[carpetguy]

A bit of inconsistency here ............you started off, telling us, that your father started and ran the business for many years and you came into it recently.................rather than busting a gut........you inherited a going concern, with an established customer base.

If you inherited a going concern which had been based on low charges...........it makes no sense that you continued to work in the same way, rather than sieze the opportunity to present a new image.

You don't have to double your prices to do this, just increase, at inlation plus 1, or 2% each year, otherwise, you are really charging LESS each year, which is not even standing still, but going backwards.

[NigelD]

as for doing a full house in one hour it takes longer to do a single front room 3-4 hours for a full house thats a 2 up 2 down

It doesn' add up.
3 hours to do a job, that's being kind. Charge is £45. Out of which you pay the staff £5 per hour, £15 + plus NIC etc.. So on £30 per job or £60 per day you then pay insurance, running costs and pay yourselves.
And would have us believe you make a good living.

No you don't, the check out girl at Tesco makes more without the risk or the worry.

Good post, I'm sure many have smiled.

[Ian Rochester]

Come on Steve, you started this thread, where's your comments?!?!?!

1st Clean are nearly your next door neighbours   

I love reading threads like this   

We all know there is a customer looking for someone at both ends of the market place.

As for us, we sit somewhere in the middle, I still get people saying "I'll get back to you" after I give them the quote and others who say "Is that all!"

It's all down to peoples perception of what the service is worth and regional forces still tend to dominate the divide.

I generally believe that most people who have been in business for a number of years and are established, must be doing an acceptable level of cleaning regardless of their prices.   Let each carry on and sink or swim in their own market place.

[stevegunn]

I started this thread to simply point out that new starters are going to struggle if they follow this route by charging £10 a room.This lad was in business less than 8 months he had more outgoings than he had coming in,he was under the illusion customers would not pay more than £10 a room so he followed that route now he is working for one of the franchises and they don't charge £10 a room.

[AquaMagic]

Another problem i have with this, isnt the minimum wage more than £5.35 per hour, is 1st clean legally paying enough to her staff?, unless she is employing 18-21 year old on min wage of £4.45.  This doesnt leave much profit though after fuel & chemicals & insurance & staff training.

Dene

[D woods]

Do you think 1st clean might be having a wind up?

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

Do you think 1st clean might be having a wind up?

no mate im not just trying to show both sides of the coin

[Dave_Lee]

No need for figures to back up what I said, Fact speak for themselves, you cant do a professional job charging £45 for a full house of carpets. Obviously the meaning of the word 'Professional' is subject to interpretation. I also do Professional carpet fitting (Private work only) at one time I did some fitting for a large carpet store, one of their 'Professonal' fitters fitted a full house including stairs in an unbelievable 40 minutes. That was acceptable to him and his mindset, problem was it wasnt to anyone else concerned and I ended up fitting new carpet throughout which took me, 9 hours. Of course there are CC businesses out there that dont have the 'Professional mind set as regards the actual job and are merely doing the numbers game. The more jobs we can get done in a day the more the turnover, the more the profit. You can have it, its not for me or my customers.
Dave.

[Adrian Makel]

well 1st clean as it was me saying about £45 for a house in the first place i just have to put my point accross.i am based in blaydon,gateshead,not a million miles from you.i would imagine the standard of living here is very simular to your area.my prices are a fair bit higher than yours and i still manage to be out 5-6 days a week.i am finding it really hard to get my head around the fact that you can charge these prices,pay staff,NI,tax,run your vans,buy chemicals and equipment and still claim to be doing VERY NICELY!!!!the figures just don`t add up.
maybe a one man band may be able to scrape a living doing this,but surely not a company with all the overheads you have.
i am not saying you do not have to price your work acording to the area you live in because you clearly do,i just think you are under selling yourself charging the prices you are charging.

[gwrightson]

he is winding you up ,
blatantly obvious, sorry she is winding you up,  and I agree with an earlier reply ...........
......  contradictions, are there to be seen ,
even a refrence to his web man, altering his site to include " the con"  well IHave searched for the web site , No sign of it     , and it certainly is not in the profile , as are every bodys who has a web site.

Perhaps a link might be handy, just so I can have a look

geoff

[Neil Williams]

he is winding you up ,
blatantly obvious, sorry she is winding you up,  and I agree with an earlier reply ...........
......  contradictions, are there to be seen ,

Ditto. The sums just don't don't add up full stop. Either that or the quality doesn't.
Or perhaps 1st Clean are the bait & switch type because staff can't be paid on that rate per house per hour stated.

[Dave_Lee]

Whether it is a wind up or not there are such people out there running business in that manner, Professional outfits they are not. When they state they are female then call someone Mate, its time to worry, or maybe not.
Dave.

[carpetguy]

Interesting comment about the use of the word " mate ", which I detest. It has insincerity about it and immediately puts my defences up.

To some, this will sound, pathetic, or whatever, but, if you can't communicate, or don't make an effort, you are barring yourself from work, before you even see it.

When I see strings of poor grammar or "lazy" spelling mistakes, I assume, rightly, or wrongly, that whoever presents themself in that way, will work in a similar way..............rushed and careless.

