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mike
do you think that we should be looking to reinvent ourselves as cleaning specialists covering a much wider range off services?
Respect
Ian Harper
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why?
has something within the industry drastically changed, so that we need to adapt?.
we can take advantage of people interest in green issues & allergy issues but why reinvent the wheel, are things that different from 10-20yrs ago?, after all carpets are still getting dirty, children are still putting their sticking fingers all over mummies suite ;)
I think we have to remember, what is the core of what we do? ... clean
Mike
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i do carpets, upholstery, leather, leather repair, car valetting hard floors-
strip and seal, and still quiet , oh sory 5 calls today ,
the only thing i dont do yet is topless cleaning, but theres still time
1
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It is quiet at the moment, not one call today.
But 2 weeks time it will start to pick up, you will see ;).
Get all your ads out now, cos begining of March will go mad.
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I must be bucking the trend as I'm quite busy even been working Saturdays haven't seen the lads play for a few games now but I'll be there on Saturday top of the table clash against the rams.
Might die off a little now my leaflet guy hung up his bag today where am I going to find another who delivers 2000 for £20 :(
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Had a flurry of calls this morning then the phone stopped for 3 hours this afternoon ??? realised NO SIGNAL, came back into suburbia and my phone was telling me missed calls, ahhh Bisto :)
Shaun
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Steve
You must be a slave driver 2000 for £20. I thought I had a good price of a 1000 for £20.
About 4 calls a day this week so far with all converting to work. 1 was for april though.
Rest of Feb has been rubbish, never had this much time not cleaning for a long time.
Does seem to be picking up though this week. Come July august and we will all be praying for a slack week with all the Pubs and Resturants that will need cleaning when the smoking ban comes in.
Hope all the British clubs do well this week in Europe except the whinging scousers.
Cheers
Neil
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EHH EHH Neil
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Reds to win the Champions league AGAIN!
Chelsea to lose out AGAIN!! and on the league and the cups!!!
Shaun
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Spindle2K,
Guess what, we full time CCs also need a guaranteed income, we have those same staple bills to pay too!
Dave.
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shaun
I dont think liverpool will be that lucky again, not with only one top class player.
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good point Neil, what exactly is the situation with this no smoking thing as i was planning a large 3 stage commercial mail out based on this starting 1st march.
Are all public places gona be non smoking?
What about members only places like private golf clubs etc?
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red
i work as a chef in a private members club
the members voted 2 years ago to make the club non-smoking.....
the club was at the time mentioned in the national press as being one of the first clubs to implement a total ban.
this was done only beacause the law was about to change..... ban in clubs and pubs.
however we do many large private parties 200+.........the smoking ban is lifted if the organiser requests it.
i dont think that the law covers private clubs due to the fact that the clubs are owned by a large consortium(all the members)5000+
there is a commitee who make and break the rules as they see fit.
however on a day to day basis the whole building is non smoking by choice.
dave.....
i wasnt suggesting that you dont have bills .only that i dont have regular enough work to be able to afford to stop f/t work
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The ban applies to all public places and work places, it an excellent opportunity to get a mailshot out to the pubs and clubs etc, the ban also apllies to work vehicles, you cannot smoke in your work vehicle even if you are on your own, unless ( it think) you are the only person to go in the vehicle i.e you are a one man band. So if you have a helper you cannot smoke in the VAN even if you dont have you helper with you, crazy isnt it?
Dene
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Mike
all I am saying s that you might be leaving money on the table with your clients. you have equipment that can do other specialist jobs around your customers homes.
the cost of getting each client is much higher than doing more work for clients you have worked for before.
Respect
Ian Harper
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Ian your right, I've added pressure washing to my services and tomorrow I'm going to LTT do do a leather repair & cleaning course. But I don't consider this a re-invention.
When you asked should we reinvent ourselves I thought you where referring to how some carpet cleaners are trying to sell themselves as 'health professionals' or 'guardians of the environment' ::) ::)
adding services, yes.
reinventing the wheel, no.
Mike
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The smoking ban has had a devastating effect on the pub trade up here, in Scotland and, although I don't smoke and hate the nauseous feeling it gives me, as a secondary smoker, I believe the 100%, blanket ban adopted here, is wrong and detrimental to society.
The sight of a cluster of smokers standing outsite pubs is pathetic and causes a nuisance and danger to pedestrians and road users,
In Spain they introduced a partial ban, giving an option to Pub owners to be ............smoking or non smoking, with no access to under 16 's and banned where food was served.
There hes been massive closure of Pubs in Scotland over the past year
If the government follows the lead of the Scottish model, your local pub will probably close and there will be no business to be had, from pubs, in the future.
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i think that it has been done quite cleverly by the gov.
bring the ban in in the middle of summer..nobody will mind smoking outside
but come winter........the pubs/clubs/bingo halls will be quiet.
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More than quiet Spindle....................it was difficult to get into the pub trade a few years ago............in the small town I live in, two pubs have closed in the past year and the remaining one, is not busy.
In a much bigger town 10 miles away, 50% of the pubs are closed and others are struggling.
Only the very mild winter " up here " has saved some, for now.
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"you cannot smoke in your work vehicle even if you are on your own, unless ( it think) you are the only person to go in the vehicle i.e you are a one man band."
Up here if your van is not sign written, you can puff away like mad, if it is they will hit you with a £50 fine and if your passenger smokes they will get a £50 fine and you an additional £50 fine.
Had them phone me up and gave me a warning. I wanted to tell them where to go, but as they drive about looking for us horrible smoking people, I thought it best just moan a lot as the begasterags
would follow me till I committed my terrible crime again.
Its great to live in a free country. I think see if theres any carpets to be cleaned in Holland. >:(