[jon777]

Wow price really seems to be an area of huge debte in our industry.

My view for what its worth is this

Price really is'nt such a big issue for alot of clients the right people will pay you well for good service.       -you only have to ask

The biggest problem i found when I upped my prices was convincing myself that I deserved to earn more.

I started my business for a reason - i want a very good standard of living and charging £80/£90 for a sofa and £50 for a lounge was'nt giving me the income I wanted.
I mayed the decision that a business should pay what I want it to pay me or I'd do something else.

Lets face it Its a dirty horrible job. I for one am not prepared to clean the crap out of everyone elses carpets for peanuts.

I also dont think theres such a big issue with north and south - I genuinley know people who charge the same as me and they live in the north.

I charge .79 per sq ft for cleaning and 1.11 for cleani and protect, i wouldnt do it for any less.

Its not unusal for people to go with us after having a qoute for half our price. People pay for service, Quote to low and alot of people will ask whats wrong with it!!!!

I would recommend the fasttrack course if your prepared to make changes - its no good going in with the attidude of trying to slate it before you try it. Personally I have implemented the basics of what it teaches and they work very well. I dont like all the strategies but then hey if you only use a handful of ideas it will pay.

So most importantly all I'd say to everyone is up your prices and all us cleaners will work less and earn more just provide good honest service with it!





 

[the red carpet]

I dont know if its a good or a bad thing that half the people including myself who post in the daytime are either fastrack members or using some of there systems

In the last 4-5 months of last year i was working all day everyday with 2-3 weeks work booked up in the diary, since the begining of this year i have stopped quoting over the phone and started doing a laptop audit also sending out the consumer guides before the quote, and have upped my prices to 48p clean 61p clean and protect.

trouble is im now siting hear with no work : im just hoping its largley due to the time of year

I only have 3 jobs booked in at the minute and i usually have about 15-20

on the plus side though the three jobs i have got are worth just under a grand and as my old average ticket was £100 i guess its equivelent to having 10 jobs booked in

[vangaurd]

no work in the last 6 days.
one call today asked how much to clean a , 3 piece 45.00 i qouted as i needed the work, customer replied your to expensive, i will try elswhere

[spindle]

red

i am posting during the day coz i am waiting to go to work...my f/t job that is

i do cc with the time i have available after work........i need a guarenteed income
to pay for things like bills,mortgage

on the other hand if i put more effort into cc i may do even better than with a fulltime job......but untill the cc(money)over takes convincingly the f/t job i will do both!!

some days i do cc then go to regular job..........needs must!!!!!


i am not by any means struggling but i want to live without money worries.

i am happy this way at the moment


i think that people are still paying 4 xmas

does everyone have a set price  per sqft/sqmr?

i charge by the size of the room.....i dont measure it up.........sure i am losing some here and there.......but its swings and roundabouts! lose some here gain some there!!

[homenclean]

I can honestly say that we are ticking over nicely for the time of year, we have 1 full and 1 part time employee and myself. But as you other guys have stated it is quite we are in leeds and this week i have only had 1 ring in the rest of the work i have sourced by contacting old customers and regular contracts.

I was wondering why the phone wasnt ringing that much and to now thta its the same for most is reasuring.

As for price, it becomes an issue when you arent getting the enquiries. It is better to be ticking over and generating customers than sat at home looking at an empty diary.

Now is the time to market your business with promotions and speial offers to build your customer base, then next year when you are quite pick the phone up and contact the customers you did this time last year  and give them the incentive to book you again by dngaling another carrot i.e 3 carpets cleaned for price of two in feb, half price stain guard etc.

It works  ive been doing it for 16 years.

John

[Mike Osbourne]

Half term is what I put it down to.

Been doing 'bungalow' special offer and traipsing round older folk areas. Even got so desperate offered demo stain spotting armed with a bottle of ms and a couple of towels. Have booked a good job on the back of this.

[gwrightson]

done my days work for today,

no havnt finished yet, got to go do some rooms in a retierment home 7.30 tonight,
ticking over nicely, but not booked up by any means, jobs are coming in on a daily basis ,but i wont reduce my prices, and i do dont do special offers  
if they want me they pay,  

Hunts , you state in your post
"dirty horrible job"  well i actually quite enjoy it, and if i didnt i wouldnt be doing it

Geoff

[Mike Halliday]

I've been complaining to any one that will listen that this is the most  terrible year and I've ever had    but I've looked at my past years dairies and its not teen that bad. I think  I was spoiled by a amazing Jan & Feb in 2005 which was a fully booked 5- 6 days a week for both months.

 been working half weeks since beginning of Jan but this still earns me a decent wage but I've had to cut back on  the personal spending, but I think its now picking up I have 3 days for  next week  and its only Tuesday.

but to get to the point I put up my prices in January  by £10 on suites and the same for carpets so I don't need to be busy to be comfortable,  if i was, I'd be in deep doggie-do-do now

Mike

[ianharper]

mike

do you think that we should be looking to reinvent ourselves as cleaning specialists covering a much wider range off services?

Respect

Ian Harper

[Mike Halliday]

why?

has something within the industry drastically changed, so that we need to adapt?.

we can take advantage of people interest in green issues & allergy issues but why reinvent the wheel, are things that different from 10-20yrs ago?, after all carpets are still getting dirty, children are still putting their sticking fingers all over mummies suite

I think we have to remember, what is the core of what we do? ... clean

Mike 

[vangaurd]

i do carpets, upholstery, leather, leather repair, car valetting hard floors-
strip and seal, and still quiet , oh sory 5 calls today ,
the only thing i dont do yet is topless cleaning, but theres still time









1

[*paul_moss]

It is quiet at the moment, not one call today.
But 2 weeks time it will start to pick up, you will see .
Get all your ads out now, cos begining of March will  go mad.

[stevegunn]

I must be bucking the trend as I'm quite busy even been working Saturdays haven't seen the lads play for a few games now but I'll be there on Saturday top of the table clash against the rams.

Might die off a little now my leaflet guy hung up his bag today where am I going to find another who delivers 2000 for £20

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Had a flurry of calls this morning then the phone stopped for 3 hours this afternoon realised NO SIGNAL, came back into suburbia and my phone was telling me missed calls, ahhh Bisto

Shaun

[Neil Grainger]

Steve

You must be a slave driver 2000 for £20. I thought I had a good price of a 1000 for £20.

About 4 calls a day this week so far with all converting to work. 1 was for april though.

Rest of Feb has been rubbish, never had this much time not cleaning for a long time.

Does seem to be picking up though this week. Come July august and we will all be praying for a slack week with all the Pubs and Resturants that will need cleaning when the smoking ban comes in.

Hope all the British clubs do well this week in Europe except the whinging scousers.

Cheers

Neil

[*paul_moss]

EHH EHH Neil

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Reds to win the Champions league AGAIN!

Chelsea to lose out AGAIN!! and on the league and the cups!!!

Shaun

[Dave_Lee]

Spindle2K,
Guess what, we full time CCs also need a guaranteed income, we have those same staple bills to pay too!
Dave.

[Neil Grainger]

shaun

I dont think liverpool will be that lucky again, not with only one top class player.

[the red carpet]

good point Neil, what exactly is the situation with this no smoking thing as i was planning a large 3 stage commercial mail out based on this starting 1st march.

Are all public places gona be non smoking?

What about members only places like private golf clubs etc?