This is a marketing  / presentation comment, but it's prompted by the way this person comes accross.

I picture a female " Harold Steptoe "when reading the postings of 1st Clean.

robbie

Have to go, experiencing the busiest January ever............7.30 start for my first job, it was the same yesterday !

[jasonl]

Carpet guy........................... Go to Teesside......... 95%of people act /talk/ are this way. 1ST CLEAN WERE NOT THERE when I was, unles they wre radin under different name.

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

Interesting comment about the use of the word " mate ", which I detest. It has insincerity about it and immediately puts my defences up.

To some, this will sound, pathetic, or whatever, but, if you can't communicate, or don't make an effort, you are barring yourself from work, before you even see it.

When I see strings of poor grammar or "lazy" spelling mistakes, I assume, rightly, or wrongly, that whoever presents themself in that way, will work in a similar way..............rushed and careless.

This is a marketing  / presentation comment, but it's prompted by the way this person comes accross.

I picture a female " Harold Steptoe "when reading the postings of 1st Clean.

robbie

Have to go, experiencing the busiest January ever............7.30 start for my first job, it was the same yesterday !

maybe my scholing wasnt  as good as yours but is this a need to have a poke at me    as for the  step toe thing well i do have a big yard and a few sheds and a tractor helps with cutting the felds round the house guess you have the same problem eh

i look at it this way if  each of my vans are out all week and each van makes say a 100 pounds profit after every thing is payed for then ive made 500 pounds just to answer the calls with out liveing the house not bad for northing ? thats with out me going out to clean

    as for we were not there when you were here,  at the time your lefted teeside it wasnt good here was it??   with the c.c. wars going on , im sure if you were here i need not go on

ok my grammer and english is not the best but i am trying to help you see the other side of the coin maybe your not doing as well as you like to think and  is this part of the con  " you must tell people your doing well even if your not" and  sit on here giveing it large and find it easy takeing pot shorts at me. take your blinkers off and learn something here ,

i am just started to add one of two pounds each job and im quite suprised that people have nt said a thing ! 

maybe i was to fightened or stuck in a rut with my eyes closed and ive think ive been kidding myself saying  if i put the prices up they wont book and ive just took in three full house in and charged them 65 -70 each ive never charged that befour !

well carry on boys ill still be here in 20 years time will you ? well i  say 20 years ill be liveing in austra then in my other house i have the dees for  kind of think im doing ok myself 



 

[Chris34]

Well if you've got a house in Austria and are looking to buy a truckmount for cash and have only took on the business recently and are making £500 a week then I put it to you that you have not got the cash through running this business to pay for these items.  I think you are mixing the returns of the good investment houses you bought with your income you are getting from your cc business. 

The one thing where many business owners go wrong is that they become so passionate and attatched to their business that they will not believe their business is failing and going to go bankrupt (unless they have other investments propping it up). 

1st your figures don't add up IMO.  You say all your doing is answering the telephone well it sounds like hard work to me you must be answering close to 200 calls a week and this I expect would be a mixture of complaints, appointments and enquiries.  On top of this your workers must be doing about 75 jobs a week so there is a lot of paperwork to handle there and that would take a while. 

Good luck 1st but if you don't mind I won't be using you as an example of how to run a business.
 

[gwrightson]

1st clean ,
you still have not put a link to your web site,
is their a reason for this? I am interested to take a look

Geoff

[prodry]

1stclean is based in Cleveland an area of serious economic depression. The average wage in most boroughs of the North East is around £350per week well below what someone in the south east or London would earn. Most of this money is probably earned in Newcastle or Sunderland.

Cleveland itself is like something out of a Mad Max film with the ICI paint factory causing birth defects. The best thing about it, apart from the road out is it is one of the cheapest places to buy heroin in the UK. It is only equalled by Hartlepool as probably the worst place in England to live, I am sure any ‘Monkey Hangers’ on here would disagree.

I think first cleans prices are probably right for her area. We have people were we are charging those prices and making a living out of it. Some off them are also probably claiming and or not declaring half of what they earn and driving cabs at night.  Let them get on with it, I have just put the phone down on a lady who wants to have just her 12x12 lounge cleaned and can't afford our £45.00 minimum call out charge and I quoted her £65.00. She is living in a four bedroom detached 80's house in a nice village. I have just done hers neighbours four bedrooms only, for £125.00. Some will pay some wont. Some people wear a £30.00 suit from ASDA to work and some people will pay £30.00 just to have their £500.00 suit dry cleaned. You have to decide whether you are splash and dash, middle of the row or carpet cleaner to the stars and market accordingly.

1stclean you go on about buying and selling houses if you give me your address can I send you £20.00 and could you buy me a couple.

[murky]

£25.00 Ha you've been gazumped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or I'll have a pair for £30.00.

[Mike Halliday]

Hull is officially the crappest town in  the Uk. there was a programme about it on TV it last year.

heroin is dirt cheap, I buy mine wholesale ( I get a 3 for 2 deal)

so don't try and steal our only claim to fame

Mike