[paul searle]

Does 12p per sq ft sound right for domestic carpets?

[David_Annable]

Hi

So for an average room 12 x 12 you would charge £17.28.

Can you make a profit at that rate?

I couldn't personally.

Dave

[Shaun_Ashmore]

You can easily double it and get customers, I charge nearly 4 times that and get jobs and there are cleaners that charge 8 times and more, you need to find a figure you would be happy to pay.

Shaun

[Linds Russell]

Shaun is right although I would add that if you're tight with money, don't base it on what you would spend 

[james roffey]

You can easily double it and get customers, I charge nearly 4 times that and get jobs and there are cleaners that charge 8 times and more, you need to find a figure you would be happy to pay.

Shaun

Blimey i thought i was expensive i charge about 0.35 per foot works out around £ 50 per room who on earth is charging £ 138 for an average sized lounge

[garyj]

As much as we moan about them, Enterprise are charging more than that James!

[james roffey]

Two schools of thought

Option 1.

Build a business quick, do it cheap get lots of customers, the down side is those customers will always pay peanuts.

Option 2.

Build a business slow charging a reasonable price,  those customers will always expect to pay those prices and you have more time to do a good job as you have fewer jobs per day, the downside is your business may not last long enough.

I have taken option 2 now in my second year i believe its a long term thing that i discovered on this forum and it made sense to me, the other thing is i would resent working for peanuts, and it is a service afetr all, last week i gave a lift to the local cafe to an elderly customer as he was about to call a cab, would i have done that if i was charging £17.00 per room, probably not i would not have had the time.

[garyj]

Option 3 :- Advertise cheap and charge high

[paul searle]

Thanks for everyones help I thought that was cheap. Slot of companies near me advertise these prices. I was thinking more like 20p a sq ft but didn't want to price myself out of jobs

[JandS]

Who on earth would pay £138 for an average sized
lounge cleaning.
Takes me an hour and 15 minutes from pulling up to
driving away for an average sized lounge and most
of that is prep work.
Got it down to a fine art these one roomers.

John

[JandS]

You wouldn't be charging £17 for a average sized lounge
you'd be charging your minimum price because the price
per sq m falls below your minimum price.
Unless of course your minimum price is lower than £17.

John

[Steve Rothwell]

What is a minimum price???

[M.Acorn]

£65 for me to leave the house,more if further away

[acc]

£70 here, i don't work for peasants 

[markpowell]

My min is £50 average charge is 26p per sq ft
Mark

[Shaun_Ashmore]

ATM I'm going through about £20 a day in diesel you need to do a business plan or at least some projections before you start.

Shaun

[Simon Moat]

Minimum price is a total nonsence, do a good job, work every day and build your business, i'd rather take a £20 job (and still make a profit) than that job go to a competitor, phonew rings, secure the job, business leads to business.

[Ian Gourlay]

Simon

I am not saying you wrong but just puzzled

Someone phones up for a qoute

Do you just work on room size.

I find smaller rooms harder to clean as there is not a lot of scope to move furniture

So I actually charge more for a smaller room.

The only way you could make money is to have 10 a day lined up in adjacent streets. Have a Young person to move furniture  etc

However the cost of achieving that in terms of marketing day in day out would still eat into the profit

[JandS]

Hell Shaun you must be travelling some distances.
That's nearly 4 gallons, 180 - 200 miles for me.

John

[David_Annable]

Hi

What you dont want to do is start off Charging to low.

You can always come down in price to get the job, but you cant go up!

Most people after a couple of years will want to charge more, but you lose the original customers.

Dave