[derek west]

wish my clients had there carpets cleaned as often as they had the gardener out. maybe i would charge £20 an hour if that was the case.

sounds like if you don't charge what someone else charges then your wrong and there right.

to the guy that gets £200 a room. well done mate

to the guy that charges £10 a room, good luck and i hope youve done your sums right.

me? i'm fair to middling with exceptional results. "now thats the combination i like"

[Jason Ryan]

Now i dont want to take this thread in a different direction or start another debate....but be interesting to hear what C.L.E.A.N. and their thoughts are.

There website states: " We will continue to strive and educate the customer that price is a clear indicator of the standard of work they can expect"-gone quite regarding them of late.

My personal thought is charge what YOU think you are worth, but more importantly what it costs to run YOUR business. Some have low overheads and running costs, others have higher cost and overheads. Some have staff and several vans, some are one man bands-lots of variables. OK this industry may not be rocket science but it is a BUSINESS and must be run like one-pricing included.

[rich hand]

£200 for a through lounge including protector and vat. Nothing out of the ordinary, many charge similar.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

It's funny how the general public see us )or at least what we think they see us as! clean a few carpets and say get £200 and it's not too hard to sell, clean a suite which may take longer and ask for £200 and most will decline the quote, spend a full day trimming conifers and cutting grass and try and charge £200 and again most will decline the quote, it's called percieved value and you have to learn to adapt.

Some business people will see their potential some will go with the flow and will wonder why they never get to Shangrila and looking back could have had the same financial life but with less stress by working for someone else.

As Ester Ranson used to say "that's life"

Shaun

[james roffey]

Hey Neil I think theres only me and you living in the real world here. I get the feeling there are virtual carpet cleaners on here    who dont really exist     I must be too soft coz I just couldnt take £80-£90 off someone for cleaning a carpet in about an hour. We arnt doing brain surgery unlike some on here think we are.

Chris

Taking into account all the expenses and "real" time it takes to clean a carpet from the moment you leave home to arrive back home how on earth could anyone do it in half an hour, if i went and got just the vac out i would take longer than that, unloading the van and reloading takes longer too even with a truckmount, what are you doing that only takes half and hour to clean a room that size.
 i have to drive there ,unload van, move furniture,vac, prespray, dwell time, extract, reload van replace furniture and drive home plus cleaning out the machine after
so still £96 plus a friendly chat over a cuppa surely thats a fair price

[garybristow]

ftp://

i have a minimum charge for any job at £85 plus vat surely you need s start price . the room discussed would work out approx £3.50 per sq yard

[Rich M]

Hi Chris

I Live up the heads of the valleys, I go out to quote every single job, most of my work comes from cardiff and surrounds as the money isnt about so much where we are. Because I have the travelling costs, I run a truckmount and other equipment costs that all will need replacing one day I cannot afford to work for less than £75 per hour plus vat and expect to have a long term business, holidays, time with family etc.. As has been previously stated, your in this to make money not to just earn a living as a regular job can do that for you with a lot less grief.  You charge what you need to depending on your costs and your lifestyle choices. I appreciate that for our area I am not cheap but I have top equipment, give great service and guarantee my work and if anything for the investment I have made in my business in both equipment and training I believe that the customer gets a bargain every time by using me.

Regards

Rich

[JandS]

"I cannot afford to work for less than £75 per hour plus vat"

So if you do one hour a week can you afford it.
Surely it's based on how much a week you need to earn.
By the way that's about all you'd do round here at that
rate.

John

[cleanability]

I think this is the clincher about people on here justifying their high prices by the supposed skill/training you need to carpet clean . You could take anyone off the street and show them how to clean a carpet in about 15mins  . Could you do that with plastering/electrical work/fork lift driving/plumbing/carpentry.....etc etc the list goes on and on and on. Like I said before ITS CARPET CLEANING not a highly skilled trade. Yeah yeah I know you can mess it up but basically it can be done by a halfwit with 15mins traing 

Chris

[derek west]

 

says it all really.

case thrown out

[Neil Williams]

FIGHT
 

[Michael Smallwood]

FIGHT
 

Did I miss somthing? 

[markpowell]

 

[jasonl]

I think this is the clincher about people on here justifying their high prices by the supposed skill/training you need to carpet clean . You could take anyone off the street and show them how to clean a carpet in about 15mins  . Could you do that with plastering/electrical work/fork lift driving/plumbing/carpentry.....etc etc the list goes on and on and on. Like I said before ITS CARPET CLEANING not a highly skilled trade. Yeah yeah I know you can mess it up but basically it can be done by a halfwit with 15mins traing 

Chris

I would up that to one full day , if the trainee has customer care skills ,and has worked in homes and businesses before.

[Graeme@Access]

I would up that to one full day , if the trainee has customer care skills ,and has worked in homes and businesses before.

Agree.

Its 10 mins on carpet cleaning and 6-8 hours on selling and client management. Assuming there not a halfwit of course.

Graeme
Access Cleaning Solutions

[garybristow]

can any of you blokes give me an idea how much and how you are pricing tile and grout, hard floors etc also is membership to the NCCA worth it Gary bristow from bristowclean

[garry22]

Whatever you charge, you have to be making a "proper" profit.

There's a post by Kev Loomes on CCDO where he describes his van engine turbo blowing and taking the engine with it (that's the short version).

Kev suddenly has an unexcpected bill of £ 1800  (plus losing the £ 300 job booked for that day).

If you are not charging enough and get hit with something like this (or the recession whacks your savings) you might not survive.

[Rich M]

Chris

Perhaps you can teach a monkey off the street to use a wand in a day or 15 mins as you put it.

I'm no monkey and it has taken me years to learn carpet and fabric identification, spot and stain removal techniques and which chemicals actually do the best job.

I have a truckmount, a couple of portables, a texatherm and dry fusion system and a host because I know one system is not enough to cope with every scenario you come across.

This business is as technical as you want it to be, but it would seem to me the cleaners who do not appreciate the skills involved in doing this  (i'm including customer service and sales ability) are the cleaners who struggle to get the higher prices or feel bad about charging a high price for what they consider unskilled work.

I appreciate that where you live plays a part in what you can charge but two of
my nearest towns are listed in the top ten areas of poverty in the UK which is why I make the effort to go the 30 miles down the road to where the money is.

I am not trying to put anyone down here, these are just my observations only the individual knows what he needs to make out of his business and must charge accordingly.

Rich 

[garry22]

Well said Rich.

Good points, well argued.

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Chris

Perhaps you can teach a monkey off the street to use a wand in a day or 15 mins as you put it.

I'm no monkey and it has taken me years to learn carpet and fabric identification, spot and stain removal techniques and which chemicals actually do the best job.

I have a truckmount, a couple of portables, a texatherm and dry fusion system and a host because I know one system is not enough to cope with every scenario you come across.

This business is as technical as you want it to be, but it would seem to me the cleaners who do not appreciate the skills involved in doing this  (i'm including customer service and sales ability) are the cleaners who struggle to get the higher prices or feel bad about charging a high price for what they consider unskilled work.

I appreciate that where you live plays a part in what you can charge but two of
my nearest towns are listed in the top ten areas of poverty in the UK which is why I make the effort to go the 30 miles down the road to where the money is.

I am not trying to put anyone down here, these are just my observations only the individual knows what he needs to make out of his business and must charge accordingly.

Rich 

Good post Rich

I wonder why some people are in this game when they seem to have such a low opinion of it ?!