[Andrew Briscoe]

Wise words from Roger, being liked is 90% of getting the job booked.
It wouldnt matter if you had the best machine, best chems etc etc,
if they dont like you your foucked. Give a good impression, shake their hand on meeting them, smile loads, tell them you will do what ever they want.
Sell the sizzle as they say, but make sure they like you..

First impressions last a lifetime, dont go in saying i cant do this, i cant do anything with that stain etc. Tell them what they want to hear.

Take your tech head off and sell it.

Andrew.

ps be honest

[benny d]

2. £300 and 1 year full page ad in parish mag with testimonial from the vicar

Sounds like the Vicar is James  Brown. Take it to the bridge ya'll 

[M.Acorn]

It's my mum I am dealing with there,as she is the church sectary,so I do hope she likes me !!
I am gradually beginning to not sell on price ,as I feel I have enough experience,and do a good job,which I take care and pride in,I go out of my way to get the best possible outcome,I would go down to £600 for the lot,or I could do the stained areas for £300.
But I am not going to bow down to doing the job for £300.How would a member of the congregation feel if I charged them £300 to do their house,and then the later find out I did the entire church for that,I am regularly charging more than that for your average domestic job.
I would just feel a bit dishonest if I dropped their price so much.
Once the other guy's quote comes in I will know how realistic / unrealistic I am being,and I will decide then.
Work is coming in thick and fast now ,so I am not desperate.
My wife thinks I am mad to not do it for £300.But it's not her business.
I have been up there on and off for the last 5 years,and they have a constant supply of my flyers in the foyer,prob had 2 small jobs from it,so it's not setting the world alight...

[wynne jones]

Mark

I may have got it wrong, have you only recently started padding? This would be a good job to get some paid practice on.

Say you took the job for £450 and spent £100 on different pads and chems and use the day to see what's what. If they complain that some areas look cleaner than others you can say What do you expect for £450. 

[M.Acorn]

Never bonneted a carpet yet,have only used my rotary on hard floors,so yes need to get some pads,and will see how I  get on with price negotiations..
Have used rotary machines a  lot as a chef,cleaning kitchen floors,no experience of using it on carpets yet

[Barry Livingstone]

I wouldn't pad coffee stains, id extract then pad them!!!  

I seen a pice list today and a BIG co. were going per hour for commecial work £61.00 +vat

Yeah thats CD for you!!!

[Jim_77]

£61/hr What's wrong with that?  Well yeah actually seems a bit on the low side

[davep]

Too right, aim for at least £100 per Hr on commercial jobs

[Barry Livingstone]

thats what I thought .....but thats what CD are doing round by me!!!!!

[markpowell]

7p per sq ft is not enough imo, i would stick with the £600 price and not budge at all thats £1.50 ish per sq mtr.
Your going to HWE if you have tea cofffee stains on some areas.
Mark

[Hilton]

Jeez, there is some hard b'stards on here 

It's for his mum and the Church and I dont agree its all about how desperate you are, sometimes you should do a job simply because its the right thing to do and will benefit you in the long term.

As already mentioned we would do this for £300 no problem, not necessarily for the money but for the benefits it will bring, straight away you set yourself up as the parish's approved carpet cleaner and like it or not the god squad out there would rather use the Church's official cleaner over one pulled from YP.

By the way you can bonnet out tea and coffee stain very successfully just depends on the system being used and the solutions.

[JandS]

Personally I think £300 for a days work
is very good, I certainly don't earn that.
If you can get more good luck but I would
bite their hand off.

John

[M.Acorn]

The Parish of Cambridge city centre is huge !!
I did a church hall a couple of years back,they were astounded at what I did for them,carpet came up like new,did them a reduced price on the proviso of getting more work out of it,did I ? No.
Can't carry on running my business on the promise of loads of repeat bookings from people.
Heard it all before many a time,what I do now is say full price for the first one,reduced price on any additional work.
Just got back from doing a 3 story 3 bad house for a letting agency  £250,out in 3 hours,word get's around,why should I do reduced rates for some and not others,makes me disshonest.
Would rather do 3 jobs for a grand,than ten at £100 each,less miles,less wear and tear on my gear,less wear and tear on me.

