Clean It Up
UK General Cleaning Forum => General Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: daysdeepclean on January 19, 2009, 09:32:39 pm
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I am primarily a Carpet Cleaner and Oven Cleaner. I've just been asked how much I would supply cleaning operatives for, and am I insured. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I am up for the challenge but I want to do everything above board and cross all my t's and dot my I's!
What insurance will I require?
How much do I charge my client?
How much do I pay my staff?
Do I put them on the books or have them self employed?
Am I better off getting staff from the Job Centre?
All help will be greatly appreciated and inwardly digested, I thank you in advance!
Colin "Happy" Day
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If you are cleaning offices you will require insurance that covers cleaners (not trying to state the obvious but basically most insurance companies want to know what type of premises you are cleaning). A lot of insurance companies will try and charge you per employee but I found one that only uses your turnover per type of cleaning which works out quite a bit cheaper for a small company because you would end up paying the same if an employee works 1 hour a day or 8 hours a day with the other.
As far as how much you charge, that is up to you. Pricing is an individual choice. It will depend on what your niche is, why clients would choose you over others. Some use price, some use quality. If you go on a price basis then you try and find the ways to cut the corners and make it profitable, if you go for quality you go in at a higher price, but the client has to be able to see the difference. Price has a lot to do with your next question, how to pay staff. A lot of cleaners make minimum wage but if you want some one reliable you probably want to pay a little more. So if you figure out what margin you want and sbutract from 100% you will have a divsor to figure out how much to charge. Just ensure that the margin you will receive will cover your costs. Here is an example of what I am talking about. If you decide that you are going in on quality cleaning and you think that is worth a 35% margin for you (remember that materials and insurance and all else would come out of this) then 100%-35% = 65% for labour. You divisor would be .65. Here is how you use it. Hours per week x 57 (52 weeks + 5 weeks holiday) / 12 (so you get a monthly amount billable hours) x Staff Pay rate / .65. So If you decide on 6.25 per hour and the job is for 10 hours per week the equation would look something like
10 x 57=570
570/12=47.5 hours per month
47.5x6.25=297 (this is how much you will be paying staff)
297/.65=457 per month invoiced to the customer
Just in case your wondering, I do not use 35% margin and how much I pay is a secret. I just wanted to show you how I work out payments. Keep in mind that some places shut for 2 weeks during the holidays which means you can multiply hours by 55 instead of 57 because you will not have to replace them in that time.
If you use self employed just consider the fact, what is to stop them from taking your clients? They will build a relationship because they are in there every day, yeah you could put a contract in place but would it be worth the solicitor fees to enforce it?
I have not had much luck with the Job Centre. A lot of aplicants enquire because someone made them. If you put up notices at the local news agents and stores you will probably get more people actually interested in working. But saying that, if you are good at seperating the wheat from the chaf, you may get a hold of a good empolyee from the Job Centre, the best employee I have came through an advertisement with a Job Centre but have not had any luck with them since.
I hope this helps, if you have any other questions just let me know
Cheers
Gilbert
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Thank you very much for a very helpful answer, it's certainly provided food for thought.
kind regards, Colin Day...