[james roffey]

I saw a carpet cleaning website  that is charging £35 to clean a lounge, and they will return to clean it again at no charge for the life of the carpet   your client base will become a millstone around your neck.



 clean your carpet for as long as you own the carpet with no extra cost.  as many times as you like and you will never have to pay us again  

Beat that  

[*Hector*]

I would like to see someone get more than 1 extra clean....

The company will "go bust" or "cease to trade"

then will miraculously have another carpet cleaning company on the same phone number with the same owner, but be NOTHING to do with the old company and the offer is not available.. 

In the meantime, they have cleaned lots of carpets for £35 and hidden the money somewhere the taxman can't find it.. 

[derek west]

I saw a carpet cleaning website  that is charging £35 to clean a lounge, and they will return to clean it again at no charge for the life of the carpet   your client base will become a millstone around your neck.



 clean your carpet for as long as you own the carpet with no extra cost.  as many times as you like and you will never have to pay us again  

Beat that  

i think they use a sulphuric acid rinse, hence no carpet to come back to.

[*Hector*]

 

[Mike Halliday]

Cleaned a T/L & HSL last week, they paid £220 last time they had it cleaned, they would have called them again as they were very happy with the service and thought £220 was a reasonable price. They only called me as I was cleaning her sisters when she called in for a coffee  so she booked me.

I bet we've all had this happen ......but we never start topics about it.

We need to stop spewing out negativity about cheap companies,

 its poison to our entrepreneurial spirit

[derek west]

At the moment, i'll admit i'm having serious issues with pricing, my moral head says charge what you would pay for this service, my business head says you deserve far more than that, your in business to make money etc..., and my erm erm "the phones a bit quiet" head says oooooooo! you better start competing with the cheap boys. hopefully a good chat with a few clever people this weekend will point me in the right direction.

[Radek Jablonski]

Pay east European worker £40.00 per day

Hector I do not think so that this is a real situation in UK, the very common situation.
If this is real then I have no more questions.
Try to find eg polish guy that will work for this money in Ireland, no way, the social welfare is 188E a week + many extras if have family.
Must be bad in UK in what I do not realy belive.

[*Hector*]

Radek..
I could get you 100's of East European guys who would work for what I said.

They would probably still be signing on as well... This would not be the problem of the business owner, as they would not be on the books anyway.. 

[Radek Jablonski]

Radek..
I could get you 100's of East European guys who would work for what I said.

They would probably still be signing on as well... This would not be the problem of the business owner, as they would not be on the books anyway.. 

as i said:

If this is real then I have no more questions.

thats is just bad
if your competitor doing this, I do not see any reasons why not to inform some authorities, as I blame the bussiness owner not the guys trying to make a penny.

[Phil @ Extreme Clean]

just been to quote an elderly lady 3 seater and chair and small lounge carpet after ooh too dear I knocked £20 off then I said actually i'l charge for the suite and do carpet for free so £85 she was happy I got her a appointment card in the meantime her niece had phoned and I could hear the lady saying well I'l just leave it so I went on phone to niece and she said i'm concerned blah blah will do it for £58 always reliable I said well why call me anyway elderly lady happy and I got job but the niece has made me feel like i'm ripping her off even though my price is more than fair 

[cannon]

At the moment, i'll admit i'm having serious issues with pricing, my moral head says charge what you would pay for this service, my business head says you deserve far more than that, your in business to make money etc..., and my erm erm "the phones a bit quiet" head says oooooooo! you better start competing with the cheap boys. hopefully a good chat with a few clever people this weekend will point me in the right direction.

Snap!! im in the same place, another reason im looking forward to the week end.

[John Kelly]

Everyones a little bit quiet at the moment, even the cheap ones. Weather is not helping. Lowering your prices to compete with the lower end of the market is suicide. Far better to offer a more diverse range of services.

[Carpet Dawg]

Radek..
I could get you 100's of East European guys who would work for what I said.

They would probably still be signing on as well... This would not be the problem of the business owner, as they would not be on the books anyway.. 

Eastern Europeans, Polish etc. are catching on. They are not as cheap as they used to be in all industries.

[*Hector*]

Wait till January...

Bulgarians will be flooding in and working for pennies 

[John Kelly]

lets look at some maths here..

Charge £75 for 6 hours

Pay east European worker £40.00 per day

chemical costs £2.50

2 jobs a day
income £150
out goings £45.00

profit for day £105

5 workers

£525 profit per week. EACH

Might change workers every now and then, but there are plenty who will do the work for £200 per week cash in hand.

Nope..... don't see the owner going out of business just yet... 

No Hector they havent the brains to do this. They just have no concept of running a business. I'had them in my place time and time again. I try and educate them and the penny does drop for some of them. Most of them ring me a few months later asking if I buy second hand machines.

[wynne jones]

This may sound daft but....

There's more competition at bargain basement which drives the price down even further. There's a sweet spot were you can get good money from a reasonable number of custies and there's less competition for there business.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

If you have a daily amount in mind and you can find that 'sweet spot' you don't need to find as many jobs albeit a bit harder to sell.

Shaun

[wynne jones]

Exactly and I think it was John on here a while back who had a statistic something like put your prices up 10% and you can afford to lose 30% of your clients or there abouts.