[clinton]

So you got the job mark yet mate

You going to use a buffer n your hwe for stuborn coffee etc?

[M.Acorn]

Not submitted my quote yet Clinton,going to wait until the other quote comes in  Before I decide what I am doing,and yes will be using hwe on the stains,probably buff the rest,see what happens I am going to submit a selection of prices,and systems see how I can work around it.Would treat all the stains hwe,for £300 if they won't budge on that....

[Hilton]

The Parish of Cambridge city centre is huge !!
I did a church hall a couple of years back,they were astounded at what I did for them,carpet came up like new,did them a reduced price on the proviso of getting more work out of it,did I ? No.
Can't carry on running my business on the promise of loads of repeat bookings from people.
Heard it all before many a time,what I do now is say full price for the first one,reduced price on any additional work.
Just got back from doing a 3 story 3 bad house for a letting agency  £250,out in 3 hours,word get's around,why should I do reduced rates for some and not others,makes me disshonest.
Would rather do 3 jobs for a grand,than ten at £100 each,less miles,less wear and tear on my gear,less wear and tear on me.

With all do respect,

I have heard this argument soooooooo many times and what a load of bollix it is.

How often do you or anybody else on here get £1000 jobs ?? I would wager not very often or not at all. So according to your theory you would turn down the lower priced ticket as its beneath you.

But lets suppose you did get those 3 £1000 jobs 

You (and others) would turn down ten other jobs to wait for three, think about it for a minute, 3 jobs over ten.

Those ten jobs if you carried them out to a high standard and marketed well would generate more income than your three jobs,

how's that I hear you scream    7 x more referral opportunities 10 x more visits, your £1000 job would not be in to much of hurry to get you back for other smaller jobs that might occur as she would deem you too expensive to get in for just a spot clean or a single room.

On the other hand your ten jobs would not hesitate in getting you back for said work or passing on your details to friends and family as you do a very good job at a competitive rate, so over a longer period you would generate more customers and more cash from the ten.

I know its a nice thought to believe that you are so exclusive and so brilliant that everyone is just queueing up to use you with wallets and purses bulging fully prepared to be charged top end rates ,but in reality we all know that's tosh.

A fair price for a good job and you will be kept busy, stupid price for the same job and your equipment will be on the sale section before long.

This is not a pop at you by the way but a general comment on the ridiculously high prices I see posted on here by cleaners who aren't really doing that but just wishing they could  

[AshWhite]

Surely he meant 3 x £333 = £1000, and not 3 x £1000?? 

[Hilton]

He might have done but the principal is the same, all this I wouldn't do it for less than £800 or less than £600 is complete rubbish, I took £1000 as a crude example of how people tell us they turn down work because its too cheap for them and would rather do a few high priced tickets than lots a bit lower.

Its fine if you are financially secure I suppose and do not want to build a larger business and want to work part time.

But when you have to keep the vans on the road and pay the bills acting like Fortnum & Masons when your really an Aldi will not keep you going for very long.

[AshWhite]

But when you have to keep the vans on the road and pay the bills acting like Fortnum & Masons when your really an Aldi will not keep you going for very long.

 

It's a fair point, it is however up to each operator how they want to run their business. I'm sure that here in South Wales £1000 (which almost classes as a 10% deposit on a house..) cleans are very few and far between, however in more affluent areas the bigger ticket jobs are going to be more bountiful - so perhaps the cleaners in those areas can afford to be more picky?

Just my 2p worth..

Ashley

[M.Acorn]

Like I said,there are a lot of people round here that would be more than me,for my domestic work I am .28p per square foot,there are people round here that are .40p and more !!

The other quote has come in,and it's not that much lower than mine,so I am currently in talks about working around their budget,and also making it a yearly thing,with 4 or 6 monthly visits to treat the stains and do high traffic areas.
Like I said,I was planning on this.
And I also said if I had charged my normal rate it would of been over a grand,hence why I said I would do a day rate for a reduction.