[donna n]

Hi everyone.

I am a newbie.  Me and my sister have spoken about this for some time and now her daughter is starting school, we have decided to go for it.

We are going to start with domestic jobs at first, charging £8 an hour (Essex).  She will be doing the weekday jobs, with me doing any weekends/evening work.

Can I ask how you all started?  We are going to leaflet an estate where there are a lot of cash rich/time poor professional couples and young families.  Does anyone have any advice for a small set up starting out?

[Tim Downer]

Hi Donna

Those who are in the Domestic side of the business will, I'm sure, give you plenty of pointers.

But in the meantime, Welcome to the cleaning forum and i hope we can help you and look forward to your comments too......

Kind Regards

Tim

[Tim Downer]

.....and also, there is a search facility on the forum, and i don't know whether you guys have trawled through it yet, but you may find many answers to your questions there......

Regards

Tim

[donna n]

Many thanks! 

[Phoenix]

Hi Donna,

I think £8.00 per hour is too little.  Domestic work should start off at least around the £9.50 mark.  You say the area is cash rich.  Never under value your self.

There is a lot of talk about this within the forum.

regards

graham

[dustycorner]

Hi  Donna,

Good luck with your venture, i'n currently expanding my business into the domestic cleaning sector.  I'm charging £11 per hour per empoyee and price doesn't seem to be an issue. We are in Norfolk where people are more price conscious than your neck of the woods, which part of Essex are you in.

Cheers Mark.

[shelton]

Hi and Welcome,

One tip I will give (and I'm sure others will agree/disagree as they see fit) is not to price up jobs by the hour.

You will soon find that a job you think will take 4 hours, can be completed in 3. 

This will benefit you if you price for the job, not the time.  By pricing the job in your head as taking 4 hours on your initial rate (£8 x 4) and quoting your customer £32, you could soon find yourself getting your £32 for 3 hours.

Just something I've started doing recently, as I didn't want neighbours, etc. telling my customers that I was only there for 2.5 instead of 3 hours.

Now, they get a price and like it or lump it!  How long it takes is irrelevant.

[Art]

Hi and Welcome,

One tip I will give (and I'm sure others will agree/disagree as they see fit) is not to price up jobs by the hour.

You will soon find that a job you think will take 4 hours, can be completed in 3. 

This will benefit you if you price for the job, not the time.  By pricing the job in your head as taking 4 hours on your initial rate (£8 x 4) and quoting your customer £32, you could soon find yourself getting your £32 for 3 hours.

Just something I've started doing recently, as I didn't want neighbours, etc. telling my customers that I was only there for 2.5 instead of 3 hours.

Now, they get a price and like it or lump it!  How long it takes is irrelevant.

That's exactly how i do it 

[donna n]

Brilliant advice everyone thank you!

I am near Lakeside in Essex so we have the big Chafford Hundred housing estate which is chocabloc with commuters.  I think its a great place to start.

There are also a lot of industrial parks nearby so hopefully if we can get started and it goes well, we could possibly expand into the commercial business too.

Thanks for the lovely welcome.

[paul bruce]

Donna, I might be stating the obvious here but dont forget to get your liability insurance in place before you start, you can also find information on this subject via the search engine.

Hope all goes well for you.

Paul

[dustycorner]

Hi Donna,

I suspect Brentwood might offer rich pickings as well.

Cheers Mark.

[Paul Kettless]

Hi  Donna,

Good luck with your venture, i'n currently expanding my business into the domestic cleaning sector.  I'm charging £11 per hour per empoyee and price doesn't seem to be an issue. We are in Norfolk where people are more price conscious than your neck of the woods, which part of Essex are you in.

Cheers Mark.

Thats very interesting Mark, we are based in Lowestoft, Suffolk and no way could we charge £11.00 per hour.  Most of our competitors charge between £8.50 and £10.00 per hour for domestic work, and even less for commercial.

[Art]

Brilliant advice everyone thank you!

I am near Lakeside in Essex so we have the big Chafford Hundred housing estate which is chocabloc with commuters.  I think its a great place to start.

There are also a lot of industrial parks nearby so hopefully if we can get started and it goes well, we could possibly expand into the commercial business too.

Thanks for the lovely welcome.

I'd suggest £10 per hour as an absolute minimum, but as previously suggested give a price per clean, another thing you should consider is suggest to clients a spring clean first, then a normal weekly clean afterwards. Have you had a look at www.scsf.co.uk

Arthur

[dustycorner]

Hi Paul,

I suppose prices are comparative to the area you are in i'm sure anyone running a business in Cambridge is charging more than you or me even though its not a million miles away from either of us.
 
I tend to market the service provided, when approaching new clients.

Cheers Mark.

[Paul Kettless]

I do agree with you Mark, and I am happy with how much we get paid for our area=service provided.

We can and do charge a higher price for areas like Southwold, Dunwich and walberswick due to the supply/demand aspect.

Anyways without taking over Donna's thread, I think that it is valuable for all of us to realise that pricing should not be set on what others charge elsewhere in the county, but more importantly what is reasonable for areas you cover.

[dustycorner]

Hi Paul,

Ithink your spot on there mate.

Cheers Mark.